The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1911-08-18


l. The proof of the pudding is not il
e the chewing of the rag. Experienc
e proved that both sides of the argumen
= were wrong. The commission didn't be
o come an all-powerful but irresponsible
quinquevirate, and on the other han,
n the people didn't spend all their tim
= running around in initiative, referendum
= and recall circles. In the experience o
Y more than a hundred American cities
t the initiative, referendum and recall
!, have proved, not the unbrided mcnac
l of mobocracy, but the impressively up
lifted finger of admonition. The recall
has been invoked less than half scOr,
of times in the experience of all th'
/ cities now operating under this plan
often enough to prove it workable sci
dom enough to prove it a safe instru
} ment in the hands of the people
, In almost every city that
has adopted it, the plan was first advo
Gated by the Substantial business in
? terests." The "best citizens" have fa-
vored it, BY and large, l have never
, cared much for our ''best citizens" as
we find them running city governments.
They look exceedingly impressive in ev-
ening clothes, addressing welfare meet
ngs and directing uplift movements.
But in too many cases their claw ham
mer suits have concealed pockets, like
those that magicians use, in which
franchises and fat contracts, public de
posits and private gratis, are slowed
away by processes of legerdemain, in
full view of the unseeing audience,
The best citizens, however, have very
commonly favored the com pission plan,
which seems to prove that they are not
so bad, after all In Des Moines they
favored it, They believed that it would
make government cheaper, without
breaking in on their domination. At the
beginning they undertook to dictate that
certain people should not be elected to
the commission, Particularly did these
leading citizens objurgate one John Mac
Vicar, who, under the old system, had
once been mayor of the town.
MacNicar had been dreadfully un.
popular with the water company, the
gas company, the lighting concerns, the
street car corporations and other in
terests. He had tried to make them give
cheaper or better service. He had been
unmannerly enough to question the
claim of the street-car company to a
perpetual franchise, and had started a
lawsuit about it. The corporations and
gangsters had financed his defeat; and
for nearly ten years, with most people
regarding him as the best man in town
to be mayor, he had no chance at any
office.
SO, when the qeuston arose of adopt
ing the commission plan, the best citi-
zens arranged to support it with the un-
derstanding that when it was adopted
all respectable folk were to unite in pre-
venting the election of MacNicar to a
place on the commission The public
service corporations, the banks, the poll
ticians, and the newspapers were united
on this point They had kept MacNiear
effectually suppressed for ten years un-
der the old plan; he must be kept sup
pressed under the new.
And he was-eXcept that when the
people went to the polls MacNicar re-
ceived fourteen thousand of the sixteen
thousand votes cast, led the polling, and
smashed all calculations.
The old city hall gang controlled the
new regime, except that it failed to beat
MacVicar The "reformers" who had in
tended to turn out the city hall crowd
and beat NIacVicar were themselves
beaten all along the line, because the
system worked
John MacVicar has been for many
years secretary of the American League
of Municipalities, of which he was also
the first president. He is known as a
leading authority on progressive, eff
cient municipal management, and a
splendid administrator. He has been a
dominating force in the government Of
his home since it adopted the com
mission plan.
Incidentally, the courts have since
found that the Des Moines street rail
way system had no franchise at all, in
stead of perpetual one worth many
millions Can you see the stake in the
gameY
Best citizens with axes to grind have
generally been disappointed in the com
mission plan. The rest of the people
have uniformly approved its work
;nos
From being a dirty, ill-governed, crime
ridden town, the Iowa capital has be
come one of the show places of the mid
die west. The new civic center, formed
by grouping public buildings on both
sides of the Des Moines river, is widely
/ regarded as the finest effect of the
kind in any American city. That the
handsomely boulevarded, generously
parked, gorgeously lighted, well ordered
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