394 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



shall be answered, or that it shall even be considered on its merits. 

 Who can deny that politics-ridden legislatures have often refused to 

 hear the appeal of the city for no other than a purely partisan reason ? 

 Who will deny that, just as burdensome laws have often been imposed 

 upon the city for partisan purpose, so needed legislation has often been 

 denied the city for partisan advantage ? The legislative history of every 

 state abounds with testimony to show that legislative dominion over 

 municipal affairs has been as discreditable to the state as it has been 

 unhealthy for the city. 



Not only does the partisan character of the state legislature dis- 

 qualify it for the function of guiding the administrative development 

 of the cities, but the individual legislators have neither the time nor 

 the knowledge of local conditions nor the proper sense of responsibility 

 to the urban constituency necessary to a constructive treatment of the 

 municipal problem. Members of the legislature are largely from the 

 rural districts and can not in reason be expected to understand the per- 

 plexing problems of municipal government. Yet, to these men, un- 

 trained in the intricacies of municipal administration, unfamiliar with 

 actual city conditions and busy with many problems of state policy, has 

 been intrusted the tremendous task of controlling the city's adminis- 

 trative development. It is no reflection upon the ability or intelligence 

 of our legislators to say that they are ill-fitted for this task of absentee 

 law-making. 



Aside from making impossible an effective solution of the municipal 

 problem, this legislative dominion over the city impairs the efficiency 

 of the legislative members in the other work which they have to do. 

 In Indiana, for example, the legislative desks for years have groaned 

 under the burden of bills having for their object to grant to cities relief 

 from the restrictive provisions of our state constitution and laws. Dur- 

 ing the past few sessions a perfect flood of measures dealing with 

 matters of a purely local nature engrossed legislative time and energy 

 that should have been put upon important matters of general state 

 policy. We have rid ourselves by a federal constitutional change of 

 one great obstacle to legislative efficiency — the indirect election of 

 United States Senators; it now remains to rid ourselves by state con- 

 stitutional change of another great obstacle — the legislative regulation 

 of municipal affairs. This can be done by writing into the state con- 

 stitution provisions for municipal home rule. Already several states 

 have adopted this needed reform. 



What does "municipal home rule" mean? It means, in the first 

 place, a reversal of the existing legal presumption against the powers 

 of the city. Instead of possessing only such powers as are granted to 

 it by the state legislature, the city, under the "home rule" system, is 

 invested by the constitution with all powers of local government con- 



