The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-08-29

riety of plans rather than of a single
 positive system which can be univer-
 sally applied with good results"
 During recent years steady pro
 gresS has been made in simplifying
 the form of municipal government in
 the United States.
 The Galveston flood was responsi-
 ble for the establishment in that city of a committee of five men appointed
 by the Governor of Texas. After the emergency was passed. the members
 were elected.
 Houston. Texas, in 1905, adopted the Galveston charter, and in 1907, Des Moines likewise adopted the Galveston plan with some added fea-
 tures-
 of government to secure results as contrasted with the failure of the failure of the mayor and council form of government, attracted wide at tention and city after city adopted the plan until on May 31, 1921, there were 491 commission governed cities
 in the United States.
 Where the commission plan of city government has been adopted, It has been the common practice to nave the five or more commissioners elect ed at large by popular vote. Fxperf- | ence with this form of government l has developed some serious objec- tions. A system which compe1s can
 didates for. municipal council to carry on a campaign throughout the city
 at large undoubtedly penalties the man who cannot afford to make large i expenditures for publicity and gives
 advantages to the man who can spend l money for advertising. Moreover, | this system tends to make the com
 missions or councilnen, as the case | may be, more remote from the in | tereSts and aspirations or the peo- pie in the several sections of the city l than Is the case where men are elect | ed by wards. There can be no doubt that there is strong reaction in | many cities against the election or | commissioners at large on the ground | that they do not so mately rep
 resent all of the divorce interests of i a great industrial city.
 Objections to the commission form l of city council on the ground that | it is not sufficiently representative in
 character have led to a search for a plan which would conserve the ad vantages of the commission form and | at the same time guarantee a better | representation of all sections of the community. There are undou btedlT adyarftages in a small council of men | who can sit around a table and dis | cuss the city's business in a business- | like way.
 | Ashta bula, O., and Kalamazoo,
 Mich, have sought to solve the prob lem by adopting proportional repre- sentation." This is a plan for giv-
 ing each party and section of the | which the number of it's voters enti- tie it. If, for example. there are
 12,ooo voters in city and twelve
 any election 4,o0O should vote the Democratic ticket, 5000 the Repub- 1ican and 5000 the Prohibition ticket, | the principle of fair or proportional representation would give to the Democ four members of the coun- l cil, the Republicans five mem bers. and the Prohfbitionists three members This plan permits the voluntary and -s4s
 cure honest and direct representation of their views. It encourages them to put forward their best spokesmen men whose views are known and und erstood. It recognizes the ob- vious fact that while men and women may be equal, they do not live In the same part of the city, they are
 not engaged in the same occupations. and they are not alike in their inter
 ests. their tastes and their opinions. Proportional representation is plan
 for securing just representation for all the diverse interests in mod
 problems and the management or common affairs. It wipes out dis trict lines ,obviates evils of gerry mandering and unequal councilman1c districts and automatically secures just representation for all parties and groups on the basis of their actual votes.''
 The commission form of govern
 
 tory, although the National Muni- cipal League in 1910 was of the opin- ion that it had been a success as compared with the older forms of government.
 The reason why the commission form of government has not been en- tireIy satisfa ctory is that it failed
 to fully centra1ize the responsibillty for the administration Of the city. The commissioners elected are usu- ally of equal rank and they are re- uuired to exercise the dual functions of a. legislature and executive com bined.
 They are usually not elected to ad- minister any particular department and the distribution of the various department and bureaus or citS government among them for admin istrative purposes is generally mat ter of agreement among them The logical development from this | unsatisfactory state of affairs was 10 | go back to first principles and agaln make a complete separation of the 1 legislative and administrative 1unc- i tions of government by assigning the | legislative duties to a commission and | the administrative duties to cnle1 | executive elected or appointed by the commission.
 | Where the chief executive is ap- pointed by the legislature (commis- sion), government is popularly term | ed g. city-maDager or COMMISSION 1 manager form of government, and all
 though the first city-manager form of | government was not adopted until 1 1909, 223 cities in the United States | had adopted this form of govern
 ment up to May 31, 1921. The advantages of this form Of
 municipal organization are as fol- | lows:
 l '"The essential feature of the com
 mission-manager plan is the provision | for executive leadership, executive
 responsibility and the concentration | of power under a single head. This means in reality a return to the
 mayor form of city government with l the centraIization of administrative 1 work under one officer. The only diff l ference is that the mayor or city | manager, as he is called. is elected 1 by the commission or council rather 1 than by the voters at large. What ! the con7nission-manager cities have
 really done is to reintroduce an old English and American practice of