A Municipal Program: Report of a Committee of the National Municipal League, Adopted by the League, November 17, 1899, Together with Explanatory and Other Papers

The National Municipal League, organized in 1894, brought together various urban reform groups across the country, with the result that corrupt local governments were overthrown in cities such as New York in 1894, then in Baltimore in 1895, and Chicago in 1896–97. And so it spread throughout the country until the twentieth century. The municipal program, adopted by unanimous vote at the National Municipal League meeting in Columbus in November 1899, is the logical result of six years of effort. During the Philadelphia Conference on Urban Good Governance, convened in January 1894 at the joint invitation of the City Club of New York and the Philadelphia Municipal League, municipal government students and those interested in its reform was largely hopeless. The papers read at the meeting in Philadelphia set out a state of affairs sufficient to inspire fear in the bravest. However, many thought that a careful study of municipal conditions and frequent exchange of views would not only clear the atmosphere, but could ultimately lead to the adoption of an action plan according to which unification for specific work is possible. Some of the speeches were dedicated to just this. Indeed, there has been a definite proposal for the creation of an organization with the aim of studying American municipal conditions as a precedent for formulating a program of action. This book contains the reports and many other papers of the Committee of the National Municipal League of 1899, together with explanatory and other documents.