The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-02-24

public improvements. Low taxes and i'm
provements can be had together only
where government is efficient as well as
honest. Despite its honesty the Calves
ton commission would have failed in this
particular but for the flexibility which
enables it to effect countless minor econ
omies
In spite of my New England town meet
ing ideas, | left Galveston with the con-
viction that it is better to have few
good servants and trust them than to
nave more servants tnan you can watch
hampered with instructions and restric-
tons. In a multitude of counciimen
there IS confusion.
I do not believe that Salt Lake has a
Tad government, as governments go in
municipalities. But it has neither the
democracy of the town meeting nor the
efficiency of the Galveston commission.
There is lack of coordination, central
lZation and responsibility. Two incidents
from my own experience will illustrate
this point.
At the time sidewalks were constructed
in my district. Z temporary board walk
was laid in front Of my lot at the inter-
section Of the walk and the Jordan canal.
] petitiOned the city council TO suspend
the collection of my sidewalk assessment
until the canal was bricked over and the
roards replaced with concrete. The petit
ton was granted and the city treasurer
was instructed accordingly. What. then,
was my surprise TO learn a few weeks
later that my lot had been advertised and
sold for non-payment of the sidewalk
taxi
The canal conduit was completed last
spring Throughout the summer no ef-
fort was made to replace the board side
walks over it, In the fall / sent a COM
municatiOn TO the council advising it that
the temporary walk was in bad repair;
that pedestrians would be greatly incon-
venienced if the change were not made
before winter set in; that l was ready to
pay my deferred assessment whenever the
city was ready to proceed and that the
board of public works should be instruct
ed 10 attend to the matter at once. The
council did its duty | presume. but win
ter arrived with all its accompaniment
and pedestrians who picked their way
over the sidewalk cast indignant glances
at my humble domicile. / went TO the
City and County building and found the
office of the board of public works. a
young woman was in charge. / explain
ed the case in detail.
II am sorry. but l don't know a thing
about" she said.
Where can I find someone who does"
| humbly implored.
Il don't know. There is no one else
here. You might go up to. the fourth
floor and see the city engineer. He might
know something about it
I may add that the broken wooden side
walk is still there.
True. these are trivial things, but it
is the trivial things which make or mar
city Such things could not happen
in Galveston. There one man would have
been responsible throughout
Our present city government has no
head. The head of each department is
responsible only to the people. and the
force of popular opinion is so scattered
and diffused that it is ineffective. No
body is to blame for anything. The head
OF a department devotes more time TO
general supervision than to actual labor.
The council and mayor are also sup
posed to exercise general supervision.
Here is a plain duplication Of effort and
division of responsibility. We are suf-
fering from over supervision. In Calves
ton all supervisory powers are exercised
by the commissioners. and the subordi-
mates have nothing, to do but work. More
over, these subordinates are Responsible
to the commissioners who appoint them
and not to an Intangible public, which is
heard of only at election time. The COM
missioners. in turn. as 1 have attempted
to show, are constantly in the search
light of public opinion. an opinion that
is effective solely because ii is concentrate
ed on five persons and not spread over
twenty.
Under a system in which personal eff
ficency is absolutely necessary for sue
cess. ward representation is out of the
question Men willing and able to per-
form the duties of a commissioner do not
grow on every bush or live in every
to reject an otherwise desirable man be-
cause he happens to live next door to
another desirable commissioner. But this
is not the only reason Galvestonians de-
nounce the ward system. / asked about
that and wa stold:
When we had ward representation i'm
provements were always distributed with
out regard to the interests of the city at
large. Sometimes one ward got the best
of IL and sometimes another, but the dis
tribution was always unfair and DESTROY
ed the harmony and symmetry of the
work. 1t was like hiring a different con-
tractor and architest for each room of A
building. And a still worse effect was
that the workers in each ward claimed
a fixed share of appointments. Some di-
visions had very few capable men and
others had competent applicants in excess
of their quota. This made no difference
to the councilmen. The workers had to
be paid and there were always enough
poor appointments to spoil the effect of
the good ones.
None of our commissioners has ever
shown any favoritism toward his own To-
cality. Sometimes il has been limited that
q certain section was receiving more than
its share of attention. but none of the
commissioners lived there and when the
work had progressed further the critics
were ready to admit that IL had been
commenced at the right place. Even if
votes they would gain nothing by favor
ing their own wards, because they would
lose popularity in every other part of the
city.
And also from political standpoint.
18th would be folly for them TO appoint in
competent men to office. The inferior SER
vice would cost them more votes than the
labors of their appointees could possibly
gain. The truth is that politics has been
almost eliminated from a city In which
elections used TO be the most exciting in
cidents of the year. With one exception
the original commission is still doing
business. The exception was Judge Aus
tin. who died in office
As an evidence that / am not unduly
over the Galveston expert
ment, permit me to call your attention to
the fact that the commission system is
most popular where IL is best known.
Houston, forty miles from Galveston, was
the first city to copy the plan. Dallas and