Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/563

 A YEAR'S MUNICIPAL DEVELOPMENT 549

his acceptance said : " If Dr. Gladden can find time to go into the council, there is no excuse that will suffice to release any man."

The election of Professor Samuel E. Sparling, of the Univer- sity of Wisconsin, to the Madison board of aldermen, and that of Rev. Norman Fox, D.D., to be mayor of Morristown, N. J., teach the same lessons. When voters will elect such men to office, and when such men will accept office, the solution of the municipal problem is not a hopeless one.

The Philadelphia Municipal League won a notable victory in February by electing four of its magisterial candidates over those chosen by the machine. In Rochester the Good Government Club has secured and held a position as a balance of power, to the manifest advantage of the city's best interest. Troy, N. Y., has witnessed the overthrow of the ring's candidates in face of twenty-five years' control. Comptroller Coler has increased his hold upon the confidence of his constituents, and has proved a thorn in the side of those whose interests were inimical to the city's. Boston defeated by a decisive vote an attempt of the street-railway company to reimpose surface tracks on Tremont street, after the expenditure of millions in the construction of the subway. The good-government organizations of Detroit and Cleveland have successfully continued their much-needed work of discrimination between candidates.

There are many other points which of right should be touched upon in this report, but the year's development has been so extended and varied, the movement has grown so vigorously, and the agencies for betterment multiplied so rapidly, that it is simply out of the question to touch more than a few phases, and those but generally. This, however, we must all agree, affords ground for encouragement and reasonable hope, and amply justifies the continuation and extension of the work for which organizations like the National Municipal League stand.

CLINTON ROGERS WOODRUFF. PHILADELPHIA, PA.