Arizona republican., 1907-01-11

collector had been wiped off the books
 of an eX-auditor with a great daub of
 ink: the acting collector was calmly
 withholding thousands of dollars. The
 Eleven were giving all of the city con-
 tracts to one contractor. and were
 frankly getting his endorsement on
 notes which they did not pay. These
 peculiar creatures, secure within the
 protection of the imaginary lines which
 made them did not even trouble them
 selves to steal in a quiet and business
 like way They battened openly on the
 city. If they had been less hungry or
 more intelligent, they would have fared
 better and gone farther As it was, regardless of investigations. they had destroyed themselves. The citizens
 were refusing to pay taxes. aldermen and their friends did not do so: then why should any one? Gov
 ernment can not well continue without taxes. The rule of the ward aldermen was coming to standstill-after hay ing brought the affairs of the city into chaos.
 There have been two plans of pro cedure commonly adopted, in Amer ica, under such circumstances. One kindly. but pathetically ineffective-has been to try to elevate the ward alder men. The other, growing in popularity for fifty years, has been to take all power from him and leave him, shadow This movement has gone fur thest in New York. where in the last ten years the ward alderman has been so robbed of his vitality that little now remains but to put him out of his pain Galveston did neither of these things. She neither attempted to evan gelize the ward aldermen nor to de- stroy the creature and retain the name. She merely went to the state legisla ture and put out of existence this Frankenstein monster which she had created with her own hands to pursue her.
 AT LARGE A FAIL
 URE.
 From 1895 to 1901 Galveston was under another system-a mayor and board of aldermen selected at large. She might be said to have had the usual type of American city govern ment. reduced to its simplest form. She had escaped the viciousness of ward politics. but she retained exactly the same old machinery of operation. Imagine a business in which every matter to be considered goes first to a committee of three or five. then to d body of from twelve to two hundred. then at last to a single independent F1 never once on its journey feeling the vital touch of a responsible hand. or the illumination of an expert mind. How long would a body of this kind exist in competition with the savage personal self-interest which drives the of today? Yet that is city government - whose daily business brings il into relation with the sharp est and most interruptions elements in he business world. It is the present general hopelessness and indifference oward civic affairs fairly a surprise lnder the circumstances? Can any hing come out of such machinery but | allure and disgust? The interest in | stimulated by the reform of | S95 continually died down. both on | he side of the public and the office | iolder; but. in the meantime, the sharp | of the politicians remained. l n 1899 a machine mayor was elected, | nd the better element had the hardest | in electing a bare majority of | he aldermen. It was this government | which broke down under the strain of | he stOrm-offering the melancholy | pectacle of a chief administrative | ody in a tremendous crisis. with its wo branches in open hostility.
 After the storm this body had ar ived nowhere. At first 1t made a few eeble moves, some of which proved most unfortunate in a business way. [ was advised by one of its members O resign. but it would not even do hat. It merely talked loudly and vo- iferously. The public disregarded it They looked first and always 3 the Deep-water Committees body -ithout any delegated authority what yer. The people of San Francisco did
 similar thing after the earthquake, nd those of Memphis after the scourge f yellow fever in 1878. In the white ash of great calamity the population f cities sees with perfect clearness he inadequacy of the old machinery of ] ity government in the United States. is useless when we need it most. HE COMMISSION AND ITS ORIGIN |,
 The Deepwater Committee met 1 tightly. discussing the community's !; nairs. They viewed Galveston. not as (
 city at all. but a great ruined busi- { ess What agency should be selected l , reorganize it? Obviously. no mayor ' nd aldermen: not with the memory [ [ the past: not with the pitiful. thing before them as an ob- I 'ct lesson The matter was not to he { Dnsidered. But about a month after |, le storm the present commission gov | -nment was suggested. Within ten l iinutes the idea was approved and ( 1Opted. and a committee chosen to ( ,rmulate it. R. Wavely Smith. for [ Ter city attorney who suggested the { lea, was chosen chairman. Two other !,