otal point in social and political existence, where the pressure is most keenly felt, and the contrasts are most obvious, is a part of the ferment out of which a militant citizenship is to issue, is beyond question, and the early recognition of that fact by this organization has been most fortunate. Our work has been generously supported, but when we realize the obstacles which confront us, and the depths of apathy which still exist, the support which we receive and which is also extended to the related work of civil service reform, is pitifully meager and inadequate, and one of the surest tests of the extent of that enlightened good citizenship which maintains two of the most powerful agencies of social and political regeneration. As one of those who were earliest in the field, in the effort to rescue our cities, I am constantly impressed by the need of a still higher level, and a far greater body of good citizenship, before the scope of our undertakings can be increased as it should be, and the work so prosecuted as to produce adequate results; and I hope to be able to indicate in the conclusion of this paper at least one of the ways in which the forces of reform can be materially augmented and militant political work accomplished. We are entitled to feel encouraged by the development of an earnest reform sentiment which extends from coast to coast, and which we were Development of Reform Sentiment among the first to help inspire and promote; and if it has sometimes resulted in militant politics upon a basis of partial self-interest, rather than that high type of disinterested and vigorous citizenship to which we have so long looked forward to, it is due to the attractiveness of the proverbial sheep's clothing to the political wolf, and demonstrates an awakened public conscience to which the politician is quick to appeal, and of which he usually takes advantage. The reports of Secretary Woodruff, year after year, are a splendid and most interesting record of accomplished work, and show that local efforts in many cities have been crowned with success, and it is an encouraging fact that the influence of local agitation is far greater than the apparent interest of the people would indicate, The former Municipal League of Milwaukee, for example, with a small membership, exercised an acknowledged restraining influence on the conduct of city affairs for many years, and its educational work was continuous. It is not exaggeration to say that its example led to much that has been accomplished since. It placed the appointment of several thousand city employees on the merit basis. It saved the tax payers hundreds of thousands of dollars by defeating efforts of the city government, before the legislature, to have the tax rate raised from fourteen to fifteen and one-half mills. It secured the passage of an improved school board law, which unfortunately was afterwards repealed. It opened the fight against granting the street railway company further gratuitous franchises, some years ago, and unfortunately ceased to exist shortly afterwards, the fight being taken up more sensationally, though not more vigorously by a body of quasi-political reformers who enjoined the Council from granting the franchises in question, but naturally failed to attain the desired result. Some years later the Voters League was established and is still in existence and doing very useful work. Another body known as the "Committee of Ten" did energetic work in ferreting out, and securing the prosecution of a considerable number of municipal malefactors, many of whom were convicted and fined or imprisoned. Then came the Civil Service Reform Association which, with the aid of the National Civil Service Reform League, induced the Legislature to pass a civil service law for the state. Federation of The last expression of reform sentiment, resulting from the third or fourth reelection of a spoils mayor celebrated for making Milwaukee a "wide open town" took place last spring in the formation of the "Federation of Civic Societies," devoted to the cause of better government, and a watchful guardianship of the merit system. The federation has not yet had time to do much active work, but much is hoped from it. The Westminster League, the Men's Clubs of St. James Church, and the Grand Avenue Congregational Church, and several smaller clubs, component parts of the Federation, promise a good degree of activity. The Westminster League in particular, under the energetic leadership of Mr. H. C. Campbell, has succeeded in inducing the School Board to permit the use of the ward schools as centers for civic education in the form of lectures and discussions; and has undoubtedly contributed materially to the development of an enlightened and militant citizenship. Through the efforts of Henry Smith, an able and high-minded alderman, who has served his ward for more than half a lifetime, a law was passed by the last legislature authorizing the election of a Milwaukee Charter Commission, to frame a modern charter. The unfortunate action of the mayor and common council in refusing to vote the necessary funds has seriously crippled the work, and the probable result is not yet known. This illustrates what can be done in an unpromising city by a few militant individuals, and indicates very plainly what could be accomplished with the support of large bodies of thoroughly equipped and earnest citizens. The National Of course a great deal of the local work in our cities is due to the influence of this body and our record in the National Municipal League, since we first met in Philadelphia in 1894, is certainly most encouraging. If our constructive work has not yet been everywhere adopted, and if, where it has found a partial foothold, too much faith has been placed in the results of mere legislation, it is simply because we have not been enabled to carry forward the already great educational crusade more widely and powerfully. Constructive work is a necessity, but a public capable of appreciating and demanding its application is a far greater necessity which can only be supplied by educational methods. In a city in which the best civil service law is in force, a bad mayor, frequently reelected, may seriously impair the efficacy of the law, by his appointment of the members of the commission charged with its enforcement, and the best charter in the world can be disregarded by an ignorant or venal board of aldermen controlled by vicious private interests. Such a mayor and such aldermen are, in the last analysis, the result of a citizenship far from being either ideal or militant. The fundamental basis of adequate reform is therefore to be found primarily in education, and education alone. It was the promulgation of the so-called "ideas of the 18th Century," through the writings of Voltaire, Diderot, and Rousseau, which finally precipitated the French Revolution, and the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin was largely instrumental in creating the public opinion which freed the southern slaves. In the city of Milwaukee it would be difficult, and perhaps impossible, to secure $300.00 a month from our average business men for the production of educational literature, which ought to be distributed in several languages and hundreds of thousands of pamphlets, to create the citizenship upon which the future of that city depends; while the socialist leader, Victor Berger, tells me that money is so freely given from the pockets of the poor that $1200.00 is sometimes expended weekly by his party in printing and circulating literature, the purpose of which, of course, is more or less radical revolution. The socialist vote in Milwaukee a few years ago was counted in hundreds, but bad city government and this party's admirable system of education has swelled that vote to 18,000! And I am happy to be able to say that socialist public officials are men of high character, and can be uniformly depended upon in pushing good measures, whatever we may think of the cure they propose for admitted evils. A writer in the October Atlantic says: "What our colleges are asked is to turn out young men who can start out to earn money as soon as possible. * * * We demand something 'practical' *** and we translate the word in the universal term of dollars and cents. President Roosevelt has recently said: "That life is worse than wasted which is spent in piling, heap upon heap, those things which minister merely to the pleasure of the body, and to the power that rests only on wealth.' "I will go further and say that the ultimate and complete salvation of our city, and state, and national government, presupposes a revolution in The New Education League our ideals of life and education based upon higher conceptions of personal quality and civic duty which shall free us from the grasp of a paralyzing philistinism.” An organization in Milwaukee known as "The New National Education League," has secured the introduction of a bill providing for a national department of education with a representative in the Cabinet. It also seeks the establishment of an experimental school based partly on the ideas of Pestalozzi and Horace Mann, and the system employed in many German schools, and in the German-English Academy of Milwaukee from which students are said to be graduated at a comparatively early age, with a training equivalent to that of the average high school, but more specifically devoted to the development of character. The idea is to bring what is approximately the "higher education," vitalized by ideal and ethical conceptions, within the reach of that vast multitude of scholars which never gets beyond the grade school, and thus powerfully augment and elevate what may be called the educated public. An extract from one of the League's circulars reads as follows: "As we look upon the young graduate from either our public or our private schools, are we satisfied with the result? Where is the eager idealism, the steady, manly, womanly purpose, the simplicity, the efficiency, the high sense of responsibility, the dawning social consciousness which should characterize the product of the schools of a democracy?" Well founded or otherwise the purpose of the League is suggestive. What we need are citizens who are equipped with the requisite knowledge, and moved by the right ideals; who are particular about and familiar with the qualifications and service of their municipal servants; citizens who are themselves ready to enter the City's official service on a basis of civic pride and honor; citizens, whether rich or poor, who will serve without compensation for the sake of the "Common Good" like the members of the London County Council, and the aldermen of nearly every European city; Citizens who are well described by Charles Edward Russell in "Forward, Citizens, to the Firing Line" in Everybody's for November, which every municipal reformer has undoubtedly read. Permanent free government without the well equipped and devoted citizen is as unthinkable and as impossible as stability in a mighty structure without a sound foundation, and unless such a citizen is forthcoming the American political edifice will finally be rent asunder. The place to create the high-spirited, fully equipped militant citizen is in the public schools by appropriate instruction. The Education of the Sovereign The education of a European monarch is marvelously thorough and many sided. He is drilled by the best instructors, and fully equipped, ethically, ideally, and politically for the general and special work of government. It is only in the Republic that the monarch gets his chance education, in large part, from the ward politician, the party papers, the political gang and in the streets and slums. The inference is obvious, and the most valuable preliminary work to which this or any other organization can devote itself, is the ethical and political education of the citizen-the democratic monarch. To ensure that education the resolute effort should be made to induce the school authorities of every city not only to make the ward schools civic centers for the purpose of meetings and lectures, but to afford daily instruction on the nature and duties of municipal citizenship, and the character of official and political machinery and action, in the light of the best experience and the highest ideals. When that is done any worthy cause will find a militant citizenship ready to enter the lists in its support, and the reform not only of our city governments, but of the ideals of life and business will soon become an established fact in the most beneficent and peaceful revolution of history. Most of the bitterness and many of the unjust inequalities of life will gradually be removed, and added splendor will be given to the material greatness of the foremost government of the world. [Applause.] THE PRESIDENT: The next speaker will be Mr. Camillus G. Kidder, of Orange, New Jersey, Chairman Orange Board of Excise. MR. KIDDER: I would like to remind those of my predecessors who have been telling of remarkable achievements and of their mistakes, of the remark of Mr. Phelps, our minister to England some time ago, that "he who makes no mistake makes nothing." My little sandwich, sir, to this picnic relates to a very small happening in a small town with regard to the choice of good men for a trifling office, but it was a movement carried out a few weeks ago with marked success, and it seems to me to illustrate in a small way the points made in Mr. Binkerd's paper, and, judging larger things by small things, it may be worth your while to hear it. Orange is a small town of twenty-eight thousand people and part of three other boroughs or cities which join one another and aggregate alto gether about sixty thousand. But unfortunately they Experience of have separate city governments. The population of Orange, N. J. Orange is rather curiously composite. There are seven thousand five hundred Italians, two thousand free born citizens of African descent and there are perhaps one thousand Polacks and Hungarians who are interested in the pursuit of happiness. There is a large minority of residents who do business in New York. It is about thirteen miles out, and is situated with regard to New York very much as Chestnut Hill and Germantown are to Philadelphia. Now the men of New York are called "roosters" by the natives. A rooster is the emblem of the Democratic party in Ohio, but in New Jersey it is very hard to make him crow. The reason they are called roosters is because they scratch gravel in New York and come home to roost at night. It is very hard to arouse in these men a feeling of true civic interest. That is the reason why our little movements of reform in that particular borough have a certain lively interest. Now we have had for a number of years a school board consisting of fifteen men appointed three from each of five wards. That school board the last two years got into trouble and fell into factional disputes. There was a good superintendent of schools and the main object of the large minority of the board seemed to make things unpleasant for the superintendent, and there was a dispute with a principal. He was a good teacher, I believe, but wanted the place of superintendent. For that A School reason, after much rumpus, which got into newspapers, he was discharged. Then the parents of the children came to the school board and rather bulldozed them, as the boys say. The result was, that although his place had been filled they chose him again as principal in deference to political clamour, and there were nineteen principals for eighteen places. Since these |