MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT. 65 



nections with all officers that are not yet installed therein, and all other 

 municipal telephone connections are centered in and controlled by this 

 bureau. 



All electric lights authorized by Councils are located and their erec- 

 tion supervised by this bureau. Tests of electric lights so authorized 

 and erected are made by us, and if not up to contract standard, deduc- 

 tions are made from the contracting companies' bills. 



By ordinance of Councils, we are required to locate each and every 

 pole for telegraph, telephone, electric light, trolley, or whatever elec- 

 trical purpose, to issue a license for the same, for which, with the ex- 

 ception of the trolley poles, a fee payable at the City Treasury is charged. 

 No poles or wires can be erected within the city limits without a permit 

 issued from this bureau, describing its location, if a pole, and its di- 

 rection, if a wire. 



All conduits for municipal electrical purposes authorized by Coun- 

 cils are laid by this bureau, as are cables necessary for the connection 

 of the various municipal electrical services. All scientific electrical 

 tests of cables are also made by this bureau. 



As a member of the Board of Highway Supervisors, the Chief of the 

 Bureau is required to pass upon the location and position of all electrical 

 constructions under and over the highways, and to approve of the ma- 

 terials used and the methods employed in its installation and main- 

 tenance. All minor details of electrical construction necessary to the 

 needs of a municipality are formulated and carried forward to successful 

 completion." 



Surely a wonderful work; unheard of, yes — I venture to say, un- 

 thought of, in the mind of the most imaginative thinker a century ago! 



Search we never so carefully, we can find nothing in the budget or 

 reports of 1800, or for those of many years later, which in anywise ap- 

 proaches or approximates this work — for the simplest of reasons — that 

 electricity had not as yet been harnessed to bring the distant near and to 

 eliminate space. Fancy the constable of 1800 communicating every 

 hour with his headquarters without leaving his beat; or having an 

 alarm of fire sounded simultaneously in every section of the city, no 

 matter how remote! Imagine the look of incredulity which would 

 descend upon a citizen who was told that he could be placed in com- 

 munication with a city official in less than a minute and without leaving 

 his office! 



Our municipalities have grown and have developed along extensive 

 lines to an unexpected degree, and the same factors that have been at 

 work in our national development in the same direction have been at 

 work in our municipal development, and the same observation will ap- 

 ply — the next century's development in our cities will be along inten- 

 sive lines. Already, we see the tide setting in this direction. Take, for 

 instance, the growing demand for charter reform. During the ex- 

 pansive period of a city, everything is sacrificed to size and numbers; 

 the form and methods of government are considered as of secondary 



VOL. LVIII.— 5 



