The age-herald., 1901-07-21

The vital necessity of securing honest municipal administration all over the country is forcibly emphasized by a re- gently issued special bulletin of the cen- su5 bureau. in which it is asserted that nearly one-third of the total population
 of the country resides in cities having a population of eight thousand inhabitants and more. In the smaller communities governmental conditions are, with very few exceptions, all that could be desired The offices, are as rule. sought by the best men, not for tho emoluments they offer, which are small but for the dis- tinction their occupancy confers, as well as from a fervent desire to advance the growth and progress of these genuine lit tie municipal republics. In many ways they are the purest the best and most economical governments on earth, and so long as they preserve this character not the slightest harm can come from them either to the state or nation. When however, we take into consideration the cities with a population of 10000 and more the cituation Is entirely reversed. In 1S90 according to the census statisticians.
 there were seventy-eight cities in this class, and that one of them which can vaunt the possession of government in all respects satisfactory, or even meas ureably so, it would be hard to name Possibly 1t does not exist. But, corrupt though they be, they are paragons of nlu- nicfpal purity when compared with the cities of the first-class at the head of which stands New York with Louisville or Minneapolis. away down toward the end of the column. These cities con- tained in 1890 a population of nearly twelve millions of people, and since then all of them have been bounding along at an enormous pace so that to bring the figures up to date they should be placed probably at between fourteen and fifteen millions
 In at least six of these nineteen cities the government system Is bottomed on the grossest corruption. They are ruled by bosses. rings. cliQues and combinations whose principal object is to make the po- sitions they hold and the power they wield grind out all the money possible without mourning the risk of a term in states prison. Tn the case of many of these mu- nicipal plunderers their avarice occasion ally gets the better of their caution, and they find themselves in the uniform of a convict or in foreign lands fugitive from justice. The Americans of to-day that submit to this outrageous system of mis- government are, it Is safe to say, four times greater numerically than were the Colonists, who won their independence from the Third George That pig-headed potentate did not exact in all the years of his reign as much money from his Amer ican subjects as the municipal bosses of the present day filch in a single twelve month from the people whose friends and servants they profess to be. Now, in- stead Of one crowned George there are thirteen or fourteen of the uncrowned brood around who, with the assistance of their henchmen in common councils and
 
 and syndicates charters a thousand fold more valuable than the Stuart kings ever bestowed upon the Calverts. These kings, who have been placed in the pillory of history as the representatives of all that was bad in government, are not nearly so bad in every way as are many of the po- litical bosses that now lord 1t over the people. The Stuarts and those that fol- lowed them did not know any better The bosses do. Look at boss rule in New York in Philadelphia. in San Francisco, in Chi cago. in St. Louis, Cincinnati New Or leans-is there anything viler anywhere?
 Improved municipal administration is imperative. set of bosses and their ad- herents in the greatest cities of the Union have brought about conditions that are a blot upon popular government. Not only do these men hold in their hands the con trol of the big municipalities, but their corrupt influence is almost decisive in the legislatures of many of the states. and 1t Is felt in Congess. the supreme law-mals- ing power of the republic. They demand and take toll at every step. No man can get into any position of trust or power in the great centers of population with out lowing down to one of these chap. They select the judge on the bench, and they designate the scrubwoman that shall receive q paltry stipend Tor scrub ping the floor of the court-room- They fireman who Is entrusted with the pro- tection of life and property, the school teacher to whom the highest of all civic duties arc confded. They give away great franchises. blaclSrnail the haunts of vice and drive out of business the honest establishments that have the courage to resist their infamous demands. The Amer