USA > Massachusetts > Commonwealth history of Massachusetts, colony, province and state, volume 5 > Part 8
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MASSACHUSETTS-COMMISSION ON THE NECESSARIES OF LIFE .- Report (Boston, 1929)-House document 1074. A special commission, under Chapter 263 of the Acts of 1927.
MASSACHUSETTS-COMMISSION ON ECONOMY AND EFFICIENCY .- Functions Organization and Administration of the Departments in the Executive Branch of the State Government (Boston, 1914).
MASSACHUSETTS : CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION, 1917-1919 .- Bulletin, Nos. 1-37 (2 vols., Boston, 1918-1919).
MASSACHUSETTS : CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION, 1917-1919 .- Manual (Boston, 1917).
MASSACHUSETTS-DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS .- Annual Report (Boston, 1920 and later years)-Continues reports of the Industrial Accident Board.
MASSACHUSETTS-DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND INDUSTRIES .- Annual Report on the Statistics of Labor (Boston, 1920-1923)-Earlier reports issued by the Bureau of Statistics. Later reports issued in the Labor Bul- letin of the Division of Statistics.
MASSACHUSETTS-DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND INDUSTRIES-DIVISION OF MINIMUM WAGE .- Report (Boston, 1921-1923)-Continues the reports of the Minimum Wage Commission.
MASSACHUSETTS-DEPARTMENT OF MENTAL DISEASES .- Annual Report (Boston, 1920 and later years)-Continues reports of the Commission on Mental Diseases.
MASSACHUSETTS-DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH .- Annual Report (Bos- ton, 1915 and later years)-Continues reports by the State Board of Health.
MASSACHUSETTS-DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH .- "History of the State Board of Health" (The Commonwealth, 1919, Vol. VI, pp. 271- 294).
MASSACHUSETTS-DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY .- Report (Boston, 1920 and later years).
MASSACHUSETTS-DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WELFARE .- Annual Report (Boston, 1920 and later years)-Continues reports of State Board of Charity.
MASSACHUSETTS-DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS .- Recommendations and Requirements Relating to Through Ways (Traffic Bulletin No. 1, Boston, 1928).
MASSACHUSETTS-DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS .- Annual Report (Bos- ton, 1920 and later years)-Public document 54.
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SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
MASSACHUSETTS-GENERAL COURT .- Manual for the Use of the General Court (Boston, 1856 and later)-Published annually through the year 1920, and since published in every odd-numbered year, by the clerks of the senate and house of representatives.
MASSACHUSETTS-GOVERNOR .- [Addresses and messages to the General Court]-Through 1913, the inaugural address was printed with the annual Acts and Resolves; since 1914, it has been published as Senate Document No. 1. Other messages to the General Court may be found in the journals of the senate and of the house of representa- tives.
MASSACHUSETTS-HIGHWAY COMMISSION .- Annual Report (Boston, 1893- 1919)-Since 1920 included in the report of the Department of Public Works.
MASSACHUSETTS-INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENT BOARD .- Annual Report (Boston, 1914 and later years)-Public document 105. Superseded by the Department of Industrial Accidents.
MASSACHUSETTS-MINIMUM WAGE COMMISSION .- Annual Report (Boston, 1914 and later years)-Absorbed by the Department of Labor and Industries.
MASSACHUSETTS LAW QUARTERLY (Boston, Mass. Bar Association, 1915- 1916 and later years)-Reflects much of the legislative, political and judicial history of the Commonwealth.
MASSACHUSETTS-STATE BOARD OF LABOR AND INDUSTRIES .- Annual Report (Boston, 1913 and later years)-Public document 104.
MATTERN, JOHANNES .- The Employment of the Plebiscite in the Deter- mination of Sovereignty. (Johns Hopkins Studies in Historical and Political Science, Series XXXVIII, no. 3, Balto., Johns Hopkins Press, 1920).
OVERHOLSER, WINFRED .- "Psychiatry and the Massachusetts Courts as Now Related" (Journal of Social Forces, 1929, Vol. VIII, pp. 77-90).
PETTIGROVE, FREDERIC GEORGE .- An Account of the Prisons of Massa- chusetts (Boston, 1904).
REINSCH, PAUL SAMUEL .- American Legislatures and Legislative Methods (N. Y., Century, 1913).
SANBORN, FRANK BENJAMIN .- The Public Charities of Massachusetts during the Century Ending January 1, 1876 (Boston, 1876)-A report made under the direction of the Massachusetts Board of State Charities.
WHITTEN, ROBERT HARVEY .- Public Administration in Massachusetts; the Relation of Central to Local Activity (Columbia Studies in History, Economics and Public Law, Vol. VIII, No. 4, N. Y., 1898).
Massachusetts is celebrated for the high quality of its official admin- istrative reports. Complete files of all departmental reports are available in the State Library and other libraries. Current copies may be ob- tained from the public document division of the department of the State secretary in the State House. The secretary, from time to time, publishes a list of available documents.
Reports of special investigating boards and commissions contain volumin- ous material of great value, relating to all phases of State activities, especially during the last forty years. Much of their subject matter up to 1904 is covered in the Index of Economic Material in Documents of the States of the United States, by Adelaide R. Hasse, librarian of the department of public documents of the New York Public Library, pub- lished by the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Since 1895, they have been covered by an excellent card index prepared by Frank W. Cole, in charge of the legislative document room in the State House. The Cole index also covers all opinions rendered to the General Court by the justices of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, beginning with 1895.
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CHAPTER III
BOSTON-THE MUNICIPALITY (1890-1930)
BY ANDREW J. PETERS Former Mayor of Boston
RELATION OF THE STATE TO THE CITY GOVERNMENT OF BOSTON
In many directions, and especially in the taxing power, the State Legislature places restrictions upon the city of Bos- ton. Boston, alone of all the cities of the Commonwealth, is subject to an arbitrary tax limit imposed upon it by the legislature. This arbitrary tax limit is without justification; for the citizens of Boston can, and eventually will, correct any abuses that may exist in their city government. They have at no time been given a complete opportunity to prove their competence to exercise this functional authority, of which they have been deprived by the State. The appropria- tion and expenditure of municipal funds for municipal pur- poses is a purely local function which should lodge entirely in the hands of the citizens, with the other powers under the State-granted charter.
Under the present arrangement, the tax limit for purely municipal purposes, after excluding school and county ex- penditures, is far too small for absolutely necessary expenses. Hence the Mayor must annually appeal to the Legislature for the needed temporary increase in the tax limit for the year. This annual trip to the Legislature wastes much of the May- or's time, and delays the actual passage of the budget by the city council until several months after the time contemplated by the charter of 1909. Without questioning the capacity of the committee and experience of members of the Legisla- ture before whom the plea for an increase in the tax limit must be made, it is obvious that the duly constituted executive officers of the city are better qualified to judge the specific
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STATE CONTROL OF POLICE
needs of the city. If they are not so qualified, the remedy lies in the hands of the voters; as in every other city and town in the State.
In other instances the city authorities are invaded by agencies created by and solely responsible to the state officials. First came the creation of the Metropolitan Sewerage Com- mission in 1899. In 1898 Boston's water system was taken over by the Metropolitan Water Commission. Shortly after, the Metropolitan District Commission was created to care for the system of Metropolitan Parks and their policing. The diversion of these functions to the various Metropolitan commissions might be justified on the ground that they serve other communities besides Boston.
A brief review of the cost to the district of the various Metropolitan Commissions during 1928 shows a total assess- ment on the forty cities and towns concerned of $8,304,000. Of this sum, Boston's share was $4,421,000, or more than fifty-three per cent. On the other hand, this diversion is a strong argument for the unification of the many cities and towns contiguous and adjacent to Boston into one govern- mental body. Such a metropolitan city could demand the return of the control of all these State agencies to the people they serve, to whom they should be responsible.
STATE CONTROL OF POLICE
For some years prior to 1878 control of the Police Depart- ment had been split in an unsatisfactory manner between the Mayor, the City Council and the head of the Police Depart- ment. In 1878 a law authorized the Mayor (with the ap- proval of the City Council) to appoint three police commis- sioners to serve for three years. The commissioners were of necessity under strong political pressure and the plan was not wholly successful. A new law, passed in 1885, gave the Governor authority to appoint three citizens of Boston, from the two principal political parties, as a board of police. From that time on the police were never again responsible to the city authorities, although the city is entirely responsible for the cost of maintenance of the department.
The purpose of this new step was obviously to eliminate
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BOSTON-THE MUNICIPALITY
political influence on the part of the City Council. This was, however, an unfavorable time to take such a step, inasmuch as by the terms of the charter of 1885 the Mayor was given for the first time complete control of department heads. The tendency of later charter revisions has been toward greater centralization of responsibility in the chief executive; but even under these more enlightened conditions, the city has never been given the opportunity to demonstrate its capacity for running the affairs of its police department.
In 1906 the single commissioner form of control was evolved, but the commissioner continued to be a state ap- pointee. In the minds of the informed there is little doubt that, had the Police Commissioner been responsible to the Mayor at the time of the police strike in 1919, much confusion and the consequent loss of life and property might have been avoided.
ANNEXATIONS TO BOSTON (1868-1909)
The first annexation of any contiguous community, after the incorporation of the city, did not occur until 1868, when the town of Roxbury became part of the city. Two years later, in 1870, Dorchester became a part of Boston, and in 1874 Brighton, West Roxbury and Charlestown were ab- sorbed by the greater city. It cannot be said that the city gained anything by any of the annexations except in the case of Charlestown, which controlled the Mystic waterworks. Soon the question of a further water supply was pressing, and they were a distinct asset to Boston.
No further annexations occurred until 1909, when Hyde Park became a part of Boston, much to the benefit of the former. Without exception the districts annexed have been the gainers because of the benefits of improved streets, better sewerage and water systems, and the multiple advantages which the larger city can bestow and which would have been out of reach of the smaller community.
CHARTERS (1822-1885)
Notwithstanding the first charter was granted by the Gen- eral Court to the City of Boston in 1822, sixty-three years
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THE CHARTER OF 1909
elapsed before the citizens fully outgrew the tradition of the town form of government, viz., voters retained a direct con- trol over their government through the medium of the town meeting. Although the first charter provided a Board of Aldermen and a Common Council, those bodies enjoyed only delegated authority; direct control and responsibility re- mained centered in the legislative body.
In 1854 a revised charter was an advance toward the true city form of government as we know it; but not until the adoption of the Charter of 1885 were the executive powers taken from the Council and transferred to the mayor. To be sure, the mayor had nominal authority to appoint all adminis- trative officers; but always subject to the approval of the Board of Aldermen, which proved to be a great weakness.
The charter expressly provided that the City Council should not interfere in any manner with the work of the executive in the way of employing labor, making contracts, purchasing materials, etc., but the members of the council could not be penalized for ignoring the prohibition.
Even after the mayor received a real executive power by the Charter of 1885, interference with the executive branch of the government by the legislature grew rapidly worse. To the two legislative branches were annually elected no less than 87 persons. The result was a very inferior type of legis- lators who could be expected to contribute little but trouble to any form of government.
Matthews, in his valedictory address in 1895, pointed out the evil effects of the existing system, and urged complete revision of the legislative branch, and a change in the dura- tion of service of elective officials. He insisted that the legis- lative branch "should be reconstructed by abolishing the pres- ent bicameral system and substituting a single legislative body." A more responsible class of aspirants for positions in the City Council would appear, if the term of service were longer and the work of legislation restricted to a single body.
THE CHARTER OF 1909
The municipal history of the City of Boston, during the years from 1890 to 1930, is a story of civic experimentation,
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BOSTON-THE MUNICIPALITY
with steady and substantial progress toward the achievement of a sound form of government. That Boston, in company with other large cities in America, has had its share of un- worthy chief executives cannot be construed as a criticism of the form of its government; and today Boston has a govern- mental structure, basically the most sound of any large city in the United States.
Criticism can fairly be made of several features, which are not satisfactory to the believer in the true form of local self- government. Interference by the Commonwealth in matters which should be for purely local decision is habitual. The Police Department, for instance, is headed by the Police Com- missioner, who is appointed by the Governor and solely re- sponsible to him. The School Committee is elected directly by the people, and over its appropriations the Mayor has little control. Nevertheless Boston has a splendid charter, and with a keener appreciation by the electorate of its duty at the polls, the opportunities provided by the Charter for better government can be realized.
The Charter of 1909 was the most radical change in Bos- ton's form of government since it obtained its first charter in 1822. In the many succeeding steps which led up to the adop- tion of that charter, Boston was fortunate to have many citizens who gave unstintedly of their time and energies to bring about much-needed reforms. The man who stood out before all the rest, at that period, in his work for the com- munity, was the Hon. Nathan Matthews; and it is in the year 1890, with his first of four successive one-year terms as mayor, that this chapter opens. At that time the population of Boston was 448,477 according to the Federal census. At the last decennial census in 1920 Boston's population was given as 748,060, or a growth of about 58 per cent in thirty years.
RACE ELEMENTS IN THE POPULATION
In the last forty years, the population of Boston has under- gone very slight changes in its racial composition. In 1890 the native white population was 64.7 per cent of the whole; while thirty years later, (the latest figures available) the per- centage was 65.7 per cent. In 1890 those native whites of
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METROPOLITAN BOSTON
native parentage totalled 30.4 per cent; while in 1920 the percentage dropped to 24.3, a direct reflection of a consider- able immigration during the intervening thirty years. With the restrictions recently imposed on immigration by the Fed- eral Government, Boston should, within the next decade, show a decided increase in the percentage of those of native parent- age.
During the thirty year period, by far the greatest number of immigrants were from Ireland, the 1920 census showing for Boston a foreign born population of Irish birth of 57,011. The same census showed a total of 38,000 of Italian nativity, and the same number of Russian birth; while those of Cana- dian birth, exclusive of French Canadians, totalled more than 40,000.
Boston's population may be considered as cosmopolitan as that of any city in America; and it has as low a rate of il- literacy as any large city in the country, which may rightly be considered a tribute to Boston's school system.
METROPOLITAN BOSTON
Some thirty-one cities and towns surround Boston; from almost any natural viewpoint these form a single community. The population spreading out from the original scattered cen- tres, has expanded and coalesced in many places so that the town boundaries retain little local significance.
This undefined district has one main water supply, one gen- eral park service, a principal sewerage service, each adminis- tered by a single board. All of the foregoing are so-called metropolitan bodies, appointed by state officials and in no way directly responsible to the cities and towns which they serve. The district has one Fire Prevention Commissioner ; and for the City of Boston a Police Commissioner is ap- pointed by the Governor. But this district, having so many vital interests in common, is also subject to a multiplicity of local governing bodies which have little or no communication with each other. It is a cumbrous and complicated arrange- ment which in no way serves the best interests of the district at large, but leaves the officials of the State sovereign in their control. It resembles the condition which obtained in Lon-
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BOSTON-THE MUNICIPALITY
don and New York, before they effected the mergers which have confirmed their positions as the commercial capitals of the world.
At the next federal census in 1930, Boston, the area within the actual physical limits of the city government, will prob- ably show a population of well over 800,000; whereas Boston is really the business centre of a population of 1,800,000 people, all of whom should be now, and eventually will be, united in one governmental unit. Only under such a con- solidation of interests will Boston be presented in the proper light to the world.
Boston as a municipal corporation possesses its powers of self government in the form of a Charter from the Legisla- ture. In tracing out the successive charters and amendments to them, it is not difficult to detect a distrust on the part of the Legislature of the ability of the citizens of Boston to manage their city's affairs for the common good. Whether the rapid influx of a new racial element into the Boston elec- torate, with the consequent increase in Democratic voters, has influenced the actions of Massachusetts Legislatures, which are normally Republican, is a matter of pure conjecture.
CONTROL BY THE COMMONWEALTH
Year after year, mayors of Boston have struggled against attempts by the General Court to deprive Boston of its local control in many ways. Boston is still the only city in the Commonwealth which has had a restraining hand placed on its finances by the legislative branch of the state government, in the form of a tax limit.
In general a city government is the agency for local self- government, with the responsibility for the discharge of muni- cipal duties; and is also charged by the State with the execu- tion of certain duties which are primarily those of the Commonwealth, such as the supervision of elections, the care of the public health and the work of the assessors. Thus a few city departments are partly or wholly concerned with the execution of state laws, while the others are created under the charter-given powers for the discharge of functions purely municipal in character. This general theory has been rec-
75
MAYOR MATTHEWS
ognized by the Commonwealth throughout the State except in the case of Boston. The history of the relationship of the State legislature to the city government of Boston seems to one who has served as a mayor of Boston, a continual effort of the State to usurp Boston's rightful municipal authority. Nevertheless, Boston is no less able to govern itself than any other city in Massachusetts.
MAYOR MATTHEWS (1890-1894)
Nathan Matthews, Jr., Democrat (born 1854, died 1928), served as mayor four successive one-year terms, from 1890 to 1894. No mayor before him, and no mayor since, has probably had such an insight into the organization and func- tions of city government, or has possessed his grasp of municipal finance. He was a natural student of government. To quote from his valedictory address: "Called to the chief magistracy of the city without previous service in the Govern- ment, and believing that the first duty of a public officer charged with the disbursement of millions of dollars of the public money was to search the printed reports of the city Government for accounts that would show the cost from year to year of equipping and maintaining the various departments. I was amazed to discover that there practically were none." In his study of the methods of the various departments, he found similar conditions. As a result of his four years' service as mayor, the present city government has made great advances toward placing the city's business on a plane more nearly approximating that of a well run business corporation.
Matthews, however, had no illusions as to the possibility of a city government being run as a business proposition. Hence, in closing his valedictory, he said : "The theory that the affairs of a city should be managed like those of an ordinary business corporation is attractive and widespread; but it is founded on the fallacy of supposing that a municipality is a business corporation. Municipal corporations are organized not to make money, but to spend it; their object is government, not profit."
Matthews was outspoken in his condemnation of that which to him seemed improper or wrong. He cared nothing for a
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BOSTON-THE MUNICIPALITY
political following. His was not a selfish motive. He was one of the first vigorous advocates of consolidations of over- lapping departments. He was a firm advocate of a longer term of office for the Mayor, and the policy of having depart- ment heads and subordinate officers hold office until resigna- tion or removal, all of which innovations were included in the Charter of 1909.
In 1892, at the suggestion of Mayor Matthews, the City Council passed an ordinance prohibiting city employees from being members of political committees. He opposed the bi- cameral system in the legislative branch of the city govern- ment, and strongly advocated the appointment by the mayor of the election commissioners.
WATER SUPPLY AND SCHOOLS
One of his most important contributions was the develop- ment of the water supply of Boston. The city initiated a municipal water system in 1848; and from time to time addi- tions had been made to the water supply which seemed ade- quate for many years to come. Mayor Matthews appreciated the urgency of a largely increased reserve supply. The General Court finally authorized the State Board of Health to make a thorough inquiry into future sources of water supply, which resulted in the construction of the great Boyl- ston reservoir in Clinton.
Matthews secured the appropriation for the Mechanics Arts High School, opened in 1893.
The outstanding achievement of his service to the city was the promotion of the Tremont Street subway, which was the first underground street railway line in the United States. The diffusion of the subway in America since 1895 is a tribute to Matthews.
MAYORS CURTIS, QUINCY AND HART (1895-1902)
Edwin Upton Curtis, Republican (born 1861, died 1922), served one term as mayor in 1895, following the ideas of his predecessor. Through his efforts the necessary legislation was obtained to authorize a Board of Election Commissioners,
From the Municipal Register for 1903
PATRICK A. COLLINS
Courtesy of Henry Edwards Scott and A. W. Elson and Company
NATHAN MATTHEWS
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MAYOR COLLINS
the members equally divided between the two great political parties, all appointed by the mayor.
Joseph Quincy, Democrat (born 1859, died 1919). A legislative act of 1895 increased the term of mayor to two years. Quincy was the first to be elected for the increased term; and upon the expiration of his first term he was re- elected for a second, retiring from office at the end of 1899. His has been the only family to contribute three sons, all of the same name, to the mayoralty; the second and eleventh mayors of Boston also having borne the name of Josiah Quincy.
Quincy's administration gave impetus to the rapid growth of playgrounds, gymnasia and bathing facilities for the public. It was almost a fetish with him that the poor should have as ample facilities for recreation as the rich. Quincy was an ardent advocate of the management of city departments by unpaid boards. His expenditures of unusual sums to better the condition of less fortunate citizens proved the fallacy of a philanthropic administration.
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