The Aberdeen Democrat. (Aberdeen, South Dakota) 1???-1909, 1903-02-13
A wELL-GovERNED CITY.
Dusseldorf, Germany, Ia Muniei.
pality Owned Almost Entirely
By the Government MT.


paltty Owned Almost Entirely
By the Government.
Apart from the special attractions
of this year, Dusseldorf is always an
exhibition in itself. 1t has been we'll
described as "the garden city of the
Rhine," and no town has carried mu-
nicipal housekeeping to a greater ex-
tent or into more varied fields. One
gets about the maximum of govern
ment which it is POSSIBLE to obtain in
Dusseldorf, also the extreme amount
of restrictive action and control which
it seems possible even for Germans
to live under, says the Outlook. To
enter or leave the city the visitor must
travel on the state railway, and he is
put down at a handsome station. He
will find that all the public service
monopolies are managed by the city
council, beginning with the water sup
ply. He will have the choice between
gas and electricity for light, but in
each case he will have to %patronize
the municipality. He will ride on a
splendidly equipped electric street
railway, which serves not only the
city, but runs into the suburbs, and is
owned and operated directly by the
municipality. He will have to go to
the state for his telephones, and the
post office will deliver his parcels as
we'll as his letters. He will find up
to-date harbor and docks IN the Rhine,
and warehouses and elevators along
side with the latest electrically driven
appliances, all in the possession of the
municipal authorities. All the mar
kets are owned by the city, which also
owns model municipal slaughter
houses. /,
There are several sets of municipal
baths, including Turkish and Russian,
and a free bathing station on the
Rhine. There are no slums in the city,
and not likely to be, as the city council
has adopted a progressive housing
policy. It builds municipal dwellings,.
A rich citizen left it money to build
what are known as foundation dwell
ings, let at low rentals, and money is
lent on easy terms from the social in
surance funds to help workmen build
their wi houses. There. is a,munici-
pal savings bank ready to receive the
savings of the thrifty, another mu-
nicipal bank in. which are deposited
the floating balances and profits of the
public services lends money on mort
cages, and there is the poor mans
bank in the municipal pawnshop,
ready to advance money on personal
property, and goods at something like
IL per cent: There are beautiful parks,
a peoples garden in the suburbs, a
botanical garden, a geological garden
and ten miles away on the slopes Of
the Grafenberg hills is a municipal
forest-the further terminus of the
street railway service. A number Of
the parks contain municipal restaur-
ants. In the educational field the
city has, of course, its art galleries,
museums of natural history and an
tiquities, arts and crafts; also it's mu-
nicipal theater, where good companies
play nine months in the year and give
a Shakespeare season every year.
In the sphere of education the mu-
%nicipality does everything-runs COM
mon schools, colleges, gymnasia, tech
nical schools, libraries, etc. There is
a state systemaof insurance against
old age and sickness, universal pen
sions for workmen and a provincial
fire insurance system in which the mu-
nicipality takes part. When one is
disabled or stricken with disease there
is a municipal hospital awaiting him;
when he is old and impoverished there
is the municipal nursing home ready
to receive him. 1t is conceivable that,
notwithstanding all these municipal
benefits, he might die, but wen in
death he does not escape the omnipres-
ent municipality, for he will have to
patronize the municipal undertaken
the only one-and be buried in the mu-
nicipal cemetery--there is no other.