298 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Not a very great deal Las been accomplished by this study. The 

 problem is complicated and many-sided. Its solution depends on care- 

 ful and extended observation, and on the concurrent action of wise, 

 patient, self-sacrificing, and public-spirited citizens. In this study the 

 conclusions of purely theoretical political economists, and of those men 

 whose thought and experience have been limited to special aspects of 

 the subject, are alike unsafe and misleading : the first, because politi- 

 cal communities never afford the proper conditions for the application 

 of abstract principles ; and the second, because the entire machinery 

 of government is so interdependent and complicated that successful 

 modifications of any special department imply corresponding changes 

 in all the associated agencies. But whatever difficulties may embarrass 

 the subject, we have good cause for congratulation in the fact that the 

 problem is being studied, and not altogether studied in vain. 



The evils growing out of the misgovernment of cities may be 

 grouped in two general divisions : First, those which are the legiti- 

 mate fruit of systems which are in themselves vicious, and which can 

 only be corrected by a radical change in the governmental machinery; 

 and, second, those which result from the abuse and corrupt use of agen- 

 cies which in themselves are proper and beneficent, but which, in the 

 hands of designing men, come to be efficient aids of fraud and the 

 most obnoxious forms of wrong-doing. This class of evils can only 

 be corrected by devising some means which shall keep the government 

 in the control of its best citizens. Can this be done, and, if yes, then 

 how? 



Let us first note some of the difficulties of the problem, and then 

 ascertain, so far as we may be able, what are the possibilities and 

 methods of its solution. 



As a primary proposition it may be stated that the lack of a gen- 

 eral and comprehensive act of incorporation has been the cause of end- 

 less embarrassment and difficulty in the management of city affairs. 

 In many States the method of municipal incorporation has been by 

 the granting of special charters. These charters possess no uniformity 

 as to the powers conferred, but in each case represent such powers as 

 the persons asking for them deemed it desirable to have, or such as the 

 Legislature could be induced to confer. 



Frequently it has happened that neither the incorporators who were 

 seeking charters, nor the legislators who granted them, were persons 

 who had had such experience in municipal affairs as to guarantee that 

 the corporations which were to be created would be possessed of need- 

 ful powers and restrained by proper limitations. Ordinarily, almost 

 as a matter of course, there would be found but little difficulty in start- 

 ing off the new municipality, for its most obvious needs would have 

 been recognized and provided for, but as little or no thought had been 

 taken as to the future demands which would be made upon it, and no 

 adequate provision had been made for the needs of a largely increased 





