Sterne, Simon. “The Greathead Underground Electric Railway.” Forum, August, 1891, vol. 11, p. 683.
Thompson, Clifford. “Waste by Fire.” Forum, September, 1886, vol. 2, pp. 27-39.
Warner, Amos G. “The New Municipal Lodging-House in Washington.” Charities Review, March, 1893.
7. PARTICULAR CITIES.
The municipal reports of American cities form the original material for a study of their government. Many of the papers already cited, especially the Johns Hopkins Studies, relate to particular cities, but have been given above because of their more or less general application. New York is taken as a type of our large cities and a few notes are added upon other cities.
a. New York.
For a brief account of the system of Government, see the article on “New York,” by E. L. Godkin in the Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th ed., vol. 17. Dr. J. F. Jameson’s “Origin and Development of the Municipal Government of New York City,” Magazine of American History, May and September, 1882, gives a sketch of municipal government down to 1821. A portion of each volume of the Manual of the Corporation (28 v., 1841-71), after that for 1846, is devoted to a history of the city. The volume for 1868 contains a reprint of old charters. The fact that James Parton in October, 1869, North American Review, vol. 103, p. 413, attributed the growing evils in the government of the city to the abolition of household suffrage, is interesting in connection with the recommendation of the Commission of 1877. See also in the North American Review, “The Judiciary of New York,” July, 1867, vol. 105, p. 148, and Charles Nordhoff’s “Misgovernment of New York,” October, 1871, vol. 113, p. 321. An account of the Tweed ring may also be found in the North American Review, in a series of articles by C. F. Wingate, entitled “An Episode in Municipal Government,” beginning in the number for October, 1874, and ending in the number for October, 1876. On the same subject cf. A. H. Green’s “Three Years’ Struggle with Municipal Misrule in New York City, a Report made by the Comptroller to the Board of Aldermen,” February 18, 1875, and S. J. Tilden’s “Municipal Corruption,” Law Magazine and Review, N. S. vol. 2, p. 525, London, 1873. See also Geo. H. Andrews’s Twelve Letters on the Future of New York, N. Y., 1877. The entire second volume of the Statutes of New York for 1882 is devoted to the present charter of the City of New York, or the “Consolidated Act,” as it is called. The Investigation of the Department of Public Works in 1884 was printed in Senate Doc. No. 57, 1884; and the investigation by the committee, of which Theodore Roosevelt was chairman, was reported in Assembly Docs. Nos. 125, 153, and 172, 1884. The Report of the Investigation of the New York Consolidated Gas Company forms Senate Doc. No. 47, 1886. The committee found that in 1883 the gas trust declared dividends of from 23 to 33 per cent. A pamphlet by Wm. M. Ivins on “The Municipal Debt and Sinking Fund of the City of New York” contained an argument on hearing before the Governor, June 2, 1885, and an historical review of the funded debt and of the operation of the sinking-fund since its foundation. Of recent articles on cost and methods of elections cf. W. M. Ivins’s articles cited above; Theodore Roosevelt’s “Machine Politics in New York City” in the Century, November, 1886, vol. 33, p. 74; E. S. Nadal’s “The New York Aldermen” in the Forum, September, 1886, vol. 2, pp. 49-59; Howard Crosby’s “Letter to the People of New York” in the Forum, December, 1886, vol. 2, pp. 420-28; J. B. Bishop’s “Money in City Elections,” an address read before the Commonwealth Club in New York, March 21, 1887, reported in the Evening Post and printed separately; the same writer’s “The Law and the Ballot,” Scribner’s Magazine, February, 1888, vol. 3, p. 194; and the Nation, vol. 44, pp. 180 and 204; A. C. Bernheim’s “Party Organizations and their Nomination to Public Office in New York City” in the Political Science Quarterly, March, 1888, vol. 3, pp. 97-122, and the same writer on “The Ballot in New York” in the Political Science Quarterly, March, 1889, vol. 4, pp. 130-52; and Dr. Shaw’s “Municipal Problems of New York and London” in the Review of Reviews, April, 1892, vol. 5, p. 282.
b. Other American Cities.
Boston.—Report of the Commission on the City Charter and Two Minority Reports (Docs. 120, 146, and 147, 1884). The first Report contains an outline of the municipal governments of New York, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Baltimore, St. Louis, and Chicago.
Philadelphia.—Johns Hopkins Studies cited above; E. V. Smalley’s article on the “Committee of 100” in the Century, July, 1883, vol. 4, p. 395; Publications of the Philadelphia Social Science Association for 1876 and 1877, on the subject of building associations; Henry C. Lea had a “Letter to the People of Philadelphia” in the Forum, January, 1887, vol. 2, pp. 532-8. The reform charter or the “Bullitt Bill,” which went into effect April, 1887, is said to be a model municipal constitution.