CHAPTER XIII

TILDEN    COMMISSION----ITS   ADVOCACY   OF    LIMITED    SUFFRAGE   IN

CITIES----SUMMARY OF ITS PLAN FOR IMPROVING CITY GOV¬
ERNMENT—FAILURE  IN   LEGISLATURE—CONVENTION   OF   1894

DIVORCED   CITY   FROM   STATE  AND   NATIONAL   ELECTIONS----ITS

NEW  MUNICIPAL ARTICLE----GENERAL AND SPECIAL CITY LAWS

----MUNICIPAL REFORM REMAINS EMBRYONIC----^DUAL FUNC¬
TIONS OF THE CITY----MUNICIPAL PROGRAM OF NATIONAL MU¬
NICIPAL     LEAGUE----CONCLUDING     CONSIDERATIONS-----OUTLOOK

FOR   FUTURE   HOPEFUL.

Municipal reform, although a prominent feature of the work
of the constitutional commission of 1872, had suffered a seem¬
ing failure in the refusal of the legislature to submit the pro¬
posed municipal article^ to the people in 1874; but the subject was
soon to be urged by a statesman of large theoretical and prac¬
tical experience, one who had been a member of the constitutional
conventions of 1846 and 1867—Samuel J. Tilden. After his elec¬
tion to the chief magistracy of the State, he submitted to the
legislature a special message relating to cities. It stated that the
convention of 1846 had accomplished nothing for municipal
reform beyond adopting on the last day of its session a provi¬
sion devolving upon the legislature the duty of enacting laws to
protect municipalities against excessive taxation and financial
evils similar to those which afflicted the State at large prior to
1846.    After alluding to the  fact that,  far  from discharging

I.   Page 249.

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