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Show COMMISSION GOVERNMENT V. TJJLNSPLAJfTBD TO AMZBIOA. By Frederic J. Haskin t WHEN THE framer of th const! (.11 1 ion of the United States wrought out our present plan of , federal government they devised a system that ha afforded their posterity pos-terity the beat (toreremeut oa earth. But when the eitie of the country ought to apply the national leeaon to ginas of direct legislation have been ia uae in Switzerland for many year., and ssv worked moat admirably, the people bowing rare diaennai nation upon matter, mat-ter, referred te them. The extraordi nary thing aboat it ia that the Bor.ial late of Switserland ara agaiaat thee provisions. They aay the people hare f roved themeelvee too Mnaervativa, and hat progress ia not possible where the referendum prevail.' But it is to b noted that the referendum ie aa old a the United State itself, and the initiative initia-tive claims to be equally hiatorie. Ia colonial America many matter were determined de-termined only after a vote of the people, peo-ple, and certainly a majority of all the pent and preeent state constitution, have been adopted through eubmiaaioa to the people. Of the 150 cities and towns which have adopted the commie-eion commie-eion form of government, about one hundred have the referendum and many eitie have it whiok do not have the commission form of eovernment. I lv,i local eonditinn pneterity was dea lined to find a fail ) ure. In fart, the federal idea of checka and bal- ancea of divided power and nneon-centrated nneon-centrated reaponaf-bility, reaponaf-bility, haa been urn a failure when applied to municipal munici-pal government that all foreign nbaerver have been wont to aay that the American Nearly a dosea Mates ef the anion have adopted the referendum for stste affair. Its friend declare that, coupled cou-pled with the Initiative, which usually go wits it, the referendum i a derided de-rided sneeese, snd ssaert that Oregon, where direct legislation now holds swsy, haa tke best government of anv tste in the union. On the other hand, is opponents of the initistiva snd referendum ref-erendum declare them to be a failure ia Oregon. They aasert that when the Aahing interests at Xh Coiiuabia-rivar elanbed snd th qneetioa sroeo aa to which end of the river should be closed to the sslmon fl.hcries, both snd were closed by s referendum vote, ssd only th legislature saved the day. They aasert that if it had not been tkn the professors offered their service free of charge until the matter was trsight-ened trsight-ened out, the .tat uaiveraity would have bees cloned because of s referendum referen-dum vote. They also point to other esse where the vol was adverse to the interests of the people ssd of the Stat. The inltistive does not slwsys g "," spend more, and get lesa out of hi city government than anv other nationality. nation-ality. The present Britiah embaaaador Mr. Rrvce, in hi ineiaiv atudy of American politic, declared that our municipal mu-nicipal rule wae the on eoaapienou failure of American in.titutiona. Progressive Americana often have observed ob-served this fact. They have seen graft snd corruption go un unhindered snd unchecked the rule rather than th exception. ex-ception. Thev have seen irresponsible snd tow-purposed city official quite as often a officials of high ideal and right action.. They have aeen city boaaism seeking its own end quite as often a they have seen public .pirited ne eeeking the good of the eity. And when they have gone to Europe they have een none of theee evil, for the hu ror.cn n eity, no matter what its nationality, na-tionality, snd no matter under what -tern of government it flourishee, ia free from graft, command the aerviee of ita beet eitiaen. and it government i conducted con-ducted for the good of all it inhabitantsno inhabi-tantsno etnas being preferred at th expense of another. v Thi advance guard ha eought to di-eover di-eover the underlying principle of European Eu-ropean municipal government and to transplant it to America. They have all agreed that it ia nothing else than the single controlling body of elected representative, repre-sentative, who hav veated is them all of the power of the people snd all the responsibilities it carries with it. A th American city government approaches ap-proaches that ideal it find itself approaching ap-proaching the European standard of good municipal nil. On might trace th present idea of commission government back to the county system of board of supervisor, or to the New England seleetmes. but from a city standpoint it begin at Boston. Bos-ton. When that municipality threw off the swaddling clothe of town hood and 1 blossomed into a eity, it first charter, according to Professor Beale of Harvard, Har-vard, provided for a commission form of government, te consist of a small board with large power. The next tim we hear of the commission form of gov- 1 eminent is in 1870, when a charter waa enacted by the Louisiana legislature giving New Orleana what was knows then as an administrative system, the ' government being vested in a mayor and seven administrator. Ths seven administrators were each given charge of one of the department of th government, gov-ernment, snd together with the mayor ' tbey formed the eity council. In thia regard it waa like the Bpanisk eabildo. 1 The members war elected by th eity 1 st large, snd they conducted th bust- 1 nee of the city on substantially the 1 with the referendum. More thsn hslf of th eities snd towns having s commission com-mission form of government also is-elud is-elud th initistive. It meets with but little leas favor than the referendum. It ha in part been recognised for generations, gen-erations, for the right of petition is the embryonic form of the initistive. The main danger of the initiative seems to be in settling th percentage of voter vot-er who may institute it st too low s point. There has been, according to the verdict of it unbiased friend, a tendency tend-ency to overwork it. The recall Is th latest addition to th list of "frill" which are added to the commission form of government, and thia slab i possessed by many eities which hav sot- dopted th eoromi sios form. Los Angeles holds ths distinction dis-tinction of having tried it Drat. De Moines adopted it ia Its system, snd all eities which model their charters under th De Moines influence have included ths recall. This is th on feature of ths new municipal politics which seems to be American ia Its origin. The careful care-ful atudent ar (till suspending judgment judg-ment oa th recall, but if they war s eosrt they wonld grant a temporary Injunction In-junction in its fsver. Dr. Elliot, former for-mer president of Harvard, is convinced that ths recall has proves its ess ssd incorporated it ss on of the essentials of the best form of eity government. Civil service Is snother feature of th new movement. Seeing how well the 0ermn eities ar governed, their affaire af-faire being administered by experts who siske s lifetime profession of it. the American leaders oi tee gooa government govern-ment movement ar seeing to sbrogsts th spoil system in municipal affairs Probably s third of the progreaeivl eitie of the country hav turned to a merit system, ssd it ha proven a success. suc-cess. On th whole, the students of muniri psl progress believe that the European ides of concentrated authority and undivided un-divided responsibility is th use of th powers veered in the municipslity, la s single board, whether it be large or small, makes for good government. But they assert that the prims essential to pnrtty In municipal politics is s constantly con-stantly watchful citizenship. If eternal vigilance ia th pries of liberty, it I ae lea th price of proper eity admisistrs-tion. admisistrs-tion. Any municipal system which es-sbles es-sbles the eitises to understand Its operation ope-ration and to wstsh tbe wheels go round, tends to keep th eye of the people peo-ple npos it, ssd insure its working well. But a eitv government without watchful voters."" so matter whether it be eommissioa form or aldsrmanie, is like a locomotive wit hoot engine oil it cannot be ma well. Th leaders of th national municipal league, as wall as those of th league of Americas municipalities, mu-nicipalities, sr sll sgreed that th first , sasentisl is ss intelligent ssd wide-swsks wide-swsks electorate. , ' Monday: COMMISSION GOVERNMENT. VI. Oalveeteo. same unrs as rnarsctenx tbe ttalveeton plsn. The New Orleans administrative system continued for a decade, but wsa abolished nnder the city charter of 1882. Memphis also claims the honor of having bad s hand in the propagation of the commission government idea. In fact, the tialveeton authorities ssy they borrowed their system from the old Memphis taxing" district commission. Washington. D. C. when the local government gov-ernment became too corrupt by reason of the larg percentage of ignorant negro votera, wa given s eommissioa form of government, with the appoint ing power veated in the nreaident. Chelsea, Chel-sea, Mass., also is governed by ss sp-pointive sp-pointive commission. The term "commission government" ss today used is a misnomer. Th word commission carries with it the idea of sppointment rather than election, and o long aa a msjoritv of ths members of the Oslveaton eommissioa were sp-pointed sp-pointed by the governor, it wss sppro-pristcly sppro-pristcly used. But when they were no longer appointed, the term became s misfit. But to the people "commission government" still expressed their idea, snd even the purists . srs Jtieeoming reconciled to it. That th Galveston plsn embodies the underlving principle of European municipal mu-nicipal control is vouched for by Professor Pro-fessor Denting, who pronounces it "ss sdsptstion of the English plsn of s loeallv elected couneil which shall exer rise inch power aa the citv has under ita charter after essentially ths same fsahion sa a board of director sxereise the powers of a corporation." Since the Galvestos plan, in which the mayor is merelv the presiding officer of the commission, wss adopted. Houstoa has come forth with another plaa. in which the mayor is almost th euprem seniority. se-niority. With theee two general types to build upon, msnv variations ssd frills have been added. Principal among theee additions is the referendum, which usually eamee with it the initiative. Theee two es- |