Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1912-02-09
COMMISSION GovERNndENT-ITs AVAIL
ABILITY IN MIscoNsIN.
Prof. Chester LLOYD Jones' lecture at
Baptist Church SUNDAY night last:

Baptist Church SUNDAY night last:
There are some things in which we are
practically all agreed Even matters Of GOV
eminent and politics in which there is the
greatest diversity Of opinion it is almost the
unanimous belief Of our people that the
form of city government is in need of re-
casting. Mr.. Bryce says that the signal
failure of the great American Republic is in
its municipal goyernment-there are few to
contradict him. anyone who would argue
that the average American city government
10 fair reelection of the standards which
the American sets for himself in his daily
life would be charging that democracy was
indeed sham and pretense and the ay-
erage American at best inefficient If city
government is not now representative gov
ernment or at least not representative gov
eminent of the people, there must be hitch
in political machinery somewhere which
it is OF prime Importance TO remove We
must get back to fundamentals and to a
common sense point of view. We must clear
away the political II lies, superstitions and
mysteries which % WI up in our minds.
1 illas y.
First of all let siize that the people
is not other than ourselves magniied, that
the voice OF the people is not the infallible
voice OF God rs Rosseau and men of his
class would have believe, but that the
voice Of the people is the voice of the aver
age man, the voice of you and of me and we
are not gods nor even demi- gods. The voice
of the people in mass meeting or election
is at best only the voice of us all
Let us apply the acid test of common
sense to some of the other beliefs which
We have either eutgrown or which never did
apply to our governments.
Short Terms
1t was classic doctrine that short terms
promoted democratic government where
annual elections end tyranny begins de.
clared Jefferson. II is an ancient fraud We
outgrew 1t long ago in private affars-no one
believes that he can do any work that So
ciety needs done as well as another man
who has special training and experience in
the work. We are gradually beginning to
recognize how false the standard is which
requires that in public work man who has
had any experience and who has Just learned
the duties OF his position is for that reason
disqualified for Office or at least should be
forced 70 seek reelection with the attendant
interruption Of duties and probability of de-
leat We are getting over the idea that in.
experience is guarantees of honesty and
experience cause of suspicion Short terms
do not mean good service and though that
faliacy dies hard, it is dying. The states
with annual elections now numbered on
the fingers OF one hand and city officials are
passing from shorter to longer terms of sery.
ice Each city of the second, third or fourth
class in Wisconsin can determine the term
of Office of its officials (925-26a) and even
where they have not provided longer term
by Jaw the large number of re-eections shows
That the people now prefer longer terms.
Elective Offices.
No less false q superstition is the idea
places
popular election the more popular is the gov
eminent. This may have been true was
true in fact in the old New England town
meeting but il is preposterous in our mod
ern governments with their large body Of
voters. If we tonight weresan assembly of
all the voters Of small village we could
elect ten--a dozen, perhaps fifteen officers to
look after our public affairs and on each we
might get actual expression OF the will of
the community. But we are not such body,
this room holds only small fraction of
those who elect the rity's officers and if il
were possible to get all the voters of the city
together at one time TO take some political
action, there would be few of us who would
claim that even if there were but one Office
to be hlled we could get a real opinion from
among the Commissions of SO large assembly.
How much increased would the difficulty be
were there a list of fifteen or twenty places
which were to be filled partly by the body
as whole, partly by sections
Yes, says the advocate of our present sys-
TEN, but our city government is not carried
on that way We don't meet together, cleo.
tions are held in wards and we have only
few names on the city election ticket in
each ward, some being on the tickets of all
wards and the ward officials being only on
those in the SC parate wards Perhaps how
ever, the picture is only made less confusing
because its parts are not put together.
Ii we were electing officer tonight and
we were all those who could vote at the cleo
tion, we could require him to stand for cleo
ton he would be visible to the eye, we
would know him by his record Even il all
the voters were present il might be possible
to elect one man TO guide our government
1t might be possible to do so in al orderly
manner though some of us may doubt it. He
might still stand out above the voters and
we might form an adequate estimate OF his
ability.
But If there were a dozen officers to be
elected and at the same time that
as body choosing our general officers the
campaigns of officers elected by various sec
tons being carried on we would find
the election less orderly. We could not really
see the candidates if they all stood some
running before ward celebrates and some
before the sum of the ward celebrates. There
could be no adequate discussion of the in.
dividuals; we would have TO vote as best we
could, probably looking only at the most
prominent candidates of the various parties
and choosing between them. This is no real
choice. II is much the same even though
the people do not meet. We do not really
the candidates, we vote for q ticket, we
do not vote for man.
ii is possible TO make the elections con-
fused not only by voting in each ward for
large number OF offices but by electing a
large number OF officers from small districts
The thing of prime Importance should be
to insure that he who is to be elected should
stand out clearly before us; if not by per.
sonal acquaintance and in the flesh, then by
his reputation for honesty and efficiency. If
he does not so stand out then have not
made a real choice even though we may have
voted TO elect him Our city government has
oiiiy u uehhite amount OF power tooe ulVlueu
among those we elect to its offices and il we
parcel il out among large number Of cleo
tive officers each viii bear small RESPONSE
bility and whether all elected from the
city at large or each from separate ward
il will make no difference, each viii have in
our eyes but little Importance. The candi-
dates will no longer be visible to our mind s
eye--they viii vanish in the crowd OF their
colleagues, each loses his individuality and
his responsibility. Except when impeed by
unusually keen tivic interest men of large
ability will conclude that the Office is not
worth looking at, they will not present
Themselves candidates. The people will
share this opinion of the value of the offices
and they viii drop out of attention except
for a small group Of those who are active,
chiefly, perhaps because of other than public
interests. 1t is the old story, it is not only
part of our municipal problem in this
country, il is the same the world over. II
YOU want a man of power TO seek the posi-
tion, make it position of power. II You