careful computation shows that, after the debt is paid, they can reduce their taxes very greatly, and if finally the plant shall continue to improve and the city to grow, they may be able to eliminate most of their taxes from the income of those two plants. Now that is an extraordinary statement but many believe it and their figures would tend to show it.

At Los Angeles not very long ago, according to a clipping sent me by Mr. Woodruff, the city was bonded, I think, for three millions and a half in order to contruct a power plant in connection with their aqueduct, which at the outset would supply 40,000 horse-power. This power could be leased for a sufficient amount to pay the interest, pay the sinking fund, and finally to liquidate the debt, while leaving the other use of the water as clear gain for the city. We certainly are getting ahead, there is no doubt about it. And probably it is better that the smaller towns should do these things first, before the larger cities.

We must not try to grow too fast. There should be first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. But the problem of municipal ownership is practical, it is workable. In our present communities we are developing a sagacity which will enable us to do it adequately. These municipal-ownership investments are made upon the same basis as those of the financier who invests in a street railroad, and regards is as one of the very best investments that can be made, even though it may pay at the outset only a small rate of interest. That is what induces these magnates of finance to invest in the water-power in the Far West, knowing that that power in its adaptation to purposes of electricity constantly increases in value. That increase in value ought to belong to the people-to the people of the municipality in the one case and to the people of the nation at large in the other case. Municipal ownership may be just as much a part of the problem of conservation as national ownership.

There is another thing that cannot be measured, perhaps, in dollars and cents and that is the conservation of the advantages

of nature for the purpose of scenic beauty. A Scenic Beauty very remarkable decision has been recently rendered by a Circuit Court of the United States in Colorado. It was first referred to in the New York Tribune; you will find a

copy of the reference to it in this week's Outlook. It appears that a city there had, close by, a little canyon and in the canyon there was a water-fall, and as the water fell the spray watered the trees, and there was a beautiful spot which was used by the people of the city as a park and a place of refreshment. And now a water company proposed to divert that, and according to the constitution of Colorado it had a right to take any unappropriated stream and use it for a purpose that was beneficial to the public. But an injunction was brought by the city in order to keep the beauty and natural advantages of the city park and the court upheld the injunction, holding that the stream was already appropriated for a beneficial purpose. The judge said: "Is there no benefit in health? Is there no benefit in rest and refreshment?" And he decided that there was a property value to the city in the beauty of its park when thus maintained. Now it is a good thing for our courts to declare that there is a property right in beauty of that kind. In these times when courts are so sacrosanct that even criticism of their action and dissent from their opinion, in a public manner, by a layman, is thought to be entirely wrong and improper, it is particularly gratifying that the property right in beauty is thus recognized, for unfortunately it has been too often the case with our judicial system that property rights are far better protected than human welfare. I come now to another question of conservation, not that kind of conservation which can put so many dollars into the city treasury, but conservation of a far more important character-conservation of human life-of the human body. Every man, during a great portion of his life, at least from 20 years to 65, perhaps before and perhaps long afterwards, is a useful member of society and a productive agent. The first years of life are devoted to nurture, to education, to an investment, and it is the active years of a man's life when he makes the return for such investment. In addition to the higher purposes of human life, the life of every normal, healthy man is of value to the community. Every sort of an industrial or economic or municipal system which by its negligence causes an unnecessary accident to a human life, cutting short that activity, paralyzing it through sick

Conservation of
Human Life

ness or mutilation, is committing a gross waste upon the community-greater than the waste of giving an improvident franchise. Any system of domestic management of a city which permits an epidemic to spread, to take men off, or cripple their days in disease, anything of that kind causes a far greater waste in city assets than even the corrupt administration of which we all complain. That is one of the higher forms of conservation. Bad food, bad air, bad drainage, inadequate hospitals, intemperance, the use of baleful drugs, the abuse of children—all those things make waste in the community

To prevent this waste, state and national legislation are valuable, but most of these things can be wisely controlled by municipal regulations. Proper control of the markets of a city and the abattoirs where animals are slaughtered, proper provisions in regard to air space and ventilation, both in public buildings and in private dwellings, proper sanitary disposal of the sewage and the garbage, strict regulation of the liquor traffic to the discouragement of intemperance, proper control of physicians and apothecaries in regard to the distribution of baleful drugs, suitable control of the milk and water supply of a city, that the children may not contract tuberculosis and other preventable diseases—all these things are necessary features of municipal conservation of far greater importance than mere economy in the administration of the government.

Censervation of
Spiritual Energy

If I were not trespassing a little upon the theme of my successor, the President of our League, I might say that the conservation of spiritual energy is just as important as the conservation of physical energy-conservation, among other things, of that love for one's city which is the source of all municipal well-being. A city by being beneficent and beautiful and great and all that men love, inspires love in the citizens and the love of the citizens makes the city better. The highest kind of patriotism in past days was patriotism for one's city. In the old days of Greece the city was all they had. So in the days of medieval Italy, and what cities rose from their patriotism and from their love! Athens, the light of the world; Florence, that gave the new lamp of learning to mankind; Venice, that led in the commerce of the Middle

Ages-great cities these-and the very highest maxims of patriotism were those of the great philosopher Socrates in regard to the love which was due to the city of Athens, of which he was a citizen. You remember the history. He had been condemned to death; the day was fixed; the sacred vessel had returned from Delos and was already in the offing; his friends told him the way was open to flee and save a life that was so precious to his country, and what was Socrates' answer? Even the sacred text do not contain maxims of patriotism so lofty as those of the Athenian sage. He called attention to all the benefits which were conferred upon the citizens by the city in which they livedthe liberty which allowed them to go elsewhere if they were dissatisfied, the training, the education, the protection; now when it came to demand a return, everything was due, whether it be to go to battle, and fall in slaughter, that must be done, or if the law condemned one to die he must die uncomplainingly, even though the edict were unjust. So disregarding the advice of his friends he took the hemlock with calm and cheerful countenance and sacrificed his life at the command of his city. Now the same feeling ought to animate us. More and more the city becomes part of our lives. Of course, we divide our allegiance. We have the nation, we have the state and we have the city. The Athenian had only one, the Florentine had only one. His devotion perhaps was more complete. But we owe devotion too.

So we have those three kinds of conservation-conservation of property, conservation of men's bodies, conservation of men's souls. More and more intimate becomes the relation of the city to the individual, for with all the complexities of modern civilization we see that it is not so much the independence of the citizen and of the individual as the interdependence between the individual and the city-the municipality and the state going more and more into men's lives. Whatever we may think of the new nationalism, however we may feel as to the centralization of power in the federal government, I think we can have but one view of that new municipalism which shall control and make more intimate the relations of the individual with the immediate community in which he lives.

The New Municipal Idea.

By CLINTON ROGERS WOODRUFF, PHILADELPHIA,

Secretary.

When George McAneny assumed the office of president of the Borough of Manhattan on the 1st day of January last he created a re-organization squad, consisting of George one of the comptroller's expert accountants, McAneny's Work three of the men from the office of the Commissioner of Accounts, three of his own appointees, and two men from the Bureau of Municipal Research. This squad got to work before the end of the first week in January, and for three months gave their undivided attention to the task before them. The first thing done was to amalgamate the various divisions of accounts and supplies that had been operating in separate bureaus. In the city hall offices there were 16 or 17 clerks reproducing on a small scale (for the president's "elbow benefit”) the broader work of the department itself, among them the auditor, who was supposed to be at the head of the entire accounting system. This force was transferred to a central division of audit and accounts, with the auditor as the chief in charge. This resulted in the abolition of three of the separate bureau offices and effected a saving of five men out of the seventeen. The purchasing and other outside business functions were also centralized in the commissioner's office.

To consolidate the bureaus themselves under the administrative direction of the commissioner of public works was the next step. Under the law the commissioner is the deputy of the president and may discharge whatever function is assigned to him by the president. Mr. McAneny's predecessor had used his commissioner as a sort of adjutant, with practically no independent power, bureau chiefs all reporting direct to the president of the borough. Mr. McAneny appointed as commissioner a highly capable young lawyer with no particular political affiliations. He has done admirably. The positions of superintendent of highways and superintendent of sewers, formerly held by Tammany