The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-01-11

|
her personal judgment to bear in many
points and gave clear, interesting and
concise statement of what had been ac-
complished by this -partizan combi-
nation. She said in part:
"Thc nature of the Civic League is the
welfare. SOCIAL, material, intellectual
and moral of the people in our cities.
Now CITY is corporation. That is
just about all there Is Of it in the minds
of many of us. lit is something that the
| legislature has created and we invest it
with kind of legal, formal, artificial
character. In order to understand the
aims and achievements of the scivio
leagues we must at the very start put
away from us those frigid conceptions.
The problems of government in one
form or another, have agitated the world
since the revival of learning, and hav-
ing begun By troubling the minds Of Ia
few highly educated men, have ended
in CONFUSING the civilized world. While
the problems involved in the municipal
question are great and growing. the
student, and even the casual observer, of
city is the storm center. For it is in
the city that the dangers of our civili-
cation are localized. The city has
peculiar attraction for the imm igrant.
And our American cities are made up Ito
An alarming extent Of the crime, dis
content and poverty of almost every
country. In fact they have taken in more
than they can digest I need only men.
ton as Illustration, the 'Little Italys,"
the "Mottt Streets" and chester
Streets portions of our great cities
" hich do not speak, much less think, In
English. Then, too, 1T is in the cities
that wealth is amassed and the sway of
most constant. 1t is in the cities that
Dives and Lazarus meet face to face.
| The rich are richer and the poor poorer in
the cities than elsewhere. And as a rule
the greater the city the greater the
wealth and the more desperate the pow
erty. The city is the battle ground on
which must be fought the fight FOR hon.
esty, justice and good meth cd in Ameri-
cnn political affairs. In civil life as in
all else knowledge is power" And
while the three qualities most essential
to public acuion are imagination, ardor
and energy, it is not only zeal We need,
but zeal according Eto knowledge. for
the more extended his knowledge the
greater the ability of the intellectual Cit
izen to aid this government. The first
postulate of every branch of knowledge
is devotion to truth, and the beginning
of wisdom in the political art is COM
mon sense. The primary method for
bringing about municipal reform is self
knowledge; not of the city as whole
nor of a great problem like finance, Or of
a vital question like that of the tene-
ment house or of the saloon, though
these things will all come as we succeed
in the details, but what we do need is
the knowledge of acts as they exist in
our particular house, in our street, in
our election district, and in our ward.
If we grasp she facts relative to these
areas, we may then deal with the more
implicated problems OF our CITY,"
| Mrs. Hight spoke of the good work
which has been accomplished both in
Chicago and New York, by this league,
and in closing said Of the work of tbs
| league: 'sIt is necessarily non partisan,
and it's leaders are excluded from q
definite public, areer blythe fact Of. being
it's leaders. I hey are found in the press,
in the pulpit, in law, in education, in
industrial pursuits, but not in politics,
They have no machines. they don't be-
come 'bosses;" they trade neither in
Office nor in votes, but they constitute
powerful force with which those poll
ticians who need votes must reckon. A
common bond unItes them, the desire
for better and more rational govern
ment. The civil league bears aloft the
torch of truth and justice lighting the
path leading to the goal, the definite
ideal of good government. edward which
| the country move steadily forward.
With Abram Lincoln, Let us have faith
that right makes might; and in that
faith let US dare to do our duty as we
understand it.
Miss Tarbo sang another lovely &C.
lection entitled "Spring Morning by
Ebhelbert Neyens, and the programme
| for the afternoon was finished.
Mrs. Clarke again took thu chair and
called upon Mrs Osgood to read the res
olutions upon thu death of Mrs. Cooper
of San Francisco. of which committee
Mrs. Osgood had been appointed chair
man at the last open meeting.
Mrs. Osgood read these resolutions with
much feeling and spoke of the edeep re-
greet with which ths news of Mrs. Coop
er's death had been received In San
Francisco, the flags on the public
buildings being at half mast, the third
woman in the world for whom that had
been done.
Mrs. Clarke then spoke word for the
work of the bureau of reciprocity OF
which Miss Blanchard is chairman, also
urged the clubs to take immediate action
on the question of their contributing to
the school room decoration committee,