The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1914-12-15
EXPERT ASSERTS
BOSS MUST Give
way TO PEOPLE
Local Student of City Gov
ernment Sees Danger in
Rule by Commission and
Hired Manager.
CITY NEEDS FREEDOM
Success of Waite at Dayton
Proves Managerial Form
Best, Says MIR. FOulke in
Closing.

Richmond Commercial club mem.
bers and members of the Junior Com.
mercial club of the high school entered
into study Of forms Of city govern.
ment last night.
William Dudley Foulke. probably the
best civic government student in Rich
mond presented the following forms
for consideration:
Managerial form-Mr Foulke declar.
ed this is the best form of city govern
ment as it fixes the responsibility on
five men who select him in the hands
of the people. The evil in this form is
the danger of boss rule through control
Of three of the five commissioners
who employ the city manager.
Points to Evils.
Commission form-A good form. but
in danger of lacking unity should
three or majority of the five COM
missioners decide to take the city gov.
ernment In their own hands Mr..
Foulke showed how three commission
ers can force the other two to accede
absolutely to their demands even to
the lowest appointment although no
commissioner has power over more
than one department.
Home rule-This is the right Of
charter making and Incorporating ac-
cording to the needs of the locality.
Under home rule. the charter may fol
low the lines of any other form of city
government known.
Federal form--The form condemned
by every body as the one which should
be departed from, found defender in
Wilfred Jessup, who declared that
1ndiana's towns have an almost ideal
commission form of government and
cities have an almost ideal managerial
form of government. The difference
in the Indiana city government and
the real managerial form, is in the
fact that the voters have the right to
elect the mayor. who can be said to be
equivalent to a manager, while in the
real managerial form. five commission
ers are selected who employ the city
manager, Mr.. Jessup explained.
Democratic Ideas Fail.
Mr.. Foulke has made a thorough
study of German and English munich
pal governments and he declared that
the most successful cities are the most
Independent ones. He said that demo
cratic principles have failed in city
government for two reasons: Lack of
public spirit and lack of proper organ.
ization of the government itself.
The four great tendencies in modern
charter making he pointed out are:
To regard cities as units and permit
them to carry on their business accord
ing to the local demands.
To discard the old form OF govern
ment and adopt one which places the
responsibility on one or only a few
persons to whom it can be directly
attached.
To recognize that the first of prime
factors is efficiency and skill and ex-
perts chosen by competitive tests ars
needed to run cities.
To provide measures which will
force representatives to really repre-
sent their constituents and to divorce
themselves from the state or govern
ment.
The latter measure is the referen-
dunn and recall. Mr.. Foulke said He
declared that American cities are not
yet ready to use the initiatives:
Constitution Permits Either.
Mr.. Foulke declared that he and
other Richmond attorneys have stud
led Indiana's constitution recently and
have decided that there is nothing in
it which prevents the legislature from
giving Indiana cities the managerial
and commission forms of government
in addition to the federal form now
used
There are two ways OF ruling
cities" Mr. Foulke said. They are the
legal way and the natural way.
In the former. the city may he re-
garded as a public corporation with
subordinate legislative powers subject
to the state legislature or il may he
regarded as having no power except
as the state legislature prescribes and
empowers. A city is incapable Of de-
veloping any healthy originality IL II
Is the mere creature of the state.
The natural way of governing .
city is home rule. in which the city IL
regarded as a separate political unit.
on a number of which the state is de-
pendent for its existence. Where
cities have been Independent with
powers to make their own laws gov
erning local affairs they have become
supreme.
City Needs Independence.
The state has no right to interfere
in things which are OF purely local de-
termination. And the country man has
no business to regulate city affairs
which he often does through the med
ium Of the state legislature. The con-
troll OF public utilities so far as they
concern a city, should be in the hands
OF that city. Indeterminate franchises
should be given specifying that the
city can buy at any time for the ap-
praised value in cash. any utility over
-