The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-21
WANT OF INTEREST.
In Municipal Affairs is . Crying
 Evil.

St. Paul Pioneer Press.
 Although many of the members of the National Municipal League are in- clined to deal with municipal problems in the spirit of the doctrinaire, striving to reach the ideal at a bound instead of by plodding through the practical, that organization has done some prac- tical work and performed valuable service in calling attention to the paramount importance of municipal government. 1t is now engaged in an effort to secure recognition in colleges and high schools of the importance of special courses in municipal govern ment. If its efforts are successful 1t will haev laid a solid foundation for better city government. For no one can study the causes of the inen1ciency of the administration of American cities without discovering that one of the greatest barriers to progress is the difficulty of finding men who have any comprehension of the aims and pur- poses of city government, or any just appreciation of its importance in in- fiuencing for good or evil, day in and day out, the purses. the health, the comfort and convenience, and the mental and moral welfare of every in- habitant. This want of comprehension
  standard of efficiency and of intelli- gence demanded of public officials, in distorted notions of the comparative importance of various offices, and in general lack of interest in business that vitally concerns every individual.
 Crudely set forth on the basis of dol lars and cents, the importance to the St. Paul tax payers of good city and county government compared with that of the State, as The Pioneer Press has frequently pointed out, is represented by the IA mills city tax plus the mills county tax against the less than mills State tax. In other words. the inn portance to the St. Paul tax payers of securing competent city and county officials Is almost six times greater than the importance of securing com petent State officials. To every citi- zen, whether he be a minor or an adult, a tax payer or a non- tax payer, good city and county government Is incal- culably more important than good State government. St. Paul could stand maladministration of the State public lands and of the State school funds without suffering nearly So much as 1t suffered not a dozen years ago from dishonest school board, or still more re- gently from an incompetent superin- tendent. If the normal school. the uni- versity, the insane hospitals. the schools for detectives, or even the penal institutions were badly managed, 1t would only affect St. Paul to small degree. But mismanagement of its waterworks, it's hospital its health de- partment, its fire board, its workhouse or its police force would cause, and in some cases does cause all degrees Of inconvenience from daily discomfort to actual disaster ending in needless loss of life, or in the avoidable financial and moral ruin of individuals. concrete illustration of the distorted notions In regard to the comparative importance of local offices is found in the intense interest in the contests for the posi- tion of clerk of the court and of the register of deeds. and the absolute Ignoring of the kind of men chosen to by county commissioners. Were ther" any general knowledge of the duties of the county board or any appreciation of it's importance this carelessness would not exist.
 To put it brutally, even the infiuen- tial men of this city know little about the machinery of the city government except where it happens directly to a1- feet their pockets. And they pay the penalty of ignorance. On these rare occasions when they become interested thier protests or their appeals fall nat | and they have to make up in numbers | the weight which they ought to nave | in argument. Any person 1amlllar with the city hall knows that about as much respect Is paid to tneir opinions as they would pay to the oninions of a man in another line of business who undertook to tell them how to conduct their own. That this weakness is due to ignorance Is mani- | fest in the attention paid to those who are Known to understand the practical problems of city government. The l chamber of commerce body of very able and intelligent men. has so ire | ouently acted on the theory that 1t | could pass judgment cn question l after a few hours invest: -ation which those with a much longer experience
 in practical administration have only understood after days of close atten- tion, that it's name has become Dy-
 word among those who really "do | things" This body and many indi- viduals who desire to better things
 seem to think that the ideal can be 1 attained without taking the trouble to | understand the actual. Another large element in the community seems to | think that the sum and substance of
 good city government is municipal ownership; whereas that is merely one of d dozen questions of future policy
 that have nothing to do with the actual problems of today. In short, the only
 possible way to secure good city gov
 ernment is to educate the public to | take even greater interest in 1t than 1t
 takes in currency reform or tariff re-
 form, and to appreciate that questions
 of stret paving, of hospital manage
 ment, or methods of police administra-
 tion are more vital to them than what
 is done with Porto Rico or Cuba or the
 Philippines. As matter of fact, if the
 public understood their home problems
 they would pass much sounder judg-
 ment on matters of State or national
 administration. The prime need is an
 understanding of the art of city gov
 ernment, and the subordination of
 theories to actualities, which always
 follows the comprehension of any sub
 feet. When that want Is supplied there
 will be better selections of city and
 county officials and the desired reforms
 will come automatically.
 That the need will be supplied seems
 likely. The investigations of the muni-
 cipal league shows that out of 222 col
 leges and universities that replied to
 the leagues inquiries, forty-two report
 distinct courses in municipal govern
 ment and most of the rest report
 courses in which municipal govern
 ment is included. Whether or not this