The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1910-01-27
ing port in the United States.

ping port IN the United states
The success of the new plan and
the belief it brought attracted wide
attention and interest. Her near
neighbor, Houston, city almost help
lessly demoralized by bad govern
ment. with a floating debt of $780,
600 began to sit up and take notice.
And on the 10th day of December,
1904, the same general system was
submitted to her citizens and though
bitterly opposed by the ms and the
political ward heelers. was carried by
substantial majority. The results
were marvellous. Within one year
the floating indebtedness was wiped
out and current running expenses
were paid promptly during that time.
Since then without bond issue the
administration has built three mod,
ern school buildings at a cost Of
1925, 900; has built six miles of street
paving: expended 100000 on public
parks, and appropriated $4,000 to
be applied in deepening Houston's
ship channel to the sea; better bust
ness confidence has been created and
the city's credit has better rating
than ever before; the tax levy has
been reduced from 50 to $50 on
the 500 valuation and it is the in
tention to continue such reduction
at the rate of ten per centum per
year until rate of one per centum
is reached
And so the story runs. Any close
reader and student of political pro-
gress knows the rest. Fort Worth.
Dallas, Waco, Austin and others of
the larger cities of the same state
have fallen in line. Des Moines, Iowa,
and other cities of the middle west
have followed suit and it has spread
to the west and northwest. Tacoma
ms ? .oy led it and Sp5 ,aI is agita;-
ing it. Wherever it has been tried
it has proven a great success.
The secret of it's success seems to
lie in the fact that it is run on
business basis; run just as bust
ness corporation is run. 1t is long
known fact that men are retained in
appointive positions in our munich
palities, wholly because of their po-
litical relations and friendship and
not because of their competency. No
business corporation would do this.
Then, in the commission form of
government the responsibility is
centralized so that one knows just
where to place the blame for bad
management This is done by elect
ing five commissioners at large, thus
removing the question of local inter-
est and local constituency, one of
whom is mayor, and each is head and
each one is alone responsible for the
management of his respective depart
ment and has full control over his
appointees. He owes his place to no
ward heller ana hence is free to en-
ploy and discharge for neglect of
duty or incompetency, just as the
foreman of a business corporation
If his department is badly managed
he has to account to the tax payers
and electors personally himself and
can not shift the burden to other
members of the council.
This is the general principle,
though the details may vary minute
ly, the results have always been the
same, a wonderful improvement over
the old ward system.
It is to the interest of every Cit
izen who has a love for good govern
ment and a pride in his country and
city to study this question and if il
is better than what we have to fall
in with the van and not be sitting
in the tail end of the auto of pro-
gress, dragging his feet in the sand
and throwing banana peels in the
road.