“A city government is something more than a mere business proposition. We are concerned, as administrators, with the task of securing internal peace, virtue and good order; safety of lives, property and reputation; health and longevity; education, comfort, convenience and happiness for the inhabitants of our communities and relief of the poor. This applies to all alike, naturalized citizens, as well as those who have enjoyed the blessings and comforts of our civil and religious liberty, who have not become citizens or cast their lot entirely with us.”
This passage is taken from the opening lines of the first Mayor of Bethlehem, PA, Archibald Johnston’s – first annual message in 1918.
Johnston was born in 1865 in Phoenixville, Pa., but he and his nine siblings largely grew up in Bethlehem, where he graduated high school at age 15…