The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-03-22
LOCAL SUPERINTENDENT

More democracy-real local self-gov-
ernment-is the remedy for diseased and
deformed municipal government proposed
by Edwin Burritt Smith, Of Chicago. in
the Atlantic Monthly. It Is not that Mr..
Smith has found a new remedy, for that
is precisely the remedy we mean when we
talk about home rule charters. A home
rule charter is municipal constitution
framed and adopted by the people. But
Mr. Smiths exposition of the idea is SO
lucid and convincing and he has shown
how consistent 1t Is with our general the
DRY and scheme Of government that he
has given the plan new life and added at
Effectiveness. -
The American constitution takes no &C
count of local self-government. Because
of that omission American municipal gov
eminent Is often bad and almost always
complex and frequently corrupt. The
constitution delegated certain powers to
the general government. The rest is
left to the states. No provision was made
requiring the states to give local political
subdivisions the same freedom in matter
of local concern that the state has in
| matters of state concern. Neither did
the states voluntarily proceed to estab-
lish local home rule. - The constitution
made the state the organized unit of po-
litical power and the state has, for the
most part, ever since chung to that power.
Hence we have the anomaly of New York
city, governed by farmers at Albany, Of
a Lac qut Parle county legislator pros
posing scheme for taxing street rail-
ways In Minneapolis, Of a legislature con-
| corning itself with Minneapolis bridges
and parks and improvements and telling
| us what to do with our sheriff. -
! It is none of the states business and
| it is of no interest. except curious, to
| the rest of the state in what way Minne-
apolis governs herself, provided life and
property are protected. It seems per-
fectly logical and natural to Americans
| that the national government should at
| tend to matters of national scope, and i'm
| portance and the state government to
matters of state concern. It would be
regarded as an intrusion to be resented
and stopped If congress undertook to tell
Minnesota what to do with its state lnst1-
| tutions, how much to spend on them, how
to manage them, etc. But after decades
of hard experience with the irrational sys-
tenn of local government by state legis-
latures we are only just beginning to see
that what we need in our cities is what
has made our state and federal govern
ments SO strong and eficient-that is
regulation of their own affairs.
But as yet we do not see plainly. The
constitution and the statutes of Minnesota
are now in advance Of the people of Min
neapolis. We can have home rule if we
want it, and the people have had an
opportunity to take it. but they have re-
jected it. They preferred the state-made
patchwork charter to the one made by
| their representatives. It is not possible
under the state constitution to have the
| full measure of home rule that Is needed,
but the use Of what Is offered will pave
| the way to an amendment Of the con-
stitution that will eventually give mu-
nicipal home rule that is as complete and
as little restricted by the state govern
ment as the state is by the national gov
| eminent -......-