The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1916-06-22
A GOVERNMENT
BY COMMISSION

Lear CulCOF -
In my last communication / en-
deavored to show the necessity of TAX
ing the town out of politics and how
commission government would go a
long ways in accomplishing this.
also pointed out how unfair and how
unreprcsentative our present system
is; how five men can control the town
and how three men can control the
five, and hence how it is possible for
one ward to run the affairs of the
town. | also called attention to the
fact that the third ward has half the
voting population and only three re-
personalities, and that when the town
went one way politically and the third
ward another that ward was virtually
without a say in the direction of the
affairs of the town. l demonstrated
how commission government would re-
medy all this. Lastly | took up the
matter of control we can exercise over
our officials under the present form
and proved that it is practically nil;
referred to the undoubted fact that we
are boss of the men from our own
ward only one day every three years
and never for an instant of the six
men from the other two wards, and
promised this communication to show
how commission government would
remedy this matter also.
| shall assume at the outset that
you will all agree that governing a
town is business and that business
methods should be employed if the
best results are to be accomplished.
Now if man wants to make success
of his private business he has got to
be on the job every day in the year.
Constant personal supervision is ne
cessary. And SO it is with the gov
erning business-if we ever expect to
make a success of that business we
must have system whereby we can
be boss of the job 365 days in the
year. If an individual instituted a
system whereby he could give his per-
sonal attention to his business only
one day in each year he wouldn't be in
business very long. Isn't that just ex-
actly the situation with US, and isn't
that the very reason we have no kind
of government? What does a voter
amount to now except one day in the
year? Where is his influence the
other 1854 days? If you cut your fin
ger and don't attend to it, blood pois-
oning is likely to set in. BY and by
the infection will pass to the hand and
then to tho arm and finally through
the whole system. Then you call in
the doctor and he will say "Foolish
man! You should have consulted me
sooner. It's too late to do anything
for you now" Isn't that just exactly
the way we have been trying to run
our government? We have been call
ing in the doctor too late. We go to
the polls one day each year and by the
magic of cropping ballot in the box
a two minute process, we expect ali
tho ills and evils that have arisen in
the body polite in 1866 days to vanish
This is expecting a little too much.
An individual can't run his business
that way and neither can we run our
business that way. When an i'll arises
in our government we ought to have
the power to correct it at once. No,
this will never do. We must have a
government that will give the people
what they want when they want it
and do away with what they do not
want when they no longer want it.
AT the present time if VIC want to in