Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-02-23
C. OF c. TO HEAR
CITY MANAGER
PLAN TONIGHT
Dayton Man to Explain Advan-
tages of System to Busi-
neSSmen


More than three hundred members
of the Harrisburg Chamber of Com
merce will be present at the dinner
meeting at 6.30 this evening, in Chest
nut street hall, where Jesse NJ. Switz-
er, of Dayton, Ohio, will Celiver an
illustrated talk on the city manager
plan of government.
The audience will be augmented at
8 o'clock by a large number of ladies
and nonmembers of the chamber who
have been invited to hear the speech
which will be given at that time after
the conclusion of the dinner.
Officials of the Chamber of Com
merce pointed out to-day that Harris
burg is very fortunate in having Mr..
Switzer address this meeting because
1t is probably the last time that he will
be in a position to leave Dayton on
such a mission for several months
Mr.. Switzer an dan associate of
his in the National Cash Register
Company have purchased one of the
largest manufacturing institutions in
Dayton and are in the midst of prep
arations to take over the operation
of this large industry. He made the
engagement to come to Harrisburg
just before those matters came to
a head and nothing but his desire to
keep his engagement permits Harris
burg to have him here to-day.
The Digest's Comment
The current issue of the Literary
Digest contains the following short
article which shows the attention that
is being given the city manager form
of government in America:
Now that nearly hundred of our
smaller cities have city managers
usually civil engineers-directing the
ht,~f 90 nitx Of 40 lnr
est municipalities are beginning to
consider abandoning present forms of
government in favor of an executive
selected by directors We are told
by Engineering and Contracting
(Chicago) that the change is now ad-
vocated by daily papers in Philadel-
phia, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Cleve-
land, Chicago, Kansas City and Min
neapolis. Says this magazine:
lin Cleveland, for example, a
nominating committee appointed by
fifty civic organizations abs just met
to consider the selection of fifteen
men to investigate the city manager
plan. Among the members of this
committee is DR.. Charles S. Howe,
president of the Case School of APP
piled Science. The Cleveland Press
urges a change in the city charter to
enable the city to adopt the modern
method of managing a city like a
stock company. The Press says: The
conduct of city affairs should be in
the hands of a thoroughly trained ana
well-tried city manager, chosen not
for a definite period, but to hold office
as long as he does his work WELL At
last the American public begins to
see that periodic selection of council
men and mayors by election is a poor
way of getting good municipal govern
ment. Imagine a railway system op-
"a dirnnfinN n GO
lected anew every two to four years
by popular vote! The glib speaker.
the sweet smiler. the hearty hand
gripper, would then have a better
chance of being president of the rail-
way than the man who had spent all
his life studying and practicing rail-
way construction and operation. The
fact is that our entire system of rep
resentative government in which rep
comes solely through cleo
tions, is an unecomonic system, and
is destined shortly to be changed