The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1921-02-03
Commission Form Of Governnant--Its Plan
AMI Parpose--WIy Politicians Oppose 1t

During the past two weeks there
has been much discussion of the mer
its of commission form of govern.
ment.
The general fund Of the city is now
ver $40,000.00 in debt, taking an
other leap of over 100000 this
past year, which is about the average
for every year that the city has been
doing things. This goes to show that
the system is faulty in that better
results are not obtained. Regardless
of who puts in his effort under this
old system it will not turn out bet
ter and this cannot go on forever.
What would be the result if a
committee of seven was elected to
plant 100 acres of potatoes with in
structions to the effect that: Here
IS the land, seed, necessary imple-
ments, ETC., and if you do not sue
coed we will not elect you to the po-
sition again" By the time it had all
been argued put which was the prop
er time to plant, what the proper
depth to plant and how far apart the
rows should be, a large part of the
seed would have spoiled. Further, by
the time some of the committee had
gotten around to get the sentiment
from all their friends as to when
would be the proper time to cult
vate, and while some of the commit
tie were figuring out how to get the
most grandstand applause, over
which end of the Russian thistle to
cut off first, and while another part
of the committee are ~shivering for
fear it should be found necessary to
take a stand either way, and in that
way offend some voters, chances are
that the weeds would have choked
most of those few plants that had
been planted. If there were any
plants hat survived and there were
a few potatoes to dig the chances
are the entire committee would have
lost all interest by this time and
would be busy attending to their own
affairs. And this illustration applies
in a general way, not to any particu-
lar committee" of sever.
But if a committee of three had
been elected to do this work and in
addition to showing them where the
land, seed, necessary implements,
ETC., were, these instructions were
given: "Here are the rules and regu-
Iations adopted for doing this work.
Conditions demand such and such
grade of work, and if you are a pub
lie spirited individual, feeling it is
your duty to do this work in the re-
quired way for the community, when
it has called you, you may go ahead
and perform this work, but before
vol do so you must at once put up
a big guarantee that you will do this
work right. Further if you are not
capable, just work indifferently or
get too sassy on the job we will put
you to shame by recalling you. Also
if you find any of these rules and
regulations do not work out alright
YOU must show where they are faulty
and if of enough Importance we will
take a vote on such rules the next
time we have an election" Would
not this latter plan insure better re-
suits?
1t is lust because better results
have been obtained that all the cities
in the Northwest that adopted COM
mission form of government have not
gone back to the old system. The
Minneapolis Tribune in several ar
ticles lately on city government has
shown convincingly that every city
that has adopted commission form is
forging ahead and getting out of its
ruts. 1t is because his home town has
had such wonderful success under
the commission form that Governor
Dixon is recommending most highly
the commission form of government
for cities, counties and for the state.
Under the commission form every
person who has been declared elect
ed mayor or councilman (only two
councilmen on the board shall with
in ten days thereafter take and file
with the city clerk his oath of Office
in the form and manner provided for
law, and shall execute and give sat
isfactory bond to the municipal cor
poration in the sum of ten thousand
($10, 00O.O0) dollars, conditioned on
the faithful performance of the du-
ties of his office, which bond shall be
approved by the judge of the dis
trict court of the county in which
such city is situated and filed with
the clerk and recorder of the county.
Further, the holder of any cleo
tive office may be removed at any
time by the electors qualified to vote
for a successor of such incumbent