Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/765

 A NEGLECTED PRINCIPLE IN CIVIC REFORM 749

seem best adapted to appeal to the hard sense of the people. It may seem to be following the line of least resistance to base an appeal for a compromise with our inherited extreme of indi- vidualism upon the most immediate and pressing interests of that individualism. It proceeds upon the theory that a people essentially selfish and egoistic can only be induced to extend the sphere of collective activity where the inducements can be set forth in terms of dollars and cents. It may be argued that the considerations which move our industrially disposed people are not soulful, but pecuniary. So it is probably a question of prac- tical politics which determines the policy of radical municipal reformers. They are not carrying out a propaganda for a Utopia which may or may not be realized in the distant future. They are after results, and their program is meant to appeal to the present sense of the community ; it is a program designed for immediate adoption. The term "radicalism" is fastened upon municipal reformers by their enemies. They would have them- selves called progressivists as opposed to reactionary conserva- tives. They desire only to facilitate a healthy movement of evolution; they are the farthest from being intentional revolu- tionists ; above all they want to be considered men of practical sense. Hence they present programs designed to meet with the favor of hard-headed, practical men, who are the slaves neither of individualist economic theory nor of the conservative instinct. However practical and level-headed have been the designers of municipal programs, and with however much of cautious deliberation they have been worked out, it may be said that the results of their endeavors are almost despairingly meager. The water service has become to some extent municipal. A very few cities have made a start in municipal lighting. Franchise- holders are sometimes curbed in their power of exactions. Street-car and other franchises are sometimes made to pay a partial equivalent for the privileges which they enjoy. Almost an inappreciable start has been made in the direction of public restraint over municipal monopolies ; still less has been the move- ment in the direction of positive municipal control and owner- ship. Almost nothing has been done in the direction of