Imperial Valley press., 1917-01-22
BETTER LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

From end OF the United States TO the OIneT, Ie
signs Of municipal unrest now more numerous ano
more pronounced than ever BEFORE Notwithstanding thai
great strides in municipal reform have been made in
cent years 1t would be mistake to assume that the
unrest is confined to communities that have failed tC
adopt of the remedial systems Of civic admin
israton 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 cheerfuy ac
knowledgng the progress made such communities have
keener vision than those that have made no more at al
for advancement.
AS great storm gave rise to the commission plan OF
government in the United States great flood occa-
stoned the adoption of the city manager system Calves
ton Tex the first municipality to experiment with
the one Dayton o. the first to take up with the other
and each by keeping close to its SYSTEM and making it
operation as simple possible, has carried the innova
ton on to practical success. The first commission gov
erned city in the United States properly socaled
of course Washington D. c. became so under an act
of Congress made effective June H. 1873 but the capita
of the nation may be considered governing
municipality and not therefore, given the precedence
Of Galveston or indeed included in the list of commits
song governed cities at all. Yet in way 1t serves as
probably the best model Of modern municipality which
the country has to offer in that it is free from the nc
bus of local politics. Cities in general however may not
look national legislature for government they mus
meet and solve for themselves many problems with whic
Washington has direct concern the quality OF then
often dependent citizenship that is largely in crude
state.
In 1900 there was but one commission governed city
in the United States in 1913 there but city II
the United States under the manager form of adnnistra
ton in 1917 page and half printed in the small type
of reference book, is required to accommodate simply
the 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 who'll
ly abandoned the mayora adermanic and ward SYSTEM
in the last fifteen years Many communities of first i'm
portance that have adopted modified commission sys
TEN, continuing the mayoraty, but substituting small
council for large board Of aldermen and wping out pc
litical ward lines are not classified conmsSiOngov
erned cities although they might well be- since recognized
commission governed cities differ widely from each other
in the of applying the system to their ndvdua
needs
While it is not contended by the open-1ninded anC
unprejudced, that the commission manager form,
the commission and manager form combined is meeting
all expectations there can be question to their i'm
provemen the system of mayor and aldermen. TAX
ing the methods of municipal government at their
best however is difficult that in their desire
for utitaran administration, the cities adopting them
have often gone extremes They have in other words
considered the material aspects of communal government
only; they have overlooked the sentmenta they have
neglected most important factor in town and city life
known civic pride Several of them endeavor
ing to correct this defect They realize that there must
be something more IN community than matera,
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 govern
ment ana that the Official known as mayor II he per
form his duties the first citizen Of community should
is something than the manager of public financial
and commercial corporaton that in fact he is social
fully as much as political or business figure.
The history OF most Of the larger communities and
of many of the smaller in the United States in re-
cent years shows clearly that there 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
modern community ought not to be governed and this
is only conspicuous instance of common condition
OInfy1
radical departure from methods that promote nefficiencv
extravaganza and dishonesty in local administration The
way open through the entire REIMBURSEMENT of the bus
mess administration OF communities organized munici-