450 MUNICIPAL ADMINISTRATION 



tionary science, and to have scarcely apprehended the truth that 

 it is, after all, from the mass, from the unspecialized, that reforms 

 proceed. 



In spite of the danger of bringing biology bodily over into the 

 social field, it is well to remember that all biologists agree that 

 when any growth of new tissue must take place it cannot come 

 from the highly specialized cell, whose powers are already turned in 

 one direction, but that it must come from the primitive cell, which 

 has never perfected any special function and is capable of develop- 

 ment in any direction. 



Professor Weaver, of Columbia, has lately pointed out that " the 

 cities have traditionally been the cradles of liberty, as they are 

 to-day the centers of radicalism," and that it is natural that brute 

 selfishness should first be curbed and social feeling created at the 

 point of the greatest congestion. If we once admit the human 

 dynamic character of progress, then we must look to the cities as 

 the focal points of that progress; and it is not without significance 

 that the most vigorous effort at governmental reform, as well as 

 the most generous experiments in ministering to social needs, have, 

 come from the largest cities. Are we beginning to see the first timid, 

 forward reach of one of those instinctive movements which carry 

 forward the goodness of the race? 



If we could trust democratic government as over against and 

 distinct from the older types, from those which repress, rather 

 than release, the power of the people, then we should begin to 

 know what democracy really is, and our municipal administration 

 would at last be free to attain Aristotle's ideal of a city, " where 

 men live a common life for a noble end." 



SHORT PAPER 



DR. HENRY DICKSON BRUNS, of New Orleans, Louisiana, presented a paper 

 on " Elements of Improvement in Municipal Government." 



