The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-01-20

which a city with crowded and longest
er areas offers, attract better men on
the average than we are accustomed 10
identify with the usual American city
policies Notable instances of this sort
are Seth Low as mayor of New York,
Carter Harrison in Chicago, and Mr..
Henry E. Cooper as Superintendent of
Public Works in Honolulu.
1t is in this response of men of train
ed ability and absolute integrity that
the hope of the city lies.
There is a local impression existing
in the minds of some which blooms per-
ennialiy, viz: THAT the American sys-
tenn of multifarious officials. ward rep
reservations in council and school
board, and its resulting ugly details OF
ward politics, furnishes a conclusive ar
gument why Honolulu should remain
town of the fifteenth century style for
ever" These overlook the fact that
the natural workins of RECONSTRUCTED
charters are not the logical outcome of
efficient organization.
1t is in the cardinal issues of what
city officials; their duties; salaries,
elected or appointed; election of council
from ward representation or from city
at large; powers of council; school
board; duties; elected from ward repre-
sentation or at large; that lie the deter
/ mining of real or fancied dangers or
regiments of salaried officials, and
much of the ubiquitous power of ward
politicians.
Municipal government undertakes Of
fcially to provide for the performance
of the following functions:
% Administration of justice in local
criminal or civil courts.
(2) Appointment and supervision OF
police
| 90 Administration of public property
and the levy of rates when such prop,
erty is not sufficient to meet the public
expenses; e. g., telephone service, street
cars
"a The enactment of ordinances, and
appointment and dismissal of public
servants.
go Execution of sanitary regulations
under the public health act
90 Paving, lighting, supplying of
improvement of pubic thoroughfares
and sewerage,
90 Establishment and maintenance
of public buildings, works. museums,
and libraries.
Cs) Making and maintaining harbors,
docks and navigations.
90 Administration of special cnarit-
able trusts.
QO) superintendent and enforce
ment of educational regulations.
The frameworks of modern munich
pal government may be said briefly to
crystalline about two ideas, viz: Cen
tralization, concentration of power and
responsibility; and decentralization,
partition of duty and responsibility
The former principle finds its exem-
ment on the continent and in Great
Britain, and the latter has been the
American political tradition in munic-
ipal government AS some one says
City government in America defeats
its own ends by its checks and ball
ances, its partition of duty and re-
sponsibility, and its grand opportuni-
ties for the game of hide-and-seek."
What the abuse of the scheme of CEN
tralization easily Is has not thus far
been demonstrated in those old, highly
equipped cities of Europe, where train
ed men, of abundant endowment for
positions of usefulness, constitute the
personnel of councils. school boards.
and heads of great departments. II
The German Ruler in describing to
his countrymen the attributes of an
English gentleman, said frankly, IAN
lcal character, an independent public
position. or at least the right of assum-
ing it,
How much opposite view prevails in
the United States, where the petty po-
lftical schemes of boodle-chasing ward
politicians have made the practical
Of the principle of decentraliza-
ton defeat the ends Of good govern
ment, is well known on two continents
If the British system of vesting all
substance of municipal power in the
which is not only the admins
trative. but the appointive power of the
experimenting by stand
ing committees of its own large body
over the heads of the great danar.-