Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1911-08-06
Originated In Galveston Eleven
 Years Ago,
RESULT OF GREAT FLOOD.
How 1t Rebuilt the Town, Constructed ths Sea Wall, Restored Credit and Scored Such Success That 1t Is Now Spreading Throughout the Land
By JAMES A. TON

case in point. For generations we have stood their rottenness, inetficien- cy, grating and disgrace. Now they are becoming so bad we can put up with them no longer. The result Is that we are eradicating the old sys tenn root and branch and substituting therefor the commission plan of gov ernment. The old scheme had got past the mendina point. IL had be come honeycomDed With ward and partisan politics. To ourselves il was a reproach, to other nations standing joke It was a combination of Tam. many and Hinky Dink The expo sures in St. Louis. San Francisco, PittshNrg and elsewhere only scratch ed the surface. II was tinlt tor new deal. and the new deal has come Now the cities of the entire land are falling over each other ill their haste to try on the commission system. Wherever inaugurated it has worked like charm. Everybody is happy over it except the professional polltle clans and the grafters
 The commission form of government in America is only trif1e more than ten years old. 1t started in 1900 as result of the Galveston food. So stag gering was the catastrophe that the old form of government was unable to meet the crisis. Alderman McAlas ter proposed that the council resign III a body and call in business men and experts to deal with the extraordinary situation. This was done. A commis sion of five was formed. two ot them elected by the people and three ap. pointed by the governor. Afterward the supreme court decided that the governor had no right to appoint. and all the commissioners were elected Prior to the hurricane aud tidal wave that so nearly swept her off the mar Galveston had the usual discouraging history of municipal misgovernment As result she was in debt, her bond were below par and her treasury on the verge of bankruptcy. Under the commission system the city was re- built, the grade raised several feet, the streets repaved. a retaining sea wall constructed. the debt cut down. ex- penditures kept within the revenues. city employees paid in cash, bonds brought to a premium streets kept cleaner. sanitation improved. saloons kept out of the residence districts. pOli- ties banished from the city hall. public gambling abolished. civic spirit awak- nf t,,f p1 prosperity begun such as Galveston had never before known. In other words the new government did better in the face of the calamity than the old had done in times of tranquility. One most significant fact is that, despite the eX penditures required to rebuild. raise and protect the city. the tax rate way kept down lower than that of an- large city in Texas
 To show the contrast between the old Galveston government and the new. public improvements had stopped under the former ring rule and public buildings were detcriorating l finances were going behind at an aver age -oi $lW.090 every year. city eU- l ployeeS including even Schooiteac cherS Were paid in scrip. and rhe bosses, whc were growing rich had such grip il was impossible to shake them loose.
 All that is now changed. The float
 ing dehr has been retired. sinking fund started. public Improvements are 1 going forward bills are paid in cash
 when due. and the political bosses have become unpleasant memories
 That those and other b.neticent 1e suits are due to the commission sys tenn of government is proved by the l fact that other cities adopting the commission plan have had a like ex 1 perience
 Under what came to be known as the Galveston plan each of the commits sioners took charge of some branch of l the city government. For this he was responsible to the commission as a whole and to the people. So success i full was the system in the city of its l origin that other municipalities in all
 parts of the land began to study il,
 with interest.
 U OuG W HO uoSS bOt UtlleNc III tIti- I verSal panaceas and clre-alls the
 working out of the commission form ] of government is little less than mar.
 velous It has agreeably surprised
 both it's friends and enemies. Is it
 the long looked for solution of our municipal government problems? An unqualified affirmative answer is al,
 most too good to be true. and it is
 too eary to go that far. yet the more
 one studies what has actually heen
 accomplished under the new system
 the more enthusiastic he grows My
 own prediction is that as soon as the
 bulk of American cities realize just
 what has been achieved in the com
 mission towns ihere will be such a
 scramble fa make the experiment for
 themselves that 1, will result in a vir.
 tual municipal revolution.