Under the constitution of Chile, municipalities constituted a part
of the general government, and until recent years were controlled by
national authority. Article 127 of the Constitution, 1833, says:
“The governor is the chief of all the municipalities in his department,
and president of that one in which his capital is established. The
sub-delegate is president of the municipality in his sub-delegation.”
The Intendentes, or governors of provinces, with jurisdiction over
the cities and towns in their respective territories, are appointed
by the president, and they in turn appoint the sub-delegates. All
public improvements and municipal works were formerly authorized by the
government and paid for out of the general fund. The purpose of the
framers of the constitution was apparently to keep the municipalities
out of politics. The authority of the legislative branches of the
municipal government, whose members are elected for three years, was
limited and their duties perfunctory.
The politicians of Chile were not satisfied, however, with leaving
the management of municipalities with the national government. City
offices were attractive political plums, and the control of public
works and improvements could be used to advantage in influencing
election results, and a means was found for placing them in the hands
of officials elected by popular vote.
The scheme for changing the plan of municipal government originated
with Senator Irrazaval, who having traveled in Switzerland, thought to
engraft the system employed there upon the laws of Chile. After his
return from Europe he secured the passage of a measure by Congress
which provided for the election of municipal officers by accumulative
vote. Under this system one man can cast as many ballots for a single
candidate as there are names on the ticket. If there are ten offices
to fill, the voter may cast ten ballots for one candidate instead
of voting once for each of the ten different aspirants to office.
This gave politicians an opportunity to deal with the lower classes,
to encourage unscrupulous men to engage in questionable political
practices, and the working classes now dominate municipal politics.
Having become a political factor in the cities and towns, they aspired
to higher positions, and in recent years a number of representatives of
organized labor have been elected to Congress. There is an encouraging
sign, however, in the fact that a better class of people is beginning
to manifest greater interest in political affairs. There is also a
strong public sentiment in favor of abolishing the law providing for
the accumulative vote in municipalities.
As a result of the present political system the management of
municipalities in Chile is proverbially bad. As an illustration of
this fact, there could be no better example offered than Valparaiso.
The business portion occupying a narrow strip of land along the water
front, the residence districts extending over and occupying the hills
that rise abruptly all around, Valparaiso affords natural facilities
for drainage which should render it an easy matter to establish and
maintain an excellent sewerage system. Yet it is proverbially and
notoriously filthy, and it is only the influence of a salubrious and
healthful climate that prevents the population from being annually
decimated by contagion and epidemics.
A most tragic example of municipal mismanagement was witnessed in
Valparaiso in 1905, when the smallpox plague visited the port. Finding
there in the filth of the streets, in the general lack of sanitary
observance, in the crowded, foul, disease-breeding condition of the
“conventillos” (apartment houses) and in homes of the poor, a prolific
atmosphere for contagion, the plague spread so rapidly that the number
of cases reached into the thousands, and the death rate was two hundred
daily. When the municipal authorities found the city in the throes of
a disastrous epidemic, and the public was demanding ways and means
for combating and checking the plague, and caring for those stricken
with the malady, the municipal government proved utterly impotent,
absolutely incompetent to handle the situation. The result was a
national tragedy in which thousands of lives were sacrificed. The
municipal treasury which from various sources is annually augmented
by two millions of pesos, was found empty, and to make a showing at
combating the epidemic the national government was requested to provide
means for establishing a vaccination service, hospitals, ambulance
and medical corps. Speaking of the first appropriation by the central
government for this purpose, amounting to ninety-two thousand pesos,
_La Union_, one of the leading dailies of Valparaiso, under date of
July 12, 1905, discussed the question in an article from which the
following is an abstract and translation:
“Ninety-two thousand pesos in sand, mud and mire. This fact is in
reality worthy of mention in history, because one who reads in foreign
lands of the project of law passed by the President to Congress, to
solicit the above sum to clean drains and carry away sand, mud and
mire from the streets of the first port of Chile, cannot but feel the
horror and dread for the country whose principal port on the Pacific
lies in a pestilential pool. Years go by, cruel and compassionless
plagues and calamities afflict us, the government money is squandered
upon frivolous matters which are far from curing the evils, and
Valparaiso lies in her muddy bed, inhaling the breath of death
evaporated from the infested and unhealthy drains and streets.”
The following is an extract from and translation of an editorial that
appeared in _El Mercurio_ of Valparaiso, July 8, 1905:
“The foreign press is beginning to occupy itself with the situation
of Valparaiso, and take note of the sad state in which the first
port of the Republic finds itself, and in which reigns a deplorable
and filthy abandon that helps the devastating work of smallpox that
is decimating its population. Valparaiso with its infested streets,
sidewalks destroyed, pavements removed and full of holes, with the
enormous piles of dirt and mud accumulated in residence districts;
Valparaiso, where there is no municipal street sweeping nor watering,
or even carrying away of dirt; with infested public buildings (like
the prisons), without organization to resist an epidemic, must create
the impression in the minds of people in foreign countries, who read
of its deplorable condition, that it is not the city of 200,000
inhabitants, described in geography as possessing an advanced and
cultivated population and situated in an agreeable climate; as not
being the port of so much commercial and maritime movement, which, as
a bitter irony has sometimes been called the ‘Jewel of the Pacific.’”
Translation from _La Union_, Valparaiso:
“Valparaiso is again unfortunately under the weight and opprobrium
of the great calamity of every winter. Mud covers all the streets,
traffic is interrupted, social life is suspended, and one touches
on every side mud and filth. To this is added the calamity of
administrative corruption, and life is little more than a fight of a
few civilized elements against barbarism, which destroys everything,
morally and maternally.”
(The foregoing refers to Valparaiso before the earthquake in August,
1906, which destroyed the greater part of the business portion of
the city, which has since been practically rebuilt, and the sanitary
conditions somewhat improved.)
These and similar arraignments by the press of Chile of the management
of municipalities, give a better idea of the existing conditions than
any criticism that might be offered by a foreigner.