The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1913-02-19
THE commission PLAN OF CITY
GOVERNMENT
Rv Frank Parker stoekbrIdae

BY Frank Parker Stoc"oriuse
Two hundred and sixteen American
cities are now governed or the com.
mission plan.
Is yours one of them?
If you haven't tried it, and don't
want it, either the people Of your town
must be mighty easy to please when
it comes to city government, or you've
got something the rest q US don't
know about.
Commission government, like many
ether good things, was originally the
result of an accident. When the city
If Galveston was destroyed by tidal
wave. conditions there became so dis
organized that the people elected
commission Of five to run things tenn
porarilY until the town could be re-
built. TIE commission did its job
SO well that the people Of Galveston
decided that was a good plan for a
permanent arrangement and now they
wouldn't go back to the old form for
all the money there is.
Other towns began to notice that
Galveston was being governed eco
nomically and efficiently. otis Of
people didn't believe the mere form
OF government had anything to do with
it, but others thought differently.
Presently the city Of Des Moines, a.
decided TO try the commission idea
and worked out a plan that was modi-
fed in some respects from the Cal
weston plan.
II worked-worked SO well that
cities all through the Middle West be-
gan 10 adopt the "Des Moines Plan"
Grand Junction, Colorado. devised
some more improvements, and there
are several cities now run on the
Grand Junction Plan" Then Staun-
ton, Virginia, went step further than
any of them, and the "Staunton Plan"
with local notifications, is being
adopted in the South.
The essence of all these variations
CT the commission plan, however, is
the same In every instance-tbey
select a responsible group Of men to
run the city and then let them run It,
The two important things are that
they are responsible to the people. be-
cause they have to work in the open
and can't play tricks behind closed
doors, and they are given free hand,
and told to make good
Now, it's funny thing. but there
really seems to be something about
the commission plan that makes pub
lie officials into good citizens. 1t is
the testimony OF hundreds OF observ'
nrs in dozens of cities that as soon as
the commission plan was adopted the
very politicians who had been con-
Quoting the city government In def
ance Of public opinion and for their
own interests instead Of those of the
city, turned good" The form had
this to do with it--it made 1t impos-
slble for public official to do any.
thing secretly, and secrecy is the es'
sence of corruption. Even a CRATER
knows that 1t is dangerous to steal in
daylight.
Under most commission government
plans there are three or FIVE commits.
sloners elected at large and at diner.
eht times, so that the people are not
called upon to select more than one or
two ofice.holders at once. This, at
the start, focuses attention upon those
one or two Offices and results in pick.
ing pretty good men for them-for
there is no long ballot with hundreds
Of names for dozens Of minor offices
in the commission plan. The long
ballot has done more to enable spec.
ial groups to take the government out
efitAe hands 81 the people than any
thing else for M svote ran ps expect
led 10 make an intellige gent choice q