The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-08-03
LEAGUE OF AMERICAN MUNICH
 PALITIES.
Some 800 City Fathers and Officials at
 Detroit Meeting.

Some 800 City Fathers and Officials at
 Detroit Meeting.
 Detroit, Mich, Aug. 2.-Some 800 city
 fathers and officials attended to-days
 Municipalities. They constituted, on
 the whole, an intelligent and conscien-
 tious appearing body.
 The feature of the session was an ad-
 dress upon self-government for cities
 by Prof. Frank Parsons of Boston uni-
 versity, president of the National
 league for Promoting Public Ownership
 of Monopolies. Prof. Parsons held that
 the principle of government as ap-
 piled through our present laws Is defl-
 cient in four respects, viz: First in
 area, because while the state is self
 governed the municipality is the creat-
 ure of the states enactments, and con- sequently every other city in a state is
 obliged to be consulted about what any particular city chooses to do; second deficient as to class distinction, since women, although a part of the people, are not yet permitted to participate in the peoples f-government; third, that the principle of self government Is
 not applied to industrial as it is to po- litical life. Workingmen, the speaker urged ought to have part in the gov- ernment of their own respective groups in industrial lines; fourth, that the self
 governing principle Is not complete as
 to method, since the people are masters only during election times, while their ,tes I,nI1 tIo t,y | for the balance of their terms The remedies, according to Prof. Par sons, are the initiative and referendum, woman suffrage, cooperative industries instead of monopolies, and entire self | government or either free from state control. The latter point was enlarged upon and illustrated. The professor asserted that the present charter of San ] Francisco is the most notable instance | of progress toward self-government of | cities.
 Mayor Young of Akron, O., and May | or Evans of Birmingham, Ala, read pa.- pers on the relative adequacy of ad- | ministrative boards or commissions, as
 compared with common council com mittees.
 | MAYOR FARNSWORH SPEAKS. Questions of policy concerning re- striction of saloons caused an interest l ing discussion this afternoon. | Mayor F. B. Farnsworth of New Ha- ven, Conn.,, stated that his experiences | had absolutely convinced him that pro- | hibition never did prohibit. Concerning | the agitated agitation of drinking of | Yale students, he assured the fathers | present that a boy who would go to | the devil by way of New Haven would | probably go anyway.
 Mayor Smythe of Charleston, s. C.. outlined the workings of the dispensary system He claimed there was more 1 drunkenness in South Carolina under said system than formerly.
 ! Professor Parsons of Boston gave the 1 following as a sort of formula for an- nulIing the evils of the liquor traffic without interfering with personal lib- | erty:
 1 First-The education of children along | temperance lines.
 Second-Industria reforms to enable them to have comfortable homes. l Third-Local option for cities. Fourth-Enact the South Carolina 1 dispensary or some similar law which
 should be the elimination of saloons.