kTi^Es. 
 
 GOOD CITIZENSHIP SERIES. 
 
 The Co-operative City. 
 
 BY 
 
 PROF. JOHN R. COMMONS. 
 
THE CO-OPERATIVE CITY. 
 
 The city is both a natural and an artificial 
 product. A cynical poet has said, ‘ ‘ God made 
 the country and man made the town.” But 
 man himself, as well as the country, is made of 
 God, and man is made a social being. In cities 
 he finds the fullest outlet for his social feelings, 
 and in cities he makes the highest advances in 
 civilization. English literature is a London lit¬ 
 erature. Art, music, architecture, science, do 
 not begin to Irloom until cities furnish the soil. 
 Manufactures, commerce, the credit system, pri¬ 
 vate property, corporations, all originated in 
 cities. Christianity first converted the cities, as 
 the epithets “heathen’’and “ pagan ”* testify. 
 Thus, when man becomes most truly human, he 
 lives in cities. The city is even more natural 
 for him than the country. 
 
 At the same time the city is also artificial. 
 Man can remodel it and reorganize it. Men’s 
 ideas of what a city ought to be will determine 
 what it shall be. They can give it external 
 splendor and make it a center for art and phil¬ 
 osophy, like Athens. They can crowd the peo¬ 
 ple into unwholesome slums, like East London, 
 New York and Bombay, or they can open out 
 parks and playgrounds and make it a city of 
 homes. They can educate the children for citi- 
 
 * From “ heath ” and “ pagus”—the open country. 
 
4 
 
 zenship, or for pauperism and crime. They can 
 have honest government or corrupt government. 
 In all that goes to determine the character of 
 the city for good or evil, the city is an artificial 
 product. 
 
 The citizens must, therefore, first of all, decide 
 upon the kind of a city they wish to have. If 
 their thoughts of what it ought to be are false, 
 or based on ignorance, the city itself will be 
 corrupt. The low state of American cities at 
 the present time comes from the conflict of two 
 false theories or ways of looking at the city. 
 
 The Business Theory. 
 
 The first is the Business Theory. Those who 
 hold this theory maintain that the city has noth¬ 
 ing to do with politics, such as the tariff, the 
 currency, foreign affairs; but that it is a busi¬ 
 ness corporation and differs from other corpora¬ 
 tions only in that the stockholders live together 
 in one locality. The city is a corporation organ¬ 
 ized for local purposes. Its government must 
 be taken out of politics and placed on a business 
 basis. It must imitate private corporations, 
 which employ their servants not on account of 
 their politics, but on account of their business 
 ability. In other words, the city is an associa¬ 
 tion of taxpayers whose taxes must be econo¬ 
 mized. 
 
 If merely a business corporation is all we 
 want, we have it already. It is based on self- 
 interest. What is business but buying in the 
 cheapest market and selling in the dearest ? 
 The cheapest way to get a gas franchise is to 
 buy it of the aldermen. Protection of prop¬ 
 erty and business is bought and paid for when 
 
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5 
 
 saloons and brothels bargain with the police. 
 Why is it not as legitimate to buy legislation at 
 the cheapest figures as it is to buy the labor of 
 ► overworked women and children and motor- 
 men? 
 
 The Business Theory is a corrupting one. Pri¬ 
 vate corporations may buy and sell because they 
 .. are voluntary. But the city is a compulsory cor¬ 
 poration. Its officers are aldermen, assessors, 
 mayor, justices, policemen, who make laws and 
 I ordinances and then compel the people to obey 
 ^ them. People are born into it and have no 
 voice in making their contracts. They grow 
 up from childhood in its slums or its palaces. 
 The city educates them on its streets or in its 
 1 schools and jails. It makes them criminals or 
 paupers or good citizens, as the case may be. 
 In Elmira Reformatory, during one year, 54 per 
 cent, of the commitments were from New York 
 city. Three-fourths of the tramps who roam 
 I oyer the country have come from the slums of 
 cities. Is it merely a business corporation that 
 carries such responsibilities as these ? Are the 
 souls of men and women to be saved on business 
 principles ? 
 
 The Business Theory also fails to bring about 
 the very economy and honesty toward which it 
 ' aims. It relies on self-interest, but this is inad¬ 
 equate. Says the President of the Municipal 
 League of Portland, Oregon: “Our experience 
 has been that the boards of our best citizens, 
 selected and appointed as public-spirited and 
 disinterested men and taxpayers, for the carry¬ 
 ing on of work in which every one was directly in¬ 
 terested, have, perhaps as often as our elected 
 Common Council, betrayed the interests of the 
 
6 
 
 city and used the powers given to them, not for 
 the public good, but for selfish interests; and this, 
 with rare exceptions, is the common experience 
 of cities with legislative boards and commission¬ 
 ers. By a single deal the large taxpayers on 
 the municipal board or committee can make, 
 directly or indirectly, more money than the in¬ 
 crease in their taxes so brought about would 
 amount to in fifty years, and hence on such 
 boards the pecuniary and personal interest of 
 its members not only utterly fails to act as a 
 check upon extravagance and corruption, but 
 only promotes it.” 
 
 The Gooddellow Theory. 
 
 The other false theory of the city is the Good- 
 fellow Theory. This is the theory held by the 
 majority of the non-taxpayers, who themselves 
 number from three-fourths to nine-tenths of the 
 voters in our great cities. They do not see that 
 the city government is of much importance to 
 them. The city officers, therefore, they think, 
 need not know much about government or busi¬ 
 ness ; it is enough if they are friendly, generous 
 to the poor, neighborly and helpful. They 
 should kiss the babies, give picnics to the school 
 children, pay funeral expenses, shake hands, 
 clap shoulders, “ set up ” the cigars and drinks, 
 and be generally ‘ ‘ hale fellow well met. ” When 
 elected, they should use their offices mainly to 
 help their constituents—to find a job for one out 
 of work, to bail another when the police have 
 arrested him, or to bring pressure upon the po¬ 
 lice to prevent his arrest, or upon the justice to 
 prevent his conviction. 
 
 This theory, like the Business Theory, is one- 
 
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7 
 
 sided and corrupt. A “good fellow” cannot 
 spend money unless he gets it. The only way 
 he can get it is by selling his vote and his influ¬ 
 ence to those who have money. What these 
 moneyed purchasers get in return is “fat con¬ 
 tracts, valuable franchises and monopolies. 
 These are the most powerful means yet discov¬ 
 ered for taxing the people and suppressing the 
 claims of laborers. In other words, the voters, 
 for the sake of a passing favor or a jolly hour, 
 put men in office, who load them and their fam¬ 
 ilies and their homes down with burdens for 
 years to come. The Good-fellow Theory in¬ 
 stead of helping the poor, creates poverty and 
 paupers-; instead of protecting from injustice, it 
 destroys the very foundations of justice; instead 
 of finding employment, it delivers the workpeo¬ 
 ple bound hand and foot to the most heartless 
 of contractors and monopolists; instead of be¬ 
 friending the masses it robs them. 
 
 I do not say that any individual or any class 
 in the community holds either of the above two 
 theories in exactly the way in which I have de¬ 
 scribed them. Nor do I say that they are really 
 worthy of being called “theories.” They are 
 not carefully reasoned out. They are simply 
 the different ways in which different classes of 
 the people are in the habit of looking at politi¬ 
 cal affairs. They spring unconsciously from 
 early training, from social prejudices and lik¬ 
 ings, from habits of life, rather than from seri¬ 
 ous thhiking. They are modes of acting, more 
 than thinking. In explaining them I have sim¬ 
 ply pointed out the inevitable results of such 
 false and thoughtless ways of dealing with the 
 city in which we live. As soon as people begin 
 
8 
 
 really to think, and to see the logical results 
 that follow from either one of these theories, 
 they will at once deny that they hold it. They will 
 then look around for a different theory^—one 
 that is rational and true—one that will not only 
 include the good of these false theories and 
 reject the evil, but also take in much that they 
 omit. 
 
 The Co=operative Theory. 
 
 This new theory is the Co-operative Theory. 
 The city exists for the general welfare of all 
 the people. It is a co-operative community of 
 homes, where the people join together for the 
 highest and happiest development of life here 
 on earth. As individuals or as separate families 
 they can do but little, but by co-operating they 
 increase their power in a compound ratio. It is 
 in this way that they can secure justice, and 
 prevent the strong from oppressing the weak; 
 they educate their children for the struggles and 
 joys of life; they care for the poor and the un¬ 
 employed; they improve their health, provide 
 pure water, multiply opportunities for earning a 
 living and enjoying the fruits thereof. The city 
 is thus a moral organization. Its life is funda¬ 
 mentally religious. Of course, it must be eco¬ 
 nomical, thrifty, and wise in its expenditures. 
 It must place ability and probity, skill and hon¬ 
 esty, in charge of its affairs. It must be prac¬ 
 tical, resourceful, straightforward, inventive, 
 progressive. In so far the Business Theory is 
 right. But if economy, or even efficiency, is the 
 only object, our cities will never be reformed. 
 The weakest of reforms is a taxpayers’ reform. 
 It stirs no enthusiasm. It inspires no self-sacri- 
 
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9 
 
 fice. What cities need is a religious revival. If 
 we could only see that cities can be -made as 
 powerful instruments of salvation as churches, 
 then their reform would be imminent. But first 
 the citizens must worship God instead of busi¬ 
 ness, and to the taxpayers must be said, “ If the 
 slums and the masses are saved, be sure low 
 taxes shall be added unto you.” 
 
 What is Co-operation? 
 
 If, now, the city is felt to be the home of men, 
 women and children—the place where they work 
 and live and enjoy themselves—the place where 
 human character is shaped for this life and a 
 future life—then it will be seen that all the peo¬ 
 ple have a vital interest in the city, measured 
 not by taxes, but by the value of the human 
 soul. The city will then consider its duty to be 
 to improve the homes, to better the conditions 
 of labor, to promote business and industry, to 
 educate all the children for all the opportunities of 
 life. These are social and co-operative questions, 
 and not merely questions of business or good fel¬ 
 lowship. Shall the city substitute day labor for 
 the contract system ? Shall it own and operate 
 its water, sewerage and gas works, and its street 
 cars ? Shall it make a profit on them, or shall 
 it furnish these services at cost or gratuitously ? 
 Shall it make education universal, and furnish 
 free books and meals } These are all questions 
 of policy, expediency, justice, and social welfare. 
 How to operate a street-car line economically is 
 a business question; whether the line shall be 
 owned by the city or by private corporations; 
 whether it shall carry school children free and 
 workmen at half fare, are co-operative questions. 
 
lO 
 
 The latter are to be answered according to our 
 ideas of what the city ought to be, and are open 
 to debate by all the people. The former is the 
 execution of our ideas, and depends upon prin¬ 
 ciples of electric engineering and business ad¬ 
 ministration, which specialists must settle. 
 
 The Cure for Democracy. 
 
 But it may be said that co-operative govern¬ 
 ment is a business failure; that universal suf¬ 
 frage has simply shown in American cities its 
 inability to conduct a government either hon¬ 
 estly or efficiently. The answer is like the an¬ 
 swer to those who oppose free education on the 
 ground that it makes men dissatisfied with their 
 station in life: The cure for education is not 
 less education, but more education : let children 
 be educated for all stations in life, instead of 
 merely for learned stations. So, the cure for 
 democracy is more democracy. By this is 
 meant, not that the suffrage should be wider, 
 
 * but that the machinery should be made more 
 democratic and the voters should be more di¬ 
 rectly taken into co-operation. The existing 
 machinery of city governments was contrived, 
 not for a government by all of the people, but 
 for a government by the merchants and manu¬ 
 facturers. Modern cities originated as private 
 corporations—the guilds of merchants and man¬ 
 ufacturers of the Middle Ages. Their mayors 
 and aldermen were elected in the same way as 
 the president and directors of a business corpo¬ 
 ration. But now they have been made public 
 corporations, and overwhelming numbers of non- ^ 
 propertied classes have been admitted to the 
 
II 
 
 elections of officers. The machinery must be 
 changed to fit these new conditions. 
 
 The City’s Machinery. 
 
 These changes toward a co-operative commu¬ 
 nity are already being introduced. The first is 
 the Secret Ballot, whereby the wage-earners, 
 who are now the majority and who depend on 
 others for employment, cannot be bribed nor 
 intimidated. 
 
 The next is Civil Service Reform, whereby the 
 offices of government cannot be used to bribe 
 the voters. Without this reform, we can never 
 hope to get beyond the Good-fellow Theory of 
 government. 
 
 Then comes Direct Legislation—the Referen¬ 
 dum and Initiative, as recently adopted in Ne¬ 
 braska—by which the people themselves vote on 
 the laws without leaving final power to their 
 elected representatives. Co-operation depends 
 on mutual confidence. The deadliest evil that 
 threatens it is bribery. If the granting of muni¬ 
 cipal franchises or valuable contracts to private 
 corporations depends not on the vote of a dozen 
 or score of aldermen, but on the vote of several 
 thousand citizens, the corporations would not 
 care to bribe the aldermen and could not bribe 
 the citizens. A potent cause of municipal cor¬ 
 ruption would thereby be abolished, simply by 
 increasing the co-operation of all the people in 
 their common government. 
 
 With Direct Legislation goes Proportional 
 Representation. By this the ablest men of the 
 city are repeatedly elected to the council; the 
 power of the ward boss and political machine is 
 destroyed; and the council becomes truly repre- 
 
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12 
 
 sentative of all classes and interests of the 
 people.* 
 
 The City’s Work. 
 
 When the city becomes co-operative in its 
 machinery, it may then become co-operative in 
 its industry. Instead of doing its public work, 
 such as street paving and sprinkling, sewer con¬ 
 struction and the like, through the medium of 
 contractors, it may do the work itself by day 
 labor, hiring the laborers directly and buying 
 the material under the supervision of the city 
 engineer. The contract system is a striking ex¬ 
 ample of the way in which the Business and 
 Good-fellow theories defeat themselves. In¬ 
 stead of being cheaper, it is more expensive; in¬ 
 stead of being honest, it is more corrupt; instead 
 of a better, it does a poorer quality of work than 
 the co-operative system of direct employment. 
 It gives the main benefits of public work to con¬ 
 tractors ; but the day-labor system gives steady 
 work, short hours, sure pay, and employment 
 of home labor. Thus the Co-operative Theory 
 applied to public works harmonizes the interests 
 of business and humanity, f 
 
 What to do with Franchises. 
 
 The Business Theory demands that franchises 
 be sold to the highest bidder, and the revenues 
 
 * These measures are more fully described in “ Proportional 
 Representation,” by J. R. Commons, published by T. Y. Crow¬ 
 ell & Co., Boston, 1S96. 
 
 t For a full discussion of this subject, see articles on ‘ The 
 Contract and Day Labor Systems on Municipal Works,” by J. 
 R. Commons, in “Yale Review,” February, 1897, and “Amer¬ 
 ican Federationist,” January to December, 1897 ; also Bulletin 
 of the Department of Labor (Washington, D, C.) for Novem¬ 
 ber, 1896. 
 
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13 
 
 oe used to lessen taxes. The city of Paris allows 
 the gas company to charge consumers double 
 the cost of service, but requires it to furnish city 
 lights at cost and pay the city treasury $3,300,000 
 per year. In this way the masses of the people 
 cannot afford to burn gas, and the poorer sec¬ 
 tions of the city are lighted by oil and candles. 
 The small gain which the taxpayers get is more 
 than offset by the heavy burdens on the people. 
 The Co-operative Theory, on the other hand! 
 requires, not that the city use its franchises to 
 tax the people, but that it extend the services 
 among all classes, and furnish them at cost, or 
 even free of cost, by meeting the expenses out 
 of the taxes. Only three or four cities in the 
 United States have sewer systems owned by pri¬ 
 vate companies for profit. Sewerage, in order 
 to be safe, must be universal; and private com¬ 
 panies cannot afford to make connections in 
 poorer sections of the city, where the people do 
 not appreciate its advantages, or are not able to 
 pay for it. Water works are next to sewerage 
 as a necessity, Detroit is the first city to fully 
 accept the Co-operative Theory, and by a popu¬ 
 lar vote to decide for ‘ ‘ free water. ” Glasgow’s 
 municipal railways carry workmen morning and 
 evening at half fare. Australian cities carry chil¬ 
 dren free to and from school. Berlin steam roads 
 charge $4.50 a year for a ticket to and from the 
 city, five miles, as often as you please. In 
 American cities this would cost $30.00 to $50.00. 
 The telephone in Paris is $10.00 per year; in 
 New York, $240.00. Thus the Co-operative 
 Theory places the great inventions of our day 
 in the reach of every family, enables the people 
 to^catter their homes in the suburbs, and at the 
 
same time greatly increases the opportunities of 
 the city for successful business enterprise.* 
 
 How Shall We be Taxed? 
 
 The Business Theory holds that taxes are 
 merely payments in exchange for benefits re¬ 
 ceived, and should therefore be levied in pro¬ 
 portion to the amount of property each one has. 
 But taxes are not bargains and sales between a 
 business corporation and its stockholders. They 
 are compulsory payments. They must be paid 
 even if the city fails to do its duty and the tax¬ 
 payer is injured. When an inefficient fire de¬ 
 partment fails to keep his house from burning 
 down, or the police fail to protect him from 
 burglars and thieves, the taxpayer continues to 
 pay taxes for fire and police protection and 
 cannot refuse on the plea that he has not 
 been benefited. Taxes are simply the city’s 
 share of the common wealth, to be used for 
 common purposes. The Co-operative Theory 
 holds that taxes must be levied in such a way as 
 to stimulate the business and to better the 
 homes and lives of the people. Philadelphia 
 and Detroit have advanced in this direction. 
 Philadelphia does not tax manufacturers nor 
 personal property, except moneys and credits, 
 and these are taxed at a rate less than one-fourth 
 the tax on land and buildings. This attracts 
 capital and business to the city. In Detroit, 
 the assessors since 1884 have increased the as¬ 
 sessments on land and vacant lots far more than 
 on buildings and personal property. As a re- 
 
 * The subject of franchises is exhaustively treated in the vol¬ 
 ume “ Municipal Monopolies,” edited by Prof. E. W. Bemis, to 
 be published by Crovrell & Co., in April, 1898. 
 
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15 
 
 suit, the owners of vacant tracts can no longer 
 afford to hold them idle. They have cut them 
 into lots and sold them at low figures. Work¬ 
 ingmen and others have bought the lots and 
 built small homes. In 1884, when this increased 
 taxation was begun, the number of persons own¬ 
 ing real property less than $1000 was 3,310. In 
 1891 the number had increased to 13,771, an in¬ 
 crease of 316 per cent, in seven years. Yet the 
 value of all property had increased only 75 per 
 cent.* Thus according to the Business Theory 
 vacant land is but slightly taxed because it is 
 non-productive and gets in exchange but little 
 protection from the city; but according to the 
 Co-operative Theory it is highly taxed, as being 
 the common heritage of the people, and in order 
 to promote the erection of buildings, factories 
 and homes, and so encourage industry and lessen 
 the crowding in the slums. 
 
 Tbe City’s Highest Aim. 
 
 Other examples might be given of the Co-op¬ 
 erative Theory. Only in proportion to its ac¬ 
 ceptance can the city attract to itself a splendid 
 population or workingmen, with their happy 
 homes in the suburbs, with a low death rate, 
 with easy access to the stores and factories by 
 cheap telephone and rapid transit. The unem¬ 
 ployed, labor will then gradually disappear, 
 through the enlightened efforts of the munici¬ 
 pality in extending public works, in making the 
 city healthful, clean, and beautiful, and by ad- 
 
 * See 9th Annual Report of the Michigan Bureau of Labor 
 and Industrial Statistics, Jan., 1892, p. 236. The subject of 
 Taxation is treated in Ely’^“ Taxation in American States and 
 Cities,” Crowell, 1888. 
 
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i6 
 
 justing employment through the day-labor sys¬ 
 tem at fair wages, reasonable hours and regular 
 work. The sweat-shop and the slum will be 
 wiped out as a blot. 
 
 Above all the Co-operative City will see its 
 noblest work to be the education of its coming- 
 citizens. Their bodies will be made sound 
 through abundant water supply, baths, parks, 
 playgrounds, and opportunities for athletic 
 games in summer and winter. Their minds 
 will be keen and their industrial capacities de¬ 
 veloped through the training of a free-school 
 system from kindergarten to academy and trade 
 school. Their moral character will be elevated 
 through municipal libraries, music halls and fes¬ 
 tivals, art museums, savings banks, and home 
 ownership. Their citizenship will be cared for 
 in public schools, in lectures on civics, in free 
 public halls for clubs and debating societies. In 
 these and many other ways already adopted in 
 various cities throughout the civilized world, 
 the city will become the highest expression of 
 the spirit of brotherhood and co-operation.* 
 
 * Shaw, “ Municipal Government in Great Britain" and 
 “ Municipal Government in Continental Europe,” gives many 
 examples of these. Century Co., N. Y. 
 
 In addition to the publications referred to, the best generai 
 handbook is “Municipal Affairs,” published quarterly by the 
 Reform Club of New York, 52 William Street, $1.00 per year. 
 Subscriptions should begin with Vol. I, No. i. March, 1897,which 
 contains the most complete bibliography of Municipal Condi¬ 
 tions yet compiled. 
 
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