Los Angeles herald., 1907-10-20
NEW CHARTER
is NEEDED
LOS ANGELES CITIZENS STUDY
DEs MONIES PLAN
COMMITS ssioN GovERNM EMIT GAINS
POPULARITY
Capitalization of Power and Authority
VIII Correct Many of the Defects
Revealed in the Present
System
BY G. ID. DAVIS

1t has always been a matter for hearty
congratulation that the real estate men
OF Los Angeles have been broad minded
and generously disposed toward all pub
lie projects.
They have never wrapped themselves
smugly in the narrow thought that their
interests were conserved when they had
found buyers and sellers of snaps only
and that the public veal was none of
theirs. On the contrary, they believe and
act upon the belief that whatever con-
Germs the city concerns them.
To them "public honor is private honor;
public disgrace is private disgrace; public
failure is private failure, and public sue
cess is private success
We think 1t may be said without preju-
dice to any other class of citizens that
when the Owens river project was under
consideration no one welded greater in
f1uence in the discussion and contributed
more largely to it's favorable termination
than these men who have played such an
important part in the swift progress of
Los Angeles.
1t is readily apparent to the least OBJ
servant of them that what makes for
civic betterment enhances realty values.
They know that if streets are permitted
to go unimproved. sanitation to be neg
pected, the water supply to be insuffi-
cient, or if any one of a possible dozen
things are allowed to become notably un-
satisfactory, property will depreciate
They are we'll aware that If any of these
things are placed on an efficient basis so
that complaints cease, If public grounds
are bcautified and travel. afoot and other
wise is relieved of it's unpleasantness.
Confidence increases with pleasure and
values strengthen.
Although we have mentiope ed real es-
tate agents particularly thus far, these
same reflections, and especially those
which refer to the measures relative to
the enhancement of values apply to the
thousands of individual property owners
throughout the city, and what we may
say further is intended for both for
both are vitally interested in and play
an essential part in the choice of those
officials whose faithful discharge of their
duties brings the desired results.
Better City Government
The movement, therefore, which is
prevalent over the country for better
municipal government should command
their sharp attention. And the announce
ment that a group of citizens Will take
up the form of government recently
adopted by Des Moines. Iowa. and make
40, r.f,, .1ff -1on ha nrf1fI.
lated by hosts of others. There seems
to be a strong current setting in for
change in Los Angeles. and when the
time comes to make it. as it undoubtedly
Will intelligence on the part of the whole
electorate and not only on part of a
few should direct the choice.
The Des Moines form. as the general
reader of news reports knows. is modi-
fed form of the better known system in
vented by Galveston, Texas. after the
catastrophe produced by the tidal wave
1t is not our intention to dissect the two
forms in every particular at this time.
but attention may be called to one of the
points which shows the great dissimilar-
ity between the commission system and
that which prevails in Los Angeles.
The former insists on government by
fewer men than the latter. The modern
notion is afraid of the fathers idea that
there must be a wide distribution of au-
thority. When city government was in
stituted the memories of the country's
experience under foreign rule were still
vivid and no suggestion of Capitalization
of power was allowed a hearing in the
court of public opinion. Power must be
kept zealously in the hands of the people,
1t was said, or another dictatorship would
be enacted.
Centralized Authority
But today we are not so fearful of
such an order of things. There has been
a steady growth in Capitalization of fed
era1 mower ever since the Civil war, not
because there has been any special desire
for it. but because the necessities of the
case have demanded it for more effective
results The national government has
been gradually learning the lesson which
the great business corporations learned
long ago, that scattered authority makes
a complete equation with criss-cross pur-
poses and a consequent waste of revenue
This has been the most loudly pro-
claimed complaint against modern city
administration by the taxpayer. When
he has sought the source of the dissipa-
tion of the funds to which he has con.
tributed he has been met with suave
sidestep by being referred to another de-
partment or committee which by some
i'll turn of fortune has had som7 vague
connection with the matter under ques-
tion. He is met with evasions which are
dlsconcerting and discouraging, and is
driven to the inevitable conclusion that
public business is an impenetrable maze,
the unraveling of whose threads is be-
yond the ability of the average man Of
business whose aim has been the estab-
lishment of a system with definite loca-
tion of responsibility.
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