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Show THE CITY MANAGER PLAN I, , , T1ii 9 th fourth of fourteen r-tlcUa r-tlcUa n the city munmieer plan, by H. H. GllbwTtion of th National Ma-n Ma-n Id pal Uaru.) It waa ft bold step on tha part of tha llttla city of Pumttr, 8. C. what. It took tha Idea of tha city manager plan out of an academic pamphlet and reao.vct to tend Tha rounTry IB It adoption. Thla waa In IBIS. 8umtr choae aa Ita flrat manager an engineer front out of town and aaw htm aave hla aalary for the town thy flrat month, hut thla la hardly a teat, for Sumter haa only 1000 population. Tha real leadership In the new movement properly belongs to Dayton, Day-ton, O., ft rlty of U 0.000. where tha Idea waa workef out with greater thoroughness tn ft gpectal charter and i applied to mora typical municipal porbleme. Thla Inetr-jment waa adopted In I fit-It fit-It provided to ft council of five mem-here mem-here alerted at large on a non-partiea.n ballot and four bualneas men and ft labor repreaentatlve were elected. Their flrat taak waa to hire ft city manager. They cabled General OoMhala at Panama, offering him the poattlon at a high aalary. He declined, however, but they found an admirable choir In Henry M. Walte. city engineer of Cincinnati. Walt went to pnyton, appointed expert ex-pert department heada and began aendtng cheerful electric thrtlle through the marrow of the pernnnnel I of the admlntatratlon. Within a ! month ha waa the beloved "big chief I and th men on the city payroll were beginning to be proud of their em-i em-i plovment. I Thlnga had keen wo rottener In Day. ton than In many another American city. Each administration' achieved low taxea by paaalng along delctta to th neat. A council of fifteen ward-elerted mem be re quarreled Jealously Jeal-ously over approprlatlona. At one time a public-spirited cltl-aen cltl-aen offered aeveral hundred acrea of wooded hllla aa a gift to th municipality, mu-nicipality, but counrllmen from other recttona Tmi.tnot bear-to- aee th aouth section get auoh ft handsome benefaction and contrived to prevent acceptance! Grade croaslnga could not b eliminated elim-inated for like reasons; the sect ion a not benefit ad would not vote th ulty'a portion of th coat. The council blocked th mayor part of th time, the mayor blocked the council part of the time. The red light dletrtet waa open. The' workhoua waa a school for crime. Th party machlnea alternated In city hall and uaed the patronage for their own welfare flrat and th clty'a second. A handful of men In the machines ma-chines had been tha real ruler of th town. Quietly and rapidly th naw regime cleaned up th mesa A aclentlflc budget brought economy and th city began to llv within Ita mean a. Central purchase secured quantity Prices and advantageous contracts ayton. waa, for Inatance. paying centa for gasoline long after th rest of us paid 2 centa. Th red light district waa closed. Th workhouse became ft farm and ft maker of character. City employee went on an eight-hour 1 dav and did vaatly more work. The park area grew from twenty 1 acrea to 141 acrea. Including that tract I the old council rejected. 1 Th city got real garbage collection for th flrat time and ft disposal system sys-tem that- paid Ita own bills fl orn salea of soap greas. Th tax rat cam down deaplt the fact that the municipality did 40 per cent mora work for the money. Tha deficit of 1126,000 waa cut to M,000 the flrat 'year. Water supply and landa wer purchased pur-chased for l7.ooo as compared with an earlier bid Tour times as hlgH and for the first time tn yeara Dayton got abundant water In summer. A new spirit In the city hall wan reflected fn the new things that the' municipality soon began dnlng for ita cltltena. Private and public district nursing waa co-ordinated, cllnlca were opened, milk waa supervised, food waa Inspected, 7000 disease-breeding dry vaults were eliminated, recreation and gardening on vacant lots tremendously tremendous-ly expanded and down came tha general gen-eral death rate and th Infant death rat by radical Jumps! A free legal aid bureau helped a thousand poor people a year. Grand t opera singers sang at very cheap popular pop-ular concerta. Natural gas at M centa replaced artificial arti-ficial gas at centa. Dayton Is buying buy-ing better street lighting today than the old regime did and at lower coate, despite the rise In prices. Eleven loan shark eompanlea were driven out or town. . . Ther la a municipal country club outside the city, a beautiful big playground play-ground wirh golf links ten n I a, camps, etc., and the membership fee. If you are so fortunate aa to be a cltlaen of Davton, la only a dollar ft year. Just a reform wave No It -has gone on through three electlona and la attll going! 4 Mb XT AHTICI-Ki 'Its Prcsar, tk (mImIm Plan.) |