The Morning Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Okla.) 1919-1927, 1919-08-10
THE QUEST FOR GOOD GOVERNMENT

are condemned to eternal wander
Ing They may meet for "A time but
thty pass ON In splendid isolation.
The common ground Of truth Is not
attaluuhle. for it isn't there.
Necessity Made nm Invention.
There came a time when nature
In an angry mood laid her hand upon
q fair gulf city and shook II untll
only tho death rattle was left In It's
throat. until every citizen OF that
modern Babylon was reduced 20 u
state of mind where In but "A single
thought remained. and that thought
was Of self preservation.
Thousands OF people were dead in
the streets, property values had vRu-
lshed over night. food and water
and raimcut constituted the gravest
problems Of lifo. Government liter
ally did not exist. and yet never was
therc a time when Il was more
necessary
SO the stricken population fun
ctioncd primarily and set up a gov
ornmeut " its own that was literally
WITHOUT code OF laws and animated
with little more than "a desire TO en-
force the inhlbiuons OF the dcca-
'oEue. Yet even In that extremity,
HfAtAA f'lNAN NAA AN h'Al hNlhlhA4bu W Ah
not willing to delegate the supreme
authority to one man. so three we're
elected 70 administer the affairs OF
the community, 10 organize It's re-
sources and To bring order out OF
chaos. each one acting as a check on
the other
Galveston BcCamc Iumnus.
Thus came into existence the COM
q
Wuut" and Galveston became u name
TO coujurc with The scheme
worked. II worked because OF a
great necessity. and because The
Ci,lzcn sChoolyl himself 70 subordl-
ul'o every right and liberty and In
iercst 20 the necessity of the hour
u was a dicBtorshlp Iut the idea
developed rapidly and ly the time
Galveston hat restored herself
which was in au iu.roiible short
time huCJu everything was under
thr cuntrH, ot tr.uuvuhtr. the
citizens ut tho city were reuHy 90
petition the -ta'o legislature FOR per-
mission To- incorporate their new
form OF government and pcrpotlate
90 at least until reconstruction prob
lpws had AN been solved This u,r-
mission the lCUs 1'urr save. and The
frst commission form % govern
mcnt for municipalities was legal
lzcd.
The Idea SPREAD.
The Galveston experiment att
'ractrd wide attention. Other mu-
inequalities. observing what one city
had accomplished with the new
form ~ government immediately
assumed that the form OF the gov
eminent had made This possible. and
soon the commission form was being
adopted here and there throughout
the nation
Just here let it bc pointed o,,t
that while the form " the Calves
tom experiment uulucs,ionaby aided
100 doing certain things with dispatch
and without red 'Rpc. n was not
'hs form nffvr an that counted very
much or contributed to any great
extent to tho aurnup pllshMcrts that
followed For the real cause one
must look 10 the changed attitude
uf Tho citizen with respect % his
local government Goycrrmert sud-
deny became the very greatest need
~ tho hour So the citizens came
alive 90 their responsibilities This
being ~o the most capable men Of
the entire community were put at
the head ~ affairs and the changed
attitude ~ the body % citizenship.
made manifest Ia holr selection ~
the most capable. was also manifest
IN tho mon 'hpy preferred These
agreed 60 serve
Mou-hipplng NCrC Form.
ono abAtH people ataNe"uNE 'ns'
sirht completely ~ 'hr real point