There are too few direct taxpayers.

The government is too complex.

4. The concentration of executive power and responsibility

in the mayor.

5. The administration of the departments by trained experts, or persons with special qualifications for the office.

6. Full publicity secured through a permanent finance commission.

205. A Plea for the Rehabilitation of the City Council

The experience of American cities with corrupt and irresponsible boards of aldermen and councils has led to a drastic reduction in the general powers of the municipal legislature. This development has not been without protest, however, and in the last New York constitutional convention, Mr. Jenks made a plea for the rehabilitation of the city council:

The difficulties in the government of cities are not far to seek. I tell nothing new. I may be unconsciously plagiarizing. They are these: First. There are so few direct taxpayers. You may take almost anything from a man indirectly, little from a man directly. The man who pays the rent does not understand that the tax levy bears upon him. The man who pays the direct tax into the receiving office is he who protests. The other is indifferent; he is the workingman, the rent payer, who sees no tax bill and forgets that any burden is upon him. It is chiefly on account of the fewness of the direct taxpayers that the difficulties in the government of cities exist.

Another difficulty is that the affairs of the city are not understood by the intelligent citizens who live in them. We have a complex system of city government; we have boards and bureaus; we have commissions and routine of delicate charter provisions and manipulations. No man, unless he becomes a student of his own municipality, burning the midnight oil, can understand the system and program of government. Take these two things, then, the intricate method of administering government in cities, the fewness of the people compared with the population who pay direct taxes, and you have the chief bars to good clean government.

payer is

A man goes about his business in despair, and says: "Those The taxfellows in the city hall or common council can manage it. I pay hopeless. my taxes. They are unjust, but I do not know the remedy, nor where lies the fault. The system is wrong, but who is the man?" How many men know the manner in which their own city is governed? They may hear of the board of works, or of the common council, but who can put his finger on any provision of the city government and say this or that is the provision that should be changed or this or that is the provision which should be remedied or amended, or here is he who must account? Now, if we cannot have the town meeting or the folk mote, we need so far as is possible true representative government; we need a system so simple that the man when he comes to the voting booth can know exactly what he is doing and his full measure of responsibility. We want to have simplicity and responsibility coupled with unity in the administration of the affairs of the city; and then it seems to me we have in our imperfect way, at least, partial solving of the problem. . . .

council.

Then, gentlemen, let the common council consist of, say The city 120 men, in cities of the first class, and in cities of the second class of seventy-five, and in cities of the third and final class, of thirty. It may be wise, it may be well, that in the great city of New York there should be a system of dual chambers. It may be wise, it may be well, that there should be a smaller Senate-like body, if you please, elected by the citizens at large, but the gentleman's experience and mine go hand in hand when we say that one general ticket, elected by the whole city, does not show such improvement, in either ability or honesty or statesmanship, as to commend itself either to him or to me.

powers

given to the

The chief election officers of the city should be required to divide Larger the various cities into districts of compact territory and of relative should be equality of population, as near as may be, and from each district there should be elected for a term equal to that of the mayor a representative to the common council. I believe there should be the divorce of municipal elections from State and national elec

council.

The test of popular government.

The council and heads

of depart

ments.

tions. I believe, sir, that full power should be intrusted to this common council by general laws, not even such emasculated powers as are given in this proposed article, but it should be intrusted with every power of local government and with every governmental power committed to the city by the State. That is, I believe it should have the power of fixing the appropriations; I believe it should have the power of determining the tax levy; I believe it should have every power that may be vested in a local legislature. This, of course, is subject to this criticism; it may be said that the experience of the past has shown to us that the common council of cities should rather be shorn of their powers. But is not this the crucial test of the ability of the people of a city to govern themselves? If, with a large body elected from separate districts, intrusted with the full power of local government, the cities of the State cannot or do not elect men who are competent to administer their affairs, then, I say, let them be blotted out forever and be administered by commissions appointed by the Governor or Legislature. The only way to do is thus to educate the people. It was Disraeli who said that true progress was to educate his party. But the way to do this is to educate the people, so that a man will understand when he goes to his polls at the spring elections that he has two men to vote for the mayor, the chief executive of the city, and the member of his local legislature. He knows when he votes for his member, that he will have the power of appropriation, the power of taxation, the power of legislating upon all city affairs, to say what bonds of the city shall be issued, what obligations of the city shall be issued, what expenditures and what contracts shall be made. Then if there be not public spirit, and if there be not enthusiasm and patriotism enough in the inhabitants of the city when the issue is put fairly and squarely before them to elect such men as will represent them fairly, then let chaos come again, and they deserve it.

I believe that the heads of departments should be entitled to seats on the floor of the common council, but without the power to vote. I believe that the heads of the departments should not communicate

with the local legislature by means of long letters, which are pigeonholed, lost sight of, and never read. I believe the head of a department, if he have power to express himself, and anybody who knows his business can express himself, should be subject to question, interrogation, explanation, and to the hectic of debate upon the very floor of the common council. Public opinion rules to-day. Newspapers are our mayors, our common councils. Give us in addition not simply the agitation of some local Demosthenes during the week or two of political campaign, but through the year let us have a common council selected from a full body of the citizens, large enough to represent all the different elements of the city, where the heads of the departments must come to explain why and wherefore they want this appropriation or why and wherefore they have neglected this sewer, or why and wherefore they have not done this or that matter of municipal business, and, if they do not or cannot, then soon will the people gibbet them at the very crossroads of public opinion.

206. Municipal Government by Commission

The principal sections of the recent Iowa law authorizing certain cities to establish government by commission follow:

That any city of the first class, or with special charter, now or hereafter having a population of twenty-five thousand or over, as shown by the last preceding state census, may become organized as a city under the provisions of this act by proceeding as hereinafter provided. Upon petition of electors equal in number to twentyfive per centum of the votes cast for all candidates for mayor at the last preceding city election of any such city, the mayor shall, by proclamation, submit the question of organizing as a city under this act at a special election to be held at a time specified therein, and within two months after said petition is filed. . . .

How the system may be adopted.

In every such city there shall be elected at the regular biennial Election of municipal election, a mayor and four councilmen. If any vacancy occurs in any such office, the remaining members of said council

mayor and council.

Nomination by direct primary.

The city council.

Powers of city council.

shall appoint a person to fill such vacancy during the balance of the unexpired term. Said officers shall be nominated and elected at large. Said officers shall qualify and their terms of office shall begin on the first Monday after their election. . . .

Candidates to be voted for at all general municipal elections at which a mayor and four councilmen are to be elected, under the provisions of this act shall be nominated by a primary election, and no other names shall be placed upon the general ballot except those selected in the manner hereinafter prescribed.... The two candidates receiving the highest number of votes for mayor shall be the candidates and the only candidates whose names shall be placed upon the ballot for mayor at the next succeeding general municipal election, and the eight candidates receiving the highest number of votes for councilmen, or all such candidates if less than eight, shall be the candidates and the only candidates whose names shall be placed upon the ballot for councilman at such municipal election. . . .

Every such city shall be governed by a council, consisting of the mayor and four councilmen, chosen as provided in this act, each of whom shall have the right to vote on all questions coming before the council. . . . The mayor shall preside at all the meetings of the council; he shall have no power to veto any measure, but every resolution or ordinance passed by the council must be signed by the mayor, or by two councilmen, and be recorded before the same shall be in force. . . .

The council shall have and possess and the council and its members shall exercise all executive, legislative and judicial powers and duties now had, possessed, and exercised by the mayor, city council, board of public works, park commissioners, board of police and fire commissioners, board of waterworks trustees, board of library trustees, solicitor, assessor, treasurer, auditor, city engineer, and other executive and administrative officers... The mayor shall be superintendent of the department of public affairs, and the council shall at the first regular meeting after the election of its members designate by majority vote one council