900 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS lighted children the workings of an old hand mill which ground the wheat, there in Cleveland's Public Hall, as it had been ground for centuries in the homes of northeastern E urope. The Ruthenians are Slays, and one branch of them were the original Russians, before the Tartar invasions. The Ukranians are also Rusin or Rather by race, and have somehow managed to preserve their racial integrity and many of their ancient customs, along with their folk music, in spite of centuries of oppressions and vicissitudes. Their skill in handicrafts is remarkable. An oppressed people usually finds some artistic outlet for emotional strain, and the Ukrainians have found theirs in exquisite work with furs, beads, weaving and clock-making. They showed at that time also a metal work somewhat similar in execution to cloisonné. The Ukrainian people are also known as Little Russians. They constitute a Slavonic nation of thirty-five million, as sharply defined as Russians or Poles. They formed a republic in 1917, but this was absorbed by the Bolsheviks. Ukrainians came to Cleveland twenty-five years ago and settled in the southwestern section, around the steel plants. They have twenty-five organizations, fraternal and educational, two churches, one Orthodox and the other Greek Catholic, two choirs, one dancing club, one gymnastic society and two banks. Their National Home is at 2255 West Fourteenth Street. The booth in which the interested observers then stood, however, was not that of the Ukrainians, but of the Resins of Podkarpatska Rus, a region formerly existing as part of Hungary, but now taking its place among the nations as a self-governing state federated with Czechoslovakia. ("Pod-karpatska" means "beneath the Carpathian Mountains"). The old customs, the old costumes, the curious porcelain stove in the corner, were displayed as characteristic of Rusin history. But pains was taken to assure the visitors that as the Rusins came to this country and learned our ways, they took them back to the older land. The modern cooking range displaces the old porcelain affair, the grain is now swiftly THE CITY'S LIFE - 901 ground, labor-saving devices and American clothes appear among the young people. One can only hope that along with this zeal for modernizing improvement, the bridge table will not entirely displace the embroidery frame. The Scotch were also early comers and had their own society, the St. Andrews, in May, 1846. In 1856 they organ-ized the Caledonian Literary Association. Immigration continues, for the 1930 census gives them 12,984 and does not include, of course, the descendants of the early pioneers. The Slovaks have already been mentioned, grouped with the Czechs. Cleveland has the largest Slovene colony in America, estimated at 35,000. This estimate, made by one of the local leaders, appears somewhat high in view of the fact that the Slovenes are the smallest in population among the Yugoslays and the latter number 41,276 in Cleveland. However, the colony is certainly very large and very active. Social activities center about their National Homes, of which there are seven, the largest at 6409 St. Clair Avenue. Their culture runs to song and drama. They have numerous societies, a school, libraries and two banks, also five newspapers, one of them a daily. There are a few Spanish people here. Most of them are employed in the tobacco trades, but the women have not forgotten how to make their fine laces. There is a new interest in the Spanish language and literature growing here since the formation of the Spanish Republic, and an increasing interest also in the Spanish countries of South America. In 1873 two Swedes, Andrew Gustav Anderson and August Jacobson, settled in Newburg Heights, liked it and induced some of their friends to come. The Swedes were skilled artisans and mechanics and found opportunities in the iron and steel industries. There are nearly twice as many Swedes here as there are Danes and Norwegians together. At 2710 Walton Avenue is a Swiss club house with a men and women's chorus, a gymnasium and a dramatic club, 902 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS constituting the center of Swiss life in Cleveland. This club house is owned by eight societies. Most of the Swiss who came to Ohio avoided Cleveland in favor of the dairy lands in Monroe, Tuscarawas, Holmes, Wayne and Stark counties. The bulk of Syrian immigrants started to come to America in 1890, and now there are about a third of a mil-lion of them in the United States, most of them in New England. They control the market in linen and laces. Most of those in Cleveland who are not in those two lines have grocery or fruit stores. A few are in factories or in construction work, and most of them own their homes. Syrian sewer and water main contractors are almost in the majority here. They have three Catholic churches and their homes are widely scattered. Among the Tyrolians there is too strong a love of country to permit much emigration, but there are enough of them in Cleveland to furnish some first class yodeling at The Blue Danube Singing Society, 4118 St. Clair Avenue, and their wood-carving is exquisite. The folk from Ukraine have been mentioned above, grouped with the Rusin people, to whose race they belong. The Welsh came fairly early, probably about 1840. Many Welshmen have come to do skilled labor in the rolling mills of Newburg. They were ambitious for the education of their children, and have merged into local society. Names such as Evans, Hopkins, Williams, Jones, Davis, Reece, indicate their service to Cleveland. They have a home for the aged on Center Ridge Road and number 4,569, according to the census. And how they can sing! From The Plain Dealer's digest of Green's book are here quoted a few more interesting facts : "The percentage of the foreign-born population in Cleveland is 25.5 per cent. Percentage of foreign-born in Lakewood is 13.7; Cleveland Heights, 15 per cent; East Cleveland, 15.4 per cent; Shaker Heights, 12.7 per cent. "Cleveland's population is aging slightly, in comparison with the population of 1910 and 1920. This has been apparent in the increased enrollments in high schools, with a smaller increase in the elementary schools. The gaps in the age groups gradually are being closed up. "Thirty-one thousand, five hundred persons, or 4.2 per cent of Cleveland's population, is illiterate. Percentage of illiteracy ranges THE CITY'S LIFE - 903 from 37 per cent in the highest Cleveland census tract to .01 per cent in a Shaker Heights census tract. "Cleveland families gradually are getting smaller in size, until the average size of the Cleveland family today is 3.7 persons. "43.8 per cent of all the family heads in the city of Cleveland are foreign-born ; 41.1 per cent of the family heads in Greater Cleveland are foreign-born. Shaker Heights has the lowest percentage with 17.8 per cent. "Approximately 15 per cent of the families in the lowest economic scale own radios ; nearly 90 per cent of the families in the highest economic scale own them. There are more radios in Cleveland than telephones, more automobiles than radios. "Nearly 60 per cent of the families in the lowest economic scale live in dwellings, each of which houses three or more families ; less than 10 per cent in the highest economic scale are thus crowded. "25 per cent of the families in the lowest economic scale own their homes ; more than 75 per cent in the highest economic scale. "More than 60 per cent of the people in the lowest economic brackets are illiterate ; less than 1 per cent in the highest economic brackets. "More than 50 per cent of the juvenile delinquency is in the lowest economic group ; less than 5 per cent in the highest economic group. "Infant mortality is more than 100 per 1,000 births in the lowest economic group ; less than 30 per 1,000 in the highest economic group. "Population density is 90 per acre in the lowest economic group ; less than eight per acre in the highest economic group." And so we come to conclude this chapter of the racial streams which flow together to make the strong river of our Cleveland life. It is true that only 27 per cent of us are of the native stock ; but slightly over ten per cent of the popula-tion of the five cities in 1930 were "foreigners" from the British Empire—which raises the 27 per cent of British stock to 37. The stock next in likeness to ourselves is, of course, the Teutonic, with about nine per cent more. Eight per cent are Negroes. More than 25 per cent of our total number are Slavic in race, made up of many different nationalities. The only other large group is that of the Italians, who are about five per cent of us. These add to about 85 per cent, and the other fifteen per cent is pretty thoroughly varied. Slowly the melting pot gets us all. The Polish lad meets a German lass, and once more the Slavic race is modified. The Irish boy is charmed with the Hungarian maiden ; the Celtic-Magyar daughter of that union is a blue-eyed, dark-haired high-spirited American girl. Her grandmother can 904 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS still speak the Magyar tongue, but her mother has forgotten the little she knew in childhood, and she herself knows none of it. All she retains of her ancestry of the Magyar side is an instinctive love for music in the minor mode and a delicate touch with pastries. Our life and institutions have been altered from the dreams of the forefathers by these people of other stocks. Who shall say they have been altered for the worse? Our race is no longer British, but American, forever changed by the introduction of these continental stocks. Who shall call these stocks alien? All of us from all the stocks are Clevelanders here together. What shall we make of the future of our city?— W. C. M. CHAPTER II GOVERNMENT Dante compares his city of Florence to a sick man tossing from side to side upon his bed in an effort to ease his pain: No more apt simile could be found to illustrate the history of Cleveland's political development, from its beginning, in 1802, until the present day. The examination shows a ceaseless groping for a more comfortable position, a constant activity, unintelligent in that the patient has always sought his relief in his bed, and has lost sight of the fact that it is he himself who is ailing and should be treated, not the couch on which he vainly tries to rest. The situation is not peculiar to Cleveland but is common to nearly all American cities, especially in their earlier stages of development. The forefathers, without experience and without a pattern, drafted a constitution for the United States which not only has stood without structural change but has not been subjected to serious attack on its fundamentals. Its nineteen amendments have been the result of needs developed by the advancing years, needs not foreseeable by the founders. The state legislature, generally, adopted the form of the Federal government and carried on without conspicuous departures from their first plans. But neither Federal nor State lawmakers concerned themselves with the task of drafting a uniform code for municipal administration with the result that urban centers were regulated by State laws drawn to meet conditions as they arose,—a situation giving political manipulators an opportunity which they have not neglected. It would not be fair nor in accordance with the facts to charge that corruption in cities is due to instability in their - 905 - 906 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS constitutions, for such corruption can be traced to an entirely different source ; but it is certainly true that the manipulators have found this instability a fertile field for their operations. And it may be mentioned more as an interesting sidelight than a significant parallel that as government in this country is less stable in form, corruption in politics is more evident. Only twice has suspicion pointed to the very high places in the Federal administration, often in state affairs and commonly in municipal governments. In a period of 130 years Cleveland has been subjected to 15 radical changes in her form of government, some of them forced upon her by State legislatures and others of her own choosing. In addition there have been three notable but unsuccessful attempts at change, and several important amendments. The earlier alterations were normal enough when the community was growing from village to city ; but the drastic changes have come in the present century, and all of these have been brought about at the city's instigation. It is exceedingly interesting to trace these movements. With one exception they are unmistakable evidences of a desire on the part of the citizens to ease their civic pain by changing their position on the bed. The exception will be seen as a political strategy, neither pure nor simple. But in no part of a community history, perhaps, can you gain such intimate acquaintance as in an account of its political development. Such an account shows what the people are thinking about and therefore what they are. The very earliest government in the settlement of Cleveland was vested in Major Lorenzo Carter by sheer force of the man's character. He was of fine, athletic physique, energetic, aggressive and dominant. He held large influence over the Indians, who believed him invulnerable, was a skilled hunter and woodsman and was all the "law" the community had, although James Kingsbury was the first legal authority. Governor St. Clair, of Connecticut, had established the county of Trumbull to include all of the Western Reserve, and had appointed a Court of Quarter Sessions, of which Kingsbury was a member. This court designated Amos Spafford as Jus- THE CITY'S LIFE - 907 tice of the Peace for the township of Cleveland, which embraced also the townships of Chester, Russell and Bainbridge and all of the Indian country from the Cuyahoga River to the western line of the Reserve. But when, in August of 1800, the court met in Warren for the first election, Carter and Stephen Gilbert were named constable—more important posts than Spafford's in the estimation of the settlers of Cleveland, and a very large responsibility in fact, since the jurisdiction of these constables covered 2,300 square miles of territory mostly inhabited by Indians. The following year Samuel Huntington came out from New England to build a law practice, was made appraiser of houses, later lieutenant of the militia, and in January of 1802, justice of Quorum. Huntington became state senator from Trumbull County, judge of the Ohio Supreme Court in 1803, and then governor of the state. It is tedious and unimportant to examine closely into the form of government under which the affairs of Cleveland were administered at this time, and sufficient for our purpose to state that Governor St. Clair appointed justices of the peace of the Quorum, who composed the Court of Quarter Sessions, which Court appointed township officers. So the Governor was the final authority, and he held his power in spite of protests until 1802, when townships were allowed the privilege of choosing their own officials and Cleveland held its first election. The inhabitants met at the home of James Kingsbury, April 5, 1802, and chose Rudolphus Edwards, chairman ; Nathaniel Doan, town clerk; Amos Spafford, Timothy Doan and William W. Williams, trustees ; Samuel Hamilton and Elijah Gun, appraisers of houses; Ebenezer Ayres, lister; Samuel Huntington, Nathaniel Doan and Samuel Hamilton, supervisors of highways; William W. Williams and Samuel Huntington, overseers of the poor; Lorenzo Carter and Nathan Chapman, fence viewers; Ezekiel Hawley and Richard Craw, constables. Considering the tiny population, there were no heart-breaks over this election, as everyone with political ambi- 908 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS tions must have been satisfied, including Carter, whose job of "fence viewer," or judge of property lines, was probably as important a post as any. What a plum that job would be today ! The second election was in 1805, after Ohio had been received into the Union as a state. It was held at Kingsbury's home again, in the spring, and was followed by a second election in June, when Amos Spafford and Timothy Doan were elected justices of the peace; and by a third in October, when Benjamin Tappan was elected state senator and David Abbott and Ephraim Quimby, representatives in the general assembly. Carter's name does not appear among those of officeholders in 1803. For one thing he had been indicted for an assault upon James Hamilton, of Newburg, and for another thing an opposition element had appeared which made itself decidedly evident in the election of 1804. Cleveland was allowed to select its own officers for a com-pany of state militia and chose Carter for captain. Imme-diately a row broke out. Eight villagers, among whom was the above James Hamilton, protested that the election pro-ceedings were "illegal and improper" in that persons under eighteen were allowed to vote, also persons not liable to do military duty, but chiefly because : "We also consider the man who is returned as chosen captain ineligible to the office. Firstly—By giving spirituous liquors to the voters previous to the election. Secondly—On account of having frequently threatened to set savages against the inhabitants." Captain Carter held on to his office, and there does not seem to have been any official action on the Charges. But at the next election Carter either withdrew or was dropped, although he was present and acted as one of the judges. The charges are noteworthy here only because they are the first symptom of partisanship in elections, the first instance of the dethronement of a local political power, under charges. Thus Lorenzo Carter takes his place in history as the first of a long list of Clevelanders, a list that has not yet been completed. By a legislative act of February, 1807, the counties of THE CITY'S LIFE - 909 Portage, Ashtabula and Cuyahoga were created, although the present boundaries of Cuyahoga were not defined until 1843. Cleveland was made the county seat. The judicial life of the county dates from May, 1810, when the court of common pleas was organized. In that year Cleveland had a population of only 57, while Cuyahoga County had about 1,500. Cleveland was incorporated as a village by act of legislature December 23, 1814, when there were "thirty-four buildings, one being constructed of brick, and thirty families, including 150 persons." On the first Monday of June, 1815, twelve of the male inhabitants met and, by unanimous vote, chose these officers: President, Alfred Kelley; recorder, Horace Perry; treasurer, Alonzo Carter ; marshal, John A. Ackley; assessors, George Wallace and John Riddle; trustees, Samuel Williamson, David Long and Nathan Perry, Jr. Lorenzo Carter had died in February of 1814, but his son carried on political traditions in the important post of treasurer. The acts of this first village administration and those of the next ten years are scarcely pertinent to the object of this chapter. They were passed to regulate petty internal affairs, such as laying out streets, forbidding the use of firearms, prohibiting the running of swine at large, prescribing permits for the giving of shows, forbidding horse racing. and fast driving and so on. But in 1825 a tax of one-fourth of one per cent was laid on all property, additional to a tax of one-half of one per cent that had been levied in 1816, and in 1828 there was imposed another two mills per dollar. The cost of government was beginning to make itself felt, "Civic consciousness" was aroused by the first lusty protests of the assaulted purse and, when the village trustees appropriated $200 to put the village in proper order, it was earnestly asked "what on earth the trustees could find in the village to spend $200 on." The factors which make up the modern municipal fabric were being assembled : tax rates, desirable political offices, fees for privileges (as shown in the permits granted for 910 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS shows) , outraged taxpayers and, lastly, two newspapers. These were the Gazette and Commercial Register, which ap-peared July 31, 1818, and the Herald, which was first published in October, 1819. By 1835 the village had gained two more essentials in the form of increased population, with its consequent "big business," and was all set to career along. New settlers were coming now in increasing numbers. There was a population of 500 in 1825, 1,975 in 1830, 1,500 in 1832, 1,900 in 1833, 3,323 in 1834 and 5,080 in 1835. The rate of increase in five years, from 1840 to 1845 was 58 per cent ; from 1845 to 1850, 74 per cent, and for the next decade, 109 per cent. A real estate boom was the natural consequence, with its seat in the flats of the Cuyahoga valley, between Cleveland and Brooklyn village. These flat lands were the most fertile of all and the first sought by the early planters. Their value was enhanced with the arrival of the first boat over the new canal, July 4, 1827. Water lots had a higher market value in 1836 than they had three decades later. An organization known as the Buffalo Company had bought out the holdings of the Carter family on the west side of the river in 1831, and Mayor Willey of Cleveland headed a land company operating in "Willeyville," in the flats. Construction of a bridge to divert traffic from the West past Ohio City, and into Cleveland, enraged the west-siders so that they tried to destroy the bridge and brought on the famous "bridge war," the story of which has been told. The episode is mentioned here for its value in gauging the kind of thinking that was being done and the influence of that thinking upon civic development. The course of government ran across that of business, and government backed astern under full power. Not only was real estate booming, but the volume of exchange and shipping was equal to one-fourth of the products of the whole state of Ohio. Land contracts became a kind of circulating medium, passing "from hand to hand, by indorsement, the speculation accruing to each successive holder being realized in cash." Lorenzo Carter in his 1800 character could not have been elected head of the Cleveland government now, THE CITY'S LIFE - 911 for the need of protection against the Indians had been re-placed by need of measures that would most prosper the cause of business. The first Directory, in 1837, says : "Sundry things were done ; sundry hills and streets were graded, to the great satisfaction of some and dissatisfaction of others. Some 6,000 or 8,000 of inhabitants had come to-gether from the four winds; some wished to do more things and some wished to do things better ; and to effect all these objects and a variety of others, no means seemed so proper as a city charter in due form and style." There is the history of Cleveland's political development, told by a master hand in a single paragraph. "Sundry hills (leading down into someone's flats development) and streets (in someone's development) were graded" (to the satisfaction of the land boomers and the dissatisfaction of non-boomers who paid the taxes) . "Some (boomers) wished to do more things and some (non-boomers) wished to do things better" (economize) . So what more logical than a new charter, "in due form and style"? And what more logical candidate for mayor than John W. Willey, of "Willeyville"? So the new charter was asked for and obtained on March 5, 1836, two days after the legislature had passed a similar bill for Ohio City. There might have been a common charter, uniting both cities, but the intense feeling of rivalry brought about by the flats development business made such a union impossible. The new city charter provided for a mayor and council, the council to consist of three members from each ward. As there were three wards in the city, there were nine council-men. Then there were three aldermen, chosen at large, but only one from each ward. At the first election, April 11, 1836, Willey was elected mayor. Besides aldermen and councilmen, the marshal and the treasurer were elected by the people. Four days after the election, the council met. Its first act was to accept the famous Columbus Street bridge as a gift to the city, and its second was to appoint a committee of councilmen to confer with the Philadelphia council concerning the "mutual advantages to be derived from the building of the 912 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS proposed Cleveland and Warren Railroad to Pittsburgh." The council appointed wood inspectors to see to it that each cord of wood sold contained 128 cubic feet, established a fire department, fixed the theater license at $75, ordered the street commissioner to get a ferryboat for river traffic and instructed the marshal to go after the fellows who sold liquor without a license. In later sessions, but in the same year, this council issued charters to the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad and to the Cleveland, Warren and Pittsburgh Railroad. It took enough time out from its business activities to authorize the expenditure of $187.77, to help a day school that was supported by voluntary subscription, but did not establish a public school system. Then, as the end of the first fiscal year (March, 1837) the council wound up by voting $500 to the mayor for his services and one dollar to each councilman for each meeting attended, although no salaries had been authorized by statute or ordinance. The next year the voters reelected Willey, the treas-urer and the marshal, but only four of the nine councilmen. The new council borrowed $50,000 to establish markets and schools. It served in a year of great financial depression during which real estate values were deflated and the business hysteria otherwise quelled, but out of which the city emerged chastened and strengthened. Joshua A. Mills was mayor in 1838. The city budget called for $16,745, with $4,500 to be collected from licenses and accounts receivable, leaving $12,265 to be raised by tax levy. Not bad for a city of more than 5,000. Mills was reelected in 1839 and was followed by Nicholas Dockstader in 1840. In the latter's administration the salary of the mayor was fixed at $100 ; marshal, $300 ; clerk, $400; street supervisor, $400; treasurer, $200 ; clerk of the market, $100. John W. Allen was mayor in 1841, Joshua Mills again in 1842 ; Nelson Hayward in 1843 and Samuel Starkweather in 1844 and 1845. Somewhere in this period there was a transition from a merchandising community to an industrial one. The first THE CITY'S LIFE - 913 settlers were the best blood of the nation, sturdy, young and ambitious. They were poor and remained so through the first thirty years, then suddenly became prosperous through the coming of the canal and other causes. From this period on, the influence of business upon government and its development is strikingly clear. In 1843 a petition was circulated to repeal the city charter because, first it was very expensive and increased taxes ; second, the city could be governed as well by town officers; third, "those who govern by making the city officers pay little or no taxes and have nothing to lose would retain the present organization." No action resulted, and the next eight years passed peacefully under the administrations of George Hoadley, Josiah A. Harris, Lorenzo A. Kelsey and William Case—a period in which railroad development was aided, banks were started, the Cleveland Gas Light and Coke Company was incorporated to light the city streets and the first telegram was received through the line of the Lake Erie Telegraph Company. Throughout the first half-century the state legislature had nursed the villages and cities to the best of its ability and had, wisely, administered to each the medicine and nourishment which seemed best suited. Whatever dangers there were in such a practice, particularly the likelihood that special favors would be shown in the granting of corporate charters, appeared more as a threat for the future than as a present reality. But the threat was vivid enough to cause the framers of the new state constitution of 1851 to provide that: "The General Assembly shall pass no special acts con-ferring corporate powers" and "all laws of a special nature shall have a uniform operation throughout the state." This legislation placed all cities in the same strait-jacket, regardless of size. The act was changed in 1852 to provide two classes ; those of less than 20,000 and those of over 20,000 population, the state to pass laws for each class as the needs arose. Abner C. Brownell was mayor when the new constitution went into force and found his powers much shortened. There 914 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS was a police judge now, no aldermen, and all these officers were elected by the voters; two trustees from each of the four wards, prosecuting attorney, three directors of the infirmary, three commissioners of streets, marshal, auditor, treasurer, solicitor, chief engineer of the fire department, harbor master, sexton, superintendent of markets, sealer, weigher, civil engineer, five constables and three commissioners of water-works. However unwise may have been this decentralization of authority, the voters chose wisely, especially their water commissioners. These deserve a place in history along with the most illustrious, and here are their names : Henry B. Payne, B. L. Spangler and Richard Hilliard. The estimated cost of the new waterworks was $436,698.40 and the work was actually done for less than $400,000. The waterworks were built on the west side and played their part in political development, in addition to the luster they shed upon financial history in the performances of the commissioners. The annexation of Ohio City had been voted down on October 14, 1851. But sanitation and protection against fire made it necessary for either or both cities to do something, and Cleveland moved first. The bond issue was passed and work was started in August, 1854. But Ohio City saw the light in April and voted for annexation, 618 for and 258 against. The vote in Cleveland was 1,892 for and 400 against. The new council had twenty-two members, representing eleven wards, and was the first to sit in the new council hall on the southwest corner of the Public Square. This was a good administration, and so were the succeeding ones of the next forty years. Mayor William B. Castle was able to announce April 14, 1857, that the city's debt had been diminished by $19,900 and that the tax rates were reduced. Samuel Starkweather was elected, for the second time, to suc-ceed Castle, and then came George B. Senter, Edward S. Flint, Irvine U. Masters and Herman M. Chapin, to carry us to 1867 and past the war period. The legislature changed the city's form of government again in 1865, in an effort to remove the police force from THE CITY'S LIFE - 915 politics. Control of the police was vested in a board of com-missioners, one of these the mayor, and the other four appointed by the Governor. Prior regulations gave control of the force to the mayor and the marshal, both elective officers, while the council had charge of the funds. Now the commissioners held the funds and appointed a superintendent of police, who was ex-officio member of the board. The commissioners received no pay and were not allowed to hold any other public office. Two years later the legislature provided that these commissioners should be chosen by popular vote. Of course the Republican party was dominant and yet Stephan Buhrer, a Democrat, was elected mayor in 1867 by a majority of 455. The rest of the Republican ticket was elected. Buhrer was reelected in 1869 by 2,680 majority, but the council was Republican by four. The temperance party was a force to be reckoned with, for it cast 1,049 votes at this election. The population in 1865 was 65,000 and in 1870 was 93,718, not counting East Cleveland and Newburg, which would have added 7,000 more. Forty-one per cent of the inhabitants were of foreign birth ; fifteen per cent were Germans, fifteen per cent English and Irish and one per cent Bohemians. East Cleveland was annexed in 1872 and added two wards. Frederick W. Pelton was elected mayor in 1871 and ended Democratic administration. The legislature in April, 1873, provided for a board of fire commissioners, five of them, appointed by the mayor, but amended this act a year later so that the board should consist of the mayor, the chairman of the council committee on fire and water and three citizens, nominated by the mayor. Mayor C. A. Otis had scarcely appointed his board and started them to work when the legislature decided that the board should consist of the chairman of the fire and water committee plus four citizens, elected by the people, for a term of four years each. So Nathan P. Payne, who succeeded Otis, had little authority over this commission. The hands of the politicians appear very plainly in these legislative acts. In July, 1873, a committee of three was selected 916 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS by the new Republican administration to investigate the conduct of the fire department under the Democrats. The com-mittee criticized the administration but absolved the officers of the department. One year later a Democratic council elected Ed Russell, John H. Farley and Edward Angell to make another investigation, and this time the recommendation was that the three head officers of the department be discharged. There were charges of persecution, and the result was that one official was ousted for "incompetency" and the two others were promoted. Newburg was annexed August 4, 1873, and added 10,000 to Cleveland's population, also two new wards, the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh. This same year saw additional attempts by the legislature to remedy defects in municipal government. The third con-stitutional convention debated a proposal to limit the cities to four classifications, since the classifications existing still left opportunity for special legislation. This attempt failed. But there was a new code in 1878. Under this one the mayor, councilmen, treasurer, police judge and prosecutor were elected, while the auditor, city clerk and civil engineer were appointed by council. There was a board of police commissioners, composed of the mayor and four elected commissioners ; board of directors of the house of refuge and correction, appointed by the mayor; board of health, composed of the mayor and other members appointed by council ; board of infirmary, elected ; board of improvements, with establishment optional ; board of park commissioners, appointed by the mayor ; board of water-works trustees, elected ; board of fire commissioners, with four elected members and the chairman of the council fire committee ; board of cemetery trustees, elected ; board of re-vision, with mayor, president of the council and city solicitor and a superintendent of markets, appointed by the mayor. This marked a return to authority for the head of the city, but members of nearly all the boards served without pay and this situation tended to laxness. The legislature held to the two-fold classification of cities, THE CITY'S LIFE - 917 but sub-divided the classes into four each, making eight in all, based upon population. Special legislation, however, still persisted. Other changes were made before 1891, the most important of which was the division of council into two bodies, the lower one a board of aldermen and the upper a council consisting of one member from each ward. This plan resembled the Federal House and Senate. The board plan multiplied independent offices and Colonel O. J. Hodge, of Cleveland, introduced a measure aimed to adopt the Federal form of government for Ohio cities. It became a law on March 16, 1891, but was thrown out by the Supreme Court eleven years later. However, it was the base upon which Cleveland's later Federal government was formed. Before we consider any more tossings upon the municipal bed, it seems fitting that the mayors be brought up to date. After Payne came William G. Rose, then R. R. Herrick, John H. Farley, George W. Gardner, Brenton D. Babcock, Gardner again, then Rose again, Robert Blee 1893-95, Robert E. McKisson 1895-99, and Farley again 1899-01. Preceding historians whose work has been of inestimable value in tracing civic growth up to the end of the nineteenth century had the misfortune to miss our retrospective view of the exciting times that came in the twentieth and are still continuing to supply thrills. No American city can furnish a more dramatic story of political unfoldment than the one we shall attempt to relate. It is still hard to understand the failure of the founders of the republic to consider the cities and how they were to be governed. Some writers point to the fact that in 1790 there were only five cities in the United States with populations of more than 8,000—New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore and Charleston—and that the vision of great industrial and commercial centers in the future were not present with them. But surely those able and enlightened men were not ignorant of Rome and London, Berlin and Paris, nor could they have been ignorant of the struggles in self-government which such cities had undergone and were still undergoing. 918 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS Whether they centered their attention exclusively upon binding the colonies in unity or, as is more likely, conceded the point to the proponents of states' rights, the fact remains that they left the states to mother their own offspring, each in her own way. Moreover the tale to be told here would be the same, in its essentials, had the good Fathers framed the charters of Cleveland and the rest of her big sisters. We have seen the village, up to 1836, completely under subjection to the state, then the city, granted more and more ini-tiative but still under the parent wing, until finally in 1913 we shall see her stand alone, free to shape her own destiny. But we shall see her tossing at the end, full of pain and trying to ease it by another change of position. The state tried to be a good nurse (with a few lapses) and stood by the bedside with a helping hand whenever called upon, also many times when not called upon. The legisla-tures tried to cure their own ills which were, they felt, responsible for the sufferings of the patients. They tried to stop themselves from legislating for favored communities by lumping these into classes and passing rules that they (the legislatures) could only legislate for classes. Despite the failure of their methods, they continued them as late as 1898. Then they made eleven classes, from populations of 8,330 to over 200,000. It turned out that eight of these classes had only one city each and no city could advance to the next higher grade without an amendment to the act. This fact served to accent the special legislation evil which the solons were trying to eliminate. They could now legislate for eight cities individually with complete legality. With that supreme accomplishment the state ceased its voluntary mothering so far as Cleveland was concerned, and thereafter served only as called upon. It was reasonable enough for the state to assume that the city, after one hundred years of experience, ought to have a clear idea of what she wanted. The trouble was, though, that the city of 1840 was not at all the city of 1900. The hum of trade had developed into the roar of industry. Over the flats, where cattle grazed and corn grew in the old THE CITY'S LIFE - 919 days, there now hung a pall of coal smoke, beneath which great ships sounded their sullen signals, whistles screamed from locomotives and mill, riveters rat-tatted and presses pounded. Along the lake front east to Gordon Park, south in Newburg. and west of the Cuyahoga River giant factories were making. things from the iron ore which the ships brought them. The city had evolved from hunting settlement to trading post, to commercial center, and finally into a gate-way for the "industrial Ruhr" extending southeasterly into Pennsylvania. The change brought a vast increase in population from southern Europe and from the cottonfields of the South to leave an impress upon political thinking. But most important to our investigation is the effect which intense business activity has upon the mental habits of the city's people. Upon this factor hangs the explanation of the condition of municipal government in Cleveland and other American cities today, and a faithful history of political growth must consider that factor carefully if the history is to contain an honest measure of truth and value. Industry attracted workers, then, and the workers needed stores and hospitals and street cars and electric lights and the thousands of other facilities making for comfort, security, recreation and so on. Business of manifold varieties came to answer the need, competition intensified. To meet fierce competition business houses strove for advantages over their rivals. Some needed more than advantages, they needed monopoly. There used to be two telephone companies in Cleveland, the Bell and the Cuyahoga. Offices had to have both, the householders were inconvenienced when they had but one telephone and wished to call a friend who subscribed to the other system. Obviously the people would be better served by granting a monopoly to one company, and this was done by legislation. No one criticizes this sort of monopoly. Lawyers say there are statutes and ordinances on the books which, if enforced, would make the operation of some necessary businesses impossible, but that these restrictions are permitted to become obsolete by common consent. Often one of the old laws interferes with the operation of just one 920 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS business house. Nobody else cares anything about that law, and the fair and proper thing. to do is to remove it—by legislation. The city government needs some motor trucks, and its experts decide that the product of one manufacturer meets the requirements better than that of the others. The law, however, requires that the order be let through competitive bidding. So the specifications are so made that only the preferred manufacturer can meet them. Nothing sinister about this. It is good business. The examples can be multiplied infinitely, but they would serve only to emphasize needlessly the fact that special privilege, or special consideration, is a necessity to many businesses and that all good citizens recognize the necessity and subscribe to it—by legislation, when that is required—so long as they magnify gainful activity until it out-sizes their other pursuits. The Cleveland of the period in which we are most interested looks upon business with business eyes. If we sincerely seek a picture of our government as it is, let us by all means be frank and honest with the facts, pleasant or otherwise. Is it not a fact that one's city, more than one's state or country, means first of all a means for the making of money? Men sing. loved songs about their coun-try and weep with emotion when the flag is unfurled to the breeze. It is news to many that Cleveland has a flag at all, and the records fail to disclose a municipal anthem, hallowed by ancient associations and sacred with memories, to drive men forth to shed their blood for their city. To most of us Cleveland is not the ancestral shrine, nor is it our certain home for the future as America is. Business may call us to residence in Chicago tomorrow. Let us look back into the 'nineties and see how far the above philosophy may justify itself through the recorded facts. Robert E. McKisson had succeeded Blee as mayor, and free beer, free lunch and free concerts were essentials to a well-conducted campaign for votes. "Czar" Harry Bernstein had a dukedom in the old sixteenth ward. He had learned THE CITY'S LIFE - 921 much that was not known in the days of "Willeyville," but he taught more to those who followed him and attained to political royalty. He knew and demonstrated the value of legislation as applied to real estate operations and left a monument in "Bernstein's Elbow," a hundred-yard alley off Woodland Avenue that has two right angles in its course. An ambitious young Harvard graduate was making himself popular among voters along lower St. Clair and Lake-side avenues, by calling upon the sick and interceding for the erring when the latter were hailed before the police court, thus establishing a personal following that was to carry him far in the career he had chosen. The administration made tremendous improvements in the form of bridges and public works. Charges of graft and corruption were so numerous that half a dozen earnest men gathered in the law office of Harry Garfield, son of the martyred President and now head of Williams College, and decided to clean up Cleveland politics. Besides Garfield there were George T. McIntosh, Martin A. Marks, H. F. Lyman, Frederick C. Howe and Charles E. Adams. In December, 1896, a group was assembled in what was called the "Municipal Association," later the "Civic League" and now the "Citizens League," whose purpose was to watch public officials and report their doings to the public. It was organized "to promote honest, economical and efficient government." It is a "best citizen" body, supported by voluntary subscription and numbering among its thirty executive board members a lawyer who ranks third in the councils of the Democratic party, the daughter of a former traction magnate, an heir to a great hardware house, three big bank officers, two very successful corporation lawyers, the head of one of the largest department stores, the head of a big insurance agency, a millionaire park owner, a wealthy publisher, an ex-Congressman and a man connected through family ties with the greatest financial groups in Cleveland. Mark Hanna elected William McKinley President and bossed the Ohio Legislature, but not Cleveland, where McKisson fought him to a standstill. 922 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS There were some 300,000 inhabitants, more than half of foreign birth. Republican sentiments prevailed, but in the main both parties were equal in strength on purely local issues, so that they divided mayoralty honors equally between them from 1891 to 1901. Business was good and the dinner pail well filled. Upon this scene came Tom L. Johnson. He had been born into a southern family whose fortunes had been ruined by the war ; so to help out, he sold newspapers from the city in his small home town. Fat and jolly, he made friends, one of whom was the conductor of the train which brought his papers. One day this conductor said to him : "See here, Tom, I like you and I'm going to boost your business. Hereafter I'll bring papers only for you. You'll have a monopoly and can charge whatever you like, twenty-five cents apiece for them." Young Tom later laughed at his companions who told him they were going into some trade, for he had learned how to make money through the avoidance of competition. He held to his plan and went into the street railway business, applying the monopoly principle to it in Brooklyn, New York, and later in Cleveland. Street railway companies were a monopoly, so far as their own routes were concerned, but frequently there were two or more such companies in a city, competing for power and extensions. Most companies started their lines from the center of the city and ran to the outer limits and back. Johnson figured that if two such lines could be united, the one consolidation could get not only the morning and evening rush traffic but also the good midday traffic across town, defray some of the enormous "peak load" costs and eventually force all competitors to come in and form one big company which would have a monopoly. His idea worked out, and he was proceeding to apply it in Cleveland, where he had gained control of the "Big Consolidated" and was waging successful warfare with Mark Hanna's "Little Consolidated." "Then," says Lincoln Steffens, in his "Autobiography," "Something happened. Tom Johnson read a book. THE CITY'S LIFE - 923 "The peanut butcher on a train one day was trying to sell him Henry George's 'Social Problems' when the conductor passing down the aisle said, 'That's a book you ought to read, Mr. Johnson.' The street railway man had a soft spot for conductors; he took this one's advice, and after buying and reading the book, went to his attorney (L. A. Russell, of Cleveland) and said : want you to answer that book for me. I can't. And I must. For if that book is right I am all wrong, and I'll have to get out of my business.' The lawyer answered Henry George, but only as a lawyer, not to his client's satisfaction. Tom Johnson went to New York, called together a group of his rich friends and put it up to them. They all read Henry George, met one night. and discussed it till daylight. Johnson defended the book; he didn't want to defend its doctrines; he begged his friends to upset them, and they tried; they were able men, too, but Tom Johnson had seen the light, and his friends not only failed to clear his mind of the single-tax theories; they were themselves con-vinced. They all saw what Henry George pointed out : that excessive riches came unearned to individuals and companies owning land, natural resources like water, coal, oil, etc., and franchises, such as steam and street railways, which, being common wealth to start with, became more and more valuable as the growing population increased the need and value of these natural monopolies. The increased value of them was created by the mere growth of the population, who should have it, and George proposed that government should take it back by taxing nothing but the values of land, natural re-sources and monopolies." Johnson asked George what he should do. George told him to go into politics. Johnson said it was impossible for him to make a speech ; the only thing he knew was how to make money. George told him to go into politics as a successful business man with a plan and a vision. Johnson sold his monopoly business, returned to Cleveland and was elected to Congress. He did not accomplish much in Washington, but his experience there convinced him and George that Johnson's abilities were executive, and that the latter should go back to 924 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS Cleveland and run for mayor, get control and apply the George principles. He was not received with open arms here. The Republican party was strongly organized, the Democratic poorly, and two of the four newspapers were not only Republican in principle but under control of the capital which owned the railways. There was little faith among the voters in the good intentions of this millionaire who had made millions in mono-poly, and he was distrusted by financial and big business groups. The Municipal Association would not indorse him. But he "caught on" with the people with his tent meetings where Peter Witt conducted a "tax school." Opponents closed halls against him, but he bought a mammoth circus tent and pitched it on vacant lots. He learned to make speeches and delighted to be questioned from the audience, for he had developed a knack of repartee that always turned heckling to his own account. And he never forgot how to laugh. The Cleveland Press came out for him and he was elected, in 1901. The fight began early in the morning after election, when Johnson walked into Mayor Farley's office and announced that he was taking over the reins. It had been customary for the mayor-elect to take office on the first of January following the election, but there was no law to that effect. Johnson had suspected that Farley was going to sign a franchise which Johnson disapproved, and took this means of preventing the move. Around the new mayor gathered the "bright young men." Newton D. Baker, city solicitor ; Peter Witt, city clerk; Charles P. Salen, and his successor as head of the department of public works, W. J. Springborn ; C. W. Stage, E. W. Bemis, superintendent of waterworks, and Dr. Martin Friedrich, health officer, who freed the city from the menace of small-pox in a few months and improved sanitary conditions until, in 1909, Cleveland had the lowest death rate of any city in the United States. Reverend Harris R. Cooley headed the department of charities and correction and transferred minor transgressors from the dingy workhouse to the green fields of Warrensville, where they worked in the sun. He built out