Show GOOD fellowship CLUB DISCUSSES MODERN CITY government the good fellowship club held its regular meeting monday evening march 27 at the presbyterian chapel A solo by thomas edwards was followed by a talk on modern city governments ern ments by mr air john W peters of 0 the high school faculty I 1 mr peters placed before the club in rapid review the various forms of city government that have existed in the cities of the united states he traced carefully the development from the old style city government where there are two houses and a mayor to tile the modern modem forms of commission and managerial governments for cities i lie he ranted anted out that the old form was long known enoi lo 10 t a be unsatisfactory for cities but that it was so impressed upon us that it required some catastrophe to bring about a change to give us something that would meet our od demands something that bould be especially adapted tor for cities and not for a nation this catastrophe was vas furnis furnished bed in the form of a flood at galveston texas mr peters pointed out with a great deal of care vie lie develde developments its which took place in the lie debt ridden unfortunate city or of galveston for some months after this hood flood the existing form of government was inadequate that was clear to all but what should be substituted in its place this question was an sv crad by the substitution ot of the commission form of city government for the old form this type of 0 city government was next tried with some soma improvements at des moines iowa and is now pop barly known as the des mones plan of city government so called from the fact that it was at this place that the modern devices of government such as the initiative referendum and recall were added to it the managerial type which is the latest idea in city government was developed at stanton va mr peters explained in detail the system and reviewed its growth the city government of staunton was heavily in debt and those men in power were unable to see any moans means of 0 payment so because of their inability to unite on a plan of procedure they agreed to mira and give him power ov ivr r all departments of the city except those of fin fill ance schools and the cucut ng debart ment this plan worked so well that it has been continued aud and is now being used in a number of cities probably the largest city to use the plan is dayton ohio where the manager has even greater powers than at staunton this type ot of city govern went has been found to be very eco lo mical as well as efu clent the a ac view is that it Is best type of government for cities below one hundred thousand population Ac academic opinion leans toward local autonomy in city government this type of government Is in very successful operation in both california and wisconsin tri local autonomy in city government is secured by the city drawing up a charter and submitting it to the legislature which must accept or reject it in full it if it iu rejected the city has the privilege of amending and resubmitting the charter cities of utah are divided into three classes and blanket chart era are drawn up tor for each class by tho the legislature another improvement mentioned was the cumulative method of voting will h Is in use usa in illinois for electing members of the legislature and Is used by some of tho the california cities it means that when a voter Is IB to vote for say two men out of four candidates ne e may cast both votes for one man and the two men receiving the most moat votes are elected this enables a minority to obtain representation other modern improvements in city government which were are 1 nomination by petition by which |