The author is entirely responsible for the statements of fact and of opinion contained in this book, but he gratefully acknowledges the great assistance he has received from the criticisms of Prof. W. B. Munro of Harvard University, Prof. John A. Fairlie of the University of Michigan, Dr. Delos F. Wilcox of New York, and Mr. Charles Richardson and Mr. Clinton Rogers Woodruff of Philadelphia, who read the entire work in manuscript; from Dr. Frederick A. Cleveland of the Bureau of Municipal Research, and Dr. Milo R. Maltbie of the Public Service Commission, New York City, and Dr. W. B. Bailey of Yale University, who examined parts of the book. Messrs. Munro, Fairlie, and Wilcox have placed the author under yet further obligations by reading and criticizing the proofs of the book as it passed through the press. H. E. D. 348978 THE PREFACE HE failure of city government in the United On the contrary it is and it has been due to the failure to apply to city government in America the same democratic principles that, so far as they have been applied, are the cause of good government in state and nation. The nearest approach to a government representative of and accountable to the governed is found in successfully governed cities. This book aims to show that the misgovernment of American cities is due not to the defects of democratic principles (nor to any dissimilarity in the principles of correct city government and the principles of civil government generally), but to an utter failure to apply them; that the successful conduct of city government, the world over, has been in direct proportion to the application of the fundamental principles of democracy, and that the experience of European cities has demonstrated that the complexity of city government is in the variety and magnitude of the interests affected by it and not in the nature of the principles involved. So far as the writer is aware, no book has been written about American city government from this point of view. The following pages aim to show that it is the correct point of view, both as a deduction from sound political philosophy and as a demonstration from the actual municipal experience of Europe and America. New York, January, 1909. |