St. Louis Post-Dispatch
June 22, 1913

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—_—=— Prey Gk =) Ree We he Se Ft ae tet AAO oe phe: Ft Seats haste + Bacon 66. NO. 306. Making Democracy Certain by Means of a City Charter Expert Frank Putnam shows how European communities excel American in co-operative features of benefit to the mass- es, even to the extent of a tax on land increments. Written for the Post-Dispatch By FRANK PUTNAM, Author of ‘‘City Government in Europe.’’ HB essential distinction between city gov- ernment in Hurope and in America is one of spirit, more than of form. Indeed, it is the spirit of a city government, and not the form of its organization, which is most important to the people whom it represents. In Burope, especially in Northern Europe, the pirit of city government is co-operative and dem- ecratic; in America the spirit of city government is individualistic; limited by the Jeffersonian axi- om that the country (or city) is governed best which is governed least. Thus, naturally, American students of city gov- ernment are found insisting more upon the ex- | @ellencies of certain forms of government than -wpon that broad co-operative spirit which char- , @eterizes city governments in Northern Europe. The difference between the European and the American city governments is, I take it, due chiefly if not solely to the difference in age and experience. We shall arrive in due season, with city governments quite as efficient, in all ways, as the best of the German or British city govern- ments. at will be surprising if we do not surpass them. HE spirtt—the animating purpose—of the German city government is to safeguard the individual, high or low, in the enjoy- ment of the right to work, of sound health, of immunity for involuntary want due to sickness, accident, disease or old age. German city gov- ernments have learned that, in order to achieve these desirable results, they must have other - sources of income than taxation. Looking about them, they have determined that the public serv- ices, to which:all citizens contribute, and which derive large revenues from such contributions, ought to be owned by the people of the city in common, in order that such revenues may be ap- plied to the general welfare, instead of to the en- richment of a few individuals. Going beyond municipal ownership of public utilities for additional sources of public revenue, these cities have determined to take into the public treasury, in constantly increasing ratio, the enhanced value of city lands privately owned. ‘They argue that since such increase in land values is due not to the separate exertion of the individual owner, but to the joint efforts and presence of all the people of the city, the added value is not a personal but a social or communal creation, and belongs by right not to the indi- vidual owner of the land, but to the community. Thus, the “land increment tax,” as it is called, has come to be levied by all of the German cities, by all of the states comprising the German empire, and by the Imperial Government. This significant recognition of the rights of the humble individual citizens comprising the great mass of the people is, In my opinion, of the very essence of democracy. It is, as we shall see, in - gtartling contrast with the animating spirit of our _ American cities, N OUR cities, public utilities, excepting water 2 | plants and those services which produce no profit in money, are, with very few excep- tions, owned by individuals or small incorporated groups of individuals, not by the communities. Thus in our cities the large revenues derived from “these services to which all citizens contribute are taken by a few, for their enrichment, and not by the public treasury, for the promotion of the “presence of all the citizens, is, like the profits from the public utilities, taken by a minority of pri- vate owners of the land so enhanced {n value. Is. this democratic? Is it just to the majority of individuals whose low earnings prevent them from becoming owners of land, and thus from participating, even slightly, fn the increase of value of city lands socially created? I think not. 3 Apparently we shall need presently to reconsider the meaning of the word “democracy.” Our in- terpretation of. the word, upon which hitherto we have acted, is that democracy means a free- for-all race, in which the wise and the strong and the self-denying shall erherge as winners of prizes, and the unwise, the weak, the self-indulg- ent, shall finish “out of the money,” to borrow “a phrase from the sporting page. DO not attempt to prove this view is out of accord with natural law; obviously it is not. In the jungle, under natural conditions whol- ly unchecked by human. intelligence, the strong ’ and the swift survive and the slow, the weak, the foolish perish—or survive, if at all, only by reason of extraordinary fecundity. They multiply faster | than the destructive forces of nature, the superior ' orders which prey upon’ them, can exterminate them, “I do raise the question, “Do we, as rational be- ' atte amet B rgd Bh glee The , Man That Built the Dam That Stores the ' Water That Turns Pees » Once, when he wired from New York needed a blanket traction franchise, the | Council held a special meeting and gave t franchise, without stopping to ask why t hs | wanted. Then it was discovered that the § law required 30 days’ consideration betore ing a franchise ordinance, The Coun a new ordinance, held it 30 days, | nd ) creed to Cooper the rights. he. pepe < a yg gt tn —\ in ad COO ti reed for the franchise, whatever it 4 1 CE and it was permitted to lapse. Again, the Council appropriated ota \ ne aid in the promotion work. This was and anyone could have stopped it by an ir ne tion, but with the utmost publicity, no ev. Later this promotion money, some one A candidate for Mayor seemed destined to feat until Cooper announced that he quateaiit’ see him elected. He went in by so big a pia ss PE 4 Me Servint iy ; * nS EE: I Stel ¢ —L— Sold to St Louis, 60,000 horsepower, to be supplied be- Ds My J IGOR ApS 5 ag Mag "a es oe ia om ase P Shs s at eth a FIVER STEAMERS PASSING THROUGH ONE OF THE. LOCKS I did was on the financing it. If I had had ex- perience in that line, and had known how hard it was going to be, I would probably never have tackled it. “Before one man would invest, 58 turned me down. I went the pickle people, with their 57 varieties, one better in my canvass for capital. The greater part of the money was raised out- side the United States—in England, France Bel- gium and Canada. “Some of those 58 have since come in, not 6x- actly on the ground floor, either—perhaps you might say, on the second or third story. “Some of them gaid they thought I could do quit bridge building for hydraulics. Jamaica,/the work, but suggested the possibility that I Brasil were his successive fields, and{ might . die. I told them there were dozens of wil sym gpaeaign dlggee pemnallingparmcten engineers who could take up the work wherever those lands that, even now, Balkan workingman is an object of On the Niagara Falls power plant job Cooper a strong, willing ( ft might be left off. T happened, as I have since learned, that the months when I was out promoting this job were the one time, in the whole @ Uking for British capitalists. “They sit etiiivrenr period of may connection’ withthe n- — of success. It seemed hard enough then, but at any other time, [ am now convinced, it would bave been impossible. Why, with the feeling that prevails now, I couldn’t go out today and give }away one-half of this enterprise and borrow what )the other half would cost. But at that particular time, men were willing, after sufficient persua sion and demonstration, to give us what we need- ed. That’s just a little of the psychology of the thing... “Another bit of the psychology of it, as I look back over it, came;in the figuring on the stage of the water that we had to calculate on for our work this last spring. By the figures of the last ol years, we should have expected water this spring, following the high water of 1912. The last twé consecutive seasons of high water were 1881 and 1882. I thought at first it was safe enough to figure the. experience of 81 years against the occurrence of that one year, and was going ahead with low water plans, but one day, out on the job, it came to me that I must cab adie Raced eames: ‘Retie wey came, and if I had stuck to my first idea, there would have been a serious delay *in the work. “The North American people” (James Camp- bell’s name had just: been mentioned) “have taken a broad-minded view of this whole invest- ment. If they had not taken this broad view of it, there would probably have been no Missiesippi River Power Co. today. “It meant not only that they must practically scrap a lot of fine machinery, but also that they must put a lot of money into this power project on their faith in its merits. If it had been a failure, Keokuk couldn't have indemnified them.” Spent His Own $150,000 in | Padvbacs gions the Power. Project. + par aa SIDE OF DAM 1 EAST OF COFFEROAM.. ; rality that, at the next congressional election ran for the House. Cooper made no expr as ag to the congressional election, and the Ma did not succeed in his ambition to go to Wa Friday afternoon I stood beside the dam on the concrete wall of the Government lock, the upper gates sank beneath’ the water to It large excursion steamer from — through. The sole purpose of the crowded Be load was to go through the locks, ae Mississippi’s fall above dam, 28 feet in. by Chief engineering features—Boat lock wide 4 =, enough for two first-class steamers, with | lower gate larger than any one gate in Gatun | 3 miles (by rail 178 miles); north to sat ss ie a _ ~ ay was returned by the power company to the ity