CURRENT MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS.

WILLIAM BENNETT MUNRO.

The city of Boston is considering a proposal to establish an incinerating plant for the disposal of the city's refuse and garbage. During the last ten years the city's wastes have been handled by the New England Sanitary Products Company which has utilized a large portion of the garbage at its reduction plant on Spectacle Island in Boston Harbor. The contract of this Company expires on January 1, 1912, and the Company is not to renew it under existing terms. The city advertised its willingness to make a new contract but received only one tender, that of the Boston Disposal Company, which offered to undertake the work of disposal at a cost to the city of about one quarter of a million dollars per year, the city to do the collecting and to provide a number of receiving stations. This proposal did not seem satisfactory to the city authorities and new bids are being advertised for; but in the meantime the matter of an incineration plant is under consideration. The experience of Boston in this matter discloses what seems to many to be a weakness in the city's new charter. It is stipulated in one of the clauses of this document that all municipal advertising must be confined to the City Record, an official publication issued weekly by the municipality at its expense. This periodical, however, has an extremely limited circulation and city advertisements appearing in it evidently do not reach any considerable constituency. A few months ago the city advertised a lighting contract and only one bidder responded. This was a local concern and it submitted a figure which the city government regarded as being too high.

The National Board of Fire Underwriters has recently issued through its Committee on Fire Prevention a pamphlet on The Desirability of a High Pressure Fire System in the City of Boston. The suggestions advanced in this pamphlet have received careful consideration from the Mayor and the City Council and legislation permitting the city to install a high pressure system has been requested. It is probable that a system covering the business district of the city will be installed during the course of the next few years.

Boston-1915 has published in booklet form a general syllabus of its aims and undertakings. The booklet contains a short history of the organization, a statement of its general and specific aims, a list of its accomplishments since the movement began, a discussion of activities in contemplation, and a summary of the work carried on by its various conferences.

Two interesting publications just issued by the National Municipal League are The Relation of Civil Service Reform to Municipal Reform by the late Carl Schurz, this being a reprint of an address made to the League in 1895, and The Man in the Pigeon-Hole, by John McAuley Palmer. The latter is a humorous discussion of the means by which officers of city government are often kept in control by public service corporations.

A small pamphlet entitled The Practical Operation of the Initiative and Referendum, which contains some interesting tables of figures, has been issued by the City Club of Chicago.

The Bureau of Municipal Research of Philadelphia has published as its first report a discussion of The Weights and Measures Situation in Philadelphia. The report sets forth the results of an elaborate investigation which officers of the Bureau recently undertook and contains a digest of the existing laws and ordinances relating to this department, together with suggestions in the direction of improving the present system.

Delegates from twenty-two New York cities held a meeting in February at Rochester, New York, and arranged to organize the Commission Government Association of New York State. Professor H. C. Fairchild of the University of Rochester was selected as first president. The professed object of the new association is to secure the establishment in all the municipalities of New York State of "a business form of government on thecommission plan."

A Massachusetts Municipal League has recently been organized, the organization meeting held at the Boston City Club in March being attended by the representatives of a dozen or more cities of the Commonwealth. The officers of the League for the present year are as follows: President, J. M. Head, Brookline; First Vice-President,

Professor A. B. Hart, Cambridge; Second Vice-President, L. E. Bennink, Lawrence; Secretary, C. S. Millet, Brockton; Treasurer, A. L. Winship, Melrose.

The University of Oregon has undertaken the creation and maintenance of a Library of Municipal Reform for use not only by its own. students, but by city officials and members of the various municipal organizations of the state. The library will contain official data of all sorts, together wth literature bearing upon every branch of municipal reform.

The third Conference on City Planning will be held on May 15 to 17 at the City Hall in Philadelphia. There are to be seven conference sessions devoted to Harbor and Dock Development, Public Buildings, Streets, Building Regulations, Municipal Real Estate Policies, The Finance of City Planning, and The Problem of Securing City Planning Legislation.

Announcement is made of the first American International Municipal Congress and Exposition, to be held at Chicago from September 18 to 30 next. The Congress will be attended by municipal officials and duly appointed delegates from all the principal cities of America and Europe, and invitations will be extended to the members of all national or state organizations which concern themselves with any branch of civic work or municipal administration. Papers will be presented on different phases of municipal government and there will be a number of special conferences. The exposition will comprise municipal exhibits of every sort and will give particular attention to displays of apparatus and materials used in the various city departments. The affair is to be conducted under the official auspices of the city of Chicago assisted by various local organizations such as the Chicago Association of Commerce, the Citizens' Organization, the City Club, the Civic Federation, and the Industrial Club. The Commissioner General of the Municipal Congress is Hon. John MacVicar of Des Moines, and the General Manager of the exposition is Edward H. Allen of Chicago.

Something on a much smaller scale is being attempted during the present spring months by the city of Toledo, Ohio. This is a municipal exhibit showing the organization and work of the various city departments. An interesting feature of the exhibition is the use of moving

pictures as a means of making clear to citizens the mechanism of such branches as the fire and police departments.

Arrangements have been made at Harvard University for the establishment of a Bureau of Research in Municipal Government. The bureau will be maintained by an annual gift given to the University for the purpose by Messrs. Frank Graham Thomson and Clarke Thomson of Philadelphia, and it is expected that it will be in operation at the opening of the next college year.

A volume on Municipal Chemistry just issued under the general editorship of Dr. Charles Baskerville contains a series of important papers on topics relating to municipal administration. Among these are chapters on "Sanitation" by the general editor; on "Municipal Water Supply" by Dr. C. T. Darlington; on "Food Adulteration" by Dr. H. W. Wiley; on "Street and Road Construction" by A. S. Cushman; on "Street Sanitation" by W. H. Edwards; on "Disposal of City Sewage" by C.-E. A. Winslow; on "The Smoke Problem" by Dr. P. B. Parsons; and on "Parks, Gardens, and Playgrounds" by N. L. Britton. The volume contains over 500 pages and is profusely illustrated.

Other recent books are Shade Trees in Towns and Cities by William Solotaroff (New York; John Wiley & Sons, 1911, 270 pp.); Corruption in American Politics and Life by Professor R. C. Brooks (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1910, 304 pp.); A Digest of Short Ballot Charters by Professor C. A. Beard (New York: 1911); and the second volume by Dr. Delos F. Wilcox's work on Municipal Franchises.

Ten Massachusetts cities have asked the legislature for new charters at its present session. From some of the cities have come alternative plans; but in every case the proposed changes are in the direction of simplifying the present administrative machinery. In addition a general permissive charter has been put forward with the request that the legislature permit its adoption by such cities as may desire.

The Supreme Court of Michigan in a recent decision involving the validity of the Detroit referendum amendment to municipalize the street railways, has held that, under the Home Rule Act of 1909, a city is not permitted to amend its charter piecemeal. This decision

comes as a great disappointment to the progressives of Detroit not only because of its effect upon the pending amendment to facilitate municipal ownership of street railways, but also because it practically nullifies the civil service amendment to the city charter which was passed by a popular referendum last year and under which a commission had already been appointed and organized. A proposal is pending in the present session of the state legislature making possible charter amendment section by section.

A commission in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is at work on a new charter under the Michigan Home Rule Act of 1909. A recent vote on a bond issue to increase the playground space of the city, resulted in favor of the project, and parcels of land are now being purchased for that purpose.

A bill recently introduced in the Ohio Legislature provides that the mayors of cities shall have power to appoint and remove the director of public safety, the director of public service, the auditor, the treasurer, the solicitor, and the heads of the sub-departments of public service and public safety. This considerably extends the mayor's power of appointment and is further significant in that it makes appointive such officers as the auditor and the treasurer.

The city of Columbus maintains a public recreation department with a salaried director. At the same time that this department was established (July, 1910) a commission was created to supervise recreation activities and report plans for the future. With the permission of the Board of Education the commission has maintained four recreation centers in public school buildings and the city has assigned the third floor of the city hall as a civic center. In addition market halls in other sections of the city were utilized for similar purposes. The average weekly attendance at all these centers is between four and five thousand. The activities of the recreation department include, besides one hundred popular free lectures, branch libraries throughout the city, a children's theater, various clubs, regular gymnasium training, etc. In connection with the Plant, Fruit and Flower Guild, the department will conduct during this summer vacation, school gardens in vacant lots. The interest of the city in this work is evidenced by the fact that the council has voted $6,000 for its support during the next six months, and has recently issued $20,000 in bonds