The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-05-04
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.
The .Review of Reviews" well sa.

MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.
The Review of Reviews well says:
In the great towns of the United
States there has been of late much to
study and to observe. The path Of
municipal progress in America is not
without it's impediments and difficult
ties; but progress, nevertheless, is real
and striking, as of course it must be if
the nation is to keep its place in the
van. Our cities are so large and have
become so important relatively to the
States in which they are situated that
to abandon them to bad government
and evil social conditions would be to
poison the whole life, public and pri-
waite, of our commonwealth and our re-
public. Henceforth, therefore, it will
not do to say that we in America are
successful in tasks of government and
social organization except for failure to
manage our cities well. The time has
arrived when an exception of such mag
nitude would overthrow the general
rule. Henceforth the government of
our cities must be looked upon as a
typical and representative matter; and
If our dernocracies fail in the proper
ordering of municipal life, they will not
be adjudged successful in anything
else.
We have never been pessimistic re-
garding municipal government il
America, though conscious of its evils
and weaknesses. While the means Of
government have been in the main and
stin are weak, controlled by selfish po-
1itical influences, the slaves of the
spoils system and the creatures of
bosses largely, it is also true that adj
vancement along the lines of betterment
in this country has been wonderful, and
that ninety hundredths-o of it has had its
source and been manifest in cities and
towns.
We have not been managing our po-
1itical systems in cities well; yet it is
indisputahle that reforms and better
nents in city life have been marvellous
in the last fifty years. These are spe-
cially noticeable in paving, sewer work.
garbage disposal, public sanitation,
libraries, baths, Fairgrounds, organized
charities, application Of discoveries in
preventive medicine, reform in street
lighting, in police protection, in general
cleanliness, in rapid transit, in munich
pal ownership. of public utilities and in
direct consultation Of the people con-
corning the enactment of ordinances
and the mourning of indebtedness
Yes, we have not recapitulated more
than half Of the beneficences that have
been worked out in town and city life
in the last thirty years. 1t must be,
therefore, in due season, when we have
done about all that may be accomplish
ed for material comfort, that the people
will take the system Of government of
municipalities into their own hands.
put fit men into office, introduce
merit system-in fact, run the business
of a city much as the wise man runs
the business Of his firm, for the benefit
of the partners in 1t, and not for the
fattening Of those who feed upon mis-
management, Eor for the exaltation Of
those who are neither fitted by nature
nor adapted by education for the re-
sponsibilitiea of municipal governors.
But in saying this it by no means
follows that we believe party political
activity is to be paralyzed in cities.
There viii be, indeed, under improved
conditions new stimulus to party organ
izatjon and higher standards for politi-
cal candidature Party will rise equal
to administration of city affairs, no
matter what the political creed, or it
will give way to more competent ad-
ministration. In short municipal ma
terial betterment Is to become a potent
influence in lifting political parties up
and out of the gutter Of self1shness.
bossism and the spoils slough. AS
municipal advance has done SO much
for the social good. its near future is
bound to work out good things also for
party political being.
tt would be absurd to say that Amer
lean cities, capable OF such splendid
upward movements as they have made
in the last thirty years in all but po-
Hitical government, are not to exercise
presently a powerful influence also upon
parties, and make them not less parti-
san, but more At and able to present
candidates for municipal stations who
will fifty fill the new requirements city
life Is certain to demand of its admins
traitors in the very near future.