The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-18
THE REAL TROUBLE


 ministration, but upon the very form of commission government itself. This is unfortunate in that the people will prob ably be called to vote upon new form of government while their minds are in- flamed against the way things are run at present. Give the people the alter native of new form of government, almost any new form, as against the commission form, and there is grave danger that they would choose the alter native in a sort of desperate hope that it might be better, rather than because they were convinced that it possessed superior merit.
 As a matter of fact, however, the real trouble at the city hall is not primarily in the form of government, for commis- sion government has worked out where properly administered. The trouble is in the personnel of the city commission. Not only are the members constantly at loggerheads on practically every ques- tion, no matter how trivial or how easily
 
 sense, but in the administration of their individual departments they appear hope lessly incompetent. It is evident, there fore, that the voters of Birmingham are, in the final analysis, responsible for the sad situation, for the voters of Birming- ham placed these commissioners in off, flee.
 As has frequently been said before, and is worth repeating, the citizens con- cern should begin with the period when candidates are qualifying for office, and should not delay until the entries have closed and it is too late to induce indi- viduals of capacity to offer for the po- sitions. No system of government will work if its personnel is of insufficient capacity to govern and to administer public affairs in an efficient and busi- nesslike manner. Any system of gov ernment will work, if it is administered by individuals of experience, capacity and breadth of view Therefore, the cit izens of Birmingham should not permit
 
 that some novel form of government, as yet untried, contains the relief they hope for and deserve. In fact, the chances are all the other way. The quality of government depends upon the fitness of those who administer the government, and not upon it's form.
 To be sure, there are certain forms of government that are better than cer- some and requiring the selection of fewer administrators. But even so, with the present public indifference during the period when the candidates are quail flying, the election will be won, not by the best administrator, but by the best politician. In other words, the situation would be exactly where it is at present In the plan now being proposed, for ex- ample, theressis the weakness that the mayor, who is to be the chief executive and administrative manager, is not nec-' essarily a man of proved executive and business experience and success. He might be merely the city's best politi- clan, which would be noaadvance over the present situation.
 The plan is supposed to approximate the city-manager plan, and claims to combine the best features of all plans and eliminate their bad features. If it did this, it would be a remarkable docu- ment but one uninfluenced by the pride of invention and authorship is apt to dis cover loopholes where all the evils of the governments of which the plan is an admixture may creep in. If the manage ment of municipal affairs is to be en- trusted to one man, he should be man chosen, not for his skill in appealing to popular vote, but for his proved capacity to manage important affairs. The trou- ble is not that the people cannot recog- nize ability when it is offered, but that men of sufficient capacity to manage the business of Birmingham do not have to wade through the unpleasantnesses of political campaigns in order to obtain remunerative employment based solely on recognition of their ability to per form the task in hand.
 A further weakness upon which the people of Birmingham should ponder long and deeply is that they are offered only one alternative to the present sys- tenn. That alternative is prepared by a group of citizens who believe in it no doubt, but who exhibit the weakness of being committed to it to the exclusion of all other plans. That is to say, the question before the people of Birming- ham will be whether they will continue commission government or accept sin gle alternative prepared, sponsored and offered by a very small group of citi- zens.
 And after all that is decided, there will still remain the greatest weakness of all. The fact that those offering for