10.  The mixture of city politics with those of the state or nation: 

a.  The degradation of the English borough. b.  The exemption, of London from the Municipal Corporations Act. c.  The importance of separate days for municipal elections. d.  The importance of abolishing the “spoils system.”

SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS AND DIRECTIONS.

(Chiefly for pupils who live in cities.)

1.  When was your city organized?

2.  Give some account of its growth, its size, and its present population.  How many wards has it?  Give their boundaries.  In which ward do you live?

3.  Examine its charter, and report a few of its leading provisions.

4.  What description of government in this chapter comes nearest to that of your city?

5.  Consider the suggestions about the study of town government (pp. 43, 44), and act upon such of them as are applicable to city government.

6.  What is the general impression about the purity of your city government? (Consult several citizens and report what you find out.)

7.  What important caution should be observed about vague rumours of inefficiency or corruption?

8.  What are the evidences of a sound financial condition in a city?

9.  Is the financial condition of your city sound?

10.  When debts are incurred, are provisions made at the same time for meeting them when due?

11.  What are “sinking funds”?

12.  What wants has a city that a town is free from?

13.  Describe your system of public water works, making an analysis of important points that may be presented.

14.  Do the same for your park system or any other system that involves a long time for its completion as well as a great outlay.

15.  Are the principles of civil service reform recognized in your city?  If so, to what extent?  Do they need to be extended further?

16.  Describe the parties that contended for the supremacy in your last city election and tell what questions were at issue between them.

17.  What great corporations exact an influence in your city affairs?  Is such influence bad because it is great?  What is a possible danger from such influence?

18.  In view of the vast number and range of city interests, what is the most that the average citizen can reasonably be asked to know and to do about them?  What things is it indispensable for him to know and to do is he is to contribute to good government?

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE.

Section 1.  DIRECT AND INDIRECT GOVERNMENT.—­The transition from direct to indirect government, as illustrated in the gradual development of a township into a city, may be profitably studied in Quincy’s Municipal History of Boston, Boston, 1852; and in Winsor’s Memorial History of Boston, vol. iii. pp. 189-302, Boston, 1881.