woman is a citizen, and gives her the mighty power of the ballot, was the first state in the union to abolish the defiled cup from all railway trains, stations and educational institutions. The order went into effect September 1st, 1899. Similar action has been taken by the states of Mississippi, Michigan, Delaware, Oklahoma, Wisconsin and California. The health boards of twenty other states have recorded their wish to put away this destroyer of health and happiness, but declare that they cannot do so because of the ignorance of the people.

Although the half has not been told, I hope I have said enough to convince my hearers that it is as much criminal carelessness to permit the general use of a public cup as to allow the use of sawdust life-preservers, or the erection of public buildings without fire-escapes. A modern interpretation given to ancient history makes the flea responsible for the downfall of Athens, and points to the mosquito as the greatest debilitating influence in the destruction of the Roman Empire. These insects looked as harmless as the wooden horse of Troy, but like it, they contained what was to do the deadly work. Plague and malaria made the people their prey. In our nation, the drinking cup plays the part of the wooden horse and introduces into one community after another the enemies which maim and kill. How long shall be invite human slaughter?

PROGRESS IN CIVIC BETTERMENT.

DANA W. BARTLETT, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.

It gives me great pleasure this evening to address such a body of representative women for I feel that not only as an organized force, but as individuals, you have all felt the urge to better days, and have labored diligently in the work of creating the Better City. Because of your past record, I feel that you are in harmony with the message of this address on "Progress in Civic Betterment."

"The old order changeth, giving place to the new," but why the need of change in American Municipal life? The facts themselves are the best answer. After a quarter of a century of civic misrule, the slum is found in every city, not alone in the Ghetto, but also in the City Hall, resulting in unnecessary and preventable death and disease and crime, in

graft-inefficiency and the miscarriage of justice. The growth of the city in the last decade has been phenomenal. The rush from the farm has been exceeded in numbers by the rush of aliens from many foreign parts. Many of these new city dwellers left behind them the moral ideals of the simple life and adopted the loose standards of their new environment. The citizens of our American cities became money mad and the greed for gain displaced many of the finer altruistic motives, so that man's inhumanity to man, seemed scarcely worthy of a passing thought. Tenements were built where children were cursed into life, not born. The saloon, the gambling hell and the brothel brought great returns and were therefore counternanced, even though lives were wrecked and characters ruined.

This was the age of combination of capital. The desire to do big business led the newly-formed combines to seek for franchises and unjust discrimination, which could seldom be attained except through venal politicians. This resulted in the coalition of big business with bad business, which was Democratic or Republican as circumstances dictated, and this organization has been known in every city as the Machine under the control of a Boss who was under orders from Big Interests. Politics were thus corrupted in order that fortunes might be made at the expense of the people. This resulted both in the loss of the people's money and in lowering the standard of righteousness, and it also produced industrial inefficiency and disorder; it fostered crime, disease, misery and poverty. "But the old order changeth." A new day dawned when Arnold Toynbee went into the depths of London to seek for the social causes for the evil conditions, when Jane Addams went from her study of art to the practical study of men, consecrating herself to the newer ideals of neighborliness.

In every great city the Settlement brought the rich, the talented, the fortunate ones into touch with their less fortunate neighbors, and the world to them came to be not only a neighborhood but a brotherhood. These were changing times in social thought, in economics, in religion, in education and in politics. A new spirit was moving the hearts of men, something akin to that which moved the mind of the Christ when

He spoke of the Kingdom of God. New recruits were many and the hearts of social workers were encouraged.

In these years many were the efforts to turn the rascals out of office, only to be met by a reversal at the next election because of the lack of organization and the failure to recognize the fact that behind bad politics were the Great Interests whose purpose was to debauch that they might profit thereby. Learning their weakness through defeat, the forces of reform have perfected their organizations and their methods and are working steadily for the good of all. Progress towards Civic Reform has gone along two lines, though both working toward the same end, viz: social and governmental.

The pitiless wail of outcast children called for the remedy of a fearful social condition. The plight of little wage slaves in the mills stirred to action countless thousands. The economic condition which made possible the payment of less than a living wage was recognized as unjust, and the producer of untold evils, by those who had learned to recognize the poor and the alien as brothers of a common Father. Jacob Riis' summons to a ten years war found many recruits. The slum became a laboratory for experiments in social uplift. The demolishing of rookeries in New York made way for the establishment of a park and children's playground. Preventative and constructive work became the order of the day. After a careful analysis of the causes of poverty, it was seen that poverty was largely preventable. That disease, industrial accidents, ignorance, vice, unjust social and economic conditions, were causes which might be liminated or else greatly reduced. This preventative and constructive work took the form of tenement house reform, city planning, war against the white plague. Establishment of playgrounds, baths and comfort stations, prison reform, adult and juvenile probation, child labor laws, juvenile courts, detention homes, vocational schools, pure food laws, safety devices in industry, industrial legislation, etc. You know the rest of the story, for have you not been among the active workers bringing in the better day which means equality of opportunity for every man?

While social workers have been busy discovering social causes for anti-social conditions and applying the remedy as 786149 A

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fast as that remedy was discovered, there were being developed new workers who were intent on securing the tools of Democracy, to the end that the city government might be conducted in the interest of the many rather than the few. They discovered and demonstrated that the city was not a miniature state or nation, but rather that it was a great corporation wherein every citizen was a stockholder and officials were but chosen directors of the corporation subject to recall if the work was not well done. If the people were to rule them there was no longer need for the political boss and the political machine. The abundant literature of exposure revealing graft and incompetence and an insolent disregard for the rights of the common people, made evident to many that human rights were not placed above property rights, nor common interest recognized as greater than special interest. Then began that peaceful revolution which will eventually overthrow the bad and install the good.

The first effort towards the establishment of better municipal government took a non-partisan form in an effort to eliminate partisan politics and thus break the power of the political boss. While this was partially successful in some cities, a more perfect way was developed in what is known as the commission government. Starting in Galveston after the great storm born of the needs of the situation, more fully developed in Des Moines, it has spread to nearly eighty cities and is being considered as a solution of municipal ills in one hundred more. This simplifies municipal government-unifies the city and centers the responsibility -the entire ballot consisting of the names of citizens arranged alphabetically from which five are to be chosen to run all of the affairs of the city as a board of commissioners or directors. These are subject to recall by the people if they prove to be dishonest or incompetent during their time of office. Wards are abolished. The city is considered as a unit and the disgrace of ward politics is at an end. It is only necessary to write to any of the Commission Cities which have tried the plan for a year or more to discover that the results are good and that the people believe that they have established real municipal democracy with the tools in their own hands. The short ballot, the Recall-the Referendum, the Initiative and

the Direct Primary make it almost certain that honest, efficient men will be elected and kept honest and efficient because they are in the hands of the people and not the machine.

The people can now have what they want-A City Plan, The City Beautiful, Clean Streets, Proper Sanitation and Health, Parks, Playgrounds, Proper Housing, Music, Art, Recreation Justice, an opportunity for the poor man as well as the rich. They can secure an adequate income to do the things worth doing by equalizing the burden of taxation and planning for a future income as a private corporation would plan. All cities have not yet reached this ideal form of government and yet every city is awakening to the dangers of the old plan. Various civic organizations are active in pointing the way out. The Bureau of Municipal Research in New York, the Boston Finance Committee, the Merriam Municipal Expenditure Commission of Chicago, the Municipal League of Los Angeles, are examples of organizations which are both exposing the bad end and recommending constructive measures which will be for the best good of the city.

As an example of what can be accomplished in civic reform, when the people are determined to overthrow the machine and run their city without dictation, I wish to refer to Los Angeles, the city which I know best-a city which has determined to have municipal efficiency with democracy. This city, like others, was engrossed in money making and pleasure. The citizens abdicated their rights and allowed big business to organize and bad business and they together with the great political machine. The city was dominated by a boss appointed by the railroad political machine. The first awakening was social. Settlements and clubs and civic organizations inspired the creation of Playgrounds and Recreation Centers, Juvenile Courts, Parental School, George Junior Republic, Housing Commission, Municipal Art Commission, District Nursing, and a score of other helpful agencies. As in other cities the desire to smash the intolerable machine led many of the earnest workers into a non-partisan fight, which was partially successful. Attention was then turned to the securing of tools of democracy and these were obtained by amendment to the Charter. The Recall, Initiative, Referendum and finally the Direct Primary-with ward lines blotted out