The star-independent. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1904-1917, 1914-11-20
REFORM ORGANIZATIONS
MUST come TO EARTH
National Municipal League Say Polit-
ical Reformers Must Remove .'the
Sign of the 'Highbrow' and Sub
stitute the Dollar Mark
BY Associated Press.


Baltimore. Nov. 20.-Political re.
form organizations must ''come down
to earth;' they must remove "'the sign
OF the 'highibrow' and substitute the
dollar mark, (which alone, apparently,
is sufficiently potent to be effective, y
according to report to the National
MunlcIpal League to-day by its COM
mittee ON plan of political organiza-
ton.
The committee has not completed its
work, and the report is described as
only an "interlocutory expression. -
1t was prepared by the chairman, A..
Leo Well president of the Voters
League of Pittsburgh.
In part. the report is as follows:
ga plan of political organization
which relies for its support upon that
class who have reached the elevation
where they look down upon selfishness
and are moved solely by altruistic con
siderations must fail. The number is
too limited.
1T will not do for the so-called
highbrow to inveigh against the COM
placency of the average citizen. This
.gets him nowhere. 1t will not do to
assume that all voters are corruptly in
fuenced when they support political
faction. This presupposes the pre-
ponderance of corruption. The trouble
is, perhaps, that, while the one form of
organization follows the natural in
stincts of man, the other ignores them
and relies upon conception of citizen-
ship as appeals only to the idealists, the
theorists, the purists and the dreamers.
A plan of political organization, to sue
eeed, to secure the following required
to win at the polls, must be built upon
the handspring of human action, to wit:
lfinterest. Your committee believes
that it can be demonstrated Except
where the contest is purely personal,
between men, not measures) that in the
campaign for good government, as con
trasted with the machine government,
the selfish interests of the citizen are
at stake. Too much stress is laid upon
patriotism, civic pride and the like. and
too little upon what the continuance of
poor government or institution of good
means to the purse and the person of
the individual citizen.
There was much justification, the re-
port continued, in the charge that a
~
among the reformers. so-called, did not
qualify by registration or other legal
formality, to exercise the rights of citi-
zenship, "the mere voice of civic obli-
cation not being loud enough to call
them from their personal pursuits to
the performance of their personal obi
cations. -
A general awakening was going on,
however, and there was an ever-increas-
ing number vino wanted good govern
ment out of purely selfish motives.
As to the financing of such political
organizations, the report noted the
Cleveland plan, and urged that it might
be followed by other cities. ''ln the
city of Cleveland the president of Il
large trust company conceived the plan
of getting some of its citizens Of wealth
to provide in their wills for bequests
to foundation devoted to the city's wei
fare. and a large amount, running up
into millions, has been already thus in
corporated in such wills. The money,
of course, will be available only upon
the death of the benefactors. Some
of these amounts, however, have already
become available through death, and
in consequence an organization is being
effected in that city having for its pur-
pose the general welfare of the city,
The report concluded with the COM
mittee's appeal for suggestions as:
How best to show that good gov
ernment means personal good to the in
dividual
''fIow to inform the community that
good government is a selfish PROPOSE
ton, not an altruistic dream.
''How to remove from such organiza
tions the sign of the 'highbrow and
substitute the dollar mark, which
alone, apparently, is sufficiently potent
to be effective.
''How to bring such organizations