Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-09

L
Extended to great city. It breaks down
The concerns of a great city are such as
only special skill and experience can man
| age Alright. The people. not knowing each
other. have no power of collective choice.
| Leading citizens cannot leave their buSi-
ness and the business of their stockholders
| to attend to municipal affairs. The inevit-
| able consequences are the ward politician.
and the lapse of the city into the hands al
most always of incompetence. too often OF
organized corruption City government be-
| comes the pursuit of men who have RE-
4 tired from trade or from whom trade has
| retired" The minor offices are sought as
| the first rung of the municipal ladder. l
| have heard of a case of a library board. of
| which. though II had been running for a
quarter Of a century. not single literary
| man had been a member. 1 could mention
the case of an active citizen who In thirty
| years has only once or twice known enough
| Of any candidate for the education board to
| mark his ballot
System in Middle Ages.
The elective system comes down to us
from the middle ages. when a city was no
| larger than a modern village. Administra-
| ton In those days simple. There were
no city services of any importance, no fire
| brigade, no water works. no sewerage but
| the kennel. no public schools. no roads and
| sidewalks to be kept In repair. no police but
| Dogbery and Nerges. or in case OF public
danger a levy of the citizens masse. The
| leading men dwelt not in suburban villas.
but in the heart of the city. knew all the
people, and. no doubt, kept the administra-
tion practically I'm their own hands. In
England. before the municipal reform act.
| the corporations generally had become
close. The business consisted largely in
the control OF trade and the management
| of trade guilds. But il was also to
siderable extent political. consisting In the
| assertion of city liberties and privileges
against the king. the lord and the abbot.
| The proper sphere OF popular election IL
politics, not administration.
Cities Of England.
| If I'm English cities matters are better
| than they are In the great cities in this con-
| tinent II is partly, at least, because the
social structure of those communities Is
| different. the influence of leading men is
| greater, and they take more part In civic
| Efe. But there as here large bodies II
people, who know nothing of each other a. Q
| without power OF collective choice: the con-
| sequence is that municipal elections are
| run by political party, a system of which
| the vices are obvious and which points to
| the evolution of a Tammany. At Birming-
| ham. Mr.. Ostrogorski tells us, Mr.. Cham
| herlains liberal organization excluded the
| conservatives from public life. The con-
| servatives were dislodged from every posi-
| representative body even Of an entirely nom
political character. from charitable institu-
| tiorS. from the governing board of schools.
| THIS they came to identify the interests OF
!
| and to regard them with lukewarmness,
almost with Indifference. This is not
| wholesome state of things Mr.. Ostrogor-
| skis report on the state of Birmingham
itself, the paragon of the system, is that the
| effect is very far from wholesome. He Is
| told by leading member of the dominant
party that in the council barely third OF
the members are men of average ability,
| that the rest are nonentities. and that the
| only hope is that in twenty years time the
| deterioration of the council will be such
h.,
| ton. the sickened and disguised population
| will rise in revolt. Recent accounts of the
| financial condition of the great cities show
| a state of indebtedness which is causing
great alarm, and which It may be sus-
| pected has its source. In some measure at
| least, In the spendthrift angling for popu-
| larity characteristic of political party.
| Demagogfsm is an inherent vice of the sys-
| tenn of administration by popular election.
In Berlin.
| Berlin, we are told, is well administered
with system partly elective. But It APP
| pears that the mayor is an expert and per-
manent. and that property is represented
In the vote. The raising and expenditure
of money is the chief work of a municipal
government and where property II not rep
| resented you have a jolnt-stock company
| run by a minority, sometimes very small
minority of the stock. case might. be-
! lieve, be named of a frst-rate candidate
| for the mayoralty polling fully three-fourthS
of the taxpaying property of the city and
| being beaten by the other fourth. Yet no
| class suffers more from municipal malad-
| ministration than the poorest, which hav-
| ing the fewest appliances for comfort and
| health at home. stands most in need OF
| those afforded by the city. The poor man
| If he understood his own interest would
gladly exchange his illusory vote for the
advantages of a skilled administration.
| These elective municipalities. though sup
posed to be responsible to the people, are
| as devoid of real responsibility as they are
of administrative skill and foresight. The
delinquent, his term over. slips back into
| the crowd. l could point to a case in which
a very large sum had been wasted on a
| public work through negligence on the part
| of the committee by whom the execution
of the work ought to have been controlled.
| When the reckoning day came one only OF
| those who had been responsible for the
neglect remained to answer for 1t. and that
| one man was on the point of retirement.
| Nobody would desire to take from the
| people at large any power of which II is
| possible that they should make an intelli-
gent use. The more We act not only for
| the general good, but as community. the
| better. But when 1t is shown that nothing
| but evil to the people comes to the people
| from the system. and that. the elections be-
| ing governed by the wirepuller. the ex-
ercisa of the power by the citizens at largo
| is an illusion, to resist beneficial change on
| democratic principle is surely to drag demo-
cratic principle through the mire.
Relapse Follows Reform.
No permanent improvement can be hoped
| from convulsive attempts at reform. unless
they go the length of a vigilance committee.
They are sure to be followed by a relapse,
and 1t Is vain to expect that men absorbed
In important business will give their time
to municipal affairs. They will prefer to
the loss OF time any not intolerable amount
OF mismanagement and even of robbery.
The only effective remedy is that to which
| the change in the city constitution of To-
ronto points. Let the administrative func-
tons be placed in the hands OF skilled. per-
manent and truly responsible administra-
| tors, not chosen by the blind chances of a
popular election, the voters in which have
no means of discernment or of a collective
choice, but by some intelligent authority.
If the authority is itself elective, as in the
case of the governor of a state, the APP
pointment would be by election once re-
moved. Let popular election be confined to
| the legislative body. The people would be
resignng a power which, where there is no
possibility of collective choice and they are
at the mercy of the wire-puler. Is a mere
Illusion. and would gain comfort, conven-
fence and health. If this is hopeless, 1t 10