Los Angeles Herald, Volume 32, Number 311, 8 August 1905 — NOTED REFORMER TALKS AT BANQUET [ARTICLE]

NOTED REFORMER TALKS AT BANQUET

CLINTON ROGERS WOODRUFF SPEAKS ON CITIES

GUEST OF MUNICIPAL LEAGUE

Secretary of National Organization Tells Local Workers of Progress in Improving Civic Government

Puzzling problems of municipal government were discussed before the Los Angeles Municipal league last evening by Clinton Rogers Woodruff, secretary of the National Municipal league, at a banquet given in his honor at the Lankershim hotel.

The highest praise was given to the work of the local organization by the speaker, who has made a life study of the problems confronting American cities.

According to Mt. Woodruff's idea there is but one way in which municipal reforms can be effected and that is through public opinion, and the best way to mold public opinion is through local organizations such as municipal leagues.

Civic Patience Needed

"While it is necessary to be aggressive it is absolutely imperative to be patient," said Mr. Woodruff. "Don't expect results too soon; they affect too many people. A sudden burst of public opinion is too often insincere. The kind we need is that which comes slowly and is the result of absolute conviction."

In speaking of the rapid strides which municipal reform has been taking, in the last few years, Mr. Woodruff declared that it was nothing more than the natural outgrowth of the increasing population of business centers and conscious demands of citizens for more advanced ideas.

"According to the last census 33 percent of the population of the United States is living directly under municipal government and half as many more under its influence," he said. "To demonstrate this I will say that the expenditure in Philadelphia in 1800 was seventy cents per capita. One hundred years later it was $29.50 per capital.

Growth of League Work

"A few years ago a local municipal organization, composed of men who worked for the benefit of the government and not for political jobs, was practically unknown. Today we have in this country 750 such organizations.

"The exposure of great municipal graft in the last few years is not indicative of greater corruption, but, on the other hand, it shows that the people are awakening to the fact that such things which were taken for granted a few years ago can now be readily and advantageously dispensed with."

Mr. Woodruff will speak at Venice tomorrow afternoon, after which he will go to Portland.