The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-08
 CITY GOVERNMENT BY COMMISSION Important Contribution to Dis cussion on Subject ITS NEWEST FEATURES Indianapolis Has Matter Up for Con- sideration--Some of the Elements Necessary for Successful
 Municipal Rule
ITS NEWEST FEATURES

| Municipal Engineering will publish the
 following on municipal government by
 commission in its forthcoming number: "The new form of municipal govern ment called the commission plan is un- der discussion in Indianapolis. The lack | of understanding of what constitutes the commission form and the difficulties ot separating from it the features which 1 have been borrowed from other plans of | city and state government, even by the | best informed of the attorneys and others advocating complete change in the form | of government of the city, suggest the 1 thought that others may not. recognize | the true relations of the various proyi- sions which have been added to the | original form of commission government, | as well as those which, while included therein, were taken from other forms and are equally well appliable to any form likely to be devised.
 Some of the points made by the chief exponent in Indianapolis of the commits sion form of government, MT. Lewis A. Coleman, may be considered without too much repetition, and their relations to the plan as a whole may be demonstrated. MT. Coleman sets out five points in the commission form of government which, he thinks, make it a decided departure from the so-ealled federal plan, more properly the Indianapolis plan, since it was developed most completely in that city under the guidance of MT. Mason and his associates in the work, and is the business plan and only incidentally resembles a federal plan
 '.The first point mentioned by Mir. Cole man is the complete abandonment of the nomination of candidates for office by political parties. This was not a feature of the first commission plan in Galveston, which provided for three com missioners appointed by the governor of the state and two elected by the city. Election of all commissioners by the city was adopted because the first method was decided to be unconstitutional. The full development of non-partisan nomha- tions was not reached until the Des Moines charter was formulated. It was one of the additions to the commission form of government made first by the constitutional necessities of the case and second to eliminate partisan nominations as nearly as possible. That the principle can be applied independently of the com mission plan is shown in the Boston charter. Indianapolis made a half-heart- ed attempt to diminish the force of par tisanship by insuring that one-third of the council shall be of a party in the minority. That city can easily take the next step and apply fully the principle of non-partisan nominations if 1t Is will ing to abandon the organizations of the political parties. The double election is still further development in the same line, which may be an advance and is applicable to the present Indianapolis form with equal ease.
 Abandonment of Wnrd Lines
 -'The second point made Is the aban- donment of ward lines. This was neces- sary feature of the original Galveston plan for a commission partly appointive, and of the subsequent desire to elect those who had been so appointed when their method of appointment was de- clared illegal. It was an accident, there fore, rather than a design, and may well be successful in a small or a compact city when 1t would not be in large one, especially if scattered and made up of more or less disconnected districts The experience of Boston in this line will be of interest.
 ''The third point made is the merg- ing of the legislature and executive functions of a commission Many of the objections to this feature, which is the only distinctive feature of the commission form of government, are set forth in Mir Masons article on preceding page. This Is the only pro- vision which should be discussed un- der the title "Commission Form of Government" All other propositions are either borrowed from other sources or are developed to meet some diff culty in that plan, seen or feared For lack of space no attempt is made here to present either side of the case re- garding this particular proposition.
 "The fourth point presented by MT Coleman is the right of recall and the fifth covers the initiative and the ref erendum. These were of foreign birth and were discussed and tested long before the so-called commission plan was adopted by Galveston, and they were, in fact, engratfed upon the com mission plan later, that the people might have some control of the com mission, which, under the original plan. had very autocratic powers.
 Other Features Added
 There are several other features that have been added to the original commission form. derived from var ious sources. such as separate cleo ton of mayor, instead of election of five commissioners who would select one of their number for mayor sepa- rate nomination and election of each commissioner for his particular posi- tion on the commission; compulsory reference of franchise or contracts with public service corporations to vote of the people; publication of itemized statements of financial trans actions and audit of all city accounts separation of terms so that part of the commission changes each year. separation of schools and of park from the commission proper, etc, which may quite well be consid- cred clements of the commission plan as the first, second, fourth and fifth clements named by MT. Coleman. They are no more essential to the commission form and differ only in being later developments and some of them in being less important. Wheth CT they are better or worse is open to discussion.
 Tt is not the purpose here to discuss the value of any of these numerous provisions nor their applicability in any particular case. That is reserved for the future. This article will have served its purpose if 1t has shown that but one of the provisions discussed MT. Coleman's third, can in any true sense be considered to be or to ap- pertain to the commission plan of city government alone: that all the others are equally applicable to almost any other American form of city govern ment, or can be incorporated therein by some modification of existing pro- visions, and that, therefore, 1t is no, | necessary to adopt the commission form of government in order to se- cure the benefits which the adoption of any of these other provisions may confer.
 | "The fact is that. whatever the form Of government, it is good in the hands of good people and bad in the hands of bad people. The majority of our l nliInicInal xnYernInents are in the