City to the State.=--The American city is
almost universally a creature of the State. Town and county government
were transplanted from England and naturally accompanied the settlers
into the interior, but the city came as a late artificial arrangement
for the better management of large aggregations of population, and
the form and details of government were prescribed by State charter.
The State has continued to be the guardian of the city, often to the
detriment of municipal interests. If a city wishes to change the form
of local administration, it must ask permission from the State
Legislature, and every such question becomes entangled with State
politics, and so is not likely to be judged on the merits of the
question. Indeed, the whole history of city government condemns the
intense partisanship that has directed the affairs of the city in its
own interest when the real interests of all the people irrespective of
party should have been cared for with business efficiency.

271. =Functions of the City Government.=--Among the recognized
functions of the city government is, first, the normal function of
operation. This includes the activity of the various municipal
departments like the maintenance of streets, the prosecution of
various public works, and the care of health by inspection and
sanitation. Secondly, there are the regulative and reformatory
functions, which make it necessary to organize and maintain a police
and judicial force and to provide the necessary places of detention
and punishment. Thirdly, there are educational and recreational
functions represented by schools, public libraries, parks, and
playgrounds. The tendency is for the city government to extend its
functions in order to promote the various interests of its citizens.
It is demanded that the city provide musical entertainments, theatres,
and athletic grounds, that it open the schools as social centres and
equip them for that purpose, that it beautify itself with the most
approved adornments for twentieth-century cities; in short, that it
regard itself as the agent of every kind of social welfare at whatever
cost. Obviously, this programme involves the city in large expense,
and there is a limit to the taxation and bonded indebtedness to which
it can resort, but better financial management would save much waste
and make larger funds available for social purposes without the
necessity of raising large additional sums.

272. =How the Regulative