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 REESE LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
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MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
THE TEXT-BOOK OF THE NEW REFORMATION 
 
 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM HOWE TOLMAN, PH.D. 
 
 SECRETARY OF THE CITY VIGILANCB LEAGUE, NEW-YORK 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER BY THE 
 
 REV. CHARLES H. PARKHURST, D. D. 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE CITY VIGILANCB LEAGUE, NEW-YORK 
 
 /$% 
 
 { UNIV 
 
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 or rut 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 or 
 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
 
 NEW-YORK CHICAGO TORONTO 
 
 1895 
 
Copyright, 1895, 
 
 by 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY. 
 
 
TO MY MOTHER 
 
 THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED 
 
 BY HER SON 
 
 IN LOVING RECOGNITION OF HER 
 
 INSPIRATION TO NOBLE IDEALS 
 
 OF MANHOOD. 
 
 172783 
 
PREFACE 
 
 THERE are very few municipalities in our country where a 
 reform movement would have no reason for existence. Too 
 often, however, the mention of a reform movement conveys 
 the idea of destruction, an immense amount of tearing down, 
 so that it has come to pass that the so-called practical reformer 
 is almost as much dreaded as the practical politician. On the 
 other hand, it is true that many a reform must tear down, in 
 order that the ground may be prepared for the superstructure 
 of improved conditions ; but it is also a fact that certain re- 
 forms, destined to accomplish permanent results, are expend- 
 ing their utmost energies on the constructive phases of their 
 work. To illustrate concretely : the recent action of the Lon- 
 don County Council in insuring the lives of all the workmen 
 who are engaged in the dangerous parts of the work of con- 
 structing the tunnel under the Thames is a reform in the right 
 direction, and there are organizations that are striving to se- 
 cure an increasing regard for the claims of life, in preference 
 to those of property. The differences in the two phases of re- 
 form may again be illustrated by the work of the Society for 
 the Prevention of Crime and of the City Vigilance League, 
 the efforts of the former being along destructive and of the 
 latter along instructive lines. 
 
 The spirit of reform is now manifesting itself in a great 
 diversity of organizations, based on the fundamental principle 
 that municipal affairs must be administered in the interests of 
 
 7 
 
8 PREFACE 
 
 all the citizens not mererv the taxpayers^BtTl>ft^o the non- 
 taxpayers, because the latterWs well as the former must dwell 
 in our cities, and intend to majke them their civic home. One 
 theory of municipal administration holds that a city is simply 
 a civic household, and the more closely it approximates a 
 well ordered and appointed individual home the nearer it 
 approaches ideal conditions. On this point the Committee 
 of Seventy laid particular stress, and it is safe to assume that 
 the voters indorsing its demands responded because of the 
 high standard of the following ante-election statement : " The 
 call goes to the citizens of New York to face the dangers 
 that confront them, and resolutely to determine that these 
 conditions shall cease and that the affairs of the city shall 
 henceforth be conducted as a well-ordered, efficient, and eco- 
 nomical household, in the interests of the health, comfort, and 
 safety of the people." After the enunciation of the theory of 
 its demands for civic betterment, the Committee then enumer- 
 ated the positive measures necessary to secure it : it de- 
 manded that the quality of the Public Schools be improved ; 
 that Small Parks be opened in the densely populated parts 
 of the city ; Rapid Transit ; that adequate Public Baths and 
 Lavatories be provided; that the Docks and Water-front be 
 improved ; and that the Street-cleaning be thorough. 
 
 In the desire of effecting an organization for municipal 
 reform there is great danger that both time and energy 
 are wasted, because either the society in question is not 
 adapted to local needs or fails to respond to the demands 
 that are made upon it. These difficulties might easily have 
 been obviated if the founders had made a more careful study 
 of the local conditions, or if they had utilized the experiences 
 of similar societies in other cities that were grappling with the 
 same problems. If this had been done a working constitu- 
 tion could have been framed that would have secured all the 
 objects of the organization in question. To illustrate : St. Paul 
 
PREFACE . y 
 
 may use as a model a Philadelphia society, which will not 
 work at all in the Western city, but admirably serves its pur- 
 pose in Philadelphia. 
 
 It is therefore the object of this book to bring together, for 
 comparison and selection, the salient and essential points in all 
 the leading reform movements, in order that any persons desir- 
 ous of forming a new organization may have a knowledge of 
 those methods which the successful experience of other com- 
 munities has commended. The great need in municipal re- 
 form is a kind of Reform Clearing House where the various 
 plans and methods of work might be reported, in order that ways 
 and means may be carefully studied. Then a composite consti- 
 tution can be framed, which may be worked at once, whereby 
 valuable time and effort will be utilized from the very start. There 
 are also numerous movements not so much for municipal reform 
 as for what may be called civic betterment. The varied phases 
 of these organizations have been described in the methods of 
 some one typical society. Any summary of the elements in 
 successful reform organizations would be sadly incomplete 
 without the mention of women's work. Particularly was this 
 true in Brooklyn in 1893, and in New York in 1894. Accord- 
 ingly one part has been devoted to the work of the women in 
 municipal reform. 
 
 In the last part the work of the City Vigilance League has 
 been described in detail, because it stands as a kind of object- 
 lesson of what may be accomplished in the constructive work 
 of civic reform. Its methods are of value because only such 
 have been retained as were clearly shown to have stood the 
 test of experience. In its early days it had no definite policy 
 nor any delicately constructed theories. Its working capital 
 was the knowledge that New York City must be made better, 
 and it undertook the contract. In the words of its founder, 
 " Our sole aim is to raise the tone of our citizenship. What- 
 ever concerns the welfare of our city is made the subject of 
 
io MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 inquiry and conference." Because the League was confined 
 to no one method it has made use of all, retaining those which 
 best serve its purposes. However, it must be carefully noted 
 that even its administrative methods should not be followed 
 without a careful adaptation to local needs. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER BY THE REV. CHARLES H. 
 
 PARKHURST, D.D 15 
 
 PART I. THE CIVIC RENAISSANCE 27 
 
 THExFUNCTIONS OF THE ClTY : 
 
 vr^The Disciplinary and the Regulative, 27. 
 
 The Sanitary, 28. 
 
 The Recreative, 28. 
 
 The Educational, 28. 
 
 The Functional, 28. 
 
 The Curative and the Reformatory, 28. 
 THE CAUSES OF THE AWAKENING: 
 
 The Moral, 30. 
 
 Non-Partizanship, 34. 
 
 Hatred of Bosses, 35. 
 
 Insistence on the Positive and Constructive, 38. 
 
 The Union of the Forces of Good Citizenship, 40. 
 IMPORTANCE OF THE VICTORY BECAUSE WON IN NEW YORK. 
 CAUSES OF ENCOURAGEMENT: 
 
 The Organization of the Young People's Societies in the Churches 
 for Good Citizenship, 42. 
 
 The Fact of the Awakened Civic Conscience, 41. 
 How TO UTILIZE THE VICTORY: 
 
 The Creation of a Municipal Council, Elected by the People, 
 hence having Official Sanction, 41. 
 
 Increased Educational Facilities in Citizenship, 42. 
 
 The Inducement of a Civic Ideal, 43. 
 
 The Subordination of the Commercial and Material to the Social 
 and Progressive Spirit, 43. 
 
 A Positive or Constructive, Rather than a Negative or Destructive 
 Program, 44. 
 
 II 
 
12 TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PART II. MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 47 
 
 The Advance Club, Providence, 47. \ 1* 
 
 American Institute of Civics, New York, 48. / ^j 
 
 Anti-Spoils League, New York, 49. 
 
 The Citizens' Association of Albany, 50. *$ ( 
 
 Citizens' Association of Boston, 52. 
 
 The Citizens' Association, Buffalo, 55. 
 
 The Citizens' Association of Chicago, 56. 
 
 Citizens' Club, Cincinnati, 58. 
 
 The Citizens' Federation of Toledo, 59. ^'< 
 
 Citizens' League, Camden, 60. 
 
 Citizens' League of New Rochelle, 61. 0) <-| 
 
 The Citizens' League of the Town of Norwalk, 62. 
 
 Citizens' Municipal Association of Philadelphia, 64. 
 
 The Citizens' Municipal League, Bridgeton, 65. ait 
 
 The Citizens' Protective Association, New Orleans, 67. fftf 
 
 City Club of Hartford, 68. 
 
 ICity Club of New Brunswick, 69. 9\ L^ 
 The City Club of New York, 70. \ 
 Committee of Public Safety, Troy, 71. ^ M 
 The City Government Club, Pittsburg, 72. 
 City Improvement Society, New York, 73. 
 City Reform Club, New York, 75. ' 
 The Civic Club, Beloit, 75. C\ 
 The Civic Federation of Chicago, 77. 
 The Civic Federation of Detroit, 79. 
 Civic Federation of Galesburg, 80. 
 Committee of Fifty, Albany, 81. 
 Committee of Public Safety, St. Louis, 82. 
 Committee of Seventy, New York, 85. 
 
 Council of Confederated Good Government Clubs, New York, 91. 
 Good Government Club A, New^York, 93. 
 Good Government Clubs,' 95. 
 
 The Good Citizenship Educational League of Omaha, 96: 
 Good Government Club of Berkeley, 97. 
 Good Government Club of Yonkers, 99. 
 The International Law and Order League, Boston, 100. 
 Citizens' Law and Order League, New Haven, 101. 
 The Library Hall Association of Cambridge, 101. 
 Massachusetts Society for Promoting Good Citizenship, Boston, 103. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 13 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Men's Patriotic Guild, Pittsburg, 104. 
 Municipal Association, Champaign, 105. 
 Municipal Club of Decatur, 106. 
 Municipal Club of Rochester, 107. &U 
 Municipal Improvement Association of Kansas City, 108. 
 The Municipal League of Grand Rapids, no. 
 The Municipal League of Milwaukee, 112. -' 
 The Municipal League of Omaha, 1 14. 
 The Municipal League of Philadelphia, 115. 
 The Municipal League, Schenectady, 116. 
 Municipal Refonn Club, Syracuse, 117. 
 The Municipal League of Boston, 119. 
 National Civil-Service .Reform League, New York, 12 1. 
 ^National Municipal League, Philadelphia, 122. 
 The Reform League, Baltimore, 124. 
 The Social Reform Club, New York, 128. 
 Society for the Prevention of Crime, New York, 129. 
 The Trades League of Philadelphia, 131. 
 
 PART III. MOVEMENTS FOR CIVIC BETTERMENT... 137 
 
 The American Institute of Christian Sociology, New York, 139. 
 The Altrurian League, New York, 140. "'/ 
 Better Dwellings Society, Boston, 141. 
 The Brotherhood of the Kingdom, New York, 142. 
 -The Charity Organization Society of the City of New York, 145. ' 
 The Institutional Church, 147. 
 Municipal Labor Bureaus, 150. 
 
 The Municipal Program Conferences, New York, 152. 
 The Social Settlement, 154. 
 
 The Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor, Boston, 158. 
 The Christian Citizenship League, Chicago, 159. 
 Union for Practical Progress, 161. 
 Union for Public Good, Baltimore, 162. 
 
 I 'ART IV WOMEN'S WORK IN MUNICIPAL REFORM, 167 
 
 The Civic Club of Philadelphia, 168. 
 
 The Civitas Club, Brooklyn, 169. 
 
 Ladies' Health Protective Association, New York, 171. 
 
 The Municipal Order League of Chicago, 171. 
 
14 TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Philadelphia Branch of the National Women's Health Protective 
 
 Association, 173. :--" 
 
 Women's Health Protective Association of Brooklyn, 174. 
 Civic League (originally Woman's Municipal League), New York, 
 
 176. 
 The Society for Political Study, New York, 180. 
 
 PART V. THE CITY VIGILANCE LEAGUE 183 
 
 ITS ORIGIN, GROWTH, OBJECT, ADMINISTRATIVE POLICY, AND 
 METHODS. 
 
FACTS FOR THE TIMES 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES H. PARKHURST, D.D. 
 
Of all the cities in America, our problem is the most stupendous, our 
 example the most exalted, oiir opportunity the most august. We should be 
 weighted, not with the sense of our importance, but with the burden of our 
 duties. Above all, we should love our city. IVe should be proitd of its 
 unparalleled advantages, of its splendid history. Unexampled for situa- 
 tion; enthroned at the gate of the New World; with seas and bays spread 
 out like carpets at her feet, and imperial rivers wrapped about her like gar- 
 ments; armed with power and crowned with beauty; rich in the memory 
 and the living presence of worthy citizens: statesmen, soldiers, poets, phi- 
 lanthropists, preachers, inventors, explorers, Jinanceers, merchants her his- 
 tory, her fame, her might, are Jit to thrill the soul and challenge the loyalty 
 of every man and woman within her borders. 
 
 The love of city or section above the love of country above the love, in- 
 deed, of humanity leads to issues contracted and ignoble. I woiild preach 
 no narrow patriotism; but there is a sense in which it is deeply true that he 
 who serves his city best serves his country best. Felloiv-citizens of the 
 metropolis, let us not fail in civic patriotism, in the love and service of this 
 goodly city of our hearts and homes. 
 
 RICHARD WATSON GILDER. 
 
 16 
 
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 
 
 FACTS FOR THE TIMES 
 
 BY CHARLES H. PARKHURST, D.D. 
 
 THE issue of the work by Dr. William Howe Tolman here- 
 with presented affords opportunity for the hasty mention of a 
 number of matters germane to the situation. 
 
 i. It is well that it should be understood that the present 
 movement in New York City is first of all a moral movement, 
 and has its grounds in the churches and the synagogues. A 
 very large per cent, of every live current question is ethical in 
 its ingredients, and falls, therefore, naturally and properly, 
 within the jurisdiction of the church. For reasons which it 
 is not easy to understand, the church, while maintaining a cer- 
 tain kind of authority in regard to domestic questions and also 
 in regard to social ones, has betrayed a singular disposition to 
 surrender everything like authority touching questions of civic 
 privilege and duty. This has sprung, doubtless, from a num- 
 ber of causes, one being that the clergy have not, in general, 
 been disposed to assert themselves upon this ground, the 
 training which they have received 'not having been such as 
 to qualify them to speak either with assurance or with effect. 
 There has prevailed, also, among a good many of the cloth, a 
 spirit of " other- worldliness," which has included a conviction 
 that the prime duty of the church is to fit men and women for 
 the world to come, and also a conviction that there is not 
 
 17 
 
 
1 8 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 
 
 much to be gained by trying to improve the world that is 
 here. In addition to this there is always a disposition, on the 
 part of those that stand out of relation with the church, to re- 
 sent as unwarranted intermeddling any effort on the part of 
 the church or its ministry to interest themselves in current civic 
 affairs, whether national or municipal. If we say anything in 
 the pulpit about the moral law in its relation to the commu- 
 nity or the State, we are charged with preaching politics and 
 with dabbling sensationally in what is none of our business. It 
 is a gratifying fact that earnest citizens, whether in the church 
 or out of the church, show signs of outgrowing this notion of 
 the transcendental sphere of the pulpit, and that they are dis- 
 posed, in some degree at least, to put themselves under the 
 leadership of the clergy to the degree that the clergy under- 
 stand themselves and understand the situation, and to the de- 
 gree, also, that the questions to be discussed are questions of 
 a moral import. 
 
 It is also to be mentioned in this connection that a very 
 hopeful sign of the times is to be found in the fact of the 
 rapid growth of Christian Endeavor Societies, especially when 
 it is remembered that good Christian citizenship has recently 
 been laid down as one of the prominent planks in the platform 
 of their organization. A politician has recently remarked of 
 the Christian Endeavor Societies that they promise a complete 
 overturning of the existing order of things, and that the organ- 
 ization will derive no small portion of its influence and effective- 
 ness for good from the fact that it is strictly non-political in its 
 character and intention. 
 
 The work of the City Vigilance League illustrates the above 
 principles. We are trying, under the auspices of that society, to 
 develop as large a number as possible of young men who shall 
 concern themselves with the positive interests of our commu- 
 nity, and who shall strive to encourage the development among 
 us of all those conditions intellectual, moral, social, sanitary, 
 
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 19 
 
 and industrial which shall operate to make New York as fine 
 a town as it is possible for any town to become. Incidentally, 
 of course, we come in conflict with that which is evil, and have 
 to deal with it ; but our prime object is not to repress evil pos- 
 sibilities, but to encourage the possibilities of good. We are 
 trying to acquaint our young men, both native and foreign, 
 with our system of municipal government, the elements of 
 administrative machinery. We are encouraging the members 
 of the League to acquaint themselves with the functions exer- 
 cised by different officers under the municipal government, 
 that so they may be more intelligent in their estimate of the 
 official fitness of candidates. We are studying up the matter 
 of primary-school accommodations with reference to the fact 
 that the city is under solemn obligations to give each child an 
 opportunity to acquire the rudiments of an English education, 
 although at present failing to meet its obligations in that par- 
 ticular. We are instituting along certain lines a comparison 
 between certain sanitary conveniences as afforded in this city 
 or rather as denied in this city and as afforded in other 
 cities, especially foreign cities. These are specimens of the 
 lines of work which we are prosecuting. Such lines are of a 
 distinctively constructive character, and although our organiza- 
 tion has been in existence but a little while, we know that one 
 effect that has already been produced by it has been to qualify 
 the members of the League to estimate more intelligently our 
 existing municipal conditions, and therefore to qualify them to 
 take more intelligent steps looking to the betterment of those 
 conditions. 
 
 2. No one can appreciate our municipal situation as it 
 exists at the date of this writing (February, 1895) without 
 understanding that the victory which was gained last Novem- 
 ber was but the first step toward a long series of victories re- 
 quiring still to be gained before we attain to anything like the 
 perfection of municipal government. Politicians work three 
 
 x 
 
 THE A 
 
 RSITY ) 
 
 / 
 
20 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 
 
 hundred and sixty-five days in the year. Men interested in 
 civic matters,- but outside of the political circles, are apt to be 
 fairly well satisfied with themselves if they work two or three 
 weeks of the year. The consequence is that when a positive 
 victory has been gained the indefatigable politicians consider 
 such result rather as the starting-point from which a new term 
 of effort is to be put forth, while the rest of us are very likely 
 inclined to feel that it is the resting-point at which our efforts 
 are to be intermitted. 
 
 There is at the present time in New York a phenomenal 
 amount of just thinking and sincere desire along the lines of 
 civic amelioration ; but it is a fact that has to be conceded 
 that honest intention misses its purposes except as it is organ- 
 ized and equipped with the appliances for making its pur- 
 poses actual. The question naturally suggests itself whether 
 it is not going to be necessary, in order to the permanence 
 of non-partizan city administration, to have an organization 
 developed and perfected and furnished with all requisite ma- 
 chinery, that shall be in some respects similar to the appur- 
 tenances by means of which, in national matters, the Repub- 
 lican or Democratic party goes to work to achieve its objects. 
 There will be the continual intrusion of national politics into 
 municipal concerns until there has been built up a municipal 
 organization sufficiently earnest to discourage such intrusion, 
 and sufficiently compact and efficient to neutralize and to 
 render impossible all such intrusion. The theory of city 
 government heretofore has been that it is simply State gov- 
 ernment localized at a specific point. The contest which 
 we have before us will have for its object to establish more 
 distinctly and definitely the municipal organism as being in 
 essential (not superficial) particulars distinct from the State 
 organism. According as that idea becomes distinctly defined, 
 recognized, and adopted, the possibility becomes enhanced of 
 building up, inside of the city, an association which shall be 
 
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 21 
 
 the corporate expression of the principles upon which our 
 recent victory was based, namely, non-partizanship and the 
 maintenance of municipal administration on distinctively busi- 
 ness principles. 
 
 No one can contemplate our present situation without ex- 
 periencing solicitude as to the events that will transpire when 
 the present mayoralty term is finished. The margin of our 
 victory was numerically so small that a subtraction of twenty- 
 five thousand from the number of those who combined to 
 elect Mr. Strong could easily throw the city back again into 
 the hands of Tammany Hall. It is probable that some con- 
 siderable number of those who were influential in defeating 
 Tammany last autumn engaged in the struggle for revenue *L 
 purposes, and who, if they had foreseen with accuracy that 
 their selfish intentions were to be thwarted, would quite as 
 readily have thrown in their influence with the very party 
 that they antagonized. In this statement we have no specific 
 persons in mind ; but it is one of those things that can so 
 easily be true that it is presumable that it is true. The organ- 
 izing power of boodle is immense, but only so long as there is 
 boodle. Now all these contingencies require to be taken into 
 the account and to have due emphasis laid upon them in esti- 
 mating the probable outcome three years hence. If we are 
 going to have an honest city government as a permanency we 
 are not going to be able to depend upon the sporadic honesty 
 and civic virtue of people who are unorganized. This is one 
 of those considerations that need to be thrown into the air in 
 order that men's thoughts may be set at work upon them, and 
 in order that our earnest citizenship may crystallize around ^" 
 some policy which shall make our present municial_condi- 
 tion something more than a mere break between two eras of 
 m li n icij)aj_corruption . 
 
 3. The contest immediately in hand in this city has to do 
 with the destruction of political despotism. We have escaped 
 
22 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 
 
 from under the dominion of one despot only to be brought 
 under the yoke of another, who, though less corrupt person- 
 ally, is inspired with the same greed of power and is prolific 
 with quite as large possibilities of mischief. The boss is not 
 a new phenomenon, but has manifested itself in one form or 
 another at every stage of political history. It has simply 
 varied its type to fit the shifting circumstances with which it 
 , came into association. In its interior character it is radically 
 
 JT alien to the genius of American institutions, and is to be de- 
 stroyed not so much by being belittled - and reprobated as by 
 building up in individual citizens that sense of personal author- 
 ity and appreciation of personal right and privilege which shall 
 regard "bossism" as an impertinent intrusion upon personal 
 prerogatives. In this, as in every other line of improvement, 
 the scriptural maxim obtains that the " evil must be overcome 
 by the good." 
 
 There is no more of the spirit of dictator in the indi- 
 vidual , who is now trying to administer the affairs of this 
 city and State in the interests of himself and his hench- 
 men than there has been in his Tammany predecessor; and 
 the reason why he is being more bitterly antagonized is that 
 there is at the present time among the rank and file of our 
 citizens an aroused sense that each individual citizen counts 
 for something, or ought to count for something ; and the most 
 direct method of making this warfare continuous until it issues 
 in victory over " bossism " of all types is to go on stimulating 
 the sense of authority possessed by the citizen, until there be 
 
 '(L a general realization that "bossism " is an insult done to citi- 
 zenship. It must be remembered, however, that the burden 
 of accountability is not to be laid upon the "boss" alone, but 
 upon the creatures that are contented to be used as his imple- 
 ments and tools. The " boss " by himself is powerless. The 
 case is something -as in arithmetic, where the integer i, 
 for instance, is the lowest unit of value; but it becomes 10 if 
 
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 23 
 
 it has associated with it a zero at its right hand. Now the 
 tool is the zero which multiplies the integer-boss by ten, and, 
 without having any value of its own to speak of, multiplies in- 
 ordinately the individual value of the integer which it serves ; 
 so that while we direct our warfare in the first instance against 
 the "boss," we must not neglect to put the bulk of our rep- 
 robation into our treatment of the political zeros who are 
 contented to serve him and to multiply ten, one hundred, or 
 a thousand fold his individual significance and power. 
 
 These are lessons that require to be reiterated, and to be 
 made part of the civic creed of our rising young citizenship. 
 
THE CIVIC RENAISSANCE 
 
 5 
 
Innumerable are the evils engendered in the body politic by this worship 
 of gain, and the szibstitution of material in place of moral ideals of the com- 
 monwealth. The high ideals of patriotism are dethroned. Young men of 
 ability scorn to serve the commonwealth, and seek to satisfy their ambitions 
 in the more lucrative pursuits of business. Which shall be blamed most 
 severely for the confessed evils of our day, the vices of the illiterate and 
 degraded who Jill the slums of our metropolis, or the selfish indifference and 
 the blind, ease-loving optimism of the more opulent classes, who neglect the 
 social obligations which are the just concomitants of the social privileges 
 which they enjoy, and grow faithless to the democratic institutions whose 
 beneficent shelter has furnished the smooth channels and broad highways 
 for their commercial aggrandizement ? I leave this question for others to 
 answer; I simply reaffirm the ideals on which our grand commonwealth is 
 built, and which are now too often overlooked or ignored. The principle of 
 democracy has not failed. The people may still be trusted. From the people 
 ill informed we may still appeal, with high confidence of success, to the 
 people better informed. 
 
 Social well-being, not the mere aggregation of wealth, is the chief aim 
 of government and the criterion of its successful administration. 
 
 LEIGHTON WILLIAMS. 
 
 26 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 CIVIC RENAISSANCE 
 
 BY way of introduction it is necessary that we have a clear 
 idea of the functions of the municipality, for as we answer the 
 following question our municipal horizon will be broad or nar- 
 row. Is a city government organized for the purpose of enrich- 
 ing the present political party and a favored set of contractors, or 
 is it the opportunity for the broadest development of the people 
 you and I, we who live above Fourteenth Street, as well as 
 the Italian of the " Bend " and of " Little Italy," the Chinaman 
 of Mott Street, the Jew of Hester Street, and the African of 
 Thompson Street (for all these are among the component parts 
 of our municipality)? Let us, therefore, very briefly enumer- 
 ate the functions of the modern city, those details which must 
 be administered twelve months in the year and twenty-four 
 hours in each day, whoever may chance to fill the municipal 
 offices, or however poorly they may do their work : 
 
 i. THE DISCIPLINARY AND THE REGULATIVE, included 
 under the policing of the city and all those relations in which 
 the citizen cannot do as he pleases, but must yield a certain 
 part of his rights to the welfare of the whole. 
 
 27 
 
28 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 2. THE SANITARY, included under the subject of housing, 
 inspection of homes and workshops, compulsory vaccination, 
 the prevention of contagious diseases, and the inspection of 
 
 . breadstuffs. 
 
 3. THE RECREATIVE : parks, playgrounds (particularly in 
 connection with the public schools), music, and theaters. 
 
 4. THE EDUCATIONAL : the public schools, kindergartens, 
 technical and manual-training schools, schools for science, art, 
 and music, museums and libraries. 
 
 5. THE FUNCTIONAL, or the means of carrying on the- ne- 
 cessary life of the city. Under this head are included paving 
 and the care of the streets, transportation of all kinds, the 
 water and gas supply, sewerage, and the preparing of new or 
 annexed districts as the municipality becomes congested. 
 
 6. THE CURATIVE AND THE REFORMATORY, included under 
 the provision of asylums and hospitals for the insane, the deaf, 
 dumb, and blind ; prisons and reformatories for the delinquent 
 classes. 
 
 Our city is not a business corporation, but is a body politic 
 a fact which will justify it in doing a great variety of things 
 that are necessary for the completest satisfaction of the re- 
 quirements of all its component parts. A business corporation 
 would scout at the necessity of many of these, and cut them 
 down as useless expenditures ; but not so a body politic that is 
 concerned with the civic welfare of its members. A business 
 corporation has but little concern how its employees live, what 
 kind of food they eat, how they amuse themselves, what they 
 read, or how they try to improve themselves ; a municipality 
 must concern itself with these things. Life must be given the 
 precedence over property. Thousands of New York citizens 
 live .in the tenements because of what they suppose is the 
 lower rental, and because they must live near their work ; 
 large numbers of them live in abodes of one room, and yet 
 greater numbers in two or three roomed dwellings. If private 
 
THE CIVIC RENAISSANCE 29 
 
 capital will not provide decent accommodations for its tenants, 
 and charges an enormous rental for the accommodation which 
 it does offer, what is there to prevent the city from insisting 
 that the welfare of its denizens must be regarded? Why 
 should it not build municipal baths, wash-houses, and lavato- 
 ries, so that it can offer satisfaction to needs that are only es- 
 sential to right living ? In the case of the public wash-house the 
 family laundry can be done away from the narrow quarters 
 of the so-called home, at a charge that will pay the running 
 expenses of the establishment and at the same time make the 
 life of the family in question more tolerable. Why should jmi 
 and I give up certain of our rights to the streets to u company 
 that will supply the means of transportation, but at a rate of 
 ~fare that yields a splendid revenue to the comparatively few 
 men comprising the corporation ? Is there any reason why 
 the people shojild not say, " This is our city, and these are 
 our streets. v We must have adequate transit facilities, but we 
 propose to have them at the lowest cost, and if there is any 
 profit let it go to the community and not to the few. We will 
 do our own. transportation if necessary, and if there is a profit 
 we will use it in lowering the fare "? That is exactly what 
 the people of Glasgow did in 1894, and the municipality of 
 that canny Scotch city is now operating its own system of 
 tram-cars. I often think that it was an extremely fortunate 
 circumstance that the government took under its control the 
 business of the post-office, and that it did not fall into the 
 hands of some choice syndicate. In the administrative report 
 of the city of Berlin for the year 1892-93 taxation furnished 
 about one half of the twenty-one million dollars of receipts, 
 and of the remaining eleven millions the profits from the city's 
 gas and water works were five millions. The report also 
 mentioned thirty-nine separate departments, among which were 
 city markets, parks, wash-houses, children's playgrounds, muni- 
 cipal savings-banks and pawnshops, and a vast system of sewer- 
 
30 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 age-farms. London provides municipal lodging-houses, winter 
 swimming-baths, small parks and playgrounds, lavatories, and 
 evening recreation schools, as a matter of course. Now ask 
 yourselves how many of these necessities, to say nothing of 
 the luxuries, of life New York provides for the people ? Where 
 will you direct the visiting foreigner who may wish to com- 
 pare your municipal lodging-houses with those in his own 
 city? What can you point to in the way of a public library, 
 and what is there about our public-school system of which we 
 can be very proud ? Are these things any the less needful in 
 New York ? 
 
 From a calm and impartial survey of the conditions in our 
 cities we are compelled to admit the low tone of the municipal 
 spirit. Who are the men who stand forth as the conspicuous 
 leaders of our great political parties and what are their claims 
 to such preeminence? Does the press mold and shape public 
 opinion, or is it a weathercock that is turned by the prevailing 
 sentiments, instead of being a guide-board pointing out the 
 right road? Have the clergy massed their influence on the 
 side of the forces making for civic righteousness, c/r have they 
 frittered away their energies in the discussion of the wisdom of 
 methods and policies? To what extent do you allow yourself 
 to be made dissatisfied by the lack of civic spirit, and what effort 
 are you making in helping on the civic renaissance ? That there 
 has been a civic awakening is beyond dispute. It will accord- 
 ingly be of profit to examine the principal causes, so that we 
 can give a reason for the political faith that is in us. 
 
 The foremost cause of the civic awakening was moral, for 
 the struggle was clearly fought on moral grounds. In all the 
 campaign speeches of Dr. Parkhurst the trend of thought was 
 that the issues were those of right and wrong, and the plank- 
 ing of his platform was civic righteousness. Before November 
 6, 1894, the moral blood of the body politic flowed sluggishly ; 
 but Dr. Parkhurst injected fresh blood and stiffened the civic 
 
THE Ciy 1C RENAISSANCE 3* 
 
 system by a vigorous tonic ; then the veins pulsated to throb- 
 bing, and the new life-bringing energy manifested itself in the 
 arms, legs, and brains of the voters who deposited their ballots 
 at the polls. The civic conscience had been aroused ; each 
 individual who acted for good government on election day 
 was possessed of no extra amount of virtue, but used what 
 was already in his possession, with a surprising result in a good 
 many cases, I have no doubt. The editorials of the leading 
 journals on the day following the election reflected primarily 
 the moral issues of the campaign. 
 
 " The ten commandments have prevailed by majorities that 
 vindicate the right of the people to rule. No one can measure 
 the practical effect of the votes recorded yesterday." * 
 
 " Henceforth let no American citizen ever despair of the 
 Republic or doubt the endurance of representative institutions. 
 Yesterday's magnificent uprising in this city triumphantly de- 
 livered popular government from the sneers of its enemies and 
 the fears of its friends. It has long been acknowledged by 
 enlightened minds that the one supreme test of free institutions 
 was in the administration of the affairs of great municipalities. 
 For years New York, oppressed by bossism, degraded by the 
 reign of crime, ruled by the most perfectly disciplined and the 
 most absolutely corrupt political machine ever fashioned by 
 man, has been an object of scorn to the adherents of mon- 
 archy and a source of deep humiliation to the upholders of 
 civic freedom. Tammany has seemed omnipotent. . . . Timid 
 men said that its malignant reign could never be overthrown. 
 They forgot the invincible power of right. They did not 
 measure the irresistible might of the awakened American con- 
 science. 
 
 " To-day New York is free by the act of her own citizens. 
 The voters of the metropolis have battered down, by their bal- 
 lots, the political despotism that had plundered them so long, 
 
 * The New York Tribune, November 7, 1894. 
 
32 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 and have proclaimed anew the immortal doctrines of that 
 Declaration of Independence which is the charter of American 
 liberty. Republican government has vindicated itself in the 
 stronghold of its enemies, and triumphed gloriously over ob- 
 stacles greater than any which it has encountered in the history 
 of the world. For this vindication and this deliverance every 
 loyal American has reason to rejoice with joy unspeakable, to 
 look forward to the future with renewed faith and courage, 
 and to return thanks with all reverence and all sincerity to 
 Almighty God ! " * 
 
 " Now may the people of this city give themselves up to un- 
 bounded jubilation and thanksgiving. New York is redeemed 
 and will be regenerated. 
 
 " The battle for good government and public morality has 
 been fought, and a glorious victory won by the people and for 
 the people. 
 
 "Tammany has not been beaten simply. Its forces have 
 not been routed merely. It has been crushed, its vicious sway 
 broken, its power annihilated. The ground-swell of popular 
 feeling and might that moved against it with the silent, all- 
 crushing force of an Alpine glacier has swept it to destruction. 
 
 " It was a revolution that closes a dark and opens a bright 
 era in the municipal affairs of New York. It marks the down- 
 fall of a long reign of riotous abuse which has cursed New 
 York as no other American city has ever been cursed and 
 made the very name of Tammany a synonym throughout the 
 civilized world of corrupt politics, arrogant bossism, and de- 
 moralizing misrule. All this the victimized people of New 
 York endured until it was carried beyond the limit of endur- 
 ance, when they rose in their might and their wrath, and cried 
 in thunder-tones, ' Thus far and no farther ! ' 
 
 " It was a grand uprising, which attests the conscience, the 
 determination, and the power of the people when aroused and 
 * The New York Press, November 7, 1894, 
 
 " ''' >:, ,'. 
 
THE CIVIC RENAISSANCE 33 
 
 summoned to the rescue of popular government and public 
 morality. It was a glorious victory that will be hailed with 
 joy and acclamation wherever vicious boss rule and official 
 corruption are condemned and honesty in public affairs is ap- 
 proved. ... 
 
 "... It means, in short, municipal regeneration that every 
 department of the city government shall be reformed and con- 
 ducted honestly, efficiently, and economically for the public 
 good." * 
 
 The union of the moral forces in the community was mag- 
 nificently voiced by the clergy of this city about two weeks 
 before the election; but I could have wished that there had 
 been one-hundredth part of this clerical support about two 
 years before, when the few who were fighting in the van of 
 civic reform needed every ounce of support and encourage- 
 ment. It was then not so respectable to be allied with the 
 reform movement, while now there is the keenest emulation 
 in heaping up the highest honors on those who have succeeded 
 in this fight to make New York not only greater, but better ; 
 now there is very little anonymous sympathy. 
 
 Another cause of the awakening which should have a large 
 place is the legal proof of the existence of the corruption in 
 our city administration For that reason we owe a debt of 
 gratitude to the Investigating Committee. It is a very easy 
 matter to bring accusations of malfeasance in office and 
 charges of corruption in a municipal department, but it is a 
 very difficult matter to prove such allegations. The commu- 
 nity now has legal proof of what before was only moral certainty 
 of the existing corruption. We were all pretty sure that the 
 police were venal, that vice was protected and virtue defense- 
 less, that there was a criminal collusion between the criminal 
 classes and those who should have been their sworn enemies ; 
 but how many of us would have gone into court with our 
 * The New York Herald, November 7, 1894. 
 
34 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 moral certitude of the prevalent wrong-doing ? and even if we 
 had, what would have been the legal worth of such opinions ? 
 The lack of legal proof is the rock on which so many so-called 
 reformers suffer shipwreck. The fact that Dr. Parkhurst has 
 only made charges that he can defend with a whole battery of 
 facts has made him the dread of all the evil-doers in the city, 
 and has given him a scourge with which he can lash them 
 
 I relentlessly. 
 
 II The insistence that was laid on non-partizanship, not only 
 I in New York, but in other cities, was a large element of 
 
 I the success of the last election. And the result of the elec- 
 tion has not lessened the need. From a study of nearly all 
 the municipal reform movements in the United States the 
 Igreat majority consider non-partizanship of prime importance. 
 Measures, not men, must take the place of the party cries ; 
 and, unless it is taken for granted, the qualifying adjective 
 "good " must precede "measures." No one party can claim 
 that it alone was responsible for the overturning of civic 
 misrule in New York, and no one party could have made 
 it possible. In matters affecting the welfare of a great mu- 
 nicipality questions of party have no place and should not 
 be tolerated. Our civic servants should be selected with the 
 same disregard of their party affiliations that you use when 
 you select a clerk, a butler, or a coachman. Who ever heard 
 of a Republican park or playground, a Democratic swimming- 
 
 I bath, a Prohibition street-cleaning department, or a Populist 
 mortuary? In federal politics let us cling as tenaciously as 
 
 I we please to the strictest party lines, but in municipal politics 
 there can be no party lines. Professor James Bryce clearly 
 grasped this principle when he recently wrote me: "It has 
 always seemed to me that among the things most needed in 
 American municipal life are, first, less intrusion of party feeling 
 into the city elections. . . ." Non-partizanship in the coming 
 
THE CIVIC RENAISSANCE 35 
 
 months is an element which must not be disregarded by all 
 true reformers. 
 
 Hatred of bosses was another factor in the rescue of the 
 city from misrule. As Dr. Strong so clearly demonstrated at 
 the opening Municipal Program Conference, the great struggle 
 of 1861-65 * was fought because the principle of federation 
 was imperiled ; but by the conclusion of the war that question 
 was settled. Then the soldier and the sailor, and the men who 
 had upheld the Union with their money and their influence, 
 turned their attention to the restoration of their business con- 
 cerns and the extension of their private affairs. They were 
 too much absorbed in them to pay attention to the manage- 
 ment of the city that might look out for itself. Then came 
 the practical politician, the man who had the time and was 
 willing to give his best thought to the care of the municipality. 
 He was willing to such an extent that in some cases he paid 
 $2000 election expenses for an office of which the salary was 
 $1500. These are the men who, as one of their own number 
 stated it, are not in politics for their health. To throw sand 
 in your eyes these same practical politicians took the utmost 
 pains to put the tax-rate at the lowest notch, but at the same 
 time doubled the valuation of the taxable property. They 
 kept Fifth Avenue scrupulously clean, and made Central Park 
 the peer of any in the world ; but while doing all this to lull 
 your suspicions, their henchmen made the ignorant Hebrews 
 on the East Side pay two dollars for the privilege of voting, 
 and annual legislation appropriating money for a park in Mul- 
 berry Bend afforded a choice playground for these same men. 
 The voice of the people at the last election expressed itself 
 against the bosses. One king-boss heard the muttering of the 
 elements and, like a prudent man, withdrew before the storm 
 
 * Note the rapid growth of the before unimportant cities after this 
 period. We are now a nation of cities. 
 
36 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 broke ; another remains, persisting in thinking that his occu- 
 pation is not yet gone, but if he continues to obstruct the 
 popular will, he will learn that political cyclones move in 
 circles. A recent utterance of Dr. Parkhurst on the boss has 
 great weight : 
 
 " You must remember that there is a big difference between 
 a leader and a boss. The leader is he who has the power of 
 reproducing his own conceptions, his own ideas, in the minds 
 of those who are in any way subjected to his interests. The 
 office of the leader is to make more and more of the man in 
 any way brought under his impress. The object of the boss 
 is to make less and less of the man who is brought in any way 
 under him. The boss is the most sagaciously devised scheme 
 ever originated for the purpose of crushing out, weakening, 
 and drying up in the individual all manly personality. And 
 this is why we pledge ourselves to fight the boss, whatever 
 may be his province and whatever may be his pretensions to 
 respectability. The more respectable he is the more damna- 
 bly dangerous he is." * 
 
 The fact that the victory for reform was won in New York 
 is of great importance. The position of this city is strategic, 
 not only for the State, but for the entire country. In addition, 
 the eyes .of the entire world were upon us, for it was well 
 known that we were suffering from the very worst government 
 that has yet fallen upon any of our cities. Republican insti- 
 tutions were on trial, and outside cities and nations wondered 
 if we could shake off the despotism of misrule. When, there- 
 fore, we did rise in our civic might, and said, " Thus far and 
 no farther," the friends of good government all over the 
 country took fresh courage, and said to themselves, " If New 
 York can free herself we can." That is the reason that the 
 victory in our city has so much significance. Emphasizing 
 this statement, at the formal opening of the Teachers' Col- 
 * The City Vigilant, December, 1894. 
 
THE C1MC RENAISSANCE 37 
 
 lege, President Oilman, of the Johns Hopkins University, 
 remarked : 
 
 " New York is an example to all this land a colossal object- 
 lesson. It is in itself a sort of teachers' college where other 
 cities may learn both what to do and what not to do. It 
 suffers a bad municipal organization for years, then overturns 
 it in a day with the battery of the ten commandments. Other 
 cities may follow or neglect the lessons, but are sure to watch, 
 weigh, and judge what happens on the island of Manhattan. 
 The Central Park is opened similar parks appear in Boston 
 and San Francisco ; museums devoted to the works of nature 
 and art are established Washington and Chicago begin the 
 like ; Columbia unites the institutions of higher education in 
 a federative union Baltimore longs to do the same. Here 
 and now the unfolding of a new idea is celebrated an idea 
 not absolutely new, but new in its environment and possibili- 
 ties. The leaders of education in other cities, in surprise and 
 delight, will note, praise, emulate the suggestions here em- 
 bodied, the generosity with which they have been supported, 
 the enthusiasm which has governed their development." 
 
 How shall the victory be utilized to the utmost ? In the 
 first place, there should be a Municipal Council for the Greater 
 New York. If the Municipal Program Conferences * have 
 any one hobby it is the need of what is positive in our muni- 
 cipal program. Now that we have made ourselves obnoxious 
 by our insistence on that principle, and have done our best to 
 introduce that idea among the community, we will proceed to 
 the next step ; but do not then think that you have heard the 
 
 * ' ' Found : A Municipal Program. The Greater and Better New York. 
 A Series of Conferences of those interested in Good Municipal Govern- 
 ment, held in the Amity Building, 312 West 54th Street, under the Aus- 
 pices of the Nineteenth Assembly District of the City Vigilance League, 
 on Alternate Thursday Evenings, at Eight O'clock, during the season of 
 1894-5." 
 
3 8 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 last of the hobby. The consensus of opinion among the pro- 
 moters of these conferences is that the next step must be the 
 appointment of a Municipal Council. The work done by the 
 Committee of Seventy was necessary and of the greatest value ; 
 but that organization was not a representative body, in that it 
 was not chosen by the city ; it therefore had no official sanc- 
 tion. Now there should be such a committee, board, or coun- 
 cil, but it should have permanent and official recognition. 
 This sanction should result from the popular election of its 
 membership. As James C. Carter so truly said at a public 
 dinner, " The overthrow of the last election was volcanic, and 
 will not occur again this generation." The practical politi- 
 cians know this, and at this very minute are laying their plans 
 for the old line of action, just as soon as the public shall have 
 gone to sleep again. Civic insomnia is a disease for which 
 these physicians seldom prescribe. The limits of this chapter 
 will not permit the description of the organization or the duties 
 of such a council, but the pressing need at the present time is 
 for some machine, steady, constant, and untiring, that shall be 
 the instrument for the transmission of an enlightened public 
 opinion. Now, if you also believe it, give currency to the 
 idea ; discuss the need and its solution among your friends ; 
 then some day you will learn of its realization, and you will 
 have been responsible to a certain extent for its creation. That 
 will be practical politics. 
 
 The work of destruction has been successful, and the dust 
 from the crash of the overthrown walls of the hall is slowly 
 ^disappearing. The era ahead is therefore one of upbuilding, 
 constructive, positive. Leighton Williams very wisely pressed 
 the need of the educational phases of reform work, because 
 misrule is largely made possible through the ignorance of citi- 
 zens. Your indifference to matters of civic import is one ele- 
 ment in the continuance of political ignorance. Accordingly 
 every ounce of social and political education will yield tons 
 
THE CIVIC RENAISSANCE 39 
 
 of good citizenship. It is your duty, therefore, to encourage, 
 just as much as in you lies, whatever will promote the civic 
 education of your fellows. That is why Vigilance Leagues, 
 Good Government Clubs, and conferences are of great value. 
 They secure attention and then stimulate it by giving their 
 members something to do. Illustrating this point from the 
 constitution of the City Vigilance League : 
 
 " The objects of this League shall be to quicken among its 
 members 'an appreciation of their municipal obligations ;^to 
 acquaint them with existing conditions; 3 to familiarize them 
 with the machinery of municipal government; to make con- 
 spicuous the respects in which such government is languidly or 
 criminally administered ;" to regard with jealous concern the 
 point at which private interest enters into competition with 
 the general good j^and in every possible way to repress in the 
 community what makes for its detriment, and^to foster what- 
 soever seems fitted to promote its advantage." 
 
 The people must be trusted, and in so far as they are deprived 
 of a share in civic affairs, to that extent have they suffered. If 
 we are a republic and a democracy we must return to that prin- 
 ciple, from which we have been straying far afield in the last 
 few years. But while the above facts are true, it is also true, in 
 my opinion, that the masses do not lead in any great reform. 
 When the leader arises they give or withhold their support, and 
 the movement in question succeeds or fails. Men crave leaders, 
 and instinctively Took up to those who will guide them under 
 the inspiration of a great cause ; hence we have a Savonarola, 
 a Luther, and a Parkhurst. It is that fact which justifies the 
 remarks of Dr. Albert Shaw concerning the latter reformer : 
 
 "And it should further be borne in mind that this unprece- 
 dented revolution in the public sentiment of New York City 
 has come about as a direct consequence of the untiring and 
 persistent attacks of the Rev. Charles H. Parkhurst, D.D., upon 
 the one point of the criminal corruption of the police depart- 
 
40 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 ment. A great lesson has thus been taught to reformers every- 
 where. Dr. Parkhurst has shown what can be accomplished 
 by intrepidity and by everlasting persistence. He began his 
 work with little public favor. Even the ministers of the vari- 
 ous denominations of New York came to his support in scant 
 numbers. Hundreds of them either publicly or privately ex- 
 pressed disapproval of his methods. But Dr. Parkhurst never 
 flinched for a moment, although he must have suffered keenly 
 from the slanders of his enemies and the distrust of those who 
 ought to have been his friends. But everything is different 
 now. Dr. Parkhurst is the most authoritative citizen of New 
 York. , No one dares to speak of him with disrespect. He 
 continues to denounce Tammany with an intensity that no one 
 else can equal ; yet even Tammany is at length subdued and 
 deferential in its attitude toward Dr. Parkhurst. And all the 
 newspapers are his humble arid obedient servants. Nothing 
 like this personal victory has ever been witnessed, so far as 
 we are aware, in any American community. Yet not for a 
 moment at any point has Dr. Parkhurst shown himself unequal 
 to this new and still more difficult role of unquestioned primacy 
 and authority. He maintains the same attitude of disinterest- 
 edness and self-forgetfulness.' r * 
 
 The leader, therefore, is useless without the following of the 
 masses, and vice versa. Just as in the industrial world there 
 can be no divided interests between labor and capital, so in 
 municipal affairs leaders and the people are essential. How 
 is the attention of the people to be gained? When the Tweed 
 ring was smashed, and, in our own day, when the Wigwam was 
 made desolate, it was the disclosure of the corruption incident 
 to each regime that held the public attention. Truly a strange 
 situation when corruption is necessary to rivet the public gaze 
 and hold the public ear! The 6th of November clearly proved 
 that the awakened public opinion would be no longer outraged, 
 * Review of Reviews, November, 1894. ' 
 
THE CIVIC RENAISSANCE 4* 
 
 and a halt has been called. Which is better: that we shall 
 suffer a relapse, until attention can only be aroused by the 
 uncovering of sores and the removal of cancers from the body 
 politic, or that the civic mind shall be kept active and stimu- 
 lated by a policy that will make it healthful and hardy? 
 
 The prophetic office is not always a sinecure. I consider 
 that I should be remiss in my duty unless I should point out 
 certain manifest dangers. In the present situation there are 
 discordant elements. Unless these can be overcome and har- 
 monized so that the rallying-cry shall be civic righteousness 
 and non-partizanship the victory will not be permanent. If it 
 be always true that history repeats itself it will be of advantage 
 for a moment to take a backward glance, but with the deter- 
 mination of guarding against the repetition of the evil. I 
 quote from a paper prepared by Miss Putnam : 
 
 " In 1 82 1 a bill was passed in the legislature providing for the 
 submission to the people at the spring election of the question 
 of a constitutional convention. That election was important 
 for New York, and the Evening Post, then in its twentieth year, 
 published repeated appeals to the voters to come out and cast 
 their ballots. The election took place the third week in April, 
 and the returns came in slowly. Saturday, April 28th, the Post 
 announced that the last reports, as brought in by steamboat, 
 justified a rejoicing over the result : ' This will convince the 
 demagogues of Tammany Hall that their influence has received 
 its death-blow, and that we are not to depend on the breath 
 of their nostrils. Men will be distinguished and rewarded ac- 
 cording to their merits, and not according to the dictates of a 
 Jacobin club. Their time is come ; they are fallen, never to 
 rise on their grizzly heads again.' The Post then thought that 
 it was not too soon to triumph over Tammany's downfall, and 
 that was seventy-three years ago." * 
 
 * " The Extension of the Franchise : What Constitutes a State Voter " 
 (Miss Ruth Putnam). 
 
42 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 A great victory has been won, but the general well knows 
 that a victory does not end the campaign. The routed enemy 
 must be followed up, in order to prevent him from making a 
 second stand; his camp must be destroyed and his base of 
 sup'plies cut off. A very pertinent question arises : " What are 
 we going to do about it ? " What encouragement that the 
 community will not again hibernate ? I claim with confidence 
 that there are many reasons why I am particularly hopeful 
 that this great victory will not be lost. The chief source of 
 encouragement lies in the fact that there are so many organ- 
 ized movements in the churches, particularly for the young 
 people. The waves of organizing fervor are now subsiding, 
 and the spirit of spiritual self-complacency has already exerted 
 a deleterious influence, so that the leaders are very wisely 
 affording fresh fuel for the flaming desire of doing something. 
 In my opinion, unless this had been done very soon, these 
 great societies would have burned themselves out. The fresh 
 fuel that is being heaped on the dying fires is an interest in 
 good citizenship, in which the pioneers are the Y. P. S. C. E. 
 Quoting from one of these movements in Omaha : " The pur- 
 \ pose of this League shall be the education of the Christian 
 1 people of Omaha in the conditions and needs of our city, and 
 V their duties as citizens to its municipal government." This is 
 \ the kind of standard needed, and when the other societies 
 attain it we shall have an enlightened body of young men 
 and women who will make a stand for their rights as citizens, 
 inasmuch as they know what they are ; and because they 
 are Christian citizens they will be just as ready to fulfil their 
 duties. 
 
 The victorious results will be far more permanent if we will 
 only take a more hopeful view of the situation. I am fully 
 aware of the dangers of an excessive optimism, but taken in 
 moderate doses it will be efficacious. Why should we not use 
 what we have gained as a vantage-ground for the next upward 
 
THE CIVIC RENAISSANCE 43 
 
 step ? The vaulted roof of the cathedral does not spring from 
 the columns till the foundations have been laid deep and sure. 
 The ground has now been cleared of obstructions and leveled 
 for the foundation of our civic temple, and it will be your fault 
 if the walls do not begin to rise. We should not be despon- 
 dent because the carvings of the pillars, the fretwork of the ceil- 
 ing, and the splendor of the spire may not form an harmonious 
 whole ; our immediate business is with the foundation. After 
 striking the balance the present municipal situation is encou- 
 raging, and would be still more so were it not for the pessimistic 
 croakers, who are almost as bad as the boss Crokers. I there- 
 fore maintain that every one who is distrustful that the reform 
 will not be permanent, that the old conditions of misrule will 
 very soon return, who begins all his sentences with an " if " 
 such persons are blocking the reform movement, and to the 
 extent that they express such sentiments are retarding the pro- 
 gress of events. 
 
 In order that this reform movement may be utilized to the 
 utmost the material and commercial spirit in our civic life 
 must be subordinated to the progressive and social spirit of 
 the times, because this new social spirit will not be satisfied 
 with a municipal policy that will content itself with a low tax- 
 rate and a successful policing of the city; it will absolutely 
 condemn the heartless and commercial greed of a sugar or 
 of any other great trust that will close its works, throwing 
 hundreds of employees out of work. Many of the so-called 
 reform movements have yet to learn this lesson, that com- 
 mercial and material prosperity are not the sole foundations 
 of the true welfare of a city. Do not misunderstand me. 
 I do not say that they are valueless, but they are only means 
 to an end, and that end is a city which shall be a home 
 for all the component parts. To illustrate concretely what 
 I have been saying, I quote from the constitution of a 
 reform organization : " We believe the accomplishment of 
 
44 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 the above purpose will promote the material growth and ad- 
 vance the commercial interests of this city, and to this end 
 we invite the cooperation of all our fellow-citizens." New 
 York is one of the richest cities in the world, while the evi- 
 dences of material and commercial splendor abound on every 
 side, unless, perchance, you are on the East Side. Tell me of 
 what advantage now, at this very minute, is this wealth to the 
 wage-earners, who may wish to improve their condition by at- 
 tendance at a technical or a manual- training school, who may 
 be desirous of visiting a public library, who would enjoy the 
 recreation of an art gallery or a museum, or who would gratify 
 any of the desires that you consider so essential to your hap- 
 piness? It is no answer to the question for you to say that 
 they will not appreciate such advantages, because you have 
 never given them a chance. I would therefore beg of you not 
 to be drawn too far away from the problems of pressing interest 
 by a consideration of voting-machines, the blanket ballot, 
 honest primaries, and the sale of the salt-works, but to use 
 your efforts in the enforcement of the positive program, be- 
 cause that will at once conduce to the true welfare of what 
 should be your city. 
 
II 
 
 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 45 
 
I am strongly impressed with the belief that mtmicipal reform proceeds 
 haltingly in the United States because, for one reason, many citizens who 
 desire sincerely to aid in the regeneration of their town life and neighborhood 
 affairs have formed no definite municipal ideals. They have neither learned 
 what in the experience of the world has come to be regarded as a sound con- 
 stitution or framework of municipal government, nor have they made up 
 their minds to what positive tasks and public services a municipal govern- 
 ment may wisely apply itself . . . . City government in America defeats its 
 own ends by its " checks and balances,'* its partitions of duty and responsi- 
 bility, and its grand opportunities for hide-and-seek. . . . Cheerful and 
 rational acceptance of urban life as a great social fact demands that the 
 city government should proceed to make such urban life condttce positively to 
 the welfare of all the people whose lawful interests bring them together as 
 denizens of great towns. 
 
 ALBERT SHAW. 
 
 46 
 
II 
 
 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 THE ADVANCE CLUB 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 HIRAM HOWARD. SAMUEL W. KILVERT, 
 
 Providence, R. I. 
 
 THIS Club was incorporated in 1892. According to its 
 constitution the Club was organized to promote the business 
 and material interests of the city of Providence, to cultivate a 
 broad and liberal public spirit among its citizens, and to assist 
 in the course of education, particularly in the lines of industrial 
 pursuits. 
 
 The Club purposes, among other things, to devote itself to 
 the work of encouraging new business enterprises in its city, 
 of extending its foreign and domestic trade, and of promoting 
 public improvements and sanitary measures. 
 
 The executive committee consists of fifteen members, with 
 the following departments of work : 
 
 1. Entertainment. 
 
 2. Publication. 
 
 3. Promotion of Manufactures and Trade. 
 
 4. Water, Sewerage, and Sanitary Conditions. 
 
 5. Education. 
 
 6. Parks and Public Buildings. 
 
 7. Railroads and Transportation. 
 
 47 
 
48 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 8. Marine Commerce and Harbor Improvements. 
 
 9. Highways. 
 
 10. Municipal Reform. 
 The initiation fee is $10, and the annual dues $25. 
 
 AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF CIVICS 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 HENRY RANDALL WAITE, PH.D. HON. W. E. SHELDON, 
 
 3 Somerset Street, 
 Boston, Mass. 
 
 The Institute was organized in 1885 and incorporated under 
 the laws of Congress in 1887. There are no salaried offices. 
 The object, as stated in the constitution, is to promote good 
 government and right social order by elevating the standard 
 of citizenship. There are three classes of members life, hon- 
 orary, and active. An executive committee of eleven meets at 
 the call of the chairman. There are no salaried officials in 
 the Institute. The work is directed by means of seven de- 
 partments : 
 
 1. Extension. 
 
 2. Department of Public-school Work. 
 
 3. Business-school Department. 
 
 4. College and Professional-school Department. 
 
 5. Press Department. 
 
 6. Department of Salutary Legislation. 
 
 7. Department of Applied Ethics. 
 
 The organ of the Institute is a monthly, the American 
 Magazine of Civics. By this means, and through its staff of 
 officers and lecturers, to the number of five hundred and twenty, 
 in all parts of the country, the organization comes in touch 
 with its members. The local branches are known as .clubs 
 and councils, which exist in several of the larger cities. 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 4 
 
 Institute is strictly non-partizan. Women are eligible. The 
 Institute calls to its membership only those who are willing to 
 aid in its advancement; but the character and the extent 
 of this aid is intended to be chiefly a matter of individual 
 judgment, according to personal and local conditions and 
 opportunities. Members as individuals, or in connection with 
 local councils, at the cost of little effort, have rendered such 
 aid. They have done this by interesting popular organizations 
 in the discussion of citizenship duties ; by lectures, or provision 
 for lectures (free, if possible), before lyceums, working-men's 
 clubs, young people's associations, and other suitable organi- 
 zations, secular and religious ; by securing the salutary obser- 
 vance of patriotic anniversaries ; by promoting adequate instruc- 
 tion in civics in all schools ; by cooperation in efforts to secure 
 the wise and honest administration of public affairs ; by pro- 
 moting the local and State legislation and other action neces- 
 sary to the purity of the ballot, honesty and efficiency in the 
 civil service, the integrity and highest usefulness of the public 
 schools, the maintenance of law and order, and the promotion 
 of social purity. 
 
 ANTI-SPOILS LEAGUE 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 CARL SCHURZ. GEORGE MCANENY, 
 
 54 William Street, 
 
 New York. 
 
 The League was organized in 1893, in affiliation with the 
 National Civil-service Reform League, and having for its 
 officers the officers of that organization. Its object is the 
 complete abolition of the spoils system from the public service. 
 It secures financial support from voluntary contributors. The 
 members are called " subscribing " that is, those who sub- 
 scribe their names to the League's declaration : 
 
50 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 " We hereby declare ourselves in favor of the complete abo- 
 lition of the spoils system from the public service, believing 
 that system to be unjust, undemocratic, injurious to political 
 parties, fruitful of corruption, a burden to legislative and ex- 
 ecutive officers, and in every way opposed to the principles of 
 good government. 
 
 " We call upon all in authority to extend to the utmost the 
 operation of the present reform laws, and by additional legis- 
 lation to carry the benefits of the merit system to the farthest 
 practicable limits under our national, State, and municipal 
 governments." 
 
 The League was formed under the auspices of the National 
 Civil-service Reform League, upon the suggestion of Mr. Rich- 
 ard Watson Gilder. Its purpose was to bring together in a 
 compact body those who are willing to affirm their opposition 
 to the spoils system in national, State, or municipal government, 
 and to aid, as their opportunities may allow, in the efforts 
 making toward its eradication. Among the results already 
 accomplished have been the general dissemination of infor- 
 mation regarding the civil-service reform movement, and the 
 promotion of various local movements for municipal and other 
 reforms. The League now has upon its rolls the names of 
 about ten thousand members, located in almost every State 
 and Territory. 
 
 THE CITIZENS' ASSOCIATION OF ALBANY 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 J. HOWARD KING. DAVID A. THOMPSON, 
 
 Albany, N. Y. 
 
 The Citizens' Association of Albany was organized in Janu- 
 ary, 1 88 1. The Board of Supervisors of that county had not 
 then finally adjourned, although most of the county accounts 
 had been audited. 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 5 1 
 
 It was about this time reported that gross frauds had been 
 perpetrated upon the county by the presentation of fictitious 
 claims by certain coroners and undertakers ; and the Associa- 
 tion, on inquiry, found that only three or four years before 
 similar frauds had been discovered, but that public attention 
 had not been called to the fact, and the guilty parties had not 
 been prosecuted. 
 
 The Association seeks to promote the interests of neither 
 political party, but expects to convince both parties that when 
 dishonest and corrupt men are nominated for office citizens 
 will have the independence not to vote for them, and to warn 
 those who seek office simply for the purpose of plundering the 
 public treasury that their malfeasance in office will be exposed ; 
 and, if that be not a sufficient argument, that criminal proceed- 
 ings will be taken against them. 
 
 Its paid attorney, J. Fenimore Cooper, Esq., scans all claims 
 presented on verified forms to the county Board of Supervisors, 
 or Common Council, and enjoins the payment of such as are 
 illegal or unauthorized. The executive committee has done 
 much good by introducing new and defeating bad legislation 
 affecting the city and county. The Committee of Thirteen 
 directs the work of the Association. Each member of the 
 Association who is taxed in the county of Albany for real or 
 personal property, or both, to the amount of $25,000 or more, 
 pays an annual fee of $25. If a member is assessed between 
 $10,000 and $25,000, his fee is $10, and $5 when the assess- 
 ment is less than $10,000. 
 
 The committee makes this statement in its last report : 
 
 "The committee has been thus far enabled to pursue a 
 course unfettered by entangling alliances, and uninfluenced 
 by personal interests or political prejudices or predilections.' 
 
 " It has attempted to represent and protect an element in 
 our municipal commonwealth which finds but slight recogni- 
 tion in a political government where most (with a few honor- 
 
52 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 able exceptions) of those who control our public affairs 'are 
 so busied in their private concernments that they have neither 
 leisure to study the public interest nor are safely to be trusted 
 with it, because a man is not faithfully embarked in this kind 
 of a ship if he has no share in the freight.' 
 
 " It has prepared and procured the passage, from year to 
 year, of many statutes which have regulated and reorganized 
 our local administration. 
 
 " It has secured judicial decisions preventing and punishing 
 the pillage of the public treasury. 
 
 "Above all, it has sought to mold public sentiment from 
 chaotic clamor into well-defined purposes of redress, and to 
 open paths of remedy for public wrongs. For in the purpose 
 and pathway of public opinion lie the preeminent elements of 
 its past success and all the possibilities of its future." 
 
 CITIZENS' ASSOCIATION OF BOSTON 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 CAUSTEN BROWNE. HERBERT L. HARDING, 
 
 89 State Street, 
 
 Boston, Mass. 
 
 December 27, 1887, was the date of organization, but the 
 Association is unincorporated. The secretary occupies a 
 salaried position, as he acts as counsel to the Association. 
 The society is supported by subscriptions and annual assess- 
 ments of $10 on the members. According to the constitu- 
 tion: 
 
 "The purpose of the Association shall be to promote an 
 honest, efficient, and economical administration of municipal 
 and county affairs, by inducing the citizens and taxpayers to 
 take a more active and intelligent interest in such affairs, by 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 53 
 
 furnishing an accurate and non-partizan account of the man- 
 ner in which the city is governed and of the conduct of the 
 public servants, by encouraging faithful and exposing unfaith- 
 ful performance of official duties, and by advocating legislation 
 necessary or proper for securing its purpose. 
 
 " It shall be the endeavor of the Association to keep a care- 
 ful watch over the expenditures of public money, the making 
 and performance of contracts, the purchase of supplies and 
 material, and the passage of measures by the City Council ; to 
 prevent illegal, fraudulent, or improper payments from the city 
 or county treasury ; to investigate alleged official misconduct, 
 to bring to punishment all who may be parties to such mis- 
 conduct, and to ascertain and report any facts which, in the 
 interest of good government, should be known by the citizens 
 of Boston." 
 
 Thirteen comprise the executive committee, who meet twice 
 a month and assign the work to the following departments : 
 
 1. Finance. 3. Membership. 
 
 2. Law. 4. General Committee (thirty 
 
 members). 
 
 The Association does not take partizan action in advancing 
 the nomination or election of candidates for public office ; but 
 in carrying out the purpose of the Association, as set forth 
 above, it may publish information relating to such candidates, 
 and may oppose the election of any candidate whose defeat 
 may appear to be demanded in the public interest. There is 
 no organ of the Association. Women are eligible to member- 
 ship. In answer to the inquiry, What are the results actually 
 accomplished by the Association? the secretary writes: 
 
 " It is rather difficult for me to place any correct estimate 
 upon the relative value of our various efforts. We have ac- 
 complished, unquestionably, a great deal of good, both directly 
 
54 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 and indirectly ; that is to say, we have affirmatively accom- 
 plished many good results, or we have prevented, by our timely 
 and effective opposition, many injurious consequences by direct 
 action ; and we have also indirectly accomplished other work 
 of perhaps larger value by awakening the public conscience, 
 calling attention to needed reforms, and showing the citizens 
 what they ought to have and how they can get it. For in- 
 stance, we have prevented by our effective opposition various 
 attempts to raise the debt and tax limitations now imposed 
 by statute; we have prevented by interference and exposure 
 many fraudulent and improper proceedings, like the purchase 
 of land, the payment of large sums of money in settlement of 
 disputed claims, the improper settlement of suits brought against 
 boodlers, and other things of this sort. We have undoubtedly 
 been the means of defeating one or two objectionable measures 
 which would otherwise have been passed by the legislature, 
 in regard to franchises in our streets and alleged rapid-transit 
 measures. We were the means, four years ago, of exposing 
 to public ridicule and contempt a most unworthy candidate for 
 the mayoralty, who challenged us in regard to his character. 
 The exposure which we were forced to make of him, followed 
 by his ignominious attempts at explanation, resulted in deliv- 
 ering the city from the control of a most corrupt man, as he 
 has since proved to be, for he fled the town. 
 
 " As a sample of the indirect good which has resulted from 
 our work, I might mention lower rates for electric-light service, 
 the removal and burying of overhead wires, the reorganization 
 of certain executive departments of the city government upon 
 business principles, the defeat and the passage of many mea- 
 sures by the State legislature and City Council." 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 55 
 
 THE CITIZENS' ASSOCIATION 
 
 President, Treasurer, 
 
 JOHN C. GRAVES. H. C. HARROWER, 
 
 Buffalo, N. Y. 
 
 The organization of the Association was effected in 1888, 
 but there is no permanent secretary. The Committee on 
 Legislation is practically an executive committee, and consists 
 of nine members, meeting at the call of the chairman. There 
 is also a Committee on Separate Local Elections. There is 
 no membership of women, although there is nothing to pre- 
 vent their taking part in the work of the Association. The 
 original object of the society was the reform of the city charter, 
 but since 1891, when the revised charter was adopted, its work 
 has been to protect and improve it. Other matters of local 
 and general interest in municipal affairs are discussed. 
 
 The Citizens' Association is a wholly indefinite body. It 
 has no membership, properly speaking, no constitution, and 
 no by-laws. Its first active members, who framed the revised 
 charter and carried it through, were chiefly delegates sent from 
 all the other organized bodies of citizens of the various pro- 
 fessions, trades, and commercial bodies, local associations, etc. 
 But even this skeleton organization has now been abandoned. 
 The president, who is practically a permanent officer, calls 
 public meetings on the floor of the Merchants' Exchange 
 whenever there is a demand for action. Any one is at liberty 
 to attend, to speak, and to vote. They are practically town- 
 meetings, though the attendance is usually not large. The 
 local press gladly gives publicity to such meetings, and the 
 action taken commands such authority as responsive public 
 sentiment gives it. A few standing committees have charge 
 of matters upon which the Association has formulated opinions 
 in the past. One of these, the Committee on Legislation, is 
 expected to watch all proposed charter amendments. An- 
 
56 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 other, the Committee on Separate Local Elections, has been 
 instructed by repeated resolutions to take action to promote 
 some general scheme for the entire separation, in point of time, 
 of all the local elections in cities and large counties from State 
 and national elections. 
 
 THE CITIZENS' ASSOCIATION OF CHICAGO 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 I. K. BOYESEN. J. C. AMBLER, 
 
 33 Merchants' Building, 
 
 Chicago, 111. 
 
 The Association was organized July 24, 1874, but has not 
 been incorporated. The secretary holds a salaried position. 
 The preamble of the Association's constitution states : 
 
 " In order to insure a more perfect administration in our 
 municipal affairs ; to promote the general welfare and prosper- 
 ity of the city ; to protect citizens, so far as possible, against 
 the evils of careless or corrupt legislation ; to effect the prompt 
 enforcement and execution of the law ; to foster and encou- 
 rage all enterprises necessary and calculated to develop and 
 extend our business and commercial interests ; to protect and 
 maintain our credit, both at home and abroad; to secure such 
 legislation, both State and national, as the interests of the city 
 may from time to time require ; to arouse a more widely ex- 
 tended interest in our municipal legislation and administration ; 
 to correct existing abuses, and to prevent their future recur- 
 rence ; and believing that, to secure these ends, organized and 
 united action is necessary ; 
 
 " We, citizens, taxpayers, and voters, in the city of Chicago, 
 have formed this Association, and for its government have 
 established this constitution. 
 
 "The general purposes of this Association shall be those 
 set forth in the preamble to this constitution, employing such 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 57 
 
 means to execute those purposes as this Association may from 
 time to time adopt." 
 
 Financial support is obtained from the membership fees. 
 An executive committee of fifteen meets each week. This com- 
 mittee appoints standing committees : 
 
 1. Advisory. 3. City and County Administration. 
 
 2. Finance. 4. State Legislation. 
 
 5. Taxation. 
 
 The Association does not take any active part in politics. 
 Women are eligible to membership, but none have yet joined. 
 As there is no organ of the society, it comes in touch with the 
 workers by means of the executive committee. As to results 
 actually accomplished, the executive committee has com- 
 piled in chronological form the principal transactions of the 
 Association since its organization. This was the record for 
 1892-93: 
 
 Legislation. Promoting projects for the reform of our city 
 and county administration by efforts to obtain a constitutional 
 convention. Favoring the bill for registration of land-titles on 
 the Australian plan. The peculiarity of the political situation 
 prevented, as in 1883, any beneficial legislation except of a 
 general character. 
 
 Police Courts. Continuing the investigation begun last year, 
 and with marked success, as cannot be denied upon compari- 
 son of the two periods. 
 
 Keeping the public advised at all times of attempts to infringe 
 their rights, and either by publication or otherwise calling at- 
 tention to public grievances and suggesting remedies. 
 
 Attending to the general interests of the city by observations 
 and action with regard to main and house drainage, stenches, 
 smoke, whistles, both marine and stationary, street obstructions, 
 fast driving, pavements, water-supply, sanitation, usurious loans 
 to poor people, and other business which has become regular. 
 
58 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 CITIZENS' CLUB 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 JULIUS DEXTER. NATHANIEL HENCHMAN DAVIS, 
 
 64 West Third Street, 
 
 Cincinnati, O. 
 
 This Club, organized in 1893, is the successor of the Com- 
 mittee of One Hundred, organized in October, 1885. The 
 secretary at present holds a salaried position. 
 
 The Citizens' Club has been organized to promote honest 
 and efficient administration of local affairs. The objects of 
 the Club will be sought through its officers and executive com- 
 mittee, principally by insistence that public officials shall keep 
 within their duties, especially in the expenditure of public 
 money, and shall wholly comply with the requirements of law. 
 
 Statutes of doubtful legality will be contested, especially 
 when they involve debt or taxation. Generally criticism will 
 be applied to city and county affairs, and as far' as possible 
 correct and accurate information will be collected and pub- 
 lished about local administration. 
 
 In brief, it will be the duty of the Club to call attention to 
 such abuses of power as require correction, and to apply the 
 remedies provided by law. 
 
 The Club will try to supply the place mentioned in the old 
 saying, "What is everybody's business is nobody's business;" 
 and as vigilance is the price of immunity from official abuse, 
 this organization will, if properly sustained by sufficient finan- 
 cial means and the moral support of this community, be vigi- 
 lant and aggressive for the public good. 
 
 The annual membership fee is $5. The executive commit- 
 tee of nine meets at the call of the chair. The Club is re- 
 stricted in its political action. Women are ineligible to mem- 
 bership. 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 59 
 
 The Committee of One Hundred was organized in October, 
 1885, to purify the city and county government, and correct 
 abuses in the administration of the elections and the police 
 department, all of which were in a very scandalous condition. 
 The Committee prosecuted and succeeded in sending to the 
 State penitentiary eight or ten men, some of them prominent 
 officers of the city government, for fraud either in the admin- 
 istration of the government or in the elections. The Commit- 
 tee succeeded in having passed by the legislature the Elec- 
 tion Bill, establishing registration of voters, and reserving 
 one hundred feet each side of the polling-places ; the non- 
 partizan board of four members then created is still in exis- 
 tence, and gives general satisfaction. It also had the Police 
 Bill passed, establishing a non(bi)-partizan board, which is 
 still in existence ; and though it has not always been as satis- 
 factory as the Election Board, has finally given the city one of 
 the very best police forces in this country, as it now requires 
 both a mental and a very careful physical examination of all 
 applicants. 
 
 The Citizens' Club pays especial attention to the letting of 
 contracts and the levying of taxes. 
 
 THE CITIZENS' FEDERATION OF TOLEDO 
 
 Secretary, 
 I E. P. MULL, 
 
 113 Superior Street, 
 
 Toledo, O. 
 
 October 10, 1894, the organization was effected, under a 
 voluntary secretary, but the entire board of officers has not yet 
 been chosen. The respective chairmen of the Pastors' Union 
 and the Christian Endeavor County Union organized the Fed- 
 eration. ( Some of the strongest business men and lawyers in the 
 
60 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 city are enlisted, with the support of their money and service, 
 as far as they can possibly devote it. There is an advisory 
 board, made up of a representative from each denomination 
 and religious society in the city. The object of the society, 
 as stated in its constitution, is to promote good citizenship ; 
 to assist in the enforcement of national, State, and municipal 
 laws; to encourage and insist on the maintenance of good 
 government. The executive committee of seven meets once 
 a week. There are four departments of work : 
 
 1. Gambling. 3. Sunday Desecrations. 
 
 2. Saloons. 4. Disorderly Houses. 
 
 The ward is the lowest unit of organization, and the society 
 is unrestricted in its political action. Women are eligible to 
 membership. The recent organization has not admitted of 
 any resuUs actually accomplished. 
 
 CITIZENS' LEAGUE 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 LUTHER H. KELLAM. HENRY HOLLINGSHED, JR., 
 
 1 1 1 Market Street, 
 
 Camden, N. J. 
 
 The society, under its -present name, was organized October, 
 1893, but is not incorporated. The League seemed to have 
 grown out of a variety of causes, the principal of which was 
 the controlling influence which the Gloucester race-track and 
 kindred vicious powers exerted upon both political parties, 
 dictating nominations, controlling election boards, " fixing " up 
 the count, and generally manipulating the elections so that in 
 no event would the friends of law and order get any control. 
 In addition the courts were tampered with, juries fixed, the 
 race-track owners and habitues protected at all hazard or at 
 any cost. A voluntary secretary has charge of the work, and 
 voluntary contributions furnish financial support. During the 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 61 
 
 campaign a newspaper called the Citizens' League is published. 
 The objects of the League, as stated in its platform, are : 
 
 " i. We demand the election of city and county officials 
 upon a strictly non-partizan basis, integrity and fitness being 
 the only qualities required. 
 
 "2. We demand the reduction of the present high taxes, as 
 far as is consistent with the proper conduct of public affairs, 
 and a just and proper return of benefits to the people for all 
 the burdens of taxation. 
 
 "3. We denounce the present useless multiplication of offices, 
 and we demand from our legislature the repeal of all laws which 
 deprive our citizens of the right of self-government, and espe- 
 cially those which tend to destroy temperance and morality." 
 
 The leading result of these demands has been better nomi- 
 nations by the dominant party. Women are ineligible to 
 membership. 
 
 CITIZENS' LEAGUE OF NEW ROCHELLE 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 JOHN O. OFFORD. W. B. GREELY, 
 
 39 Leland Avenue, 
 New Rochelle, N. Y. 
 
 This League was organized February 22, 1894, with a vol- 
 untary secretary. The association was effected from the de- 
 sire of the citizens to free themselves from ring rule. As stated 
 in its constitution, " its object shall be the securing of good 
 government in town and village on non-partizan lines." The 
 executive committee of nine meets at the call of the president. 
 There is as yet but one department of work, namely, on or- 
 ganization, which works within each election district. There 
 is no constitutional provision excluding women from member- 
 ship, but there are none at present. Voluntary contributions 
 support the League, and it is not restricted in political action. 
 Membership in the League may be obtained, on application to 
 
62 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 the chairman of the proper sub-committee on organization, 
 by any one believing in non-partizan local government, to be 
 confirmed by signing the roll of members of his district. 
 
 The Citizens' League of New Rochelle is a strictly non-par- 
 tizan organization, and its sole object is to promote honest, 
 faithful, and economical government in town and village 
 affairs. To this end its aim is to secure by all lawful means 
 the election of competent, intelligent, and reliable men, whose 
 character will not only be an assurance of their conscientious 
 discharge of duty, but also of the correction of existing abuses. 
 
 The policy of the League is either the indorsement of eligible 
 candidates nominated by any of the political parties, or, in 
 default of such nominations, the selection of independent can- 
 didates who may be commended with confidence to the suf- 
 frages of the people. 
 
 In noting the results actually accomplished it has been 
 learned that in the village election held April 17, 1894, the 
 influence of the League was instrumental in securing the elec- 
 tion of one trustee against the ring candidate, and in reducing 
 the expected majorities of the other ring candidates in one 
 case to two and in another to less than ten. In the recent 
 school-board election the ring candidates were defeated by an 
 overwhelming majority a result due largely to the work of 
 the League in the village election. 
 
 THE CITIZENS' LEAGUE OF THE TOWN OF 
 NORWALK 
 
 Secretary, 
 
 CHARLES HELMER, JR., 
 20 West Street, 
 
 South Norwalk, Conn. 
 
 The saloons were becoming unbearable, and corrupting 
 politics and officials increasing alarmingly, when a meeting 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 63 
 
 was called June, 1 894, to form an Anti-Saloon League. At the 
 meeting it was voted to make it broader, and the name Citi- 
 zens' League was- adopted. The growth has been rapid. Men 
 of all parties, creeds, and beliefs are coming in. Membership 
 now numbers about one hundred and fifty all strong, influ- 
 ential men. The chief object is against the saloon, because 
 it is believed to be the center of vice, crime, and corruption in 
 politics. Hence the aim is at the saloon, but at the same 
 time other things are not forgotten. According to its consti- 
 tution, "the object of the League shall be the consolidation 
 and increase of anti-liquor-saloon sentiment ; the education of 
 citizens as to the nature of the licensed saloon; the increase 
 of the no-license vote ; the suppression of saloons and all social 
 evils in every legitimate way ; and the stimulating of interest 
 in the performance of the civic duties" 
 
 The membership fee is $i a year. The present temporary 
 executive committee is composed of seven members, meeting 
 at the call of the president. Standing committees have been 
 appointed on: 
 
 1. Finance. 4. Educational Literature. 
 
 2. Membership. 5. Elections. 
 
 3. Educational Meetings. 6. Law and Order. 
 
 7. Saloon Licenses. 
 
 The League is not restricted in its political action. Women 
 are ineligible to membership. The League is of too recent an 
 origin to have a long list of things actually accomplished, but 
 it has aroused a deep public sentiment, resulting in the nomi- 
 nation and election of good officers and the better enforcement 
 of existing laws. 
 
64 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 CITIZENS' MUNICIPAL ASSOCIATION OF 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 JOEL J. BAILY. GEORGE BURNHAM, JR., 
 
 1213 Filbert Street, 
 
 Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 The society was organized April 20, 1886, and incorporated 
 April 30, 1887. The secretary holds a voluntary position, but 
 the Association employs an agent who receives a salary and 
 is allowed a stenographer. Annual dues from members and 
 voluntary contributions support the organization. The execu- 
 tive committee consists of twenty-one, who meet regularly once 
 a month. The departments of work are five : 
 
 1. Finance. 3. Abuses and Complaints. 
 
 2. Membership. 4. Law and Legislation. 
 
 5. Room and Library. 
 
 According to its constitution the objects of the Association 
 shall be: 
 
 " i . To sustain the constituted authorities in a faithful ad- 
 ministration of the public service. 
 
 "2. To secure a strict fulfilment by public officers, employees, 
 and contractors of all their obligations to the city and to the 
 citizdn. 
 
 "3. To promote such legislation as shall be most conducive 
 to the public welfare." 
 
 The Association has no organ, but is generally sustained by 
 the newspapers in Philadelphia, which freely publish its com- 
 munications and transactions when desired. Not taking any 
 political action, the Association does not come in contact with 
 the workers, if by this term political workers are meant. If 
 the term refers to workers in the Association, all the work is 
 done by the agent and the members of the executive commit- 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 65 
 
 tee. There are no district organizations. Political action is 
 restricted, in that the Association shall take no part in nomina- 
 tions or elections to public office. While there are no women 
 members, there is nothing in the constitution of the Associa- 
 tion rendering them ineligible. Among the results actually 
 accomplished the secretary writes : 
 
 " Stricter compliance with contracts generally ; litigation to 
 determine liability of street-car companies to pave streets oc- 
 cupied by them with ' improved pavement,' largely forwarded 
 by efforts of this Association ; decision of Supreme Court favor- 
 able to city finally obtained, resulting in recovery of several 
 hundred thousand dollars from companies, and many miles of 
 improved pavements ; recently expert report on asphalt pave- 
 ment caused opening of bids to free competition and saving 
 of fifty cents per yard on all pavements laid this year this 
 examination and report undertaken in connection with the 
 Trades League of this city. There are many other matters 
 which have been considered by our Association, too numerous 
 to mention, in which hundreds of thousands of dollars have 
 been saved to the taxpayers of Philadelphia." 
 
 This Association was the outgrowth of the Committee of 
 One Hundred, a reform political organization, disbanded Janu- 
 ary 19, 1886. It was determined to pursue the work in which 
 said committee had been successful, viz., the non-political 
 work. 
 
 THE CITIZENS' MUNICIPAL LEAGUE 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 CLEMENT W. SHOEMAKER. EDWARD M. FITHIAN, 
 
 Bridgeton, N. J. 
 
 The date of organization was March i, 1894, with a volun- 
 tary secretary. Financial aid is secured by means of an annual 
 membership fee of fifty cents from each member of the League, 
 and a subscribed guaranty fund to be collected at such times 
 
66 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 arid in such percentage amounts as the necessities of the trea- 
 sury may require. The executive committee of twenty-five 
 meets at the call of the chairman, to discuss the work of the 
 League, subdivided into committees on : 
 
 1. Membership. 4. Press. 
 
 2. Finance. 5. Prosecution. 
 
 3. Legislation. 6. Audit. 
 
 There is no organ of the society. According to its consti- 
 tution, "its purposes and objects shall be to encourage and 
 assist the constituted authorities in maintaining law and. order, 
 and to promote the nomination and election to municipal offices 
 of the men best qualified to serve the city, without regard to 
 their party politics." The results already attained have been 
 some twenty successful prosecutions tending to better respect 
 for law. Women are not eligible to membership. The poli 
 tical action of the club is not restricted, as the League will 
 undertake, in its organized capacity, to influence the nomina- 
 tion and election of candidates for municipal office whenever 
 the executive committee shall determine by a vote of the ma- 
 jority of the whole committee that such action is advisable. 
 In such a case it will act by indorsement or disapproval of 
 candidates named by either party, either for the legislative or 
 executive offices, or by offering its own candidates should such 
 an extreme measure be necessary. 
 
 The movement began, as a "law and order" society, follow- 
 ing the declaration by the Supreme Court of New Jersey that 
 the offensive excise legislation by the rum and race-track 
 legislature of that State was unconstitutional. The League 
 expected the licensed rum and saloon men to show fight, and 
 so they did. They also undertook to carry on numberless 
 " speak-easies," and it was against them that the work of 
 prosecution was carried on, resulting in closing a great many 
 of them in the city ; but the League is greatly handicapped by 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 67 
 
 the impossibility of getting away with the bottlers and distillers 
 outside the city limits, who are not amenable to the city or- 
 dinance. Bridgeton is and has been for a good many years 
 (except under the regime of the excise commissions) a no- 
 license town. 
 
 When organizing the " law and order " society the question 
 arose, "Why not enlarge the scope to the proportions of a 
 Municipal League? " The constitution adopted looks to po- 
 litical action for the betterment of city government, but has 
 never yet been put to the test of action. What the future of 
 the organization may be, or if it is to have any, cannot now 
 be said. 
 
 THE CITIZENS' PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 GEORGE W. YOUNG. A. L. REDDERS, 
 
 95 Nashville Avenue, 
 
 New Orleans, La. 
 
 The date of organization was May, 1894. The secretary's 
 position is voluntary. Subscriptions support the Association, 
 whose object, according to the constitution, is the protection 
 of -the citizens against any adverse legislation on the part of 
 the City Council. An executive committee of seven holds 
 weekly sessions and determines all measures brought before it. 
 The Association has no organ of its own, but comes in touch 
 with its workers by means of local boards in each of the seven- 
 teen wards. No member of the Association is permitted to 
 be a candidate for any political office. Women are eligible to 
 membership. 
 
 The actual results accomplished have been the indictment 
 by the grand jury of ten councilmen and the beginning of im- 
 peachment proceedings against the mayor. One councilman 
 was found guilty. 
 
68 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 CITY CLUB OF HARTFORD 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 CHARLES E. GROSS. ARCHIBALD A. WELCH, 
 
 Hartford, Conn. 
 
 The date of organization was 1894, under a voluntary sec- 
 retary. According to the constitution, " its object shall be to 
 stimulate and maintain an active interest among the citizens 
 of Hartford in the government of their town and city in all 
 their departments ; to discuss methods and suggest and carry 
 out plans for bringing about needed reforms in town and city 
 governments ; and to consider any other questions bearing on 
 the welfare of the town and city of Hartford." 
 
 There is but one class of members. The dues are made 
 $2 a year, in order that they may not form any excuse for 
 not joining, and voluntary subscriptions, it is hoped, will make 
 up the rest of the necessary expenses. The executive commit- 
 tee is composed of nine directors. These meet as often as 
 once in two months, and frequently several times during a 
 month, as necessity demands. There is but one standing 
 committee that on membership. There is no organ of the 
 society, but the Club comes in contact with its members dur- 
 ing the winter months by weekly meetings of the most informal 
 kind, at which all members are welcome to come and express 
 their views on any items of public interest. There are no minor 
 organizations dependent upon the Club. 
 
 The constitution restricts the action of the Club to town 
 and municipal government, and has nothing in it regarding 
 the eligibility of women to membership. That question has 
 not come before the Club as yet. 
 
 The Club was formed with the idea of keeping alive public 
 interest in public affairs, and not with a view to overturning 
 any ring in the city government. It seemed as if there were 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 69 
 
 numerous reforms which were sadly needed, and which could 
 only be brought about by a strong public opinion which could 
 be expressed in some formal way. There has been awakened 
 an interest in the affairs of the city which can be appreciated 
 only by those who are citizens here, and at a recent meeting 
 of the citizens the subject of asking the legislature to do away 
 entirely with the county commissioners, who now have the 
 granting of licenses among other duties, and who in the opin- 
 ion of the citizens of this State have grossly misused this power, 
 was referred to the Club, and the Club was instructed by the 
 citizens of Hartford to take steps to secure the cooperation of 
 other parts of the State, and to formulate a plan by which the 
 powers of these commissioners could be distributed, and the 
 office done away with. 
 
 CITY CLUB OF NEW BRUNSWICK 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 DR. HENRY R. BALDWIN. PROFESSOR L. BEVIER, JR., 
 
 Rutgers College, 
 
 New Brunswick, N. J. 
 
 Date of organization, February 21, 1894. The position of 
 the secretary is voluntary. Active members pay no dues, but 
 sustaining members are assessed $10 each year. An executive 
 committee is chosen by the Board of Managers from among 
 their own number. This committee meets at least once a 
 month. The following standing committees are appointed by 
 the Board of Managers from among the members, and the 
 chairman of each shall be a member of the Board of Man- 
 agers : 
 
 1. Membership. 3. Legislation. 
 
 2. Audit. 4. Local Government. 
 
 5. Work. 
 
 THC 
 
 .iViRSiTY 
 
 H*^\ 
 
 RSITY ) 
 
70 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 The lowest unit of organization is the ward. The Club has 
 no organ of its own. Women are not eligible to membership. 
 Political action is not restricted, as members pledge themselves 
 to nominate or indorse only such candidates as they believe to 
 be honest and capable and in sympathy with the principle of 
 absolute separation of local from State and national politics. 
 
 According to its constitution the objects of the Club are : 
 " To eliminate all national and State politics from our local 
 politics ; to secure the nomination and election of candidates 
 solely on account of their honesty and fitness for the office ; 
 to see that our local government be conducted upon non-par- 
 tizan and strictly business principles ; and to encourage every 
 wise project for adding to the comfort and convenienceof our 
 citizens, and to the prosperity and development of our city." 
 
 In furtherance of those objects, at the spring election in 
 1894 it secured better nominations, hence better aldermen; 
 and a spirit of greater independence in municipal elections 
 was aroused. 
 
 THE CITY CLUB OF NEW YORK 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 JAMES C. CARTER. JAMES W. PRYOR, 
 
 27 Pine Street, 
 New York. 
 
 The organization of the Club was in 1892, and April 4th of 
 the same year the society was incorporated. The secretary 
 holds a salaried position. There are two classes of members, 
 resident and non-resident. Annual dues of members and con- 
 tributions to the " political fund " furnish financial support. 
 The executive committee is composed of nine, and the offi- 
 cers of the Club ex offitio, meeting once a week. The depart- 
 ments of work are : 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 71 
 
 1. Membership. 6. Municipal Government. 
 
 2. Audit. 7. Cooperation and Affiliated 
 
 3. House. Clubs. 
 
 4. Library. 8. Organization. 
 
 5. Legislative. 9. Publication and Records. 
 
 The Club has no organ of its own, but comes in touch with 
 its members through its committees and the Good Government 
 Clubs. The political action of the organization is restricted 
 to municipal matters and non-partizan action. Women are 
 ineligible to membership. According to its constitution the 
 objects of the Club are : " To promote social intercourse 
 among persons specially interested in promoting good gov- 
 ernment of the city of New York, in securing honesty and 
 efficiency in the administration of city affairs, in severing 
 municipal from national politics ; and to take such action as 
 may tend to the honest, efficient, and independent government 
 of the city of New York." 
 
 The chief result has been the establishing of more than 
 twenty Good Government Clubs, most of which are flourish- 
 ing. In securing legislation and preparing important constitu- 
 tional amendments the Club has taken an active part. 
 
 COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC SAFETY 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 DAVID M. GREENE. CHARLES I. BAKER, 
 
 Troy, N. Y. 
 
 Date of organization, March 8, 1894, with a voluntary sec- 
 retary. The organization is supported by voluntary subscrip- 
 tions, and has for its object " to investigate and endeavor to 
 bring to the bar of justice all fraud in connection with the 
 liberties of the people, especially crimes against the right of 
 
72 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 suffrage." An executive committee of fifteen meets when called 
 by its chairman, and the following are the departments of work : 
 
 1. Attorneys. 5. Special Finance. 
 
 2. Auditing. 6. Grand Juries. 
 
 3. Business. 7. Legislation. 
 
 4. Evidence. 8. Public Sentiment. 
 
 9. Analysis of Vote. 
 
 The association is non-political, and women are not eligible 
 to membership. The membership is limited to one hundred, 
 and that number composed the Committee of Public Safety at 
 its organization. The murder of Robert Ross while defending 
 the purity of the ballot at an election in Troy, March 6, 1894, 
 afforded the reason for the organization of the Committee. 
 A good measure of success has rewarded its efforts, for it has 
 secured good grand juries, better trial juries, conviction of 
 election offenders, and awakened public conscience. 
 
 THE CITY GOVERNMENT CLUB 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 H. O'SHEA. D. P. DONOVAN, 
 
 1911 Pennsylvania Avenue, 
 
 Pittsburg, Pa. 
 
 This Club was organized May i, 1893, with a voluntary 
 secretary. According to the constitution, its object is to im- 
 prove the city government and help obtain the best results for 
 its citizens. An executive committee of nine meets each 
 month. Women are eligible to membership, and the Club is 
 not restricted in its political action. The secretary writes : 
 
 " We have accomplished a few good deeds so far, but they 
 are hardly worth mentioning. One of them was the removal 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 1$ 
 
 of a switch from the sidewalk in the Ninth Ward, and another 
 the cleaning of a few of the streets and paving of the same in 
 the Twelfth Ward." 
 
 CITY IMPROVEMENT SOCIETY 
 
 Secretary, 
 
 J. C. PUMPELLY, 
 
 12 East Twenty-third Street, 
 
 New York. 
 
 The date of the incorporation was June 14, 1892. An ex- 
 ecutive committee of six, known as a Managing Committee, 
 meeting once a month, with a voluntary secretary, directs the 
 work. There are two classes of members. Any person in- 
 terested in the work of the Society may become a member. 
 Active members subscribe $5 annually, and agree to watch 
 the condition of the city and report matters deserving the 
 attention of the Society. Associate members take no part in 
 the work of the Society, but aid it by contributing toward its 
 financial support in sums from $5 upward. The Society is 
 not restricted in its political action, and women are eligible to 
 membership. 
 
 A number of citizens interested in improving the condition 
 of the city have organized this Society, and have given their 
 time and labor to its service. It is strictly non-partizan in 
 politics, and has met with the courteous and active coopera- 
 tion of the heads of the different city departments. It has 
 the active support and advice of physicians, civil and sanitary 
 engineers, architects, and citizens of other professions ; the 
 daily papers have given their encouragement ; and it endea- 
 vors to secure State and municipal legislation to effect needed 
 improvements. It furnishes a medium never before existing, 
 whereby a citizen having any complaint to make can be as- 
 sured that his complaint will be presented to the proper author- 
 
74 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 ities, in the proper manner, and will be looked after and pushed 
 until it is attended to. 
 
 "Since the date of our last annual report [1894] the total 
 number of complaints referred by us to the different city 
 departments aggregate over forty-three hundred, embracing 
 complaints of defective sidewalks, streets, sidewalk and road- 
 way encumbrances, unclean streets, nuisances, etc. Of the 
 total number of complaints forwarded to the departments up 
 to March, 1894, about seventy-five per cent, have thus far 
 been remedied, while, of course, of the additional number sent 
 in 1894, with the exception of about three hundred relat- 
 ing to street and sidewalk encumbrances, nuisances, etc., a 
 much smaller percentage have been attended to. These 
 complaints relate to defective sidewalk and street pavements, 
 which, as a rule, require from three to six months, or even 
 longer, before any result can be obtained on which to base 
 an estimate. Many of the objects, as outlined in our report, 
 have already been accomplished, viz. : the placing of addi- 
 tional settees and the repairing and improvement of many of 
 our parks ; the more general training of the Japanese ivy ; 
 the repaving of many of the streets, and removal of permanent 
 obstructions along same ; the running of street-cars at regular 
 intervals at night ; the removal of news-stands and signs along 
 the sidewalks of many of the principal avenues and thorough- 
 fares; the securing of a new hack ordinance relating to the 
 hanging of the rate-card, etc. The principal questions that at 
 present engage our attention are : the cremation of the city's 
 garbage ; providing seats for female employees in stores ; and 
 a better tenement-house system. Our Society has also a 
 membership in the State Municipal League and the Municipal 
 Art Association. Our great success thus far has been due to 
 the fact that we never antagonize any of the public officials or 
 departments; we merely call their attention to the fact that 
 the law bearing upon the question at issue is not enforced." 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 75 
 
 CITY REFORM CLUB 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 W. HARRIS ROOME. R. A. ZERGA, 
 
 New York. 
 
 This Club was organized about fifteen years ago, and had a 
 membership of several hundred. All that is left of the original 
 membership is an executive committee of fifteen. One very 
 valuable contribution of this committee was the publication of 
 the annual record of the New York Senators and Representa- 
 tives in the legislature, under the title, " What Are You Going 
 to Do about It?" It is a matter of sincere regret that this 
 valuable contribution has been discontinued. From time to 
 time this executive committee takes an active share in affairs 
 needing the direction of public-spirited men. These men are 
 all identified with the City Club and with the various Good 
 Government Clubs. 
 
 THE CIVIC CLUB 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 A. W. BURR. E. S. GREENE, 
 
 Beloit, Wis. 
 
 The organization of the Club was effected February, 1893. 
 December 28, 1892, some earnest men and women of Beloit 
 met to discuss the plan of forming a Civic Club. The purposes 
 of such a club were partially set forth in the call, as follows : 
 
 "OUR CIVIC WELFARE. 
 
 " The good people of Beloit have churches, have homes, 
 have a business, but they also have a city. A good city binds 
 every strand into a cable of power. A mean city untwists 
 every good strand. To have a good city and keep it so ear- 
 nest men and women must think over it, talk about it, and work 
 toward it. 
 
76 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 "Through committees, reports, and discussions these five 
 fingers of civic opportunity may be bound into one strong 
 hand that shall be felt for good in all our loved Beloit, and in 
 other cities also, we may hope. Every good man and woman 
 living here is bound to be a good citizen of Beloit, an unself- 
 ish servant of the public weal." 
 
 After a general expression of opinion by those present, a 
 committee of nine was appointed to formulate a plan of or- 
 ganization to be presented at a subsequent meeting. The plan 
 of the committee was approved after some modifications, and 
 the committee was instructed to call a larger meeting of those 
 who might become charter members, and to nominate officers 
 and committees for the Club. This meeting was held at Odd 
 Fellows' Hall, February 22, 1893, when the organization of the 
 Club was completed. 
 
 The Club is not incorporated, and the secretary holds a 
 voluntary position. Financial support is obtained by an annual 
 fee of $i. Seven members comprise the executive committee, 
 who meet every two months to discuss the work of the Club, 
 which falls under the following departments : 
 
 1. Civic Improvements and Civic Economy. 
 
 2. Education and Recreation. 
 
 3. Relief and Work. 
 
 4. Order and Law. 
 
 5. Civic Office and Civic Duty. 
 
 The Club has no organ of its own, but comes in touch with 
 its members by means of its stated meetings and the press. 
 There is no restriction on its political action, and women are 
 eligible to membership. The object, as stated in the constitu- 
 tion, "shall be to promote the civic welfare of Beloit. Its 
 work shall be to study and to better in every wise way the 
 common conditions of the public weal. 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 77 
 
 " Its spirit shall be catholic, unpartizan, patriotic, and Chris- 
 tian. Its methods of work shall be through papers, reports, 
 discussions, resolutions, public meetings, the press, committees, 
 and the personal efforts of its members." 
 
 The largest result thus far accomplished is a more general 
 awakening to the possibilities of civic life. Each committee 
 has presented topics to the Club for thought and work. The 
 results of the discussions have been printed in the press, where- 
 by a widened circle of readers have been enabled to profit by 
 the papers. 
 
 THE CIVIC FEDERATION OF CHICAGO. 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 LYMAN J. GAGE. RALPH M. EASLEY, 
 
 517 First National Bank Building, 
 
 Chicago, 111. 
 
 The Federation was incorporated February 3, 1894. The 
 secretary holds a salaried position. Financial aid is secured 
 by subscriptions, as there are no membership fees. The ex- 
 ecutive committee consists of fifteen, meeting twice a month. 
 According to the constitution, " the purposes of this Federation 
 shall be : 
 
 " i. The formation of an influential, non-political, non-sec- 
 tarian association, embracing all the forces that are now la- 
 boring to advance the municipal, philanthropic, industrial, and 
 moral interests of Chicago, and to use and aid such forces in 
 promoting the honesty, efficiency, and economy of its muni- 
 cipal government and the highest welfare of the citizens. 
 
 " 2. To serve as a medium of acquaintance and sympathy 
 between persons who reside in the different parts of the city, 
 who pursue different vocations, who are by birth of different 
 nationalities, who profess different creeds or no creed, who for 
 any of these reasons are unknown to each other, but who, 
 nevertheless, have similar interests in the well-being of Chicago, 
 
78 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 and who agree in the desire to promote every kind of muni- 
 cipal welfare. 
 
 " 3. To increase the number and efficiency of agencies de- 
 signed to discover and correct abuses in municipal affairs, and 
 to increase the interest of the citizens in such affairs by secur- 
 ing the utmost practicable separation of municipal issues from 
 State and national politics." 
 
 The standing committees are : 
 
 1. Ways and Means. 4. Morals. 
 
 2. Municipal. 5. Educational. 
 
 3. Philanthropic. 6. Political. 
 
 Women are eligible to membership. There is a general 
 council of one hundred men and women, plus the presidents 
 of the ward councils. A council of fifty in each ward is 
 known as the "ward council." Each precinct in the ward 
 has a council, and the presidents of the precinct councils are 
 also members of the ward council. Membership in the pre- 
 cinct council is unlimited. Any man or woman, of any race 
 or religion, can become a member if the committee is satisfied 
 that he or she is a good citizen and sincerely desires good 
 government. Any member of any precinct or other council 
 is eligible to the highest office in the gift of the Federation. 
 
 The work of the ward and precinct councils is the same 
 as in the central council, and the same committees and sub- 
 committees exist in these latter as in the central body. These 
 subordinate councils are likewise composed of men and women 
 of varying political beliefs. The Federation insists on all 
 political parties being fully represented. It has happened that 
 in a strongly Republican ward Republicans have been in a 
 majority in the ward council, but it is equally true that in 
 strongly Democratic wards the Democrats have had a major- 
 ity in the council. As a rule, however, both parties are pretty 
 evenly represented. 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 79 
 
 THE CIVIC FEDERATION OF DETROIT 
 
 Secretary, 
 
 REV. DONALD D. MACLAURIN. 
 
 At a meeting early in November, 1894, to consider the 
 advisability of some kind of a reform organization, the above 
 name was chosen and a temporary constitution adopted. 
 According to it : 
 
 " The object of the Federation shall be to study the condi- 
 tion and needs of our city ; to shape public opinion upon all 
 questions relating to the municipal government ; to organize 
 the public conscience and bring it to bear upon existing evils ; 
 to separate municipal from State and national politics; to 
 endeavor to secure the nomination and election of competent 
 and trustworthy men for public office without respect to party 
 lines ; to this end to federate the moral forces of the city, and 
 to promote in all ways the welfare, order, and prosperity of 
 Detroit. The Federation seeks to accomplish these ends by 
 the investigation of our municipal life ; by agitation concern- 
 ing existing evils ; by the enforcement of present laws ; by 
 the securing of improved legislation ; and by the massing of 
 moral influence in behalf of municipal regeneration." 
 
 Branch Federations will be organized in any ward as soon 
 as twenty-five members shall be secured, but the branch will 
 only be recognized after the indorsement of the Central Com- 
 mittee. 
 
 The work of the Federation shall be divided into depart- 
 ments as follows : 
 
 i. Philanthropy. 
 2. Morals. 
 3. Education. 
 4. Temperance. 
 5. Social Evil. 
 
 6. Legislation. 
 7. Conferences. 
 8. Tenements. 
 9. Political. 
 10. Industrial. 
 
80 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 These departments may be subdivided as the Central Com- 
 mittee may from time to time determine. 
 
 CIVIC FEDERATION OF GALESBURG 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 W. E. TERRY. GODFREY HASS, 
 
 Galesburg, 111. 
 
 This Federation was organized October i, 1894, under a 
 voluntary secretary. The executive committee of eight meets 
 once a month, and comes in touch with the workers by means 
 of public meetings. The lowest municipal area which serves 
 as the unit of organization is the election precinct. The 
 Federation is not restricted in its political action, and women 
 are eligible to membership. According to its constitution, the 
 object of this organization " is to secure a thoroughly business- 
 like administration of the municipal affairs of our city, and the 
 honest letting and fulfilling of contracts for public improve- 
 ments ; the enforcement of laws concerning gambling, prosti- 
 tution, illegal selling of liquor, and Sunday observance. Mat- 
 ters concerning the public health and any destitution in our 
 city shall also be objects to receive attention from this organ- 
 ization." 
 
 This Federation was organized for a definite purpose. 
 Galesburg is a college city, with an abundance of schools, 
 churches, and splendid homes. Gradually, yet surely, a vicious 
 element was controlling the city. At the election in the spring 
 of 1893, when the citizens' candidate was elected mayor by 
 five votes, a change was made in one precinct and an appar- 
 ent majority of seven was recorded for the liberal candidate. 
 Thirteen votes were stolen somehow, and the will of the people 
 defeated. In the summer of 1894 a race-track, with all the 
 accompaniments of gambling and pool-selling, was opened, 
 and an era of lawlessness began that appalled the people, 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 81 
 
 On Thursday of the race week, in pursuance of the demand 
 of an outraged people, the county officials made a move that 
 closed fourteen gambling-establishments. A call for all citi- 
 zens who wished to band together and compel the mayor and 
 officers to enforce the law brought together a number of solid 
 citizens, and the Civic Federation was born. Fourteen indict- 
 ments were brought against gaming-houses, and eleven convic- 
 tions were secured. The organization numbers one hundred. 
 Among the results actually accomplished, the secretary states 
 that gambling has been almost abolished, Sunday sale of liquor 
 stopped, the removal of screens from saloons, and the awa- 
 kening of the public sentiment. 
 
 COMMITTEE OF FIFTY 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 GRANGE SOND. JOHN W. McHoNG, 
 
 446 Broadway, 
 Albany, N. Y. 
 
 At a mass-meeting held in the City Hall, November 13, 
 1893, the chairman was authorized to appoint a Committee of 
 Fifty to consider what action should be taken to prevent the 
 recurrence of fraudulent registration and voting at elections to 
 be held hereafter in Albany, and to procure the passage of 
 such legislation as will secure that result. The executive com- 
 mittee consists of five and the officers ex officio, who meet at 
 the call of the chairman. The Committee is composed of 
 twenty Democrats, twenty Republicans, three Independents, 
 one Prohibitionist, and one Labor man. There are no stand- 
 ing committees, and the organization has no organ of its own. 
 A voluntary secretary directs the work of the committee. 
 
 "Immediately following organization, November 15, 1893, 
 an effort was made to punish the offenders at the past general 
 election. Arrests were made of several police officials and of 
 
82 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 many minor political workers who had openly and flagrantly 
 violated every law possible in connection with the election 
 work ; but witnesses and jurors were intimidated by the omni- 
 present authority of the ring, and not a single conviction was 
 procured. This work filled the period up to the charter elec- 
 tion in April, 1894. At that time a party organization was 
 effected (Honest Elections party), embracing candidates both 
 Democratic and Republican, and the Republican organization 
 supported the same ticket. 
 
 " Earnest work was performed in purging the registry, and 
 on election day at the polls, with the gratifying result of elect- 
 ing the entire city ticket and a controlling representation in 
 the county and city boards. A healthy change in government 
 is already evident both as to efficiency and economy. Ob- 
 stacles have been put forward by both the ring Republicans 
 and ring Democrats. Many arrests were made at the polls 
 on election day, and a few strangers have been sent to prison 
 for repeating and fraudulent voting, but we have yet been 
 unable to convict a single important political worker. Our 
 grand-jury system was very faulty ; a new bill was passed by 
 the last legislature, and the first grand jury under the new law 
 will sit September 8, 1894. The district attorney has promised 
 to make another effort to obtain indictments, but this official 
 is still a relic of the Democratic ring, and at the coming fall 
 election it is hoped that the work of reform will be extended 
 to this office." 
 
 COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC SAFETY 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 NATHAN COLE. ISAAC LIMBERGER, 
 
 415 Locust Street, 
 St. Louis, Mo. 
 
 The Committee was organized November 16, 1894, after 
 the election of that month, for the purpose of " a scathing 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 83 
 
 investigation of frauds alleged to have been committed at the 
 late city election." The secretary holds a voluntary position. 
 The Committee will investigate alleged frauds practised by 
 both party candidates ; inquire into methods practised by re- 
 corder of voters, judges of election, and heelers ; and suggest 
 any needed reforms in election laws. The executive commit- 
 tee consists of four Republicans and four Democrats, and the 
 president ex officio. The whole Committee consists of one hun- 
 dred members, of both parties. Funds are solicited by the execu- 
 tive committee, and contributions made by members and others. 
 A sufficient sum has already been raised to accomplish objects 
 of association, and very satisfactory progress has been made. 
 The Committee will be permanent and provide funds for pre- 
 vention and punishment of frauds in future elections. 
 
 The executive committee meets at the call of the chairman, 
 which has been about twice a week thus far. The Committee 
 is unrestricted in its political action. Women are ineligible to 
 membership. The animus of the organization is evident from 
 this appeal : 
 
 " To THE CITIZENS OF ST. Louis : From all quarters of the 
 city, from members of all political parties, from the press, and 
 from high officials, has come a demand for a searching, im- 
 partial, and non-partizan investigation of alleged fraudulent 
 and criminal practices in the late election in this city. So 
 specific have been these charges that the confidence of the 
 community in the integrity as well as the adequacy of our 
 election machinery has been impaired, and citizens and offi- 
 cials of all parties have united in demanding a broad, compre- 
 hensive, and non-partizan investigation. Realizing that this 
 could not be secured, and the good name of the city vindi- 
 cated, through unassisted individual contests, a number of 
 citizens, representing all political views, have organized them- 
 selves as a Committee of Public Safety. The sole purpose of 
 
84 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 this organization is to meet this public demand for united and 
 non-partizan action. The members have no private, personal, 
 or partizan ends to serve. They realize that the safety of our 
 institutions and all public and private right rests upon the in- 
 tegrity of the ballot-box in the expression of the popular will, 
 and that the most dangerous of public enemies are those who 
 violate its sanctity. 
 
 "This Committee has been organized by the election of 
 Nathan Cole as president, Dr. William M. McPheeters and 
 Daniel S. Holmes as vice-presidents, Isaac H. Limberger as 
 secretary, and Cornelius Tompkins as treasurer. 
 
 "An executive committee has been provided, consisting of 
 eight members, equally divided between the two leading polit- 
 ical parties, to whom is delegated the carrying out of these 
 purposes of their organization. It is the intention of this Com- 
 mittee to take every proper step which the means provided for 
 their support will permit to secure a complete investigation of 
 the late election of this city, and to this end, through counsel 
 and other assistance, to take such part as may be proper in 
 one or more election contests which may be instituted by can- 
 didates ; not merely, so far as this Committee is concerned, 
 that such assisted contestants may be successful, but that the 
 evidence of frauds and crimes, if any such there be, wherever 
 found, even if concealed in the ballot-boxes of any precinct 
 of the city, may be brought to light that the law may be 
 vindicated ; that the guilty, whoever they may be, may be 
 punished to the full extent of the criminal law ; and that the 
 defects of the existing election methods may be disclosed, so 
 that adequate means may be provided by legislation for the 
 ascertainment of the popular will. 
 
 "The extent and completeness of this work is dependent 
 upon the means placed at our disposal. The Committee be- 
 lieves that all that is needed in this behalf in this emergency 
 is an appeal to the citizens of St. Louis, so that the necessary 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 85 
 
 steps can be immediately taken and vigorously prosecuted. 
 A large sum of money will be required, for which a strict ac- 
 count will be rendered. Contributions may be sent to Corne- 
 lius Tompkins, treasurer, at the office of the Union Trust Com- 
 pany, The Committee believes that the citizens of St. Louis 
 will not permit the public trust which has been put upon them 
 to fail for lack of the necessary support. The urgency of 
 the situation demands promptness. 
 
 " NATHAN COLE, President, I. W. MORTON, 
 GEORGE A. MADILL, FREDERICK N. JUDSON, 
 
 GEORGE E. LEIGHTON, BRECKINRIDGE JONES, 
 
 JACOB FURTH, GAIUS PADDOCK, 
 
 STEPHEN A. BEMIS." 
 
 COMMITTEE OF SEVENTY 
 
 Chairman, Secretary, 
 
 JOSEPH LAROCQUE. JOHN P. FAURE, 
 
 238 West Eleventh Street, 
 
 New York. 
 
 This Committee was organized in September, 1894, as a 
 culmination of the reform sentiment that concerted and defi- 
 nite action was necessary to secure good government. Sep- 
 tember 6th about seven hundred citizens assembled in the 
 Madison Square Garden Concert-hall, in response to a circular 
 of invitation signed by William E. Dodge, Gustav H. Schwab, 
 and Hugh N. Camp. The meeting was organized under the 
 temporary chairmanship of Joseph Larocque, with John P. 
 Faure as secretary. According to a resolution then passed, 
 this circular letter was issued : 
 
 " NEW YORK, September 8, 1894. 
 
 " DEAR SIR : At the conference of citizens held at the Madi- 
 son Square Garden Concert-hall on Thursday, 6th instant, for 
 

 86 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 the purpose of consulting as to the wisdom of organizing a 
 citizens' movement for the government of the city of New 
 York, entirely outside of party politics, and solely in the best 
 interests of efficiency, economy, and the public health, com- 
 fort, and safety, it was unanimously decided to take such 
 action, and a resolution was adopted instructing the chairman 
 of the conference to appoint a Committee of Seventy for the 
 purpose of conferring with other anti-Tammany organizations, 
 and of carrying out the objects of the meeting. 
 
 " Subject to your approval, your name has been selected as 
 one of the members of that Committee, and I am instructed 
 by the chair to inquire whether you would be willing to accept 
 that position, and to express the hope that you will not with- 
 hold your assistance in the present emergency that imperatively 
 calls for action on the part of the citizens of this metropolis." 
 
 The executive committee was thirty-one in number, meet- 
 ing at the call of the chairman. Standing committees were 
 appointed on : 
 
 1. Finance. 5. Speakers. 
 
 2. Executive. 6. Press. 
 
 3. Meetings. 7. Legislation. 
 
 4. Platform. 8. Practical Reform. 
 
 Women were ineligible to membership. In the manifesto sent 
 out by the Platform Committee the issues were clearly stated : 
 
 " We reiterate the following principles, contained in the Ad- 
 dress to the People of the City of New York, heretofore issued : 
 
 " Municipal government should be entirely divorced from 
 party politics and from selfish personal ambition or gain. 
 
 " The economical, honest, and businesslike management of 
 municipal affairs has nothing to do with questions of national 
 or State politics. 
 
 " We do not ask any citizen to give up his party on national 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 87 
 
 or State issues, but to rise above partizanship to the broad 
 plane of citizenship, and to unite in an earnest demand for the 
 nomination and election of fitting candidates, whatever their 
 national party affiliations. 
 
 " The government of the city of New York, in the hands of 
 its present administrators, is marked by corruption, inefficiency, 
 and extravagance ; its municipal departments are not con- 
 ducted in the interests of the city at large, but for private gain 
 and partizan advantage. 
 
 " All classes of citizens, rich and poor alike, suffer under 
 these conditions. This misgovernment endangers the health 
 and morality of the community, and deprives its citizens of 
 the protection of life and property to which they are entitled. 
 
 " The call goes to the citizens of New York to face the 
 dangers that confront them, and resolutely to determine that 
 these conditions shall cease and that the affairs of the city 
 shall henceforth be conducted as a well-ordered, efficient, and 
 economical household, in the interests of the health, comfort, 
 and safety of the people. 
 
 " We denounce as repugnant to the spirit and letter of our 
 institutions any discriminations among citizens because of race 
 or religious belief. 
 
 " We demand that the public service of this city be con- 
 ducted upon a strictly non-partizan basis ; that all subordinate 
 appointments and promotions be based on civil-service exam- 
 inations, and that all examinations, mental and physical, be 
 placed under the control of the Civil-service Commission. 
 
 " We demand that the quality of the public schools be im- 
 proved, their capacity enlarged, and proper playgrounds pro- 
 vided, so that every child within the ages required by law shall 
 have admission to the schools, the health of the children be 
 protected, and that all such modem improvements be intro- 
 duced as will make our public schools the equal of those in 
 any other city in the world. 
 
88 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 "We insist that the property already acquired by the city 
 under the Small Parks Act shall be promptly devoted to the 
 purposes of this acquisition, so that our people in the densely 
 populated parts of our city shall fully enjoy the benefits of such 
 expenditures. 
 
 "We urge greater care and thoroughness in the enforce- 
 ment of the health laws, and demand the establishment of 
 more efficient safeguards against disease. 
 
 " We favor the establishment of adequate public baths and 
 lavatories for the promotion of cleanliness and increased pub- 
 lic comfort, at appropriate places throughout the city. 
 
 " W T e demand the adoption of a thorough system of street- 
 cleaning, which shall also include a proper disposition of the 
 refuse and garbage, so that our harbor may be kept free from 
 obstruction and defilement, and the neighboring shores clear 
 of offal, thus conforming to the methods in other great cities. 
 
 " We call for increased rapid-transit facilities in this city. 
 
 " We call for the improvement of the docks and water-fronts 
 of our great maritime city, so that it shall enjoy the advan- 
 tages to which it is entitled by its unique position with its un- 
 rivaled harbor. 
 
 " We heartily favor the separation of municipal from State 
 and national elections, and a larger measure of home rule for 
 cities. 
 
 "We appeal to the people of this city to cast aside party 
 prejudice and to combine with us in a determined effort to 
 elect candidates chosen solely with reference to their ability 
 and integrity, and pledged to conduct the affairs of this city 
 on a strictly non-partizan basis, and who will, as far as may 
 be in their power, insure good government to the city of New 
 York." 
 
 The Committee of Seventy was selected so as to secure 
 the most representative men in the community. Lists were 
 prepared of the leading merchants, bankers, lawyers, business 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 9 
 
 men, and associations of organized labor. From these lists 
 the seventy were chosen. The whole history of the Commit- 
 tee thus far has confirmed the wisdom of the selection, for the 
 men have worked harmoniously and with a singleness of pur- 
 pose. The Committee was called together in the latter part 
 of September to effect a permanent organization, when the 
 officers, as named above, were chosen. 
 
 The Committee had shown what it could do in uniting the 
 friends of good government by the splendid victory of Novem- 
 ber 6th, but it very well knew that this triumph was only a 
 beginning, and that the enemy was rallying his forces on 
 the day after the election. The Committee realized that its 
 work must be continued, and that it owed it to the com- 
 munity to fulfil its ante-election demands, because previous 
 to the election it had insisted that certain abuses must be 
 reformed, and that other definite lines of work must be under- 
 taken. In the pursuance of this purpose a committee of five 
 was selected from the executive committee, under the chair- 
 manship of Mr. A. C. Bernheim, and power given it to or- 
 ganize sub-committees to take under advisement the subjects 
 of Street-cleaning, Garbage Disposal, Improvement of the 
 Water-front, Civil Service, Public Baths and Lavatories, Small 
 Parks, Tenement-house Reform, and Investigation of the 
 Pay-rolls. The following was the resolution sanctioning the 
 appointment of the above committees : 
 
 " WHEREAS, The platform of the Committee of Seventy de- 
 mands the introduction of public improvements, such as small 
 parks, baths, and lavatories ; and 
 
 " WHEREAS, That platform condemned the administration of 
 Tammany officials, because they failed to undertake such im- 
 provements, and at the same time wasted the public moneys 
 through corrupt expenditures and supplies and salaries ; and 
 
 " WHEREAS, This Committee believes that this waste will be 
 found sufficient to, in large measure, defray the expense of 
 
90 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 these public improvements without much addition to the city 
 tax-levy ; therefore be it 
 
 "Resolved, That a committee of five be appointed by the 
 chair to prepare a plan in detail of such improvements, and 
 to investigate the expenditure of public moneys for supplies 
 and salaries; ... to report its conclusion to this executive 
 committee, and to have power to associate with itself others, 
 in an advisory capacity, and to fill vacancies." 
 
 It was the plan that each of these sub-committees should 
 be composed of experts who were perfectly familiar with the 
 subject under discussion, and should prepare a report to con- 
 tain their recommendations, which will be finally submitted to 
 the mayor for such action as he may sec fit. To illustrate the 
 formation of these committees : Mr. John P. Faure, from his 
 experience of twenty years in connection with the Floating Hos- 
 pital of the St. John's Guild, and from his practical knowledge 
 of the needs of the people, was charged with the formation of 
 the group to discuss the subject of Baths and Lavatories. His 
 selection for chairman was eminently fitting, in the appoint- 
 ment of William Gaston Hamilton, who has made such a 
 splendid success of the People's Baths at Center Market, in 
 connection with the Association for Improving the Condi- 
 tion of the Poor. The work of this committee will require 
 a very much longer space of time because the subjects have 
 received but the merest consideration in this country, and, 
 for that matter, the ample provisions that are being made for 
 them in Continental cities are of very recent date. It is the 
 aim of this committee to embody in its report a comparative 
 study of the existing provisions in American municipalities and 
 those of the English cities ; it will show what the city of New 
 York is doing to meet these requirements ; and it will conclude 
 by making certain concrete definite recommendations. There 
 is no reason why this and the other reports should not be 
 models and summaries of the very latest information concern- 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 91 
 
 ing these important phases of the civic welfare of a nineteenth 
 century municipality. 
 
 COUNCIL OF CONFEDERATED GOOD GOVERN- 
 MENT CLUBS. 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 J. AUGUSTUS JOHNSON. PREBLE TUCKER, 
 
 Iio Trinity Building, 
 III Broadway, 
 New York. 
 
 " We, the Good Government Clubs of the city of New York, 
 desiring to promote more effectively our common interests in 
 good city government, do hereby agree with one another to 
 take united action in all matters affecting our common inter- 
 ests, and for that purpose do by these presents establish this 
 constitution for the Confederated Good Government Clubs." 
 
 The Council is composed of representatives of the various 
 Good Government Clubs in the city of New York. This Coun- 
 cil was organized in March, 1894, under a constitution which 
 had previously been ratified by the Good Government Clubs 
 then in the Confederation. The Council is not incorporated, 
 although the Clubs composing the Confederation and sending 
 representatives to the Council are incorporated. There were 
 originally four Clubs in the Confederation ; there are now sev- 
 enteen, with four more Clubs organized but not yet admitted 
 to the Confederation. The secretary does not hold a salaried 
 position. 
 
 Each Club admitted to the Confederation pays annual dues 
 at the rate of $15 for each representative it sends to the Coun- 
 cil. The Clubs are entitled to send representatives as follows : 
 each Club of fifty electors shall be entitled to one representa- 
 tive ; each Club of one hundred electors shall be entitled to 
 two representatives, and to one additional representative for 
 
9 2 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 each additional one hundred and fifty electors. No Club is 
 entitled to more than six representatives. 
 
 The Council has regular meetings once a month, and is 
 divided into standing committees as follows : 
 
 1. Rules. 
 
 2. Ways and Means. 
 
 3. Organization and Conference. 
 
 4. Formation and Admission of Good Govern- 
 
 ment Clubs. 
 
 5. Literature and the Press. 
 
 6. Legislation. 
 
 In addition to this there are special committees appointed 
 from time to time for special purposes. 
 
 'The Confederation at present has no organ, although it 
 publishes from time to time pamphlets upon different subjects 
 connected with municipal reform. 
 
 The Council comes in touch with the workers through its 
 Committee on Organization and Conference. This commit- 
 tee meets the chairmen of the various campaign committees 
 of the Clubs. Each Club has a Campaign Committee, which 
 looks after the workers in its district and appoints the captains 
 of the various election districts. The lowest unit of organiza- 
 tion is the Assembly district, although each Club appoints one 
 or more workers in each election district in its Assembly dis- 
 trict. 
 
 The Good Government Clubs are not restricted in their 
 political action, except in so far that they confine themselves 
 to municipal matters. The work of each Club is semi-educa- 
 tional and semi-political. The educational work is carried on 
 by each Club, according to its facilities, through local commit- 
 tees. Its political work is carried on through a convention 
 elected as provided in the constitution of the Confederation. 
 
 Several of the Clubs have also either nominated or indorsed 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 93 
 
 candidates for the Assembly in their respective districts, and 
 propose to do so again. In several cases they also expect to 
 nominate aldermen. 
 
 Women are not eligible to membership, although several of 
 the Clubs have the active cooperation of women, who aid their 
 committees in special work where their assistance is of value. 
 
 The work of the Council up to this time has been mainly 
 in enlarging the number of Clubs and preparing the public 
 mind to support a non-partizan rriunicipal ticket. During the 
 last election the Council was not in existence, but several of 
 the Clubs nominated candidates for Assembly, and in two in- 
 stances, with the aid of the Republican organization, elected 
 them. 
 
 The origin of the Good Government Club movement be- 
 longs primarily to the work of the special committee of the 
 City Club known as the Committee on Affiliated Clubs. The 
 object of the Clubs is to obtain better municipal government. 
 The first Club formed was in March, 1893. Since that time 
 the Clubs have been growing in number and increasing in 
 membership, until at the present time there are about six 
 thousand duly elected members, who pay dues ranging from 
 twenty-five to fifty cents a month. 
 
 GOOD GOVERNMENT CLUB A.* 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 W. HARRIS ROOME. A. H. GUTMAN, 
 
 15 Wall Street, 
 New York. 
 
 February, 1893, was the date of organization, and March 2, 
 1893, that of incorporation. A voluntary secretary directs 
 the work. The membership dues are $6 a year. According 
 
 * This Club has been selected as typical of the rest, because it is the 
 oldest and one of the most active, 
 
94 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 to the articles of incorporation, "the particular business or 
 object of such society or club shall be to promote social inter- 
 course among persons specially interested in the good govern- 
 ment of the city of New York, in securing honesty and effi- 
 ciency in the administration of city affairs, in severing municipal 
 from national politics, and in procuring the nomination and 
 election of fit persons to city offices ; and to take such action 
 as may tend to the honest, efficient, and independent govern- 
 ment of the city of New York ; and for these purposes to 
 establish and maintain in the city and county of New York, 
 for the use of ourselves and such others above mentioned, suit- 
 able club accommodations." 
 
 The board of trustees, twenty in number, are an executive 
 committee, who meet once a month. There are standing com- 
 mittees on : 
 
 1. Membership. 6. District Improvement. 
 
 2. House. 7. Legislation. 
 
 3. Audit. 8. Campaign. 
 
 4o Library. 9. Press and Literature. 
 
 5. Entertainment. 10. Study and Investigation of 
 
 Street-cleaning. 
 
 Good Government Club A moved into its club-house in 
 May, 18930 It is a social club of men who wish to be freed 
 from packed and dishonest primaries at home and constant 
 interference in city affairs by the legislature at Albany; they 
 desire separate municipal elections, a blanket ballot without 
 the blanket paster, and home rule, to the end that they may 
 obtain the best possible municipal government, irrespective of 
 party, at a fair cost. 
 
 The club-house is situated on the northwest corner of Lex- 
 ington Avenue and Fifty-eighth Street. There is a well- 
 equipped billiard-room in the basement. The parlor floor is 
 neatly and comfortably furnished, and affords a convenient 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 95 
 
 and attractive place of meeting for the members. Every two 
 weeks meetings are held here, at some of which addresses are 
 made by men familiar with city affairs and needs, followed by 
 general discussion among the members. At other meetings 
 entertainments of some kind, as music, recitations, " smokers," 
 are given. The rooms on the second floor are fitted up as 
 smoking and reading rooms, and have a supply of daily morn- 
 ing and evening papers, and magazines. Vienna Hall, hold- 
 ing six hundred persons, adjacent to the club-house and ac- 
 cessible through it, is at the service of the Club, at a nominal 
 price, for large meetings for social or political purposes. 
 
 As a club, Club A is not intended to be anti-Democratic or 
 anti-Republican, but to be persistently, consistently, and im- 
 partially anti-bad-city-government, and nothing else. 
 
 It has nothing to do with Tammany as such, nor with the 
 Republican machine as such ; but it has to do with the ad- 
 ministrators of our city government as such, whoever they 
 may be, and with the law, system, and methods under and in 
 accordance with which or in violation of which that govern- 
 ment is administered. 
 
 Among the results actually accomplished by the Club, the 
 secretary mentions the prevention to a large extent of corrup- 
 tion at the polls, by means of a corps of watchers ; the awaken- 
 ing of the public sentiment to the needs of city government ; 
 and the nomination of better men to public office. 
 
 GOOD GOVERNMENT CLUBS. 
 
 CLUB A, A. L. Gutman, Secretary, 15 Wall Street. 
 CLUB B, T. A. Fulton, Secretary, 70 West io4th Street. 
 CLUB C, Lewis C. King, Secretary, 253 West 88th Street. 
 CLUB D, Charles Taber, Secretary, 26 Exchange Place. 
 CLUB E, Edwin Emerson, Assistant Secretary, 338 East 
 23d Street. 
 
96 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 CLUB F, John P. Faure, Secretary, 238 West nth Street. 
 
 CLUB G, G. F. S. Allen, Secretary, 220 West 43d Street. 
 
 CLUB H, J. T. Morris, Secretary, 263 West 34th Street. 
 
 CLUB K, Max Cohn, Secretary. 
 
 CLUB L, Paul Kistel, Secretary, 350 East 85th Street. 
 
 CLUB M, Julius Steinberger, Secretary, 311 East 720! Street. 
 
 CLUB N, Louis Lichter, Secretary, 336 East 9oth Street. 
 
 CLUB O, William W. Locke, Secretary, 126 East 28th Street. 
 
 CLUB P, F. C. Leubuscher, Secretary, 280 Broadway. 
 
 CLUB Q, Carl Pfeiffer, Secretary, 498 West i5 3 d Street. 
 
 CLUB R, Albert L. Willis, Secretary, 8 Hampden Street. 
 
 CLUB S, Organizing. 
 
 CLUB T, Organizing. Gregory Weinstein, Secretary care of 
 Club A. 
 
 CLUB U, James P. Heath, Secretary, 317 East 68th Street. 
 
 CLUB V, Louis Inman, Secretary, 136 Liberty Street. 
 
 CLUB W, Thomas H. Friend, Secretary, 32 Nassau Street. 
 
 CLUB X, M. J. Katz, Secretary, 201 Henry Street. 
 
 CLUB TENTH ASSEMBLY DISTRICT, Charles H. Kelvy, Sec- 
 retary, 120 Broadway. 
 
 THE GOOD CITIZENSHIP EDUCATIONAL 
 LEAGUE OF OMAHA. 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 JAY BURNS. J. O. DETWEILER, 
 
 508 Paxton Block, 
 
 Omaha, Neb. 
 
 Organized in August, 1894, this League has for its object, 
 according to its constitution, " the education of the Christian 
 people of Omaha in the conditions and needs of our city, and 
 their duties as citizens to its municipal government." In 
 order to educate the public conscience, and to secure a more 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 97 
 
 generous support for all municipal movements which make for 
 the public welfare, the League plans the study of the problems 
 of municipal government ( i ) by classes and lectures for mem- 
 bers ; (2) by mass-meetings for the public ; (3) by the study and 
 circulation of literature bearing on the subject. An executive 
 committee of seven meets regularly once a month. Women 
 are eligible to membership. 
 
 The League is restricted in political action as it is organized 
 at present; while it will do all in its power to awaken and 
 stimulate the public conscience, it will leave political action to 
 the organizations already in the field and outside of the church. 
 The League's motto might be phrased, Educate, agitate, 
 cooperate. 
 
 GOOD GOVERNMENT CLUB OF BERKELEY. 
 
 President ', Secretary, 
 
 THOMAS ADDISON. ANSON S. BLAKE, 
 
 2222 Durant Avenue, 
 
 Berkeley, Cal. 
 
 April 7, 1894, this Club was organized, under a voluntary 
 secretary. According to its constitution, " the objects of this 
 Club shall be to keep before our citizens the necessity of 
 their interest in public affairs ; to discuss and shape public 
 opinion upon all questions which relate to the proper govern- 
 ment of Berkeley ; to separate municipal from State and 
 national politics ; to secure the nomination and election of 
 municipal officers solely on account of their fitness for the 
 office ; to federate for these purposes the various moral forces 
 of the town ; and to encourage every wise project for the 
 promotion of the good order, prosperity, and honor of Berke- 
 ley." 
 
 The dues are $2 a year, and in addition voluntary subscrip* 
 
M 
 
 98 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 tions. An executive committee of five meets monthly. The 
 departments of work are : 
 
 1. Grievance. 3, Town Officials. 
 
 2. Light and Water. 4. Streets. 
 
 5. Mill Liquor Law. 
 
 The Club has no organ of its own, but issues occasional 
 publications. The secretary writes : 
 
 "TJie town of Berkeley is composed of two very distinct 
 portions : the West End, inhabited by ^loafers and a^poor and 
 rather Aocious class of laborers, who are in Berkeley most of the 
 time ; and the East End, inhabited by a cultivated and intelli- 
 gent class of people, whose business is for the most part in San 
 Francisco and Oakland, the exceptions^ to the above rule being 
 the professors (about one hundred and twenty-five) and students 
 (about thirteen hundred) of the University of California, which 
 is situated in the East I$id. Although the voting population 
 of the East End is about two to one to that of the West End, 
 that end of town has always dominated the other in things 
 political, and Berkeley has had a remarkably poor government 
 for a town whose population has such a large proportion of 
 citizens of high moral standards. This state of affairs has 
 always been deplored, but regarded as hopeless; but this 
 spring several of the older inhabitants, and two or three recent 
 comers from the Eastern States who were in touch with the 
 movements for municipal reform there, met and decided to 
 attempt an organization. We wrote to various organizations 
 for suggestions, and called a meeting of forty citizens of Berke- 
 ley, who subsequently organized. Our membership list has 
 been increased to ninety-five, and is limited to one hundred 
 and fifty. Our object is to attain good municipal government 
 for Berkeley by all means in our power by educating first 
 ourselves and then the public in matters of public welfare and 
 government, so that the taste of the community will be for 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 99 
 
 that sort of thing, and they will demand it ; and in the mean- 
 time we shall endeavor to force the position of any who at- 
 tempt anything contrary to the public good, and use our in- 
 fluence to bring the better portion of the community into ac- 
 tive participation in matters of municipal politics. These are 
 a few of our many ways proposed and in use to attain our one 
 object, which is expressed in the name of the Club." 
 
 Among the results actually accomplished are : the success- 
 ful blocking of several measures that were brought before the 
 town trustees by the saloon-keepers; the appointment of a 
 good board of trustees to frame a better charter ; and an in- 
 crease of about fifteen per cent, of the voters at the last elec- 
 tion. 
 
 GOOD GOVERNMENT CLUB OF YONKERS 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 HON. NORTON P. OTIS. RALPH EARLE PRIME, JR., 
 
 25 Warburton Avenue, 
 
 Yonkers, N. Y. 
 
 This Club was organized in 1894, with a voluntary secre- 
 tary. As stated in its constitution, " the Good Government 
 Club of Yonkers is organized to promote honest, efficient, and 
 economical government in the city of Yonkers, and will wel- 
 .come to its membership all citizens, without distinction of party, 
 who are in sympathy with its purposes." Financial support is 
 derived from the annual dues of members, $5. The manage- 
 ment and control of the Club is vested in a board of fifteen 
 trustees. Their regular meetings are held once each month, 
 but special meetings may be held subject to the call of the 
 president. There are three standing committees : 
 
 i. Membership. 2. Municipal Government. 3. Legislation. 
 There is no official organ of the Club ; a ward committee 
 consults for the interests of the Club in the five wards of the 
 
ioo MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 city. As to the part to be taken in political action by the 
 Club this statement is made : " It is not the business, nor is it 
 the desire, of this Club to weaken any man's allegiance to his 
 State and national party, but it is one of the chief aims of the 
 Club to weaken the influence of partizan politics in the gov- 
 ernment of the city of Yonkers." Women are not eligible to 
 membership. Among the results actually accomplished by the 
 Club are : a circular of definite and detailed information con- 
 cerning the financial condition of the town; limitation of the 
 contingent fund to $100,000; reconstruction of the Board of 
 Health, making the health-officer the executive officer of the 
 board, appointed by the board, and amenable to it, instead of 
 being president, as at present ; insertion of the word " wilfully " 
 in the provision of the charter relating to obstruction of side- 
 walks, restricting the amount of bonds the Commissioner of 
 Public Worjcs may ask of the Common Council, without act 
 of the legislature, to $10,000 in any one year; providing that 
 no city official shall hold two offices; the desired change in 
 the method of opening streets. 
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL LAW AND ORDER 
 LEAGUE 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 HON. CHARLES C. BONNEY. PROFESSOR CLARENCE GREELEY, 
 
 Berkeley Temple, 
 
 Boston, Mass. 
 
 December 22, 1883, the League was organized, and its work 
 is under the direction of a voluntary secretary. Its object is 
 " to promote the enforcement of law through existing machin- 
 ery, and to reform the laws when necessary." Voluntary sub- 
 scriptions support the work. An executive committee of twelve 
 meets once each month. The organ of the League is the City 
 Vigilant and Lend a Hand. The organization is non-partizan, 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 101 
 
 and women are ineligible to membership. The organization 
 was effected in Tremont Temple, when delegates from the 
 Law and Order Leagues in eight States met in conference. 
 The name International was adopted at a subsequent meeting 
 in Toronto. Its work is mainly educational, and consists in 
 holding public meetings and in giving wide currency to the 
 addresses. 
 
 CITIZENS' LAW AND ORDER LEAGUE 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 HON. JOSEPH R. HAWLEY. SAMUEL P. THRASHER, 
 
 102 Orange Street, 
 
 New Haven, Conn. 
 
 The date of organization was September 28, 1892, with a 
 salaried secretary. "The object of this League shall be to 
 secure, by all proper means, the enforcement of existing laws." 
 Voluntary subscriptions supply the financial aid. The execu- 
 tive committee of nine meets at the call of the secretary. The 
 Connecticut Citizen is the organ of the League. The society 
 is not restricted in its political action. Women are eligible to 
 membership. Among the results actually accomplished has 
 been the conviction of nearly three hundred lawbreakers. 
 
 THE LIBRARY HALL ASSOCIATION OF 
 CAMBRIDGE 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 RICHARD H. DANA. GEORGE G. WRIGHT, 
 
 86 Mt. Auburn Street, 
 
 Cambridge, Mass. 
 
 Organization was effected December 18, 1889, but as yet 
 no incorporation. No compensation is paid to any of the 
 
102 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOYEMEl'TS 
 
 officials. An annual fee of $i, and voluntary contributions 
 from those who are interested in its work, furnish the finan- 
 cial support. The executive committee consists of twenty- 
 eight, meeting as often as the exigencies of the society de- 
 mando There are no standing, but special committees. At 
 election time a campaign paper is mailed to each voter. This 
 contains a brief sketch of all the candidates, with any other 
 matter which the committee may issue. It is sent to every 
 voter on the revised Uses* " Any citizen of Cambridge shall be 
 eligible to memfoea&blp without regard to his political prefer- 
 ences. Proposals to membership shall be made in writing to 
 the executive committee in such form as they may provide, 
 and if approved by three fourths of that committee the appli- 
 cant shall become a member upon signing these by-laws and 
 payment of the admission fee. Proposals not approved by the 
 executive committee may be referred by any member to the 
 Association, which may, by a three-fourths vote of all present 
 at any meeting, elect said applicant." 
 
 The Association has accomplished the election of good 
 men by means of previous indorsement after a careful study 
 of their records. Thus, in 1893, the Association indorsed 
 eleven aldermen and nine of them were elected ; twenty mem- 
 bers of the Common Council were indorsed and eighteen 
 elected ; while five school-committee men were indorsed and 
 all were elected. Many citizens have come to look to the 
 Association for guidance, because it has won their confidence 
 through previous wisdom and fairness. According to its con- 
 stitution, " the purposes of the Association shall be to secure 
 the nomination and election of proper candidates for municipal 
 offices ; to procure the punishment of all persons who may be 
 guilty of election frauds, maladministration of office, or mis- 
 appropriation of public funds; to advocate and promote a 
 public service based upon character and capability only ; and 
 to promote intelligent discussion of municipal aifairs by the 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 103 
 
 publication and distribution of reliable information in relation 
 thereto." 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING 
 GOOD CITIZENSHIP 
 
 Honorary President, Secretary, 
 
 EDWARD EVERETT HALE. RAY GREENE HARDING, 
 
 Boston, Mass. 
 
 In December, 1887, a circular letter signed by a dozen Bos- 
 ton gentlemen was distributed to those who presumably might 
 be interested in its subject. It began as follows : " Three ex- 
 isting conditions threaten the stability of our republican insti- 
 tutions. The first of these is the prevalent indifference among 
 instructed American citizens to the observance of their duties 
 as such, and their apparent forgetfulness of the principles upon 
 which those duties are based. The second is the greater or 
 less ignorance of those principles and duties which prevails 
 among a very large class of citizens, especially those of foreign 
 birth. The third is the avowed, deliberate purpose of a large 
 number of citizens, and of residents who are not citizens, to 
 change our present time-honored form of citizenship for other 
 and experimental forms. . . . All who desire the perpetuity of 
 our institutions must admit that it is necessary to arouse the 
 first-named from their indifference, to instruct the second, and 
 to combat the intentions of the third." 
 
 The circular proposed the formation of a society to carry out 
 these purposes ; and in response to its suggestions the Massa- 
 chusetts Society for Promoting Good Citizenship was organized, 
 December 20, 1887. The services of the secretary are volun- 
 tary. According to its constitution, " the object of this Society 
 shall be to disseminate a knowledge of the principles of good 
 citizenship, and to promote the observance of the duties im- 
 posed thereby." There is an annual membership fee of $i. 
 
104 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 An executive committee consists of seven, while there are the 
 following standing committees : 
 
 1. Membership. 3. Publications and Lectures. 
 
 2. Courses of Study. 4. Finance. 
 
 The work actually accomplished has been the courses of 
 lectures by the Society, delivered upon municipal topics by 
 those who were most fitted to speak on these topics. 
 
 THE MEN'S PATRIOTIC GUILD 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 ]. F. HENRicie WILLIAM P. FLINT, 
 
 3301 Fifth Avenue, 
 
 Pittsburg, Pa. 
 
 The date of organization was November 26 ? 1893. There 
 are no paid officers. According to its constitution : 
 
 " The objects of this society shall be : 
 
 (t i. To promote the knowledge of its members in all matters 
 pertaining to the history, laws, and politics of our nation, State, 
 and city, and to encourage the application of ethical principles 
 to political practice in all branches of our government. 
 
 " 2. To cooperate with the First Unitarian Church of Pitts- 
 burg in carrying out all its social and charitable activities," 
 
 The Guild endeavors to obtain active members from among 
 people who are in no way interested in the church, and, in 
 fact, has some such members at present. In their case the 
 first object of the society is the only one to which they are con- 
 sidered subscribers. This object is the dominant one, and ques- 
 tions coming under the head of the second object rarely take 
 up more than ten minutes of the Guild's time at any meeting. 
 
 The funds for current expenses are raised by assessments, 
 and extraordinary expenses are defrayed by voluntary contri- 
 butions. A managing committee of three directs the affairs of 
 the organization. Political action is unrestricted. Women 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 105 
 
 are ineligible to membership. Among the results actually ac- 
 complished, the Guild aided Kingsley House by furnishing 
 workers to take hold of the work of that college settlement 
 under the direction of its residents. Kingsley House is located 
 in the mill district of Pittsburg, and is managed by a board of 
 directors representing many different Christian denominations. 
 In conjunction with Kingsley House the Guild arranged a free 
 lecture by Herbert Welsh on " Good City Government," and 
 one by Clinton Rogers Woodruff on " Obstacles to Good Gov- 
 ernment." 
 
 MUNICIPAL ASSOCIATION 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 J. W. DAVIDSON. DANIEL KILHAM DODGE, 
 
 University of Illinois, 
 
 Champaign, 111. 
 
 This Association was organized in 1893, for the "promo- 
 tion of municipal affairs," and is not incorporated. The posi- 
 tion of the secretary is voluntary. An executive committee of 
 four, with no stated times for meeting, directs the work, divided 
 into five departments : 
 
 1. General. 3. Police. 
 
 2. Hygiene. 4. Fire and Lighting. 
 
 5. Laws. 
 
 There is no organ of the society, but public meetings enable 
 the Association to come in touch with those who are interested. 
 The membership fee is $i a year. There is no part taken by 
 the Association in the nomination or election of officials. 
 Women are ineligible to membership. The secretary states 
 that among the results already accomplished is an aroused 
 interest in sewerage and public-school sanitation. 
 
 The Association originated in the meetings of the local 
 Ministers' Association, composed of the ministers of all the 
 churches, with the exception of the Roman Catholic and the 
 
io6 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 Episcopalian. Certain laymen were invited to cooperate with 
 them in their endeavor. At a meeting of about a dozen per- 
 sons, held in November, 1892, a preliminary organization was 
 formed, which developed into the present Association. The 
 membership consists of the ministers of the eight Protestant 
 churches and four members from each of these churches, 
 selected by the ministers. To these were added ten members 
 at large. 
 
 MUNICIPAL CLUB OF DECATUR 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 WILLIAM H. STARR. H. P. PAGE, 
 
 Decatur, 111. 
 
 The date of organization was October 9, 1 894. The services 
 of the secretary are voluntary. The executive committee of 
 sixteen meets twice a month. As the organization is so recent 
 the departments of work have not yet been determined. There 
 is no restriction on the political action of the Club. Accord- 
 ing to its constitution : 
 
 " We, the members of the Municipal Club of Decatur, invit- 
 ing the cooperation of all our fellow-citizens, hereby declare and 
 pledge ourselves to the enforcement of the following principles : 
 
 " i. We, as citizens of Decatur, believe that our highest in- 
 terests will be materially promoted by the absolute separation 
 of municipal government from national and State politics. 
 
 " 2. Realizing that respect for law is the bulwark of liberty, 
 we demand a vigorous observance and enforcement of all our 
 laws, and we pledge ourselves to nominate or indorse only 
 such candidates as we believe to be in favor of such enforce- 
 ment, honest, and capable of properly administering the affairs 
 of our municipal government. 
 
 "3. We advocate practical extension of the highest princi- 
 ples of civil-service reform to .our municipal departments. 
 
UNIVER 
 
 - 
 
 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 107 
 
 "4. It will be the special object of the Municipal Club of 
 Decatur to make a thorough and scientific investigation of 
 the correct principles of local self-government, especially as 
 adapted to this municipality, and to collect and publish all 
 appropriate information on the defects and needs of the city 
 government. While the members of this Club may be mem- 
 bers of widely different national and State organizations, all 
 will be united in the common purpose of obtaining the best city 
 government arid the wisest expenditure of money, of advanc- 
 ing the material growth of this municipality, and of stimulating 
 that spirit of progress in her citizens which will secure for them 
 and their descendants the largest measure of domestic com- 
 fort and commercial prosperity." 
 
 Results actually accomplished are precluded by the extreme 
 youth of the Club, but there is a membership of about six 
 hundred, and the intention of the Club is to place a non- 
 partizan ticket in the field at the spring election of city 
 officers. The action of the Club has already disturbed the 
 old-line politicians, and the subject of "city government is 
 business not politics " will be given an airing. 
 
 MUNICIPAL CLUB OF ROCHESTER 
 
 Secretary, 
 ISAAC ABLER, 
 
 811 Wilder Building, 
 Rochester, N. Y. 
 
 The constitution was adopted in June, 1894, when a few 
 gentlemen interested in good government met to discuss the 
 formation of a Good Government Club. A meeting was held 
 June 29, 1894, at which a dozen or fifteen gentlemen were 
 present. A constitution which follows substantially that of 
 the Good Government Clubs of New York was adopted. 
 October i6th a second meeting Was held, at which some 
 
to8 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 thirty or forty were present. Most of those present became 
 members of the Club. A board of trustees was elected at this 
 meeting, and addresses were listened to from Mr. Nathaniel 
 Bacon, of the Syracuse Good Government Club, and others, 
 The organization will be perfected as soon as possible, and the 
 work of the Club begun. The annual dues are $i. The ex- 
 ecutive committee cannot be less than five in number, and 
 three of the five must be trustees. It meets at the call of the 
 chairman. 
 
 The objects of the society, as stated in its constitution, are : 
 (i) to secure the nomination and election of proper candidates 
 for municipal offices, and the selection of fit persons for posi- 
 tions filled by appointment; (2) to procure the punishment of 
 any persons who may attempt frauds affecting elections, or 
 who may be guilty of maladministration of office or misappro- 
 priation of public funds ; (3) to advocate and promote a public 
 service based upon character and capacity only ; and (4) to 
 promote intelligent discussion of municipal affairs by the col- 
 lection, publication, and distribution of reliable information in 
 relation thereto. 
 
 The Club has no organ of its own, and is not restricted in 
 its political action. As its formation is so recent no definite 
 results can be yet reported, but the educational features of the 
 organization will be sure to secure a higher municipal tone. 
 
 MUNICIPAL IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION OF 
 KANSAS CITY 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 AUGUST R. MYER, We B. RICHARDS, 
 
 Fifth and Wyandotte Streets, 
 
 Kansas City, Mo. 
 
 The date of organization was January 2, 1892, and of in- 
 coiporation, January 28, 1892. The secretary holds a volun- 
 
MUNICIPAL. REFORM MOVEMENTS 109 
 
 tary position. According to the constitution, the Association 
 is organized (i) for the accumulation and study of all such in- 
 formation and statistics from the experience of other cities as 
 may have a bearing upon methods of levying public taxes, 
 upon the expenditure of public moneys, upon the establish- 
 ment and maintenance of public parks and boulevards, upon 
 paving sidewalks and street-cleaning, upon water and gas ser- 
 vice, upon sewerage and sanitation, upon the laying out of 
 additions, upon all forms of intramural transportation, and 
 upon every department of municipal government and usage ; 
 (2) to take such vigorous and effective measures, by the use of 
 the information so obtained, to secure the cooperation of all 
 good citizens in publishing and promoting every measure of 
 improvement and reform which may benefit Kansas City, and 
 to secure for its inhabitants all the advantages to be obtained 
 in the wise and economical administration of its affairs ; (3) to 
 secure the passage of such ordinances as will promote the 
 health, comfort, and safety of the community, and to this end 
 to secure the enforcement, modification, or repeal, as the case 
 may require, of city ordinances and State laws relating to 
 municipalities. 
 
 Regular meetings of the executive committee of ten are 
 held twice each month. There are standing committees on : 
 
 i= Methods of Levying Public Taxes. 
 
 2. Expenditure of Public Money. 
 
 3. Establishing and Maintaining Public Parks and Boule- 
 
 vards. 
 
 4. Paving Sidewalks and Street-cleaning. 
 
 5. Water and Gas Service, 
 
 6. Sewerage and Sanitation. 
 
 7. Laying Out of Additions, * 
 
 8. All Forms of Intramural Transportation. 
 
 9. Every Department of Municipal Government and Usage. 
 
no MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 The Association is not restricted in its political action, and 
 women are ineligible to membership. The Association places 
 its investigations and discussions at the disposal of the public 
 and the officials through the press, and urges the enforcement 
 of such laws as are neglected by the municipal government, 
 particularly in the health and street departments. 
 
 Among the results already accomplished the secretary men- 
 tions the passage of a good park and boulevard law, investi- 
 gation and betterment of conditions at city hospital, wakening 
 sentiment in favor of the parks and boulevards and of the 
 separation of the city from the county government, . 
 
 THE MUNICIPAL LEAGUE OF GRAND RAPIDS 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 CHARLES R. SLIGH. WILLIAM H. KINSEY, 
 
 Grand Rapids, Mich. 
 
 May 15, 1894, the League was organized, with a voluntary 
 secretary. Voluntary contributions support the League, which 
 has this purpose : 
 
 " The objects of the League shall be to awaken and enlist 
 the sympathy and active interest of all good citizens in the 
 municipal affairs of Grand Rapids, hoping thereby that none 
 but honest and competent persons will be elected or appointed 
 to office therein, and to use our influence so that the govern- 
 mental affairs of the city shall be conducted in an honest and 
 economical manner, on a non-partizan basis, and purely on 
 good business principles. 
 
 " To see that Grand Rapids is provided with the most ap- 
 proved and Equitable system of taxation, the best-adapted sys- 
 tem of street-paving, street-lighting, water-supply, of drainage 
 and other sanitary precautions, of transit, of public schools, 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS m 
 
 and all other public necessities and conveniences that promote 
 the material and moral welfare of the city. 
 
 "It will be a special object of the League to make a 
 thorough study and scientific investigation of the correct 
 principles of local self-government, as adapted to this muni- 
 cipality, and to publish appropriate information on the de- 
 fects and needs of our city government. Also, to use our 
 influence for the proper amendment of our city charter, when 
 required." 
 
 The executive committee consists of three, who meet once 
 each month. The administration is divided among the fol- 
 lowing departments: 
 
 1. Municipal Reform Lit- 6. City Taxation. 
 
 erature. 7. Ways and Means. 
 
 2. Public Schools. 8. Public Street-lighting. 
 
 3. City Water-supply. 9. Compulsory Voting. 
 
 4. City Drainage and Pub- 10. Rapid Public Transit. 
 
 lie Health. u. Charter Amendments. 
 
 5. Street-paving and Im- 12. Public Morality. 
 
 provements. 13. Local Self-government. 
 
 The League is not restricted in its political action, and 
 women are eligible to membership. The origin of the organi- 
 zation was the need for some kind of concerted and persis- 
 tent effort which might result in the election of better men to 
 the City Council, so that city affairs the business of the city 
 might be conducted on business principles. In one respect 
 the League was very wise in forming its board of managers 
 from representative organizations in the city, such as the Real- 
 estate Board, Central Labor Union, Builders' and Traders' 
 Exchange, Building-trades Council, Retail Grocers' Associa- 
 tion, Furniture Manufacturers' Association, Ministers' Confer- 
 ence, Charity Organization Society, Clearing-house Associa- 
 
H2 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 tion, Young Men's Christian Association, Board of Education, 
 Common Council, Press Association. 
 
 THE MUNICIPAL LEAGUE OF MILWAUKEE 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 JOHN R. BUTLER. EDWARD K. WEST, 
 
 2630 Wells Street, 
 
 Milwaukee, Wis. 
 
 The League was organized in March, 1893, but is not yet 
 incorporated. A voluntary secretary directs the work. The 
 annual membership fee is $i. There is no organ of the so- 
 ciety, and as an association no active part is taken in politics. 
 
 "This organization is non-partizan, and seeks primarily to 
 eliminate from the city and county governments every trace 
 of national and State politics, and to introduce improved busi- 
 ness principles and methods in the management of their af- 
 fairs. It is not organized for spasmodic or sensational work 
 as a campaign club, but for the purpose of maturing and 
 suggesting for public consideration, from time to time, such 
 reformatory measures in legislation and expenditures as the 
 better sentiment of the community may approve. 
 
 " It is our intention to avoid all animosities, and primarily to 
 address ourselves to the correction of the fundamental condi- 
 tions of which imperfect government is the result. Neverthe- 
 less we mean to protest in unmistakable terms against existing 
 evils, wherever it is believed that such a course will be benefi- 
 cial, and where we think the public good requires it." 
 
 Women are not eligible to membership. An executive com- 
 mittee of seven meets once a month, subdividing the work into 
 the following departments : 
 
 1. Laws and Legislation. 3. Finance. 
 
 2. Press Relations. 4. Special Inquiry. 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 113 
 
 The organization was the evidence of the existence of a 
 strong sentiment throughout the city in favor of non-partizan 
 municipal government and business administration of affairs. 
 Those who have given time and best efforts gratuitously for 
 the public good, as it is and as it is apprehended, will not be 
 discouraged, but will continue their efforts. In reply to the 
 question what results were actually accomplished, it was stated 
 that it was difficult to prove direct results due to the League, 
 but the three political parties adopted civil-service extension 
 resolutions at the last spring (1894) conventions, and the char- 
 acter of men selected to represent the various wards in the Com- 
 mon Council was apparently greatly improved. This fact was 
 due to agitation and personal efforts of members in their home 
 wards. The League also made use of " heckling," of which 
 this circular is an illustration : 
 
 MILWAUKEE, March 20, 1894. 
 
 " DEAR SIR : You having become a candidate for the suf- 
 frage of the people, the electors are entitled to your views on 
 the leading questions involved in the present municipal elec- 
 tion. We therefore submit to you two inquiries, and respect- 
 fully request your answer thereto. 
 
 " Will you kindly favor us with a short and explicit reply on 
 or before 'the 26th inst., as a mass-meeting of the League and 
 friends of municipal reform has been called for the middle of 
 the week, in order to consider the report and recommenda- 
 tions of the Committee on Political Agitation. 
 
 " Respectfully, 
 
 "JOHN A. BUTLER, 
 
 "President. 
 "EDWARD K. WEST, 
 
 " Secretary." 
 
H4 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 THE MUNICIPAL LEAGUE OF OMAHA 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 JUDGE G. W. DOANE. GREGORY J. POWELL, 
 
 3Oth and Ohio Streets, 
 
 Omaha, Neb. 
 
 The League is not incorporated, but was organized May 29, 
 1894, with a voluntary secretary. Voluntary subscriptions 
 support the society. An executive committee, meeting at the 
 call of the chairman, superintends the following departments 
 of work : 
 
 1. Municipal. 3. Industrial. 
 
 2. Philanthropic. 4. Educational. 
 
 5. Moral. 
 
 There is no organ of the League. Its lowest unit of organi- 
 zation is the ward. Not being restricted in its political action, 
 it urges the nomination of good men, and if good candidates 
 are not put up it will nominate independently. The League 
 originated in a ministers' meeting, and by means of the inter- 
 est aroused in municipal affairs laymen were invited to become 
 members. In the constitution it is stated that " the object of 
 this League shall be to quicken among its members and the 
 citizens of Omaha an appreciation of their municipal obliga- 
 tions ; to acquaint them with existing conditions ; to familiar- 
 ize them with the machinery of municipal government; to 
 make conspicuous the respects in which such government is 
 languidly or wrongly administered ; to regard with jealous 
 concern the point at which private interest enters into com- 
 petition with the general good ; and in every way to repress in 
 the community what works to its detriment, and to foster what- 
 goever is calculated to promote its advantage. 
 
 "The principal means to be employed by the League are 
 investigation, publication, agitation, and organization, together 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 115 
 
 with the exercise of every moral influence needed to carry into 
 effect the purposes of the League." 
 
 Results actually accomplished are the organization of local 
 Leagues in four wards. The following statement of the ob- 
 jects of the League was printed on pledge-cards sent out to 
 the citizens : 
 
 " i . To secure the best possible municipal government for 
 Omaha. 
 
 " 2. To attain this worthy object the League asks the cooper- 
 ation of all citizens, irrespective of party or sect. 
 
 " 3. It will be the purpose of the League to stimulate and 
 secure the participation of every good citizen in municipal 
 affairs. 
 
 "4. To emphasize the absolute necessity of electing only 
 capable and honest men to fill all city offices, and placing this 
 above every other consideration. 
 
 " 5. We will urge every voter interested in the welfare of 
 Omaha to take part in his own party primary and see that 
 only candidates of such character are nominated. 
 
 " 6. It will be a special object of the Municipal League to 
 make a thorough investigation of local self-government as 
 adapted to Omaha, and to collect and publish all appropriate 
 information on the defects and needs of our city government, 
 and do all in our power for the remedy and supply of the 
 same." 
 
 THE MUNICIPAL LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 GEORGE BURNHAM, JR. CLINTON ROGERS WOODRUFF, 
 
 514 Walnut Street, 
 
 Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 The League is not yet incorporated, but was organized in 
 the autumn of 1892. The secretary holds a salaried position. 
 
n6 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 According to its constitution, " the objects of the League shall 
 be to eliminate all national and State politics from our munici- 
 pal politics ; to secure the nomination and election of candi- 
 dates solely on account of their honesty and fitness for the 
 office; to see that our municipal government be conducted 
 upon non-partizan and strictly business principles ; and to en- 
 courage every wise project for adding to the comfort and 
 convenience of our citizens and to the prosperity and develop- 
 ment of our city." 
 
 The League is supported by voluntary subscriptions. An 
 executive committee of seven meets at the call of the chairman. 
 There is no organ of the society. The unit of organization 
 is in the election divisions of the city. There are standing 
 committees on : 
 
 1. Executive. 4. Current Legislation. 
 
 2. Ward Organization. 5. Foreign Population. 
 
 3. Publication. 6. Naturalization. 
 
 THE MUNICIPAL LEAGUE 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 A. P. STRONG. C. B. MARTIN, 
 
 1 6 Gillespie Street, 
 
 Schenectady, N. Y. 
 
 The League was organized in 1894, but is .not yet incorpo- 
 rated. The secretary holds a voluntary position. Financial 
 support is secured by an annual membership fee of $i. The 
 executive committee consists of seven members, who meet once 
 a week. The standing committees are : 
 
 1. Public Library. 4. Public Health. 
 
 2. Municipal Legislation. 5. Education. 
 
 3. Good Order, 6. Publication. 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS .117 
 
 There is no organ of the League, but it comes in touch 
 with the workers through the various standing committees. 
 Acceptance of a nomination to a municipal office is deemed a 
 resignation of membership in the League. Women are not 
 eligible to membership. There are no branches of the League 
 in the municipal divisions. Increased sanitary precautions, 
 prevention of unjust taxation, and an awakened public spirit 
 are results already secured. 
 
 The Municipal League had its origin in the murder of 
 Robert Ross. This event brought prominently to view the 
 low level to which municipal affairs could descend when 
 neglected by the best citizens, and led to a resolve to enlist as 
 many citizens as possible in a more active interest in the city 
 government. About one hundred of the leading citizens joined 
 the movement. As the League has been in existence so short 
 a time the membership is small, but the knowledge of its ex- 
 istence has had the effect of crystallizing the moral support 
 of the best citizens. The League is non-partizan, but will 
 expect the elected officials, from whatever party they may 
 come, to do their duty; it will make suggestions to them, 
 cooperate, or criticize, as may be deemed best. From the 
 members of the League will be expected the full performance 
 of their civic duties. 
 
 MUNICIPAL REFORM CLUB 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 JOHN DUNN, JR. G. H. STILWELL, 
 
 2 Clinton Block, 
 Syracuse, N. Y. 
 
 This Club was organized May 14, 1894, but is not yet 
 incorporated. Membership fees of $i per annum and con- 
 tributions support the organization. The position of the sec- 
 retary is voluntary. The executive committee of five meets 
 
n8 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 at the call of the chairman. There is no organ of the society. 
 Women are ineligible to membership. Political action is re- 
 stricted to municipal affairs. According to its constitution, 
 "the purposes of this organization shall be to secure the 
 nomination and election of proper candidates for municipal 
 offices, and the selection of fitting persons for appointive posi- 
 tions ; to procure the punishment of any persons who may at- 
 tempt frauds directly or indirectly affecting elections, or who 
 may be guilty of maladministration of office, or misappropria- 
 tion of public funds ; to advocate and promote a public service 
 based upon character and capacity only ; and to promote in- 
 telligent discussion of municipal affairs by the collection, pub- 
 lication, and distribution of reliable information in relation 
 thereto." 
 
 Regarding results actually accomplished the secretary writes : 
 " We have been represented a number of times before the 
 Constitutional Convention, and are now working hard in favor 
 of the amendments. We have helped organize clubs in Os- 
 wego and Rochester with similar aims. Our Club was formed 
 on short notice in 1894, as the result of a letter to the chair- 
 man of the executive committee from Mr. Pryor, secretary of 
 the City Club of New York, inquiring for some organization 
 to help bring pressure on Governor Flower to get him to sign 
 some of the New York City bills then pending. It was too 
 late for that, but a paper read at a church meeting which dealt 
 with these matters excited so much interest that we held a 
 public meeting, at which some three hundred people were 
 present, and speakers from New York and Buffalo ; and about 
 forty people signed a petition for the organization of such a 
 club. We sent delegations to the State and National Muni- 
 cipal Leagues. We have done something toward subordinate 
 local organization and membership, but the constitutional work 
 took so much time that we have not done so much at home 
 as we might have. We are just preparing for a winter cam- 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 119 
 
 paign preparatory to our local election in February. This, 
 however, is somewhat disorganized again by a sudden call to 
 Europe which falls on me, who have had the management of 
 the affair as chairman of the executive committee. I hope 
 very much that the constitutional amendments will pass. 
 This will postpone our election till next fall and give time for 
 a more complete ward organization. We are trying to affiliate 
 with the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor, and 
 all other societies looking in the same direction, except the 
 American Prptective Association. We have several promi- 
 nent Roman Catholics among our supporters, and hope for 
 
 THE MUNICIPAL LEAGUE OF BOSTON 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 SAMUEL B. CAPEN. EDWIN D. MEAD, 
 
 20 Beacon Street, 
 Boston, Mass. 
 
 The date of the permanent organization was February 21, 
 1894, but the League is not yet incorporated. A voluntary 
 secretary directs the work. The financial support is obtained 
 from an annual assessment on the members. According to 
 the constitution, "the objects of this League shall be to keep 
 before our citizens the necessity of their interest in public 
 affairs ; to discuss and shape public opinion upon all questions 
 which relate to the proper government of our city ; to separate 
 municipal politics from State and national politics ; to secure 
 the nomination and election of municipal officers solely on ac- 
 count of their fitness for the office ; to federate for these pur- 
 poses the various moral forces of the city ; and to encourage 
 every wise project for the promotion of the good order, pros- 
 perity, and honor of Boston." 
 
 All classes are members, but the preference is given to mem- 
 
120 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 bers of religious, civic, philanthropic, business, and labor or- 
 ganizations. The executive committee of seven holds meetings 
 each month from October to April. The society has no organ 
 of its own, but the work is divided among these departments : 
 
 1. Municipal Charter. 
 
 2. Ward Leagues. 
 
 3. Proportional Representation. 
 
 4. Candidates and Election. 
 
 5. Current Affairs and Municipal Legislation. 
 
 6. City Finance and Accounts. 
 
 7. Public Schools. 
 
 8. Public Health and Safety. 
 
 9. Public Work. 
 
 10. Charities and Correction. 
 
 11. Publication. 
 
 The extension of the League is contemplated by the organ- 
 ization of branches in each ward. Monthly public League 
 meetings keep its objects before the community. Women are 
 not eligible to membership. The president writes : " We are 
 too young to speak of results, but we have certainly awakened 
 all over the city renewed interest in municipal matters." 
 
 The League had its origin in an address made before the 
 Congregational Club of Boston in March, 1892, which led at 
 once to the formation of the Pilgrim Association of Boston, an 
 organization of Congregationalists. That organization in- 
 structed its president to communicate with other similar reli- 
 gious, civic, and philanthropic societies, and ask for a federation 
 of the moral forces of the city. The League now has a mem- 
 bership of about one hundred and fifty, and is limited to two 
 hundred. At present it is putting especial effort into a move- 
 ment to secure from the next State legislature important 
 changes in the city charter, and also some plan of propor- 
 tional representation. 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 121 
 
 NATIONAL CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM LEAGUE 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 CARL SCHURZ. GEORGE MCANENY, 
 
 54 William Street, 
 
 New York. 
 
 This League was organized in August, 1881, but is not in- 
 corporated. The League is composed of all the Civil-service 
 Reform Associations in the United States, of which there are 
 now thirty-two. It is supported by voluntary contributions. 
 The secretary is also the secretary of the Civil-service Reform 
 Association of New York City, and as such is a salaried offi- 
 cer. An executive committee of twenty-one manages the 
 affairs of the League during the interim between its annual 
 meetings, and meets subject to the call of the president. The 
 standing committees are : 
 
 1. Publication Committee, to which is intrusted the control 
 of the organ of the League, Good Government. 
 
 2. Finance Committee. 
 
 There are also committees, practically permanent, upon : 
 
 1. Reform in the Consular Service. 
 
 2. Selection of First, Second, and Third Class Postmasters. 
 
 3. Political Assessments. 
 
 Good Government, the organ of the League, published 
 monthly at Washington and New York, forms a medium of 
 communication as well as correspondence, and reports relative 
 to the personal work of the officers and the local Leagues. 
 
 Political action is restricted, in that the League as such can- 
 not advocate any party or candidate. Women are eligible to 
 membership through some of the organizations. 
 
 The League was organized in order to keep the several 
 Civil-service Reform Associations in touch with one another 
 and unify their action. It is not greatly larger than it has 
 
122 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 been for some years, excepting through the recent organiza- 
 tion of the Anti-spoils League, formed in December, 1893, 
 now numbering about ten thousand members. The object of 
 the League is to promote the merit system of appointment to 
 administrative offices, to the end that such offices shall be 
 filled, excepting so far as they are directly^ concerned with the 
 policy of administration, on grounds of fitness, and not because 
 of the personal or partizan relations of those seeking them. 
 
 The object of the League has been partially accomplished 
 by the passage by Congress of the existing civil-service law 
 and the gradual extension of its application to fifty thousand 
 employees of the government, the adoption of State civil-ser- 
 vice acts, applying also to all municipalities in Massachusetts 
 and New York, and the adoption of civil-service rules by a 
 number of single cities in other States. 
 
 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL LEAGUE 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 JAMES C. CARTER. CLINTON ROGERS WOODRUFF, 
 
 514 Walnut Street, 
 
 Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 The National Municipal Reform League is a result of the 
 National Conference for Good City Government, held in Phila- 
 delphia in the month of January, 1894. This conference 
 brought together, from all parts of the country, men and 
 women who had long given special thought to the govern- 
 ment of our large cities; and its discussions showed clearly 
 that the many and serious defects recognized in American 
 municipal institutions are practically the same throughout the 
 country, and arise from permanent and universal, not from 
 temporary or local, causes. Complaints vary in form or de- 
 gree, illustrations of imperfect working in the machinery of 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 123 
 
 administration are diverse, but the general situation is substan- 
 tially identical in all the great cities of the Union. 
 
 The National Municipal League was organized at the second 
 conference, held in April, iS^jJnjhe city of New York. The 
 League affords counsel and encouragement "to "alTlts affiliated 
 societies ; it in no wise controls their action, for it recognizes 
 the probability of honest and reasonable difference of opinion 
 among its members regarding the most effective means to ad- 
 vance their common ends. If its true character and purposes 
 are understood its utility must be apparent to every one in 
 sympathy with those purposes. It aims to embrace all asso- 
 ciations of citizens formed to improve municipal government ; 
 if such associations exist for yet other laudable ends, or to 
 advocate some one special measure of reform in city admin- 
 istration, they are none the less eligible for affiliation. It 
 brings together, at frequent intervals, for cooperation, instruc- 
 tion, and advice, accredited representatives from all such so- 
 cieties ; but their action when assembled binds even the soci- 
 eties sending them so far only as it may merit the deliberate 
 approval of their respective governing bodies. 
 
 According to its constitution, the League has a threefold 
 object : 
 
 " i. To multiply the numbers, harmonize the methods, and 
 combine the forces of all who realize that it is only by united 
 action and organization that good citizens can secure the 
 adoption of good laws and the selection of men of trained 
 ability and proved integrity for all municipal positions, or pre- 
 vent the success of incompetent or corrupt candidates for 
 public office. 
 
 " 2. To promote the thorough investigation and discussion 
 of the conditions and details of civic administration, and of 
 the methods for selecting and appointing officials in American 
 cities, and of laws and ordinances relating to such subjects. 
 
 " 3. To provide for such meetings and conferences, and for 
 
124 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 the preparation and circulation of such addresses and other 
 literature, as may seem likely to advance the cause of good 
 city government." 
 
 The League is managed by a Board of Delegates chosen 
 by the associations composing it. Each association is entitled 
 to appoint, from time to time, as many delegates as it may see 
 fit, and each delegate shall retain his position until he is with- 
 drawn, or his successor is qualified, or his association becomes 
 inactive. 
 
 The annual fee for associate members is $5. The League 
 has no organ of its own, but from time to time issues leaflets 
 on some topic connected with good government. The posi- 
 tion of the secretary is voluntary. The executive committee 
 consists of twelve, meeting at the call of the chairman. The 
 departments of the League are : 
 
 i. Grievances and Abuses. 2. Law. -3. Publication. 
 
 THE REFORM LEAGUE 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 JOSEPH PACKARD, JR. CHARLES MORRIS HOWARD, 
 
 Equitable Building, 
 
 Baltimore, Md. 
 
 The date of organization was November, 1885, but the 
 League has not been incorporated. The position of the sec- 
 retary is voluntary. An annual fee of $i from members and 
 voluntary subscriptions furnish the financial support. An ex- 
 ecutive committee of fifteen, subject to the call of the chair- 
 man or of the president, meets about once each month. The 
 departments of work are : 
 
 1. Finance. 4. Public Officials. 
 
 2. Legislation. 5. Publications. 
 
 3. Elections. 6. Membership. 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 125 
 
 At the April meeting, 1894, the following resolution was 
 adopted by the League : 
 
 " Resolved, That the president appoint, as soon as practi- 
 cable, the following permanent committees of the League, con- 
 sisting of not less than five members each, each with the power 
 to add to its number, with the consent of the president : 
 
 " i. A Committee upon the Opening, Closing, Making, Re- 
 pairing, and Maintaining the Streets, Alleys, Sewers, Conduits, 
 etc., of the City of Baltimore. 
 
 " 2. A Committee upon the Preservation of the Health of 
 the City of Baltimore and upon the Management of the City 
 Institutions for the Care of the Sick and Infirm. 
 
 " 3. A Committee upon the Cleaning and Lighting of the 
 Public Streets and Alleys in the City of Baltimore. 
 
 "4. A Committee upon the Public Schools of the City of 
 Baltimore. 
 
 " 5. A Committee upon the Levy and Assessment of Taxes 
 in the City of Baltimore. 
 
 " 6. A Committee upon the Finances of the City of Balti- 
 more. 
 
 " It shall be the duty of these various committees to acquaint 
 themselves with the most approved methods of municipal work 
 and the methods in use in this city, and in all ways to promote 
 economy and efficiency in such work and the administration 
 thereof. To this end they shall endeavor to secure the coop- 
 eration of the appropriate municipal departments as far as 
 practicable. Each of these committees shall meet whenever 
 called by the president of the League or their respective chair- 
 men, who shall be named by the president, and shall each 
 make at least one report annually to the League, and such 
 special reports to the League or executive committee as each 
 committee or the executive committee deems necessary." 
 
 The League has no organ of its own, and plans to come in 
 touch with its members by means of reform clubs organized 
 
126 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 in each ward. Women are ineligible to membership. The 
 political action of fhe League is unrestricted, because it " shall 
 nominate or indorse all candidates for elective public offices 
 to be supported by the League (unless the League shall in any 
 case direct otherwise), and shall discharge any other duties 
 which may be delegated to it by the League or the executive 
 committee." 
 
 The object of the organization, as stated in its constitution, 
 " shall be to secure fair elections, promote honest and efficient 
 government, and to expose and bring to punishment official 
 misconduct in the State of Maryland and especially in the city 
 of Baltimore. It will adopt all legitimate and honorable 
 means to effect these ends, and will strive to organize affiliated 
 associations with analogous aims in the various counties of the 
 State." 
 
 It has actually accomplished some of these results by secur- 
 ing better election and registration laws (including the Austra- 
 lian ballot), the conviction of fraudulent election officers, and 
 somewhat fairer elections. 
 
 Ever since the election of 1875 in Baltimore City, which 
 was a grossly fraudulent one, the general confidence in the 
 fairness of elections there has become gradually impaired. 
 In times of most active contest, of course, the frauds were 
 grosser and more numerous. Such a campaign was the muni- 
 cipal election in November, 1885. At this election the mayor- 
 alty was the chief point of contention. The Independent 
 Democrats nominated for this position a lifelong Democrat of 
 unimpeachable standing, and he received the indorsement of 
 the Republican party. The Democratic machine nominated 
 a gentleman of personally decent character, but an outspoken 
 advocate of machine men and methods. On the face of the 
 returns the "regular" candidate was shown to have been 
 elected by an insignificant majority. The frauds perpetrated 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 127 
 
 at this election at the instance of the machine, and shortly 
 afterward proved and published, were much more than suffi- 
 cient to counterbalance the apparent majority. Several of the 
 registers and election judges were convicted and imprisoned 
 for their part in the frauds. 
 
 Just after this election the Reform League was formed, " to 
 secure fair elections, promote honest government, and to ex- 
 pose and bring to punishment official misconduct in the State 
 of Maryland and especially in the city of Baltimore." The 
 constitution almost as it now stands was adopted ; the by-laws 
 have received considerable modification. Mr. S. Teackle Wallis 
 was chosen president, and continued to occupy that position 
 until his death, in April, 1894. Until lately no organized effort 
 has been made since the formation of the League to increase 
 its membership, which was at the outset about two hundred 
 and fifty or three hundred. A Committee on Membership had 
 been provided for in the by-laws, but had become inactive. 
 Lately this committee has been reorganized, and as a result 
 of its activity the League has about four hundred and fifty 
 members, while new ones are coming in rapidly. 
 
 Last winter there were so many new evidences of .the con- 
 tinued dominance of corrupt ring rule that the members of the 
 League felt the necessity for arousing it to renewed activity. 
 All the League's committees were reconstituted so as to get 
 rid of inactive members, and the lists were filled by putting in 
 energetic and, in most cases, younger men. At this time it 
 was decided to widen the scope of the League from the in- 
 vestigation of election frauds and official dishonesty, toward 
 which its efforts had been mainly directed, and to include the 
 examination of municipal methods from the point of view of 
 efficiency, without regard to the question of actual corruption. 
 With this end in view the constitution, which had previously 
 aimed at promoting " honest government," was amended so as 
 
128 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 to read "promote honest and efficient government." At the 
 same time, and with the same object, the additional special 
 permanent committees to investigate the work of certain city 
 departments were created. It is hoped, if this work is found 
 successful, that it may lead to the appointment of similar per- 
 manent committees to supervise the work of all the leading 
 departments, and may prevent or check many abuses by giv- 
 ing them publicity. 
 
 THE SOCIAL REFORM CLUB 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 ERNEST H. CROSBY. JOHN N. BOGERT, 
 
 7 Lafayette Place, 
 
 New York. 
 
 This Club was organized November 26, 1894, with a secre- 
 tary serving voluntarily. "A deep interest in social reform, 
 and especially in the elevation of society by the improvement 
 of the condition of wage-workers, shall be the indispensable 
 qualification of membership in this Club." The membership 
 shall consist, as far as possible, in equal proportions of wage- 
 workers and of others possessing the above-mentioned qualifi- 
 cation. The membership dues are $i a year. According to 
 its constitution the objects of the Club are : 
 
 " i. To form a common center at which wage-earners and 
 others interested in the labor movement may meet to consider 
 the next step or steps which should be taken in order to im- 
 prove industrial and social conditions in the city of New York. 
 
 "2. The specific characteristic of this Club is to be that it 
 shall take no share in the propaganda of general theories of 
 society, and shall rigidly exclude all so-called 'social pana- 
 ceas ' from its discussions, but shall confine itself to the consid- 
 eration, the advocacy, and the carrying out of practical mea- 
 sures such as can be undertaken in the immediate future with 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 129 
 
 fair hope of success, and commend themselves to conscience 
 and to common sense." 
 
 There are five standing committees of the club, to which 
 others may be added as occasion may require. These are : 
 
 1. Membership. 3. Application of the Law. 
 
 2. Legislation. 4. Enforcement of the Law. 
 
 5. Instruction. 
 
 Its directing body is an executive council of fifteen mem- 
 bers, which appoints the five standing committees. The ex- 
 ecutive council is also bound, "in the case of all extensive 
 strikes and lockouts, to do its utmost to promote conciliation 
 and arbitration ; and, in case these methods should fail, to in- 
 vestigate the merits of the question or questions at issue, and, 
 after due and impartial consideration, to use the influence of 
 the Club, and, when necessary, the funds at its command, in 
 favor of that party on whose side justice shall be found." 
 
 As this Club has been organized so recently no reports of 
 actual progress can yet be made. 
 
 SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRIME 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 CHARLES H. PARKHURST. THADDEUS D. KENNESON, 
 
 1 1 William Street, 
 
 New York. 
 
 The Society was organized October 22, 1878, and incorpo- 
 rated October 30, 1878. The secretary's position is voluntary, 
 and the constitution expressly provides that all positions in the 
 Society shall be voluntary. Voluntary subscriptions support 
 the Society's work. Three comprise the executive committee, 
 which meets once a week. There are two standing commit- 
 tees: 
 
 i. Executive. 2. Finance. 
 
13 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 The Society is restricted in its' political action. According to 
 its certificate of incorporation, its objects are : " To promote in 
 all proper and suitable ways the removal of sources and causes 
 of crime ; to assist the weak and helpless in obtaining the pro- 
 tection of the courts and of the laws regulating the sale of 
 intoxicating drinks, and in protecting themselves against the 
 temptations to crime ; to aid in the enforcement of the laws of 
 this State ; to disseminate information, and to arouse a correct 
 public opinion in support of all laws, organizing and forming 
 meetings and associations for instruction and discussion upon 
 such topics." 
 
 The Society is a close corporation with a very small mem- 
 bership. The members elect officers and directors ; the direc- 
 tors appoint an executive committee, which manages details 
 and reports monthly to the directors. The executive commit- 
 tee employs a superintendent and various agents, whom it 
 directs from week to week. The present executive committee 
 is the president, the secretary, and Frank Moss, who acts as vol- 
 untary counsel. There is no rule of the Society which makes 
 women ineligible to membership, but there are no female 
 members at the present time. The great result achieved by 
 the Society for the Prevention of Crime was the exposure of 
 the corruption in the police department. This was secured 
 by means of the Lexow Investigating Committee. The forces 
 thus set in motion were powerful factors in the overthrow of 
 Tammany Hall in the November election of 1894. 
 
 The Society, under the presidency of Rev. Howard Crosby, 
 D.D., LL.D., did very effective work in the line of its corpo- 
 rate purpose, and especially in stimulating public sentiment 
 and in securing good legislation and defeating bad measures in 
 matters touching crime. In its work the collusion between 
 criminals and the officers of the law became apparent, and its 
 efforts were then directed against official complicity with crime. 
 This latter phase of work became more marked under the ad- 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 131 
 
 ministration of the present president, and has just reached a 
 successful period, gratifying alike to the members of the So- 
 ciety and to the citizens of the city and State. 
 
 THE TRADES LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 W. W. FOULKROD. J. N. FITZGERALD, 
 
 421 Chestnut Street, 
 Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 The date of organization was March 24, 1891, and of in- 
 corporation, June, 1894. A salaried secretary has the general 
 oversight. The annual dues are $10. According to the con- 
 stitution, " the Trades League is organized for the purpose of 
 improving the commerce, the business, and the manufacturing 
 interests of the port and city of Philadelphia ; to advocate and 
 encourage any and all measures that tend to benefit the busi- 
 ness, the prosperity, or the convenience of the citizens of Phila- 
 delphia." 
 
 An executive committee of forty meets once each month, 
 and the standing committees are the following : 
 
 1. Passenger Transportation. 7. Legislation. 
 
 2. Freight Transportation. 8. Improvement and Inter- 
 
 3. Membership. ests of Philadelphia. 
 
 4. Entertainment. 9. Press. 
 
 5. Finance. 10. Municipal Affairs. 
 
 6. Harbor and Navigation. 1 1 . Law. 
 
 The society has no organ of its own, but comes in touch with 
 the workers by means of meetings and lunches. There is no 
 venturing on political questions, except in connection with 
 some substantial business question, and only when it cannot 
 be avoided. Women are ineligible to membership. 
 
 "The meeting for the organization of the Trades League 
 
132 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 was held in answer to a public call, in which the business men 
 of our city realized the necessity of organizing in order to de- 
 vise plans by which our city might be put on an equal footing 
 with other cities of her class, and to endeavor to accomplish 
 by organization that which seemed impossible to be done by 
 individuals. 
 
 "That the Trades League has accomplished considerable 
 there can be no question of doubt, and that there is yet much 
 to be accomplished none of us can deny ; but we have made 
 a good start, and the future will depend largely upon the sup- 
 port you give us. 
 
 " The fact that there is such an organization in Philadelphia, 
 watching and at all times ready to take up and endeavor to 
 remove any obstacle that is injurious to our business interests, 
 and, at the same time, prevent new ones being thrust upon us, 
 must of itself have a beneficial effect upon our business." 
 
 Among the list of actual accomplishments of the League 
 the larger number concern special interests, but others affect 
 the community. The secretary writes : 
 
 " In reply to your note requesting six of the most important 
 results achieved by the Trades League, would state that so 
 many matters of importance have been successfully handled 
 by our organization that it becomes somewhat difficult to 
 reply. However, would state that the following advantages 
 for the welfare of Philadelphia have been achieved by our or- 
 ganization : 
 
 " i. The stop-over privilege for Philadelphia on all through 
 Eastern tickets via our city without extra charge. 
 
 " 2. The establishment of a Freight Bureau under the charge 
 of an efficient manager. 
 
 " 3. Have been successful in inducing our city to refuse to 
 grant to the Bell Telephone Company any more privileges 
 without receiving something in return, one demand being that 
 the company fix a low maximum rate for service. 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 133 
 
 " 4. The settlement of the Mint site question, thus securing 
 the Mint for Philadelphia. 
 
 " 5. The publication of the ' Book of Philadelphia,' a highly 
 artistic and illustrated publication designed to place before the 
 country at large Philadelphia's superior advantages as a place 
 of manufacturing, business, and commercial operations, and as 
 a place of residence. 
 
 "6. The free distribution of Philadelphia newspapers in the 
 principal hotels of leading cities throughout the world." 
 
HI 
 
 MOVEMENTS FOR CIVIC BETTERMENT 
 
 135 
 
I believe that the safety of our American institutions lies in the clear and 
 honest appreciation on the part of each man that he has a right to stand up 
 on his own feet ; that he has a right to his own opinion, and that he has a 
 right to express it. And I believe that one great object toward which *ve 
 have to labor is the building up of that appreciation in the minds and hearts 
 of each growing young man. Now just observe the relation in which the 
 boss stands to that idea. There is a broad line to be drawn between a 
 leader and a boss. There always will be a leader. The leader is he who has 
 the power of reproducing his own conceptions, his own ideas, in the minds 
 of those that are in any way subordinated to his influence. In other words, 
 the office of the leader is to make more and more of the men that are brotight 
 under his influence ; the object of the boss is to make less and less of the 
 men that are brought under his infliience. The boss is" the most sagaciously 
 devised scheme that has yet been originated for the purpose of crushing out, 
 weakening, and drying up individual personality ; and therefore you and 
 /, young friends, to our dying gasp, are going to fight the boss, whatever 
 may be his professions of respectability. The more respectable he is, the more 
 damnably dangerous he is. 
 
 C. H. PARKHURST. 
 
 136 
 
Ill 
 
 MOVEMENTS FOR CIVIC BETTERMENT 
 
 THE movements thus far described have concerned them- 
 selves with municipal reform in the narrower sense ; but there 
 are many other movements which are making for civic better- 
 ment that is, the improvement of the municipality in any of 
 the thousand ways in which this may be accomplished. Muni- 
 cipal reform at once conveys the idea that a great amount of 
 destructive work is involved ; that there must be an immense 
 tearing down, in order that the ground may be cleared for im- 
 proved conditions. In a great many cases that fact is true, 
 as, for example, in New York there could be no true reform 
 till Tammany Hall and all which that organization stood for 
 was utterly destroyed. Now that the overthrow of that or- 
 ganization is a fact, the work of reform must henceforth be 
 devoted to the keenest vigilance that there shall be no further 
 necessity for the destructive work, and that there shall be ample 
 provision for the constructive or the positive program. It is 
 not enough that the streets of the city be kept scrupulously 
 clean and the tax-rate kept at the lowest notch in other 
 words, that the claims of property be given the precedence 
 over those of life ; but there is a need for a greater expenditure 
 of the city's money, in order that provision may be made for 
 the suitable satisfaction of all the rational demands of all the 
 elements in the make-up of the city. To illustrate : the mayor 
 of St. Louis writes, under date of November 2, 1894 : " St. Louis 
 
 i37 
 
138 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 has no public lavatories on the streets, nor elsewhere, except 
 in the parks, where the commissioner provides them." The 
 park commissioner writes, under the same date, that there is a 
 surface of 1732 acres in their parks, and that there are twenty- 
 four lavatories. Why should New York be without muni- 
 cipal lodging-houses, public baths and wash-houses, open spaces, 
 small parks, and markets, in a word, municipal provision for 
 the needs and even comforts of all the component parts of a 
 great city, but particularly the control by the municipality of 
 those characteristics necessary to the continuance of the city, 
 such, for example, as means of transportation, the water supply, 
 gas and electric lighting, education, especially the departments 
 of art, technical and manual training? There are therefore 
 organized movements that are working along these lines, and 
 are demanding that there shall be provision for these positive 
 features. This chapter will be devoted to a summary of what 
 such organizations are striving to accomplish for their own 
 particular localities, because the cause of civic betterment will 
 be greatly inde"bted to them. 
 
 Some of these societies are distinctively new, or are using 
 entirely new methods in dealing with the problems of the day. 
 Thus the university or the social settlement illustrates a new 
 phase of humanitarian effort, while temperance work is carried 
 on along the same general lines. Accordingly a knowledge of 
 the work of the various temperance societies, labor organiza- 
 tions, Young Men's Christian Associations, the varied phases 
 of educational institutions, and the spiritual efforts of the 
 church will be assumed, while the following descriptions will 
 concern movements which need to be more widely known by 
 those who are concerned in the welfare of their municipality. 
 'Those who are interested in the object of their particular so- 
 ciety are of necessity specialists, but a comprehensive survey 
 of the entire field of work is of great value, because some other 
 agency may be doing the same kind of work as the organiza- 
 
MOVEMENTS FOR CIVIC BETTERMENT i$9 
 
 tion in question, but vastly better. How not to do it is one 
 lesson which the philanthropy of 1895 is learning by bitter ex- 
 perience. 
 
 THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF CHRISTIAN 
 SOCIOLOGY 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 L. T. CHAMBERLAIN. WILLIAM HOWE TOLMAN, 
 
 427 West Fifty-seventh Street, 
 
 New York. 
 
 In order to grapple with the vexed and vexing problems of 
 the day the study of their causes and also of their theories is 
 necessary. It is therefore the aim of the Institute to bring 
 together those who are already interested in the study of the 
 social problems, and to organize other groups for the same 
 purpose. Organization is merely the first step, for the Insti- 
 tute will then furnish suggested topics for study, and will pre- 
 pare outlines in order that the instruction may be definite and 
 scientific. Richard T. Ely, who was the first president of the 
 Institute, said of it : " Its purpose is twofold : first, to endeavor 
 to ascertain the truth in regard to the social questions of the 
 time ; and, second, to endeavor to apply the truth practically. 
 The Institute hopes directly and indirectly to promote the 
 pursuit of knowledge and thus to add to the sum total of our 
 knowledge, and it desires to bring our social life, as well as 
 our individual life, into harmony with the teachings of Christ." 
 According to its constitution, the objects of the Institute are 
 the following : , 
 
 " i. To claim for the Christian law the ultimate authority to 
 rule social practice. 
 
 " 2. To study in common how to apply the principles of 
 Christianity to the social and economic difficulties of the pres- 
 ent time. 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 "3. To present Christ as the living Master and King of 
 men, and his kingdom as the complete ideal of human society, 
 to be realized on earth." 
 
 There seems to be hungering and thirsting for civic right- 
 eousness on the part of the rising generation, and it will be the 
 aim of the Institute to supply the requisite satisfaction. Soci- 
 ology is claiming to be a science, and if that claim is established 
 there is all the more need for a scientific study of the under- 
 lying principles. There are certain theories which seem very 
 attractive to those whose attention has been called to the 
 problems of society for the first time ; but as they are studied, 
 particularly in the light of comparative facts, they undergo 
 considerable modification. If now the growing citizenship 
 of the country is to be a power for good, it must be intelli- 
 gent, so that it will not be led captive by the party or the party 
 boss ; it must also be as mindful of its duties as of its rights. 
 
 THE ALTRURIAN LEAGUE 
 
 Secretary, 
 W. J. GHENT, 
 
 53 East Tenth Street, 
 
 New York. 
 
 Among the newer organizations is this League, which was 
 founded May u, 1894. It is now entirely educational in its 
 character, believing that before action can be wisely taken there 
 must be a thorough knowledge of conditions, with all their 
 various manifestations. The League originated among a small 
 group of people three of whom were members of the London 
 Fabian Society holding somewhat radical views on social 
 reform, and feeling the urgency of getting together all others 
 of similar beliefs, in order to propagate these beliefs among 
 the masses. The League is not restricted in its political action, 
 and women are eligible to membership. There are no stand- 
 ing committees, but as the need for particular work arises 
 
MOVEMENTS FOR CIVIC BETTERMENT H 1 
 
 special committees are then appointed. An executive com- 
 mittee directs the work. The support of the society is ob- 
 tained solely from its members, who are composed of those 
 desirous of making a systematic inquiry into the applicability 
 to American conditions of the principle of collective ownership 
 of the means of production and distribution. The object of 
 the League is, accordingly, the systematic study of economics, 
 the determining a remedy for existing social wrongs, and the 
 agitation for a correction of those evils. 
 
 BETTER DWELLINGS SOCIETY 
 
 Secretary, 
 
 ARTHUR B. ELLIS, 
 103 Milk Street, 
 Boston, Mass. 
 
 The increasing attention which is paid to all the problems 
 of housing in our large cities is a proof of the great importance 
 of the question. Whatever impairs the integrity of the home 
 is to be deplored, for the home is one of the basic elements of 
 a healthful municipal life. Those who have given even a 
 superficial study to the evils of the tenement-house are aware 
 how great a menace they are to a normal development, par- 
 ticularly of the life of the children. Poor citizens are the usual 
 product of poor homes. The above Society, conscious of these 
 facts, was organized to aid in improving the sanitary condition 
 of Boston, and especially of its tenement-houses. The date 
 of organization was May 5, 1892, some time after the follow- 
 ing action : 
 
 ASSOCIATED CHARITIES OF BOSTON. 
 
 CENTRAL OFFICE, 4! CHARITY BUILDING. 
 
 The Board of Directors, December n, 1891, adopted the 
 following : 
 
 " In view of the growing interest and increase in public 
 sensitiveness concerning the worst homes in which poor people 
 
142 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 are allowed to live, the board believes that now is the time for 
 a vigorous effort to aid the Board of Health in causing such 
 tenements either to be improved or vacated. 
 
 " The board will therefore take steps, through its Committee 
 on Tenements, to invite representatives from the Boston Coop- 
 erative Building Company, the Improved Dwellings Associa- 
 tion, the Working-men's Building Association, and the public 
 at large, to form, with members of the Associated Charities, 
 a joint committee, with power to add to their number, to take 
 such action as they may deem fit to improve the tenements of 
 the poorest of our population, or, where these tenements are 
 so bad that they cannot be made habitable, to cause them to 
 be vacated." 
 
 Robert Treat Paine is the president of the Society. As the 
 principal object of the Society is the investigation of unfit 
 tenements, all the resources are brought to bear on this and 
 on allied topics. A valuable report was made on the alley 
 tenements, and a memorial presented to the city authorities 
 requesting them to take the proper measures to improve exist- 
 ing conditions. A report was also published showing the con- 
 ditions of private ways. The work of the Society is greatly 
 promoted by women, who are eligible to membership. 
 
 THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE KINGDOM 
 
 Secretary, 
 
 REV. SAMUEL ZANE BATTEN, 
 312 West Fifty-fourth Street, 
 
 New York. 
 
 Within the past few years there has been a wonderful re- 
 vival of the civic and more especially of the religious sense of 
 obligation toward the municipality. The foremost reformer of 
 our times is a Christian minister, and the issue in his magnifi- 
 cent campaign was solely that between right and wrong. He 
 
MOVEMENTS FOR CIVIC BETTERMENT 143 
 
 held that his religious sphere of action was circumscribed 
 unless it included a conscious effort to make his city better. 
 This awakened sense of civic obligation has crystallized into 
 various organizations in the churches, and any summary of 
 the factors entering into municipal betterment would be in- 
 complete without them. The aim of the above organization 
 must serve as a type of the various efforts which are being 
 made by church-members, of whatever creed, to make com- 
 munities, especially the cities, centers of true and permanent 
 happiness. Some of the brotherhoods are organized more 
 distinctively for spiritual development and extension, but in 
 so far as they rest content with that object they will not fulfil 
 their full measure of usefulness. 
 
 The Brotherhood of the Kingdom was the outcome of weekly 
 meetings of two men, who appreciated the great advantage of 
 conference and discussion of social topics. With the idea of 
 increasing its sphere of action, one more brother was included. 
 The membership became so large, that in 1894 a summer con- 
 ference of three days was held at Marlborough-on- Hudson. 
 One of the days was devoted to a discussion of social topics, 
 such as the land question, while at the evening session the 
 theme was that of municipal reformation. One of the two 
 men, Walter Rauschenbusch, has been identified with the 
 Brotherhood so long that he is the best suited to set forth its 
 aim and scope ; hence his statement is authoritative : 
 
 " The Brotherhood of the Kingdom was founded upon the 
 conviction that the great aim of Christ was the establishment 
 of the kingdom of God, and that this should be the aim of the 
 church and of every Christian. It believes that this aim has 
 been largely forgotten, misunderstood, or curtailed by the 
 Christian church, and the Brotherhood was formed ' to reestab- 
 lish this idea in the thought of the church and to assist in its 
 practical realization in the world.' 
 
 " Looking only for their own salvation, Christian men have 
 
H4 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 often forgotten the unsaved world ; seeking exclusively for the 
 salvation of individual souls, they have not striven as they 
 might to permeate the collective life of humanity, in politics, 
 industry, science, and art, with the spirit of Christ ; hoping for 
 perfection only in a future life, they have too easily surrendered 
 this life to selfishness. Hence the double standard of moral- 
 ity for private and business life which is prevalent among us. 
 Hence the difficulty of getting the stored-up moral and reli- 
 gious energies of the Christian community to bear on civic life. 
 The Brotherhood would inscribe on the banner of Christianity 
 a word large enough to embrace the whole of life, inside and 
 outside, religious and industrial, individual and social ; and no 
 word is great enough except the tremendous word of the Jew- 
 ish prophets and of Jesus Christ ' the kingdom of God.' 
 
 " The Brotherhood believes profoundly in the unexhausted 
 power of Christianity. Christianity saves individuals : it can 
 save cities and nations, if once its forces are exerted in that 
 direction. No other force has yet appeared in history which 
 is able to regenerate life, and that without the religious factor 
 all social effort is doomed to be spasmodic and futile. 
 
 " The Brotherhood seeks to accomplish its aims by encou- 
 raging its members to obedience to the ethics of Jesus ; by ex- 
 emplifying Christian fellowship and community of interests 
 among its members ; by propagating the thoughts of Jesus by 
 correspondence, speech, and press; by turning the attention 
 of religious men to social work, and by infusing the religious 
 spirit into social workers ; and by lending a hand unselfishly to 
 every honest effort to increase the sum total of righteousness, 
 truth, and mercy among men." 
 
 Such is what might be called the ideal of the Brotherhood ; 
 but it is not merely an ideal, for its principles have been trans- 
 lated into actual workaday effort. Thus several of its mem- 
 bers have been active in arranging for the celebrated Municipal 
 Program Conferences. Others have lent their influence to 
 
MOVEMENTS FOR CIVIC BETTERMENT 145 
 
 the Working- women's Society in its efforts for the store " sales- 
 ladies." One drew up a bill for State employment bureaus 
 and advocated it before a committee of the legislature of New 
 York ; another did similar work in the legislature of New Jersey. 
 Several have arranged for the making of programs for pub- 
 lic meetings, and see to it that social topics are not neglected, 
 but that live men are put on. 
 
 THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY OF 
 THE CITY OF NEW YORK 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 ROBERT W. DE FOREST. CHARLES D. KELLOGG, 
 
 105 East Twenty-second Street, 
 
 New York. 
 
 The discussion which would omit any mention of the work 
 of organized charity in the bettering of civic conditions is 
 sadly deficient. The term " Charity Organization " does 
 not denote a new scheme for dispensing charity, but describes 
 the attempt to organize existing charities to bring into har- 
 mony all the humane efforts of private benevolence, societies, 
 institutions, or of municipal and State authorities. 
 
 The New York Society has been selected as a typical or- 
 ganization ; and its methods, subject to what changes may be 
 necessitated by local conditions, will give an accurate idea of 
 the methods in other cities. 
 
 A salaried secretary directs the work, which is subdivided 
 into various departments. The executive committee of nine 
 meets bi-weekly. The organ of the f Society is the monthly, 
 the Charities Review. For its own use the Society divides 
 the city into ten irregular districts. There is a sharp restric- 
 tion as to political action. Women are eligible to membership. 
 
 In 1 88 1 the State Board of Charities saw that an agency . ^ 
 was needed in New York City to prevent the waste of chari-~ 
 
146 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 table effort and the mischievous results of unwise and inex- 
 perienced distribution of alms. By the official action of that 
 board this Society was inaugurated. 
 
 It was then estimated that there were in New York about 350 
 ( \ local charitable institutions, disbursing not less than $4,000,000 
 \ * annually. The Commissioners of Charities and Correction 
 were expending annually $1,500,000, and 490 religious bodies 
 at least $375,000 more. Adding to these the thousands of 
 householders and individuals daily responding to appeals for 
 relief, the aggregate was computed at not less than $8,000,000. 
 All these distinct agencies were to be brought, as far as pos- 
 sible, into such accord that their own efficiency should be 
 enhanced, the woes of poverty mitigated, and the dangers of 
 pauperism averted. 
 
 As stated in the constitution, its objects are : 
 
 " i. To be a center of intercommunication between the vari- 
 ous churches and charitable agencies in the city ; to foster 
 harmonious cooperation between them, and to .check the evils 
 p of the overlapping of relief. 
 
 " 2. To investigate thoroughly, and without charge, the cases 
 of all applicants for relief which are referred to the Society for 
 inquiry, and to send the persons having a legitimate interest in 
 such cases full reports of the results of investigation ; to pro- 
 vide visitors, who shall personally attend cases needing counsel 
 and advice. 
 
 " 3. To obtain from the proper charities and charitable in- 
 dividuals suitable and adequate relief for deserving cases. 
 
 " 4. To procure work for poor persons who are capable of 
 being wholly or partial^ self-supporting. 
 
 " 5. To repress mendicity by the above means and by the 
 prosecution of impostors. 
 
 " 6. To promote the general welfare of the poor by social 
 and sanitary reforms and by the inculcation of habits of provi- 
 dence and self-dependence." 
 
MOVEMENTS FOR CIVIC BETTERMENT 14? 
 
 What the Society has actually accomplished is the ac- 
 cumulation of more or less information concerning upward of 
 200,000 families and persons (equivalent to at least 500,000 
 individuals) who have applied for or received relief. It deals 
 with 7000 or 8000 cases of alleged destitution yearly, sends 
 4000 to 5000 reports to societies, churches, and private do- 
 nors. It also maintains a laundry to employ and educate poor 
 women ; a Wayfarers' Lodge a night refuge where homeless 
 men are lodged, fed, and bathed, for which they give an equiva- 
 lent in work ; a wood-yard to test and aid men, chiefly the 
 homeless ; a Penny Provident Fund, to promote thrift and sav- 
 ing among the poor; -and a workroom for unskilled women, to 
 supply both training 1 arid employment to a limited extent. 
 
 THE INSTITUTIONAL CHURCH 
 
 Pastor, 
 
 THE AMITY BAPTIST CHURCH, REV. LEIGHTON WILLIAMS, 
 312 West Fifty-fourth Street, 305 West Eighty-eighth Street, 
 
 -! .: ...-New York. New York. 
 
 In recent years the above phrase has come into use, and 
 designates what might be called the church at work, not only on 
 the Sabbath and on the prayer-meeting night, but seven days 
 in the week, and the greater part of the twenty-four hours in 
 each day. The Amity Baptist Church has been selected as 
 a typical organization. 
 
 During the last five years the pastor and people of Amity 
 Church, recognizing the need of effort in the direction of civic 
 betterment, have been engaged, both individually and collec- 
 tively, in working toward that end, and in consequence have 
 naturally and gradually extended the scope of their church- 
 work, until now Amity Church is coming to be known as an 
 " institutional church." 
 
 The aim of the church is twofold : (i) to secure the conver- 
 
H 8 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 sion of individuals and their building up in the Christian life ; 
 (2) to promote the development of a truly Christian society, 
 and to extend the rule of Christ in all departments of social, 
 industrial, and civic life. 
 
 To achieve these ends the methods of work are : 
 
 1. The church with its multiplied services. 
 
 2. The Bible and industrial schools and kindergarten, the 
 latter meeting daily and numbering fifty-four children, 
 
 3. The societies connected with the church, viz., Missionary, 
 Christian Endeavor, Young Men's and Young Women's, Boys' 
 Brigade, and Working-men's Institute. The headquarters of 
 the Brotherhood of the Kingdom and of the Working-women's 
 Society are located also in Amity Building. 
 
 4. Medical and charitable work, viz., dispensary, clinic for 
 ear and throat diseases, poor relief, employment bureau. 
 
 5. Amity Mission (on Eleventh Avenue), with its evening 
 evangelistic services, working-girls' lunch, and mothers' meet- 
 ings. 
 
 6. The Amity Missionary Conference, held on the first 
 Monday in April and the two following days, and including 
 Christians of all denominations. Annual reports of this con- 
 ference are printed. It is now in its fifth year. 
 
 7. The Amity Municipal Program Conferences, now in their 
 second year. 
 
 8. The Amity tracts and leaflets. These publications con- 
 tain articles on religious, educational, industrial, and social 
 topics, and have had a wide circulation ; and hardly any one 
 whose opinion carries weight, withholds his approval from the 
 social and theological propaganda in which the pastor and 
 people are engaged. 
 
 Amity Church has thus made its influence felt throughout 
 the city and country, and is coming to be known as a center 
 of living, earnest, and broad-minded activity. 
 
 In addition to the above-mentioned methods it is the inten- 
 
MOVEMENTS FOR CIVIC BETTERMENT H9 
 
 tion of the church to engage in the training and support of 
 deaconesses. With this object in view a society has been or- 
 ganized in conjunction with the Second German Baptist Church, 
 Rev. Walter Rauschenbusch, pastor. 
 
 To more efficiently carry on this last-named work it is the 
 desire of the church to erect a dormitory building, a counter- 
 part of the Amity school-building, but four stories in height, 
 capable of furnishing accommodation to a large force of dea- 
 conesses and other workers. 
 
 The home of this extensive and varied work is known as the 
 Amity Building, 312 West Fifty-fourth Street, adjoining the 
 church edifice, three stories in height, and containing two 
 school-rooms ; waiting-room, drug-room, and consulting-room 
 for dispensary and clinic ; young men's reading-room ; toilet- 
 rooms ; janitor's rooms ; large studio ; and rooms for a church 
 visitor. The building is free from debt. 
 
 IDEALS FOR AMITY CHURCH 
 
 " i. The Field: the ward or parish; the city; the nation; 
 the world. 
 
 " To cultivate an intelligent interest in all these, founded 
 on accurate knowledge. While cultivating a broad sympathy, 
 world-wide in extent, to make the ward or parish the subject 
 of immediate and thorough investigation, not only on its re- 
 ligious side, but in all its aspects, industrial and social as well. 
 
 "2. Cooperation, 
 
 "To cultivate the spirit of brotherly cooperation with all 
 ' men of good-will,' of every creed, nationality, and political 
 affiliation, in temperance, municipal reform, and every other 
 good work, along such lines as are practicable without the 
 compromise of any principle on either part. 
 
 "To do all work in conjunction with others wherever pos- 
 sible, and hence to foster all union societies. 
 
15 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 " 3. The Training and Maintenance of Workers. 
 
 "To gradually gather together a large force of volunteer 
 workers, viz., lay brothers and deaconesses, willing to give 
 themselves to the service of others without compensation fur- 
 ther than the assurance of food, clothing, and shelter, but with- 
 out permanent vows. 
 
 " The cultivation of the communal life in this way, and the 
 illustration in our time of its beauty and its power. 
 
 "The building up of this ideal through the settlement plan, 
 both rural and civic, and by semi-annual and other confer- 
 ences. 
 
 "4. The Union of the Religious and Industrial Forces in the 
 Salvation of Mankind. 
 
 "To this end to heal the breach now existing. Hence we 
 have started the Christian Working-men's Institute, for lectures, 
 conferences, and debates. 
 
 "5. The Education of the People, and especially the Workers, 
 in Correct Social and Religious Principles. 
 
 " To this end the oral instruction from pulpit and platform, 
 the schools, kindergartens, and tract distribution," 
 
 MUNICIPAL LABOR BUREAUS* 
 
 The more recent disturbances between labor and capital 
 clearly indicate that any maladjustment of the equilibrium of 
 these two great forces is attended with disaster to society, 
 particularly the wage-workers, who are the first to feel the 
 effects of such a conflict. Strife is not a normal condition of 
 a civic community ; accordingly, whatever will tend to satisfy 
 the legitimate demands of labor will to that extent minimize 
 
 * I am indebted to Mr. Mornay Williams for the details of this system. 
 Mr. Williams has been very much interested in an attempt to introduce 
 the system into New York State, and has appeared several times before 
 the Assembly to advocate its adoption. 
 
MOVEMENTS FOR CIVIC BETTERMENT 151 
 
 the friction and bring about harmonious working. The prob- 
 lem of the unemployed is one of pressing importance, because 
 the industrial crisis of the last few years has demonstrated that 
 the great cities have been unable to successfully grapple with 
 this question. In the opinion of those who are the most capa- 
 ble of judging, the coming years will test to the utmost all those 
 remedies and solutions which have been and will be suggested 
 in order to cope with this question. While there is no one so- 
 lution of the industrial or any of the other pressing problems 
 'of the day, there are certain elements of a solution which will 
 greatly tend to minimize the evil effects of these questions. 
 One of the elements in the attempt to bring about an harmoni- 
 ous working between labor and capital is the Municipal Labor 
 Bureau. 
 
 The first bureau was organized in the United States in the 
 State of Ohio, as the outgrowth of a recommendation made at 
 the Municipal Labor Congress held in Cincinnati in 1889, the 
 initiative toward the movement having been a report on the 
 Free Public Intelligence Office of France. Such bureaus exist 
 to-day in the cities of Cincinnati, Dayton, Toledo, Cleveland, 
 and Columbus. Attempts have been made to introduce simi- 
 lar legislation in the States of Iowa, Minnesota, and New York, 
 and a bill was introduced in the legislature of the State of New 
 York at the last session in the Senate by Senator O'Connor 
 and in the House by Mr. Lawson ; the bill, however, never 
 reached the order of third reading. 
 
 In the British colony of New Zealand Municipal Labor 
 Bureaus have proved very effective. The English labor-leader, 
 Mr. John Burns, member of Parliament and of the London 
 County Council, advocates the formation of such bureaus in 
 all towns, and so far from believing that such action will militate 
 against the rights of organized labor, states that in his opinion 
 the labor bureaus will probably lead to the trades-unions leaving 
 their present meeting-places in public-houses, and using, alter- 
 
i5 2 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 natively, the rooms of the bureau or, as is being done, of the 
 town hall for their meetings. He also advocates the formation 
 of the bureaus as one means of differentiation of the laborer 
 from the loafer. 
 
 No organized movement for the formation of Municipal 
 Labor Bureaus is known to the writer, but the commissioners 
 of labor statistics generally throughout the States have recom- 
 mended the movement, and the American Federation of Labor 
 indorses it. 
 
 THE MUNICIPAL PROGRAM CONFERENCES 
 
 Secrcfary t 
 
 WILLIAM HOWE TOLMAN, 
 
 427 West Fifty-seventh Street, 
 
 New York. 
 
 Five men in New York felt that there was a great amount 
 of overlapping and duplication in the various efforts that were 
 being made for the betterment of the city. They had several 
 meetings, and by common consent determined that they would 
 try to bring together in conferences, for the discussion of 
 common municipal interests, a thoughtful audience on the 
 one hand and a number of men and women who were 
 specialists, on the other. The promoters of these conferences 
 represented no organization or society, but they determined 
 that they would arrange such a program as would attract the 
 attention of any one with even a smattering of civic pride, 
 and that they would then invite the very best people in the 
 city to take part in the conferences. With only one excep- 
 tion did any one who was asked to assist at the gatherings 
 refuse a fact that was indicative of the public spirit on the 
 part of the men and women who were willing to present these 
 topics to their fellow-citizens. Another element in the success 
 of the meetings was the fact that so few were instrumental in 
 
MOVEMENTS FOR CIVIC BETTERMENT 153 
 
 arranging for them, as the committee was practically a unit in 
 the general purpose of the series, with only a slight divergency 
 of opinion as to the details. It has been the experience of the 
 committee that a few men who understand one another and 
 are practically agreed on a general policy can accomplish a 
 great deal more than a larger body. 
 
 It was the object of these conferences to promote an intelli- 
 gent interest in the subject of municipal government, and to 
 provide an opportunity for the free and courteous discussion 
 of current municipal topics, looking toward a line of action 
 positive and constructive rather than negative and destruc- 
 tive ; measures rather than men. The central thought of 
 the first series was New York, and the general program was : 
 The Need of a Positive Program ; The New Social Spirit ; 
 New York's Workers, Dependents, Houses, Saloons, Amuse- 
 ments, Needs, Thoroughfares ; New York for New-Yorkers ; 
 and New York's Political Prospects. Among those who 
 consented to preside were Major-General Howard, Samuel 
 Gompers, ex-Mayor Hewitt, R. W. Gilder, Mrs. Lozier, Dr. 
 Parkhurst, and Carl Schurz. As illustrative of the catholicity 
 of the conferences, at the one on New York's Political Pros- 
 pects, at which members of the various parties were to tell 
 what they proposed to do for the city, there were present rep- 
 resentatives from Tammany Hall, the Democratic, the Repub- 
 lican, the People's, and the Socialist-Labor parties. These men 
 met on a common platform and made a plea for their respec- 
 tive parties. At the conferences representatives from some of 
 the city departments were invited to discuss topics relating to 
 them. Thus the Hon. Charles F. McLean, the then Commis- 
 sioner of Police, read a paper on the subject of " Municipal 
 Lodging-houses." The failure on the part of the community 
 to interest itself in its public servants is one reason for the 
 laxity in some of the departments of a great city. If it were 
 known by a public official that there is a body of intelligent 
 
154 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 citizens who are informing themselves regarding his official 
 acts, the knowledge of that fact would act as a strong deter- 
 rent force from any contemplated irregularity, and at the same 
 time serve as a wonderful stimulus to perform conscientiously 
 the duties of the office in question. There is one organiza- 
 tion in this city the City Vigilance League which is in the 
 field with those particular objects in view. 
 
 The same general idea characterized the second set of 
 conferences for 1894-95 ; hence the list of the subjects will 
 sufficiently indicate their scope. Seven of the papers have 
 been published, and it is the intention that others shall be 
 published just as soon as the publication fund will admit. 
 The conference subjects for 1895 are: The Positive Program 
 Begun ; The New Social Spirit ; The People ; The People's 
 Schools; The People's Safety; The People's Homes; The 
 People's Revenues ; The People's Health ; The People's Trans- 
 portation ; The People's Recreation ; The People's Literature ; 
 The People's Workshops ; The People's City. 
 
 All inquiries concerning the first set of conferences should 
 be sent to the secretary of the conferences for 1894-95. A 
 fee of $i will entitle the sender to all the conference literature 
 for the coming season, as well as the leaflets already issued. 
 This material will be of the greatest value to those who 
 may wish to initiate similar conferences in other parts of the 
 country. 
 
 THE SOCIAL SETTLEMENT 
 
 Within the last decade applied Christianity has been mani- 
 festing itself in the university or social settlements. The settle- 
 ment idea is the exponent of the neighborhood principle : that 
 if you wish to exert an uplifting influence on a community 
 it cannot be done at long range, but there must be the con- 
 tactual relations. Accordingly, sets of men or groups of women 
 
MOVEMENTS FOR C/K/C BETTERMENT 155 
 
 have taken residence in those parts of the city which have 
 been the last to feel any other influence than that of their own 
 peculiar miserable or vicious surroundings. The first experi- 
 ment in this direction was made by Oxford and Cambridge 
 men, who took residence in London at Toynbee Hall, the alma 
 mater of the university settlements. After the start had been 
 made several other settlements were organized by college men 
 and also by the graduates from the women's colleges. 
 
 As the type of the settlement idea, Hull House, of Chicago, 
 has been selected, because this social settlement, as the founder 
 calls it, most closely approximates the ideal. In the first place, 
 the settlement is located in the center of an industrial district, 
 South Halsted Street. As Miss Addams said : 
 
 "The original residents came to Hull House with a con- 
 viction that social intercourse could best express the growing 
 sense of the economic unity of society. They wished the 
 social spirit to be the undercurrent of the life of Hull House, 
 whatever direction the stream might take. All the details 
 were left for the demands of the neighborhood to determine, 
 and each department has grown from a discovery made through 
 natural and reciprocal social relations." 
 
 A brief enumeration of the activities that center at the Hull 
 House is the best illustration of its wide sphere of influence ; 
 but even then any attempted measure of its influence is most 
 unsatisfactory, because the population is so shifting and the 
 opportunities for permanent influence are so exceedingly brief. 
 The House is the home of the college extension courses for 
 that locality. These courses do not attempt to duplicate the 
 other educational facilities in the city, but they supplement 
 them by emphasizing the humanities, and leave the bread-and- 
 butter studies to the schools. A Students' Association, com- 
 posed of the attendants at these classes, is divided into literary, 
 dramatic, musical, and debating sections, which hold monthly 
 meetings for the continuance of their special objects, thus 
 
156 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 keeping alive the social and friendly spirit that was evoked by 
 the extension courses. A reading-room is made possible by 
 the cooperation of the city public library. Picture exhibi- 
 tions, Sunday concerts, singing-classes, and a choral society 
 stimulate the recreative life of the locality. 
 
 What is known as the "Jane Club" is a practical demon- 
 stration of the successful working of a social theory. The Jane 
 Club, a cooperative boarding-club for young working- women, 
 had the advice and assistance of Hull House in its establish- 
 ment. The original members of the club, seven in number, were 
 a group of trades-union girls accustomed to organized and co- 
 operative action. The club has been from the beginning self- 
 governing, without a matron or outside control, the officers 
 being elected by the members from their own number and 
 serving for six months gratuitously. The two offices of trea- 
 surer and steward have required a generous sacrifice of their 
 limited leisure, as well as a good deal of ability, from those 
 holding them. This being given, together with a considerable 
 esprit de corps in the increasing number of members, the club 
 has thriven both substantially and socially. The weekly dues 
 of $3, with an occasional small assessment, have met all cur- 
 rent expenses .of rent, service, food, heat, and light, after the 
 furnishing and first month's rent was supplied by Hull House. 
 The club now numbers fifty members, and the one flat is in- 
 creased to five. The members do such share of the housework 
 as does not interfere with their daily occupations. There are 
 various circles within the club for social and intellectual pur- 
 poses, and while the members are glad to procure the com- 
 forts of life at a rate within their means, the atmosphere of the 
 club is one of comradeship rather than thrift. The club holds 
 a monthly reception in the Hull House gymnasium. 
 
 The Coffee-house and Kitchen is now a permanent ele- 
 ment in the communal life of the settlement. The room itself 
 
MOVEMENTS FOR CIVIC BETTERMENT 157 
 
 is an attractive copy of an English inn, with low, dark rafters, 
 diamond windows, and large fireplace. It is open every day 
 from six in the morning to eleven at night. An effort has 
 been made to combine the convenience of a lunch-room, 
 where well-cooked food can be sold at a reasonable rate, with 
 coziness and attractiveness. The residents believe that substi- 
 tution is the only remedy against the evils of the saloon. The 
 large kitchen has been carefully equipped, under the direction 
 of Mrs. Ellen Richards, with a New England kitchen outfit, 
 including a number of Aladdin ovens. The foods are care- 
 fully prepared, and are sold by the quart or pound to families 
 for home consumption. Coffee, soups, and stews are delivered 
 every day at noon to the neighboring factories. By means of 
 an indurated-fiber can it is possible to transport and serve the 
 food hot. The employees purchase a pint of soup or coffee, 
 with two rolls, for five cents, and the plan of noon factory 
 delivery is daily growing in popularity. The kitchen has been 
 supplying hot lunches at ten cents each to the two hundred 
 women employed in the sewing-room established by the Emer- 
 gency Committee of the Chicago Women's Club. 
 
 A Ward Book and Maps, an Eight-hour Club, the Working- 
 people's Social Science Club, the Chicago Question Club, the 
 Nineteenth Ward Improvement Club, a Cooperative Associa- 
 tion, a Women's Club, children's clubs, sewing-school, cook- 
 ing and nature classes, summer excursions, free kindergarten 
 and day-nursery, gymnasium, Men's Club, Temporary Lodg- 
 ing-house, a public dispensary, a labor bureau, and a play- 
 ground are the various channels through which the life of the 
 House is poured into the neighborhood.* 
 
 * "Hull House, a Social Settlement: An Outline Sketch," has been 
 made the basis of the above account. This pamphlet may be obtained by 
 applying to the settlement, 335 South Halsted Street. The brochure is 
 illuminated by photogravures indicating the typical activities of the House. 
 
I5 8 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S SOCIETY OF CHRIS- 
 TIAN ENDEAVOR 
 
 President, General Secretary, 
 
 FRANCIS E. CLARK, D.D. JOHN WILLIS BAER, 
 
 646 Washington Street, 
 
 Boston, Mass. 
 
 Among the marvels of the present age is the great rapidity 
 with which any organization of sterling worth commends itself 
 to one community and then extends to other nations, until it 
 justifies the term "international." The above Society is the 
 very best illustration of this principle. In its early days the 
 furor of extension led to the organization of the numerous 
 societies all over the United States ; but the time came when 
 this idea ceased to satisfy. Then, too, the purely spiritual 
 side of its work led to self-complacency and the consciousness 
 that there was somewhat lacking to an all-round development. 
 There were those who feared that very many of the societies 
 would burn themselves out from a lack of fresh fuel. These 
 fears have been rendered groundless, because in 1893 the idea 
 was infused into the order that the time had come for the 
 Christian manhood and womanhood to assert themselves by 
 gaining information about the conditions of their civic life and 
 then applying their knowledge to a bettering of civic con- 
 ditions. This fact gives a profound significance to the over- 
 throw of municipal misrule, because there is now a large and 
 growing body of young men and women who are determined 
 that the conditions under which municipal misrule alone can 
 flourish shall not be duplicated. The secretary of the Society 
 informs me regarding the inception of this new movement in 
 behalf of civic righteousness : 
 
 " While holding to the fundamental principles of Christian 
 Endeavor, President Francis E. Clark, at the Montreal con- 
 vention in 1893, strongly urged some advance steps for mem- 
 
MOVEMENTS FOR CIVIC BETTERMENT 159 
 
 bers of Christian Endeavor Societies, one of which was the 
 cultivation of a larger and more intelligent spirit of patriotism 
 and good citizenship. Right nobly did the young people rally 
 around this standard, and at the Cleveland convention a splen- 
 did report of progress was made, from which we glean that 
 Christian Endeavor stands for the election of good men, for 
 the enactment of good laws, for steady opposition to the 
 saloon, the gambling-hell, the lottery, the violation of the Sab- 
 bath ; that it stands by such men as Charles H. Parkhurst, and 
 for kindred spirits in all politics that seek to purify party and 
 make this ImmanuePs land. 
 
 " More vigorous than ever has been the acceptance of these 
 advance steps by the Societies since the Cleveland convention. 
 It is earnestly hoped that the Christian Endeavor Societies 
 and the members will continue to succeed in keeping their or- 
 ganization from being the tail of any political kite. We are 
 not expecting to join one party, nor is the movement to be 
 pariizan in any way. Those of us that are voters are expected 
 to go to the caucus of our party and stand for good men and 
 good measures and always against bad men and bad measures ; 
 to stand for good citizenship everywhere, and to exert every 
 ounce of our influence for the right. Many of our members 
 not having yet reached their majority, the work is largely to 
 be educative, and all of it is to be under the guidance of the 
 pastor and church of which every Christian Endeavor Society 
 is a subordinate part." 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP LEAGUE 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 EDWIN D. WHEELOCK. HON. A. M. HASWELL, 
 
 99 Washington Street, 
 
 Chicago, 111. 
 
 This League was organized in April, 1894, the step being 
 taken as a result of the famous Montreal convention of the 
 
 
 
 or THE 
 
 ntM\fCOO.lTY 
 
160 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 Y. P. S. C. E. in 1893. The secretary receives a certain mone- 
 tary compensation, but also does a great amount of voluntary 
 work. Its constitution is a very short one, with this statement 
 concerning its purpose : " Its object shall be to educate the 
 public conscience, and to secure more generous support for all 
 movements which make for the public welfare." There is only 
 one class of members active. An executive committee of 
 seven meets at the call of the chairman. Regarding the gen- 
 eral scope and policy of the League its president writes : 
 
 " We seek to educate and agitate ; to exalt Christian ideals ; 
 to make Christian principles operative in public affairs ; to 
 exalt the name of Christ. Our work is mainly among Chris- 
 tians, and our plea is for loyalty to Christ in public affairs. 
 We aim to build foundations of righteous sentiment which 
 shall give strength to every reform. We are not attempting 
 work which is already being attempted by other organiza- 
 tions. We incite Christians to give hearty support to all such 
 organizations. If they fail in any particular line we shall 
 organize on. that line. At each election we shall to some ex- 
 tent organize by wards and precincts for good men. 
 
 " We are now arranging for systematic study, by the Young 
 People's Societies of Christian Endeavor throughout the State, 
 of topics bearing on citizenship and civic matters. Chicago 
 is, for this purpose, divided into sections or precincts, contain- 
 ing four to eight young people's societies. They will meet 
 monthly in union meetings, with some good speaker to pre- 
 sent the topic, and follow with open parliament. In the city 
 and State all young people's societies and churches are invited 
 to cooperate and attend. The Golden Rule is about to pub- 
 lish a series of studies on these lines. The hope of all these 
 reforms lies in the organized Christian youth." 
 
 The League is not restricted in its political action, and 
 women are eligible to membership. Among the results actually 
 accomplished was a campaign of five hundred meetings in 
 
MOVEMENTS FOR CIVIC BETTERMENT 161 
 
 March, 1894, and in general the awakening of an interest in 
 public affairs by getting Christian men to attend their caucuses 
 and primaries. In the Christian Citizenship campaign its char- 
 acter will be seen from the platform : 
 
 " The highest type of citizenship is that which firmly stands 
 for those things in public affairs which are right in the sight 
 of God, and therefore for the highest good of the people, the, 
 city and nation. 
 
 " The term ' Christian Citizenship ' excludes no one, but, 
 on the contrary, embraces all, of whatever party or creed, who 
 take such a stand. 
 
 " This campaign is not political, in the ordinary acceptation 
 of the term, its object being to educate and stimulate the pub- 
 lic conscience, and to crystallize Christian sentiment into united 
 and immediate activity against the forces of evil. 
 
 " The work is against such candidates, officials, and laws as 
 are corrupt, and therefore contrary to the civil welfare. It is 
 against everything which promotes poverty, corruption, and 
 crime, and in support of everything which would prevent these 
 evils. 
 
 "While it pulls off its coat to combat present evils in the 
 most effective ways, it also seeks to lay foundations of right- 
 eous public sentiment which shall be for the general good in 
 all time." 
 
 UNION FOR PRACTICAL PROGRESS 
 
 For a long time the feeling has been prevalent that there 
 was a need for some kind of a " clearing-house " for the vari- 
 ous organizations engaged in humanizing work, in order that 
 duplication of effort might be avoided and a greater measure 
 of usefulness brought to bear on those for whom the various 
 societies are laboring. 
 
 The Union for Practical Progress is an attempt to unite the 
 
1 62 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 moral forces of society for simultaneous action once each 
 month on some one definite reform measure. In each com- 
 munity where there is a branch Union the clergy are invited 
 to preach on the second Sunday of each month upon the 
 regular monthly topic, and the various labor unions and 
 humanitarian bodies are asked to pass favorable resolutions. 
 Now a hundred reformers are advocating a hundred different 
 reforms at the same time, and to the average mind this whole 
 moral enthusiasm is no more than a medley. The new Union 
 aims to introduce method where chaos now prevails, and of 
 this great mob of moral forces to produce a disciplined army 
 of righteousness. 
 
 Mr. B. O. Flower, of Boston, has been the guiding spirit of 
 the Union, and has also been largely responsible for the gen- 
 eral policy that has been elaborated in detail by the local 
 Unions. According to the constitution, the purpose of the 
 Union is "to unite all moral forces, agencies, and persons for 
 concerted, methodical, and persistent endeavor in behalf of 
 the public good, and especially for the abolition of unjust 
 social conditions." The actual working out of this purpose is 
 illustrated by the Baltimore Union. 
 
 UNION FOR PUBLIC GOOD 
 
 Secretary, 
 
 Miss A. L. GRAFFLIN, 
 
 1123 St. Paul Street, 
 
 Baltimore, Md. 
 
 The organization of moral forces in Baltimore was first sug- 
 gested at a meeting of the Ministerial Union, in March, 1893. 
 In the June following the Union for Public Good was organ- 
 ized, and the constitution, adopted by representatives of sixty- 
 three churches, societies, and labor unions, the number having 
 since increased to eighty. It originated in the need felt by 
 
MOVEMENTS FOR. CIVIC BETTERMENT 163 
 
 all honest people for concentrated action against the organized 
 forces of evil when in control of the machinery of government. 
 It was agreed to bury all sectarian and political differences 
 and to make the moral welfare of the community the sole aim 
 of the association. Men of all creeds and of no creed came 
 together and have since worked enthusiastically to combat 
 some of the recognized evils of society. 
 
 Each affiliated society is represented by three delegates, 
 these delegates being the media of communication between 
 the Union and the workers. When the Child-labor Bill was 
 before the Assembly the moral sentiment of the community 
 was not only aroused, but brought to bear actively upon the 
 question through the efforts of these delegates the Union's 
 responsible representatives in the labor unions and many of 
 the churches. Petitions were circulated and a large deputa- 
 tion sent to Annapolis to urge the measure and mark the ene- 
 mies of public morality. Without this concentrated action it 
 is very certain that the bill would have been lost 
 
 At the first annual meeting, November, 1893, the president, 
 Mr. C. J. Bonaparte, declared that "our first great achieve- 
 ment must be to live." " Before proceeding to make Balti- 
 more perfect we must perfect our own organization and se- 
 cure recognition as a factor in municipal life. That has been 
 accomplished, and the Union can show besides as its fruits the 
 Anti-Sweating and Anti-Child-labor bills. The next and 
 more difficult duty will be to see them enforced. It is the 
 future policy of the Union to aid in purifying municipal poli- 
 tics by organizing the reform element in each ward." 
 
 The object of the society, as stated in its constitution, is 
 " to promote the good government, health, and prosperity of 
 Baltimore ; to secure useful and prevent injurious legislation ; 
 to correct public scandals and abuses ; to restrain vice ; and to 
 encourage the cooperation of individuals and existing societies 
 to advance these ends." Women are eligible to membership. 
 
IV 
 
 WOMEN'S WORK IN MUNICIPAL 
 REFORM 
 
 165 
 
The city means both the place and the population. Each influences the 
 other. In an important sense the place makes the people, and in a more 
 important sense the people make the place. Both the people and the place, 
 then, enter into the problem of the city. That problem, so far as the place 
 is concerned, is to make the city serve in the highest possible degree the 
 physical, intellectual, and moral health of the people. So far as the popu- 
 lation is concerned, the problem of the city is to secure the noblest possible 
 manhood and womanhood. 
 
 But this may be said to be the great problem of the city and of civiliza- 
 tion always and everywhere, while there are certain distinctive problems of 
 the city whose solution is peculiarly difficult in the United States, and, as 
 we shall see, especially urgent at the present time. There are many sub- 
 ordinate problems or factors which enter into the one great problem, but 
 there are two which because of their overshadowing importance will occtipy 
 our attention in this discussion, viz., municipal government and city 
 eva ngeliza tion . 
 
 DR. JOSIAH STRONG. 
 
 166 
 
IV 
 
 WOMEN'S WORK IN MUNICIPAL REFORM 
 
 WITHIN recent years the movements in behalf of the reform 
 of our city governments have been organized and directed by 
 men. Of late the feeling is obtaining in the community that 
 the women are and should be interested in the welfare of their 
 city. Accordingly many of the organizations are inviting their 
 active cooperation, as in the case of the Civic Federation of 
 Chicago ; while, on the other hand, the women are forming so- 
 cieties exclusively of their own sex, illustrated by the Woman's 
 Municipal League of New York. That the women exerted 
 an influence in the overthrow of ring rule and the establish- 
 ment of good government is conceded by the share that they 
 had in the election of Mayor Schieren, of Brooklyn, in 1893. 
 At the municipal election in New York in 1894 the vigorous 
 campaign conducted by the Woman's Municipal League, by 
 means of public meetings held in those sections of the munici- 
 pality that are usually abandoned to the ward politician and 
 his heelers, aroused an interest in civic affairs on the part of 
 the women ; and the reflex influence of this influence mani- 
 fested itself at the polls by the ballots that the men cast for 
 instead of against good government. Other organizations of 
 women did not take such an active part in politics, but have 
 aimed to instruct their members in the knowledge of civics. 
 This they accomplish by regular class-work and parlor meet- 
 ings. The influence of the women who are members of the 
 
 167 
 
168 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 various young people's societies in the churches is beginning 
 to exert a very appreciable effect in what makes for good citi- 
 zenship, because they are informing themselves regarding their 
 rights and duties as members of the body politic. 
 
 THE CIVIC CLUB OF PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 MRS. CORNELIUS STEPHENSON. Miss CORNELIA FROTHINGHAM, 
 
 2035 Walnut Street, 
 
 Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 This Club was organized in January, 1894, with a voluntary 
 secretary. An annual fee of $3 is required from each mem- 
 ber, and since January 1,1894, an initiation fee of $5 has been 
 required. Fifteen members comprise the executive commit- 
 tee, which meets on the last Monday in the month. Four 
 departments summarize the work, namely : 
 
 1. Municipal Government. 3. Social Science. 
 
 2. Education. 4. Art. 
 
 This work is further apportioned among sub-committees. The 
 Club has no organ of its own, but works through groups of 
 people, wherever they are banded together in some kind of 
 organization. The secretary writes : 
 
 " We women believe that serious permanent results can only 
 be obtained through education. And acting upon this belief, 
 we intend to devote ourselves to the collecting of such facts 
 as bear upon the development of disinterested citizenship ; to 
 the teaching of such thoughts as are likely to raise the moral 
 and intellectual standards of our community; and to the 
 urging upon all educators, whether public or private, the un- 
 compromising introduction of such teaching in every school." 
 
 The object of the society, as stated in its constitution, 
 "shall be to promote by education and active cooperation a 
 
WOMEN'S WORK IN MUNICIPAL REFORM 169 
 
 higher public spirit and a better social order." A membership 
 of four hundred in August, 1894, attested the response to this 
 call to action. Of necessity the field for direct political action 
 is restricted. The Civic Club is not a political body ; neither 
 does it propose to undertake special work already well done 
 by other organizations, but, on the contrary, to lend its sup- 
 port to and cooperate with those useful organizations now 
 engaged upon work in various fields ; bringing together dis- 
 connected interests and causing each individual effort to 
 become the manifestation of a higher and more disinterested 
 patriotism. 
 
 THE CIVITAS CLUB 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 Miss JESSIE S. DIKE. Miss EDNA S. DOUGHTY, 
 
 289 Washington Avenue, 
 
 Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 
 This Club was organized in November, 1893, just before 
 the election of the reform ticket, and had for its object the 
 awakening of public spirit and interest within the circles of its 
 influence. A voluntary secretary directs the work. " Our 
 membership consists of two hundred young women from the 
 leading families of our city, and many of them have become 
 keenly alive to questions of public interest and have already 
 exerted a noble influence among their friends who, while 
 holding the privilege of the ballot, feel no responsibility in 
 regard to its use. We have also a well-initiated philanthropic 
 work among the incapable children of the Kings County 
 Hospital, and are advancing now in several other directions 
 which demand attention and improvement." The object of 
 the Club is to awaken an interest in matters pertaining to 
 municipal welfare, and to seek a better social order. The an- 
 nual dues are $3. An executive committee of fifteen meets 
 
l? d MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 once a week and apportions the work among the various stand- 
 ing committees : 
 
 1. General Municipal Improvement. 
 
 2. Government and Courts. 
 
 3. General Philanthropy. 
 
 4. Class-work and Sociological Study. 
 
 Women only are eligible to membership, of which the limit 
 is two hundred. The Club is not restricted in its political 
 action. One of the members writes me : 
 
 "One member secured seven votes for the last election. 
 Not all voted along the line of her conviction, but it was 
 something to induce several men who had never cared to cast 
 a ballot before to perform the duty of a citizen." 
 
 This list of topics for study will indicate the practical nature 
 of the educational work : 
 
 1. Education in our City. 
 
 (1) Public Schools. 
 
 (2) Private Schools. 
 
 (3) The Pratt Institute. 
 
 2. Musical Advantages of our City. 
 
 3. Art Advantages of our City. 
 
 4. The Newspapers of Brooklyn. 
 
 5. The Amusements of Brooklyn. 
 
 6. The Clubs of Brooklyn. 
 
 7. The Government and Courts of Brooklyn. 
 
 8. The Social Life of Brooklyn. 
 
 9. The Churches and Missions of Brooklyn. 
 
 10. The Philanthropic Societies and Hospitals of Brooklyn. 
 
 11. The Prisons and Reformatories of Brooklyn. 
 
 12. The Health and Cleanliness of Brooklyn. 
 
 13. Special features of Brooklyn which differentiate it from 
 other cities and favor its future development. 
 
WOMEN'S WORK IN MUNICIPAL REFORM 
 
 LADIES' HEALTH PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION 
 
 President, Corresponding Secretary, 
 
 MRS. H. S. BELL. MRS. M. E. TRAUTMANN, 
 
 27 Beekman Place, 
 New York. 
 
 Organized November 22, 1884, the Association was incor- 
 porated December gth of the same year. The position of 
 the secretary is voluntary. According to the certificate of in- 
 corporation: "The particular business and object of such 
 society is to protect the health of the people of the city of 
 New York by taking such action, from time to time, as may 
 secure the enforcement of existing sanitary laws and regula- 
 tions by calling the attention of the proper authorities to any 
 violations thereof, and to procure the amendment of said laws 
 and regulations when they shall be found inefficient for the 
 prevention of acts injurious to the public health." 
 
 The annual dues are $i. The executive committee num- 
 bers fifteen and meets regularly once a month. There are 
 twelve committees, all charged with some phase of sanitary 
 work. 
 
 THE MUNICIPAL ORDER LEAGUE OF CHICAGO 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 MRS. H. W. DUNCANSON. MRS. S. C. TOBIN, 
 
 70 Madison Street, 
 
 Chicago, 111. 
 
 Organized in 1892, the League was incorporated March, 
 1894. The secretary receives a nominal salary. An execu- 
 tive committee of seven meets each month, and if necessary 
 oftener, at the call of the president. There are three classes 
 of members honorary, associate, and working; honorary 
 
172 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 members pay an annual fee of $5, and active, $i. The de- 
 partments of work are : 
 
 1. Membership. 5. Program. 
 
 2. Bath-house. 6. Park-lighting. 
 
 3. Drinking-fountains. 7. Street-car Spitting. 
 
 4. Rubbish-boxes. 8. Street Beggars and Cripples. 
 
 The society has no organ of its own, but comes in touch 
 with its workers by means of reports presented at the monthly 
 meetings. There is no political restriction in the work of the 
 League. 
 
 " The women of Chicago were suffering in their homes from 
 poor city service. After making individual attempts to better 
 the conditions, and failing, but believing that ' in unioti there 
 is strength,' they called a mass-meeting in Central Music-hall 
 and invited all citizens to attend. The meeting was well 
 attended, and there was at once formed what has since been 
 known as the Municipal Order League. The members are 
 not all women, though the officers happen to be. It is simply 
 an organization of citizens whose chief aim is to better the 
 sanitary condition of Chicago. The business men of this city 
 seem to be too much engrossed in their private affairs to give 
 this subject much attention, so the burden of the work has 
 been given to the women. By appealing to our Chicago 
 women's love for home, by interesting them in the surround- 
 ings, we have brought to our ranks the right kind of women 
 and made possible much that could not have been accom- 
 plished without such interest." 
 
 The object of the association is to promote the healthful- 
 ness, cleanliness, and beauty of Chicago, and the securing of 
 certain public improvements. It shall keep clear of all polit- 
 ical or party complications. Its work shall be from year to 
 year, according to the peculiar needs of the times, its main 
 business being to promote intelligent cooperation between the 
 
WOMEN'S WORK IN MUNICIPAL REFORM i?3 
 
 people and the people's officers in cleaning and keeping clean 
 the streets of Chicago. Accomplished results have been the 
 appropriation by the city of a sum of money sufficient to equip 
 a free public bath, and. the permission of the League to nomi- 
 nate the attendant. This was the only free public bath in the 
 city in 1894. Drinking-fountains have been opened in vari- 
 ous parts of the city. Individual reports on unsanitary places 
 have led to the abatement of the nuisance. The individuals 
 of the League have been educated in a knowledge of munici- 
 pal affairs, so that they are cognizant of their duties as well as 
 their rights. 
 
 The League had an inspector, whose duty it was to visit 
 the alleys in a prescribed district and report to it, while the 
 society took the matter before the proper city authorities. 
 The result has been most encouraging, because the heads of 
 departments had no longer the excuse of not being able to 
 ascertain the exact conditions. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA BRANCH OF THE NATIONAL 
 
 WOMEN'S HEALTH PROTECTIVE 
 
 ASSOCIATION 
 
 Secretary, 
 MRS. JOHN H. SCRIBNER. Miss COCKROFT, 
 
 4433 Sansom Street, 
 Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 " A small class in social science, composed of members of the 
 New Century Club, felt that the city needed such a society, 
 and invited Mrs. Trautmann, of the New York Health Pro- 
 tective Association, to give us an idea of the work of their 
 Association. The society started with about twenty members 
 and now has about two hundred. We use no money, except 
 for postals and for the only salary paid $20 per month to 
 the secretary of the Complaint Bureau and this is contributed 
 
i?4 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 by special arrangement with friends interested in the work. 
 The Complaint Bureau was organized to receive complaints 
 of nuisances existing in any portion of the city, to be investi- 
 gated as far as possible, and then reported to the proper de- 
 partment. This bureau has done valuable work in keeping 
 garbage-collectors up to their duties and in causing policemen 
 to be more alert in reporting unsanitary conditions. We have 
 the cordial cooperation of the heads of the departments, which 
 makes our public work easier. We propose having a repre- 
 sentative in every election district, who shall investigate every 
 complaint of an objectionable or unsanitary condition existing 
 in her district. Our most important effort is to create in our 
 members a sense of individual responsibility." 
 
 The society was organized, with a voluntary secretary, in 
 the spring of 1893. It is not incorporated. The membership 
 fees are $i a year. There is no separate executive committee, 
 but the whole body meets each week, while the public is in- 
 vited to the monthly meetings. The departments of work 
 thus far are : 
 
 1. Street-cleaning. 3. Garbage. 
 
 2. The Sweating System. 4. Water-supply. 
 
 The society has no organ of its own, but receives a report 
 of progress at each monthly meeting ; it is not restricted in its 
 political action. 
 
 WOMEN'S HEALTH PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION 
 OF BROOKLYN 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 MRS. JAMES SCRINGEOUR. MRS. EDWIN ATWELL, 
 
 1088 Dean Street, 
 Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 
 The Association was organized in March, 1890, and incor- 
 porated April 2, 1 890, with a voluntary secretary. Annual dues 
 
WOMEN'S WORK IN MUNICIPAL REFORM i?5 
 
 of $i from each of the four hundred and fifty members support 
 the society. Twenty-five constitute the board of directors, with 
 an executive committee of seven, meeting once a month. The 
 departments of work are : 
 
 1. Municipal. 3. Lecture. 
 
 2. Legal. 4. Press. 
 
 5. House. 
 
 The Association has no organ of its own, but comes in touch 
 with its workers, who may attend the monthly meetings of the 
 board of directors. The society is non-partizan and has neigh- 
 borhood or branch Associations in the election districts. As 
 stated in its constitution, " the objects of this Association shall 
 be to inspire the women of Brooklyn with a realization of their 
 municipal obligations ; to promote the health of the people of 
 Brooklyn and the cleanliness of the city by taking such action, 
 from time to time, as may secure the enforcement of existing 
 sanitary laws and regulations by calling the attention of the 
 proper authorities to any violation thereof, and to procure the 
 amendment of such laws and regulations when they shall be 
 found insufficient for the prevention of acts injurious to the 
 public health or the cleanliness of the city." 
 
 A few results actually accomplished are cleaner streets, be- 
 cause of boxes for waste placed on the street-corners ; cleaner 
 cars, due to placards prohibiting spitting on the floor ; increased 
 interest in the cleanliness and health of the city on the part of 
 the women ; and the initial movement resulting in the over- 
 throw of the ring rule in 1893. 
 
 The Association originated in the thought of its president, 
 who desired to see Brooklyn made a cleaner and more attrac- 
 tive city, through a more patriotic interest on the part of the 
 women. A meeting was called to consider to what extent 
 women are responsible for the condition of the streets, and 
 that conference led to the organization of the Women's Health 
 
176 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 Protective Association of Brooklyn, somewhat on the lines of 
 the older Association of the same name in New York. 
 
 It has grown steadily in four years, and now numbers four 
 hundred and fifty paying members, while a much larger num- 
 ber are actively engaged in extending its influence and carry- 
 ing out its principles. 
 
 CIVIC LEAGUE 
 (ORIGINALLY WOMAN'S MUNICIPAL LEAGUE) 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 MRS. ROBERT ABBE. MRS. CHARLES H. RUSSELL, . 
 
 New York. 
 
 In numerous campaign speeches Dr. Parkhurst referred to 
 the great influence which the women of the town could wield 
 in behalf of good government. Finally a few reporters went 
 to Mrs. Josephine Shaw Lowell, to ask if she purposed to lead 
 in what might become an organized movement on the part of 
 the women. She at once replied that she had no time for any 
 new work and had no intention of undertaking any. On re- 
 flection, however, she decided that she would be sadly lacking 
 in public spirit if she refused to work for one month in up- 
 rooting the chief municipal evils because she was so much 
 occupied in lopping off some of the branches. The next step 
 was the request of an interview with Dr. Parkhurst, and he 
 appointed October 4th, when Mrs. Lowell and her daughter 
 called at his house. In response to her question if he had any 
 definite plan by means of which the women could help, he 
 replied, " No." Mrs. Lowell then asked if he would speak at 
 women's meetings once a week until the election, beginning 
 Friday,. October i2th, with an audience invited by card and 
 selected from the " Social Register," because it was Mrs. Low- 
 ell's opinion that the up-town women had the least apprecia- 
 
WOMEN'S WORK IN MUNICIPAL REFORM 177 
 
 tion of their civic duties, and if their interest could be aroused 
 they in turn would arouse the men. Dr. Parkhurst agreed, 
 but suggested in addition that meetings should be held for the 
 down-town women. 
 
 The first meeting was accordingly held October 1 2th, at the 
 Young Men's Christian Association Hall, and three thousand 
 postals were sent in the names of Mrs. Lowell and about thirty 
 managers. Mrs. Lowell invited the managers who were in 
 town to assemble an hour before the meeting for a conference 
 with Dr. and Mrs. Parkhurst, with the result that three com- 
 mittees were chosen : one 'on down-town meetings, a second 
 on publication, and a third on parlor meetings. It was Mrs. 
 Lowell's intention that the organization should tell women the 
 truth regarding the condition of the city, impress them with 
 the fact that they had duties to the public, and induce the 
 women to make the men of their families realize their political 
 obligations and urge them to do their duty at the coming elec- 
 tion. For about a week after the first meeting Mrs. Lowell 
 continued as the leader of the League, until her illness pre- 
 vented active participation. 
 
 In pursuance of the object of the League to create a sound 
 public opinion twenty public meetings and fifteen parlor 
 meetings were held. The conferences that were held on the 
 East Side were most helpful, because that part of the com- 
 munity had been neglected by all except the practical politi- 
 cians, and it was noted with what eagerness the response came 
 to the genuine sympathy of the League. Thanks to these 
 efforts it is fair to credit the League with an increase in the 
 registration. 
 
 At a meeting, October 19, 1894, these resolutions were 
 adopted : 
 
 " WHEREAS, We women, natives, inhabitants, and taxpayers 
 of New York, have a deep interest in the well-being and good 
 name of our city ; and 
 
i7 8 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 " WHEREAS, Vice and crime are fostered within her borders, 
 and her name has become a byword among all nations because 
 of the corruption of our city government ; 
 
 " Resolved, That we call upon all men and women who love 
 the right, and who desire for their children pure and noble 
 lives, to work together against the strong power which now 
 controls our city and has bound her hand and foot." 
 
 A very practical work was accomplished by means of a wide 
 distribution of leaflets, on a variety of municipal subjects. 
 These w r ere briefly stated, and dealt with the subject in such a 
 way as to carry conviction. One of the most forcible must 
 serve as a type of the others : 
 
 WOMAN'S MUNICIPAL LEAGUE 
 
 HAVE I ALL MY RIGHTS? 
 
 i. 
 
 " Is the street in which I live dirty and unhealthy for my 
 children to play in ? Yes. 
 
 " Then it is because the Tammany city government wastes 
 the money given to make it clean. 
 
 2. 
 
 " Do I have water enough, especially for flushing the closets ? 
 
 " If not, it is because the Tammany city government allows 
 it to be wasted, and me to be robbed of that which it is my 
 right to have, by those who pay Tammany for it. 
 
 "Is there water standing in the cellar which makes my 
 family sick and my doctor's bill big ? 
 
 " The Health Board of New York is run by Tammany Hall. 
 
WOMEN'S WORK IN MUNICIPAL REFORM i?9 
 
 4- 
 
 "Are the public schools so overcrowded that my children 
 cannot go to school because there is no place for them ? 
 They are. 
 
 " This is because the Tammany city government wastes the 
 money which I have helped to give to build more schools and 
 hire more teachers. 
 
 5- 
 
 " Have I been compelled, under threat of arrest or stopping 
 my business, to pay the police for protection in addition to the 
 cost of my license ? 
 
 " If I have not, many of my friends who keep street-stands, 
 hucksters' wagons, or who are venders of wares of all kinds, 
 have had to do so. 
 
 " The police force of New York is run by Tammany Hall. 
 
 6. 
 
 " Have you read in the newspapers the terrible story of 
 Mrs. Urchittel, and how the police put her in jail and took her 
 business and children away from her ? 
 
 " If you have not, do so, and work hard to turn out the 
 Tammany city government, which allows such things to be 
 done. 
 
 7- 
 
 "The way to do this is to vote for the ticket headed by 
 William L. Strong and nominated by the Citizens' Committee 
 of Seventy, and to influence your neighbors to do the same." 
 
 Another most effective campaign document was the state- 
 ment of the Russian widow, Cecilia Urchittel. 
 
 The object of the League is the promotion of an intelligent 
 public spirit and a better city government. There are four 
 departments of work ; 
 
i8o MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 1. Municipal Affairs. This is devoted to examination into 
 the aims and functions of the city government ; to the gather- 
 ing of intelligent reports concerning it ; to the suggestion of 
 schemes of improvement ; and to the finding of means of co- 
 operation with good citizens outside the League for the carry- 
 ing out of these schemes. 
 
 2. Education. This department will inform itself and the 
 League concerning the condition of public schools in the city, 
 and suggest means of improvement ; it shall study the work- 
 ings of night-schools, free lectures, kindergartens, etc., reporting 
 upon them to the executive board, with a view to raising the 
 standard of instruction and increasing the attendance of pupils 
 and number of schools. 
 
 3. Social Science. This will examine into the problems of 
 public health, philanthropy, and social reform, as they affect 
 the citizens of New York, and shall report upon the same to 
 the executive board, and attempt to secure cooperation with 
 all good citizens for the promotion of a higher standard of 
 public health and comfort. 
 
 4. Municipal Action. It will fall within the scope of this 
 department to study the conditions which help or hinder the 
 establishment of a high standard of beauty in our parks, plea- 
 sure-grounds, statues, fountains, public buildings, and streets, 
 and to carry out whatever schemes of improvement may be 
 approved by the executive board. 
 
 THE SOCIETY FOR POLITICAL STUDY 
 
 Secretary, 
 
 MRS. JEANNETTE N. LEEPER, 
 256 West Eighty-fourth Street, 
 
 New York. 
 
 According to its constitution, " its object shall be the study 
 of political science and kindred subjects." It will thus be 
 
WOMAN'S WORK IN MUNICIPAL REFORM 181 
 
 noted that its object does not concern itself with municipal re- 
 from in the narrower sense, but it should certainly be regarded 
 as one factor in the bettering of the city. Its work is educa- 
 tional ; but in such efforts there are great potentialities, because 
 many a distinctively reform movement has had its inception 
 in a small company of kindred spirits who have met for the 
 study of social questions. The very fact of their study opens 
 the eyes to the situation and to the need of reform ; then it is 
 wisely and intelligently carried out. The theme for 1895 is 
 " Municipal Government," subdivided into these topics : " The 
 Charter;" "The City Electors;" "The City Primaries;" 
 ".Elections and Election Laws ; " " The Executive Depart- 
 ment ;" "The Legislative Department;" "Judicial;" "Fi- 
 nance ;" "Sanitary Laws ;" "Tenement and Lodging Houses ;" 
 "Public Parks;" "Amusements;" "Municipal Taxation;" 
 " Penal and Charitable Institutions ; " " The Public Schools ; " 
 " The Colleges and Universities ; " "The Police Department ; " 
 " The Saloons and Excise Laws ; " " Wall Street ; " " Banking 
 and the Clearing-house ;" " Transportation ;" " Relation of the 
 Churches to the City." At each meeting the paper of the day 
 and the news of the week are discussed and an opportunity 
 given for the study of parliamentary usage. 
 
 The origin of the Society was in the need felt by its early 
 members of accurate knowledge concerning politics and the 
 science of government. Its growth has been steady and great. 
 Its object is the attainment of knowledge on certain lines and 
 parliamentary practice. 
 
THE CITY VIGILANCE LEAGUE 
 
 183 
 

 The city should in every possible way increase the health, safety, con- 
 venience, comfort, and happiness of its citizens. Against the business-con- 
 cern idea of city government we set the idea of the home, the family. The 
 city must be managed as a well-ordered household, and should do for its 
 citizens everything that a private individiial or corporation cannot do better. 
 Thotigh there are cynics who say that lack of principle is the chief charac- 
 teristic of business, we have no quarrel with business principles as stick. 
 We need them, of course, in the well-governed city, just as in the well- 
 ordered household. 
 
 The need of the moment, then, is a practical and inspiring positive pro- 
 gram. On the other hand, we said a positive program means good govern- 
 ment. Negative criticism is good, but it can only lead to a mere garnish- 
 ing of the chamber ; the one spirit of corruption driven out will return with 
 seven other spirits worse than the first. To prevent this, sustained enthii- 
 siasm is necessary, and this nothing but a positive program will give. 
 Experience in Europe and America shows that only the enlarged idea of 
 the functions of a city can keep tip in the citizens that continual interest 
 necessary to check corruption. Limit in every way the powers of city officials 
 to do evil, and you limit their powers to do good ; intmst to the city no great 
 interest, and the citizens will have no great interest in the city. Give the 
 city great power, great responsibility, and great undertakings, and the citi- 
 zens, for very fear of the terrible results of corruption, will keep the admin- 
 istration clean. 
 
 WILLIAM SCUDAMORE. 
 
THE CITY VIGILANCE LEAGUE 
 
 President, Secretary, 
 
 C. H. PARKHURST. WILLIAM HOWE TOLMAN, 
 
 427 West Fifty- seventh Street, 
 
 New York. 
 
 IT has been the aim of this publication to present the gen- 
 eral objects and methods of the various reform movements 
 in all parts of the country, so that a community desirous of 
 effecting any kind of an organization may select and com- 
 bine those features that will best subserve local needs. After 
 selection and combination, how may an organization be best 
 effected in order to concentrate the forces making for good 
 government? We may assume that some one personality 
 will be prominent ; that some one man will be interested in the 
 civic welfare to such an extent that he will be willing to devote 
 time and labor to secure it. Such a person will naturally 
 lead, and will take the initiative. In the first place, he should 
 make a thorough study of local conditions, in order that he 
 may be able to answer questions which will surely be put to 
 him ; and, secondly, he should make a comparative study of 
 how other cities are working for municipal reform. The 
 leader can get all the necessary data by sending to the secre- 
 taries for an exhibit of the work of their organizations. Fol- 
 lowing out these two lines of investigation, the leader will have 
 the necessary self-information for the next step, which will be 
 
 185 
 
1 86 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 a carefully chosen conference of representatives from the lead- 
 ing existing forces which are, or which should be, making for 
 good government. This conference should be very select 
 that is, only men should be brought together who will agree 
 along a few definite lines. The leader can select his men by 
 personal interviews, and then a personal invitation should be 
 extended, in order that they may be sure to attend. Thus a 
 unity will be given to the initial conference, and when it is ad- 
 journed the same general plan of campaign will be discussed 
 in the community. The leader should so have made himself 
 master of local conditions and methods of work that he can 
 guide the deliberations toward an end which the experience 
 of other cities has shown to be wise. Let him have several 
 suggestions which he can use tentatively ; but he must be 
 clear in his own mind on the general principles which should 
 guide such work. 
 
 The place where the initial conference is held is very im- 
 portant, because a reform movement, to have the greatest 
 measure of success, must include all the divergent elements of 
 the civic life ; and to the extent to which any one is omitted, 
 to that extent is its usefulness impaired. With the thought 
 that the movement must be non-sectarian and non-partizan, a 
 place must be selected which will give no local color to the 
 meeting. The cooperation of organized labor is all-important, 
 and some of their halls might form a neutral ground. With 
 the above thoughts in mind, certain difficulties will be obvi- 
 ated from the outset. 
 
 The initial conference will be most fruitful in affording an 
 object-lesson to those who may attend, whereby the igno- 
 rance of their civic knowledge will be painfully apparent. To 
 prove that, let the leader ask them in what ward they live, 
 who is their Assemblyman, what was the city budget for the 
 last fiscal year, and so on. In fact, it would be a good idea 
 for the leader to propound a few questions from a "shorter cate- 
 
THE CITY VIGILANCE LEAGUE 187 
 
 chism in civics " which he might prepare. The very fact of 
 lamentable ignorance will be a spur to each one to seek civic 
 information, and a demand will arise for a second conference. 
 Then the circle can very well be enlarged. 
 
 At the second conference those who came to the first will 
 have sufficiently informed themselves as to local conditions, 
 so that they can discuss ways and means based on organiza- 
 tions in other cities. Let there be a free and thorough com- 
 parative study of the methods. I would suggest that at the 
 second conference one committee be chosen to nominate per- 
 manent officers, and another to prepare a statement of the 
 object of the formation of the municipal reform organization, 
 and also to submit the draft of a plan of work. When the 
 third meeting is held a plan of work will be sufficiently defi- 
 nite for a membership committee to be appointed. Up to this 
 point it is urged that the conferences be small, because a few 
 energetic men who think alike can be much more successful in 
 shaping and inaugurating the movement than a large number 
 of persons with no definite ideas. For a name, the " Municipal 
 
 Reform League of ," or the " City Vigilance League," is 
 
 suggested. 
 
 By the time that the name has been selected, permanent 
 officers chosen, and plans for definite lines of work mapped 
 out, there is then no reason why a constructive campaign 
 should not be opened. At the outset this policy should ever 
 be borne in mind : that the movement must be positive and 
 constructive rather than negative and destructive. This does 
 not mean that there shall be no tearing down, but that stress 
 shall be laid on the upbuilding. 
 
 After the organization is effected, members must be gath- 
 ered in. One effective way is by sending out pledge-cards 
 containing a brief statement of what any good citizen would 
 at once admit should characterize good government. As 
 fast as signatures to the pledge-cards come in they should 
 
1 88 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 be acknowledged, and the enthusiasm of the signers be crys- 
 tallized into action by assigning to each one some definite, 
 concrete work, even if it be nothing more than counting the 
 schools and churches in his particular area. Some method 
 must be devised for the secretary or the executive committee 
 to come in touch with the workers, because that bond must 
 be vital and persistent. One method of communication is by 
 means of monthly bulletins. The first bulletins will contain 
 the aim and scope of the organization, with the district leader 
 to whom each member is responsible. It is always well to fol- 
 low the existing municipal divisions, rather than carve out new 
 administrative areas for work. An excellent method of secur- 
 ing an executive council or committee is to form it of the lead- 
 ers of the wards or the Assembly districts, according to which- 
 ever area forms a grand division. These bulletins should also 
 contain a brief set of questions, for the double purpose of 
 arousing the interest of the members and of affording data for 
 the use of the executive committee. 
 
 Two bulletins should be sent to each member, and after the 
 information has been secured, one should be returned to the 
 executive committee and the other to the local leader. By 
 that means both the local leader and the organization are in- 
 formed of the civic conditions. In succeeding bulletins brief 
 extracts of the law may be quoted for instance, a very few 
 lines can give the substance of the excise law, and so on. 
 Then, too, the bulletin affords opportunity to give a collective 
 answer to questions which may be sent in by the various mem- 
 bers. There should be a series of questions in each number, 
 so that there may be something to do, and at the same time 
 the answerer will be gaining an increasing fund of information 
 regarding his city. The questions should also be more difficult 
 that is, they should require keener attention and observation. 
 
 The officer who will be largely responsible for the life of the 
 organization will be the secretary, because he will be the one 
 
THE CITY VIGILANCE LEAGUE 189 
 
 to come in touch with the community at many and varying 
 points. The card-catalogue system is the best for recording 
 the membership. Each card should contain a line for the 
 name, address both office and home church, denomination, 
 society, Assembly and election district. Cards containing this 
 data are easy to handle, and make a very convenient mailing- 
 list. In continuance of the aim of this book the work of the 
 League will be described in detail, and concrete illustrations 
 of its administrative methods will be given, so that they may 
 serve as an object-lesson in effecting similar organizations, 
 because experience has proved their adaptability ; hence their 
 adoption and extension in other localities are perfectly feasible. 
 
 In April, 1892, delegates from a young men's organization 
 in the various churches of New York and Brooklyn met in the 
 regular monthly meeting at the Madison Square Church to 
 discuss problems of good citizenship. Dr. Parkhurst was in- 
 vited to address them on that subject, but could give them 
 only a very brief talk, as he had another engagement that same 
 evening. Such a profound impression was made by his lofty 
 tone and his earnest words that the young men unanimously 
 resolved that they would invite him to deliver a second address 
 and make possible a larger audience. Accordingly the Scot- 
 tish Rite Hall was engaged in May, 1892. This meeting had 
 been planned for by a committee which was appointed by the 
 young men of the Madison Square Church. The subject of 
 the doctor's address was along the same lines, namely, an ap- 
 peal to the civic manhood of the young men. The meeting 
 was presided over by Mr. L. L. Delafield. 
 
 So much enthusiasm had been aroused by these two meet- 
 ings and the succeeding events that an organization was effected, 
 but on a very small scale, as about a dozen of the young men 
 met in weekly gatherings. The all-absorbing question of a 
 name for the society was occupying the minds of all ; but when 
 no decision could be agreed upon one of their number decided 
 
190 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 that he would cable Dr. Parkhurst who had gone abroad for 
 his summer vacation and ask him to suggest a name. The 
 cable reached the doctor at Vevay and was the subject of a 
 great deal of thought, for he realized that the matter of the 
 name which should express the intent of what such an organ- 
 ization should represent was very important. After careful 
 reflection, as he was thinking of the great need of watchfulness 
 if the society was to accomplish the greatest measure of use- 
 fulness, the word "vigilance" occurred to him. "Just the 
 thing," he said to himself ; " it must be an organization banded 
 together for vigilance in civic affairs." Then the rest of the 
 combination was comparatively easy, and the telegraph flashed 
 the words to New York : The City Vigilance League. Among 
 the members in the formative period of the League were W. P. 
 Young, C. E. Lawton, C. A. B. Pratt, A. S. Lyman, R. McA. 
 Lloyd, W. M. Kingsley, and R. H. Robinson. 
 
 The autumn of 1892 and the early part of the following 
 year were devoted to the extension of the League by means of 
 meetings held in various parts of the city and usually addressed 
 by the doctor, in order to explain the origin and scope of the 
 League. The methods of extension were about the same as 
 at the present, but the League grew in numbers very slowly. 
 As it has proved, this was the best thing that could have hap- 
 pened, for those who did ally themselves with the movement 
 did so because they believed in it and were willing to devote 
 themselves to it for the sake of the city. Accordingly the 
 small membership was instrumental in developing a strong and 
 intelligent purpose that would persevere in the face of obstacles 
 and aspersions. It so chanced that Dr. Parkhurst was also 
 the president of the Society for the Prevention of Crime, and 
 was then coming into very prominent notice on account of 
 the means which he thought were the best in the furtherance 
 of his particular object namely, the securing of legal proofs 
 of the existence of crime and the collusion of the police with 
 
THE CITY J/IGILANCE LEAGUE 191 
 
 the violation of the law. Moral proof he already had, but he 
 needed that kind of proof that would be received in a court of 
 law. 
 
 In the early history of the League, its methods and general 
 policy were very nebulous. The immediate need was to secure 
 the cooperation of an earnest body of young men who were 
 willing to do something for their city ; just what channel was 
 to serve as the means of utilizing this activity was uncertain. 
 The policy of the League has shaped itself as definite, con- 
 crete needs have arisen. When that which was tentative in 
 dealing with a particular problem showed itself to be success- 
 ful, it was woven into its general line of action and extended 
 so as to grapple with all the phases of the problem in ques- 
 tion. In an historical sketch of the League, with the above 
 facts in mind, when there were very few leaders working in 
 cooperation or under the direction of Dr. Parkhurst, this letter, 
 written by him in July, 1892, to one of the officers of the League, 
 will indicate that no clear line of action had been formulated 
 by him. It is of interest that the present policy of the organi- 
 zation is a development of the germs of action in that letter : 
 
 " The object of our movement is expressed in the name of 
 our organization the City Vigilance League. There is noth- 
 ing of which the city of New York stands more in need in 
 order to its improvement and civic reconstruction, than a 
 thorough understanding and consciousness of its present char- 
 acter. It does not avail a great deal to indulge in rhetorical 
 pyrotechnics regarding the political corruption of the town. 
 Oratory is cheap, and any amount of it can be had for a low 
 figure. There is nothing so significant as facts. If I have at 
 all succeeded in stirring up the town it is because I have given 
 facts. Now that is the key-note of any policy that is to prove 
 availing to the improvement of our city and to the maintenance 
 of its improved condition when once that improvement has 
 been secured. In other words, the town must know itself, and 
 
1 92 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 I want simply one thoroughly-in-earnest man for each election 
 district that will help me to do it. That is what I have meant 
 all the way along when I have said that with a thousand such 
 men I could accomplish the civic renovation of New York. 
 It is perfectly feasible I know it can be done. The experi- 
 ence of the last six months demonstrates it. Watchfulness is 
 the price of liberty. 
 
 " I think this will make clear the difference between what 
 we are undertaking and what was undertaken by the Muni- 
 cipal League. Our enterprise contemplates nothing less than 
 that the representative of each election district should be able 
 to state authoritatively everything that is going on in that dis- 
 trict. Now of course that means a great deal. It does not 
 necessarily mean that he should have to behold with his own 
 eyes everything that is transpiring there, but that, by some 
 means or other, he should gain the information that should 
 enable him to speak with unquestionable authority. As I said 
 before, this is feasible. It can be done and must be done, and 
 the City Vigilance League is the organization to do it. I can- 
 not conceive of a greater work that a thousand of our best, 
 brightest, and most earnest young men can do for New York 
 than just that which I have outlined. It cannot be done in a 
 day or a month, but the eyes of our whole country are upon 
 us, and what we do in New York we shall, in a way, be doing 
 for every city similarly constituted. 
 
 " There is nothing political about this, and nothing that has 
 immediate reference to the polls ; but it will all contribute to 
 political results, and from year to year will become determi- 
 native of political November issues. I am very anxious, there- 
 fore, that the committee should push forward as rapidly as it 
 can the work of fixing upon picked men and acquainting them 
 with the real purpose of the movement as above outlined. 
 You will see how perfectly coincident the purpose of this 
 League is with that of the Society for the Prevention of Crime, 
 
THE CITY VIGILANCE LEAGUE 193 
 
 as illustrated by the work which the Society has been doing 
 during the last four months. 
 
 " I want to guard the committee against the idea that our 
 thousand young men are to engage in exactly the sort of work 
 which I have found it necessary, in a few instances, to put 
 my own hand to. Our enemies are so disposed to make 
 capital out of those matters that our policy and actions must 
 be wise and guarded. There will be enough, however, that 
 we can do, and ways enough of doing it, without laying our- 
 selves open to the necessity of accusation, and without work- 
 ing moral detriment to those who may be participants in the 
 enterprise. It wants to be a constant thought with us that 
 what we have undertaken is an immense work, and that suc- 
 cess will be determined in the issue far more by the quality 
 and thoroughness of what we do than by its quantity." 
 
 In the autumn of 1892 it was necessary to take up the work, 
 which had been sadly interrupted on account of the dispersion 
 incident to the summer. By that time the methods were slowly 
 crystallizing, and were stated in this circular, which will be 
 read with interest by those who have recently joined the 
 League : 
 
 "The time has now arrived when it is practicable to lay 
 down in fuller detail the lines along which the work of this 
 society will require to be prosecuted. Immediately subsequent 
 to its organization in May, 1892, the annual summer dispersion 
 rendered temporary suspension necessary, and little was ac- 
 complished before the ist of October, except to mature plans 
 of organization and of effort. Those upon whose sympathy 
 and cooperation we can count are now for the most part re- 
 turned to town, and the way is open for realizing our purposes 
 with promptness and effect. 
 
 "It was stated in a letter written to the City Vigilance 
 League from Switzerland, under date of July 3d, that ' there 
 
194 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 is nothing of which the city of New York stands more in need, 
 for its improvement and civic reconstruction, than a thorough 
 understanding and consciousness of its own character.' Gen- 
 eral as is the impression that things here are not as they ought 
 to be, and that the administration of our city is vested in the 
 criminal classes and in their sympathizers and abettors, there 
 is nevertheless not that detailed knowledge of the concrete 
 facts in the case that is necessary in order that the matter may 
 come home with power and effect to the intelligence and the 
 conscience of the community at large. Now it is that condi- 
 tion of things exactly that creates the necessity for such an 
 organization as the Vigilance League. We have no political 
 aim whatever; our only ambition is thoroughly to know our 
 city and to make the facts that concern its character and mal- 
 administration distinctly discernible and easily appreciable to 
 the average mind, regardless of the political or the religious 
 differences that may happen to subsist among us. 
 
 " The governmental reconstruction of this city is sooner or 
 later to be accomplished, and when that result comes it will 
 come as the effect of bringing out into the light facts that are 
 already known to some, suspected by many, and adroitly and 
 painstakingly kept under cover by the salaried criminals whom 
 we are paying to attend to our municipal interests. Facts are 
 the agency by which results are to be wrought, and it is the 
 facts', therefore, to which we need first of all to address our- 
 selves. 
 
 " From what has been already said it will be seen that the 
 policy proposed is one of persistency and thoroughness. Any- 
 thing that is worth working for at all is worth working for a 
 good while and with a careful regard to details. Our imme- 
 diate need is of 1137 men of honest spirit and durable stuff 
 (whether Democrats or Republicans makes not a whit of differ- 
 ence, if they are zealous for a clean city government) who will 
 undertake to represent respectively each of the election dis- 
 
THE CITY yiGI LANCE LEAGUE 195 
 
 tricts into which this city is subdivided. It will be the re- 
 sponsibility of each one of these 1137 men to make himself 
 thoroughly conversant with all that concerns the district under 
 his charge. He must know his district through and through. 
 
 " The first duty of the district supervisor will be to prepare 
 a careful and accurate chart of his district. In order that uni- 
 formity may be secured it is desired that these charts shall be 
 drawn on the scale of twenty -five feet to the inch. Every 
 building must be represented on the chart, with its propor- 
 tional frontage and its proper street number. With the map 
 thus drawn there is furnished a basis upon which to put all 
 matters of fact pertaining to the district, so fast as such facts 
 shall be accumulated. 
 
 " The first thing to learn and tabulate will be the occupants 
 of the residential portions of the districts their names and 
 nationality, with the number and names of voters in each, and 
 whether the voters respectively are native American or natu- 
 ralized. In those cases where the occupant is not the owner 
 of the premises the name and address of the owner should be 
 secured. 
 
 " Buildings used for other than residential purposes must be 
 dealt with in the same detailed way and their character indi- 
 cated on the chart. This will include churches, with an accu- 
 mulation of all the facts pertaining to them that would be 
 serviceable in making a complete statement as to their char- 
 acter and condition, such as denomination, numerical strength, 
 etc. The same attention will require to be paid to schools, to 
 saloons, a full account of which latter will include such items 
 as the name of the brewer under whose patronage the saloon 
 is run ; the general character of the place ; the relations sub- 
 sisting between it and the policeman on the beat or the captain 
 of the precinct ; whether it is kept open in illegal hours, or 
 whether it sells to minors ; whether it has a license, and if so 
 when its license expires, etc., together with any other facts 
 
 
196 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 that may be essential to a complete account of the matter. 
 It hardly needs to be said that 'the survey and tabulation must 
 include a statement as to all houses of prostitution, pool-rooms 
 and policy-shops, and gambling-houses in the district. In this 
 connection, however, it is expressly urged that no district super- 
 visor should do anything that can be construed as compromis- 
 ing his own moral character. In all that relates to houses of 
 prostitution in particular too great caution in this respect can- 
 not be used. The Society for the Prevention of Crime and 
 its detectives can be availed of in assisting supervisors to a 
 knowledge of the facts in cases of that description. 
 
 " The attention of supervisors will also have to be directed 
 to whatever concerns the condition of the streets in their dis- 
 tricts respectively, such as their cleanliness, how often swept, 
 the collection of garbage, and whether such collection is made 
 regularly and promptly ; also the condition of the paving, and, 
 in cases where paving is being laid, whether it is being laid 
 according to contract. 
 
 "These references will suffice to indicate the character of 
 the work that is to be undertaken. It is perfectly feasible, 
 although it will require fidelity, persistency, and ingenuity. 
 As the supervisors go on in their work they will acquire facil- 
 ity and will discover means of reaching results that will not, 
 perhaps, occur to them till after they have put their hands to 
 the undertaking. Communications will be made to the super- 
 visors from time to time, either by the president directly or 
 through representatives that will be selected to care for the 
 interests of the Assembly districts respectively, and suggestions 
 made as to methods of working and as to certain kinds of as- 
 sistance that can be afforded in the matter of gathering the 
 necessary details. 
 
 "The above specifications by no means cover the entire 
 work that will be prosecuted by the City Vigilance League, 
 but will suffice for present purposes, and will serve amply to 
 
THE CITY VIGILANCE LEAGUE 197 
 
 illustrate our spirit and intent, which is that wherever the ad- 
 ministrative blood beats in this city the finger of the Vigilance 
 League shall be upon it counting its pulsations. 
 
 11 C. H. PARKHURST, President." 
 
 In order that the summer of 1893 might not necessitate the 
 beginning over again in the autumn, and that the work might 
 be extended by the members of the League who were in town, 
 the services of an organizing secretary were secured. Meet- 
 ings and conferences were held by him so as to effect the or- 
 ganization of the Assembly districts. A circular letter issued 
 that summer gave a brief resume of the work up to that time : 
 
 NEW YORK CITY, August, 1893. 
 
 " We have now just completed the first year of our history. 
 Between four and five hundred men are already actually at 
 work in the field. Operations have been commenced in twenty- 
 two out of the thirty Assembly districts. Whatever concerns 
 the interests of our city is made subject of inquiry and conference. 
 The tendency among all our larger cities is to allow matters 
 of municipal administration to drift into the hands of men who 
 conceive of positions of official trust as means of access to the 
 public treasury. The fault is chargeable as well to those who 
 permit this prostitution of power as to those who practise it. 
 The League aims to counteract this tendency, and to stimulate, 
 among young men especially, an intelligent and earnest civic 
 consciousness, by giving to each member some line of investi- 
 gation to prosecute, some field of duty to cover. In this way 
 a great variety of questions have arisen for consideration, each 
 of which tends to bring the ' Leaguer ' into immediate relations 
 with his city, and in that way to set him studying existing con- 
 ditions as a means of improving those conditions. In one 
 Assembly district, for example, the Sunday violation of excise 
 laws is being observed and investigated ; in another the ' sweat- 
 
198 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 ing ' problem ; and in a third the truck and sidewalk encum- 
 brance nuisance. All of these questions are being considered 
 in their bearings upon the interests of the city at large. The 
 impression which widely prevailed for a time that the League 
 is an organization of amateur detectives has become pretty 
 thoroughly dissipated. We are trying to bring into cob'perant 
 relations a great company of earnest young citizens who believe 
 in inoculating foreign-born residents with . American impulses; 
 in encouraging every influence that will make for our municipal 
 betterment; and in giving currency to the doctrine that for city 
 officials to impose taxes and to drain off a considerable percentage 
 of the proceeds of such assessment into their own pockets falls a 
 good way short <}f the ideal of municipal government" 
 
 Very early in the history of the League, particularly when 
 it was trying to win the confidence of the community and ward 
 off the attacks of its enemies, some method of communication 
 between the executive committee and the members was needed. 
 In order to come in touch with the Leaguers monthly bulle- 
 tins were issued. These served a double purpose : information 
 was obtained, and the Leaguer who obtained it was at the same 
 time gaining a knowledge of his own city, whereby his civic 
 consciousness was made more keen. The chief purpose of 
 these bulletins was their educational character. It will be 
 noted that they were progressive ; each one is more difficult, 
 that is, it requires keener observation and more patience in 
 eliciting the necessary information. The bulletins were issued 
 in duplicate, the Assembly leader retaining one for his own 
 use, so as to be in possession of the facts regarding his district, 
 and sending the other to the general secretary of the League. 
 The League now has a monthly journal of its own the City 
 Vigilant. Some kind of a bulletin issued at stated intervals 
 is imperative for holding and stimulating the interest of the 
 members. 
 
THE CITY VIGILANCE LEAGUE 199 
 
 THE CITY VIGILANCE LEAGUE 
 
 BULLETIN NO. I. 
 
 JANUARY, 1893. 
 
 To. 
 
 Supervisor of Election District No .... 
 
 DEAR SIR: It has been thought wise that once in three 
 weeks a bulletin should be issued to all the members of the 
 League, in order that we may come into touch with one an- 
 other, and the lines along which we are working be made easier 
 and more distinct. Recruits are being brought into the field, 
 and the work is progressing ; but a part of the strength and 
 enthusiasm of our work will lie in a consciousness of the fact 
 that although we may be strangers to each other we are never- 
 theless all working together and for a common purpose. 
 
 Purpose of the League 
 
 As the work has progressed during the months past the 
 objects toward which we need to labor have been growing 
 more and more distinct. 
 
 1. Our one supreme object is to raise the tone of our citi- 
 zenship. The city will not become permanently better except 
 as we who live in the city become better. There are large 
 sections of our town that yield to the guidance of corrupt and 
 designing men for the reason that they are unreached by in- 
 fluences of a finer and more generous kind. Plans are being 
 formulated by which we. expect to come into touch with some 
 such portions of the city, and your cooperation in this work 
 will soon be solicited. 
 
 2. We need to become better acquainted with the machi- 
 
200 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 nery of our city government and with certain principles and 
 statutes by which the motion of that machinery requires to be 
 regulated. Each subsequent bulletin will contain one or two 
 samples of such statutes. We cannot criticize our public ser- 
 vants except as we are familiar with the laws to which they are 
 properly amenable. 
 
 3. In order to a complete grasp upon the situation we re- 
 quire to be acquainted with certain facts relating to the present 
 condition of the city. This and succeeding bulletins will con- 
 tain certain questions bearing upon your own election district. 
 The answers to such questions will none of them involve much 
 labor on your part, but in course of time will aggregate a large 
 amount of valuable information. (In this connection it is 
 suggested that further labor upon the map of your district be 
 postponed until such facts as it may be thought best to use 
 have been collected, after which the map can be prepared by 
 yourself, or at the central office, as you may prefer.) 
 
 Questions 
 
 Please forward to your Assembly-district supervisor, as be- 
 low, within two weeks from date, answers to the following 
 questions : 
 
 1. How is your district bounded? 
 
 2. Is your district occupied by residences, stores, offices, or 
 manufactories ? 
 
 3. How many public-school buildings are there in your dis- 
 trict, and where located ? 
 
 4. How many saloons are there in the district ? 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 Supervisor Assembly District. 
 
THE CITY VIGILANCE LEAGUE 26! 
 
 BULLETIN NO. 2. 
 
 FEBRUARY, 1893. 
 
 DEAR SIR: At the meeting of the executive committee just 
 held reports were received from the Assembly districts already 
 occupied, showing encouraging growth in membership and a 
 cordial entrance upon the work in hand. One such district 
 has taken the initiative in developing an organization among 
 its own election-district men, and a sub- committee of the ex- 
 ecutive committee has been designated to report at the next 
 meeting a plan of Assembly-district organization. Work has 
 just been commenced in one new Assembly district and a 
 quarter of its election districts already supplied with men. 
 
 Information. Any person, licensed or otherwise, who shall 
 sell or offer for sale or give away any strong or spirituous 
 liquors, wines, ale, or beer on Sunday ; or on any other day 
 between one and five o'clock in the morning, unless he have a 
 special license therefor ; or to any child actually or apparently 
 under the age of sixteen years, or to any intoxicated person, 
 shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. 
 
 Except to parties already licensed no new license can be 
 granted for the sale of liquor in any building (other than a 
 hotel, or building for which a license already exists) which shall 
 be on the same street or avenue and within two hundred feet 
 of a building occupied exclusively as a church or school-house ; 
 measurements to be- taken between the principal entrances of 
 the buildings in question. 
 
 The Board of Excise, whose office is at 54 Bond Street, is 
 required to keep a record showing the name of such licensee, 
 the locality of the premises licensed, and the date of granting 
 license. Such record-book is required to be open to the in- 
 spection of the public. 
 
 Recommendation. It is recommended that each member of 
 the League should go provided with a note-book, in which 
 
202 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 record shall be made of any fact or incident coming to his 
 knowledge which connects itself with the purposes of the 
 League and the administration of our municipal government. 
 Caution. Members are advised not to publish the fact of 
 their membership. It is also entirely foreign to the spirit and 
 purpose of the League that any parties should be questioned 
 upon matters of their own private concern. 
 
 Questions 
 
 5. As you come to understand better your own district what 
 is the evil existing there which seems to you particularly to re- 
 quire correction ? 
 
 6. Please give street and number of any saloons that may 
 exist in your district. 
 
 7. What saloons have you, if any, which are situated within 
 two hundred feet of a church or school-house? 
 
 8. Have you any churches in your district, and, if so, where 
 are they situated, and of what denomination ? 
 
 9. Is there any special point upon which you would like to 
 have the law stated or information given in a later bulletin ? 
 
 N.B. Please fill out these blanks, retaining one yourself for 
 future reference and returning the other within two weeks to 
 Yours truly, 
 
 Supervisor . .Assembly District. 
 
 NEW YORK, February 15, 1893. 
 
 BULLETIN NO. 3. 
 
 DEAR SIR : At the March meeting of the executive commit- 
 tee, held on the 2d inst., a committee chosen at the previous 
 meeting to consider the matter of Assembly-district organiza- 
 tion reported a plan for such organization, and their report was 
 
THE CITY VIGILANCE LEAGUE 203 
 
 adopted. One Assembly district organized in accordance with 
 that plan the evening following, and others are expecting to do 
 so in the course of the present month. In this way Leaguers will 
 be drawn into closer relation to each other, and our work there- 
 fore be made easier, more interesting, and more productive. 
 
 It is part of the purpose of the League to interest itself in 
 all those matters which concern the weal of the city in its 
 different portions, and accordingly at our March meeting a 
 committee was chosen to consider the "sweating" business as 
 it is conducted in the southeasterly districts, and, if possible, 
 to effect some arrangement with the " anti-sweaters " there 
 resident by which we can work with them to the repression of 
 this vicious system of industrial slavery. As the League be- 
 comes strengthened and solidified other matters of similar im- 
 portance will be taken up in other portions of the city. 
 
 Information. POLICE JUSTICES. There are in the city fif- 
 teen police justices, appointed by the mayor for a term of ten 
 years, and receiving each an annual salary of $8000. The 
 labors of these justices are divided as follows : 
 
 Three to hold the Court of Special Sessions ; 
 Two at the Tombs ; Two at Fifty-seventh Street ; 
 
 Two at Essex Market ; Two at Harlem ; 
 
 Two at Jefferson Market ; Two at Morrisania. 
 
 DUTIES OF POLICEMAN. " It shall be a misdemeanor, pun- 
 ishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary for not less than 
 one year, nor exceeding two years, or by a fine of not less than 
 $250, for any member of the police force to wilfully neglect 
 making any arrest for an offense against the law of this State 
 or ordinance in force in the city of New York." Section 280, 
 Act of Consolidation. 
 
 Reminder. No Leaguer who reports violation of law there- 
 by runs any risk of being called to testify upon the matter on 
 the witness-stand. 
 
MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 Questions 
 
 i o. If there are any saloons in your district will you report 
 whether they are licensed, and, if so, when do their licenses 
 expire ? 
 
 NOTE. In order to gain this information your best way will be to go 
 to the rooms of the Board of Excise, 54 Bond Street, and ask for the 
 record-book which covers the particular police precinct in which" your 
 saloons are located. This will be put in your hands, and in it you will 
 be able easily, by knowing the street and number where the saloon is 
 situated, to discover whether the keeper is credited with a license, and, if 
 so, when the license expires. There is also a record kept at the station- 
 house, but that you will not probably be allowed to consult. If you do 
 not know the number of your police precinct, you can learn it by inquir- 
 ing of your Assembly-district supervisor, or by writing to the secretary 
 of the City Vigilance League. 
 
 1 1 . Are there in your election district any residences, apart- 
 ment-houses, tenement-houses, or saloons, the name of the 
 owner of which you are able to state? If so, will you please 
 give street and number, with name of owner so far as you are 
 able to do so confidently ? 
 
 1 2. Are there any portions of your election district that have 
 been conspicuously neglected by the so-called street-cleaning 
 department during the past two months ? 
 
 13. Please report any item of special interest or importance 
 which occurs to you in connection with the purposes of the 
 League, or any incident which it would be well for us to know 
 which has fallen under your observation and which has to do 
 with the interests of our city. 
 
 N.B. Please fill out these blanks, retaining one copy for your 
 own future reference and returning the other within two weeks to 
 Yours truly, 
 
 Supervisor Assembly District. 
 
 NEW YORK, March 17, 1893. 
 
THE CITY VIGILANCE LEAGUE 205 
 
 BULLETIN NO. 4. 
 
 DEAR SIR: Reports made to the executive committee at 
 their April meeting showed that in the Assembly districts where 
 work has been begun the ranks of supervisors are being filled 
 up (three such districts having already nearly their full com- 
 plement). Progress is also being made in the matter of organ- 
 izing Assembly-district workers. This matter is urged upon 
 the attention of Assembly leaders. Each election-district man 
 needs to have his own field and to feel his particular responsi- 
 bility for it ; at the same time, in order to do his best work, 
 he needs also to feel a degree of responsibility for the entire 
 Assembly district, and that cannot be the case till he and the 
 other workers in the same Assembly district have come into 
 relation with each other and been organized. With that ac- 
 complished they can then, under the direction of the Assembly 
 leader, consider and mature plans looking to the interests of 
 the whole Assembly district. This will brighten and solidify 
 our work and make it easier and more intelligent. 
 
 Trouble at the Excise Office. We are not surprised to learn 
 that the treatment which the supervisors have received at the 
 rooms of the Board of Excise, No. 54 Bond Street, is reported 
 to have been more or less inhospitable. Tammany will resent 
 all disposition on our part to watch its operations. That is 
 one great reason why the City Vigilance League exists. We 
 may have something additional to say upon the matter, but in 
 this bulletin will only give two or three facts in relation to the 
 board with which we ought all to be familiar, and will also 
 state the provision of the law which entitles us to inspect its 
 records. 
 
 The Board of Excise. The board is at present [1893] con- 
 stituted as follows : W. S. Andrews (president), Leicester 
 Holme, W. Dalton. Excise commissioners are appointed by 
 
206 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 the mayor for a term of three years, with an annual salary of 
 $5000. The term of office of the present commissioners will 
 expire April 30, 1895. 
 
 The Records of the Excise Board are Public Property. 
 
 " Every Board of Excise shall keep a book of minutes in which 
 shall be entered every resolution passed by it granting or re- 
 fusing a license, and a complete record of all other proceed- 
 ings of the board. Every Board of Excise shall also keep a 
 record-book showing in separate columns the name of each 
 licensee, the Ipcality of the premises licensed, the character 
 and class of each license, the date of granting the same, the 
 amount of the license fee, the date of the payment thereof, and 
 the name and residence of each surety on the bond of each 
 licensee. Each book of minutes and record-book of every Board 
 of Excise shall be open to the inspection of the public when not. 
 necessarily in use by the board, and if of a Board of Excise 
 of a city shall be kept at its office, and if of a Board of Excise 
 of a town shall be kept in the office of the town clerk of the 
 town." Chapter 401, Section 1.2, of the Laws of 1892. 
 
 Answers to Questions 
 
 1. The president and executive committee of the League 
 pledge themselves to summon no supervisor to testify in court 
 because of any statement he may have made or information 
 he may have given. 
 
 2. Responsibility of owner or agent of property for gam- 
 bling or disorderly conduct on the premises. The law upon 
 this is as follows : 
 
 "A person who keeps a room, shed, tenement, etc., . . .to 
 be used for gambling, ... or, being the owner or agent, know- 
 ingly lets or permits the same to be so used, is guilty of a mis- 
 demeanor." Penal Code, Section 343. 
 
 " A person who keeps a house of ill fame, or assignation of 
 any description, ... or who, as agent or owner, lets a build- 
 
THE CITY VIGILANCE LEAGUE -207 
 
 ing or any portion of a building, knowing that it is intended 
 to be used for any purpose specified in this section, or who 
 permits a building or portion of a building to be so used, is 
 guilty of a misdemeanor." Penal Code, Section 322. 
 
 Questions 
 
 14. Are you aware of the existence in your district of any 
 gambling-houses or policy-shops, and, if so, where are they 
 located ? 
 
 15. Are the streets in your district showing the effect of the 
 criticism which has been passed by community upon the man 
 who is drawing salary as commissioner of the department of 
 street-cleaning ? 
 
 1 6. When you went to 54 Bond Street to inquire in regard 
 to the saloons in your district what kind of treatment did you 
 receive ? 
 
 17. If you are a Democrat do you think it important that 
 the mayor of this city should be a Democrat ? Or if you are 
 a Republican do you think it important that he should be a 
 Republican ? In other words : Do you think we need any- 
 thing else in a mayor than that he should be an honest man 
 and competent to administer the affairs of the city in a man- 
 ner to promote its common interests? 
 
 1 8. Can you give the names, confidently, of the owners of 
 any property in your district additional to those which you 
 stated in reply to Bulletin No. 3 ? 
 
 N.B. Please return this bulletin with questions answered, 
 at the earliest possible date, to the undersigned, reserving a 
 duplicate copy for your own future reference. 
 Yours truly, 
 
 Supervisor . . . . .. Assembly District. 
 
 NEW YORK, April 20, 1893. 
 
2o8 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 The administrative methods of the League will be described 
 in detail, because they have proved eminently practical and 
 can be used in other cities with only a slight change necessi- 
 tated by local conditions. In the first place, the membership 
 is kept on cards, on the principle of the card catalogue. One 
 name is placed on each card and the following data filled in : 
 
 Assembly Election 
 
 Name , 
 
 ( Office.. 
 
 Address < 
 
 I House 
 
 Occupation . . . 
 
 Church 
 
 Denomination 
 Society 
 
 Remarks : 
 
 The society refers to one like the Christian Endeavor, the 
 Epworth League, and the various others. The fact regarding 
 occupation is of value, 1 in order that the secretary may select a 
 man who is capable of responding to just the demand placed 
 upon him. These facts are for the use of the secretary and 
 the executive committee. 
 
 At the various meetings held under the auspices of the 
 League members are recruited by means of pledge-cards, 
 which are directed on the reverse side to the secretary. By 
 
THE CITY VIGILANCE LEAGUE 209 
 
 means of such cards the enthusiasm which is aroused at a 
 meeting crystallizes into something definite when the name is 
 signed, and then the recruit is placed under the oversight of 
 the local leader. 
 
 THE CITY VIGILANCE LEAGUE 
 
 NEW YORK CITY 
 
 Our sole aim is to raise the tone of citizenship. Whatever concerns the 
 welfare of our city is made the subject of our inquiry and conference. 
 
 All citizens are cordially invited to become Associate Mem- 
 bers of the League. The conditions of membership are rec- 
 ognized sympathy with its objects and the payment of an 
 annual fee of not less than $3, which will include subscription 
 to the City Vigilant, the monthly publication of the League. 
 
 / hereby apply for membership. 
 
 I desire to be classed as an Active Member (no dues). 
 
 I desire to be classed as an Associate Member. 
 (Erase one of the last two sentences.) 
 
 Name 
 
 ( House 
 
 Residence 1 
 
 (Office 
 
 Your name will be for- 
 
 warded by the secretary Assem My Dist Election 
 
 to your supervisor, who 
 will then communicate 
 with you. 
 
 In order that the new member may feel that he is looked 
 after by the League and is not swallowed up in a great 
 organization, he receives a notice from the secretary to 
 
210 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 the effect that his name has been received. By this means 
 his individuality is retained. This note is sent to each new 
 member : 
 
 "It gives me pleasure to acknowledge your application for 
 active associate membership in the City Vigilance League. I 
 have placed your name on the roll and have also forwarded 
 it to the proper League official for his information. Associate 
 membership entitles you to our organ, the City Vigilant, which 
 will be duly sent you each month. 
 
 " Your residence determines your enrolment in the 
 
 Assembly District, of which municipal area 
 
 is the chairman of the local 
 
 League organization. 
 
 " ' The objects of this League shall be to quicken among its 
 members an appreciation of their municipal obligations; to 
 acquaint them with existing conditions; to familiarize them 
 with the machinery of municipal government ; to make con- 
 spicuous the respects in which such government is languidly 
 or criminally administered ; to regard with jealous concern the 
 point at which private interest enters into competition with the 
 general good ; and in every possible way to repress in the com- 
 munity what makes for its detriment, and to foster whatsoever 
 seems fitted to promote its advantage. 
 
 " ' This League aims to accomplish its objects by the collec- 
 'tion and dissemination of full and accurate data concerning 
 our municipal conditions ; by legislation ; by legal proceed- 
 ings; by the hearty support of officials who discharge their 
 duties faithfully, and the vigorous prosecution of those who 
 neglect them ; and by the creation of a public sentiment in 
 furtherance of the objects of the League.' 
 
 "In accordance with the above statements from the League 
 constitution it will give me pleasure to hear from you on any 
 phase of municipal life which you think should be made the 
 subject of inquiry or conference." 
 
THE CITY l/IGILANCE LEAGUE 211 
 
 It is not enough that the new member be notified, but at 
 the same time the local leader is sent this letter : 
 
 "Chairman of. Assembly. 
 
 " DEAR SIR : I send you the name of 
 
 (Office 
 "Address^ 
 
 ( House 
 
 Recommended by .... 
 
 He has applied for active associate membership, and his resi- 
 dence as above determines his enrolment in your Assembly. 
 While no work is expected from the associate members it is 
 deemed advisable that you should know those residing in your 
 district. 
 
 " If an applicant for active membership is not recommended 
 by any one please satisfy yourself that he will fill the require- 
 ments for League membership. 
 
 " Please return this slip, with the following information con- 
 cerning active members, for the use of the secretary : 
 
 Occupation , 
 
 Church , 
 
 Denomination , 
 
 Society , 
 
 Assembly ...... Election Ward Precinct , 
 
 " The object of the above information is to enable us to call 
 on certain members for that kind of work for which their pro- 
 
212 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 f ession -fits them. Each new member, whether active or asso- 
 ciate, has been informed in what Assembly district he has been 
 enrolled and that you are the chairman of the League organ- 
 ization in that district ; hence you should feel no hesitancy in 
 calling on the active members for any cooperation. It is sug- 
 gested that you devise some method by which a portion of the 
 responsibility for the local League work in your district may 
 be placed on the shoulders of each new active member, in 
 order that he may be aware that he is a member of some- 
 thing." 
 
 In its investigations it became necessary for the League to 
 concern itself with the observance of the Sunday excise law. 
 It was also desired to locate the saloons in the various districts, 
 in order to be informed of their exact number. In voluntary 
 work it has been found that the most careful instructions will 
 yield a great diversity of results, so that in the tabulation of 
 a great number of reports the labor is increased many fold 
 because the reports are not uniform. To obviate this un- 
 necessary labor, and to make it as easy as possible for the 
 Leaguers, diagrams of each block were prepared, with the defi- 
 nite questions. This scheme has proved very satisfactory. 
 
 The League realizes that a lack of system in tabulating as- 
 certained facts greatly impairs the usefulness of the study in 
 question. The pictorial features of Charles Booth's studies in 
 London are of great value. The League therefore proposes 
 to prepare maps of each Assembly district, on which will be 
 indicated its civic characteristics. By this means the location 
 of the lodging-houses will be indicated, and it will be very easy 
 to note the sections of the city selected by them. The same 
 plan can be followed in the case of churches, schools, saloons, 
 and tenement-houses. 
 
THE CITY VIGILANCE LEAGUE 
 
 213 
 
 J I 
 
 PLEASE CHECK THE APPROXIMATE LOCATION 
 IN THE BLOCK BY AN X. 
 
 J L 
 
 Assembly IHst blocks. 
 
 Election IHst. 
 
 Ward 
 
 Police Precinct 
 
 Captain 
 
 I I Date | I 
 
 Saloons Churches Schools 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 , 
 
 4. 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 10... 
 
 PLEASE FILL IN NAME AND ADDRESS OP SALOONS. 
 
214 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 For the sake of coordinating the work and preventing over- 
 lapping of effort the activities of the League are divided into 
 the following departments. At the head of each is a member 
 of the executive committee. By this means the executive 
 committee, which meets regularly each month, is conversant 
 with the entire management, and any new item of business is 
 referred at once to its appropriate committee. 
 
 ( The City Vigilant (monthly), 
 
 $i per year, 
 PUBLICATIONS < ttm . / ff 
 
 "The Handbook of Sociological 
 References" price $1.10. 
 
 Legal Aid. 
 Finance. 
 
 League Affiliation. 
 
 Conferences. 
 Education. 
 
 Lecture Bureau. 
 
 Excise : Saloon Substitute No. i. 
 
 Tenement-houses. 
 Lodging-houses. 
 Labor. 
 
 Membership and Organization. 
 Baths and Lavatories. 
 
 These departments are self-explanatory, but the work of the 
 Legal Aid one of the most important must be described in 
 detail. Already very many worthy cases have been brought 
 to the knowledge of this committee, with the result that justice 
 has been secured. It is not the aim that this department shall 
 be a charity, for in each case a fee is requested, in order that the 
 recipient of the legal aid may still retain his independence. 
 This committee is also a kind of " consulting attorney " for the 
 general secretary, in securing legal information to answer vari- 
 ous inquiries. 
 
THE CITY VIGILANCE LEAGUE 21$ 
 
 CITY VIGILANCE LEAGUE 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF LEGAL AID 
 
 NEW YORK, 1895. 
 
 Mr 
 
 DEAR SIR : The following case is referred to your commit- 
 tee, with the request that you render such services therein to 
 the applicant as may be required. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 President. 
 
 Statement of Case. 
 
 Name of Applicant 
 
 Residence 
 
 Occupation 
 
 Business Address 
 
 References , 
 
 Nature of Complaint 
 
 Against Whom , 
 
 Remarks . , 
 
216 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 Mr , 
 
 Of Counsel to Legal Aid Committee. 
 
 DEAR SIR: Please take charge of the foregoing case and 
 report the result of your action therein. 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 C. A. B. PRATT, 
 
 Chairman Legal Aid Committee, 
 
 in Broadway. 
 NEW YORK, 1895. 
 
 The first public meeting under the auspices of the League 
 was held in Chickering Hall, April 20, 1894, in the interest of 
 good municipal government. The crowded audience evinced 
 the public interest in the speakers and in the subjects that were 
 discussed. After the League had made its debut, it was the 
 feeling that a public testimonial, in the shape of a complimen- 
 tary dinner, to its president, Dr. Parkhurst, would be a fitting 
 recognition of his public services, and would also show who in. 
 the community would dare to indorse the movement which he 
 represented by attending the dinner. The result was most 
 gratifying, for nearly two hundred men from all walks of life 
 came out to do him honor. Charles Stewart Smith, the then 
 president of the Chamber of Commerce, presided, with James 
 C. Carter, Colonel A. S. Bacon, and others as speakers. 
 Avowed support in those days, when there was so much anony- 
 mous sympathy, and before the movement had succeeded, was 
 doubly acceptable. Two letters received on that occasion will 
 illustrate the above point : 
 
 " NEW YORK, April 13, 1894. 
 
 " DEAR SIR : I am in receipt of your very kind letter of the 
 nth instant, extending to me an invitation to the complimen- 
 tary dinner to be given to Rev. Dr. Parkhurst on April 3oth. 
 
THE CITY VIGILANCE LEAGUE 217 
 
 Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to participate in 
 this testimonial of esteem to Dr. Parkhurst, on account of my 
 admiration for his indefatigable zeal and fearless conduct, and 
 my deep sympathy with the good work in which he is engaged ; 
 but as I shall have to be in Washington on the day of the din- 
 ner, for the purpose of presiding over the Annual Congress, 
 National Society Sons of the American Revolution, I will be 
 compelled to forego the pleasure of accepting your polite in- 
 vitation. 
 
 " With many regrets, I am 
 
 " Yours truly, 
 [Signed] " HORACE PORTER. 
 
 "WILLIAM HOWE TOLMAN, Secretary, 
 "New York City." 
 
 " NEW YORK, April 16, 1894. 
 
 " DEAR SIR : I am exceedingly sorry that it is impossible for 
 me to be present at the complimentary dinner to be tendered 
 to Dr. Charles H. Parkhurst, April 3oth. I should be very 
 sorry if my absence counted as an indication of lukewarmness 
 or indifference. There is no braver man in America than Dr. 
 Parkhurst, and the Civil War itself brought out no greater illus- 
 tration of heroism than he has illustrated. A wedding engage- 
 ment that evening makes it impossible for me to be present ; 
 though so anxious am I to witness my loyal support of Dr. 
 Parkhurst that if I find it possible to reach the hotel even as 
 late as ten o'clock I shall do so. 
 
 " Yours respectfully, 
 
 [Signed] " LYMAN ABBOTT. 
 
 " MR. EDWIN S. KASSING." 
 
 The result of the November election, in which the majority 
 of the voters declared themselves for good government, is well 
 known. That victory the League considers as one more guide- 
 
218 MUNICIPAL REFORM MOVEMENTS 
 
 board pointing out the road toward permanency in good gov- 
 ernment, for it well knows that one victory does not end the 
 campaign. On the day after election Dr. Parkhurst sent this 
 letter to the various League leaders : 
 
 " No. 133 EAST THIRTY-FIFTH STREET, 
 
 NEW YORK, November 7, 1894. 
 
 "I take this early opportunity of congratulating you, as the 
 leader of your district, upon the splendid work which the 
 League has just been doing and the overwhelming results 
 which have followed. While we are not blind to the fact of 
 the immense amount of work which has been done by affiliated 
 organizations, we remember together this morning the long 
 and trying thirty months through which we have been labor- 
 ing together, and laboring, too, for a large part of that time, 
 when the current of opinion was so strongly against us. Such 
 fidelity ought not to go unrecognized. 
 
 " We have come now, not to the end, but rather to the be- 
 ginning of our efforts. This victory lays for us a foundation 
 upon which we can go on to build with largest hope and as- 
 surance." 
 
 Enough has been said to indicate the general policy of the 
 League ; hence the work in the coming years will be a deep- 
 ening of those principles of non-sectarianism and non-partizan- 
 ship which have been so successful in winning for it the con- 
 fidence and the support of the community. 
 
 The administrative offices of the League are in the United 
 Charities Building, 105 East Twenty-second Street. The friends 
 of the League have shown their practical interest in its affairs by 
 their contributions to the Memorial Fund. By this means a 
 permanent home has been provided, where its work will be 
 centered and whence its sphere of usefulness will be extended. 
 The officials of the League are : C. H. Parkhurst, D.D., presi- 
 
THE CITY VIGILANCE LEAGUE 219 
 
 dent ; W. H. P. Faunce, D.D., Hon. Abram S. Hewitt, A. E. 
 Kittredge, D.D., Rt. Rev. Henry C. Potter, James A. Scrymser, 
 Charles Stewart Smith, Josiah Strong, D.D., vice-presidents; 
 William Howe Tolman, Ph.D., secretary; William M. Kings- 
 ley, treasurer. 
 
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