74 BERLIN : A STUDY OP 



dollars and since that time has enormously increased. 

 Owing to the substantial construction of the city and the 

 excellent fire-department, the annual premium is only five 

 or six cents on a hundred dollars. Another city institu- 

 tion is a mortgage bank, established in the interest of the 

 credit of real estate, issuing on varying terms mortgages 

 at four, four and one-half and five per cent. 



A striking fact in connection with the Berlin city gov- 

 ernment is its effect upon party feeling among its members. 

 While considerations of party govern, to some extent, in 

 the elections, Professor Gneist assures us that " the party 

 element soon gets smoothed in the intimate deliberations 

 of the board of aldermen, in the great committees and in 

 the numerous committees of wards. These animosities of 

 party get gradually blurred and finally blotted out alto- 

 gether in the common toil of daily work for the interests 

 of the community. The results of this activity teach 

 every day that it has been the aim and object of the com- 

 munilaies to smooth down and to obliterate social hostil- 

 ity." 



We have found the city government of Berlin forming 

 a large and compact organization, its various functions 

 closely interrelated at the nucleus and ramifying out, like 

 the rays of crystallization in a chemical solution, into the 

 great mass of common citizenship. We have seen that its 

 result is an almost ideal business-like management of af- 

 fairs, with economy and efficiency combined, resting upon 

 a self-government most thoroughly republican and pro- 

 moting public spirit among the most influential citizens. 



We have the example : now as to its application. All 

 systems of government are but expedients of time and 

 place, and that form is the best which produces the best 

 results. A candid examination of our American systems 

 will show that, on the whole, they fall far behind the 



