The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1914-06-10

| fBy United Press staff Correspond
Galveston, TEX. june 10.-Out OF
the worst plaques and pestilenees
have come the worlds greatest medi-
/ cal discoveries and cures just so
! has it been in city government with
! Galveston. It was out of her hor-
rors and troubles OF 1900 incident
| to the TIDAL wave holocaust that her
citizens evolved the commission gov
eminent plan which has since been
| adopted by 80 cities, including some
OF the largest In the United States.
Commission government had its
origin in Galveston il 1901 and the
plan then adopted las been changed
but once 1t proved so effective that
today nineteen Texas cities are under
commission ruiz, OF the 323 cities
| in the nation that are using the
commission plan fourteen have city
managers in addition to the com
mission. These 81 cities represent
It total population of 7,66o,610 ac-
eording to the 1919 census, Jersey
city, Denver, Oakland. Memphis
and Nashville are among tine larger
cities under the commission plan.
The history OF the city govern
ment of Galveston prior to her ndop-
ton Of the commission form would
be but a repetition Of the history Of
most city governments; il was good,
bad and indifferent al various inter
walls. The form wa a mayor select
ed by the voters OF the whole city
and twelve aldermen elected by
wards Four aldermen were added
when the old government proved bad
and then the board ei Is was proved
dishonest and incompetent Four
years was enough of it,
September <, 1900. when Calves
ton lost thousands Of its citizens IN
the great storm she was practically
d bankrupt, defautihg i'll payments
on bonded Indebtedness and with 4
large floating deb., Bonds could
not be sold except at large dis
count and the state laws forbade
this; the city was face TO face witt
bankruptcy.
hI y1,j 10, al,
/ mittee, which had Gone everything
for the harbor, began to work Tor
/ civic salvation 4 committee COM
posed OF L. Waverly smith. Col. Wal
ter Gresham and f. D. Minor began
work by procuring copies of the So
called model charters Of Baltimore,
Washington and other leading
cities. The commission features
were first mentioned by Mr.. Smith
who insisted that the government
and management Of a city should
be handled by a body Of men as near
ly as possible like board OF direc-
tors Of a great corporation.
The committee q dited the form of
government wanted and then went
TO the state legislature for authori-
zation A long and bitter wrangle
eusued in the legislature before the
Commission Charter Bill was put
| through in 1901. IL was twelve
months and ten days after the
great storm before Galveston en-
joyed commission city government
September Is. 1901.
When the commission charter was
first presented to the legislature, it
provided for the appointment of the
mayor-president AMI four commits
sioners by the governor of Texas.
This appointiye feature was oppos-
ed on the ground that the people
were deprived by it OF the right of
, self government hg a compromise
, the bill was so amended that three
would be appointed and two elected
by popular vote. Under this form
the government continued for 2o
, months
Then the constitutionality of ths
charter was attacked by reason OF
/ the appointise feature. BY &
| queer twist of Texas legal iurisdic-