Essence of Good City Government
5 HAVE a good city government In
the United States we must, first
of all, and before all else, have
good citlsens. Burke'a well known
words have been often quoted;
they have been even quoted more than
once by me; but we cannot too steadily
remember that, as he said, "There was
never long a corrupt government of a
Virtuous people." When we find any self
governing community afflicted with chronic
misgovern men t, we can safely and fairly
believe that it does not deserve a better
(ate. It may Indeed wish to be well gov
erned. Just as many a drunkard, In his
seasons of repentance and headache, wishes
he were temperate. Just as many a de
faulter, as yet undetected. In saner mo
ments wishes he could repay what he has
taken, and feel himself once more an hon
est man. But as such men do not wish
hard enough to keep away, the first from
the bar, the second from the faro tablo or
Wall street, so much a nation, state or
city, does not wish hard enough for good
government to make bad government im
possible. I remember the storyof a man who had
been run over in the street; a sympathis
ing crowd gathered around him, and many
expressions of compassion were heard. A
prooccupiod man, hurrying to his business,
topped, took in the situation with a rapid
glance, and said: "Well, friends, I pity
Mm $1 worth for a hack to take him
home; how much do you pity him?" Of
course, we are all patriots, especially In a
presidential year, but what is the value
' In dollars and cents. In sacrifice of money,
time or personal Inclination, of our patriot
ism? We long to see good and wise men in
publicoffloe, the people's burdens lighten, the
people's work well done; but If wo put
this longing in the scales, what will over
balance It? Will blind and paltry preju
dices of party or race or class or creed
outweigh it? Will some mean and trivial
gratification to self-interest or vanity out
weigh It? say the hope of quartering an
Incompetent relative or dependent on the
taxpayers for support; say the prospect of
becoming a presidential elector or a colonel
or general on the governor's staff. Will
sheer indolence and cowardice outweigh It?
the dread of unaccustomed distasteful
work; the fear of abuse and personal en
mity. Will It be found wanting when
matched against the mere squeamlahness
which runs away from coarse and ugly
surroundings, however vital the taBk to be
done in their midst, much as a man might
rather 'die of typhoid fever than clean out
a sink? If such is the measure of our
patriotism, if such is the moral avoirdu
pois of our citizenship, we need not won
der, we ought not to complain. If, wH'.e
we are finding excuses for not doing the
work of our government In our Interest,
some one else does It for us in his own.
Tou have all heard the well known fable
of the man who sells his soul to the devil;
atan is to give him wealth and high sta
tion and worldly prosperity In return, and
does It; the other party to the contract,
James J. Hill
IAMK3 J. HILL believes that the
hope of the American farmer
lies In an Asiatic market.
"Suppose," he Bald to a repre
sentative of this paper, "our wheat
trade with China alone to amount to 1 per
cent per capita for each day in the year,
that would amount to $4,C00,CO0 a day
nearly 11,600,000,000 a year."
Mr. Hill believes that an Asiatic market
can be secured for the American farmer's
wheat. He bases this belief on the fact
that "wherever wheaten flour has been in
troduced to any race, with the single ex
ception of the. black race, they ure ready to
consume it from that time on." He be
lieves this so firmly that he la building the
five largest steamers that the world has
ever seen to carry the wheat of the Pacific
const to China, Japan, the Straits Settle
ments and other Oriental lands.
In short, his schemo Is to make wheat
scarce by opening new markets, thus ad
vance its price at home and abroad, und
thus put more money in tho iocket of tho
man who has been called tho nation's back
bone the farmer.
Mr. Hill's views on an Asiatic market for
America, in view of tho present tnternn
tlonal concern over the "open door" in the
Kast. are exceedingly timely. Ho says:
"The question of a market is next in im
portance to the question of raising the com
modities we havo to sell. We have ex
tended the areas from which our agricul
tural products are raised, until we have
practically created a supply that is In ex
cess of the demand for a large portion of
the time.
"The population of this country doublet
about every thirty years. In the year 1!I30
wo shall have a population of frou lW),o;o..
000 to KO.tOC.OCO. All the people must be
occupied. If the population continues to
Increase n the ratio indicated, where are
we to put them all and what are they to
do?
"Our country Is expanding in popula
tion. What has been done to expand our
tnarktU? What intelligent work has been
done since the civil war and that Is as far
f. y 1
EM
after getting the agreed price, always tries
to cheat him out of tho goods sold, but
the devil is too bright for him and en
forces specific performance, according to
the letter of the bond. We should like thus
to deal with those who rule us, to have
them spare us all the burdens of our free
dom, and yet give us all Its benefits; but
they don't do It.
Because we cannot expect a perfect
government, whether of an American city
or of anything anywhere else unless and
until the people governed are also perfect,
which is not likely to happen here or else
where. In our time, the conclusion Is not
Infrequently drawn that meantime any Im
provement Is hopeless; but this Is a grave
mistake. No doubt, as there never has
been, so there never will be, a perfect
government of men by men; but there has
been, there are now, much better govern
ments of great cities than those we live
under In the United States of today, and
I believe that there might bo better city
governments now and here than any which
the world has known In this country or
any other. The true lesson is that the
question of good government In American
cities Is essentially a moral and only in
cidentally a political one; indeed, this is
true of all governments In all countries,
but more clearly and emphatically true of
a popular municipal government than that
of any other. I mean by this that what
the friends of good government In America,
and especially In American cities, have to
do is much less to devise methuds for the
efficient and economical administration of
public affairs than to clearly and fre
quently set forth and constantly and
forcibly impress on the attention of their
fellow-citizens the true end admitted ends
and principles of government and the daily
manifest and grievous derelictions of duty
on the part of public officers and of the
voters. If, for example, one finds some
great department of a city government,
through which millions of dollars of public
money are annually spent. In a welter of
confusion, extravagance and suspected
peculation, the remedy is, not to give Its
head a new name or to put it in the hands
of three men Instead of one or vice versa
but to thoroughly expose its abuses,
adequately punish the man or men responsi
ble for them, and give It a head (how called
and whether mado up of one person or of
more than one are matters of very sub
ordinate importance) under whom such
abuses shall become, and be seen by all to
have become impossible for the future.
I must not be understood to mean that
constitutional provisions and laws and or
dinances or systems and rules of adminis
tration may not be material factors In the
problem; what I wish to make clear Is that
they are not vital factors; the one thing
indispensable, the one thing without which
good government of any kind or degree is
impossible, and which, under reasonable
limitations, takes the place and supplies the
want of all others, is . good men. If you
have as public officers men thoroughly hon
orable and conscientious and also suffi
Says Asia is the
back as most of us remember or need to
go to add to our foreign market?
"I have given the subject some atten
tion and am free to say that I have failed
to find a single Intelligent sentence, writ
ten or spoken by any one, In an endeavor
to improve our market for agricultural
products.
"With our great growth of population
we must consider how the people must be
employed so that they may be Intelli
gent, prosperous and happy. We sell 00
or 70 per cent of our entire products to
one country Great Britain. If for any
reason thnt country were not able to buy
from us, our people would realize very
quickly the situation they are in. Where
can we sell our wheat crop? In Prance,
Italy, Austria or Germany we are met with
hostile legislation. We are not welcome.
To take our wheat to Russia would be like
carrying coal to Newcaatle. That coun
try has a surplus to sell.
"If only one-third of the people of tho
world ure wheat eaters nnd the other
two-thirda live on rice or mania or rye, wo
must tind our markets with people who am
not now consumers of our crop. I believe
that wherever wheaten flour has been ln
troduied to any race, with the single ex
ception of the black race, they ure ready
to consume it from that time on. The
Asiatic rice eaters are as fond of flour as
tho white ruee and as ready to eat It,
if they can get it at a fair price.
"The question may arise. How can peo
ple who work for wages of from 10 to 15
cents a day, and have lived for centuries
on Just such wages, buy Hour which must
be carried across the Paelllc ocean? If
they did buy flour, even at the rate of one
bushel per capita, we in this country would
have to go to eating corn pone. We
simply could not sell it to them. If we sell
them one bushel per capita it would take
450,000,000 bushels to supply China and
Japan alone, to say nothing of the Straits
Settlements and the other countries hav
ing large populations.
"In the north and west parts of China
ciently educated to understandandilischarge
their duties, you will have, whatever the
defects of your statutes or customs, a
good government; If your places of public
trust are filled by Ignorant, Incompetent,
elf-seeking or unscrupulous men, you may
multiply check and balances, you may do
vise all sorts of Ingenious and complicated
safeguards, but, whatever Its scientific
merits In theory, your machine of govern
ment will. In practice, work 111. Institu
tions are In politics what fortifications are
In war; each, if well planned, may aid
good and bravo men to do their duty;
neither can take the place of such men.
It was not breastworks or rlfleplts that
stopped Pickett at Gettysburg; a brave
enemy will ever have a plcnlo with forts
and big guns and all sorts of elaborate
engines of destruction whose defenders take
to their heels; and In administration, no
less than warfare, It la, after all, tho hu
man element that counts.
Neither would I dlacourago the carrful
and scientific study of questions of govern
ment; no more worthy or more promising
field of Inquiry can be offered to the mind
of mai.. Indeed a very striking and en
couraging phenomenon In American so
ciety Is the general and Increasing interest
In such questions at all of our leading scuts
of learning; moreover, I, at least, moo In
the widespread popular concern with this
subject, to which I have already referred,
the fruit. In great part, of much quiet read
ing and thinking, writing and talking, in
Biieh regions during the Inst decade. Jn no
small measure the literary fellers" have
"gone into politics," though not precisely
as tho politicians would understand tho
term, and the results of their doing bo are
good for them and good for the American
people.
But whilst I would be the last to dis
countenance tho most painstaking research
or the collation of all attainable Informa
tion on these topics, I would Interpose ono
word of warning: By all means study, but
in tho meantime act. Tho science of medi
cine has ma let Immense progress during
this century, but, while men of research
have repeatedly revolutionized it by their
inventions and discoveries, men cf action
have 'ull the time fought disease, eased
pain, saved life by methods which next
year becomo obsolete but this year served
their ends. They could not tell a mother
wTiose child had diphtheria that, when they
had learned by a few months more experi
ment Just what to think of anli-toxlnn, they
would come and troat him; tho merits of
tho treatment would scarcely interest her
us she returned from laying flowers on his
grave. As with our bodily ailments, so
with those of our body politic; we must
cure them as best we can while we leara
how to euro them better. Those who have
leisure and learning and u facile pen can
with great profit to all of us write mono
graphs and pamphlets and magazine articles
on proportional representation end referen
dum and the Gothenburg liquor system, and
their work will tell In time, but while they
read and think and write this rascal has
Hcpe of American Farmers
there is an excellent farming country,
whero corn and wheat can be raised, but
the products are so far from the dense
population on the seacoast that It cannot
be carried there. We may perhaps fear
that Russia, with the Siberian railway
completed, may enter Into competlon with
us for the Asiatic flour or wheat trade.
The transportation question settles that.
Tho average rate on the Russian state
railroads Is 1.8 cent per ton per mile. If
the actual cost of operation amounted to
but two-thirds of this figure 1.2 cents per
ton per mile this rate, applied to the dis
tance from that part of Siberia where the
wheat Is grown, would give a transpor
tation charge of $4.20 per barrel on flour,
while it should be carried from our Pacific
ports to Yokohama, Nagasaki, Kobe,
fihangha! and Hong Kong for 25 cents a
hundreds, $5 a ton. 60 cents a barrel.
"Russia la not In a position to complete
with us at ull, even If the wheat and flour
were carrier, for the naked cost of Its
transportation to the Government. What
applies in this respect to our wheat applies
to cotton from the south and to every other
article we export, even to Iron and steel.
"If your homo market, which we hnve
nursed so long for Iron nnd steel industries.
Is of so much value, let us now
go on nnd take some care of our
agricultural interests nnd not leave them
where they are today without un lota of
assistance from any point.
"A year ago you could buy nails for $1.25
a keg; now they are $3.23. You know how
lumber has gone up und all other articles
of prime necessity on the prairie farm.
Kuel has advanced. Everything made of
iron has advanced. But the wheat crop
bus not advanced, because It la cold In
open competition with the product of tho
world. And until we get other people to
eat wheat It will not advance and we will
go on hoping ugalust hope. We will not
get a high price for our wheat until wheat
is made scarce. If we could Increase our
export to the Orient by 6O,0uO,0u0 bushels
I have not the slightest doubt that it would
By C. J. Bonaparte, President of
the American Municipal League
been nominated by a packed convention
chosen at fraudulent primaries and that
rascal has been caught with arms up to tha
olliow In the people's money box, and the
ordinary every-day citizen Is saying, with
our old friend Tweed: "Well, what are
you, you reformers, going to do about It?"
Tho question Is a fair one, for In the
cases supposed, and they occur dally, there
Is something to be done, ami. I must add,
thnt reformers are too often prone to over
look this necessity, while they explain how
nothing of this kind could happen. If only
their favorite panacea for all existing or
conceivable evils had been or were now
applied. This may be cumulative voting or
mlrorlty representation or direct legisla
tion or femsle suffrage or prohibition or
the single tax or ary one of many schemes
to usher In the millennium; all of which
are earnestly and Intelligently and elo
quently advocated, none of which I am hera
to criticise; hut, whatever it may be, the
beauties visible to the eye of faith in tha
more or less distant day of lis practical ac
ceptance, In no wise help us to deal with
the scoundrel who yonder winks and leara
at us while he pockets the salary we pay.
He mnst be handled now, not In a future
go'den age, and if we wait until he and his
kind have voluntarily made their own pros
perity and continued existence Impossible,
we shall wait long and very much to his
and their satisfaction.
I was much impressed by a sermon I
once heard on tho gospel story of (ha
paralytic to whom wus said: "Arise, take
up thy bed and go Into the house." The
clergyman who preached It suggested that
the Invalid might most reasonably have re
plied: "Sir, I have not walked for years;
for this did I romc to Thee; heal me first
and most gladly will I then obey Thy
words." Such nn answer would have been
reasonable, and had he made It, the slclc
man had not been healed. So If we wait
fcr existing evils to be cured by Providence
or to cure themselves, wait for some great
change to come somehow at some time, we
know not how or when; and, while It la
coming, content ourselves with telling what
we will do when It comes or would do were
It here, it will simply not come at all, and
wo shall lie as we lay before, prostrate and
helpless.
But If, letting Utopia take care of Itself,
dealing with a present duty, which, of a
surety, necda and deserves our full strength,
wo obey the voice of honor and conscience
within us and do what we know ought to
bo done now and here, that which seemed
ImpoFslblo may well come to pass. Indeed
it will surely coma to pass if we but try and
try without ceasing to bring it about Aa
we strive to gain a better government, we
shall come to deserve one and as when we
dservo this we shall have this. Freedom
Is not the birthright of alumberers.
These serve truth best who to themselves
are true
And what they dare to dream of dare to do.
Such men, and such only, will remain
truly freemen.
Baltimore, Md.
advance the price of what wo do send to
Europe 15 or 20 rents.
"In the first place, what we would send
to the Orient would go from the Pacific
coast. The grain of that coast Is handled
at present In a manner entirely different
from that which prevails east of the Rocky
mountains. Having to cross the equator
twice. It must be carried In sacks to pre
vent heating, and not In bluk in the hull of
the ship, as on the Great Lakes or tho
Atlantic. Tho grain Is practically all
bought by three concerns, two of them
located in Liverpool and also Interested In
a lino of steamers, so that they can furnish
their own shipping. The wheat is sent to
England and sold for what It will bring.
It acts as a damper a wet blanket on the
entire market. The voyage around the
Horn is four months long, and by the time
the first cargoes are reaching port the last
are leaving, so that it Is all afloat at the
same time. The buyer in Europe knows
what Is afloat. Thus, the manner In which
the crop Is handled breaks the market
down more than twice the samo amount
from Atlantic ports. There the buyer must
send over and place his order In advance
of shipment. With the Pacific coast grain
It must sell for what It will bring. Tho
ship cannot be delayed and the grain can
not be stored In sacks.
"We can never get away from the prac
tical proposition that we are In competi
tion with every wheat raiser In every
country the peasants on the steppes of
Russia, the ryots of India, and the
Argentino farmers, most of whom went
from Italy. We are In competition with
them on an even hlfllctrec. We alwaya
will be so long as we have to sell outside
of our own country; and that our own
country will ever consume our entire pro
duct no intelligent man will believe at least
for half a century.
"Our farmers can do nothing in the way
of getting a market. I con do very littlj.
The price of transportation has come down.
(Continued on Page Fl'teen.)
