MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT. 67 



springing up, and such societies and organizations as those to which I 

 have referred foster and encourage this tendency. 



We have only to examine the program of conventions such as that 

 held under the auspices of these societies to be convinced of the earnest- 

 ness and sincerity of purpose of their sponsors. Hard practical ques- 

 tions of municipal administration are to the front. The men come 

 together to exchange views and ideas as to how to conduct certain lines 

 of municipal business — not to listen to useless, though perhaps grace- 

 ful, oratory and senseless bombast and adulation. Some may decry con- 

 ventions; but certainly not such as serve so useful a purpose as those 

 conducted under the associations already mentioned. They are a sign 

 of the times — a most auspicious sign of the times. Do you read any- 

 where a century ago that the mayors or aldermen or constables of that 

 time came together to confer about municipal affairs? We may not 

 hear of them a century hence, because they may have performed their 

 function and gone the way of other good and useful means to an end; 

 but at this time they indicate the change taking place in our develop- 

 ment; the change in emphasis. 



I do not propose to indulge in prophecy. I am not so gifted with 

 foresight as to be able to peer into the future and read its message. 

 I can only express a personal opinion as to the possible result of present 

 tendencies, based upon a study of present and past developments. I 

 have already indicated what I believe will be the greatest change, that 

 from extensive to intensive growth and development, and with this will 

 come a great amelioration of many of the present-day evils. 



The instinct for territorial expansion gratified, the various world 

 powers and their possessions will tend more and more to assume a con- 

 dition of permanent equilibrium. Great armaments and vast armies 

 will become less and less necessary. Economic causes plus political 

 necessity plus moral growth will gradually result in the substitution of 

 mediation, arbitration and conciliation for warfare and bloodshed. Al- 

 ready the beginning of this substitution is at hand. We have the 

 Argentine-Italian treaty providing for the submission of practically 

 every difficulty to arbitration; similar treaties under consideration; and 

 the Delagoa Bay arbitration has just been completed. 



The accomplishment of these ends will result in a transfer of 

 political energy and ability. Constructive statesmanship, liberated 

 from considerations of expansion and colonization, will be free to devote 

 itself to the great questions of internal improvement. Our muni- 

 cipalities will correspondingly benefit and will have at their command 

 that genius and that ability which seem to be a chief characteristic 

 of the Anglo-Saxon race, but which hitherto have been absorbed by 

 national and international activities. 



Civil service reform, which lies at the very foundation of efficient 



