city formerly attended to this. The Finance Commissioner being unable to

at less expense.

GEORGE N. SEGER
MAYOR OF PAS-
SAIC, N. J.

dispose of a large issue of bonds to brokers to his satisfaction, sold the entire issue to residents of the city by private correspondence, making the best sale which has ever been made in this city.

Burlington, Ia.— Plan in effect April 4, 1910. Population, 34,324. In first three months city was placed on a cash basis, present debt refunded in serial bonds at 41⁄2 per cent. interest instead of 6 per cent. Taxation was equalized and more work accomplished Mayor and councilmen

devote their entire time to city affairs.

All bills discounted and interest received on daily balances in bank. About $20,000 was saved the first year.

Columbia, S. C.-Plan in operation May 11, 1910. Population, 26,311. For current administrative and departmental expenses since January 1st, the previous administration had expended $169,468.09, or a rate per annum of $468,536.00. During the remainder of the year the commissioners spent $167,435.04 for the same purposes, without curtailing work in any way, or at a rate per annum of $262,300.00. The old council spent $13,289.00 while repairing 39 city blocks; the new council thoroughly repaired 166 blocks for $17,426.00.

Birmingham, Ala.-Plan in effect April, 1911. In the first month under the new plan the city borrowed $500,000 at the lowest rate in its history. The commission cut down the annual running expenses by $75,000 in the first week.

In this as in all other reforms, there is danger that enthusiasts will confuse the means with the end.

The commission plan is admirable only so far as it proves the best instrument through which honest and efficient city government can be obtained. There is

nothing about it sacred-nothing which is not and should not be subject to amendment. And there have already been proposed some most interesting variations from the plan. One of them is that adopted by the city at Staunton, Virginia. Its citizens decided that they would like to try commission govern

ment, but they presently discovered that under the constitution of the state, commission government in its ordinary form could not be had. Whereupon they promptly adapted the plan to the conditions. They elected a small city council from the city at large and that council employed, at a good salary, an experienced civil engineer and executive to act as general manager of the city. Lockport, New York, has asked that it be given power to make a similar experiment. It proposes the election of a small commission, the members of which shall serve in exactly the same capacity as the directors of a business corporation, employing as a chief executive a Municipal General Manager. In this way it is expected that in cities which cannot afford to pay for the full-time services of five important men, their expert advice can be secured and the power and responsibility can be concentrated in a single man under their direction.

As the German cities are administered by professional Burgomasters, who may be called from a small city to a larger, as their experience and ability grows, so under this Staunton and Lockport plan a new profession of Municipal General Managers might be developed in this country.

Most important of all is the fact that the people who live in American cities have, at last, developed a sense of civic or community pride and responsibility. And the short ballot and the so-called commission form of government are apparently the best tools that have so far been found for giving effect to their new aspirations.

MADE GOOD USE OF "WASTED"

WHEN several big doctors with reputations so widespread there isn't room to hold them on this continent, told Professor Irving Fisher of Yale that he had about three years longer to live, naturally he didn't like it. Professor Fisher is a big man himself, one of the country's foremost political economists. However, he cast all scholarships behind him, and announced in colloquial Eng

THE DOCTORS GAVE HIM THREE YEARS
TO LIVE: HE GAVE HIMSELF THREE
YEARS IN WHICH TO RECOVER
HIS HEALTH.

lish as vigorous as the doctors' own, "Gentlemen, I'll fool you."

"Here's for three wasted years," he mourned as he turned his back on the green of college life and started for the mild climate of the Pacific. But those three years proved the very backbone of his life and work, for he came back lit

erally a man made oversoul and body. He was so glad over his accomplishment that he wanted everyone else to know just how it was done. With this end in view he lectures frequently on "Physical Efficiency as a National Asset." His activities extend from day camps for consumptives to governmental health boards, and never for an instant does he let up or tire.

He is a living example of his own theories and manner of existence, and is one of the busiest men in New Haven. In between times he has written a governmental report which is quoted all over the country on "National Vitality: Its Waste and Conservation."

His ideas are as big as the man himself, which is saying much.

believed there's no blood in a turnip. Wendell P. Hammon, the man we are talking about, saw a lot of glistening particles mixed in with the sand. He had been seeking gold through the circuitous route of

But Hammon said: "I'll build a successful dredge.'

He did, and his gold dredges have enabled California to lead the states in gold production, the yearly output from their operations totaling $7,550,000. Having plowed up the surface of his dredgedover land to a depth of 50 feet, Hammon saw another way of squeezing blood out of the turnip. He said: "Let's crush those hard cobblestones into macadam and thus furnish cheap ballast and road material for the railroad and the farmer." Now, three huge plants are working night and day turning out 6,000 tons of crushed rock each day. Next, why not plant these lands to fruits and eucalyptus from Australia? It was done, and this also proved, like the other things that Mr. Hammon had undertaken, a big

raising golden fruit. Why not extract the gold direct from the soil? But was it possible? The golden grains were too fine and too scattered to be obtained by any of the existing methods of placer mining. Hadn't the Chinese tried it, and who could live cheaper than a Chinaman?

success.