The San Francisco call., 1898-05-15

officers and is responsible for an honest counting of the votes, and, in fact, he will have control of S3 per cent of the en- tire expenditures of the city government.
 It is thought by many that the one-man government has resulted well where it has been tried. Such is not the case. There is not single case where large powers have been conferred upon the Mayor that evil results have not followed. The power has been as often abused by the Mayor as has any power possessed by the Supervisors, and the experience of many cities has proven that there is more probability of electing a bad Mayor than a bad Board of Supervisors, some of whom have invariably proved honest All trate its energies upon the election of a Mayor and the machine is in control. If a good man is a candidate. then it has to find a second or third good man who will consent to run and divide the honest vote, at the same time concentrating the vote of the push" upon the candidate who will be Subservient to the wishes of the jobbers. Under storm of public excite ment Seth Low was elected model Mayor of Brooklyn. He was followed by Whitney, Chapin and Moody, who were creatures of Boss Mclaughlin. For eight years the city was dipped In corruption, waste inefficiency and extravagance. In Boston, Mayor after Mayor has been elected only to disappoint the hopes of the municipal reformers. The public debt has increased, employees were hired at more than market wages and the greatest 1rauuS III 6XecullNe COIlIdClS ndNc Dccll perpetrated by the Board of Public Works. In Cleveland the concentration of power has not been followed by the adop- ton of business methods. In Cincinnati under it's Czar Mayor has the worst mu- nicipal government in the United States. Civil service rules are dead letter. The city is controlled by politicians, who live on patronage and are corrupt and ex- travagant.
 In Quincy the author of the autocratic charter admits its failure. Under a simi- lar charter the Mayor of Indianapolis re- moves and appoints office-holders in his own interest. At the first election under the autocratic charter of Greater New York Boss Croker of Tammany secured the election as Mayor of his man Van Wyck, who has the distribution of pa tronage valued at nearly slgo,Oo9 ioog ,,, an, m, has as black a mayoral scandal as ever disgraced any solid eight or nine in the history of this city. (See editorial in Elk aminer of April 2) In San Jose like re- suits have followed from the adoption of a one-man government. Boss Req s man was elected Mayor at the first election held under it and now rules the roost.
 Fifth-The pretense that the charter gives the people power to initiate amend ments, to it is false The method of in the State constitution and cannot be changed by charter or by general law. Hence if you adopt this charter in order to amend 1t you will have to:
 First-Elect ten Supervisors and a Mayor, or, without the Mayor, fourteen Supervisors, who will propose the amend ment to the people
 Second-Secure Q favorable vote of at least three-fifths of the persons voting at an election-a thing almost impossible of accomplishment; and
 Third-Secure the approval of both houses of the Legislature.
 These three conditions can never be full filled.
 In conclusion, fellow-citizens, you do not want form of government in which the determination of nearly every ques- tion of policy and right is vested in one man. But you do want simple. straight forward charter vesting all authority in a Board of Supervisors sufficiently large to render 1t practically impossible to cor rupt it, and each member of which is re- movable at the will of his constituents.