The Topeka state journal., 1899-09-19
MATTER OF VOTES
President Black of the League
of Municipalities.
Opens the Third Convention Of
the Organization.
INTELLIGENT VOTING
He Says, Is the Key to Good
City Government.
Golden Rule Mayor of Toledo
Addresses the Body.

Syracuse. N. Y, Sept 1s.-The third
annual convention of the League OF
American Municipalities. opened here
today with four hundred delegates in
attendance and many more are expect
ed to arrive during the day. Mayor
Mcguire of Syracuse, made the address
of welcome to the city. Governor
Roosevelt, who was to have delivered
the address Of welcome to the state.
telegraphed that he could not be pres
ent. Former Mayor Samuel L Black OF
Columbus, O., president Of the league.
responded to the addresses OF welcome
In his annual address President Black
said:
We are not here to lose ourselves in
abStruSe and abstract SpeculauOnS- our
purpose is a Sternly practical one We
deal with human life; we seek to pro-
long ito suffer it to run its natural
course unchecked and unhampered BY
disease. We aim to work this out by
disposing of such severely practical
questions as garbage disposal, water
supply, civil service reform, saloon reg
ulations and similar measures Neither
the physicians nor the ministers OF the
gospel go before US in the humanltaT-
ian character of their work. If We and
others working along this line can IN
crease the general average of the health
and happiness of the millions who dwell
in the cities. we have gained victory
compared to which the destruction of a
fleet or an army is nothing
''Since the last meeting of this league.
our people have been called upon To
undertake or at least to regulate the
government of cities in new countries
and in Havana, Santiago. Manila and
other cities of the east and West In
dies, our vigorous soldiers and admin
istratOrS are enforcing the first prln-
ciples of our municipal sySteul-clean-
liness and order Whatever plans are
proposed and whatever hopes we in
du1ge, the bulk of our voters are not
educated upon municipal affairs and are
not informed of the advantages they
can secure by a proper exercise of their
Suffra ages. The voter should be taught
what he can secure by intelligent vot-
ing. This must be done by the object
lesson and example of other cities
where so much has been done Tor the
public at large. Tell the voters what
to vote for and put your examples in
the concrete"
Atlanta, Ca, is represented by
large delegation which is making great
efforts to have the convention held
there next year. St. Paul and Nilwau-
kee are also bidding for the conven-
ton
Twenty New York state cities wiz
be represented on the floor this after
noon.
The convention adjourned soon after
noon and will reconvene at 2:3O.
The principal address was made by
Mayor Samuel NJ. Jones of Toledo, O.,
who will leave town at midnight TO
resume his campaign in Ohio
MAYOR JONES ADDRESS
He said in part:
LAS it stands today it is simple can
dor to say that the word patriotism is
to most people a meaningless jingle. the
one conception they have OF the thing
being associated with red fire bunting
flags, firecrackers and Fourth of July
The new patriotism. however. is the old
patriotism. The flag, the stars and
stripes, still represent the love Of mill
ions, but we have been so busy in the
chase after wealth that any just con-
ceptiOn of patriotism is well nigh lost
in the hurly- -burly of the scramble
we have reached the point where
we are discovering that wild beast eth
les are not good enough upon which to
base a permanent and enduring re-
public. The ethics of the wild beast.
the survival of the strongest. shreWd-
est and the meaneSt nave been the m
spiratiOn of our materialistiC lives dur
ing the last quarter Of a century This
fact in our natural history has brought
US today face to face with the newt
able result. We have a nation in which
a few are wealthy. a few in what may
be called comfortable circumstance.
vast numbers are proDertyless, and
millions are in pauperism and crime
Certainly no reasonable person viii
contend this is the goal that we have
been struggling for; that the inequali-
ties that characterize our rich and
poor represent the ideas that the found
ers of this republic saw when they
wrote that all men are created equal
And the new patriotism is the love Of
the millions that is already planning
for and opening the way to better
things, to a condition of life under this
government when every child born in
it will have equal opportunity with eF-
cry other child to live the best possible
kind of life that he or she can live The
step most likely to contribute to bring
ing about the better days and better
times, for which we all long, are to my
minds those things that viii unity the
people that Will serve to weld them to-
gether into one common mass, those
things that will help them to under
stand the oneness or SOLITARY Of society
and the things that are the greates-
hindrance to this sort of development
are all those. agencies that serve to
separate the people into fragments that
| keep alive the fires Of hatred within their
bOsoms and tend to make them hate
rather than love each other All these
agencies are the enemies of progress
and liberty and stand directly athwart
the path of freedom. Chief among
them, and the one agency above all
others that, the patriot should seek To
! overcome in the municipality. the state
and the nation are partisan politics