A YEAR'S MUNICIPAL DEVELOPMENT.
THE Proceedings of the First Conference for Good City Govern- ment, published in 1894, contained a bibliography of the litera- ture of municipal government and its betterment. Thirty-nine pages sufficed for this purpose. The first number of Municipal Ajfairs, published in March, 1897, contained a similar bibliog- raphy, which required 224 pages. A new edition is in process of preparation, and its editor advises me that upward of five hundred pages will be required to accommodate the references.
The Philadelphia Proceedings also contained a brief account of the then existing municipal reform organizations in the country. Forty-five were described. This year the National Municipal League has 119 organizations on its roll of affiliated members, and its records show a grand total of 465 devoting all or a part of their time to the study of the municipal problem.
These figures tell their own story. They tell more directly and forcibly than a hundred pages of manuscript of the phe- nomenal growth of interest in municipal affairs within the past decade.
When we review the shortcomings of a year, we feel as if the situation were indeed grave ; and so in truth it is. The official recognition and protection of vice and immorality in many of our large cities ; the utilization of public power and office to serve private ends ; the prevalence of official blackmail ; the prostitution of public offices, and contracts to serve mean and selfish party and factional ends ; the sinister influence of corrupt corporations, present a picture at once dark and forbidding, and constitute a problem of serious import and difficulty.
The situation, however, is by no means hopeless. For every year brings a keener appreciation of its gravity. Every year brings new forces into the field to combat the forces of evil. Every year witnesses a development of public sentiment in the direction of higher municipal standards, and advances along definite lines. Widespread corruption and political degeneracy
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