Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1911-05-16
CITY GOVERNMENT By
COMMISSION

mand for a change in the form of Oul
municipal governments. The growth
of the conviction that city can bt
governed better by small, non-parti
san group of officers elected at large
than than under the existing method
has been perhaps the most significant
fact in the recent history of municip
al government in this country. Orig
mating in the temporary government
established in Galveston after the
food, the spread of the commission
plan has been most striking in the
states west of the Mississippi. Today
about two and a half millions of peo
pie in one hundred and thirty cities
scattered through twenty-five different
states are living under some form OF
commission government. Most OF
these cities are under fifty thousand
in population but the plan seems to be
working with success in such larger
places as Dallas, Spokane, Tacoma,
Oakland, Memphis, and Lynn.
The commission scheme has found
little favor in the eastern states, save
in Massachusetts, where Gloucester,
Haverhill, Taunton, and Lynn, have
adopted it. The. New Jersey legislat.
ure enacted a general law on the re-
commentator of Governor Wilson, un-
der which cities may, if they choose,
adopt a commission form of charter
without applying to the legislature.
New York began to feel the impetus
of the movement over a year ago,
when three special bills providing com
mission charters for Buffalo, Mount
Vernon and Melzinga, (Matteawan and
Fishkill). were introduced. The first
two failed Of passage; the Melzinga
charter was vetoed by Governor
hughes, because it was carelessly
drawn. This year there were seven
commission bills before the legislat-
ure. two proposing general optional
laws for cities. of the second and third
class, and five special bills granting
charters to Buffalo, Ba.
tavia, Beacon (the new name for Mel
zinga), Mount Vernon and Saratoga
Springs. Last year when the Buffalo
charter was under discussion, Senator
Human suggested that a bill be
drawn under which cities could rein
corporate as they do now under the
'o-called White Uniform Charter act.
This suggestion is carried out in the
bill for cities of the sec.
md class and the Gittins bill for cities
Il the third class.
The underlying principles of all |
hese pendings measures are the same
III are short ballot" bills in that |
hey place the administration in the !
lands Of small group of commission
RS. Practically without exception,
90. these charters take a long step
n the direction of eliminating party
olitics from city elections by provid.
ng either for nominations by petition
r by non.partsan primaries; and they
o farther by providing that not only
hall the Massachusetts, form of ballot
g used, but that it shall contain no +
arty names or designations. Finally
II these charters provide those agen-
les that have come to be looked upon
8 going hand in hand with the COM
lission form of g0vernment-the initi-
tive, the referendum, and the recall.
The Buffalo charter, If enacted.
'ould afford an opportunity to see
ow the commission form works in
larger city than any that has yet
dopted 1t. Similar charters have
iven satisfaction in cities of q hun.
red thousand, but Buffalo has more
ian four times that number and many
elievers in the commission plan have
erious doubts whether \. would really
rove workable on so large a scale.
mother problem that a consideration
these bills involves is whether it is
ossible to draw a general law, such
s the wainwright bill, which will mt
ne varying local conditions of ali
tiles of the second class-that is,
places having a population of be-
veen $4,000 and 10000. It
BY far the greatest interest in this
cries of bills however attaches to the
ptional plan for the third class cities
ltroduced by Senator Gittins for the
Chamber of Commerce. It
generally spoken az the 'Lockport
lan," and marks quite a distinct de-
arturo from the Des Moines plan az
lat plan did from the original Calves: