REPORTERS FOR THE PEOPLE

...The Record is free from bias and confines itself to actual happenings in the city government...

...The record will undoubtedly widen its field, later on, inasmuch as it was only established in August...

...A sound public sentiment is being aroused in Cincinnati that is more than interesting to those of us who knew how lax the people seemed to be five or six years ago...

...This fearless weekly deals with the municipal happenings of Los Angeles and the coast...

...The cost of each building, bridge or other improvement is given with each illustration...

...It shows the progress made in the many branches...

...The papers will thus form a comprehensive series of Philadelphia's municipal life and should prove of immediate value...

...The forceful constructive administration cf Mayor Johnson has put Cleveland in an enviable position among her sister cities and we believe that he should be supported against the carping and criticism of the malcontents who make up a large part of his opposition...

...While its field is principally Los Angeles, its circulation gives it a wider range of influence...

...The Townsman is superior to several weeklies that have recently been started...

...to tell him just how the city funds are expended, and for what purposes...

...Besides this, the local council proceedings are given each week...

...The board of supervisors of the city publish the record for the purpose of furnishing information concerning public municipal improvements and the work of the several municipal departments...

...The copies are sold and advertising rates have been established by law...

...This is purely a business weekly, devoted to the finances of the city...

...The special illustrated supplement for October, containing over one hundred views, gives one a clear conception of what the city is doing...

...And in Boston, Philadelphia, New York, and Albany, publications have been doing good work...

...Its records of happenings are on an equal basis with those of other cities...

...Philadelphia" PHILADELPHIA is in charge of the bureau of statistics of that city...

...Of course we must not overlook the fact that the Civic Record of New York City, the oldest and largest of city publications, has been a pioneer in this sort of work...

...and to contrast conditions of local importance with similar conditions in other cities...

...Council proceedings, the week in the press, editorials, special articles, city notes, and many other features will be found in each issue...

...If the public trust is broken, the Bulletin is not afraid to state its side of the issue...

...There is always some item about Cincinnati's City Club, an organization that is working hand in hand with the Bulletin...

...Encouragement and support are given for measures that stand for improvement and progress in civic life...

...To these we have answered that the paper is not intended to be a partisan paper...

...Houston, it will be remembered, has the commission form of government, and the city's business, like that of a commercial house, is managed on strict business principles, in which responsibility can be readily located...

...The issues of the journal aim to point out, by way of contrast, what improvements have been made in this particular subject in other cities all over the world and thus educate public sentiment for a proposal that will, if enacted into law, be of immediate benefit to the city as a whole...

...Municipal Record" GOPIES of the Municipal Record, of San Francisco, can be obtained at the various department headquarters or a copy will be mailed to any person who will furnish his address to the clerk of the board of supervisors...

...Progressive Houston" PROGRESSIVE HOUSTON is published monthly by the administration to inform the people of what has been done during each month in the management of the city's affairs...

...The numbers I have before me are a storehouse of good municipal matter...

...It is truly a municipal paper, in spite of the fact that it is a private venture...

...together with facts of interest to other cities in comparing costs and expenditures...

...Just now, Denver is planning for a civic center...

...The first paper, for example, is devoted to the Bullitt Bill which forms the foundation of the city's government...

...And, while we must say that such publications take an aggressive stand, their influence for good is such that some of the most important ones are deserving of mention in this connection...

...About 2,500 copies are mailed to other cities, the total weekly issue being about 10,000 copies...

...But the primarv purpose of this paper is to do good in the line of municipal work and citizenship, and the editor does not believe that any great good was ever done by any halfhearted fence-straddling policy...

...Such topics as the primary law, the lull in traction, the "city limits" of charity, the study of our taxes,—all full cf vim and snap—nothing technically scholastic or verbose—warrant one in predicting that this new weekly will meet with success...

...Articles on the new water power and on municipal ownership have been discussed recently...

...By DON E. MOWRY NEARLY half a dozen American cities have recently started to publish municipal journals, and, what is more, the city government is paying for these publications which are designed to inform the tax-payer of conditions at home...

...The appropriation for the present year is $12,000...

...Information relative to city allairs in all cf our municipalities finds its entrance, sooner or later, into the columns of this weekly, provided such information is of vital con-squence...

...To bring this information quickly to the attention of taxpayers it has been thought proper to issue a series of publications dealing with the various divisions of municipal work...

...Subsequent papers are dealing with the different departments, illustrating the general plan embodied in that act and its amendments...

...the time consumed in construction...

...The editors of these journals write me that it is surprising to see how many people want to know "just how things are going...

...In most cases these publications are working against what they believe to be the undesirable element in politics as well as for the advanced ideas in municipal reform...

...The publication does not stop with accounts of routine matters...

...If there are any features of local administrative work that, for purposes of expediency, might be kept from the people, the issues thus far published fail to show them...

...its editorials are alive with timely, progressive ideas on what the city is planning to do and why such plans are desirable...

...This bureau is given the work of collecting and placing before the taxpayers information touching the various departments...

...The Pacific Outlook, of Los Angeles, is in its seventh volume...

...San Francisco might contest this claim, as the supervisors of that city issued the Municipal Record before the Denver paper was established...

...There is a remarkable thing to notice about these municipal journals and that is that they have sprung up suddenly, more than five of them in less than a year...

...where the money came from and where it was expended...

...what the work and material cost...

...We believe that party politics is no longer the necessity that it ance was, and that at the present time it is oft-times a ban to progress rather than a help...

...One of the older publications of this nature is, I believe, the Citizen's Bulletin, of Cincinnati, for it is already in its seventh volume...

...The Townsman, the Cleveland municipal weekly, aims to enlighten and improve the civic life of the city...

...Municipal Facts is well illustrated and the information is meaty, instructive and brief...

...These journals endeavor to quicken public interest for a better municipal framework...

...This item is characteristic of the journal: "The Townsman has received several letters asking that the paper be made entirely non-partisan...

...The public bath on State street above Grand Avenue, for example, cost $26,370...

...This is a valuable news item to the citizens of Philadelphia and may aid other cities in their future plans for public bath houses...

...City Record" THE statistical department of Boston compiles its City Record...

...We are not surprised that such a city, with such a business framework, should want to inform its directors—the citizen body—of its stewardship...

...So many of us are coming to realize that city government is not a question of politics so much as it is a question of facts...

...And it occurs to me that they have been inspired, not so much on account of the exposures which have been made in our cities, but because there is clear evidence on every hand that the citizen body is becoming seriously interested in its own city business...

...The fact that it is a private journal and not supported by the city has not prevented it from doing much good in the far western cities...

...Municipal Facts" THE Municipal Facts, published by the city of Denver, has the unique distinction of being the first paper of its kind to be issued for free distribution among the taxpayers of any American city...

...Private Journals Also in Field IN A NUMBER of cities, private journals have been established...

...For this reason, and this reason alone, we find a keener interest in the subjects which are coming to be discussed in our recently established municipal journals...

...There is no journal, published in the interests cf city government, that covers and digests so much material as does the Bulletin...

...Here and there one finds general city news, but, from the standpoint of the average citizen, too much space is given over to facts and figures...

...Nevertheless the most striking feature at this time is the fact that so many publications have sprung up, all within a short length of time...

...The weekly is distributed by carriers every Saturday morning to all taxpayers who request it...

...But the San Francisco paper had a subscription price and Denver must be given the honor...

...Denver is a city that is making noteworthy advance steps and its municipal journal is going to play no small part in its future life...

...All of the municipal journals, with but one or two exceptions, are in their first volume, indicating that the movement to accurately inform the citizen body of its own affairs, is just beginning to make itself felt...