The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1911-02-08


BY Charles II. Lane, FIT. Wayne, Ind.
The commission form of city govern
ment is the concrete expression of an
|effort to provide ef1cient and honest
city government. 1t is believed by
"a growing number to be an improve
ment over the old or aldermanic form
of city government The case might be
state more strongly by saying that it
is revolt against the evils of the
aldermanic form of city government.
The word revolt suggests revolution.
but it is not a revolution. l think it
better to call 1t an evolution, since in
the nature of our city governments. 1t
would hardly be proper to speak of
changes that merely rearrange and dis
turb the surface OF power and do not
touch the basic principle, revolution.
The word revolt is now used in
lighter sense, in this connection. The
change from the old to the new in
wolves new forms and agencies of
executive function with a material off
,, ference, but the result is new adapta-
ton of the same old power of voting
citizenship. The cause of the proposed
change is the ills of Democracy, but it
is said with large measure of truth
that the cure for the i'll of Democracy
is more Democracy. That is only an
other way of saying: Restore power
to the people. Make city government
more direct Cut out the field in which
the weeds of graft may grow. That is
what the commission form of Govern
ment sets out to do. 1t also sets out to
secure and insure efficiency. Will it
do it? That is the question that those
who dwell in cities are trying to
4 n S W. N ido~
In order that the reasons for and
against may be observed and studied
IN their true light, it is first necessary
to define what is known as the COM
mission form of municipal rule. Brief
ly stated, the commission for means:
First: The abandonment of party
nominations and election of city off,
Gals.
Second: The abandonment of ward
lines.
Third: The consideration of the en-
tire city as business corporation In
which every voting citizen is a stock
holder, with an equal interest in eff
cient management of the city's affairs.
Fourth: The abandonment of the
three fold division of municipal au-
thority familiar to us in the Office of
the mayor as the chief executive, in
the function of the city council as the
Legislative branch and in the office OF
the city court as the judicial branch, ali
In serviceable imitation of our state
and national governments. In place of
the three fold division of authority, the
esta blishment of a commission con-
sisting of five, or some odd number of
citizens elected on one short ticket:
with executive. legislative and judicial
authority invested in said commission.
Fifth: The establishment by law of
the recall and the referendum.
| In these abandonments and substi-
| tisan to non-partisap agency. 1t will
be generally admitted that the Ameri-
can management fcities by parties is
bad and growing worse. Will the
change check the evil influences and
permit the new organism to be efficient
and beneficial? 1t must be admitted
also that the commission plan is yet
experimental, but II is not too much
to say that it looks god and should
| be tried. Nothing could be worse, with
exceptions. than what we have except
| more of 1T. while in the commission
form. we have force that is immune
to party evils in city affairs 1t should
be kept in mind here that while party
government is unavoidable and in many
ways essential to government of states
and the nation, it has no necessary or
useful place in the management of
cities. The word government as APP
piled to municipal corporations is a
misnomer. Cities really have no func-
ton of government. They are COR
pora tions created by state law for the
management of certain matters, local
and peculiar to them They are Great
ures of OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES of SOW
ereignity- The officers of a city may
| be changed at will by the Legislature.
Their terms of Office may be heightened
or shortened or the offices may be
abolished in the midst of the terms of
those elected to the offices. Voting for
city Offices is purely a privilege and
IL no sense a right, except as created
by law; what the law creates it can
destroy as far as city management IS
concerned. There is. therefore wide
and all important difference between
the exercise of sovereign vote in
, affairs of state and a privileged voice
| in affairs municipal. 1t is idle to talk
| of abolition of parties In state and gov
eminent, but it is wisdom to recognize
| their demonstrated ineficiency and
| therefore to consider their adjustment,
as factors in the management of cities.
| We may not all agree that the COM
mission is the right sort of agency for
municipal management, but it is difi
cult to frame up a real good defense
| of party management of cities of the
| Indiana size. 1t would not be difficult
| to apply the commission form to any
| city in Indiana. Whether cities like
New York and Chicago could success
! fully use the commission form is not
now to the point
| You will recall that the first change is
that of substituting a new form of
| nominating and electing members of
| the commission for system of party
nominations and elections. This means
that instead of the Democratic party
and the Republican party meeting in
convention or separate primary vote
as under the present law in Indianap-
oils or Fort Wayne. there would be
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