OCR Text |
Show HAS ALL THE COMFORTS. The people of Portland (Oregon) appeals ap-peals to bo enjoying all the comforts of government by commission, without having that sort of government. It will bo remembered that commission plans for cit' govermont provide for frequent elections nnd the submission to tho people of ordinances of various kinds, give the people the right of initiative in the onactment of ordinances, ordi-nances, giving theni the right to recall re-call or- oust elected officials, and generally gen-erally lo have an election on any day that thoy want it. But without, having this wide provision pro-vision for. elections, the people of Portland Port-land are doing very well indeed. At tho recent; municipal election, thirty-fivo thirty-fivo questions wevo submitod lo the electors, of which twelve were adopted adopt-ed by the people, and twenty-three twenty-three lost, perhaps in the shuf-ilo. shuf-ilo. Very likely somo of the most moritorious propbsi lions wore defeated, de-feated, and some of the most objec-tionablo objec-tionablo adopted. Among thoso. that, were adopted was a plan for establishing establish-ing a woman's auxiliaiy for the police department. Among those defeated was one providing for a commission form of govomnment. Tho peoplo had evidently evident-ly concluded that they had enough things to voto upon without providing themselves with more, nnd with a frequency fre-quency of election that will keep them in a ferment all the time. Tho more that is seen of modern suggestions sug-gestions for "improvement" in municipal mu-nicipal charters and forms of proceduro, tho moro it becomes cvidont that tho effort is really to provido for such complicated forms of procedure that tho peoplo will know very littlo about what is dono, and to forco a company of experts in ovory city who will alone know what is to bo done under tho formulas provided, and will alone be able to carry out tho complicated affairs af-fairs that will bo provided. What is really needed, on tho contrary, con-trary, is to provido for a simple straightforward plan of civil government, govern-ment, whorcb'- tho peoplo cap select officials in whom they have confidence, and give them actual power to act, so that they will bo ablo to see and judge what is dono without any complicated processes in tho building up of a coterie co-terie of experts who alono will bo nblc to untangle tho municipal affairs, arid instruct tho people as lo what they should do. |