THE STATE REYIEXV. 



The Month in the State. 



Elections in Michigan. 



The elections in Michigan developed nothing 

 unexpected in the matter of a choice of state 

 indeed, in the larger cities the local 

 were such as to almost wholly overshadow 

 the interest in the state and county candidates 

 and policies. In Detroit the supreme issue was 

 that in which the future relations of the Street 

 Railway Company and the city were concerned, 

 -ireement having been presented by Mayor 

 he public for consideration which pro- 

 vided lor lower fan--, increa-ed taxation of the 

 railway lines and extensions of franchises to the 

 elate at which the latest present franchise ex- 

 pire-. '1 he agreement, itself, seemed upon first 

 uition to be far and away the best thing 

 that could be doile to straighten out the tangled 

 relations between the city of Detroit and the 

 Street Railway Company and to provide for 

 nect.--.-ary extension:- which the existence of the 

 controversy during the last ten years has pre- 

 vented. However, the measure was made a po- 

 litical foot-ball, the Democratic candidate making 

 '.lion to it his principal issue. All the daily 

 new>paper> except the Detroit Free Press opposed 

 the adoption of the measure for various reasons 

 and the result of the election was adverse to its 

 val. Out of something like 70,000 votes 

 red in the city of Detroit, about 14,000 

 affirmatively on the franchise and 28,000 

 adversely to it. the remaining 28.000 voters fail- 

 ing to express themselves upon the subject at 

 [all. This leaves the street railway question in 

 the same position in which it has been for some 

 in Detroit, with the exception that the 

 thorough stirring-tip which the discussion has re- 

 1 during the three months preceding the 

 n has revived interest in it as a source of 

 versy and the advent of the new adminis- 

 i will probably witness the resumption of 

 open warfare upon the subject. 



True, he is not above resorting to the finer arts 

 of the demagogue and he stands peculiarly for 

 the open town theory of municipal government. 

 Mayor Lee was elected upon the converse of the 

 open-town proposition, and in the contest between 

 himself and ex-Mayor Baurn an excellent oppor- 



; counsel, has not made clear whom he favors for 



1 the Senatorship if, indeed, he favors any of the 



i more prominent candidates now before the public. 



It is a certainty that he has not as yet committed 



himself to the candidacy of Mr. McMillan, al- 



; though desperate efforts have been made in the 



n Grand Rapids the issue was upon the ques- 

 is of Sunday theaters and the non-partisan 

 nicipal ballot. The advocates of Sunday 

 au-r- won out despite strenuous opposition, 

 e voters of the city registered themselves as 

 ng in favor of a non-partisan ballot. This 

 - not necessarily involve the exclusion of po- 

 :al parties from making nominations for of- 

 . but does involve, if the measure be given 

 ffect. the placing of the names of all can- 

 iidate- under the title of the office for which 

 ley are running, without any designation of their 

 ilitical affiliations. Such a system would ejitail 

 utmost care in the selection on the part of 

 voter when making his choice, and it seems 

 be primarily intended to minimize the influence 

 candidates for municipal office of the body 

 illiterate and unintelligent voters who may be 

 structed to make a cro-- at the head of the 

 md thereby blindly vote for all of the can- 

 :i the party ticket. Whether or not ( 

 proposed reform will become effective i- 

 jblematical, and only when it does become ef- 

 tive will it be [ determine its full 



line. 



UJV- a3 a miming spill, llU IIIC Lll^ 10 SgCUfe ICglS- 



lative authority to issue bonds, the proceeds of | 

 which were to pay for the new water supply from 

 certain springs, the advocates of which represent 

 them as being ample and uncontaminated. Battle 

 Creek is an ambitious city and has been seeking 

 to accomplish a number of public improvements, 

 varying all the way from building a new city hall 

 to the municipal ownership of the gas works. 

 The Socialistic sentiment is rather highly de- 

 veloped in that city among its laboring classes, 

 and a good deal of crankery has been, from time 

 to time, given expression in connection with its 

 municipal proposition. Certain opponents of the 

 proposition with regard to the water works op- 

 pose the expenditure of the large sums of money 

 intended to be applied to the getting of a new 

 source of supply, on the ground that it would use 

 up the credit of the city to such an extent as to 

 make it unavailable for these other improvements 

 and offset the arguments against the Goguac Lake 

 supply by representing the possibility of filtering 

 the water form that source. The opponents of 

 the measure were in the majority, and the city will 

 now recur to Goguac Lake and a filtering plant 

 as a solution of its water supply difficulty. 



In Saginaw. the third city of the state in point 

 and importance, the election turned upon 

 Jidates rather than issues. Win. B. Baum, 

 has been, for time out of mind. Mayor of 

 city of Saginaw. both while it was Kast Sagi- 

 and since the union of the two cities into 

 e. WTS a candidate against Mayor Henry K. 

 who had occupied the office of Mayor for a 

 ;le term. Of. Mr. Piaum it may be said that 

 liout regard to his political affiliations, or his 

 uliar doctrines concerning liberal government, 

 is the best fitted man in Michigan for the oc- 

 ncy of a Mayoralty. His conduct of the 

 cil in the city of Saginaw during all the years 

 vhich he has been Mayor, his oversight of 

 work and his general attention to the public 

 ave demonstrated this fact to a nicety. 



A recent movement in the same city promises 

 to develop something of interest. At present it is 

 an uncredited proposition that the city shall be 

 reorganized upon the basis of a commercial cor- 

 poration and shall undertake, in that capacity, a 

 number of operations not usually undertaken by 

 cities. Just how far this commercial corporation 

 will go in competition with the municipal cor- 

 porations of the city, either by replacing or by 

 supplementing it. is not made clear by its pro- 

 ponents, but it is to be expected that the plan will 

 be developed in its details before long and made 

 the subject of legitimate criticism and consid- 

 eration. 



The issues in the other cities of the state were 

 of the usual local and general order, and were not 

 such as to attract much attention outside the im- 

 mediate circle of citizens interested in their re- 

 sults. 



The Next Legislature. 



The selection of the legislature leaves the aver- 

 age student who is unfamiliar with the pledges 

 made by the various candidates quite as much in 

 the dark as he has ever been concerning the choice 

 of Senator to be made next January. It would 

 seem, but for one fact, that Mr. McMillan has a 

 majority of the representatives and senators-elect. 

 That one fact is the position in the game of Rail- 

 road Commissioner Atwood. L'p to this time Mr. 

 Atwood, who has a habit of keeping his own 



