Los Angeles herald., 1910-07-18
BOSSES DETHRONED

KIT ADVOCATE a commission form
of government" said Mayor
u Alexander to a gathering in San
Diego the other evening of city Off
cials from various Southern California
communities. In this the mayor is in
harmony with the most notable move
ment of our times in making the gov
ernment of American cities better than
under the system that has produced
the boss, the machine and the political
private corporation.
In a book that has just appeared
under the title of "The Dethronement
of the City Boss John j. Hamilton
| has described the results of what first
was known as the Galveston Idea"
and later as the "Des Moines plan,"
so named because commission govern
ment has been worked out to better
effect in the Iowa capital.
After the Galveston flood, when
things were in chaos there, the old
form of government proving utterly
incompetent to meet the emergencies
arising out of that catastrophe, leading
citizens took matters into their own
hands and with the justification of
stern necessity apportioned the man
agement of things to group of men,
each to be responsible for a depart
ment. The board of aldermen, or
council, was abolished. So conspicu-
Gus was the breakdown of the old re-
gime and so successful it's successor
that Galveston got power from the
legislature and completely revolution
lied it's charter on the new lines.
The spread of the movement to Cali
fornia (San Diego being one Of those
to adopt it and Los Angeles taking
some of the features, like the aboli-
tion of ward lines in counclD and to
other states until ii eliminated in the
Des Moines charter, is familiar to the
reading public. The Des Moines char
ter assemblies the best features of char
ters adopted before it, and so success
| fully that scarcely a dav passes with
out a committee from some other city
visiting there to learn more in detail
| of it's working.
Mr. Hamilton says in his book that
sixty-seven cities had adopted it at
the time he wrote. Of which three were
in California, two in Colorado, six in
Iowa, eleven in Kansas, three in Mas
| sachusetts four in Oklahoma, eight in
South Dakota five in Tennessee, fif-
teen in Texas. Buffalo is now endeav-
orng to secure the plan and in Pitts
burg there is popular demand for it.
The peculiar feature of the charter
is that it gathers the management of
affairs into the hands of the mayor
and five commissioners, elected at
large and paid large enough salaries
to get a high type Of service. Each
of these commissioners is responsible
for branch of government, such as
public works (water supply and other
public utilities), public safety (fire
and police, and so on; and these five
are virtually the mayors cabinet, act
ing together on general problems, the
council being abolished. They choose
all other city officers.
Thus responsibility is narrowed into
a few hands and the people know
whom to praise or blame for merit or
fault. OF the results achieved under
this system-running city just as a
president and board Of directors would
run a large private corporation-Mr.
Hamilton speaks in praise. Every
city, he says, has it's story of deficits
wiped out, floating debts taken up.
bonds retired, business methods intro
duced, standing nuisances, abat-
ed, laws enforced, books better kept,
streets kept cleaner public works more
honestly constructed, public buildings
erected, additional parks and play
grounds acquired. economies enforced
and taxes reduced" Moreover, they
all report a revival of public spirit
and Improvement in business resulting
! from better city conditions" Every