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Show NOTED EDITOR SPEAKS AT BONNEVILLE CLUB DINNER Samuel S. McClure Lectures on the Cause of Federal Hostility to Capital; Suggests a Remed'. IN one of tho moat interesting and instructive addrosaes heard in Salt Lake for some time, Sarauol S. McClure, Mc-Clure, editor of McCIuro 's magazine, mag-azine, last night presented to tho members mem-bers of the Bonncvillo club, at their dinner at the Hotel Utah, a number of suggestions for radical changes in the governmental HVBtcm of tho country, especially as applied to municipal government. gov-ernment. Mr. McClure declared with emphasis that tho average municipal government govern-ment in America was grossly inefficient and often corrupt. Laws, ho declared, were made bv incompetent and inexperienced inexpe-rienced lawmakers, poorly ndminittcred bv amateurs, and frequently badly construed con-strued and illy considered y courts. Inefficient government, ho declared, was responsible for tho largo percentage of criminality in America, for the heavy fire losses in this country, lor the large number of accidents ou railroads rail-roads and in factories and for the graft and corruption in public office. Subject of Lecture. Mr. McClure 's subject, was on the cause of the hostility of the government toward capital, and the remedy. The cause, Mr. McClure said, " was inefficient govornment, and the remedy was good government. govern-ment. To get good government in the nation, he said, it was necessary to get good government in the city. With ! excellent city government, he said, good i government in the nation came easily, j The speaker pansed lightly over the I initiative and referendum ss unnecessary, unneces-sary, and characterized tho recall and i particularly tho recall of judges and of ; judicial decisions as absurd and idiotic. Mr. McClure 's ideal of city government govern-ment is that of Germany and of national na-tional government that of England. He 1 said' the election of officers of a city by the people should be limited to that of a city council, a city commission or a board of directors. This board, he declared, should choose the mayor and th; other experts to take charge of the various departments of municipal government. Dinner Is Enjoyable. The dinner was ono of the most enjoyable en-joyable of the four dinners given by rue club since its organization. During the service of the meal a quartette sang beaut if uly the ouartcttc from Rigoletto and 'responded to an encore with the stirring British marching song, ' ' It 's a Long Way to Tipper-ary.? Tipper-ary.? ' E. L. Carpenter, president of the Bonneville club, introduced Herbert K. MacMillan as toastmaster and announced an-nounced that the club would give another an-other dinner in about a month. Mr. Carpenter said he was pleased to say , that when the club was first organized ! the plan had been to give four dinners, 1 but, somewhat unusual in the manage-! manage-! ment of club affairs, the officers of i the club had discovered that they had on hand ample funds for another dinner. din-ner. Following tho next dinner the club will elect officers and mak arrangements ar-rangements for the dinners of the club during 1915. Speaker Is Introduced. Mr. MacMillan in accepting the position po-sition as toastmaster said he wished to complain of the conduct of John Bern, who sat near him during the singing of "It's a Long "Way to Tipperrary. ' He eaid that Mr. Tern, in violation of the neutrality proclamation had made the assertion that ' ' 1 1 was a blamed sight farther to Berlin. 5 In introducing intro-ducing Mr. McClure, the toastmaster referred to the high standard Mr.. Mc-I Mc-I Clure had maintained in the tield of j journalism aud the high ideals for which he stood. j In opening his address Mr. McClure 'referred briefly to the campaign of I McClure's magazine in the exposure of the Standard Oil trust, in exposing the gTaft in the city government in Minneapolis, Min-neapolis, in discussing the general inefficiency in-efficiency of the city governments of America, and in the exposure of the lawlessness in connection with coal mine strikes. Talks of Insufficiency. Referring to the inefficiencv of American city governments he said: The United States hns fifteen times the murder rate of Canada and from tpn to twenty timps the murder rato of the countries of northwestern Europe. Eu-rope. A similar proportfon is maintained main-tained with reference to fins losses and in accidents on railroads, in factories fac-tories and tn roal mines. In investigating the reasons for 111 (treat number of murders, ihc heavy fire losses and the- many distressine; . accidents in America, I have found that in countries where the murders ere few, where the fire losses aro beht and the accidents Infrequent, there Is no hostility between government govern-ment and business: that the corporations corpora-tions and the government lire together, to-gether, working in harmony for tho best Interests of the country. The continued and disastrous hostility hos-tility of the government and business in this country, I am convinced, is due' to the incompetency of lawmakers lawmak-ers and of administrative officers. Where there i very good government there will be no such conflict. Pays Tribute to Germany. In Germany the city, state, national and imperial governments it re thoroughly thor-oughly organized and admlnifd pre.) hy an efficient business corps, anolagous to I ho ndm'mlstrati ve body of our 1 a r ge corpora 1 1 on s in Am e ri ca. Tie -rently we hnd the spectacle of all business being he'd up In this conn-try conn-try while we waited for tho dissolution dissolu-tion of the merger of the T'nion Pacific Pa-cific and the Southern Pacific railroads. rail-roads. In Germany, if tlire were snch a merger and It seemed beneficial benefi-cial to difisolvp it. It would be done according to law nnd under the direction direc-tion of an orgnn of the government. To have Rood government it. is necessary to hnve efficient lawmaker?, lawmak-er?, first-class executives nnd good courts. It is of prime Importance that the people shall be capable of pelf-government. It. is a historical fa ct that out side of tho Teutonic races no people in capable of telf-government. telf-government. It will probably be thousands of years before the Mexicans Mexi-cans are capable of governing them-Kclveft. them-Kclveft. To have good government we should never elect any administrative official. offi-cial. We sh'uild limit tlm election (o a, board of director's. This Is done in praciii-nllv all civilize. countries except ex-cept the PnitPil States. It Ik done with rmUibl-' success In Opnna.nv, Denmark. Norway. Sweden and Kn'g-lnnd. Kn'g-lnnd. Wo should never elect n mayor or ;i Judge, only ;i city council. I,H nip speak of he government of I'rajikfort. Germany, which la tvj-,-cal of the government nf the cities of ncu-thwestci n Europe. 1 select Frankfort because T spent soma months there investigating conditions. Thero the voter only vol es for the member of the city council from tho district in which he lives. There are no nominating conventions, no primaries; pri-maries; tho ballot contains no names. The voter goes to the polling place, writes on the ballot the name of the man whom ho wishes to represent hhs district in the city council and de-ix)siis de-ix)siis his ballot. If no ono receives n majority of the votes cast another ballot is taken after eight days on the two men receiving the highest number of votes cast. Meld Every Six Years. ICIectlons are only held once in six years. Thero are no political parties and the only one voted for Is one candidate for tho city council, who serves for a term of six years. The clt y council elects the ma yor for a twelve-yoar term and selects twelve experts to handle the various phases of the city government, one for the school system, one for the street system, another for the sewer hvs-tem, hvs-tem, another for the finance, another for attorney, and so on. The mayor of Frankfort is nearing the end of bib second twelve-year term. Before ho was brought to Frankfort as mayor ho was the mayor of Hamburg. Ham-burg. In Frankfort there Is no inl-llative, inl-llative, no referendum and no recall. One hmid i ed years ago Genua ny was the battleground of Europe th Belgium of Ivurope. The king of Prussia wns the vassal of Napoleon. The Gernia n Idea of efficient city government originated . with Earon von Stein In Koenigsherg in l.ast Prussia in JfcOS. It was made universal uni-versal soon afterward by imperial decree, de-cree, and to this fact is due largely the growth and development of the German empire. It fs one of the reasons rea-sons why Germany Is to bard to lick. Weakness Pointed Out. A weakness in our government is the frequent election of a multiplicity of officers. Suppose that a. fooiif h legislature and there are that kind should pass a law that, we should , elect the teachers in our public schools and our ballots should con- j tain long lists of Democratic. Republican Re-publican and Progressive school ' teachers for us to choose from. Such a proposal would be as foolish and idiotic as the recall of Judges and judicial decisions. Judges should be appointed for life, or during their good behavior. The secret of the buccess of tli city governments In northwestern Europe and the secret of the success of our corporations is In the extraordinary simplicity of the elective system. Government ia always strong, but it always finds its seat in the strongest organization. Thus we find the seat of national government often In TA'all street, and more often than not in New York City we find the seat of the municipal government in Tammany Tam-many Hall, rather than in the city hall. I regret, to say It, but it seems to me that the function of democracy is to criticise and restrain and not to create. To my mind, the Ideal government gov-ernment Is democracy plus enlightened enlight-ened and able leadership. Pays Compliment to Utah. Since coming to Utah I have had occasion to remark upon the extraordinary extraor-dinary efficiency of the leaders who founded this commonwealth. I talked with a strong, enlightened citizen, a long resident of one of the rural communities com-munities and asked him how he came to be there. He told me he had to be there. He said he had been ordered there. This was an instance of the far-sightedness, of the leadership of the men who founded this community In sending the strong and able citizens citi-zens to different parts of the territory terri-tory to aid in Its development. Democracy Is necessary to good government because It acts as a restraining re-straining Influence. We have today an Illustration of the obsession of a group above democracy who brought on this great conflict. The emperor of Germany Is unable to get a fresn viewpoint. In America and England it is refreshing to note that thero is a frequent change in the chief executive ex-ecutive and men come in from the outside who are In touch with the people. Speaks of Murder Rate. Mr. McClure spoke of the alarm in? murder rate in America and of the incf-fiency incf-fiency of the courts in dealing with criminals. crim-inals. Ife said that he had never seen efficient courts where they were elected by 1 he people. In spaking of the losses by fire he mentioned the Triangle shirt factory fire In New York as typical of the worst phase of A meriean flees. It was due, he said, to the criminal Inefficiency Ineffi-ciency of the New York government. The city government of New York, he said, was just as responsible for the lives of the little girls who perished in the fire as though it bar been an insane and cruel potentate who had ordered them tied to a stake and publicly burned in Union Squaie. Home Rule Touched. Mr. McClure touched on the home rule Question in Ireland as Illustrative of the lengths to which people would go for good government. The question, he said, was an economic one with Ulster. The people of Ulster, he said, had good government in their cities anil they were willing to die rather than lose it. They were prepared pre-pared to light to the end. he declared. In tho north of Ireland ih-a municipal taxes were low, while In tho south they were high, he said. This meant, he declared, de-clared, that the Ulster Protestants of the north bad achieved a better government i than the Catholic Irishmen of the south. and the Ulstermen didn't want to take a j chance on tho inefficiency and possible jobbery that they felt would follow the home rule of Ireland. Mr. McChne declared that the problem of the unemployed In America was a disgrace dis-grace and Lhat tho charity organizations of the country were likewise a disgrace. With good government, he said, the un-1 un-1 employed would be cared for and charitv would prove unneeessa ry. In all fj-er-I many, lie said, there were no tramps. Answered by MacMillan. At the conclusion of tha address Mr. McClure Invited questions and a discus-Kion discus-Kion of the matters h presented. Mr. MacMillan then said that he wished to disagree with Mr. McClure In tho statement state-ment lie hud made that he had never seen efficient courts elected by the people. peo-ple. When Mr. McClure made that statement, Mr. MacMillan so id, he was looking Htraight fnto the eyes of ono of the most efficient Judges on the bench anywhere. There were at the dinner, Mr. MacMillan said, threo Judges Judge M. U. Ritchie. Judge T. D. Uewls mid Judge F. C. Loofbourow who ranked with the very best Judges In the country coun-try and all were elected by tho people. Mr. McClure hastily explained that Vie was speaking In general terms and be meant that In nations where courts were chosen hy the. people Inefficient judges were the rule and efficient ones tho exception. ex-ception. Explanation Is Made. M r. M a c M Ulan sugges t ed to Mr. T-f Clure that it was somewhat unfair, even though popula r, especially since an ex-president ex-president of the United States had popularized popu-larized H. tor speakers to phice the pole biame for the inefficiency In the administration adminis-tration of criminal laws on the courts. The courts, Mr. MacMillan declared, were so hound no by checks and technicalities placed In the lavs bv legislators chosen by the people that they were often puwer- less to act. Mr. McClure unirl he was not biuininc tho couria, but rather the en-tiro en-tiro system of Koveniment for tho con-dii con-dii ion. |