The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1902-09-18
CIVIC REFORM.

" IA
League for Civic Improvement which
will be held in St. Paul on the oath.
18th and Goth of this month, and which
will be addressed by President Roose-
welt, will no doubt prove a great
generator of civic reform power and
stimulate thought and action along
these lines Of reform. One OF the
speakers at the convention will be
Albert Kelsey, of Philadelphia, who
will speak on THE Pageantry of the
Street," in which we are informed that
he will discuss street lamps, street
signs, methods of municipal lighting,
etc. There is no question but what
there is much need of civic reform in
matters OF this character and such re-
form as will reach down to the street
commissioner, and the man with the
broom and the little pan on wheels who
keeps the streets clean; also such re-
form as will reach out into the suburbs
and back alleys and into the by-ways
and hedges of municipalities where
the alderman and the delegate, the
commissioner and the assemblyman in
their eager search for civic reform
seldom venture. There is plenty of
% ~
But what shall we say of the needed
reforms in the officials themselves in
most OF our municipalities? Mime
apolis has but recently given the world
a grand example of highly colored and
ornamented civic corruption. She has
a great system of patrol limits and is
building up fine park system, but
she has long been afflicted with coun-
Gil OF most uncertain quantity in the
matter of honesty and civic righteous
ness, though that city has been
cleansed of much of its unsound alder
manic timber. She has just got rid of
her mayor and part of her police de-
partment that covered her with munic-
ipal slime, and she is now getting
ready to purify herself.
Over in the sister city of St. Paul
the public has just been treated to a
striking example of civic purity by
one of the police commissioners who
rolled high on the waves of a good old
plain drunk the other hight and when
taken to the police station he pro-
ceeded to exclaim, II am it" and with
a drunken dash of authority he fred
every member of the force present and
then proceeded to lie down to peace
full slumber. While thus he slept be
was taken home. Commissioner Foel.
sen will make a bright and shining OBJ
ject for discussion by the members
present at the civic convention next
week. =. -: ,a> p.
1t is not so much the need of reform
in methods of identifying the streets
of our big cities and in landscape Gar
dening as it is the need of reform in
the methods Of our municipal govern
ments which make it possible for an
alderman drawing all the way from
nothing to $50 per month and with lit
tie other visible means of support to
grow fat and prosperous.
The one great cause of all civic cor
ruption is neglect and Indifference on
the part of the citizens themselves.
who are the state, and more than this
they are the nation itself. Every re-
form must have it's inception with and
eminate from the people themselves,
who as a rule never awaken to the
needs of reform until a municipal
Mont Pelee blows off from the intense
internal pressure and leaves some gap
ing assures and lava beds to dis6gure
the community.