The Washington herald., 1918-04-04


the operation OF the commission
form OF government for cities?
The question is having some OF
the side attention OF Congress. be-
cause many cities of the land are
trying out the system. and some
OF those which have had it for
many years are taking an account
ing to see If il is better than the
old councilmanic plan.
Members who have really studied
the operation of the law agree that
several desirable conditions are i'm
posed by the system. Among othel
things it fixes responsibility for the
conduct of the various departments
of city government. This was not
possible under the old order.
1t obliteratcs the desire Of the
commissioners to set down improve
ments. many times entirely unneCes-
sary. in their own section of the
city. 1t reduces the expense OF
operation OF city government be-
cause it is more businesslike. and
it enables the people to obtain more
intimate squints at the city gov
ernment than was possible when a
legislative and executive branch.
separately operated, were trying to
hide their lights under a peck
measure.
And another good effect is that
it minimizes the damage that may
be done to the ajority of any city
by gang rule. Under the commits
sion form OF government it is hard
er for a machine to get under head
way. Any machine that seeks to
do business is discredited il it COM
prises the men of one party and it
is mistrusted il it comprises men
of all parties.
In some States commission rule
has been extended to cities of so
small a population as a thousand to
fifteen hunderd. The results have
not been as noticeably beneficial in
such cities but they have been suf-
fiCient to justify the continuation
OF the plan.
Senator Overman might have
been charged with opposing the ad-
ministration in making his plea for
enactment of the administration bill
| for coordination. He laid emphasis
| on many OF the things which Sena-
| tors pointed out weeks and weeks
| ago and for which they earned the
condemnation of President Wilson
and some of his followers in both
| Houses.
How Senator Overman came to do
| this none of his colleagues can eX-
| plain. He utterly vindicated the
! position taken by Senator Chamber
| lain and others and dug a pitfall
| for himself quite as deep as any
we have ever seen a member handi-
| cap himself with. in view of the
| fight he was making.
We imagine his speech will be
| read with some dismay by those
| who were doing their utmost to
convince the country that nothing
has been wrong with our war pro-
| gram.
Interesting discussions arise now
| and then in Congress which have to
do with fundamental economics, and
| which are educational in their value.
| Such a discussion arose the other day
when Senator Owen called attention
! to the fact that bills passing Con-
gress frequently contain a clause
| estopping the Supreme Court from
nullifying their entire operation if
some small part of them shall be
| found legally defective.
| The Oklahoma, solon insisted that he
would favor no doctrine giving the
right to a court to nullify the will of
| the legislative body. In this connec-
ton he relieved himself of this mat
ter which he had prepared for, sew
eral times in the past, but which he
had no opportunity like this to call
| to the attention of his colleagues. He
said:
II think the time has come when
the people of the United States should
not permit any court to invalidate an
act of Congress. I think the Congress
of the United States and the Senate
of the United States owes it in their
representative capacity to 'the people
of the United States not to permit a
court which is not subject to the con-
troll of the people of the United States
to pass upon the validity of the stat
utes of the United States. That is a
power which is in the Congress Of the
United States alone, and 1t ought to
be exercised by the Congress OF the
United States alone.
THE Senator says 1t has been the
uniform practice since the foundation
of the Government, or for over 100
years. l deny that. The only case Of
any Importance up to 1856 was :he
case of slavery. In that case the