76 BERLIN : A STUDY OF 



tion of municipal government and report upon some uniform 

 system for the administration of all the cities in the Com- 

 monwealth, making extra provisions, however, for the 

 needs of a great city like Boston. 



In thus setting forth the excellences of the Berlin sys- 

 tems, I would not, by any means, urge that it be copied 

 here ; but I would suggest that some of its admirable fun- 

 damental principles might be adopted to excellent advan- 

 tage. I know that when a foreign model is held up it is 

 customary to raise against it the cry of " un-American" 

 and to point to the necessity of preserving "the time-hon- 

 ored structure" of our existing forms. But surely the 

 securing of the most efficient method of local self-gov- 

 ernment cannot be " un-American," and neither should a 

 system that promotes public spirit, economy and honesty, 

 and makes rings, jobs and bosses impossible. 



As to the " sacredness" and " time-honoredness" of ex- 

 isting forms it is sufficient to point out that our two-board 

 system is but a clumsy and distorted imitation of the Brit- 

 ish parliament, and that city governments have hardly ex- 

 isted long enough yet, in this country, for their forms to 

 become "time-honored." 



In the first place, I would say that the three-class sys- 

 tem of restricted suffrage prevailing in German munici- 

 palities, well as it works there, would be undesirable here, 

 even if it were practicable, as it is wholly out of conform- 

 ity with our American principles. We often hear some 

 of our men of large property urge that we ought to have 

 something of the kind here, but they are wasting their 

 breath, and it is useless even to think of it. If they would 

 but bend their energies towards achieving what is practi- 

 cable they would do well. 



It would be desirable, however, by all means, to accept 

 the example of the German Municipal Assembly and, in- 



