CHAPTER VIII.

THE GOVERNORSHIP.

MUNICIPALITIES.

GOVERNOR CLEVELAND'S first political office was that of Mayor of Buffalo. The first political questions with which he had to deal were those connected with municipal government.

The municipalities in New York have long been in an unsatisfactory condition. In all of them the expenditures are large, taxation is high, and the administration wasteful and extravagant. The great sums of money raised for municipal purposes do not accomplish the proper results. The cities are generally unclean, badly paved and in most instances the public service is costly and inefficient. Many persons have come to think that a government by universal suffrage cannot be successfully applied to municipal affairs. Governor Cleveland, however, was not of this opinion. He thought that proper remedies for existing evils could be found, and economy and thoroughness introduced into the city governments as well as into that of the State.

His plan was 'o throw upon the people of the municipalities the responsibility of self-govern

ment; therefore, he asked that they should be invested with full powers to deal with their own affairs, and that the legislature, after having granted such powers, should cease to interfere with the local administration. In his first message

he said:

"They [municipal governments] should be so organized as to be simple in their details, and to cast upon the people affected thereby the full responsibility of their administration. The different departments should be in such accord as in their operation to lead toward the same results. Divided counsels and divided responsibility to the people, on the part of municipal officers, it is believed, give rise to much that is objectionable in the government of cities. If, to remedy this evil, the chief executive should be made answerable to the people for the proper conduct of the city's affairs, it is quite clear that his power in the selection of those who manage its different departments should be greatly enlarged.'

And again he said:

"It is not only the right of the people to administer their local government, but it should be made their duty to do so. Any departure from this doctrine is an abandonment of the principles upon which our institutions are founded, and a concession of the infirmity and partial failure of the theory of a representative form of government. "If the aid of the Legislature is invoked to

further projects which should be subject to local control and management, suspicion should be at once aroused, and the interference sought should be promptly and sternly refused.

"If local rule is in any instance bad, weak or inefficient, those who suffer from maladministration have the remedy within their own control. If, through their neglect or inattention, it falls into unworthy hands, or if bad methods and practices gain a place in its administration, it is neither harsh nor unjust to remit those who are responsible for those conditions to their self-invited fate, until their interest, if no better motive, prompts them to an earnest and active discharge of the duties of good citizenship."

The application of these principles to the affairs of the cities of the State is a task of great difficulty. Ever since the organization of the present political parties, there has been a wide difference in political opinion between the inhabitants of New York and Brooklyn and the other parts of the State. The cities have been overwhelmingly Democratic; the counties have been strongly Republican. During the long period of Republican domination the powers of the State government were constantly used to weaken the Democratic organizations in New York and Brooklyn To accomplish this, frequent changes were made in the charters of the cities. The object, generally, was to secure a share of the

local offices, and a part of what is called "party patronage."

It is impossible to point out in detail the devices which were resorted to, to accomplish these ends, but the general result has been clear enough. They are without doubt the sources of many municipal evils and the chief cause of the failure of municipal governments. They have destroyed the responsibility of officials. They have given opportunities for combination between the corrupt men of both parties. They have accustomed the people to misgovernment, and made them suspicious as to the sincerity of those who proposed a reform. When the Democrats had become strong enough to get a share in the government of the State, they yet failed to obtain control of the Legislature.

Jealousy between the city and country has led the Legislature, by an unfair apportionment, to refuse to the cities their just representation. Therefore a Republican majority will usually be elected to both branches of the Legislature, even when the State has gone Democratic. Thus it has happened, that only in two instances during the last twenty-five years, has a Democratic Governor found a Democratic Legisiature. One of these instances was in 1883.

When Governor Cleveland came to Albany both branches of the Legislature were Democratic. It was, therefore, hoped that the reforms long waited

for might be accomplished, and that the principle of local self-government might at last be rigidly applied to the two great cities. But meanwhile serious difficulties had arisen in the cities themselves. In Brooklyn Democratic supremacy had been destroyed, and a Republican chosen to the mayoralty, who was supported by a considerable body of Democrats. In New York the Democracy had become divided into two organizations, both jealous of each other and both striving for local control. This condition of affairs has prevented the work of reform from being accomplished. As respects Brooklyn much has been done by the application of the principle of local responsibility.

In New York great changes have been made. A system of fees, yielding to certain officials extravagant emoluments, has been abolished, and the power of the Mayor has been vastly increased. By these new laws the Mayor of New York has been given a power almost without example. He is, within his sphere, more powerful than any other official in the United States, and it must be remembered that the sphere is not a narrow one. city government, as respects the magnitude of its operations and its revenues and expenditures, is far more important than that of the State, and is second only to the Federal Government. In this domain the Mayor is now supreme. He has an unrestricted power of appointment to most of the

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