Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-02-04
MANAGING THE CITY
By Frederic ]. HGskin
IContinued from editorial Page.

the town and let the commission run
it.
Once you get the habit of politics,
1t is very hard to quit When the
first Des Moines commissioners, who
were hard-working businessmen, had
done their turn of public service, some
of them were glad to retire. And
every time a good man retired. hum
CRY politician was glad to take his
place The people of Des Moines
more or less suddenly awakened to the
fact that they had the wolf of politics
In sleeps clothing of commission gov
ernment.
1t is not meant to imply, however,
that commission government has been
failure in Des Moines. No charge
of dishonesty or corruption has been
made against any of the commission
ers, but all of them are charged with
playing personal politics instead OF
attending to the city business. Two of
the present commissioners are de-
scribed as old politicians. A third is
labor union representative. The
Fourth is a contractor, and the only
candidate on the businessmen's ticket
who was successful at the last cleo
ton. The mayor commissioner is a
former college professor.
This commission is said to be di-
vided by petty jealousies and misun-
derstandings. 1t has brought adverse
criticism upon itself and commission
government, whereas five years ago
Des Moines was back of its commits
sion to a man.
Even under these circumstances,
however, commission government in
Des Moines is undoubtedly an i'm
provement over the old regime. The
record of achievement in municipal
progress since the commission form
tH-au aAn fad-- nf over
into the present, turbulent times-has
been equaled by few cities. The gas
rate has been reduced from 81 to 80
cents, and the gas company has Just
been compelled to pay back to con-
sumers $4,000 improperly collected
after the commission fixed the rate
schedule. The company fought the
case with might and main, spending
hundreds of thousands of dollars and
going to the United States Supreme
Court The city defended it and won
it at a total expense of $4,000, eXclu-
sive of the regular salaries of the cor
poration counsel and his assistants.
A civic center has been established
on both sides of the Des Moines river
that flows through the center of the
town. Here the commission has built
a handsome city hall, costing S429.OOO,
1t has built four steel and concrete
bridges as an expense or more than
half million, and has put up retain
ing walls and parked the river banks
at cost of $4,000.
For ten yers, under the old form OF
government, the people of the city
had been trying to get a Viaduct
across the railroad tracks, connecting
the retail and industrial sections of
town. 1t couldn't be built because
the aldermen quarreled about which
street it should be on. The commits
sion promptly built it. spending $780,
600 therefor.
Eight public Fairgrounds have been
established and swimming pools have
been built in two of the high schools,
Two public, eighteen-hole golf courses
are maintained under the park sys-
tenn. 1t was discovered that valuable
property in the business section was
underassessed, and the commission
employed experts to fix values sclentl-
Rcally, with the result that $27,OOO,OOO
of taxable value was added to the as
sessment rolls, thereby enabling the
commission to reduce the city tax levy
from an average of 80 mills to 81
mills
Motorization of fire departments is
receiving attention in all cities of any
size. In Des Moines. the apparatus
was changed in one year from horse
drawn to motor-driven at a cost oil
$4,000. Miles of good street paving
have been laid, the public lighting has
been vastly extended and one-half the
sewer system of the city has been
put in since the commission form of
government was adopted.