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Show I COMMISSION GOVERNMENT I OEOWTH Or OUT FBOBLBM& By Frederic J. Haskin NEARLY ISO American cities sad towas. realising that the eumber-aom eumber-aom method! of municipal admin-istratioa admin-istratioa of the paat are ao loafer adequate ade-quate to meet the growing problem of city government, nav - adopted the commission plaa of controlling their affair. Scores of other eitiea and towns ara considering the anestion. and try over. The exploitation of the mn-aicipality mn-aicipality for private enda baa grown c widespread, and every weapon has proved so ineffective, that the leaders of the good eity government movement have at last turned to the commission plan aa the one remedy for this greatest great-est of municipal ills. - - That it will prove successful in the solution of the problems of waste and graft one can well believa when he considers the results that have followed it to date. But its beet friends advise s not too hasty verdict. Tbey aeaert that the prime eeseatial to good municipal mu-nicipal government is the alertness of the voter. Under tb old aldermanic system there were always such a multiplicity mul-tiplicity of candidates and issue and such difficulty in fixing responsibility that the citizenry somstimee was aroused, only to fall asleep again. With few candidates, few iseaes and few officials of-ficials it ia easy to ox responsibility, and if the eititens keep awake polit ieally all will be well. One authority on commission gov it ia estimated that within Ave years at least &,-000,000 &,-000,000 American eitixens will be residing re-siding in commission commis-sion governed territory. ter-ritory. The great number num-ber of problems that have arisen in eity adminiatra-tioa adminiatra-tioa were met and solved in Europe almost s generation before America awoks to the need for improvement. rnment declares it is still too new in its application to eity problems to enable en-able publicists and student to apeak with any degrea of inality concerning its merit!. That it poaseasea many advantages, ad-vantages, especially in th direction of concentration of authority snd the simplification of . machinery is undented. un-dented. But that it will solve offhand all the problems to which a municipality municipal-ity is heir, is absurd. In fact, the movement, which ia a most wholesome one, is likely to suffer in th near future fu-ture unless "its advocatea modify their claims. It is squally wrong- to assert that the system is a panaeea for municipal mu-nicipal ills or to brush it aside as a passing fancy. The eity problem was email on in all parta of tha world until the middle of the eighteenth century. Though Asia had possessed great eiri centuries cen-turies before, tb people simply existed and no real problems were involved. In Europe, Borne had been able to boast at one time of a million inhabitants, but with the fading of Boman glory tha eity in Europe passed off th stage of aetidn, not to return until tha reawakening re-awakening of th eighteenth century. A hundred years ago there was not a single city in America with 100,000 population, and only a score in Europe with thaK number. ' Today there are thirteen eitiee in th world with a population of mora than s million, snd upward of 00 eitiea ill Europ snd America with 100,000. Where the city problem will end no on can forecast. All authorities agre that ia Europe and America simple sim-ple machinery whose operation can be understood by every eitlsen, and which nnblea responsibility to bo fixed unerringly, un-erringly, haa always resulted in an improved im-proved administration of affairs. The entire tendency of th future probably will be in th direction of the basic ideaa of eommisnoa government. But With their government govern-ment widely divers in the details of administration, with their people differing differ-ing in their national characteristic, the eitiea of England, Holland, Franc snd Germany all were able to hit upon some basic principle that produced th same good result wherever tried.-" But in those days America wa sa agricultural nation and municipal affairs af-fairs possessed interest for but few people. peo-ple. Today it i different, for one per eon out of every three in the republic lives under municipal government of one kind or nnother. The wonderful growth of the American city has brought with it vast expenditure of money. Not only ha th growth of ex pendituree been caused by the expansion expan-sion of the eitiea of the eountrr, but by th multiplication of th activities ia which these municipalities engage. In the old day eitiea bothered little with th problems of th community. If they enacted the laws, maintained order and collected th tnxes, that was enough. Th science of publie health was in it swaddling clothes, and it hnd not brought in its train sewerage systems, water work systems, garbage disposal systems, eity health offices, hoepitala. asylums, and s dosen other activities which are now engaged in by every important municipality, and which have swelled the per capita ex fenditur to a eurprising degree. A undred yean ago the per capita ex 'penditnre in New York was (2; todsy it ia S25. - Ann Arbor, Mich., spends five times ns much per capita today as New York spent when it had a population popula-tion four timea as great as Ann Arbor. This per capita expenditure has been growing in recent veers. In 190S the per eapita expenditure for all the eitiea in the United Stntee having a population of 30,000 was $13.38. In 1008 it was tlA.81, and In nnother year it likely will touch the S20 mark. ther are other questions which remain to b solved. Th initiativs, referendum referen-dum and recall are believed by their advocate) to have given such a good account of their operation ia America aa at least to justify th hop that tasy will prov permanently successful. success-ful. Municipal ownership haa worked wall ia Europ aad in soms place ia America, but ita success ia sot yet established. es-tablished. Then ther is tb anestion of unearned un-earned increments Mayor Fitzgerald of Boston cite th fact that a certain tract of land in Boston enhanced in value from 4235,000 to mis,ouo in twenty years, every dollar of th ad-vsace ad-vsace being due to th growth of population, pop-ulation, th ever swelling tide of travel aad trad, th expenditure ef public money for pavement, sidewalks, police protection, Br protection, light, th building of a new eourthouae, and all the other manifold activities of tb community. New York building aitee increase in value at th rate of about 160,000.000 a year, and nearly all of th advance is due to th snterpris of the whole community. Fairhop, Ala- is a town without taxes, ita gov- The government of American cities 1 aot aa economically conducted as that of European eitiea. This is shown by statistical data of undeniable accuracy. Loadon haa a population 40 per cent greater than New York, yet New York spends more by som 80 per cent on her city government than London. Joseph Chamberlain one studied the relative standing of eity administration in Boston, Bos-ton, Mans., and Birmingham, England. He concluded thats Birmingham apent much less per capita for her government than Boston hut bad a much better government. Of course the statistics of relative costs of municipal admin iatration in Europe and America are not to be compared at face value. It must be remembered that everything that enter into municipal administration administra-tion ia Europe ia eheaper than it ia in America. But of course this does sot explain all the difference. Becking an explanation of this difference, differ-ence, one And a jarge part of it in the activity of the grafter. He plies his trad so generally and an persistently persistent-ly that his elimination ia one of the greatest problems of the present day. Where there is SI of municipal waste ernment being maintained by profits from the rental of town lota. Orson, Sweden, and 1900 town in Germany have enough income from publie lamle to free their eititens from taxes. Will America And a way to nae tha -earaed increment of her land for the, lowering of tax rates! there are many of municipal graft, and the reports of the good government organization or-ganization are to the effect that charges of graft are more frequent now than ever before. Whether it is due to the activity of tha grafter or to that of the exposer of graft, ia a question the nnswer to which probably depends on the point of view. Knme time since Mayor Garnor of New York discovered that tha commissioner commis-sioner of accounts had passed a bill for a doaen one and a half inch valve wheela at S1.50 each. He cent out and duplicated them at 6 eents esch. He instructed in-structed the commissioner to report the purchasing agent and the prison warden war-den who were responsible to the grand jury. At another time ther was an exhibit of articles which had been paid for at graft prices. Each article bore two tags one showing th graft price and the other the open market price. There were tin dippers which had cost 2 a dosea. with the market price en eenta a dosen; wiping clothe which were bought at 420 a hundred pounds while the market price was 7; gsl-vsnixed gsl-vsnixed boat cleata which coet the citr $2.AO each snd th individual 30 eents each. There waa a record of f .120 for the rent of a motor car for a month; of a measuring hia alleged to hold 10O tons of coal when it held only fifty; of 2.10.000 pounds of meat. 13,000 pounds of poultry and 500,000 pounds ef forage rejected by an inspection bosrd after rilv offlcisls had accented it. Tbeee Instance might be duplicated the eoua- |