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Sponsors of the commission plan have sometimes urged that its adop tion would insure administration by skilled experts, since appointments made by a small body would probably be dictated by reasons of merit and experience alone. It may be noted, however, that the vesting of the right of appointment in the hands of a small body, or even in the hands of a single officer, would not necessarily insure this result..

An important feature of both the Galveston and Des Moines plans of city government by commission is that the "appropriating" and "spending" authorities are fused. In other branches of American government it has been the policy to keep these two jurisdictions distinct and independent. . . .

It is sometimes urged that the general adoption of the system of gov ernment by commission would encourage state intervention in municipal affairs. . . . If large municipal councils are eliminated from the framework of city government there would seem to be a danger that state legislatures would be tempted to assume for themselves some of the broader legislative functions which the councils have been accustomed to exercise.

VII. MUNICIPAL ACTIVITIES

430. Municipal functions. The complexity of municipal functions and their dependence upon conditions differing from city to city make difficult all attempts at municipal reform.

Our study of city government should have shown us that the functions which must be discharged within a city are dependent upon the geograph ical and social conditions obtaining therein and that if those necessary for the highest development of life in the city are not performed satisfactorily by private initiative their discharge must be assumed by the city itself. No general rule can, therefore, be laid down as to the sphere of municipal activity. In some cities geographical conditions may make it necessary for the state to do work which might in other cities be left to the city government. In some cities conditions may be such that private initiative is to be preferred to governmental action on the part of either the state or the city. Again, in large cities the problem of transportation assumes an importance it can never have in cities of smaller size, and its solution may imperatively demand action which would be unnecessary elsewhere. Finally, the industrial character of a city may make it necessary for that city to take measures for the protection of infant life which would be quite unnecessary and even inexpedient in cities where the prevailing occupation does not call for the services of married women.

It must also be remembered that the character and extent of the sphere of activity of a given city will have a most important effect on its organization which must expand with the expansion of the city's sphere of activity and will undoubtedly be subject in other respects to its influence.

In other words there is only in a very general way a problem of city government. For each city is peculiar and must have an organization and discharge functions suited to its peculiar position. Its very relations to the state are peculiar and its position in the state system must depend on the capacity it has for self-government. If that is small its position. will rightly be one of considerable dependence, if large, it may be intrusted with large powers of municipal home rule. What that capacity is, is for the state and not for the city concerned to decide. A city's relations to the state, however, should be such that the state will decide the question not for improper reasons but in view of the most nearly complete satisfaction of the best interests of both the state and the city.. The conditions in some cities are such, however, as to cause us to have grave doubts as to the efficacy of any change in the legal and political relations of the city. We can hardly help believing that the economic and social conditions existing in many of the cities of the United States are such as to make good popular city government extremely difficult, if not impossible of attainment, until changes in those conditions have been made. On that account attempts to reform city government in the United States should not be confined to the mere structure of city government nor to the change of its relation to the state. They should be directed as well to the improvement of the economic and social conditions of the urban population.

Almost every cause, therefore, which is dear to the hearts of a certain portion of the people has an important influence in bettering urban life. Election and nomination reform, civil service reform, financial reform, and administrative reform generally, will, if the concrete measures adopted are well considered, improve the political conditions of American cities. Charity reform, child labor and labor reform generally, and reform in housing conditions, the work of neighborhood settlements, and last but not least, the efforts of the various churches and ethical societies, will do much to ameliorate social and economic conditions. There is no improvement in political conditions which does not aid in the amelioration of social conditions; for improvement in social conditions is in many instances possible only where the political organization is reasonably good. On the other hand, there is no improvement in social conditions which does not make easier the solution of the political problem; for the difficulty of the political problem in cities is in large measure due to the social and economic conditions of the city population.

431. Difficulty of comparing municipal and private ownership. Partisans of both public and private ownership of public utilities frequently overlook the varying conditions that prevent a proper comparison of the merits of the two systems.

When we come to the consideration of the advantages or disadvantages of municipal as compared with private ownership and operation, it is difficult if not impossible to give a general answer, which is based on anything more than a priori reasoning. For the conditions in different countries and in different cities in the same country are so different that it is almost impossible to compare the results achieved. In countries which have made no provision for an effective supervision of private companies we may find private ownership and operation accompanied in particular instances by extremely bad conditions, as has been the case with the street railway in Chicago and New York. On the other hand we may find in a country like Great Britain, which for a long time has had an effective system of control over private corporations, instances, as in the Sheffield Gas Company and the South Metropolitan Gas Company of London, of extremely satisfactory private operation.

Again, we may find in a country like the United States, which has not developed a satisfactory system of general city government, examples of extremely inefficient municipal operation, as in the case of the Philadelphia Gas Works, while in a country like Great Britain which has a satisfactory system of city government, we may find examples of very satisfactory municipal operation, as in the case of the Glasgow tramways.

Furthermore, a comparison of good municipal plants on the one hand and good private plants on the other, which are found in the same country, is difficult. For the policy of different cities in the treatment of either private or municipal plants may be quite different. Thus one city may endeavor to make the plant a source of profit to the general treasury of the city corporation, while another may prefer to lower the price of the service when the part of the public which receives the service is benefited. . . .

It would seem, however, that, on the whole, good and efficient municipal ownership and operation are perfectly possible if certain general principles of administration are applied. These are that the management of the utility, particularly in its financial aspects, is kept separate after the manner of the Italian law from that of any other utility and from the general financial administration of the city, and is intrusted to expert officials having a reasonably permanent tenure and large powers of discretion and control over the subordinate force of employees, who are not to be appointed for political reasons.

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On the other hand, it would seem that uncontrolled private operation is not much to be preferred to indifferent municipal operation, although it must be recognized that too stringent control of private operation has frequently led in the past to municipal operation because private corporations from which too much is demanded in the way of payments to the city or low rates for service rendered cannot give satisfactory service. This is particularly true where the franchise period is a short one.

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If the question were merely an economic one it would doubtless have to be answered in favor of private operation. But the question is not an economic but a social one. These utilities are public utilities, the operation of which is conducted not with the idea of producing wealth but of rendering social service.

Therefore, the admission of the greater efficiency of private operation does not carry with it the conclusion that private operation is always desirable. For this greater efficiency may have for its effect the increase of private wealth rather than the general benefit of the community.

On the other hand, it is to be remembered that the demands on the financial resources of modern cities are so great that the budget of very few cities can stand the drain of many inefficiently and wastefully managed enterprises, no matter what may be the advantages in the direction of greater equality of distribution or greater regard for general social conditions which may be secured. A municipal government must be a very good one and private companies must be very regardless of general social needs to justify a city in undertaking the management of many of these public utilities at the same time.

CHAPTER XXIII

COLONIAL GOVERNMENT

I. IMPORTANCE OF COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT

432. Importance of colonial dependencies. The following brief extract suggests the extent in area and the population of colonies, and therefore the present interest in colonial affairs: 1

Taking the word colony in its widest sense to include all kinds of dependencies, we are met by the fact that the colonies of the world occupy two fifths of the land surface of the globe, and contain a population of half a billion people. . . . The political status of the communities thus controlled presents the greatest diversity. In the strict theory of the law each of them is under the absolute dominion of the sovereign state to which it "belongs." In practice they vary, from the virtual independence enjoyed by Canada and Australia to the total dependence of Gibraltar or Madagascar. The vast extent and the great natural resources of the modern colonial area indicate its importance in the future history of the world. The realization of this by the great powers has led, during the past twenty-five years, to a renewed colonial expansion, in which practically all the "unclaimed " territory of the world has been partitioned among the leading states. The subject of colonial administration, both political and economic, has taken on, in consequence, an increased interest, and attention is more and more directed to the study of the systematic management of dependencies. The recent expansion of the United States resulting from the war with Spain has rendered this portion of the study of government one of especial consequence to Americans.

433. Area and population of modern colonies. The following table may serve as the basis for a comparative study of the area and population of existing dependencies and their relative importance when compared with the homeland: 2

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