The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-06-22
TIE TEXAS IDEA. GOVERNMENT OF A CITY
What a Board of Directors Can Accomplish in the
 Matter.

thing was In tangle. The agent want ed to have the property reassessed against the real owners, so that the | back taxes could be cleared up.
 He was familiar with the customary procedure. First, he expected to pre- | sent petition to the city council set ting forth the facts. This, of course, would be referred to committee. The members would need to be seen indi- vidually; then would come the efforts to get them together. Political infu- ences would be brought to bear, fla vorable report would be obtained, and finally, after weeks of delay, the ad- justment might be secured.
 The lawyer whom he consulted was not impressed by the magnitude of the undertaking. He merely remarked that they might as well go over to the may or's office and settle at once.
 Hold on" the agent replied, in sur- prise. Before we see anybody, oughtn't we to get some influential business men here to go with us, so the adjustment will be made on fair basis? There's sometimes prejudice against an outside corporation"
 You don't know what sort of gov- ernment we've got in Houston," the lawyer interrupted. Pull doesn't go"
 The doubting man from Milwaukee went to the mayors office The law yer made his explanations, the asses sor was called in, figures were produc- ed showing the assessments on adjoin- ing property, and in an hour the intri- cate matter was practically disposed of. The agreement was then formally rati- fled by the council That ended it. The business was transacted precisely as speedily and as equitably as it could have been done by any well managed corporation.
 | AliNs lldGSNl,a It 4 WdS H EOIQJ Jtl that transacted it-the Corporation of Houston, managed by a board consist ing of a chairman and four directors, Mayor and aldermen, Houston calls them, In Galveston, the city that first tried the experiment, they are called frankly Mayor President and com missioners. The old name of alder 4e,tn tod ft4 a,.n,a . ly only out of deference to the past.
 These two towns are trying to work out solution of the problem of municipal government along lines that are practically new in America, Hav- ing found the old form of government by municipal legislature a failure, they have not soughttto abolish the Council or even primarily to reform 1t. They have merely reduced 1t to such a size that its members may be held account able, and then have given them the power essential to efficiency.
 Take such small matter as the pre- scriptions given by the city to the poor. Sometimes they had cost sev- eral hundred dollars a month. Rarely had they been less than $75. The all dernan in charge of the Health De partment under the new system ap- pointed druggist as the clerk of his department and bought $100 worth ot drugs. Since then the city has filled
 it's own prescriptions at cost of five
 cents each, The assistant health off
 cer fitted up a surgical room where
 many patients are treated who former. ly were sent to a hospital, The saving
 from these two economies amounts tt from $100 to $150 month.
 This is not large item, to be sure though 1t amounts to something in {
 city of the size of Houston. The sig nificant thing is that a competent off. cial was able to institute these econ omies without tedious delays and with out the necessity of making conces sions to pull" Under the old system
 matters of this character would hay, been discussed at great length in tn, , ICity Couneil-and Houston was fortu lnate in having single house. instead , of two-aldermen would have beer hauled about by druggists looking fo city patronage, and very likely nothing
 would have been done.
 F Consider another instance. Severa i years ago the city erected a crematorS at an expense of s12,000, to dispose Q f Its garbage and rubbish. The plant re q quired good deal of fuel and the ser , vices of three or four men. It frequentl - got out of order, and eventually wa
 abandoned, though a watchman wa i retained at an expense of $60 mont I to look after 1t. The head of the healt , department under the new administra a ton was not compelled to wait month
 for aldermanie committees to work ou a l some remedial plan. There was a sew age pumping plant in the middle of tn l city. At a cost of $750 he rigged up Q simple device for burning garbage ad Q iacent to this plant He connected tn k furnace with the stack of the pumpin f plant, thus securing sufficient draft l burn the garbage without addttlons Q fuel The men at the pumping statIo - were able to do the extra work neees i sary, so the bill for fuel and runnin n | expenses was practically eliminated Observe, again, that this saving wa r accomplished in the manner of any we
 conducted big business enterprise, an
 not after the fashion of city govern |, ments.
 Observe, further, that well conduct o ed" is not superfuous qualification = The city has had the opportunity
 make a direct comparison of it's eff
 ciency with that of a corporation handling it's water plant. Under a fol
 mer administration the city defeate
 by a vote of three to one proposl