The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-06-15
Three Are Enough

To the Editor of The Age Herald:
 It was my province to write and publish about the first report ever given to the public, regarding the working of the first experiment made by an American city In the commission form of government.
 As editor of the Tradesman. aheu pub lished in Chattanooga. went to Calves ton. Tex. and spent some time there.
 Investigating the working of the new form of municipal government which had just
 supplanted the old aldermanic regime in
 that city, and which had begun to attract public attention from it's pronounced sue
 cess.
 Necessity is said to be the mother of
 invention" and 1t was necessity that led
 Galveston to adopt the innovation in it's
 government, which subsequently, proved
 the most effective of any ever before de-
 vlsed for managing the affairs of city
 in this country.
 After that dread disaster which left Galveston in ruins, destroying as it did thousands of lives and millions in proper ty the city found itself seemingly nope lessy bankrupt, with no available ave
 nue open for it's relief With a heavy
 burden of indebtedness from it's past all dermanio reign, and with the most press
 ing demands to meet it's present emergen- ! cies, the city was indeed in a most deplor-
 able condition.
 It was then that one man so inspired his fellow citizens with his own courage
 and faith In his city as gave them hope 1 for its possible rehabilitation. and they
 induced him to formulate plan and un- dertake the stupendous task of rebuilding | Galveston.
 That one man was Hon. Walter Gresh-
 am, and the problems that were met and | successfully solved under his guidance | have had no parallel in the history of this country. Besides providing for the city's past indebtedness. which was subse- | quently entirely hquidated, grade raising | plan was naugurated which placed the entire city front on level with the sea- l wall. varying from r to 2l feet nigh. and which practically rendered it safe from all future storms Entailing as this p'au did feats of great engineering skill and cost liness, it was nevertheless successfully l accomplished and that without placing any burden on property holders that they were not able and willing to meet. Not satisfied with that. a great concrete yie- duct was later built from the island to the mainland, sufficient to accommodate all the railroad, trolley lines and pedes- | trian traffic of the city while meeting every claim and cost incurred in govern ing and caring for the affairs of tho mu- l niopality.
 | I mention, these facts to show that no other city was ever more grievously bur. dened with financial difficulties than was 1 the Oleander City, and none ever more bravey met or more successfully over | came them than did Galveston, and it was | entirely due to the fact that these difficult ties were considered by business men and met by business methods.
 While the commission that gave these
 results to Galveston was nominaily com posed of three persons. 1t was really man l aged and controlled by one man, with the
 others simply carrying out his plans. l From the facts that were gathered
 there at that time l am led to the con viction that Birmingham has no more 1 need for five commissioners than the Ten
 nessee Coal, Iron and Railroad company
 has for five presidents. As George Cor
 don Crawford Is the one responsible head and guiding spirit of that great corpora l ton, that has perhaps more complex du- | ties involved in It's management than has
 the city of Birmingham, so likewise. one l chief commissioner, with power to ap- I point and remove his two assistants, can l give Birmingham a better government 1 than is possible with larger body to dl-
 vide responsibility and shirk the ddties
 of their several positions. The very in-
 ception of this form of government was ] to change political into business methods 1 in managing a city. and where this IS done
 nothing else can compare with 1t in sim 1 plicity and effectiveness.
 N F. THOMPSON. 1 Birmingham, June IA, 1915.