National Affairs: Cities' Rights

Will "Cities' Rights" supplant the old-time "States' Rights" doctrine as a major political and economic issue? Charles Edward Merriam, professor of political science at the University of Chicago, Republican candidate in 1911 for Mayor of Chicago, suggested the question by an address at the 150th convocation of the University of Chicago last week.

Chicago, like New York, like many another U. S. city, clamors for Home Rule, against a State legislature controlled by rural representatives. More than 50% of the U. S. population is urban. One generation more, prophesy the experts, and two-thirds of the population will be urban. Urban communities complain that control by country men, ignorant of city problems, is intolerable. Where city controls country, farmers are equally vexed. Most of the States, says Professor Merriam, are the anachronistic creatures of surveyors' chains. "The nation and the city are vigorous organs. . . . The truth is that the State is standing on slippery ground as a political unit."