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Show COMMUNITY LIFE IN THE NEW ERA CITY GOVERNMENT (By E. A. Mitchell) In a discussion of the various organizations or factors that compose a community, the city commission or council naturally comes first, as it is the organization that officially represents all the people. ' . The question of city government is of such vital importance ; and the elements connected with it are so far reaching and intricate, in-tricate, that only a few high spots can be touched in a short article such as this. That the systems and practices heretofore employed have not been satisfactory and creditable, is a fact universally recognized by students and statesmen alike. John Bryce, the great English statesman, referred to our government gov-ernment of cities aa: "The one conspicuous failure of the American Ameri-can People", and Thomas Jefferson expressed the belief that the final test of democracy would come in the cities. . . . ; One fundamental error, as it seems to me. I wish to call attention atten-tion to in this article. In doing so no special commission or council coun-cil is intended, because the same error has prevailed almost : 11.. t r i-i i.: i: c : 1 , universally. I refer to the negative policy of passing laws simply for restraining evil doing. Negative ideas and actions do not build, rather they destroy or prevent growth. Just why practically all the laws passed by city councils and commissions have been negative and aimed only at restraint is a far reaching question ; but most likely the answer will be found in past conditions. Our national government is founded upon liberty, lib-erty, justice and equality, yet practically all our city laws are aimed at restraint, the opposite of liberty. Autocratic governments are founded upon force, and the only way they can be made secure is by restraining the people, the governed. Under autocratic governments the ruling class have their power, and privilege because of conquest;, they can maintain main-tain it only-by force. That force is always active in the form of suppressive laws, standing armies and suspicious policemen. ' We in our country, founded upon liberty, have patterned our law making in the cities largely from past conditions in autocratic governments founded upon force. During the last decade our national law making bodies have given considerable attention to positive principles and less to negative ones. "Thou shalt not" has been replaced somewhat by "We will". Laws for encouragement and for helpfulness have been made, such as the Reclamation Laws and the Farm Loan Law. In the New Era the same spirit must necessarily prevail in our cities. Laws for the encouragement of right doing as well as for restraining evil doing must be enacted. Our whole people has a gigantic job to handle. To finish it will require the best that all can do. The laws as well as every-. every-. hing else, must be positive, encouraging, and helpful. When we have tinished our task of turning our industrial machinery into war machinery ; and when we have won the war we will be facing another problem just as great a3 the one which now confronts us. That will be the problem of reconstruction. Men by the thousands, who have offered all they had and all hey were for the great cause- will be streaming back. Many will be maimed and broken. Will the laws be made to restrain or will they aim to encourage? Those men will have to be assimilated back into our industrial, agricultural and community life, fortunes will have to be retrieved, industry must be readjusted. The New Era is here. Let encouragement and helpfulness be the slogan. Let discouragement and restraint pass away with the old order. Let all classes and all factions forge their differences. Let them all remember always that they are brothers and Americans. Ameri-cans. Let them all meet in our community club, the Commercial Club, and give their best thoughts and efforts to positive helpful, encouraging, constructive and united action. Let the slogan of law makers be, encourage the right, and there will be less wrong to restrain. . |