In still another direction the divisive effect of the Socialist propaganda is illustrated. The Socialist members of the last session of the Wisconsin legislature fought bitterly the nonpartisan city government and majority rule measures advocated by the civic bodies of the city, and eventually defeated them. Such an attitude, coming at a time when party lines are being broken down in municipal elections, and when party designations are being eliminated from the official ballots in a most satisfactory wayis a step in the wrong direction.

It is really too soon to estimate at its true value the Socialist movement in the cities. The tendencies that have herein been indicated are dangerous ones, if allowed to go unchecked. However, if the Socialists place the emphasis upon the many excellent features of their platform, and eliminate the idea of class distinctions, and will offer to work with all other citizens irrespective of party who have for their object the advancement of high ideals in city life, they will contribute an earnestness and an aggressiveness of great value. Although uniformly opposing the introduction. of the commission form of government on the ground that it is anti-Socialist, this attitude has not prevented them from turning in and seeking to elect their members to office after commission government had been determined upon. (See appendix to this article.)

To date, the largest contribution of women has been in the direction of improving the municipal housekeeping. They are busily engaged in an ever-increasing number of cities in beautifying the outward appearance and improving the conditions of the streets, the grounds and living conditions generally. In fact, it may be noted that the entrance of women into the housekeeping of cities is one of the cheering developments of the decade. Their practical, though unofficial, participation in the management of municipal affairs, is helping increasingly to make American cities more desirable places of residence. They are not, however, confining themselves to efforts at adornment and housekeeping, but are taking a larger part in public affairs, both as intelligent and effective agitators, and as candidates for office.

I have attached as a footnote to this address a list of the cities in which women have been elected to office. It is an interesting exhibit, provocative of thought as to future developments and to be considered as illustrating the growing influence of women in municipal affairs rather than the Hunnewell incident, which is more or less of a tempest in a tea-pot and regarded as a jest by those who are familiar with the situation.

List of cities in which women hold municipal offices:

California: Los Angeles, woman police officer; Long Beach, special police officer; San Diego, director of playgrounds.

Colorado: Pueblo, auditor; Leadville, treasurer; Telluride, treasurer; Idaho Springs, treasurer; Greeley, treasurer; Fairplay, treasurer; Ridgeway, treasurer;

Investigation has been the order of the day in numerous communities. Philadelphia has had a legislative committee engaged, with the coöperation of a citizens' committee, in delving into the mysteries of Philadelphia politics and the methods which have made a few contractors and officials quickly rich. It has aroused a public sentiment that will be intolerant of half-way measures. One of the important outcomes of the investigation will be, no doubt, the enactment of more rigorous inspection laws and giving to the controller of the city larger powers of independent investigation of municipal contracts.

Chicago is investigating, through its civil service commission, charges of graft in the police department and the alleged systematic extension of protection to favored vice concessionaires.

Grafting is becoming unpopular as people come to know more about it. As I have pointed out on more than one occasion, the revelations, while disgusting, are important and encouraging, because they reveal conditions which an enlightened public sentiment promptly seeks to correct and eliminate. Hand in hand with the disclosure of conditions, both through official and unofficial means, is the movement for the education of the peo

Montrose, treasurer; Colorado Springs, city clerk; Durango, alderman; Alma, clerk, treasurer; Aspen, clerk; Las Animas, city clerk; State, regent State University; three representatives in Colorado legislature, member penitentiary and reformatory board of commissioners, member advisory board Juvenile Improvement Association, member Colorado civil service commission.

Idaho: State superintendent, public instruction.

Illinois: Carlyle, deputy tax collector; Chicago, superintendent of schools; Evanston, justice of the peace; Springfield, school board; Oak Park, two women on school board; Geneva, matron, woman's industrial prison.

Iowa: At the last election 46 counties out of 99 chose women as county superintendents of schools.

Kansas: Hunnewell, mayor; Rosedale, treasurer; Sapulpa, patrol woman. There have been at least 20 women mayors in Kansas. The first was Mrs. Salter of Argonia, elected in 1889.

Kentucky: Lexington, member of board education.

Louisiana: New Orleans, Parish, factory inspector.

Massachusetts: West Springfield, member of school board.

Michigan: Flint, school board.

Missouri: College Mound, members of town board.

New Jersey: Glen Ridge, West Orange, school boards (1911); Yardley, member board of education.

New York: Elmira, city bacteriologist.

Ohio: Factory inspectors.

Oregon: Astoria, city health officer.

Washington: Tacoma, public morals officer, city food inspector (1911).

Wisconsin: Milwaukee, member of school board (1911).

Wyoming: Member house of representatives, state superintendent of public instruction (1911), county superintendent of schools, Albany County, county clerk, Albany County, justice of the peace, Albany County.

ple in higher standards of personal and public conduct. So long as people are tolerant of these methods in personal and private business, so long as they are willing to wink at corruption if it tends to their own advancement or adds to their own bank account, so long will they be equally tolerant of evil conditions in the cities. Whatever tends to raise the standards of private morality, to improve business ethics, to that extent helps in advancing the cause of public morals. Whatever tends to develop a community life, to make the citizens proud of the city and its achievements and to love it for its own sake irrespective of what it may individually profit them-tends also to the solution of the city problem and to the creation of more wholesome conditions of life in our cities.

The saner Fourth, the pageant of Thetford' the "welcome feast" at Rochester, the various municipal congresses and expositions, the adoption by cities of mottoes like the following: "Look up and not down; look out and not in; look forward and not back; and lend a hand” (as Buffalo has done)-all tend to develop a city life, sane and wholesome. Publicity is another factor that is aiding mightily in the exposure of wrongdoing and in the establishments of new and better models of conduct. The publicity showered upon the provisions of the Tammany-Gaynor charter helped bring it into discredit and eventually to defeat it.

Another phase of the movement for publicity is the establishment of city papers by cities in their interests; to inform the citizens and taxpayers about their government and its activities; and, development and interests of other cities. A number of such papers are now being published, with great success and benefit to the localities concerned. Some are monthly, some weekly, some daily. Some have a paid subscription list; some are circulated free to all taxpayers and officials, or to all who will request them and send the necessary postage.19

From these several instances it is plain to be seen that a new spirit is abroad which argurs well for the future. There is a new sense of responsibility and responsiveness which promises a higher standard of municipal efficiency in the not far distant future. When city officials feel the need for giving an accounting of their stewardship and when they begin to catch the spirit and to translate it into language and signs that he who runs may read and understand, then we may, with appropriateness, announce the dawning of a new day of municipal advance.

There has been a steady increase in the number of effective organizations and in the spirit of coöperation among existing organizations; and, moreover, there is a satisfactory growth in the number of competent, capable men who are devoting their lives to the direction of the affairs of

See short article on this, infra.

10 Denver, Philadelphia, Houston, Spokane, Boston, San Francisco-all have these papers; and Los Angeles is now planning to establish a municipal daily newspaper.

such organizations. In fact, the Civic Secretaries Committee of the National Municipal League represents one of the most significant developments of the past two years. The civic secretary is assuming a position of prominence, influence and helpfulness, and becoming a career for the public-spirited men who desire to devote themselves to public affairs. The next step in the development must be the provision for their adequate compensation and an assurance of the future. One reason why the stay of young men in civic positions has heretofore been so short is the fact that the compensation has been moderate and there has been no assurance as to the future.

City plans and programs are increasing in number and effectiveness. The Third National Conference on City Planning, held in Philadelphia in May last, was an event marking great advance in the movement for intelligent, definite planning for American cities. In connection with this conference there was an exhibition similar to those recently held in Berlin, Düsseldorf and London. The exhibition clearly showed the American public how much in the way of the improvement of American cities had been and was being accomplished. It also showed what foreign countries had done along similar lines. Boston-1915 is a concrete illustration of definite planning for city coöperation on a large scale. It has a definite plan for its entire work, and a definite program for each year."

After all is said, however, the most notable tendency in American municipal life is that toward hopefulness. The men who bewail existing conditions and close their eyes to the work that is being done to improve them, are diminishing in number. There is a general recognition, to be sure, that municipal administration has not heretofore been a striking success; but that is largely a thing of the past. As Mr. James Bryce said, in his address before the New York City Club last spring:

Your administration is becoming more and more of a business administration, certainly in this city, than ever before, and that is generally true of cities all over the Union. Everywhere men are coming to see the importance of fixing responsibility upon definite persons. That is the meaning of the tendency to adopt the commission form. In that respect your forms of government are far better over the country at large than they used to be The same phenomenon which you see here is visible to the observant traveler. In all the largest cities where I have been honored by being the guest of chambers of commerce and civic clubs and citizens' associations, I have found organizations in which good citizens have banded themselves together, supplementing the defects of their local municipal government by making themselves the organs of an alert and enlightened public opinion, stirring up the spirit of the people and impelling by the pressure of opinion the municipal authorities toward the improvements that are needed. In nearly all the cities the sky is brighter, the light is stronger.

11 See article of James P. Munroe, infra.

A new spirit is rising. The progress you may expect to see in the elevation and purification of your city government within the next twenty or thirty years may well prove to be greater and more enduring than even that which the last forty years have seen.

APPENDIX

The following is a list of Socialist officials elected on November 7. It was compiled by a leading Socialist from press reports, which have not in all cases been verified. A revised list will be compiled later. According to the same authority some 500 Socialist officials, most of whom were chosen in the spring, were already in office when the November elections were held: