The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-11-18
HOW AMERICANS
HAVE AWAKENED
Continued from Page one1

forest entered as agricultural land,
and in coal lands frauduIently taken
up as homesteads. and in petroleum.
These ought to have belonged TO all
of US instead of being appropriated by
some of US. And the waste has been
to the damage of all Of US.
MANY of you have, 1 hope, read that
| great book, The City the Hope of De-
kmocracy." 1t points out wildly how
wealth is produced by mere propin-
guilty. Congestion of population, ir it
| self, economically considered, is a
! labor-saving device. Think of the
comforts, convenience, means of educa-
| ton and enjoyment OF life that are
| impossible in the country but are Gre
ated by the city-one cent newspapers.
| good theaters, good schools, art gal
! leries.
why should you or I be permitted
to take up a piece of property in. a
| city and simply hold it until the COM
munity increases its value many fold
and then compel someone who must
have it to pay US that increased value?
| The community creates the value; the
community should have it. The growth
of population gives value to charters
FOR public utilities greatly beyond any
| investment of capital. 1t enables own
ers to water their stock many times
any actual investment they ever made.
and when, after twenty years or more
of drawing dividends on values the
community itself created, their fran
chises run out, they insist on the COM
munity giving them twenty more years
of the same kind of thing, because,
-. Stn iC l1alH nv
ows and orphans, and not to give them
another chance to take what is the
community's. is confiscation.
Two years ago in Chicago there was
held a convention made up of men who
had actually learned of the corruption
of cities by fighting it. From every
large city the story was the same. The
cities had grown up in heedlessness.
The value of their public utilities had
grown with their growth. and was
such that fhe man who could not water
the stock of a corporation owning one
of them is not much of a f1nancier.
But in order to continue this inordi-
nate profit they must continue to own
and control the wealth that the COM
munity creates, and to do this they had
to resort to corruption and bribery.
They poisoned the law at it's source.
IF the teachings of the Master mean
anything. they mean that we must get
along together in peace, and that pre-
supposes justice, and justice is a pretty
broad thing. 1t means that if we
would be happy our fellow men must
be happy, and can be happy only under
justice. This idea of commonwealth
has led to the highest self-sacrifice.
Men have always been more ready to
fight and die for the interests of the
community than for their own inter
ests. That is why reform which pro-
poses the good of the community is |
easy. This is no wild idealism. 1t is
only an extension of human nature as
we know it. 1t is only our ignorance [
and stupidity that works against US. |
1.-The problems of our cities grew up |
because our cities grew up in a hap |
hazard way. The great nations of an
tiquity were mainly cities. Rome, |
Athens. Nineveh, Babylon are the
names of cities. They could sustain
themselves though their provinces were
overrun. But our prototype was Eng
land. She was protected by the seas
and by the wooden walls of her ships.
vices which continental cities and those
of the ancient world developed. Our
fathers, having nothing to guide them
in the matter of cities, organized the
town meeting, where every man cast
his own vote. As cities grew, mere
expedients were adopted to meet new
situations. They got mixed up with
counties. In addition, our country was
HI |
slavery and later on the question of
tariff, and we paid no attention to
the development of municipal politics.
1t was a long time before we even be-
gan to ask the question of what tariff
had to do with flushing sewers. In
our municipal affairs we divided on ma
tiona1 party lines.
IF my friend Roosevelt, or my friend
Taft, said. as they are reported to have
said. that the defeat of Tom John
son was necessary to the success of the
Republican party, it was impudent
I believe in Tom John
son. Some of you may not. But I
am glad that he was reelected Mayor
of Cleveland among other things just
to disprove that national party poll
tics have anything to do with munich
pal affairs.
The story of Chicago is the same
as that of other large and misgoverned
cities. I broke into the city council in
1895. There were sixty-eight aldermen
then, of whom there were eight or ten
who would not steal a milk can or a
door mat. There were a few of us who
thought such things ought not to be-
We were young. We got the town
stirred up. We did not have a very
distinct idea of the rights and values
Of commonwealth. But we did believe .
in honesty. The city was controlled by
the most brave. resourceful and utterly
man that ever lived. His
name was Yerkes. We organized the
Municipal Voters League. We found {
that the people are always ready to j
accept honest and disinterested leader {
ship if they are told the facts. We
told them the facts about every man (
who was candidate for alderman The {
result. in the course of a few years. I
was that since 1899 there has not been :