The Problem of Municipal Government in the United States An Address Given Before the Historical and Political Science Association of Cornell University, March 16, 1887 Classic Reprint

Excerpt from The Problem of Municipal Government in the United States: An Address Given Before the Historical and Political Science Association of Cornell University, March 16, 1887

I referred a moment ago, to the wonderful growth of Berlin since 1870. It is, I think, the only city in Europe presenting anything like a parallel growth to that of our American cities. But Berlin in 1870 had been a city for hundreds of years. The Great Elector, and Frederick the Great, and his successors, had made it the pride of their reigns to beautify and ennoble Berlin. As a result, there was a nucleus in the city of great wealth, giving it at once the credit and the ability necessary to provide for the needs forced upon it by this unusual growth. But Brooklyn and Chicago had no such nucleus Of wealth upon which to build their fortunes. They sprang, as it were, out of the very soil; and the same few years which have seen so large a population gather under one City Government, have seen each city supply itself with all the comforts and conveniences of life in these modern times. When one goes to Europe, the first matter to attract one's attention and to make him mourn the condition Of things at home, are the streets. The uniformly good pave ments, and the uniformly clean streets abroad, are the admi ration and the envy of the dwellers in nearly all American cities. It Often is charged against our cities that they fail conspicuously in these palpable respects. But it is forgotten that the era of good pavements and consequently of clean streets, in most of the European cities is less than thirtyyears Old. In Berlin, I believe, it dates from a period more recent than 1870. I would not exculpate our city Officials from any fault justly chargeable to them in regard to the paving and cleaning of our streets; but in forming an esti mate of what the true measure is of the break down in our political institutions in the government Of cities, it is fair to bear in mind that if we do not yet equal European cities in these most desirable respects, the reason is to be found, in part, in the heavy obligations for permanent plant, forced upon our cities by their rapid growth. Time is an element in making a city as well as in the accomplishment of any other great purpose, and we must not charge to our institu tions, failures that really spring from the shortness of time in which they have been at work. Indeed, I think it fairly may be claimed for our institutions, as exemplified in City Govern ments in the United States, that they have shown themselves equal in many ways to grapple with very great and very difficult problems. It is curious, I think, to travel along the border between the United States and Canada, and to note how, wherever one finds a house on the Canadian side, one finds a hamlet on this; where Canada boasts a village, on our side, one finds a town where Canada grows into a town, upon the American side is a city. Partly no doubt, mostly perhaps, this is simply the vigorous life of the nation express ing itself, even at its boundaries. But I fancy also, this claim can be made, that our popular institutions lend them selves readily to the growth of cities, because the ability to provide the necessary comforts and conveniences of city life is within easy reach of the population. As a rule, it is not necessary, for instance, to convince a distant authority of the need for a sewer before it can be constructed nor, can the objection of a few, who possibly hold the purse-strings, long decline to yield to the demands of the many.

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