Los Angeles herald., 1909-10-17
STATES PUBLIC
HAS OPTION TO
REFORM CITIES
JUSTICE SL0SS SPEAKS ON
MUNICIPALITIES
SAYS IMPROVEMENT LIES IN
PEOPLE, NOT LAW
Associate Member of California Su-
preme Court Makes Address Be-
for City Club - Declares
Education Is Needed

That municipal reform lies not in
bettering the machinery of govern
ment, but in the people themselves,
was the substance of an address on
! Municipal Reform and Law" dellv-
cred by M. C. Sioss, associate justice
of the California supreme court, to the
| City club yesterday.
In the earlier days of our republic
our national characteristic was boast
| fulness," said Judge Sloss I'VE held
that our government was the best, our
institutions the most ideal, our men
the braVest and our women the most
beautiful. We were sensitive to crit
icism and resented fercely any sug-
gestion that our government was not
everything it should be-
But more recently, and especially
in. the last ten years, there has been a
marked tendency in the opposite direc-
tion. The newspapers and the maga-
zines have devoted much of their space
to den6uncing the inefficiency of our
system and the incompetency of the
officials who administer that system.
The pendulum has swung violently
and it is probable the movement in
each direction has gone beyond reas-
enable limits. Our institutions are
neither ideal nor are they utterly hope
less.
Movement Toward Cities
lone phase has been the severe
criticism of municipal government and
municipal officers. This is a feature
that did not enter so much into our
calculations in our earlier, boastfui
days.
"Our population was originally ru-
raj, but as time goes on the movement
| toward the cities becomes more rapid,
and today there is probably more than
40 per cent of our population living in
| cities of more than 5000.
"The increasing growth of our cities
has brought increasingly difficult
problems to meet. Our deficiencies are
| painfully apparent to those who make
| comparisons between our cities and
the best cities of Europe. But our
form of government has the merit of
being the government of our choice,
and the American people would rather
govern themselves indifferently than
be governed by monarchy.
I'VE are apt to expect too much in
| the mere changes of government ma
chinery. We make changes in our
| charters and our legislatures pass good
laws, and we suppose these acts will
automatically turn out good govern
ment without the sustained effort of
| the people,"
Vigilance Necessary
| To prove this was not the case
| Judge Sloss cited the examples of San
Francisco, where the power and re-
sponsibility were centered in one man,
the mayor with the expectation that
good government would be the result,
and how dismally that expectation was
disappointed in the administration of
| Schmitz how st. Louis and Boston
changed their charters to provide the
machinery of good government and
| how the Folk expose showed what had
resulted in st. Louis, and that Boston
was now going through a severe form
of maladministration.
"Those whs~pin their faith to the
operation of law point to Galveston
and Des Moines," continued the speak
er, but 1 believe the success of the
Galveston plan is not due so much to
the plan itself as to the fact that the
great disaster in that city awoke the
! best citizens to the need of co-opera-
tion for the public good, and they have
taken an active interest in the city's
government. The Des Moines plan is
still too young to draw many conclu-
sions from it.
Officials Not Trained
1.-The efficiency of the government of
foreign cities is due largely to the fact
that permanent officials administer the
machinery of government. We in
America have carried the idea of elect
ing our officers frequently to an eX-
treme. Our officials are not trained
for their purpose, and the voter who
is called on to elect them frequently
can have no knowledge of their char
acteristics or their fitness for the Of
flee. When we put them in office we
threaten them with the recall.
1.-The recall is a good institution. and
I believe you have recently used it in
this city with good effect and to a
right purpose. But it may at times be
subverted to bad ends. We should
carefully consider whether the recall
would not intimidate officialS who
would otherwise stand firm in The face
of a popular but mistaken demand.
"The initiative and referendum, 9TH
er good forms of government machin-
cry, are still too recent to determine
how they will work.
"Civic spirit is the only hope of mu-
nicipal reform. There is only one way
to develop this civic spirit, and that is
by education.
Should Educate Children
"The direct primary is one form of
it may tend to increase rather than
diminish the power of the boss, but it
should at least serve to bring home to
the voter his responsibility to the cam
didates for office. Organizations like
this club is another form of education.
But it is of greater Importance that
children should be taught their respon-
sibility to the government. More at
tention should be given to this mat
ter in the public schools, and especial
ly should it be taught in the homes.
The tendency to the denuncation of
public officials should be changed.
Every act of a public officer is
viewed with suspicion, and an official
who honestly tries to do his duty as
he sees it becomes disgusted and will
not try again. We should adopt the
attitude to reserve our criticism until
something is positively shown to the
discredit of the official
I'm conclusion l would say that mu-
nicipal reform will be accomplished as
soon as an educated and intelligent
public demands it,"
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