Pres. Eliot's Address Last Night

President Eliot delivered a noteworthy address, yesterday evening, in the Living Room of the Union, to the third year class of the Law School, on the subject of "Municipal Government."

He spoke first of the government of Mt. Desert, Maine, in the eighties, which was almost entirely self-supporting, and its perfection, on account of the really local character of its interests. Some thirty years ago, a great change took place in American life. The population gradually drew into large units, whose interests were everywhere. With this, there was a further complication; namely, that the burden of taxation was badly distributed, as the wealthier classes lived in adjacent towns, leaving the poorer householders of the city to bear the major burden of its taxes. The movement for remedying this state of affairs, has been by putting all the more important functions of the local governments into the hands of business commissions, and this principle of commissions is capable of being further widened to include local administration. This is essentially a business enterprise, and there is no reason why the form of government, which experience has found most efficient for business enterprises, the board of directors, should not serve equally well for cities. If one should say that this is impossible and Utopian, it may be pointed out that it has already been done. In Galveston, the government of the city was placed in the hands of a commission, and this body did remarkably well, in every part of the city government, in promoting working efficiency. One thing will hasten the universal application of this principle; namely, the force, the absolute power of public opinion. Events, especially recent ones, have shown it to be, in the end, omnipotent on questions of government, if publicity can be given them. Americans like efficiency, and if it can be shown that this form of government by commission is most efficient, it will be finally adopted.