Evening star., 1931-12-30
Tribute Paid to Milwaukee
For Its Successful Financing

Generous tribute is paid to Mil
waukee, whose financial condition is be-
ing compared by the country with those
of Philadelphia and Chicago, where
city credit is so damaged by misman-
aged finances that pay rolls have been
affected and the meeting of other OBJ
legations Is a tragic problem.
Good government is Milwaukee's
answer-efficient and economical gov
eminent" declares the Buffalo Evening
News, with the suggestion that the
lesson that Milwaukee has TO offer
should make deep impression on cit
izens elsewhere" The Evening News
points out that while some may at
tribute the fine showing of the Mil
waukee government to curtailment Of
service, the government there gives
more service than Is usually provided
by American municipalities" including
"a Police Department which won the
admiration of the Wickersham Commls-
sion"
LAS cities SOW, so must they reap"
declares the Newark Evening News.
with the explanation: "Philadelphias
unpaid, high-grade Finance Commis-
sion recommended, after investigation,
a city-county consolidation plan with
a program of other reforms, The plan
went to Harrisburg and was stepped
on-principally. it is charged, by the
city's delegation, under the orders CT
the local political machine. That IN
spired the local lack of confidence re-
fiected by the banks objection, TO the
city's borrowing habit and by the TAX
PAYERS march on the City Hall. Chaos
Is accumulating."
"Fxtrayagance and waste" are charg-
ed to the Philadelphia government oy
the Charleston wv. Va) Daily Mail,
with the conclusion that, after all has
been said and done, there is evident
but one effective remedy, and TINS Is
an overhauling OF administrative
methods. the cutting out OF waste ana
the institution of rigid economy" Holo-
ing that what is happening IN Chl-
capo and Philadelphia is only an ex-
aggerated picture of imminent conol-
tions in scores of other cities" ana tnat
the two cases are similar In that ooth
are essentially the creation OF extraVa,
CANT. wasteful and inefficient methodS,
fhe Providence Journal declares, If
ever there has been time OF impress
sive need for honesty, efficiency and
rigorous economy in city government, 1t
is now"
Widening the comparisons, the Sa-
vannah Morning News states: Coming
closer home. in South Georgia, Albany,
with Is, 900 people, reported itself IN as
good shape as Milwaukee-in fact, bet
ter, for it has per capita bigger cash
balance, after everything is paid, than
Milwaukee. The hard times can't be
charged with both sets Of conditions.
Something else factored and featured.
In Atlanta, it may be remembered, no
telling how many city officials were
tried and some Of them sentenced for
grating and corruption. Philadelphia
has been notoriously city Of waste, ex-
travagance. crooked politics and no
doubt graft and corruption-under a
system in which the people allowed
bunch of selfish politicians to run
things their own way. In Chicago
there has been the wide-open revela-
ton of the iniquitous Thompson regime
that so sapped the city that desperate
property owners by hundreds of thou
sands struck and refused to pay any
taxes to the city at all-declining to
see their own money further wasted,
stolen, handed over to the gang"
There are men" comments the
Santa Monica Evening Outlook, "who
make the running of city their only
business. Either they are In office
habitually. or they are pulling wires to
fill the Offices with those they know
will take orders from them. Often the
administration is so weak that 1t is not
the real administration at all. The
real government is unseen and perhaps
unknown 1t Is not pleasing to know
that Philadelphia has been added to
Chicago as financial blunderer. 1t
causes some wonder as TO the situation
in other cities and at the fact that citi-
zens remain upiescent ss shsE Raas