Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/372

 356 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

are interested primarily in the city of Philadelphia and in its honest and efficient administration.

The National Municipal League, which has become such an active factor in the municipal affairs of the United States, owes its existence to the Philadelphia Municipal League which, in 1893, took the first steps toward calling a national conference for good city government. Hearing that the City Club of New York was considering a similar move, it joined forces with that organiza- tion, and planned the conference which was held in Philadelphia in January, 1894. That meeting appointed a committee, which reported in favor of the organization of a national body to bring together all who were interested in the solution of the municipal problem ; and the National Municipal League, which was formally organized in May of that year in the city of New York, was the formal expression and outcome of that movement. The fact that the secretary of the Philadelphia Municipal League was made secretary of the National Municipal League served further to identify the local body with the national movement, and to justify the claim, so often made by members of the Philadelphia league, that the National Municipal League was one of the products of its activity.

It may be asked why, after a career of such persistent activity, the league retired from the field. It did not retire until after it had called a conference for the organization of a new body which was to take up its work under a fresh name and with fresh blood, and along somewhat broader and more general lines. It must not be overlooked that the work of reform in any particular com- munity is never an easy or a gracious task. It must be accom- plished, if at all, at the sacrifice of personal comfort and popu- larity ; and very often those who are most largely responsible for dissatisfaction with a condition of affairs are those receiving in the popular esteem the least credit or consideration. During its career the Municipal League adhered with great consistency and persistency to its fundamental principles. While at times its alliances were with one side and then with another, it always had in mind the education of public opinion, and the enforcement and embodiment of its principles in concrete action. Naturally, in