The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-31
COMMISSION GOVERNMENT
 IS STILL EXPERIMENTAL
FRANK V. EVANS.

The subject of commission rule of the municipal government of Birmingham as against the rule now in force, under the city's. charter, seems to resolve itself Into d simple question as to whether or not municipality should be under popular , control.
 This writer is of the opinion that the civil liberty and self-government guar anteed to the American people by the organic law of this nation can nowhere be more highly enjoyed or more safely exercised than in the management by the people of their own local affairs, and that q delegation of authority or shifting of responsibility to boards or sngle-headed commissioners Is contrary to the very spirit and purpose Of municipal charters.
 s''A-., '--''= = .-saea mon the presumption that the people or municipal corpora tion seldom make a mistake in choosns; their agents for the conduct of their city affairs; at any rate that they are more competent to judge of their wants than can be a centralized appointing exer- cising and distributing power.
 The average American citizen has but little patience with the sometimes ex- pressed idea that tlse people are not cap- able of selfgovernment. History denies it, political philosophy gainsays it. com mon sense contradlcts it.
 Government and people must work abreast like the horses of the Grecian chariot. public opinion being the char ioteer. Liberty requires the union of the whole. Napoleon's famous dlctum: "Everything for the people; nothing by the people" is repugnant to the American mind and heart. You cannot prepare for liberty by centralized power any more than you can prepare for light by dark ness and destroying the means of light or vision.
 Some of our American cities have been deprived of local self government or pop ular control It is an experiment. and it is greatly feared that this latter day departure from the old rule of local self government may lead to a standardization of power not contemplated by the framers of the organic laws of the several states, and is inconsistent with the idea of free government.
 I know the argument Is often pre- SenLed l0dI pOpuldr poiitieai oohlioi VI the several departments of public serv- Ice is apt to make less efficient such service, and that local self-governmert in it's broadest sense may impede meass ures of general character. If the rule be general in it's application 1t were bet ter that municipal home government be abolished and the management of all our cities be placed in the hands of the state or under its control--thus central izing power.
 This writer does not favor entire separ- aton of state and city government for I am fully aware of the fact that the municipality is the creature of tho state, but the object of such creation was to afford elf-governnent and home rule to the people of these several communities. Wisdom. patience. political forbearanee and manly independence can alone de- eide the proper degree of union and the necessary balance.
 State legislatures ought to exercise the greatest care in granting powers to mu nicipalities, but should allow no interfer- ence with the carefully granted charter. Bills of rights to communities of citizens should mean something and no right to delegate authority should ever be given;