Arizona republican., 1915-04-03
A desire to resist oppression is implanted in the nature of man.
 -TacitlS
The First of the Amendments

The First of the Amendments
 There is a spacious arrangement of the proposed charter amendments or the ballot which the people will vote next Tuesday. There nine such amend mcnts all calculated to centraize power in the hands of the commission. The first of these amend 1nents tends disarm suspicion in advance tt proposes that the commission shall have power 'ny ordinance" to combine the duties of any two offices except those of the city manager and the city at torney the face of it there is nothing oblec- tionabe in the amendment It lis evidently in the interest of economy. If one man can perform pub lie services formerly occupied the time of two men, he should he made to perform them But why restrict the commission to the exercise of this power 'by ordinancc?' Why, if the commission finds that tws men are fooling away their time on work that one man ought to do, should it not right off the bat put a stop to this waste? Why squander more time waiting for an ordinance?
 It is doubtless the intention of the gentlemen who are back of these nine amendments to leave the people in the delusion that ths is some nc" power. with which to invest the commission 1t is not The power already exists in the city manager, and it has been frequently exercised by him. He has not waited for ordinances. When he has seen that money could be saved the city. without loss of efficiency, by dropping man here and there he has done it
 We will submit that the city manager, and not the commission is the one to exercise this power It is the business of a $5Ooo and not that Of one or more $500 men determine when the good of the service would require combination of the duties of two or more employees. The city manager is supposed not only by his training to be better fitted to judge in such matters but it is evident that his closer contact with the departments hi, adv of combining the functions of two more depart nents.
 Common sense should oppose such amend nent The manager is always oH the job, in con- stant observation of the operation of all the de partments, while the observation of the commission is infrequent and casual. The greatest efficienc!' where large number of working to- gether is secured by centralized authority in the hands of the man who is held responsible. Effl- ciency suffers when authority is dssipaed
 There is in this seemingly excellent amendment something hidden and sinister. It is designed tr prevent the very thing that it is pretended should be done It is intended to prevent the summary dropping of needless and useless employees by the city manager and to place them under the tender care of the commission by whom it would probably not be discovered that there any need of drop ping them.
 The ridculousness of the amendment appears in the provision that this proposed power of the com mission shall be exercised only "by ordinance II should be found that two men are Joing the work that one ought do before one can be discharged there must be a solemn introduction of ar ord- nance, it's enactment it's publication at a consider able expense and meanwhile the salaries of useless employees running along.
 If this power is transferred to the commission, the commission would be besieged by every Influence that an employe threatened with discharge could bring to bear 0 retain him in his position. This amendment is q part of the general political scheme to destroy the non partisan character of the charter