The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson, S.C.) 1914-1917, 1914-03-27
Commission FOT5S1 a Success
Iga OUcr Three Hundred Cities
Letter from Mayor of Spokane. Washington Sanders
this City Tells of the Benefits of Plan of City Management

The Daily IhteIiigencer has been en-
deaYoring 10 get information Oh the
subject OF the commission form of
government w. A. Sanders, civil en-
gineer, q resident OF Anderson but
formerly assistant to the city engineer
OF Spokane, WASH, has received q very
Interesting letter from the mayor os
that city, giving his reasons Tor fav-
oring the new plan OF government. The
following are extracts from that let
ter: " ~
Good business. and when say
good business, do not necessarily
mean big business for not all big
business is good business any more
| than all small business is good bui-
ness;' but all good business, whether
big or SMELLS is demanding some read
justnent 1f the management Of the
modern city.
People have grown weary OF the
mismanagefnent. the waste and extra
vagance and In soihe cases the irres-
possibility and inefiieiency, IL not the
graft and Doodle, which has been in
cident to many Of our municipal af-
fairs.
"The public has come to feel the
truth of what. the Hon. James Bryce,
author of The American Common
wealth. said few decades ago that
the one conspicuous failure of the
American people is seen in the gov
ernment of the American city, and
stirred by the CONSEQUENCES the peo-
pie of our American cities are exper-
fencing what am pleased to cal the
renaissance of civic responsibility, and
a new day is dawning for the Ameri-
can city.
"Amon the signs of the new awak-
ening and the answers given to the
public demand for civic readjustment.
none has attracted more attention and
none in my judgment is more preg-
nant with the promise of civic bet
~teEment than the idea Of commission
form of government whose policies are
already in force in over 800 of our
American cities, and the striking fact
to he noted in this connection is that
while this list of cites has been grow
ing for the past decade, and while re-
peted attempts have been made to
revert to the old councilmanic forms
Of government, up-to-datc not one city
in America has SO far suffered a re-
| lapse. Individual commissioners
have failed, here and there charters
have demonstrated their need of re-
adjustment, but no reversion to type
has SO far been recorded.
ReaffiFmed by People.
SPOKANE called a special election
November. 1912, to vote on possible
recall, not of the individual commits
| sioners, but on the charter of commits
sion government itself, and the result
OF that election was reaffirming of
the charter byya vote OF practically
two to one, 1t carried in every. ward
and was given much larger indorse-
ment than when it was adopted near
ly two years before.
Several Coed Reasons.
Good business stands sponsor for
Iicommission government for several
reasons: -
! "First-It removes municipal affairs
from the domain OF party politics and
offers its candidates to the electorate
upon the sole basis OF character and
ability.
Second: BY electing the commits
sioners at large, the old ward politics
| with their log rolling. trading and
patronage abuses, are completely
eliminated -"
vate citizens, not in, contemplation,
but in actual process OF construction.
"a "1n regard to the moral condition of
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