Semi-weekly herald., 1910-04-25
now not is per ccnt of the voters could

ayers was to engage expert account
ants and issue 10 the people of Cedar
Rapids the first public statement OF
the city's actual financial condition.
This showed that the thumb-hand sys-
TEN had been spending public money
at the rate of $4,000 month and
would have added sl5O,000 a year to
the citys Indebtedness. Nine months
of the new management made a very
different showing. the city lived with
in its income. and on January /, 1903,
II had balance In every fund, while
every bill had been paid and every
current obligation met. The sax-levy
was thGeupon reduced one mill. and
a further reduction was obviously fea-
siblc for 1910.
One may well give heed TO these ex-
periences: they seem typical as well
as instructive. To show the difference
between the old methods and the new,
may say that the thumb-handers in
Cedar Rapids Gas generally elsewhere)
were in The habit of paying the city's
bills whenever they thought OF the
matter and the cash was available.
The business administration, being en-
gagged In managing the city exactly as
It would manage any great commercial
enterprise. audited and paid all bills
as soon as presented and got per
cent discount for cash
Some OF the achievements of the
new system We're amazing, and stag
gered even those most familiar with
the slipshod ways of the old. For
example. under the old regime the
citys revenues from the police court
and the police department amounted
to about SO month. When Bust
ness Democracy came in, it increased
these revenues to 800 month. and
without increasing the assets How?
Merely by collecting the license and
other fees instead of allowing them
to so by default as thumb-hand was
wont to do Can there he any doubt
that the representative is the costliest
system of government known TO man?
Every month in Cedar Rapids the
hired managers rendered to the peo-
pie 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 well their hired
men are doing their work. Also there
is issued pamphlet giving full,
exact report of the council meetings
no concealment and no hugger-mugger
In the first year of business Demoo-
racy the city retired 100000 OF bonds,
enlarged and improved the park sys-
TEN, increased the police force, repair
ed or rebuilt the fire apparatus, en-
lareed the fire service, built new
fire station and fitted out the police.
men and firemen with new uniforms.
Ii cleaned the streets tfor the frs
time In the eity's history, repaired
more old pavemenis and constructed
more new ones, and with them built
more sewers. water mains, sidewalks,
ourbs, and roadways than had ever
been constructed in any previous year
in Cedar Rapids. lt'began new
bridge across the Cedar river. ana
bought an island on which the city is
to erect handsome municipal buildings
out of the savings effected by the
sy,l
dollars worth of bonds.
Even this is not all The new man.
agement sent for and hired an expert
on the beauiifylng of cities.
and under his direction has been doing
much to redeem Cedar Rapids from
he common reproach of neglect and
so long tand so JUSTLY
urged against American cities.
Best OF all is the appearance of a
spirit of intimate interest in municipal
the very thing thai all the
doctors and learned professors of poll
lies have agreed from the beginning
Is the first requisite of reform in our
affairs This highly laudable change
close upon the death of the
cid medieval and fantastic supersti.
ton about the wise and the good. II
seems that when the people of Cedar
Rapids learned that the responsibility
for their government 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's city and the
public service corporations city. Hav-
ing flor the first time in their expert.
enccl the power 10 secure better
things. they began to demand such
things and to be interested in securing
them. Councilman Ernest A. Sher-
man. one of The managers OF the new
Cedar Rapids, says that 1.-The commits
sion plan law has done more to awak-
en- civic pride in Cedar Rapids since
last April 190S) that all that hap.
pened during the more than fifty years
that the city was operated under its
special thumb -hand) charter"
Does not this rapid development of
a communal conscience seem as nat.
ural as 1t is desirable2 The scheme
of representative government is no bet
a.