Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/479

 A MODEL MUNICIPAL DEPARTMENT 461

the grown man or woman engage in any offensive trade, or in the selling of milk and certain kinds of food and drink, they must again obtain a proper license. Finally, at the time of death, a proper burial or transit permit must be issued, and even after death the body of the deceased cannot be moved from its resting- place without the permission of the Board of Health expressed in a disinterment permit.

To be sure, many other departments are also of the greatest importance to the good government of a municipality, but few are as much so as the Department of Health. For what holds true of New York holds true likewise of many another large city, and by their very nature there go with these vast powers a cor- responding responsibility and an unexampled opportunity for dishonest public officials. The good which a board of health may accomplish is unlimited, but at the same time its chances for the extortion of all kinds of blackmail from honest citizens are boundless.

Hence it is that the proper administration of the health of a city becomes of the highest interest and importance. And it was with the hope of gaining some practical knowledge of such sanitary administration, and of the enormous powers necessary to its proper working, that the investigation, of which the present paper forms a brief record, was undertaken. Written by a non- resident, no attempt whatever has been made to compile a cam- paign document ; nevertheless the methods used by Commissioner Lederle during the past sixteen months under the Low adminis- tration, and the splendid results achieved, must naturally speak for themselves. Those results are certainly full of hope for the men who are still struggling to raise their cities from the mire of municipal corruption. And these lines will have fulfilled their purpose if they but serve to convince their readers of the tre- mendous importance of this branch of city administration, and of what may be achieved by a handful of honest, intelligent offi- cials who are working solely in the interests of the public welfare.

Hearty thanks are due to Commissioner Lederle and his sub- ordinate officers for permitting a personal investigation and inspection of the various branches of work carried on by the