CITY GOVERNMENT.
65
From those ashes which Napoleon, king of savages, tried to wash away with human blood, the feverish heat of extravagance and excitement still shines as a beacon of malignity and caution to all people.
Time is two short to refer to London, which is said to be the best governed large city on earth, where eighty-nine persons died last winter from actual starvation, and where one out of every nineteen is a wretched pauper. But look at New York, our own eulogized, flourishing empire city. Its government as carried on for years, has not only been disgraceful, but stripped of the common virtues of dignity, honesty and common sense. For years the city was ruled by the infamous Tweed ring, composed of a gang of robbers, who, with impunity, violated law, used the public money to enrich themselves and control voting mobs. The experiment of the new charter has failed, and the best citizens desire to return to the old principle of self-government. In spite of the exertions of the board of health and the urgent advice of physicians, the streets were allowed to become so filthy winter before last, that an epidemic of typhus, diptheria, and small pox raged for months, distressing the people with the horrors of a sweeping pestilence. Thousands of the people met in public meetings and passed the most vigorous resolutions; committees of the most wealthy and influential citizens were appointed; the legislature was called upon; the mayor and city council were petitioned and implored—and all to no effect. There was no effective authority, no control, no power, no means by which the people could secure themselves against the malignant rancor of a destroying plague. To broach the subject of street cleaning was to court opprobrium and to set political factions and wrangling mobs to quarreling and fighting. The whole subject was finally decided—to be a scheme for
bribing votes, and the idea that street cleaning had nothing to do with politics was denounced as a heresy.
What is still more pitiable is that the other departments of government were conducted on the same principle.
This is but one illustration;but it may furnish us with a glimpse of the future, when each state in our commonwealth will be dotted with scores of cities. Most of our municipal governments,and to a considerable extent those of our towns and villages, are literally at the mercy of intoxicated mobs composed for the most part of non-taxpayers and ignorant neutralized foreigners.
The question is asked, Who can tell where all this will end? It remains to be seen whether any form of government can be devised which will secure a decent and honest administration for cities, and at the same time maintain the principle of universal suffrage, where orgaized mobs are the willing tools of unscrupulous politicians, and where there is a constant rising tide of foreign ignorance and brutality. The essential thing, as Aristotle says, is that the government, whatever it is, shall be of a kind which possesses confidence of the people. To possess the confidence of the people, it must be like the people, a reflection of their minds and morals, good or bad as they may be.
We may hope for justice and equality in municipal administration when public virtue can be made the ruling trait of voters; when the degraded morals of an European element can be purified; when modesty, virtue and comonn sense are made the household gods around which family circles kneel.
Harper's Magazine for December will be a beautiful christmas number, with stories and illustrations by the best writers and artists.