Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1914-07-27
Business Methods
Needed by Cities

The first problem which confronts
the cities of Oregon, as we'll as other
cities throughout the United States,
is the correction of the mistakes of
the past. The second problem is con-
cerned with the formulation of a far
sighted program for future growth
and development.
Forty-five per cent of the total pop
ulation of Oregon lives in cities of
over $500 inhabitants. The health,
safety and comfort of nearly one-half
the population of the state is thus
vitally affected for good or i'll by the
character of the municipal admins
tration. Our lives are affected at
every point by the city government.
The city government determines in
large measure the environment into
which we are born. Whether chill
dren are to be born and reared in
unsanitary homes and surroundings,
lacking air. sunlight and sanitary
conveniences, or whether they are to
be born in comfortable homes amid
beautiful surroundings with plenty of
sunlight, fresh aid, flowers, trees and
grass, depends upon whether or not
the city government exercises wise
forethought in planning streets and
building lots, in limiting the number
of houses to the acre, in regulating
the construction of buildings, and
controlling the real estate specula-
tions which make it impossible for
the average workingman to own
decent, comfortable home.
The city government protects our
health by insuring pure food and
clean milk, by abating nuisances, by
keeping streets clean, by maintaining
hospitals to care for us when we are
sick, and by removing sick and dis
eased persons who would contaminate
our health. 1t gives us an education,
thus enlarging our capacity for ap-
probation and enjoyment and thus
increasing our economic capacity. 1t
furnishes US with the water we drink
and with the light we read by; it
supplies parks, Fairgrounds and rec
reation centers; it protects our prop
erty from theft and fire and our per-
sons from injury.
Since our municipal government
affects our lives so intimately, it is
important that it should be well ad-
ministered. Yet students of the prob
lem state without equivocation that
municipal government in the United
States has been a failure.
"Good" Man, Bad Officials.
Among the many reasons for its
failure, three main ones may be men
toned:
In the first place, we have deluded
ourselves with the goodness fallacy,
i. e., that good men will make good
city officials. A good tailor" may
do very bungling piece of work. A
good" photographer may take poor
pictures. In business we demand
something more than mere goodness
We demand goodness plus efficiency
1t is more difficult to be efficient
than to be good. To be efficient a
man must be good for something. In
selecting public officials our attention
has been centered upon morals and
character rather than upon ability tC
perform the work of the office to
which an official is elected.
In the second place, the council
type of organization is a poor system
of conducting public business. The
system is good for securing delibera-
tive action but weak in getting
things done. A very large part oi
the city's business is purely admins.
trative. 1t consists in buying sup.
plies, auditing bills, repairing streets
and sidewalks, installing street
lights. cleaning streets, etc, prob
lens that should require no delibera-
ton. The council committees dc
not and cannot give the time and
thought to city affairs that these de.
mand. 1t is for these reasons that
the commission form and city man
ager plan of organization are rapidly
superseding the councilmanic form
of organization.
Cash Basis Necessary.
These first two causes are RESPONSE
BILE for the third reason for municipa
failure, namely, lack of system in the
management of public affairs and tn,
failure to apply the most elementar!
business principles. A few illustra
tions of defective methods which
have encountered in my study OF Ore
II Il