Civic Federation

“ Such a Civic Centre or nucleus for the co-operation of all societies and agencies, social, moral, intellectual and religious, would stand to the civic authorities much as the spiritual power stands to the State. A federation so constituted would be the Civic Church of the city; and the State without the Church, is the body without the soul. ”

“ The Civic Federation feels there is a possibility of inaugurating a great work, of promoting a better feeling and better relations 38between the employers and the workmen, and thereby removing some of the chief obstacles militating against industrial peace. ”

“ Give the city a proper sphere of local autonomy. Co-ordinate the departments of government, so as to establish responsibility and secure harmonious action. Simplify present city organization without destroying the two branches of government. Introduce new and improving methods, such as non-partisan primaries, civil service, uniform municipal accounting, and publicity of proceedings. Remedy bad social and economic conditions. Arouse civic interest. Do this, and there is no necessity for such a radical and revolutionary change as the universal adoption of a commission form. ”

“ There is, obviously, a definite purpose declared to consecrate the same central section of every township of every State which might be added to the federal system, to the promotion 'of good government and the happiness of mankind,' by the spread of 'religion, morality, and knowledge,' and thus, by a uniformity of local association, to plant in the heart of every community the same sentiments of grateful reverence for the wisdom, forecast, and magnanimous statesmanship of those who framed the institutions for these new States, before the constitution for the old had yet been modelled. ”

“ The National Civil Service Reform League was founded to discuss the subject of civil service reform to the end of winning for it the support of public opinion; to promote the enactment of reform legislation by Congress, by the State legislatures and by municipal governments, and finally to watch the enforcement of civil service laws and to keep the public truthfully informed thereon. For the performance of these duties it is essential that the League should be a non-partisan body ”

“ Associations which devote themselves to public tasks and thereby influence the formation of public opinion (citizens' movements) shall enjoy the special protection of the Constitution as bearers of free social organization, criticism and control. (2) Citizens' movements whose activities extend to the area of a Land or of the Federation shall have the right to present their concerns and to have them dealt with objectively in the competent committees of the People's Chamber or of the Land parliaments. ”

“ From these accumulated considerations, it is evident that the only government which can fully satisfy all the exigencies of the social state is one in which the whole people participate; that any participation, even in the smallest public function, is useful; that the participation should every where be as great as the general degree of improvement of the community will allow; and that nothing less can be ultimately desirable than the admission of all to a share in the sovereign power of the state. ”

“ Of course every new province into which Congress has been allured by the principle of implied powers has required for its administration a greater or less enlargement of the national civil service, which now, through its hundred thousand officers, carries into every community of the land a sense of federal power, as the power of powers, and fixes the federal authority, as it were, in the very habits of society. ”

“ But the Federal government of a democracy must be advised by the constituency which is most interested in its action. Offices must be filled; protections and guaranties, both civil and military, must be furnished, according to the necessity and preferences of the people for whose benefit chiefly they are designed. In our own country at present it is comparatively easy to learn what these requirements are. Our people are accustomed to deliberate upon political measures, and know how to convey the fair result of their deliberations to the understanding of the central government. ”

“ If a public improvement is agreed upon, the districts and communities interested, make an appropriation of necessary material and labor, and the work is pushed forward. In all things this great council is advisory in its character and the executive committee only takes such action as the people have agreed upon, and when any matter has been agreed upon the executive power acts at once without question. The will of the people is the law which no one ever assumes to question. ”

“ We do not give a part to one group and a part to another, but we give our whole to each and the whole remains for every other relation. Life escapes its classifications and this is what some of the writers on group organization do not seem to understand. This secret of the spirit is the power of the federal principle. True federation multiplies each individual. We have thought that federal government consisted of mechanical, artificial, external forms, but really it is the spirit which liveth and giveth life. ”

“ Enlarge the spheres where the first civic attachments are formed; and let the community interest, so close to the individual interest, so flexible under the influence of men on credit, when its means are weak and its object too limited, come closer to the public spirit by acquiring more power and elevation. ”

“ The Federationists, with devilish skill, had hired the Bursley Town Silver Prize Band, an organization of terrific respectability, and had set it to march playing through the town followed by wagonettes crammed with children, who sang:
Vote, vote, vote for Federation, Don’t be stupid, old and slow, We are sure that it will be Good for the communitie, So vote, vote, vote, and make it go. ”

“ The Conference was attended by delegates from all parts of the country, appointed by congressmen, governors, mayors, municipal and political reform bodies, and representing all shades of political opinion. "It is the purpose of the Political Reform Department to teach practical politics, and especially to organize the young men of the country and induce them to participate actively, through their respective party organizations, in governmental affairs--Federal, State and municipal." {616} SOCIAL BETTERMENT: A. D. 1904-1909. The American Civic Association. ”

“ We need to improve democratic institutions, enrich the forms of democracy, expand its channels, and carry out democratic elections, decision-making, administration and oversight in accordance with the law. We will improve the mechanisms of self-governance by the people at the community level and expand the scope of community-level self-governance, improve the system for community-level democratic administration and ensure that the people directly exercise their democratic rights and administer community-level public affairs and public programs in accordance with the law. ”

“ I hope to see the time when there will be community centers and regular assemblies, not for amusement but for serious discussion, serious thought, and earnest coöperation in the affairs of the city, State, and Nation. There is so much complaint in these days that it would be of great value at these assemblies to allow every person who has a grievance against the government or any branch of the government to present it for discussion. ”

“ Whether a further withdrawal of the offices from politics will prove to be possible, depends upon circumstances. Practically we may omit the supposition that a modern democracy could exist without parties; it may be possible, but it is a condition which lies far in the future. Under existing conditions the possibility of a complete civil service reform, as generally understood, depends upon whether our parties can be convinced that they can exist without their present elaborate organizations, or can maintain these organizations without the cohesive power of the public offices. ”

“ Being disappointed in their expectations, the minority in the administration and all worthy citizens of this State, whose minds are well informd regreting the peculiarities of their Situation place their fullest confidence in the wisdom & moderation of the national council, and indulge the warmest hopes of being favorably consider’d in their deliberations. From these deliberations they anticipate a political System which must finally be adopted & from which will result the Safety, the honour, & the happiness of the United States. ”

“ It is needless to catalogue the other types of membership, but it should be noted that in all departments of effort which the Federation has undertaken, the active partnership of the commercial element with politics, law, philanthropy, education and morals, has insured the plans adopted against the admixture of Utopianism which has so often proved fatal in similar enterprises. The organization is not only professionally, but geographically and socially municipal in the widest sense ”

“ To effect reforms we have not first to labor at the gigantic task of affecting national opinion and securing the majorities necessary for national action. In any district a hundred or two hundred men can at any time form co-operative societies for production, purchase, sale, or credit, and can link themselves by federation with other organizations like their own to secure greater strength and economic efficiency. ”

“ Municipal reform. — Instead of "going into politics," the Alliance will aim through this committee to separate municipal elections from state and national politics. It will insist on the official fitness of candidates, oppose incompetent and corrupt men, and sustain the constituted authorities in a faithful administration of the public service. 11. Civic improvements.—Most cities in the United States are in need of public baths and lavatories. Many young and growing cities neglect to make adequate provision for parks until it is too late. ”

“ Free, because land is free, when he joins a community he will enter into social relations with its citizens by contract. He will legislate (form contracts) with the rest of his immediate community in person. Every community, in all that relates peculiarly to itself, will be self-governing. Where one community shall have natural political bonds with another, or in any respect form with several others a greater community, the circumscription affected will legislate through central committees and a direct vote of the citizenship. Executives and other officials will be but stewards. ”

“ For the convenient exercise of political power, as well as for the purposes of government generally, the territory of a state is divided into districts of small extent. It has been remarked, that the people of a state, being too numerous to meet in one assembly to make laws and transact the public business, elect a small number to represent them. But to elect these representatives and other officers, and to adopt the constitution, or fundamental law of the state, are political duties, which must be performed by the people in person, and in a collective capacity. ”

“ Committees will look after both indoor and outdoor amusements from the viewpoints of health and morality. The new federation will act as a clearing house for information gathered by societies working for the same general object, pointing out deficiencies and suggesting plans of work. ”

“ One, the supreme body, should be elected by counties or cities to deal with general interests, taxation, justice, education, the duties and rights of individual citizens as citizens. The other bodies should be elected by the people engaged in particular occupations to control the policy of the State institutions created to foster particular interests. The average man will elect people to his mind whose deliberations will be in a sphere where the ideas of the average man ought to be heard and must be respected. ”

“ A third underlying motive for community organization, which is just coming to receive recognition, is the need of defending the interests of the local community against the domination of national or state organizations, of maintaining a necessary degree of local autonomy. All organizations which become associated in state or national federations inevitably develop a central administration which [Pg 214] tends to become more or less of a hierarchy or bureaucracy. The national organization seeks to achieve its special objects and to emphasize their supreme importance. ”

“ It has already become a more efficient force in legislation than it ever was before. We may well hope that it will draw more and more of those who love and seek to help their fellow-men into that legislative and administrative work whose opportunities for grappling with economic and social problems become every day greater.
Here in America I am told in nearly every city I visit that the young men are more and more caring for and bestirring themselves to discharge their civic duties. ”

“ In that sense, the principles of federalism and democracy are interlinked and work together in synergy to secure to all citizens justice, liberty, equality and dignity and to promote fraternity among them. The people’s choice of government is linked with the capability of that government to make decisions for their welfare. ”

“ The Federal Council is and is meant to be the speaking-tube by which the voice of the separate interests shall reach the ear of the legislator. But all the same, held together as it is by the firm stability of the seventeen votes which it holds itself and by the balancing power of the emperor and of the diet, it is the place where daily habit educates the representatives of the individual states to see that by furthering the welfare of the common fatherland they take the best means of furthering their own local interests. ”

“ Instead of a loosely knit federation, therefore, which might have fallen to pieces at the first serious strain, it was resolved to bring the central legislature into close contact at many points with the individual citizen, and thus raise the new state to the dignity of a nation. ”