Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1912-02-22
CITIES SfEERE
OF GOVERNMENT 1 Il II|l':|l /
Municipal Ownership ii Euro
pean Countries.
SOME GOOD SUGGESTIONS,

0umE bUUU SUG6ESlluM.
Mayor Fitzgerald Of Boston Tells Of Hi.
Personal Dissertations In Comparing
Conditions Here and Abroad-Ger-
many Good Example.
The most lasting impression that an
American visitor carries away from a
tour through the cities of northern Eu..
rope is the range of operation of the
municipal governments. says Mayor
Fitzgerald Of Boston, 1t would seem
that the ingenuity Of men could hardly
' devise any measure for the, enhance
m me Of beauty, the stimulation Of in
dustry and the promotion OF safety
which has not been conceived and put
Into practice in some one. of the great
capitals Of Germany. Austria or Eng
land.
First Of ALL the cities are laid out or
remodeled upon a unified plan. The
streets. public buildings. watercourses
and parkways. are All related to one,
another as II charted out In the mind
Of some great designer, When we en-
tersinto the life Of the communities We
ind that all paths lead to one center.
It is the city which controls the street
railways. the electric lighting service.
the gas plants ana the docks. and this
seems to the, continental European and
the Briton as natural as that our own
Municipalities should furnish the wa
ter supply. ,.5Is..<gf
We find municipal theaters. art gal
leries., music balls and public audi
forums. Just as in America it is the
custom for the city to provide libraries.
parks. Fairgrounds and lighthouses.
Municipal slaughter houses, bakeries.
pawnshops. savings banks. labor bu-
reaus. restaurants and beer gardens
seem to us novelties and perhaps en-
cr0achments upon the proper sphere of
private enterprise. .,
Municipal tenements represent an
effort of the community to rid itself
OF the novels which tend to accumu-
late misery and vice in all the large
cities Of the world. Municipal lodging
houses put our best efforts in this di-
rection to the blush. The schemes for
old age pensions and insurance against
accident. sickness and unemployment
are familiar to all students of these
problems and are further illustrations
Of the wide reaching activity of the
governments abroad.
l do not see how this movement for
the expansion Of the sphere of govern
ment. which has already spread to the
United States. can be checked. It is
direct result of the enormous growth
Of the German cities in the last forty
years and an antidote. as it were. to
the evils attendant upon the conges-
ton of population in large centers.
We in America exhibit parallel de-
velopment. More and more our young
men tend to leave the farms and drift
to the cities. which are also the gath
ering places Of huge colonies of immi-
grants from Europe. The percentage
Of our population which lives in cities
Of more than 100000 inha bitants in
creases at every census. From a vir
gin land. Astounding in fertile farms.
open to settlers. we have become in
the last fifty years comparatively
compact and concentrated nationality.
and poverty. crime and disease walk
hand in hand with wealth and aff1u-
ence through the streets Of our great
capitals. Worse than this. disorder
and social rebellion are beginning to
rear their heads. We can no longer
glide along the smooth path of COM
placency and must take thought. as
the wise leaders of the German EN-
pire began to do more than a genera
tion ago. to remove these evils. not by
mere palliative measures. but by strik-
ing at their roots in the social cOndi-
tions which breed them.
Whether we can copy all of the Ger
man municipal program is a question.
The traditions of government in the
great European empires. unlike ours.
are paternalistic. There have been ex
periments here in the ownership Of
public utilities. Cleveland has had her
municipal railways. New York owns
the greater part of her water front.
But in general the political conditions
in this country make public ownership
an ideal to be approached gradually
and through series Of careful expert
ments
In Germany restricted suffrage pre-
walls. and business and professional
men hold the balance of power. Heads
Of departments are in most cases
Obliged to be experts, and even the
mayors are trained for their work and
serve for long terms.
We must reconcile ourselves at once
to the acceptance of the truth that to
a very great extent the success Of the
European cities IS due to the exercise
Of a sort of police power reflected
from the national government and har-s
monious with the ways of thought and
traditional habits OF the people. which
could not be imported outright into