clearly that the criminal law was no remedy for municipal
misrule. The great majority of floaters and illegal voters who
were indicted never faced a trial jury. The results of the
prosecutions for bribery and grosser political crimes were
scarcely more encouraging. It is true that one Abe Ruef in a
California penitentiary is worth untold sermons, editorials, and
platform admonitions, and serves as a potent warning to all
public malefactors. Yet the example is soon forgotten; and the
people return to their former political habits.

But out of this decade of gang-hunting and its impressive
experiences with the shortcomings of our criminal laws came the
new municipal era which we have now fully entered, the era of
enlightened administration. This new era calls for a
reconstruction of the city government. Its principal feature is
the rapid spread of the Galveston or Commission form of
government and of its modification, the City Manager plan, the
aim of which is to centralize governmental authority and to
entice able men into municipal office. And there are many other
manifestations of the new civic spirit. The mesmeric influence of
national party names in civic politics is waning; the rise of
home rule for the city is severing the unholy alliance between
the legislature and the local Ring; the power to grant franchises
is being taken away from legislative bodies and placed directly
with the people; nominations are passing out of the hands of
cliques and are being made the gift of the voters through
petitions and primaries; efficient reforms in the taxing and
budgetary machinery have been instituted, and the development of
the merit system in the civil service is creating a class of
municipal experts beyond the reach of political gangsters.