The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1909-06-29

use. Another drawback of the present
form OF governm cnt is thattae salaries
are entirely too small to permit the
officers to put much time on their
work. Just think, said he, Of hiring a
man to run a business for meagre
salary; but this is what Is done under
the Keokuk plan as it is now carried
on. Then, too, 1t is not the man who
has friends in only one community of
the city VINO gets enough votes to be
elected under the new plan but it is
the man who numbers among his
friends and supporters the people OF
the entire community. For instance,
in Cedar Rapids at the recent election,
a man who got twenty signers to his
petition got only fifteen votes while
a man who had seven hundred sign
ers got six hundred votes. Mr.. Kef-
FER said that since the commissioners
have been in office in his town he can
trutafully say that they have put in
ten hours day, which was only made
possible by the increased salary that
Is received under the new plan. And
further, he went on to gay, since the
commissioners have been in office in
Cedar Rapids, which has been for the
past nine months, they have saved
tie city enough to pay their salaries
four times over.
After the election it OF course,
became necessary to appoint the as
s.stants and sub-officers. For the po-
sition of city attorney there were sew
enteen candidates.. However the COM
missioners simply chose the one whom
they thought the best fitted, and this
applied to all their selections whether
tae person chosen had applied for the
position or not.
A few OF the things accomplished
since the commissioners took up their
work nine months ago in Cedar Rapids
are as follows: They werelable to put
500, 5S6 In the bank, pay all bills and
have two per cent taken o.. the same
for cash. $61.9S0 paid for various i'm
provements, I've patrolmen were add
ed to the police force, the fire stations
were equipped with new hose and a
new brick fire station built ct a cost
of $4,000. Ten men were hired to
work constantly at keeping the paving
in good order, an island was purchased
for the purpose Of erecting q city
hall some time Il the near future and
public Improvement expert was hired
to come and male suggestions for
new improvements. The police courts
came to yield about $500 per month
where they had only yielded about $75
previously and at that there were no
more arrests. Al increase in interest
derived from money placed In THE
bank by the city OF s1,4S5 came about,
and the tax charges We're reduced one
mill and will in a short time be reduc'
ed by three mills.
Mr.. Keffer went on to say that some
Of the work. people feared that
there would be dearth of work under
the plan. These fears however are
groundless as is proved by the follow
/ ing figures:
Labor Benefited.
Public improvements in Cedar Rap
1 ids for the last few years have been
as follows: 1904, $4,000; 1905. $19e,
900, 1906, $4,000; 1907, $4,000 1908
s1s2 900 while in the nine months un
/ der the commission plan. there mas
b -on total o. 100000 spent. A poin'
i IN this for the people at large, too, Is
that over seventy per cent of this
work was petitioned for. Building per
mits have also been issued to one
amount Of s1,oF6,ooo. Another sigr