The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-12-03

was unuualifedly in favor of the principal
municipal franchises
In this connection very able paper by
Controller Coler of New York was espe-
cially significant His subject was the linn
itation of municipal Indebtedness and his
contention was that expenditures by the
city from which an adequate revenue may
be expected should not be reckoned as
within that limitation. That 1t would be
excellent financial policy for New York to
loan the credit of the city to the UNDER
ground railway project and thus within
a few years become the owner of most
valuable property he strongly maintained
and he showed that it would be splendid
stroke of enterprise If the great city should
at once become the owner and renter of Its
entire water front. A more influential word
for municipal ownership has not been
spoken than this of Mr.. Coler.
Relations of National Politics
The relations of national politics to mu-
nicipal government were also well consid-
cred. That city elections should be separat-
ed from state and national elections was
the unanimous conclusion, and the provision
that nominations for city officers should be
by petition and not by party caucus is in
tended to give wide room for the operation
for independency. Prof Goodnow of Co.
lumbia maintained that cities, so far as
they are acting agents of the state-that is,
in the case of the police the schools, the
public health, and so on-should be subject
ed to state control. I recall an interesting
paper by the late Samuel Bowles of The
Springfield Republican, in which the same
idea was advanced. Mr.. Bowles deplored
the apparent tendency to minimize the state
governments. Between the vast and In
creasing contradictions of the federal gov
eminent and the immense aggregations of
municipal power, he feared that the state
= governments would come to hold an infer
Tor rank in our system. And, partly with
a view of redressing this inequality, he
urged the transfer to the state OF all police
powers and of the entire management of
edueation-perhaps, also, of sanitary affairs,
though of this L cannot be sure. HES idea
was that there should be a state constabu-
larry somewhat as in England and France,
whose business it should be to keep the
peace throughout the commonwealth, in
cities as well as in the towns; that the
laws of the state would be better enforced
by state officials and the city ordinances no
less effectively. The interests of education
were also, he contended, interests of the
state which could be wisely and uniformly
administered under state regulation. By
such a change Mr.. Bowles thought that the
state governments would gain in dignity
and Importance, and the cities be relieved
of some of their most perplexing functions.
Whether the cities would be willing to sur
resder so much of their power is a question,
but the proposition is worth considering.
Professor Goodnow did not, however, adj
vocate anything so radical as this; he simp-
ly called for state supervision of the police,
the schools, and the sanitary officials, and
maintained that this state control should be
exercised not by the legislature, but by
state boards created for the purpose. The
problem in the mind of the professor SEEM
ed to be how to weaken Tammany and not
strengthen Plata double commission
flxyf 10 a mic bn6 fnr. In a
politics of Greater New York.
The Need of Commentator
One cannot refuse the need of common
dation and congratulation to this National
Municipal league. 1t has maintained now
for seven or eight yeors most wholesome
agitation of municipal questions: 1t has
seen a great number of local organizations.
cherishing the same general purpose, spring
into existence in all parts of the country;