bonds are shown issued for improvements that will be worn out several times before the bonds themselves fall due. There is nothing in the way of a depreciation account or obsolescence account. There is a growing tendency toward retirement and pension funds, social center work, city planning, recreation, widening the educational field, things which compete with the engineer and his works for "a place in the sun."

As it appears to the writer, it behooves the engineer so far as his influence can be made to reach in things municipal to pull for a cooperative system of reporting which will make for a rational apportionment of the receipts of his government.

Mr. Lenderink: Any discussion on this paper?

Mr. Teed: Our next topic is "Civic Affairs" and of this section Mr. Chappell is chairman.

Mr. Chappell: I have prepared a very short report here which I will read, after which Mr. Fairbairn will give his paper and I think these can be discussed as well together as they could separately. This is written as a report on Civic Affairs.

Report of Committee on Civic Affairs

C. E. CHAPPELL, CHAIRMAN

Your committee on civic affairs has not had an opportunity to conduct research work in the art of good government, and therefore does not hope at this time to present any new or startling discoveries. We do, however, hope to present briefly what seems to us to be the spirit of the times and the trend of activities in civic affairs.

There was a time in the memory of all those present when most any plausable scheme which promised to eradicate an objectionable practice was hailed with delight and adopted forthwith; when most any movement calling itself reform met with popular approval. This tendency was used to advantage by those seeking political preferment until now the reformer is suspected of being simply a politician out of a job.

There is now developing a tendency to "rather bear the ills we have than fly to those we know not of." It is being realized that all change is not progress, and that reformers are frequently

bunglers at steering the ship of state. As a result, projects for municipal ownership are not so popular as they were, bond issues are being more carefully scrutinized, and all the variety of projects submitted for popular approval have to do more than sound well to warrant their adoption.

In times past the public utilities and interests were exploited not always so much in the interest of the public as of individuals. Now the tendency is towards conservation, meaning by the term, the right use rather than the restricted use. This idea extends even to the work of organizing or associating of charities whereby an effort is made to direct the donations of the benevolent into those forms which are most useful to those in need. If, for example, a man is in idleness and poverty for the lack of an artificial limb, the organization supplies this and the man is set at work, thereby supporting himself and family, and is no longer a burden to the community. Thus the charitable funds are conserved by being expended for what is not usually considered a necessity of life.

We are also beginning to realize that we have not lived up to our opportunities in providing for the growth and expansion of cities. The average city has developed along the lines of least resistance and greatest individual profit, rather than after a systematic plan to provide for the welfare of the public. We are just now waking up to the fact that the public has a more vital interest in a proposed new addition than has the promoter and the real estate agent. The latter collects his commissions and departs to exploit other additions, but the citizen must, for all time, put up with the narrow streets, small lots, poor grades and all the other shortcomings of an addition designed to sell rather than to be inhabited.

So far as your committee knows there is as yet no satisfactory treatise on City Planning, neither has a working plan been developed whereby public convenience can be made to take precedence over private profit. As yet the subject of city planning is popular principally among the artistic, the beautifiers, and the dreamers whose elaborate plans for the city beautiful take away the breath of the practical man who thinks about paying the cost of making over a town.

To give practical form to all these fine ideals, to put in working order the elaborate theories of those who plan but never execute, to direct in useful channels the energies of those who know how to tear down but cannot build, in short, to find the least common multiple of all these diverse factors and thereby work out a practical solution of the problem of the city plan would appear to be an object worthy the effort and ability of the engineer.

To this end your committee would suggest the advisability of a special committee to propose a working arrangement of the city plan suitable for the smaller cities and so arranged that copies might be sent to any city where charter revision is in progress.

The growth of commission form of government, particularly with the City Manager plan, continues, but the following table compiled from a recent number of Engineering News would seem to indicate that the period of most rapid growth was past.

CITIES PLACING CITY MANAGER PLAN IN EFFECT

While the City Manager Plan is still in the experimental stage, being in operation less than two years in the majority of cities, the following conclusions appear to be warranted:

That it gives increased service rather than reduction of taxes. That while satisfactory in some communities it is not going to work startling reforms and great improvement.

That like most other enterprises it depends more on the men at the head of it than on the system or name.

That its greatest advantage will be its ability to get higher grade men to take office under it.

That its continued popularity will depend upon its ability to maintain a competent press agent and keep the public informed as to how and why it does things.

That if it fails, it will be through loss of public interest and support, thus permitting the election to office of inferior men.

General Manager, City of Big Rapids, Mich.

A turn of fortune's wheel found me in the task of managing a city, and my experience has led me to conclude that the problem, even though it may be worked out in a small community, is as wide and deep and as long as your mental grasp is able to make it.

This title is odd I will admit and savors of slang, yet is not so meant, but tersely describes what faces any city manager. In other words it is the need of securing results.

I will not deny that I am busy, and do not wish to waste my own or your time in contemplation of theoretical vistas of the Manager Plan of City Government. Nor will we go further in defense than to say I believe the following statement to be true.

The value and desirability of broad centralized authority can not be doubted; such authority, properly bestowed, suitably responsible will in the operation of its functions inevitably display discretion.

In all cases coming to my knowledge the City Manager Plan has been instituted for the purpose of securing results.

Results-the words being conceded to mean or stand for that which is commendable. Let me digress long enough to express my belief as to the proper training for a City Managerthe Education and Experience of an Engineer-and to point to the fact that there is a growing conviction among Engineers themselves that they will receive merited recognition and be accorded as a profession deserving prominence, and such substantial rewards as their service to the community EARNS. Let me quote from clippings of recent date:

"Engineers must keep constantly in mind the fact that their professional standing is measured directly by the degree to which the value of their services is generally recognized by the public -what the engineer himself asserts and believes matters little.

We believe this recognition can best be secured by starting at the bottom and beginning anew. In the first place, the engi