Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1911-10-19
CITY GOVERNMENT

No more important question con
fronts the people than the government
of municipalities. People are focking
to the cities. The old order has
changed; and changed condition de-
mand an enlargement of the powers of
city government that the greatest good
may be secured for the greatest number
Of the people. This thought was well
developed In an address delivered in
Milwaukee last week by Prof. e. A.
Ross of the University of Wisconsin.
From the Milwaukee Journals report
of the address we quote the following:
1.-The business mans theory is essen
TALLY that municipal government
exists to aid in money making said
Prof. Ross land that when it goes be
yond that it is reckless and extravaganza.
The correct theory is that the city
government should assist the people OF
the city in all matters that they them
selves cannot properly handle. Money
making can only be the limit to the
functions Of IA city when 1t is the only
important thing, or when the people
can care for all the rest themselves"
Prof. Ross sought to show that there
were multiplicity of problems besides
that of making money that the indivd-
ual in great city could not possibly
solve alone, although he might handle
them satisfactorily in country com
munity.
1--WE Americans are focking into the
cities, he said, land we continue to
run our cities according to rural ideas.
The New England farmer controls the
welfare of his family, regulate it's
water supply, its food, its housing, and
he Is to blame if things are not right.
The indivdualistic idea is a cOngenial
theory in rural society. But when
You congregate people in the city con
ditions are changed and the theory
of the government should be changed
in u corresponding degree. A man
can't protect his family in a city He
cannot supply himself with pure water.
His wife cannot know the character of
the food they eat. She cannot 20 to
market with test tubes and retorts.
And III for the home, the man who
lives In house In city in most in
stances didn't design it. II is impos-
sible under aggregated life to retain
the old idea.
Among the questions which, accord
ing to the speaker, the city must handle
in the interest of the community are,
The regulation and inspection of the
food supply; the supervision of con
tagious disease; the control of housing
imposing restrictions on the landlord
which will result in Il maximum of
sanitation, light, and air: the care of
the poor, 30 that honest poverty may
not suffer while imposture thrives; the
decrease Of unemployment by the es
tablishment, for one thing, of labor
exchanges; the promotion of education,
and particularly industrial education
In which this country does less than
any civilized country in the world; the
extension of the public library, until il
becomes the caterer to the higher life
OF the community along every line; the
suppression of vice which, If it is per
mitted to go on uncontrolled, may lead
to conditions similar to those in China
where the opium habit has decimated
whole villages and in certain districts
made nine out of ten women over 10
opium smokers.
Also the development of recreational
system, 80 that children will have n
chance to play without coming into
conflict with the lava recreationnl
system with small parks no further
from any residence district than IA
tired mother can walk on hot August
day with crying baby"
In the management and control Of
municipalities the question should not
always be, will this or that movement
bring financial returns. As pointea
out by Prof Ross, the business of mn
nicipal government is not to assist in
making money, but rather to aid in
the solution of problems which cannot
be solved by the individual of and nv
himself And changing conditions are
ever bringing with them new problems
to be solved.