Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/571

 REVIEWS 557

be placed upon social rather than structural considerations. The cumbersome and inefficient system of checks and balances cannot take the place of an intelligent public opinion or an aggressive civic spirit. Here must be found the dynamic forces and restrain- ing influences necessary to a sane and enlightened city government. The elements of civic consciousness and the influences affecting it are clearly analyzed and discussed. Contentment with home life, the traditional tendencies to look upon it as the end of all social endeavor, the complete satisfaction in the performance of home duties in the face of the grossest neglect of public responsibility or even business honor, are suggested among the forces destructive of civic consciousness.

The political consequences of city growth are said to be the changed ideals in political theory and their application to modern needs. A strong and courageous plea is made for the honest and frank discussion of the failure of old ideals and structural forms and for the substitution of such theories and institutions as will most effectively meet the demands of a modern city. The cen- tralization of executive power, the separation of the political from the aidministrative, the creation of an office-holding class, the propo- sition that democracy consists in the effectiveness of public control rather than in the number of elective officers are all advocated with vigor and clearness.

The treatment of the legal status of cities and their relation to the state is unusually accurate and comprehensive for so brief a discussion.

The relation of the cities to their public utilities is said to be the greatest problem in city government, and more than a third of the work is devoted to the consideration of this question. A brief ex- position is made of the legal relation of the public-service com- panies to the government and the legal problems involved. The Philadelphia gas situation is discussed in detail and statistics and other material from the National Civic Federation's report upon public utilities are examined. Street railways in Germany are taken up and the various phases of municipal and private ownership are compared. The author seems to favor municipal ownership where possible, on the ground that the greatest cause of municipal cor- ruption is thereby removed and that it results in giving more atten- tion to the social aspects of public service.