THE USE OF PARTIES IN MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT. 
ERNEST BRUNCKEN. 
Few matters concerning our public affairs are discussed so 
much at the present time as the improvements required in 
the administration of municipal corporations. It is admitted 
by everybody that our various municipal governments are far 
from satisfying all reasonable demands of the citizens; but it is 
not always appreciated by those who are interested in the aboli¬ 
tion of existing evils that there is a constant and considerable 
growth towards perfection in the methods of administration, a 
growth which is brought about, silently and without notice 
from the newspapers, by many of the men who are employed in 
administrative offices. 
One of the principles which seem to be considered almost as 
axioms by most of the persons taking part in these discussions 
is that municipal affairs, including the election of municipal 
officers, ought to be separated entirely from party considera¬ 
tions. Yet we observe that the great body of voters continue 
to vote in municipal elections according to their affiliation with 
one or the other of the national parties. May not this be one 
of those cases, not unheard of in history, where the feeling 
of the masses is wiser than the reasoning of the enlight¬ 
ened? 
If the matter is put in the blunt form in which many reform¬ 
ers like to put it: What have the views of a candidate on the 
tariff to do with his fitness for municipal office?— if, I say, the 
the question is put in this way, the answer is so obvious that 
the very plainness of it ought to create a suspicion that such 
a question does not include the whole of the subject. Even the 
despised multitude does not ordinarily entertain views which 
15 
