Bisbee daily review., 1911-05-21

st. -44itSeC0 a iuOlc mecLHE bl the ereSwland Auditorium tonight. he devoted She greater part of his address to discussion of the conl- mission form of government in cities, aisc among ether things. said.
 10 single moyc1cnt Of reform T our gsTcciHieataf methods has been more slgsificacc thza tho tanid adoI- tinn of the sn-caliod commiss lDu r0rm og goseTnmeEt ia the cities of tho ccUntry. The rapid spread Ci this reform has been extraordinary In simOSt every stats cites are noF to be found which have adopted the new form of government. and every where. so far as l have been able to learn, the results nave been ad- Inirable and the cities which nave made the change have congratulated themselves upon it.
 New Principles Involved
 The most interesting thing about the reform is that 1t has a very much wider significSs,oe than mere change il. .ne form of city goverIs- ments would have. There are prin- eiples involved in the change which 1t is very interesting to see coming rapidly into recognition, principles which only a few years ago would hardly have been willingly conceded in any quarter in America
 Revising Theories
 For one thing the most conspicu- ous feature of the new form of city government pegs'iyes the greater part of our practice hitherto in try ing to establish populah control Un. iii we began thi snew movement Of reconstruction in city government t was the commonly accepted doctrine in America that the way to make the people supreme was to make every office elective. was to have as few appointive officers as possible and to put every choice for ofhce whether the office were great or small, in the hands of the people. We now sec that that was exactly the way in which not to make popular control effective. suppose that there is not a single voter who has ever voted s ticket with more than ten or fifteen names on it vhO Wila hot admit that he knew absolutely noth- ing about most of the persons he was voting for and cared very little about them. Moreover, 1t has become obvious to anybody wko knows anything of th pracuOaa operauon of politics that the politicians who make up the long tickets with scores of names upon them feel that they have perfect control of all the nominations ex- cept those for 0 few conspicuous of Hcers. They often feel that they have to be careful about a nomination for governor or for congressman or for mayor or for judge, but beyond these few conspicuous offices they can do what they please depending upon the more or less eXcsusnL aEd vel known name to pull the rest af the ticket through. This means, of course, that they put up for genuine election one or two men and virtually appoint the rest to office. Very few except those of the inner circle of the political machine can tell you any thing about the nominees on a long ticket or what their nomination sig nifies and is meant to accomplish. The small talk of politics is full of stories thought to be amusing ot how long tickets can be manipulated and all sorts of persons smugsled in st the pleasure Of party managers.
 Bosses Are Supreme.
 It is evident upon the face Of it that this is not a process of selection or election either on the part of the peonIe. It is a process of appoint ! nent at the hands of the political manager. It has becnme an axiom among those who understand prac- ] dcal politics that if you give the peo- pIe something to do which they can not do you virtually take it away from them. It is as impossible for the people to select miscellany Ofii- I cers to serve them in posts big and 1 little as it would be for the head Of a great business to select the whole 1 body of his employees down to the boy who sweeps out the office The only way in which he can make his business effective is to put these l matters in the hands Of responsible l superintendents whom ne must noid answerable for anything that goes wrong and for the ineficiency Of their subordinates-
 The very fact that they are almost everywhere adopting the commission form of government for their cities shows that the people have al last discovered this fundamental thing. ! The cghuai feature of the commis- sion form of government is the very short ballot used in municipal cleo 1 tions, a ballot containing rot more than five or six names, the names oi the commissioners who are to be held wholly responsible for the con duct of the government of the city. | who are expected to choose their OWL 1 subordinates, organize the various departments of the city governmen; l under their own immediate direction and give the people what they re mand-a businesslike, non-LaTtsan. economical. efficient government Five or six men the people can watch and hold responsible. More than five or six would escape their notce and would constitute a crowd which they could not follow with their applause or their censnre-
 Boards Galore.
 The second thing manifest ia the new form of government is that t abandons the idea with which we so long deceived ourselves. that city government is practically 6 state government in small, which must nave its carefully separated execu- ave and legislative branches. UT
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