Christianity and Socialism - Tapa blanda

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1905 edition. Excerpt: ... V Lights and Shadows of Municipal Reform It is now about ten or twelve years since the problem of municipal reform began to be a matter of serious consideration in the United States. I do not mean to imply that the subject had never been thought of before that time; for many individuals, here and there, had been giving it attention. The exposure of the operations of the Tweed ring in New York, in the summer of 1871, made a profound impression upon thinking people, yet most of us were inclined to assume that such rascalities were mainly confined to New York city and to Tammany Hall. In the seventies some anxiety began to be felt in other quarters concerning municipal conditions; in 1874 a Citizens' Association was formed in Chicago, whose object was "to insure a more perfect administration in our municipal affairs; to promote the general welfare and prosperity of the city; to protect citizens, so far as possible, from the effects of careless or corrupt legislation; to effect the prompt enforcement and execution of the law," with other purposes, economic and commercial, as well as civic. I do not know how much work was done by that association, but it had a name to live. In 1878 was formed in New York Dr. Parkhurst's famous Society for the Prevention of Crime. A Citizens' Association with aims similar to that of Chicago was formed in Albany in 1881; another in Boston in 1887; another in Buffalo in 1888. In Baltimore in 1885 the Reform League was organized; the Municipal Association of Philadelphia in 1886; and the Library Hall Association of Cambridge in 1889. I have thus named eight organizations which had been formed before the nineties in the interests of municipal reform. There were others, I am sure; one in Saint Louis, if I mistake...