The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1911-08-18
WHAT COMMISSION GOVERNMENT
HAS DONE FOR CITIES ADOPTING IT
Municipality Has Found
Initiative Referendum Recall Is Declared
Form

eiiileHo ChdI IHe WeISpllhS Ol HediJHl
sound administration of public affair
is laid in municipal authority 1t i
the administration of city affairs wit
which the average citizen has direc
dealings, state and national being n,
less important but appealing less to hi
consciousness than the affairs of th
municipality in which he dwells Com
mission form of government for cite
is today taking a large place in th
| thoughts of the people and any author
itative writing or information on tina
subject is of deep interest. In thi
issue of the Journal therefore we ar,
lcrowding out more or less matter of i'm
portance to the labor world to Civ,
room to the following excerpts from al
article on the Commission form of gov
ernment written by the well known
writer, Judson Welliver, which appearet
in late issue of Mmsey's magazine
We ask our readers to read carefully
this article and to follow it up by
reading everything they can obtain OF
this subject. 1t is of particular interest
at this time when this plan of city gov
ernment is occupying so large a share
of the attention of Everett residents
Editor)
We Americans are a sauguine lot. We
are proud of our own town even where
it has cobbestones where asphalt ought
to be, or asphalt at three dollars the
yard which ought to have been laid for
half the price.
Goodness knows, we have been told
often enough that the genius of our
institutions" hasn't much lent itself to
the development of ideal municipal con
ditions. We're sorry about that OF
course; but not having seen any model
cities, we insist on being as pleased as
possible with what we have. At least
we can brag about the bigness and rapid
growth of our cities, and it serves the
purpose, at least until some stastical
fiend comes along and insists that they
are not growing faster than some of the
European ones.
Mere bigness, of course, isn't very
satisfactory when you think of it. Why
should our town be pleased that it has
twenty nine per cent more human beings
condemned to breathe miasmatic air and
drink typhoid germs than it numbered
ten years ago? Yet we have all heard
the fulminations of the Chicago man vino
plumes himself on the superative wide
openness of his city; and | once saw a
Bostonian peel his coat for a fight
when he was earnestly assured that New
Orleans really had a worse smell in sum
mer than the water front of the Hub
It's good thing, though, that every
body persists in being proud of his town
If we can only set up better standard
by which to measure; if we could get as
much newspaper space for the honest
alderman as for the biggest boodler; il
a public work erected at a small cost
commanded as much interest as one
produced at preponderously high cost; if
towns would brag about how well their
working people were housed, instead of
how many they had, then the ancient
reproach of bad city government in
America would close.
That new standard in fact, has al
ready been established. The movement
for better city government is one of the
most important and in its implications
one of the most far reaching, now going
on.
1t is ridding us of the city boss, who
has intimate relationship to state and
national bossships. 1t is mailing tins
over vast lot of atholes into which
we have poured our city revenues. 1t
is teaching people the value of public
service franchises, the need to protect
them, and the possibility of procuring
good public service at reasonable prices
1t is reducing the cost of living to the
denizens of the towns, and giving better
living.
All this betterment is being wrought
in various ways in different cities but
the system of city government by com
mission, with its direct responsibility
to the people, its close concentration OF
authority, and its simplification of pro
cedure, is the particular phase which
is here to be considered. 1t marks d
departure from ancient superstition:
about the tripartite divisions of gov
ernment, and has done much toword dis
proving some of those wise old saw
which, having fallen too often upon nails
have lost the edge of their applicability
to present conditions. In its beginnings
men of academic mind viewed it askanc,
because it sought to amalgamate legis
lative and executive authority. Hor
rifle thought except that the plan has
worked well.
The commission plan of government
proposes to merge the legislative fune
tions, once exercised by the city coun
ell of one or two chambers, and the ex
ectuive powers, formerly held by tn,
mayor; to repose both in a small com
mission, commonly of five members; Il