Watertown leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1909-1911, 1911-07-14
OWEN ARGUES FOR
DIES MONIES PLAN
States Merits of Commission
Form of Government.
STRONG SPEECH IN SENATE
He Believes This Municipal Reform
Will Help Destroy Corrupt Ma
tional Poitlcs-DeporabIe De-
lays in Business of Beauti-
tying Washington.
BY WILLIS j. ABBOT.


cation was still dragging it's slow and
Shiny length along when Senator
owen made his strong and convincing
speech on the merits of the commits
sion form OF government IN municipal
tiles. At first the subject would not
seem wholly germane to the upper
house OF the national legislature Yet
II any OF Senator Owens auditors,
holding this view, had strolled two
hundred yards or so to the room in
which the investigation into the case
OF the junior senator from Illinois was
being held they would have heard
plenty Of testimony showing the in
innate connection between a corrupt
municipal government and a senate
open to public distrust. Senator
Owens statements are beyond cavil.
This is the gist Of them:
The commission form of govern
ment has a national value and a di-
rect bearing upon the integrity of the
election of senator's because it is an
important agency in overthrowing
corrupt machine politics in municipali-
ties and cities. The proportion of in
habitants living IN cities, as COM
pared to the inhabitants Of the United
States, is between 40 and so per cent,
not counting towns of less than $500
Inhabitants. If corrupt government
can be terminated In cities 1t cannot
survive in the states or in the nation"
| have no desire TO expound the
commission idea here. That has been
done IN the magazines, in John J.
Hamiltons excellent book, THE De-
thronement of the City Boss" and in
this speech of Senator Ovens, copies
Of which can be had for the asking
Enough here to say that it practical
ly eliminates partisan politics, the
machine and the boss; that it OBJ
literates ward boundaries and nomi-
mating conventions; that it does away
with common councils, aldermen,
gray wolves" and gangs; and that it
carries with it those once revolution
airy but now commonplace devices for
assuring power to the people, the in
itiative, referendum and recall.
Washington Should Be Beautiful.
The business of beautifying Wash
ington is getting complicated. Prob
ably there are but few citizens of the
United States, who are in a position
to know and to speak their convic-
lions. who would not like to see the
capital of the United States, not mere
ly the most beautiful city in our land,
but the most beautiful in the world
Many long centuries must pass before
1t can acquire the present ripened
majesty of Rome or the artistic COM
1ngling of the ancient and the modern,
the venerable and the beautiful of
Paris. But st. Petersburg, Moscow,
Buda Pesth, Vienna and Brussels are
beautiful capitals, all as young for
their countries as Washington is for
ours, and each decreed by a master
hand without reference to commercial
advantages. In short, it is folly to
expect Washington to be built In
day when we have proverbial author
ity that Rome was not, but it ought
not to be hard, with proper enthusi-
asm, to place it on a par with Vienna
or with Buda Pesth-Europe's two
chief modern show places today.
Though late in entering on the con-
test, Washington is not hurrying the
work of progressing from a ragged
city, beautiful in spots, to the COM
pleted capital planned by the National
Fine Arts Federation.
Splendid Pennsylvania Avenue.
Assistant Secretary of the Treas
ury Bailey has just given out the pic
lures of the new group of buildings
to be erected at the treasury end of
| Pennsylvania avenue. These pictures
show the three buildings for the de-
partment Of justice, the department of
| commerce and labor, and the depart
ment Of state to be designed in the
purest classical style. They resemble
in some degree the impressive senate
and house Office buildings that flank
| Capitol Park. The three new build.
ings mentioned, with the grey old
| treasury and the spotless District
| building, will make that end of the
avenue an architectural delight. But
| the visitor who proceeds on foot or
by street car thence to the capitol
as nearly all do-will traverse a mile
and half of one of the most famous
and most squalid streets in the world,
One side of this Pennsylvania avenue
| Is made up of flfty-cent lodging hous-
es, Chinese shops and cheap doggeries.
| The other, only little better. bears
striking evidence Of the greed of land
| lords.
The one side is destined in time TO
be lined with stately buildings at
public expense. The land owners On
the other side are maintaining any
sort of tumbledown edifces the rent
of which will pay their taxes while
their land enchances in value. AS a
result the avenue along which pres
| idents drive to be inaugurated. the
avenue which saw the final review of
| Grants army, and which is more ia
nous in history than any other Amer
lean street, possesses about the dig
nifty Of the BoWery.