Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/550

 536 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

Municipal Association have continued an intelligent interest in the whole subject of municipal improvement. I know of no state where the prospect is more hopeful. Chosen officials of the cities show an intelligent and generous disposition to cooperate with public-spirited citizens, and there exists, I believe, a condi- tion of affairs fruitful of great good to the community.

In Iowa the late legislature authorized the appointment of a municipal-code commission. In Wilmington, Del., the board of trade has continued without abatement its efforts for a new charter. The city solicitors of the Pennsylvania third-class cities have prepared a new act to improve the present system in vogue among them. In Spokane, Wash., a movement for a new charter is contemplated. Mobile, Ala., has succeeded in securing a new one. Portland, Me., will shortly pass upon a charter prepared by an aldermanic commission.

The past year has witnessed the practical application of a new charter in Baltimore. This has been attended by a con- siderable reduction in the rate of taxation (from $2 to $1.67 per $100 of assessed value) and by the reorganization of nearly all branches of the city government. In the fire department, the police force, and the public schools the merit system has been, to a greater or less extent, introduced. Nonpartisan boards have been placed in charge of the schools, charities, and some other branches of the municipal administration, and a very commend- able spirit of economy has been shown by the city council and board of estimates. It is not yet quite clear to outsiders what should be thought of Mayor Hayes. Some of his appointments indeed, we may fairly say the bulk of them have apparently been satisfactory to the local friends of good government, but a few have been severely censured, and he seems to have behaved occasionally in an erratic and arbitrary manner. There seems to be some ground for these complaints, but the general opinion among those best qualified to judge is that Mayor Hayes has done much more than was done by any previous mayor to place the municipal administration on a nonpartisan, business basis, and has fully justified the support accorded him by independent voters at the first election under the new charter. The charter