Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-01-14
MORE EFFICIENCY IN
OUR CITY GOVERNMENT
Why Philadelphia N eeds Single
Chambered Council-Senatorisl Dis
tricts Might Re the Election Units.
The Present Legislative System.
BY CLINTON ROGERS WOODRUFF

in another way should municipal Council
to achieve the maximum of governmental
efficiency, consist OF one or two chambers?
The answer of recent American develop
ment has been overwhelming. 1t is that a
single -chambered Council not only suhices
for all the citys needs, but it is an essential
part of modern charter.
Not single new charter drafted within
the last 10 years but has provided for a
single body. Every commission governed
city, and there are 400 of them, has one sim
gle-chambered Council
or the leading 80 cities in the United
States, only the following have two
chambered body: Philadelphia, Baltimore
Kansas City, Providence Louisville, Wor
cester Mass, Richmond, Va. and Cambridge
| Mass
why should Philadelphia remain in the
| diminishing class"?
why should not Philadelphia have the
| best possible legislative machinery instead
Of the least effective?
Juggling of Public Policies
why has the trend OF American cities
been toward a single body? Chiefly because
| of the demand for responsibility and
| sponsiveness. The American people want
| efficiency. To get efficiency there must be
| concentration OF responsibility, and there
| can he no such result when there are two
! Legislative bodies. between which public
| policies may be iuggled and eventually lost
to sight, Where you have such Council
| now you a policy. and now you don't
! according to the desires of those in con-
troll.
| The American people want larger meas
ure of democracy in their city governments,
prfp HOY nj in
their Legislative bodies.
The Evils in Double Chamber
True, a double chamber is responsve-but
to the political organization in control
rather than to the people who most
directly concerned.
Philadelphlans do not have to go far affeld
for an illustration. To whom do the pres
ent Council respond the more quickly: The
people who nominally elected them, or to the
political organization that selected them, in
the first place and managed their election
in the second?
How should the Council be made up-of
members selected at large or elected from
wards?
The trend in the smaller communities has
been overwhelmingly toward election a large:
and i'm cities like Boston Buffalo Pitts
burgh, st. Paul, Denver Seattle. Portland
Ore; San Francisco Los Angeles
Cleveland in her new charter has retained
ward representation. She has single
chamber consisting of one member from
each ward.
ST. Louis elects her Council at large, but
there is one member nominated from each
ward.
The Case of Philadelphia
What about Philadelphia? There are those
who advocate a single body of 15 elected at
large. But is that the wisest course to follow
in city of the size and character of Phila-
delphla? Is there not some middle ground
between election at large and ward represen-
tation which will do away with the dangers
of the two plans? Log-rolling is the great
evil of small ward representation. But there
is real demand for some sort of local rep
resentation in a city of PhladeIphia's size
Partisan control is the great danger of
Council elected at large in a metropolitan
community.
Why not adopt a large unlt-say the Sena-
tora districts-and elect two or three mem
bers from each district?
This would give MS single small body
and representative body. South Philadel-
phia. West Philadelphia North Philadelphia
Germantown Northeast Philadelphia and the
central sections would all he represented and
yet we would he getting away from the
domination of the small wards which now
control the situation
To such a body, so elected, the city paying
adequate compensation, we could entrust
the election of a city manager, when the time
comes, with a reasonable assurance that
high-grade man would he selected on the
basis of merit.
To be sure the late e. l.. Godkin said:
"No municipal reform will last long or prove
efficient without strong and healthy public
spirit behind it, With this almost any char
ter would prove efficient; but at the same
time. there are certain forms of government
which make for ineficiency and misgovern-
ment and the double-chambered Council Is
such one. And there are others which
make for better government, and the single
chambered body is such an one.
Antiquated Tools
The big idea that crops out in nearly all
the formal discussions upon the improvement
of municipal government hinges. as the Bal
timore American says, upon the theory that
government for city means, or should mean,
the management of the citys affairs upon
scientific business principles, That" in the
words Of the American was the idea that
cropped out in the discussions at the sessions
OF the National Municipal League 1t is also
the idea that is being more or less effec-
lively applied in the governmental affairs of
the majority Of modern cities. We are grad
ually outgrowing the belief that protecting
the just from the unjust is the main func-
tlon Of government"
The Modern Idea in Government
This new conception OF municipal govern
ment, which makes it the greatest factor in