The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1911-02-10

10 any city which has adopted a, and
there IA va 60 bf found municipality
In which conditions have not been bet
tered undcf The new plan, and over eot
cities now havu u or are getting ready
TO try IT,"
Actual Facts Reviewed.
Smith then reviewed the actual work.
Ing facts, as had been brought out in
the case Of the city Of Dcs Moines
Instead Of q net loss Of si34,51O. which
had been the result Of the last year 3
working under the old system, there
was gain Of ais,439 Taxes had been
reduced, and contractors were held
strictly TO their contracts. a new sys.
tenn Of bookkeeping had been Installed,
and municipal expenditures were held
strictly within the revenues
The cost Of the upkeep of street lights
was reduced, and the streets were Kept
much cleaner, some of them being
cleaned for the first time. The expenses
in connection with the running Of the
city were reduced in every case, and the
red light" district was entirely abol-
ished and ordinances regulating saloons
were strictly enforced.
Objections.
"1 Criticism has been made of the
small size of the governing body, as
changing the government into a sort of
paternalism. 1t is also to be noted that
the plan provides that the five members
of the council shall not have any other
business while in office. but must devote
their time to city affairs. A similar
provision of our own charter with re-
gard to the mayor has been criticized
as having certain obvious tendencies,
since comparatively few men of the
proper caliber can afford to give up
their business for two years, even
though the salary paid be much more
than the $1,000 paid in cities of the
size of Des Moines. If it is business
for which we are look
ing, we must have business men, or men
with knowledge of business affairs
at the head of it.
go. In city with a homogeneous
population it may be proper and safe
to drop party lines, but the question
arises as to the danger in certain cities
of new alignment along race lines.
3. The elected officials have no Ger.
tainty of tenure, and become more or
less the prey of disgruntled citizens,
being always in danger of having to
submit to a special election to deter
mine whether they shall retain their
office. Such a condition is bound to
take some of the independence out of
an official and to make him inclind to
keep his ear close to the ground too
much of the time, the tendency being
to make every official an opportunist.
The recall may sometimes be very
useful, but it contains undoubted pos
sibilities of mischief, and though it
seems undoubtedly step forward when
applied to officials holding long-term
positions, its necessity in the case of
short-term officers is less apparent. One
source of danger consists in the fact
that while public opinion is in the main
and in the long run sound, it is often
temporarily variable quantity, depend
ing much upon the pabulum furnished
by the press from time to time.
4. There is a possibility that the
initiative and referendum will be, and
in fact have been, on occasion abused.
Certainly the plan opens up a posi-
bility of a multitude of freak and
purely local legislation. Already petit
tion-shoving has become a recognized
industry in some cities, a man being
paid so much for every signature he
gets to a petition. And it ism t so hard
to gett he requisite number of sigma
lures, once you go after them. At least
the power of recall. protest, initiative
and referendum should not be allowed
too easily and freely. Moreover, the
drafting of ordinances should at least
be done BY experienced persons. Ger.
tainly the minutiae of legislation should
be left to those whom we have chosen
as legislators
At the conclusion of the paper the
matter was generally discussed and sew
eral pertinent questions asked of and
answered by Mr.. Smith