South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1921-04-03

Grand Haven Grand Rapids, Crosse
Pie. Shores. Jackson, Kalamazoo.
Lapeer. Manistee. Muskegon. Ostego.
PetOskey. Plymouth, Pontiac, Port
land. Royal Oak. st. Johns. Sault
Ste. Marie. and Three Rivers
Virginia got the idea from Staun-
ton. which had a make-shifJ varia-
ton OF the plan even before the
Dayton adoption and now almost
all the cities OF Virginia have the
plan and one-fifth Of the population
Of the state lives under It. The
cities beside Stanton (Which adopt
ed the real plan IN 1920 are Nor
folk, Hampton, Lynchburg, Newport
News, Petersburg and Radford.
In California the manager cities
are-Alameda. Alhambra, Passa-
dena, Bakersfield, Sacramento. san
Jose and Santa Barbara.
IN Texas there are 17-AmaTillo,
Beaumont, Brownsville. Brownwood,
Bryan. Denton, Eastland, Lubbock,
nskin. Ranger, San Angelo Sher-
man. Stamford. Taylor, Terrell. Ty-
Ter and Yoakum, and in Oklahoma,
12-Cherokee, COalgate, Collinsville.
Duncan. MadilI Mangum, McAles-
ter Muskogee, Norman, Nowaxta,
Sallisaw and Walters.
Auburn, Newburgh, Niagara Falls,
Sheriff. and WATERFOWL are the New
York cities and Mansfield. Middle
boro, Norwood and Waltham are
the Massa chusetts list
The rest are scattered al over
the map. the larger ones being
Phoenix, Ariz., Hot Springs. Ark,
Boulder and Colorado Springs, Colo,
St. Augustine, Tallahassee and Tam
pa Fla, Brunswick and Rome, Ga,
Dubuque, Ia, E. Dorado and WI
chita. Kan, Auburn, Maine, Nash
Vile Tenn, Charleston and Wheel
ing, W. Va.
But all this is only the beginnBg.
Every city that adopts It gets the
neigh bors envious and the legisla-
lures are so besought for new chart
ers that u Of them have passed
general blanket laws giving every
city in their states power TO adopt
the plan. These states are-Massa-
chusetts, New York, Virginia, Ohio,
oklahoma, Kansas. Idaho. Montana,
North Dakota, North Carolina, Wis
consin and Louisiana.
Efforts to secure similar laws
were made in 1921 in Connecticut,
Indiana, New Jersey, South Caro-
lima, Wyoming. Illinois and other
states. Indiana passed one. No city
that has adopted the plan has ever
turned back.
Principle Thing-SimpIicity.
In contrast to the order Of things
that admittedly prevail in most
cities, the $50 towns that have
adopted the city-manager plan,
have made their city governments
simple and Understandable for the
first time in at least two genera
tions.
Like most successful revolutions,
this one goes back TO the past for
some things which had been i'll
advisedly abandoned and brings
some old principles down TO date to
fit modern life.
The fathers of this country had
no municipal problems, to be sure,
but they had public affairs TO be
taken care Of They employed
town meetings. in which the people
could express themselves on import
ant questions, but the carrying out
of the business was entrusted 10 a
compact body Of "selectmen"-a
simple natural straightforward ar
rangement.
In later days, when municipal
business became more elaborate,
somehow the idea grew up that gov
eminent also must be complicated
TO cope with the new situation.
ThereupOn-exit popular control
enter the politician.
Little towns and big cities de-
velOped intricate governmental me-
chanism with artificial. meaningless
divisions called wards, a mayor TO
do things and a council to keep him
from doing them and perhaps an
auditor and a treasurer, to make
sure that the others did not run
away with the cash.
Then, too, II was made to ap-
pear that municipal affairs were in
separable from the national govern.
ment and that things would not be
right at the city hall unless either
the republicans or the democrats
(Which ever happened to be OUT
should be put back.
1t made politics an intricate.
game that only professionals could
play successfully! Professionals of
every degree from the ward leader
TO the big bossi
The complicated machine kept
on going after fashion, but the
real government which did things
and had the real authority, was di-
rect, simple and powerful. Only,
alas. the public did not control it.
And so it has become clear
through a bitter experience that
popular control can be had only
through getting away from the COM
plexity of politics.
Simplicity-thats the gist OF It..
Everything that has to be popular
has to be simple, whether it's a
song, or an advertisement, or an
idea-or a government,
1t IS beyond all question that far
more people are politically active,
and effective under the manager
plan. than under any other. More
people legister at the poles deci-
sions that are all their own. Few
er shut their eyes and accept parti-
san dictation.
Let US get the outline clear:
The people Their job is easy:
only one body Of men to select
the city council. Never more than
five 10 be chosen at any one time.
That's the sO-called short ballot
idea.
"a rattnnal or state issues to be