The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-01-03
GOVERNMENT BY
 COMMISSION
How Colorado Springs Is Working for Clean Municipal Administration WARREN DUNHAM FOSTER Exclusive Service The Survey Press
 Bureau.)

| Tn government. by commission, an other American city is attempting to 1 free itself from municipal misrule. Fol | lowing a long agitation for civic re- form, the citizens of Colorado Springs have adopted new charter which attempts to combine the best elements of the so-called Galveston and Des MOines plans. The new form of gov
 ernment places all legislative, execu- tive, and judicial functions in the hands of five men elected at large for
 terms of 4 years, but adds to the Iowa provisions for the direct expression of popular will in the initiative, the recall, and the referendum strong correlat- ing power in the hands of the mayor,
 as in the Texas cities On the whole, the new charter eliminates several of the objectionable features of the Des Moines plan, and modifies the ''un- American ,autocracy'' of the Calves ton plan.
 By the terms of the Iowa law un- der which the cities of Des Moines and Cedar Rapids are now operating the mayor is the presiding officer of the commission, and head of the de- partment of public affairs He has no power of veto, and no power of ] appointment greater than that of his | associates. It is his duty to bring to the attention of the council such matters as need attention, and to su- pervise the conduct of the other four departments. But in the absence of any "enacting clause such supervi- sion has proved meaningless. Under the law it would seem that the actiV- ities of the mayor, save as member of the council, were limited, greeting distinguished visitors, and acting as official press agent.
 Very different is the position of the
 mayor under the new government Of | (fOlnr96n | municipal employees other than the city clerk and unskilled workmen, sub 1 ject in some cases to the recommends tion of the head of the department involved, and in the case of the city solicitor, to the approval of two mem- bers of the council He may remove any employe. He may veto any or dinance making appropriation. He su- pervises all departments, and has the power to make his supervision more l than form. He is required to have l all accounts examined at least yearly l by an accountant responsible to him I he may appoint experts to inquire into l the conduct of any department. Fail I ure or refusal (of any officer or eml-
 ploye) to exhibit books or papers (to ItFe mayorl shall be ground for remov- 1 al."f
 1 In addition to his authority as chief authority executive, the mayor, as commissioner, has control of the ad- I miniStration of the Department of Wa lter and Water Works. Peculiar local 1 conditions in Colorado Springs have made the water supply a very serious l problem. AS commissioner the au- thority of the mayor is supreme, ex- I cept that the approval of the council I is necessary to fix rates and penal l ties.
 Now. it may be asked what is the need of lvesting chief power in the l hands of one man? Why is it not 1 better to let each commissioner be in
 dividually and entirely responsible for his own department, without the op- portunity to shoulder blame off on l the mayor? Granted that under the | Iowa law, the mayor is a fgurehead; have not Des Moines and Cedar Rapids I concluded a successful year under the new plan?
 In partial answer to the first question 1 the successful experience of the Tex an cities, with power strongly cen 1 tralized in the hands of the mayor l president, may be instanced More I oyer, the activities of a modern city l are so interrelated that one series of l activities cannot be isolated. Core lation is necessary. But why, then, is not the correlating authority of the ! city council all that is necessary? The reply must be bit categorical. Not IWhile human nature is built the way l it now is. Five men cannot always be a unit. There must be some one man who, subject to popular control, lis the head of every government un- | dertaking. It is not to be denied that the years government by commis- sion just closed in the two Iowa cit fes has had at least the appearance Iof success. But it must not be for I nent was adopted and the present I officers elected on a wave one might l almost say in a spasm, of character istically American civic reform Fur Ithermore, the administration of Des
 Moines, at least, has been in the con
 stant gaze of her own citizens and of | the whole country. Thus peculiar conditions have been favorable to good | government.
 The Colorado Springs charter makes l several other qualifications of the Des Moines plan. The Colorado document creates a department of public health and sanitation in charge of one of the commissioners; in Des Moines, the l health officer and his assistants are responsible to the commissioner o1 I public safety Parks and Public Property and Streets and Public Im- movements, separate departments under the Iowa law, are united in the Property" The proposed charter in geniously sinplifies the machinery o1
 election by providing that whenever a lcandidate at the primary election re- ceives majority of the votes cast he shall be declared elected The bal lots, as under the Iowa law, shall be without designation of party affiIia- ton. Furthermore, the charter pro- vides that each candidate must make affidavit 'sto the fact that he has not become a candidate as the nominee or representative of or because of any l promised support from any politica party or any committee of convention I Representing or acting for any political party" There follows a series o1 I provisions attempting to prevent any ! application of machine politics tc I municipal election. One section pro- l hibits each candidate from the use of more than one carriage to convey I voters to the polls, and stipulates that the voters so conveyed must be toe l infirnl to walk. The penalty for any
 offense is disqualification from office Similar provisions in the Iowa law
 are too vague and too reminiscent oi the old fashioned Fourth of July ora.
 ton to be of much practical value. In
 deed, throughout the Colorado Springs
 lcharter the greater specificness and
 better legal workmanship are evident Opportunity sfor the direct expres- l sion of popular will is given by the
 new charter The Iowa provisions fol