Year: 1877

Governmsnt OF Cities-Univsrssl suf-


hrage.


In the last number of the International
Reuieso Mr.. Simon Sterne has an article on
"The Administration of American Cities,'
directed mainly against universal suffrage
in municipalities Mr.. Sterne was one of
the members of Governor Tilden's Mu-
nicipal Commission, of which Mr. Evarts
was the head, and he has perhaps be-
slowed more thought and research on the
government of cities than any other
person in this community. But we
fear that the knowledge and ability
which enabled him to impress his ideas
on the Municipal Commission were mis-
directed. Mr.. Sterne rendered disservice
to the cause of reform by securing the
adoption of a plan which the people are
certain to reject The plan of the Commits
sion has excellent features. especially the
spring election but it carries milestone
about its neck which will sink it to the bot
tom in the proposal to restrict the right Of
voting. Had this feature of the plan been
submitted as separate amendment the
other parts might have been saved but it
is not to be expected that the people who
own no property will vote to deprive them
selves of any part of their political franchise.
If the power to exclude them rested with the
property holding class the plan might sue
ceed; but the constitutional amendment,
should it pass another Legislature, will
have to be submitted for ratification or re-
lection to tho same universal suffrage
which it seeks to abridge.


MIR, Sterne is aware that the success of the
plan is staked on the consent Of poor citi-
zens to vote away their own power, and his
reasoning is directed to justification of
that part of the plan. Such arguments
would, at any time, and must especially at
this time, fall on many unwilling ears.
There was never a period when the
laboring classes were SO suspicious of
capital, and, feeling how powerless they
are to resist what they consider the oppres-
sion of railroad, mining and manufacturing
corporations, they will not voluntarily sur
render such power as they have in munich
pal corporations Conceding the force of
some Of Mr.. Sterne's arguments it is certain
that they are not calculated to convince o
class whose minds are infamed with jealous
hostility to the claims of capital.


Nor do we feel sure that any practical ad-
vantage would result from such restriction
of suffrage as the Municipal Commission
proposes and Mr. Sterne defends. All our
State and county officers, all our sena-
tors and assemblymen, all our judges
and sheriffs, and even the mayors and
aldermen of cities, would still be
chosen by universal suffrage. It is only
proposed that board Of finance in each
city shall be elected by the property hold
ers. We suspect that so limited restric-
tion would prove imperative and disap-
point expectation. 1t would leave party
machinery in precisely the same hands as
now; sans culottc would still have the
same rights in o caucus as millionaire.
No political party would make separate
organization for nominating members of
city board of finance and so long as our
general politics are organized on a basis of
universal suffrage it would be futile to at
tempt to put few elective officers on
different footing. Whether the voting
constituency be large or small its choice is
confined on election day to the nominated
candidates of the political parties, and
property holders as well as sans cMottes are
pretty apt to vote according to their party
affiliations. The selection of candidates
would continue to be made by the caucus,
and the caucus would still be composed of
precisely the same elements as at present.
But we are not likely to have an opportu-
nifty to see how the proposed system would
work, for no competent judge believes that
the constitutional amendment will be rati-
fed by the universal suffrage it seeks to
curtail.