The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1921-05-17
CITY MANAGER
tContirued from Page One)

tNoIbH''1Co lloA I dS0 oAV1
that their legislators did not do in
Office what they had promised to do
before election. Much of the trouble
was not in writing the laws. 1t was
in getting the laws executed after
they were put on the statute books.
Our failure to get laws executed is
the cause of much Of our trouble; not
lack of legislation.
Now let me lay down a simple ak
ION. If government is to be popular
government it must be simple in its
structure. Unless your government is
simple it cannot be popular. Compli-
Gated government leads to the placing
of power into the hands of bosses and
groups.
Eggs In One Basket.
ut has been said that people should
not put all Of their eggs into one bas-
ket. In government it is just the con-
trary. Put all Of your eggs in one
basket-then watch that basket. Where
government eggs have been placed in
a number of baskets it has been found
that a number get broken and occa-
sionally a whole basket of eggs will
be found missing.
eff we are to believe in popular gov
eminent we know that it must reflect
the will of the majority. Next. it must
be so organized as to execute that will
in the shortest possible time Gov
eminent failing to execute the laws
PASSED has been one of our greatest
troubles.
THE simple federal plan of city gov
eminent, the kind you have in this
city, can write in the peoples will
There is no doubt Of that From that
standpoint it is all right. The catch
is that mayors are rarely good execu-
uves. They are chosen because Of
some policy rather than because they
know how TO get thing done. Mayors
are primarily chosen, because of some
thing and not because they know how
to do it.
Serious Defect.
THE most serious defect is thai
history of popular government in cities
in the civilized world proves beyond a
shadow of a doubt that you cannot be
sure OF executive ability by popular
vote. You do not get an opportunity
to elect a mayor of executive ability
because men with executive ability do
not have TO go before you every four
years and plead for you to elect
them.
Suppose you elected a school board,
then elected superintendent OF
schools. What would happen? FRS.
thing you would know, some man of
the garden variety would decide that
lie would like to be school supern-
tendent. Wanting to get elected he
would promise to see that certain
teachers would be appointed. and that
certain janitors would be given jobs.
Partisan spirit is inevitably injected
into an election.
81 have not said that We shouldn't
have politics in government Politics
is the difference between people On
what should be done. This would be
an insirid city if all believed alike"
EXPLAINS Failure.
Prof. Hatton at this point said that
the people who suffer most from the
failure of n city to provide efficient
government We're the great rank and
file" Persons with means, he ex-
planned could provide themselves will,
what they needed. Under the mayor
and council plan" Prof. Hatton said
you take an unframed man into one
Of the greatest and most difficult jobs
OF all. When he begins to learn a
little about his work then you throw
him out again.
In 165 cities that have adopted the