. ■ / ;iTY OF CALlrvjKP LOS ANGELES 1/ \ \ ^^lOOL STATE NORMAL SCHOOL LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA DEBATERS' HANDBOOK SERIES COMMISSION PLAN OF MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT DEBATERS' HANDBOOK SERIES Direct Primaries Commission Plan of Municipal Govern- ment (2d ed. rev. and enl.) Capital Punishment Initiative and Referendum Election of United States Senators Income Tax Central Bank of the United States Woman Suffrage Enlargement of the United States Navy (3d ed. rev. and enl.) Other volumes in preparation Each volume, one dollar net /c^^ Debaters^ Handbook Series SELECTED ARTICLES , ON THE COMMISSION PLAN OF MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT Second and Enlarged Edition ^ 33 i8 COMPILED BY E. CLYDE ROBBINS MINNEAPOLIS THE H. W. WILSON COMPANY 1910 ' \ o H "^Hb EXPLANATORY NOTE There is no denying the increasing interest in the commis- sion form of city government. While this volume was originally prepared for the use of debaters and students, the demand for it by libraries and members of clubs and organizations w^ho are everywhere studying this question, has rendered necessary a new edition within a year. The present volume contains all the material included in the first edition, and has been brought up to date by the addition of recent articles and references. All articles have been edited so as to avoid useless repetition. The general arrangement followed in the first edition has been preserved. The introduction deals briefly with the general municipal situation, and leads up to the commission plan. The general discussion consists of a series of articles explaining the relationship of the commission plan to other important municipal problems. Following this, are the affirmative and negative dis- cussions, respectively. A page of data concerning the commission plan, compiled especially for the original volume and brought up to date in this edition, will be found of value to the student. There is also a brief of the question; and a bibliography, so complete as to include all important material, and so arranged as to let the investigator know at once the value of each reference. This bibliography has been enlarged by the inclusion of a number of references to articles published since the appearance of the first edition. Libraries that do not contain a complete file of magazines, pamphlets and late municipal books, will find this volume an inexpensive yet practical method of supplying the de- mand for material on the commission question. It is also recom- mended to legislators, members of city councils, business men, in short, to all who are interested in the betterment of city gov- ernment. CONTENTS Brief xi Bibliography General References xv Affirmative References xviii Negative References xxiv i ntroduction i General Discussion Rowe, Prof. L. S. Problems in Good City Government.... 7 Howe, William W. Municipal History of New^ Orleans.... John Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science 13 Robbins, E. Clyde. State Administration and the Commis- sion Plan IS Munro, William Bennett. Galveston Plan of City Govern- ment. .. .National Municipal League, Proceedings, 1907 26 Shambaugh, Benjamin F. Des Moines Plan of City Gov- ernment Ameri- can Political Science Association, Proceedings, 1907 38 Affirmative Discussion Berryhill, James A. Commission Government : A General Statement 43 Sherman, E. R. Commends Commission Plan Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette 46 Huston, Charles D. Commission Plan in Cedar Rapids.... ■ Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette 49 Cost of Commission Plan Cedar Rapids Republican 54 Interest in the Commission Plan.. Cedar Rapids Republican 54 Whitlock, Brand. Spread of the Galveston Plan Circle 56 .Cheesborough, Edmund R. Galveston's Commission Plan Citizen's Bulletin (Cincinnati) 59 viii CONTENTS Des Moines Plan a Great Success Citizen's Bulletin (Cincinnati) 62 Commission Government Citizen's Bulletin (Cincinnati) 63 Bradford, Ernest S. Commission Plan: What it Means.. Citizen's Bulletin (Cincinnati) 64 Des Moines Plan: Questions and Answers City Hall (Des Moines) 69 State Experts Like Plan Daily Capital (Des Moines) "j^ Cost of Des Moines Plan Des Moines Evening Tribune 74 Galveston City Election. .Des Moines Register and Leader 78 Plan Not at Fault Des Moines Register and Leader 79 Finty, Tom. Commission Plan in Texas. .Galveston News 80 Sampson, Henry E. Des Moines Plan Midwestern (Des Moines) 87 Commission Plan Oskaloosa (Iowa) Daily Herald 88 National View of the Des Moines Plan Washington (D. C.) Times 89 Sampson, Henry E. Year under the Des Moines Plan Wealth (Des Moines) 97 Negative Discussion Chadwick, Rear Admiral F. E. Newport Charter American Political Science Association, Proceedings, 1906 101 Herriott, Prof. F. L Defects of Commission Plan 108 Holly, Charles O. Comments on the "Proposed Galveston- • Des Moines Plan" of Government iii Holly, Charles O. Defects of the Des Moines Plan 119 Starzinger, Vincent. City not a Business Corporation 126 Starzinger, Vincent. Commission : Not a Superior Legis- lative Body 121 Starzinger, Vincent. Superior Legislation 122 Some Fundamental Political Principles Applied to Munic- ipal Government Texas Bulletin (University of) 123 Webster, Walter A. Commission is an Oligarchy 126 Webster, Walter A. Government by Commission 130 White, Clinton L. Failure of Commission Plan Cedar Rapids Evening Times 133 Palda, J. R. Commission Plan Cedar Rapids Republican 134 Pie for Politicians Burlington Evening Gazette (Iowa) 139 CONTENTS ix Municipal Government by Commission City Hall (Des Moines) 151 Organized Labor Opposes Commission Plan Iowa Unionist (Des Moines) 154 Wise, W. W. Des Moines Plan. .Midwestern (Des Moines) 156 City Council Needed No Less than a Mayor Plain Talk (Des Moines) 159 Jordan, W. N. Some Facts and Figures Plain Talk (Des Moines) 160 Municipal Reforms Needed Plain Talk (Des Moines) 169 Dominant Mayor Essential in Good City Government Plain Talk (Des Moines) 171 Commission System and Non-Partizan Government Plain Talk (Des Moines) 174 Facts Concerning Commission Plan 177 BRIEF * Introduction I. '^Only evils arising from the form of city government which separates the legislative and executive powers will be considered. II. "^hat these evils are recognized is shown by the present tendency toward the concentration of powers. III. v/This plan has generally failed where the concentration has been but partial. A. New York City concentrated executive power and retained a weak council. B. The city of Boston has a similar plan. IV. '"'Naturally both of these cities are now considering the advisability of adopting the commission form. V. Numbers of other cities are moving in the same direction and many have adopted the plan. VI. While the isolated legislative body is needed in state and national governments, there are many peculiar condi- tions in the city which make it unessential. A. The city is not a sovereign body. B. The work is largely administrative. C. The territory is small. VII. The isolated council has failed in city government since A. In practice legislative and administrative work cannot be separated. 1. In some cities the mayor dominates in both the administrative and legislative work. 2. In others the council dominates in both. VIII. This tendency to concentrate with a fixing of powers points to a commission form of government as the proper form. xii BRIEF Brief Proper — Affirmative I. xA.merican cities should adopt a commission form of gov- ernment because it is desirable for \^. It fixes responsibility in administration for I. Each commissioner is held responsible for the efficient conduct of a specific department of city administration. \.S. It fixes responsibility in legislation for 1. The legislative body is small. 2. Each legislator is intelligently informed as to the city's needs. II. V/l'he commission form provides a most efficient legislative body in the commission council for vA. The legislative and administrative work of the city are properly and unalterably connected. B. The councilmen have a direct and technical knowledge of city affairs. C. The councilmen represent the whole city. III. The commission form provides a most efficient administra- tive body for A. It secures dispatch in business. B. It stimulates civic interest. C. It secures economy. Brief Proper — Negative I. American cities should not adopt a commission form, for it does not provide a proper correlation of depart- ments for A. Success in city government depends upon such corre- lation, for I. The cabinet form, successful in Europe and Can- ' ada, provides such a correlation. 2. The mayor and council form have succeeded with such a correlation. 3. The program of the National Municipal League demands such a correlation for a prac'.ical city government. BRIEF xni II. The proper remedy for existing evils lies not in a change of form, but in a removal of causes, for A-. A removal of bad social and economic conditions has secured successful city government. B. The introduction of bad social and economic condi- tions has secured a like result. C. Greater local self-government has been a strong factor in securing similar results. *A detailed brief of both sides of the question with para- graph references will be sent to any one upon request. Ad- dress, Registrar, State University of Iowa. (Debating Bulletin, No. 206.) BIBLIOGRAPHY An asterisk (*) preceding a reference indicates that the entire article or a part of it lias been reprinted in this volume. General Refekences ' Bibliograpliies Lytton, Edward C. Des Moines Plan of Commission Govern- ment. Digest and References. Address Des Moines, Iowa. Can be obtained upon request. United States. Library of Congress — Division of Bibliography. List of References Relating to City Government by Commis- sion. 1909. Address Washington, D. C. Can be obtained upon request. Wisconsin University. University Extension Division. Commis- sion Plan of City Government. Bulletin. Serial No. 255; Gen- eral Series. No. lA^- Can be obtained upon request. Books, Pamphlets *.A.merican Political Science Association, Proceedings, 1907. 4 : 189-92. Des Moines Plan of City Government. Prof. Benja- min F. Shambaugh, State University of Iowa. Bryce, James. American Commonwealth. Vol L pp. 662-6. City Commission Charter Act : a Representative City Govern- ment. Published by the City Club of Topeka, Kan. Can be obtained upon request. Commission Plan : Debates between Universities of Iowa and Wis., and Iowa and Minn, with a brief and a bibliography. $1.00. Address Forensic League, State University of Iowa, Iowa City, la. This is a very fundamental discussion of the question. Should . be given to debaters after they have acquired a good knowledge of the issues. Libraries and coaches should purchase. xvi BIBLIOGRAPHY Deming, H. E. Government of American Cities; A Program of Democracy. Galveston Plan. pp. 97-101, 123, 161. G. P. Put- nam's Sons, New York. '09. This book also contain.? a reprint of tlie municipal program of the National municipal league. Des Moines, Charter of. Address City Clerk, Des Moines. Same as Iowa Session Laws on Commission Plan. Des Moines, First Annual Report. Mr. 31, '09. Can be obtained upon request. Address City Clerk, Des Moines. Galveston : Charter, as passed by the 28th Legislature, 1903. Can be obtained upon request. Apply City Clerk, Galveston. Goodnow, Frank J. City Government in the United States- Boards vs. Commissioners, pp. 191-203. The Century Co., New- York. '04. A good general text book dealing with all phases of municipal government. Hamilton, John J. Dethronement of the City Boss. Funk and Wagnalls Co., New York. '10. A stu'ly of commission government particularly from the affirmative point of view. Houston : Charter, as passed by the 29th Legislature, 1905. Can be obtained upon request. Apply City Clerk of Houston. Iowa Law Providing for Municipal Government, etc. Published by Order of City Council, Cedar Rapids, la. '08. Can be obtained upon request. *Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science. 7 : 155-87. Ap. '89. ^Municipal History of New Orleans. Wm. W. Howe. *National Municipal League, Proceedings of the Providence Con- ference for Good City Government, 1907. Galveston Plan of City Government. William Bennett Munro. pp. 142-55. *Robbins, E. Clyde. State Administration and the Commission Plan. *Rowe, L. S. Problems of City Government. Chap. VIII. Also Commission Government, pp. 198-307. D. Appleton Co., New York, '08. A good general text book dealing with all phases of municipal government. BIBLIOGRAPHY xvii Magazines American Political Science Review, i : 621-6. Ag. '07. Des Moines Plan of Municipal Government. Robert Argyll Camp- bell. Arena 32: 377-91. O. '04. Democracy and Municipal Government. • B: O. Flower. Arena. 41 : 38-41. Ja. '09. Better City Government. L. F. C. Garvin. Recommended for purchase. Boston Evening Transcript. Ap. 11, '08. Commission Government in Texas. Albert Bushnell Hart. Citizens' Bulletin. 4:1. D. '08. Public Utilities Control in Wis- consin. Address by Dr. B. H. Meyers. Delivered before meeting of National Municipal League and j\merican Civic Association. City Hall (Des Moines). 10:265-70. Ja. '09. Des Moines Charter. Law in full creating Commission Plan in Iowa. *City Hall (Des Moines). 10:272. Ja. '09. Questions and An- swers concerning the Des Moines Plan. City Hall (Des Moines). 10:405. Je. '09. Danger of Electing the Wrong Men. Richard C. Dorby. Answer by Commissioner MacVicar. Educational Review. 37 : 362-74. Ap. '09. City Schools under the Commission Plan of City Government. Independent. 58:706-9. Mr. 30, '05. City Government. G. Smith. Independent. 62 : 1367. Je. 6, '07. One Man City Government. Municipality (Madison, Wis.). S. '09. City Government. Com- missioner Ford H. MacGregor. Address before League of Wisconsin Municipalities, at Monette, Wis. Jl. 21-23, 'o9- Political Science Quarterly. 15: 426-51, 675-709. S.-D. '00. Coun- cil Government versus Mayor Government. E: D. Durand. Political Science Quarterly. 17:609-30. D. '02. Referendum and Initiative in City Government. John R. Commons. Political Science Quarterly. 21 : 434-46. S. '06. Municipal Codes in the Middle West. J. A. Fairlie. Recommended for purchase. Review of Reviews. 36 : 623-34. N. '07. Spread of Galveston Plan of City Government. xviii BIBLIOGRAPHY Affirmative References Books, Pamphlets *Berryhill, James G. Commission Government. A General State- ment Prepared for the Commercial Club of Des Moines. Berryhill, James G. Des Moines Plan of Municipal Government. Read before Iowa State Bar Association. Jl. 9, '08, at Wa- terloo, la. City Government by Commission. Report of a Committee of the Commercial Club of Peoria, 111., on Commission Govern- ment as operated in Des Moines. Can be obtained upon request. Address Secretary of Club. Dillon, Sidney J. City Government by Commission. Address be- fore Economic Club of Boston. Ja. 21, '08. Can be obtained upon request. Address Secretary of Club. Eliot, Charles W. City Government by Commission. Address be- fore Economic Club of Boston. Ja. 11, '07. Can be obtained upon request. Address Secretary of Club. Fuller, O. M. Municipal Government by Commission. Address be- fore Chamber of Commerce of Erie, Pa. Ap. 15, '09. Can be obtained upon request. Address Secretary of Chamber. Head, James M. City Government by Commission. Address be- fore Economic Club of Boston. Ja. 11, '07. Can be obtained upon request. Address Secretary of Club. Houston. Annual Report of Mayor (Message) and Reports of City Officials of Houston, for years 1905-9. Can be obtained upon request. Apply City Clerk, Houston. Illinois. Senate. Commission Government of Galveston, Houston, and Dallas. Report made to the Senate of Illinois by the special sub-committee appointed to investigate. Can be obtained upon request. Apply Secretary of State, Springfield, 111. ixational Municipal League, Proceedings of Atlantic City Con- ference for Good City Government, 1906. pp. 181-93. Success of the Galveston Experiment. E. R. Cheesborough. Libraries are recommended to purchase this report. ♦National Municipal League, Proceedings of the Providence Conference for Good City Government, 1907. pp. 142-55. Gal- veston Plan of City Government. William B. Munro. Same article as appears in Chautauquan. 51: 110-24. Je. '08. Li- braries are recommended to purchase this report. BIBLIOGRAPHY xix National Municipal League, Proceedings of Providence Con- ference for Good Citj' Government, 1909. pp. 156-65. Des Moines Plan of City Government. Silas B. Allen. Libiaiies are recommended to purcha.se this report. Niday, J. R. Business Idea in Municipal Government. Can be obtained upon request. Apply City Clerk, Houston. Rice, W. B. City Government by Commission. Address delivered at Charlotte, N. C. N. '08. Can be obtained upon request. Address Mayor W. B. Rice, Houston. Turner, George Kibbe. City Government by Commission. 'Ad- dress before Economic Club of Boston, Ja. 11, '07. Can be obtained upon request. Address Secretary of Club. Magazines Arena. 38:8-13. Jl. '07. Galveston and Houston. G. W. James. Arena. 38:144-9. Ag. '07. Houston and its City Commission. G. W. James. Arena. 38:431-2. O. '07. Unguarded Commission Government. Arena. 38 : 432-6. O. '07. Des Moines Plan : a Model of Guarded City Government. Broadway Magazine. 17:547-52. F. '07. Municipal Government by Commission. Jedar Rapids Evening Gazette. O. 2, '07. Commission Plan Suc- cessful and Ideal. Raymond of Chicago Tribune. Reprinted from Chicago Tribune. Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette. O. 31, '07. Commission Plan. John W. Barry. Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette. N. 21, '07. Two Answers to Mr. Palda by Attorney A. T. Cooper and A. H. Wolf. Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette. N. 26, 'qy. Objections to the Commission Plan Answered. Attorney Henry Rickel. Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette. N. 29, '07. Commission Plan : Once IMore. Veritas. *Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette. Mr. 25, '09. Commends Commis- sion Plan. Address by Commissioner E. R. Sherman before the Commercial Club, Sioux Falls (S. D.), Mr. 24, '09. *Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette. Mr. 31, '09. Commission Plan in Cedar Rapids. Chas. D. Huston, Address of Commissioner,. XX BIBLIOGRAPHY before Brotherhood of BurHiigton (la.) Presbyterian Church, Mr. 30, '09. *Cedar Rapids Republican. N. 3, '07. Editorial : Cost of Commis- sion Plan. *Cedar Rapids Republican. N. 7, '07. Editorial : Interest in the Commission Plan. Century. 74:970. O. '07. Des Moines Plan of City Government. H. E. Sampson. Chautauquan. 50 : 168-70. Ap. '08. Municipal Government by Commission. *Chautauquan. 51:110-24. Je. '08. Galveston Plan. William Ben- nett Munro. Same as in article in National Municipal League, Proceedings of Providence Confeience for Good City Government, 1907. pp. 142-55. Recommended for purchase. *Circle. 2:289-90. N. '07. Spread of Galveston Plan. Brand Whitlock. *Citizens' Bulletin (Cincinnati). 6:1. Ap. 18, 'c8. Commission Plan. E. R. Cheesborough. Same article in Galveston Daily News. Ap. '08. Citizens' Bulletin (Cincinnati). 7:4. Ap. 3, '09. Editorial: Com- mission Government. *Citizens' Bulletin (Cincinnati). T."]. Ap. 10, '09. Des Moines Plan. Reprinted from Springfield (Mass.) Republican. *Citizens' Bulletin (Cincinnati). T'.'J. My. 8, '09. Commission Government. Reprinted from Springfield (Mass.) Republican. Citizens' Bulletin (Cincinnati). 7: 7. My. 15. '09. Des Moines Plan. Reprinted from "^'orld's Work. *Citizens' Bullletin (Cincinnati). 7:1-2. Jl. 3, '09. Commission Plan : What it Means. Ernest S. Bradford. Reprinted from Municipal Journal. City Hall (Des Moines). 10: 252-7. Ja. '09. Municipal Govern- men. Commissioner Chas. D. Huston of Cedar Rapids. Reprinted from Bulletin of League of American Municipalities, ])es Moines. City Hall (Des Moines). 10:284-7. F. '09. Commission Plan of City Government. BIBLIOGRAPHY xxi City Hall (Des Moines). 10:299-300. F. '09. New Charter for Jacksonville. City Hall (Des Moines). 10:300. F. '09. Commission System for Chicago. R. T. Crane. Reprinted from open letter in Chicago Record Herald. City Hall (Des ]\Ioines). 10:300-301. F. '09. Texas Experiments. Shearon Bonner. Reprinted from Nashville American. City Hall (Des Moines). 10:316-9. Mr. '09. City Government l)y Commission. Commissioner John MacVicar of Des Moines. *City Hall (Des Moines). 10:357-9. Ap. '09. Des Moines Plan followed by Questions and Answers. *City Hall (Des Moines). 10:376-8. My. '09. National View of the Des Moines Plan. Reprinted from Washington (D. C.) Times. City Hall (Des Moines). 12:99-100. S. '10. City Government by Commission. Mayor Grant Conrad of San Diego, California. City Hall (Des Moines). 12:100-2. S. '10. City Government by Commission. Mr. Powell, Commissioner of Public Works, Ft. Worth, Texas. City Hall (Des Moines). 12:106-8. S. '10. City Governmer.t by Commission. Honorable C. L. Davidson, Mayor of Wichita, Kansas. *Daily Capital (Des Moines). Ag. 5, '09. State Experts Like Plan. *Des Moines Evening Tribune. Jl. 17, '09. Cost of Des Moines^ Plan. *Des Moines Register and Leader. Je. i, '09. Editorial: Galveston City Election. *Des Moines Register and Leader. Ag. 10, 09. Plan not at Fault. Everybody's. 22 : 435-47. Ap. '10. Sanity and Democracy for American Cities. C. E. Russell. ♦Galveston News. Ap. 17, '09. Commission Plan in Texas. Tom Finty. Gunton's Magazine. 27 : 559-70. D. '04. Government of Municipal- ities by Boards of Commissioners. C. Arthur Williams. Independent. 56:1382. Je. 16, '04. New Galveston. W. B. Slos- son. xxii BIBLIOGRAPHY Independent. 62 : 806-7. Ap. 4, '07. Way to Decent City Govern- ment. Independent. 63 : 195-200. Jl. 25, '07. Government by Commis- sion in Texas. W. B. Slosson. Recommended for purchase. Independent. 64: 1409-10. Je. 18, '08. Three Great Experiments. Independent. 66: 194-5. Ja. 28, '09. Example of Haverhill. De Mont Goodyear. Independent. 67: I159. N. 18, '09. Progress of Charter Reform. Independent. 68: 415-6. F. 24, '10. Experience of Haverhill. D. Goodyear. La Follette's Weekly Magazine. I : 7. Mr. 2"/, '09. Governing Cities by Commission. Don. E. Mowry. McClnre. i"] : 610-20. O. '06. Galveston: a Business Corporation. G. K. Turner. Recommer.ded for purchase. McClure. 35:97-108. My. '10. New American City Government. G. K. Turner. Midland Municipalities. 16: 77-83. D. '08. Six Months of City Government by Commission. ^Midwestern (Des Moines). 2,'-~i-yi- Je. '09. Des Moines Plan. Afiirmative : Henry E. Sampson ; Negative : W. W. Wise. .Municipal Journal and Engineer. 25:174-5. Ag. 5, '08. Commis- sion Government in Houston. "Difference Between This and Galveston Plan." E. S. Bradford. Nation. ^2^: :;,22. O. 18, '06. Municipal Government by Commis- sion. W. T. Arnst. New England Magazine, n.s. 70:393-7. Je. '09. Municipal Govern- ment. Charles W. Eliot. Recommended for purchase. *Oskaloosa (la.) Daily Herald. Ap. 6, '09. Editorial: Commission Plan. Outlook. 82 : 5. Ja. 6, '06. Concentration of Power in the Hands of the Mayor at Houston. Outlook. 83:54. My. 12, '06. Experiments. Outlook. 85:834-5. Ap. 13, "07. Texas Idea. Outlook. 85 : 839-43. Ap. 13, '07. Texas Idea : City Government by a Board of Directors. H. J. Haskell. Outlook. 86 : 127-8. My. 25, '07. Municipal Efficiency. BIBLIOGRAPHY xxiii Outlook. 89:495-7. Jl. 4, '08. Spread of the Commission Plan. Overland, n.s. 50:324-80. O. '07. Des Moines Plan of City Gov- ernment. S. J. Dillon. South Atlantic Quarterly. 8:174-83. Ap. '09. Municipal Govern- ment by Commission. C. W. Eliot. Speaker. 3 : 404-8. S. '08. Commission System of Government : a Brief. Dartmouth College. Success Magazine. 11:83-4. F- 08. Something New in Govern- ment. H. S. Cooper. Survey. 23: 502-4. Ja. 8, '10. Government by Commission in Colo- rado Springs. W. D. Foster. Technical World. 12:621-8. F. '10. Bringing Dead Cities to Life. F. G. Moorhead. *Washington (D. C.) Times. National View of the Des Moines Plan. Reprinted in City Hall. 10: 376-8. My. '09. Wealth (Des Moines), i : 22-6. Ja. '09. Digest of the Des Moines Plan. Wealth (Des Moines). 1:20-6. F. '09. Des Moines Plan of Municipal Government. James G. Berryhill. Wealth (Des Moines), 1:19-27. Mr. '09. Des Moines Plan of Municipal Government. James G. Berryhill. ♦Wealth (Des Moines). 1:24-9; 1:12-5; 1:4-6. My.-Jl. '09. Year under the Des Moines Plan. Henry E. Sampson. World To-Day. 7 : 1462. N. '04. New Galveston. C. Arthur Wil- liams. World To-Day. 11:943-6. S. '06. Governing Cities by Commis- sion. C. Arthur Williams. World To-Day. 18:487-90. My. '10. Breaking Downward Lines in American Cities. C. Dehoney. World's Work. 14 : 9419-26. O. '07. City Government by Fewer Men. C. W. Eliot. Recommended for purchase. World's Work. 18:11533. My. '09. Des Moines Plan of City Government. World's Work. 18:11639. Je. '09. Another City for Commis- sion Government. xxiv BIBLIOGRAPHY Negative References Books, Pamphlets ♦American Political Science Association, Proceedings, 1906. 3 : 58-66. INewport (R. I.) Charter. Rear Admiral F. E. Chad- wick. Beale, J. H., Jr. City Government by Commission. Address be- fore Economic Club of Boston, Ja 21, '08. Can be obtained upon request. Address Secretary of Club. Ivins, William M. City Government by Commission. An ad- dress by Chairman of Committee on the Revised Charter of New York before the Economic Club of Boston. Ja. 21, '08. Can be obtained upon request. Address Secretary of Club. *Herriott, F. I. Defects of Commission Plan. Delivered before Prairie Club, Des Moines, Ja. 12, '07. *Holly, Charles O. Comments on the "Proposed Galveston-Des Moines Plan" of Government. Des Moines, Iowa. Out of print. *Holly, Charles O. Defects of the Des Moines Plan. National Municipal League, Proceedings of the Providence Con- ference for Good City Government, 1907. pp. 166-77. New- port Plan. Rear Admiral Chadwick. Libraries are recommended to purchase this report. National Municipal League, Proceedings of Providence Confer- ence for Good City Government, 1907. pp. 178-92. How Chica- go is Winning Good Government. George C. Sikes, Secretary of Municipal Voters League of Chicago. Libraries are recommended to purchase this report. Report of the Sub-Committee on Plans Other Than Commission Form, As Presented to Committee of 49 to Prepare New City Charter for Atlanta, Georgia, 1910. Address City Clerk, Atlanta, Ga. *Starzinger, Vincent. City : Not a Business Corporation. *Starzinger, Vincent. Commission : Not a Superior Legislative Body. *Starzinger, Vincent. Superior Legislation. Texas. Bulletin of the University of. Je. i, '05. Some Funda- mental Political Principles applied to Municipal Government. Samuel Peterson. Out of print. BIBLIOGRAPHY xxv ♦Webster, Walter A. Commission is an Oligarchy. *Webstcr, Walter A. Government by Commission. Webster, Walter A. Problem of City Government. Sent on application. No. 6, Beacon St., Boston, Mass. Magazines ♦Burlington Evening Gazette (Iowa). D. 20, '09. Pie for Politi- cians. Reprinted from Los Angeles Times. *Cedar Rapids Evening Times. D. 8, '08. Failure of Commission Plan. Hon. Clinton L. White of Sacramento, Calif. *Cedar Rapids Republican. O. 22, '07. Commission Plan. J. R. Palda. Written to the Bohemian Independent Political Club of Cedar Rapids. Out of print. *Chautauquan. 51 : 125-6. Je. '08. Newport Plan of City Govern- ment. Rear Admiral F. E. Chadwick. *City Hall (Des Moines). 10: 258-61. Ja. '09. Municipal Govern- ment by Commission. Discussion by Messrs. Grosser, Gemun- der, and Oliver. City Hall (Des Moines). 10: 273-4. J^- '09- Control of Municipal Public Utilities by States. Robert O. Brennan, City Solicitor of Des Moines. City Hall (Des Aloines). 10: 408-13. Je. '09. Experts Discuss Des Moines Plan. Debate between W. W. Wise and Commissioner MacVicar. City Hall (Des Moines). 12: 102-6. S. '10. City Government by Commission. Honorable D. L. Love, Mayor of Lincoln, Neb. *Iowa Unionist (Des Moines). Ap. 12, '07. Organized Labor Opposes Commission Plan. Kansas City Post. My. 25, '08. Defects of Commission Govern- ment : Open Letter. Judge T. Sims. ♦Midwestern (Des Moines). 3: 35-6. Je. '09. Des Moines Plan. W. W. Wise. Plain Talk (Des Moines). Chiefly Assumption. ♦Plain Talk (Des Moines). Ja. 9, '07. City Council Needed No Less Than a Mayor. Based on Prof. F. I. Herriott's Com- pilations. ♦Plain Talk (Des Moines). Ja. 16, '07. Some Facts and Figure>. W. N. Jordan. xxvi BIBLIOGRAPHY *Plaiii Talk (Des Moines). Ja. 19, '07. Municipal Reforms Needed. *Plain Talk (Des Moines). Ja. 26, '07. Galveston Plan Hostile to Business Efficiency. Prof. F. I. Herriott. Same as address before Prairie Club, Des Moines, Ja. 26, '07. *Plain Talk (Des Moines). F. 2, '07. Dominant Mayor Essen- tial in Good City Government. Based on Prof. F. I. Herriott's Compilations. *Plain Talk (Des Moines). F. 16, '07. Commission System and Non-Partizan Government. Prof. F. I. Herriott's Compilations. Springfield (Mass.) Union. D. 3, '07. Newport Plan. Rear Admiral Chadwick. Before Economic Club. An asterisk (*) preceding a reference Indicates that the entire iuticle or a part of it has been reprinted In this volume. SELECTED ARTICLES ON THE COMMISSION PLAN OF MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT INTRODUCTION Various Forms of City Government At present ther e is no uniform system of city government in the United States. Not unly do the cities of the several commonwealths have different forms, but, in manv instance s municipalities within the same state operate under widely vary- ing plans of organization. Such a situation has made the ques- tion of city government in this country both complex and difficult. Furthermore, a close study of the problem shows that while cer- tain cities have, under a given form of organization, been suc- cessfully governed, other cities of appioximately the same size, often in the same state and under the same organization, have become notorious examples of the failure of the plan. Some- times the breakdown has been sudden, like the collapse of a great building. At other times, it has been as the gradual crumbling away of a stone wall, until the whole structure was undermined, and the machinery of government rendered ineffectual and use- less. The fact should be borne in mind in a study of municipal government that the several forms now in existence are the re- sult of historical development. They are the outgrowth of our industrial and social conditions. Five distinct types of city gov; ernment have been ev olved . In addition there are many modifi- cations of these forms. 2 COMMISSION PLAN OF _The earliest plan was the council system. It received its name from the fact that the__council exercised the important functions of government. This body consisted of a mayor, a recorder, the aldermen, and the councillors. In addition to be- inj- members of the council, the mayor, the recorder, and the aldermen performd judicial and police functions. Th£_s^s- tem was borrowed from England. Soon after the adoption of the federal constitution, however, American cities began to pattern their government after the plan of national organization. That is, city functions were divid- ed into three classes: the executive, the legislative, and the ju- dicial. This system became known as the federal plan, due, of course, to its close analogy to the divisions of the federal govern- ment. The form soon became, and still is in general use. By the middle..pf the nineteenth century certain cities insti- tuted the board systejrn. Under this plan important functions, such as police, fire, public health, etc., were delegated to boards or commissions. In much of their work these boards acted in- dependently of the city council. In fact, they often exercised quasi-legislative power in addition to their administrative duties. Toward the close of the century another form — the mayor sys- tem-jwas established. This plan is sometimes called the one man government, because all power is vested in the hands of the mayor. He is held responsible for the conduct of municipal business. ,The latest type of organization to excite wide spread interest is the commission plan. This system provides that the control of the city shall be vested in a small body of men elected at large. These men are known as commissioners. They devote all their time to city affairs. Individually they perform work of admin- istration, while collectively they pass on all needed legislation. Thus it is seen that among these forms are found extreme types of city organization. Oji. the one hand is the early coun- cil system, now practically extinct, where large powers and re- spon^bilities^rest in a general legislative body. At the other ex- treme is the commission plan, in which the same group of men do the work of administration and legislation. The problem which is at present confronting the American people is which MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 3 of the various forms, if any, is best suited to the average Amer- ican municipality. There are many who maintain that no one form will prove satisfactory to all cities, because of varying political, social and economic conditions. Functions of City Government When determining the form of organization a government should have, it is necessary that there should be a careful consid- eration of the functions which that government has to perform. It is readily seen that the problems with which city officials have to deal are vastly different in character from those that confront officers of the state and nation. Our federal government must solve such political and eco- nomic questions as Inter-state commerce, the tariff, foreign rela- tions, etc. — problems, which, by their very nature, require extend- ed legislation, administration, and adjudication. State govern- ment is concerned largely with matters of broad policy, such as regulation of liquor traffiic within the commonwealth, controlling state commerce, maintaining state institutions, and passing mani- fold laws of a general character. In state government, as in federal, experience has proved the wisdom of retaining a form of organization in which the legislative, administrative, and ju- dicial departments are separated one from the other. Questions which arise in the conduct of municipal affairs, however, do not always require the checking and balancing be- tween departments so essential in state and national governments. Some investigators go so far as to assert that such checking and balancing does not operate at all in city government. For exam- ple, it is not found in the judicial department. Municipal courts do not question the validity of acts of the city council, or of ad- ministrative officers. They confine themselves almost wholly to hearing infringements of municipal ordinances. This is due to the fact that city courts must conform their rulings to the dic- tum of state tribunals, while in all cases of importance affecting life, liberty, or property, the citizen has ample recourse from the city court to the state bench. One duty of city government is administration of state laws. City officials are compelled by the state legislature to enforce all state laws within the city limits. 4 - COMMISSION PLAN OF The great function, however, of the city is concerned with caring for its own needs. These include such enterprises as building bridges, paving streets and constructing sewers. Well equipped and highly organized police and fire departments are maintained. Public health must be protected ; the poor and sick given relief. A multiplicity of duties of this nature devolves upon the city. In addition, many matters of deliberation and policy are worked out. For instance, when the annual budget of the city of Boston is compiled, those in charge must bear in mind that the city spends annually over $40,000,000, and has pay rolls including 12,000 individuals. Often projects are undertaken which cover long periods of time, while the number of minor legislative acts, such as ordinances, contracts, etc., soon reach into the thousands. All these things, and many more, must be performed by a modern municipality. Decay of the Council A matter the investigator must bear in mind before he ar- rives at a conclusion as to the nature of the proposition before him is the fact, undeniable and indisputable, that within the last fifty years there has been a gradual disintegration of the city council as a separate legislative organ of government. As re- grettable as this may be, it has, nevertheless, actually taken place. This decay has doubtless been due to a number of causes, such as:— interference of the state legislature in city affairs, the con- fusing of city issues with state and national politics, the attempt on the part of council bodies to perform administrative functions, the failure of citizens to elect capable men to ofiice, and very often, because council bodies have been so organized as to be en- tirely unsuited to meet the demands of a twentieth century city. The Issue The issue before the student of municipal government is clear. It is: Are the duties and functions of city government of such a nature as to require a form of organization in which the legislative and administrative departments are separate, or can the work be better performed by merging the legislative and administrative branches into one body? The cities of England MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT S and of continental Europe, which are admittedly superior in government to those in America, have answered this question by jealously maintaining their sej)aratc city councils. In the United States adherents of a separate council are numbered by the thousands. The city of Newport, Rhode Island, at present conceded to be one of the best governed cities, has a separate council of about one hundred members. This body performs the legislative and deliberative functions of government. It does not administer. On the other hand, in hundreds of American municipaliiies conducted according to the prevailing form — by separate legisla- tive and administrative departments — such form of government has fallen into disrepute. It has been impossible to locate re- sponsibility either in legislation or administration. Matters of accounting, expenditures, enforcement of laws, and granting of franchises have been conducted in a most unbusinesslike, often corrupt manner. To these cities the commission plan, which eliminates entirely the separate council, which fixes individual responsibility, which is simple in construction, quick and effective in operation, and essentially businesslike in every detail, has come as a welcome relief. It cannot be too emphatically stated that if the student is to get a clear conception of the issues involved in the commission problem he must keep his point of view so broad that he can see in just what ways his particular issue is affected by other important movements. To assist in doing this there has been included in this book a section called general discussion. In this division the reader will find discussed the commission plan as it is related to other vital questions of the day. Its connection with the "old" form of city organization and its relation with present municipal movements are considered. Also a non-parti- zan consideration of the question is found here. It is advised that the articles in this section be carefully read before either the affirmative or negative material is perused. GENERAL DISCUSSION Problems in Good City Government, pp. 198-207. Prof. L. S. Rowe. Our inherited ideas of democratic government have dictated a form of city organization in which the local representative assembly or city council occupies an important position. The same political traditions dictate that the higher adminis- trative officials of the city, no matter what their functions, shall be chosen by popular election. It is a significant fact that this tenacious adherence to what we regard as the es- sentials of democracy has been contemporaneous with a totally different movement in other branches of administrative ac- tivity. The management of great business enterprises is be- ing concentrated in the executive heads of industrial corpora- tions. The responsibility for the conduct of affairs of edu- cational and charitable institutions is likewise drifting from the board to the single executive head. Even in the management of the affars of the church this tendency toward the con- centration of executive power is apparent. Wherever the form of board management is still preserved, the actual con- trol and responsibility are vested in one individual, whether he be called the president of the board or the chairman of the ex- ecutive committee. However we may regard this tendency, there is every indication that it is not merely a passing phase, but that the immediate future will witness a strengthening of its influence. Tendencies so clearly marked in American business and in- dustrial activity are certain to exert an influence on the ad- ministration of public affairs. We cannot hope permanently to preserve the illusion that political organization can be kept from the influences which are dominant in every department of our national life. S COMMISSION PLAN OF If the concentration of power in the mayor represents a permanent tendency in American administrative policy, the question immediately presents itself whether we can reconcile these changes with our views of democracy. No one will deny that the increase of executive power as well as its concentration has been accompanied by a marked increase in efficiency. The choice presented to our American communities, therefore, takes the form of an apparent opposition between democracy and ef- ficiency. Thus presented, there is little doubt as to the ultimate choice of the American people, who, above all other people of western civilization, are worshipers of efficiency. The establish- ment, therefore, of a harmonious relation between democracy and efficiency, both in thought and in action, becomes a requisite for the maintenance of those institutions which we are accustom- ed to regard as the distinctive products of American civilization. If this analysis of the present situation be correct, the out- look for the municipal council is anything but encouraging. While the analogy between a business and a municipal corpora- tion may be faulty in many respects, it is of real value when viewed from the standpoint of the organization of city depart- ments. Whether or not we . agree with this analogy, we cannot disregard the fact that the popular view with reference to the administration of the city's executive departments is moving toward the standards which have proved so successful in the management of great corporate enterprises. This means that the people are prepared to accept the same administrative standards in municipal afYairs as those which prevail in the business world. The recent proposal to give the police com- missioner of New York a term of. ten years or possibly a life tenure, would have been received with scorn and indignation fifty years ago. To-day it is regarded by many as the best means of securing an efficient administration of this service. Similarly, the increasing limitation of the powers of the municipal council is not due to any decline in the character of its membership, but rather to a growing appreciation of the dif- ficulty of enforcing responsibility against a large assembly. The repeated failure of the efforts to enforce such responsibility is accountable for the steady decline of popular interest in the work of the council. MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 9 It is significant that even in those cities in which years of effort have finally secured an improvement in the character of the men serving in the local legislative body, the betterment of the administrative service is in no sense commensurate with the amount of effort expended. The vital interest of the citizens lies in strengthening the administrative service rather than the legislative body. The gradual appreciation of this fact has led to the transference of what were formerly regarded as legis- lative functions to administrative officers. Although the move- ment is by no means uniform, the general trend of institutional development in this country is to reduce the power of the council to a control over finances, and by means of constitutional and statutory limitations to set definite limits even to this con- trol. The council is gradually assuming the position of an or- gan of government to prevent the extravagant or unwise ex- penditure of public funds. It is thus rapidly becoming a nega- tive factor in our municipal system. To an increasing extent the American people are looking to the executive not only for the execution, but also for the planning of municipal improve- ments. Even the freedom of discussion in the council is being subjected to statutory limitations by provisions requiring that the vote on financial and franchise questions shall be delayed be- yond a certain period. This decline in the power of the council involves no loss of popular control. In every city in which the mayor has been given independent powers of appointment, and has been made the real head of the administrative organization of the city, the sensitiveness of the government to public opinion has been con- siderably increased. Rightly viewed, this change involves pos- sibilities of popular control which we have hardly begun to realize. Almost every city in the country offers a number of instances in which the mayor, when supported by popular opin- ion, has been able to withstand the combined influence of the council and any machine organization that attempted to direct his action. The lessons of this experience have left their impress upon the political thought of the American people, and explain the tendency to look to the executive rather than to the legislative 10 COMMISSION PLAN OF authority for the solution of difficulties. Popular control over the city government will become more effective as public opin- ion becomes more thoroughly organized. At present we must depend upon a great number of voluntary organizations, rep- resenting different elements in the community, but which can- not from the nature of the case represent the opinion of the community as a whole. The danger involved in this tendency toward concentration of executive power is that the council will be divested not only of its administrative, but of its legislative powers as well. The desire for greater administrative efficiency may lead us to a type of government in which the determination of executive poli- cy will be left exclusively to the mayor and his heads of de- partments. This form of organization is certain to give us bet- ter government than does our present large and unwieldy coun- cil. The accumulated experience of American cities has shown that unless the council is reduced to a single chamber, with a small membership, responsibility cannot be enforced. The choice that presents itself is clear and simple. We must either make the council a small body of nine or eleven members, elected by the people, having complete power over the finances of the city, or we shall inevitably be driven to a system in which the coun- cil will disappear, and all power will be lodged in the mayor and his heads of departments. The reconciliation of the idea of popular government with the concentration of executive power represents the first step toward a better adjustment of our political thinking to the condi- tions of city life. A second and no less important step involves some further modifications in our ideals of municipal organiza- tion. American cities are organized as if they were the small towns and villages of fifty years ago. We have proceeded on the assumption that an aggressive and progressive municipal policy can be developed out of the compromise of conflicting dis- trict interests. As a matter of fact, our present plan of district representation clogs positive action and prevents the systematic planning and economical execution of great public improve- ments. Placing the mayor as a check upon the council and the MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT ii council as a check upon the mayor has served to strengthen that most baneful of political superstitions — the belief in a self- acting governmental mechanism which will carry on the work of government without the need of watchfulness and alertness on the part of the people. For every evil, no matter what its nature, we recur to the statute book. There is a widespread belief throughout the country that for every abuse there is a legislative remedy. This belief in the moralizing power of the law is one of the most insidious as well as one of the most corrupting influences in our public life. It leads us to place unenforceable laws on the statute books, and the disregard of these laws becomes the instrument of blackmail and bribery. The same political superstition pervades the organization of our city government — to construct a self-acting mechanism which will secure honesty and guarantee efficient administration. By pitting the executive against the legislative authority, by electing one official to exercise control over another, and by making ofificial terms as short as possible, we have beguiled our- selves with the illusion that it is possible to construct a mech- anism of government which requires the attention of the citizens only at stated election periods. It is not surprising that this search for a self-acting governmental machine has proved fruit- less, for it represents an attempt to relieve ourselves of a respon- sibility which we cannot throw ofif. The complexity of organiza- tion that has resulted from this attempt to secure efficiency and honesty through statutes rather than through men has done more to retard municipal progress than any other influence. The problem presented by city government in the United States is not merely to construct a well-balanced mechanism of government, but so to construct that government that it will re- quire the alertness and watchfulness of the people. The situation in Philadelphia is an instructive instance of the effect of so or- ganizing the government as to leave the people under the impres- sion that officials are so encompassed with statutory limitations that they have little power for evil. With a bicameral council, a mayor whose appointments are subject to the approval of the up- per branch of the local legislative body, and such important serv- ices as the control of education vested in a board appointed by 12 COMMISSION PLAN OF the local judiciary, authority is split to such an extent that the people believe that no official or group of officials enjoys suffi- cient power to work much harm. We fail to appreciate the fact that this splitting of authority means that harmony can be se- cured only by gathering these loose threads in the hands of some person or group of persons, who, while not officially recognized in the organization of government, exercises the real govern- mental power. The foregoing discussion has shown that industrial and so- cial organization in the United States is tending toward an in- creasing concentration of executive and administrative power, and that this movement has been accompanied by a correspond- ing increase in efficiency. In the government of our municipal- ities the fear of absolutism has led us to offer considerable re- sistance to a plan whose value is no longer questioned in other departments of organized effort. The half-hearted recognition of this principle has led to a series of makeshifts, which have failed to give satisfactory results. Instead of giving the mayor complete control over the ad- ministrative work of the city, we have, in most cases, hampered his powers of appointment, making them subject to the ap- proval of the council. The unfortunate compromises which this system has compelled the mayor to make have been laid at the door of the council, and have served further to weaken faith in local representative assemblies. If this feeling continues to in- crease in intensity, it is likely to carry us to a form of city gov- ernment in whic'h the mayor and the heads of executive depart- ments will exercise not only the administrative, but also the leg- islative functions of the municipality. The alternative that presents itself to the American people is clear and unmistakable. If we wish to preserve the council, we must be prepared to make three changes: First, to deprive it of all participation in the appointment of executive officials; sec- ondly, to transform it from a bicameral organization to a single chamber, and thirdly, to reduce its membership. Unless this is done, it is safe to predict that we shall gradually move toward a system in which both executive and legislative powers will be vested in the mayor and the heads of executive departments. MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 13 It is important for those who are interested in the betterment of city government to realize that while in the organization of government compromises may be attempted, the actual operation of any system is determined by deep underlying forces over which the individual has little control. The compromises that have been dictated by our unwillingness to accept the consequences of cer- tain fundamental canons of political organization have placed our city governments at the mercy of a small group of men who understand these principles more clearly than we, and who are able to manipulate this organization for their own ends. The traditional fear of absolutism need not deter us from making the mayor the real executive head of the city govern- ment. Correctly interpreted, this plan oflfers possibilities of popular control which our present system lacks. At all events, it is well for us to understand that the demand for efficiency, which the American people place above their desire for demo- cratic rule, will inevitably lead to this concentration of execu- tive power. The real alternative is, therefore, whether this con- centration of power will be accompanied by the destruction of the city council, or whether the city council will survive as an organ of government restricted to purely legislative func- tions. Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Politi- cal Science. 7: 155-87. April, 1889. Municipal History of New Orleans, William W. Howe. The year 1870 witnessed an experiment in municipal govern- ment in New Orleans which deserves special mention. The charter enacted in that year by the legislature, adopted what was generally known as the administrative system. The limits of the city were considerably enlarged by including what is now known as the sixth district, and was formerly Jefferson City, and the government of the municipality thus established was vested in a Mayor and seven Administrators; namely, one of Finance, one of Commerce, one of Improvements, one of Assess- ments, one of Public Accounts, and one of Waterworks and Pub- 14 COMMISSION PLAN OF lie Buildings. These officials in the first place possessed adminis- trative and executive functions corresponding to their names; and each of the seven was accordingly at the head of a bureau or department created for him by the statute as follows: a De- partment of Finance, which was the city treasury; a Department of Commerce which had general superintendence of all matters relating to markets, railroads, canals, weights and measures, the fire department and manufactories; a Department of Assess- ment, with general superintendence of all matters of taxation and license; a Department of Improvements charged with the construction, cleansing and repair of streets, sidewalks, wharves, bridges and drains; a Department of Police having charge of public order, houses of refuge and corrections, and the lighting of the city; a Department of Public Accounts which comprised all the duties of an Auditor and Comptroller; and, finally, a Department of Waterworks and Public Buildings, with super- vision of waterworks, schoolhouses, hospitals and asylums. But in the second place it was provided that the same May- or and Administrators should form the Council and in a col- lective capacity should have extensive legislative power for lo- cal purposes. In this capacity it resembles the Spanish Cabildo. Such a Council possessed naturally many valuable qualities. Its members were elected on a general ticket and were not sup- posed to represent any local clique. In the exercise of their administrative duties they became familiar with the need of their respective departments and could advocate, explain or de- fend on the floor of the city legislature what was desired or had been done in the bureau. A small and compact body, its meetings were as businesslike as those of a bank directory. Its custom was to assemble in the Mayor's parlor generally on the day before the regular weekly meeting; and sitting in com- mittee of the whole to discuss with the citizens who chose to attend, such subjects of public interest as might be brought up. Reporters from the daily press were present, and the journals of the next morning gave full particulars of the in- terchange of ideas. If the subject seemed very important and difficult, leading citizens were invited by letter or advertise- ment to attend and give their views. As an example of thorough MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 15 discussion it may be mentioned that an ordinance in relation to sewerage and drainage which was proposed in 1881, was de- bated upwards of one year, and a hearing given to every friend or opponent who desired to express his views. No system of government can pretend to be perfect; and the charter of 1870 could not satisfy every one. It was claimed that the Council under the charter was too small, and could be too easily controlled in the interests of private or corporate gain. No preponderant evidence, however, of this assertion ever appeared. The administrators as a rule, were citizens prominent either in business or politics, and as such were far more amenable to public opinion than the ordinary councilmen of the average American city. Their methods were essentially businesslike and their legislation as a whole was characterized by public spirit and progress. It is a matter of regret that the administrative system could not have been continued longer than it was, but after the adoption of the new state constitution in 1879 a powerful pressure for a complete charge was established by local poli- ticians. The legislature, accordingly, in June, 1882, adopted the present charter of New Orleans. State Administration and the Commission Plan. E. Clyde Robbins. A great political upheaval is taking place in city govern- ment in the middle west. The movement is not a sudden revolt of graft-burdened citizens, nor is it the result of ill- judged municipal agitation. Rather it is a response to funda- mental changes that mark the beginning of a new era in the industrial and political life of cities in the Mis- sissippi valley. At present, however, this movement is largely in the hands of ambitious reformers. If for any reason it should be misguided, the consequences may be dis- astrous, for its causes are powerful and permanent; but if properly directed, encouraging prospects for municipal im- provement are presented. i6 COMMISSION PLAN OF The change from existing conditions is taking two well defined courses, both of which are held with vigor and en- thusiasm. One movement is toward state administrative control over cities. At present each commonwealth exer- cises legislative control over its municipalities. The state legislature sets forth in detail the powers and functions of city government. A municipality is forbidden to use any right or privilege that is not found in the list of powers that the legislature has especially granted. Before cities may assume a new function, the legislature must pass an act expressly authorizing it. Conditions as they now exist are admittedly unsatisfac- tory. The city is the creature of the state legislature. It is subjected to all the whims and prejudices of a law-making body that is essentially partisan. This partisanship is often manifest. For instance, if a majority in the state legislature is of a given party faith, while the large cities of the state are of an opposing belief, it is not unusual for the legislature to pass measures harassing these municipalities. Often, too, there is rupture between representatives from city precincts and those from rural districts. The result is that measures pertaining to cities receive biased and improper consideration. Under legislative control the enactment of new measures, which is one of the chief functions of government, does not rest with the city but with the state legislature. As a conse- quence, municipalities find themselves unable to inaugurate needed reforms simply because they do not possess requisite governing power. The plan of state administrative control is something very diflferent from the system now in use. Strangely enough at first glance the scheme appears to take from the city the few powers that it exercises. It is nothing less than an attempt on the part of the state to supervise the actual operation of important municipal activities. The list of things that the that the state seeks to superintend includes the lighting, heat- ing, water and transportation services of the city. Over com- panies furnishing these facilities the commonwealth would institute a strict administrative supervision. MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 17 This superintendence, however, is not exercised by the legis- lature itself. In place of such regulation a state commission is established, which has supervision over the public utility cor- porations of the various cities in the state. In many respects the body is similar in nature to boards of railway commission- ers and those state commissioners that everywhere look after hospitals, asylums, and penal institutions. The other change that is taking place in municipalities of the middle west is the growing popularity of the commission plan of city government. Under such a method the work of governing the city is turned over to a single body of men. These men are called councilmen or commissioners. They are paid adequate salaries, and give their whole time to their offices. It is their sole work to govern the city upon a strictly non-partizan business basis. In some places provision is made whereby commissioners may be removed from office before their regular terms expire if, for any reason, the conduct of municipal business is disapproved by a majority of voters. Neither state administrative control nor the commission plan originated in the middle west. Both have been tried elsewhere. It is doubtful if people in the middle west are themselves conscious that they are combining in one experi- ment two of the most important municipal measures of the present day. Yet this is being done. The result is bound to be inter- esting. It may also be extremely fruitful, for no one will deny that the two great defects in present American city govern- ment are, first, in the relations existing between the state legislature and the city government, and, second, in the actual governmental machinery of the city. These are the two deficiencies that the plan of state administrative control and the commission form of government seek to correct. State Administrative Control If the plan of state administrative control over cities were simply to become an additional fixture in our machinery of government, it would be well worth studying. But it presents greater possibilities than that. There are certan things about it which arouse a legitimate hope that it will ultimately super- i8 COMMISSION PLAN OF sede the present defective and unsatisfactory legislative con- trol. If it should do this, it would stand as one of the most conspicuous measures in American municipal history. As has been suggested, the purpose of state administrative control is to give the commonwealth supervision over public service corporations — those corporations that administer to the common needs of the people of the city. Such regulation is in complete harmony with our present municipal advancement. For years it has been recognized that some of the most malig- nant evils in city government are those connected with public service corporations. Gas, electric light and street railway companies and the corporations that furnish water, heat and power have each played a part in making American city gov- ernment appear inefficient and corrupt. Only in late years has there been a general recognition of this fact. The reason why the evil was not ferreted out sooner is not difficult to explain. Public service corporations were not an act of special creation. They have matured by slow evolu- tionary process; they have grown just as the city has grown. Their life has been a part of the city's life. They are bone of its bone, and flesh of its flesh. If they had come into being over night, the next morning every citizen would have hailed their presence and to some extent at least, would have caught the possibilities of their power for good and evil. But so un- observed was the oncoming of these corporations that until comparatively recent times they developed almost undisturbed. From the very beginning they sank their roots deep into municipal life. They asked for and received long leases of cor- porate existence. Sometimes the franchises granted were perpetual. In other cases they extended over periods of from thirty to sixty and eighty years. Too often the franchises, themselves, were drawn up by the skillful lawyers of the public service corporations. There could be but one outcome of such conditions. Before long, street car companies possessed unrestricted right to lay their rails in every street, to cross all bridges, and even to regu- late their own fares. Electric light and gas companies put their poles and piping where they pleased, while water com- MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 19 panics laid along public thoroughfares mains that the average fire engine can drink dry. The citizens made no complaint. Very few of them realized the importance of such proceedings. The majority did not even know what was going on. A second stage in the development of public service cor- porations was soon reached. With the marvelous growth of the city rival companies appeared. The shorter termed fran- chises began to expire, and the city councilmen were waking up to the fact that corporate franchises possess intrinsic value just the same as the best commercial paper. The period that followed was a time of spoils: councilmen sold privileges left and right, in return for the price paid, public service corpora- tions occupied all streets, set their own standards of service and named their own rates. The amount of money which citi- zens lost during this era of exorbitant charges and abominable service can never be accurately estimated. Even as great as were the financial losses, the political abuses which arose were most stupendous. Naturally, as the emoluments of municipal offices, especially council seats, grew larger, the strife for such positions became fiercer. The ward boss was soon the dominating factor in city politics. He could name the councilmen from his district. Looking back into that period, the result seems natural. The ward boss usually had a definite understanding with cor- poration promoters. If for any reason the city council was not willing to grant the necessary franchises, it was not a great step to the state legislature. The growth of the party system in America made the state law-making body the next logical unit of political structure. The ward boss was quick to carry his appeals to this higher unit. Thus were municipal affairs ruth- lessly mixed with state and even with national politics. On the floor of the legislature there were always those willing to protect the "vested rights" of any corporation. Many were there who voted on all occasions for the party's sake. Acts hostile to individual cities were passed. Special leg- islation became a common method of procedure. This is not hard to understand when we recollect that it is the legislative body that sets forth the rights and privileges of the city. Thus 20 COMMISSION PLAN OF if a certain municipality happened to be uncompromisingly- opposed to public utility companies, it was not difficult for the legislature to enact a special measure applying to that particu- lar city, and regulating terms upon which the municipality should deal with the corporations. It was the same public service evil that existed in the preceding era of the municipal growth, only it had now grown more complex. It is from the period just described — an era of corporate and boss domination — that the American people are just emerg- ing. Especially is this true in the middle west. Only now are citizens beginning to appreciate what it means to have public service corporations under legitimate control. As a result, re- formers are searching everj'where for methods of supervision. Every kind of scheme is being suggested, but it has remained for the state administrative board to offer practical and feasible means. The idea of controlling public utility corporations by a state administrative commission is not new. In 1898 Massachusetts created a board to supervise the street railways of the common- wealth. Other states have enacted similar measures, some pas- sively, others aggressively. The power of the commissions has gradually been extended. Wisconsin reached a maximum point of expansion in 1907. when it created a board that has regulation of all municipal lighting, heating, power, transporta- tion, and telephone companies. Not only in the middle west, but all over the country these commissions are being created. In organization the board is simple. It is composed of a small body of men selected with reference to fitness rather than political preferment. Salaries are made commensurate with the quality of work demanded. An investigation of the personnel of commissions that have already been created shows that when care is exercised in appointments, men who have real ability and who possess a broad knowledge of city affairs can be secured. Although the commission is simple in structure, its powers and responsibilities are large. It strikes right at the heart of the public utility problem. The commission asserts its author- ity to fix the valuation of the physical property of every MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 21 municipal lighting, heating, power, transportation, and tele- phone company. Methods of corporation accounting are pre- scribed by this board, and to it the various corporations must make stipulated financial reports. It can adjust and fix the rates that companies may charge. It can establish and enforce a stringent standard of service. The authority of the commission is subject only to review by the courts. It is seen at a glance what a great factor for good or evil such a commission is. The result can scarcely be over- estimated. If persons susceptible to corporate influence should be placed upon the board, the injury would be enor- mous. If it is dominated by men who have the real welfare of the city at heart, its power for good is equally great. There are definite reasons for believing that these state boards will be honest and efficient. Among the influences which will work to keep the commissioners obedient to popu- lar will is the power of publicity. Under a state commission all dealings with corporations are between the companies and the commission direct. Hence, if a politician wishes to ply his trade in the interest of the public service corpora- tion, he will have to do so in the open. He will have to deal with a select body which is itself always in the lime-light. Hitherto, the politican has dealt wth a questionable city council, or an indefinite, intangible state legislature. Under state administrative control all this is changed. There are no partizan promises to be remembered, no party pledges to be kept. It is true the power of money is still available to the corporation, but the very fact that the commissioners are continually subject to public scrutiny, as well as to surveillance of city councils, will make any member hesitate a long time before accepting corporation money. It would seem that under the proposed plan the scheme of secret rate making is doomed. The matter is put on a business basis with adequate publicity. Corporations are com- pelled to adopt genuine business methods. Their books are opened to a reasonable inspection by proper public ofificials. Their rates, their service, their very corporate exis- tence are dependent upon the legitimacy with which they con- 22 COMMISSION PLAN OF duct their affairs. Secret rate making under such circum- stances is nearly impossible. Theoretically, a state administrative board is sound. Experience has already shown its actual operation to be bene- ficial. Yet there is in the middle west a lively opposition to it. This antagonism comes from an unexpected quarter, that is, from the cities themselves. The reason why cities are opposing a state commission is not dif^cult to explain. The continual struggle for more local self-government, and the battle against special legislation from which the city is just emerging, have made municipal authori- ties suspicious of any measure which the state legislature desires to enact. To many the creation of a state administra- tive board appears but a further development by the legisla- ture of a well defined system of political patronage. It will furnish a few more ofiflces for ward bosses and meddling politicians, and that is all. But what seems to opponents of the idea infinitely worse than political jobbery is that the scheme would deprive the city of what little self-government it already possesses. The municipality would be bound hand and foot to the state legislature. With all due regard for the sincerity with which cities are resisting the supposed encroachment of the state administrative commission, it must be admitted that their view is short sighted. They are not considering the sentiment of the whole state as it actually exists. State commissions are not being established to furnish political offices, or to deprive the city of its powers, but because there is a state-wide belief that municipal conditions must be improved. Bitter experience has led the public to be skeptical and cynical in regard to municipal service. There is but one course for cities to pursue. Instead of asking for in- creased powers of government, municipalities should first remove the general impression of mismanagement and graft. The state commission offers a way to do this, and if it is accomplished, the public will be far more likely to listen to the request for additional self-government. People wish to be assured that city affairs are managed honestly; that the citizens, and not public service companies, are reaping the MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 23 ■benefits of its laws. When convinced that cities are ably con- •ducted, voters will not long withhold from municipalities the additional powers that they are to-day seeking. It is popular sentiment which regards the city as inefficient and corrupt that is tying the municipality hand and foot, and not the state legislature. The city should awake to this situation. It should not strike blindly at such measures as a state administrative com- mission simply because on the surface there are indications that such a body might usurp municipal powers. The state Taoard offers a sensible solution for present difficulties. It promises to put the public service corporation on a sound busi- ness footing. This would be a decided step forward. The problem of city government would be immeasurably simplified, and new ways would be opened for municipal improvement. City Commission The second innovation in the middle west is the commis- sion plan of city government. This plan, which was first put into operation at Galveston, Texas, after the storm of 1900, is spreading with remarkable rapidity. No other form in American municipal development has grown so rapidly. Although it is being adopted by both Pacific and Atlantic cities, it is in the Mississippi valley that the new form is meeting with most favor and is being tried in the greatest variety of ways. The underlying principles of the new idea are easy to under- stand. Provision is made for the election of a comparatively small body of men, called commissioners. Up to the present time the number 'has not exceeded five, although proposed plans which some of the larger cities are considering provide for more governing officials. The main object, however, is that the number of commissioners shall be so small that citizens can center individual responsibility both in case of meritorious work and of incompetency. Candidates for the office of commissioner are nominated at a non-partizan primary by direct ballot. There are no preceding caucuses, and no party lines of any kind. There is no 24 COMMISSION PLAN OF election from wards. In place of these is the primary vote. Any citizen who files a petition with a stipulated number of signatures — usually a small number — may have his name printed on the primary ballot. The results of this vote are tabulated, and candidates to be voted upon at the regular election chosen. Thus if five commissioners are to be selected, the ten names receiving the highest number of votes at the primary are placed upon the regular election ballot. One of the five commissioners is called the mayor. Some- times he is elected separately from the other commissioners, although at the same time and in the same manner. It is the business of the mayor to preside over meetings of the commis- sion in much the same way as do executives of our city councils. He may or may not have veto power. There are fundamental differences, however, between the commission form and the ordinary mayor and council system. The commissioners devote their entire time to govern- ing the city. They make it their business. They meet in daily sessions. They receive annual salaries ranging from $1,500 to $3,000 in cities where the mayor and councilmen formerly received but one or two hundred dollars. Another differen- tiating feature is in administration. If there are five commis- sioners, the work of administration is divided into five depart- ments. These departments are arranged to suit, the particular needs of individual cities, but generally include such divisions as a Department of Public Safety, which embraces the police and fire organizations, a Department of Finance, a Department of Streets and Alleys, a Department of Public Health, and a Department of Parks and Public Improvements. If the city is a seaport, there is usually a Department of Docks and Wharfs. At the head of each department one of the commis- sioners is placed. He has full charge of the department and is held personally accountable for the conduct of it. Such a method secures individual responsibility. If there is anything wrong in a given department, citizens can go to the commis- sioner in charge and ascertain the cause. On the other hand, if a department is managed with efificiency and integrity, citizens likewise know upon whom to bestow credit. Even though MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 25 one of his subordinates be at fault, the commissioner cannot shift responsibility; it is his business to see that those under him perform their services honestly and intelligently. Such, in brief, is the plan of the administration. In some municipalities the central features have already been supple- mented by additional measures. For instance, uniform account- ing in the various departments is generally insisted upon. In other cities, commissioners must publish a monthly detailed statement of the condition of each department and of the city as a whole. These statements are issued in pamphlet form and are given to any citizen free of charge. Another radical difference between the mayor and council system and the commission form is in legislation. Up to a com- paratively recent time, it was accepted as axiomatic even in city government, that those who do the administering should not do the legislating. In fact, the line of cleavage has always been between the legislative and administrative departments. The commission form upsets this idea. It turns matters of ad- ministration and legislation over to one body of men — the com- missioners. Every day these officers meet in joint session. Af- fairs of the city are discussed, and all needed legislation is passed by them. It is at these meetings that we see a great contrast between the new idea and the old council system. Instead of having business reported by committees and sub-committees, it is considered directly by the commissioners themselves. Each of- ficer is in constant touch with his own department. He knows just what legislation is needed for it. Hence there is no occasion to resort to a clumsy and inefficient committee in order to ob- tain information upon any given point. . For a city, such a manner of conducting legislation has great advantages. It is direct. There are no confusing committees and boards to scatter responsibility. It is also rapid. Five men, each of whom thoroughly understands his work, can pass more intelligent legislation in one short sitting than an uninformed and hesitating council will get through in a week's time. The commission secures responsibility and efficiency. It is also economic. Responsibility is procured by centering individ- ual obligation upon each commissioner as the head of a depart- 2^ COMMISSION PLAN OF Tnent. Efficiency follows as a consequence. In Des Moines, after the adoption of the plan, a number of influential citizens went to Commissioner Hamery, in charge of the Department of Public Safety. They told him he was responsible for the abominable conditions existing in the red light district, and that he would be held personally accountable for future conditions. The result was that the whole objectionable section was abol- ished. Responsibility had been obtained. As soon as it was se- cured, efficiency was not long delayed. It might seem upon first glance that paying large salaries to these commissioners would add to the already enormous debt of the average city. But this has not been the case. Through greater simplicity in organization, and the adoption of business methods, commissioners have, in almost every case, been able to save annually for the city amounts far in excess of their own salaries. In addition they have secured better service than for- merly. This movement in the middle west is concerned with noth- ing less than the underlying features of the two great problems of city government: the relation of the city to the state; and the relation of the city to its individual citizens. If through the state administrative commission, the citizens who are back of this agi- tation can establish a reasonable relationship between the state and the city, and if by means of the city commission they can se- cure to the individual citizen a responsible and efficient govern- ment, they will indeed have done much toward solving one of the greatest economic and political problems that confront the American people today. National Municipal League, Proceedings of the Providence Conference for Good City Government, 1907. pp. 142-55. Galveston Plan of City Government. William Bennett Munro. Galveston, as is well known, was the first American city to give the system of "government by commission" a trial. . . . The old municipal framework was abolished root and branch. MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 27 and by a new charter, granted in 1901, the administration of the city was entrusted to five commissioners, three of whom were to be appointed by the governor and two elected by the citizens of Galveston. Before long, however, the constitutionality of the charter was called into question, and the Supreme Court of Texas decided that certain functions which the commissioners had been authorized to assume could not be exercised except by elective officers. In March, 1903, therefore, the legislature was appealed to for an amendment to the charier making all the commissioners elective, and the five original commissioners were forthwith endorsed by the voters at the polls. The Galveston charter, amended in 1903, provides for the popular election, every two years, of five commissioners, one of whom is given the title of mayor-president. All are elected at large. The mayor-president is presiding officer of the commis- sion but otherwise has no special powers. By a majority vote of the five commissioners all municipal ordinances are passed, and all appropriations are voted, the mayor-president having no right to veto either absolute or qualified. The commissioners likewise, by majority vote, apportion among themselves the head- ships of the four main departments of civic administration, namely, finance and revenue, waterworks and sewerage, police and fire protection, and streets and public property ; the mayor- president having no special department but exercising a general coordinating influence over all. A single commissioner is, there- fore, immediately responsible for the administration of each department. The commission as a whole draws up and passes the annual budget, awards all contracts, and makes all important appointments. Minor appointments are made by the individual commissioners each in his own special department. There is throughout a complete centralization of all powers, legislative and administrative, and a very definite location of all respon- sibility. No one who has made any impartial attempt to follow the work of the Galveston commission during the last six years will venture to gainsay its very striking success. The financial condition of the city has been most decidedly improved; all the municipal services have been brought to a much higher point ot 28 COMMISSION PLAN OF efficiency; a better grade of citizens has been willing to seek and accept civic office; and the general tone of municipal ad- ministration has been very noticeably raised. The commissioners present, in their reports, such a convincing array of facts that it would be idle to question the success of the new regime. The success has been attributable in general to three or four canons of policy, from which the commissioners have not swerved dur- ing the last five years, and which may be summed up as (i) the use of approved business methods in civic financing; (2) the entire elimination of all leakages in expenditures; (3) the making of all appointments on a basis of individual efficiency; and (4) the strict accountability of each commissioner for the on-goings of his own department. All the improvements of the last half decade in the Texas city can be attributed, substantially, to the fact that the new system of government has rendered strict adherence to these fundamental rules of sound municipal administration possible and even imperative. It is not necessary to speak in any detail of specific ad- vantages made in municipal administration by Galveston under the system of government by commission. It is enough that these were readily noted by neighboring Texan cities, and that the latter soon bestirred themselves to the task of inaugurat- ing a similar framework of administration. Since 1903, charters fundamentally similar to that of Galveston have been sought and obtained by five other cities of Texas : Houston, Fort Worth, Austin, Dallas, and El Paso. The experience, moreover, was not lost upon many cities in the North, and during the last two or three years, measures have been introduced into the legis- latures of at least a dozen states all aiming to permit cities to simplify their framework of administration more or less gen- erally in accord with the Texan plan. At its last session the Legislature of Iowa put such a measure upon the statute books, rendering optional to all cities of over 25,000 population the adoption of the commission system. This privilege has already found acceptance in the capital city of Des Moines; in this case provision being made for the employment of certain advanced methods of securing the strict and consistent responsibility of the authorities to their constituents. MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 2f> Despite a general impression that the commission system of local administration is a novelty in American government, the principle involved is by no means new in the United States. It is in almost no important respect different from the New Eng- land system of town government by a board of selectmen, who, with their chairman, assume and concentrate in themselves all administrative and legislative functions from one annual elec- tion until the next. There are many New England "towns" with populations quite large enough to entitle them to rank as cities, which have, for more than a century, maintained what is to all intents and purposes a system of government by commission. Their selectmen, w'ho are chosen by the people at large, repre- sent in their jurisdiction a complete fusion of local power and responsibility. In every state of the Union, moreover (with the exception of Louisiana and Rhode Island), county admin- istration has been vested almost wholly in the hands of an elec- tive commission. The use of the term "commission" has mis- led many into overlooking a system with which they have been long familiar under a different designation. American cities have had occasion, no doubt, to become familiar with "commis- sions" but with commissions of a very different sort. No aspect of the general problem of municipal reform has received more attention by the press and on the platform during the last year than the merits and defects of the commission plan. In the main, however, these discussions have dwelt largely upon the advantages of the system, many of which are almost too obvious to require emphasis. Tlie defects, on the other hand, do not appear on the surface so plainly, though a closer examina- tion will disclose that the system of government by commission, if generally applied to American cities under present conditions, would in all probability encounter important objections which no real friend of permanent municipal reform ought to treat lightly. Some of these relative merits and defects may be brief- ly noticed, so far as it may be accounted safe to generalize in the light of American municipal experience. The cardinal advantage of the system is that it affords defi- nite hope of putting an end to the intolerable decentralization of responsibility which now characterizes American civic adminis- -30 COMMISSION PLAN OF tration. By concentrating powers and focusing public attention upon a narrow area it will render more effective the scrutiny which the voters may apply to the conduct of men in public office. If the system does not guarantee efificient administra- tion, it at least promises to disclose where the blame for in- efificiency should be made to fall. It will undoubtedly facilitate the election of a higher type of men, for American municipal experience has plainly demonstrated that small bodies with large powers attract a better class of citizens than large bodies with restricted jurisdiction. The reduction in numbers of the school boards of St. Louis, Boston, and other large cities has served to show the truth of this aphorism in conclusive fashion. Even though party organizations may continue to dictate the nomina- tion of commissioners, as they now do that of councilmen, these organizations will no longer be placed under pressure to give representation to every sectional, racial, and religious interest at the cost of placing inferior men in candidacy. That govern- ment by commission will eliminate partisan candidatures is some- thing scarcely to be hoped for; but there is good reason to believe that it would remove from party organizations much of the sinister pressure with which these have now to contend. Again, it is well known that municipal corruption nowadays arises as frequently from the power of municipal authorities to thwart the meritorious plans of public-service corporations as from their power to forward reprehensible projects. If the present system of checks and balances puts a restriction upon the ill-considered granting away of privileges, it none the less puts a premium upon the withholding of rights which should, in all public interest, be granted without hesitation. It is extremely doubtful whether the chances of obtaining a municipal franchise at the present time in any large city are properly proportioned to the merits of an application therefore. A small commission would, indeed, simplify the task of dealing with civic franchises on a business basis, and, if there be any fear that the unchecked power of granting municipal franchises is a jurisdiction too momentous to be vested in the hands of a small body, provision may be made, as in the Des Moines charter, for having the acts of the commission in this sphere subject to ratification by the voters. MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 31 Still again, as we are frequently reminded, the work of ad- ministering the affairs of a city is in every essential respect akin to that of conducting the afifairs of a private business corpora- tion. Now the salient characteristics of sound corporate manage- ment is the centralization of powers in the hands of a small board of directors. What, we are asked, would be thought of a business corporation which intrusted the management of its in- terests to a bicameral board, made up of classes of members selected in different ways, representing different interests, pos- sessing separate jurisdictions, and designed to embody a system of checks and balances? Why should the afifairs of a municipal- ity demand an administrative machinery so much more complex than that of the largest private corporation? There is danger, however, of pressing this point too far, for it must be remem- bered that the analogy between the work of the municipal and that of the private corporation is by no means perfect. The city, for example, enjoys many legal privileges and immunities which an ordinary business corporation does not possess. It is not legally responsible for the torts of its police officers, of the employes of its fire department, or for those of several other classes of its agents; whereas the private corporation is di- rectly liable to be heavily mulcted for the negligence or in- efficiency of those whom it takes into its service. Further- more, in determining matters of policy the authorities of a municipality must give weight to many considerations of social well-being which the management of a private corporation may afiford to neglect. It must be admitted, too, that administration by a board of directors is not necessarily synonymous with integ- rity and efficiency. One need not go far afield to find instances in which directors have been deficient in their knowledge of af- fairs immediately in their care, or in which they have personally profited at the expense of those interests which they were cho- sen to guard. Nevertheless, it may be said with truth that there is plenty of room for the infusion of "business principles" into civic administration, and the analogy, if not pushed too far,, has much force. The system of government by -ommission will serve to render municipal administration more prompt and more eft'ective .32 COMMISSION PLAN OF in action. In a multitude of counsellors there may be wisdom, but there is also, almost inevitably, friction, delay, and intriguery. A system of division of powers is almost certain to counter- balance what it gains in security against hasty and arbitrary ac- tion what it loses in inability to cope with problems which demand prompt, united and uncompromising attention. In local administration promptness and efficiency are imperative; and it may be properly urged that, in order to secure these essential qualities, a municipality is justified in weakening its organs of deliberation and in assuming a reasonable amount of risk that concentrated power will be abused. There are, no doubt, many incidental advantages which cities may reasonably hope to secure from the introduction of the commission system, and to these the experience of Galveston bears abundant testimony. Most of these, however, are relative to the existing conditions in particular cities, and may not, therefore, be dealt with in general terms. To the casual student the defects of the commission system are, perhaps, not so apparent as the merits. They exist, never- theless, and are of sufficient importance to demand careful and judicious consideration; for the cause of municipal reform may receive permanent injury through the open advocacy by its friends of any plan of administration which has not been ade- quately studied in the light of conditions which now exist or are likely to exist in American cities. The most common objections urged in the public press and by the rank and file of municipal politicians is that the plan is un-American and undemocratic; that it involves a radical departure from American traditions of local self-government and proposes a step in the direction of municipal dictatorships. This objection is as easy to raise as it is difficult to support. The present framework of municipal administration, with its division of powers, is not a whit more traditionally "American" than is the New England town system of government by a board of selectmen with no division of powers whatever. That the system of administration by a small body of men tends to remove con- trol "away from the people" is an assertion which the whole his- tory of local government in the United States absolutely refutes. MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 33 Indeed, it has been proven time and again that a single elective officer may, in his official actions, more faithfully reflect public opinion than a large body of elected representatives. Much of the latent and unreasoning prejudice against the new plan springs, no doubt, from the popular association of the "com- mission" with the idea of state interference in municipal matters. The observant De Tocqueville once remarked that local government is to national what the elementary school is to the university; that each in its respective sphere performs the work of preparation. Political education, it has been ob- served, consists in the exercise not only of the right to choose "but of the right to be chosen — in candidacy and in service — and under the present municipal regime such education is annually afforded to a large number of citizens. The plan of government by commission proposes greatly to reduce this number. It would cut down the list of elective officers to four or five, all other posts being filled by appointment presumably for long terms. This policy, it is objected, would tend to vest the work of civic administration permanently in the hands of a very few men, and might very well assist in the development, as in the German cities, of a professional city bureaucracy. The present multi- plication of elective officers affords, to a unique degree, the op- portunity for a large number of citizens to be brought into touch with local political affairs and to obtain such political education as this contact involves. Again, objection is made that the system will serve to strengthen rafher than to weaken the influence of the regular partisan organizations in civic affairs. The concentration of power and patronage in the hands of a few commissioners would, it is claimed, make it seem imperative to the party leaders that the commission should be controlled; and the party energies, now spread over a wider area, would thus be concentrated at a single point. It is quite true whenever the power and the patron- age of the mayor have been extended the result has not been to diminish the force of partisanship in mayoralty elections ; on the contrary, party leaders have been impelled to make more ener- getic campaigns and to perfect their organizations in order that they might control an office which had become the more valuable 34 COMMISSION PLAN OF to them. Furthermore, the election of four or five commission- ers by the voters at large would, in all probability, result in se- lections from the ranks of a single party; the dominant party could in most cases elect its whole slate, and the minority party- would in consequence be wholly unrepresented. There might, no doubt be frequent exceptions to this, but it would be the more- usual outcome. On the other hand, a large council, the members of which are elected by small districts, will almost certainly con- tain representatives of the weaker political party. Much of the hopes placed upon the new system arise from the proposal that commissioners shall be elected at large; but it must not be forgotten that the plan of election at large is not without its counterbalancing defects. It has, perhaps, been characteristic of the American voter that he is prone to lay too much stress upon the form of government and too little upon its personnel. He is not always quick to see that the more efficient administration of European, cities results not at all from their superior framework of local government, but from the higher calibre of men who seek and obtain municipal office. Without a change of personnel, the- substitution of government by commission for the existing sys- tem would assuredly avail but little. Indeed, a corrupt or an inefficient commission with wide powers would be much more capable of injuring the best interests of a city than an equally- corrupt or inefficient set of administrative organs with powers and patronage decentralized; for the very complexity and cumbrousness of the present system serves in some degree to place an obstacle in the way of any widespread or consistent wrong-doing. The real question is, therefore, whether a better class of men would be attracted to a small commission than a. large council. To this the lesson of experience seems to give an' affirmative reply. But it is a matter of probability rather than a matter of certainty. Sponsors of the commission plan have sometimes urged that its adoption would ensure administration by skilled experts, since appointments made by a small body would probably be dictated by reason of merit and experience alone. It may be noted, however, that the vesting of the right of appointment in; MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 35 the hands of a small body, or even in the hands of a single of- ficer, would not necessarily ensure this result. There was a time in American cities when patronage was committed to the munic- ipal council, and under this system partisan considerations al- most exclusively influenced the making of appointments to of- fice. Municipal reformers insisted that this pernicious policy could be brought to an end only by transferring the appointing power to the mayor and by placing upon the mayor alone the full and entire responsibility. But during the decade or more since this transfer has been made it may well be doubted whether individual merit and capabilities have counted much more in de- termining appointments than they did in the days when the council possessed the patronage. Now it is proposed to vest the patronage once again with a body of men; but one may scarcely venture to hope t'hat partisan considerations will lose much of their strength because of any such further transfer. Definite lo- cation of responsibility for civic appointments seems, as exper- ience shows, to afford some assurance against gross inefficiency; it does not, apparently, afford a guarantee that the degree of ef- ficiency will be very high. An important feature of both the Galveston and Des Moines plans of city government by commission is that the "appropri- ating" and "spending" authorities are fused. In other branches of American government it has been the policy to keep these two jurisdictions distinct and independent; and this has been true alike of national, state and local administration. The legislative organs appropriate the funds, the administrative organs super- vise their expenditure. In the New England system of town ■government the board of selectmen does .not appropriate moneys ior any purpose; this function is reserved to the annual "town meeting." The concentration of both powers in the hands of a single small commission might, and probably would, serve the interests of integrity so long as men of the right caliber constituted the commission; but there are those who see in this fusion of jurisdictions a potential element of danger. It in- volves, at any rate, a radical departure from a principle which "has hitherto characterized not alone American government, but the governmental systems of the leading European states as well. 36 COMMISSION PLAN OF In the successful administration of German cities, for example, this separation of the appropriating from the spending depart- ments has always been strongly emphasized. It is sometimes urged that the general adoption of the sys- tem of government by commission would encourage state in- tervention in municipal affairs. In every large city there come up, year by year, many important questions which demand broad legislative action. Now, whether their policy has been wise or unwise in this direction, it is an undoubted fact that state author- ities have been extremely loath to entrust broad legislative func- tions to small boards whose jurisdiction is mainly administra- tive. The association of well-considered legislative action with large bodies is deeply imbedded in the American mind and will not be easily eradicated. If large municipal councils are elim- inated from the framework of city government there would seem to be a danger that state legislatures would be tempted to as- sume for themselves some of the broader legislative functions which the councils have been accustomed to exercise. At any rate, we know from experience that where the legislative powers of municipal councils have been curtailed their former powers have usually been assumed by the state legislature and have not been transferred to some other organ of local government. That there has been, on the whole, too much state interference in mu- nicipal affairs most students of government are disposed to ad- mit ; this intervention has been on occasions salutary, but more often detrimental to the best interests of the cities concerned. It may properly be urged, therefore, that any step which promises to afford an incentive to greater inroads upon the principle of civic autonomy should, not be taken hastily or without due con- sideration of its less immediate but none the less important con- sequences. In weighing the respective merits and defects of the Gal- veston plan as these would probably work out were the system given general application, the burden of proof ought in fairness to be placed upon those who advocate the extension. A change in any department of American government which involves a transformation so complete of the whole framework of organiza- tion should not be readily adopted until it can be said to promise. MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 37 • with a reasonable degree of certainty, a very decisive improve- ment in civic administration. It must not be forgotten that the experiment of government by commission has as yet been ade- quately tried in Galveston alone, and that here the circumstances were distinctly unusual. A receivership may be the best means of getting a bankrupt business corporation upon its financial feet, but it does not follow that all sound and solvent concerns should forthwith permanently adopt this method of administer- ing their affairs. On the other hand, as the present system of civic admin- istration is too complicated, and too cursed with the curse of divided responsibility to prove reasonably efificient. any step in the direction of simplification should be welcomed by those who have the best interests of American cities at heart. Those who are prone to look askance at anything which involves con- centration of power may be reminded that such is never dangerous when accompanied by a equal concentration of re- sponsibility. Now a few American cities at the present time are, as every one knows, controlled by small coteries of men — party managers — who dominate the official organs. These men are dangerous because they concentrate power without responsibility. The system of government by commission, if it would not elim- inate the "bosses," promises at any rate to compel them to work in the open. Experiments with the Galveston plan in a number of cities differing in size and situated in different parts of the country, will serve to mark out more clearly the merits and defects of the system in action. Such experiment may be welcomed as paving the way for what may secure substantial improvement in civic administration; but no one who appreciates the difficulties of the problem will readily hope to find in this or in any other formal change a panacea for all municipal ills. The plan can be said to have established a prima facie case; and it well deserves a sym- pathetic trial on a sufficiently broad scale to enable it to be fairly judged. 38 COMMISSION PLAN OF American Political Science Association, Proceedings, 1907. 4: 189-92. Des Moines Plan of City Government. Benjamin F Shambaugh. I shall not in this paper attempt to exploit the Des Moines plan of city government as a method of municipal reform or as a solution of the problems of city administration. My purpose will be simply to point out such of the newer institutional forms of democracy as are expressed in "An act to provide for the gov- ernment of certain cities," recently passed by the general as- sembly of Iowa and applicable to all cities of the first-class in that state, having a population of 25,000 or over. Having been originally brought forward and urged by the people of the city of Des Jkloines, the system of government out- lined in the act of the general assembly has come to be known generally as "The Des Moines Plan of City Government." It has already been adopted by two of the leading cities of the state, namely: Des Moines and Cedar Rapids — but organization under the new system has not yet been effected in either place. The Des Moines plan is of course not an altogether unique system of municipal government. It is simply a new edition of the more familiar commission plan ; or, it is the Galveston plan revised. Briefly, it provides for the government of the city by a council consisting of a mayor and four councilmen who are vest- ed with all executive, legislative, and judicial powers and duties now had, possessed and exercised by the mayor, city council, board of public works, park commissioners, board of police and fire commissioners, board of waterworks trustees, board of library trustees, solicitor, assessor, treasurer, auditor, city en- gineer, and other executive and administrative officers in cities of the first-class. Furthermore, the executive and administrative powers and duties are distributed among five departments designated re- spectively as: department of public affairs; department of ac- counts and finances; department of public safety; department of streets and public improvements; and department of parks and public property. And, moreover, each member of the council is required to serve as superintendent of a department. MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 39 The members of the council are chosen by the electorate of the city. But all other officers and assistants (including a city clerk, a solicitor, an assessor, a treasurer, an auditor, a civil en- gineer, a city physician, a marshal, a chief of fire department, a market master, a street commissioner, and three library trustees) are elected or appointed by the council and subject to removal at any time by the same authority. It is also provided that the council shall appoint three civil service commissioners who un- der the direction of the council are required to perform the usual duties prescribed for such civil service commissioners. Turning now to the newer institutional forms of democracy as expressed in the act of the general assembly of Iowa the fol- lowing deserve mention: 1. Upon the petition of twenty-five per centum of the voting electorate the Des Moines plan of government is submitted in cities of the first-class to a direct vote of the people for adoption or rejection. And similarly upon petition a vote may be secured upon the abandonment of the plan at any time after it has been in operation for six j'^ears. 2. The mayor and four councilmen are nominated by a gen- eral non-partisan primary election, that is, they are nominated by the electorate at large at a primary election in which ballots are used containing no party marks whatever. And these same officers are elected biennially at large, that is, on a general ticket. 3. The members of the council may be removed or recalled at any time by the electorate. For it is provided that upon the petition of twenty-five per centum of the voting electorate the question of the removal of the incumbent of any elective office is submitted to a direct vote of the people. 4. Proposed ordinances may be submitted to the council through petition from the electorate ; and such proposed or- dinances, if not passed by the council, are submitted without alteration to a direct vote of the people. Furthermore, or- dinances proposed by petition or which have been adopted by a vote of the people may not be repealed or amended except by a vote of the people. 5. No ordinance passed by the council (except in certain cases particularly mentioned) "shall go into effect before ten 40 COMMISSION PLAX OF days from the time of its final passage" ; and if during said ten days a petition signed by at least twenty-five per centum of the voting electorate is presented to the council protesting against the passage of such ordinance the same shall be sus- pended from going into operation and it shall be the duty of the council to reconsider such ordinance, and if the same is not entirely repealed it shall be submitted by the council to the di- rect vote of the people. 6. "Every ordinance or resolution appropriating money or ordering any street improvement or sewer, or making or author- izing the making of any contract, or granting of any franchise or right to occupy or use the streets, highways, bridges or public places in the city for any purpose, shall be complete in the form in which it is finally passed, and remain on file with the city clerk for public inspection at least one week before the final passage or adoption." Moreover, "every franchise or grant for interurban or street railways, gas or water-works, electric light or power plants, heating plants, telegraph or tele- phone systems or other public service utilities within (the) city, must be authorized or approved" by a direct vote of the people. 7. All meetings of the council at which any person not a city officer is admitted shall be open to the public. 8. The council is required each month to print in pamphlet form for distribution a detailed itemized statement of all receipts and expenditures of the city along with a summary of its pro- ceedings during the preceding month. And at the end of each year the council shall provide for a complete examination of all books and accounts of the city by competent accountants and shall publish the results of all such examinations. Thus it is seen (to summarize) that in the Des Moines plan of city government the democratic idea of government in accord with the will of the people has been institutionalized by first centralizing all powers and authority in a council of five men and then making that council directly responsible and account- able to the electorate for the faithful performance of their duties in accordance with the desires of the people through these newer institutional forms of democracy, namely: I. The non-partisan primary. MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 41 2. The election of officers at large, i. e., on a general ticket. 3. The recall. 4. The initiative. 5. The referendum. 6. The veto or protest. 7. The publicity of all business. 8. The expert examination of all books and accounts. AFFIRMATIVE DISCUSSION Commission Government: A General Statement. James A. Berryhill. Prepared for The Commercial Club of Des Moines, Iowa. First. The plan involves the concentration of full responsibili- ties upon a limited council, five in number, elected at large, and thereby responsible to the entire electorate of the city. By limit- ing the size of the council we secure the same effective manage- ment so notable in the administration of great business corpora- tions. Under the old system of divided powers and distributed responsibility, the public official did not feel that degree of per- sonal responsibility necessary to effective action, and was prone to throw the burden, especially of disagreeable duties, upon his associate, who in turn evaded the responsibility. If concentrat- ed management of the kind in question can succeed in the ad- ministration of such great corporations as the United States Steel, the New York Central, Union Pacific and other railway companies, and such great banks as the City National of New York, with deposits aggregating nearly two hundred and fifty million dollars, and of other great institutions of similar charac- ter, I cannot see why it cannot bring success in the administra- tion of the business of a municipality. The chief function of our city is the business one involving ordinary business problems like those assumed by private corporations, and that phase of government should be paramount in the development of the or- ganization. ^ Second. Recognizing the fact that the council of the city must act in a representative capacity and in order to enforce general supervisory attention of the afifairs of the entire city, we provide for the election of the councilmen-at-large. Under the old ward system the representative of the ward does not rec- ognize his responsibility to the city at large, and is driven inev- 44 COMMISSION PLAN OF itably into combinations with the representatives of other wards, whereby the interests of his ward or of the combination, which' frequently represents a bare majority of the council, are cared for, to the detriment of the interests of the city at large. Under the ward system the voters are given but a fractional influence in the affairs of the city. Such a system inevitably involves the evasion of duty by public repr£sentatives. Third. We recognize the fact tliat the power to grant fran- chises to public service corporations is likely to involve the cor- ruption of public officials and to avoid that possibility we provide that all franchises shall not take efifect until they are approved by a majority vote of the electors of the city in question. The submission of the franchise proposition to the electors is made mandatory. You can readily see that under this provision it would be futile for the franchise corporation to purchase the public officials. Fourth. That the community may be advised of all public legislation affecting its interests, we provide for publicity by pre- scribing that ordinances shall be perfected in complete form and remain upon the table subject to inspection for a week be- fore final passage. This would give the citizens an opportunity to protest against objectionable ordinances during the week pri- or to their passage. To render assurance doubly sure, we pro- vide that ordinances, except those of an emergency character, shall, after passage, remain in the clerk's office, subject to public inspection for a period of ten days, before taking efifect. and during that interim we grant to the electors the right, upon petition of twenty-five per cent of their number, to demand a referendum upon the ordinances in question, or a submission to a popular vote. Fifth. Again recognizing the fact that the electors own the city and that the council is simply representative, we provide for the initiative. In the event that the council proves refractory and refuses to consider legislation of important public moment, we give to the electors the right to demand the submission of public questions to a popular vote and make it mandatory upon the council to submit such propositions to such vote upon such demand. MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 45 Sixth. In the event that councilmen prove traitors to the public interest and betray their constituents, we grant to the electors the right to recall an objectionable councilman and to fill his place with a successor more responsive to the public interest. Seventh. In order to avoid political machine, and rabid par- tisan rule, we provide for a non-partisan nomination to be fol- lowed by a non-partisan election of councilmen. Under the administration of this law the past nine months we have secured extremely satisfactory government. The general consensus of opinion of our citizens is that the system has in every way been successful, and I believe that should the matter be re-submitted to the voters fully 90 per cent would approve of the plan and advocate its ratification. We believe that our indi- vidual councilmen have been more alert in the performance of their duties, more considerate of the public interest and more effective in their work than any council we ever had in this city. Our government is extremely efficient and economical and we be- lieve we are getting far better returns than ever before. We do not rely on the voluntary work of the council, but compensate them liberally for their services. You will observe from the outline herein given that we have in effect reintroduced the New England town meeting system of government adapting it to large communities. We recognize the fact that large town meetings of all the electors could not be conducted upon a deliberative basis, and the ballot must of ne- cessity be made use of to secure an expression of the popular will. The election is a substitute for the town meeting and the initiative and referendum give to the citizens all of the privi- leges reserved by the electors of the New England town. Our system recognizes the fact that the United States is democratic in its principles. By democratic I mean democratic in the broad sense, in the fact that we recognize the people as the source of power, and regard the public official as their representative pledged to carry out their will. The Galveston plan of government does not contain the checks and balances incorporated in the Des' Moines plan, and is not as democratic in character. I believe that the changes made 46 COMMISSION PLAN OF in the Galveston charter by the Des Moines plan law infinitely improves the system and practically prevents the abuses incident to a bureaucratic system. Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette. March 25, 1909. Commends Commission Plan. E. R. Sherman. The commission plan was adopted in Cedar Rapids at a spe- cial election held in December, 1907, and went into effect April 6, 1908. Little interest was taken in this election. Only a minor- ity of the voters took the trouble to go to the polls and the prop- osition was carried by but 33 votes. If it were to come up in Cedar Rapids tomorrow on the question of going back to the old plan, I believe that there would be a vote of 85 per cent in favor of the retention of the commission law. The people are in- terested in it — they see that things are being done, that there is a responsible head to city afifairs; that their money is being ex- pended with a view to economy and results; that they are being constantly informed as to the progress of the city's business — in short, that their municipal government is now a purely busi- ness proposition, and with this condition has come a general awakening as to civic affairs among all classes. It's a favorable sign when the voters take the time and trouble to keep them- selves informed as to the movement of municipal matters. The commission plan law has done more to awaken civic pride in Cedar Rapids since last April than all that happened during the more than fifty years that the city was operated under its special charter. Immediately after taking office a careful examination of all books and records was made by experts, and as soon as possible the people of Cedar Rapids were given something they had never had before , a full, complete, and absolutely correct statement of the financial condition of the city. It was found that the outgo- ing administration had expended of 1908 funds, between January ist and April 6th, 1908, the sum of $119,639.12, in addition to about $5,000 expended by the board of park commissioners dur- ing the same period. This expenditure of about $40,000 per MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 47 month, if continued throughout the year, would have added ap- proximately $150,000 to the city's debt. That the 1908 funds re- maining were conserved excellently is evidenced by the fact that on January i, 1909, there were no warrants outstanding unpaid, every obligation had been met promptly, (the current bills hav- ing been cleaned up each week and discounted two per cent for cash, the same as any business house) and there remaining a bal- ance in every fund in the treasurer's hands. During these months the sum of $61,980 was paid for the re- tirement of bonds and for interest; extensive park improvements were made; additional park property was purchased; the police department was augmented by five patrolmen; the fire depart- ment stables were replenished, apparatus repaired and rebuilt, two stations re-roofed and all of them repainted; a fine new brick station costing $6,000 was brought nearly to completion- it was occupied February ist; the members of the police rind fire departments were fitted out in the best of new uniforms; the streets and pavements were cleaned and repaired as never be- fore in the history of the city; the greatest amount of brick paving, macadam road laying, cement walks and curb construc- tion, sewer building and water main extensions the city has ever known in one season, was accomplished; the work of re-estab- lishing the lines of the river front was prosecuted; the prelimi- nary arrangements for a new concrete bridge, 600 feet in length and costing approximately $75,000 across the Cedar river, and other minor bridge work, was completed; Charles Mulford Rob- inson, civic improvement expert, was brought to Cedar Rapids to investigate and report on the city's needs, and following out his numerous suggestions, certain streets have been extended, street signs have been erected, neat waste paper receptacles of approved design have been placed on the business streets, certain street parkways have been established, and most important and noteworthy of all, we have accomplished the purchase for park and public building purposes of an island of some six acres' area, lying in the Cedar river, in the very heart of the city. This island, which is between and immediately adjacent to the busi- ness section of both east and west sides, has for many years 1)een a municipal disgrace. Tenanted in large part by unsightly 48 COMMISSION PLAN OF shacks, and made a dumping ground for all manner of rubbish, it has been the cause of unfavorable comment on the part of all. At various times in the past, efforts had been made to secure this island for public purposes, but these efforts had all met with failure. It has remained for the commission plan to accomplish that which was impossible under the old council system. The city offices are now occupying temporary quarters on the island, and as soon as spring opens, the work of improving and parking the island will be commenced. In due time, the people of Cedar Rapids will erect suitable buildings on that island, and in the years to come Cedar Rapids will be unique in being the posses- sor of a civic center, the like of which is owned by no other city in the country. In the face of all this extraordinary activity, we have reduced the tax levy for this year one mill, and plan to make a further reduction in 1910. There have been other and widely diverse matters that have re- ceivd attention. The taxpayers are now given, on the first day of each month, a detailed financial statement, showing all re- ceipt? and expenditures — from whom, to whom, and what for, of city money during the previous month, and with this is in- cluded a balance sheet, so that every one who desires may know, at all times, the exact condition of the city's finances. The peo- ple also have, in pamphlet form, a complete summary of the council proceedings. Public funds now draw interest from the banks where deposited, the city's income from this source being nearly $2,000 since last April. The police department has been reorganized — not by whole- sale discharge of men, but by the injection of needed discipline, and in some unaccountable manner the city's cash revenues from the police court and department have jumped from an av- erage of about $75 per month last year, to something like $700 per month under the new plan, while there has been no material increase in the number of arrests. The baggage wagons, hacks and other contributors to the city treasury now pay their license fees or go out of business; laws regulating meat and milk inspec- tion have been enforced, and the gambling fraternity moved their apparatus out of town on the 8th of last April, and as yet they have not deemed it wise to bring it back. MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 49 Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette. March 31, 1909. Commission Plan in Cedar Rapids. Charles D. Huston. The commission plan of government act, exceptionally good in the main, recognized certain principles necessary to the suc- cessful conduct of city afifairs. In drafting the Iowa commission form of government act, it was given out by the framers that the purposes were: First — They wished to create a municipal office having such attractive features that it would prove an inducement to repre- sentative men to seek political recognition. They also wished to eliminate those objectional features in politics which have here- tofore been the means of squelching the political ambitions of desirable men and to destroy, as far as possible, the opportuni- ties for the political parasite who seeks office not for the purpose of benefiting the people, but for the purpose of personal aggran- dizement. Second — The second object in view was to vest complete gov- ernmental authority in a small, deliberative body, consisting of a mayor and four councilmen. Third — The third object was to simplify the present complex municipal system so we might dispense with municipal boards, committees and departments with their over-lapping and conflict- ing duties. They also wished to substitute for the confusion resulting from a divided authority, a fixed and definite responsi- bility upon each official for every act of the administration. Fourth — The fourth object in view was to establish a more democratic form of city government and to provide the means whereby the power of the people might be greatly extended and their control over municipal affairs rendered more effective. The adoption of this plan was ratified by the voters of Cedar Rapids December 2nd, 1907, and under this plan a mayor and four councilmen were elected March 30th, 1908. The basic and underlying principles of the commission plan as we view it are: 1. Concentration of executive authority and fixing of respon- sibility. 2. Elimination of parties and politics. so COMMISSION PLAN OF 3. Direct nomination by the people. * 4. An open field to all aspirants. 5. Preferential voting — election by majority. 6. The initiative and referendum. 7. The recall. Principle 1. Concentration of executive authority and fixing of responsibility. How different under the new plan than under the old plan of committees (generally three), often with as many different ideas of procedure and as often opposition to any pro- posed improvement unless it is made in some particular ward or its equivalent promised before consent to make it is secured, and a needed work long delayed, if made at all, no matter how urgent. Under the commission plan there is no delay. If a certain improvement is needed, is recommended by the head of the department under which it properly belongs, it is made re- gardless of what section of the city it is in. It becomes a matter to be treated wholly on its merit and no commission will take the responsibility of recommending an expenditure or even one piece of work of which the wisdom may be questioned, and thus subject himself to discipline by being shifted to another department and another being placed in charge to conserve the best interests of the public. As a commissioner in charge of a particular department he must and does take the responsibility of that department. The excuses made by derelict aldermen un- der the old plan that the other members of the committee over- rode him cannot be offered under this. He must make good. Principle 2. Elimination of partisan politics. The plan is certainly most successful in this respect. The form of the ballot is ideal, without party columns, and without a brand or trade- mark to appeal to the partisan, thus forcing every candidate to stand on his merit and reputation. Principle 3. Direct nomination by the people. The system by nomination by petition eliminates the political boss, whether acting in 'his own behalf or for special interests. It effectively eliminates the political parasites who live by robbing the peo- ple and may in time put them to work. The nominations are made at the polls under such restrictions as govern general elections. Those who attend caucuses and who have observed MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 51 at some time or another the manner in which caucuses have been manipulated for selfish ends, the good intentions of the majority often being thwarted by a cunningly devised motion which took out of the hands of the people the selecting of delegates and placed it in the hands of those who named delegates to vote for candidates or measures inimical to their best interests, will not be slow to recognize the privilege secured to them of expressing their preferences personally, at the primaries. Principle 4. An open field to all aspirants. Many men capa- ble of rendering good service to a municipality, would never be able under the caucus system, to get their names before the peo- ple, owing to the manipulations of so-called ward bosses, who delegate to themselves from year to year the privilege of making a "slate" and seeing that it is carried out. Under the commission plan, any one can secure a petition and have his name appear on the ballot to be voted for at the primary, and every citizen has an equal opportunity before the voters. To demonstrate how popular this plan is, we have but to mention the fact that fifty- seven citizens took advantage of this provision at the election in Cedar Rapids last March, nine for mayor and forty-eight for councilmen, notwithstanding the fact that but ten could qualify and but five of the ten could be elected. Under this provision the people are given two opportunities to approve or disapprove an aspirant for civic position — once at the primaries and once at the general election. The man who thus passes inspection may be considered well worthy to entrust with the responsibility of government. Principal 5. Preferential voting — election by majority. Mi- nority election like minority rule is wrong in principle. Under the commission plan no one can be elected either mayor or coun- cilman unless he secures a clear majority of all votes cast, thus there can be no doubt as to his being the choice of the electorate. Under the old system vicious and ''undesirable citizens" have been frequently elected according to well verified reports from San Francisco, St. Louis, Chicago, Philadelphia, Pittsburg and perhaps occasionally in peerless Iowa. Some of those consider- ed in the "undesirable" class may have been fairly representative of their ward constituents but not of the city as a whole, and 52 COMMISSION PLAN OF their power for evil in a council has been great. As a con- crete example we have but to refer to"Bath House John" and "Hinky Dink," who have held unbroken sway in their wards for many years and their influence has to be reckoned with al- ways. They are not only a power in the wards from which they come, but being aggressive and ever at work their influence is felt in every department of the city. Clean handed men (not so "practical" as they) shun the notoriety of a contest with them, while others who have exposed their methods to public criticism and scorn have been retired for their temerity, and what is the result? Chicago is known the world over as one of the most corrupt and vicious of cities — not because a ma- jority wants it so, but because a minority wills it so. These men are elected because of the ward system, not because of their fitness, but in spite of their unfitness. There is not a city on the face of the earth, if its afifairs were administered tinder the commission plan similar to that of the Iowa plan, where such men as the "Bath House" or "Hinky Dink" would know they had been in the running — and the plan should be gen erally adopted if it had no other redeeming feature. But it has others and many. The abandonment of ward lines, means the substitution of a majority form of government for a minority form of government. Under this plan no longer will our city's affairs be managed by a council of ten, the fitness of seven or more than two-thirds of whom have not been approved by the voters. Under this plan the mayor and council are as they should be, the personal representatives of each and every citi- zen and personally accountable to them all for the economic and successful administration of the city's affairs. Principle 6. The initiative and referendum — the application of this principle places upon the people themselves the respon- sibility of government where it rightfully belongs. The initia- tive and referendum are the most efficient weapons of protec- tion for the people — an insurance policy as it were against graft. In providing the referendum, the commission plan trusts the people to pass upon great questions of public concern by taking the power to grant special privileges out of the hands of the council and vesting it in the hands of the people, those who are MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 53 the rightful owners, and who are and who should be entitled to say whethe they shall or shall not be granted. This means the elimination and does eliminate corporate influences in the selection of councilmen, because councilmen will no longer be able to "deliver the goods" bargained for. It leaves the people free to dispose of their own, as they see fit, instead of as un- der the old plan, delegating the power to a few who might be unscrupulous enough to use it for the furtherance of selfish ambition. This is a provision that should never be eliminated — the people should not permit it, and honest public service cor- porations should demand its retention. An effort to get away from this provision on the part of utility companies who exact large remuneration for poor service will but fully convince the public that the commission plan was adopted none too soon. But a company that is honest with itself and with its patrons, that accepts the provisions of this act gracefully, gives good service may exact liberal compensation therefor, and yet so en- dear itself to the public that it may secure from it the most liberal treatment. Principle 7. The recall — this gives to the people the rightful power to discharge an incompetent, dishonest or unfaithful servant at any time as an individual has the right to do. A careful review of the commission act will convince the most pessimistic that its provision will insure a city the most democratic form of government ever known. The act provides for the city every principle and safeguard that has been ad- vocated by anyone. It gives the people absolute control, and through the initiative, referendum and recall, they may, if they wish, pass upon all acts of the administration. To question the ability of the people to use it in their own interests is to ques- tion their ability for self-government. But, should the people even make a failure of it in some cities, they will nevertheless govern themselves more economically and more efificiently than the political "bosses" have exercised in governing them under the present system. Cities have nothing to lose and everything to gain in adopting this plan. 54 COMMISSION PLAN OF Cedar Rapids Republican. November 3, 1907. Cost of Commission Plan. The esteemed Optimus continues to parade the fact that whereas the present mayor and ten aldermen cost only $2,500 a year, the five commissioners will cost the taxpayers $9,500 a year. That is inconsequential. We believe that the Optimus itself is in favor of a board of public works, of three men. Those three men would eat up most of the difiference. As a matter of fact under the commission system fewer men will be employed in the city hall. It would not take a great deal of effort to show that instead of there being $7,000 against the new plan there will be a large balance in favor of it. But, above all, there would be the results of concentration- of power and responsibility. Five men devoting all their time to the city, and looking after every department and every detail, would easily be worth to the taxpayers, $7,000 more than the eleven men who now give a few hours a day, or a week to the city. Cedar Rapids is big enough as a business proposition to have five men devote all their time to its afifairs. What set of business men would think of spending a third of a million dol- lars annually, without such ample supervision? On the question of finances, we believe that the present taxes could be reduced 25 per cent, if we apply in the whole city some of the methods that are now employed in the park commission. There is no argument against the commission plan on the finan- cial side, but the argument is all in its favor. Cedar Rapids Republican. November 7, 1907. Interest in the Commission Plan. The commission plan of government, on which the people of this city will vote in the near future, is making headway every- where. In Sioux City they are now circulating petitions for the calling of the special election. The Sioux City News says that 90 per cent of the men who have been asked to sign the petitions have signed. The desire there is almost unanimous, in MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 55 spite of the opposition of Mayor Sears and some of the aldermen in that city. Why they should oppose it, is hard to say. They ought to be foremost in working for the improvement of the city governments. In Soux City they are confident that the new plan will have a walk away. But Cedar Rapids has gotten ahead of Sioux City, being the second in the state to get ready to take advantage of the wise law passed on this subject. The provisions of the commission law have been admirably summarized by James M. Head of Boston, as follows: 1. It makes the whole city instead of the ward the political unit. 2. It concentrates and fixes responsibility in the hands of a few men chosen by the whole city. 3. It recognizes to the fullest extent the principles of local self-government, places the responsibility upon the people, and forces the people to govern themselves. 4. It educates the people in all governmental matters. 5. It does away with partisan politics in purely business and local matters. 6. It makes honesty and efiiciency in ofifice and fidelity to the public interest, instead of fidelity to a political "Boss" the guaranty of official security and future preferment. 7. It makes the representative careful of his conduct since it must be approved by the people before it becomes effective. 8. It effectually destroys the political "Boss" by rendering it impossible for him to deliver the goods bargained for, since the initiative, the referendum and the recall may at any moment take away from him that for which he has agreed to pay. 9. It gives us in fact and not merely in name "a govern- ment of the people by the people and for the people." Every one of these nine reasons, in the summary, is an argu- ment for the new plan. Some of those who oppose the commission plan are banking a great deal on what they call the Bohemian-American, Irish- American and German-American votes. They count on these three elements in our population to be unanimously against the new plan, on the theory that it is un-American. We do not 56 COMMISSION PLAN OF believe that the claims of the opponents of the measure are cor- rect. We do not behove that the elements referred to are going- to be unanimously against what is designed to be an improve- ment in the form of city governments. We believe that a great many of the men claimed to be against it arc really in favor of giving the plan a trial. They have property interests, as well as interests as taxpayers. Circle. 2: 289-90. November, 1907. Spread of the Galveston Plan. Brand Whitlock. Des Moines has gone ahead of Galveston ; she has all that Galveston has — so far as charters go — and more ; she has a system that is far more democratic, far more radical than Gal- veston, or any other city in the United States, for that matter. Des Moines has abolished wards, and boards, and all that, and has a commission like Galveston, in which the legislative, ad ministrative and executive functions are all centered ; but she has other things, more democratic things. She has the recall, the initiative and referendum, including the compulsory reference of all franchises to the people. This is the great achievement of Des Moines ; here, at last, is a chance for real democracy. If the board passes an ordinance which is not to the satisfaction of the people, they can compel its reference to them; they can vote on it, and either approve or disapprove it. This is the veto power retained by the people themselves — far better than the veto power in the hands of a mayor, or even of a governor. The people, too, if the board will not pass such legislation as the people want, can themselves initiate such legislation ; this is the old New England town meeting on a large scale ; and if any of the commissioners is faithless to his duty or his trust, the people may recall him; that is, remove and discharge him — far better and safer and more democratic than to have the re- moval power in the hands of a governor. And then, too, the provision that all franchises be submitted to the people before they become effective is of inestimable ad- vantage. A street-car company can buy aldermen, it might MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 57 buy a mayor, it might even buy a commissioner, for a man's official title does not change him ; but it cannot buy the people of a city; the people are not grafters. The way to eliminate graft is to eliminate the public-service corporations from the control of politics. For, startling as the information may be to many, public officials who are bribed do not bribe themselves; the boodle came from somewhere — it came from the street car company, and the electric light and power company; that is, from the eminently respectable gentlemen who own the stock and bonds, and collect the dividends and interest of these com-- panics — a piece of information, by the way, it might be inter- esting for certain brave and heroic prosecuting attorneys to know, for with few exceptions we have yet to hear of any of them really prosecuting the real givers of the bribe. Per- haps, if any of the eminently respectable providers of graft money were to stand before a court in their "moral nakedness," to use the recent picturesque expression of a judge who was lacking in a sense of humor, they might appear to quite as great a disadvantage as any of the unlovely bribe-takers, as, indeed, any one might who should stand in like spiritual nudity in any place other than before the mirror of his own conscience. Another provision, and perhaps the most important in the Des Moines charter is that which provides for non-partisan nominations and elections of municipal officers. Out there they have adopted and incorporated into their charter Golden Rule Jones' principle that a city official should be chosen with refer- ence to his views on city questions, and not on state or national questions. The party system, carried down into the cities, has been the real bulwark of municipal corruption and inefficiciicy. A party boss will subscribe to any view on the tariff, provided you permit him to tell you whom to vote for. Party bosses and party machines and franchise corporations and all their pitiful parasites have long, in reality, been non-partisan; now that the people are becoming non-partisan, they will come into their own. The Des Moines plan seems to me defective in one way, and that is that by it men have to become candidates themselves, ^nd this is not altogether in the spirit of real democracy. The S8 COMMISSION PLAN OF people should propose their own nominees by petition ; but the Des Moires plan in recognizing the principle of non-partisan- ship in municipal affairs has struck the key-note of real reform. These movements in the west show the unmistakable drift of the times; the movement, at last, is not away from the people, but toward the people ; they are coming into their own. What American cities need is government that will represent the people; when they have that, they will have good government, because at heart the people are good. To be sure, in Emer- son's words, "Laws do not make the city"; the people make the city, and when they have laws that record their will, they have order as a result; and all these schemes — the initiative, the ref- erendum, the recall, non-partisan nominations, and the rest — • place the governmental power where it belongs, in the people's hands. The commission plan, with these things added, concen- trates power and imposes the corresponding responsibility; when things go wrong, the people know whom to blame, and they have at hand an effective remedy. There is a plan known as the federal plan, tried in Cleve- land, years ago, which is also excellent. Under that plan the people elected a council and a mayor; the council had the legis- lative power, and the mayor the administrative and executive functions, appointing directors of departments to administer the city's affairs, just as the president appoints his cabinet. This plan was simple and effective, responsibility was easily fixed, and it carried the power that, in fairness, should accompany all re- sponsibility. But it fell short in that the party system remained in vogue and the people were without that splendid weapon of democracy — the initiative, the referendum, and the recall. Then, too, it retained the ward divisions, which are cumbrous and tend to promote small local feeling, so that the city, as a whole, is overlooked and lost to sight. Had it possessed these other things, and the merit system, it might have solved more of the problems of municipal government than it has. But it is evident that Galveston and Des Moines and Cleve- land have pointed the way. What they have done, all cities can do and will do. For one city is all cities; they are all alike in essentials, just as people are; they have their individualities, MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 59 and their special needs and little differences; but, in the large sense, they are all alike. And so we may say that, so far as charters and paper laws go, the way to municipal reform lies along these lines: 1. A charter that provides simply and directly for a few responsible officials, with a mayor and a small legislative or councilmanic board chosen from the city at large without ref- erence to wards. 2. Non-partisan nominations and elections. 3. The initiative and the referendum, including the sub- mission of all franchises to the people. 4. The recall. 5. The merit system for all employes other than heads of departments; and, most important of all, 6. Home rule on all subjects of purely local nature, the right of taxation, and the police power so far as purely local. With such a charter a city would be free to realize itself; it would be a city for the people; it would be a city in which each man would have a chance to develop his own life and pow- ers ; it would be a city in which, above all, special privilege, the great foe to equality and brotherhood, would be abolished. It would be, in a word, a democratic — an American — city. Of course, the law is not all; it is not even first. Good and wise peo- ple can get along better with bad laws than bad people can get along under good and wise laws. The people are everything. As Walt Whitman says: "The greatest city is that which has the greatest men and women. It may be but a few ragged ruts; it is still the greatest city in the whole world." But with the peo- ple themselves in power and the right law, the American city will speedily become the ideal city of which men have dreamed since time began. Citizen's Bulletin (Cincinnati). 6: i. April 18, 1908. Galveston's Commission Plan. Edmund R. Cheesborough. The Galveston commission government began September 18, 1901. At that time the city was practically bankrupt; its tax- able values were greatly reduced; it owed a heavy floating 6o COMMISSION PLAN OF debt in the shape of script issued for current bills; the City Hall, waterworks station, and some of the fire engine houses were in ruins and the street paving in wretched condition. One of the first acts of the board was to secure the services of three eminent engineers, Messrs. Noble, Robert, and Ripley, for the preparation of plans for the protection of the city from calamitous overflow. Their report called for a seawall to cost $1,500,000 and the raise of the grade of the city at a cost of $2,000,000. The county built the seawall and the city raised the grade. Galveston county has also just issued $500,000 bonds for its share of the cost of a $1,400,000 causeway to connect the island with the mainland. Eighty-five per cent of the taxable values of Galveston county are located in the city of Galveston, hence the entire burden of taxation falls largely upon the city proper. Galveston's Tax Rate The tax rate for city purposes in 1907 was $1.60 and state and county purposes, $1.16^. Valuations for assessing purposes are quite reasonable, and notwithstanding Galveston's experi- ence and accomplishments, its taxes are lower than' any large city in Texas. The next step of the commission was to get the majority of the bondholders to accept 2^ per cent interest instead of 5 per cent for a period of five years. The taxpayers were the beneficiaries of this compromise, not the city, as the tax levy was reduced accordingly. Out of current revenues from date of their inauguration into ofiice and up to February 29. 1908, the city commission has paid for the following extraordinary expenses: Floating debt, inherited from Aldermen $157,000.00 Brick pavement on sand foundation, at $1.40 per yard 170,000.00 Shell roads 135.000.00 Storm drains 100,000.00 Repairs to City Hall, new engine house, new waterworks station and pumping plant 70,000.00 Total c $632,000.00 MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 6i The commission has paid off and canceled $461,953.70 of the regular bonded debt. It has taken care of very heavy expenses in raising water mains and pipes in the grade-raising area and in putting in new screens in the artesian wells from which the city obtains its water supply. With funds received from sale of sewer bonds, just prior to the advent of the commission form of city government, $150,000 has been expended in extending the sewer system. The city has also purchased three new fire engines, one large extension ladder truck, other equipment and new horses. All obligations of the city have been paid in cash, not a dollar being borrowed and not a bond issued, excepting the special issue for grade-raising purposes. The city maintains a splendidly equipped public hospital, a magnificent gift to the city, at a net annual expense of $30,000. The financing of the grade-raising (which cost $2,000,000), with the aid of the state, has been a splendid achievement. State Renders Aid The city has paid about $180,000 of its own funds to meet the interest on the bonds issued for raising the city grade. The state has granted the city the right to use the state's part of all taxes collected on property located in Galveston county for a period of seventeen years. With the seven years' taxes sa far received, the city has paid off $504,000 of the grade-raising bonded debt and has on hand, in advance, one year's interest and sinking fund. The city also has funds on hand with which to pay current obligations during the. summer months. All departments of the city are working in perfect harmony and render efficient service. The total expenses for current purposes for the coming year of 1908-9, according to the city budget, will be $541,300. This, of course, does not include in- terest and sinking fund. The city collects interest on bank bal- ances from bonded depositors. Collects a special vehicle tax,, which goes to the street improvement fund, enforces sewer con- nections, has metered the city's water service, has cleared the sidewalks of fruit stands and other obstructions, which have oc- cupied them for years ; has prosecuted to a finish all outstand- ing lawsuits, collects taxes promptly, has destroyed the policy 62 'COMMISSION PLAN OF evil and public gambling and adopted an ordinance directing barrooms out of the residence section. In securing the service of heads of departments and em- ployes, the commissioners have completely ignored political in- fluence. Capacity and fitness alone have been considered. Each commissioner has taken a deep personal interest and a pride in the success of his department. Citizen's Bulletin (Cincinnati). 7: 7, April 10, 1909. Des Moines Plan a Great Success. Des Moines, Iowa, is just ending its first year under a com- mission form of government, and the general verdict seems to be that the city never before enjoyed so efiicient and economical an administration. Expenses have been kept well within the regular tax income as compared with an excess of expenditure in the last years of the old regime. The merit system has been extended, a new system of accounting installed, electric street lighting rates have been reduced from $75 to $65, the police department made more efficient, the so-called red-light district cleaned up, and so on. A dispatch to the Chicago Tri- bune says : — The five members of the commission receive combined salaries of $15,000 a year, and it is estimated that enough money has been saved by stopping small wastes, due to loose business meth- ods, to make up that sum. A business system has been intro- duced in all departments and the city hall has been changed from a loafing place for politicians to a place resembling the of- fices of a large business concern. An entirely new spirit pervades it. For twenty years the city and the railroads have been dicker- ing over the terms of constructing a viaduct, without coming to any conclusion ; under the commission the matter has been settled and work is about to begin The commission govern- ment is also pressing upon the street railway company a plan of profit-sharing with the city after the Chicago example, and lower rates are being exacted of the water supply company. The people of Des Moines are evidently mucli pleased with their new form of government, so far as it has been tried. MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 63. Citizen's Bulletin (Cincinnati). 7: 7. May 8, igog. Commission Government. The extent to which the five cities in Texas having govern- ment by commission, the largest places in that state, are being visited by students of municipal government from all over the country is remarkable. A joint committee from the Illinois legislature, for example, consisting of five senators and repre- sentatives, lately visited Texas, and have reported to the body which sent them. Passage in this report are of general in- terest, as follows : — In every city we visited we found the almost unanimous senti- ment of the citizens favoring the commission form of government. The enthusiasm for it is hardly describable. Extremists have gone so far as to favor the abolition of the legislature of Texas and substitute therefor a commission of five to govern the state. Without doubt there has been a marked improvement in the con- duct of affairs of the cities. Able, fearless, progressive and con- scientious men are in charge of public affairs. Under the stim- ulus of great municipal improvements conducted in the same manner as the affairs of great private enterprises, these cities are entering upon an era of prosperity, with the full confidence of their citizens in the integrity of their public officials and in the efficiency of the commission form of government. The spread of the commission idea is further evidenced in the fact that Kansas has a commission law, which was amend- ed at the last session of the legislature, and there are now five cities in that state that have commission governments. Perhaps it may not be generally realized that this new form of municipal control has taken root in Massachusetts. Three of our cities, Chelsea, Haverhill and Gloucester are experi- menting with government by commission. Chelsea is being rebuilt under a board of control, consisting of five members appointed by the governor. The term of one member will expire next fall, and his successor will be chosen by the vo- ters. One member of the board will be elected each year by popular vote until 1913, when the citizens shall decide whether they wish to continue government by commission. Haverhill and Gloucester are each governed by a single board of five, consisting of a mayor and four aldermen, elected by the people. 64 COMMISSION PLAN OF Citizen's Bulletin (Cincinnati). 7: 1-2. July 3, 1909. Commission Plan : What it Means. Ernest S. Bradford. Starting with Galveston, where the new system went into effect in 1901, the commission idea spread first to other Texas cities. Houston adopted it in 1905, as already set forth ; Dal- las followed in 1907 ; Fort Worth adopted the plan, and Denison, Greenville, Sherman, El Paso and more recently, the state capital, Austin, have followed suit. In nearly every case the commissioners are five in number and the general plan fol- lowed is either that of Galveston or Houston. After the Galveston plan had been in operation a short time, the Su- preme Court of Texas decided that that part of the law providing for three commissioners to be appointed by the governor of the state, the other two, only, to be elected by the people, was unconstitutional, and that all must be elected. After the Gal- veston charter was amended to conform with this ruling, the commissioners chosen in other cities have all been elective. For this reason the government of Washington does not pre- sent the case of a commission government, in the sense in which the term is used elsewhere, for its commissioners are not elected by the people. From Texas the commission system spread to Oklahoma, where three or four cities have adopted it, the plan going into effect in Ardmore on April i, 1909; and to Kansas, where Topeka, Leavenworth, Wichita and other cities have followed the example of Galveston. In Iowa, Des Moines, as already noted, a city of 90,000, struck out along a slightly different line adding to the small commission, elected at large, the other features of a recall for the commissioners, a referendum on ordinances and franchises, a non-partisan primary and election and a city civil service. Cedar Rapids is operating under the same state law as Des Moines ; and this law has been amended (1909) so as to permit cities of 7,000 to adopt the plan. Burlington, Davenport and other towns are agi- tating the subject, the successes of the past year in their neighboring cities having had a marked influence on general sentiment throughout the municipalities of the state. MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 65 It Is Spreading The Illinois legislature, in response to a strong demand from Peoria, Springfield and other cities, sent a committee to visit the Texas and Iowa cities which have the plan in force and is expected to pass a law allowing Illinois municipalities to adopt. About the same time, the people of St. Paul and Minneapolis persuaded John MacVicar, the Des Moines Com- missioner of Streets, and one or two other lowans to come up and tell them about the plan in force in Des Moines, with the result that the Minnesota legislature has just passed (April, 1909) an act providing for introduction of the small Board system in cities of the Gopher state. Both the Twin Cities are said to be anxious to try the experiment which has succeeded so well elsewhere. A bill to the same effect is pending in the Wisconsin legis- lature, while in both North Dakota and South Dakota the law is already in force, and Bismarck, Mandan and other cities have the plan well under way ; and in Nebraska, a com- tnittee of the Commercial Club of Lincoln, including the City Clerk and City Attorney, recently made an examination into the workings of the plan. At the same time, the seeds of the idea have sprung up in the East and in the Far West. In Massachusetts, the h:me of the original New England town-meeting, Gloucester and Ha- verhill have already put it into operation; in Chelsea, which adopted the plan as an emergency measure after the fire (1908), the commission of five is appointed by the governor, instead of being elected. A distinguished committee of the Economic Club, of Boston, including Dr. Chas. W. Eliot, then President of Harvard University; John D. Long, Harvey N. Shephard, John Tobin and Harvey S. Chase, submitted to the Finance Committee of Boston a plan for the government of that city, which follows, in a general way, the lines of the Des Moines system. San Diego, Cal., installed commission government May 3, 1909; Berkeley, the home of the University of California, has followed suit, and Portland, Ore., a city of 125,000 has just 66 COMMISSION PLAN OF recently voted favorably on the proposition. Boise and Lewis- ton, Idaho, are also governed by commissions, while Memphis, Tenn., with 150,000 population, and nearer the home of the idea, is to install its new charter on January i, 1910. Missis- sippi passed a state law in 1908, and one city, Jackson, has taken advantage of it so far. Escape from Graft And so it goes; in active operation in six states, just adopt- ed in two more, pending in two or three others, and number- ing also cities in Massachusetts, California and Oregon, the commission plan has already made remarkable strides toward general adoption. And here it may be well to stop a moment and inquire why this new idea has received so cordial a re- ception and has been accorded so ready a hearing. Is it a fad in government? Is it merely because the American people are eager to adopt something new that this scheme has made such rapid headway? Or do men believe they see a wav out of their old municipal slough of incompetence and graft? Why this rapid adoption of a plan not yet ten years old? The reply must be evident to one at all acquainted with American men and their institutions. There comes forward a plan with which every business man is familiar; every stock- holder in a corporation is accustomed to voting for a board of directors; why not vote for a board of municipal directors? The solid citizen grasps the idea instantly; it is a familiar one ; he knows its workings in business ; he understands it thoroughly. He waits only to ascertain the results in cities which have tried it. Much simpler than the mayor and coun- cil system, it appeals to him from the first; and the verdict of success, pronounced even by conservatives wherever the plan has been tried, stamps the seal of successful experience upon it. The old feeling that municipal government is a hope- less mess and not capable of improvement or reform yields, in the flash of his sure instinct, to the knowledge that here is the chance to change the whole plan ; to locate responsibility with certainty; to tell when he is getting a good administra- tion ; to know where his money goes. And the steady rate MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT (>7 at which commission government is being adopted means a prompt comprehension of the vast improvement in the proposed governmental machinery over the old way of doing things. rather than undue speed in taking up a new idea. What It Means For the commission idea in essence, means: (i) All the municipal power in the hands of a few men (usually five), who are, individually, heads of departments, and, collectively, the legislative as well as the final administrative authority for the city. (2) These men are elected by the voters and are re- sponsible to them. In the first place, there are only five men to choose, instead of a score, so the voter can know whom he is voting for ; then, when elected, he knows whom to hold responsible, and with the addition of the recall (a powerful check on the commissioners) and the referendum (which en- ables the people to exercise legislative functions directly on important matters), he feels that the wires are no longer crossed ; he knows to whom to speak and the commissioner, at the other end, hears. The clutch no longer slips — all the machinery is connected up. (3) Some method of abolishing partisan politics helps to make plain the local issues. In Gal- veston, a strong Civic Club, composed of public-spirited busi- ■ness men, backs for re-election the commissioners who have given satisfaction, and thus obviates the necessity of their making their own fight for office. In Des Moines a non-parti- san primary and election works toward the same end ; it is not possible to vote a party ticket straight, but each name must be marked separately. (4) Finally, a city civil service in- sures freedom from the worst form of politics in administra- tion. (5) The publication of all proceedings of the council or of the Commissioner of Finance still further aids the voter to decide as to the efficiency of his government; and because he pays his representatives, he is still more likely to hold them strictly responsible for the performance of their duties. The real, underlying reason for the superiority of the new plan over the old way is found in the close connection of the voter with the government. The average voter really chooses 68 COMMISSION PLAN OF his representatives, for he is not confused by the multitude of offices to fill, and can intelligently pick a small number. After they are chosen, they may be recalled ; their ordinances may be subjected to the voter's will by a referendum; and pub- lished proceedings and statements, plainer and more full than formerly was the custom, enable the average citizen to deter- mine what sort of return he is getting for his taxes. A Responsible Government Too much power in a few hands? No more than was formerly exercised by the city boss or a clique of aldermen- often scarcely known and irresponsible, while the commission- ers can be and are held strictly accountable. The exercise of legislative and administrative power by the same body unde- sirable? It is scarcely necessary to point out that under the usual mayor and council system the members of each council committee do the same thing, passing ordinances as members of the council, while each committee supervises a branch of the administrative work. The Des Moines and Galveston plans simply substitute a small council (elected at large) for a large council (elected by wards), and each commissioner takes the place of a council committee, even sometimes, as in Houston, retaining the title of committee chairman. The actual admin- istrative work is carried out by the superintendents and em- ployes ; only the supervision is in the hands of the commis- sioners. The new plan costs too much? At Houston, Galveston, Des Moines and in other cities they show you quite conclusively that the commissioners have saved the city the amount of their salaries several times over. The plan does not insure good government; no mere sys- tem can do that. The people must be alert, interested in their city and its administration and ready to act if their interests are not guarded. No scheme of government can take the place of these qualities on the part of citizens. But what the new plan does is closely to connect the people and the governing body; it enables the voters really to choose their men, to judge their acts with a fair degree of accuracy and to hold them re- MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 69 sponsible for the kind of government given, retiring the com- missioners, if necessary, or refusing approval of their laws ; and this fact inspires the hope that American cities can be, after all, well administered ; a new feeling that here is a plan which gives the average citizen a chance to determine who shall represent him and afterward to decide whether he is being adequately represented. This is why commission govern- ment is spreading so rapidly and so steadily, and why the re- sults so far obtained have been so favorable. Every student of government and every thoughtful taxpayer will scan with interest reports of the operations of this plan in other cities, debating whether its principle can not be applied, with varia- tions, if needed, to his own city. City Hall (Des Moines). 10: 357-9. April, 1909. Des jNIoines Plan : Questions and Answers. Leave::., .rth, Kan., March 19, 1909. 1. Do you find the commission plan less expensive for the city than your former plan? Yes, we save about 25 per cent per annum on the actual running expenses of the city under the lowest expense the city has ever had. 2. If it is less expensive, about how much are you saving per year? Find answer in above. 3. Is the city getting better returns for expenditures than heretofore? We are getting much better service from more capable men. and men who are more efficient 4. Is the tax being reduced? Our tax rate on real estate has been reduced possibly s^ys per cent. Our taxes on personal property have increased possi- bly 20 per cent.* *(The increase in tax on personal property is the result of a new state law framed to catch such property not before listed. — Com.) 70 COMMISSION PLAN OF 5. Are the laws better enforced? Yes, there is less lawlessness, and the docket of our Police Court shows less arrests for all causes than heretofore. 6. To what extent have you been able to eliminate politics? IVe have eliminated politics entirely. The plan has been in operation in Leavenworth since April, 1908. The city has about 30,000 population. (Signed) E. W. CRANCER, Mayor. Des Moines, Iowa, March 19, 1909. 1. Do you find the commission plan less expensive for the city than your former plan? Yes. 2. If it is less expensive, about how much are you saving per year? The saving this year is estimated between $25,000 and $40,000, exact figures not obtainable until the completion of the annual report. The city has lived within its income for the first time in many years. 3. Is the city getting better returns for expenditures than heretofore? Most emphatically yes. I believe nearly any citizen will endorse this statement. 4. Is the tax rate being reduced? I anticipate a reduction next year. 5. Are the laws better enforced? There is earnest desire on the part of the commissioners closely to observe the law, but I attribute this tendency to the men. 6. To what extent have you been able to eliminate politics? Ward lines abolished: partisan politics in no degree con- sidered in any appointments so far as I have any knowledge. The plan was adopted April, 1908. City between 90,000 and 100,000. (Signed) A. J. MATHIS, Mayor. MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 71 Cedar Rapids, Iowa, March 26, 1909. 1. Do you find the commission plan less expensive for the city than your former plan? Under the commission plan, as adopted by us, it costs more for the salaries of the mayor and city covmcilmen. 2. If it is less expensive, about how much are you saving per year? The difference in cost of operating under the commission plan is more than ten times offset by values received in all ma- terials purchased and reduction in prices in all contracts made. 3. Is the city getting better returns for expenditures than heretofore? The city receives better returns for expenditures than here- tofore. All bills except contracts are discounted 2 per cent. 4. Is the tax rate being reduced? The levy was reduced one mill. 5. Are the laws better enforced? The laws are better enforced. Formerly the average amount collected per month for fines and penalties was about $70; under the commission plan the average amount collected is about $700 per month. 6. To what extent have you been able to eliminate politics? The commission plan in actual operation in this city has ab- solutely eliminated politics. Commission went into effect April, 1908. Population 35,000. (Signed) JOHN F. CARMODY, Mayor. Houston, Texas. The Mayor of Houston, Texas, instead of answering the questions, sent a marked copy of an address delivered by him at Charlotte, N. C, Nov. 18, 1908. The following extracts are taken from the address: Inaugeration in July, 1905, the present government found a floating debt of over $400,000, and an empty treasury. Tlie city virtually had no credit. There was not a single merchant that desired to transact any business with the local government. However, gloomy as the prospect was, the authorities went about their task with the determination to better conditions. 72 COMMISSION PLAN OF By the strictest economy we redeemed in the first eight months of our term $306,202.47 of the old floating debt, besides paying our monthly bills prompt!}', as well as the salaries of all employes. In the three years of commission rule the city of Houston has wiped out all floating debt and has given to the tax payer out of the treasury, without the issuance of a single bond, in per- manent improvements the sum of $701,226.74, and has eliminated the floating debt, amounting to over $400,000. // is the first time in the history of Houston that a sinking fund has been created. While these improvements have been going on, the tax rate lias been reduced 20 cents on the $100. My friends, the city of Houston, is very prosperous and rap- idly growing. In the last sixty days nearly $3,000,000 of building pennits have been issued. Daily Capital (Des Moines). August 5, 1909. State Experts Like Plan. Des Moines' commission form of government is completely vindicated by the report of the municipal examiners submitted to the state department of municipal accounting. After a complete, careful and methodical investigation of the city's government under the Des Moines plan, the examiners, M. F. Cox and F. M. Abbott, indorse the system in every respect. The accounts in the auditor's and treasurer's offices are found correct to the penny and in the remarks following the forty- five pages of figures, the examiners are emphatic in their com- mendations of the organization under the commissioners. The report even goes so far as to recommend features of the Des Moines plan as worthy of imitation by other city governments. A criticism is implied from the remarks on the accounts of the police court as a suggestion is made that greater care be taken in that department. Superintendent Schramm is praised for his system of re- MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 73 ceipts and disbursements and the examiners state that the ac- counts and finance department is "conducted upon strictly busi- ness methods." Mayor Mathis' alleged withholding of certain fees is men- tioned in the report indirectly by reference to the $1,388.25, which the examiners cannot account for "only as it is carried forward from the police judge's account of receipts." They "failed to find any excuse" and recommend that the city have "at least interest on the money." The report says : In the management of the affairs of the city of Des Moines, we find nothing but what we can highly commend, so far as the system of keeping the accounts and finances is concerned. All schedules and pay rolls are countersigned by the auditor and approved by the mayor and in addition to the above, each scheduled pay roll is certified to by the head of each department, and should the council in the future, decide to become a little more harmonious and not antagonize each other at times, when the welfare of the city and each individual department should be in the minds of every member of the commission, the form of government, such as Des Moines now has, would need no de- fense, for we believe the principle to be correct, after examining the methods of receiving and disbursing the amount of money it takes to run the city of Des Moines. We find receipts on file for all moneys paid out. and the fact that some branches of the government show such heavy increases in receipts is evidence that this part of the business is being looked after. The traffic in witness fees has been abandoned and the pro- fessional bondsman is being held in disrepute. 'We suggest though, that some improvement may yet be made in the keep'ng of the accounts of the police court, realizing that the ofHce force In this department has plenty to do. In the auditor's department, during the period between April 1st. 1P08, and April 1st. 1909, there were 19.274 warrants drawn and there was not a single mistake in amounts or figures, the head of the department and his assistants are all competent and worthy. 'Wg found in this department a record of appronriations and expenditures which the debits carried into the account as they appear, and no warrants drawn beyond the appropriation. Also a complete record of all outstanding warrants is kept and carried forward each month, enabling the department to know at all times the conditions of the finances. The above systems we commend to all city governments as worthv of imitation. In the treasurer's department we found the record clear and complete, with competent men handling the city's cash. In checking up the treasurer's cash with the amount on hand and in banks, it is made to appear that he has ?55.42 less than the re- port shows. This is explained by noting the overdraft in the "main sewer fund" of the above amount. His accounts were correct a d checked to the penny. The superintendent of accounts and finances has formulated a system which is" a complete check upon all the receipts and dis- bursements and his department is being conducted upon strictly business methods, the same as any successful enterprise. 74 COMMISSION PLAN OF In December, 1908, there appears among the receipts of this report, in the general fund, the amount of $1,388.25, which we cannot account for only as it is carried forward from the police judge's account of receipts as having been collected in a former period. Among the ordinances of the city of Des Moines, it is directed that all money collected shall be turned over to the city on the succeeding month in which it was collected. We fail to find any excuse for the withholding of this amount for nine months anu we believe, under the city ordinances, the city is entitled at least to the interest on the money, notwithstanding the fact that the city solicitor has held otherwise in an opinion we would consider dangerous because of the abuses that would naturally follow. The report was filed with Chief Clerk Alonzo D. Sheets of the municipal accounting department and copies were also filed with the auditor of state and submitted to Mayor Mathis, The examination commenced with the accounts beginning November i, 1907. The first part of the report covers the period from that date until April i, 1908. The second part covers the period between April 17, 1908, to April 1, 1909. This last named portion covers the splendid progress under the Des Moines plan. Des Moines Evening Tribune. July 17, 1909. Cost of Des Moines Plan. Statement, Year Ending April i, 1909. Assets $2,906,427.04 Liabilities 1,077,180.34 Amount of assets over liabilities $1,829,246.70 Total receipts of year 1,322,290.20 Total expenditures 998,875.77 Balance on hand 333.414-43 Property value, 1908 77,546,580.00 Assessed valuation, 1908 19,386,645.00 Rate 36.40 Ten dollars for each man, woman and child in Des Moines. That is what it costs to run Des Moines for a year, accord- ing to the annual report for the fiscal year of 1908-09, issued MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 75 today. Based on a population of 100,000, it costs exactly $9-56 for each person. The total amount spent in conducting the municipality's af- fairs for the twelve months preceding April i, 1909, was $998,- 875.77, a little less than $1,000,000. But the receipts, including a cash balance of $205,141.83 for that period, were $1,332,290.20, so the city started the current year with a balance on hand of $333,414.43. Of the $9.56 spent for each person in the city, 62 cents went for general government, $2.47 for the protection of life and property, 53 cents for health and sanitation, $2.56 for high- ways, 32 cents for libraries, 58 cents for recreation, 21 cents for cemeteries, 13 cents for miscellaneous, 38 cents for prin- cipal and interest on public debt and $1.76 on outstanding debt obligations. Lower Than Other Cities Compared with other cities about its size, Des Moines' per capita cost is materially lower in most instances. The cost of conducting Lynn, Mass., is $14.07 for each person; Richmond, Va., $17.44. It costs more for other Iowa cities than it does for Des Moines, Sioux City's per capita rate being $13-22, and that of Dubuque, $10.26. But perhaps the best comparison for Des Moines is the difference in accomplishments under the commission form of government and the old aldermanic system. The report shows that the first year's business under the new system was con- ducted more cheaply by practically $170,000 than the last year of the old regime. The city was exactly $224,055.10 better off at the beginning of its second year, under the Des Moines plan than it was when it entered upon its first year. All of this sum is not credited to the superior operation of the new sys- tem because an indebtedness of $50,000 was handed down from one council to the other for several years and it had to be dealt with by the last council under the aldermanic plan. 76 COMMISSION PLAN OF Condition April i The following is the way the city's financial accounts looked on April i, 1908, the date the Des Moines plan went into effect, and on April i, 1909, the beginning of its second year : 1909. 1908. Total working funds $164,352.05 $72,790.11 Claims outstanding 59,496.77 191.989.93 So there was $91,561.94 more in the working funds at the be- ginning of the current year than there was twelve months ago, and at the same time there was $132,493.16 less in debts to be paid. The addition of these two sums gives the amount the city is better off— $224,055.10. The following are the amounts spent during the first year under the Des Moines plan by the five departments in perform- ing their duties : Public affairs $60,784.23 Accounts and finance 235,038.02 Public safety 231,789.64 Streets and public improvements 369.995-23 Parks and public property 84,394-86 Total in all departments $982,001.98 Street improvements alone amounted to $357,755-50 in the last year. The following is the manner in which it was invested : Total Cost. Brick paving $111,178.11 Asphalt paving 91,993.94 Creosote paving 29,993.94 Petrolithic oil road 5430-92 Curbing 6,214.00 Combined curb and gutter 2,607.61 Sewers 102,141.70 Sewer and water connections 764.60 Sidewalks 7.553.57 Total $357,755.50 MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT tj A comparative statement for the last eight years shows that the tax levy was the lowest of any year in that period, being 36.4 on a one-fourth valuation of the property. In 1907 it was 38.7 and in 1900, 40.3. While the city levies have gradually been lowered the state, county and school have increased. The state levy in 1908 as compared with the year previous was 4 as against 3.9; the county 16 as against 16.3 and the school 30.4 as against 27.9. The city of Des Moines has personal property worth near- ly three million dollars. The following is an itemized list of its holdings and its debit. It shows that on April i this year it was $1,829,246.70 to the good. In other words it had that much more in assets than liabilities : ASSETS Cash on hand $333,41443 Real estate — City hall (old) $ 50,000.00 City hall site (new) 80,000.50 Police station 23,000.00 Fire stations 200,890.00 Detention hospitals 25,000.00 Parks 767,000.00 Cemeteries — Laurel Hill 15,000.00 Glendale 80,000.00 Woodland 105,000.00 Library 420,000.00 Market places 10,000.00 Bridges 679,041.50 $2,359,931-50 Personal property, all depts 213,081.11 Total assets $2,906,427.04 78 COMMISSION PLAN OF LIABILITIES. General bonds $838,000.00 Special (city hall site) bonds 78,000.00 Locust St. bridge certificates (*a) 56,800.00 City improvement certificates 2,338.40 Outstanding judgment (*b) 707.25 Land payments (parks) 26,500.00 Land payments (Laurel Hill cemetery).. 11,000.00 Warrants outstanding 41,054.59 Claim (D. M. Water Co. rental) 22,780.10 Total indebtedness $1,077,180.34 Amount of assets over liabilities $1,829,246.70 Des Moines Register and Leader, June i, 1909. Galveston City Election. The practical workings of southern politics have recently been illustrated in the Galveston city election, if the story told in the Kansas City Star by a southern correspondent may be relied upon. As has been widely advertised, wherever the commission plan is under debate, Galveston has been captured by the "liberal" element. The forces of reform were caught napping and as usual in such cases were easily bagged. The newly elected mayor belongs to the machine that was ousted when the com- mission government was first installed. The method of the overturn is of special interest in the north because it illustrates what the south is attempting to do in the limitation of suffrage and what is possible whenever there is enough division among the white leaders to warrant either faction in bringing the colored man to the polls. Texas has attempted to eliminate the colored vote by the imposition of a poll tax qualification. There are two poll taxes of two dollars each, both of which must be paid in the month of February or the delinquent will not be entitled to vote at any MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 79 subsequent elections. February is the shortest month, and it is as far removed from election day as it well could be. The colored voter is not encouraged to remember, and he does not vote. But this year the "liberal" element saw to it that the poll taxes of a large number of negroes were paid. Less than 60 per cent of the voting population had qualified and when election day came around the "liberal" candidates had been elected by some 500 majority. The victory was not marked in a total vote of 5,100. But it was enough. It is in view of such an election that the importance of the recall as an adjunct of the commission government is seen. The commission government must make good with the average citizen in office and the average citizen can be made into a good official if he knows that his tenure is no longer than the good will of the people whose money he is handling. Judge Fisher, the newly elected Galveston mayor, in an interview says : "I have at all times believed, and still believe, in the com- mission form of government. The people of Galveston may rest assured that, by no act of mine, will the commission form of government be disturbed." With the recall in the hands of the citizen there would be g-reater assurance that he would do as well as he says. Des Moines Register and Leader. August 10, 1909. Plan Not at Fault. "Opponents of the Des IMoines plan attempt to make much of the frequent wrangles between the commissioners at council meetings," said A. L. Clinite. "Seizing upon these disagree- ments they claim it betrays a weakness and therefore the plan is no improvment upon the old system. To my mind the fact that the commissioners thrash out all their differences in open council is one of the most satisfactory evidences of the superiority of the Des Moines plan. Preceding its adoption it was customary for members of the council, most of whom were 8o COMMISSION PLAN OF contractors, to retire to the privacy of committee of the whole and behind closed doors frame up jobs for their individual profit. The public was not permitted to knowr what transpired in com- mittee of the whole. Now the councilmen discuss and act upon all public matters in open meeting. Thus the public is equally as well informed as to what is going on as are the commis- sioners. There is no secrecy. Instead of fat contracts, in which I am told the aldermen were often silent partners, being awarded to councilmen or their friends, the work is let publicly. It is noticeable that most of the old crowd of contractors have not fared well since this open policy was adopted. Almost every man one hears opposing the Des Moines plan is an old contractor. In my opinion the plan has worked quite satisfac- torily, and I believe the same opinion is entertained by a large majority of the voters. Then compare the aspect of the streets today with their condition five or six years ago. One glance is enough to satisfy any sober minded citizen that the new plan is infinitely to be preferred to the former system, or more properly, lack of system. The taxpayers are getting something for their money, now. Yet one can observe a getting together of the forces of reaction for a desperate attempt next spring to install the old crowd in the city offices." Galveston News. April 17, 1909. Commission Plan in Texas. Tom Finty. The commission form of government as applied to municipal- ities has become so thoroughly established in Texas, where it was developed, that the people of this state now generally realize its worth and suggestions are heard that it should be applied to county government and even state government. Out- side of the state, too, it has been adopted with certain modifica- tions, in many cities, where its value has been tested to a certain extent. Naturally, people of other states, who have taken an interest in the matter still turn to Texas where the test has been most thorough for information on this subjct. One of the latest inquiries is as to whether the particular kind of govern- MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 8i merit is calculated to succeed in small cities, say places of 10,000 to 20,000 inhabitants. Heretofore, Texas students of the subject have declared their belief that it would be easier to make a success of commission government in small cities than in large ones. Now they are able to point to results for proof that the commission will succeed in small cities. Here is the record in brief of commission government in Texas, — the names of the cities which have adopted commission government, the year in which they were granted charters prescribing that method, and the population of each of them, approximately : City Date of Charter Population Galveston 1901 40,000 Houston 1903 90,000 Dallas 1907 90,000 Fort Worth 1907 65,000 El Paso 1907 45,000 Denison 1907 15.000 Greenville 1907 12,000 Austin 1909 35,000 Waco 1909 35,000 Marshall 1909 12,000 Palestine 1909 1 1,000 Corpus Christi 1909 10,000 This list shows that the value of the commission form of government has been proved to the satisfaction of the people in most of the principal cities of Texas, but perhaps the most im- pressive item is to be added : The fact that the Texas legislature recently enacted a law authorizing those cities (of less than 10,000 inhabitants) which incorporate under the general law to adopt the commission plan. The people in many of these smaller cities of the state have manifested a lively interest in the matter, and it is likely that a number of them soon will avail themselves of the opportunity afforded by the new law. Shall Plan be Extended f What about applying the principle to county government and state government? 82 COMMISSION PLAN OF Some of the propositions made along this line, and some of the questons asked in that regard indicate that while Texas people are pretty well agreed that commission government is a success, the reasons for its success are not so thoroughly under- stood. "Since the commission form of government succeeds in respect to cities, makes an improvement, it is bound to succeed if applied to counties or to the state," says an advocate of exten- sion. And that reasoning appears to be perfectly sound. The problem, however, lies not so much in operating a commission plan of government for county or state as it does in making the application. "We already have a commission form of government for counties, and it does not succeed," is an objection which has been made by persons who consider the commissions court of each county, composed of five men and clothed with broad powers, the equivalent of the city commission. The objection, when sub- jected to analysis,, is proof of the assertion already made that the reason for the success of the commission form of govern- ment as applied to cities is not so generally understood as is the success itself recognized. Have we a commission form of government for our Texas counties? If so, why is it not a success? Why has the com- mission form of government as applied to cities proved satis- factory? Why Council Plan Fails Crossing lots for an answer, it may be said that the commis- sion form of government has succeeded because of its antipodal differences from the old council plan, which latter often proved unsatisfactory for these reasons : First, with a large number of elective officers the government proved cumbersome and unwieldy, responsibility and power being diffused. When really capable men were elected to ofiice, they found it difficult or impossible to accomplish good work. Second, with a large number of offices to be elected and gen- erally a number of candidates seeking each office, it became prac- tically impossible for any citizen save the professional politician MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 83 who devotes all of his time to the subject, intelligently to choose as between the various candidates for each office. Third, the better class of citizens, qualified and honest, re- frained from being candidates for office because (a) it was prac- tically impossible for voters to make intelligent choice as between the candidates, and (b) it was practically impossible and certainly exceedingly difficult for such men, if chosen to office, to accom- plish much good therein. Basis of Commission Plan Per contra, the commission form of government, has suc- ceeded because, in the first place, the people having fair oppor- tunity to choose wisely as betwen a comparatively small number of candidates, the better class of citizens, capable and honest, are willing to become candidates for public office ; and secondly, because such men when elected are able by reason of the fact that the commission is a small and wieldy body, clothed with adequate powers and under definite responsibilty, to achieve their worthy purposes. This second reason, together with the first, constitutes the inducement for the right sort of men to give their services to the public. County Government Defects Perceiving the reasons for success of the commission plnn as applied to cities, it is not difficult to understand why our county government in Texas, especially in counties of large population, has often been unsatisfactory. For one thing, the Commissioners' Court, while having great power, does not by any means control all that there is to the county government. There are other county officials, chosen directly by the people and responsible in very slight degree, if at all, to the Commissioners' Court, where- as a distinctive feature of the commission form of government as applied to cities is that the commissioners appoint all other officers of the city, and in consequence have complete and eflfec- tive control over the entire government. The people look to com- missioners and to them only, for results. The other officers and employes of the city look to the commissioners, and to them only, for orders. 84 COMMISSION PLAN OF This, however, is not the chief difference. The main point of dift'erence lies in the method of selecting the two groups of officials. County commissioners are chosen by precincts ; city commis- sioners, under the Galveston plan, are chosen from the city at large and by all the voters of the city. Party politics enters into the selection of county commis- sioners, in many instances interfering with the free exercise of judgment upon the part of voters. Such is not the case in a majority of the cities which have adopted the commission plan of government, and in none of them where it is giving approxi mately perfect satisfaction. Finally, and what is most important, the voter in picking county commissioners is called upon to make a choice as between many candidates, which is not the case in the selection of city commissioners. Not that there are many candidates for a county commissionership ; the trouble is that county commissioners are chosen at the same time as other county officers, and precinct, district, state, and perhaps national officers. Too much goes on during the preceding campaign to render it possible for any save professional politicians to gain accurate information as to many of the candidates. It sems plain, therefore, that the application of the commis- sion form of government to county affairs would involve four things, viz : 1. Treatment of the county as a unit, electing all mem- bers of the Commissioners' Court from the county at large. 2. Vesting the county government exclusively in the Com- missioners' Court and empowering that body to fill all other county offices. 3. Choice of the members of said court at an election held exclusively for that purpose. 4. Elimination of partisan politics from county affairs. Step Backward Within the last few years county government in Texas has been set further away from the commission plan than it was before, and this is true in a lesser degree of the state government. MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 85 Prior to the legalizing of primary elections and the forcing of that system upon the dominant party as to all offices, county officers were chosen in many of the counties of the state with- out regard to party lines. In sporting parlance, it was "a free for all, and let the best man win." And even where party lines were drawn, generally speaking, the candidates of the Democratic party for county offices were chosen at primaries or at conven- tions held expressly for that purpose. The local matters were not mixed up and confused with those pertaining to districts, the state or the nation. Now the voter is called upon to make selections during the same campaign, and upon the same day for all offices, "from constable to president." It must be apparent to the observant citizen thafthe injection of partisan politics all along the line, accompanied by the partial paralysis of public thought, has weakened not only county gov- ernment, but state government as well. Whatever may be said of the respective merits of the convention system and the primary election system, it will not be gainsaid by any respectable student of the subject that the primary system is not to be administered in allopathic doses. Leading advocates of that system have uni- formly asserted and contended that a short ballot is essential to the success of the sytsem. Texas legislatures, however, have esteemed it a virtue to fasten the system upon the state under conditions making an abnormally long ballot unavoidable. More- over, much of the legislation enacted subsequent to the adoption of the system has been such as to add to the ballot and to in- crease the confusion of the campaign. Instead of confining the functions of government to existing departments, legislators continue to manifest a disposition to circumscribe the jurisdiction of the same, and without apparent necessity, to create new offices. The desire to make these new offices elective is manifest more often than it is put into effect. The idea with a large number of Texas legislators and other politicians seems to be that the more electing the people do the better it will be for them. This is diametrically opposed not only to the fundamental idea of the commission form of government, but to one of the basic ideas of the primary election system, which is that the people ought to undertake to elect enough 86 COMMISSION PLAN OF officers properly to direct the government, and no more. If they do undertake to choose more, they are apt to choose none wisely. Short Ballot and an Honest Count Here is the gospel of the primary election propagandists: "Shorten the ballot. Reduce membership of the legislature. Reduce number of other elective officers. Let these appoint all other necessary officers, clerks and employes. Lengthen the ten- ure of the office. Elect a part of the officers alternately every two years. The result will be a short ballot and the people may vote intelligently." In short, the slogan is : "A short ballot and an honest count."" The idea that only a few officers should be elected, and that these should choose the rest, is opposed by some people on the ground that appointive officers are not "close to the people," and because they say the few officers clothed with appointive power could build a political machine to perpetuate themselves and their dynasty in office. The answer is, that we already have a large number of appointive officers and have political machines, without the people having a fair opportunity to choose men to make the ap- pointments, whereas were the election system such as to give the people such opportunity, more men of the right sort would be attracted to the public service and the dangers of machine politics would be less consequential. Precisely the same objection was made to the commission form of government as applied to cities at first but it has been proved to be groundless. The medium between impracticable pure democracy for large constituencies upon the one hand, and an autocracy upon the other, is a government in which the people elect only enough officers to direct their affairs, and in which the people have a fair chance to elect such officers, in which they have "a short ballot and an honest count." Obviously, however, it is clear that the complete application of the common principle to the state officers, even to county of- ficers, presents difficulties not met in applying it to city affairs.. MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 87 Midwestern (Des Moines). 3:25-8. June, 1909. Des Moines Plan. Henry E. Sampson. During the last year every department of the city kept with- in the budget, and closed with a balance in the treasury instead of the usual deficit. On April i, 1909, the city had a working capital, after all bills for the year had been paid, of $104,855. Compare this situation with that of the city under the old sys- tem, when on April i, 1908, they lacked $119,200 of enough money to pay their obligations for the year. In fairness to the old administration it should be said that about $40,000 of this $119,200 had been carried over from the previous year, but even then the last city council under the old system was $79,200 behind. By adding the balance on hand at the close of the year of the new administration to the deficit shown at the close of the old administration we find a difference between the two systems of government of $184,055. Not since 1890, and but twice in the history of Des Moines, has there been a balance in the treas- ury at the end of the fiscal year. In this connection it may be stated that practically the entire 1>onded indebtedness of the city of Des Moines is the result of these annual deficits of our old city government. Under its imbusinesslike administration extravagance and waste was every- where found, and the books of the city show, with two excep- tions, a deficit at the close of each year. These have been al- lowed to accumulate for two or three years ; then bonds would be issued to cover the floating debt, and, as a result, the citj' today is carrying the burden of a bonded indebtedness of $916,000, upon which the tax payers of Des ]\Ioines are required to pay the annual interest of $37,730. It may be of interest to the reader to note some of the busi- ness methods introduced by the governing board of this new form of city government. As business men they saw that the funds of the city should be drawing interest, and so set about at once to make such arrangements with the banks, with the result that the city is now drawing four per cent on time deposits and two per cent on daily balances. The interest on the various funds of the city for the year just past amounted to $9,132.17. 88 COMMISSION PLAN OF The board of commissioners were also able to make more favorable contracts with the lighting companies. The lighting" bill of the city for the year ending April i, 1908, was $66,243, while that for the year ending April 1, iQog, was about $60,694,. or a saving to the city in this one item alone of $5,549. Another item on this bill is now in litigation, and this, if the city is suc- cessful, will increase the amount saved by the city on lighting bills alone to $10,322. The present rate for arc lights is $65 per year; prior to April, 1908, it was $95 per year. In addition to this the city has had the 603 lamps, which were formerly on moonlight schedule, burning all night and every night; a gain of 1,818 hours per lamp per year. Oskaloosa (Iowa) Daily Herald. April 6, 1909. Commission Plan. The commission plan of city government has been in force in Des Moines for one year. Following are some of the reforms that have been brought about: 1. There is an annual surplus instead of the usual deficit. 2. Service is not only more economical, but more efficients 3. Streets have been kept clean. 4. Paving has been laid according to contract. 5. Contracts have been let to the lowest bidders. 6. Police department is no longer a political asset. 7. Fire department is no longer part of a political machine^ 8. Government has been placed upon a business basis. 9. Business arrangements have been made with public serv- ice corporations with immense profit to the city. 10. Water rates have been reduced. 11. Cost of street lighting has been reduced. 12. Negotiations are on for profit-sharing arrangements with the street railway corporation. 13. Tlie "red light district" has been wiped out. 14. The "bond shark" business has been prohibited. 15. Slot machines have been driven out of the city. 16. People are satisfied with new form of government and unprejudiced opposition to it is disappearing. MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 89 17. Partisan politics have been removed from the manage- ment of the affairs of the city. 18. The city hall has been cleared of political loafers and grafters and novi^ resembles the business headquarters of a large commercial or industrial institution. These are one and all noteworthy accomplishments and they afford substantial encouragement for other cities to adopt the plan that made them possible. Washington (D. C.) Times. National View of the Des Moines Plan. (This is the fourth of a series of articles by a government official dealing with the developments of the commission form of government in various cities of the west and south. These articles are being written especially for the Times, apropos of the present discussion as to the best form of government for the District of Columbia — Washington, D. C. Times.) Des Moines has, in some respects, the most remarkable and successful government of any city of its size in the United Stites. With a population of a little less than 100,000, with farming and some manufacturing as basic industries, the capital of Iowa presents a case of a municipality which may fairly be called typically American. Large enough to have some of the problems of the great centers, small enough to be like many other towns, the success with its "Des Moines plan" is of great value to other places. Des Moines has taken the Galveston idea of a board of five municipal directors, francnises, a recall for unsatisfactory com- missioners, a city civil service and a non-partisan primary and election. This combination makes a remarkably strong scheme of government in the opinion of most of those interviewed, and it is worth while to inquire how it was initiated, and to examine its results. The "Des Moines plan" was the result of a natural develop- ment, not of a crisis, as at Galveston, and no unusual burst of public spirit can be said to be responsible for its adoption or 90 COMMISSION PLAN OF success. In 1905 the feeling that Des Moines might improve her government was augmented by reports from citizens who had visited Galveston, notably James G. Berryhill, an attorney, and who spoke highly of conditions there. Bill into Legislature A public meeting and general discussion led to the intro- duction into the Iowa legislature in 1906 of a bill to allow cities of more than 25,000 to adopt commission government. The measure failed to pass, but in November of that year the Greater Des Moines club took up the plan ; letters in newspapers and general discussion led to a great public debate on January 31, 1907, at which both the Galveston and the Indianapolis system, of a powerful mayor and a large council, were presented. The meeting decided overwhelmingly in favor of the former plan, and a committee appointed to draft a bill succeeded so well that it passed both houses, and was signed by the governor on March 29, 1907. It took a year longer, however, to get a suit brought before the state supreme court to test the constitutional- ity of the law, to hold a primary and an election, and to start the wheels running. A great number of candidates appeared at the primary and at the election a mixed ticket was chosen. Under the Des Moines plan the names of candidates are ar- ranged alphabetically at the primary ; the names of the ten men having the highest number of votes at the primary are placed upon the election ballot, also alphabetically, and the five receiv- ing the greatest number of votes at the election are declared com- missioners. There are no party names on the ticket ; it is not possible to put a cross in a square at the top of a column and vote for all the men. So the voter must know each man for whom he votes, and since he only has to vote for five, his choice is comparatively easy and intelligent. The five men elected ap- point all the other municipal officers ; the voter selects only the five. Non-partisan Election The non-partisan primary and election is regarded as putting a premium on intelligence, and at the same time greatly simplify- MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 91 ing election ; it is also said to have practically abolished partisan politics in the city. The outcome of the election was to place in power a former police judge, two union labor men, a former mayor and a former city assessor, a board not particularly in favor of the new plan. These men began their duties in April, 1908, and have just com- pleted their first year. What are the results? In the character of the work done by officials and employes, one item which affords fair comparison, there has been a marked change. Where formerly men were retained on account of their "influence" with the council, they are now subject to discharge by the foreman for incompetency or drunkenness. The chief clerk of the department of streets and public improvements slates that in the old days it took, in one case, three men a day and a half to lower the level of a catch basin, a job now of a few hours. Recently the foreman in charge of a sewer repair gang was dismissed because the work of his gang was costing too much, a thing unheard of before. It is the general verdict that more work is done and with better spirit on the part of both the heads of departments and the employes, than ever before in the history of the city. Better Public Work In comparative cost of paving, grading, laying of sewers and construction of bridges, it is not possible to make any study that would be of value, since varying conditions in materials, labor. length of haul, character of soil and the like make it out of the question to find jobs of similar size and kind to compare. Careful examination of detailed statements for paving and other work in different ways showed this method to be worthless. Only in the case of cleaning catch basins and in street lighting were conditions sufficiently alike to compare the cost in the year preceding April, 1908, with the year following. In the former case each catch basin cost $1.40 to clean each time; in the lat- ter, $1.12. In street lighting a detailed statement shows the large sav- ing of $10,322.60 in one year, besides the cancellation of a claim of the electric company for $4,500. The present rate for arc 92 COMMISSION PLAN OF lights is $6s per year; it was $95 per year before April, 1908. In addition 603 lamps formerly on moonlight schedule now burn all night and every night, 4,000 hours per year, a gain of 1,818 hours per lamp per year. On the financial side the showing is also decided, and, so far as can be ascertained, it is not merely a showing, but a fact. Modern bookkeeping methods are used, the reports of the various departments are carefully checked over and all moneys strictly accounted for. Under former methods a police justice failed to turn over several thousands of dollars of fees due to the city until a careful inspection revealed the discrepancy, and then there was no way of telling whether all the fees were turned over, since the justice, in man}' cases, had given no receipt to those who paid the fees. Good Business Methods Money was also allowed to remain a long time in the hands of the county officers before being paid over to the city; it is now secured promptly. Bills are paid with dispatch. The adminis- tration which went out in April, 1908, left $180,000 of outstanding judgments and other claims. This amount the new government took up by issuing bonds and with a cleared field went forward to meet current expenses. A statement by the city auditor, John W. Hawk, shows that on IMarch 31, 1909, the end of the first fiscal year of the commission, the city not only did not have any outstanding judgments against it, but had $49,472.74 more in its working funds than en the same date the year be- fore. From the most conservative viewpoint the new govern- ment has saved at least $50,000 (approximately) at the same time that it has done more work than ever before in a single year. The evidence of citizens as to the work accomplished is most convincing. Said J. E. Tone of Tone Bros., incorporated, whole- sale coffee and spices: "The streets and alleys are cleaner under the new plan; one or two jobs of bad paving were not accepted ; sidewalks are being laid of uniform width and material — cement with an iron strip for edging. Police regulations are better enforced; saloons are about the same as usual, but slot machines have been sup- MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 93 pressed and the red light district broken up, its denizens being mainly driven out of the city, not scattered. The fire depart- ment, usually efficient, is even more so under present conditions, and both policemen and firemen present a neater appearance." Improvement All Around H. T. Blackburn, cashier of the Iowa National bank, cor- roborated this opinion, declared the plan had worked well, and that merchants favored it as a great improvement over the old government. He, too, emphasized the better condition of the streets and added : "There is a clear cut division of the municipal work and officials take an interest in their duties." F. J. Camp, secretary and manager of the Brown-Hurley Hardware company, spoke strongly of the value of better street conditions in the business section. "The new method," he said, "makes it possible to lo- cate responsibility at the city hall for any act or failure of the city government, and there is every reason to believe that the plan will be continued." A large property owner pointed out the superiority of this new system over the old. "Formerly," he said, "it was frequently impossible to find any one at the city hall ; the council, being practically unpaid, gave little or no time to the city's business, meeting nights after their own business was finished. Men should be paid to devote their whole time to the work of the city ; this brings responsibility and gives good results." Editor William Hale of the Des Moines News, and Professor McNaul of Des Mo!nes college spoke enthusiastically of the im- provement the methods have brought about. Isaac Friedlich, a large retail clothing merchant, spoke warmly of the good effects of having paid commissioners in the increased promptness of at- tention to business and the general improvement, and T. J. Wil- liams of the Williams Buggy company called attention to the fact that some of the commissioners had held office under the old government, and pointed out that now the same men are enabled to do better work. 94 COMMISSION PLAN OF Worth Considering A moment's consideration of the personnel of the commis- sion is worth while. In view of the wide publicity given to the Des Moines plan, inquiry naturally arises as to the men chosen to carry it out. Are they representative citizens? Do they all come from the same ward? In short, what are their charac- ters? In the first place it should be noted that Des Moines retains the old name, "city council," to designate its new commission of five. The mayor-commissioner, who has charge of the de- partment of public affairs and general supervision of the needs of the city, is A. J. Mathis, a former police judge and a democrat, who was not particularly favorable to the new plan at the outset. The superintendent of accounts and finances is Charles W. Schramm, previously city assessor. In his department John W. Hawk, the auditor, was assistant auditor for many years and is an experienced man. John MacVicar, mayor twice before, is now head of the de- partment of streets and public improvements. He has been sec- retary for several years of the League of American Municipali- ties, and has taken a great interest in city affairs. Albert C. Frisk, chief clerk in this department, occupied a similar position for several years. John L. Hamery, in charge of the department of public safe- ty, is a union labor man, a journeyman painter by trade. He was alderman in 1907 and has made a record in police matters, cleaning up the city with energy and decision. J. W. Ash, at the head of parks and public property, used to be a coal miner and was a deputy sheriff for one term. He is another union labor man. East Side of Des Moines The east side of Des Moines — for the city is divided by the Des Moines river — contains the state capitol and a business section of its own, not so large, however, as on the west side. Mayor Mathis and Commissioner Ash come from the east side; the others live west of the river. There are both republicans and MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 95 democrats on the board ; union labor is represented ; there is no tendency discernible to choose the commissioners from any one section of the city, nor from any one profession or class. This Des Moines plan, is the "Galveston plan improved," as one man expressed it. To the commission is given large powers^ authority to pass ordinances, to determine the duties and fix the salaries of city employes, to create or discontinue offices, remove subordinates and transfer employes from one office to another. A majority vote rules, the mayor having no veto, Des Moines following in this respect the Galveston plan rather than that at Houston. With these large powers go three checks of great importance, which make the commissioners strictly accountable to the people — the recall, the referendum, and the non-partisan primary and elec- tion already described. Any ordinance not satisfactory to the people may, upon petition of 25 per cent of the voters at the last election, be submitted to popular vote and does not become effective unless ratified by a majority of those voting upon it. This safeguard is especially valuable in the case of franchises, aimed, as it is, to prevent the council from giving away the city's rights. Under Eye of Constituents Moreover, there is a referendum as to commissioners, for the recall is simply a means or referring a commissioner back to his constituents for approval or disapproval. Upon petition of 25 per cent of the voters the man whose recall is demanded must stand at once as candidate for re-election ; anyone else may be nominated at the same time, and, upon having a majority of votes, is elected in place of the unsatisfactory commissioner. This promises to be a most efficient means of control. Twice has it been threatened, once in the case of the appointment of a chief of police. It has not yet been actually used. The voters of Los Angeles, however, recently had occasion to use this power and the mayor, threatened with recall, resigned rather than stand for re-election. Provision is also made for initiating laws in case the council refuses to pass them when generally demanded, but in practice ^ COMMISSION PLAN' OF this featttre is not likely to be mtich used, as irs mere existence tends to make the board susceptible to public opinion . Publicity is proTrided for by requiring a monthly statement of all receipts and expenditures, which is published in the news- papers. A municipal civil service commission has been apfiointed and has begun work. It will be some time longer, however, be- fore its value can be accurately determined. Severe Penalty A severe penalty is provided for bribery and even for ^^ee- ing to perform services for a candidate in return for mcmey or other valuable consideration. Finally, it is provided that after six years of trial any city may return, if it so desires, to its former method of govero- ment. The adcption of the plan is also ptirely optional The trend of sentiment, however, is sho-^- ';■ the fact that whereas the first act, that of 1907, made the :^in applicable to cities of 25,000 p-opulation and over, an z~.tr.i~trit passed by the legis- Istnre in April, 1909, extends it to cities of 7,000 and npward. Atterd a meeting of the council-commissioners. Arotmd a plain table, on which there are a telephone, a copy of the city ordinances and various ps-ers. 5it five men discassing pians, put- ting motions, receiving c:^ ; rations, t::. There is no noise, no iisputing, no parliamentary wrangling. All meetings are :;_-:: :o the public: reporters and a few citizens usually are present. The business is commcnly completed in an hoar or less. Meetings are fre:iuent, often every day. The commissioners give all their time, and receive $3J30O a year each, except the mayor, who has 53,500. Des Moines Plan This, then, is the Des Moines plan. A city board cf (firectors, elected "^t ':^-ie by the municipal stockholders — the voters — are given i-itu^ie power to transact aH business, bnt they are sub- ject to recall for catise, and their ordinances may be referred by petition, to tiie stockholders for ratification. Their proceed- ings must be published each month: their meetii^s are public; their municipal duties are their only business, and Aey are paid. MUNICIPAL GOVERXMEXT 97 The showing made by the first year's operation of the plan is likely to result in its continuance, in the opinion of most of those interviewed. It is true that a majority of the commissioners were in politics before ; so it was found to be also in Houston and in Cedar Rap- ids. But if this Galveston-Des Moines plan can take the average citizen — politician or business man — and make him a fairly care- ful manager of city business it will do what few mayor-and- council systems have done — it will give us a large degree of municipal efficiency. Why is Plan Better? Why does this plan surpass the ether? For the same reason that the X'ew England town meeting, to which it is a return in principle, surpassed other methods of reflecting local opinion. It is more democratic. It connects the people and their repre- sentatives very directly; the commissioners are few enough to be known ; each is in charge of a department, and the referendum and recall make it possible for the people, knowing now who is responsible, eflFectively to control their agents. This control is undoubtedly greater with these two features than without them, unless, as in the case of Galveston, the city is governed by un- usually able and unselfish men, and its citizens moved by an un- common spirit. Where the people have no vote in municipal affairs, as in Washington, conditions may present a somewhat different as- pect, and there may well be a question as to the relative ad- vantages of a single head or a commission of three or five. This problem will demtand attention later. Staunton, Va., presents the case of a city with one general manager. Wealth (Des Moines), i: 4-6. July, igog. Year under the Des Moines Plan. Henry E. Sampson. The city is now for the first time receiving interest on all of her deposits. For the year just past she has been drawing four per cent on time deposits and two per cent on daily balances. 98 COMMISSION PLAN OF During the course of the first year under the Des Moines plan the interest on the funds of the city amounted to $9,132.17. By making a more favorable contract with the lighting com- panies the city was able to decrease the amount of its lighting bill for the year from $66,243, what it was under the old system, to $60,694; a saving to the city of $5,549- If the city is successful in the suit now in litigation there will be another substantial de- crease, so that the amount saved by the city on lighting bills for one year will total the sum of $10,332. The city has also been able to secure a gain of 1818 hours per lamp per year on 603 lamps, or a total gain of 1,126,254 hours. Under the old administration a contract was let to pave Grand Avenue bridge with creosote blocks at $4.47 per sq. yard; under the Des Moines plan the city did its own work in pavingr the Walnut Street bridge with the same kind of material, at the rate of $4.09 per sq. yard, and saved the city almost $1200 on the job. During its last year the old system cleaned 2272 catch basins at an average cost of $1.40, while under the Des Moines plan 3861 catch basins were cleaned at an average cost of $1.12 and 3-10 cents, a saving to the city of $1069.25. Under the new plan the city was able to put in a culvert on North Street, at a cost of but $12.63 per cubic yard, while in 1907, one of its contractors charged the old city government $17.61 per cubic yard for putting in a similar kind of a culvert on Easton Boulevard. The city has been able to get closer prices and the advantages of a liberal discount since they have begun to pay cash for what they buy. The total amount saved from this source together with that which was made during the year by some settlements amounted to almost $6,000. The superintendent of parks and public property has been renting the farms belonging to the city, selling hay, grain and fruit grown on the city's property, granting concessions in the parks on good terms, and doing his own mowing at three-fourths what it cost the old park board under the old system. The police department was managed last year for $8,000 less than was used the year previous, while the health department un- MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 99 4 on $100 .88 on $100 Tax for all purposes $2.00 on $100 $2.14 on $100 $2.13 on $100 Number lights 2,100 1,683 222 Park acreage 650 1,320 16.7 Number of firemen 97 250 53 Number of policemen .... 62 253 38 Number of miles paving. . 110 203 18 Number of miles of streets 460 About 300 73 Bonded debt $678,000 2,930,800 4,046,000 Saloons 100 740 73 City expense $641,116.00 $1,772,758.00 $577,210.00 Tax per capita 8.66 9.33 21.00 Total revenue 641,116.00 1,865,027.00 693,270.00 Debt per capita 9.04 14.55 122.60 Cost of street lighting .. 65,867.60 142,500.00 Municipal Cost of street cleaning . . 23,000.00 169,000.00 23,000.00 The Galveston municipal government is not free from "graft." The prosecutor of city cases in the police court collects a i68 COMMISSION PLAN OF fee of $10 for every criminal, drunk, or vagrant convicted, and $5 from every one who pleads guilty. The city attorney collects $3,000.00 each year from the city as a fee for special counsel and the printing of abstracts (in addition to his salary of $1,200.00). He has appointed his law; partner as an assistant with a salary of $900. They are al-; lowed 5 per cent of all delinquent taxes collected, as an addi-a tional fee. A third assistant is paid a salary of $600 per year. Total receipts and expenditures of the city of Des Moines for the year 1906: — ;; To pay expense of Police Dept., Fire Dept., official pay roll, utreet cleaning, supplies, erection, fuel, and re- pairing of all public buildings, and construction and equipment of all fire houses $301,036.00 Water rental 51,484.00 Lighting of the city 58,862.00 Building bridges and repairing 52,451.00 Cleaning, repairing all sewers of the city, and building intercepting sewers 31,457.00 Grading and opening streets and alleys 51,535.00 For payment of bonds and interest 43,111.00 For purchase of new cemetery 4,681.00 Care of cemeteries 4,681.00 Improvement fund for the payment of all public improve- ments where property will not stand assessment 35,246.00 Total for municipal purposes $651,227.00 Judgment fund 16,703.00 While we are giving an outline of the regime of Gal- veston and Indianapolis we beg to call your attention to the fact that within five years Des Moines has built five new fire houses and a city library ; bought parks, built bridges, reduced the bonded indebtedness over $200,000.00 and with all this the tax levy is less than it was five years ago. Des Moines has done several things. It has built and equipped five fire houses,, at a cost of $75,000.00, new bridges at the cost of $i6o,ooo.co, paid out $30,000.00 on account of the flood, and $75,000.00 on account of smallpox, and has built four miles of intercepting sewer. It has paid $100,000.00 of a floating debt. Des Moines has paid over $300,000.00 in the last five years for city parks and maintenance, and has paid $195,000.00 for a city library. We have on hand bridges and fire equipment to accommodate a city of 300,000 people. Yet Des Moines has on hand $240,955.00 of which almost $30,000.00 is available to be used in the reductior» of the city's indebtedness. MUNICIPx\L GOVERNMENT 169 '-We are convinced that neither the Galveston plan nor the Indianapolis plan will meet the wants and demands of the city of Des Moines. Des Moines stands almost alone for low expenses, and we are one of the few cities in the United States where our as- sessed valuation is less than that employed today and the changes that we would recommend are fev.', and are as follows : First, the Board of Puhlic Works and the Police and Fire Commission should be appointed by the mayor without confir- mation and hold office subject to his pleasure. Second, we would recommend that the City Engineer be made a member, ex-oflficio, of the Board of Public Works. Respectfully submitted, W. N. Jordan. Chairman Committee. Plain Talk (Des Moines). January 19, 1907. Municipal Reforms Needed. Professor Herriott's mode of attack upon the Galveston or commissioner system presented various considerations that meet with general approval. He contended, first, that there is no dis- agreement as to the need of vigorous reforms in our city govern- ment. He said there was no serious discussion as to the causes of our trouble, nor does any one doubt that we need some busi- ness principles in city government. He disputed vigorously, how- ever that the matter in issue was simply a matter of business. A city is not as easy to manage as a grocery store or a bank. If the matter that bothers were simply a matter of business, we ought at once to put the city into commission, viz: enter into a contract with some superintendent of operations of a rail- way, whereby we secure a ten-year contract imder which such contractor undertakes to manage our affairs without further bother. We could make money by so doing. But we cannot sublet a municipality. It is an agency of gov- ernment that we must deal with, an arm of the sovereign power of the government that exercises the power of life and death over persons and property, — an agency that can dynamire build- 170 COMMISSION PLAN OF ings and declare martial law in times of peril in order to promote or protect the general welfare. Professor Herriott then attacked the Galveston plan upon several different covmts. First, because none of the precedents offered in justification of the radical change advocated, viz, making one body both a legislative and an executive organ — • were not authoritative or binding. Second, because the commis- sioner system was hostile to business efficiency as measured by commercial and industrial standards. Third, because it is ob- noxious to democracy, and republican or free institutions; and Fourth, it was expressly in conflict with the constituiion of Iowa, in that it gave legislative duties (ordinance and budget making powers), to an executive board and executive functions to a law- making or legislative board. The precedents urged on behalf of the commissioner system, he disposed of summarily, but we believe effectually. Galves.on's city commission was the child of disaster ; its success was the result of a terrible calamity that compelled the citizens to coerce their leading citizens into taking the leading offices. The present success and that of Dallas and Houston are due to the intoxica- tion resulting from the furore of public interest in t e plan signified by the magazine articles, etc. Dallas had experienced a frightful mismanagement and gross waste of funds, and became desperate, and in desperation adopted the Galvest; n model. But, death-bed repentances or spasms of reform, are seldom per- manently efficacious. Washington, D. C, is much relied upon by the advocates of the commissioner system, but Professor Harrio't pointed out that not only did the people of our national capital have no right of self-government, but that they were subject to military con- trol in effect, as a United States army officer must be one of the commissioners. There is no more self-government at Washing- ton than in St. Petersburg. But here in Iowa, we believe in self-government and insist upon it as essential. British councils, often cited, are not in point, because they range in members from twelve to sixty-four in number. They legislate for control and supervise English cities, but their mem- bers do not undertake to manage directly the executive depart- MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 171 ments. Furthermore, we do not have the leisure class in America that are so much relied upon in England. Finally, we are not a part of England, and English customs today under tlie m narchial forms and pretences are not entirely agreeable to our ways of political life and thought. Plain Talk (Des Moines). February 2, 1907. Dominant Mayor Essential in Good City Government. If specialization and the employment of experts are essential to success in modern business; and if accountability and respon- sibility arc imperative in city government as well as in business ; then a central dominating mind — a mayor with coercive powers of co-ordination and control — is a fundamental condition of an efficient city administration. Specialization in executive work both implies and demands a head with power of control in the carrying out of the law and the accomplishment of the wishes of the citizens as expressed through ordinances. Experts and specialists, who are in truth trained men, know but little outside their own departments or fields of work. More- over, they care little for anything else than their specialty. More important still, they exalt and magnify the importance of their particular office and seek always (and very naturally, too) to extend their work by securing more funds and power therefor. If we let specialists alone and follow their lead each and all will expand and spread beyond all bounds. They would soon bank- rupt the treasuries of Croesus. What is worse, the expansion of departments in all directions means immediate clash, confusion, one with another. Offices and departments will overlap and interlock. This produces the confusion worse confounded that now befogs the public mind and enables weak or corrupt city officials to manipulate government for private gain. But we need and must employ expert public servants. If so, we must have one over them in full charge who will compel them to work in harmony, who will coerce them into co-operation and economy, who will make the entire civil service of a city Mnovk to the one common objective, namely, efficient government .172 COMMISSION PLx\X OF at the least cost. A powerful mayor is no less essential in con- trolling and directing the various organs of the body. Now the function of the mayor or central directing mind can not, for reasons set forth by Professor F. I. Herriott of Drake University and partially outlined by us last week, can not be divided or "parceled out" as is proposed in the Galveston system of city government. A city administration is not and can not be accountable if five men are in charge of executive work. Our old proverbs "Too many cooks spoil the broth" and "VVhal's everybody's business is nobody's business" are as true as Holy Writ in city government. Accountability implies responsibility ; and responsibility means direct, immediate personal liability of the person or official charged with the performance of a duty or task. If the officer or servant fails to satisfy — if he blunders or ignores, perverts or stumbles in his work, we discharge him. But if some one or some body of commissioners are always expected to interfere and take over his responsibilty, then we can not hold him accountable, in so far as his authority and power to exercise his full judgment at discretion is undermined. It is pure ignorance or sentimentalism when advocates of the Galveston commission compare it to the board of directors of banks and l)usiness corporations. The commission as advocated, as we have pointed out, not only legislates — passes ordinances, authorizes the budget and supervises the conduct and reports of department chiefs, but it is also charged with the work of ''managing" the city's affairs. Herein, Professor Herriott con- tends, lie both the dangers and the iniquities of the proposed plan. It not only violates good business organization, but it strikes squarely in the face of all our principles and traditions of democracy and republican or representative institutions. Boards of directors do not manage banks. They determine the policy and supervise the president and cashier and their administration, but do not actually or formally undertake the particular task of conducting a bank. Moreover, when they do intrude into the domain of the cashier and president further than giving advice upon loans and auditing annual accounts or quarterly statements — they are almost certain to make a muss .and a mess of things that no competent cashier or pre.'^ident will MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT I73 tolerate. Stockholders and directors alike look to the cashier to •'make things go" and for their dividends. It is Mr. Carnegie and Mr. James J. Hill, Mr. Marshall Field, in iron mills, rail- roads and stores that make profits and dividends. It is Messrs. Cassidy and Pearsall, McKinney and Miller in our city who di- rect, control and manage our city hanks successfully and make dividends, and not their directory boards. The latter are neces- sary as a legislative council, hut they should not undertake man- agerial work. Precisely the same sort of centralized administration that .prevails in all successful business corporations must be repro- duced in our city government. Just how to secure the mayor, Professor Herriott concedes, is a debatable question. In business corporations presidents and cashiers are usually elected by boards of directors and there is no serious theoretical objection to this mode of procedure except that city government is not so easily or so quickly managed as a private corporation. Our practice and tradition is almost wholly opposed and there is seldom benefit in running counter to our political customs. We probably will gain more — the people will feel more contented with the system if the mayor is elected at a general election. But the mayor and the executive department of city govern- ment represent merely one-half of the municipal problems before us at this time and the serious fallacy in recent discussions has been the utter failure of the advocates of the Galveston system to realize that a council that will exercise the legislative func- tion is city government. There is no mayor and there is no commission of three or five men that is safe enough or sane enough or broad enough to legislate for the people of Des Moines and then to have the privilege and the power to carry out their own ideas subject to all the pressure of personal prejudice and pecuniary temptation. To give such enormous power to one body is obnoxious to all that is distinctly American in principle and in practice. 174 COMMISSION PLAN OF o Plain Talk (Des Moines). February i6, 1907. Commission System and Non-Partizan Government. In his address before the Prairie Club last January, in which he contended that the Galveston commission system of city government was essentially bad in plan and would work viciously in practice, Professor F. I. Harriott of Drake University de- clared that an alderman is not redeemed and sanctified by call- ing him a commissioner. Further, he contended that we do not and cannot change human nature, we cannot obliterate greed and abolish passion and prejudice by giving officers more power and entrenching their powers. Moreover, he asserted that the matter in issue before the people of Des Moines is not a choice between government and bad government. We all concede that our pres- ent system is sadly deficient, that its evils are manifest and ad- mitted by all intelligent citizens, and there is a general and vigorous demand from all parties that rigorous reforms be in- stituted. The real question is the method by which we shall undertake to right matters. It is simply whether we shall jump from the frying pan into the fire. Neither place is comfortable, but the fire is certainly not desirable or preferable. Let us see if we can attain the ideal under the new reform we are so loud- ly urged to adopt. The advocates of the commission system seem to think that the new scheme will secure ns "non-partizan" city government. It may be conceded that now and then we may act upon city af- fairs and elect aldermen solely upon business considerations ap- pertaining to the city's welfare. We may do so regardless of free silver or the gold standard, regardless of Rooseveltism or im- perialism, regardless of standpatism or commissionism, regard- less of Cummins and anti-Cummins, regardless of Hull or Prouty. Now and then we may exclude such considerations from public debate and local action at the polls on the city's government and budget. But are we likely to do so? Can we rationally expect citizens to do so with conditions as they are and must be? Our manufacturer merchants are keenly interested in state and national policies, in the tariff, in railroad rates, in meat inspection. The attitude of our legislators in state and national MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT I75 assemblies is a matter of vital concern to them. They are the same men whether considering a tariff schedule, or the govern- ment of a railroad, or debating municipal franchises. Man is not a modern sea-going liner with separate water tight compart- ments with bulk heads separating each section. His political acts, like his interests, must of necessity run together and interplay, one affecting and deterring the other. The man ambitious to secure legislation or public honors in state or nation must appeal to the same men who run the city. The men who seek to control city affairs, to determine its policy, or secure its honors must appeal to the same men who man- age and conduct the agencies that prevail in state and national affairs. Will public service corporations that manage our city rail- ways, our telephones and telegraphs, our water systems, our heat- ing and lighting plants cease to cover gain, cease to look with designing eyes on the city council, cease to scrutinize the or- dinances and care not about the character of the men who will enforce the regulations affecting the conduct and dividends? Will the men interested in the sale of wine and beer and the people of their saloons, will the keeper of dives and gamljling dens become converted and join the church and cease to trouble our souls and harass not the police or surround them? Some of the expectations of our city reformers regarding non-partizan government make one think that many of our hard- headed business men are suffering from softening of the brain or confusion of their minds. The evils we complain of can be reduced and curbed, but not by the Galveston system. FACTS CONCERNING COMMISSION GOVERNMENT The following data includes investigations up to October, 1910. With few exceptions, the information has been secured directly from the various Secretaries of State. In cases where no responses have been received from that source, information, where the authenticity is unquestioned, has been used. States and Cities that have Provided for the Plan. California Berkeley Los Angeles Riverside San Diego Colorado Colorado Springs Grand Junction Idaho Boise Lewiston Iowa Burlington Cedar Rapids Des Moines Fort Dodge Keokuk Sioux City Kansas Anthony Cherryvale Coffeyville Emporia Hutchinson Independence Kansas City Leavenworth Newton Parsons Pittsburg Topeka Wichita Massachusetts Boston (Modified) Chelsea Gloucester Haverhill Taunton Minnesota Mankato Missouri St. Joseph 1/8 MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT New York Buffalo Mount Vernon North Carolina Charlotte North Dakota Bismarck Grand Forks Mandan Minot Oklahoma Ardmore Claremore El Reno Enid Guthrie McAlister Muskogee Sapula Tulsa South Carolina Columbia South Dakota Dell Rapids Huron Pierre Rapid City Sioux Falls Vermillion Yankton Tennessee Bristol Clarksville Etowah Memphis Richard City Texas Austin Beaumont Corpus Christi Dallas Denison El Paso Forth Worth Galveston Greenville Houston Marshall Orange Palestine San Antonia Sherman Waco Washington Tacoma Wisconsin Eau Claire UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY This book is DUE on the last date stamped below m? 1943 FEB 2 3 1961 Form L-P •J0m-l,'42iHr,m % 'U I 00 UM^ 7K 000 549 930 6