God will inevitably bring it to the harvest.

Again and again he thundered, "The conditions must be made intolerable
to the conscience of a Christian city," and the spirit of the times
rolled back the sterile answer, "It can't be done in Cincinnati." But he
shook himself like a lion and took up the battle.

The fight for honest municipal government in Cincinnati was a mighty one
and the story of it is fairly well known, but a few pertinent facts are
essential as a background to Mr. Nelson's part in it. For more than
thirty years George B. Cox controlled the city by all the devices known
to the wily, astute politician. Few presumed to run for any office on
the Republican ticket without his approval. Unburdened by shame, he
declared, "I am the Boss of Cincinnati ... I've got the best system of
government in this country. If I didn't think my system was the best, I
would consider that I was a failure in life." He openly derided
reformers. Lincoln Steffens had surveyed and written up the city as he
had many others and declared it under the dominance of "the most vicious
political gang in any city." Few inroads were made on Cox's preserves
until after his death in 1916. At the close of World War I, the city
began to reap the bitterest and most evil results of its contentment
with benevolent despotism, and in 1922 found itself verging on
bankruptcy. Aroused citizens were determined not only that Cincinnati
should have an efficient, economical government but also that its
reputation as a sink of iniquity should be erased.

When the Republican organization perceived that an investigation was
inescapable, it determined to name the investigators! The Republican
Executive and Advisory Committee appointed a survey committee to devise
a plan to solve the city's and county's most pressing administrative and
financial problems. A distinguished group was selected; among the
members were Frank H. Nelson, George H. Warrington, Charles P. Taft, and
other eminent citizens some twenty-one in number. This committee engaged
Dr. Lent D. Upson of the Detroit Bureau of Governmental Research, who
with a large staff of specialists proceeded to turn the city and county
governments inside out. The Upson Report furnished the ammunition for
what turned out to be nothing short of a revolution.

A City Charter Committee had been organized which, after the Upson
Committee reported, proposed an amendment to the city's home rule
charter embodying the c