The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-10-31
THE mASoHEsrER GOVERNMENT.

THE MANCHESTER GOVERNMENT.
 The people of the town of Manches- ter, who have before declined to live under a municipal form of local gov ernment, are now ready to try out the old New England town government brought up to date. The new plan, which has been under discussion for two years, was submitted to them at the election on Monday and they ap- proved it. The town of Manchester will in consequence become one of the most interesting towns in the country to watch henceforth.
 The conviction is spreading that the town of Manchester rather than the town of Galveston in Texas is to work out the pressing problem of local gov ernment. It has certainly proceeded along different lines than those ac- cepted elsewhere. In Texas the experi- ment was made of aboIishing both the municipal and the town forms of To- cal. government and substituting a gov ernment by commission. There is no doubt that remarkable results are be- ing recorded by means of this com mission plan, but 1t is yet to be deter mined whether they are the results or not of a new broom sweeping clean. There was no trouble with the origin al enforcement of the municipal sys- tenn The trouble with it has been to get it to stand the test of endurance in large centers of population The old New England town government has everywhere stood the test better than any other form and is to-day suf- ficient for the purposes of the colossal city of London Where it has given dis satisfaction, as in the case of Manches- ter in this State, the fault was traced not to the town idea at all but to the Iindisposition of the people to enlarge the scope of it's usefulness
 The service the town of Manchester has done students of local government everywhere consists in it's willingness to see if the old town principle is not all that any community needs for its protection provided its simple machin- cry is enlarged in direct proportion to the amount of business to be done People may look with incredulity upon the retention of the old town meeting, which, New Haven, for example, found unwieldy, but when it Is understood that it's voice, if thought to be ex- elusive by given number of voters, is to be submitted to popular approval at the polls it will be seen that very use- full instrument of popular government l has been preserved, for in the great majority of cases the voice of town meeting is the voice of people. It makes a resident of the city of New | Haven, where the most complicated government conceivable is in use, en- vious to think of Manchester living un- der a, form of government as effective as it is simple. Nor is it too much to hope that if 1t proves as useful as it's advocates believe 1t will come in- to general use throughout the State of Connecticut. Then will be written the first chapter of the rise and downfall
 of the municipality bossed by the Gen eral Assembly.
 An important step taken by the res Iidents of Manchester was the adoption
 of the direct primary for the nomina- ton of party candidates The town caucus and the party convention have
 been kicked out of doors and there has been established in place the right of every citizen of the town tc
 vote for whom they please as a candi-
 date, the choice of the plurality to be-
 come the choice of the party. There
 was no nervous dread over what might
 happen from this return to the people
 of their right to do their own govern
 ing; no cringing before brawling par ty bosses The principle was adopted
 outright which says to q community
 if it is not able to govern itself in its
 own way the sooner it is found out the
 better, We take our hat off to the towr
 of Manchester and beg to assure it ot Jour profoundest consideration