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values the right to contribute above his desire for office, he need not accept the latter; but public sentiment has not as yet reached the point where it is ready to insist upon this method of reforming the abuse, and until it is ready other means will have to be tried to prevent the evil now existing in all our larger cities. The col- lection of large sums for political purposes, aggregating tens of thousands of dollars in Philadelphia at each election, which are disbursed without an accounting, and only too frequently for pur- poses which will not bear the light of day, serve to perpetuate the machine and its influence, and at the same time undermine the political sentiment of our communities.
The league also prepared a bill to prevent dual office-holding an evil which has seriously afflicted the city for many years. Although, by reason of the political conditions which then existed, the bill did not become a law, the league was successful in indi- vidual cases in ousting from council men who held other and con- flicting positions. For instance, in 1895 it succeeded in having one DeCamp, a manager of one of the local electric-lighting com- panies, ousted from councils on the ground that his position was incompatible. Later Samuel G. Maloney, a notorious local char- acter, was forced to resign as select councilman because of his incumbency at the same time of the position of harbor master.
The league participated in a very considerable number of local activities, to enumerate which would serve only to illustrate the breadth of its sympathy and the scope of its activity. It is to be noted, however, that the league was the first organization in Phila- delphia to inaugurate the demand for sectional high schools a demand which is now generally recognized as well founded, and is finding expression, not only in the platforms of the parties, but in the policy of councils and of the Board of Education.
The active spirits of the Municipal League always considered that the political campaigns which it waged were important and valuable, if for no other reason, because of their educational effect. These campaigns not only developed a group of active, interested, intelligent workers, and created a party machinery which exists to the present day, although under a different name ; but it served to present in concrete form the principles for which the league
