Norwich bulletin., 1910-03-15
Fundamental Errors In City Charters
Set Forth by O. E. Ryher in Paper Before Good Citizen
 ship Meeting-Discussion or Woman Suffrage.

The second of the monthly meetings under the auspices of the prohibition town committee was held Monday eve- hing in the Bill block, having an at tendance of about 50, of whom half were women. Henry D. Johnson was the presiding officer. opening the meet ing with brief words of welcome. and prayer was offered by B. C.. Smith. Music by the Willard male quartette and a paper by Stephen F.. Peckham upon The Christian Citizen and His Politics had to be omitted because of the illness of MT. Peckham who is also a member of the quartette.
 o. E. Ryther's Paper. There was violin solo by Oliver E. Neff, for which Mrs. Ernest A. Smith played the accompaniment, and this was followed by a paper read by Ernest Allison Smith, county organ izer, which had been prepared by Or man E. Rytl1er for the February meet ing. but reached here by mail a day late. Its subject was Fundamental Err TOTS in All City Charters, and was as follows:
 The old saying is as true as old that any fool can find fault. The topic assigned me tonight is in a way a my life's experience to go slow in the practice of fault finding It is better far to point out the good than to point out the bad-unless one has at least a
  provement may be made.
 I prefer to treat broader topic than the exact one assigned me, since 1 am not deeply versed in the detail of the takes in All City Charters" would be a preferable form of statement.
 Any man of fair intelligence is able to grasp the fundamental principles underlying many phases of study, or many lines of business, while the brightest mind may be overwhelmed by the detail of a small part of some one subject.
 . Our forefathers planned the general government on the two-chambered legislature be sis, the states all followed their lead, and the years have proved the wisdom of their plan.
 When our cities began to be of size sufficient to demand special gov ernmental machinery it was very nat ural that they should follow the pat tern of the states and general govern ment, but the experience of the years goes to show this was a mistake The and a city government lies in the fact that the former has chiefly legislative functions, the latter chiefly executive
 Many Heads Bring Confusion.
 Tn legislation many conflicting inter- ests can finally come to some sort of an agreement, scme compromise which will fairly meet the call for the great eSI GOOQ OI IHS STc1LOSL DuI in the matter of execution many heads bring confusion. One master mind, one responsible head, must make the lans and give the orders and be held 1t- sponsible for results. Under .ha li- most universal rule of many heads and no one held esponsible untold evils have grown up in nearly all American cities; the rule of the boss with power but without responsibility; the rule of favoritism, graft; rebates, rakeoffs of all sorts through all grades of public service have been the rule rather than the exception. Many good possibilities of decent rule in cities. It remained for a great calamity to teach America a gerat lesson. The tidal wave that engulfed Galveston came near bankrupting the city. The old dual board of city government broke down under the task of reorgan- ization, the citizens of Galveston took matters in hand in 8 way justified by the emergency and applied the meth ods of a modern corporation to the work of rehabilitation and Galveston rose literally out of the depths in more ways than one and furnished a model been followed by all its sister cities in Texas and by many others
 Desirable Features.
 Several features are gradually com ing to be generally recognized as de- sirab1e in new city charters
 First we may name the abolition of the board of aldermen; there is practical unanimity on this point
 "A reduction in the number of