MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY. 65 



make the qualified voters in Berlin about thirteen per cent 

 less in number at municipal elections than in the national 

 elections. 



In the government of Berlin, we have the spectacle of 

 one of the greatest cities of the world administered with 

 the utmost economy and efficiency, attaining the most splen- 

 did results for the comfort and convenience of the public, 

 without the suspicion of jobbery, and everything attended 

 to with the thoroughness and conscientiousness which here 

 we are only accustomed to expect in private enterprises. 

 Professor Ely praises the open conduct of the government, 

 with its reports submitted with the greatest of detailed 

 clearness, rendering the accounts to the last penny, and 

 with the motives and plans of the officials completely de- 

 scribed. In reading one of these reports he remarks that 

 " one finds it difficult not to believe it a description of some 

 city government in Utopia." 



Public spirit is also nourished into a splendid growth by 

 this system. Over ten thousand citizens take part in the 

 administration of affairs, and, in the city government, one 

 looks for the best and most prominent citizens among the 

 members, and not the worst, and finds them, too. For 

 example : there are men like Professor Virchow, Professor 

 Gneist, and others from the University, and natural leaders 

 in public life ; men of world-wide reputation and ranking 

 as statesmen, taking their regular part in the routine of 

 city affairs. Professor Gneist has been a member of the city 

 government since 1848. To shirk these responsibilities 

 is hardly possible for any man, even if it were desired by 

 him, for every citizen is obliged, under penalty of a fine and 

 a heavy increase of taxation, to accept any position to which 

 he may be elected. 



The Berlin system aims at the greatest efficiency and 

 economy attainable under a fundamentally popular repre- 



