The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-01-16
SW|TZER EXPLAINS. MANAGER PLAN IF
 DAYTON ID FORUM
First Luncheon Under New Plan Held by Chamber of Commerce Hershey
 PresideS

More than 100 business and pro fessional men attended the first Civic Forum luncheon of the Chamber of Commerce Monday in the Tutwiler ball room. with J. M. Switzer of Day7 ton, O., the chief speaker. MT. Swift ger Is former mayor of Dayton and has been active in the. affairs of that city, serving for some time as mayor under the commission manager plan of city government
 pr. R. G. Hershey, former president of the Civic association. merged with the chamber, presided and dwelt on the value of the civic forum as a different lines might bring new ideas to the fore and members of the chamber could air any complaint about the chamber which they might be harboring with assurance that the complaint would receive prompt attention.
 Mir. Switxer spoke feelingly of Dayton as & city which had accom- pltshed dreams. Among the dreams was that of Wright Brothers, the aviators, and that of John H. Pat terson, a country coal operator and storekeeper, who invented and made good with the cash register and later inaugurated welfare work in connection with industrial plants.
 Community Chest
 An interesting statement was that with reference to the Dayton commu- nifty chest. The city takes week off and gets the money for the com munity chest and then enjoys a sur iNit oh wi during the entire year. said MT. Switzer. They raised s500,000 for this cause last year and It was note worthy that there were many 100 per cent contributions by workers in diff ferent industrial plants.
 Purchasing of city supplies, he said, Is done through one purchasing agent, who makes purchases on a competitive basis and keeps goods in warehouses. department heads re- ceiving their supplies on approved Acquisitions on the purchasing agent. Dayton has budget system and money cannot be spent in excess of the budget, which Is first made up and then given publicity.
 Following his formal talk before the luncheon MT. Switzer was pre- vailed upon to give another half-hour answering questions with regard to the, manager form of government at Dayton, which, it developed, is very much like the plan of the Juni or Chamber of Commerce proposed for Birmingham so far as functions of the. general manager are concerned. In answer to questions Mir. Switzer | made statements as follows: The Only Objection "The only outstanding criticism of the commission manager plan of city government in Dayton has been that the election of the council from the city as whole does not give ade- quate representation to all sections of the municipality as would be the case under the district or ward plan | of electing council members.
 "The Labor Review of Dayton, O.. | is one of the strongest advocates of city manager government. Labor in Dayton Is .whole-heartedly in favor of the city manager plan"
 Dayton Is better off finapcialiy | than any city in the state of ohio This Is due to the centralization oi executive authority in the adminis- ltrative branch of city government.
 Your Junior Chamber plan, as il has been explained to me, and that ir | Dayton are very similar, except that 1 under your plan, the councilmen oI commission members are elected by wards.
 There has never in the history ot | commi on-manager government ir | Dayton, O., been the slightest inter ference by the members of the com mission with the administrative func- tions of the city manager, except ir so far as supervision of his work is given to the commission under the charter.
 "The commission on-manager plan, as lit operates in Dayton, removes the government from politics as far as any democracy can be removed from politics.
 'we pay our commissioners sal ary of s1 200 a year. This salary is not large enough to attract the pro- fessional office holder, but is large enough to compensate laboring man or salaried man for the time sacrificed to service on the council from his business. If you fixed nc salary for council members, you would eliminate the small salaried man from the political participation to which he Is entitled.
 | 'I don't know your local conditions But can say that we are eminently pleased with the commission man. ager plan as it operates in Dayton This was overwhelmingly demon strated a year ago, when certain par | ties tried to defeat the plan and were soundly defeated"
 | Mir. Switzer said the Dayton man. ager receives a salary of s8,400 a year and the heads of departments. whom rxoaiua A 5n0