4. Some consequences of rapid city growth :— a. The pressure to construct public works. b. The incurring of heavy debts. c. The wastefulness due to a lack of foresight. d. The increase in government due to the complexity of a city. e. An illustration of this complexity in Boston. f. The consequent mystery that enshrouds much of city gov ernment. 5. Some evils due to the fear of a "one-man " power :— c. The division and weakening of responsibility. d. The lack of unity in the administration of business. e. The inefficiency of committees for executive purposes. f. The alarming increase in city debts. 6. Attempts to remedy some of the evils of city government : a. The power of veto granted to the mayor. b. The limitation of city indebtedness. c. State control of some city departments. 7. Difficulties inherent in state control of cities: a. Lack of familiarity with city affairs. b. The tendency to "log-rolling." c. Lack of time due to the pressure of state affairs. d. The failure of state control as shown in the rule of the Tweed ring. 8. The government of the city of Brooklyn :— a. The elevation of the the "ring." 66 one-man power above that of b. Officers elected by the people. c. Officers appointed by the mayor. d. The principle of well-defined responsibility. e. The appointment of certain boards by the mayor. f. The holding of the purse-strings. g. The inadequacy of the township elective system in a city like Brooklyn. 9. Restriction of the suffrage : a. The dangers from large masses of ignorant voters. b. The responsibility for the debt of Philadelphia and other cities. c. The dangers from large classes who feel that political rights are denied them. d. Suffrage as a "safety-valve." 10. The mixture of city politics with those of the state or nation :a. The degradation of the English borough. b. The exemption of London from the Municipal Corporations Act. c. The importance of separate days for municipal elections. d. The importance of abolishing the "spoils system." SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS AND DIRECTIONS. (Chiefly for pupils who live in cities.) 1. When was your city organized? 2. Give some account of its growth, its size, and its present population. How many wards has it? Give their boundaries. In which ward do you live? 3. Examine its charter, and report a few of its leading provi sions. 4. What description of government in this chapter comes nearest to that of your city? 5. Consider the suggestions about the study of town government (pp. 43, 44), and act upon such of them as are applicable to city government. 6. What is the general impression about the purity of your city government? (Consult several citizens and report what you find out.) 7. What important caution should be observed about vague rumours of inefficiency or corruption? 8. What are the evidences of a sound financial condition in a 9. city? Is the financial condition of your city sound? 10. When debts are incurred, are provisions made at the same time for meeting them when due ? II. What are "sinking funds"? 12. What wants has a city that a town is free from ? 13. Describe your system of public water works, making an analysis of important points that may be presented. 14. Do the same for your park system or any other system that involves a long time for its completion as well as a great outlay. 15. Are the principles of civil service reform recognized in your city? If so, to what extent? Do they need to be extended further? 16. Describe the parties that contended for the supremacy in your last city election and tell what questions were at issue between them. 17. What great corporations exert an influence in your city affairs? Is such influence bad because it is great? What is a possible danger from such influence? 18. In view of the vast number and range of city interests, what is the most that the average citizen can reasonably be asked to know and to do about them? What things is it indispensable for him to know and to do if he is to contribute to good government? BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE. The transition § 1. DIRECT AND INDIRECT GOVERNMENT. from direct to indirect government, as illustrated in the gradual development of a township into a city, may be profitably studied in Quincy's Municipal History of Boston, Boston, 1852; and in Winsor's Memorial History of Boston, vol. iii. pp. 189–302, Boston, 1881. § 2. ORIGIN OF ENGLISH BOROUGHS AND CITIES. - See Loftie's History of London, 2 vols., London, 1883; Toulmin Smith's English Gilds, with Introduction by Lujo Brentano, London, 1870; and the histories of the English Constitution, especially those of Gneist, Stubbs, Taswell-Langmead, and Hannis Taylor. § 3. GOVERNMENT OF CITIES IN THE UNITED STATES. J. H. U. Studies, III., xi.-xii., J. A. Porter, The City of Washington; IV., iv., W. P. Holcomb, Pennsylvania Boroughs; IV., x., C. H. Levermore, Town and City Government of New Haven; V., i.-ii., Allinson and Penrose, City Government of Philadelphia; V., iii., J. M. Bugbee, The City Government of Boston ; V., iv., M. S. Snow, The City Government of St. Louis; VII., ii.-iii., B. Moses, Establishment of Municipal Government in San Francisco; VII., iv., W. W. Howe, Municipal History of New Orleans; also Supplementary Notes, No. 4, Seth Low, The Problem of City Government (compare No. 1, Albert Shaw, Municipal Government in England). See, also, the supplementary volumes published at Baltimore, Levermore's Republic of New Haven, 1886, Allinson and Penrose's Philadelphia, 1681-1887: a History of Municipal Development, 1887. CHAPTER VI. THE STATE. § 1. The Colonial Governments. In the year 1600 Spain was the only European nation which had obtained a foothold upon the part of North America now comprised within the Claims of possession of North America. Spain to the United States. Spain claimed the whole continent on the strength of the bulls of 1493 and 1494, in which Pope Alexander VI. granted her all countries to be discovered to the west of a certain meridian which happens to pass a little to the east of Newfoundland. From their first centre in the West Indies the Spaniards had made a lodgment in Florida, at St. Augustine, in 1565; and from Mexico they had in 1605 founded Santa Fé, in what is now the territory of New Mexico. Claims of England. France and England, however, paid little heed to the claim of Spain. France had her own claim to France and North America, based on the voyages of discovery made by Verrazano in 1524 and Cartier in 1534, in the course of which New York harbour had been visited and the St. Lawrence partly explored. England had a still earlier claim, based on the discovery of the North American continent in 1497 by John Cabot. It presently became apparent that to make such claims of any value, discovery must be followed up by occupation of the country. Attempts at colonization had been made by French Protestants in Florida in 1562-65, and by the English in North Carolina in 1584-87, but both attempts had failed miserably. Throughout the sixteenth century French and English sailors kept visiting the Newfoundland fisheries, and by the end of the century the French and English governments had their attention definitely turned to the founding of colonies in North America. In 1606 two great joint-stock companies were formed in England for the purpose of planting such colonies. One of these companies had its headquarters at London, and was called the Lon- The London don Company; the other had its headquar- and Plymters at the seaport of Plymouth, in Devon- panies. shire, and was called the Plymouth Company. To the London Company the king granted the coast of North America from 34° to 38° north latitude; that is, about from Cape Fear to the mouth of the Rappahannock. To the Plymouth Company he granted the coast from 41° to 45°; that is, about from the mouth of the Hudson to the eastern extremity of Maine. These grants were to go in straight strips or zones across the continent from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. Almost nothing was then known about American geography; the distance from ocean to ocean across Mexico was not so very great, and people did not realize that further north it was quite a different thing. As to the middle strip, starting from the coast between the Rappahannock and the Hudson, it was open to the two companies, with the understanding that neither was to plant a colony within 100 miles of any settlement already begun by the other. This meant practically that it was likely to be controlled by whichever company should first come into the field with a flourishing colony. Accordingly |