The herald., 1896-11-26

| territorial limits of the state, while the
| American system is one of complete de-
| Capitalization"
| The amendments to the proposed
| charter being framed for the purpose of
| centralizing power in the mayor or the
| chief executive of the city, and in hos
! tility to what Judge Cooley calls the
| American system" is it not we'll to
consider whether 1t will afford remedy
for the abuses complained of, or will it
aggravate and nourish them?
! The remedy proposed is found in sec
tion of the proposed amendments to
| the charter, and is as follows:
Section 6. The mayor shall appoint
the following officers, to-wit:
The city clerk.
! The city treasurer.
The city attorney.
| The city auditor.
| The clerk to the mayor.
The city engineer.
| The three building commissioners.
| The three water commissioners.
| The three civil service commissioners.
The five directors of the public library
| The five members of the board of
| health.
| The five park commissioners
The five police commissioners.
| The five fire commissioners.
| The mayor shall appoint all officers
whose election or appointment is not
| otherwise specially provided for in this
| charter or by law, and shall fill all va
cancies, and such appointees shall serve
| for the uneXpired term.
| The mayor shall, subject to the provis-
| ions of this charter, have power to re-
move any and all of these officers al any
| time. filing his reasons therefor with
the city clerk
The purpose is for the mayor to dele
gate his power to commissioners wh1
shall be responsible to him for their
official conduct 1t usually happens
| that commissions are filled by the ap-
pointing power with friends or favor
ties, whose principal qualifications are
services rendered in securing the cleo
tion of their Inefactor, devotion to
their chief, rather than to the people,
or If non partisan. open or covert treach
cry to the standard bearer whom they
have betrayed into defeat, or tools who
are ready and willing to do, and bear the
blame of acts too questionable to be
| openly fathered by the appointing
| power. or the party to which they ad-
here. In no department of government
| is so much corruption founG, SO many
| frauds perpetrated as where the officers
owe their position to appointment:w while
in elective officers corruption and fraud
are rare; for the appontee not only has
TO resist his own natural cupidity but
! the combined cupidity and party zeal
of the commission to whom he owes his
| place but also the influences brought
to bear by the appointing power upon
that same commissions; thus those in
power ever find ready tools and knaves
to do their bidding. The experience of
! Los nAgees city for the past fifteen
years with her police department should
! be more than sufficient to convince the
average citizen that it would be far
better to have this important branch
of the service filled by officers who owe
their position to the suffrages
of her citizens rather than their
! place and position to some COM
mission appointed to do the
bidding Of some man who occupies the
mayors chair The commissions are
machines framed by politicians to shift
responsibility and wink at wrong and
crime.
There are many other objections to
the proposed amendments to the char
ter and reasons why it should be voted
down at the polls that will occur to those
who give to it the time for perusal, to
only one of which I shall hereafter re-
fer. but / believe the central idea on
which it is based, of taking the power
| from the people and making so many of
| our offices responsible to the mayor
| and his commissioners alone is wrong,
eighty is with the people, and all officers
should hence be responsible to the peo-
| pie not to the mayor and his commits
sioners, who are at most their servants
! and agents The commissioners being
agents of the mayor rather than the
people, are compelled to serve two mast
ers, and if unfaithful to the mayor their
political heads are at once thrown into
the basket. While the selection by the
mayor of our public officers might be
very satisfactory to this functionary,
and his friends and henchmen, the
choice by the people of their own off
GERS would doubtless give more general
satisfaction and strike the average judg-
ment as the wiser and better mode OF
selection.
The second serious objection is the
selection of councilmen to represent
the various wards at large instead OF
permitting each ward to elect it's own
councilman, and is a new and dangerous
experiment in the mode of the fOrma-
ton of legislative bodies. There are
localities in the city which would cry
in vain for public improvements and
would possibly be ignored altogether
were it not for the fact that they have
representatives in the council to watch
their interests. AS we'll might the feder-
al government ignore congressional dis
tricts. the states legislative districts
supervisoral districts, and elect all these
officers at large out of one single party,
as for the city to ignore ward lines;
the same wisdom is as manifest in the
cne as in the other. and experience has
demonstrated in all these departments
of government that the old way is the
best means of securing the combined
collective will of the people and a fair
and equal distribution of public money,
public improvements and public posi-
tions to all sections of a city, county,
state or nation In this way minorities
hostile to the party in power are en-
abled to be represented and have at
least some voice in municipal affairs
and act as check and balance wheel
to the extravaganza of majorities, pre-
vent the formation of rings and cliques,
of jobbery and corruption, as well as
unbridled and blind party zeal. Our
wise statesmen have never yet lamented
in any election the return of a strong
working minority ever ready to expose
the blunders, mistakes and favoritism
of the party in power A division of the
city into wards and the selection of
each ward of its own representatives in
the council is a wise measure and in
harmony with the theory of our republi
can form of government and depart
ure from this theory as proposed in the