MISGOVERNMENT OF GREAT CITIES. 297 



and manufactures, without their aggregations of capital, their busi- 

 ness systems and institutions, and their fostering care of art, science, 

 and literature, it would seem impossible that there could be any civ- 

 ilization or progress. 



These great municipalities are the exponents of the national ad- 

 vancement in material wealth, in commercial importance and influ- 

 ence, and in all forms of intellectual and moral culture. In times past 

 they have been the agencies through which civil and intellectual free- 

 dom have been conserved, even if they may not be credited with hav- 

 ing been the nursery in which liberty was cradled. They constitute 

 the medium through which we must study many of the most important 

 and interesting phases of history, and are the sources of all the great- 

 est enterprises of the world. 



So thoroughly do cities become representative of national life and 

 characteristics, that it is frequently said that London is England, Rome 

 is Italy, and Paris is France. In a less comprehensive but neverthe- 

 less very important sense it might properly be said that New York 

 represents America, Boston stands for New England, and Chicago for 

 the great West. A thorough acquaintance with either of these great 

 cities is equivalent to knowing well the people by whom they are sur- 

 rounded. 



Notwithstanding their important relation to all that is significant 

 or influential in national life and history, it is nevertheless true that 

 there has never been developed anything, which even by courtesy, 

 could be called a science of municipal government. Indeed, it is only 

 within these latest years that the fact that there could be such a sci- 

 ence has even been suggested. But the pressure has been constant- 

 ly growing more and more imperious. Monstrosities which are the 

 legitimate fruit of the hap-hazard system, or rather lack of system, 

 which characterizes the government of many cities, evils of adminis- 

 tration and burdens of taxation that had become almost unendurable ; 

 the astounding frauds which have been brought to light within the 

 last few years in New York and Philadelphia, and the usurpation of 

 power by demagogues through the aid of the most degraded elements 

 of society, have at last forced an inquiry as to what form of municipal 

 government will most efficiently correct present abuses and reduce to 

 the minimum the opportunities for harm to the body politic. 



Men begin to ask whether the municipal authority may not be so 

 organized and administered that it shall promote and protect the in- 

 terests of both the corporation and the individual ; whether the evils 

 to which I have alluded, and others equally apparent and subversive 

 of the ends of good government, are inherent in our municipal system 

 or only incident thereto. And some effort has been made to ascertain 

 the principles which underlie a legitimate municipal authority and the 

 most efficient means of making the application of those principles 

 practical. 



