Show GOVERNMENT OF CITIES San Francisco is just now interested In the question of giving its mayor more power especially in the matter of vetoes The Examiner says that the bills pending In the legislature that propose to restore the mayors veto power are intended to correct an evil that has been inflicted on San Francisco Fran-cisco by the courts that took it away If it remains in the power of the legislature legis-lature to correct the mistake It should be done it declares as It is the experience ex-perience of San Francisco as of every other great city that the interests of the public are best served by giving the mayor great powers in the way of vetoing measures as well as of appointing ap-pointing and removing officials Cities usually have good men for mayors Absolutely bad men are seldom found in the mayors chair Weak men are sometimes elected but a man who Is willing to defy public opinion and honesty hon-esty at the same time in a position where he alone must take the responsibility respon-sibility is a rare phenomenon Unquestionably the trend of the best thought on the subject of municipal government is to endow the mayors of cities with greater powers and to make < < J 3 them responsible If weak or bad or incompetent men are elected to the office of mayor the people have but themselves to blame for such mayors In every city in the United States the reputable and better class of citizens are very largely in the majority and the absolute say of what shall be In municipal matters lies with them The certainly can control at the primaries if they choose as well as at the polls One very great cause why the people peo-ple do not have better municipal government gov-ernment is the fact that they are more or less party slaves and too often will Vote for a yaller dog when named on their party ticket in preference to a white man on the opposite ticket Municipal government must be separated sepa-rated from national politics if the people peo-ple ever expect to have capable and efficient management of city affairs I Mayors should be for use and not for ornament and they should be given specific duties to perform and power to perform them The idea that a citys affairs should be administered by a lot of boards and commissions to be appointed by this or that body not elected by the people to directly manage man-age their municipal affairs is a wrong one When the people of a city cease to be fit to manage their own immediate immedi-ate public affairs they cease to be fit for selfgovernment in any respect |