Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-04-10
PRAISES THE RESULT
Senator Young Describes the
OeS MONIES Plan of Rule.
Allotment OF THE WORK
Five Commissioners Elected, Who
Are Held Responsible for Opera
lions of Their Bureaus.

Senator Lafayette Young of Iowa to-
day told the Senate all about the sue
cess of the commission plan Of gov
eminent as employed for the past
three years in his home city of Des
Moines, and advised other municipali-
ties to adopt it in the interest of eff
ficiency We have not reduced ex-
penses," said he, but we have secured
more for our money
Asserting that there is entirely too
much machinery in the old type of
city government and far more offices
than the service demands, Mr.. Young
told how Des Moines had adopted the
plan of placing it's affairs in the hands
Of five commissioners with generally
gratifying results. The commission
ers are all elected at the same time,
and to them is intrusted the duty of
selecting all other city officials.
Division of the Work.
Each member of the commission rep
resents the head of a bureau. The
work is divided up by themselves and
not by law. as judges agree upon their
judicial year. One commissioner has
the fire and police departments. An
other has charge Of streets and pub
lie buildings. Another has charge of
parks. Another has charge of public
accounts. The mayor complains that
he has not enough to do. The commits
sioners are paid by the year and are
expected to give all their time to the
work.
I'VE have cut out all boards and COM
missions" Mr.. Young went on. I'VE
oil to frNrC
complain to the commissioner having
charge. of the work. We never go to
the subordinate. We go to his boss. No
commissioner is entirely independent in
him department. His associate COM
missioners could change him from one
department to another. Our city char
ter has the recall. I Endorsed the recall
ments; 1 do not indorse it in a wider
field. We have the initiative and the
referendum. ] think these provisions
might be beneficial in cities, but wholly
impracticable in states"
Municipal Functions Executive.
This system Mr.. Young characterized
as the application of business common
sense to municipal affairs, and said ::
Governing municipalities is a business
proposition and in no sense political. Cut
out the city nall Cut out the city coun-
Gil. Ninety per cent of all municipal
functions are executive and not legisla-
tive; yet every municipal government
has been organized on the supposition
that at least one-half of the municipal
functions were legislative"
Mr.. Young expressed the opinion that
every state and every community should
have we'll restricted primary election
laws.
Bequest of a Knot Hole.
One of Mr.. Youngs principal objections
to the present political method of con-
Quoting the business affairs Of the cities
was based on graft, and he told a story
illustrative Of the operation of graft. The
scene was laid in Arkansas. An employe
of grain elevator discovered a knot hole
in the lower part of a bin. He stopped
up the hole with a cob, and when night
came he went by stealth to the elevator
and filled bags of grain which trickled
out through the knot hole. He then re-
stored the cob. Every night of his life
for twenty-five years he stole wagon
load Of grain from his employer. and Mr..
Young said that when he died che under
took to give that knot hole to his heirs
in his will as part Of his estate. This, he
said illustrates the acceptance of the
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