The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1910-04-06


| Rapids the first public statement of
the city's actual financial condition.
| This showed that the thumb hand
system had been spending public
money at the rate of $4,000 month
and would have added $150,O00 a
year to the city's Indebtedness. Nine
months of the new management made
q very different showing; the city
lived within it's income, and on jan
uary 1, 1909. it had a balance in ev-
cry fund, while every bill had been
paid and every current obligation
met. The tax-levy was thereupon
reduced one mill, and further re-
duction was obviously feasible for
1910.
TO show the difference between the
old methods and the new, I may say
hat the thumb-handers in Cedar
| Rapids Gas generally elsewhere) were
in rhe habit of paying the city's bills
| whenever they thought of the matter
and the cash was available. The bus
mess administration, being engaged
iii managing the city exactly as it
would manage any great commercial
enterprise. audited and paid all bills
ss soon as presented and got two
per cent discount for cash.
Some OF the achievements of the
new system were amazing, and stag
gered even those most familiar with
the slipshod ways Of the old. For
example, under the old regime the
city's revenues from the police court
and the police department amounted
to about seventy-five dollars a month.
When business Democracy came in it
increased these revenues to 500 a
nonth, and without increasing the
f>ssets. How? Merely by collecting
ne license and other fees instead Of
allowing them to go by defualt as
thumb-hand was wont to do. Can
there he any doubt that the represen-
tati"e is the costliest system Of gov
ornmeEt known to man?
Every month in Cedar Rapids the
hired managers tender to the people
that hire them an exact account of
the peoples business. every item of
receipt, every item of expenditure,
with balance sheet, so that the peo-
pie may Judge how we'll their hired
men are doing their work Also there
Is issued a pamphlet giving a full,
exact report Of the council meetings
no concealment and no hugger-
mugger. In the first year of Business
Democracy the city retired 100000
of bonds. enlarged and improved the
park system. increased the police
force. repaired or rebuilt a new fire
apparatus, enlarged the fire service,
built a new fire station and fitted out
the policemen and firemen in new
uniforms. 1t cleaned the streets (for
the first time in the city's history,
repaired more old pavements and
constructed more new ones. and with
them built more sewers, water mains,
sidewalks, curbs, and roadways than
had ever been constructed i'm any pre-
vlous year in Cedar Rapids. 1t began
new bridge across the Cedar River,
and bought an island on which the
city Is to erect handsome municipal
buildings out of the savings effected
by the new system and without the.
issue of a dollars worth Of bonds.
Even this Is not all. The new man.
asement sent fcr and hired an expert
Authority on tie heautifying of cities.
and under his direction has been do
ing much to redeem Cedar Rapids
from the common reproach Of neg
lect and untidiness so long (and SO
justly urged against American cities.
Best Of all Is the appearance of q
spirit of intimate interest in munich
pal excellence, the very thing that
all the doctors and learned professors
of politics have agreed from the be-
ginning Is the first requisite Of re-
form In our affairs. This highly laud-
able change followed close upon the
death of the old medieval and fam
tastic superstition about the wise and
the good. 1t seems that when the
people of Cedar Rapids learned that
the responsibility for their govern
ment was in their own sole hands and
they could no longer depend upon
the wise and the good. they woke up.
The city became their city instead OF
the boss city and the public service
corporations city. Having (for the
hrst time in their experience) the
power To secure better things they