The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-06-26

| il is an idea which viii grow and
which eventually may be acted upon.
| Chicago and Philadelphia may also
| succeed in divorcing themselves from
their rural fellow-citizens of Illinois
/ and Pennsylvania. Kansas City, a
metropolis in two states, may be the
center of a new state carved from Mis-
souri, and Kansas territory. These
changes, or others of a similar nature,
are almost sure to follow the doubling
of the present population and the in
lcreased inconvenience of local admin
iistration in states of the present boun-
daries Even now New York state
makes separate laws and organizes
separate administrative bodies for
Manhattan and upstate"
Long before the end of the century
many of the details of federal legisla-
ton now in the hands of Congress will
be delegated TO commissions. The work
of Congress is now so great that it
overwhelms that body and makes true
elaboration impossible. The actual
power of legislation will always rest
with Congress as long as the Republic
endures, but there will be much of
the detail work that will be delegated
to other bodies. Tendencies in this di-
rectfon are already being viewed with
alarm" but the movement will not
cease because of the fears of the con-
servativeS.
The reserved powers of the states,
such as are left, will be guarded with
as great jealousy and with more in
telligence than they are now. The an,
nual meeting of the House of Govern
~ tIooy h
ington, will facilitate uniform legisla-
ton by the states upon important mat
tiers of general interest, and this will
have the effect of stopping a general
outcry for increased federal powers.
The recent meeting of the governors
at the White House was the first step
in this direction-it is easy and natural
for the movement there begun to as
sumo the predicted Importance.
The municipal government problem
will be solved and the ruin of boss
rule avoided by the general adoption
of the commission system. It is en-
tirely possible that the idea of CO.
operation may be so extended that the
commissioners who administer local
municipal affairs may be united in an
organization which will provide a sys-
tenn of checks and balances which win
guarantee honest government. The
commissioners of New York, for in
stance, will hail from five other cities.
One commissioner is removed to some
other city each year, and inspecting
supervisors from other cities may come
in at any moment. This would be a
combination and adaptation OF the Ger
man municipal system and the old
fashioned Methodist itinerary.
Absolute and complete publicity OF
campaign contributions and expendi-
lures is sure to come within the next
decade or two. The federal govern
ment and all the states will recognize
the fundamental Importance of party
government, SO that all primaries and
conventions will be held under the laws
of the land. The Congress will unseat
a man whose nomination was obtained
by fraud as quickly as if he were elect
ed by fraud. The corrupt practises of
present-day elections will disappear.
This is as certain as the life of the
nation, for if corruption is not stopped
it will increase, if it increases the ma
ton cannot. hope to live.
What was looked upon fifty years
ago as smart politics. and was adj
mired, twenty years ago became
SHARP practise" and was frowned at.
The same thing today is corruption"
and is roundly denounced. Not long
hence it will be crime" and will be
punished with severity. A more acute
ly sensitive civic conscience is making
the old-fashioned methods of politics
decidedly unpopular.
The political machine boss will be a
thing of the past. There will be great
political leaders, and sharp division of
opinion. But these leaders will attract
their following because of their
espousal and advocacy of some prin-
ciple-not because of their power to
dispense pie or shake the plum tree.
Education of the masses is already
breaking the power of the boss. A
new boss who comes up nowadays
must come as a wolf in sleeps cloth
ing. He must denounce his trade to
obtain a foothold to practise it. Such
hypocrites will fail, and the American
of the future will read the tales of the
boss-ridden cities and States of today
with the same curious sensations We
experience now in reading of Salem
witchcraft.
The surest sign that true reform will
come in the future is that it is al
ready coming. Twenty years ago men
We're prominent in public life who
openly did things that would absolute
ly damn a public man of today. There
is no doubt that there are honored
public men today who resort to polit-
zeal subterfuges that their successors
of twenty years hence will not dare to
consider The world grows and it gets
better every day. The good old days
were generally bad. When the United
States comes to it's full estate, when
there are 3S5,0O0,0O0 Americans in the
year 1000, it will be the greatest nation
under the sun. But more than great
in wealth and power-it will be great
in the honesty of it's government and
the purity of it's people.