Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-11-22
Des Moines Plan of City Govern
ment a Failure Unless Citi-
zens Are in Touch
MUST KNOW WHAT is DONE
Much Also Depends or tho Kind Of
Mon Selected to Serve, According to
William II. Allen, Municipal Affairs
Expert-AIlsn Says Numbers Are
lmmateriai.
to Times-Republican.

--
Special to Times Republican.
Des Moines, Nov. 2a-Des Moines
commission plan OF government VIII
be just as gigantic failure as any
other system Of municipal government
unless there is some provision for IN
forming the public as to what Is done
and how efficient the commission Is,
according to William il. Allen. the ex-
pert on municipal affairs of New YORK
and secretary of the New York bureau
of municipal research.
Recent utterances OF Mr.. Allen along
that line have come to light and are
particularly Of interest in this state at
this time because of the agitation for
municipal reform. Mr.. Allen was en-
gagged by the Civic League of Des
Moines to appear here for lecture
a week or more ago but was unable
to come. 1t Is expected that he will
appear later on and will then probably
express at some length his idea of the
commission plan OF government.
In statement recently he said:
"There are three things that seem to
me not to have been sufficiently en-
.phasized. In democracy misgovern-
ment is due primarily to ignorance on
the part Of the governed. Misgovern-
ment by q commission Is possible be-
cause it does not provide, in spite OF
what has been said, for an intelligent
public. Commissions are now misgov-
erning many communities. Now as to
the first proposition that misgovern-
ment is due to ignorance on the part
Tof the governed. Some one has said
it Is due to lack of interest. We
have had interest in this country. We
need more than interest, we need intel
ligence. .. +. !. Unless you and can
know what is going on, and unless
the commission plan provides for some
test of what the commission does, so
that we will know what 1t does, there
is no more hope OF the commission be-
ing successful than any other plan.
"Now we have tried the commission
idea in different places, and 1t has not
worked. For instance, In Philadelphia
we had commission on the health de-
partment It consisted Of a butcher,
preacher and an undertaken. Now if
there had been thirty such men elect
ed, as in the Newport council, the
health department would not have been
any better. If only one Of these par
ticular. three men had been in charge,
the health administration would not
H. ,Nt
informed as to the facts, as to small
pox or typhoid. We have in New York
today government by commission prac-
tically. We have seven members Of the
board. We have concentration Of pow
er and according to the comptroller,
we have also concentration Of ignor-
ance. Unless we provide that the COM
mission shall not be ignorant it can
not succeed.
"Now how can we cure ourselves
and our officials Of ignorance? 1t
seems to me that there is altogether
too much talk about keeping your eye
on the man, be sure of the kind of
men, if you don't get the right kind
of men the whole thing goes to
pieces. The thing we want to learn
is not to keep your eye on men. We
know who to blame for these things.
We can almost always locate the re-
sponsibility. Therefore it seems to me
that the thing we need to do Is to get
TO thinking more about the acts of
officials. 1t is not the public talk Of
the mayor that is important. 1t is not
the public activity of the board Of
control that is important. It is 'the
acts Of the subordinates that are inn
portant, and unless we can know what
the subordinates are; doing we are just
as helpless with one man as with five
men It is immaterial whether your
city is governed by one man, five men
or thousand men, very immaterial
unless there is publicity. Unless
there is publicity you cannot have
such a government as the people
may want, because the people will not
know what kind of 2 government they
have.
Where there is absolute and COM
plete publicity the American people
can take care of themselves and we
can elect such government as we
want The fist step in securing such
publicity is to adopt a uniform sys-
tenn Of accounts, records and reports"
In the book Efficient Democracy"
written by Mr.. Allen7he points out that
the administration Of Mayor Low Of
New York was an excellent and eff
cient one but that the public was not
given the information to prove 1t and
as a consequence In ignorance and
prejudice at the first election put
Tammany back in control