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Show ! ". COMMISSION GOVERNMENT By Frederic J. Haskin ALL AUTHORITIES wee fcsv studied the bistary ef municipal reform Bare that EngJaad took tbe steps wbiek sohredthe quee tion of (nod eitjr government mora thai balf a century before the United 8tatee started in tbat direction. Daring Dar-ing the flrat third of the last century municipal affaira ia ' England had eity rovemment. Toe EnfrHah eonneil ia aa noaorable body, to which the brat atea of the' community aeriira. Duty wall diarkarged uanally roeana re-elac-tiea. - Many membtra continae ia the aorviea for twenty yea re or mare. The exclusion of politico from the administration adminis-tration of municipal affaira ia not locally local-ly required, but it is effectively dona, and too merit system obtains to a remarkable re-markable ' degree. Though the entire patronage of the city goverameat is at tke.diapoaal of the council, every civil servant of the city is a subordinate wkoae term is " daring the pleasure of the council. " So answerable to public sentiment has the council of the English city been, that Prof. H. E. Deeming, leader in the affaira of the national municipal league aad hearty friend of commission foverament, baa declared that the andamental principles of democracy have been applied to the solution of the problem of city government with r 1 - - reached a state of . degradation which 1 makoa tba wont condition of affaira obtaining in any city of the United Btatea today seem good in compariaoa. i To 1833 the great reform meant re passed by parliament parlia-ment brought the question of reorganizing reorgan-izing the cities of Briton into the realm of practical politic. By aa set of parliament in the followins year the greater thoroughness in England than in any other country. He says tkat in theory the EngHsh eity ia even more liable to the evils of special legislation than the cities of the United States, bat mack freer from it in practice. On the face of things, parliament n do anything it wishes with city governments; govern-ments; but it rarely interferes with them. Instead, it hat designated the duties of governmental supervision of municipal - adrntnistmtton -t sereral national boards. The most important of theae ia the local government board, which has some interesting functions. It has general aad direct supervision over matters pertaining to municipal charity, and nothing in this domain seems toe large or too small to engage the attention of ita higher officials. Aa order prescribing how guardians of the poor snail be elected comes next in the record, after one fixing the allowance allow-ance of snuff for aged paupers. This cities or Scotland were investigated by One commission, while s royal coram lesion le-sion studied conditions U England aad W'alea. The reports of these coram ia-sioas ia-sioas are long, but are regarded everywhere every-where as being distinguished for their clearness, comprehensiveness aad vigor of statement, and if any proud American Ameri-can thinks the United Statee haa had a monopoly oa municipal eerraptioa bje mind will be set right by tba exposures of these investigating communions. ' The municipal government in nearly vary city was so steeped -in corruption that it waa no longer area expected to give aa honest administratloa. When an important work was to be dons a commission waa appointed and the eity officials had ao part ia it.. Council meetings were held in secret at all time and nothing which transpired was reported to the people. Offices were distributed to the relatives and friends of the councilman without the slightest regard for their ability to till the positions. Frequently several offices of-fices were presented to one individual, who drew aalariea from them all, although al-though he eould not discharge the duties of even one position efficiently. Extravagance, Ex-travagance, inefficiency, aad even dishonesty dis-honesty existed everywhere. Things bad actually reached the state where councilman fully believed that part of the public revenues coastitnted s portion por-tion of their income aa much as if it had been voted to them. Then eame the municipal reform set of 1835. The bill from which it waa framed waa introduced by Lord John Russell and, having the support of such Liberals as Sir Robert Peel, readily read-ily passed the house of commons. The lords tried to kill it by emasculating ita important features. They nought to deprive th council of the right to regulate the iasuaace of liquor licensee, and to make one-fourth of tha eouaeil-men eouaeil-men life members. A compromise waa reached and the resultant law was styled the municipal reform act. Although Al-though this act did not materially change the form of English municipal government, it completely rewrought Its principle, and that basie city law haa continued to thia day, almost unchanged un-changed except aa to additions which strengthen it and enlarge the sphere of its operation. Ia all th yesrs that have followed. England has maintained her high standards of municipal rule ao that the government of ita citie is study for every country which tries to improve urban conditions. The fundamental priaeiples of the English municipal code are very simple. sim-ple. Each eity ia a corpora tioa clothed with large powers ia the regulation of its own affaira. Thee powers are exercised ex-ercised by a board chosen locally. Each city is divided into wards, and each ward has three eouneilmea to elect. These eouncilmen select, after organi- board also has supervision over public health and sanitation, and to aggravated aggra-vated instances even may compel a borough to provide an adequate water supply, a system of drainage, or a pub-lie pub-lie cemetery. It alas haa jurisdiction ia tke metier of Axing tke limit of a city's bonded debt. In tke United States this limit is always fixed by s general statute, whieh never can be beat to the peculiar needs of s given eity. In England the local government gov-ernment board fixes it according to the peculiar seeds of each municipality. Whaa New York City wished to increase in-crease her water supply it became aec-easary aec-easary te invoke tke slow, tedious, expansive ex-pansive sad uncertain process of'amend-ing of'amend-ing tke state constitution before it could be done. Aa English eity would have submitted nek a problem to the local government board, which would have considered tke matter as body of experts, ex-perts, and actios would have been forthcoming in double quick time. Th board of trade is a second central body regulating th affaira of tke eities. It haa general juriedietios over pa b lie atilitles. If aa English eity wishes to establish a municipal railway or a municipal gaa Slant, it must apply to th board of trad, which sanctions it if tha proposition is set as unusual one, but ia the contrary event, refer it to parliament with recommendations. The home offie also has voice ia affaira af-faira relating to the exercise of th polio po-lio power.- If s eity wishes to have a part of ita police expeases bora it applies to the government for s subvention sub-vention aad get it oa condition that thai administrators of tha subvention have certain elements of control over tha force. Bo long as th fore ia main, tained by the city up to certain stand ards of efficiency th goverameat keeps bands off. But when thee standards are not met it interfere by announcing announc-ing that if they are sot met th subvention sub-vention will be cut off. There are many surprises to tke student stu-dent ef municipal reform in tha plaa of English municipal government. For instance, there ia no civil service law m th. rr-;.h .it- . mnA 4k. mm system ia lived op to voluntarily with aa much ear as it is In any American eity having aueb a law. Organised labor is powerful ia Great Britain, and the cities are, large employers of labor 1 their municipally owned trading tlaate;, vet the 'councils of the eities are, with only notable exception, been able to maintain th opea ahop aad prevent th forcing ef wage above s reasonable point-Summed point-Summed up. the English eity is gov eraed bv a body of representative citi-aeae, citi-aeae, ia whom sole power and undivided responsibility is vested. With the spotlight spot-light of direct scrutiny soon their acts at all times they have for three genera-titons genera-titons given their citie beneaeent rule. They have been able te give graftlee administration in th iece of the fact that they have, ia many instance, eon-trol eon-trol of large municipally owned public utilities, which employ thousands of BMs sad spend millions of dollar. there are eouncilmen. On councilman ia elected each year from each ward, and thus the eouneil ia s eontinning body. The aame ia tru of th aldermen. alder-men. Their terms are aiz years, 9 third of them being elected every two 701. The aldermen and eouneilmea; aoaeti-tut aoaeti-tut what is known as th eity eonneil, and thia body selects a mayor usually from it own membership. The mayor has no powers which the aldermaa and eouncilmen do not possess, except that be ia titular president aad ex offleio magistrate. All other eity officials are chosen by this council, and to this one body all responsibility attache. City election in England are aimple. Nomination are made by the posting of a paper ia whieh one ejector proteoses, pro-teoses, another seconds, aad eight ethers eth-ers indorse the nomination of a certain maa. There is secret ballot, and it eostnin the names of candidate printed in alphabetical nder, without party designation. Thjf honesty aad purity of tne electoral roMhoda are safeguarded safe-guarded and nn honest Count provided. Thus it will be sea That while the ward line is not abolished, full respon. sibllity in vested in one body, snd th method need in Dee Koines, Ia., for securing se-curing preliminary nominations is need in England for th regular aomi-natioa. aomi-natioa. . , Although the majority f commission Rovrrnment advocate ia America peeve pe-eve in tha abolition of ward haee aad aseert that with them there can be no good city government, the English municipal mu-nicipal expert asserts that America will have to look deeper for the evil condition which rnsxe for bad |