The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1917-02-09
RODGRIck Q, MATHESON. EDITOR
Better Local Government

more pronounced than ever before, nOtwithstand-
ing that great strides in municipal reform have
been made in recent years 1t would be mis-
take to assume that the unrest is confined to COM
munities that have failed to adopt or more
of the remedial systems OF civic administration
which the times have brought forth. 1t will be
found in communities that have travelled farthest
along the road of experimentation and innovation,
for the very good reason that, while recognizing
and cheerfully acknowledging the progress made,
such communities have keener vision that those
that have made move at all for advancement.
As great storm gave rise to the commission
plan of government in the United States, so great
food occasioned the adoption of the city-manager
system Galveston, Texas, was the first munich
palty to experiment with the one Dayton, Ohio
the first to take up with the other, and each, by
keeping close to its system, and making its opera
ton as simple as possible, has carried the nno-
walton on to practical success. The first commits
sion-governed city in the United States, properly
so-called, was, Of course, Washington, District of
Columbia. 1t became SO under an Act of Con-
gress made effective June H. 1873 but the capital
Of the nation may not be considered as self-gov-
ernng municipality, and is not, therefore, given
the precedence of Galveston, or indeed included in
the list OF commssion-governedci cities at all. Yet,
in way, it serves as probably the best model of
a modern municipality which the country has to
Offer in that it is free from the incubus of local
politics. Cities in general, however, may not look
to national legislature for government; they
must meet and solve for themselves many pro-
blems with which Washington has no direct CON
Germ; the quality of their respective local govern
ments, as well as the needs, are often dependent
on citizenship that is largely in a crude state
In 1900, there was but one commisson-govern-
ed city in the United States; in 1913, there was
but one city in the United States under the man
ager form of administration; in 1917, page and
half, printed in the small type of reference
book, is required to accommodate simply the names
of the cities of the country under commission or
manager FORM or under both. Communities in
more than thirty States of the Union have either
partly or wholly abandoned the mayoral, alder
manic, and ward systems in the last fifteen years
Many communities of first Importance, like Bos7
ton, that have adopted modified commission sys- !
TEN, continuing the mayoralty, but substituting
small council for large board of aldermen, and
wiping out political ward lines, are not classified
as commission-governed cities, although they
might well be, since recognized commission-gov-
erned cities differ widely from each other in the
manner Of applying the system to their individual
needs. ...''. 49,.
While it is not commended by the open-mnded
and unprejudced, that the commission or manager
form, or the commission and manager form COM
bined, is meeting all expectations, there be no
question as to their improvement over the system
OF mayor and aldermen. Taking the methods !
OF municipal government at their best, however |
il is not difficult to that in their desire for ut-
tartan administration, the cities adopting them have
often gone to extremes. They have, in other
words, considered the material aspects of comml-
nal government only they have overlooked the sen
timental; they have neglected a most important
CitU fe de
Several OF them now endeavoring to correct
this defect They realize that there must be some
thing more in community than mere material
expression; that after ALL municipal administration
IS not to be measured altogether by the rules laid
down for the conduct of business; that there is |
sentiment in government, and that the official
known as mayor, if he perform his duties as the
hrst citizen OF a community should, is something
more than the manager of public financial and
commercial corporation that, in fact, he is a So
cal, fully as much political or business figure
The history of most of the larger communities,
and OF many OF the smaller ones in the United
States, in recent years. shows clearly that there
must sooner or later be wholesale and complete
abandonment of the existing cumbersome forms
of local government. Chicago at this moment is
offering striking illustration of how great mo-
dern community ought not to be governed and
this is only conspicuous instance of a common
lHSlC -, throughout inc country,
fresh agitation for radical departure from meth
DDS that promote ineficiency, extravaganza, and
dishonesty in local administration. The way is
open, through the entire REIMBURSEMENT OF the
business administration of communities to organ
lied municipal civil service, and through the eleva-
ton OF the social side of communal government to
the point where only the best material available
will be chosen to typy and represent civic culture