The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1910-12-20
municipal Government.

Municipal Government.
The regular biennial charter agi-
tations are in progress in Wheeling.
Charleston and Parkersburg. Still
smartinG from the count of the fed
oral census. Wheeling wants It's
boundary lines extended and Incl
dentalIy a revision of its local gov
eminent. Charleston people strong
ly suspect the supposed bipartisan
plan of government now in vogue
there is not a bit bipartisan, while
Parkersburgers do not know just
what they want but seem to be hlrt-
ing with the commission craze.
The subject OF new municipal
charters will likely cause a great
deal of wrangling at Charleston
when the next legislature meets as
tbe report of the municipal code
commission will be discussed in ad-
ditfon to the multitudious, conflict
ing and perpiexing claims OF agi-
tators from various cities who VIII
seek to change things around and TO
grind political axes.
1t would be well for the agitators
and the Legislators to proceed with
care and deliberation in their efforts
to solve the problem of local city
Svernment and particularly so when
the new-fangled craze of govern
nent by commission is taken up
Here and there the people of
community may point with pride to
n certain new scheme OF conducting
city afrairs. but for the most part
wherever a city government has been
split and carved into number OF
commissions and boards the chief re-
suit has been an tnterminable SQUAD
bling over divisions OF authority
and a period of general obstruction
and desuetude.
At Parkersburg two or three
boards and the city council have been
ouarrelfng over a new water works
system for years and, while the work
is in course of construction, the
people of the city have not the faint
est idea whether they will ever get
a new water works system. One
board does this thing. another does
that, the council refuses to ratity
one or the other and then pompous
official wades into the miXup with
an order or refusal and adds fresh
COMPLEXITIES to the middle. Char
lesion has had n political fight on
ever since it took up the visionary
scheme to eliminate partisanship
from city affairs. Even in Clarks-
burg the people have experienced
needless delay over a new water
works system as the result OF ere
ating a new water works board.
Huntington has crazy quilt govern
ment, which. strangely, has appeared
to meet with a degree OF success,
vet, as a Huntington newspaper points
out. il the Huntington plan had been
badly administered there would
have developed defects that have
not yet been noticed. Doubtless
Huntington has some bumps coming
to it.
The trouble with most of the new
commission schemes is that author
ity Is made interdependent among
several bodies and responsibility Is
thrown to the winds. If there is to
he a separation of distinct functions
of government the separation ought
to he complete such as that of the
state and federal governments, yet
this is a perplexing problem when
the question of taxation and the
question of employing too many city
officials to carry out the work that
could be done by fewer number is
taken into consideration. a central
lied city government, with central
lied authority and centralized, GER
tain responsibility seems to be more
effective than any of the new