Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 213, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 September 1916 — TROUBLES OF LARGE CITIES [ARTICLE]

TROUBLES OF LARGE CITIES

Land Ownership in Europe Carries Responsibilities That Are Unknown in This Country. In Europe extensive land ownership frequently involves municipalities in unprofitable disputes. A large town owning a parcel of land in a nearby township proposes to build a hospital on It. The project Is not pleasing to the township; its council prepares a building plan for the district, and runs a street through the proposed hospital site. Berlin Itself was, only a few years ago, treated thus by a suburban neighbor. Electoral laws are severe; disenfranchisement Is sweeping in effect. Under the “three class” method of apportioning the voting power, a taxpayer in the “first class” may have thirty times as much voting power as one in the second, and 400 times as much as their “third class” neighbor. Again, municipal governments are business agencies with most liberal charters. They build barracks —in the larger cities the average number of persons housed in one structure runs from Frankfort’s 20 to Berlin’s 77 and these structures are material of a purely speculative business which cannot be regarded as a healthful influence physically or politically in the city’s life. These things and a hundred others of similar nature do not condemn German municipal government any more than the peculiar excellences of the system constitute a condemnation of the British system in which those particular excellences are lacking. But they do bring out the difficulties of government and emphasize the fruitlessness of comparison of systems. —Exchange.