There the daily newspaper may be left at one"s door often for a cent a copy; there are to be found fine churches with pulpits occupied by able preachers; there one finds all the conveniences of life which modern science and skill can provide--everything to gratify the social instinct, and little or none of the dullness of country life. These are some of the attractions that lure the young and the old as well from the rural communities to swell the population of the cities. These are the forces that are converting us from a nation of country dwellers to a nation of city dwellers.
=Consequences of City Growth.=--The congestion of the population in the towns and cities has had far-reaching economic, social, and political effects.
_Economic Results._--As the city population becomes more dense the number of those who are able to own their own homes becomes less, and thus the city tends more and more to become a community of tenants.
According to the census of 1900, while more than 64 per cent of the families of the United States living on farms owned their own homes, less than 35 per cent of those living in cities were owners of the houses they occupied. In New York city the proportion was only about 12 per cent, and in the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx it was less than 6 per cent. Of these hardly more than 2 per cent owned homes that were clear of mortgages.
_Social Results._--Another result of the movement of the people to the cities is the evil of overcrowding. Manifestly where the area of a city is limited, as is often the case, there must come a time when the population will be ma.s.sed and crowded together under circ.u.mstances that are dangerous to the health, morals, and comfort of the people. In some of the large cities to-day the conditions resulting from overcrowding are truly shocking. According to the census of 1900, while the average number of persons to a dwelling throughout the country as a whole was about five, the number in New York city was nearly fifteen, and in the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx it was more than twenty. In several parts of the city there are blocks containing more than 1,000 persons to the acre. Under such circ.u.mstances the rate of mortality is necessarily high, and immorality and vice are encouraged. In the great cities one finds a large floating population with no local attachment or civic pride, and thousands of persons, foreigners and natives alike, with low standards of life. There also the individual is lost in a mult.i.tude, and the restraining influence of public opinion, which is so powerful in the country, is lacking. Thus the tendency to wrongdoing is greatly accentuated.
_Political Results._--Finally, the growth of the cities has had important political consequences, in that it has given rise to conditions that have increased enormously the problems of local government. As long as the population of the nation was predominantly rural and the cities few in number and small in size, the difficulties of local government were not serious. But the presence of such conditions as those described above, together with the task which devolves upon the city of performing so many services for the people that are not required in spa.r.s.ely settled communities, has made the problem of city government the most difficult of all governmental problems.
=Movement to Check Immigration to the Cities.=--The abandonment of the farms and the movement of the people to the cities is viewed by many persons with regret, not to say alarm. There are some who think that the cities are the plague spots of the country, that city life tends to produce an enfeebled race with low moral standards; that they are tending to make of us a nation of tenants, tramps, anarchists, and criminals; and that the economic welfare of the country is being endangered by the drift away from the farm. Such a view, of course, represents an exaggerated conception of the dangers, though it will be readily admitted that the change is not without serious evils.
Lately we have heard a great deal of discussion among thoughtful men as to the possibility of checking the movement of the young to the cities.
And notwithstanding the movement from the country to the city it is evident that the conditions of rural life are much more favorable than formerly. The daily free delivery of mail at the doors of the farmers, the introduction of the telephone and the interurban railway, to say nothing of the use of labor-saving machinery, have done much to add to the attractiveness of country life and to diminish the hardships of farm life and other rural occupations. But these advantages have not checked the movement to the cities, and other remedies must be found.
=The Position of the City in the State.=--The city occupies a twofold position in the state of which it is a part. In the first place, it is an agent of the state for carrying out certain state laws and policies.
Thus it acts for the state when it protects the public health, cares for the poor, maintains peace and order, supports education, and collects the taxes for the state. In the second place, the city undertakes to perform numerous services which are of interest to the people of the locality alone and which do not concern the people of the state as a whole. When acting in this latter capacity, the city is merely an organ of local government and not an agent of the state. Thus the city sometimes supplies the inhabitants with light and water, protects them against fire, maintains sewers, disposes of garbage and other refuse, builds wharves, docks, and bridges, and maintains public libraries, museums, bath houses, and other inst.i.tutions.
_State Control of Cities._--The organization, powers, and privileges of the city are determined for the most part by the state const.i.tution and laws. In a few states the financial transactions of city officials are subject to state inspection and audit, and in practically all of them their power to levy taxes and borrow money is placed under restrictions.
It is felt that if the cities were left entirely free from state control they could not always be relied upon by the state to carry out the laws which they are charged with enforcing, and that in other respects their action might not be in harmony with the general policy of the state. In those matters, however, which are of purely local interest, the state should interfere as little as possible. Interference in such cases is contrary to the ideas of local self-government which Americans cherish as one of their most valuable rights. However, the right of the people living in cities to regulate their own local affairs according to their own notions is not always recognized, and there are frequent complaints that state legislatures have interfered when the interests of the state did not justify it.
=The City Charter.=--The city, unlike the county, township, and other minor civil divisions described in the preceding chapter, has a charter granted to it by the state which gives the city more of the character of a public corporation. The charter contains the name of the place incorporated, a description of its boundaries, its form of organization, and a detailed enumeration of the powers which it may exercise. It is granted by the state legislature, though, unlike the charter granted to a private corporation, such as a bank or a railway company, it is not a contract but simply a legislative act which may be repealed or altered at the will of the legislature. Thus, legally, the city is at the mercy of the legislature. Its charter, indeed, may be taken away from it and the city governed directly by the legislature in such manner as it may choose, and this has sometimes been done in the case of cities which grossly abused their powers or got themselves into such hopeless financial condition that they were unable to meet their obligations or properly discharge their duties.
_Methods of Granting Charters._--Formerly it was the custom in most states for the legislature to frame a charter for each city as application was made. The result was that different cities received different kinds of charters, some more liberal than others. Besides, the time of the legislature was taken up with the consideration of applications for charters, and abundant opportunities were offered for favoritism and for the use of improper influences upon members of the legislature by cities that desired new charters or amendments to existing charters. To avoid these evils many states adopted the practice of pa.s.sing a general law for the government of all cities in the state, under which any community which desired to be incorporated as a city might by fulfilling certain prescribed conditions be organized under this general act, which then became the charter of the city. Under this system all cities in the state would have practically the same organization and powers.
_"Home Rule" Charters._--The feeling that the people concerned should be given some power in framing the charters under which they are to be governed has led in comparatively recent times to the adoption of "home rule" provisions in the const.i.tutions of a number of states--that is, provisions allowing the people of each city, under certain restrictions, to frame their own charters. Thus the Missouri const.i.tution, adopted in 1875, allows each city of more than 100,000 inhabitants to prepare its own charter, which, when approved by the voters, shall go into effect provided it is not inconsistent with the state law. Other states having "home rule" charter provisions in their const.i.tutions are California, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Colorado, Oklahoma, Michigan, Wisconsin, Texas, Ohio, Nebraska, Arizona, and Connecticut.
[Ill.u.s.tration: CITY HALL AND MUNIc.i.p.aL BUILDING, NEW YORK
The City Hall is in the foreground; the Munic.i.p.al Building, containing additional office room for city officials, is the tallest building shown.]
_Powers of Munic.i.p.al Corporations._--With the exception of a few cities, of which Houston, Texas, is an example, the powers that may be exercised by a city are specifically enumerated with great detail in the charter, and where that is done no other powers may be exercised by the city except such as are clearly incidental to, or implied in, those enumerated. Thus when the city of New York wished to build an elevated railway, it had to secure express authority from the legislature, which body insisted that the work should be carried out under the supervision of a state commission. Likewise when the city of Chicago wanted power to prescribe the width of wagon tires to be used on its streets, recourse had to be made to the state legislature for permission, though in neither case was the matter involved one which concerned directly anybody except the people of the cities affected.
=Legislative Interference in the Affairs of Cities.=--The power of the state legislature over the cities has sometimes been employed to interfere in their local affairs and to force upon the cities measures or policies to which they were opposed. Thus the legislature of Pennsylvania pa.s.sed an act requiring the city of Philadelphia to build an expensive city hall which cost the taxpayers of the city something like $20,000,000, though it was not a matter of direct interest to the people outside of the city. Likewise the legislature of Ohio required the city of Cleveland to erect a soldiers" monument at a cost of $300,000 against the wishes of the taxpayers who had to bear the expense.
Sometimes the legislature employs its power of control over the cities in the interest of the political party which happens to be in control of the legislature, and it frequently pa.s.ses laws relating to the hours of opening and closing of saloons in the cities when local sentiment may be opposed to such laws. But as to the moral right of the legislature to enact such laws as the last mentioned, there is a difference of opinion. The disposition of the legislature to interfere in the affairs of the cities by means of special acts--that is, acts applying to a single city--has come to be a crying evil and has been a cause of complaint from the people of nearly every large city. The New York legislature during a period of ten years pa.s.sed nearly four hundred laws applying to the city of New York.
=Const.i.tutional Protection Against Special Legislation.=--To protect the cities against special legislation and at the same time to remove the opportunity which such a practice offers for bribery and the employment of other improper means to secure special legislation or to prevent it, when it is not desired, the const.i.tutions of many states contain provisions absolutely prohibiting the legislature from enacting laws applying to particular cities except where general laws are inapplicable. Where such const.i.tutional provisions have been adopted, the legislatures have frequently evaded them by a system of cla.s.sification by which acts are pa.s.sed applying to all cities within a cla.s.s when in reality there may be but a single city in such a cla.s.s.
And the courts have generally held such acts to be const.i.tutional where the cla.s.sifications are not unreasonable.
The New York const.i.tution recognizes that special legislation applying to larger cities may sometimes be desirable, and instead of forbidding such legislation absolutely it cla.s.sifies the cities of the state into three cla.s.ses according to population,--New York City, Buffalo, and Rochester const.i.tuting the first cla.s.s,--and allows the legislature to enact laws affecting a single city within a cla.s.s, subject to the condition that the proposed law must be submitted to the authorities of the city affected, for their approval, and if disapproved it is void unless repa.s.sed by the legislature. Likewise by recent amendment to the const.i.tution of Illinois the legislature of the state is allowed to pa.s.s special laws affecting the city of Chicago alone, but such legislation cannot take effect until it has been approved by the voters of the city at a general or special election.
=Functions of Munic.i.p.al Government.=--The functions and activities of city government are numerous and varied, much more so, of course, in large cities than in small ones. First of all, the problem of police protection, the punishment of crime, and the care of the public safety in a community where thousands of persons of all nationalities and with varying standards of respect for law are living in close proximity, is very difficult and requires a small army of officials which would be entirely unnecessary in a rural community. Likewise the duty of caring for the public health, of preventing the spread of disease, of securing a wholesome water supply, of protecting the people against impure and adulterated food, and of securing wholesome and sanitary conditions generally, is very much greater in cities than in spa.r.s.ely settled rural districts or in villages and small towns. Then there are the problems of fire protection, gas and electric light, street railway transportation, the construction and maintenance of streets, education, building regulations, the care of the poor and dependent cla.s.s, disposal of sewage and waste, the maintenance of hospitals, libraries, museums, and other inst.i.tutions, the regulation of traffic on the streets, and many other activities too numerous to mention.
=The City Council.=--The legislative branch of most city governments is a council composed of members elected by the voters for a term ranging from one year in some of the cities of New England to four years in certain other parts of the country, the most usual term being two years.
The number of members ranges from 9 in Boston to more than 130 in Philadelphia. The city of New York has a council of 67 members; Chicago, 70; and San Francisco, 18. In the large majority of cities this council, unlike the state legislatures, is a single-chambered body, though in a few important cities, notably Philadelphia, Baltimore, St. Louis, and Louisville, it is composed of two houses.
_Mode of Election._--Generally, the members of the city council are chosen by districts or wards, usually one member from each, though in some cities several are elected from each district; in Illinois cities two members are elected from each ward into which the city is divided.
Where the council is composed of two houses, the members of the upper house are sometimes chosen from the city at large on a general ticket, and the members of the lower house by wards. In San Francisco, where the council is composed of but one house, the eighteen members are elected from the city at large. The same is true of Boston, whose council under the new charter is composed of but nine members.
The method of election by wards is open to the objection that it tends to the election of inferior men and of men who are likely to consider themselves the special representatives of their wards rather than the representatives of the people of the city at large. On the other hand, election from the city at large, or election of several members from large districts on a general ticket, unless coupled with a system of minority representation, is likely to give the majority party an undue advantage. Perhaps the best plan would be to elect a certain number from the city at large and the rest by wards.
Moreover, in some cities, of which Chicago is a conspicuous example, the ward system has led to inequality of representation. Thus it has sometimes happened that certain wards which are largely inhabited by the worst elements of the population are over-represented as compared with wards in other parts of the city inhabited largely by the better cla.s.s of citizens. Finally, where the ward system prevails, the ward becomes the seat of a local political organization whose methods are so often corrupt and dishonorable that they const.i.tute a great hindrance to good city government.
=Powers of City Councils.=--Unlike the state legislature, which is an authority of general powers, the city council in America has only such powers as are conferred upon it by the charter of the city. These powers are numerous and varied and relate to such matters as the laying out and care of streets, the protection of the public health, the regulation of the sale of liquor, the control of places of public amus.e.m.e.nt, markets, bathing places, traffic on the streets, the suppression of vice and immorality, protection against fire, the disposal of waste, the lighting of the streets, and in general the preservation of the good order and peace of the community. Its powers are exercised usually through acts called ordinances, which are framed and enacted after the manner followed by the legislature in enacting laws for the government of the state. The power of the council is frequently limited by the state const.i.tution or laws. Thus very frequently it is forbidden to incur debts beyond a certain limit, or to levy taxes above a certain amount, and frequently the purposes for which taxes may be levied and money appropriated are carefully specified.
=Franchises.=--One of the most important powers of a city council is the granting of franchises to street railway, gas, electric light, water, and other public service companies to maintain tracks, wires, pipe lines, etc., in the streets and other public places. As these franchises are often of great value to the companies receiving them, a temptation is thus created for the employment of bribery and other improper means for securing concessions of this character. In some cities aldermen have been paid large sums of money for their votes on franchise grants, and indeed the practice has been so often resorted to that there is a popular belief that most public utility franchises in the larger cities are secured in this way. Formerly franchises were frequently granted for long periods of years or for an indefinite period, and often without adequate compensation to the city. This abuse became so common that the people gradually came to adopt const.i.tutional provisions or state laws limiting the periods for which public service franchises could be granted, and indeed a few, notably those which have adopted the commission form of government, have gone to the length of making all such grants subject to the approval of the voters of the city at an election held for the purpose.
=The Mayor.=--The chief executive officer of the city is the mayor. With a few unimportant exceptions he is elected by the qualified voters of the city and serves for a term varying from one to four years, the most usual term being two years. In Boston, Chicago, and New York city, however, the term is four years.
=Powers and Duties.=--It is the duty of the mayor to enforce the ordinances of the city and also such laws of the state as he may be charged with executing. Like the sheriff of the county, he is a peace officer and as such is charged with the maintenance of order and the suppression of riots, and if a disturbance becomes so great that it cannot be suppressed by the police he may, like the sheriff, call on the governor for the militia. In some cities he is the presiding officer of the city council, though not a member of it. Generally he is required to submit messages to the council concerning the condition of the city, and may recommend measures for its consideration. Practically everywhere he has the power to veto ordinances pa.s.sed by the city council, and some mayors have made extensive use of this power. The council, however, may pa.s.s an ordinance over the mayor"s veto.
One of the important powers of the mayor is the appointment of officials, though usually the a.s.sent of the council is necessary to the validity of most appointments. In recent years there has been a considerable extension of this power in a number of the large cities, where the mayor has been given the absolute power of appointing the heads of the administrative departments. Indeed, the tendency now seems to be in the direction of concentrating larger powers of appointment in his hands as a means of fixing responsibility more definitely. There is also a tendency in the direction of giving him a large power of removal, subject to the provision that the official shall be removed only for good cause and that he shall be given a hearing and an opportunity to answer the charges made against him.
Finally, the mayor usually has the power to grant pardons for violations of the ordinances of the city, and this power is sometimes extensively used. Thus during the year 1909 the mayor of Chicago released more than 1,100 offenders who had been committed to prison, or about 10 per cent of the whole number committed. In some cities also he may remit fines that have been paid for violations of city ordinances.
=Administrative Departments.=--_Single Commissioner System vs. the Board System._--In every large city there are, in addition to the mayor, a number of departments each charged with the conduct of some particular branch of the city"s affairs. They are organized on one of two principles: each is under the control either of a board or of a single commissioner. Each method of organization has its advantages and disadvantages, but experience has shown that the single-headed department is the one best calculated to secure efficiency and responsibility, and it is the one most generally employed. The board system is well adapted to secure deliberation, but not promptness and unity of action nor responsibility, because one member may easily shift the responsibility for an error or blunder upon his colleagues. But for certain branches of administration such as the civil service, park administration, school administration, a.s.sessments, and possibly others, the board system has important advantages.
_Number of Departments._--The number of these administrative departments varies widely among the different cities of the country. In general we find the following departments: a finance department, a law department, a health department, a fire department, a police department, a department of charities, and a department of public works. In some cities, however, the number of departments is much larger than this.
Thus in some we find a street cleaning department, a department of buildings, a sewer department, a department of parks, a department of docks, and so on.
_Choice of Heads of Departments._--The heads of these departments are in most cases appointed by the mayor, to whom they are responsible, though nearly everywhere the approval of the council is necessary to his appointments. In recent years there has been more or less criticism of the practice of choosing administrative officials by popular election.
In every large city there is a great ma.s.s of unintelligent voters who are easily controlled by corrupt and scheming politicians. Moreover, it is impossible for the voters in a large city, however intelligent they may be, to become acquainted with the merits of all the numerous candidates when there are a considerable number of offices to be filled.
It is believed by many munic.i.p.al reformers, therefore, that better results could be obtained by allowing the mayor to choose all the heads of important departments, except possibly the chief finance officer, who might properly be chosen by the people. For the selection of the large number of subordinate officials, the best method yet devised is that known as the civil service system, which has been introduced in most of the larger cities. Under this system appointments are made on the basis of merit and fitness, which qualities are ascertained by an examination by a board of civil service commissioners.
=City Finances.=--One of the most remarkable features of American munic.i.p.al development has been the extraordinary growth of munic.i.p.al expenditures. The functions and activities of modern city government are indeed so numerous and varied as to require a larger number of officials and a greater expenditure of money than is required for the conduct of any other of the various governments under which we live. By far the larger part of the taxes contributed by those who live in the cities go to meet the expenses of munic.i.p.al government. In 1920 the budget of New York city was over $270,000,000, while that of Chicago was about $130,000,000, in each case the amount being about five times as great as the appropriations for the support of the government of the state in which the city is situated. The annual cost of operating our largest city exceeds what was required to maintain the national government in its early days, and is greater than the national budget of a number of European countries to-day. New York city in 1910 had a debt almost as large as the national debt, her annual interest account alone being in the neighborhood of $30,000,000. The proper raising and expenditure of such vast sums of money is one of the most difficult tasks of a city government. For this purpose there are a.s.sessors, collectors, treasurers, comptrollers or auditors, and various other officials. The levying of the taxes is everywhere a power of the city council, though in many states the amount of taxes which may be levied by it is limited--usually to a certain percentage of the value of the taxable property within the city, and in some states the limit is fixed so low that the cities are handicapped in raising sufficient revenue to meet their expenses. The purpose of such restrictions is to prevent extravagance and wastefulness, and the history of many of our cities proves that they have, in general, served a good purpose.
_Sources of Munic.i.p.al Taxation._--The princ.i.p.al source of income for city, as for state and county, purposes is the general property tax, though cities are usually allowed to levy a great variety of other taxes, such as taxes on certain trades and businesses. Street peddlers are in many cases required to pay license fees. Before the liquor traffic was prohibited, many cities derived a large portion of their income from license taxes on saloons. Some cities receive a considerable income from franchises granted to public corporations. Thus Chicago receives a large percentage of the earnings of some of the street railways, the amount aggregating more than $1,500,000 a year. In many cities the expense of public improvements, particularly street paving and the laying of sidewalks, is met by what are called "special a.s.sessments," that is, a.s.sessments laid upon the owners of the property benefited, in proportion to the benefits received from the improvement.
_Munic.i.p.al Expenditures._--Appropriations are in most cities made by the city council subject to certain rules and restrictions prescribed by state law. In New York city, however, the budget is prepared by a board of estimate and apportionment composed of a few high city officers, and in a few other cities the preparation of the budget is intrusted to other authorities than the city council. To secure accuracy and honesty in the expenditure of city funds, provision is commonly made for auditing the accounts of financial officials, and in a few states like Ohio, Indiana, and Iowa, provision is made by law for state inspection and audit of munic.i.p.al accounts by state examiners. This plan has proved very effective. In one state, these inspectors found that munic.i.p.al officials had misappropriated more than $500,000, over half of which was recovered and turned into the proper treasuries. In a number of cities where the commission form of government has been adopted provision is made for monthly financial statements which must be published in the local newspapers, and for annual examinations of city accounts by expert accountants.
_City Debts._--For the construction of permanent improvements, the erection of public buildings, and the establishment of commercial enterprises such as waterworks and gas works, cities must borrow money; and so one of the powers always given them is that of incurring debts.
This power, however, was greatly abused in the early history of our munic.i.p.al development--so much so that many cities found themselves on the verge of bankruptcy. In order to check this evil, many states have placed a limit upon the munic.i.p.al borrowing power, and some have provided that whenever a debt is incurred, provision shall be made at the same time for payment of the interest and the princ.i.p.al within a certain period of years. The debt limit is usually a certain percentage of the a.s.sessed valuation of the taxable property within the city. It ranges from 2 per cent in Boston, to 10 per cent in New York. In some cases the limit is so low that cities have been handicapped in constructing needed permanent improvements. Thus in Chicago, where property has been a.s.sessed at only one fifth of its real value, the result of the debt limitation has been to render extensive improvements very difficult, and to compel the city to meet the expense of many absolutely necessary undertakings out of its current revenues when the cost should have been distributed over a period of years. Chicago, as a consequence, has the smallest debt of any of the large cities of the country.
=Police Protection.=--Where large numbers of people are living together in close proximity the problem of maintaining order and preventing some from violating the rights of others is very much greater than in spa.r.s.ely settled rural communities. One of the princ.i.p.al tasks of the authorities in a city, therefore, is to provide police protection for the inhabitants. This is done through the agency of a body of men organized and uniformed somewhat after the manner of an army. The size of this force varies ordinarily in proportion to the population of the city. In New York city, for example, the entire police force numbers more than 10,000 men--a body as large as the army of the United States was in the early days of our history. In Chicago there are altogether some 8,000 men in the police service of the city.
_Organization._--The management of the police force is usually under the direction of an official called a commissioner, superintendent, or chief, though in some cities it is controlled instead by a board. In a few cities this board is appointed by some state official, usually the governor, for it is believed by many persons that since the police are charged with enforcing state laws as well as munic.i.p.al ordinances, they should be under state rather than local control. Where they are entirely under local control, it is sometimes difficult to secure the enforcement of such state laws as those requiring saloons to be closed at certain hours during the night and on Sundays, especially when local sentiment is opposed to such restrictions. Below the head of the police force are usually deputy chiefs, inspectors, captains, sergeants, roundsmen, and finally the patrolmen. The city is usually divided into precincts, in each of which there is a police station under the charge of a sergeant or some other official. A number of precincts are grouped together in districts with an inspector in charge of each, and so on. In the large cities there are also usually special detachments of the police force organized for special services. Such are the mounted police, the bicycle squad, the river and harbor police, the sanitary police, and the detective force.
_Police Corruption._--The control of the police branch of the city service is very difficult because of the opportunities for corruption which are open to the members of the force. It has not infrequently happened that the police in the large cities have systematically sold the right to violate the law. Gambling houses, saloons, and other places of vice sometimes regularly pay members of the police force for the privilege of violating the law, and the heads of the force have frequently found it impossible to prevent the practice. A recent police commissioner in New York, for example, said that there was an organized system among the police of his city for selling the right to violate the law; that many of the captains and inspectors had grown rich out of the proceeds, and that the system was so thoroughly intrenched that he was powerless to break it up.
=Health Protection.=--In densely populated districts the danger from the spread of disease is much greater than in rural communities where the conditions which breed disease are less prevalent, and where the spread of epidemics may be more easily prevented. In the smaller cities the chief health authority is a board, but in the large cities there is usually a department of health at the head of which is a single commissioner. Other officials are inspectors of various kinds, a.n.a.lysts, collectors of statistics, superintendents of hospitals, etc.
_Work of the Health Department._--Among the princ.i.p.al duties of the health authorities are the inspection and abatement of unsanitary places and the suppression of nuisances; the inspection of public buildings and sometimes of private dwellings with special reference to drainage; the removal of garbage and other refuse (in some cities); the inspection of the city water supply; the inspection of food, particularly milk; the control of certain establishments of an offensive character, such as slaughterhouses, soap factories, and fertilizer factories; the vaccination of school children and often of other persons, as a precaution against smallpox; the isolation and quarantine of persons suffering from contagious diseases; the maintenance of pesthouses and hospitals; and the collection of vital statistics.
One great source of disease in cities is impurity of the food supply, especially of milk, and much of the activity of the health department is directed toward the inspection of milk and other food. Crowded, ill-ventilated, and poorly constructed dwellings are another source of disease, and many cities have undertaken to prevent this evil as far as possible through tenement house laws and building regulations requiring dwellings to be constructed according to plans prescribed by law. The enforcement of these laws often devolves upon the health department, which carries out a rigid system of inspection.
In recent years much more attention than formerly has been given to the problems of health administration, and great improvement has been made.
So efficient is the health administration of some of our large cities that the death rate in proportion to the population is actually lower than it is in many small country towns where little or no attention is paid to this important branch of administration.