Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-10-22
the Editor of the Evening Star;

To the Editor of the Evening Star:
Observation of municipal con-
ditions which the years OF my pro-
fessional work in the field of public
affairs have forced upon me Is con-
vincing that no city in Now Jersey
can begin to rank with the Newark
of today in administrative efficiency.
Let us, run down the list and see II
that isn't so.
Start with Trenton-because she is
the capital clty-and what do you see
in her officialism but handlcapping
jangle between her warning commits
sion rulers? Over in Elizabeth there
has never since been enough spirit in
her government to lift her out of the
slough into which her bankruptcy
plunged her forty years ago. New
Brunswick, in these days of auto
flyers, still joys along in a one-horse-
shay sort of government.
All small places, you say, that
should not be dragged into comparl-
son with place like Newark True,
too! But an energetic and progressive
administration, such as We have in
Newark, would have set them at least
peg or two forward of the point
where they have been practically
standing still for half century. Even
Paterson. though she has just risen
about the first-class city horizon.
clings to her governmental knicker-
bockers, because the 'long pants of
a full-fiedged first-class city equip
ment would make her do things. And
that costs money, you knowi Fatuous
people who have not yet learned that
every dollar invested in municipal ex-
pansion comes back a ten-spoti
Are Doing Things.
And yet we hear some captious folks
kicking because our officials here are
doing things for our city. It's better
to be doing neutrality-suspicious.
than to be doing nothing. The
residuum of even misdirected public
activity is progress. If 1t does no
more, 1t paves the way to better
things.
Most of our little cities stay little
because their officials are not awake
to their opportunities. They get awake
only on payday. If an administra-
ton does nothing there's nothing to
growl at 1t about, except that Ii does
nothing; and If 1t wakes up and does
something, it gets it in the neck. The
more 1t does the more it gets it. The
carper can always find something In
LILO iuCiucIlS u ~ pussy CITY WOTk 10
crouch about.
The size of the howl it stirs I'D is
the measure of an administration
activities, and as a rule every howl
Is a tribute to its real worth. A big
election-hour howl means that the
City Hall Is pushing the city along,
on the path of progress, too fast for
the pace of the kind of slow -pokes
who have been keeping all the little
cities little all these years. It's a
sign of healthy municipal energy.
The city is only giving vent to its
growing pains. Let the howl go oni
1t is unfortunate for comparison
purposes that Jersey City is the only
city In the State that sizes up with
us in population or wealth. We would
like to have others to make the con-
trast more striking; but she's the only
one in our class, and so we will have
to take her for a solitary example
In administrative largeness and force
We are really ashamed to do it, too
the contrast is so enormously to our
advantage that 1t seems almost cruel
to drag her up to the measuring
line.
A Mud Hole.
She can't show up with even a pre-
sentable start Montgomery street,
her chief traffic thoroughfare, Is a
mudhole by the side of the Broad