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NATIONAL
MUNICIPAL REVIEW

1913

Editor
Clinton Rogers Woodruff

Associate Editors

Charles Austin Beard Adelaide R. Hasse
John A. Fairlie John A. Lapp

VOLUME II

PUBLISHED FOR THE

national municipal league

BY

WILLIAMS & WILKINS COMPANY
BALTIMORE

1913

I-
NATIONAL

MUNICIPAL REVIEW

Vol. II, No. 1 JANUARY, 1913 Total No. 5

SIMPLICITY, PUBLICITY AND EFFICI-
ENCY IN MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS^

BY CLINTON ROGERS WOODRUFF^

Philadelphia

CERTAIN new words have been introduced into the discussion of
municipal affairs within the past half-dozen years that may prop-
erly be regarded as significant sign-posts. These three words are:
Simplicity, publicity and efficiency. Honesty is of course regarded as an
essential in the administration of municipal atfairs; but it is now generally
recognized that it is not alone sufficient to solve the problems incident to
the very rapid growth of urban communities, at home and abroad.

There has been a growing conviction that the complex systems of the
preceding generation, devised as a means to insure good city government
automatically have failed of their purpose. The chief result of their
introduction has been the strengthening of the power of the professional
politician, and of the organizations which he has built up under varying
party designations. The commission form of municipal government has
in those communities (now 257 in number) where it has been adopted,
resulted in giving to the people a simple, direct way of controlling their
affairs. Many of its advocates, it is quite true, felt that the new system
would of itself insure efficiency, and the selection of competent men for
municipal office. Experience, however, has been sufficiently long and suffi-
ciently widespread to show the fallacy of this view. At the same time,
the system has helped communities to get control of their political affairs
through the introduction of a plan so simple and so direct that it could
easily be understood and applied by the average busy elector.

There is no apparent diminution of interest in this form of city govern-
ment. The movement is really not much over five years old; for while
Galveston, the city where it was first appHed, has had a commission govern-

^ Annual review read at the eighteenth annual meeting of the National Municipal
League, at Los Angeles, July 9, 1912.
^ Secretary, National Municipal League.

1

2 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

incnt since 1001, and Houston since 1905, it was not until the year 1907
that any licadway was made. In that year 9 cities, inchiding Des Moines,
adopted commission government; 1908's record was 6; 1909's, 29; while
in the year 1910, 58 cities adopted the form, and in 1911, 95. ' The move-
ment's greatest development continues in the central west. The north-
western group (Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota, Kansas,
Nebraska, Wyoming, and Montana) leads, with. 64 cities; and the south-
western group (Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico) follows with
59. The other groups are as follows: Northern central, 39; Pacific and
Rocky, 32; southern central, 27; southern, 14; middle, 15; New England, 7.^

In a number of states hke New York and Pennsylvania there are vigor-
ous efforts to secure enabling legislation, so that cities can avail themselves
of the new form. Already the larger cities are beginning seriously to con-
sider the problem. St. Paul, with its population of 214,000, has voted to
inaugurate the new plan on January 1, 1914. New Orleans has inaugurated
the form this year; and Los Angeles has drafted a commission charter for
submission this autumn. To date, no city that has adopted the form has
formall}^ abandoned it.

The records of those cities which have had two or more years of experi-
ence have been uniformly encouraging; although it must be conceded that
in a number of communities there is more or less disappointment because
the character of men selected as commissioners has not been higher; gener-
ally speaking the present character of officials in commission governed
cities is very much higher than prevailed under the older forms. This
is because the electors are beginning to see that they are responsible, in
the last analysis, and not the form of government, for the character of
officials selected. At most, a law can make it easy and feasible to select
competent men. It can not of itself take the place of the power and duty
of selection, which rests — where it has always rested, where it must always
continue to rest — in the hands of the electors themselves.

Among thoughtful students there is now no difference of opinion that
the commission form of government has been the chief and most suggestive
single experiment thus far made in coimection with the machinery of mu-
nicipal goverment; because it has embodied the short ballot idea and the
principle of concentration of responsible power in one small bod}^ of officials
and the abolition of the ward system and through the elimination of party
labels on the ballot, has materially aided in diminishing the element of
I)artisanship. Moreover, it has measurably advanced the idea of intelli-
gent and effective publicity.

These, in brief, may be said to be the chief contributions of the com-
mission form of government; and highly important they are.* They may
not have been the next logical steps ; but experience has shown them to

• These are the figures for November 15, 1912.

SIMPLICITY, PUBLICITY AND EFFICIENCY 3

have been the next practical steps. That approximately 5,000,000 urban
citizens are living, with increasing general satisfaction under these provi-
sions, is a factor of really striking importance, which should be carefully
borne in mind in those older states which have as yet made but compara-
tively little progress in improving municipal machinery.

The chief function of a legislative body is to formulate policies. Prof.
Frank J. Goodnow, of Columbia, in the National Municipal League's
Municipal Program clearly shows that :

It is possible to distinguish in all forms and grades of government two
ultimate or primary functions : The one consists in the determination of the
public policy; the other in the execution of that policy after it has been
once determined. The one function is legislation; the other administra-
tion. This chstinction of governmental functions has been made from an
early time and is at the basis of that fundamental principle of American
constitutional law usually referred to as the principle of the separation of
powers. It is a distinction based upon a sound psychology. In the case
of a single sentient being the will must be formulated, if not expressed,
before its execution is possible. In the case of political bodies, which are
more and more coming to be recognized as subject to psychological law,
not only must the will or policy be formulated before it can be executed,
but also the very complexity of their operations makes it almost impossible
to intrust the same authority as well \\dth the execution as with the deter-
mination of the public policy. This is so not merely because the function
of determining the public policy requires deliberation while the function
of its execution requires quickness of action, but also because the burden
of government is too great to permit of its being borne by any one authority.

To the extent to which the commission form of municipal government
mingles the policy-determining and the policy-executing functions in one
and the same body of men, there is serious danger. The very method of
selecting commissioners (and it is ine\dtable that thej^ should be so chosen)
makes against efficient administration. Though it makes each councilor
a real, as well as a titular, executive chief, by paying him a salary (in most
cases, however, an inadequate one) and by making him personally respon-
sible for the management of one of the departments into which the executive
branch of the government is divided, it provides that he shall be elected for
a short term, usually for two years; atid that he shall be elected by the
whole body of voters at the polls, and that he shall constitute one-fifth
or one-seventh, as the case may be, of the only legislative body of the city.
To put an official on an expert professional basis it is necessarj^, as Dr. C. G.
Hoag, the proportional representation advocate, maintains :

To provide that he shall serve indefinitely if only he serves creditably;
that he shall be selected and retained by some person or group of persons
acquainted with the requirements of his office and competent to judge,
after thorough inquiry, of his special qualifications for it, and that his politi-
cal opinions shall not be confused with his qualifications for purely execu-
tive duties.

4 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

Dr. Hoag further shows that in Enghmd and in Prussia the problem of
putting the eliief executives on an expert professional basis has been solved
with results that evoke the constant and the deserved praises of American
tnunicipal publicists. The English town clerk and the Prussian burgo-
mdskr are chosen by the legislative council (which is elected at the polls)
after full inquiry into the training, experience and other qualifications of the
apjilicants; and they are retained in office so long as they are satisfactory
to the same competent body. This solution is obvious enough, of course;
and its success in Europe has not failed to attract attention in America.
Americans however did not adopt it for themselves, simply because they
did not trust their city councils. They have not trusted them for reasons
already hinted at: They were not responsive to sound public opinion:
they were under control adverse to the public because elected by wards,
which were too often little m.ore than rotten boroughs, they were elected
under a system too compU;;ated for the elector of average busy activity
to master and control, and moreover they were based on a fatal distribu-
tion of power and responsibility.

Commission government in our cities has done more than any other one
agency to restore the council to a position of respect and confidence; because
it occupies, under such a form, a position of power and responsibility, and
is responsive to the public opinion of the city and provides for a simple and
direct formulation of that public opinion. Recent suggestions and develop-
ments have all been in the direction of giving to the council more, rather
than less, power and responsibility — to make it, in other words, the real
policy-determining body, ^vith expert operating efficiency as a part of that
policy.

Trt-o most interesting experiments in this direction are now being urged:
One in the city of Los Angeles, perhaps the most progressive single city
in the United States; the other in Indiana, the municipalities of which have
heretofore been properly grouped in the reactionary class.

In Los Angeles the charter committee chosen by the council (subsequently
chosen as the board of. freeholders) has sought to adapt the commission
form of government to the needs of the large city and to the insistent
demand for real efficiency and democracy. This it aims to do through a
commission of seven, elected at large; each commissioner to be the non-
expert p<;litical head of a great department, with expert operatives adminis-
trators, chosen to execute the policy of the council, immediately under him.
All fjfficials and employees, except the city controller, police justices and
|)ublic defender, to be cliosen by an adequately devised competitive exami-
nation.

In Indiana a "business i)lan," formulated by the Fort Wayne Commer-
cial Club and advocated by the commercial clubs of the state, is being
urged. Briefly, it provides for fifteen councilors, elected at large, on a

SIMPLICITY, PUBLICITY AND EFFICIENCY 5

non-partisan primary plan. The board of councilors become the appoint-
ing' power of the city, on the basis that for pohcy one must elect, and for
efficiency one must appoint. This plan is very close to the board of direc-
tors plan which so widely prevails in private corporations. The entire
control and management of the city government under this business plan
rests with the mayor and four commissioners, who appoint all officials and
employees under civil service rules. For the purpose of enabling the people
to exercise complete control over the board of councilors, they can use the
recall on one or all of the board if 25 per cent of the voters will sign a peti-
tion to that effect, which must contain a general statement of the grounds
for removal. A somewhat similar plan has been elaborated by Mr. Hoag,
who, however, couples with it the suggestion of proportional representation,
an idea which thus far has received more attention abroad than in this
country.

Commission government represents simplicity rather than efficiency.
It represents simplicity, because it substitutes a simple for a complex form
of government. It fails to provide for adequate efficiency, because in
most instances it fails to provide adequately for the selection and retention
not only of experts in municipal affairs (for that is a failing of practically
all American charters), but it fails to provide for the selection and retention
of efficient men in the average run of offices. As a consequence, it is quite
possible for shrewd and skilful men to handle the patronage of a community
in a way to serve their personal interests more effectively than the city's
needs.

Whatever may be the ultimate form of American municipal government,
this much can now be asserted with a fair degree of positiveness : The double
chambered municipal legislature must yield to the single-chambered one
elected at large; so that there may be at one and the same time a simple
and an effective policy-determining body responsive to the wishes of the
municipal population.

Coincident with the commission government development has been the
movement for municipal home rule. Until within a very short time the
cities have been regarded as incapable of determining their policies, or of
managing their own affairs. These have been determined or managed
for them through the state legislatures, elected for sundry other purposes,
involving questions both of national and of state politics. The people are
beginning to realize, however, that if the cities are to be rescued from the
slough of inefficiency, mismanagement and corruption into which they fell
a generation or more ago, they must do it through their own efforts — ■
that they must have the right of self-government. On the Pacific Coast
this right is now universally recognized in the constitution of the states,
and in the practice of the legislatures and of the cities. So in Colorado,

6 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

where tlie Hush aiiu'iuhiicnt, embodying the constitutional amendment
drafted by the National Municipal League, gives to the cities of that state
e()m])lete munieipal autonomy. Slowly the movement is coming eastward.
We find Michigan granting this power of municipal home rule to its cities;
and the recent The Ohio Municipal Constitutional Convention adopted
broad home rule provisions which the voters of the state ratified by a
hirge majority. A healthy movement for municipal home rule exists in
New York, in ^'irginia and in several other eastern states.

In many places the right of the locality to manage its own affairs is
recognized in the passage of bills drafted by local authorities to meet local
needs. Municipal electors, however, will not be satisfied until they can
have a full and free hand to determine their own municipal policies.

Not only has the tendency towards simplicity, chrectness and publicity
manifested itself in the forms of charters adopted by American cities, but
in such matters as that of taxation. In the main the general tendencies,
during the past decade of jx^ars, of the recommendations made by various
conferences and meetings of students and administrators of taxation,
have been in that direction; and legislation has sought to secure directness
in the sense of certainty, as indicated by the substitution of state income
taxes and of various special taxes for the general property tax in various
places. Thrt-e has also been a decided tendency toward publicity, espe-
cially of real estate assessments and methods.

The short ballot is another phase of the movement to enforce simplicitj'^,
directness and publicity. Sentiment in its behalf is growing very rapidly.
Unquestionably a considerable part of the commission government move-
ment is due to the public belief that to secure real democracy the people
must not be overworked in the matter of the selection of their officials.
As the a.ssistant secretary of the Short Ballot Organization so aptly stated
a short time since:

Beneath its .surface simplicity the short ballot idea strikes rudely at some
of the most cherished and deep-rooted political traditions in American

I)olitical thought It runs counter to political superstitions

which have been responsible for much of the lack of i)opular control with
the resultant inefficiency and corruption which have been characteristic
of state and city government. The election of minor officials is not a
boon and a privilege but a specious device to keep from the common
people the control of their government.

The dangerously-great power of politicians in our country ....
rests on the fact that we are living under a form of democracy that is so
unworkai)le as to cf)nstitute in j)ractice a pseudo-tlemocracy. It is unwork-
able because,

Kirst. It submits to popular election offices which are too unimportant
to attrart (or deserve) pul)lic attention, and.

Second. It submits to popular election so many offices at one time that
many of them are inevitably crowded out from proper pubhc attention,
and,

SIMPLICITY, PUBLICITY AND EFFICIENCY 7

Third. It subnyts to popular election so many offices at one time that
the business of making up the electoral tickets necessary at every elec-
tion makes the political machine an indispensable instrument in electoral
action. . . " .

The ''Short Ballot" principle is:

First. That only those offices should be elective which are important
enough to attract (and deserve) public examination.

Second. That very few offices should be filled by election at one time,
so as to permit adequate and unconfused public examination of the candi-
dates.

Direct legislation represents still another effort in the effort to enforce
the will of the community in simple and direct fashion. It is an essential
part of most commission governments, but it can be and has been utilized
in other forms. For instance, it is an integral part of the Indiana " business
plan" already referred to.

Professor Munro, in his volume on The Initiative, Referendum and Recall,
in the National Municipal League Series, declares:

There has been no more striking phenomenon in the development of
American political institutions during the last ten years than the rise to
prominence in public discussion and, consequently, to recognition upon the
statute-book, of those so-termed newer weapons of democracy: The initia-
tive, referendum and recall For this growth in popularity

a two-fold reason may be assigned: On the one hand, it is a logical by-
product of the declining popular trust in the judgment and integrity of
elective legislators. . . • . . In the second place, the representatives
of the people have themselves shown a readiness to adopt the movement.
American legislative bodies do their work under the serious handicaps
arising both from the lack of efficient leadership and from the division both
of power and responsibility which is inherent in the system under which
they are expected to perform their functions. Thoughtful men, both in
the state legislatures and in the large city councils of most American cities,
have come to realize that efficient legislation requires both leadership and
centralization of responsibility.

Efficiency is a word which has been introduced into our municipal vocabu-
lary within a very few years. It represents the advance line of the move-
ment for better municipal government. The bureaus of municipal research
have been responsible for a measure of the demand for efficiency, because
they have shown so clearly and indisputably the inefficiency of present
methods. Th&y have not been alone, however, in recognizing and empha-
sizing this fact. Those interested in the improvement of the civil service
of the community have urged for years that not only were honesty and
freedom from political control essentials, but that steps must be taken for
the selection of the most competent and efficient men, not only in the minor,
but in the major places as well. The report of the joint committee of the
National Municipal League and the National Civil Service Reform League

8 NATIONAL IMUNICIPAL REVIEW

on the seloclion and retention of experts in municipal service/ is an official
recognition of this sentiment; and the establishment of efficiency bureaus
in numerous citii's is a further manifestation of the same thought. So
considerable has l)een tlie growth of the demand for efficiency, not only in
governmental alTairs, but in private affairs as well (for the methods pur-
sued in private concerns have not alwaj-s been calculated to produce the
best results with the least expenditure of time and money) that it has
resulted in tiie organization of an efficiency society, the object of which is
to bring together those who are interested in attaining this end in the man-
agement of affairs, both public and private.

Another d(>velopment of interest along these fines is the utilization of
the university trained men in municipal affairs. Somewhat over a year
ago an arrangement was entered into between Harvard and the municipal-
ity of Cambridge, providing for cooperation between the members of the
faculty of the former and the various official bodies of the latter. For
instance, certain of the university professors rendered most efficient help to
the Iniilding commission appointed to examine the city buildings and make
recommendations as to repairs and the most economical way to effect them.

In Philadeliihia, shortly after the inauguration of the present adminis-
tration, the provost of the University of Pennsylvania wrote to the mayor
saying that it gave him pleasure to say that after a conference with his
hoard of trustees he was in a position to announce that the University of
Pennsylvania would be glad through its professors to cooperate with the
<'it>' at any time, in the solution of the problems which arise from time to
time in the various departments of the city. As a result of this, the uni-
versity has designated a member of a committee of three to advise ^^•ith
the dejiartment of puljlic works on those aspects of the water problem
which affect the public health; another member of the faculty has been
designated to conduct an expert examination of the city's water; and still
another is at work on the franchise problem. In addition to this, the uni-
versity has been giving lectures from time to time for the inspectors and
a.s.si.stants in the bureau of highways, with a view to enabfing them to
herome more efTieient and effective in the discharge of their respective
duties.

The same tendencies that are manifested in other departments of mu-
nicipal activity, find expression in the municipal poficy concerning pubhc
utilities. There is an increasing tendency to give to the people and their
official representatives a completer and a more direct control of their opera-
tion and management with a corresponding increase in efficiency and effec-
tiveness.

Non-partisanship, or more accurately a disregard of national politics
in the determination of municipal questions, is constantly getting a stronger

* See National McN-iriPAU Revikw, vol. i, p. 646.

SIMPLICITY, PUBLICITY AND EFFICIENCY 9

hold upon the voters of American cities. In no one of the cities now under
a commission form of government is there any mention of a national party,
or for that matter of any party on the ballots, used either at the primary
or at the general election. In a lengthening list of the larger cities, e.g.,
Boston, Seattle, Portland, Ore., San Francisco, and Los Angeles, the same
conditions prevail.

Speaking of the latter city brings to mind its Municipal News, which is
a weekly actually conducted by the city. A striking feature of this paper,
under the provisions of the ordinance establishing it is that one of its pages
is devoted to party politics, a column each for the Democratic, the Good
Government organization, the Republican, the Socialist party, and the
Socialist Labor party. The first two organizations named availed them-
selves of the space. The Socialists did likewise, both branches having
a column. The Republican organization, however, refused, giving its
reasons, in part, as follows:

The Republican county central committee is opposed to the use for par-
tisan purposes of a municipal newspaper financed by the city of Los Angeles
and published under the direction of city officials. We believe with Theo-
dore Roosevelt — "The worst evils that affect our local government arise
from and are the inevitable result of the mixing up of the city affairs with
the party politics of the nation and of the state. The lines upon which
national parties divide have no necessary connection with the business of
the city." This committee does not desire to furnish anything of a parti-
san nature for publication in the Municipal News and regrets exceedingly
that opportunity is offered other political organizations and national parties
to use the columns of the municipal paper in this city for such purposes.

While on the Pacific coast last winter, nearly two months, and while
in some communities, notably in Seattle, where fierce campaigns were
being waged, I do not recall once hearing the national party labels used in
connection with municipal affairs or candidates. I frequently asked an
official's politics, but I was not always successful in finding out. Party
pofitics, in the national sense, are disappearing in these far-western cities
and so is the political boss.

The leading publicists of the day, headed by so distinguished a man as
Ambassador Bryce, hold to the view that the national poHtical parties
should be and must be disregarded in the realm of city affairs if we are to
solve our municipal problems. In opening a municipal congress and
exposition in Chicago, Mayor Harrison, who was elected as a Democrat,
advocated absolutely non-partisan municipal administration, as well as
nominations and elections ''based on individual merit, not on party label."
Mayor Fitzgerald of Boston, on the same occasion, who was also elected
as a Democrat, commended the German plan of selecting experts, regard-
less of politics, to serve as heads of municipal departments. The German

10 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

plan, by the way, includes the selection of mayors regardless of politics,
geograpliy or anything else that is not related to fitness and merit.

No one hi a municipal congress, as the Chicago Record Herald pointed
out at the time, would venture to defend the spoils system or naked partisan-
ship in nuiiiicipal administration. The absurdity of it Avould be too patent.
Any such congress or exposition is a plea for merit and efficiency, a protest
against irrelevant politics and spoils. Hence the value of such congresses
and expositions. The speakers feel they must rise to a higher plane, the
visitors hear the right gospel and inspect various ''object lessons" illus-
trative of the growth of sense and method in local administration.

Former Mayor Speer of Denver, on his return from an European trip
a year ago, declared that the most important thing needed in the govern-
ment of American cities was the removal of party politics.

We are getting nearer to that point every year. We should only nomi-
nate men in whom we have confidence, and then pledge them to an admin-
istration of city affairs from wiiich no one could tell to what political
party they belonged.

Philadelphia affords a striking example of a great city disregarding party
lines in the selection of its chief magistrate. All through the late mayoralty
campaign there was a general disregard of the party appeal and the advo-
cacy of candidates based on merit. This is as it should be and as it is com-
ing to be. Party lines have set very lightly in most communities during
the past year; and a very large number of cities have emancipated them-
selves from the shibboleth of partisan pohtics in municipal elections. This
independence has manifested itself not only in the matter of the selection
of officials, but in the votes upon various questions submitted to the elec-
tors for determination. Nevertheless, few people realize at its true value
the growth of the municipal movement in this country and the develop-
ment of sound municipal public opinion. A roll call of the cities will dis-
close a lengthening list of those communities that are breaking their shackles
of subserviency to old concfitions and low standards, and establishing in
their place and stead governments that are simple in form, direct in their
operation, public in their manifestation, and independent of old-time party
shibboleths and leaders.

STATE VS. MUNICIPAL REGULATIONS
OF PUBLIC UTILITIES

BY JOHN MORTON ESHLEMAN, M.A.^
San Francisco

THE present constitutional provision^ provides for the regulation
of utilities outside of municipalities by the railroad commission
and the regulation of utilities within municipalities by the munic-
ipal authorities to the extent of the powers vested in such municipal
authorities at the time of the going into effect of legislation, which the
constitutionl amendment contemplated to be passed, conferring powers
upon the railroad commission for which the constitutional mandate pro-
vided. Thereafter the option remains with the municipality to exercise
such authority over the utilities within its borders or, by an election held
for -that purpose, to transfer such powers to the railroad commission,
and having once transferred its powers, the right is reserved to retake
the powers at a subsequent election, should the municipality desire.

This scheme of regulation makes it necessary for the public authorities,
both state and municipal, to determine just what power is reposed in
each several municipality at the time of the taking effect of the public
utilities act of this state, which was the legislation passed pursuant to the
constitutional amendment heretofore referred to. In order that there
might be no unnecessary conflict between state and municipal authorities,
the commission requested various city attorneys of the state to present
their views as to what authority was vested in each municipality on the
twenty-third day of March, 1912, the effective date of the pubhc utilities
act, and directed its attorney to investigate the various city charters
with a view, to rendering an opinion on this question for the future guid-
ance of the commission.

It is our view that March 23, 1912, is the date which must be looked
to in determining what powers were vested in the municipal authorities
of the several cities. The powers which municipal authorities have are
the powers conferred upon them by the state (a municipality being a
creature of the state for local governmental purposes). All such munic-
ipalities have the ordinary police power which is the "power to conserve
the health, comfort, happiness and convenience of its inhabitants."^ As to

iMr. Eshleman is president of the board of railroad commissioners for the state
of California, and as such has had practical experience with the questions he dis-
cusses in his paper, which was read at the Los Angeles meeting of the National
Municipal League.

2 Art. xxiii, sec. 12, constitution of California.

^Tiedeman, Municipal Corporations,- sec. 135.

11

]j NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

sucli power (.\ cr puhlif utility corporations, the railroad commission,
of course, has no authority. The power to fix rates of pubHc utilities,
however, is a power which must be conferred upon municipalities by
direct action of the state.^

I JKive not overlooked the apparent enlargement of the police power
(.f cities so as to include rate fixing powers by the decisions of some of
the courts. I have particularly in mind the case of Denninger vs. Record-
er's Court of Pomona,'' but the language used there, and which is usually
referred to in support of the theory that the cities, under their poUce
power, have the power of rate fixing, is certainly but dictum and not nec-
essary to the decision of the case and, as pointed out by Mr. Max Thelen
in his opinion to the commission, if section 11 of article xi of the Cali-
fornia constitution be construed to confer upon the municipalities of the
state the power to regulate the rates of public utilities in its grant of police
powers, then section 19 of article xi would be mere surplusage as would
also be section 1 of article xiv, as these sections confer the same powers
as would be conferred in section 11 of article xi and would be wholly
unnecessary.

The police power of the municipalities over public utilities is mainly
the power to regulate the use of streets, and all cities whether under pro-
visions of the constitution^ or under the general laws providing for the
organization of certain classes of cities or under freeholders' charters
as they existed on the twenty-third day of March, 1912, have power to
regvilate the rates for light, water, power, heat, transportation and tele-
phone service or other means of communication in so far as such services
ar^' rendered within the limits of municipalities exercising such authority.

As to railroad corporations, certainly these cities have no authority
except the ordinary police power which has already been adverted to.
A.s to common carriers other than railroad and street railroad corpora-
tions, the municipalities have no power except the police power. As to
service and equipment, no municipalities other than those which were
()|)erating under freeholders' charters on the twenty-third day of March,
1912, have any auhority whatsoever. To determine the powers of char-
tered cities in this regard, it will be necessar}^ to resort to the various
charters and the design of this paper does not require that such be done.
It i.s sufficient to say, however, that most of the freeholders' charters
of the cities of the state of California provide for varying degrees of reg-
ulation of the service and equipment of the public utilities within their
l)()rflers.

The public utilities act is not merely a compilation of the laws of the

'Wynmn, Public Service Corporations, vol. 1, sec. 1410.'

M45 Cal. 620.

•ISection 11 of artido xi, sorfion 19 of article xi, section 1 of article xiv.

MUNICIPAL REGULATIONS OF PUBLIC UTILITIES 13

various states, but is rather a homogoneous enactment designed to cover
every aspect of regulation that may be presented to a pubhc authority.
To be sure the- experiences of other states have been used to the best
advantage and particularly is our statute designed to escape the diffi-
culties which have confronted other commissions. The act represents
the combined efforts of a great many of the leading attorneys of the state,
representing both the municipalities and the public utilities.

I assume that it will be agreed that the three principal divisions of
public utility regulation are rates, service and securities. Falling within
one or the other of these divisions are, I beheve, all the subjects of regu-
lation. The commission has been given the authority to regulate the
rates, service and securities of street railroad corporations, railroad cor-
porations, express corporations, pipe line corporations, gas corporations,
electrical corporations, telephone and telegraph corporations, water
corporations, vessels, warehousemen and wharfingers, and each of these
is defined as a public utility. As incident to the fixing of rates, the com-
mission is empowered to ascertain the valuation of the property of any
public utility, and likewise to prescribe systems of accounts and regulate
free or reduced rate transportation and prevent discriminations. As
incident to service, the commission has all the powers that are ordinarily
necessary to require adequate fulfillment of their duties to the public
by utilities and specifically may require extensions, proper management,
proper equipment, adequate number of trains or cars, track connections,
construction of spur tracks, maintenance of a proper standard of quality
for certain commodities, etc. Likewise the commission may prevent
discrimination in service.

Street railroads, gas, electrical, telephone and water corporations are
required to apply to the commission for a certificate of public convenience
and necessity and also for the right to exercise franchises. These pro-
visions have to do with both rates and service.

The power of the commission to regulate the issuance of securities of
utilities companies is a power which has not heretofore been conferred
upon any public authority in this state. The commission is not limited
in -dealing with securities to a refusal or a granting of permission to the
utility to issue such securities. It may deny the application as made;
it may grant it as made or it may grant it in a modified form by imposing
conditions which seem right and necessary. This latter power is not
conferred specifically upon the commissions in the various states, and
lacking such specific grant, the courts usually take the view that the
commission's authority is limited to the granting or the refusal to grant
the application as made. This defect in the New York statute has very
seriously interfered with the work of the public service commissions of
that state, and the courts of New York have held that under the statute

11 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

tluMc, the comniissions have no power to impose conditions. Any stocks
or houtls of a pui)lic utility which are issued without an order of the com-
mission are void and the commission has the power to see that the pro-
ceeds of stock and bond issues are devoted to the purposes set out in
the law and in the order of the commission.

While it does not have a direct bearing upon the divided authority
over utilities, yet the court procedure for which the public utilities act
provides is worthy of note. Heretofore it has been the practice often
of public utilities to state very httle of their cases before the commissions
and then attack the orders of the commissions in the courts and produce
the testimony before the courts which had been withheld from the com-
missions. Our act provides that no public utihty may go into the court
until it has asked for'and been denied a rehearing before the commission,
and it may only present to the courts those matters of evidence which
have been theretofore presented to the commission. The resort is directly
to the supreme court of the state by means of a writ of review. This
method insures a complete presentation to the commission of all the facts
surrounding the questions in issue and enables the commission to render
its order wath all the evidence before it which will be necessary to a correct
decision.

The regulation of public utilities other than railroads in all of the states
has been a gro^\i,h and the first steps have usually been taken within the
cities. Most of the states sought to regulate their railroads through
state authority, usually through railroad commissions, but provided no
state wide regulation of other utilities. Proceeding from the exercise
of their police power, the cities have gradually been permitted to extend
their authority until in many states the cities now have all the authority
tiiat the municipalities of this state enjoy. In by far the greater number
of states, until very recently, there has been no attempt on the part of
the state to regulate utilities other than railroads outside of municipalities,
and hence wo have had a condition grow up which has produced regulation
of street railroads, gas, electric, telephone and water and similar corpor-
ations within the cities and has left these corporations free to w^ork their
own will as to all unincorporated territory.

An incorporated city has certain boundaries but these are not recog-
nized in a telephone exchange or a gas or electric plant, and now by the
rapidly increasing suburban population, brought on by the extension of
rapid tran.sit facilities and the enlargement in the use of telephone, light
and gas service in the farming communities, we have thrust upon us a
condition wherein a utility serving a city in no wise hmits the scope of
its operation to the borders of such city, and hence arises the problem of
divided regulation. Many of the states have not yet provided for the
regulation of their utilities other than raihoads in their operation within

MUNICIPAL REGULATIONS OF PUBLIC UTILITIES 15

unincorporated territory. The remaining states either have divided
authority or the question of jurisdiction is doubtful. The only state
whose scheme of- regulation is closely analogous to that prevailing in
California is Kansas, and in that state there exists a form of appeal from
the city authorities to the public utilities commission, which scheme
would be impossible under the constitutional provision obtaining in Cal-
ifornia under the decisions of our supreme court. New York and Wis-
consin both provide for the regulation by the state authorities not only
of private corporations operating within cities but also of municipally
owned plants.

I do not here question the propriety of a municipality exercising such
powers of regulation over utilities operating within such municipality
as do not necessarily affect the patrons of such utility without the bound-
aries of the municipality. If a utility confines its operation entirely
to the territory within the corporate limits of a municipality, then such
municipality should have the right to control the operation of such utility.
While I concede the right I do not now commit myself as to the policy
of such action. This is in line with the now generally accepted American
doctrine of permitting to localities that degree of self-government which
is possible without interfering with the rights of people who do not live
within such communities. The design of the federal constitution is to
retain in the states all such powers as are necessary to the protection
of the rights of the inhabitants of such states when such retention of
powers may not interfere with the general welfare of the people of the
entire Nation, and only such general powers are conferred by the several
states upon the federal government as are necessary to deal with national
as distinguished from state problems.

Our original premise was that the city should regulate those things
which are peculiar to the city, but should not regulate those things which
may, directly or indirectly, affect others who are not of its population.
The legal maxim that a man may use that which is his only in such a
way as not to injure another, applies, I believe, with equal force to a city
in the use of its powers, and I might also say as well to a state and to a
nation. Therefore we must be very slow to make up our minds that
a city should have the right to regulate the affairs of a utility operating
within the city, but likewise serving its commodity to other sections,
until it appear that the action of such city cannot work injustice to the
other patrons of the utility to be regulated.

Once I thought that the sense of justice which is supposed to be present
with all men would prevent a city from regulation which had merely in
view the interests of the inhabitants of such municipahtj^ but being
more sophisticated now, I no longer hold this view, and here is the reason
for my change of mind: Under the certificate of public convenience and

in NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

npcossity wliicli ri'(iuires a public utility desiring to enter territory already
served l)y another utility of the same kind, whether such territory be
within or without a municipality, to apply for permission so to do, it has
been necessary for the railroad commission to investigate the attitude
of municipal authorities in this regard. I believe those who have studied
utility (iU(>stions know that rate wars cannot ultimately be of benefit
to the patrons of utilities engaged in such strife. Likewise that where
a territory is completely served Avith the utility, that, the advent of a
second utility of the same kind means duplication of service and hence
necessitates a return on an unnecessary amount of property, if rates are
to be fixed with relation to the value of the property involved. Bear
in mind, that what I say here applies only to territory completely and
adequately served. Yet in investigations concerning the issuance of
a certificate of public convenience and necessity we have found that
sometimes the attitude of the city authorities is that they are willing
that a second utiUty should come into their municipality and duplicate
service and cut rates below a reasonable scale and recoup itself if any
loss be entailed in such city from territory wherein competition does not
exist. In fact, we have had this directly admitted by city authorities
under oath before us, and this in disregard of the fact that such utility
must inevitably make unreasonably high rates elsewhere or drive its com-
petitor out of business in the competitive territory and thereafter recoup
itself from the very patrons who have assisted in destroying the weaker
competitor. These practices have prevailed in so many sections of the
United States and on such large scales, as has been demonstrated again
and again, that I had thought that selfish considerations, if none other,
would prevent municipal authorities from taking the position we have
found some of them to take, but, as I have said, I no longer entertain such
belief as to some of the city authorities in this state at least.

Of course, the people of Los Angeles and the city authorities of this
magnificent and progressive city would not be either so selfish or so foolish
as the city authorities to whom I have referred, but even here we find,
if 1 am correctly informed, that it is urged by some that because of the
fact that the people of this city generously and farsightedly went into
their pockets to construct the aqueduct and bring water through the
mountains for their use and for the use of much of southern California,
that by reason of that fact they should have not only the legal but the
moral right to charge to the consumers of this water in territory not wuthin
the nmnicipality "all the traffic will bear." At the risk of treading upon
the toes of some of my very best friends, and impliedly criticising those
concerning whose integrity and fairmindedness I have no doubt, I will
say, that I believe the city of Los Angeles has neither the legal nor the
moral right to do any such thing, and I would further say that, in my

MUNICIPAL REGULATIONS OF PUBLIC UTILITIES 17

opinion, the attitude in this regard is no better than the attitude of the
transportation companies that have been urging as to this city and this
state that they have a similar right to charge all tHe traffic will bear.

The people of Los Angeles should pause and determine just what this
doctrine means before they finally adopt it. As naively put by Commis-
sioner Gordon of the railroad commission of this state, in discussing
this theory with a traffic man, this doctrine means ''beating the compe-
tition where it exists and soaking the non-competitive points." This
is what it means when applied to railroads. Of course, I assume that its
apologists will say that it does not mean the same when applied to Los
Angeles. As applied to railroads it means, as a traffic man recently said,
the driving of ships from the sea and the neutralization of the competition
of the water. By putting in rates at some points that prevent the ships
from doing business or securing control of the ships, and thus preventing
them from giving the public any advantage from the water highway the
railroads have in times past driven the ships from the sea, but the people
of the state of California and all other states of the Union have helped to
pay the expense of thus driving the ships from the sea.

"All the traffic will bear" means that the necessity of the farmer is the
limit of the freight rate : that is, he is charged a rate that will at least usu-
ally get his produce to market, for if he is charged a higher rate than this
it pays him to let it rot. The same necessity which causes the farmer to
pay the high rate in order to move his traffic will cause the irrigator to
pay a high rate for his water, particularly after he has once brought his
land under irrigation, and must, of necessitj^, by reason of the character
of his crops, have water in succeeding years. The duress which may be
resorted to by those in charge of water for public distribution has often
been commented upon by the courts in determining the rules for regulating
irrigation companies, and the city of Los Angeles would have the same
power, if it is permitted to charge all the traffic would bear, that private
corporations have.

I understand also that it is urged that the city of Los Angeles by gen-
erously expending its money in this extremely laudable undertaking and
in bringing water to these thirsty lands, is enhancing the value of these
lands, and that the enhancement should go to the city of Los Angeles.
The railroads argue before us that they, by building into a territory, have
enhanced the value of the lands, and therefore should have higher freight
rates. I beheve that the people of Los Angeles are entitled to great con-
sideration for having consummated this wonderful enterprise, and that
those who jointly share with them the benefits should jointly assume the
burden, but I do not believe it is any more justifiable for those who share
the benefits with the city of Los Angeles to bear an undue proportion of
the burden than it is for the railroad, because its bondholders have paid

18 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

in the money for its building, to take the unearned increment in the terri-
tory through which it passes.

So far I have only dealt with what might be called the moral aspect of
the case. I have gone no further than to say that as to a utility operating
within and without a municipality, the authorities of such municipality
should not exercise such control over said utility as A\'ill permit the impo-
sition of an undue burden upon the outlying territory. It will be nec-
essary, however, before finally determining the advisability of divided
regulation to decide in what cases the exercise by a municipality of the
power of regulating such utility will put it in a position to burden outlying
territory, and as to all other cases, what I have said on the moral side of
this matter has no application. Before doing this, however, it will be
advisable to discuss any practical difficulties which may be presented
by divided regulation, and thus have before us all the factors which go
to determine whether or not our divided regulation as it exists in California,
is better or worse than state control.

I have heretofore said, that as to utilities whose operation is limited to
the confines of a municipality, I see no reason in pubUc policy why the
municipalities should not regulate them. I am aware of the fact that very
often it is urged that even these utilities should not be regulated by the
city because, in the language of the utility, ordinarily it makes the city,
an interested party, the judge of its own case. While to a limited degree
this may be true, yet all outside regulation, whether state or municipal,
is in a measure open to this charge. As members of the public in whose
interest primarily regulation exists, and not pecuniarily or otherwise inter-
ested in the public utility to be regulated, pubUc officers are to some degree
interested parties. Then, too, it is said that city regulation requires the
utility to go into city politics. If such be the case, I see no reason why
state regulation does not also require the utility to go into state politics.

We, in all of the cities and all the states, have heard much of "cinch"
bills and unjust decisions against utilities by public officers. I have had
some enlightening experience as a member of the California legislature,
and I do not know whether or not this audience Avill expect me to apologize
for having been a member of the legislature, but in Cafifornia, at least at
the present time, it is not dishonorable to be a member of the legislature.
While at Sacramento, as a member of a legislature w^hose majority at least
was not antagonistic to the utility interests of this state, I found it invari-
al)ly the case that the independent legislator always opposed the so-called
"cinch" bills which the subservient and owned legislator always introduced.
The participation in politics of the pubUc utiUties, which they justify as
a necessity because they must b? protected from the action of dishonest
officials, is directly responsible for the election of these dishonest officials.

As with the state so with the city governments. Pubfic utilities can

MUNICIPAL REGULATIONS OF PUBLIC UTILITIES 19

always get a square deal from honest men to the limit of their knowledge,
and the way to get this square deal is not to attempt to elect dishonest
men to office who are subservient to the utilities, but to keep out of politics
and allow the people to elect their own officers, and then play an open
game before the authorities, presenting instead of suppressing evidence,
to the end that these honest officials may have sufficient knowledge properly
to decide. Therefore I still say, that a public utility, operating entirely
within a municipality, quite properly should be regulated by such munic-
ipality and that such a method of regulation is directly in accord with the
spirit of American institutions. Hence, I limit the doubtful cases to those
that involve the regulation by the city authorities of a portion only of the
business of public utilities affected.

Ordinarily the hmit of a telephone exchange is not the city boundaries,
nor does a gas or water corporation limit its activitj^ to one municipality.
In the fixing of rates a knowledge of the fair value of the property which
is properly attributable to the portion of the rate bearing public for which
rates are desired to be made must be known, and likewise the amount of
operating and other expenses incident to the furnishing of the utility must
be considered. In by far the majority of the cases where a utility does
business in two or more municipalities, or in one municipality and outlying
unincorporated territory, it is practically impossible to determine the
proper value of the property of the utility wdthin the city which is necessary
to its service without the city, and the same may be said for the distribu-
tion of the operating expenses and revenue. How difficult it is to deter-
mine what portion of a telephone line, for example, serving municipal ter-
ritory and territory without, shall be apportioned to the city and what
portion to the unincorporated territory can only be reahzed by the person
who has tried to perform the operation.

Some one may think, superficially, that the division should be in pro-
portion to the number of miles or feet of line within or without the munic-
ipality, but such person is overlooking the fact that all of the line within
the municipality is necessary for the service without the municipahty and
the portion of the line outside the municipality is also necessary for all
service from points without to points within the municipahty. The same
may be said for income and operating expenses. The same practical diffi-
culty suggested here is presented by every aspect of regulation where we
have divided authority such as exists in this state. The only possibility
of arriving at a near approximation of correct results is bj^ taking all, or
a sufficiently large portion of a utility business, preferably the former.
The exchange apparatus of a telephone company is necessary to its toll
business, and vice versa. The city mains of a water company are necessary
to its distribution system in any other city in which it may operate. The
electrical transmission wires which bring hydro-electric energy from the

20 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

mountain sources are just as necessary to the distribution of light and
power in Pasadena as in Los Angeles and to the suburban territory of Los
Angeles County, as to its smaller municipalities. The maintenance of
these power lines and the power houses and the dams is essential to the
entire service of the power company.

We have power companies in this state which furnish hght and power
to scores of municipahties and counties and for the fixing of rates in the
smallest of these municipalities it is essential to know exactly the same
things about the revenue and expenses of these companies as would be
necessary to be known by a rate fixing body which would fix the rates
which should exist for all patrons in the territory served. I do not mean
to convey the impression that the larger authority would fix a flat rate
for the entire territory. What I do mean to say is, that the larger author-
ity would fix the same sliding scale for utilities and make it applicable to
the entire district as would be necessary to be fixed by the municipal council
and that the larger authority could much more easily secure the data nec-
essary to be considered by it than could the municipal authority, because
this latter authority would have to secure the information necessary to
the former and make the segregations and apportionments which are not
necessary when the entire business and the entire rates are in contem-
plation.

Therefore, as to utilities operating other than entirely within one city,
divided authority means duphcation of work as many times over as the
authority is divided and from an economical and practicable aspect it is
a waste of governmental machinery to use a half hundred agencies in doing
that w^hich can better be done by one. All of you know the many difficul-
ties that are presented to a city council in fixing rates and regulating service.
Inadequate apparatus and the proneness of cities to expect their officers
to serve for inadequate or no salaries makes it practically impossible for
them to determine the facts, and this condition is ideal for fostering
litigation. Notiiing is so desirable from the standpoint of a utility which
desires to defeat regulation than a condition which prevents the local
authorities from securing adequate information and likewise permits the
tying up a dozen city ordinances where state regulation would only present
for attack one order for the same territory and an order which in the very
nature of things would be fortified by a much more thorough investigation
than can possibly be made by unpaid city authorities with inadequate funds
for investigating purposes.

Nowadays it has become the custom of public utilities to clamor for
state regulation and this has caused many people to be suspicious of such
regulation. I believe such an attitude on the part of the public utility
is a hopeful one. No one who has followed political development in the
United States, in national, state and city governments, which has been

MUNICIPAL REGULATIONS OF PUBLIC UTILITIES 21

going on in the last decade can fail to see that the people of this country
have decided that the government is greater than the great corporations:
that the creator is greater than its creature, and the wise utility manager
confronting the pent-up wrath of the public which has been so long in the
forming and which is directly due to the iniquities that have been worked
upon the public by utilities in the past, sees that for him and for his insti-
tution, regulation or a worse fate is in store and he flies to regulation as
his only salvation.

No longer may the pubhc utility, connected through the boss with the
underworld, control the destiny of any city of the United States for any
appreciable time. No longer may the great railroad enterprises, holding
together the bosses in the various cities, control the states, and the utility
enterprises and the other great corporate interests realizing, as I have said,
that regulation for them is the only escape from the further anger of the
pubhc and possibly final confiscation, or at least extensive reprisals, and
facing clear decisions of the supreme court of the United States which
strengthen the arm of the public authorities against them, are now propos-
ing to accept regulation and accepting it, they are desirous that it may be
as efficient as it may possibly be. Consequently they view with more
approval one tribunal, amply equipped, that shall deal effectively and
expeditiously with the problems presented to it than the annoyance of
scores of city councils each, as I have said, poorly equipped, to attack these
larger problems.

Of course, in the larger cities, like San Francisco and Los Angeles,
there could and should be adequate funds provided and reasonable salaries
for those engaged in this work and the rapidly increasing number of munic-
ipally owned plants will make necessary the training of experts and the
expenditure of money in this direction. I am firmly convinced, however,
in the absence of municipal ownership of utilities and utilities operating
as they now do in more than one city, or in city and country territory,
that from a practical standpoint the state and not the city should deal
with them.

Referring again to the moral aspect of the question, even a superficial
view will show that the city which regulates but a part of a utility has it
in its power so to act as to affect other territory. . Under similar circum-
stances the rate in a city should be the same as the rate without the city
or the rate in one city should be the same as the rate in another and the
standard of efficiency should likewise be the same. Therefore in every
instance where a city authority fixes rates without adequately considering
the entire business of the utility on the hit or miss plan which has hereto-
fore been an absolute necessity in most cities by reason of the facts to
which I have already referred, such city may, and often does, by chance
fix a rate which is not just to the outlying territory and which will yield

22 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

an amount less than should be yielded for the service, thereby decreasing
the revenue of the utility and this decrease will affect the entire revenue
and when the larger authority considers the business of the utility oper-
ating within this city for rate fixing purposes, in outside territory, it will
be presented with a revenue which will be less than it should be by reason
of the too low rate A\athin the city and thereby if it is just to the utility it
must fix a rate which is on the average too high for the outlying territory.
Thus the very inability of the municipahty adequately to determine the
questions of rates and service in many cases works an injustice to other
consumers of the utility, and until these cities are prepared to deal with
this question as its importance demands, they should not in justice desire
to deal with it at all.

The careless attitude of the cities, particularly the smaller, and I have
urged that some of the larger ones are sometimes likewise careless, neces-
sitates in many instances either an injustice to consumers outside the cities
or upon the utilities themselves, and when we consider also the attitude
of the city authorities, very few in number I am glad to say, who believe
that their city should get all it can out of a utility, even at the expense of
other consumers, we have plainly presented to us a moral reason in addi-
tion to the very cogent practical reason against dual regulation.

I hope I have not been unduly critical in this paper, as it has not been
my desire so to be. I have presented to you the practical difficulties of
the system under which we are now operating and I am firmly convinced
that my attitude is the correct one. Just as I believe from a practical
standpoint that a utility operating within a city and without the same
should not be subject to the jurisdiction of the city, so I am convinced that
a railroad operating in more than one state should be subject entirely to
regulation by federal authorities and not to the state authorities. In
saying this, however, I do not desire to lend aid to the scheme which is now
being actively urged upon the courts by the attorneys for the railroads
whereby the state shall be divested of authority and no power added to
the federal authorities. The so-called Sanborn decision of the circuit
court of the United States, rendered at St. Paul in Shepard vs. Northern
Pacific, does not in my opinion add one vestige of power to the interstate
commerce commission, while if it should be sustained by the supreme court
of the United States, would very largely interfere with the power of the
states to regulate the state business of carriers.

Until we confer all power over railroads upon the federal government,
of course the states must continue their authority as to state business.
I make mention of this now in passing to show that I believe in the univer-
sal application of the doctrine which I have here enunciated with reference
to city regulation of utilities. I am free to say, however that when the
business of a railroad is largely within one state, fewer practical difficulties

MUNICIPAL REGULATIONS OF PUBLIC UTILITIES 23

are presented to the state authorities engaged in regulating it, and the same
condition exists when the percentage of the business of a utihty within a
city is high.

We are all interested in good government for the city and the state and
the nation, and it is only by a careful, conscientious study of these great
questions involved in the regulation of public utilities that we can properly
solve them, and I congratulate this body for the magnificent work which
it has performed in the many cities in this nation and for the large part
which it has heretofore played in bringing to the people of the municipal-
ities that government which they should have, and I have no doubt that
in the future your active participation in the problems of the cities, both
as they affect the city and the state, will lead to still larger results.

STATE VS. MUNICIPAL REGULATION OF

PUBLIC UTILITIES

BY LEWIS R. WORKS, ESQ."-
Los Angeles, California

Til]'] question of the control and regulation of public utilities has often,
l)(>rhaps usually, been treated as if the two possible systems of
intrastate control are at warfare with each other. Sharp lines
of contest are drawn between state regulation and city regulation. The
subject on which Mr. Eshleman and I are privileged to address you today
is designated on the program, "State versus Municipal Regulation of
Public Utilities." The potent Latin word in the title indicates that, on this
question, the state and the city are as far apart as are two individuals who
find nothing in commou, upon some particular question, and consequently
confide the solution of it to the mercies of a power outside themselves.

I am unable to assume a controversial attitude upon the subject, at
least, in anything like its entirety. I am unable to subscribe myself as
counsel for either the plaintiff or the defendant. It is the duty of every
citizen to contribute his energies and talents to the solution of the public
utility problem and he discharges the duty only when he does his utmost
toward maintaining, in an effective and flourishing condition, both state
and municipal machinery for the performance of the gigantic task.

As one lately connected ^vith city regulation, I must contend that there
are certain features of the work which can best be handled by municipal
agencies; but I hasten, notAvithstanding my recent aUiance with such agen-
cies, to declare with equal positiveness, that certain other features can be
successfully dealt with only by the state.

If we would consider the subject in a logical manner, we first must pay
a due regard to certain general ideas arising from the diversified conditions
existing within a group of forty-eight states, each sovereign, within its
own boundaries, upon the question under review. For our purpose, it is
sufficient to consider this phase of the subject in a double aspect. We may
pay regard to the state, generically speaking :

1 . As to its density of population.

2. As to the degree of autonomy allowed to its cities.

First, then: The extent of the concentration of control necessarily varies
with the degree in which the population of a state is unified by dependence
upon utility servers which, each in its own line of endeavor, have covered
large portions of the state with the instrumentalities through which they

*Mr. Works has bcr-n cluurman of the Los Angeles board of public utilities and is
now a member both of the board of freeholders of the city of Los Angeles and the
board of freeholders of the county of Los Angeles.

24

MUNICIPAL REGULATION OF PUBLIC UTILITIES 25

administer the trust confided to them. When a state is densely populated,
with cities near each other, and especially if it be a small state, there is
a temptation for UtiHty corporations of at least some kinds, to extend
their lines, plants or systems throughout the commonwealth, thus making
their operations a matter of state, instead of local, concern. In states
in which the population is sparse, with the consequent unsettled or
comparatively unsettled territory between cities, with cities far apart,
the temptation does not exist. The utility servers there are limited,
territorially, in their operation. They are confined, largely, to the
towns and their environs and are many, instead of being few in number
and networking the state with their systems. Therefore, considering
the question of density of population alone, it seems just to formulate
the following laws, if we may so dignify them, bearing upon the efficacy
of state, as compared with municipal, control:

First, the desirability of state control over municipal control is to some
extent enhanced by the presence of a dense population.

Second, the desirability of municipal control over state control is to
some extent enhanced by the existence of a scattered population.

The second viewpoint above mentioned has to do with the state as
to the degree of autonomy allowed its cities. Most of the cities of the
Union are governed, with greater or less degrees of severity, under state
legislation. I have no doubt that the majority of my hearers from
abroad will testify sorrowfully to the fact. It may not be charitable,
nor hospitable, to twit them with their misfortune, but I can not resist
the assertion that we of California view them somewhat as we have been
taught to view the so-called barbarian dependencies of imperial Rome or
the uitlanders of the Transvaal.

Speaking with more exactness, and more seriously, I may instance
this state as one of the few within which prevail what is surely a more
just and a happier condition of affairs. We are proud to assert that Cal-
ifornia has done at least as much as any state in the Union, to make the
citizen feel, to employ the stately phrase of Isaiah, that 'Hhe government
shall be upon his shoulder." This is true, and for years has been true,
concerning the government of her cities. City charters are made, by the
constitution, supreme over enactments of the legislature in all that per-
tains to "municipal affairs," to adopt the words of the organic law itself.
It is true that charters and charter amendments must be ratified by the
legislature before they become operative, but the ratification is never
refused. The asking it is purely perfunctory and I know of but a single
voice ever having been raised, in a legislature of 120 members, against
such a request. That instance was as far back as 1899, when Grove
L. Johnson, the father of our present excellent governor, voted, on con-
stitutional grounds, against the charter of San Francisco.

2f, NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

Tliis statement serves to show to what an extent the cities of CaUfornia
govern themselves. It is no exaggeration to say that Los Angeles is
as free from state interference in "municipal affairs" as California
itself is free from national interference in state affairs. The statement
is perfectly true.

It is a recognized fact that the control of public utilities is a proper func-
tion of government. Therefore, it is just to assert, that control should
rest, all other things being equal, where the power of government rests.
When states govern their cities, a greater ability to control utiUties may
be expected to rest in the state; but where cities govern themselves,, we
should successfully look for the ability and strength, in the city, to con-
trol at least the utihties which are local to it, or nearly so. We may, then,
pause again to announce a pair of principles calculated to cast some Hght
upon the question before us.

First, the possibihty of a proper state control is somewhat heightened
in those states in which cities are not autonomous.

Second, the possibility of a proper city control is somewhat heightened
in those states in which cities are autonomous.

Having taken a general view of the subject from the standpoints of
the density of population in a state and the degree of autonomy allowed
to its cities, we may now consider it in another manner. Depending some-
what upon what has been said concerning density of population, a certain
division of the entire subject may be suggested. It is proper to inquire,
what is the best instrumentality for the control of:

1. Utilities operated throughout a state or in considerable portions
of it, but partially in cities and towns?

2. Utilities operated outside of incorporated cities and towns, whatever
their territorial sphere of operation.

3. UtiUties operated wholly within small incorporated cities or towns?

4. Utilities operated wholly, or nearly so, within large cities?

Before taking up these four questions, it is proper to say that their
consideration will proceed upon what may be called a CaUfornia premise.
Having drawn a distinction between states which allow their cities a
full measure of self-government and those which do not, it seems neces-
sary, in the interests of both brevity and clarity, to base all further dis-
cussion upon the assumption of the existence of conditions such as we have
here. That side is taken as the point of vantage, to the exclusion of
the other, for two reasons. The first is that the writer may stand more
securely upon such a foundation, because the footing is familiar to *him.
The other, and much the stronger, is this: The CaUfornia method for
the government of cities is, unless the writer's patriotism and under-
standing have led him far astray, the proper one and the one to which
all the states must eventually come. If I speak, then, in terms of Call-

MUNICIPAL REGULATION OF PUBLIC UTILITIES 27

fornia, you may think, after making the necessary additions and sub-
tractions, in terms of commonwealths the affairs of whose cities are
ordered in a different fashion.

In considering the first of the four questions just set forth and, in
fact, all questions involving the exercise of governmental functions, econ-
omy, both of effort and of money, is to be at all times regarded as the
helpful handmaid of efficiency. Very largely upon this consideration
alone, it is clear that a utility which operates throughout a state or
throughout a large part of it, and which invades the domain of a consid-
erable number of cities, can best be controlled by a state board. Such
a utility must be said to occupy a general, and not a local field, and there-
fore to require the attention of instrumentalities the powers and grasp
of which are co-extensive with its own. If the plant, system or business
of a utility corporation operating in a large number of cities were to
be cut up, for regulatory purposes, into the bits requiring attention
from each, under local control, the process would tend to remind one
of the assault of the Lilliputians upon the sleeping Gulliver. Swift assures
us that the attack was successful, but the result was achieved only at
the expense of great concerted effort.

The second question has to do with all utilities operated outside incor-
porated cities and towns. No time need be expended in answering it.
Of necessity, state control must be exercised in such cases.

We next consider the systems or plants operated within small cities
and towns, and here we enter the realm of doubt, chiefly because the term
"small cities and towns" covers so wide a range as to lack precision. It
is not worth while to attempt to make it more precise. The effort would
involve a separate treatment of municipalities of every possible size, from
the least to those of from, say, 50,000 to 75,000 in population. It seems
clear that utility properties in the smallest of these cities can best be
handled by the state. The questions of principle involved in controlling
a small utility concern are as big as in the case of the largest one. In a
small town usually there will not be present the ability nor the money,
the willing money, if I may use the term, necessary to handle the question.
Further, and above all, in such places fairness is Hkely to be tinctured
by local pettiness, with more or less glaring injustice as the deplorable
result. Upward from these diminutive municipahties, it is difficult to
say how far the state method of treatment should go. It seems neces-
sary that the line should be drawn somewhere within the class now under
consideration and which have been characterized as ''small cities and
towns," for, except in the case of local conditions affecting some particular
utility in some particular place, the largest of the small cities can and
should deal with the utility problems local to themselves. The solution
of this branch of the question, however, naturally depends upon what

2s NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

is to 1)0 said about the large city and its relation, under the grouping we
are now considering, to the general subject.

We come then, fourthly, to deal with the question of the control of util-
ities operated wholly, or nearly entirely, within large cities.

It would not be just to enter upon this branch of the subject without
considering, in addition to what has been said about the justice of the
grant of autonomy to municipalities, what may be termed the city prob-
lem. The general question of city government and management has
been the riddle of the ages. The mere mention of Babylon, Nineveh,
Tyre, Sidon, Athens, Sparta, Jerusalem, Rome, Carthage, Alexandria,
Constantinople, Venice, Genoa, the other free Italian cities of the middle
ages, the five tovms of the cinque ports and the towns of the Hanseatic
League, is enough to impress this fact on the mind of even the tyro in
historical research. The student of present-day affairs can perceive no
modification of the rule. Even in this country, a babe among the nations,
with thousands of acres of open country, the census of 1910 showed the
steady march of the multitude cityward. In some of the middle western
states the rural districts showed an actual loss of population, while the
cities grew enovgh to balance the loss in the country and, in addition, to
show a substantial net gain for the state. We are prone to regard such
phenomena as abnormal, to feel that the current of history has changed
but such is not the case. Man is a gregarious animal and the city has
ever been the haven of his desire and the goal of his ambition. The
attainment of that goal by the individual does not, unfortunately, seem
to work a betterment of the race. While man is content, in the pursuit
of his destiny, to tread the highways and byways of the open country,
to breathe God's free air, to "fist to nature's teaching," he seems, in
a measure, to live the fife that such a contact might be expected to inspire;
but when he becomes a denizen of the metropolis, with the sordid evils
of the slum on the one hand and the profligacy and licentiousness of the
idle rich on the other, with the myriad dangers and pitfalls between, he
becomes, certainly, "a little lower than the angels," and adds his indi-
vidual mite to the gigantic problem of the city, which "was and is and
shall be."

Considerations like these have made the city a separate governmental
entit}'' within the nation, imperium in imperio. Little wonder we are
seeing that cities must govern themselves. They have tasks set before
them which no power outside themselves can perform. At a gathering
in this city not many months ago, a prominent speaker made the asser-
tion, "As the city is, so will the nation be," and the statement is as true
as it is striking. The cities of every country are answerable for its future.

The realization of the existence of the city problem is what has brought
you among us and what is making true lovers of humanity see a greater

MUNICIPAL REGULATION OF PUBLIC UTILITIES 29

work before them as mayors of Chicago and Los Angeles than as governors
of Illinois and California; and patriotism is, every day in an increasing
degree, bringing noble manhood to the task.

It is the duty of every city to handle the city problem, to carry on the
independent government which of right, not to itself alone, but to the
nation and to humanity, it is its duty to administer. The government
must be a forceful and a resourceful government. The government of
a state is, under ordinary circumstances, a government of routine, while
the pulsations of the great throbbing heart of the city, quickly responsive
to the nervous movement of its every member, require the exercise of
constant vigilance and energy. The big city, always meeting such crises,
has within it the wherewithal to handle its problems and handle them
better than any other power.

A part of the city problem is the control of the public utilities which
are connected with its life, and, even more intimately, with the lives of
its people. Such utilities are not merely those whose entire properties
are embraced within the corporate limits of the city. The fact that a
public utility corporation conveys light, or water, or power for many
miles before it reaches the boundaries of a given city, should not free
that corporation from the control of the city as to its operations and bus-
iness within the city, granted that the principal business, or the greater
portion of the business, of the corporation is to serve the people of the
city. If a corporation serves a large city and incidentally attends to
the needs of surrounding smaller towns, the controlling power of the city,
within its own limits, should not be relinquished, whether the control,
in the surrounding towns, be exercised by means of their own machinery
or through state instrumentalities. It is only where a utility concern
has so extended its field as to become practically state-wide in its opera-
tions, as we have said above, that the jurisdiction over it, locally, of a
large city within the territory served by it, should be relinquished. A
California city is, as to its city problems, as free from the domination
of the state, as Connecticut, as to its affairs, is free from the domination
of Massachusetts. Could it be contended that a Connecticut state com-
mission could not, or that it should not, exercise control over utility cor-
porations serving its people, merely because such corporations carry their
products across the boundary between the states, whether in pipes or
upon wires, and supply Connecticut with water or light from Massa-
chusetts?

The presumption should be that every independent government, whether
city or state, has the power and ability and is confronted with the solemn
duty of dealing with and solving, to the ultimate analysis, all questions
that spring from its being as the governmental entity presiding over the
destinies of the territory committed to its peculiar care. It must either

30 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

jrovcni or not govern, It must either shoot or give up the gun. As to
a city, the Unc can not be drawn at any point between its duty to dispose
of its garl)agc and its duty to control its local lighting companies.

In the discharge of the duties of state and municipal boards, a constant
overlapping of jurisdiction will necessarily result. That fact indicates
tlu' dcsiraliility of a constant interchange of data between the two sys-
tems, except where the public service might demand, usually temporarily,
that information be mtheld. Each state board should not only keep,
in systematic and ready reference form, what may be termed a library
of tiie data and information gathered as a result of its researches; but
the law, and practice not forbidden by law, should afford every facility
for the dissemination, among all city boards, of all portions of such data
and information pertinent or convenient to the handling of the cit}^
problems. The city boards should, by the same means, afford similar
aid to state boards.

It is natural for all officers, boards and courts to attempt to extend
their respective powers and jurisdictions, and it is well that it is so. The
exercise of that intenselj^ human trait, carried by men into official fife,
conduces to the reduction to proper control of all subjects of governmental
or official action. In the» constant struggle to maintain in their proper
places the lines of demarcation between spheres of official control, jeal-
ousies are likely to result. It is plain that such a condition is possible
in all commonwealths in which the question of state or municipal con-
trol of utilities is being considered, and earnest efforts should be made
to avoid it. Both systems are entirely necessary to the well-being of
the people and each can be made of invaluable assistance to the other.

The question of the control of public service corporations is of surpass-
ing importance today, and it -^dll be so until wisdom shall determine to
what extent pubhc utilities should pass under pubfic ownership and the
acquisition sliall be accomplished. The question may even be of impor-
tance after the feasible degree of public o^\^lership shall have been attained,
for reason may finally demonstrate that great and powerful utihties had
best remain in private owniership. We are far from the solution of the
question and time alone wnll furnish the answer. No patriotism is so
lofty, no abiUty so great, but that it may be justly consecrated, in the
meanwhile, to the performance of the task that is set before us.

A SUGGESTED SLIDING SCALE OF DIVI-
DENDS FOR STREET RAILWAYS,
DETERMINED BY QUALITY OF

SERVICE

BY JAMES W. S. PETERS, ESQ.^
Kansas City, Missouri

IN FRAMING franchise contracts the problem is to enhst a motive
to economy and efficiency in the operation of pubhc utiHties by
private corporations without introducing the speculative element
into public utility investments, and without relaxing pubhc control. In
other words, to combine the advantages of public operation with the bene-
fits of adequate public control.

It is probably true that public utility commissions, while recognizing
the fact that capital investment is entitled to a reasonable return, do not
lay enough stress on the necessity of giving the operating company an
incentive to thrift, efficiency and economy in management.

The ideal regulation should, at the same time, secure the best possible
service for the public and be eminently fair, and even a little liberal, to
capital investment and the management operating the utility. The ques-
tion of low rates is not so much the demand of the day, as is good service.
It is economic waste for car-riders to stand and be subjected to nerve
racking inconvenience in going to and from their dailj^ tasks, if this can
be avoided and seats provided at a fraction of a cent additional cost, per
day, to the car rider.

The private motive of street railway companies should be subdued ; not
killed.

Dr. Delos F. Wilcox says of regulation by commissions:

It is an effort to coerce an antagonistic motive and compel private cor-
porations to operate public utilities, as if the companies were not controlled
by private motives. It is a final effort to avoid the uncertainties and pos-
sible laxity in administration of public ownership, without losing the incen-
tive and skill of private enterprise. This is a very ticklish business — ^this
problem of subduing private motive, without killing it. A man would be a
hardy optimist to be willing, in the light of present knowledge, to predict
certain success of the plan of regulation by commission.

Floy, in his work on "Valuation of Public Utility Properties," also
emphasizes the necessity of recognizing incentive and skill. He says:

1 Mr. Peters was until this spring president of the City Club of Kansas City and
a member of the civil service commission. He and Dr. Wilcox are members of the
franchise committee of the National Municipal League, of which Robert Treat Paine
has been chairman.

31

:V2 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

"An cxMiuination of the rulings of state commissions shows a tendency
to place all ('(irixjrations on the same footing as regards returns to investors;
that is, regardless wiiether capital has been invested and conserved in a
judicious and intelligent manner, or in an inefficient way; the precedents
estahlislied indicate that alwut the same profit will be allowed in either
case. Such ])rocedure of course does away with all incentive to improve
the. earnings {)y cutting down expenses or to decrease the price or introduce
new aiii)aratus or modern methods. It removes the stimulus heretofore
(>xisting with the individual to make the very best showing possible and
hi'ncc is a reasonable, valid and practical objection to control by commis-
sions."

The utility commissions themselves recognize that thrift and economy
of management has a money value. The Public Service Commission for
the First District of New York, in a pamphlet on "Uniform System of
Accounts" corroborates the necessity of recognizing and rewarding quality
of service.

It is not the purpose of public regulation by reducing rates to take from
a corporation all the proceeds of enterprise and thrift that it may earn be-
yond a reasonable dividend. If a thrifty and intelligent corporation can,
at a smaller expense to itself, supply a better public service than a care-
less and incompetent corporation, the former should not be compelled to
charge the public less than the latter. To do so is to discourage progress
and economy.

There is something on the order of a sliding scale in Cleveland in the
automatic readjustment of fares as determined by the increase or decrease
of the net income. In Boston's so-called sliding scale for gas contracts
the dividends that are payable to capital investment are permitted to
become higher as the price of a unit of .gas is made lower to the consumer.

Mr. Louis D. Brandeis has summed up the beneficial results of this low-
ering of prices and reward of good management, as follows:

"Boston has received from the sliding scale system far more than cheaper
gas and higher security values. It has been proved that a public service
corporation may be managed with political honesty and yet successfully
and that its head may become a valual)le public servant. The officers and
emi)loyees of the gas company now devote themselves strictly to the bus-
iness of making and distributing gas, instead of dissipating their abilities
as herelolure m lobbying and political intrigue. As a result, gas properties,
which throughout the greater part of twenty years had been th(^ subject
of financial and iiolitical scandals, developing ultimately bitter hostility
on the p;irt of the peojile, are now conducted in a manner so honorable as
to deserve and secure the highest commendation."

W hat is suggested in this paper is a someAvhat different, but in some
resi.ects a similar idea. It is to slide the rate of return to capital invest-
ment in accordance with the merit of the service rendered.

SUGGESTED SLIDING SCALE OF DIVIDENDS 33

In order to reward service rendered by street railways, according to
quality, it is necessary to find out what service really is and then to defi-
nitely and with precision grade or scale this service and reward it. Event-
ually some practical way must be found to do this. It is a logical necessity
in the treatment of utihties, so long as these remain in the hands of private
ownership and management.

The suggestion the writer makes is to have the mayors, or the commis-
sioners of commission ruled cities each year appoint three citizens of repute,
who shall during the year following classify to their satisfaction the ele-
ments constituting service and determine the relative value, in percentages,
of these essential elements. At the end of the year, these three commis-
sioners shall appoint for each of the at least five logical subdivisions of
service analyzed and classified by them, three other reputable citizens,
especially expert in those subdivisions to grade for the year preceding, the
character of service received during that period; the subdivisions of what
constitutes service into subjects and the grading of the subjects to be arrived
at in a way similar to the method pursued by civil service commissions in
determining the relative merits of applicants for technical positions of the
city service. In Kansas City the civil service board has for the past two
years filled practically all city positions, even such technical ones as city
engineer, superintendent of the water works and municipal librarian, by
using for each examination a committee of three citizen experts, to assist
in formulating the examinations and to grade the relative merits of the
applicants under the direction of the civil service board. This system has
worked with widely recognized beneficial results.

After the classification of service and the grading of such service in
percentages the suggestion for consideration is to permit an increase of,
or deduction from, the fixed percentage allowed in the franchise to capital
investment according as service is found in the grading to be above or
below a standard or quality of service described as "fair and reasonable."

In civil service examinations 70 per cent is the grade usually agreed upon
which an applicant must obtain to reach the eligible list. Having exactly
70 per cent means that he is just sufficiently well qualified to fill the posi-
tion. Above this his excellence is graded; below this the percentage
describes, in percentages, his unfitness. Following this precedent, is sug-
gested grading service of street railways and the elements constituting such
service as follows: 60, meaning "poor," 70, "fair and reasonable;" 80,
"good;" 90, "excellent," and 100, "perfect."

If we agree that 6 per cent on capital investment is a fair and reasonable
return for the interest upon capital and the hazard of the enterprise and
are willing to add a margin up to 25 per cent additional to this amount to
insure "perfect" quality (which however will never in practice be attained)
then we can agree that a standard of 60 per cent will be entitled to 5| per

34 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

cent roturn on capital investment; 70 to 6 per cent; 80 to 6| per cent; 90
to 7 per cent, and 100 to 7h per cent. If in any particular instance those
drafting a franchi.se are of opinion that this margin is too great or too
.small, it can be readjusted and the figures modified accordingly.

When the end of the fiscal year comes and the several citizen commissions
of tiiree each have been duly appointed to grade the several parts or subjects
of service committed to them by the original or supervisory committee of
three citizens, each commission shall proceed to grade the part committed
to it, by such tests as in its discretion it deems appropriate, subject to gen-
eral supervision of the original commission of three and when it has agreed
to a grade of its portion, shall transmit this grade to the original commis-
sion. This commission shall then by checking up and adding the various
percentages arrive at a final percentage which will be the grade upon which
to figure the reward for service.

As a tentative subdivision of service into five parts and their relative
weights; for each of which a sub-committee may act, it is suggested:

1. Operation and management; value 40 per cent. In this case the
three citizens selected should be expert in railway operation and manage-
ment.

2. Maintenance of plan against depreciation and ob.solescence ; value
20 per cent. This subdivisionis essentially an engineering task and involves
an inspection and inventory and practically the valuation of the plant.
It is desirable that at least two of the citizens selected for this sub-committee
should be expert engineers, especially qualified by experience in street rail-
way construction and management and having at hand data in reference
to the depreciation and obsolescence.

3. Economy and efficiency of management; value, 15 per cent. The
three citizens selected for this subdivision should two of them be business
men of high calibre, accustomed to the handling of large affairs, the other
member should be familiar with accounts and legal procedure.

4. Safety and comfort of the traveling public and of the citizens; value,
15 per cent. As this subdivision is largely a matter upon which the riding
public and the citizens have peculiar rights to individual opinions, the
committee of three selected for this subdivision should be average citizens,
in who.se fair dealing and common sense, both the corporation and tlic^ pub-
lic have confidence.

5. Accuracy and publicity of accounts and system in preserving the funds
intact ; value, 10 per cent. This subdivision is a matter for experts in ac-
counting. At least two of the three commissioners for this subdivision
should therefore, be familiar with accounts and auditing systems, the other
m'-mbcr .should be a well known reponsible citizen, accustomed to handling
large affairs in a practical way.

In order to show how the various subdivisions suggested above can be
practically divided into their simple component elements and those weighted
relative to each other, there is attached hereto a tentative classification
and analysis marked exhibit "A."

SUGGESTED SLIDING SCALE OF DIVIDENDS 35

There should be given to the several sub-committees of examiners large
discretion in determining the methods and details of arriving at a fair and
accurate estimate and they should have access to all records kept by any
existing public utility commission or other board having charge of the
street railways and also to the company's books, accounts, records, maps
and plans and all other documents.

The public utility commission should collect during the year and put
at the disposal of these special commissioners data collected from efficiency
and complaint records kept by them. Any citizen desiring so to do should
be permitted to register a complaint and file statements and be heard in
reference to any matter pertaining to service before either the original
committee of three or before any of the sub-committees of examiners sub-
sequently appointed. The original committee of three and the sub-com-
mittees of examiners should hold sessions open to the public and the press
and should print and pubhsh their proceedings, showing among other
things the definite rating of each of the ultimate elements constituting
service. Such publicity will tend to insure fairness and accuracy.

When a final grade is arrived at and used as the basis upon which to
figure the amount of reward to the capital investment, it is a question
whether this bonus should go entirely to an increase of the percentage
allowed on capital investment or should be shared with the employees of
the managing corporation, who in reality are the persons accomplishing
the good results. If all bonus goes to the increasing of the rate of returns
of capital investment, there will be danger of a speculative element entering
in by the probable increase of dividends being capitalized and eventually
added as a burden to fixed charges; on the other hand, if paid to the em-
ployees, the amount allowed as bonus is liable to be deducted by the cor-
poration from salaries and wages paid by it, just as hotel proprietors de-
crease the salaries and wages of their porters and waiters, exploiting for
their own advantage the liberality of the pubhc in tips. The best plan
undoubtedly is to see to it that the increase in returns derived by reason of
excellence of service be equitably divided between the capital investment
and employees — the employees to receive say two-fifths of the whole, the
other three-fifths to be added to the fixed return on capital investment.
The amount received by the employees should be pro-rated among them
at the end of the fiscal year, from the president and general superintend-
ent down to the day laborer, in proportion to the amount of salary or wages
received by each during the year in question.

In determining upon a tribunal to analyze, classify, give relative weight
to, and grade the elements of service, it was the first intention of the writer
to specify existing utility commissions as being, by experience, best quali-
fied for the task; but after consideration, the decision arrived at was to use
instead citizens as examining boards, as the object to be attained is the

36 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

satisfaction of the citizens. In addition to this the determination of
(luiility of service on behalf of the public not only amounts to a passing
upon the service rendered by the managing corporation, but also to pass-
ing judgment upon the general effectiveness and quality of the regulation
by the utility commission, whose business and function it is to insist upon
service from the corporation.

As the mayor is elected and the commissioners under the commission
form of government are selected by the voters for many additional and
other purposes than the selection of these examining commissioners, and as
they represent, not only the rest of the public, but also as far as its influ-
ence goes, the street railway company, and as the modern idea is to concen-
trate responsibility in these officials elected by the people and hold them
responsil)le for their acts, it would seem that the mayor or the commission-
ers of commissioned-ruled cities are the proper persons to appoint these
examining boards. Where, however, so much power and discretion is more
and more being concentrated on the mayors of cities and the commis-
sioners of commissioned-ruled cities, there is all the more need for the
people to have the right of recall of these officials when they fail in the
performance of their duties.

To go back to the details of this problem, if 60 per cent means "poor"
as the quahty of each of the elements; 70 per cent "fair and reasonable;"
80 per cent "good;" 90 per cent, "excellent;" and 100 per cent, "perfect;"
it is evident that when the several weighted elements are separately graded
and a total of these percentages computed, there will be arrived at a fairly
accurate general average of the total service For example : if the final per-
centage of service be 82| per cent, this would be 12| per cent better than
70 per cent, which is "fair and reasonable." Now, if we take for granted,
that "fair and reasonable" service estimated at 70 per cent is worth 6 per
cent return on capital and that perfect or 100 per cent service is worth 7^
per cent returns, this 12| per cent above "fair and reasonable" would
amount to a bonus of five-eighths of 1 per cent on capital investment.
Using these figures in the case of a plant where the capital investment
aggregates S30,000,000, this would amount to a bonus of $187,500; two-
fifths to go to employees and the other three-fifths to an increase of the
return on capital investment. This in dollars and cents would be S75,000
to pro-rate and distribute among the company's employees and $112,500
for increase on the return to capital investment. The possibility of such
a result would undouljtedly be an incentive to skill, initiative economy,
politeness and thrift in service and management, and in the case supposed,
would be an additional tax of approximately only one-seventh of 1 cent
on every 5-cent fare paid, or proportionately less, on a lower rate of fare.

It is not desired to make these suggestions as the final or only solution
of the franchise prol)lem or to take an antagonistic stand against the Chi-

SUGGESTED SLIDING SCALE OF DIVIDENDS 37

cago plan, where there is a partnership in the net income between the city
and the corporation, after the corporation has received a fixed amount on
its capital investment. This certainly insures in large measure supervision
and control on the part of the city and gives incentive to thrift, economy
and skill on the part of the management. Neither is the Cleveland plan
opposed, where capital investment receives a fixed return and no more, the
surplus being used to reduce the fare for there the right of control and regu-
lation to protect the city is definitely provided for in a street railway com-
mission. The idea herein presented for consideration, might be used in
modification of either of these undoubtedly meritorious and up-to-date
contracts.

If this paper does nothing more than emphasize the fact that future
franchises for street railways should give something in the way of incen-
tive for economy and thrift in service additional to the mere interest return
on capital and compensation incurred by capital for hazards risked, there
will have been accomplished something toward a satisfactory solution of
the street railway franchise problem.

EXHIBIT "a"

A. Service in management and operation; value, 40 per cent.

Up to date equipment 100

Extensions 100

Transfer regulations 25

Shelter stations 25

Running of cars 75

Speed of cars 100

Ventilation of cars 50

Lighting of cars 50

Seats 100

Frequency 100

Courtesy of employees to public 100

B. Service in maintenance of plant against obsolescence and depreciation,' value, 20
per cent.

Repair of tracks 75

Repair of cars 100

Repair of overhead equipment 50

Repair of power plants '. 100

Repair of car barns and other buildings 50

Repair of tools 25

Insurance premiums 20

C. Service as to economy and efficiency; value, 15 per cent.

Economy on purchase of supplies 100

Economy on use of supplies- 100

Economy on schools of conductors and motormen 50

Economy on control 75

Economy on supervision, administration, etc 100

relative to employees 25

38 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

C. Service as to economy and efficiency; value, 15 per cent — Continued.

■ to present accounts 75

Settlement of damage claims (?) 50

Interest on balances 50

D. Service in safety and comfort of general passengers^ value, 15 per cent.

Noise 50

Dust : 50

Ventilation 50

Repair of pavement 100

Distance between tracks 25

Fenders and wheel guards 100

Location of tracks as to curb 25

Wat chinan at crossings 75

Head lights 25

Relocation of tracks — for comfort of street traffic 25

Gongs 25

Cars passing each other 20

Smoke from power house 20

Treatment of persons injured 75

E. Service in accounting and preservation of funds; value, 10 per cent.

Public reports 100

Segregation of accounts 75

Integrity of funds 50

Preservation of records 25

Simplicity of bookkeping 50

Integrity of capital account 100

Traffic statistics 100

Distribution of labor accounts and overhead charges 75

Car value costs 100

BUREAUS OF PUBLIC EFFICIENCY

A STUDY OF THE PURPOSE AND METHODS OF

ORGANIZATION

BY MYRTILE CERF^
Madison, Wis.

ORGANIZATIONS for the purpose of studying the needs of a city
and as an aid to efficient government have now been formed in
a large number of cities, and are under consideration in other
cities including San Francisco, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Oakland, Portland,
Omaha, Pittsburgh, St. Paul and Norfolk.

In these cities where bureaus have been formed the work is being con-
ducted either through:

1. An organization financed by individuals and seeking to effect rem-
edies and working from without the administration as typified by the
New York bureau of municipal research.

2. An organization created by the administration and financed by the
city as typified by the Milwaukee bureau of economy and efficiency.

3. A development of the activities of one department of a municipality
in the direction of control of all others, as typified by the Chicago civil
service commission.

4. A development of the activities of one department of municipality
in the direction of financial control only, as typified by the comptroller's
office, St. Louis, and the New York commissioner of accounts.

Substantial success has been had under each plan of organization, but
the work is almost too new to determine which plan will ultimately prove
the most successful. In view, however, of the increasing interest in work
of this nature, it may be of value to set out the advantages and disadvan-
tages of each form of organization as they have so far been discovered.
Before doing this, however, it may be well to study certain points that
must be thoroughly weighed and considered before a bureau is decided
upon, for the effect that they have on the plan of organization. It must
be decided: (1) Is a bureau needed? (2) What shall be the purpose and
scope of its work? (3) Shall it be temporary or permanent?

1. The fact that the government of our American cities is not what it
should be is recognized by all. There is almost universally a lack of proper

1 Myrtile Cerf was educated at the University of California as a civil engineer.
After leaving the University he engaged in the practice of public accounting in San
Francisco and Los Angeles. For the past three years his attention has been given
exclusively to the study of the problems of public efficiency. From 1910 to 1912 he
was a member of the accounting staff of the Milwaukee bureau of economy and effi-
ciency and at the present time is auditor for the Wisconsin state board of public
affairs.

39

40 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

organization of tlic work, lack of proper records, and a failure to recognize
the scope of the city's functions. The causes of this are many — election
of men to administrative positions who are untrained in the problems
they are called upon to handle, short terms of office and low salaries,
by reason of which skilled men refuse to accept municipal employment;
improperly dra\\ai laws; lack of standards by which to measure efficiency;
lack of cooperation between the several departments of the government;
misdirected effort; inadequate facilities for doing the work; duplication
of work, etc.

The short ballot, with appointments rather than election to the purely
administrative offices; increase of salaries and permanency of term of
office through proper chn\ service control and care in the framing of the
laws will do much toward correcting certain of these conditions. But it
^\nll not correct fundamental errors in the organization or the planning
of the activities of the several departments; it will not safeguard against
duplication of work or of misdirected effort; it will not coordinate the
work of the various departments; it will not set standards of efficiency;
it will not set out in \inderstandable form the facts of administration so
that the public can properly judge results; it will not call to the attention
of the proper authorities failure of administration of any department nor
will it serve to point out the possibilities of enlargement of the scope of a
department's work where such department has failed to recognize its full
duties.

How, then, are these things to be cared for? It must be remembered
that our American cities have grown so fast in the last decade that it has
seldom been possible to plan methods of caring for conditions before they
have arisen. Villages have grown into towns and towns have grown to be
cities, with all the complexities of most cities, almost overnight, and condi-
tions have been met by expediency measures. Then, too, many cities have
been hampered by the fact that they have had no home rule. The result
has been that each succeeding administration tried to take care of the con-
ditions immediately confronting it, without any attempt to build along
the lines of proper organization or to plan for the future. The remark-
able growth of om- cities has been reflected in the growth of our business
enterprises. They, too, grew up with a haphazard organization in most
instances, but the stress of competition forced them into a fairly early
recognition of their condition with the result that they called to their
as.sistance the oxiierts in accounting, systematizing and planning, so that
today the organization of American industries is the marvel of the world.

It would seem tlien that we must recognize that there are certain prob-
lems of municipal government that cannot be met with the present machin-
ery and that these problems must be studied by men trained especially
for such work and brought together under some bureau or department.

BUREAUS OF PUBLIC EFFICIENCY 41

2. What shall be the purpose and scope of such a bureau? Shall it
be merely advisory in nature or shall it have power to enforce its recommen-
dations? Shall it limit its work merely to the installation of records and
accounts that will record the transactions of the several departments
under their present procedure, or shall it aid in reorganizing departmental
business procedure and accounting methods and establish standards of
efficiency? Shall it confine its work to reorganization under the present
limits of departmental activity or shall it point the way for an enlargement
of the department's field of activities?

Shall the work be confined to the present activities of a city or shall it
be extended to cover fields of social service through investigation of con-
ditions of living, to correlate the present departments with the findings
and to suggest remedial legislation?

What, then, is the purpose and scope of a bureau or department of public
efficiency? While every city has practically the same conditions confront-
ing it, there will always be local conditions of policy or of a financial nature
or reasons of restricting laws that will govern the decision on this point.
But the experience of New York, Chicago, Milwaukee, and other cities
where the work has been started should be valuable in determining this
question.

In no city so far has direct power to enforce recommendations been
given the bureau. In New York, the improvements in service were effected
by publicity given conditions found after investigation, thereby forcing
the department head in some instances to correct the evil pointed out
where aid could not be secured solely upon suggestion. Results were
also obtained by cooperation with the comptroller and commissioner of
accounts who secured certain reforms through their control of finances.
In Milwaukee the bureau was dependent upon action of the council to
enforce recommendations where cooperation could not be had. In Chicago
the power of the civil service commission to determine personal efficiency
gives it rather more authority to control business efficiency than is had
in other cities, even though the power is not directly conferred. In St.
Louis, representing the fourth type of bureau, the control that can be
exercised is limited to financial control, such as is now exercised by the
comptroller and commissioner of accounts of New York.

The experience of the several cities indicate that while much may be
done by a bureau acting solely in an advisory capacity, it is dependent
upon other agencies to see to the carrying out of its recommendations.
The result has been that the findings of careful and costly investigations
have many times been ignored; that recommendations were only partially
adopted without improvement of service, and attempt made to place the
burden of the failure on the bureau ; that a constructive program involving
several departments would be defeated by the opposition of only one

42 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

(Icpartment; that opposition was engendered in most instances where reor-
ganization meant reduction of the number of employees.

As has been noted, the only results obtained by any bureau except where
cooperation has been had, has been through the power vested in some other
agency; sometimes it has been by appeal to the mayor; sometimes through
the city council; sometimes through the city attorney; sometimes through
the comptroller and sometimes by having one city department take up
the bureau's battles against another.

No bureau that has been in existence for a year but has had to use one
or more and sometimes all of these means to enforce its recommendations.
Tlie conclusion would seem clear that in order to obtain results, it is essen-
tial that the bureau should be given powers within certain limitations.
"What these limitations should be will be discussed in the plan of organi-
zation.

If the work of the bureau is limited to the installation of records and
accounts, that will record the facts under present modus operandi, nothing
more will have been done than to provide means of compq^ring the results
of one administration with another. With comparatively little more work
and not much more expense, a study could be conducted looking toward
betterment of service and the setting up of standards of efficiency which
would mean in most cases a far greater annual saving than the cost of the
study, and would do away with duplication of work and misdirected effort
and permit of a comparison, through the establishment of unit cost records,
of the results not only of succeeding administrations, but with the work
of other cities.

Any comprehensive study of a department would naturally bring out
the possibilities of development into larger fields of activities. How far
these should be undertaken by a department under the guidance of the
bureau will depend upon the particular instance and upon local conditions.
But it is natural that any intensive study will produce possibilities of
departmental development.

The question as to whether studies should be confined to what are known
as the present departmental activities of a city or whether a bureau's
efiforts should extend as well into a study of social conditions is one that
must be given the most serious thought. While it is true that a city is
organized as a public body to safeguard the interests and promote the
welfare of its inhabitants, the question arises as to whether the major
portion of the pul)lic have yet realized that a privately financed organiza-
tion such as an anti-tuberculosis association only exists because the health
department or the building inspector have failed in their full duties; that
if child welfare organizations exist through private subscription that the
health, library, school, and park departments have missed an opportunity;
that if private agencies are developed to give free legal aid and to pro-

BUREAUS OF PUBLIC EFFICIENCY 43

tect the unfortunate from usury or oppression, or the ignorant immigrant
from exploitation, the city or district attorneys have not realized the duties
of their offices; that if child labor exists, the school department and the
factory inspector are culpable; that if the cost of living is high and women's-
wages so low that decent lodgings cannot be had within their wage limit,
then the board of aldermen or the city council will fail in their duties if
they neglect to provide for the proper care of these girls in municipal
lodging houses; they will fail and the police department will have failed
in the recognition of their duties if dives and low dance halls and unregu-
lated amusements destroy innocent youth; and the school and library
and park departments will have failed for their neglect, with the means
at their command, to provide decent, clean amusements as an off-set to
the lures of the vice district.

No complete test of efficiency can be had without a study of these ques-
tions, and some of them are so closely related to problems of organization
that they must be studied, but as stated above, the question in planning
the scope of the work of the bureau is whether the public is prepared^ — ■
have they been sufficiently educated — to recognize the city's duties in
all things civic, and to support a bureau which undertakes to correlate
social measures with departmental activities. This is the problem that
must be decided by local conditions, but it would seem that while a bureau
is in its infancy, such studies had best not be touched except as they relate
directly to the problems of reorganization. In Milwaukee, where more
of the so-called "social" studies were undertaken than by the bureaus of
any other cities, the work was financed outside of the appropriation from
city funds, and the aim was made to take up only such investigation as
had direct bearing on problems of efficiency. A study of the scope of the
work and the efficiency of the health department cannot be made without
entering more or less into the fields of social investigation and the bulk
of the work in the social survey in Milwaukee grew out of and was corre-
lated with the study of the health department.

3. Shall the bureau be temporary or permanent? This question will
have been partly considered in reaching a decision as to the scope and
character of the work to be done. If it is to be purely advisory, giving
aid through expert service to the incumbents in office, then its life will
only be that of its creators or of a succeeding administration in harmony
with its objects. Its assistance under such plan cannot help but be of
value, but changes in office occur at such frequent intervals that it will
not have time to build on sound lines, and for that reason its work will
be more easily destroyed by the incoming of an administration opposed
to its purposes.

Owing to the disorganized state of our methods of accounting and sys-
tems of operating, and the fact that in practically all cities changes of

44 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

laws will have to !)(' made before efficiency of service can be obtained, the
scope of a bureau's work indicates a requirement in period of time that
cannot be construed as temporary. There are serious objections from
•other standpoints to the creation of a temporary bureau. It renders it
difficult to obtain the best men where the period of appointment is short;
it makes the task of holding them difficult; it requires the payment of
larger salaries; it prevents the undertaking of work that through its char-
acter cannot be finished A\athin the indicated Ufe of the bureau; each election
threatens its life; it is forced to do work of a "showy" character to justify
its existence; it is forced to fight against the constant endeavor to make
it party to a political campaign. The experience of all bureaus indicates
that the problem of bringing about public efficiency will require years of
effort; that it can only be effected by a permanent organization working'
along definite lines; that it must not be subject to the whims of new admin-
istrations; that it is best organized as part of the governmental machinery.

Where, then, shall it be placed?

Three natural positions present themselves as bases for permanent
organization, but as in the case of all points discussed above, a decision
will be dependent on local conditions. The bureau can be made a part
of the office of the comptroller, it can be made a separate department, or
its work can be merged with that of the civil service commission.

It will be found in most cities that the comptroller is an elected officer
and may or may not be in sympathy with the objects of the bureau. As
one of the largest phases of the work is the development of the accounting
system and financial control centering in his office, it is evident that the
purpose of the bureau could be defeated and its work in all directions
nullified if subordinated in the office of an antagonistic comptroller. There
is the danger also that the location of a bureau in the department of a
purely fiscal officer may cause it to lose sight of its broad purposes and to
limit its work to supervision of accounts and finances.

The creation of the bureau as a new permanent department is desirable
if there is no other department which could naturalh^ exercise its functions.
The tendency in modern city and state organizations is to limit the number
of the departments, and to enlarge their fields of activities. This saves
the general overhead expense of many high salaried officials and makes
for a more concrete and responsible organization. The effect on other
departments by the creation of a new department of the nature contem-
plated, is one that will require the most deHcate handling. In some in-
stance it \vill stir unfounded prejudice and develop antagonism without
cause, and the groatost care will have to be used to convince the depart-
ments that the bureau will work in the friendliest cooperation and is not
created for unfair criticism. This is necessary no matter under what plan
the bureau is organized, for no matter how expert the members of the

BUREAUS OF PUBLIC EFFICIENCY 45

staff may be; no matter how exhaustive their study, the plans will fail
if cooperation is not had from the administrative departments. The
utmost effort must be made to obtain their good will and cooperation,
for the bureau can at best but guide and point the way; the actual exe-
cution must rest in the departments. If the bureau fails to secure this
aid, and perhaps even though it does secure it, but is created by council
resolution or ordinance that is subject to repeal, it runs the risk of being
discontinued whenever opposition is raised. The only way to guard
against this is to make the bureau an integral part of the government
through charter provision.

The third place of location for a bureau is in connection with the civil
service work. As developed in Chicago, and as proven in factory organ-
izations, business and personal efficiency go hand in hand.

No study of one can be made without touching on the other. It would
seem then that the work should be correlated. Much of the same organ-
ization study is needed in both phases of the work, and the raising of the
standards of personal efficiency cannot fail to have its effect on business
procedure; the simplifying of methods of transacting business instantly
reflects on the personnel of the employees and reclassifies the service; rec-
ords developed for recording business transactions can be made to serve
as tests of personal efficiency. Civil service is now a permanent feature
of our municipal organization, and already, when properly administered,
exercises a certain control over departmental activity. Its influence could
easier be extended without arousing opposition, than could a new depart-
ment be created to exercise control. It is essentially a department of
technical service as distinguished from a department with executive, admin-
istrative or legislative functions. Its activities through the very nature
of the service it renders are judicial in character, and the extension of
its duties to include all phases of public efficiency would not change the
character of this service. If this be done, however, the department should
be planned as a department of public efficiency with civil service as one
of its functions. This will give the broadest possible idea of its relations
to the other departments and to the public and will allow it to be organ-
ized and developed along proper lines.

The character of the studies decided upon by the bureau will govern
its organization. Dependent upon the nature of the work undertaken,
there will be required accountants, engineers, statisticians, sanitarians,
sociologists, etc. Some of these men will be needed as a permanent staff;
others will only be called in as occasion requires, but there must be one
man in charge, as director, with full authority and power to carry out the
poficies determined upon by the members of the board governing this
department. He must have the fullest support and cooperation from this
board and they should be in close touch with all of his work. Until the

46 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

work is somcwliat advanced and placed upon a fairly firm basis, the direc-
tor should bo free to select his staff from without the civil service list.
•Tlu' work will rociuire men of the highest training, and in most cases such
men are not seeking permanent positions and will not consent to exam-
inations. It is highly advisable that at least in the first years of the
bureau's work, it should secure the cooperation of a committee of the city
council and a committee of the leading commercial and civic organizations
and keep them advised of the plans of the bureau and the progress of the
work. This public support will prove most valuabhj, but it should not
be done at the expense of any department. Wherever an official or an
employee indicates his willingness to aid in securing efficiency, the bureau
nmst see to it that full credit is given him. If this idea is faithfully adhered
to, it will bring into the work the fullest support of the departments and
will produce a spirit of utmost faith and confidence in the bureau.

It is important that the bureau should have power to enforce its rec-
ommendations, but this .powder should be limited to the control of account-
ing methods and business procedure and not include decisions on questions
of policy. It should have power also to cooperate wdth other departments
and outside agencies in the study of social and economic problems. In
drafting the law creating the bureau this feature should be one that would
only be taken up on voluntary request of the department or other agency,
while the power to compel all departments to keep proper accounts and
records and to operate economically and efficiently and under civil service
regulations should be vested in the bureau. Perhaps the best model on
which to draft the law covering these points is found in the bill (Section
583, Session Laws 1911, Wisconsin) creating the Wisconsin state board
of public affairs, which gives power to enforce as well as to cooperate.
This is the first organization in any state planned to study the adminis-
trative departments in the interest of economy and efficiency, though
several of the states through boards of audit or through the tax commissions
are seeking to provide uniformity in accounting methods in their several
departments. Under President Taft a commission appointed by him has
been engaged for the past two years in the study of the various federal
departments to correlate their activities and to point the way toward more
efficient and economical service.

The method of financing the bureau or department of pubUc efficiency
must receive more than passing consideration. Unless the means are
provided so that the bureau is secure from the danger of having its appro-
priation cut oiT by a city council antagonistic to its work, it will be in
little better position than if created by resolution and holding place during
the pleasure of changing councils. It has been deemed wise in many
cities to safeguard the civil service commission against action of the coun-
cil in reducing its revenue so as to render it powerless, by providing a

BUREAUS, OF PUBLIC EFFICIENCY 47

fixed percentage of the tax levy for its maintenance in the same manner
and for the same reason that the school, library and park departments are
so financed.

Among the many duties of the bureau and among the most important
will be the assembling either through its own staff or through a municipal
reference library of the facts and results of studies being conducted by
similar bureaus throughout the country. These would be made available
to the various departments and the bureau would simply act as a clearing
house and an interpreter of results.

As fast as it can be accomplished the bureau should supervise the issu-
ance by each of the departments of monthly cost bulletins showing by
comparison the cost by units of service of the previous month, the current
month, and the same month last year. These bulletins should be distrib-
uted free to all citizens interested in receiving them and will prove one
of the most efficient aids that can be devised for securing appreciation
of efficient officials and condemnation of poor ones.

All cities contemplating the establishment of bureaus of efficiency should
have in mind two important considerations.

First, efficiency means econom}^ but not necessarily through lessening
of cost. It may require a greater expenditure than in previous years to
secure an efficient health department, but the increased value of its work
in safe-guarding the health of the people is surely real economy.

Second, The present condition in our cities is the result of years of unreg-
ulated growth. It cannot he corrected in a day. Full recognition must
be given to this fact and if sound lasting reform of business and accounting
methods is desired, the bureau must not be called upon to show results
before reasonable time has elapsed. Then, if the work is being done as
suggested, through cooperation with the various departments, it will be
the departments which will make the showing and receive the credit and
7iot the bureau.

To be successful, the work must be sympathetic rather than antago-
nistic.

The public is eager to learn the problems of its government and in no
more effective way can this be done than by the creation of a properly
organized department of public efficiency.

RESEARCH AND REFERENCE

BUREAUS

BY EDWARD M. SAIT, PH.D.^
New York City

IT HAS been said that the spirit of Wisconsin is democracy and her
method science. The same spirit and the same method prevailed
among the little group of men who founded, in January, 1906, the
New York Bureau of Municipal Research. These men had come to under-
stand why successive reform administrations had failed to accomplish
permanent results. In the words of R. Fulton Cutting, Mayor Low's
administration "conclusively disclosed the insufficiency of reform by the
ballot. The man without the machinery, animated by the noblest ambi-
tions, is compelled to pursue them with an antiquated, rusty, unreliable
mechanism that paralyzes progress." Mr. Cutting and his friends beheved
that the government machinery must be overhauled, systematized, brought
abreast of the most approved business practice; and that officials should
be placed in a position where faithful service would be easy rather than
hard and where public scrutinj^ would be intelligent and effective. They
wanted efficiency — efficiency of the official and of the citizen.

Attention was first turned to the budget. That is the point in the con-
duct of government at which scientific method can best reveal and prevent
waste or stealing. The budget-making of that period left plenty of room
for improvement. The departmental estimates were subjected to indis-
criminate reductions running as high as 40 per cent, because there was no
means of telling how far they were based on actual needs. As a result, the
departments, exhausting their appropriations, had to be tided over with
special revenue Ijonds which bore heavily upon the taxpayer. The bureau
investigated the situation and found that the departmental estimates were
inadequate, as not giving sufficient proof of alleged needs and not stating
definiteh' the destination of the money, and that though supplies were
appropriated to specific objects there was nothing to prevent the money
being spent on other objects. The bureau advocated the segregated,
functionalized budget.

An oi)i)ortunity to work out the new system presented itself just at this
time. The department of health, seeing that its estimates had been
severely pruned each year, wished to make a really convincing appeal for
funds and accepted the assistance of the bureau. The changes which were
introduced met with wide approval. The departmental estimates for 1906

' Dr. Salt is assistant, professor of politics in Columbia University and is one of
the advisory editorial board of the National Municipal Review. He is also
secretary of the Intercollegiate Civic League.

4S

RESEARCH AND REFERENCE BUREAUS 49

had contained only eleven items or two inches of printed matter. One
of the items read : " Hospital fund excludingpayments to private hospitals."
By 1909 the titles had increased to a hundred and fifty-four occupying six
printed pages. It now appeared exactly how much might be spent by
each of the hospitals for salaries, vehicles, supplies, etc., and how much
might be spent in fighting each of several communicable diseases, this last
subject having been altogether ignored three years before. In 1907 the
city government approved the segregated budget and requested the comp-
troller to prepare suitable forms for the use of the departments. The adop-
tion of this reform made possible the intelligent granting of supplies as well
as inteUigent pubhc observation of services performed. The next step
was to popularize the budget somewhat in the manner of Tom L. Johnson,
whose "tax school" and picture shows of scandalous assessments brought
vital facts home to the citizens of Cleveland. Not only was publicity
secured through the newspapers, but a budget exhibit was provided which
promises to be an annual affair and which attracted 800,000 visitors last
year.

Budget reform was only one phase of the bureau's work. It also gave
attention to reorganizing the business management of the departments,
making detailed examinations of records and accounts and indicating the
improvements which shbuld be made. Thus, in the matter of the purchase
of supplies, it was found that the lack of system allowed twelve different
offices in a single borough to pay a wide range of prices for the same grade
of coal in the same season. Thus, too, the investigation of the office of
Borough President Ahearn revealed such misconduct that Governor Hughes
removed him on charges of gross incompetence; and as the result of another
investigation the senior commissioner of accounts resigned before the hear-
ing of charges to the effect that he had employed members of his staff upon
private work during business hours.

These are given as examples of the early work of the bureau. It would
hardly be possible to indicate here the wide range of activities and the solid
achievements which are described in the bureau's pamphlet on Six Years
of Alunicipal Research. Some of these services, such as the establishment
of a bureau of child hygiene or the improvement of the method of inspecting
slaughter-houses, cannot be measured easily in terms of money saved.
Others can. It is due to the bureau that the annual collections of the
water department have increased by $2,000,000 and that a sum of $723,000
has been recovered from street railways for paving done between the tracks
at public expense. The reorganization of the office of commissioner of
accounts in 1907 has been responsible for the saving of large sums through
its activity in the elimination of graft and waste. Incredible as it may
seem to New Yorkers, their city is beginning to serve as a model in such
matters as financial reorganization and the adoption of new administrative

50 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

methods. Tlic Bureau of Municipal Research, though it may by no means
chiim nil the credit, has been the most effective single instrument in rousing
and directing public opinion.

Not less notable has l)ccn the expansion of its influence through the
country. The little candle has shed its beams into the murky atmosphere
of many another city. Chicago, Milwaukee, Cincinnati and Philadel-
phia have adopted the segregated budget; departmental reorganization,
accounting revision, and other reforms have proceeded in these and other
cities along the lines laid down in New York. The Metz fund (S10,000
a j-ear for three years) is being applied to promote the adoption of scien-
tific methods of accounting and reporting. The most significant fact, how-
ever, is the spread of the bureau idea. Leaving out of consideration the
various city clubs and chambers of commerce which are beginning to give
attention to more or less technical problems of municipal government, there
are at least twenty private and public agencies scattered through the coun-
try all working with the single object of securing administrative efficiency.
The conviction that public business must inevitably be less efficient than
private business is breaking down. Vague, uncritical aspirations are giving
way to persistent and systematic application of practical remedies.

Most of the privately-sustained bureaus, a list of which will be found
at the end of this article, may be regarded as offspring of the New York
bureau. Not only have they set before themselves the same objects and
proceeded with very much the same methods, but the experts chosen to
guide the work have often been schooled in the parent institution. Now
that the Training School for Public Service^ has been established, with a
fund of .S200,000 for the first five years, a much larger force of men will be
available for this and similar employments.

What have these bureaus accomplished?

The Chicago Bureau of Public Efficiency may be taken as an example.
It was organized in 1910 under the aegis of the city club, though with money
raised by private subscription. The purpose was to continue, on a some-
what wider basis, the work which the Merriam commission had done in
investigating city expenditures; for reforms can be secured only through
persistence and iteration. By drawing attention once more to some of
the commission's reports the bureau persuaded the city to undertake an
electrolytioal survey, modify faulty specifications for wood block pave-
ment, and create a municipal repair plant for asphalt roadways. It in-
troduced the .segregated budget and brought about changes in accounting
methods and municipal contracts. A series of reports was published on
the organization and conduct of the county oflEices. These will be useful
to students of county government. Mismanagement, antediluvian meth-
ods, graft, and waste are perhaps natural conditions where officials are

* See National Municipal Review, vol. i, p. 305.

RESEARCH AND REFERENCE BUREAUS 51

chosen on a long ballot and left to go their own sweet way between elec-
tions. The judges of the circuit court, who have the power of fixing the
number of employees in certain of the county offices, were shown to be no
more zealous in the public service. The county treasurer, O'Connell,
would not allow himself to be investigated. This raised a question of fun-
damental importance. If the bureau gave way, its prestige and the future
effectiveness of its work would be seriously impaired. Nothing of the
kind happened. A pamphlet was pubhshed; and in it such ugly facts were
disclosed that the treasurer has undergone a change of heart and submitted
his books to inspection. As Dr. Allen says, "there are few men who want
to be crooks and there are none who want to be known as crooks."

The Cincinnati Bureau of Municipal Research, founded about the same
time and supported by eight associations including the city club and the
chamber of commerce, has also had a useful career. It has secured the
adoption of the segregated budget, reorganized the business methods of
the park department, installed a new system of record-keeping inthe board
of health, brought about considerable changes in the specifications for
wood block and brick pavements, and made recommendations regarding
the purchase of supplies, tenement house inspection, and other matters.
Equally imposing is the record of the Philadelphia bureau . It is now work-
ing, at the request of city officials, upon the standardization of supplies and
numerous projects of reorganization. In Philadelphia, as in Cincinnati,
the new reform administration has taken full advantage of the assistance
which the bureau is ready to afford.

The public agencies are relatively few in number and for the most part
different in scope. Those in Baltimore, Kansas City (Mo.) and St. Louis
are merely intelligence bureaus. While efficiency is their end, the means
do not include any expert review of departmental organization and busi-
ness methods or constructive recommendations for improvements. Their
function is a limited one : to collect and classify such materials as will be
serviceable to city officials or to the public (including the newspapers).
They are repositories of municipal experience. When the city council
applies for information regarding garbage disposal or taxicab rates or
municipal lodging houses, it will be told what has been done in the principal
cities of America and Europe; and not only what the law is, but how the
law works. Under the old dispensation aldermen simply groped about in
the dark, treating each problem as if it were a novel one in the experience
of mankind. The establishment of such reference bureaus was recom-
mended by a committee of the National Municipal League in 1910; but
only in the three cities mentioned above does there appear to have been
much specialization.

There are other types of public agencies, however, whose functions
approach more nearty those of the private bureaus. There is an efficiency >

52 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

department in Pasadena which has begun a study of the city departments.
In New York the commissioner of accounts saved the city $618,680 last
year by means of his investigations, although his efforts were directed
along lines calculated to make expenditure more efficient rather than to de-
crease it. In ^Milwaukee a Bureau of Economy and Efficiency was erected
i\y resolution of the common council shortly after the election of Maj^or
Seidel in 1910.' At the outset it formulated a comprehensive program pro-
viding for a preliminary survey of the organization and conduct of the
various departments, a social survey which would look into the conditions
of living, and finalh'" an efficiency survey designed to find remedies for what-
ever defects might be revealed. These inquiries were conducted with the
idea that the object of government should be community welfare in the
broadest sense. Something of their exhaustive character may be gathered
from the fact that seventeen reports were issued within a year and a half,
the most important of these examining certain functions of the departments
of health and public works and making constructive recommendations.
All the expenses of the bureau, which came to an untimely end with the
advent of a new administration in April of this year, fall short of $50,000.
Yet if all its suggestions are adopted, the city will save something like
$200,000 a year, not to mention the extension and improvement of service.
The Boston Finance Commission, which was established in 1907 and con-
tinued under the charter amendments of 1909, enjoys a more independent
position. Not only is it appointed by the governor, but the city is required
to make a minimum annual appropriation of $25,000 in addition to the
salary of the chairman. The commission is required to "investigate any
and all matters relating to appropriations, loans, expenditures, accounts
and methods of administration affecting the city of Boston or the county
of Suffolk." Last year it made fifty-two reports. They covered such
various matters as the operation of the charter amendments, the city debt
limit, contracts for street lighting and refuse disposal, improved means of
fire prevention, increase in teachers' salaries, and proposed pension acts.
The most complete report (237 pages) had to do with the school system
and showed that its administration was fully entitled to the public con-
fidence as being honest, economical, and inteUigent^a pattern for other
departments to follow. In a review of the year's finances, on the other
hand, the mayor was sharply criticized for padded paj'-rolls and improper
allowances for overtime. On the order of the city council a bureau of
municipal research was established as an adjunct to the commission in the
spring of 1910.

Probably our experience is too short to settle the relative merits of public
and private bureaus. Both have succeeded. There is room for both.
In New York the bureau and the commissioner of accounts have happily

' See National Municipal Review, vol. i, pp. 420, 460.

RESEARCH AND REFERENCE BUREAUS 53

supplemented each other. On the one hand efficiency departments are as
essential to the proper functioning of city governments as they are to the
success of business corporations; and on the other hand government ought
to be subjected to close and continuous scrutiny from the outside, something
which may be done more effectively by a group of experts than by the
inchoate mass of voters. It is said that a public agency will meet with more
generous cooperation on the part of officials and have easier access to
records and accounts; yet we find the Chicago bureau forcing the county
treasurer to submit to investigation, while Mayor Fitzgerald does not
hesitate to ignore the recommendations of the Boston Finance Commission.
Public agencies may be moved or suspected of being moved by partisan
considerations; their dependence upon varying pohtical conditions may be
illustrated by the history of the office of commissioner of accounts in New
York; and, unless protected by charter provisions, they may be swept away
with a change of administration.

With the advance in administrative ideals andmethods, efficiency bureaus
will become much commoner. Their value has been demonstrated. But
some things, especially the training of public officials and the collection of
data covering the whole field of municipal activities, may well be entrusted
to other hands. Before our universities there lies a splendid opportunity,
an opportunity for increasing their own prestige and for doing notable
public service. It is an opportunity which will not be neglected. Already
municipal reference bureaus have been formed in three state universities.

"Wisconsin led the way in July, 1909. The bureau, which is attached
to the university extension division, started with an ambitious program
and has met with encouraging success. Information is being gathered
on all phases of city government, from sewage disposal and the control of
public utilities to smoke abatement and the care of trees. It is made
accessible through the publication of bulletins — one on commission govern-
ment is already in the second edition — and through correspondence. Last
year the bureau answered 1500 inquiries coming from practically every
city in Wisconsin and from every state in the Union. It should be
observed that cordial cooperation with city officials is made the easier because
the director is at the same time secretary of the League of Wisconsin
Municipalities and editor of the League's magazine. The Municipality.
Similar in scope and character is the bureau which was established at the
University of Kansas two months later. It functions as a clearing-house
ready to furnish whatever data municipal authorities may call for. In
all departments of the university, such as law or engineering, specialists
are ready to assist with advice on technical and difficult questions . Through
the initiative of the bureau a league of municipahties has been formed and
coordinated with the bureau by the appointment of the director as secre-
tary. The cost of maintenance cannot be ascertained in either of these

54 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

cases, .as the office force of the extension division is utilized. For Wisconsin
SoOOO would be an outside estimate. The University of Nebraska has
had a bureau since the spring of 1911, the state having appropriated S10,450
to pa}' for municipal and legislative reference work during the next two
years.

Otiior institutions have entered the field, but either tentatively^ or with
limited objects in view. Thus the municipal reference department at
AVhitman College has begun collecting materials and will cooperate this
autumn in the formation of a league of municipalities in the state of Wash-
ington. The University of Illinois, faihng to secure funds from the legis-
lature, has managed, with the assistance of the university library, to gather
documents and reports and to answer inquiries which have been received.
At Harvard, where an annual sum of $2500 has been subscribed by alumni,
Professor Munro lays emphasis, not upon having information for official
use, but upon affording students practice in handling the concrete problems
of municipal administration. Those attending his classes are assigned
topics for investigation among the first-hand materials; and when city
authorities ask for enlightenment, students search out the facts. Similarly
the Politics Laboratory at Columbia Uuniversity, endowed for two years
by Hon. Patrick F. McGowan, looks chiefly towards increasing the effec-
tiveness of class-room instruction and the interest of the students. With
the opening of the school of journalism the laboratory will probably assume
a larger role and certainly have a more complete equipment.

The universities are therefore approaching common ground from differ-
ent directions. Harvard and Columbia have the student principally in
view; Wisconsin and Kansas, the public. Eventually it will be found
desirable to use the plant for both purposes, because with little change in
management it is equally applicable to both. We need not look far ahead
to see the universities real teachers of government ; on the one hand training
men for public service as well as citizenship (and training them without
the waste of much attention on Aristotle's classification of states or Web-
ster's illuminating constitutional discourses), and on the other hand acting
as the educators of communities by the distribution to them of the fruits
which experience has borne in cities throughout the world.

Of course the researchers have raised up enemies. Critics are alwaj's
criticized. It is natural that plunderers should make what resistance they
can when their offences are detected or their operations curtailed; and even
good citizens, though they would rather have their purses saved than their
souls, are in the habit of looking upon all uplifters with not a little sus-
picion. Indeed, our preachers of efficiency are sometimes self-complacent,
sometimes esoteric, and narrow (perhaps reformers have to be men of one
idea) in the emphasis which they place on method as opposed to personnel.

RESEARCH AND REFERENCE BUREAUS 55

Did not Wells wickedly satirize them in the Baileys, ''excessively devoted
to the public service," and especially in Altiora Bailey who found "trees
hopelessly irregular and sea cliffs out of place?" Yet Esmeer, who hated
the Baileys like poison, couldn't keep away; they had what all the political
world desired — facts. And the bureaus, whether loved or not, are bound
to be a power in the land because they have the facts and know how to use
them intelligently. Their idea is not so much to expose and punish the
unfaithful servants as to support and commend the faithful; not so much
to jail grafters as to install business systems which will make grafting diffi-
cult; not so much to reduce expenditure as to see that none of it is wasted.
They are also bent upon creating an informed and alert public opinion.
In such a program there is surely nothing which is open to attack as dan-
gerous, visionary, or impracticable.

APPENDIX

Private Agencies
(The date of establishment and the expenses for the last year are given)

Alameda County Tax Association: Secretary, W. S. Gould, Oakland, California;
March, 1911. $6000.

Chicago, Bureau of Public Efficiency: Director, Harris S. Keeler, 315 Plymouth
Court; August, 1910. $150,000 for three years' work.

Cincinnati, Bureau of Municipal Research: Director, Rufus E. Miles, 804 Neave
Building; July, 1909. $16,784.

Des Moines, Bureau of Public Efficiency and Economy: Secretary, J. G. Mitchell;
October, 1911. $800 for first four months.

Hoboken, Robert L. Stevens Fund for Municipal Research: Secretary, Genevieve
W. Beavers, Hudson Trust Building; 1910. $4000.

Hudson County, Citizens Federation : Secretary, Winston Paul, 537 Summit Ave-
nue, Jersey City; 1912. $5000 or $10,000.

Jersey City, Bureau of Municipal Research: Director, Frank Stevens, 46 Mont-
gomery Street; February, 1912.

Memphis, Bureau of Municipal Research: Secretary, E. O. Gillican, Tennessee
Trust Bldg., 1909. Activities suspended temporarily in 1911 through lack of funds.

New York, Bureau of Municipal Research: Directors, W. H. Allen, Henry Bruere,
F. A. Cleveland, 261 Broadway; January, 1906. $97,763.

Philadelphia, Bureau of Municipal Research: Director, Jesse D. Burks, 731 Real
Estate Trust Building; July, 1909. $35,000.

Pittsburgh, Committee on Municipal Research (of Civic Commission) : Secretary,
Allen T. Burns, 324 Fourth Avenue; January, 1909. $6478.

Wallingford (Connecticut), Bureau of Municipal Research: Secretary, Martin
F. Plunkett; February, 1911. Expenses negligible.

Wayne County Bureau of Municipal Research: Secretary, N. C. Heironimus,
Richmond, Ind.

Westchester County (New York) Research Bureau: Director, Otto G. Cartwright,
15 Court Street, White Plains; October, 1910. $10,000.

56 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

Public Agencies

Baltimore, Department of Legislative Reference : Director, Horace E. Flack, City
Hull; January, 1907. $3,573.82.

Boston, Bureau of Municipal Research (of Finance Commission): Director,
George A. O. Ernst, 410 Tremont Building; 1910. $5000.

Kansas City (Missouri), Municipal Reference Bureau: Director, Charles H.Talbot;
1010. S3000.

Milwaukee, Bureau of Economy and Efficiency: Secretary, John E. Treleven;
1910. Dissolved, 1912.

New York Commissioner of Accounts: 280 Broadway; 1873. $219,169.

Pasadena (California), Efficiency Department: Mayor, William Thum; 1911.
$2000.

St. Louis, Municipal Reference Library: Jesse Cunningham, City Hall; October,
1911.

Academic Agencies

Columbia University, New York City: Politics Laboratory, 1911; Directors,
Profs. Charles A. Beard and E. M. Sait.

Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts : Bureau of Research in Municipal
Government, 1911; Director, Prof. W. B. Munro.

University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, Municipal Bureau, 1911; Director, Prof.
J. A. Fairlie.,

University of Kansas. Lawrence, Kansas: Municipal Reference Bureau, 1909;
Director, Prof. Richard K. Price.

University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska: Legislative Reference Bureau, 1911;
Director, Prof. Addison E. Sheldon.

Whitman Collejge, Walla Walla, Washington: Municipal Reference Department,
1910; Director, Prof. Charles G. Haines.

University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin: Municipal Reference Bureau, 1909;
Director, Ford H. MacGregor.

TAXATION IN PHILADELPHIA

BY LOUIS F. POST^
Chicago

PHILADELPHIA was characterized some years ago by Lincoln
Steffens as "corrupt and contented," but he saw a saving rem-
nant. And there was one. Active in this remnant was Rudolph
Blankenburg, of whom we hear as a successful and respected manufacturer
and merchant, now approaching the age of three score and ten but perenni-
ally youthful and hopeful and public spirited. Mr. Blankenburg's activ-
ities in his apparently hopeless fight during his "thirty years' war" were
doubtless to the gangsters a joke. Last year, however, he was elected
mayor.

The cartoonist of a local newspaper celebrated his induction into office
by picturing him as "The Old Dutch Cleanser." It was a happy thought.
Philadelphia laughed and applauded, thanked God and took courage.

The new mayor had work cut out for him. Philadelphia finances were
in a deplorable state, due to neglect followed by bossism, extravagance
and worse — as usual. For years large amounts of current expenses had
been paid from loans. It is necessary now that both income and borrowing
capacity be increased. Mayor Blankenburg's first annual message, Sep-
tember 20, 1912, must have been awaited therefore with interest and
anxiety.

The situation needed a master hand, the outcome was disappointing.
The Associated Press telegraphed to the country his proposals contained in
"a message remarkable for unusual recommendations." These have been
severely criticized, in some respects justly. The subject of taxation is
yearly attracting increasing attention, yet the mayor did not appear to
have thought very profoundly. His suggestions generally were reaction-
ary. Not all were so, but taken as a whole his message is like the old time
mince pie which was full of ingredients, some of them wholesome.

Proposing an occupation tax, from which Philadelphia is now free, the
mayor said:

This, it would seem to me, is an equitable proposition, for all citizens
enjoying the privileges and protection of our municipality should not only
be willing but glad to contribute their mite for the maintenance of that
government.

iMr. Post is the editor of The Public and one of the leading and most trenchant
advocates of the single-tax in the country. He has a just'y earned reputation as
a student of taxation.

57

58 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

Men otherwise intelligent and public-spirited, as is Mayor Blanken-
burg, arc frequentl}' ill-informed on the subject of taxation. Pie has failed
to see that all citizens already do contribute much more than a "mite"
for the maintenance of government.

An editorial in the Sahirday Evening Post of October 26, 1912, quotes
census figures showhig that the average family of five persons contributes
in taxes almost $180 yearly, and this, says the editor, "takes no account
of whatever indirect burdens the tariff tax imposes by raising, the price
of jirotected goods." Thomas G. Shearman in Natural Taxation (p. 27),
estimates conservatively the latter tax at three times that which is collected
at the ports.

Now every owner or occupant of a house in Philadelphia pays taxes on
that house. If he occupies but a room or rooms, he pays a real estate
tax. Take the case of a boarding house. All inmates pay equally for
food, but they pay differentially for their respective lodgings. The boarder
in a desirable room paj^s a large price; the boarder in the third story back
pays a small one. These prices include rent of land, interest on the cost
of the furniture, interest on the house, repairs, water rent and taxes,
always and everyw^here, excepting only in the case of paupers and crim-
inals— they being tax eaters.

Students of taxation know that taxes fall in undue proportion and with
undue severity upon the humbler classes, generally kno^vn as w^age-earners,
whose share is not to be lightly regarded as a "mite." The cautious
Shearman (p. 33) estimated for 1880 that "taxes consume directly and
indirectly at least 15 per cent of a laborer's average income." He showed
further, (p. 36) that disproportionate taxation is a pow^erful and persistent
factor in the unequal distribution of wealth. It works cumulatively to-
ward concentration in a few hands, producing on the one side povertj^ and
on the other swollen fortunes. It is undeniable that the humbler classes
pay vastly more than their share already. Shearman says "ten times"!
Then why tax a man additionally because he has an occupation?

Occupations are natural and necessary, and the lack of occupation for
multitudes of men is a matter which excites anxiety among the thoughtful.
On October 10, 1912, F. 0. Walters, a Kansas City grocer, was jai'ed be-
cause of his refusal to pay such a tax. His protest may be commended
to Mayor Blankenburg. He said. "I won't pay it. I pay a state tax,
a county tax, and a city tax, and I don't see why I should be made to pay
a tax for making a living. I can't afford to pay this extra tax, and if you
are going to fine me for not paying it, you might as w^ell do so, because if
I pay it you may have me in here for vagrancy later," A fine for not
paying a tax, or a fine for vagrancy induced by paying the tax — what is
the difTerence?

On the same day Thomas Morrison was taxed because he washed soiled

TAXATION IN PHILADELPHIA 59

clothes for pay. He was given ten days to pay the tax, in default of
which Kansas City would put him in jail (and go dirty). In Kansas City
they call the occupation tax a ''license fee." The term has a pleasanter
sound. In other cities, presumably in Philadelphia and Kansas City,
a wealthy automobilist pays a license fee or occupation tax (they call it
"a fine") because he has run his car at a murderous rate through the
streets of the city- — his usual "occupation." Still another "tough" pays
a license fee or occupation tax of $10 (they call it "a fine"), for going on a
drunk — his usual "occupation." We are absurd. Boasting of our civil-
ization, yet we fine men for industry and fine them for idleness, we fine for
virtue and we fine for vice and even for crime.

What is the proper course? ,

Occupation should be encouraged instead of being taxed; criminals
should be imprisoned instead of being fined.

Mayor Blankenburg says that the proposed occupation tax would not
be a burden upon wage-earners, storekeepers, professional men or any
persons who follow a gainful occupation. The mayor is apparently not
aware that the mercantile license tax in Philadelphia is such a burden to
thousands of humble people as I am informed, that it is a perennial source
of iniquity, annoyance, irritation and corruption, and that many attempts
have been made to repeal it.

In view of the fact that every man, owner, lessee, lodger or boarder, di-
rectly or indirectly, pays a real estate tax proportioned to the value of
the real estate occupied, whether the whole house or a part of it, whether
the cellar or the top floor, what justification has Philadelphia for asking
any other kind of tax?

The mayor says it is in return for the enjoyment of the privileges and
protection of the municipality. So far, so good. Let us concede that
privileges and protections should be paid for by all citizens. But they are,
in fact, so paid in Philadelphia now. Doesn't Mayor Blankenburg see
that the entire financial benefit of the taxes spent for those privileges and
protections attaches to land, always to land, and to land only? And
that it raises the rent of land, which is thereupon promptly extracted by
landlords from tenants? Humbler individuals pay taxes for good govern-
ment in their rents, and they, as compared with richer classes, are already
overburdened.

The mayor is influenced by a vicious principle of taxation, namely, that
each should pay according to his ability to pay. The just principle is
that each should pay according to the benefit he receives.

This principle Mayor Blankenburg must have followed in deahng with
customers during his long and honorable private business career. It is
the principle which he should try to follow in dealing with Philadelphia's

60 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

customors, generally known as "citizens." As good government cheapens
labor products, but increases the value of land and in the long run of land
only, the cost of government should be derived not from products, but from
land.

The mayor proposes also an out-put tax upon goods manufactured in
the city, say $1 per SIOOO. He estimates that this tax would produce a
revenue of §750,000. It would be a backward step, if the policy of Perm-
sylvania is, as I understand it has been for many years, to invite manu-
facturers.

To this end, stocks of goods and machinery are untaxed by the state;
manufacturers selling their own products are exempt from the ordinary
mercantile license tax; manufacturing corporations are exempt from the
5 mills tax on corporation capital stock, as well as the corporation tax on
net incomes, pajdng in Philadelphia only on land and buildings.

Hasn't this policy of simplicity and directness made Philadelphia attrac-
tive to manufacturers? and in fairness shouldn't it be extended to all in-
dustries?

The mayor's proposal to tax vault spaces under side walks is good. But
if sub-sidewalk space is public property why not rent it for full annual
value instead of taxing only a percentage? If not public property, doesn't
it add to the value of the adjacent lot if the owner is privileged to appro-
priate it and in that event is it not already taxed ? If not, why not?

The state tax on automobiles in Pennsylvania is $10. The mayor pro-
poses in addition a city tax of 25 to 50 cents per horse power per annum,
his justification being that

No one will gainsay the fact that automobiles are largely the cause of
the heavy cost of street repair and maintenance — ^particularly on the
macadam and country roads, of which we have more than four hundred
miles — and add materially to the labors of the department of public safety.

But an automobile traveling at moderate speed on wide rubber tires
is not a road breaker but a road maker. The damage by automobiles
to macadam and soil roads is due to excessive speed, which causes suction
of the road material as well as danger to pedestrians, an evil which should
be prevented by criminal penalties instead of being licensed by taxation.

The mayor proposes also a tax on overhanging signs. He says they
are innumerable in Philadelphia.

Such a tax is bad. Every overhanging sign is an aggression on public
property, an eye-sore and a menace. In Philadelphia the evil is said to

TAXATION IN PHILADELPHIA 61

have attained proportions which make the city streets a mess of ughness,
perhaps beyond those of any city in the country; and although the mayor
says there is a law forbidding them on some streets, that law is apparently
more honored in the breach than in the observance. Aggression should
not be licensed but forbidden. Signs are private property ; private property
should not be allowed beyond building lines.

Although the mayor refers to the defacement of the city's highways
and suburban landscapes by these signs, it is somewhat difficult to under-
stand whether he wishes to get a revenue from the signs or to repress them
and their ugliness. If the latter, it should be remembered that the power
of taxation should be used for revenue and not for police regulation.

Household furniture is not taxed in Pennsylvania, whose methods, how-
ever faulty, may not unfairly be said to be simpler and better than those of
any other state in the union. The mayor suggests reform backward.
Concerning the tax on household furniture which was repealed in 1867,
he says:

It is somewhat strange to me that while real estate is highly taxed, the
contents of the dwellings escape entirely. A general exemption of $300
for household furniture and furnishings would seem reasonable, but every-
thing above that is a fair subject of taxation, and would not affect the
people of small means, but would impose an equitable tax upon those well
able to pay. I have before me a tax bill levied in the city of Cape May,
N. J., which taxes the value of land and the value of buildings separately,
and also separately the value of furniture and personal property. The
value of land, $7,100; the value of buildings, $10,000; the value of personal
property, $1,000; a total value of $18,100, at the rate of $2.25, making a
total taxation of $407.25.

The mayor says a tax on household furniture would be "equitable."
But furnishings and other personal property never have been equitably
assessed anywhere. It is not in the nature of things that they can be so
assessed. It would require omniscient intelligence to do it. The history
of taxation shows that attempts to assess personal property equitably
have generally been a joke, sometimes a tragedy, and always and every-
where a foundation for schools in perjury.

A tax on furniture and other personal property is a tax on comfort
and decency, and an inducement to deceit and double-dealing.

Always, too, the rich are favored at the expense of the poor. No better
proof of this is needed than the item which Mayor Blankenburg furnishes
to support his suggestion. Here in fashionable Cape May are a lot and
building worth $17,100, an expenditure incurred for the purpose of shelter-
ing furniture and other personal property worth only $1000! Truly an
interesting case — especially so when we look for the New Jersey definition

G2 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

of personal property subject to taxation "according to true value." It
includes all goods and chattels, all debts, and all public and corporate
stock, and whether within or without the state.

The greatest cause of corruption in government is indifference, neglect.
The cause of neglect of government by humbler classes is that the cost is
largely concealed by reason of indirect taxation. (Shearman calls it
"crooked" taxation). People pay for government without knowing it.
For instance, which of the readers of this magazine knows, even approx-
imately, what he and his family pay for the support of the government
at Washington.

Take a "horrible example" from Philadelphia.

The illuminating gas used by the city corporation is served "free" to
the city bj' the United Gas Improvement Company. Anybody who thinks
that this compan}'" furnishes anything free is an innocent. The city's
bill for gas is in fact paid for by an increased price to the citizen consumers
of gas in Philadelphia — by consumers of gas only. These consumers are
then taxed on their own use of gas according to their consumption respect-
ively, 15 cents per 1000 feet, which is collected by the company from
consumers and paid to the city by the United Gas Improvement Company;
that is to say, consumers of gas pay for their own gas and for the city's
gas, and then are taxed, each according to the volume personally used,
15 cents per 1000 fe'et. If this tax were direct, there would be a riot in
Philadelphia in twenty-four hours. It is indirect (concealed in price), and
has therefore continued for fifteen years. This is a special tax imposed
upon a certain class, largely humble. It appears from the mayor's mes-
sage to amount to $1,304,028.78. The mayor does not seem to recognize
that it is not only a tax, but also a peculiarly "crooked" tax. He refers
to the difficulty of reducing not the tax on gas, but the price of gas.

The mayor is desirous of increasing the borrowing capacity of the city,
which is constitutionally limited to 7 per cent on taxables. Obviously
the only stable basis for such a percentage is on immovables, such as land
and buildings. But Mayor Blankenburg proposes increasing the borrow-
ing basis by adding such evanescenses as "occupation" and "debts at
interest."

The state of Pennsylvania, in order to "relieve" financially able people,
taxes those whose necessities compel them to borrow money on mortgage.
This is the 4 mill tax on money at interest, mostly mortgages, collected
as a state tax, three-fourths returnable by the state to the various counties
to "relieve real estate." The owners who are so fortunate as to be free
of the necessity of borrowing dd not pay any such tax.

The mayor's proposal is that the tax be named a city tax instead of a

TAXATION IN PHILADELPHIA 63

state tax. Not to increase the city's revenues. Change of name would
not do that. But in order that by means of a verbal juggle a further con-
stitutional basis may be had for loans to the city.

The proper course with this tax would seem to be to abolish it, an ex-
ample for which may be found, I understand, in the neighboring states
of New York and Maryland. It is one of the taxes which thoughtless
legislators put upon lenders supposing that lenders pay it, but which tend
with increasing pressure to burden borrowers.

Mayor Blankenburg also proposes to substitute the occupation tax for
the poll tax. Both are unjust and absurd. The first is a tax on doing
something useful, the second on being alive.

A hopeful section of the mayor's message is that wherein he proposes
to reform Philadelphia's methods of assessing real estate, a matter which
he well says is of great importance, and to which he proposes to refer
at a later date.

In Pennsylvania, fortunately for Philadelphia, state taxation is divorced
from county and municipal taxation; real estate (land and improvements)
being subject to local taxation only. There is thus no contribution to
the state government by real estate, and no state board of equalization
is required to supervise assessments of real estate. Thus, also, there is
no temptation to under-assess one county as compared with another.
The real estate tax in Philadelphia is for her exclusive benefit.

Now, the assessment of real estate is a business of extreme importance
and deUcacy, and in Philadelphia it is badly managed. The methods
are a hundred years behind the times. Assessors do not even separate
land and buildings; and, as the mayor points out, the assessors are nde-
pendent of the city government, although the city pays their bills. The
mayor is out to reform the matter by drastic legislation. More strength
to his elbow! But, strangely enough, he, does not mention as a basis for
increased borrowing capacity an increased assessment on central business
property.

Two years ago the Philadelphia councils employed outsiders to nvesti-
gate assessments in seven wards of Philadelphia. They were the tax
appraisal experts of the Manufacturers' Appraisal Company of Cleveland,
operating under the Somers assessment system which Mayor Tom L.
Johnson introduced in Cleveland and which after trial he strongly endorsed.
The councils appointed local experts in real estate values to indicate, for
the use of the appraisal company, a unit of land value at the middle of
every block, and to check and supervise the work of the appraisal com-
pany's experts. The company, in accordance with the Somers method,
then called public meetings in every ward in order that the units might

G4 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

be criticized by the citizens. Figuring from the units finally set by public
opinion tiic experts, using the Somers mathematical tables, reported in
detail the usual discrepancies and iniquities that are familiar to students
of taxation everywhere.

It appears, however, that no relief is to be obtained from the re-assess-
ment of dwellings in general. The mayor states that the assessment of
two-story dwellings (200,000) and of most of the three story dwellings
(100.000) is practically up to full value. Yet the appraisal companys'
experts, on units furnished by the local experts, estimated an approximate
under-assessment of $500,000,000 for the whole city. Of this deficit $100-
000,000 was within a quarter of a mile of the city hall, $16,000,000 having
been missed from only three properties. On the other hand, in one single
block there had been an over-assessment of $500,000. A trust company
at 515-521 Chestnut Street, assessed at $700,000, was appraised by the
experts at only $453,106; and 537 Chestnut Street, in the same block,
assessed by the city at $225,000, was appraised by the experts at only
$149,265. No. 701 Chestnut Street, assessed by the city at $90,000, was
appraised by the experts at only $76,283.

"When called to an account by an interviewer, the president of the assess-
ing board said that his own dwelling was over-assessed $2000; yet, the
Pennsylvania terminal, directly opposite the city hall, and appraised by
the experts at $10,677,878, was assessed by the city at only $5,500,000.
The Reading terminal, valued by the experts at $7,319,100, was assessed
by the city at only $4,500,000. The Mint Arcade, across from the city
hall, valued by the experts at $4,063,078, was assessed by the city at only
$1,250,000. The Wanamaker store, opposite the city hall and valued by
the experts at $17,378,219, was assessed by the city at only $9,250,000.
The Masonic Temple, opposite the city hall and valued by the experts
at $3,762,256, was assessed by the city at only $2,000,000 — exempt from
taxation, the Lord knows why if anyone does!

The explanation of these gross under-assessments and over-assessments
is that the city assessors work by rule of thumb; the appraisal company,
with the local experts, worked by public methods and mathematical tables.

An example of the Philadelphia assessors' method of "how not to do
it" may be found by comparing 713 Chestnut Street, assessed at $90,000,
with 725 Chestnut Street assessed at $125,000. These lots are within a
few feet of each other, are of precisely equal area, and are occupied by
buildings precisely alike; yet one is assessed for $35,000 more than the
other and by the same assessors.

It would not be profitable to discuss at length the mayor's proposal
to tax the physical properties of public service corporations, for this w'ould
require legislation at the state capitol. In order to divorce state and local

TAXATION IN PHILADELPHIA 65

taxation, a commendable idea, the state of Pennsylvania reserves to itself
taxes on public service corporations, namely, a tax on the market value
of capital stock (5 mills) and a tax on the gross receipts of those companies
(8 mills).

The mayor himself does not consider his proposal seriously, but only
as a possibility. But his language regarding these physical properties
is scarcely just. He says:

The assessment and taxation of physical properties of public service
corporations should be considered. At present corporation franchises are
not taxed. Assuming that a fair valuation of franchises would add $100,
000,000, and that they were taxed at the same rate as other properties
are now taxed, this would mean an increase of $1,000,000 in current rev-
enues.

Now as the value of these physical properties is a part of the market value
of capital stock (taxed 5 mills) and necessary to the production of gross
receipts (taxed 8 mills), it is obvious that they are not exempt from tax-
ation. The justice of the amount of the tax is another question.

The mayor has a further proposal as a basis for borrowing. He says:

It is well known that our mills and factories and the real estate of all
manufacturing establishments are assessed far below their actual value.
This has been done for many years to encourage manufacturing. A reas-
onable proposition, it appears to me, would be to ask the board of revision
of taxes to assess all such property at its full value, because such reason-
able assessment would add scores of millions of dollars to the real estate
values of our city and thus increase our borrowing capacity very largely.
To avoid placing any additional burden upon our manufacturers, the tax
rate upon all such property might be proportionately decreased. A
special tax rate upon the real estate of all manufacturing establishments
(which, when paid upon a full valuation, would only equal the present
full rate on a low valuation) would injure no one and would help us in
the present dilemma by probably $7,000,000 additional to the borrowing
po.wer.

As the borrowing limit of the city is 7 per cent this statement indicates
that manufacturers in Philadelphia have been yearly under-assessed to
the extent of $100,000,000, thus placing an undue tax burden on non-man-
ufacturers to the extent of $1,500,000 yearly, the tax rate being 15 mills.

In addition to the protective tariff, I have already indicated three leg-
islative "favors" enjoyed by manufacturers and manufacturing corpor-
ations in Philadelphia. The mayor mentions a fourth, namely, a syste-
matic and illegal under-assessment of mills and factories ''for many years
to encourage manufacturing."

The fact is well known, says the mayor. To whom? It was known to
manufacturers, but was it known to those who had to make up the deficit?

nr, NATIONAL MUNICirAL REVIEW

'riio iiKiyor tells us that the two-story dwellings and the three-story
dwellings are practically fully assessed. These number 300,000. Divide
.?1,50().0()0 by 300,000, and we have $5 as the average "mite" contributed
by small dwellings to "encourage" manufacturers. The encouragement
is forced, illegal, "crooked" and unjust.

Several thoughts are suggested by the mayor's admissions.

The assessors have for many years violated their oath of obedience to
the law, which requires equitable assessment at fair market value.

The mayor does not propose that the perjured assessors shall be im-
peached.

Does the mayor fail to understand that the business of government
is to prevent favoritism, not to establish it?

The mayor fails to see that governmental "favor" is euphemistic for
"graft."

While the mayor proposes to increase and correct the present illegal
assessments of manufacturers, the correction will not be actual, it will be
fictitious, on paper only. For he proposes, after having raised the assess-
ment to lower the tax rate to manufacturers (to them only) so as to make
the present illegal favor a legal one.

The mayor's declared object is not to raise revenue, but only to use
the thereby increased but non-productive assessment as a basis for borrow-
ing §7,000,000 — payable by posterity. In other words, the mayor pro-
poses to establish a $7,000,000 liability against posterit}^, but at the same
time to cut off the natural means of collecting by taxation the usual sink-
ing fund to extinguish that liability. He would violate that sound doc-
trine which for permanent improvements only may justify the contraction
of public debt within reasonable constitutional limits, against taxable
properties, productive of revenue sufficient to take care of the liability
within a reasonable time. That reasonable time in Philadelphia is now
thirty years. The mayor wishes to extend the period to fifty years.

Nobody questions the sincerity, the honesty, the public-spirit of the
present mayor of Philadelphia. It is evident, however, that he has not
given serious attention to the sources of public revenue.

Tiie subject of taxation, with its simplification and improvement, is
stirring all civilized nations. It received its strongest modern impulse
from the mayor's own city, Philadelphia, when Henry George was born
there, liefore his time, Benjamin Franklin, Philadelphia's most eminent
citizen, had anticipated George, had urged the single tax, and had lamented
his inal)ility to persuade the people to adopt it. And now, at a time
when cities of Germany, Australia and New Zealand and the government
of England are appropriating the "unearned increment," when a dozen

TAXATION IN PHILADELPHIA 67

cities of Northwest Canada have abohshed taxes on improvements, when
even the recent provisional president of China is preaching single tax,
the mayor of Philadelphia seeks new ways to tax and harass industry
and to find airy bases for borrowing, which might well make seasoned gang-
sters sit up and take notice.

Philadelphia seems determined to throw away its public treasure, a
growing unearned increment, the real commonwealth of every community.
It turns to levying on private property for public purposes instead of
using those common values. In the last analysis Philadelphia must either
tax land values or labor values. The mayor revives discarded schemes
to tax labor and its products, to tax debt, and to use abstractions as a
basis for loans. As someone has said, the city is in the position of a mil-
lionaire throwing away his wealth and then seeking ways to borrow money
to buy pork and flour.

It is reported that some members of councils' finance committee are
in favor of adopting the mayor's program in its entirety. The report
is not surprising. Councils had already approached the borrowing limit
within $7,000,000, and were afraid that increasing the tax rate would
arouse public indignation. But presto! A reform mayor of manifestly
honest purpose shows them where they had overlooked a few score mil-
lions of borrowing capacity, but shows them millions the city has little
or no right to while ignoring the larger millions that belong to it.

The days of occupation taxes and taxes on money at interest are fast
going the way of taxes on chimneys, windows and newspapers. But if
Mayor Blankenburg has his way and does not alter his course, such taxes
will fret Philadelphia for fifty years to come, for the mayor proposes to
make their assessment figures the ''basis for fifty year loans." He says
he has other schemes to present later. Before doing so he should con-
sult sound principles of taxation.

E. Benjamin Andrews has truly said, ''Unjust methods of taxation
have caused more misery in the world than any other one thing, the rum
traffic not excepted."

While joining with all others in honoring Mayor Blankenburg for his
many years of unselfish service for the public good, I trust that plain
speech in a matter of utmost importance may not be considered as con-
flicting with that sincere respect which I hold for him and his record nor
inconsistent with the confidence in his integrity of purpose which I enter-
tain and wish cordiall}^ to express.

HOUSING AT THE LOS ANGELES
CONFERENCE-

BY JOHN IHLDER
Field Secretary, National Housing Association

THE Los Angeles conference of the National Municipal League
combined with great success the two functions of such a gather
ing, a general discussion of problems which confront all our cities
and a definite application of suggested remedies to the particular city
in which the meeting is held. Because of the great prominence given to
the second of these functions many of us felt that the Los Angeles meeting
was of greater practical value than any other conference of recent years.
LTnfortunately, however, the necessity for lengthening the program on
Wednesday afternoon prevented those of us w^ho were especially inter-
ested in housing from sharing in this practical benefit, as it was necessary
for the authors of the two formal papers presented to hurry through them;
and even then no time was left for discussion. Had it not been for infor-
mal discussions at other times during the week and for those impromptu
conferences which are in some respects the most valuable feature of the
League's annual meetings, we housing workers would have felt that our
contribution was of little value. The two papers were in themselves
merely introductory to an expected discussion which would have given
their suggestions practical application.

The first paper was by John Ihlder, field secretary of the National
Housing Association. It dealt with the need, under a democratic form
of government, of volunteer citizens' associations which shall take the
lead in organizing public sentiment; which shall when necessary investi-
gate abuses, suggest remedies and conduct campaigns of education; w'hich
shall uphold public officials who are endeavoring to enforce the law in
sj)ite of determined opposition from those who profit by its non enforce-
ment or shall inspire zeal in officials who for any reason are inclined to
wink at violations or evasion. What is everybody's business is notoriously
nobody's business, and as everj'^body's business in a large city is a many
sided affair there must be a number of citizens' associations, each devoted
to one clearly defined field of work so that it may have the definite knowl-
edge and the unity of purpose necessary to success. This is illustrated by
the fact that in those cities which have volunteer housing associations

1 This paper not only gives the gist of Rev. Dana W. Bartlett's paper read at
Los Angeles but Senator Burnett's comments thereon. In addition to this the arti-
cle is interesting in itself for the direct contribution it makes to the discussion of the
highly important subject of housing.

68

HOUSING AT LOS ANGELES 69

or committees the most definite and practical progress is being made,
while in those which have none the work of housing betterment either
never has been taken up or if taken up has, after a short time lagged or
gone off along easy and impractical lines where there would be no opposi-
tion.

The second paper, by the Rev. Dana W. Bartlett, of the Los Angeles
Housing Commission, gave the local point of view. After an eloquent
plea for a city of homes in contradistinction to a city of tenement houses,
it touched briefly upon the very good work which the commission has
done in raising standards in the ''house-courts" where the Mexican peons
live. Then it dwelt at length upon various schemes for model housing.
One of the quotations used to enforce the plea for a city of homes deserves
repetition as it illustrates admirably the new point of view of the EngHsh
business man. It is a recommendation by their chief medical officer
to the directors of the great Guinness brewery.

Until our famifies are given the opportunity of being comfortably and
decently housed we cannot expect to do much in raising their social and
moral standards. I, therefore, make bold to look forward to the day
when a brewery model village is built where our people can obtain a
small one or two storied cottage at a reasonable rent. That the tene-
ment house system, except for the very poor who must continue to reside
in the congested city area, is a retrograde step, I am strongly _ of opinion ;
such a system neither conduces to good morals nor a high social standard
of living. The well paid laborer, whose earnings are constant, should
be given a chance of having a self-contained house of his own; such a
house can be made home-like, attractive and comfortable. In few cases
is this possible in a tenement building.

"Admit," added Dr. Bartlett, "that the drift toward the city will
never grow less, yet, if you have had a vision of the new city of the new
democracy, you will concede that he who helps the workingman to build
a real home for his family is helping to transform a serious menace into
a blessing to humanity. Let us then ruralize the city and urbanize the
country. Let us help to surround every city with a hundred industrial
villages laid out as carefully as the suburban estate of the milHonaire."

Then follow the plans which, as they must be summarized, had best
be summarized in the speaker's own words:

To sum up, an adequate local housing program should contain provi-
sion for:

Erection of model house courts for those who must remain in the built
up city, displacing entirely the usual type of tenement.

Carefully supervised California tent houses to be allowed for temporary
dwellings or for invalids.

Encouragement of Los Angeles plan for selfing building lots on small
payments, thus making it possible for workers to own their own homes.

Extention and perfection of rapid transit with reasonable carfare that
cheaper land may be within reach of all.

70 XATIONAL MUNICirAJ. REVIEW

The maintonance of temporary shelter by the municipality on city
owned land.

Tlio (lcvel()i)ni(>ut of an ap;ncultnral policy by the city that many of
the jKiorest families may be fitted for a living upon the land.

Especial emphasis to be placed on the building of garden cities about
every new industrial center, thu§ helping to make industrial life ideal
rather than degrading.

Such are the proposals. It had been planned to have State Senator
Lester G. Burnett, author of the California state tenement house law,
lead the discussion. Fortunately a copy of Dr. Bartlett's paper had been
submitted to him before the conference and he had wTitten some comments
ui)on it. "I have read Mr. Dana Bartlett's paper with interest," he
wrote, "and it is very interesting from a humanitarian and, it might be
said, from a theoretical standpoint, but it does not help a member of a
legislative bod}^ such as a state legislature. There is no trouble in getting
a legislature, at least the California legislature, to agree that great reforms
are needed in the housing of the people. But then comes that question,
so crude and Avhich sounds so impolite, 'what are you going to do about
it?'"

At this point it is necessary to leave the conference for a moment and
describe in a brief paragraph the present housing situation in Los Angeles.
In Los Angeles there is no citizens' association which takes an especial
interest in housing. The Housing Commission, an official body, practi-
call}" stands alone. Until some of its members became interested in
promoting plans for garden suburbs it confined itself to the work of clean-
ing up the house courts which were a disgrace to the city. This work,
which was largely in the hands of a salaried inspector, has produced good
results. Meanwhile the San Francisco Housing Association, a citizen's
organization called into existence by the plague of cheap and unsanitary
tenements which began to afflict San Francisco after the fire decided
to set wholesome standards for all multiple dwellings. It inspired the
tenement house law which Senator Burnett put through the legislature
last year. This law, while it marks a great step in advance, is admit-
tedly not adequate. Yet Los Angeles, so far as it expressed itself at all,
opposed its enactment. After the law was passed strong efforts were
made by Los Angeles people to have it declared inoperative so far as that
city w^as concerned. Meetings to protest against it were announced and
the newspapers published statements as to the alleged injury it would
cause tenement house owners.^ To outsiders who had thought Los Angeles

' According to the Los Angeles Express of August 17, 1912, there have been erected
in Loa Angeles since the l.aw went into effect approximately 235 tenement or apart-
ment houses. Mark C. Cohn, chief clerk in the building department, is quoted as
saying, "We received many complaints when the law first became effective, but

HOUSING AT LOS ANGELES 71

a city of homes such vociferous opposition to tenement house regulation
was a surprise. So also was the lack of any public-spirited support of
the law. Only one side was presented and that was the side of opposition.
Finally, however, the city's legal representatives decided that the city
would have to submit to the law.

With this history in mind I looked up the Los Angeles tenements dur-
ing conference week. I found that probably the greater part of them
are of the class called apartments, but that they overcrowd their lots
and so promise dark rooms in the future as their number multiplies, that
they are very frequently of flimsy construction and very infrequently
provided with adequate fire escapes. Such tenements as these, with the
inevitable shifting of population, will become shelters of the poorer people.
Then Los Angeles will have a slum compared to which her old house
courts were a jest: Yet I could find no organization and only a few indi-
viduals who were wiUing to face this immediate problem and try to devise
effective means of solving it. Perhaps in that may be found the reason
for Senator Burnett's query, "What are you going to do about it?"

At a luncheon meeting held during the conference week Dr. Bartlett
described at some length the plans for a garden suburb in which he is
interested and for which some $15,000 have been subscribed. The next
speaker described the existing tenement and apartment houses and the
apparent reluctance to regulate them so as to safeguard the health and
lives of their inhabitants. Then turning to Dr. Bartlett he asked, "Sup-
pose you succeed in building your garden suburb, suppose you populate
it with workingmen's families each living in a little cottage surrounded
by lawn and yard. As the city grows and pressure of population increases
some one will figure out that these cottage lots would bring in a greater
return if covered with tenement houses. How are you going to prevent
his acquiring these lots and erecting on them multiple dwellings just as
bad as those now being erected in other parts of the city? In other words,
what does this proposed garden suburb promise more than a temporary

the objections have disappeared almost entirely. Of course there are some provi-
sions of the law that could be made less ambiguous, but as a whole the measure has
been a success."

Later, on September 18, the Los Angeles Examiner published a long interview
with the city building inspector in whose hands the enforcement of the law has been
placed. In this interview Mr. Backus is represented as opposed to a repeal of the
law, but as advocating certain changes in it, some of which would weaken it. The
important point, however, is that Los Angeles, having accepted the law much
against its will, is now beginning to find that regulation is a positive benefit. Were
there only a strong citizens' organization in Los Angeles definitely interested in
housing betterment, it could take advanta-ge of this change of view and work for
higher standards — and consequently greater benefit to the city — than those now
set by legislation. — J. I.

72 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

alleviation, ending in the venture being finally taken over by the specu-
lative tenement house builder?" Neither then nor later did Dr. Bart-
Ictt answer. For the answer is, "We would regulate the use which may
be made of this land." Then w^ould follow the question, "Why not regu-
late now in those parts of the city where bad conditions are developing?
The tenement house evil in Los Angeles is today in its early stages. Why
not grapple with it now when it is comparatively small and so assure a city
in the future which really is without tenements and without slums, instead
of a city composed of a ring of garden suburbs about a constantly expand-
ing core of unwholesome tenement houses?"

Were such proposals as those of Dr. Bartlett confined to Los Angeles
there would be no purpose in retailing this discussion in such a publica-
tion as the National Municipal Review; but unhappily they are not.
In city after city as it awakens to the fact that it has a serious housing
problem there are men and women whose consciences will not permit
them to remain inactive, but who instinctively seek some easier method
than that of squarely facing the problem as it exists. "If," they argue,
"we provide better homes the workingmen will leave the unwholesome
tenements and the problem will settle itself." But unfortunately bailing
does not stop a leak. The places of those who leave the tenements are
taken by others and as semi-philanthropic building never yet kept pace
with the growth of a prosperous city, new tenements are erected to sup-
plement those already strained beyond their capacity.

Yet the projects advanced by Dr. Bartlett sound so attractive and
some of them considered by themselves, not as a solution of a city's hous-
ing problem, are so good, that they call for brief comment. First is the
erection of model house courts to take the place of the usual type of tene-
ment. The house court can be made not onlj^ sanitary, but also most
attractive. Los Angeles has some examples in w^hich houses rent for
S2o a month that would excite the admiration of any housing reformer —
clean, quiet courts bordered by a double row of tiny one and a half story
detached cottages of three or four rooms and bath. Though these cot-
tages are very close to each other they are so low that sun and air can
enter all their windows and they leave space for grass and flowers. But
while Los Angeles permits the erection of cheap frame or other flimsily
constructed, tall, box tenement houses which cover nearly all their lot,
it is difficult to see how good house courts can compete at low rentals.

The proposals for tent houses and for temporary shelter provided by
the municipality on city owned land, instead of helping to solve one prob-
lem will probably raise two others. San Francisco's experience with
temporary shelters for several years after the earthquake should be answer
enough to the second proposal. As for the tent or the shack, it may be
a sufficient shelter from the weather in Southern California. It may,

HOUSING AT LOS ANGELES 73

when it stands alone in the woods or on the seashore, be an admirable
place for a family to spend a few weeks; but a tent or shack community
is a different proposition. With the crowding of people together there
arise questions of sanitation and morality. The tent or shack town does
not provide that privacy which is necessary to a wholesome family life.
The walls of a tent are less barrier to sight and sound than the thin walls
of our eastern tenement houses, against which social workers find such
cause for complaint. For it is to be remembered that the inhabitants of
this tent town will be, not a group of people with high social standards
who are temporarily roughing it, but the expected horde of European
immigrants whose vanguard is already creating some serious social prob-
lems in Los Angeles. Nor can it be argued that these tent or shack towns
are to be merely temporary affairs, as Dr. Bartlett does in connection
with his third proposal of encouraging the selling of lots on small pay-
ments, ''thus making it possible for the workers to own their own homes."
Outside of many of our older eastern cities there have developed just
such shack towns and most of them began with the idea that they w^ere
temporary shelters. The Canadian government last year pubhshed an
address by Dr. Charles A. Hodgetts, medical adviser to the committee on
public health of the Commission of Conservation. In this address Dr.
Hodgetts described some of the shack towns on the borders of the newer
cities of the Dominion. Intended for the temporary accommodation of
newly arrived immigrants they often became the overcrowded, permanent
homes of a foreign population which pays exorbitant prices for the accom-
modation it secures. Such a colony is that at Sault Ste. Marie: "This
colony is crowded into a lot of miserable shacks, filthy both outside and
inside; no cellars, no drainage, closets on the surface of the ground, vile
beyond description," etc.

As to the plea that the erection of a temporary shack will permit the
workingman to gradually build his own home. Dr. Hodgetts again pre-
sents evidence:

"Should the married man hve in the suburbs, it is perhaps in a shack
town, the whole family being crowded into one or two rooms intended to
serve as a kitchen annex to the house he hopes to build. His great ex-
pectations are slow to materialize and frequently he, or some other mem-
ber of his family, dies in the making of a home, victims of unsanitary
housing. This is an example of the working man being the victim of
land speculators whose sugar coated offers have led him to launch out on
a scheme of housing which they knew well it was difficult for him to carry
to a successful issue. The man has paid too heavily for his land and
finds the cost of building plus the interest and annual payment a greater
burden than he contemplated."

Three other schemes Dr. Bartlett presented:

74 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

1. "Tho cxtcuyiou of rapid transit so that cheaper land may be within
th(> reach of all." Now the extension of rapid transit is, unquestionably,
on tlie wiiole a great benefit. But it must not be forgotten that while
rapid transit makes greater areas accessible to people living in the center
of a city, it also makes the center of the city accessible to people living
over greater areas, and so in a very decided way tends to increase pressure
of poi)ulntion as well as to decrease it. Moreover ease of locomotion and
a cheap fare are not the only factors for the laboring man. Time spent
in going to and fro is also an item of importance. And last, rapid transit
never yet prevented the development of tenements, the use of cellar dwell-
ings, etc., near the center of the city. The bad conditions in Los Angeles —
or in Boston — can frequently be matched in cities so small that one can
walk across them in half an hour, or even in the laborers' sections of the
wealthiest and most beautiful residence suburbs of New York and Phila-
delphia.

2. "The development of an agricultural poHcy by the city so that many
of the poorest families may be fitted to earn a living on the land." This,
it seems to me,, is very far from the question under consideration. We
are considering, not how to get rid of a fraction of the city's population,
but how to house city wage earners who propose to earn their living and
make their homes in the city in constantly increasing numbers.

.3. "The building of garden cities about every new industrial enter-
prise." This is a most excellent proposal and if practical measures are
taken to carry it into effect it will do much to prevent the development
of new slum areas on the outskirts of our industrial cities. For, of course,
it can apply only to plants which locate outside of the already built up
area. The large proportion of new enterprises which take buildings in
the old section of town and by adding to the labor market in those sec-
tions increase the crowding of population there could not possibly be
affected. But there seems to be a growing tendency on the part of manu-
facturers in certain lines to move their factories into the suburbs and the
country. The advantage of this in many ways is obvious — cheaper sites,
lower taxes, more room for expansion and for better planned and better
lighted buildings. If to these can be added other advantages the whole-
some movement away from congested districts will be accelerated.

But this involves forethought, careful planning of details and cooperation
among all the agencies which control the city's development. The new
industrial suburb must be convenient to railroad or water transportation,
its drainage must be good if it is to provide wholesome sites for homes,
its street system, its sewers and its other public services must be planned
so that they may at once or in the future when the city grows out to it,
be made an integral part of the city's system. And perhaps as difficult,
certainly as important as anything else, the men who head these new

HOUSING AT LOS ANGELES 75

industrial enterprises must be convinced of the wisdom of such planning,
which probably will cause greater initial expenditure and may result in
deferred if ultimately greater profits.

Such garden suburbs, however, do not present a solution for the already
existing and steadily growing housing problem of Los Angeles and every
other American city, for they effect but slightly and indirectly the condi-
tions in the older built up sections. To amplify Senator Burnett's question,
"What are we going to do about existing evils? What are we going to
do to prevent the continuance and the spread of these existing evils?"

I would answer by asking another question: *'Is there any way except
by setting a minimum standard for every habitation in the city and enforc-
ing that standard?" Small houses with open space about them cannot
compete financially with rows of tall, flimsily built, box tenements that
fill their lots though to the community which must directly or indirectly
pay the bills for preventable deaths, sickness, immorality and inefficiency,
the tenement is considerably the more expensive. But if a legal stand-
ard is set and enforced so that the tenement houses have light and air
in every room, so that they provide for proper sanitation, so that they
safeguard their inhabitants against danger from fire, so that they assure
some degree of privacy, so that they are decently maintained, then the
good, small house can, in nearly all of our cities, successfully compete
against them. And in that lies our hope of keeping the traditional Ameri-
can home.

SHORT ARTICLES

rilR THEOllV OF THE NEW CONTROLLED-

EXECUTIVE PLAN

THE RECENT adoption by Sumter, S. C. of a new type of com-
mission plan of government with the appointive city manager,
is important. It is the first time in the United States that a
municipal chief executive has been made appointive and put under con-
tinuous control instead of independent and under intermittent control.

Pending the appearance in America of this principle, the short ballot
movement was headed for a stone wall. For in demanding the reduction
of the mischievous multiplicity of elective offices, we are met by the
question "what offices would you make appointive and who would appoint
them?" The natural and easy answer is to follow the tendency of the
times and advocate casting all appointive power on the nearest chief
executive. In New York State, for example, the New York Short Ballot
Organization has presented constitutional amendments to the legislature,
the effect of which is to give the governor control by appointment over the
rest of the state ticket, namely, the secretary of state, state treasurer,
attorney general, comptroller and state engineer and surveyor. It is easy
to point to the parallel of the United States government for justification,
or to the state of New Jersey.

The matter of safeguards on the appointing power is brought up. The
politician takes it for granted that the state senate will have power to
confirm or reject the appointments of the governor. The New York
amendment, however, recognized the fact that the senate habitually utilizes
the power of confirmation to accomplish a theft of the whole power of
appointment. Forthwith, the responsibility of the governor for the ap-
pointments becomes something of a myth, and pubhc control is baffled
by the inability of the people to know whether it was the governor who
made a given appointment, or some senator. For while the number of
rejections by a senate may apparently not be large, the real number of
rejections is very large indeed. The governor may not even informally
ask the senators, or the boss who rules them, if this or that nomination
will be acceptable, knowing well the limitations which the politicians will
set upon him.

The history of the president's appointive power and its constriction
by "senatorial courtesy" show evils similar to those in New York state.

Likewise, in cities where the council must confirm the appointments of
the mayor, an interchange of authority occurs and the council soon con-
trols the patronage without the corresponding responsibility.

76

CONTROLLED-EXECUTIVE PLAN 77

With such cases in mind, the New York Short Ballot Organization
drafted its amendment so as to give the governor power to appoint these
minor state officers, without confirmation, and with power to dismiss at
pleasure. The amendment, consistent with this principle, went beyond
the offices which are now elective and made the governor's power of uncon-
firmed appointment complete throughout the whole administration, so
far as the constitution was concerned.

The mayor of New York City has similar power over all the department
heads. He may appoint and remove without oversight by anybody, and
this is considered one of the most modern and progressive features of the
charter.

The National Municipal League's model charter conferred this absolute
power on the mayor.

This is the present orthodox principle among reformers. The purpose
is to clear the lines of responsibility from all entanglements; to make it
impossible for an official charged with neglect to say "It wasn't my fault;"
to get single-headed government instead of many-headed.

The opposition promptly complains that this is over-concentration of
power. The politicians, fearful of the appearance of any machine except
their own, argue that the chief executive would use his enlarged patronage
to build up a new machine. Of course, we answer that a new machine
once in a while by way of variety, might be a good thing and that we would
have the boss of the new machine right where we could hit him full and
square.

Nevertheless, it is my belief that there is a measure of soundness in the
opposition to uncontrolled appointive power and that we must eventually
give to the opponents of it a better answer than to say that it is at least
better and safer than the confirmation plan.

In no other democratic country do the people subject themselves so to
the mercies of individual caprice as we already do. And, as I have shown,
reformers are ready to carry it still further. In many of our cities it may
fairly be said that the mayor holds half the city power within his personal
grasp. Certainly if we take into account his ability to misuse patronage
and veto like chessmen, the mayor comes pretty near being a majority
in many of our city governments. In this matter we are unique among
the nations, and it is curious that a country which appears most afraid
of a strong government, and in which the Jeffersonian idea appears dom-
inant, should be the one in which single individuals are entrusted with
greater uncontrolled power than anywhere else in Christendom.

An instance of the dangers involved is New York City where the mayor
recently had it within his power to upset the subway situation whenever
he pleased, and frequently it seemed to the people of the town that he
was Hkely to do so. He expressed opposition to what he called "cornfield

78 XATTOXAL MUNiriPAL REVIEW

routes" for subways and wanted the new tubes built where there was
ah-eady the greatest number of passengers. If that one man had happened
to l)e impervious to argument, future generations in New York City might
have been condemned to live upon an insignificant fraction of the land
which l;i> within a few miles of city hall, with congestion piled on conges-
tion, instead of congestion being relieved by the opening up of new spaces.

Similarl}', the mayor of New York was charged with responsibility for
an ejjidemic of crime, by reason of his causing sharp punishment of
polic(^men who ventured to use their clubs. Matters reached a point
where a gang of toughs could successful!}^ forbid policemen to pass beyond
the corner of a certain carbarn.

After the terrible Asch factory fire in New York, two important bills
aiming at fire prevention, came before the mayor for acceptance. One
represented the best thought of the public spirited citizens of the town and
the most careful draftsmanship. The mayor, without giving anybody a
chance to explain, rejected it because he thought his pet enemy, Hearst,
had prepared it, and proceeded to sign the inferior measure.

AMiether my statements are just to the mayor or not, it is obvious that
things fully as serious as this are easily conceivable, and a plan of gov-
ernment which permits the whims or failings of a single man to swing
such vast interests, even temporarily, is not thoroughly sound.

The chief ground for complaint against the uncontrolled-executive plan
is, however, not its perilous strength, but the fact that the presence of these
obvious perils compels us to withhold from our administrators the powers
they need. They need not only complete undivided appointive power,
but power to use their own discretion, power to make new rules, as they
go along, to fit new situations, power to be agents instead of dummies of
the law's minutiae.

Our municipal, state and national legislatures now must undertake to
control b}^ continuous and detailed legislation a multitude of highly techni-
cal matters which ought to be left to empowered administrative experts.
The legislatures cannot safely delegate their powers to administrators
because they cannot hold the administrators answerable for results and
subject to punishment.

The New York city government undertakes to prevent such holocausts
as the Asch fire. There is a new fire prevention bureau, placed according
to current orthodox theories, under the mayor's single control. The fact
that the mayor is independent and uncontrolled makes it impossible to
confer the vast necessary powers upon the fire prevention bureau without
running the risk that those vast powers may be used improperly under a
weak or opinionated executive, in which case there would be no appeal
and all liojic of reform must be hazarded upon the personality of the next
mavor.

CONTROLLED-EXECUTIVE PLAN 79

Another great and vital feature of local legislation in New York City is
the building code. At present the aldermen make it and the mayor ap-
proves and administers it. The present method has developed great scan-
dals and the code is chronically out of date and unfair to business and costly
to the people. The right method would be to have an appointive admin-
istrative building code board, served by an expert bureau and empowered
to enact the code and keep it up to date and enforce it. If we attempt
this at present we have three unhappy alternatives: (1) To let the mayor
have the whole responsibility for the building code board with right to
dismiss the members and appoint new ones at pleasure. This overstrains
our willingness to depend on the wisdom of one man. (2) To let the
mayor appoint, subject to confirmation by the council. This forks the
line of responsibility and the principle has proven mischievous in practice.
(3) To let the mayor appoint the building code board but give the mem-
bers long terms in rotation so that no one may or can alter a majority of
the board in his term. This puts power beyond prompt popular control,
prevents the retrieving of mistakes in appointment, and delays and baffles
attempts at improvement as well as attempts at corruption. Thus Gover-
nor Wilson has been almost impotent in certain important matters which he
was elected to carry through in New Jersey, because certain of his so-called
subordinates have protected tenures and silently defy his efforts to install
new methods. The people cannot be expected to analyze his excuses and
and duly hold him blameless. He has no redress and neither have the
people and there is nothing to do but wait for the years to roll round before
reform can be effected. Power ought not thus to be delegated beyond
control of responsible representatives of the people.

The recall puts a touch of flexibility into the plan of electing independent
chief executives. So far as the recall goes, I favor it. But it is at best,
clumsy, unwieldy and expensive. The horse needs a hand on the rein.
It is not always wise to give him his head and then unhitch him and buy
another horse if he turns off the road to nibble the grass.

Upon a state legislature or a city legislature, i.e., a group of men who
act in group, we willingly confer greater powers than we dare give one man,
and all these large powers can, without diminution, be boldly and flexibly
administered through a controlled chief executive.

Such is the new office which has just been created in Sumter, S. C. The
new charter of this little city (10,000 population) modifies the commis-
sion plan by making the commissioners act as a board, never singly, and
perform all executive work through an appointive city manager, who holds
office subject to their pleasure. The city manager may be hired from
out of town and is simply the expert servant of the commission.

Suppose New York adopted this plan by enlarging its present board of
estimate and making it a supreme board of directors with no other elective

80 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

officers lo dotract from its authority. That board of directors could hire
a chief executive to carry out all its orders in proper co-ordination. There
could be under this continuously controlled executive a building code board
and a fire prevention board, for instance, to which could be safely sub-
let all the powers necessary to the proper regulation of buildings and the
prevention of conflagrations. Then the public would have the right to
disregard all details and simply hold the directors responsible for results.

After the Asch fire nobody suffered politically except George McAnney,
the borough president, and he was not responsible at all. But if a building
burned and people died in it the public could with perfect justice demand
of our proposed board of directors — "What did you let this happen for?
You had plenty of power to prevent it!" And the directors, apologizing,
would turn privately to their city manager and repeat "What is the reason?
Did you appoint real experts or amateurs on that fire prevention board?
Didn't you have inspectors enough? Or money enough? What do you
need to prevent another fire?" And the manager, fearing lest he lose his
job for having thus gotten his superiors into trouble, will tear things loose
in the fire board to locate and punish the cause of the inefficiency and see
that proper new provisions are made to prevent forever the repetition of
any such disaster.

We cannot secure such a condition now because we dare not give to an
uncontrolled executive such vast administrative discretion.

The controlled-executive plan filters everything through a group. It
reduces the personal equation. Without loss of administrative unity, it
abolishes one-man power. A single man may have his ups and downs,
his freaks and fancies, his militant points and his passive ones, his natural
bents and moods, his pet departments and projects. A board, or com-
mission, or council, or parliament, has none of these things — to a group
such excesses are relatively impossible. Even if all the members were
cranks, their combined judgment would be reliable — they would neutralize
each other.

This plan corresponds to the general manager under the board of
directors in a business corporation. It gives the stability of the combined
judgment of many men on matters of policy, but leaves execution to a
single-headed controlled executive establishment.

The controlled-executive plan goes far beyond the recall of the mayor.
Its executive can be bounced out of office in less time that it takes to print
the blanks for a recall petition.

There are many other weaknesses of the independent executive plan
of government, all of which are corrected by the controlled-executive idea.
I will simply name them.

L The independence of the executive destroys continuity of the admin-
istrative policy. One mayor is a crank on finance and taxes, and devotes

LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED KINGDOM 81

his attention to improving those matters, to the neglect of other depart-
ments which do not interest him. His successor leaves the financial re-
forms uncompleted and follows his own hobby of parks and schools.

2. Election of administrators is unsound in principle, for the choice of
an administrator is no more a natural popular function than the choice
of an engineer or a landscape architect. Administration of modern cities
is an expert's job and the best experts are not necessarily good vote-getters.

3. The independent executive constitutes a separate city government
and the attempt to compel him to work in harmony with the other "city
governments" creates a costly and cumbersome mass of red tape. The
council, for instance, in appropriating funds for the mayor to spend, will
try to regulate the details of the expenditure, thus perhaps compelling
what later in the course of the expenditure may be found to be extrav-
agance or unwise economies or misdirected work.

4. The independence of the executive destroys unity in the government.
A city ought to have one government, not several. PuHing and hauling,
deadlocks, friction and delays, trading of influence and the need of a boss
to hold the ramshackle together and make it progress — all result from
two-headed government.

Putting a chief executive under continuous control of a responsible group
of men abohshes these evils. A moment's reflection will show that it is
the universal plan in corporations and in all associations employing paid
servants. It is likewise a standard plan in governments outside of the
United States.

In foreign countries the parliament elects and controls the prime min-
ister, who in turn controls the administration. The magistrat of a German
city, with general power of appointment over the whole administration,
is hired by the council and subject to continuous control by it.

I believe the best way to go about getting this idea into practice is by
giving encouragement to the wade spread adoption of the Sumter plan.
This plan, if successful in cities, will in time, spread to counties and even

^° ^*^*^^- Richard S. Childs.i

WOMEN AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN THE

UNITED KINGDOM

THE general opinion in the American mind, relative to the English
women's position in politics, has been narrowed down to a militant
activity conducted on the plan of ''might is right." The fact that
women in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales have been giving excel-

1 Secretary, National Short Ballot Organization and member executive committee,
National Municipal League.

82 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

lent service in political positions, for an extended period is one with which
the average person is not acquainted.

It is not the intention here to rehearse the history and growth of the
"women's movement" in these countries, but to give a brief outline of
one, through which women in the United Kingdom are participating in
matters of national importance, namely: The Women's Local Government
Society, with headquarters at No. 19 Tothill Street, Westminster S. W.
The officers, council and executive committee show the strength of the
organization, which is headed by Lady Strachey, president; Countess of
Aberdeen, JVIiss Louise Twining, the Rt. Hon. Lord Courtney, Miss Cons,
the Lady Frances Balfour, the Rt. Hon. the Earl of Meath and Mrs. Cob-
den Unwin, vice-presidents; Miss Leigh Browne, honorable secretary, and
Lady Lockyer, honorable treasurer.

It had its beginning as a "committee" only, formed in 1888, to secure
the return of women to the first London County Council. Contrary to
expectation, it survived, through varying fortunes, until January, 1893,
when it "was reconstituted on a permanent basis, with the enlarged object
of securing the eUgibility of women to all local governing bodies."

The threefold object to promote the removal of all remaining legal dis-
abilities of women in respect to local government, to promote the partic-
ipation of women in local government, both as administrators and as
officials, and to promote among women the study of their duties as citizens
in respect to local government, would at first glance suggest a suffrage
platform. This question, however, does not come within the scope of this
society. It is independent of political parties and its aims and work are not
to be confounded with those of societies concerned with getting the parlia-
mentary vote for women. It does not seek special privileges for women
in local government legislation.

Through the formation of local organizations, meetings, and the publi-
cation and distribution of special literature, it educates public opinion and
promotes bills in parliament in furtherance of the object of the society.
It watches all bills dealing with local government. It assists in any cases
which seem to involve a danger of creating a precedent for the imposition
of any fresh disability on women in respect to local government.

While the society has official correspondents in each Parliamentary
district, the formation of local organizations, on a non-partisan basis, is
one of the most valuable mediums through which, interest is stimulated
and effort developed. In this connection special stress is laid upon the
fact that local conditions must govern the promotion of the candidature
of individuals. Each locality must support its own candidates. The
society does not undertake to do this from the central office. In addition
to the branches there are now upwards of thirty organizations affiliated
with the society.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED KINGDOM 83

The most important activity of this society has been the effort centered
upon the local government quahfication bill (for England and Wales) to
extend the qualification for being elected on county and borough councils.
By a provision of the local government act, October, 1894, a residential
qualification is made alternative with the electoral or voting qualification
for the purpose of enabling men and women to sit on boards of guardians,
district and parish councils. The effect of this bill was to greatly increase
the number of women guardians, a large percentage of whom were married.

In 1907 an act was passed to enable women to be elected and to serve
on county and borough councils in England and Wales (known as the
qualification of women act). It provides that "a woman shall not be
disquahfied by sex or marriage for being elected to or being a councillor
or alderman of the council of any county or borough (including a metro-
politan borough)." The operation of this act is restricted by the quali-
fications which by other statutes are required of all candidates for election
to the above-mentioned councils in England and Wales. A resident within
a borough or county who is "enrolled and entitled to be enrolled" on the
burgess roll or the local government register is qualified for election to
a borough or county council.

It is only as an occupier that a woman, either owner or tenant, can claim
to be placed on the register as an elector. Every person is an occupier
who occupies a dwelling house, or part of a house as a separate dwelHng
(even only one room) provided the landlord does not, as landlord, reside in
the house: irrespective of the amount of rent. The same term applies
to every person who occupies land, or business premises of the clear yearly
value of not less than £10 or possessed of propert}^ of an amount in accord-
ance with the local requirements for a councillor and who resides within
the county or within fifteen miles of its boundary, or, in case of the
municipal borough, within seven miles.

From this it follows that a woman, single or a widow, who is enrolled
under these quahfications is entitled to be a candidate for election to a
county or borough council.

Two or three persons sharing the same, dwelling, or the same land or
business premises may claim as joint occupiers, provided the tenancy is
joint and that the clear yearly value, when divided, amounts to £10 for
each person claiming.

Husband and wife cannot claim as joint occupiers but, by the local
government law of 1894, they may both be registered provided they are
not qualified in respect of the saine property. Such registration will entitle
married women to vote in the election of district councils (rural and urban),
parish councils, boards of guardians, and since 1900 for the London County
Council, but not for town councils nor provincial county councils.

84 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

Miirried women arc barred from sitting on town or provincial county
councils because they lack the qualification of the right to vote for such
councils.

No woman owner has any right, by virtue of her ownership, to vote in
any local election. No woman lodger can vote in any local election. P'or
women there is no service franchise, namely, no occupation of a dwelling
as an official or servant (for example, as matron or caretaker) entitles a
woman to be placed on the register. For neither men nor women is there
any ownership franchise, lodger franchise or service franchise for town
council elections or for county council elections outside of London.

In the metropolitan borough councils, it is a sufficient qualification to
be a parochial elector, and by the local government act married women
can be parochial electors under the same provision that applies to regis-
tration. Women owners, women lodgers, and women who but for their
sex might be "service voters" cannot be parochial electors. For eligibil-
ity to metropolitan borough councils there is, however, an alternative
quahfication, which is absolutely equal as between men and w^omen,viz.,
residence within the electoral area for the twelve months previous to the
election. For the county of London a special act was passed in 1900,
which assimilated the county council and metropolitan borough council
franchise by enabhng parochial electors to vote in the election of London
county council in the same manner as county electors. This permits of
the eligibility not only of single women and widows, but of married w^omen
who have an occupation qualification separate from that of their husbands.

In Scotland franchise or voting qualifications, defined generally, include :
Household franchise, occupant (as owner or tenant) of a house, regardless
of value.

Service franchise, servant occup>dng dwelling house in virtue of service;
ownership franchise, owner of rentable property (i.e., house land or ten-
ement) of a certain annual value; occupancy franchise, occupant (i.e.,
tenant) of any land or tenement of a certain annual value; lodger fran-
chise, lodger whose lodging in an unfurnished condition is of a certain
annual value.

The Scotch local government act, 1894, which provides for the registra-
tion of qualified married women in the countj'' and municipal registers,
and the Scotch qualification of Avomen act, 1907, enables all duly qualified
women to become members of local bodies. For all local government
elections there is a single register for men and women on the same terms.
The women who can be chosen as town councillors and county councillors
must be householders, owners, tenants or occupants of property worth £10
annually, all their local rates must be paid, and their names must appear
on the voters' roll. Marriage is no disability, provided that both husband
and wife are not qualified in respect of the same property.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED KINGDOM 85

It remains but to secure the passage of a bill that will provide a residen-
tial qualification that shall be alternative with the electoral qualifications
for candidates for county, town and parish councils in Scotland.

The Irish local authorities (quahfication of women) bill, enacted Decem-
ber 16, 1911, has removed the women's disabilities in local government
and enables them to be elected and act as members of county and borough
councils in Ireland. It extends to Ireland the enabling provisions of the
quahfication of women's acts passed in 1907 for England, Wales and
Scotland.

The disability of marriage is not an established disabihty, nor every-
where prevalent, even in England and Wales. There is a division of opinion
on this subject and the question has not been authoritatively settled.
Some revising barristers hold that by necessary implication, the act of
1907 did enable married women to be elected to those councils. The Bir-
mingham court ruled in favor of this interpretation and a married woman
was elected in November, 1911, to the Birmingham city council. With
this exception, and a possible one or two others, all the women serving
on councils and boards are unmarried and widows.

In March, 1912, the Women's Local Government Society reported
that in England and Wales, there were 3 women serving on county coun-
cils, 17 on town councils (2 of whom are mayors), 8 on urban district coun-
cils, 145 on rural district councils, and 1175 women who have been directly
elected or "co-opted" as poor law guardians, in addition to the 145 women
rural district councillors who act as guardians for the unions in which their
districts lie. The number of parish councillors has not been definitely
ascertained. In Scotland there are 2 women serving on town councils
and 44 on parish councils.

In Ireland there are 3 women servin^^ as town councillors, 4 as urban dis-
trict councillors, 44 as rural district councillors, together with 66 who have
been directly elected or co-opted, making a total of 110 women guardians.

Each year, since 1907, attempts have been made to widen the range,
of the qualification act, and remove the existing irregularities, by the intro-
duction of a bill that would provide a residential qualification for candi-
dates (men and women) for county and town councils, to be alternative
with the established electoral quahfication.

The second object of the society, to promote the participation of women
in local government, is regarded as of no less importance, owing to the
valuable opportunities for local work in the promotion of the public health
through the administration of the national insurance act, a measure for
national health insurance and for unemployment insurance. Several
provisions which follow give some idea of its scope:

An insurance committee shall make such reports on the health of insured
persons within the county or county borough for which it is formed, as

86 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

the insurance commissioner, after consultation with the local government
board, may prescribe, and shall furnish to them such statistical and other
returns as they may require.

An insurance conunittee may make to the commissioners such other
reports as it may think fit on the health of such persons and the conditions
aflecting the same, and may also make suggestions with regard thereto:
and the insurance commissioners shall forward such reports, returns and
suggestions to the councils of the counties, boroughs and urban and rural
districts which appear to them to be affected by or interested in the matter.

An insurance committee shall also make such provision for the giving
of lectures and the publication of information on questions relating to
health as it thinks necessary or desirable, and may, if it thinks fit, for
that purpose make arrangements with local education authorities, uni-
versities and other institutions.

In the case of "excessive sickness" among insured persons, an insurance
committee, and even an "approved society," is empowered to claim repay-
ment from the party deemed by it to be in default, if, in its opinion, such
excess is due to bad housing or to unsanitary conditions, to an insufficient
or contaminated water supply, to neglect on the part of any person or
authority to enforce the provisions of any act relating to public health
or the housing of the working classes, or to neglect to observe or enforce
any public health precautions.

There are two offices for health purposes open to women: health vis-
itors and sanitary inspectors. Most of the "health visiting" in London
is done by women who are quafified as sanitary inspectors. That this
service be even more satisfactorily performed, the society deemed it advis-
able that the health visitor should have the training of the sanitary in-
spector, to be enabled to detect unsanitary conditions as the office carried
with it no authority to do more than report a case that might be a matter
of life or death, due largely, if not wholly, to surrounding conditions. The
supplemental qualifications for "suitable nursing" added to the require-
ments for a sanitary inspector, would combine the office and powers, save
time, and a duplication of visits.

The utter disregard of this matter, the slender minimum of preparation
for the duties and the indeterminate qualifications of the health visitors,
as contained in a bill introduced in 1911, brought a reaUzation of the oppor-
tunity to jeopardize the high standard of work hitherto maintained. The
society and many of its associates worked very diligentlj' against this bill
and succeeded in having it withdrawn.

The unsatisfactory provisions for visitation and supervision of children,
by the poor guardians, as contained in the boarding-out act, was made
the subject of some organized effort which eventually had its sequel in
a new order issued by the president of the local government board in
December, 1911. It contained materially all the suggestions presented
by the Woman's Local Government Society, relating especially to the
cooperation of the women as inspectors and members of the boarding-out
committee.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED KINGDOM 87

There are a number of matters of more or less executive and active char-
acter that keep a large force of women engaged in the work of this organ-
ization. The elections and appointments may be mentioned as of para-
mount importance, especially considering the responsibility of selecting
qualified candidates who are wiUing to serve.

The number of meetings and speakers alone suggest considerable time
and thought on the part of officers and laymen. The printing and distri-
bution of at least nine -different kinds of pamphlets, leaflets and reports,
bespeaks an active committee on publications.

There is a strong sociological current in the efforts of this society that
underlies the motive to gain control in such offices as that of county and
town councils.

It is no new thing that politics must be the medium through which men
and women cooperate on commonsense, broad-minded fines in pubfic mat-
ters that find their origin in the fabric of the home. The omnipresent
questions that come up in everyday life, such as sanitation, housing, food
inspection, public baths and libraries, recreation grounds, factories, work-
shops and employment, together with child welfare from the cradle to
the factory, form the program of practically every councilmanic body
in the civifized world. The Women's Local Government Society empha-
sizes the importance of having women share in this work if they would
have it well done.

Poor guardians by any other name have the same difficulties to surmount
in the care and administration of the affairs of children that are boarded-
out in private homes. The very nature of the work which affects the life,
health and morals of these children makes it worth while to secure seats
upon the boards of control.

The association with other organizations in large meetings, as for instance
the Council of the National Union of Women Workers of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Work Conference on Prevention of Destitution, the meet-
ings of the National Association for Women's Lodging Houses contribute
to its influence and round out the efforts of the Society, which compre-
hends the United Kingdom for its field of labor.

H. Marie Dermitt.'

Pittsburgh, Pa. '

^Secretary of the Civic Club of Allegheny County.

8S NATIONAJ. MUNICIPAL REVIEW

THE NEW YORK SCHOOL INQIHUY

A\I()LENT controversy has broken out in New York over the
investigation of New York schools authorized by the board of
estimate and apportionment. Concerning the scope of this in-
(luiry and controversy Charles P. Howland, president of the Public Edu-
cation Association of New York has made the following statement:

The school inquiry committee of the board of estimate, in its comments
accompanying the VIoore report, and subsequently, evidently has the
feeling that Professor Hanus, who was engaged to make the inquiry, and
the associates selected and employed by him were to do no more than
obtain data or statistics on so-called "facts," which they should report
to the board — -in other words, that they individually occupied a position
similar to that of the commissioner of accounts, who may from time to
time be directed to investigate a department.

This view of the functions of such experts and of such an inquiry appears
to be at the bottom of the whole controversy over the Moore report, and
it seems to us to be based on a misconception of the fundamental value
of such an inquirj\

When the school systems of Brooklyn, New York, Staten Island, etc.,
were combined by the greater New York consolidation, no fundamental
reorganization of the system took place, or adjustment to the needs of
the larger city. The city has continued to grow, and the pressure of day
to day needs has prevented any investigation into its fundamental advan-
tages and defects, or the creation of any sound basic policy.

Dr. Maxwell has asserted that many of his measures were adopted with
a view toward such a policy, and his numerous critics have attacked his
measures and himself also as producing exactly a contrary effect. It is
unnecessary here to detail the charges against the structure of the system
or his administration of it; it is well enough known to the public that fierce
controversies have been going on for years.

The board of estimate, therefore, decided to institute an investigation
into the entire school system. The project was hailed by the public with
the utmost enthusiasm. Though the plan was proposed and put in motion
by the body which is in charge solely of the financial needs of the school
system, nevertheless, the existing conditions demanded an inquiry on
much broader lines not limited to financial or political aspects, but as
comprehensive as the system itself. ■

The ])ublic — and we think legitimately — expected this, and the engage-
ment of one of the foremo^ educators in the country. Professor Paul Hanus,
of Harvard, from beginning to end, conceived that to be his function, and
the public and the press during the conduct of the inquiry have always
understood this as its nature.

An insistence by the school committee of the board of estimate upon
the opposite and technical view will leave the public demand for an inquiry
into the value of its school system, educationally considered, entirely un-
satisfied, will reject the most valuable parts of the entire Hanus report, to
wit, his educational conchisions, and would also frustrate one of the most
ini])()rtant parts of the inquiry, the proper relation of the board of estimate
to the board of education considered from the educational jioint of view.

NEW YORK SCHOOL INQUIRY 89

Now, at some stage of the preparation of Dr. Hanus's report, and while
the sections prepared by his various associates are being gone over in galley
proof by the committee of the board of estimate, as well as by the educa-
tors, there suddenly appears in the newspapers " pubUcity matter" condemn-
ing the Moore report as valueless, presenting an effort at evidence in that
direction, together with excerpts from some of the correspondence and
other statements derogatory to Professor Moore for his personal conduct
in the whole matter. This ''publicity matter" was accompanied by a
printed pamphlet containing some twenty thousand words, widely cir-
culated.

As the Moore report was not published in any form available to the
public, this procedure naturally produced a complete mystification as to
its contents and their value, and its purpose could have been defensive
only. ^ _

If the Moore report contained valuable matter in which the public
might take an intelligent interest, this treatment of the report was to offer
the public less than a shadow of its demand.

If the public view of the inquiry as something transcending departmental
investigation was the sound one, why not give it that which it had a right
to expect and let it judge of the value of the result achieved?

If, on the other hand, this was only a departmental investigation con-
ducted by the board of estimate, why did not that body quietly reject the
report, instead of taking the public so extensively into its confidence by a
comprehensive attack on Professor Moore and his work?

We have no brief for Professor Moore or for his report; doubtless two
views of it"ffiay be entertained, and doubtless also these views will differ
according to one's study and experience with the problem of city school
administration.

Some presumption should be accorded to the soundness of method and
accuracy of result of Professor Moore's work, at least to the extent of
giving it a dispassionate consideration. What treatment of this kind it
may have received during the period in which it was under discussion
between the committee or any agency the committee may have seen fit to
employ and Professor Hanus and Professor Moore we cannot completely
say, but it is our opinion that an approach to Professor Moore, based on the
223 qestions which were addressed to him in one communication, was not
calculated to achieve a constructive result. From the point of view of the
educational expert these questions were not intended to elicit "facts,"
but were in the nature of hostile cross-examination, badgering in tone,
and sometimes offensive in their implications.

The public cares nothing for the right or wrong on the personal side of the
controversy over the Moore report, and that is now regrettable history.
But it does very much care for an authoritative appraisal of a school sys-
tem by the persons who, gathered from the most important educational
centres of the country, have been a full twelvemonth minutely scruti-
nizing the system, ancl it does not wish to see the results of that scrutiny
wasted by conflicts between individuals or official bodies.

We believe the public properly takes the view — as Dr. Hanus 'and his
associates most certainly do — that the Hanus report is to be taken as a
unit, and attains its full value only when regarded in that way; that the
rejection of any part of it dismembers it, throws the remaining parts out
of proportion and leaves an important field of inquiry untouched. This

00 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

view is reasonable in itself, but it may be noticed that this sort of inquiry
(though never so extensive) has been conducted before, notable in the
school systems of England, and that Sir Michael E. Sadler's reports upon
his investigations arc in the nature of essays, illuminating technical and
abstruse facts to the interested lay public and reaching to the fundamental
philosophy of city school systems.

It is to be noted further that Sadler's reports— favorable or unfavorable
— were printed by the various municipalities in full as Sadler wrote them.

There can be no doubt that the committee of the board of estimate sees
the hiatus and recognizes that it must be hlled, and for that reason has
now selected Professor Goodnow and Dr. Howe, as the committee says,
"to make the study assigned to Professor Moore." These gentlemen are,
as the committee states, "both competent authorities on questions of
municipal administration and educators of experience," but this must be
in the sense that they have long been employed in the business of education,
for it has never been part of the educational activity of either, so far as we
are aware, to make a study of the subject of city school administration;
neither one has ever affected to be an authority on education or educational
administration, nor has either one ever written on the subject.

That has been Professor Moore's lifelong study, his branch of education
which is assigned to him at Yale University, and was the particular reason
for his selection for this one subject by Dr. Hanus, who insisted that he of
all men in the country was most competent for the study of that subject.
Doubtless, Professor Goodnow and Dr. Howe will do an interesting piece
of work and give us a valuable study from the governmental and political
point of view, and this will be a valuable supplement to the w^ork of Dr.
Hanus and of his associates, but a study from that point of view cannot
fill the hiatus left by the rejection of Professor Moore's report.

John Purroy Mitchel, chairman of the committee on school inquiry of
the board of estimate, gave the following as the reasons for the rejection
by the board of the report :

The report contains allegations and general conclusions unsupported by
any facts cited or evidence submitted, many of which to the knowledge
of the members of the committee and as established by public records are
absurd and false.

Certain of these statements, if true, reflect seriously upon the discharge
of their functions by the members of the board of education and other
responsible officials.

The committee addressed two requests^ to Professor Moore for such
facts and evidence as he might have in support of the above allegations
and conclusions, and requested a statement of the sources from which
such facts and evidence, if any there were, had been drawnn.

Professor Moore evasively declined to submit to the committee either
his facts or the sources from which those facts were derived, or a statement
of the offices in which his investigation had been conducted.

The Independent (New York) asked Professor Moore to present his side
of the case. This he did and the following excerpts, made with the per-

' See article of Dr. W. H. Allen, p. 93.

NEW YORK SCHOOL INQUIRY 91

mission of Hamilton Holt, the editor, give the gist of his side at the present
stage of the controversy. Prof. E. C. Moore received his A.M. from
Columbia in 1896 and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1898.
He has worked in the University Settlement, New York, and Hull House,
Chicago, and in other philanthropic organizations. He was called two
years ago from the superintendency of the schools of Los Angeles to the
chair of education at Yale.

After describing his interviews with Dr. W. H. Allen of the Bureau of
Municipal Research (whose article follows) and the reasons for not
undertaking the assignfment directly Prof. Moore says ■?■

Professor Hanus was finally appointed as educational expert in charge
of the investigation. His experience in that position he will himself narrate
when he chooses to do so. Suffice it for me to say that I am firmly con-
vinced that there is no other man in the United States in educational work
who could have triumphed finally over so many obstacles which were put
in his way as he has done. The school report has been piade in spite of
them and it is a work the like of which has never before been accomplished
anywhere in the world. It is altogether the most thoro survey of the activ-
ities of a working school system which has yet been made . Its immediate
practical value to New York City cannot be overestimated, while its use-
fulness to the whole world, both now and to succeeding years, is beyond
calculation.

After defining the plan of his inquiry and successfully fighting off certain
influences which sought to wrest the control and direction of it from his
hands. Professor Hanus sent up a cry for help to which I had to respond.
The detail to which he assigned me was the work of the board of education.
The text of his request read:

The work which I should like to assign to you is an investigation into the organiza-
tion, methods and records of the board of education or so much of this work as it is
possible for you to do. What I am particularly anxious to ascertain is whether the
conception of its functions which the board of education has is clearly defined ; whether
that conception is justified and whether the organization and methods of the board
tend toward efficiency. Naturally whatever recommendations as to the function,
organization and methods we might make should be based on some such inquiry
as I have indicated.

At last I had definite written instructions, and I have carri'ed them out
to the letter. As Professor Hanus was the educational expert in charge
of the inquiry, I not only got my instructions from him, but consulted
with him from time to time, and at the end submitted my report to him,
and after he had examined it and I had replied to a series of questions
which he asked concerning particular passages in it, he accepted it. "We
also worked over the first galley proof together. The second galley and
the page proof are yet to be gone over, and errors which further proofread-
ing should correct certainly exist in the copy. Since he has examined,
approved and accepted the report on behalf of the committee and his is
the only examination of it which is authoritative, I feel no obligation to
any one else in the matter and I am the more convinced of the justice of

2 The Independent, November 14, 1912.

92 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

this position when I remember that it is a well established principle of the
common law that one cannot at one and the' same time be the defendant,
the judge and the jury in a case at law. This is the unhappy position
in which the board of estimate's committee finds itself in condemning
my rejiort. For one who is commissioned to report upon schools and
their work is in every case called upon to examine into the relation of those
who em]>loy him to the schools. If he finds them scrupulously correct
and careful in all these relations, well and good. He commends them for
this and his report is accepted and printed. But if he finds them remiss
in their duty and failing to meet either the requirements of the law or
the ]ilain necessities of the schools, even tho they are his employers and
will bury him under reproach and condemnation, yet his obligation to the
truth is greater than his obligation to any man, and the truth as he finds
it and nothing but the truth must be his guide.

I spent more than forty daj^s in New York City, most of that time in
the offices of the board of education. Every facility was accorded me
there. Copies of the printed minutes and reports of the board of educa-
tion were loaned to me. I took them home and worked at the subject
night and day. I read and analyzed some 4000 pages of the finely printed
minutes of the board and its committees. Every explanation that I asked
for was made, and all the documents and letters which I requested were
brought to me. Methods of research differ according to the subject under
investigation. My instructions Avere to investigate the methods, organ-
ization and records of the board of education in order to determine whether
its conception of its function was clearly defined, whether that conception
is justified, and whether the organization and methods of the board tend
toward efficiency; in short, to discover and outline the present plan of
school administration. I was not directed to make an audit of the books
and accounts of the board nor to discover and write the natural history
of its actions or those of its committees thru a period of months, or how
successful its various enterprises are in their detailed workings, nor how
the board of estimate conducts the details of its business, but simply how
the results of its action affect the schools. Instead, I was instructed to
examine the sufficiency of the plan by which the public educational inter-
ests of New York City are administered and are carried forward.

-t- T" 'H 't^

The school is one of the four great institutions of civilization — govern-
ment, the home and the church are the others. At first education was a
home affair, next it was an ecclesiastical affair, and next it was subordinated
to government. But the time has come when it is making itself free, and
free it must be, in the same sense that the church is free under the state
and the home is free under the state, and the school is related to l)ut not
(hjuiinated by the home and related to but not dominated by the church.
Freedom of thought and freedom in teaching it has already achieved.
The freedom to determine its own requirements of money under general
laws and freedom to direct and control its own expenditures according to
the necessities of instruction and to make accounting of them to the state,
and not the dictates of local governmental authorities, it must have, and
in a number of the leading cities of the nation it has already secured this
freedom. This is a rapidly accumulating tendency of our age. "NMiat is
necessary for the welfare of education in Philadelphia, Boston and Pitts-

NEW YORK SCHOOL INQUIRY 93

burgh, Denver, Indianapolis and Milwaukee is necessary for education in
New York City.

I have found it necessary to criticise the board of education, but chiefly
because it has not resisted the encroachments upon its legal right to man-
age and control the school affairs of the city; and yet I remember that after
three years of fighting for freedom from city hall domination which was
contrary to the education law, it was whispered to the department for
the direction of whose schools I was then responsible that unless the board
of education ceased to resist the city council it would not get a cent from
the city for the schools next year. Fortunately, other sources of revenue
had been provided by the legislature without the knowledge of the whis-
perer and the danger from city hall domination was a thing of the past.

The power of the purse is a very real power. It must be strictly guarded
and restrained. As all teachers must teach the children of the nation to
obey the laws, it is particularly imperative that there should be no depart-
ure from or suspension of the laws of the state which guide and direct its
school system.

NEW YORK'S REJECTION OF SCHOOL REPORTS
"FOR WANT OF FACTS'- OVER INQUIRY

CONTROVERSY

DID you ever try to make constructive use of experts' statements
which other experts called "poppycock," "untruthful," "false,"
"glittering generalities," "unfair," "unfounded"? That is the
situation with regard to the second of the "educational aspect" reports
from the New York school inquiry.

Though the situation has led to personal wrangling it was quite unex-
pected in connection with the New York inquiry. From time immemorial
we have discussed questions on the "you did" and "you didn't" basis
where one expert declared "you're guessing" and the other answered
"you're another." Mercury and quicksand furnish poor analogies for the
basis of discussion of educational matters whether in New York or in
other parts of the country. Because statements were seldom proved and
because school needs and school results were held to require Sherlock
Holmes or other legerdemain qualities, New York's board of estimate and
apportionment was applauded in 1910 for starting a school inquiry to
get a fact basis for discussing school needs.

In urging that "a committee be appointed from the teachers' associa-
tion to gather (for the school inquiry) and collate evidence on the needs
of such reforms in the administration of the schools and in the course of
study as will give better results . . . . ," the New York Times
on November 18, 1910, quoted the president of the teachers' association
as saying that teachers heretofore had been an "easy prey of pedagogical
exploiters, educational slummers, the mere statisticians and experimenters^

94 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

and all the other exi)oneiits of liollow assumption and scholastic dilettant-
ism, who are clever enough and ready enough to exploit the energy, time
antl patience of the teacher for every new, costly and useless fad."

Until lately it was never publicly suggested by anybody that there was
any earthly purpose of the school inquiry but to get facts, to base upon
facts constructive suggestions, thus giving the community a fact basis
for discussing school problems and directing school work.

The resolution passed October 26 was introduced by Comptroller Wil-
liam A. Prendergast. The third and fourth sections of the preamble read:

Whereas, in formulating the allowance for the purpose of the department
of education this board has been unable to secure sufficient and saiisjactory
information in explanation of requests for appropriations made by such
department to enable it to reach proper conclusions with respect to the nec-
essity and propriety of such requests, and

Whereas, it is the sense of this board that efficient and progressive
administration of the schools of the city of New York is indispensable to
the welfare and progress of the city, and that generous appropriations
for the purposes of the department of education are desirable in so far
as assurance and evidence can be given that such appropriations will be
expended for purposes and in a manner to promote the efficiency and welfare
of the schools, and to increase the value and effectiveness of the instruction
given therein.

The resolution read:

That the chairman of this board appoint a committee of three of its mem-
bers to conduct an inquiry into the organization, equipment and niethods,
both financial and educational, of the department of education, including
such plans and proposals as may have been formulated or may be under
consideration by the board of education for extending and developing its
educational activities, and that for this purpose the committee be author-
ized to associate with it such experts within and without the government of
the city of New York as may assist it in the conduct of this inquiry and in
the formulation of recommendations to this board, and that it be further
authorized to employ such assistants as it may find necessary for the purposes
of this inquiry.

The whole country joined with it in saying: "After years of futile con-
troversy— of blindman's buff in w^iich the pubhc worethe blind and experts
did the buffing^ — we are going to find rock bottom in discussing fundamental
school questions."

Two general divisions of the inquiry were outlined by the school inquiry
committee: (1) "Business aspects" which President Mitchel directly sup-
ervised and (2) "Educational aspects" of which Prof. Paul H. Hanus of
Harvard was asked to take charge. In the former grouping were studies
of handling supplies, accounting methods, engineering questions, mis-
cellaneous complaints, handling of correspondence in offices of superin-
tendents, etc. With these aspects Professor Hanus had no more to do

NEW YORK SCHOOL INQUIRY 95

than the sultan of Turkey. Several of the reports have been published
and action has been taken upon them. They were all specific in charac-
ter like that of Mr. Averill on the numbers of letters handled, the numbers
of recommendations analyzed, the dates, places found, percentages, direct
quotations given, etc. Nobody called this report or Engineer Armstrong's
report on buildings or Accountant Stewart's report on supplies poppycock,
untruthful, unfair. Nobody could, because no comment was relevant
which was not as specific as the reports themselves.

On the educational aspects only two reports have thus far been published.
The first was begun and finished after Professor Hanus left the city's
employ, July 1, 1912, and conducted directly under the committee on school
inquiry — Mr. Bachman's report on method of computing the number of
over-age children in New York's schools. With this report Professor Hanus
had absolutely nothing to do. It was printed early in the hope of influenc-
ing the current school year's work. It was specific, giving the numbers
of children counted, the different ways of counting over-age, the particular
districts and schools concerned. No statement was made in it that was
not supported specifically by material in the report itself, which showed
that New York City was not making administrative use of its over-age
figures, that it did not attempt to count some 70,000 children who drop
out of school before the last day when the count is taken, that it does not
count children in classes for over-age pupils, that the count is taken on
the least typical and least useful day of the year. No one could call it
poppycock. No one could try to sweep it away by references to inaccu-
racies or unsupported statements. True, it was answered and in a way which
foreshadowed the danger to New York and to every other city that edu-
cators have not entirely abandoned the bUnd man's buff method of dealing
with the public when school methods are criticised. Because what was
done here may be done in your city, it is well to remember the following
steps :

1. The city superintendent said "sufficient answer was given" by the
statement of Superintendent Greenwood in the Educational Review for
May, 1912, which recommended the New York method of reporting over-
age, etc. (The Bureau of Municipal Research pointed out that five lines
above the portion quoted by the city superintendent Dr. Greenwood had
declared that for years he had considered the New York method mis-
leading.)

2. Two associate superintendents and a high school principal were
quoted in belittlement of the investigator who was an outsider, came only
from a small town, was not even superintendent there, had had little
experience as supervisor, etc. (The pubfic was then reminded that his
facts were the test of his report and not his pedigree.)

96 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEAV

3. A formal answer prepared for the board by the city superintendent
was of a c'liaracter which would shock a business house for its irrelevance,
inadetiuatcness, evasion and its reiterated extenuation of an old unfounded
claim that in 1904 New York had invented over-age reports and had noth-
ing, therefore, with which to compare its methods.

4. The one agency whose special problem is citizen cooperation with
public schools poured kerosene on the fire of misunderstanding by lamenting
personal attacks although Mr. Bachman had strictly confined his report
to a discussion of methods.

The second report on the strictly educational side, under Professor
Hanus' supervision, to reach public attention, created a tempest. It was
by Prof. E. C, Moore of Yale on "Organization and Methods of the Board
of Education and the Functions of Local Boards." The incident will be
discussed for years. Its significance it would be hard to over-estimate.
If school inquiry means essays and opinions by experts, unsupported by
facts, then the New^ York board of estimate and apportionment has made
a sad mistake. If, on the other hand, the school inquiry is a means of
producing evidence, the action of the board of estimate will go into history
as one of the greatest services yet rendered to the cause of education. It
means putting a premium on a new kind of man and a new kind of think-
ing; it means taking the mystery away from schools and putting them
where they belong in the category of human effort which can be scientific-
ally studied; it means establishing the maxim — if we test the testable in
education, the untestahle will fade away into insignificance. School inquiries
that give new proofs will help communities settle problems and will be
instituted by all communities. School inquiries that give unsupported
opinions will settle nothing and will only discredit the idea of school in-
vestigation.

The board of education says several important parts of the Moore re-
port are contrary to fact. Professor Moore says it is true. The board
of estimate says that when doctors disagree the public cannot use their
diagnosis until it has the facts.

Typical of statements said to be ''unsupported" are: A no-man power
is directing the schools and is preventing the proper conduct of the edu-
cational activities of the city; the board of education has not played a
strong part in educational legislation affecting its own work; the board
ties the hands of its administrative staff so that it cannot discharge its
functions; the school system of New York is an inbreeding system; it
keeps out the best teachers from other places; the many headed system
is thoroughly incompetent to administer the schools; the board has not
upheld the educational law; the present method of administering the
schools can hardly be improved upon as a means of defeating the pur-
pose for which the schools exist.

NEW YORK SCHOOL INQUIRY ' 97

President Mitchell and his colleagues of the committee on school inquiry
emphasized this fact as follows in their recommendation to reject the
Moore report:

It should be clearly understood that at no time did the committee re-
quest any one of the specialists to change any conclusion or recommenda-
tion contained in his report. Facts, where lacking, were requested. These
of course, the city is entitled to as the specialists were employed primarily
to collect facts.

In a great administrative and constructive inquiry such as that which
the board has inaugurated and conducted under the direction of your
committee, nothing could be more harmful than the acceptance of an
inaccurate or unfounded report. Fairness to all concerned and complete
candor are the prime essentials of such an investigation. Nothing could
hurt the constructive work of this board more grievously, or could mihtate
more strongly against the constructive results of similar inquiries through
the country than for this board to permit one of those in its employ to
render to it a false and unfounded report without stigmatising it as sUch.

As long ago as July (1912) the school inquiry committee of the New York
board of estimate and apportionment, through its chairman, John Purroy
Mitchel, wrote to Professor Moore: "I have read a summary of your
report . . . . I do not know how exhaustive the investigation was
upon which your report is based. In order that I may understand its
scope, will you kindly give me information on the following points?"
Then followed eighteen questions of which the following are numbers 6,
12 and 14:

Did you consult with any member of the budget committee of the board
of estimate and apportionment concerning the making of the budget of
the city of New York, and particularly concerning the budget of the board
of education? If so, with whom and to what extent?

Did you consult the correspondence between the different members
of the budget committee of the board of estimate and apportionment
and the president and other members of the board of education dealing
with the budget estimates of the board of education?

Did you read the minutes of the hearing held by the committee on school
inquiry on methods and organization of the o-ffice of the city superintend-
ent and associate superintendents?

Two days later Mr. Moore asked to have his full report read. President
Mitchel rephed at once: "Your report is still in the printer's hands, and
the time of its return is uncertain. I was given to understand that you
propose to sail for Europe within a short time. For that reason I prefer
not to wait for the return of the original report." Mr. Moore replied:
" As the proof of my report is now in your hands, I would again respectfully
request that you examine it as to the scope and method

For the next step President Mitchel read the report in detail and on
August 19 sent to Professor Moore 223 questions asking for facts to support

98 • NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

conclusions and recommendations in the report. The introductory para-
graph to this letter closed: "For the purposes of the committee and the
city, your report is wholl.y valueless as it now lies. It will not be published
unless the additional information requested by the committee is furnished
and that promptly." After the letter was ready this concluding para-
graph was added: "Professor Hanus has just written me stating that you
are sailing for Europe. I had anticipated that this course might be taken,
and for that reason, emphasized in mj^ last letter the necessity for the
information asked. The fact that you ignored my reference to your com-
ing departure strikes the committee as not wholly ingenuous. When you
were employed by the committee, it was with the expectation that the
committee and the city, as well as the board of education, would receive
from you an accurate statement of facts."

To Professor Hanus, director in charge of educational aspects President
Mitchel wrote on the same date: "Dr. Moore's report as it now stands
is so weakened by misstatement and misrepresentations of fact as to render
it valueless to the committee and to the city. You ask what would be
the effect of a refusal by my committee to accept Moore's report. I
think the chief effect would be to save Dr. Moore from conviction for
inaccuracy, carelessness and reckless conclusions as an investigator, and
for lack of candor and fair dealing with his employer, the city of New York
I hardly believe that you and your colleagues will wish
to weaken the excellent effect of your other reports, and to destroy such
constructive suggestions in Dr. Moore's report as are valuable, by pub-
lishing his report with its garbled facts in its present form. Unless Dr.
Moore can and does furnish facts to support his statements, or amends
those statements to conform with the truth, the committee will be con-
strained to point out the misinformation contained in his report as well
as his conduct in the premises."

Professor Moore's report was not amended by producing the facts to
support his charges, allegations and recommendations. It was rejected
by the board of estimate, as he and Professor Hanus were told it would be.
Rejection means that it was not accepted, i.e., will not be presented as
part of the school inquiry report, and the questions treated in this rejected
report have been reassigned to Prof. Frank J. Goodnow and Frederick C.
Howe, known to the readers of the National Municipal Review for
their work in connection with public administration.

In answer to the false issue which has been raised, that New York's
Ijoard of e-timate has suppressed part of the school inquiry, the facts show
that the newspapers were not only given access to the galley proof of the
Moore report but were invited to use it if they wanted to assume resj^onsi-
bility for it. The board of estimate, while publishing it as a matter of
course, as part of the minutes of the meeting which rejected it, simply

NEW YORK CAB SITUATION 99

refused to give New York City's official stamp to a report which the fiscal
authorities maintained would manufacture misunderstanding whereas Pro-
fessor Moore was engaged to remove misunderstanding by producing facts.
The satisfactoriness of the above summary depends, as I reahze, primarily
upon the character of the questions which were asked Professor Moore,
which he failed to answer a!nd of which he publicly said that they were
" characterized by a degree of incoherence and confusion of thought approx-
imating irrationality."

No. 6. Please support with facts the statement that the schools have
been almost completely annexed to the city hall.

No. 72. Will you give illustrations of "recommendations and sug-
gestions which its own experts have made for the improvement of its
work" and which it has not "sufficiently considered"?

No. 100. Can you give illustrations to support the implication that
the city superintendent is prevented by his associates "from exercising
more than the nominal functions of his office"?

No. 196. Have you visited the repair shops in Brooklyn? Will you
include a reference to the economies effected b}^ repairing instead of throw-
ing away desks, etc.

No. 223. Did you confer with the borough presidents who appoint
local board members or with the secretaries who represent them?

Fortunately, whether these questions are irrelevant, confusing and ira-
tional every reader may judge for himself. Fortunately, too, New York City
and educators throughout the country, especially in the public schools, agree
with the conclucUng paragraph of the editorial in The Sun of November
17: "A small bundle of facts will be more useful in rebuilding the educa-
tional plant than a carload of excellent suggestions the necessity for adopt-
ing which is not made plain b}^ the exhibition of horrible examples."

The discussion of the Moore report has served to draw clearly the line
between fact and fancy. In discussing future reports every New Yorker
at least will ask "Is this a personal opinion or a school fact?"

WiLLiAM H. Allen. ^

THE NEW YORK CAB SITUATION

THE New York cab service has been for so many generations a blot
upon the fair name of the city that it is now re,2:aided as almost
incurable. Unlike the inhabitants of the old world where cabs are
universally cheap, plentiful, and well regulated, Americans regard their use
as exclusively the privilege of the rich. The average New Yorker seldom
enters a taxicab, and when it becomes necessary for him to employ this
means of conveyance, he never does so without a careful examination of

' Director, Bureau of Municipal Research of New York City.

100 NATIONAL ^MUNICIPAL REVIEW

the state of his personal finances. Added to the financial embarrassment
involved is also the fear that possibly the chauffeur of the taxi he hires
has but lately returned from an involuntary sojourn at the expense of the
state, and is only waiting a favorable opportunity of extracting not only
the fare, but also whatever additional cash and valuables the unfortunate
passenger may have left upon his person.

To understand the reasons for the lack of regulation and for the excessive
rates it is necessary to comprehend fully the present situation.

High rates in New York are due, first to certain economic causes, incident
to the business in that city, and second, to the restrictions placed on the
business by outgrown ordinances.

The principal economic cause that makes New York cabs so expensive
is the traffic condition that exists in the island of Manhattan, the chief
field of the business. All lines of travel run north and south, and all the
traffic goes in one direction at one part of the day, and in the opposite
direction at another hour.

For example, if a broker living in the vicinity of Murray Hill takes a cab
downtown to the Stock Exchange in the morning, the cab is not liable to
get a return fare away from that neighborhood till three in the afternoon,
or later, when the tide of travel sets north. It therefore must either remain
idle practically all day downtown, or return at once empty to the center
of the city. Either course is uneconomical from an operating point of
view. At night a similar situation is presented. A cab will pick up a fare
along the "Great White Way" as the theatres and restaurants discharge
their homeward bound crowds, and will carry him to his home, probably on
the upper east or west sides of Central Park. At twelve or one o'clock at
night no one desires to go downtown from those neighborhoods, and the
cab must again return empty, very likely reaching the theatrical district
at such a late hour that no further business is possible.

Such a traffic situation obliges the cab owner to charge sufficient to pay
for both the outward and return journey of the cab, and is the main reason
our cabs are so outrageously expensive. For it there is no cure except a
redistribution of the business and residence centers on Manhattan Island,
a cure obviously out of the question.

The New York cab owner is under a greater expense for repairs than
his Paris or London brother, due to the bad condition of the city streets,
which are often in atrocious repair, and in winter are lumped with snow.

To these handicaps must also be added the greater initial cost of the
American vehicle, due to the difference in price between this country and
Europe, and also the higher cost of operation due to dearer materials, and
higher wages paid labor in America.

While these economic causes are sufficient to explain a somewhat higher
cost of operation, and therefore a higher rate of fare in New York as com-

NEW YORK CAB SITUATION 101

pared with London, for example, they are not sufficient to explain the enor-
mous difference that actually exists. This will at once be seen to be true
when we come to examine the New York ordinances. Nor can we find in
any economic cause an excuse for the total lack of regulation by the New
York City authorities of either the character of the cab, or the character
of the driver. Only recently the police commissioner publicly stated that
as many as two hundred men with knpwn criminal records find an avocation
as drivers of taxicabs in this city. The disreputable conveyances that
haunf the ferries and appear up town late at night are a disgrace to a com-
munity like ours, and should not be tolerated on the city streets.

Let us now consider the outgrown ordinances which at present hamper
the New York cabman at every turn. I call them "outgrown" advisedly,
because they are relics of the pre-taxicab days when the cab business was
on an entirely different basis, and with the exception of some slight regu-
lations by the city authorities of the taximeter itself, have not been changed
to meet the undoubtedly changed conditions that the taxicab created.

All cabs in New York are divided into two classes, (1) ''public hacks,"
and (2) "special hacks." Each class is entirely separate and is governed
by entirely separate restrictions.

The public hacks are really the public cab service of New York. They
may pick up fares while driving around the streets, and by enactment of
the board of aldermen certain locations are designated as "public hack
stands" where they may stand. With one or two exceptions however,
such as the theatres fifteen minutes before the close of the performance,
the pubhc hack stands to which these public hacks are relegated have no
value as originating points of traffic. The places where traffic originates,
such as the big railroad stations and restaurants, are exclusively occupied
by the big companies owning the other class of vehicles — "special hacks."
It is comparatively difficult for a public hackman to obtain a fare. They
get but the overflow, and form a dejected fringe around the public squares
and similar places, where to hire one is really an inconvenience.

The special hacks on the other hand are the outgrowth of the days when
every club, hotel and railroad ran its own cab business for the benefit
exclusively of its members, guests or patrons. The ordinance governing
special cabs provides that the owner or occupant of any railroad station,
hotel or club or similar public building may have the street in front of
his premises utilized as a private hack stand for a limited number of special
hacks. The ordinance then goes on to say that such special hacks must
confine their service exclusively to guests or patrons of the building in
front of which they are permitted to stand and must not await employ-
ment nor solicit fares at any other point. ^

1 See sec. 317, Code of Ordinances, in effect May 3, 1909.

10_> XATIONAJ. AIl^NICIPAL REVIEW

^\'llile the ordinance provides that the special hackman must confine
liimself exchisively to the traffic originating from the building in front of
which he stands, this provision is absolutely unenforceable and is openly
violated. In fact the business of the big companies that operate as special
hackraen is actually founded on the fact that it is impossible to enforce
this provision of the ordinance, and they use their private hack stands as
supplementary garages, storing machines there, not only for the benefit of
the occupants in front of whose building they stand as limited by law, but
also for the benefit of the surrounding neighborhood, and as a convenient
distributing point for the vicinity.

Instead of remaining private stands as they were formerly, these pri-
vatel}' owned hackstands have become to all intents and purposes public
stands, that is, public so far as their patrons go, but intensely private and
exclusive as far as the hacks that are permitted to stand there are con-
cerned. For when it was found that that part of the ordinance restricting
the use of the cabs exclusively to the patrons of the building in front of
which a private stand was located was unenforceable, it was discovered that
the right to maintain a garage and stand in the public street on which none
but a specified company's cabs could stand was immensely valuable, the
value depending more on the location than upon the actual amount of
traffic originating from the building in front of which the private stand was
situated. The o^vners of hotels, clubs, railroad stations, etc., now lease
out this privilege to the highest bidder. It is said that the total amount
reahzed by the hotels, etc., in New York from this source exceeds $350,000
per year. The commissioner of accounts estimates the amount to be
$362,260.21. The Waldorf-Astoria collects $30,000; the Astor about $10,-
000; the Union Club $5000, the Hotel Knickerbocker $20,000. The amount
each hotel, etc., receives is based on a percentage of the fares originating
at that point, whether from the hotel itself or from the neighborhood.
Under this arrangement 10 per cent of each passenger's fare automatically
goes to the hotel or club which graciously permits the public to use its own
streets. By this atrocious form of special privilege the right to use the
public thoroughfares, declared by law to be for the use of all, is sold to the
iiighest bidder, and the public through high fares obliged to pay for what
})elongs to them. This delightful scheme not only makes it possible to
mulct the companies, and through them the public, for privileges in the
city streets, but it effectually prevents the cab owner from picking up such
return fares as could otherwise be obtained in New York. For a company
hiring one stand is forbidden by the ordinance from standing its cabs on
those of another company, or from going on the public cabstands, reserved
exclusively for the pulilic cabmen.

For example one evening I took a taxi from the private hack stand at
the Buckingham Hotel (50th street and Fifth Avenue) and drove down to

NEW YORK CAB SITUATION 103

a house in the neighborhood of Washington Square for dinner. As I paid
the driver at my destination, I noticed another cabstand almost directly
across the street in front of the Hotel Lafayette-Brevoort. One would
naturally suppose my cab had only to cross the street and there await a
new fare, but the Lafayette-Brevoort privilege was leased to a concern
other than that to which my cab belonged; in consequence my cab was
obhged to return empty over two miles uptown to the starting point, and
there await a return fare.

Could any system be more absurd?

A scheme of taxicab service that levies tribute on the public for the right
to use the public streets, and forbids cabs to solicit return fares has no
place upon the statute books of any modern city.

The reforms which I propose, and which I have incorporated into an
ordinance which now awaits action by the board of aldermen in New York
are as follows:

1. The placing of all hacks of every character into one class, viz: "public
hacks," and putting these public hacks under constant official supervision,
giving to the mayor through his license bureau the right to refuse the license
if the cab is not up to a certain standard for vehicles of that character, and
the right to suspend or revoke the license if not maintained in a proper con-
dition.

2. A careful licensing system for the drivers, so that the criminal, the
intemperate and the diseased cannot endanger the lives of the public by
acting as drivers of public hacks.

3. The abolishment of the private hack stands as such, and their trans-
formation when desired by any hotel, club, or railroad station into public
hack stands, on which all duly licensed cabs might go subject to the traffic
regulations of the police, permitting cabs to go freely on every stand whether
now called public or private.

4. A material reduction in the rates of fare made possible by the saving
in the cost of operation under such a system.

The result of these reforms would be immediately to place within reach
of even the moderately well-to-do a means of transportation that would
be both safe, cleanly, and well regulated. Such a scheme of transportation
would compete satisfactorily with the baggage transfer companies, and in
fact a hundred new uses would be discovered for the taxicab. A profitable
business would be created, giving employment to thousands, where now
but a few hundred are employed, and last, but by no means least. New York
would have a cab service which would be a source of pride, and not a
reproach to the intelligence of her people.

COURTLANDT NlCOLL.^

'Member of the New York Board of Aldermen.

104 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

THE HOUSTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

WITHOUT an aggressive business organization a city may be
likened to a ship T^dthout a rudder. In the live city one will find
an active chamber of commerce. The two go hand in hand, but
never alone. The New South possesses many of these active organiza-
tions and the liveliness of progress in the fifteen southern states will suggest
that there is not a backward organization among them.

No city in the land owns a chamber of commerce more active than Hous-
ton's. The chamber is not only always in the forefront of every civic move-
ment, but one generally finds the big movements and campaigns are inaug-
urated b}^ that body and the campaign put through to a successful
completion. Nor is it ever too busy to drop for a time voluminous rou-
tine matters to plunge into the thick of a fight to carry out a civic plan
for the city's betterment. Houston is doing big things and the Houston
chamber "puis over" big things. Two bond issues recently voted and
carried — one for a $500,000 viaduct and a second for $1,250,000 to be added
to a like amount from the government for the improvement of the Houston
ship channel are suggestions of the big things it initiates and carries.

The ship channel project was one of the first big civic problems taken
hold of by the chamber. Buffalo Bayou, a natural arm of the sea, extend-
ing from Houston forty-eight miles to the Gulf of Mexico, had long been
in use as a waterway for the shipment of freight and the volume of traffic
over its waters w^as about $50,000,000 annually. Its depth averaged about
eighteen feet, which made possible traffic by small coasting vessels and
barges.

The chamber made a study of the Manchester (England) ship canal and
likened the situation in Houston with that of Manchester. The English
city was an inland city some miles from the coast and its shipping w^as at
the mercy of the railroads. Several millions of dollars were raised by
Manchester to dig a ship canal through the bed of the sluggish Mersey
and through solid rock. In due time the giant project was completed and
the largest ships of ocean commerce came direct to the doors of Manchester.
Today Manchester is a famous world seaport.

Profiting by this example the Houston chamber took up the project. It
changed the name of the bayou to that of the "Houston Ship Channel"
and started plans to secure an appropriation from the federal government
to deepen the channel to a minimum depth of twenty-five feet and make
Houston a seaport. After months of effort congress granted an appropria-
tion of $1,250,000 conditional upon Houston raising an equal amount.
Houston called "the bluff." A proposal to bond to the extent of $1,250,000
was submitted and the chamber carried on an active campaign, and the
bonds carried nearly unanimously. They were later purchased by the

THE HOUSTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 105

national banks and trust companies of Houston, the city of Houston and
the county of Harris and the money made immediately available. In June
of this year the work was started. The city is constructing free municipal
wharves at the Houston terminus of the channel which will forever guar-
antee shipping over the Houston ship channel freedom from wharf charges.

Simultaneously with the ship channel campaign the chamber of commerce
was actively concerned with the carrying of bonds to the extent of ^500,000
for the construction of a concrete viaduct 1600 feet in length over the upper
end of Buffalo and White Oak Bayous and. the net work of railroad tracks
dividing the city into the north and south ends. The viaduct issue was
carried nearly unanimously at the polls the same day the ship channel
bonds were voted.

Another campaign the chamber precipitated and carried was the front
foot paving campaign, by which the city adopted an amendment to its
charter authorizing the payment for street paving by alloting two-thirds
of the cost to the abutting property owners and the remaining one-third to
the city. Until the adoption of the amendment street paving was paid
for entirely out of the general revenues of the city and by bond issues voted
by the people. Houston's rapid growth, however, made this plan obsolete,
for the increased demand for street paving made the city unable to
meet it.

To carry this campaign greater effort was necessary than in the viaduct
or ship channel bond campaigns. Three cartoonists were retained and
the newspapers of the city supplied free with cartoons advocating the
amendment. Previously the two larger papers of the city had aligned
themselves with the chamber in favor of the campaign, while the third was
non-committal. The press agent's department investigated the workings
of the front foot plan in other cities and explained it through the press.
Letters from the people were invited and when a letter opposing the plan
was submitted it was answered fully paragraph by paragraph in the same
issue of the paper printing it.

Contracts were placed with every moving picture show in the city for
the display of slides advocating the plan. Cartoons and slogans were dis-
played on the screens, every slide, in addition to the other matter, bearing
the slogan "Vote for Paving." A providential rain fell for several days
during the campaign, putting the unpaved streets into mud. Photogra-
phers were sent out by the chamber to photograph the wagons and auto-
mobiles bogged in the mud. Once when the fire department mired in a
muddy street the bogged apparatus was photographed and thrown on the
moving picture show screens.

The chamber organized a corps of public speakers, well known in the
city, to go into the wards to explain the merits of the front foot paving plan
and argue questions. Joint debates were held and every avenue of publi-

lOi; NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

city was utili/Axl to drive home the merits of the front foot plan over the
one then obtaining.

The result was a thorough -campaign of education. The people were
showTi how impossible it is for a city of 110,000 population to pave about
400 miles of streets by bond issue and out of the general revenue. The suc-
cess of the front foot plan in other cities was pointed out and the remedy
applied to Houston. AYhen on February 14 last the question was submitted
at the polls the amendment was carried by an overwhelming majority.
Two years before the same question had been defeated at the polls. Entire
credit for the subsequent victory should go to the educational campaign
so thoroughly carried out by the chamber of commerce.

Another civic movement in Houston instituted by the chamber of com-
merce was that of a general clean-up campaign. This movement extended
for three months and in some respects is still on.

For this work the chamber formed a separate organization composed
of public spirited men and women, presided over by the president of the
chamber. The organization was known as the Clean-Up Movement
League. Like the paving campaign the clean-up campaign was to be edu-
cational. The moving picture shows were again entered and cartoons and
press matter placed in the newspapers.

In the work the League had the thorough cooperation of every department
of the city administration. The health department aided in the enforce-
ment of the sanitary laws, while the garbage department added a number
of double deck garbage wagons for the removal of all kinds of trash. Col-
lection of garbage other than the regular daily service was taken up system-
atically. A week was allowed to each of the six wards of the city. A
week ahead of the wagons inspectors canvassed every house and store in
the ward and ordered a general cleaning of the premises and placing of the
collected trash in a conspicuous position for collection by the extra garbage
wagons.

During the six weeks that the extra wagons covered all the wards of the
city tons of garbage were removed, besides the regular routine collection,
which was not disturbed. When vacant lots were found the names of the
owners were looked up on the tax rolls and orders sent them for the immedi-
ate improvement of the sanitary condition of the property. A property
owner or tenant who proved dilatory in obeying the command of the move-
ment to clean-up was threatened with prosecution under the laws.

During the progress of the campaign about 95 per cent of the property
in the city was thoroughly cleaned. During the close prosecution was
threatened against the remaining 5 per cent. The show of determination
was all that was necessary and the remaining 5 per cent immediately
cleaned their premises.

THE HOUSTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 107

In order to cover all the ground and that no bad places would be missed
the league encourged espionage by neighbors on adjoining premises. Lan-
tern slides and notices in the paper urged complaints to the offices of the
league of neighboring insanitary conditions. The result was an avalanche
of complaints. Subsequent inspections developed the property of the com-
plainant sometimes was in worse condition than that complained about.
Slides and press notices then were put in, suggesting the Golden Rule be
followed, adding ''If neighboring property is insanitary tell us, but How
about your own?" Thereafter the volume of complaints was cut down and
were genuine when made.

The league's inspectors then visited all the corner grocery stores in the
city and ordered strict compliance with the laws. Screens were ordered
up and improved sanitary conditions installed. If one rebelled against
tlie lever of the league the law was cited and the case submitted to the
league's attorney. In cases where corner grocery stores had beer saloons
in connection contests against a re-issue of licenses were filed against the
store and saloon owner refusing to comply with the laws.- This brought
them instantly into line.

Texas has a "clean-up day" in April when every city and town in the
state is urged to clean up. Yet the Houston chamber of commerce holds
that one day is inadequate. For the success of a public movement an
educational campaign is necessary. By observing only one day many do
not even take notice of it. Others may note it and forget it. Some few
may observe it. Few observe it to the full letter. Instead of a day Hous-
ton observed it for three months and the result was at the end of the period
Houston appeared as clean as though a giant suction cleaner had passed
over it.

Another civic campaign that the Houston chamber of commerce put
through was a movement for greater civic beauty. Improvement of the
banks of Buffalo and White Oak Bayous was undertaken by the chamber
and a pubhc forester engaged. While the city forester was engaged prin-
cipally in improving the beauty of these two streams his services were
available free to anyone wishing his advice in the improvement of their
private property.

Jerome H. Farbar.^

' Secretary, Houston Chamber of Commerce.

108 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

TIIK VOCATION BUREAU AND THE BOSTON

SCHOOL SYSTEM

No DEPART]\IENT of public service in a community receives so
large a measure of private cooperation as does the school depart-
ment. This fact is an indication of civic spirit and a recognition
that educational progress is vital to civic welfare. Many of the most
valuable services to our children in the modern public school have been the
results of generous volunteer initiative, and of private support until the
public has come to realize the value of particular social experiments and
has had them incorporated in the school system.

Conspicuous examples of such cooperation on. the part of private indivi-
duals and organizations are, the kindergarten, manual training, evening
lectures, school nurses,, and other distinctly modern features of our school
courses. It may be said, indeed, that the public school system itself is
an outgrowth of private philanthropy, assumed in due time by the state
for the public good.

The most significant recent factor added to the school curriculum is voca-
tional guidance. The school must not only instruct youth, but it must also
advise youth in the struggle for a foothold in life. Under modern condi-
tions of labor division and high specialization in commerce and industry,
this advisory service has become a grave necessity. Transition from school
to work has been accompanied by a needless waste of time and oftpn by an
impairment of the hopefulness and efficiency of youth. Thousands of
uninformed and misdirected children leave school every year, taking the
first work that offers, changing from place to place, and thinking only of
pay. In such cases we find no "life-career motive," no apprenticeship, no
growth in power, no laying of foundations.

Here was the opportunity of .the Vocation Bureau in its relation to the
Boston school system.

The Vocation Bureau of Boston was the first to be established in this
country. The men and women behind it, leaders in commerce, industry,
education, and social service, appreciated keenlj^ the present misdirection
and loss in the critical transition from school to work. Thej- saw that
choice of vocation is impossible to yoimg people who are ignorant of the
nature of the various callings, and of the conditions of success and efficiency
in the modem world of work. They saw that neither school life nor working
life could rightly serve the child imless mental training, occupational
information, and definite purpose in education should be brought home
to the child. Underlying all the activities of the bureau is the conviction
that a longer period in school and vocational education are fnndam.ental
to achievement in every desiraljle occupation.

THE BOSTON SCHOOL SYSTEM 109

The movement for vocational guidance had its beginning in 1907 at the
Civic Service House in the North End of Boston. In 1909 a large and
strong organization placed the bureau on a permanent basis. The Boston
school committee became interested and sought its help in organizing
vocational counseling in the schools. A school vocation committee, of
six masters, was appointed to confer with the director of the bureau, Meyer
Bloomfield, who was given charge of this large and important undertaking.
Full cooperation was established with the school board and superintendent
of schools.

"School vocational record cards" were adopted. The elementary card
presented family information, the parents' plan for the pupil, the pupil's
school record, physique, and plans for further schooling or for work. The
high school record card showed why the pupil entered high school, his
plans for advanced study or for work, and the line of his greatest aptitude.

With such information in the possession of the teacher, intelligent and
useful advice and help may be given the pupil. The school work may be
modified in a measure to meet the need of the individual. Instruction
becomes in a larger degree a personal service to the boy or girl passing out
into the working world.

That advising might be done most wisely and systematically, a training
course for vocational counselors was established. One hundred and seven-
teen teachers, one or several from each school in the city, were appointed
to serve as vocational counselors to boys and girls in their respective schools.

The director of the bureau has conducted this training course, in fort-
nightly meetings, for two years, having the cooperation of the Girls' Trade
Education League in the presentation of occupations for girls, and being
ably assisted by experts and authorities upon the vocations treated, whether
industrial, mercantile, or professional.

Among the subjects considered in the course for 1910 and 1911 were
the following: The principles of vocational guidance, the sources and
methods of vocational guidance, The shoe industry. The boy and girl in the
department store. The machine industry, A group of trades for boys. The
Telephone industry for girls. Stenography and typewriting for girls. Book
binding for girls. Architecture, The use of statistics.

In 1911 and 1912 the following subjects have been presented: Mechan-
ical engineering. Civil engineering, Electrical engineering: The building
trades, (1) Carpentering, (2) Contracting and building, (3) Masonry and
concrete, (4) Painting and decorating; Advertising; The needle trades,
(1) Dressmaking, (2) Millinery, (3) Machine operating; Problems and
experiences of vocational counselors; Presentation of the work done and
the pupil desired in two of the city's industrial schools; What the high
schools offer and what they demand; The facts regarding "opportunities
for vocational training," as assembled by the Women's Municipal League.

no NATIONAL MrXIC'IPAL REVIEW

As a basis for right vocational couuseling, and to supplement the training
course for Boston teachers, the bureau has for two years conducted an
investigation of the leading occupations open to boys and young men. This
investigation has sho^ii, in brief, the nature of an occupation, requirements
for entering it, conditions of service, pay, opportunities, and future; or all
that the occupation ought to mean as a life pursuit.

These studies are to be presented in bulletin form, eight such booklets
having been printed already, namely: The machinist, Banldng, The baker,
Confi'ctionery manufacture, The architect. The landscape architect, The
grocer. The department store and itf opportunities for boys and young
men.

These publications are placed in the hands of school counselors, and are
used throughout the country by persons and agencies interested in the
welfare of youth.

Cooperating with the bureau and supplementing its service for the
Boston schools, are three other organizations : The Home and School Asso-
ciation, which deals with the home and school relation; the Girls' Trade
Education League, which studies occupations open to girls; and the Women's
IVIunicipal League, which studies opportunities for vocational training.
The school board, also, as a direct result of the work of the bureau, has
appointed a group of teachers to make a study of the employment condi-
tions of boys and girls who, at certain stated periods, have left school to
work or who passed to work at the end of the last school year. The
report of these investigators will have great weight in shaping vocational
guidance in the Boston schools in the future.

Briefly, in summary: The vocation bureau is advising with the many
people who come to its offices for consultation as to vocations, choice, and
educational training; it is assisting in the establishment of vocation bureaus
and vocational work elsewhere; in cooperation with the Boston school
authorities it has established the peculiarly important training course for
comiselors, and has led the way for a large vocational movement in the
schools themselves; by affiliation it has found strong allies in three organ-
izations well fitted to deal with special features of the great, general prob-
lem; it has conducted a vocational guidance course at Harvard; it is con-
ducting an investigation of occupations open to boys and young men;
its vocational ])ooks are consulted by educators and laj^men; in its offices
has been gathered a store of information from the world of industry, com-
merce, and the professions.

Frederick J. Allen. ^

' Investigator of Occupations, The Vocation Bureau, Boston, Mass.; also direc-
tor of the City History Club of Boston.

PACIFIC NORTHWEST MUNICIPALITIES 111

PACIFIC NORTHWEST MUNICIPALITIES^

IN ORDER to meet the ever increasing problems of modern city life,
it has become necessary to unite municipalities of particular sections
of the country into leagues, the purpose of which is the promotion
of better and more efficient government through the establishment of
reference libraries," bureaus of information and the exchange of ideas and
experiences of city officials and public minded citizens. For a dozen or
more years such organizations have existed in practically all portions of
the United States. The leagues of New York, Ohio, Wisconsin, Califor-
nia, and the leagues of midland municipalities, embracing the cities of
Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska are perhaps the best known.

The Commercial Club of Walla Walla, Washington, recognizing the
need for united action among the cities of the Pacific Northwest, agreed
to finance the organization of a league composed of the cities of Oregon,

1 This account of the Walla Walla meeting of the League of Pacific Northwest
Municipalities is so significant that the National Municipal Review is departing
from its usual policy in regard to reporting such events. The meeting was not
only an interesting one in itself but was significant of the need of the growing cities
of the Pacific Northwest for more effective cooperation. Individually they are mak-
ing great progress but they feel that the experience of each should be at the disposal
of all and that they can make the most substantial and satisfactory progress by
working together. In this connection attention is called to the suggestion of Dr.
Clyde L. King in his report of the meetings of sundry state leagues to the effect that
the National Mimicipal League and the National Municipal Review should be
the means of bringing these various organizations into closer cooperation with each
other, a suggestion which is emphasized by the action of the Union of Canadian
Municipalities in taking the initial steps for the formation of an international munic-
ipal league and asking the National Municipal League not only to participate therein
but to designate its secretary as secretary of the proposed international municipal
league.

At the Los Angeles meeting of the National Municipal League the council at the
suggestion of Prof. Edward M. Sait of Columbia University, authorized the appoint-
ment of a special committee on state leagues, which committee is now engaged in
carrying out this work. In the prosecution of its work this committee has sent to
the various state leagues the following letter of inquiry:

The National Municipal League, being desirous of getting into closer touch with
the state leagues of municipalities, appointed at its Los Angeles meeting a special
committee to promote this end. This committee consists of Richard S. Childs of
New York, Dr. Edward M. Sait of Columbia University and Charles G. Haines. _ I
am requested by this committee to ask you to send me the following information
concerning your organization: (1) date of organization, (2), objects, (3) members,
(4) membership dues, (5) publications, (6) sketch of typical year's work of the
association.

In return for your courtesy we shall be glad to supply you with the reports of this
committee and their recommendations when published.

H. A. Mason, the secretary of the California League of Municipalities, prepared
an admirable paper on the work of the organization, which appeared in the October
issue of the National Municip.'VL Review, and has been published as a separate
reprint. We shall be glad to send you additional copies of this, if you desire them.

C. R.W.

112 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

"W'MshiugtdU and iclahu. Accordingly, a committee was appointed, which
included the mayor of Walla Walla, members of the club, and represen-
tatives from the faculty of Whitman College, Dr. S. B, L. Penrose, presi-
dent of the college, being made chairman. This committee effected a
temporary organization, appointed officers from among the most promi-
nent citizens and municipal officials of the three states, and prepared a
draft of a constitution. The officers thus appointed, with the cooper-
ation of a committee of the Walla Walla Commercial Club, arranged for
a conference, jjrepared a program, and issued invitations to all the cities,
commercial and civic clubs, and interested citizens of Idaho, Oregon, and
Washington. The result of their efforts was a gathering of sixty delegates
in the city of Walla Walla on October 24 and 25, 1912. About twenty of
the leading cities of the Northwest were represented.

The conference heartily ratified the action of the temporarj^ organiza-
tion, adopted a permanent constitution, reelected all of the temporary
officers, and approved the "League of Pacific Northwest Municipalities"
as the official name of the organization.

The very evident interest and enthusiasm of the delegates in the spirited
discussions after each of the papers indicated that the subjects discussed
were of vital interest to the municipalities of the three states.

J. E. Frost, former state tax commissioner, one of the best informed
men in the Northwest, characterized the Washington system of taxation
as primitive and unenlightened because the state ignores the first great
principle of equal taxation — that the individual should be compelled to
contribute to the government in proportion to his ability.

The state of Washington fhe continued] is the only state in the union
and to the best of my knowledge, the only civilized community in the
world that grants exemption to predatory wealth and imposes the entire
burden of taxation upon simple forms of property: upon the home, the
farm, the merchant, the manufacturer. A tax is an evil which drives
away or prevents a desirable thing from coming to you. A tax is a good
tax which encourages home building and home production. Imposition
of taxes on the whole of industry and the immediate fruits of labor pre-
vents the proper utilization of the great resources in the state and drives
industries away. We need more homes, more farms, more factories, more
opportunities for the employment of labor and a larger home market.

In concluding Mr. Frost declared that the first advance step for the
state must be a constitutional amendment to free legislators from the
restriction which binds them to an equal property tax, imposed on visiljle,
tangible property, at an equal and uniform rate regardless of its char-
acter, condition or tax paying ability.

One of the features of' the program was a lecture on city planning by
E. F, LaAvrence, a well known architect of Portland. At the opening of
his address Mr. Lawrence declared,

PACIFIC NORTHWEST MUNICIPALITIES 113

The American city today, with few exceptions, is neither beautiful nor
practicable. The American city has been hampered and stunted in its
growth by real estate speculation carried on only for the day without
regard to the future welfare of the community. The inborn behef of the
American people that the rights of the individual are supreme over great
community interests has saddled our municipalities with almost insur-
mountable charter hmitations and obstructions.

C. M. Fassett, commissioner of public utilities for the city of Spokane
argued for the municipal ownership and control of public utifities. He
noted the dangers and difficulties attending such control by the officials
of our cities. He maintained that,

An expensive and thorough propaganda is being carried on by wealthy
and powerful corporations which see their displacement and loss of profit
in public ownership. Ex parte news accounts, distorted facts and false
conclusions are sent out all over the land, and have their effect; and there
is enough truthful news, caused by the action of the political influences
to which I have referred, detrimental to public ownership to frighten timid
voters into a refusal to allow it to be undertaken. But the day is surely
coming when we shall be free to inaugurate with assurance of success,
any collective undertaking which may add to our efficiency, comfort, and
happiness.

The discussion of health and sanitation proved to be one of the most
profitable subjects of the program. Dr. Tetreau told how through a
vigorous health campaign in the city of North Yakima an annual scourge
of typhoid fever was entirely eliminated. As a result of a health cam-
paign conducted in a business like way a death rate of 252 in 1910 and 210
in 1911 was reduced to 108 in 1912, notwithstanding a marked increase
in population.

Dr. J. E. Crichton, commissioner of health of Seattle, spoke on health
as an asset. He maintained

If physical well being is an asset, and we all recognize it as such, then
that city will be the richest which best controls sickness and disease in
order that the people may have the greatest number of efficient days in
which they may labor and strive. That city is the richest which renders
the social conditions of the people most pleasant and agreeable, that throws
about them reasonable legal protection and restraint, because all these
things conserve health and well being.

Any community can reasonably protect itself from communicable disease,
like scarlet fever and diphtheria, and there is no reasonable excuse why
these diseases are allowed to multiply and exact their toll if proper preven-
tive measures are applied. This much, however, cannot be said of tuber-
culosis since the necessary machinery of government has not as yet been
so perfected that health officers have the proper authority.

On the subject new legislation to be desired, Mayor W. W. Seymour of
Tacoma offered a series of recommendations which he hoped would be

114 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

considered and j^resented to the legislatures of the various states inter-
ested in the league. Among the recommendations were the following:

1. A conservative home rule for cities.

2. A law which would make effectual the regulation of the social evil.

3. A more effective state food and drug act.

4. A state law permitting excess condemnation in cities of the first class.

5. A law requiring the state board of health to pass upon the domestic
water supply of cities and villages before construction of the water plants.

6. A law establishing a reformatory similar to that at Monroe for men.

7. A law creating a court of domestic relations.

Under home rule for cities are to be considered: a law permitting cities
to sell gas, water, and light to people residing beyond their incorporated
limits; the exclusion from the debt limit of all debts incurred for munici-
pally owned utilities which bring in a sufficient revenue; a law to give
cities of the first and second class a more liberal investment of their sinking
funds; a law giving cities wider latitude in the matter of industrial devel-
opment; a law that will provide for the reduction of penalties on delinquent
payments of local improvement district assessment; a law permitting cities
of the first and second classes to assist various charitable and philanthropic
institutions by appropriations of money.

The California league, through Mr. Locke, offered the Pacific North-
west League the use of its publication. Pacific Municipalities. The offer
was accepted and an arrangement effected whereby the secretary of the
latter league became an associate editor of the magazine and this monthly
was temporarily made the official organ of the Pacific Northwest League.
It was also proposed by Mr. Locke that beginning in 1915 the League of
California Municipahties and the League of Pacific Northwest Munici-
palities have triennial joint meetings, thus affiliating more closely the
cities of the Pacific Coast.

The conference was the first meeting of this character ever held in the
Northwest. The delegates present voted that an annual conference should
be held, and that a reference library and bureau of information be estab-
fished at the headquarters of the league and adopted a bj'-law, providing
for a legislative committee of fifteen members, five from each state to
constitute a sub-committee for that state. The officers who were reelected
and into whose hands the promotion of the organization for another year
is placed are: President, Ex-governor Miles C. Moore, Walla Walla; vice-
presidents, Geo. F. Cotterill, mayor of Seattle; A. G. Rushlight, mayor
of Portland; Arthur Hodges, mayor of Boise; treasurer, R. Insinger, presi-
dent of chamber of commerce, Spokane; secretary, Charles G. Haines,
Ph.D., professor of political science. Whitman College; executive commit-
tee. Miles C. Moore, president; James H. Brady, Pocatello, Idaho; A. J.
Gillis, Walla Walla, Wash.; Theodore B. Wilcox, Portland, Ore.; Charles
G. Haines, secretary.

PACIFIC NORTHWEST MUNICIPALITIES 115

Arrangements are under way to publish the proceedings of the confer-
ence and the important addresses will also appear in current issues of
Pacific Municipalities. A vigorous campaign for .membership has been
begun. The success of the first conference, the unanimous approval of
the plan to hold such a conference annually, and the very evident interest
already manifested in the League assures a promising future for the new
organization.

Charles G. Haines.^

2 Whitman College, Walla Walla.

/

NOTES AND EVENTS

Professor Charles Austin Beard, Columbia University, New York,
Associate Editor in Charge

ASSISTED BY

Professor Murray Gross, Drexel Institute, Philadelphia
Professor Edward M. Sait, Columbia University, New York

I. GOVERNMENT AND ADMINISTRATION

The Commission Government Move-
ment.— The growth of the movement
(luring 1912 was fully as vigorous as in
the previous years. It has not been con-
fined to any particular section of the
country or class of cities. The following
is a list of the 1912 accessions: Sheffield,
Ala.; Phoenix, Ariz.; San Mateo, and
Pasadena, Cal.; Colorado City and Dur-
ango, Colo. ; Boise, Ida. ; Harvey and
Marseilles, 111.; Jackson and Meridian,
Miss.; St. Paul, Minn.; Salem, Mass.;
Atlantic City, Nutley, Long Branch,
Ridgefield Park, N. J.; Lincoln, Nebr. ;
New Orleans and Hammond, La. ; Ada
and Okmulgee, Okla. ; Sumter^ and Flor-
ence, S. C; Madison, S. D.; McKinney,
Tex.; Everett, Wash.; Janesville, Men-
ominee, Portage, Rice Lake and Super-
ior, Wis.; Great Bend, Kan.; Covington,
Ky.; Duluth, Minn.

Commission government has recently
been rejected in East St. Louis, 111.;
Savannah, Ga.; Waterville, Me.; Padu-
cah, Ky. ; Boone, Iowa and Winona,
Minn.; Los Angeles, Cal.; Norfolk, Neb.

On November 5, Baker, Ore., and
Spokane, Wash., voted down proposi-
tions to revert to their old charters.

Arizona: The new charter of Phoenix,
providing for a commission plan of gov-
ernment was adopted in November and
.sent to the governor for his approval.

California: The board of freeholders
in San Jose produced a new charter in
September. This instrument puts large
executive powers in the hands of the
mayor. The council will consist of five
members elected at largo.

' City manager plnti.

Santa Monica's new charter, now in
preparation, is to be of the commission
type. If adopted, it will go into effect
January 14, 1914.

Thirty-seven charter amendments to
the San Francisco charter were submit-
ted to the people at a special election
held on December 10. One of them gives
greater power of removal to the mayor,
with the proviso that the civil service
commission may be removed only in the
same manner as elected officers. By
another, the civil service commission,
would be given greater power over ap-
pointees in the classified service. An-
other would increase the salaries of the
principal officers. The results of this
election will be reported in a later issue.

Colorado: The election on commission
government, which was to have been
held in Denver on November 5, has been
deferred until Spring. The mayor and
other members of the city government as
well as the civic bodies are working in
harmony to this end.

The home-rule provisions of the con-
stitution have been found incomplete in
that they fail to give the municipalities
control over their local elections. This
fact was emphasized by a recent ileci-
sion of the supreme court which annulled
the preferential system of voting in (he
Grand Junction and P\ieblo charters on
the ground that the state law required
primary elections in all cities. An
amendment submitted November 5 giv-
ing the cities definite power to control
their elections appears to have been car-
ried.

Massachuf:ettf!: Salem is now on the
list of commission governed cities, hav-

IIG

NOTES AND EVENTS

117

ing ratified an act of the legislature pro-
viding this form, on November 5. Two
plans were submitted, the alternative
form being the modified mayor and coun-
cil plan. The initiative, referendum and
recall are included in the new charter.

Revere, a suburb of Boston, voted on
October 14 on seven alternative plans of
government, including the commission
form, annexation to Boston, and two
town meeting forms.. Annexation re-
ceived the highest vote. Commission
government came in third. Retention
of the present town meeting arrangement
received only twenty-three votes out of
a total of 1100.

Attleboro, one of the largest towns,
will vote on incorporation as a city on
December 30.

Michigan: By constitutional amend-
ment Michigan corrected its municipal
system so that a city may amend its
old legislative charter by the convention
process without resort to a complete
revision. The supreme court held such
action under the original amendment,
to be illegal. 1

Detroit has voted to call a charter
convention. There is a strong sentiment
in the city for municipal ownership of
the street railways.

The charter commission at Saginaw
finally concluded its work on October
25, and brought forth a commission
charter.

Minnesota: On November 5 Minne-
sota voted down a proposition to amend
the home-rule section of her constitution
which would have cleared up any doubt
as to the validity of charters under the
commission form of government.

The charter commission in Minnea-
polis is considering plans for a new char-
ter but is unable to agree on any one.
It is possible that the present commis-
sion will resign on this account.

Duluth, Minn., voted on December
3 to adopt a new charter embodying the
commission form of government, with the
initiative, referendum and recall and

' 168 Mich. 249, Attorney-General v. Commission
Council of Detroit.

provides for election according to the
preferential system of voting. Except
for regulation as to election, the com-
missioners have a free hand. Their sal-
aries are arranged on a sliding scale be-
tween four and five thousand dollars,
according to the population. The vote
was Yes 5500, No 3400, the Socialists
opposing an account of certain features
and the Saloon an account of others.

Mississippi: An opinion of the su-
preme court affirming the validity of the
Commission government statute was
rendered in support of a writ of manda-
mus, by which the city council were com-
pelled to call an election for successors.

The cities of Laurel, Gulfport, Clarks-
dale and Hattiesburg are in a state of
doubt as to the legal status of the city
government. The law under which they
are operating was enacted two years
before the present commission govern-
ment law. The unsettled question is
whether the second law superseded the
first. The situation at Laurel is serious
in that the city wishes to issue bonds
to the amount of nearly half a million
dollars.

Missouri: St. Louis amended its chart-
er on November 5 so as to provide for
the initiative and referendum.

Nebraska: The constitutional amend-
ment providing for municipal home-rule
in cities of over 5000 was adopted on
November 5.

New Jersey: Citizens in Jersey City,
Bayonne and Hoboken, where commis-
sion government was rejected by com-
paratively small margins nearly two years
ago, are planning to have the question
resubmitted. The Hoboken people claim
that they were defrauded in the count
at the first election. Recently two per-
sons have been convicted of ballot box
stuffing on this occasion.

Ohio: The adoption of the home-rule
amendment in Ohio has greatly stimu-
lated local interest in city charters. In
Cleveland there is a decided sentiment
for simplified government, though not
necessarily for the commission plan.
An extension of corporate powers, which

118

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

will porinit the city to engage in such
enterprises as municipal markets, is hqped
for. An election of a board of fifteen
freeholders will be held, probably, on
February 4. The mayor is using every
effort to make the board a non-partisan
one.

In Dayton, the chamber of commerce
and the bureau of municipal research
are heading a movement for a commis-
sion charter. Similar interest is mani-
fest in Akron, Elyria, Canton, Hamilton,
Youngstown, Ashland, and other cities.
Prof. A. R. Hatton and others are work-
ing on a bill which will permit any city
to adopt one of three forms of govern-
ment : the commission, mayor and coun-
cil, and city manager plans.

Oregon: The amendments to the legis-
lative charter of Portland, Ore., provid-
ing for a commission form of government,
and submitted under the home-rule pro-
visions of the constitution, were rejected
by a rather close vote on November 5.
A difficulty in the election was the sub-
mission of a second document known
as the 'short charter." The advocates
of this plan essayed to cut out as
much as possible the legal verbiage
and leave only the skeleton or frame-
work of city government, on the theory
that the people would take care of the
rest by initiative and referendum. For
brevity the 'short charter" is a gem.
Once enacted into law it would give rise
to endless litigation. The charter ques-
tion will probably come up again next
year, at the regular election.

Pennsylvania: Some of the friends of
the Pittsburgh charter will seek, at the
next session of the legislature, to secure
amendments embodying the initiative,
referendum and recall, which were re-
fused at the time of the original adoption
in 1911.

Texas. — Some time ago the attorney-
general of Texas concluded that the 1909
act providing for the incorporation of
cities and towns under a commission
form of government was unconstitu-
tional and declined to approve the issu-
ance of bonds under it. Subsequently

a suit for mandamus was instituted
by the town of Aransas Pass in the Su-
preme court to compel the attorney-gen-
eral to approve an issue of bonds. There
was a popular demand that the court
should pass upon the validity of the
statute and definitely determine the
legal position of the town. The court,
however, declined to permit the filing of
petitions for mandamus, thereby sus-
taining the attorney-general in his re-
fusal to approve the bonds, but no opin-
ion was rendered. The attorney-general
however, concluded to approve bonds
issued under the statute in question,
provided it was shown by a census that
the city or town contained more than
1000 inhabitants. He is now approving
bonds issued by such tow^ns under those
conditions. The legislature of the state,
which convenes in January, 191.3, will
in all probability amend the statute tso
as to remove any question of its consti-
tutionality.

West Virginia: A new city charter for
Wheeling, on commission government
lines, has been prepared by the Munic-
ipal Improvement League. It contains
no features of special interest.

H. S. GiLBBRTSON.'

Spokane. — Unknown "interests" at-
tempted at the recent election to abolish
the commission form of government or
to emasculate it so it would be of no
value. The people defeated every a-
mendment by a far larger majority than
the vote at the time of the adoption of
the charter, which must be taken to in-
dicate that the citizens are satisfied.

Norwood, Mass., has employed a town
manager following the example of Staun-
ton, Va. The town manager will be town
engineer, superintendent of public works
director of water supply and lighting
system.

'Assistant secretary the Short Ballot Organization.

NOTES AND EVENTS

119

Home Rule in New York. — The Munic-
ipal Govornment Association of New
York State, on the eve of the Repub-
lican and Democratic convention, held
a home rule conference at Utica, Sep-
tember 21.

During the summer months agents
of the association had made tours of
the entire state, including personal
visits to thirty-four cities and villages.
Meanwhile, the Association established,
through correspondence, communication
between the home rule advocates in all
the different sections, published and cir-
cularized pamphlets and conducted a
campaign of publicity through the daily
and weekly newspapers. The delegates
to the Progressive party convention were
reached by circular letters and a memo-
rial presented advocating the insertion
of an adequate home rule plank in the
party platform.

All of the above activities preceded
the Utica home rule conference. As a
result, the home rule issue had already
been injected into the state political
campaign by the adoption of the follow-
ing plank in the state platform of the
Progressive party:

Municipalities should be given power
to adopt and amend their charters in
matters pertaining to the powers and
duties, the terms of office and compen-
sation of officials, incurring of obliga-
tions, methods and subjects of local
taxation, and the acquisition and man-
agement of municipal properties, includ-
ing public utilities. We are opposed to
special legislation dealing with such
subjects.

We would make it possible for any city
to adopt the commission form of govern-
ment.

The main purpose of the Utica confer-
ence was to formulate plans for secur-
ing the adoption by the Republican and
Democratic parties of even more specific
home rule declarations than those con-
tained in the Progressive party platform.

The principal address was delivered
by J. Hampden Dougherty, Esq., of New
York City, on the battle for municipal
freedom. He outlined the history of the

movement for municipal home rule in
this and other states and described the
program of the Municipal Government
Association of New York State as in-
cluding (1) home rule for the cities,
counties and villages of New York State
by the grant of adequate powers of self-
government; (2) the passage of legisla-
tion which shall allow the free choice of
municipal and local candidates in mu-
nicipal and local elections unconfused
by the presence of party names or em-
blems upon the ballot; (3) the enact-
ment of a general municipal corporations
act enabling the voters of a city to adopt
a commission form of government or
any other simplified fOrm not incon-
sistent with the constitution or general
laws of the state; and, (4) constitutional
amendments, if necessary, to guarantee
home rule in the municipal sub-divisions
of the state.

The Republican and Democratic plat-
form planks on municipal home rule
were as follows:

REPUBLICAN PARTY

We favor granting to all cities and
villages adequate powers of self-govern-
ment and control over their local affairs
and property and the transaction of
municipal business, subject to proper
constitutional safeguards and the general
laws of the state, but free from legisla-
tive interference in purely local matters.

We favor legislation providing sim-
plified forms of municipal organization,
including the existing mayor and council
plan, and the so-called commission plan,
any one of which may be adopted by
the voters of any city.

DEMOCRATIC PARTY

Home rule, so often violated by the
Republican party, has long been a lead-
ing Democratic principle. We favor gen-
eral legislation conferring on all cities
full powers of local self-government, to
enable them to control their local affairs
and property.

We commend the Democratic legisla-
ture for passing the first proposed amend-
ment to the state constitution, which,
when adopted, will give to the cities and
villages of the state the greatest possible
measure of home rule, and we pledge our
best efforts to secure its adoption.

120

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

TIk- iKiiticular coiistitutiuiuil home
rule aim-ndmcnt leforred to in the Demo-
crat ic phitform is vinsatisfactoiy to the
experts of The Municipal Covcrnment
Association, and they are urging a sub-
stitute.

Sam. a. Lewisohn.i

Vote on Oregon Amen dments. 2— Pro-
poscd by inilialive pciitiou: Woman suf-
frage amendment, carried.

Referred io people hy the assembly:
creating office of lieutenant-governor,
defeated ; divorce of local and state tax-
ation, defeated; permitting different tax
rates on classes of property, defeated;
repeal of county tax option,, carried;
majority rule on constitutional amend-
ments, defeated; double liability on bank
stockholders' amendment, carried.

Statewide public utilities regulation.
Referendum, carried.

Proposed by initiative petition: Cre-
ating Cascade County— local issue, de-
feated; millage tax for University and
Agricultural College— simple tax law,
defeated; majority rule on initiated laws,
defeated; county bonding and road con-
struction act— grange bill, defeated;
creating state highway department-
grange bill, defeated; changing date state
printer bill becomes effective — misuse
of initiative, defeated; creating office of
hotel inspector — misuse of initiative, de-
feated; eight hour day on public works —
misuse of initiative, carried; blue sky
law — misuse of initiative, defeated; pro-
hibiting private employment of convicts
— misuse of initiotive, carried; relating
to emplojTnent of county and city pris-
oners— misuse of initiative, carried; state
road bonding act, defeated; limiting
state road indebtedness, carried; lim-
iting county road indebtedness — car-

i New York City.

2 Tho plirasn " Misuse of tlie Initiative" as Is the
Judement of tlie Portland Oregonian. The Taxpay-
ers I>oaKue of Portland published In The Oregonian
of Novi;inl)cr4, I012,acarefulsummary of the amend-
ments with advice as to how to vote on them.

ricil; providing method for consolidating
cities and creating new counties, de-
feated; income tax amendment defeated
(by 246 votes) ; tax exemption on house-
hold effects, carried; tax exemption on
moneys and credits, defeated; revising
inheritance tax laws, defeated; regulat-
ing freight rates, carried; county road
bonding act, defeated; abolishing sen-
ate, proxy voting, (U'Ren constitution)
defeated; state-wide single tax with
graduated tax jug handle, defeated; abol-
ishing capital punishment, defeated;
prohibiting boycotting, defeated; giv-
ing mayor authority to control street
speaking, defeated; appropriation for
university — ^referendum — misuse of ref-
erendum, defeated; appropriation for
university — -referendum — misuse of refer-
endum, defeated.

Louisiana Amendments. — Of the nine-
teen amendments submitted to the
voters of Louisiana on November 5 nine
were adopted, namely, those providing
for the exemption from taxation for
twenty years of corporations organized
for the sole purpose of lending money on
country real estate situated in Louisiana
at not more than G per cent, exempting
from taxation the legal reserve of life in-
surance companies organized under the
laws of Louisiana, levying a tax of 1 mill
for supplementing the appropriation for
pensioning Confederate soldiers, amend-
ing the section relative to the registration
of voters, providing for an additional
judge, empowering police juries of the
state to authorize a tax for the construc-
tion and maintenance of public roads,
relative to incurring of debt and issue of
bonds for work on public improvements
by municipal parishes, school, drainage
and other districts, relative to vacancies
in judicial offices in the parish of Orleans,
and extending the time for the organiza-
tion of steamship companies. Among
those that were defeated was the amend-
ment remodeling the state system of
assessment and taxation.

NOTES AND EVENTS

121

California Amendment.— Of the eight
measures voted on by the whole state
in November only the two amendments
to the constitution, proposed by the
legislature carried: the free text book
amendment, and the one making bonds
of irrigation districts security for depos-
its of public money, just as other munic-
ipal bonds are. Both measures had a
large majority.

All the initiative measures and those
submitted under the referendum were
defeated. These included the horse rac-
ing law, the three relating to the regis-
trar of elections in Alameda county, the
city and county consolidation amend-
ment and the home rule in taxation
amendments. All were beaten by decis -
ive majorities.

Illinois Vertes on Public Policy Ques-
tions.— Under the public policy act of
Illinois, the voters of Chicago and the
state were called upon at the November
election to pass in an advisory way upon
three propositions: First, shall the next
general assembly submit to the voters
of the state an amendment to the consti-
tution providing for the classification of
property for the purposes of taxation
with taxes uniform as to each class within
the jurisdiction levying the same; second
shall the next assembly revise the pri-
mary election act to abolish the scandals
and disorder now incident to the filing
of petitions, to increase the secrecy of
the ballot and the political freedom of
the voter, to simplify the system and
reduce the expense of elections, and to
encourage a greater popular participa-
tion in primary elections to the end that
nominations may represent more truly
the judgment of majorities; third, shall
the next assembly create a legislative
commission to investigate the most prac-
ticable means of shortening the cumber-
some election ballot? All three proposi-
tions passed by large affirmative major-
ities. This is a source of gratification
in many quarters in Illinois where these
reforms are awaited.

The Michigan Amendment to the con-
stitution permitting piecemeal amend-
ment of city charters by the councils was
adopted by a large majority.

The Home Rule Amendment in Texas

passed by a good majority. According
to the latest figures available the vote
for the amendment was more than 120,000
for and less than 43,000 against. The
total number of votes cast for president
at the same election was over 304,000.
Had a majority of all votes cast at the
election been required, the amendment
would have failed. ^

Nebraska's Home Rule Amendment
carried by a vote of 164,572 to 30,180.
This vote was 63.7 % of the total vote
cast at the election. The amendment
had been indorsed by all political parties,
and by the Nebraska law every straight
party vote counted for it.

Virginia Home Rule. — ^The amend-
ment to section 117 of the constitution
in reference to the government of cities
was approved at the election on Novem-
ber 5 by a vote of 60,176 for, and 16,202
against.

*

St. Louis voters demonstrated at the
November election according to The
Star that they had recovered from the
attack of blindness brought on by the
prohibition amendment in 1910, which
caused them to see nothing good in the
other ten amendments, even the one
aimed at the suppression of ballot crimes
the entire eleven amendments being
overwhelmingly defeated in 1910.

The initiative and referendum amend-
ment to the charter was passed, while
the Free Bridge bond issue and the
Municipal Assembly salary increase
amendment were voted down.

1 From Herman G. James.

122

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

Toledo Unique Among Ohio Cities. —
At the fall vote upon amendments to the
state constitution, Toledo stepped into
a unique place in Ohio by being the only
one of the larger municipalities of the
state which approved all of the forty-
two proposed amendments, including
woman suffrage. Among the major pro-
posals were those of initiative and refer-
endum, reform of the judiciary, more
efficient primary election regulation, pro-
tection of the welfare of employees, and
equal suffrage, which carried by votes
ranging from 2 to 1 to 5 to 1.

Self-Governing Areas. — On September
12, Winston Churchill discussed in a
speech at Dimdee the scheme of dividing
England into several great self-gov-
erning areas, pointing out the natural
divisions into which England would fall.
Comments on this plan by four or five
local government officers are printed in
the Municipal Journal of September 20.
Several county officers declared in favor
of the plan as saving time now lost in
going to London for powers desired by
municipalities. One officer however
spoke strongly against the idea as intro-
ducing elements of lack of uniformity
in matters in which uniformity was much
to be desired. The need for more local
self-government seemed in the opinion
of this writer to be met by the increas-
ing use of provisional orders.

Electoral Reform. — Philadelphia. The
committee of seventy has drafted two
bills to be presented at the next session
of the Pennsylvania Legislature; one
providing for the abolition of the "party
squares;" the other that no voter may
be assisted unless he is physically unable
to cast his ballot.

Ohio. At the last election, Ohio de-
feated an amendment providing for the

use of voting machines. Massachusetts
has adopted one which allows any city
to vote upon the use of voting machines.

Voting by mail. Charles Francis
Adams recently advocated voting by
mail. The chief provision is that the
voter has an envelop with two compart-
ments. He places his ballot in the sealed
compartment and signs his name and
address in the other. The officer desig-
nated to receive these removes the card
with the name and address on it, checks
it off the list and places the sealed envel-
op in the ballot box.

Preferential voting. Besides munici-
palities, many organizations are using
the preferential system of voting. The
St. Louis City Club uses it in the election
of officers; and the classes in Harvard
University use it in the election of class
officers. Minnesota. A special June ses-
sion of the Minnesota legislature pro-
vided for a state wide primary and
removed party designations from the
municipal ballot in Minneapolis, St. Paul
and Duluth.

Wotnan's suffrage was adopted in three
states; Oregon, Kansas and Arizona.
In Oregon and Arizona, it was accom-
plished b}'^ the initiative and referendum.
The vote in Michigan on equal suffrage
has been in doubt for some time. A
number of districts have held back the
returns and the governor has stated that
it looks as if it has been done with the
intention of seeing how many votes were
needed to count it out, or words to that
effect. It is interesting to know that
although woman's suffrage was defeated
in Ohio, it is expected that within two
years a chance will be provided for the
question to be voted upon. Had this
not passed, it would have been twenty
years before it could have been voted
on again. New Hampshire defeated it
and must wait 10 years before the con-
stitution can be changed.

Reginald Mott Hull.

NOTES AND EVENTS
II. FUNCTIONS

123

Philadelphia's Water Waste Exhibit.—
Can a campaign of education lower the
per capita consumption of water in
Philadelphia 60 gallons per day?

If so, it can save to the city: (1) $197,-
010 annually in the pumping department
alone; (2) $15,000,000 initial expense in
new filtration beds; (3) added cost in the
treatment of sewage to conform with
the new law of Pennsylvania on that
subject.

There is proof to show that the per
capita water waste in Philadelphia
through carelessness is, if anything,
beyond sixty gallons per day. The
average daily per capita consumption
in Philadelphia is 210 gallons. In New
York, it is 103 gallons; in Boston, 157
gallons; in Cincinnati, 128; in Cleveland,
104; in Detroit, 158, and in Milwaukee,
111 gallons. After taking into consider-
ation the greater area of Philadelphia
and the greater waste through the greater
mileage of distributing mains, it would
appear that the maximum consumption
in Philadelphia should not be as much
as 150 gallons per day.

The water bureau recently made a
special investigation in a district con-
taining 6000 people, a district in which
there were practically no commercial or
industrial activities, in order to deter-
mine the approximate amount of water
wasted. The water mains in the dis-
trict were isolated so that all the water
furnished to the district came through
one pipe. It was found that the average
rate in the day time was 1,400,000 gal-
lons, or 230 gallons to each resident.
The night rate from midnight to 4
a.m. was something over 1,000,000 gal-
lons, or 166 gallons for each resident,
while the sewer was leading away about
1,000,000 gallons of clear and seemingly
unpolluted water. It is a fair inference
that a very large amount of the water
running into that district from mid-
night to 4 a.m. was pure waste.

An investigation of an earlier date
revealed that, in another district, there

were leaky fixtures in 13,157 out of
55,655 houses, that is, leaky fixtures in
about 1 house out of every 4.

Director Cooke decided to see what
could be done in the way of reducing
this waste through educating the public
to what the waste meant financially.
Hence the "Water Waste Exhibit."
This exhibit was held in the city hall
court from October 7 to November 7.
It was under the immediate charge of
H. W. Benjamin. While this method of
civic education was unique, yet encour-
agement to undertake it was found in
New York's experience in saving $3,000,-
000 from waste by an expenditure of
$75,000.

In one of the booths the Philadelphia
fire prevention commission displayed the
various ways in which water can be saved
at fires. While a fire may be considered
a good time to waste water, yet it also
affords a splendid opportunity to save
water, and that can be done, as the
exhibit showed, if proper sprinkling sys-
tems are installed. It was estimated
that 90 per cent of the billion gallons
used annually for quenching fires in
Philadelphia was wasted.

In another place was shown the waste
through various sizes of spigots, and
leakages. It was revealed that a |-inch
stream wastes 25,224 gallons per day;
a j-inch stream wastes 9504 gallons per
day; a |-inch stream wastes 2808 gallons
per day; a -^-inch stream wastes 480
gallons per day, and a ^-inch stream
wastes 2^4 gallons per day.

Another exhibit showed the per capita
consumption of water in Philadelphia
and other cities. There were also stere-
opticon exhibits at night, and exhibits
of the various meters authorized by the
bureau of water, and the amount of
water that would be saved through their
use. The city administration has finally
succeeded in getting through the coun-
cils an ordinance making optional the use
of meters. Great savings are expected
from this source.

124

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

SiirroiiiidiiiK tlio contnil booth, wlicro
most of the rity oxhil)its were— a booth
tasty and artistic — were lines of booths
in which the manufacturers of all sorts
of water api)liances demonstrated their

uses.

Clyde L. King.*

*

Notes on Recent Tax Legislation.—
Constitutional amendments relating to
taxation were voted on by the people
of seven states at the November election,
but in only one state, Oregon, were any
important changes made in the funda-
mental law.

In California, a "home rule" amend-
ment was submitted by initiative peti-
tion, granting to each county and local
district the right to frame its own sys-
tem of taxation for its own revenues.
This was opposed chiefly on the ground
that it was too sweeping and might result
in great confusion both as to the dates of
taxation and collection and the classes
of property taxed. The amendment was
defeated.

In Louisiana, a special tax commission
proposed a number of changes in the
constitution which were embodied by the
legislature in one amendment. The chief
object was a separation of state and
local revenues by exempting public
service corporations from local taxation
and making them subject to a special
state tax; the amendment also repealed
the existing state license taxes and left
municipalities free to impose business
licenses or not, as they saw fit. This
amendment was defeated. Two amend-
ments were adopted — one exemp'ting from
taxation companies loaning money on
farm mortgages, and the other exempting
the reserve of life insurance companies.

In Massachusetts, an amendment was
submitted authorizing the legislature to
enact a special system of taxation for
forest lands w'ith the object of encourag-
ing reforestation. The vote on this has
not yet been announced.
In Missouri, an amendment was sub-

' University of Pennsylvania.

mitteil by initiative petition providing
for the abolition of business licenses, the
immediate exemption of personal prop-
erty and a gradual exemption of im-
provements, that would ultimately es-
tablish the single tax plan of raising
revenue. This amendment was defeated
by a vote of about G to 1 throughout the
state, though in St. Louis the adverse
vote was only 64,000 to 47,000 in favor.
Another amendment, providing for a
state tax commission in place of the
present board of equalization was also
lost.

In New Hamphshire several amend-
ments proposed by the constitutional
convention held in June failed to receive
the necessary two-thirds vote although
approved by a majority. Under the
present constitution the legislature may
exempt entirely any class of property,
but such property as is taxed must be
assessed and taxed at the same rate as
all other taxable property. The amend-
ments proposed were designed to permit
classification of property and taxation
at special rates.

In Oregon, two amendments to the
constitution were submitted to repeal
the "uniform rule" and permit classi-
fication or exemption. These amend-
ments were lost by a small margin.
Similar amendments had been submitted
in 1910 and were then also lost by a nar-
row margin.

In 1910, an amendment to the constitu-
tion was adopted which prohibited poll
taxes, and provided for county local
option in taxation "subject to general
laws," and also that no law relating to
taxation and assessment passed by the
legislature should become effective until
ratified by the people at the next general
election. This amendment was repealed
at the November election and in place
thereof, one was substituted which pro-
hibits poll taxes and provides that the
legislature shall not declare an emer-
gency on any law relating to taxation
and assessment.

In accordance with llie i)rovisions of
the 1910 amendment (now repealed),

NOTES AND EVENTS

125

measures had been submitted by initia-
tive petition in three counties providing
for establishing the single tax plan of
raising local revenues. These measures
were defeated.

A state-wide "graduated specific tax"
amendment, which provided for a tax
on land values and franchises, increasing
in proportion to the value under one
ownership in any one county, and also
exempting all property except land
values unless the people of a county
should vote to tax other property, was
defeated.

A measure submitted by the state tax
commission through initiative petition
for the exemption of household furniture
and personal effects, was adopted.

In Utah, two amendments were sub-
mitted designed to abolish the constitu-
tional requirement that all property
should be taxed at a uniform rate, and
permit the legislature to classify prop-
erty for taxation or exemption. This
amendment was not carried.

A. C. Pleydell.i

Accounting Notes. — Completing New
York's new accounting system. The
New York Chamber of Commerce through
its committee on finance and currency
has recently completed (October, 1912),
an examination into the progress of
the installation of the new accounting
system of the city in the interval since
the preceding examination by the same
committee in 1909. At that time the
committee reported : ' ' No other issue has
been presented to our citizenship in
years so vital to the permanent welfare
of Greater New York."

Notwithstanding this urgent recom-
mendation, although substantial prog-
ress has been made in the installation,
its completion has dragged along until
the last year of another administration.
Hampered bj^ lack of authority, lack of
funds, a shifting force of temporary
clerks to do the work, and an internal

> Secretary, New York Tax Reform Association.

semi-passive opposition on the part of
the old regime. Comptroller Prender-
gast in 1912, after over two years of
but little progress, reorganized the in-
stallation staff under the direction of
Robert B. Mclntyre. Since then, al-
though some of the impedimenta still
exist, much more rapid progress has
been made and there seems good reason
to believe that the new system will be
in full and complete operation by the
end of 1913. The Chamber's committee
in its recent report says: "Believing that
further delay would be extremely prej-
udicial to the interests alike of the citi-
zen, taxpayer and bondholder, we ask
the other commercial and civic organi-
zations of the city and the public gener-
ally to join in earnestly asking the board
of aldermen and the board of estimate
and apportionment for the complete
and effective installation of the entire
system before the expiration of term of
the present comptroller and to create a
fund of $200,000, or such sum as may be
necessary, for the employment of the
necessary accountants of definite tech-
nical experience and ability to accom-
plish this purpose."

The report also says that before com-
pleting the introduction of the reform
it will be necessary to strengthen the
hands of the comptroller and to settle
definitely several deplorable conflicts
between the departments and the con-
trolling central officers. It is probably
as true now as it was in 1909, when the
former committee reported, that the
reforms can be "made complete only by
amendment of the laws governing the
city's fiscal system" — a necessity recog-
nized by the subsequent attempts to
legislate at Albany.

Syracuse Accounts. The city for sev-
eral years has had a semi-annual audit
by Price, Waterhouse & Company. The
accounting system, while excellent in
many features, does not provide for
showing current liabilities of invoices
and payrolls nor contingent liabilities of
contracts and open market orders. Mr.
Lindars recommended the adoption of

126

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

those loaiuir.s. The report also shows
tliiit it is customary to make the budget
in ■star chamber" sessions; that inad-
equate provision is made for the redemp-
tion of S5, 415,000 long term bonds and
that some of the proceeds of twenty-
year bonds have been used for mainte-
nance purposes. F. W. Lindars, C.P.A.
(Ohio), represented the New York Bureau
of Municipal Research in Syracuse.

An Atlanta survey was made by Her-
bert R. Sands, C.P.A. (N. Y.). His re-
port emphasizes the need for unit costs
and efficiency records throughout all of
the city departments, also more publicity
in budget making and a continuation of
the beginning already made to centralize
the purchasing power and standardize
supplies and materials purchased. Sug-
gestions are made also for improving
the work methods of several depart-
ments.

The St. Paul water board's organiza-
tion and methods of assessing and col-
lecting revenues were examined by J.
H. Clowes. The revelations of Mr.
Clowes' jireliminary survey showed the
need of a complete reorganization of the
entire department and the water board
retained him to do the work. Among
other discoveries was the fact that
several meter readers who had been on
the payrolls for years did not lenow how
to read meters properly.

St. Louis, Mo., and Bridgeport, Conn.^
Peter White, C. P. A. (Illinois), has for*
several months been engaged in devising
and installing new accounting systems
for St. Louis, Mo., and Bridgeport, Conn.
As a foundation for his new system, he
inaugurated a modern segregated budget
in each city. As in the New York and
Chicago budgets the principle of stand-
ard accounts was adopted. The new
St. Louis budget contains 20 and the
Bridgeport budget 11 standard accounts.
The use of a smaller number of such
accounts in smaller cities has since been
recognized by the National Association
of Comptrollers and Accounting officers. *

Better accounting system for Cook
County. In January, 1911, after several
months' study of the fiscal system of
Cook County, Illinois (Chicago), the
Chicago bureau of public efficiency sub-
mitted to the county board a formal
report in which a modern form of segre-
gated budget was recommended as a
basis for better accounting control over
the county's expenditures. No action
was taken by the county board until
1912. Meanwhile, the Audit Company
of Illinois had completed a four-year
audit of the county books and substan-
tiated the findings and recommendations
of the bureau of public efficiency with
respect to many of the financial methods.
This firm was reemployed to frame the
1913 budget estimates according to the
previous recommendations.

Spartenberg makes a "profit." The
Audit Company of the South rendered a
report October 29, 1912, on an examina-
tion of the accounts of Spartenberg.
S. C. That the small cities of the south
are beginning to recognize the impor-
tance of better accounting methods is a
good sign of the times. Municipal ac-
countants will be interested in the report
particularly because it shows that dur-
ing the year ended October 20, 1912, the
city made a "net profit" of $11,893.
The use of such terminology is unusual
in public accounts. The explanation is
given that the net profit is "the excess of
revenue over expense."

Herbert R. Sands.*

Police News. — Credits for meritorious
work. Major Richard Sylvester, super-
intendent of the police force of the Dis-
trict of Columbia has introduced an ex-
cellent system whereby credits are given
to members of the department for extra-
ordinary or meritorious service and po-
licemen who render good service after
they have suffered disciplinary penalties
are enabled in this wav to restore thom-

1 Report of Buffalo Convention, June, 1912.

* Certified Public Accountant (New York).

NOTES AND EVENTS

127

selves in the confidence of tlie depart-
ment also work off financial and other
penalties. This gives encouragement to
those members of the force who most
need an incentive and generally have the
least incentive.

Letters of reprimand and commenda-
tion. Rudolph P. Miller, sup^intend-
ent of buildings in the largest borough
of the city of New York, has taken a deep
personal interest in raising the efficiency
of his inspectors, who perform important
police duties. Each inspector's efficien-
cy is rated quarterly as being satisfac-
tory, unsatisfactory or especially meri-
torious. In the case of each inspector
whose work has been rated as unsatis-
factory or as especially meritorious the
superintendent writes the inspector a
personal letter giving the reasons for
the rating. These letters of commen-
dation are warmly prized and the letters
or reprimand serve to make the ineffic-
ient inspectors realize that the super-
intendent knows exactly the nature of
the shortcomings of each.

Chiefs of police under civil service. A
recent Massachusetts statute has ex-
tended the provisions of the civil service
law to the chief of police of such Massa-
chusetts cities as may by vote accept
this statute. Under this law chiefs of
police will be selected from the police
force of the city by means of a competi-
tive civil service examination and chiefs
of police can no longer be removed for
personal or political reasons. Since pa-
trolmen and other police officers have
for many years been subject to the re-
strictions and the protection of the civil
service law, the extension of this law to
the head of the police force marks an
important advance for the cause of good
government.

Fixed posts and patroling partners.
Rhinelander Waldo, commissioner of
police of New York City has introduced
for the policing of the more populous
sections of the city at night a system
of fixed posts with patroling partners.
Two patrolmen are assigned to each
post and of these meri one alternately

stands in the middle of the street on
fixed post and the other patrols the beat.
The man on fixed post can always be
found when a policeman is wanted and
the patroling policeman covers every
section of the beat thoroughly. The
requirement of an officer's presence on
fixed post has increased the efficiency
of the night patrol in many respects.
For example, alarms of fire are more
promptly sent in.

Leonhard Felix Fuld, Ph.D.

*

Omaha Gas Fight. — Following the
example of Minneapolis and Des Moines,
Omaha is conducting a persistent cam-
paign for a reduction in gas rates. At
the present time the rate is $1.15 per
1000 cubic feet, but a New York expert,
William D. Marks, after making an inves-
tigation of the operations of the Omaha
Gas Company, reported to the city that
the company should sell gas at the rate
of 93 cents. The city has also employed
James Hall, a Chicago expert accountant,
to go over the books of the company and
pass upon the question. If his report
favors a reduction, the city will carry
the issue into- the courts.

^

Des Moines Gas Fight. — Mayor Hanna,
of Des Moines, has been conducting a
persistent fight for 90-cent gas. He has
tentatively won the fight and the gas
company is committed to a three-year
trial of the new rate to determine
whether it is remunerative.

Chicago Aldermanic Subway Commit-
tee Expresses Itself. — According to the
Chicago Tribune, the sub-committee of
Chicago aldermen, which recently in-
spected the subway systems of Boston,
Philadelphia and New York, believes that
Chicago requires a comprehensive sub-
way system designed for rapid transit,
high level tunnels wide enough for four

128

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

t rackt:, vtMitilatod according to the latest
Xew York i)r:ictire, and extending ap-
proximately from the down-town dis-
trict to the city limits on the west side,
to Sixty-third Street on the south side,
and to Lawrence Avenue on the north
side. It believes that all public utilities,
except transportation, should be exclud-
ed from the tunnels, and would make no
provision for gas, water, sewers, electric
power or telephone wires. The ideal of
the committee is to see all street cars
and trains now elevated put under
ground within the downtown district.

Liverpool Municipal Street Railways. —
The report of the general manager of
the municipal street railways of Liver-
pool for the year 1911 contains a most
gratifying account of the efficiency of
mimicipal operation and the excellent
results that are being obtained in one
of the largest British municipalities,
through the public ownership and opera-
tion of this service. The gross profits
for the year were $1,221,000. From this
sum a little over .$250,000 was used to
pay interest charges on the indebtedness
contracted for the purchase of the lines,
$295,000 for sinking fund charges and in
round figures $380,000 for the reserve,
renewal and depreciation fund. This
leaves a net profit of nearly $300,000, for
general city purposes.

The report also shows that the manage-
ment has made an effort to improve the
condition of the employees by providing
for an increase in wages of one shilling
per week for every five years satisfac-
tory service. The interval for such
increase in wage has heretofore been ten
years. An interesting experiment made
by the street railwaj' management has
been to take over all risks for accidents.
In 1908 the management was paying to
an insurance company $5G,278 per an-
num for assuming such risks. Since the
risk has been assumed by the municipal-
ity the annual outlay for this purpose
has averaged .$20,800.

Birmingham Trailers. — According to
the liiiiniiighain Daily Post there is
some hope that the permission granted
by parliament to the London county
council to use trailers on the street car
system will lead to extending this power
to the provincial towns as well. Hereto-
fore, it i?eems, trailers have been illegal
and it is contended that the system of
single deck cars with trailers is better
calculated to take care of the traffic in
rush hours than is the sj^stem of double
deck cars now in use.

The Tramways Committee of Edin-
bujgh has agreed unanimously to recom-
mend the council to take over and work
the tramways, after the expiry of the
present lease with the Edinburgh and
District Tramways Company.

Trackless Trams. — The Municipal
Journal states that a syndicate is desir-
ous of gradually converting the present
electric tramway system of Scarborough,
England, into a trackless system. It
was pointed out that the trackless sys-
tem would enable cars to run to certain
points, which cannot now be reached
by the present system, with very little
extra capital outlay. Trackless trams
have been working most successfulh' in
Leeds, England. Committees have been
appointed to wait upon parliament for
the necessary powers in order to extend
the system.

Motor Omnibuses. — A determined ef-
fort is being made b}^ the local authori-
ties around London to secure powers of
control over motor omnibuses. Already
a representative conference of municipal
councils whose areas border on the
southwest and west of the county boun-
dary has passed resolutions on the sub-
ject. On October 31, 1912, another con-
ference, composed of representatives of
the Greater London Councils within the
metropolitan areii was held. Two ques-

NOTES AND EVENTS

129

tions are before the councils: first, the
means by which power to regulate motor
omnibuses may be secured; and second,
the body to which regulative power
shall be granted. It was the opinion of
the conference that stringent regulation,
coupled with power to tax, was essential
because of the increased cost of road
maintenance, the risk of serious acci-
dents, the detriment to property, and
the loss and inconvenience to tradesmen
and others arising from the use of motor
omnibuses on highways in the districts
surrounding the metropolis. The con-
ference resolved that the government
appoint a select committee to inquire
into the matter and take any necessary
evidence, with a view to immediate legis-
lation. In the very near future, motor
busses will no doubt be playing a very
considerable part in the transportation
problem of American cities.

*

An auto express wagon has been in-
vented and perfected by Russell Thayer
of Philadelphia which, it is believed, will
make possible an extended use of the
express truck in the delivery of light
freight brought in by trolley compa-
nies. This trolley truck is a joint trolley
car and storage battery wagon. It is
claimed that it would be operated much
more cheaply than horse-drawn freight
wagons and will do the work of four
horses. A five-ton trolley truck will
consume about one-tenth of the power
of a trolley car, and, owing to the storage
battery feature, is as mobile as the more
familiar type of electric vehicle. It will
not have to use the track and can run
on streets or roads where there is no
trolley feed wire.

*

Memphis Telephones. — Mayor Crump
is making a fight for lower telephone
rates and for "decent service" from the
Cumberland Telephone and Telegraph
Company. An ordinance passed on
July 30, 1912, prohibited telephone com-
panies from charging a higher rate for
business phones than 15.50 per month

for unlimited service, on single private
lines, or $4 per month for unlimited
service on party lines. For residence
phones, charges of not more than $2.50
per month for unlimited service on single
private lines, or $2 for unlimited service
on party lines, are provided for. The
old rates were $7.50 per month for busi-
ness phones and $3.50 per month for
residence phones. The ordinance has
been upheld both in the United States
circuit court and in the state circuit
court of appeals.

Pasadena City Farm Successful. — In

1888, Pasadena purchased 300 acres of
ground as part of its plan for disposing
of the city's sewage. Since then addi-
tions have been made until at present
the city controls 530 acres and complete-
ly utilizes the sewage of its thirty-five
thousand population. The sewage, after
passing through a settling tank, is dis-
tributed over the land for irrigation
purposes. Unfortunately, the irrigated
land gives off an odor which is not alto-
gether agreeable to the residents of the
surrounding territory, and an effort is
now being made to eliminate this by a
process of sewage purification.

At present the farm is divided up as
follows: Sixty-five acres are devoted to
an orange orchard; one hundred and ten
to the cultivation of English walnuts;
one hundred and forty-two are sowed in
alfalfa; and the remainder is used for
grain and hay. There is also a state
horticultural station which has done a
large amount of experimental work and
which has raised a large number of citrus
and walnut trees, both for sale and for
stocking the farm orchards. A part of
the station is devoted to the growing of
ornamental trees and shrubs which are
sold or used for planting in the various
city parks and street parkings. In the
northeastern part of the farm is a dry
wash in which flows a mountain torrent
when the rain falls heavily, and this
affords revenue from the sale of sand,
gravel and rock.

i;i()

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

F'or the fi.sc;il ye:a- ending June 30,
1912, the farm, through the sale of hogs,
hiiy, corn, walnuts, pumpkins, horti-
cultural items, wood, sand, rock and
gravel, produced $20,097.13. During the
same period the cost of operation was
$.5,329.53. The profit of $14,767.60, will
be applied to improvements and special
work in the disposal of the sewage.

Bradford Sewage Profit. Last year
the city of Bradford, England, made a
profit of $150,000 from grease recovered
from its sewage, and so great has been
the success of the machinery installed
for this purpose that $300,000 will be
spent this year for improvements on the
plant. The total sales of products
recovered from the sewage last year
amounted to $500,000. At present Brad-
ford is the only city in the kingdom
which derives a profit from its sewage,
and its success is due to ten years'
patient effort on part of Sewage Engi-
neer Garfield.

Schenectady Embarks in Ice Business.
— The socialist mayor reasoning that
"ice is water, water is ice, and therefore
the city could own its own ice plant and
supply the citizens with ice as properly
as it owns its own water works and sup-
plies the citizens with water," embarked
in the ice business with capital furnished
from the municipal treasury. His effort
were not appreciated, however, for a
group of taxpayers brought suit to com-
pel him to return the funds to the city
strong box, and the supreme court
decided that in this case "ice is not
water," and if the mayor desired to
supply ice to the citizens it must be done
at his private financial responsibility.

Municipal Operation of Coal Lands. —
Washington dispatches indicate that
Secretary of the lnt<rif)r Fisher proposes

a plan to allot government coal land to
cities and town to supply the needs of
municipalities. He has recommended
a bill granting 640 acres of government
coal land to Grand Junction. Cities and
towns in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah,
Montana, Idaho and other states west
of the Missouri River are vitally affected
by this plan. The proposal provides
for the prevention of any assignment
or transfer of the land, for suitable pro-
tection of the health and safety of men
mining and handling the coal, and for the
prevention of undue waste of mineral
resources.

Bradford and a Municipal Coal Supply.
— A special sub-committee was recently
appointed by the corporation of Brad-
ford to report on the advisability of
establishing a municipal coal supply as
a means of obtaining cheaper coal. The
investigations of the committee showed
that the corporation could not buy coal
cheaper than coal merchants and that
the profits were so small — one shilling
per ton — as to make it undesirable for
the corporation to engage in the business.

Spokane Municipal Chemical Labora-
tory.— For some years this citj- has
maintained a city chemical laboratory.
Until the inauguration of the commis-
sion form of government, this labora-
tory was practically onh' an adjunct
to the engineering department, testing
cement, carrying power of materials,
etc., but the laboratory is now under the
supervision of the commissioner of public
utilities, and the scope of its work has
been surprisingly broadened, being of
daily service to the health department,
the water department, in the purchase
of coal, oils, and in other directions, all of
which react as a saving to the city. It is
estimated that it has increased the
quality of the gas furnished by the local
company 20 per cent.

NOTES AND EVENTS
III. CITY PLANNING AND IMPROVEMENT

131

Boston Street Board Flays Highways
Enactment. — Another effort is being
made by the Boston municipal author-
ities to secure the elimination from the
state highways act of 1891 of the limit
of 125 feet for assessment in case of street
improvements as well as the limit of 50
per cent of the cost of such improvements
to be assessed. It was the theory of
those responsible for the act that with
the abutters paying the cost of the
improvements, there would always be"
plenty of funds in the treasury for new
streets. On this assumption the munici-
pality planned a number of great high-
ways, borrowing millions of dollars to
carry out the plans and expecting that
the cost would be speedily met out of
promptly paid assessments. Assessments
however were not kindly responded to
and were paid only under pressure;
and powerful agitation brought about an
amendment which reduced the amount
be assessed to 50 per cent of the cost to
of the improvements. So, while the call
for acceptance of new streets grows
louder constantly, the municipal treas-
ury contains only a few hundred thou-
sand dollars for street improvements.
According to The Transcript, the present
commissioners declare that the act was
wrong in limiting the area of assessment
to 125 feet, for beyond this distance was
a vast amount of property which received
direct special benefit from the- improve-
ment of the great avenues, but which
escaped just taxation under the pro-
visions of the act. "Had it been possi-
ble to assess all property which had been
benefited," the commissioners say, "the
tax in, no case would have been excessive
and the city would have recovered a
large part of the money expended and
the loan for highway improvements would
have had wider use."

New York City and Little Bryant Park.

— The little open space back of the
New York Public Library, called Bryant

Park, has had an interesting history. It
began as a residential square ; it was then
appropriately developed in a naturalistic
fashion with trees, grass plots and shrubs
arranged informally. With the change
of the neighborhood from homes to shops
and stores, a change in the purpose and
use of the park is called for. In common
with other public open spaces, especially
in large cities, it has been constantly
sought as a building site, not so much
because of its suitability but in the hope
that it can be had without cost. A more
legitimate use for it is the present pro-
posal to develop it as a foreground and
setting for the great library building
which fronts upon it and to replanand
to replant the park itself so that it may
better serve the new purposes which
the complete change in the neighborhood
has made desirable. Carrere and Hast-
ings, the architects of the library, and
Charles Downing Lay, the landscape
architect of the city, are of one mind as
to the changes desired. If their plans
can be carried out they will introduce
into American cities a new conception
of the practical and artistic development
of small centrally located open spaces,
especially those connected with impor-
tant public buildings. 1

Jersey City Fighting Smoke Nuisance.
— -Jersey City is unremitting in its in-
dictments of railroads for negligence in
use of fuel and consequent aggravation
of smoke evils. The city proceeds on
the idea that although the companies
have the right to use any kind of fuel,
they do not have the right to use fuel
negligently. The net result of the atti-
tude of the city will probably be that
its constant attacks will become so un-
bearable that the companies will burn
anthracite coal or use electricitj^ ex-
clusively.

1 From John Nolen, Cambridge.

132

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

Pittsburgh Hump Being Removed. -
Tlic ronuiining portion of the famous
Grant Hill, known as the "Hump," is
in course of removal. This barrier to
the growth of the business area of the city
has been attacked three times. The
first attempt was made early in the thir-
ties and the second about 1848. In 1909,
W. \. Magec, when running for m.ayor,
made promises that if elected he would
immediately take steps toward removing
"the hump." Following his success at
the polls, he submitted plans to the
people for the project and the councils
have undertaken the work. It is ex-
pected that the project will be com-
pletely carried out before 1913.

*

City Planning. — A committee of the
National Conference on City Planning,
(Flavcl Shurtleff, Boston, is secretary)
is making plans to conduct an intensive
study in city planning of a specific area.
Conditions under which the study is to

be inade and a descriptiijn of the area
which is to be planned will be communi-
cated to civic organizations, chambers
of commerce, engineering and architec-
tural societies upon request.

Survey and Exhibit Department Rus-
sell Sage Foundation. — The Russell Sage
Foundation has established a depart-
ment of surveys and exhibits, under the
directorship of Shelby M. Harrison and
E. G. Routzahn, with offices at 31 Union
Square, New York, as a center of infor-
mation, council and field assistance in
organizing surveys and exhibits.

Tacoma Billboard Movement. — Taco-
ma has a substantial movement for the
elimination of billboards. The city au-
thorities have decided to discontinue
the leasing of municipal docks to bill
posters and bills will be prohibited on
all city property.

IV. POLITICS

The Socialists and the Commission
Form of Government. — ^The Socialists,
officially speaking, are unsettled in their
position toward commission government;
and as a party, they have postponed
action although a special committee re-
ported to the last national convention
the following generally unfavorable con-
clusions :

The study of the movement for the
commission form of government for cities
in America reveals the fact that the
forms proposed vary greatly in detail.
Indeed, there is a great variation even

in essential features There

has not yet been proposed a final and
definite form of the commission form of
government; the whole matter is in proc-
ess of development.

In view of these facts it is impossible
at the present time to lay down or to
fix any definite policy that shall apply
equally to all the states and all of
the cities with reference to this matter.

In some cases the Socialist party or-
ganizations have already used their influ-

ence against certain objectionable forms
and defeated them. In other cases they
have compelled a modification of the
form by insisting on the introduction of
certain features that had been omitted;
and so far as your committee can see,
this discriminating attitude, varying
with the conditions that concern the
party in different localities, and varying
as the movement varies, will have to be
the position of the party.

One thing, however, your committee
would recommend, viz.: That a com-
mittee be appointed by the convention
to study further the best forms of munic-
ipal government and to submit the re-
sults of their work as a basis for a form
that may be proposed as an alternative
and improvement upon the commission
plan.

The trend of the report supplementing
these conclusions was distinctly' un-
friendly and especiallj' to the non-parti-
san feature, which of course the social-
ists everywhere, and under every form,
combat. On this point the report de-
clared that the elimination of parties is

NOTES AND EVENTS

133

a seriously objectionable feature. In the
language of the committee:

There can be no greater fallacy than
the so-called non-partisan idea. Wheth-
er it be the mere stupidity of our so-
called reformers or the clever design of
politicians who seek to manipulate mu-
nicipal government to their advantage,
or a little of both, we can see no logical
reason whatever for this non-partisan
idea. Some seem to feel that if they can
only eliminate "parties" in municipal
affairs, everything will be lovely. In
some cases this is carried to the extreme
of prohibiting any kind of party designa-
tion whatsoever in a municipal cam-
paign. Generally, however, the idea is
to eliminate national parties from the
local campaigns.

Little need be said with regard to the
proposition that proposes to eliminate
all party designations of every kind.
Such a proposition would take out of
civic life the responsibility of fighting
together for principles. By eliminating
all designations by which people would
work together for some principle or idea,
municipal campaigns would be thrown
back again upon the worst elements in
our political life.

The experience of Boston with their
non-partisan government is an illustra-
tion. Speaking of the situation there,
George P. Anderson, writing on "The
First Result of Boston's Elaborate Polit-
ical Reform," in Pearson's Magazine,
says :

"The aim of the promoters of the new
charter was to smash party lines and to
break up party fealty. The charter ac-
complished this, but resulted in the in-
jection of race and religious issues as
substitutes. This is a most unfortunate
result, but it is not wholly illogical. In
ordinary campaigns the candidate of a
party stands for certain principles or
traditions of that party. Take those
away, and the candidate's personality is
bound to be the leading issue, and his
race or religion cannot fail to be dis-
cussed. Which arrangement is better
Boston knows to her sorrow. Other cit-
ies on the edge of a reform ferment, if
they are wise, will pause before following
her example."

And this is what might naturally be
expected. The efforts to eliminate what
is supposed to be the baneful influence
of partisanship 'and the party, this non-
partisan movement eliminates principle
as well; and eliminating principle leaves
nothing but personalities, race and reli-

gious prejudices as issues in municipal
campaigns.

Against the elimination of national
party names and national issues even
more may be said. There is hardly a
serious problem of municipal govern-
ment that can be solved at all aside from
the state and national movement. Take
the question of home rule. Here in the
very nature of the case the city is power-
less in the hands of the state legislature.
The fight for home rule itself is a state
and national fight. Take the question of
the commission form of government it-
self— it has been an issue for state legisla-
tures very largely. Or to consider some
of our commercial and industrial prob-
lems. The real difficulties that concern
a people in a city, involve state and
national issues. For example, the supply
of coal for a city — what can any city in
America do on a problem of that sort
without state and national action? The
city may establish a coal yard? But
that is only the merest fraction of the
problem. The coal must be shipped to
the city over railroads that are owned
by private corporations. It must be
mined in mines that are owned by the
monopolies and trusts. The transporta-
tion of the coal becomes a problem of
interstate commerce. Thus the most
elemental problem of the city becomes
a state and national problem, a question
requiring a consistent and comprehen-
sive programme for state and national
action. To undertake to solve problems
of this kind by limiting our efforts to
local issues, and separating our cities
from state and national issues, is absurd.

The Socialists also strongly object to
the extreme centralization of power
which is a characteristic feature of com-
mission government, and to the elimina-
tion of minority representation, which
of course grows out of the objection to
the elimination of parties.

To ascertain the sentiment of the so-
cialist locals there was a questionnaire
on the subject. In response to this
letter the committee received replies
from 76 cities in 18 different states. The
questions bore upon details relative to
the form in operation in the various
cities. Among other things the com-
mittee inquired what attitude the So-
cialists in the community had taken
regarding the commission form, whether

134

NATIONAL :MrNICIPAL REVIEW

tliey were in favor or opposed to it. In
f.nswer to this question, 13 locals re-
ported that they favored the commission
form of government. Twenty-seven lo-
cals re|)ortc(l that they were opposed to
it. Nine others reported that they were
in a general way opposed to the com-
mission form. Four locals reported that
they were divided among themselves,
some favoring and some opposing it.
Fifteen locals reported that the com-
rades of their communitj'^ had taken no
attitude whatever, one way or the other.
From thi^; it will appear that there is
no consensus of opinion among the So-
cialists of the country that refers to the
commission form. The party is now
officiallj' studying the subject through
a committee on state and municipal
action of which Carl D. Thompson, city
clerk of Milwaukee under Mayor Seidl,
is chairman.

Clinton Rogers Woodruff.

Butte Socialist Administration Com-
mendable.^— Butte, like many other
.Vmerican cities, suffered from misgov-
ernment and graft until hope for better-
ment under the old parties was lost and
the citizens elected a Socialistic admin-
istration under Mayor Duncan. It is
said the new administration has made
the city clean morally and physically.
For the first time in the history of the
city, the streets and alleys are clean and
sanitary, and it has been shown that in-
fant mortality due to unclean conditions
has been almost eliminated. Streets
have been graded, traffic regulated, ade-
quate police protection provided, city
employees compelled to be efficient, and,
as a result of good honest management
all around, the city itself lifted out of
bankruptcy to a position of good credit.

Baltimore Election Fraud.— Baltimore
has Ijcen making a vigorous effort to
rliTiiiii.ito a iiurnhcr <if serious municipal

' Bused oil cominunlratlori of A. .7. Clurk.

shortcomings, and is now especially en-
gaged in correcting the faults of her
elections. The movement was started
by a recent candidate for the office of
sheriff who knew he was popular in one
of the precincts of a ward and yet was
not credited with a single vote in it.
A little quiet work gave him evidence
that the election officers had falsified
the returns and a general opening of the
ballot boxes revealed that the unsuccess-
ful candidate had been fraudulently de-
prived of hundreds of votes. The elec-
tion officers have drawn prison sentences,
ranging from one to two and a half years,
and the incident is not yet closed, for
a general election housecleaning is in
progress.

*

Kansas City Parks and Politics. — D.
J. Haff, for 20 years a member of the park
board of Kansas City and one of the men
responsible for the policy which has made
the parks of that city the talk and ad-
miration of the United States, has been
removed from office by the present mayor
of the city because of his Republicanism.
Commenting on the action of the mayor
the Kansas City Star said:

It is no reflection on anyone else to
say that if there were a vacancy on the
park board Mr. Haff would be the best
equipped man in the city for the place.
His name would be the first to occur to
any person familiar with the situation.
He has earned the absolute confidence
of all his fellows. The town has been
fortunate in having such a public serv-
ant. This is the type of man whom the
mayor has removed. Of course, there
is just one reason for the act. The
politicians couldn't use Haff! So they
had to get rid of him.

Ordinarily a change in a park board of
a city is a matter not calling for chron-
icling in the National Municipal Re-
view^ but the removal of so capable a
man as Mr. Haff for political reasons
calls for mention and comment. If our
parks and schools are to be subjected to
the spoils system civic workers will have
reason to pause and consider.

Clinton Rogers Woodruff.

NOTES AND EVENTS

135

San Antonio is Overturned. — Eight days
before the fall primary in San Antonio,
Texas, the Citizens League of that place
placed in the field a candidate for the
office of mayor and won by a thousand
majority, carrying with him representa-
tives to the state legislature, all of whom
are committed to work for the passage
of a bill giving the city a commission
form of government. San Antonio is

the last of the larger communities in
Texas to throw off the domination of
corrupt politics.

*
The New York Police Situation.— The
New York police situation will be treated
at length in a future number of the
National Municipal Review when the
pending investigation has progressed
further.

V. CONFERENCES AND ASSOCIATIONS

International Municipal League. — At

the twelfth annual convention of the
Union of Canadian Municipalities, held
at Windsor, Ontario, the following res-
olution was adopted:

That the National Municipal League,
the League of American Municipalities,
the Board of Associated Municipalities
of England, the London County Council,
The Association of Scottish Burghs, the
South African Municipal Association
and such other municipal bodies as may
be found advisable, be invited by the
Union of Canadian Municipalities to
join with it in establishing an Inter-
national Municipal Union, or League,
for friendly intercourse and public ad-
vantage; and that the details be left to
the Executive Committee with full pow-
ers.

The matter of organization is proceed-
ing, and the secretary of the Nation-
al Municipal League, Clinton Rogers
Woodruff, has been asked to act as sec-
retary. W. D. LiGHTHALL.l

International Congress on Hygiene and
Demography. — For health officials, sani-
tary engineers, chemists, bacteriologists,
physicians, sociologists and a host of
other classes of men and women inter-
ested in public health, Washington, D.
C, was a veritable mecca in September,
1912. The great magnet which drew
people from all parts of the civilized
world was the Fifteenth International
Congress of Hygiene and Demography,
which occupied the full week, September

1 Montreal. •

23 to 28. This magnet also drew to
Washington, the previous week, the
American Public Health Association and
the Conference of State and Provincial
Boards of Health. Coincident with the
congress, in fact opening before and
closing after it, was a notable health
exhibit.

If those in attendance on the conven-
tion of the American Public Health Asso-
ciation, the previous week, were troubled
by the embarrassment of riches afforded
by five sections and 133 papers then
certainly the nine sections and 450 papers
of the congress put those who had to
choose from its program at their wits'
end. The congress program alone filled
about forty pages, while the advance
copies of official abstracts of a portion
of the papers made a volume of 297 pages.
The program and abstracts were printed
in English, French and German. It is
expected that the full Proceedings will
run to 3000 pages. Doubtless they would
be even more voluminous had the in-
formal discussions been reported by
shorthand. Instead of being so recorded
each speaker was supplied by the section
secretary with slips of paper and asked
to write out his remarks in abstract—
a course well calculated to reduce the
bulk of the Proceedings and to devitalize
the discussions.

Some idea of the scope of the program
may be gained from the names of the
nine sections and two sub-sections :

I. Hygienic Microbiology and Parasi-
tology.

136

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

II. Oiotetio IlyRionc; Hygienic Pliysi-
oloKv.

III. Hygiene of Infancy and Chiid-
hooil; School Hygiene.

Ilia. Subsection on Mental Hygiene.

IV. Hygiene of Occupations.

V. Control of Infectious Diseases.

VI. State and Municijnil Hygiene.
Via. Subsection on Sex Hygiene.

VII. Hygiene of Traffic and Transpor-
tation.

VIII. Military, Naval and Tropical
(Colonial) Hygiene.

IX. Demography.

President Taft, in his address, entered
into the spirit of the modern health-
protective campaign. Besides reviewing
some of the splendid work of our govern-
ment in combating disease in Cuba,
Porto Rico, the Philippines and the
Canal Zone he spoke of what yet needs
to be done at home.

The section dealing with traffic and
transportation considered the sanitation
of street and steam railways, ships and
shipping. The section which covered
hygiene of occupation took up the city
smoke nuisance, safety devices, occu-
pational diseases and many other topics.

American Civic Association. — The 8th
annual meeting at Baltimore, November
19, 20 and 21, had its usual widespread
.".nd distinguished attendance and its
usual crowded and influential program.

Baltimore is at present undergoing
many significant civic changes. The
Women's Civic League has much to do
with these on the one side, and the city
administration on the other. Both were
adequately represented. "A Study in
Gardens and Garbage" was effectively
illustrated by Miss Hailcan James, the
secretary of the League, and "The Ad-
vance in Smoke Abatement" quite as
efTectively presented by Mrs. Frick,
chairman of the committee which has
undertaken that work. Chief Engineer
Shirley of the topographical survey

commission, made a significant address
on "Spending to Save in City Plaiuiing,"
while a visit through the city's parks to
Roland Park, admittedly the most not-
able suburban development in the United
States, was illuminating.

Many notable matters were discussed
at the convention. The secretary, Mr.
Watrous, presented, and President Mc-
Farland commented on the present situa-
tion of the Niagara preservation effort
begun by this Association in 1905, from
which it appears that "saving Niagara
on the installment plan" is an arduous
process.

Ambassador Bryce delivered an epoch-
making address on "National Parks the
Need of the Future," in which he argued
for the preservation and extension of
these parks, concluding with the follow-
ing propositions:

In the first place, the world will last
a long, long time, and we ought to make
provision for the future.

Secondly, the population of the world
goes on constantly increasing, nowhere
increasing so fast as in North America.

Thirdly, a taste for natural beauty is
increasing, and, as we hope, will go on
increasing.

Fourthly, the places of scenic beauty
do not increase, but, on the contrary,
are in danger of being reduced in number
and diminished in quantity, and the
danger is always increasing by the desire
of private persons to appropriate these
places.

Therefore, from these propositions I
draw the conclusion that it is necessary
to save what we have got, and to extend
the policy which you liave wisely adopt-
ed, by acquiring and preserving still
further areas for the perpetual enjoy-
ment of the people.

Let us think of the future. We are
trustees of the future. We are not here
for ourselves alone. All these gifts were
not given to us to be used b}'- one gener-
ation, or with the thought of one gener-
ation only before our minds. We are the
heirs of those wht) have gone before, and
charged witli the duty of those we owe
to those who come after, and there is
no duty which seems to be higher than
that of handing on to them undimin-
ished facilities for the enjoyment of some
of the best gifts that the Creator has
seen fit to bestow upon His people.

NOTES AND EVENTS

137

Hon. Walter L. Fisher, secretary of
the interior, who presided at the session
at which Ambassador Bryce spoke, re-
ferred at some length to the present
situation of the national parks and to
the urgent need for national legislation
to bring about the creation of a national
bureau of parks.

The intimate side of park management
was treated in a novel fashion by George
A. Parker, superintendent of parks at
Hartford, Connecticut, in his proposi-
tion to make public parks self-support-
ing without curtailing their freedom
and usefulness. In a series of carefully
worked out calculations Mr. Parker pro-
posed to use the recreational impulses
of a public beneficently toward the end
in view.

City planning, of course, came in for
much attention. President McFarland's
address, entitled "Not Only the City
Beautiful," was a plea for such compre-
hensive planning as will secure beauty
as an incident to efficiency. J. C. Nich-
ols, of Kansas City, contributed much
to city extension by detailing his method
of "creating a neighborhood by plan-
ning." A symposium on capital cities
brought out an admirable statement by
Hon. Henry B. F. Macfarland, concern-
ing the progress of the federal capital,
and a showing by Walter Burley Griffin,
the successful competing architect, of
his idea in "Planning a Capital for
Australia."^ Mr. Griffin's planning was
extended and intimate, so that in addi-
tion to the features of appearance he as
thoroughly considered and carefully
presented the details of community effi-
ciency.

At a session presided over by Mrs. E.
W. Biddle, vice president, the good work
of women was prominently brought forth,
including effective fly fighting crusades.

The American Public Health Associa-
tion is one of the oldest of the many
organizations of the country (actually

1 See National Municipal Review, vol. 1, p. 718.

the United States, Canada, Mexico and
Cuba) devoted to human welfare and at
the same time closely related to munici-
pal affairs. The Association held its
fortieth annual meeting in Washington,
September 18 to 20, just before the Inter-
national Congress of Hygiene and Dem-
ography. That public health is now a
broad and diversified subject is shown
by the fact that the Association is now
organized in five sections and that no
less than 133 papers were presented be-
fore these five sections and before the
general sessions at the Washington meet-
ing. The five sections are: (1) Labora-
tory; (2) Vital Statistics; (3) Municipal
Health Officers; (4) Sanitary Engineer-
ing; (5) Sociological. All of the sections
have been formed within ten years or so
and the Sanitary Engineering and the
sociological sections were organized only
a year ago and had a place on the pro-
gram for the first time this year. Not-
withstanding the many sectional meet-
ings the Washington program was so
overloaded, in all sections except the
sociological, as to give little or no time
for informal discussion. But this was
partly offset by the fact that many of
the papers presented different phases of
the same general topic, thus producing
an organized full discussion. The pres-
entation of papers was limited to five
minutes each, although many of them
would have required much more time
had they been given in full. The speak-
ers, it may be added, were not held
rigidly to the time limit.

As -to garbage collection and disposal,
one division held that this has little rela-
tion to public health and that whether
it has or has not actual executive work
should be in the hands of the street or
public works department while the other
division was equally positive that this
service is a vital health function and
should be administered by the health
department. In general, the line of divi-
sion as regards both sewage and garbage
threw the physicians on one side and the
sanitary engineers on the other, the phy-
sicians arguing for a counsel of perfec-

138

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

tioii and basing their argument largely
on generalities and leaving cost out of
account, while the engineers took into
account the existing body of practi-
cal and theoretical data, weighing costs
against health-protective results
achieved and considering particularl}-^
how to make each dollar spent go the
farthest in saving lives.

The sociological section made its ad-
vent modestly, holding onl.y two sessions
and confining itself to a few papers at
each of these. As chairman of this sec-
tion, John M. Glenn* stated that the
object of the section is to beget mutual
understanding and cooperation between
health officials and social workers. The
papers and discussions showed that one
of the obstacles to such cooperation is a
lack of the mutual understanding urged
by Mr. Glenn. A constructive paper by
Prof. Selskar M. Gunn, of the Massa-
chusetts Institute of Technology, Bos-
ton, Mass., 2 outlined a plan for utilizing
policemen for the dailj^ sanitary inspec-
tion of premises, reports to be made
to the health department for further
investigation where needed.

For the first time in its history of two
score years the association elected an
engineer instead of a physician as presi-
dent: Rudolph Hering.

M.N. Baker.

The American Society of Municipal
Improvements held its nineteenth annual
convention in Dallas, Texas, on Novem-
ber 12-14. Among the one hundred and
twenty-five out-of-town members who
attended the convention were many
municipal engineers and city officials
from practically all the leading cities of
the United States and Canada. Papers
were read on the following topics: A
system of park accounting, the city eco-
nomic, standard forms for municipal
utilities, sewerage and sanitation. The
convention added a committee on fire

40,

' Rus-sell Sage Foundation, New York City.

2 See National Mu.vicipal Review, vol, I, p.

prevention. Mr. B. E. Briggs, of Erie,
Pa., was chosen president for the ensuing
year, with A. Prescott Folwell, of New
York City, as the secretary.

The League of American Municipali-
ties held its sixteenth annual convention
in Buffalo, September 18 to 20. Among
the subjects discussed were: "Relations
of the Library to the City," by John
Cotton Dana, of Newark; "City Char-
ters and the Short Ballot," by Harold S.
Buttenheim, editor of American City,'
"Lowell's Experience under Commis-
sion Government," James E. O'Donnell,
mayor, Lowell, Mass., which led to a
spirited discussion in which the merits
and weaknesses of commission govern-
ment were again pointed out. Among
other things that Lowell had accom-
plished under the plan, .the. mayor de-
clared that they had freed the city from
debt and saved $50,000 in the first year.
John MacVicar asserted that "the citi-
zens of Des Moines are more largely in
favor of this form of government now
than they were at the time of its adop-
tion. Most of the predictions of ills that
were to come to the city because of
the adoption of commission government
have failed to materialize and many of
the benefits predicted by those who fav-
ored the change have been realized."
Councilmen from Fort Worth, Texas,
and Omaha, Nebraska, both added their
testimony, to the effect that the com-
mission plan was in every way an im-
provement and that their citizens would
under no consideration return to the
old plan. A councilman from Tacoma
pointed out that that city has already
secured great improvements under the
new form — improvements which their
citizens had been unable to obtain for
fifteen years under the old system.

The League, before it adjourned, gave
unqualified endorsement to the ]ilan of
home rule for cities.

The following officers were elected:
John P. Ryder, Omaha, president; Rob-
ert E. Lee, Baltimore, secretary; C. J.

NOTES AND EVENTS

139

Steiss, Fort Wayne, treasurer. The next
convention will be held in Winnipeg,
Canada.

New England Water Works Associa-
tion.— This association, held its thirty-
first annual convention at Washington,
D. C, on September 18 to 20. The
attendance of active members numbered
about a hundred, besides whom there
were present even more associate mem-
bers (manufacturers and supplymen and
guests). As usual, the program was se-
lective and limited, thus giving ample
chance for fruitful discussion. Most of
the half dozen papers presented had to
do with the state control of dams and
water power development and public
service corporations. In general, all
three lines of control were favored by
those who -•■presented and discussed
papers.

Both in popular and in technical inter-
est the marked feature of the convention
was a paper on the failure of the dam at
Austin, Pa., which caused a great loss
of life and property in September, 1911.
This was a volunteer paper by the engi-
neer responsible for the design of the
dam, T. Chalkley Hatton, of Wilmington.
The paper, while correcting some mis-
conceptions, was not so much a defence
as it was a frank, whole-souled confes-
sion of two great mistakes : (1) Failure to
consult an engineer more experienced
than himself in dam foundations, and (2)
his not insisting that his clients (the
owners) permit him to design a dam
with a heavier cross-section. Tl^e con-
crete composing the dam was good, Mr.
Hatton stated, and the construction was
done under the direction of a competent
supervising engineer, responsible to Mr.
Hatton.

*

Joint Water Pollution Conference. —
On October 23 and 24 there met in joint
sessions at Cleveland the National Asso-
ciation for Preventing the Pollution of
Rivers and Water Ways and the Great

Lakes International Pure Water Asso-
ciation. Each of these organizations
has been in existence only a few years
and as the general object of each is simi-
lar it seems likely that they will be
merged into one association within a
year or two, steps to that end having
been taken at Cleveland. '

Most of the papers at the Cleveland
conference related to the pollution of the
Great Lakes, with particular reference
to public water-supplies. 'The physi-
cians present (mostly health officials)
were as a rule insistent on excluding all
crude or untreated sewage from the
Great Lakes and on treating such sewage
goes into those lakes so it would have a
relatively high degree of purity. The
engineers in attendance regarded sewage
treatment as a means for preventing
nuisance rather on a way of keeping or
making public water-supplies safe; and
for the latter would place far more reli-
ance on water purification than on sew-
age treatment. The engineers were not
opposed to spending money for sanitary
protection wherever needed but urged
the necessity of making each dollar ex-
pended do the greatest possible amount
of good.

Autumn Meetings of Civic and Munici-
pal Interest. — There is no better criterion
of the keen interest now being taken by
cities and civic bodies in governmental
affairs than the increasing number of
organizations and meetings held to fur-
ther civic, social, and municipal ends.
And the most wholesome sign is that
these meetings and organizations are dis-
cussing specific problems in a scientific
way. This means the creation of a body
of accurate information and the develop-
ment of trained men with a civic and
community point of view as distin-
guished from merely a business or cor-
porate point of view.

League of Virginia Municipalities.
The seventh annual convention met at
Alexandria on September 17. Home rule,
civic planning, good roads, and com-

140

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

mission government received the larger
amount of attention. The officers chosen
were : President, Mayor John W. Woods,
Roanoke; secretary and treasurer, L. C.
Brinson, Portsmouth.

The League of California Municipali-
ties held its fifteenth annual convention
at the University of California, Berkeley,
during the week commencing September
23. The department meetings were espe-
cially successful. A uniform system of
accounting for small municipalities was
prepared by the clerks, auditors and
assessors. The department of engineers
and street superintendents discussed
light traffic pavements and the Imhoff
tank for sewage disposal. Resolutions
were adopted favoring a modification of
the law on direct legislation and the
recall, and also favoring the use of the
preferential system of voting and the
grant by the state of authority to make
use of the doctrine of excess condemna-
tion.

Two-thirds of the cities and towns of
California are now rep"resented in the
League, which is becoming a factor of
prime importance in securing civic stand-
ards and municipal efficiency throughout
the state. 1 The public welfare exhibi-
tion, conducted in connection with the
meeting, was especially significant and
suggestive. There was also a pure food
exhibit.

The League maintains headquarters
and an information bureau in San Fran-
cisco where any city official in the state
can secure information relating to munic-
ipal affairs. The officers for the follow-
ing year are to be: president. Mayor
Frank K. Mott, of Oakland; secretary,
H. A. Mason.

League of Iowa Municipalities. The
annual meeting was held at Sioux City,
September 24 to 26. The topics of chief
importance were: Taxation, fire preven-
tion, sanitation and commission gov-
ernment. The address on commission

'.See article of H. A. Ma-son, the secretary.
National Mu>ficiPAi, Rkvikw, vol. 1, p. 603—
Editor.

government was delivered by Clem F.
Kimball, of Council Bluffs, who advo-
cated certain changes in the Iowa Com-
mission law. A. A. Smith, of Sioux City,
was chosen president and Frank G.
Pierce, Marshalltown, secretary. The
meeting next year is to be at Marshall-
town.

The Municipal League of North Dakota
came into existence this year. The or-
ganization meeting was held at Grand
Forks on September 27. Another meet-
ing will be held at the same place on
January 15, 191.3. The officers chosen
were: President, M. F. Murphy, Grand
Forks; secretary, Charles Evanson,
Grand Forks.

The Third Class Cities of Pennsylvania
were represented at a meeting at Harris-
burg on October 2, the prime purpose
of which was to approve a statute for
the commission form of government for
the third class cities of the state. This
bill is to be submitted to the legislature
next January. Special addresses were
made by Clinton Rogers Woodruff and
Richard S. Childs.

The statute adopted had to be applica-
ble to all cities of the third class in the
state, varying in population from 6000
to 96,000, twelve having a population of
less than 30,000, and twelve a population
of from 30,000 to 98,000. To meet this
situation, the proposed statute provides
that the salaries to be paid to the com-
missioners and to the mayor, within cer-
tain maximum and minimum limits, are
to be determined by ordinance in each
city. By slightly reducing the salary
of the^mayor and councilmen any city
can, without materially increasing the
cost of administration, provide for a
general manager. Hence the general
manager scheme of government is con-
templated certainly for the smaller cities,
if not for the larger.

The statute provides for a compulsory
referendum on all franchise grants. The
referendum is permissible on all other
subjects upon petition of 10 per cent and
the initiative upon petition of 15 per
cent. The plan provides that the mayor

NOTES AND EVENTS

141

is to be chosen for a four-year term and
the councilmen for a two-year term, all
elected at one time.

The League of Kansas Municipalities
held its fourth annual convention at
Salina on October 9 and 10. Legislation
on weights and measures, suggestions for
a municipal franchise policy and water
supplies were discussed by university
men. The subject which received most
attention was home rule. Of special im-
portance to those interested in the regu-
lation of municipal utilities was the
League's resolution that the power of
the state utilities commission should be
decreased. An increase in the veto pow-
er of local municipalities, however, can-
not fail to block the effectual develop-
ment of inter county and inter urban
utilities.

What will amount to an amendment
to the Kansascommission law, if carried
out, was the resolution requiring that each
candidate for commissioner should there-
after specify on the primary ballot what
commissionership he especially desires.
The present Kansas law, following the
Iowa law, provides that the department
shall be specified after the meeting of
the commissioners, and that the ballot
shall contain the names of commissioners
only, without any reference to the de-
partment that they are to supervise.
This method has not secured competent
men for administrative positions. This
defect will be overcome if each candidate
will indicate in the primaries exactly
what position he desires.

The following officers were selected:
President, Mayor J. Dunkleberger, of
Newton; secretary and treasurer. Prof.
Richard R. Price, Lawrence. The next
meeting is to be held in Kansas City,
Kan.

The First Canadian National Congress
on City Planning and Housing met in
Winnipeg, Manitoba, in July. This con-
gress, suggested and carried through by
F. J. Cole, the town planning commis-
sioner of Winnipeg, marked the climax
of many initial efforts along this line.
A significant event of the meeting was

the visit of the Governor-General of the
Dominion, his highness the Duke of
Connaught, who gave a spirited address
in which he emphasized not only the
necessity for improved housing condi-
tions, but also the necessity for the edu-
cation of the working classes to a sense
of a proper appreciation of decent and
sanitary living. The practical result of
the congress was the formation of a
Canadian housing and town planning
association, under the guidance of which
there is every prospect of the prevention
of the errors made by many of the older
communities.

American Association, of Commercial
Executives. The seventh annual con-
vention was held at Washington, Sep-
tember 23 to 25. The convention was
distinguished for its round-table sessions
rather than for its formal program. The
significant thing was the place that com-
mercial organizations must take, not
only in the development of a city's manu-
facturing and commercial prosperity,
but in bringing about a full, all-around,
municipal development. M. B. Treze-
vant of New Orleans was elected presi-
dent.

The International Association for the
Prevention of Smoke held a session in
September, at Indianapolis. Jacob P.
Brown, city smoke inspector, was elected
president for the next year and John
Krause, of Cleveland, Ohio, secretary
and treasurer. The next meeting will
be at Pittsburgh in September, 1913.
Smoke-consuming devices was the most
important subject for discussion.

There is in these meetings a goodly
sum of conscientious endeavor, and in
these papers and discussions a goodly
store of information that should be con-
served, not only to the organizations
particularly affected, but to kindred
organizations in all the states. The
question may well be raised whether the
maximum conservation of this interest
and information cannot best be secured
through the National Municipal League.
The League, and its organ, the National

in

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

MiNiriPAL Rf.view, could becomo the
cent ml organization :uul mouthpiece
through which the efforts of all these
organizations could economically be con-
served and coordinated. The League
headquarters could become a national
clearing house and each state organi-
zation a state clearing house for infor-
mation and suggestions of real mu-
nicipal usefulness. Is it not time for
definite action along this line?

Clyde L. Kixg.i

*

British Associations. — British Munic-
ipal Engineers. At the fourth annual
meeting of the Institution in London, on
October 11, the president's address was
devoted to a consideration of the train-
ing of municipal engineers. He pointed
out that he must have a broad training
in civil and mechanical engineering as
well as in architecture. He emphasized
the importance of practical work in the
training and advocated the development
of the inventive genius, while not mini-
mizing the importance of the purely
theoretical work.

Naiional Association of Local Govern-
ment Officers. At the annual meeting
at the Guilhall, London, on October 12,
the main topics of discussion were the
superannuation scheme and the examina-
tion system. As regards the former it
was voted that all necessary steps should
be taken to secure the introduction of a
superannuation bill for local officers and
to push the same until it became an act.
The scheme proposed is a national one
in application, but it does not look
toward state subsidy. The central fund
is to be formed by contributions from
the employers and the employed. As
regards the system of examinations re-
cently inaugurated by the Association
it was moved that officers who had al-
ready been in the municipal service a
certain number of years should be given
exemptions from examination. This was
urged as necessary for the protection of

the older men in the service, but the
motion was lost by a vote of 38 to 37.

Association of Municipal Corporations.
At the fall meeting held at Guilhall,
London, on October 11, 130 municipal-
ities were represented. The main busi-
ness of the meeting was the consideration
of a report by the law committee criti-
cising the mental deficiency bill. This
measure, fixing the responsibility of
municipal corporations with respect to
inhabitants who are mentally deficient,
was criticised from several points of view.
There was objection to the central com-
missioners provided as being unnecessary
in view of the functions of the lunacy
commissioners. The financial provisions
of the bill were particularly objectionable
in the opinion of the committee, because,
although this was regarded as a purely
national service, the financial burdens
were to be imposed largely on the local
corporations. The committee were of
the opinion that at least two-thirds of
the expense should be borne by the ex-
chequer. A further objection was urged
to the provision for a government audit
in this matter as being an encroachment
on the autonomy of the local corpor-
ations. A system of professional audit
by officials chosen by the municipality
was recommended instead. This re-
port was accepted by a large majority.
It was voted to submit to the various
municipal councils for their consider-
ation resolutions regarding the use of
highways by heavy motor busses. One
of these resolutions urged turning over
the proceeds from petrol and other taxes
on such vehicles to the local authorities
whose roads are so used. The other rec-
ommended giving to the local authorities
the power to limit and define the routes
to be used for such traffic; this being of
a nature to which all highways were not
suited.

H. G. James.2

The Union of Canadian Municipalities
held its twelfth annual convention in

' I'niverslty of Pennsylvania.

2 University of Texas.

NOTES AND EVENTS

143

Windsor on August 27-29. The signifi-
cant thing about the Union of Canadian
Municipalities is that it is really a cen-
tral federation of many district unions.
To this central federation delegates are
sent from the unions of Ontario, British
Columbia, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Alberta,
New Brunswick, Manitoba, Saskatche-
wan, and Prince Edward Island Munici-
palities. The Canadian Municipal Jour-
nal is the official organ of each of the.
local unions as well as of the Central
Union. Such might well be the relation
between the National Municipal League
and the various state municipal leagues
in the United States.

The questions of taxation, single tax,
moving picture shows, public utilities,

electric franchises, natural gas, govern-
ment by commission, and a report on
uniform municipal accounting and sta-
tistics were some of the most important
and significant papers discussed. A pa-
per on "Exempted Government Prop-
erties in Canadian Cities and Towns"
showed that the government properties,
provincial or dominion, exempted from
taxation by Canadian cities and towns,
ranged from 8 to 31 per cent of the total
assessed valuation of the property in
the city. The author of the paper rec-
ommended subsidies from the province
or the dominion in order to enable the
city to compensate itself a't least for the
cost of giving to these buildings fire
and police protection.

Clyde L. King.

VI. EDUCATIONAL AND ACADEMIC

Cleveland's Municipal University. —
The establishment of a municipal uni-
versity is at present only one of Cleve-
land's dreams. The Western Reserve
University, the Case School of Applied
Science, schools of law, medicine and art
exist on the one hand. On the other
hand is a great growing city of more than
half a million people. It has seemed to
some of the officers of the separate insti-
tutions and of the city that by coordi-
nation and cooperation, the life and cul-
ture of Cleveland could be better and
more efficiently served.

The students of engineering could have
the practical advantage of real service
in the varied engineering enterprises of
the municipality. The city hospital
could be associated with an enlarged
school of medicine and surgery. The
health department with a school of
hygiene. The charities and correction
departments would be a vital part of a
school of philanthropy. The 2000 acre
farm, on which are grouped the city's
institutions could become an experiment
station for scientific agricultural train-
ing. The shops and factories could work
with trade school departments. The

municipal government itself could be a
part of the school of civics.

The university will have the outlook
into the living present. Its teaching
will relate itself to the social life. It will
help to create an atmosphere of high
ideals of culture and service. The city
will have expert counsel always at hand.
It will also be enabled to give to its chil-
dren the fullest opportunities for culture,
for growth and development in the best
things of our modern life.

The social forces and resources of the
municipality will be back of the uni-
versity. It will be mutually advan-
tageous. It is now scarcely more than
a movement. It may take a number of
years to realize the dream but twent}'^-
five years is not long in the life of a city.

HARRIS R. COOLEY.I

A General Municipal Reference Bu-
reau.— The People's Institute (50 Madi-
son Avenue) New York, have announced
the organization of a municipal efficiency
and reference bureau under the direction

I Director ot Charities and Correction, Cleveland.

144

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

of I'lTderic C llowc, with wliuiu are
associated Mr. John Collier, for many
years connected with the recreation and
leisure time departments of the Insti-
tute, and Dr. Carol Aronovici, formerly
director of the bureau of civic and social
research of Providence, R. I. The pur-
pose of the bureau is systematically to
create a service, which has been for
years supplied in an unorganized way by
the Institute to cities and associations
desiring assistance on specific municipal
problems. The object is to create a
clearing house through which munici-
palities will be able to secure experts and
experts will be able to secure employ-
ment on special problems and the making
of municipal and social surveys. The
whole municipal problem has been
changing its character in recent years.
Upwards of a hundred cities have under-
taken town planning projects. As many
more have had surveys made coupled
with "know your city" weeks in which
housing, recreation, playground, school
and other conditions of the city have
been brought to public notice. These
surveys have been made in different
parts of the country, but up to the pres-
ent time no organized association has
undertaken to serve as a clearing house
for this activity or to establish stand-
ards of conditions or to organize and
promote the idea.

*

Cincinnati Municipal Exhibit. — The
thousands of citizens of Cincinnati that
daily crowded the quarters of the munic-
ipal exhibit which were open to the pub-
lic two weeks from, October 1 justified
the belief of the organizers of the exhibi-
tion that the residents of the city were
anxious to know where the money taken
from them by taxation went. The ex-
hibition took as its primary purpose an
exposition of how the city tax income
is expended. By displays, charts and
diagrams practically every department
of municipal administration was repre-
sented. T^isplays of the police depart-

ment, illustrating Bertillon methods and
gambling and other violations of the law
attracted lively, interested groups. Dis-
plays of the health department, exhibit-
ing in all their seriousness, the high
infant mortality of the city, the unsani-
tary conditions prevailing in many sec-
tions, and showing how to eliminate the
fly and mosquito evil, taught important
municipal lessons.

"Memphis Commission Government"

is the title of an oflficial publication
issued by the city of Memphis. Begin-
ning with the November number it will
take up the publication of official reports
covering the years 1910-1911 comprising
the first term of commission government
in Memphis. The city departments
will be taken up one at a time, thus giving
the reports to citizens and taxpayers in
such form as to permit thorough reading
within a short time.

Dayton Bureau of Municipal Research.

— Through the assistance of President
John H. Patterson, of the National Cash
Register Company,, a bureau of munici-
pal research has been established in
Dayton at 602 Schwind Building, with
Dr. B. Frank Garland as president and
Miss A. I. Dilks as secretary. Dr. Gar-
land was previously president of the
Central Council of Social Agencies of
Dayton.

Denver Municipal Orchestra.— In the
place of the small band that used to
entertain the citizens of Denver, there
will be a symphony orchestra of fifty
pieces, which will give concerts in the
Auditorium. On Sunday evenings, high
class moving pictures will be included,
and it is the suggstion of the chief execu-
tive of the city that prominent citizens
be called upon to make appropriate fif-
teen-minute speeches at the gathering.

NOTES AND EVENTS

145

"The Somers System News" is the
title of a new quarterly issued by the
Manufacturers' Appraisal Company of
Cleveland, Ohio, to give information
concerning the principles and application
of the Somers system of taxation of real
property.

New York Continuation School. — Ac-
cording to report, 31,000 girls and 29,000
boys attended the continuation schools
of New York during the past summer and
kept up an exceptionally good daily
attendance.

"American Municipalities." — The

name of the City Hall-Midland Munici-
palities was changed to American Mu-
nicipalities with the October issue.
Frank G. Pierce continues as editor.

"Denver Municipal Facts," the earli-
est of the illustrated municipal publi-
cations, will hereafter be published semi-
monthly under the title of The City of
Denver.

VII. SOCIAL AND MISCELLANEOUS

Philadelphia Citizens Strike Blow at
Loan Sharks. — It has been estimated
that not more than 20 per cent of the
people of the United States have such
banking connections as would enable
them to procure a loan in time of tempo-
rary stringency. The remaining 80 per
cent are compelled to resort either to
the pawn shop or to the loan shark, or
else are driven to extreme privation
through their inability to finance a tem-
porary need.

The formation of a new institution to
provide a dignified place at which the
industrial classes may secure financial
assistance has been inaugurated in Phila-
delphia by a group of professional and
business men who have organized the
Pennsylvania Loan Company. The plan
of the company provides for three kinds
of investment: First, capital stock of
2500 shares with a par value of $100 each,
which provides the funds for lending and
whose dividend is limited to G per cent
on the book value; second, certificates
of investment, to be sold to the public
after the stock has been subscribed in
full and loaned out, in multiples of $50
and upon which 6 per cent interest is
guaranteed; third, installment invest-
ment certificates, resembling the certi-
ficates of investment except that they
are paid for at the rate of $1 per week
and bear interest at the rate of 5 per
cent after twenty-five payments. A bor-

rower desiring $53 will subscribe for the
installment investment certificate which
will then be hypothecated as collateral
for his loan. He must pay $1 a week on
his certificate, so that at the end of fifty
weeks, his certificate becomes full paid.
He can then retire his loan by cancelling
his certificate. As additional security
every borrower will be required to secure
indorsements to his paper, but there will
be no assignment of furniture, salaries
or personal property. The only interest
charge will be 6 per cent upon the prin-
cipal of the loan.

The advantages of the foregoing plan
are said to be that it makes a reputation
for honesty and reliability a real asset
even to the poor man, for he will have to
be well thought of in order to secure his
endorsements; it encourages thrift by
providing for weekly payments, which
may be applied to the payment of delfts,
following the well-known principle of
building and loan associations; it may
transform the applicant from a borrower
to an investor, by giving him an oppor-
tunity to become a holder of a permanent
interest bearing investment certificate,
which he can withdraw or borrow upon
at any time.

Franklin Spencer Edmonds.

Montreal's Child Welfare Exhibition.—

The Montreal child welfare exhibition

146

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

wliidi closod October '22 was notably
successful. In a graphic way the ex-
hibition took up the child problem and
presented the evils that press upon every
liand upon the child in the city, demon-
strating the startling mortality due to
congestion of population, unsanitary
conditions and bad housing. The City
Improvement League, the city depart-
ment of contagious diseases, the Play-
ground Association, the Humanitarian
Society and the Society for Organizing
Charity cooperated in showing the cit-
izens the urgent needs of the children
of the city.

At the opening of the Quebec legisla-
ture November 5, reference was made
in the speech from the throne by the
lieutenant-governor. Sir Francis Langel-
lier, forecasting coming legislation in
the following extract:

Thousands of fathers and mothers
visited the child welfare exhibition,
which was very successful and cannot
fail to contribute largly to the decrease
of infantile mortality. The government
has noticed with pleasure the interest
aroused by that exhibition and proposes
to call your attention to the measures
to bo taken to render it as effective as
possible.

*

The Use of Police Dogs.— The October
issue of the Journal of Criminology con-
tains a comprehensive summary by Dr.
Leonard Felix Fuld of the use of police
dogs in the pursuit of criminals. Accord-
ing to Dr. Fuld, a transfer of a peculiar
human odor caused chiefly by sebacic
acid is made by impression of either
foot or hand and greatly augmented by
perspiration due to hurry, rage or intoxi-
cation. Criminals consequently leave
more redolent clues at the seat of crime
than ordinary men. It has been found
impossible to render the feet and hands
free from the odor, and a trained dog is
able to follow it under the most com-
plicated conditions of smell. Neverthe-
less the science of police dogs cannot
dispense with the assistance of other
methods of criminology. The mere
pointing of the dog to a person is not

sufficient to determine that he is the
criminal. There must be additional evi-
dence. In the future the criminal who
has been trapped by a police dog will not
confess so readily as in the past when
the ability of the dog surprised and
astonished him. But while in time the
police dog will lose his power to make
an impression he will continue to furnish
sure and reliable assistance to police
authorities.

Portland Vice Crusade. — The Portland
vice commission has been conducting a
thorough investigation of the vice condi-
tions prevailing in Portland, and found
itself justified in classifying four hun-
dred and thirty-one hotels and apart-
ment houses as immoral places. The
commission greatly deplores the fact
that property owners have no sense of
responsibility when their property is
used for immoral purposes, and strongly
recommends that property owners be
compelled to put a name plate on their
property and that hotels be compelled
to give bond to be forfeited if disorderly
persons are harbored. It urged also that
registration at a hotel under a fictitious
name ought to be a misdemeanor.

Denver Morals Commission. — ^Mayor
Arnold, of Denver, has appointed a mor-
als commission, with Dr. H. F. Rail,
president of the Hiss School of Theology,
as president. Among the members of
the commission are Judge Ben B.
Lindsey, of the juvenile court; David
H. Fouse, of the civil service commis-
sion; Harry W. Purington, of the charit.y
board; and George Creel, of the fire and
police board.

Glasgow's Employees. — On September
5, the Glasgow city council adopted the
report of a special investigating com-
mittee recommending that the commit-
tees of the various departments of the
corporation should hear any workman

NOTES AND EVENTS

147

who considers he has been wrongfully
dismissed from the department, and who
desires to be so heard. In Glasgow the
city master of works and the inspectors
have large powers of independent re-
moval over persons employed under
them.

The American Civic Association (Union
Trust Building, Washington, D. C.) is
arranging for a tour of Europe next sum-
mer, and the International Civic Bureau
(1 Madison Avenue, New York) is offer-
ing four short tours in Europe at the
same time.

VIII. PERSONAL MENTION

Dr. Herman G. James, son of Presi-
dent Edmund J. James of the University
of Illinois, has been elected adjunct pro-
fessor of government at the University
of Texas and has entered upon the duties
of his position. He will have charge of
the course in comparative constitutional
law and a course in international law.
Dr. James Spent the past year in the
study of the Prussian administrative
system, collecting material for publica-
tion and during the summer of 1911 gave
a seminar course in Leipzig on American
constitutional history.

Prof. Frank G. Bates, formerly of the
University of Kansas, has been elected
associate professor at the University of
Indiana and municipal reference libra-
rian in the Indiana State Library. The
position will be a joint one. It is ex-
pected that Professor Bates will develop
the municipal side of the work and give
aid to cities and towns whenever re-
quested.

Robert J. Beacham has been elected
secretary of the Merchants and Manu-
facturers Association of Baltimore to
succeed Thomas G. Boggs. This organi-
zation which is affiliated with the Na-
tional Municipal League gives consider-
able attention to municipal questions.

ceeded at St. Louis by Andrew Lynde
Bostwick.

Mrs. Melville F. Johnson, a member of
the National Municipal League's advis-
ory committee, has been appointed a
member of the art department of the
General Federation of Women's Clubs.

*

Dr. Edward M. Salt, department of
politics, Columbia University, has been
made assistant professor. This year he
is giving Professor Beard's courses dur-
ing the latter's absence.

Dr. Clyde L. King, of the University
of Pennsylvania, has been assisting the
director of the department of public
works of Philadelphia in certain investi-
gations he is making.

*

Robert W. Belcher, formerly assistant
secretary of the National Civil Service
Reform League, has been elected to the
secretaryship in succession to Elliot H.
Goodwin. 1

Brand Whitlock, mayor of Toledo,
Ohio, has sailed for Europe to obtain
information to aid in framing charters
for Ohio cities.

Jesse Cunningham, municipal refer-
ence librarian at St. Louis since the
opening of the library, has resigned his
position to become librarian of the
School of Mines at RoUo. He is suc-

John Nolen has been retained by the
city of Keokuk, Iowa, to prepare a new
city plan for that city.

1 See National Municipal Review, vol. I, p. 639.

DEPARTMENT OF LEGISLATION AND
JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Edited by John A. Lapp

Legislative Reference Department of the Indiana State Library

Richard W. Montague, Esq., Portland, Ore.

In charge of Judicial Decisions

Inspection of Hotels. — Beginning with
1907, a considerable quantity of legisla-
tion has been passed designed to safeguard
the public health by promoting and
securing the cleanliness and sanitation of
hotels, inns and public lodging houses,
and providing for their periodical exami-
nation by authorized inspectors.

Prior to 1907, however, nine states,
including Ohio, Montana, Florida, Cali-
fornia, Illinois, Pennsj'lvania, Rhode
Island, Utah and Vermont,^ had enacted
laws calculated in some measure to pro-
tect the traveling public from adulter-
ated foods and from insanitary hotels
and restaurants. These laws provide,
moreover, for the adequate ventilation
of sleeping rooms and for the free and
unobstructed circulation of air; the fumi-
gation and disinfection of furniture and
bedding; the regulation of plumbing; the
disposition of garbage and waste; and
the rigorous inspection of all sources of
water supply. The enforcement of the
provisions of these laws is entrusted to
state and local officers, and certificates
are issued when conditions are found to
be satisfactory.

The chief characteristics of the legis-
lation enacted during and subsequent to
1907 consists in a combination of the
most desirable features of existing laws,
the extension of their application, the
introduction of new and approved pro-

» Ohio, Gen. Code, 1910, sec. 12797-8; Montana,
Laws 1907, p. 432; Florida. Laws 1906, p. 501; Cali-
fornia, Civil Code 1900, p. 743; Illinois, Revised
Statutes 1912, p. 2176; Pennsylvania, Purdon's Di-
gest, 13th Edition, 1700-1903, p. 2339; Rhode Island,
General Lmws, 1909, p. 417. Utah, Compiled Laws
1907, sec. 748 x 19; Vermont, Public Statutes 1906,
see. .=i4I3.

visions, and a system of inquisitorial
examination by which infractions of the
law are exposed and culprits subjected
to punishment for their transgressions.

The first states to consolidate these
inadequate and fragmentary beginnings
were North and South Dakota in 1907;
Oklahoma enacted a law in 1908; the two
Dakotas amended their laws in 1909,
and five other states, including Oregon,
Washington, Kansas, Iowa and Missouri,
passed similar laws ; Virginia and Missis-
sippi entered the field in 1910; Alabama,
Idaho, Nebraska, Minnesota, Florida,
Connecticut and Wisconsin in 1911, and
Tennessee in 1912.

The laws of Idaho, Kansas, Missouri,
Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma,
Tennessee, Virginia and Washington^
are substantially identical. The con-
solidated provisions of these laws com-
prehend the entire scope of legislation
on this subject.

Hotels, inns and public lodging houses
must be well drained, plumbed accord-
ing to established sanitary principles,
kept cle^n, sanitary, and free from un-
wholesome effluvia, and all water closets
must be frequently and properly disin-
fected.

Beds, bunks, cots and other sleeping
places must be provided with pillow slips
and under and top sheets; the undersheet
must be of sufficient size to completely

2 Idaho, Laws 1911, p. 620; Kansas, General Stat-
utes, 1909, p. 893; Missouri, Revised Statutes, 1909,
oh. 57, sec. 6716 ff; Nebraska, Laws 1911, p. 281 and
Anno. Statutes, 1911, 9840x3 and 9840x4; North
Dakota, Laws 1907, p. 188; Laws 1909, p. 165; Okla-
homa, Laws 1907-8, p. 434; Tennes.see, Laws 1911, p.
132; Virginia, Laws 1910, p. 341; Washington, Codes
and Statutes, 1910, sec. 6030 ff.

148

DEPARTMENT OF LEGISLATION

149

cover the mattress; the top sheet must
be as wide as the mattress, long enough
to reach the entire length of the bed,
and must be folded back over the other
bedding at the upper end for a sufficient
distance and in such a manner as to pre-
vent the occupant's inhaling bacteria
from germ-infected covering and pro-
tect him from contact therewith. Both
sheets and pillow slips must be made
of white cotton or linen, and must be
changed after the departure of each
guest. Quilts, blankets and other cov-
ering must be at least 6 feet in length
and of sufficient quality and quantity.
Beds, bedding and sleeping rooms used
by transient guests must be kept prop-
erly aired, and must be disinfected at
least once every 3 months, or oftener
if the inspector requires it; the carpets
therein must be taken up and thoroughly
cleaned once or twice each year, and
rooms and bedding infected with con-
tagious disease germs, vermin or bed
bugs, must be thoroughly fumigated and
not re-occupied sooner than forty-eight
hours after the disinfection. Each guest
must be supplied with clean, individual
towels, both in his private room and
in the public wash room. The use of
"roller" or "endless" towels in public
wash rooms is forbidden.

Kitchens, dining rooms, and all places
where food is kept or stored must be
kept clean and sanitary, and the use of
rusted tin or iron ware in cooking is
prohibited. Drinking water must be
free of disease germs, and if taken from
tanks or cisterns they must be securely
screened with wire gauze to prevent the
entrance of flies, mosquitoes or other
disease breeding insects. The floors,
closets, cupboards, pantries, walls and
ceilings of kitchens must be kept clean,
wholesome, free from dirt, dust and
grease.

All doors, windows, and other open-
ings in hotels and kitchens must be
properly screened during the warm
months in such manner as to exclude
flies and insects therefrom.

Provision is made for the annual or

semi-annual inspection of hotels, unless
there is a change of proprietors, or on
a written complaint signed by three or
more patrons. The inspection fee varies
from $2.50 to $25 per year, depending
on the number of rooms in the hotel.
Certificates are issued where the condi-
tions are found to be satisfactory, and
a set of books is kept for public inspec-
tion. The supervision of hotels is en-
trusted to the state and local boards of
health and fire marshals, to the food and
drugs inspectors, or to hotel inspectors
appointed biennially or quadrennially
by the governor. These officers are de-
pendent on fees for their compensation
or on salaries ranging from $1500 to $2000
per year.

The laws of South Dakota, Iowa and
Minnesota^ are much briefer and merely
provide for the annual inspection of
hotels by itinerant inspectors. In
Oregon, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida,
Connecticut and Wisconsin, ^ there is no
periodical inspection of hotels, but
otherwise the provisions of the laws
are the same as those of the other states.
Charles Kettleboroitgh.'

Housing in Coliimbus, Ohio. — Two

amendment-s have been made to the hous-
ing code of Columbus.'* By an ordinance
approved June 17, 1912;^ formerly a tene-
ment or dwelling house was allowed to
occupy 50 per cent of an interior lot.
The new ordinance increases the percent-
age to 60. The measurement for this
percentage is taken at the ground level,
with the exception (in the new amend-
ment) that when the first story is used

1 South Dakota, Laws 1907, p. 346; Laws 1909, p.
282; Iowa, Laws 1909, p. 161; Minnesota, Laws 1911,
p. 265.

2 Oregon, Laws 1909, p. 65, Mississippi, Laws 1910,
p. 157; Alabama, Laws 1911, p. 44; Florida, Laws
1911, p. 141; Connecticut, Laws 1911, p. 1356 and
1505; Wisconsin, Laws 1911, p. 505.

3 Indianapolis, Indiana.

* See National -Municipal Review, vol. 1, p.
705.

' Ordinance 26559, approved June 17, 1912,

150

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

for other thmi tenement or dwelling pur-
poses, the meiisurement shall be taken
at the second floor level. The provision
that "outside stairs, fire escapes, porches
and platforms shall be considered a part
of the lot occupied" was repealed.

The second amendment to the code is
an extension of the requirements relat-
ing to the yards for tenement houses.
When the first floor of such a building is
used for business purposes, the rear wall
may be within five feet of the rear lot
line, although the rear wall of the second
story must be at least 18 feet (in corner
lots, 15 feet) from the same line. Direct
access must be provided by stairways
from each story to the yard. The roof
of the first story must'be constructed so
that tenants may use it, and it must
have a closed railing or raised wall 3j
feet high around the sides. A provision
that for every story added beyond three,
the yard must be increased in depth 2
feet, was repealed.

Charles W. Reeder.

Public Health. — There is no field of
municipal legislation in which there is
so much activity as that of public health
and hygiene. Its range is so broad and
the matters with which it deals come so
close home to all people that it is a pro-
lific field for municipal ordinances, rules
and regulations.

The public health and marine hospital
service of the United States has been for
two years collecting these ordinances for
cities over 25,000 and printing them in
their weekly report. There has been
collected and published under direction
of the surgeon general a volume of 244
pages covering the period from January
1, 1910, to June 30, 1911. The volume
groups and indexes the ordinances
making them readily accessible.

Legislation on public health and hy-
giene as shown in the ordinances pub-
lished relates to the control of commu-
nicable diseases including notifications,
restrictions, vaccination, etc., and spe-

cial action in such diseases as Poliomye-
litis (infantile paralysis) and smallpox,
prohibition of spitting in public places,
licensing barbers and comi)olling shops
to be sanitary; requiring street cars to
be disinfected, cleaned and heated and
prohibiting crowding; licensing and
inspecting lodging houses and tene-
ments; regulating public laundries and
swimming pools; regulating the sale and
storing of rags and second hand goods;
prohibiting the common drinking cup;
regulating the sale of food stuffs, includ-
ing the place of sale, preventing adulter-
ations, unwholesome food and regulating
sale of special products such as ice cream,
vegetables and especially regulating the
production, transportation, marketing,
storage, sale and quality of milk and
milk products; regulating the slaughter-
ing of animals and the sale of meats and
providing for inspection; making special
regulations for bakeries and regulating
the sale of bakery products; regulating
hotels and restaurants in regard to
construction, care and maintenance and
licensing them; providing complete codes
for plumbing and housing; prohibiting
cesspools, privies or regulating their con-
struction; regulating stables and dis-
posal of manures, and the keeping of
domestic animals; providing for disposal
of garbage and waste; prohibition or
regulation of trades which are offensive,
such as fertilizer factories, soap facto-
ries, tanneries, garbage reduction plants,
etc.; declaring what are nuisances and
providing for their abatement; prohib
iting distribution of samples of pro-
prietary medicines, pills or nostrums;
regulating and licensing midwives and
lying-in homes, requiring certificates of
births, deaths and marriages; providing
for organization of boards of health, or
establishing office of health commis-
sioner and miscellaneous provisions such
as prevention of dust, single service
towels, prohibition of roller towels, and
medical inspection of schools.

The report states that a considerable
proportion of the ordinances relate to
direct control of known foci of communi-

DEPARTMENT OF LEGISLATION

151

cable diseases. "The part which regu-
lations of this kind play in public health
administration and the detailed exact-
ness of their requirements may be ex-
pected to constitute a fairly accurate
index of existing knowledge of the ave-
nues by which these diseases are spread
and of the improvement of the means
at the disposal of health authorities for
securing information of the existence of
cases of disease which constitute foci of
infection."

City Smoke Ordinances and Smoke
Abatement. — Bulletin 49, United States
bureau of mines issued in 1912, presents
a comprehensive view of the status of
smoke abatement ordinances in the cities
of the United States with hints for fur-
ther progress in the same direction.

Among the factors affecting smoke
conditions and abatement work are the
state of public opinion, existence or lack
of proper ordinances, organization and
personnel of the department, topo-
graphic and climatic conditions, charac-
ter of fuel, extent and nature of indus-
tries, and the volume of railroad and
steamboat business done. The problem
in a city using fuel oil or anthracite is
vastly more simple than in one where
bituminous coal is extensively employed
in such industries as brick kilns, annealing
furnaces and puddling furnaces or in great
railroad yards. It is estimated that 43
per cent of all smoke in Chicago is pro-
duced from locomotives, and 12^ per cent
from the special furnaces above men-
tioned. To the present time the greatest
progress in smoke abatement is among
stationary boiler furnaces, a condition
due to greater general knowledge of
proper design and operation of these,
and to the less exacting conditions sur-
rounding their operation. Railroads
present a difficult problem in connec-
tion with round houses and standing
locomotives.

For a study of the question cities are
divided into three groups: (1) those un-
der 50,000 inhabitants; (2) those hav-

ing between 50,000 and 200,000; and (3)
those of over 200,000 inhabitants. Of
240 cities of the first group, 12 reported
either an ordinance or an official charged
with inspection. Of 60 cities in the
second class reporting, 17 are making
an effort toward abatement. Among
the 28 cities of over 200,000 inhabitants,
all but five are giving attention to the
subject, and of these five the general use
of fuel oil in three practically eliminates
the problem. The work has perhaps
been carried on most successfully in
Chicago and Des Moines, both of which
have excellent ordinances and an effi-
cient department.

A review of the situation in the 28 larg-
est cities of the country reveals a wide
variety in the content of the ordinances,
the organization of the department,
and the efficiency of the administration.
The prohibition usually extends to
"dense smoke" or "dense black or
gray smoke." The demand of the law
in Jersey City, Newark and Buffalo
for practically smokeless firing gains lit-
tle in effectiveness. Los Angeles sets
the limit of density at "19 per cent
black," and Rochester at 30 per cent,
while Pittsburgh applies the Ringelmann
chart test. In most cities dense smoke
is permitted for limited periods ranging
from five to ten minutes in each hour,
though in Providence no limit is set on
the frequency of the five-minute periods.
In some instances favoring exceptions
are made, as in Rochester where the
prohibitions do not apply at all in certain
early morning hours. Locomotives in
transit through the city are excepted in
both Rochester and Louisville. In Pitts-
burgh, exception in favor of new fires
makes enforcement difficult. Buildings
used exclusively for private residence are
usually exempted.

Approval by the department of all new
construction work and rebuilding, and
the securing of a permit for operation
are required where most effective prog-
ress is made. In St. Louis, Kansas City
and Denver a defendant is permitted to
show that no known device will afford

152

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

relief arid in Kansas City the unreason-
ableness of the cost of installation may
he offered in defense.

I'siially the work of inspection is in the
hands of a smoke inspector acting inde-
pendently or directly under the mayor,
though sometimes attached to the build-
ing department or the board of health.
Buffalo largely vitiates the ordinance
by dividing the enforcement between the
inspectors of streets and the police. In
Chicago there is a smoke abatement
commission of citizens to advise with the
inspector, and an advisory board of
engineers to consult on technical mat-
ters. Portland, Oregon, and Kansas
City have no inspector and New Orleans
has neither ordinance nor inspector.
The requirement in Chicago that the in-
spector must have technical training and
experience in furnace construction and
operation has not yet become general.

In no city today is public sentiment
on the subject sufficiently strong for
progress to be made with a strong ordi-
nance rigorously enforced. Desiderata
for an effective ordinance are a definite
statement of permitted density accord-
ing to some practical standard; a maxi-
mum allowed density which is practica-
ble ; the requirement of new installations
in proper form; and a trained inspector
free from other duties. In conclusion
model forms of ordinances are printed
in the bulletin together with those in
force in Chicago, Pittsburgh, Des
I\Toines, Milwaukee and Los Angeles,
and the Massachusetts law on the sub-
ject, all of which contain features of
especial interest.

Frank G. Bates. ^

Firearms and Deadly Weapons in Chi-
cago.— In a recent report made by the
coroner of Cook County, Illinois, atten-
tion is called to the fact that during the
years 1908-1911, 27 per cent of the sui-
cides and 63 per cent of the homicides
were caused by firearms. It is this offi-

> Indianapolis, Indiana,

cial'-s ()j)iniou that "aside from the mur-
ders committed by certain classes of our
alien population the carrying of con-
cealed weapons is directly responsible
for the majority of the liomicides. Dur-
ing the whole of my experience as
coroner I recall but very few instances
in which the homicide, or even the sui-
cide, was deliberate, in nearly all cases
it being the result of sudden passion and
would not have occurred had not the
slayer been armed."

On July 1, 1912, the Chicago city
council passed an ordinance regulating
the sale of firearms and other deadly
weapons. The main provisions of the
ordinance are as follows:

1. Dealers to be licensed by the mayor.

2. No weapons to be sold to minors,
lunatics, habitual drunkards, or persons
convicted of any crime.

3. All purchasers of weapons shall
make and sign applications for the same
on blanks to be furnished by the depart-
ment of police to each licensed dealer.

4. Dealers compelled to forward appli-
cation with a report of the sale to the
superintendent of police.

5. Every dealer is required to keep a
register of all weapons sold which shall
show the number of the weapons, name,
residence and age of purchaser, descrip-
tion of weapon and the purpose for which
it was obtained.

An amendment to the New York fire-
arms ordinance which is now before the
committee on laws and legislation of the
board of aldermen provides that any
person may procure firearms solely for
the protection of his household or prem-
ises upon making application to and
receiving the permission of a city magis-
trate or the police commissioner or cer-
tain authorized subordinates of the latter.
Frederick Rex.''

Firearms Columbus, Ohio. — The reg-
ulation of the sale of firearms and other
dangerous weapons is provided in an

•ChlcaRO, Illinois.

DEPARTMENT OF LEGISLATION

153

ordinance approved May 7, 1912.^ No
person can sell within the city any pistol,
revolver, derringer, bowie knife, dirk or
other weapon of like character without
a license. After securing the license, no
person can sell these weapons to another
person unless that one has a permit from
the director of safety to purchase it.

Application for a selling license must
be made to the mayor, and must contain
the full name and residence, if an indi-
vidual, or the name and residence of
each member or officer, if a firm, and the
place of business. The license fee is
$5. Every day before 12 o'clock noon, a
report with numerous details, must be
made to the director of public safety of
every sale during the preceding twenty-
four hours.

For the person desiring to carry weap-
ons, permits are issued by the director
of public safety. Applicants for these
permits must give name, address, age,
height, weight, complexion and nation-
ality. The period of the permit is one
year, and the fee is $1. Permits are to be
refused to all persons who have been con-
victed of crime, \agabonds and minors.
Charles Welles Reeder.

Industrial Education. — The modifica-
tion of our school system to meet the
vocational needs of all who are able to
profit by the instruction offered is the
most striking tendency in school matters,
especially in city schools.

The states of Massachusetts, New
York, Maine, Wisconsin, New Jersey
and Ohio have adopted advanced legis-
lation while Indiana, Illinois, Michigan
and Pennsylvania are considering the
subject with certainty of early action.
A special commission appointed under a
legislative act will report in Indiana in
January, 1913, while several interested
associations have been promoting the
subject in Illinois.

The movement for industrial and trade
schools began in 1905 in Massachusetts

1 Ordinance 26498, approved May 7, 1912.

when a special commission was appointed
to investigate the need and means of
industrial education. Their report in
1906 resulted in legislation establishing
a state board of industrial education and
providing for the establishment by cities
and towns of industrial and trade schools
under separate boards of education.
Wisconsin, in 1907, enabled cities to
establish trade schools. The following
year New York passed an act to provide
for such schools under the regular school
boards but with an advisory board rep-
resenting local trades and industries.
New Jersey, in 1908, created an investi-
gating commission which reported in 1909.
In 1910, Ohio passed an act enabling city
school authorities to compel all children
between fourteen and sixteen who had
gone to work, to return to the day schools
for at least five hours of instruction,
wherever they had provided means for
vocational education. Wisconsin went
further in 1911 and required all children
between fourteen and sixteen who are
employed, to attend school at least five
hours per week. At the same time they
set up a complete system of industrial
schools under separate management by
a state board and by local boards con-
sisting of two employees, two employers
and the city superintendent of schools.

Massachusetts in the meantime had
modified her system of separate schools
so as to permit industrial schools to be
established as a part of the regular school
system or if the regular schools do not
take it up, then the separate board may
be formed.

State aid is granted in Massachusetts,
Wisconsin, New Jersey, New York and
Maine and it is proposed for both Indiana
and Illinois. The amount varies from
$500 for the first teacher and $250 for
others in New York, to one-half the
entire cost of maintenance in Massa-
chusetts.

The distinct features in all of this
legislation are:

1. State control through a state board
and deputies.

2. State aid to approved schools.

154

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

3. The schools arc controlled in New
York, New Jersey and Maine by the
repular schools. In Wisconsin there is
a separate system and in Massachusetts
it may be either.

4. Compulsory education for all chil-
dren between fourteen and sixteen who
are not emploj'ed, and the tendency is
for all who are employed between four-
teen and sixteen to be required to return
for further instructions.

Garbage in Columbus, Ohio. — New or-
dinances providing for the collection of
garbage and rubbish have been passed.'
Garbage has been defined as "any refuse
accumulation of animal, fruit or vegeta-
ble matter, and any matter of substance
used in the preparation for cooking,
dealing in or storage of meats and fowls,
fruits and vegetables, but not including
corn husks and corn cobs."

Rubbish includes, "all discarded and
useless matters, such as paper, straw,
excelsior, rags, bottles, old clothes, corn
husks and corn cobs, old shoes, tin cans
grass trimmed from lawns,
brush from trimming shrubs and trees
and mattresses "

Separate receptacles for these mate-
rials must be provided, and only certain
things put in them. Garbage cans must ,
be water-tight, of galvanized iron or
other metal, with tight-fitting lid, and
not over two bushels in capacity. Ash
cans must be lined with or constructed
of metal, have a water proof covering,
and be in capacity of two bushels. Rub-
bish cans may be made of wood or metal,
but must hold the contents without
leaking. Their capacity is the same as
the ordinary barrel. All the cans must
be placed on the lots, not in alleys or
streets, convenient for city employees to
remove. Charles W. Reeder.

Taxing the Weeds in Los Angeles. —
Twice a year in August and April, in

» Ordinance 26158 (EarbaRo), approved May 13,
1912, nnd Ordinance 26159 (rubbish) approved May
7, 1912.

accordance with an ordinance of July,
1912, owners, agents and persons in pos-
session of property must remove from
their sidewalks, property, lands and lots
all no.xious weeds and vegetation, except
such as are cultivated for use, ornament,
food or fuel, all dead trees, tin cans,
rubbish, refuse and waste material of all
kinds which may endanger or injure
neighboring property, or the health or
welfare of the residents of the vicinity.
Otherwise, the board of public works
will remove all or any of these detri-
ments to civic beauty and hygiene, and
to insure pajonent for their removal and
collection, assess the cost, together with
25 per cent thereon to be added to cover
interest, upon the property.

This assessment is known as a "weed
tax." All weed taxes unpaid on the last
Monday of November of each year be-
come delinquent and 10 per cent is added
to the amount of the tax when thus
delinquent and a delinquent list, with
an accompanying alphabetical index of
names is published once a week for three
successive weeks in a Los Angeles paper,
with a notice appended declaring that
unless these taxes are paid in twenty-
eight days from the date of the appear-
ance of the first notice, the property on
which they are assessed will be sold to
the city. As costs of such publication,
50 cents is collected on each separate
piece of land separateh' assessed.

All property delinquent on which the
weed taxes and ensuing penalties have
not been paid on the day fixed in the
published notice, is sold to the city, and,
if not redeemed within a year, a deed is
drawn up convej'-ing to the city the abso-
lute title to the property.

To redeem the property within the
year after it is sold to the city, the owner
pays the weed taxes, penalties and costs
due thereon and interest on the same at
the rate of 7 per cent, all unpaid weed
taxes assessed since the sale and also
certain penalties varying with the time
after the sale such payments are made.

Ethel Cleland.

DEPARTMENT OF LEGISLATION

155

Traffic Regulations. — The traffic regu-
lations of Columbus, Ohio, have been
extended by two ordinances; considered
by many people, to be very drastic. One
of these new regulations is aimed at
automobiles. The ordinance' provides
that all vehicles going in the same direc-
tion with streets cars, within the porpor-
ate limits of the city, shall not pass
between the street car and the curb while
passengers are getting off or on the cars,
until the vehicle has first come to a full
stop. The second regulation^ is that no
vehicle, except baby buggies, boys' sleds
and play wagons, shall be used on the
streets between the hours of sunset and
sunrise unless it carries a light so ar-
ranged on the left side that it shows
white in front and red in the rear.'

Dogs, Ordinances Regulating. — In

September, 1912, James S. Mclnerny,
Chicago's prosecuting attorney, in a
communication to Mayor Harrison called
attention to the vast increase in the
number of persons bitten by dogs during
the past five years. The number bit-
ten during the first eight months of 1912
was 1377. Those who were victims of
bites from dogs during the entire year
of 1908 were 424 in number. The increase
for the uncompleted year of 1912 over
the whole of 1908 is 225 per cent and
undoubtedly will exceed 325 per cent
when the figures are complete for the
entire twelve calendar months of the
year. It is estimated that 75 per cent
of the total number of bites show evi-
dence of rabies.

That the dog is beginning to be con-
sidered a menace to public health and
personal safety is shown by the large
proportion of cities which have passed
new ordinances regulating their posses-
sion. Chief among these may be in-
stanced the ordinances proposed or

1 Ordinance 26699, approved July 15, 1912.

2 Ordinance 26687, approved September 30, 1912.
' Information on Columbus, Ohio, ordinance was

furnished by Charles Wells Reader, Ohio State Uni-
versity Library.

passed in the cities of Chicago, Detroit
and San Francisco.

In addition to the section requiring
the muzzling of dogs, which is a common
provision in all city ordinances on the
subject, the Chicago ordinance as intro-
duced in the city council compels every
"veterinarian or other person who dis-
covers any dog or other animal to be
suffering with rabies" to report the fact
to the commissioner of health. A fur-
ther provision makes it unlawful for any
owner of a female dog to allow the same
to run at large while in heat. The
Detroit ordinance differs from the vari-
ous ordinances passed in other cities by
prohibiting the "harboring or keeping
of any dog which by loud, frequent or
habitual barking, yelping or howling
shall cause serious annoyance to the
neighborhood or to people passing to
and fro upon the streets."

The San Francisco ordinance declares
that "every dog not kept within a suffi-
cient enclosure or led and controlled by
a line, rope or chain, or not effectually
muzzled so as to prevent such dog from
biting persons or animals" shall be re-
garded as a public menace and im-
pounded.

Frederick Rex.*

Special Districts. — In 1911 the state
legislature of North Dakota enacted a
law* which provides that "any city shall
have power to create sewer, paving and
water main districts and districts for
the purpose of grading, graveling, curb-
ing, planting trees, constructing grass
plots, sowing grass seed, constructing
gutters, or for the purpose of making one
or more of the improvements herein
mentioned, and maintaining the same
within the limits of such city, which
districts shall be consecutively num-
bered." To pay for such improvements
special assessments may be made.^

* Chicago, IHinois.
6 Laws 1911, chap. 70.
8 From I. A. Acker.

loG

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

Dance Halls in Des Moines, Iowa. — A
rather interesting experiment with the
ever present dance hall problem has been
undertaken in Des Moines. General reg-
ulations for public dance halls have been
adopted forbidding certain objectionable
dance customs. The enforcement of
these regulations and other city regu-
lations is put in the hands of two peace
officers working under the direction of
the city and paid by the city, one of
these officers a man and the other a
woman. The dance halls pay into the
city treasury a sum sufficient to defray
these expenses. The results so far seem
to be very good.^

*

Efficiency Bureau of San Francisco. —
Upon recommendation of the civil serv-
ice commission and the efficiency com-
mittee of the supervisors, the board of
supervisors adopted ordinance 1958, ap-
proved July 9, 1912, creating a bureau of
efficiency. The civil service commission
will direct the work of this bureau so
as to enable it to carry out the provisions
of section 14 of article xiii of the charter,
reading as follows:

The commissioners shall investigate
the enforcement of the provisions of this
article, and if its rules, and the action of
the examiners herein provided for, and
the conduct and action of the appointees

in the classified service in the city and
county and may inquire as to the nature,
tenure and compensation of all places in
the public service thereof.

The mayor, auditor, the chairman of
the finance committee of the supervisors
and the chairman of the committee on
public efficiency and civil service of the
supervisors, constitute an advisory com-
mission on efficiency.

E. R. Zion has been appointed di,-
rector of the bureau and instructed to
tabulate all positions under the city
government, showing the title, nature
and duties of each position, name of per-
son holding same, salarj' tenure and
any other information desirable. In
other words, it is proposed that the effi-
ciency bureau take stock of all services
being rendered the city.

Each department is respectfully re-
quested to furnish this information in
such form as may be determined by the
director.

The efficiency bureau has also been
instructed to facilitate the use of the
new forms for salary demands and war-
rants recently approved by the auditor.
The civil service commission and the
board of works are using them for the
present month and other departments
are expected to use them as soon as a
convenient form can be agreed upon.

II. JUDICIAL DECISIONS^

De Facto Officer. — A doctrine of im-
portance for the protection both of cities
and of their citizens was applied in
Oakland Paving Company v. Donovan,
California.' The defendant there sought
to escape payment of a paving assess-
ment on the ground that the acting
superintendent of streets, who performed
an essential part of the work of levying
the assessments, was without lawful

' From Hon. James R. Hanna, mayor.
' Prepared by Richard W. .Montague, Esq., Port-
land, Ore.

' 126 Pac. Rep. 388.

authority in thq premises. It appeared
that the superintendent of streets was
absent on a vacation at the time the
assessment was made and that there was
no such officer known to the law as acting
superintendent of streets nor any pro-
vision of law for a substitute in the
absence or inability of the superintend-
ent. The court nevertheless held that
since the acting superintendent was in
full possession of the office in the absence
of the superintendent, was performing
that officer's duties within the scope of
this office, holding himself out and

DEPARTMENT OF LEGISLATION

157

reputed to be legally exercising these
duties, in charge of the books and records
and recognized by the public as the offi-
cer he represented himself to be, his acts
were valid.

*

Rights of Pedestrians in the Street.—

In Connolly v. City of Spokane- (Wash-
ington), ^ the city was held liable for an
injury caused by trap doors in the side-
walk, though the unfortunate passer
could not tell whether they sank beneath
his weight and caught him or were open-
ed from below without warning. The
court, it is respectfully submitted, might
properly have gone a good deal further
and held that any accident traceable to
trap doors in a sidewalk should be re-
garded in much the same light as if the
person responsible for them had put a
spring gun or a bear trap there. No
community with the slightest regard for
the rights of the public would tolerate
such obstructions in a busy thorough-
fare for a moment, and yet it is not
uncommon to see a densely crowded
street blocked by them, while a couple
of lesiurely moving shipping clerks han-
dle a few packages of freight. No one
ever appears to think of raising any pro-
test, but there is still hope that we may
eventually come to recognize that pedes-
trians are not wholly without rights in
the streets. Judgments for damages
against cities, not generally in accord-
ance with sound policy, certainly find
their justification in such a case as this.

*

Use of the Initiative.— The unfortunate
conflict which frequently arises between
the necessity of maintaining an impor-
tant general rule and the desirability of
overlooking unimportant errors in its
application is illustraied in Palmherg v.
Kinney (Oregon). 2 The law for the '
exercise of the power of law-making by
the initiative in the city of Astoria (as
elsewhere in Oregon) provides that a

1 126 Pac. Rep. 408.

2 127 Pac. Rep. 32.

true copy of the title and text of any
measure so to be submitted shall be
printed, and, in the particular case, shall
be distributed by pamphlet among the
voters. The prime importance of such
a provision, and of rigorous adherence
to it, are obvious; without it the voter
could never be sure of the actual form
and substance of the measure upon which
he was voting, and opportunity would
be given at every hand for intolerable
mischiefs in the alteration of pending
measures. Yet it is not without a cer-
tain sense of disproportion of cause to
consequence that we see a measure, pro-
viding for public improvements of prime
importance to the city, which had been
carried by a considerable majority, set
aside and all that had been done under
it declared void because, in lieu of one
of the commissioners under the act, the
name of another (who had been selected
in case the first refused to accept) was
substituted in the pamphlet spoken of.
A most lame and impotent conclusion
we can but think; yet if the court had
yielded to the temptation to "let a hard
case make bad law" their hands would
have been tied next time by a rule which
might have permitted a material, per-
haps ultimately a fraudulent, alteration,
to be effective. Led thus to the brink
of the question as to the wisdom of a
jurisprudence based on precedents, and
thence of the possibility of governing
special cases by general rules, we are
plainly getting out of bounds.

Indicting a City.— The current dictum
of high political authority that guilt is
personal does not appear to run in Ken-
tucky, where the city of Henderson has
been indicted for maintaining a nuisance
in the form of a smokestack which emits
such volumes of smoke and cinders that
homes and residences in the neighbor-
hood cannot be kept clean. Burke's
aphorism that you cannot indict a whole
nation does not apply to cities, it seems.
One wonders if the grand jury and prose-
cuting officer who drew and returned this

158

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

indictment luid let their imaginations
run to the curious effects of a conviction.
As ;i matter of fact the tendency to use
criminal process for all sorts of purposes
appears to be keeping even pace with
the distinguished inefficiency which is
charged upon it for its essential and
primary purposes. Hardly any regu-
lative law is passed nowadays without
a criminal sanction. A recent compila-
tion of the laws of a western state con-
tains a list several pages long in the
finest print of these criminal regulations
in laws that are not primarily criminal.
It is to remember a very unflattering
verse :

The cynic devil in his blood

That bids him flout the law he makes,
That bids him make the law he flouts,

Till dazed by many doubts he wakes
The drumming guns — that have no
doubts.

Shade Trees. — A recent decision of the
appellate division of the New York su-
preme court affirming a judgment against
a construction company which had cut
down a number of shade trees, of dam-
ages at $500 per tree and $1000 general
punitive damages, will find sympathetic
approval in the breast of many a citizen
who has not arrived in time to stay the
ruthless hand of that kind of improve-
ment. Where, as often happens, how-
ever, it is the city authorities themselves
who have removed the shade trees there
is little chance for redress, though as a
matter of law public authorities in most
states have not the right to remove or
mutilate trees arbitrarily or unnecessa-
rily. Much less have public service cor-
porations, such as telephone and light
companies, the right, except as it has
been granted them by the state or munici-
pality, to mutilate, damage, or destroy
shade trees. Yet where the shade trees
stand in the way neither law nor right
do save them in most cases; they often
interfere with the public services which
the public demands, and are doomed,
like the beauties of the green field iji

the shadow of municipal encroachment.
Much may be done by intelligent city
planning which will find a place for them
apart from the wires, and where their
roots can get moisture and air; some-
thing by the ultimate bestowal of the
wires under ground.

Grade Crossings. — In the Municipal
Journal appears an interesting summary
of a paper by Charles H. English, city
solicitor of Erie, read at a convention of
Pennsylvania cities, discussing the grade
crossing laws of the various states. The
statutes discussed fall into two classes:
New Jersey, Illinois, and Ohio, vesting
in the local authorities the power to deal
with the question; Connecticut, Massa-
chusetts, and New York giving jurisdic-
tion to a central commission and leaving
to the local bodies merely the right to
invoke the action of the commission.
The latter plan is incomparably more
effective. The experience and informa-
tion which a commission acquires soon
enables it to ,deal effectively with a
problem which is quite beyond the com-
petence of the ordinary local authorities.
Nearly a thousand grade crossings have
been abolished in the latter three states
by their commissions, according to Mr.
English's statistics.

Protection of Trees in Columbus, Ohio.i
— An ordinance^ approved June 24, 1912,
is designed to protect the trees of the
city. No person is allowed to hitch a
horse or other animal to a tree. No
corporation is allowed to attach to a
tree a rope or wire. When paving around
a tree, at least 4 square feet of ground
must be left to give free entrance of
water and air to the roots. Guards must
be placed around trees when new build-
ings are being put up in close proximity
to them. All wires running through
trees must be protected so as not to

' See National Municipal Review, vol. I, p.
470.

' Ordinance 26637, approved June 24, 1912.

DEPARTMENT OF LEGISLATION

159

injure the branches. No conduit can be
laid nearer than 1^ feet to a tree. The
forestry department has full power to
remove dead, diseased, or dangerous
trees, to trim, to spray, to replace and
to do dental work on them. The depart-
ment can give written p.ermission to vio-
late the above provisions. Carolina
poplars cannot be planted within the
city. A fine of $50 and a workhouse
sentence of sixty days is provided for
violations of this ordinance.

The franchise tax act of Delaware^
provides that if a corporation shall fail

for two consecutive years to pay its fran-
chise tax the charter of such corporation,
and all powers conferred by law upon it,
shall be inoperative and void. The Su-
preme Court of Delaware in a recent
case {Harned v. Beacon Hill Real Estate
Co., 84 Atlantic, 229), held that a cor-
poration whose charter has been thus
forfeited may have three years in which
to wind up its affairs. If it fails to do
so within three years its creditors and
stockholders may at any time thereafter
secure the appointment of trustees or
receivers who shall make a final settle-
ment of the unfinished business of the
corporation.

21 Del. Law8 C. 166

DEPARTMENT OF REPORTS AND

DOCUMENTS

I. CRITICAL AND INTERPRETATIVE
Edited by John A. Fairlie

Professor of Political Science, University of Illinois

Recent City Planning Reports. — The
time has passed when it is necessary to
exphiin or to plead for city planning,
in addressing persons who take a live
and intelligent interest in municipal af-
fairs. It is of more moment to know
what city planning does. Yet, it may
be, that in observing this, by examining
several recently issued city plan reports,'
we shall incidently come upon the best
explanation and the strongest argument
for this movement which lately has been
sweeping the country. For there is
hardly now an important city, and scarce-
ly an enterprising town, which" has not
had painted a picture of its future pos-
sible beauty and efficiency — -gratifying,
no doubt, to local pride, but gaining its
larger interest from the inspiration and
courage which it locally gives. Each
picture develops civic consciousness and
a community ideal, and the citizens are
expected to "follow the gleam." Usual-

1 Better Blngliamton. A Report to the Mer-
cantile-Press Club of Blnghamton, N. Y. By
Charles Mulford Robinson. Published by Mercan-
tile-Press Club, December 1911. 140 pages. Many
photographs, map and diagrams.

A City Plan for Dallas. By George E. Kessler.
Issued by the Park Board. 40 pages, to which Is
added the annual report of the Park Board. Illus-
trated with photographs, maps and diagrams.

Plan of Seattle. Report of the Municipal Plans
Commission, submitting report of VlrgU G. Bogue,
engineer. 235 pages. Many photographs, maps and
diagrams.

A Plan of the City of Hartford. Preliminary
Report by Carrere and Hastings, advisory architects,
to the CommLsslon on the City Plan of the City of
Hartford, Conn. Published by the Commission on
the City Plan. 117 pages. Illustrated with photo-
graphs, maps and diagrams.

A General Plan for the Improvement of Colorado
.•Springs. Report submitted to the Department of
Public Works and Property by Charles Mulford Rob-
Inson. Published by the Department of Public
Works and Property Colorado Springs. Illustrated
with photographs, maps and diagrams.

ly, and with varying degrees of fidelity
and procrastination, they do follow it.
That they do so at all means much for
urban development.

The most recently issued city plan
reports, those of the preceding twelve
months, are the ones from Binghamton,
N. Y., Dallas, Seattle, Hartford and
Colorado Springs. Their geographical
distribution is as complete as could have
been devised, and the significance which
attaches to that fact is obvious. "The
most recently issued" are chosen for men-
tion here because even they are as many
as can be reviewed in an article of mod-
erate length. Furthermore, since the
art ot the science of city planning is a
growing one, still undergoing rapid de-
velopment, these reports may be expect-
ed to be the most advanced and inter-
esting.

It so happens, as one must imme-
diately note, that the year's city plan
reports not only represent in their dis-
tribution far separated parts of the
United States, but that they deal with
different sorts of towns — an eastern man-
ufacturing community and a western
seaport, a "new" town and one of the
oldest cities of the United States; com-
mercial and industrial cities, and a health
and pleasure city. Also they are rep-
resentative of four different city plan-
ners, and they may be considered as the
more truly representative of their authors
because each is the work of an individual,
not a commission. All these conditions
result in a variety of view point, of em-
phasis and of manner of presentation
which makes comparison of the reports
very difficult. Yet in certain common
features it is instructive to note like-
nesses and contrasts.

When it is ' said that the reports

160

EEPORTS AND DOCUMENTS

161

mentioned are those of the last twelve
months, there must be emphasis on the
fact that they are the published reports,
©thers have been prepared, but not
made public. Of the five reports named,
only to those for Binghamton and Col-
orado Springs has been given the dignity
of a stiff cover. This is regrettable and
difficult to understand. The others cer-
tainly have cost enough to merit per-
manent binding ; they are designed to have
longer life and usefulness than are usu-
ally associated with paper bound pam-
phlets; and their subject is of an impor-
tance that would seem to justify the
light extra cost of better binding. But
if most of the reports are poorly covered,
it must not be supposed that they are
meanly presented. All are profusely
illustrated, with photographs, diagrams
and maps. The Seattle book, indeed,
is a volume of 225 large pages to which
are added a score of maps and diagrams,
folded in at the back.

Of the five reports, two were made to
city plan commissions (Hartford and
Seattle); one was made to the city ad-
ministration (Colorado Springs); one to
the park board (Dallas); and one to an
organization of business men (Bing-
hamton). It is notable, then, that four
out of the five reports were officially
authorized and financed and hence, even
before adoption, were official documents.
The fact testifies to a long step forward
that has given much added authority to
city planning. The condition is further
emphasized by the fact that in two out
of the five cities there were plan com-
missions, as parts of the city govern-
ment, created by charter amendment for
the very purpose of securing and carry-
ing out such plans. If, then, the reports
of the last year did nothing else, they
would at least bear testimony to the
hold which the city planning movement
has secured upon public opinion in our
cities. City planners have gained a rec-
ognition something like that given to
sewage, water and paving experts, and
to park designers. To that extent they
are becoming measurably independent

of those propagandist and educational
campaigns which were so marked a fea-
ture of the earlier days of American city
planning. This revelation is perhaps
the most important feature of the year's
reports.

With these comments, there is said
all that can be said concerning the re-
ports as a whole. The peculiar prob-
lems offered by the widely scattered and
very different kinds of cities, and the
manner of their solution or considera-
tion by the different men retained, can
be brought out only by reviewing the
studies individually. Necessarily these
reviews can be only fragmentary, and
the reader will realize that the author
suffers a rather ludicrous embarrass-
ment in having to speak in part of his
own work.

Taking up the books in the order in
which they were received, the report for
Binghamton comes first. It is divided
into four main sections: I, The Survey
contains some very valuable old maps
and pictures illustrate this portion of
the report, and it is — so far as the writer
recalls — the first instance in which an
American city plan report has empha-
sized that feature upon which the English
town planners, under the lead of Profes-
sor Geddes, have laid such stress — the
preliminary survey. Part II, in which is
stated the problem, confesses that the
problem of Binghamton in spite of the
city's unusual beauty of setting and the
consequent temptation to emphasize
aesthetics, is primarily that of an indus-
trial town.

The third section considers elemen-
tary needs, street plan, parks, play-
grounds and pleasure drives. The back-
wardness of Binghamton in street
paving, in sidewalk construction and in
the removal of overhead wires are typ-
ical matters of discussion and suggestion
under elementary needs. Under street
plan there are proposed a number of
improvements which must make inevi-
tably for larger municipal efficiency and
the greater convenience of traffic. It is
in this connection that we read, as indi-

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NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

eating the need for city planning where
cities have been permitted to grow hap-
hazardly, that of the seven bridges
which span the rivers that bisect Bing-
hamton, only two have direct street con-
nections at both ends, that there is not
a single thoroughfare which crosses the
town directly, and that the only one
which goes from end to end of the city's
longer diameter describes a curve in so
doing, suffers a sharp break at a critical
point and, incidentally, bears several
names. The street changes here pro-
posed are not radical, and not very ex-
pensive, but they would straighten out
a jumble that promises speedy conges-
tion in the business district of Bing-
hamton, and would open up large desir-
able residence sections by shortening the
means of access to them. Definite in-
dustrial districts are developed in the
plan and some needed advice is given as
to subdivisions for homes. Under the
heading of parks, playgrounds and pleas-
ure drives, plans are mapped out for
improving the river banks and for mak-
ing them serve the recreational needs of
a working population. An athletic field
is planned in close proximity to an in-
dustrial section, and suggestions are
offered for the betterment of the city's
present hilltop parks.

The final chapter on ways and means,
is a consideration of the always pertinent
question. How can the recommendations
be carried out? The author shows what
can be done by simply new or better ordi-
nances, what matters call for charter
amendment, what can be properly del-
egated to private effort, and what — sur-
prisingly little after these deductions —
rightly demand an issue of bonds. The
Springfield Republican made this cur-
ious, but perhaps significant, remark in
the course of a long editorial on the
Binghamton report: "The report is as
evidence of the city's enterprise and
foresight, as excellent a bit of municipal
advertising as anyt hing could ho — -except
the ^actual accomplishment of what is
recommended."

The next report to be received was

that of Dallas, Texas. Its crude cover
belies the excellence of the presentation
within, whore text, photograph.s and sev-
eral folded maps and diagrams unite in
an admirable record of the plan evolved.
The Dallas report, though entitled "a
city plan," and dealing with a city more
than twice the size of Binghamton, is
only about one-third as long as the Bing-
hamton report. It is characterized by
few words but by good diagrams and
drawings, and it places particular, and
possibly disproportionate, emphasis on
park development, if we stretch that
phrase to include playgrounds and boul-
evards. In a report addressed to the
city's park board, this emphasis, how-
ever, was probably necessary. Yet it
is true that the whole manner of the
report's presentation witnesses to the
circumstance that its author is a land-
scape architect and park designer.

It must not be supposed, however,
from saying this, that Mr. Kessler has
overlooked strictly city plan problems,
or has failed to discuss them with illum-
inating comments and to offer valuable
solutions. The very opening words of
the Dallas report state well a fact which
enthusiastic laymen too seldom apprec-
iate, viz., that a plan for an existing city
must be one, "not for the building of
the city, but one formulating recom-
mendations for rebuilding along broader
lines."

The truth of these statements as to
the Dallas report may be convincingly
illustrated by the subjects it touches
upon. These are the building of l^vee
which shall serve the triple purpose of
providing flood protection, a city harbor,
and additional space for railroad termi-
nals; the building of a belt line railroad,
a union station and a local freight ter-
minal; the location of a civic center; the
elimination of grade crossings; the cor-
rection of the present street system and
an extension of streets; the provision of
additional playgrounds, and the con-
struction of a comprehensive systeiu of
parks, parkways and boulevards. To
run over these titles is to realize how

REPORTS AND DOCUMENTS

163

much it may mean to Dallas to have pub-
lic attention directed to these big sub-
jects, and to have presented to her enter-
prising citizens, though it be in a sketchy
manner, schemes for handling wisely
the many problems involved.

Seattle's plan comes next on the list.
Perhaps it is not too much to say that
this is the most exhaustive and thorough
city planning report that has been issued.
Yet it was prepared in a year. The en-
gineering work alone cost about $24,000;
the city planner was paid over $17,000;
and the printing of a very limited edition
of the book cost $2500. The report's
total cost came to $50,000, to which must
be added a quite exceptional amount
of unpaid local cooperation. While these
figures, which are taken from the pub-
lished report, have little reliability as
a measure of its actual value, they
show the earnestness with which Seattle
took up the city planning project and
explain why the Seattle plan cannot
fairly be compared with the other re-
ports published during the year. Per-
haps, however, it is proper to observe
that although $50,000, is a relatively
large sum to appropriate for this work,
it really is not much for a city of almost
a quarter million inhabitants to pay for
a carefully thought out plan covering an
area of one hundred and fifty square
miles and anticipating a future popu-
lation of upwards of a million. If Seat-
tle has secured, as it seems to have done,
a plan which efficiently does these things,
it has surely obtained much for its
money.

Mr. Bogue, the author of the "Plan
of Seattle," is a civil engineer, who has
not been heretofore identified with city
planning work. It is no surprise, there-
fore, to find engineering features of the
Seattle plan as strongly emphasized as
were park features in Mr. Kessler's. In
fact, discussion of harbor, port and water
front, of railroad facilities, and of arter-
ial highways, absorbs two-thirds of the
text — which is long — and practically all
of the nineteen large maps folded at the
back of the book.

First of all, the report takes up ar-
terial highways. The conclusion was
reached that "the lines of heavy travel
in Seattle would, in the main, always be
north and south." The site of the city
is notoriously rugged, and yet careful
surveys showed the possibility of laying
out very convenient arterial streets with
grades seldom exceeding three per cent.
The opinion has been expressed that the
location of these is one of the most val-
uable contributions of the Seattle plan.
Next is considered the civic center. For
this a very elaborate scheme was evolved.
The form suggested for it was an ellipse,
penetrated by great avenues converging
toward a central shaft or monument. In
the arcs between the converging ave-
nues of which one broadly parked Cen-
tral Avenue should lead to the Union
Station, were to be the public buildings.
From the proposed location, which is a
natural traffic center, the land falls away
on every side, so that the buildings would
be "visible from all the environing hills
and from the hai'bor and Puget Sound."

After the civic center, seven pages
only are devoted to park improvements;
but this subject had been treated in a
preceding report. There follow a few
pages on municipal decorations, in which
the subjects of street intersections, con-
courses and building height are consid-
ered, and then comes the long discussion
of harbor, port and waterfront. The
following quotations suggest the import-
ance attached to this portion of the Re-
port, and the earnestness with which its
problems have been worked out :

"Commercially speaking, when a city
ceases preparation for the future, it ceas-
es to grow. . . . Seattle's greatest
commercial asset is her harbor .
Every judicious investment in harbor
improvements should tend to decrease
rather than to increase the tax rate."
Consideration of the port is divided by
the author into ten sections for the pur-
poses of adequate consideration and dis-
cussion. The works proposed for it look
forward many years for complete accom-
plishment and to the expenditure of vast

KV4

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

sums. If carried out as proposed, there
is no question that Seattle would have
excpptionul commercial efficiency.

The final discussion, transportation,
takes up steam railroads and ferries. In
a "closing word" it is stated th;i,t the
plan, with the exception of six compar-
atively small items, which are named,
"need not be followed on precise lines
in every instance, but should be deviated
from only when detail studies prepara-
tory to construction show minor changes
to be necessary, and any deviation should
not be of such nature or extent as to
jeopardize the value and harmony of the
plan as a whole, or any part thereof."

It should be added, that one of the
most interesting portions of the Seattle
report is the introductory statement by
the local commission. Here is concisely
given the history of the movement which
led up to the making of so elaborate a
study, and the legislation which was
enacted to provide both efficient machin-
ery and sufficient money. The commis-
sion itself, it may be briefly said, was
authorized by a charter amendment
which received the largest majority that
had even been cast for an amendment
to the Seattle charter. It is composed
of twenty-one citizens. To finance the
project, there was created a municipal
plans commission fund, secured by a tax
levy of one-quarter of a mill in the year
1910. It was required that expenses
should not exceed the proceeds of the
levy and should cease entirely on Sep-
tember 30, 1911.

It is a pity that more city plan reports
do not contain, when published, so ad-
mirable a presentation of the steps by
which they were secured, and so clear a
statement of the means devised to give
effectiveness to the plans and to pay for
them. For these are matters upon which
many cities are now earnestly seeking
information.

The report for Hartford, though quite
modestly issued, is a well illustrated pam-
phlet of something over a hundred pages.
It is addressed to "the commission on
the city plan of the city of Hartford,"

for, as the foreword states, "Hartford
was one of the first, if not the first, Amer-
ican city to have a permanent city plan
commission." To this report there at-
taches also special and pathetic interest,
from the fact that one of its authors —
and he whose work it mainly was — was
the victim of a fatal accident the day
after he signed it, following its painstak-
ing critical review. In an introductory
note to the Report, Frederick L. Ford
observes: "The city plan of the city
of Hartford by Messrs. Carr^re and
Hastings was Mr. Carrere's valedictory
to the world and it will remain his crown-
ing work in city plannine."

The Hartford report differs from most
others that have been issued in contain-
ing in its early pages a somewhat ab-
stract discussion of an ideal city plan
and a thesis on taxation and the regula-
tion of building construction for the com-
mon good. The explanation of this, if
explanation is needed, is to be found in
the author's strongly expressed appre-
ciation "that the mere study of the plan
of a city, and the making of pictures
and maps, is but a very small part of
the problem which confronts every Amer-
ican city." The larger problem is to
secure a broader vision and cooperative
spirit which will express itself in com-
munal action. "While the idea." the
report reminds us, "of a common life
for a common purpose goes back to the
beginning of things, real organization
with regard to essentials was very slow
of development." Even in Paris, "no
attempt was made at municipal lighting,
or any definite ordinances attempting
even a system of private lighting, until
the time of Napoleon the First." Almost
within the memory of living men, Ben-
jamin Franklin organized tramps into
street cleaners. Hence it is not surpris-
ing that the development of the plan of
cities, of methods of taxation, and of
many other matters fundamental to the
public good have been "either neglected
or treated separately and wit'hout coordi-
nation." To call attention to the need
of such coordination and to its possibil-

REPORTS AND DOCUMENTS

165

ities is the first purpose of the Hartford
report. It urges that taxes upon land
and improvements be based upon the
property's income bearing capacity.

It is clear that a city plan report which
devotes about one-quarter of its length
to such general thoughts as these, has
an interest and individuality quite its
own, and which is independent of city
plan suggestions of the ordinary type.
These must, however, be noted. They
deal first with the central portion of the
city. Here there are considered a con-
nection of the state buildings, grouped
in and around Bushnell Park, with the
growing municipal group on Main Street,
a dignified mall or parkway being pro-
posed for the purpose; a re-arrangement
of the railroad station and lowering of
the railroad grade through the center of
the city, so that streets may pass over
instead of under the tracks, and the pro-
vision of means of traffic communica-
tion through Bushnell Park, so that it
may prove less of a barrier, to arrest
the city's development along natural and
desirable lines.

There is a careful discussion of the
street changes which would be beneficial
in various sections of the city, and a plan
is worked out for a new industrial dis-
trict, and for the housing of its workmen.
This district is not to be a substitute
for present factory centers but is to sup-
plement them. There are proposed
broad new radial avenues, to run south-
westward and southeastward from the
capital, and inner and outer boulevards
that shall tie scattered park units into
a park system. A separate chapter is
devoted to discussion of the improve-
ment of the park and Connecticut rivers;
and in a final chapter many general mat-
ters are touched upon — such as the light-
ing apparatus, billboards, trees, traffic
regulations, etc. Here is made the in-
teresting proposal — novel for America —
of "a remission of taxes, not to exceed
a given sum in any one instance, and
running for a limited period of years,"
as "an encouragement to citizens for the
proper development of the various im-

provements controlled by private in-
terests, and also for proper maintenance
of private property, grounds and gar-
dens."

The report, taken as a whole, lacks
systematic arrangement and shows a
want of what may be best described as
careful editing. But it is a very con-
scientious study of a city's improvement
needs and possibilities, and that is worth
much more than is the manner of presen-
tation.

The study of Colorado Springs, which
comes latest from the press, is so largely
devoted to consideration of the streets
that, to its merit or otherwise, it proba-
bly conforms more -nearly than most re-
ports tQ the popular idea of a "city
plan." There are, in all, five chapters
or sections. The first discusses the
steam railroads, because possible changes
of route and the location of a union sta-
tion must affect the street plan of the
city. The second takes up the street
plan in detail — "a conventional check-
erboard, as commonplace as Philadel-
phia's or Chicago's" — and suggests how
it could be redeemed, or at any rate
improved, at low cost. In the third
chapter there is detailed study of the
development of the streets — -this supple-
menting a report on street parking for
Colorado Springs which the author had
made seven years before and which he
states is to be considered a part of the
present report. The fourth section
takes up the city's recreational provision,
attempting to point out how the social
efficiency of the present very large park
holdings could be increased. The report
is fully illustrated, and Colorado Springs
proved neither so large or complex a
subject, that it could not be handled
with considerable completeness. The
report gathers interest, also, from the
fact that it adds one more instance to
the proportionately large number of
cases in which the commission form of
government has resulted in prompt or-
ders for city plan studies— a fact which
is significant of efficiency, no doubt, on
both sides.

166

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

Though the year's published city plan
reports have now all been noted, this
brief summary would be incomplete, did
it not also mention John Nolen's book
Rcplnnmng Small Ciiies.' For in this
attractively issued volume, brought out
during the past year, there are reprinted
the reports wliich its author has made
for half a dozen widely scattered little
cities. All of these reports have been
issued before, by themselves— some of
thorn a number of years ago; but their
convenient republication in a single vol-
ume attracts interest anew to them and
fairly entitles them to a mention here.
Moreover, Mr. Nolen opens and closes
his volume with chapters which are new
and which call very pertinent attention
to fundamental similarities in the prob-
lems, opportunities and duties of all
towns. Says Mr. Nolen:

In the first place, certain things are
indispensable for every city— suit^able
streets, thoroughfares, public buildings,
homes, and an adequate number of play-
grounds, parks and open spaces. All
these must be had sooner or later. It
is not a question of getting them or of
not getting them. It is merely a ques-
tion of when .... Secondly, it
should be kept in mind that cities must
choose usually between one form of ex-
penditure or another. The people of a
city may prefer to pay the direct and
indirect cost of epidemics like typhoid
fever rather than increase the outlay
for water and sewers and other forms of
sanitation. They may elect to pay the
bills resulting from an inadequate street
system for traffic and the inconvenient
circulation of men and goods, rather
than make the loans and annual appro-
priations required by the adoption of a
more up-to-date method of locating and
improving streets and highways. But
does it pay? .... It costs only
$800 to educate a normal boy in the Bos-
ton schools for twelve years, or less than
S70 a year. On the other hand, it costs
$400 to take care of a bad boy in a Mas-
sachusetts reformatory for one year.
Which is cheaper? .... In the
third place, .... the essential
question is not one of cost, the attempt

1 Replanning Small Cities. Six Typical Studies.
By John Nolen. Published by B. W. Huebsch, New
York, 1912. See National Municipal Review,
vol. I. p. 754.

to balance the expense of better planning
against increased revenues resulting
from it. At bottom the question is
whether real values in public welfare
are to be had from this sort of city plan-
ning ....

The towns of which Mr. Nolen pre-
sents studies in his book are Roanoke,
Va., San Diego, Calif., Montclair, N. J.,
Glen Ridge, N. J., Reading, Pa., and
Madison, Wis.

Finally, this years reports are of val-
ue in giving conclusive evidence that
town and city planning are no longer
understood to be— what in the fact they
never really were— a designing simply
of impressive civic centers and the like
monumental and costly features. City
planning has come to be recognized as
something much broader in scope, much
closer to everj'day problems, much near-
er to the lives of the people.

Charles Mulford Robinson.'^

The New York Billboard Situation.—
For many years increasing general ani-
mosity has been manifested against the
extensions of the billboard service of the
country, which have undoubtedly be-
come intrusions. The feeling which has
caused more than eighty cities to under-
take some form of legislation against the
billboard has its root in the increasing
estimation of the American people for the
value of natural scenery and of orderly
city beauty. It is lamentable to have
to say that usually these legislative at-
tempts have been failures because the
billboard man is as yet firmly entrenched
behind his constitutional right to destroy
values so long as he keeps on property
which he owns or has leased.

But another view of the evil has more
encouraging features for those who be-
lieve it is not right to "sell the eyes of
the public," as Commissioner Tompkins
has recently and rather aptly expressed
it. The billboard men are generally law
breakers and pay no attention whatever
to local enactments, unless forced. A

J Rochester, N. Y.

REPORTS AND DOCUMENTS

167

strong presentation of this phase of the
trouble is included in "A Report on an
Investigation of Billboard Advertising
in the City of New York," made by
Raymond B. Fosdick, until recently com-
missioner of accounts, and transmitted
to Mayor Gaynor August 27, 1912.

In this admirable report Mr. Fosdick
presented the approximate details on
billboard advertising in New York. He
says that there are approximately 3700
billboards in the city, of which fully
25 per cent are double-deckers, making
about 4600 facings for advertisements,
and including approximately 3,800,000
square feet of billboard "beauty" in New
• York.

Mr. Fosdick brings out the exact de-
tails of the law in New York, and laments
not only the incompleteness of the law
but the absence of any adequately han-
dled test cases to prove the right of the
city to control. The section of "Viola-
tions" shows that the first regulation
in the building code is violated in 412
instances out of 500 cases inspected. The
second requirement of the code is en-
tirely ignored; 165 signs were found
extending beyond the building line.
Thirteen extensive billboards, situated
along Riverside Drive at its most pic-
turesque part, were found to be in viola-
tion of the law. Thirty-three of the 41
locations of signs about Central Park
were found to be in violation of law.

In addition to bringing out the gen-
eral disregard of law and regulation by
the billboard-erecting concerns, Mr.
Fosdick has shown graphically in this
notable report the conditions prevailing
at, about and behind the billboards, by
means of numerous well-made photo-
graphs. He has also classified the char-
acter of advertising displayed, and
proves that the billboards are largely
used for the exploiting of "whiskies,
wines, beers, gins, tobacco, cigarettes,
patent medicines, etc.," and that "they
are not used by merchants of the city."
In insisting that ' ' municipal expenditures
to beautify public buildings and parks
are offset by the appearance of bill-

boards," Mr. Fosdick brings out the
necessity for regulation. He discusses
completely the decisions of courts as
well as the methods for regulating bill-
boards found so far more or less effective
in the United States and abroad.
• Taken altogether, this report is the
most direct and convincing indictment
yet formulated against billboard intru-
sions. It is a matter for regret that its
recommendations have not been taken
up promptly by New York authorities.
So quick was public approval of the
report that the edition which had been
printed of it was immediately exhausted.
J. Horace McFarland.i
*

American Police Reports.—Introduc-
tion. A good police report should con-
tain three elements: a clear presenta-
tion of police statistics, an adequate
interpretation of these statistics and a
brief discussion of the most important
problems of police administration.
Many American reports contain some of
these elements; very few contain ail of
these elements. In the hope that a brief
consideration of* what a good police re-
port should contain may be of interest
to police officials and may lead to a
greater uniformity and usefulness of
these public documents, this paper has
been prepared.

Police statistics. Nearly every Amer-
ican police report contains adequate sta-
tistics of arrests, including the crimes
committed, occupation, nationality, age
and sex of prisoner. Equally important
are the statistics of convictions secured,
which comparatively few American re-
ports contain. Extremely desirable also
are adequate statistics of criminal com-
plaints which would tend to give the
citizen reliable information regarding
the actual conditions of the peace of the
community. Almost no American re-
ports contain these statistics of criminal
complaints.

The typographical arrangement of the
statistics in most American reports is

1 President, American Civic Association.

1G8

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

poor. Thpy .vrc frequently printed in
large type using much space when small-
er type would servo to make these sta-
tistics more serviceable and save a large
item of expense. The practice of some
departments in the publication of the
details of all financial transactions and
of the personnel of the force serves no
useful purpose. Such lists are not sta-
tistics, and serve only to flatter the van-
ity of the men in seeing their names
printed in the annual report.

Interpretation of statistics. In addi-
tion to the presentation of adequate
police statistics, the annual police re-
ports ought also to interpret these sta-
tistics for the benefit of the citizens, in
the manner in which the United States
Census Bureau interprets its statistics.
The calculation of indices would render
it practicable for the citizen to compare
the efficiency of the police in one year with
its efficiency in a previous j^ear or the
efficiency of the police in one city with
the efficiency of the police in another
city.

The complaint-arrest index is a use-
ful means of measuring police activity;
tKe arrest-conviction index is a useful
index of police efficiency and the com-
plaint-conviction is an excellent meas-
ure of the efficiency of the police protec-
tion. These indices are of value only
in the case of felonies, in the case of mis-
demeanors every effort should be made
to minimize the number of arrests and
punish the offenders without the neces-
sity of an arrest by the police.

Problems of police administration.
When the writer ten years ago first made
an examinaton of American police reports
he was astonished to find that none of
those examined with the exception of the
reports of Superintendent Sylvester of
the Washington Department discussed
the more important problems of police
administration. During the last few
years a number of departments have
incorporated in their reports this ex-
tremely important clement. Such a dis-
cussion of police problems tends to in-
terest the citizens in the work of the

department and it renders easier the
task of the head of department in institut-
ing improvements. In his latest annual
report the police commissioner of New
York has made a further effort to popu-
larize his reports by printing photographs
of police functions and police activities.
When funds for this purpose are avail-
ab e the publication of such photographs
is also to be recommended.

Summary. A good police report
should contain these elements: Com-
plete statistical tables of criminal com-
plaints, classified according to felonies,
misdemeanors and juveniles; of criminal
arrests, classified accord ng to crimes
and according to the occupation, sex,
nationality, age and previous criminal
record of the prisoner; and of convictions
similarly classified. It should contain
an adequate interpretation of these sta-
tistics by the calculation for felonies
of the complaint-arrest index of police
activity, the arrest-conviction index of
police efficiency and the complaint-con-
viction index of the efficiency of the
police protection. It should also dis-
cuss for the benefit of the citizens the
most important problems of administra-
tion engaging the attention of the depart-
ment with a view to interesting the citi-
zens in the work of the department and
the changes and reforms which are being
planned and executed b}^ the head of de-
partment.

Leonhard Felix Fuld.^

The Social Evil.— The Portland, Ore-
gon, vice commission, appointed in Sep-
tember, 1911, has made two reports, in
January and August, 1912. The Port-
land report deals entirely with the prev-
alence of venereal diseases in that city.
The figures are startling. The percent-
age of veneral diseases to all disease re-
ported was 21.1 per cent. As to the
source, of the 109 physicians replying,
5 replied "professional prostitutes" and
104 "non-professional."

» New York City.

REPORTS AND DOCUMENTS

169

Although a very considerable number
of the inmates of the city and county
jails and those who pass under the hands
of the city and county health officers
are infected, no record is kept of such
cases, and no provision is made for their
treatment save occasional services of
the city or county physician. No at-
tempt is made to segregate them, al-
though a number of prisoners were ob-
served in an acutely infected condition.
There is no law which takes cognizance
in any way of this disease, which is both
contagious and infectious, nor are such
cases obliged to receive treatment, even
when they are a source of danger to
others. The city has no facilities for
the treatment of this disease, which is
a source of menace to the public health,
with the exception of a small venereal
ward in the county hospital.

As a first step in a proper, adequate,
constructive policy, the commission rec-
ommended the enactment of a law re-
quiring the reporting of such cases of
venereal disease as are encountered in
dispensaries, hospitals, juvenile and mu-
nicipal courts, penal institutions, ma-
ternity hospitals, rescue homes and all
places of detention; and compelling per-
sons so reported to be treated; and the
establishment of special clinics under the
board of health for the treatment of ven-
ereal disease; and the maintenance by
the municipality of venereal wards in
one of the existing hospitals, if such ar-
rangements can be made, until the city
builds a city hospital and that the city
contribute to the support of the free dis-
pensary, especially for the treatment of
venereal diseases. It also strongly em-
phasized the importance of education
concerning proper sex relations, their
violation and the consequences thereof.
Accordingly it commended the work
already begun by the Social Hygiene
Association of Portland.

The Philadelphia City Club Bulletin
for March 16, 1912, contains a stenograph-
ic report of the thoughtful addresses
made on the social evil before the City
Club, at one of the largest luncheons held

in its history. The figures of Dr. Mor-
row and the statements of Dean Sumner
are most striking.

The Voters' League of Pittsburgh has
published in full the argument of A. Leo
Weil given on October 4, before the city
council, on charges against the director
of public safety; and has also issued (No-
vember 11, 1912) a bulletin on the inves-
tigations before the city council.

There are two national organizations
dealing with the social evil, one the
American Vigilance Association, of which
Clifford G. Roe is executive secretary,
and the American Federation for Sex
Hygiene, of which Charle§ W. Burtwell
is general secretary. Both are publish-
ing a series of interesting pamphlets.
The American Vigilance Association
publishes a monthly bulletin entitled
Vigilance which has recently been en-
larged. The issue for November, 1912,
contains a list of vice commissions and
investigations.

*

Taxation 'B.eT^oiis— District of Colum-
bia. On August 20, 1912, a sub-commit-
tee of the house of representatives com-
mittee on the District submitted a report
on the assessment and taxation of real
estate in the District. ^ This report held
"that real estate is assessed irregularly,
unscientifically, without system and with
gross discrimination between class and
class, between land and improvements."
The total assessment of real estate is
stated to be only slightly more than two-
fifths of the real value. But land is
assessed at only one third of its true
value, while improvements are assessed
at two-thirds of their true vale. As be-
tween different classes of property, it is
charged that there is a heavy discrimi-
nation against the small home, in com-
parison with the better houses and bus-
iness property, while the large suburban
speculative area bears less than a third
of its proper burden. Further, the report
presents a series of facts to demonstrate

' Sixty-second Congress, second session, House
Report No. 1215.

170

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL KEVIEW

tliiit tliis state of things is not duo to
chance hut to del iherate policy. A series
of recommendations for new legislation
and administrative methods are made
fur the purpose of securing more thor-
ough and equitable assessments.

Califurnia. A special report on tax-
ation, showing the "First Effects of
Separation" on state, county and munic-
ipal revenues and tax rates, was issued
by the California state board of equali-
zation on December 1, 1911. The totals
of a series of tables on county finances
show the following results:

Gross saving to tax pay-
ers by elimination of
state tax $8,168,095

County taxes lost on prop-
erty withdrawn 4,630,974

Net saving to county tax

payers 3,537,121

Increase in county tax
revenues 3,403,356

Thirteen of the fifty-six counties re-
porting showed a small net loss to county
tax payers.

A valuable discussion of the proposed
constitutional amendment for "Home
Rule in Taxation," at meetings of the
Commonwealth Club of California held
in August and September, is published
in the October issue of the Transactions
of the Club. A majority report of the
committee on taxation, presented by
Prof. Carl C. Plehn, opposed the amend-
ment; and a minority report favored it.
An appendix contains data in regard to
local government revenues in California
and the systems of local taxation in
Seattle, and Vancouver.

New York. The department of taxes
and assessments has published a small
pamphlet on "Factors of Value of New
Ruildings and Explanation of Land Value
Maps." This explains some of the as-
sessment methods employed by the de-
partment ; and will be of service in other
cities in developing systematic methods
of real estate assessments.

Chicago. Bulletin No. 7 of the Civic
Federation on "Tax Facts for Illinois,"
is a reprint of the findings of the Illinois

special tax commission of 1910, and its
recf)nimondations for a constitutional
amendment to permit the classification
of personal property.

Refuse Disposal in Ohio and Wiscon-
sin.— The report of a study of the collec-
tion and disposal of city wastes in Ohio,
published as a supplement to the twentj'-
fifth annual report of the Ohio state
board of health, presents the results of
what is probably the most comprehensive
investigation thus far made of this sub-
ject in any American state. Field stud-
ies were carried on from the spring of
1909 until June, 1910, in nine cities,
Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, Day-
ton, Canton, Mansfield, Steubenville,
and Zanesville, and samples collected
in the various cities were analyzed in
a special laboratory at Columbus. The
studies were made under the supervision
of Paul H. Hanson, acting chief engineer
of the State Board of Health.

This report forms a substantial vol-
ume of 290 pages, well printed with num-
erous tables, charts and illustrations.
The first quarter of the report is a general
comparison, discussing the organization
of the municipal departments, the equip-
ment and methods of collecting city
wastes, the quantities of waste materials
and the methods of final disposal. An
appendix, forming three fourths of the
volume, gives a more detailed descrip-
tion of the methods of collection and
disposal in the several cities.

A useful index is printed at the end
of the report; but there is no table of
contents.

Wisconsin. — The July, 1912, issue of
The Municipality, published by the
League of Wisconsin IMunicipalities, is
a special garbage collection number.
It includes papers on garbage collection
in Wisconsin, bj' the municipal reference
bureau of the University of Wisconsin,
refuse collection and collection in the
United States, a list of books on garbage
collection, a number of articles on gar-
bage wagons and a short account of gar-
bage disposal in Berlin, Germany.

REPORTS AND DOCUMENTS

171

Public Utilities.— Professor E. W.
Bemis' report on the investigation of the
Chicago Telephone Company was sub-
mitted to the council committee on gas,
oil, and electric light on October 25, 1912^
This is the most exhaustive investiga-
tion thus far made of trhe various items
of expense per unit in the telephone bus-
iness, and has been made with the active
cooperation of the telephone company.
The conclusions reached are that a re-
duction of $700,000 in the charges of this
company within the citj^ of Chicago ap-
pears reasonable. But no attempt is
made in this report to distribute this
reduction among the different classes of
service.

Municipal Lighting for Rockland,
Mass., by William Plattner, makes com-
parisons of the cost of municipal lighting
in seventeen Massachusetts towns, with
an average cost of $1.42 per capita,
for distributing nearly five times the
amount of light for which Rockland pays
88 cents per capita.

The commissioners of accounts of New
York City have published, under date of
August 30, 1912, a report on an investi-
gation of the accounts of the municipal
ferries. This shows a net loss to the
city of $6,625,606 for the period of mu-
nicipal operation, a little over six years.
Attention is however called to the fact
that the former owners of the Staten Is-
land ferry were not able to make it pay;
and that municipal operation was es-
tablished to provide transportation fa-
cilities for that part of the city.

Philadelphia Finances. — Under date
of August 1, the city controller of Phil-
adelphia submitted to the city councils
the annual statement showing estimates
of receipts and expenditures for 1913,
and also comparative statements show-
ing the financial condition of the city
as of January 1 and July 31, 1912, and
statements showing the results of oper-

92.

' See National Munictpal Review, vol. 1, p.

ations for the seven months ending at
the latter date.

On September 18, g,n advisory com-
mittee on municipal finance, appointed
by Mayor Blankenburg, reported to the
mayor an analysis of the financial situa-
tion of the city. This estimated the
operating revenues for 1912 at $28,852,806,
and the operating expenditures at $31,-
818,698, leaving an estimated shortage
in the operating account of $2,965,892.
Such a shortage is said to have been
habitual, at least since the year 1905;
while the narrow margin now left in the
city's borrowing capacity makes it im-
possible to continue the policy of cre-
ating long term loans to provide funds
for operating expenses, if even a few of
the most pressing improvements are to
be prosecuted.

The committee recommends the as-
sessment of real estate at its value sci-
entifically determined, that the tax rate
be fixed at a figure to provide revenue for
operating purposes, and borrowing
should be limited to procuring funds
for necessary public works.

German Municipal Statistics.^The

eighteenth volume of the Statistisches
Jahrbuch Deutscher Stddte, following the
general plan of former volumes, includes
twenty-nine sections or chapters, each
presenting the statistics on some phase
of municipal conditions in cities of over
50,000 population. Most of the separate
topics appear in each number of the
yearbook; but the present volume con-
tains data on several subjects which have
not usually appeared — including police
statistics, data on the personnel of munic-
ipal administration, and a financial sum-
mary.

In thirty of the eighty cities, there
is a force of state police, including two-
thirds of the cities with over 200,000 pop-
ulation. The largest cities with a munic-
ipal police force are: Chemnitz, Dussel-
dorf, Essen, Leipzig and Stuttgart.

From the financial summary, the sta-
tistics below show the total receipts

72

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

and expenditures of some of the larger
cities for the year 1908:

Munich

Brcslau

Cologne

Frankfort on the Main
Dusseldorf

TOTAL
RECEIPTS

marks

100,777,517

50,950,433

102,888,615

103,449,386

57,627,247

TOTAL

EXPENDI-
TURES

marks

98,804,213
51,354,728
82,905,337
103,449,386
57,811,519

City Planning. — The report o' the
Massachusetts metropolitan planning
commission in January 1912, recommend-
ed the creation of a metropolitan plan-
ning board to collect the data for a
metropolitan plan through a systematic
consultation with all the local authori-
ties. An appendix includes a brief dis-
cussion of the advantages of metropolis
tan planning, notes on the success of
city planning elsewhere and a selected
bibliography on city planning.

First place is given to city planning
in the twenty-fourth annual report of
the City Parks Association of Philadel-
phia. The report includes a number of
illustrations, and a small map of the
existing parks of Philadelphia and the
proposed greater park system.

A joint report on a comprehensive
system of passenger subways for the
city of Chicago, by the harbor and sub-
way commission and a sub-committee
of the council committee on local trans-
portation, was presented to the full com-
mittee under date of September 10, 1912.
This includes a map of the routes rec-
ommended and a discussion of the en-
gineering features and the financial plan.

♦

County Officers.— Report No. 1 of an
efficiency series begun by the Munic-
ipal Association of Cleveland, Ohio, pres-
ents the results of an investigation of
the sheriff's office in Cuyahoga County.
This recommends some readjustment of
positions and salaries and a change in the

arrangements for feeding prisoners in
the county jail. The changes in the
office force and salaries would effect a
saving of $4000 a year. The payments
to the sheriff for feeding prisoners dur-
ing the preceding four years are said to
have been $32,000 in excess of the actual
cost for food and service.

Coroner P. M. Hoffman, of Cook
County, Illinois has issued a brief report
showing the work of his office for the
years 1907 to 1911 inclusive. The follow-
ing summary of totals will be of interest :

Year

Total
Inquests

Natural
Causes

a
g

8

s

S
o

w

Suicides

Other
Causes

1907

4,237
4,214
4,604
4,895
5,056

1,596
1,622
1,722
2,014
1,956

947

798

900

1,245

1,195

186
172
176
203
221

407
535
476
489
523

1,101

1,087

1,264

944

1908

1909

1910

1911

1,116

The report discusses the increase in
the number of accidents and homicides
and means of reducing the most frequent
classes of accidents.

Cleveland Chamber of Commerce. —

The annual report for the year ending
April 9, 1912, is an admirable illustration
of the interest in municipal affairs by
business organizations. Much the larger
part of this report deals with the work
of a series of committees on municipal
problems — including committees on mu-
nicipal art and architecture, street
railway franchises, public recreation, i
housing conditions, smoke prevention,
civil service, public safety, municipal
courts, city finances, and legislation.
The committee on city finances submit-
ted to the state auditor a set of standard
accounts for use in the Mayor's annual
budget, appropriation ordinances and
city books. The committee on legisla-
tion urged favorable action on the pro-
posal in the Constitutional Convention

462.

' See National Municipal Review, vol. I, p.

REPORTS AND DOCUMENTS

173

providing home rule for Ohio cities.
Some indication of the active work of
this organization may be gained by
noting that during the year there were
684 meetings of the chamber, and its
directors, boards and committees.

City Club of Chicago.^Its numerous
activities are set forth in the annual re-
ports of the civic committees, published
in the City Club Bulletin for September
28, 1912. The report of the civic sec-
retary, to the annual meeting in April,
showed that the 23 committees had held
a total of 300 meetings during the year.
Important work was done by the com-
mittees on public education ;i harbors,

wharves and waterways; and lighting
and telephone service.

Citizens Association of Chicago. ^The

thirty-eighth annual report gives a brief
summary of the work of this organiza-
tion, notably in preventing and exposing
illegal voting and investigating methods
of garbage disposal.

Cambridge (Mass.) Taxpayers Asso-
ciation.— The third annual report renews
the recommendations of former reports
for a scientific assessment of real estate
and a complete revision of the city char-
ter.

'■ See National Munictpal Review, vol 1, p. 457.

DEPARTMENT OF REPORTS AND

DOCUMENTS

11. BIBLIOGRAPHICALi
Edited by Miss Adelaide R. Hasse

Chief of the Division of Documents, New York Public Library

General

Adelaide, South Australia. Chamber
of Commerce. Annual report (62d).
1912. 131 p. illus. 8°.

Very useful as an Industrial and commercial guide.

London Municipal Society for the
Promotion of Municipal Reform. The
metropolitan, city and borough councils:
their origin, constitution and duties.
1912. 48 p. 8°.

The Society whoso address Is 33 Tothlli Street.
S. W., London, Is conducting a campaign for the
maintenance of the present mntropolltan borough
system, In opposition to the Progressive Socialist
party which proposes the abolition of borough coun-
cils and their substitution by one central authority.
The above pamphlet is sold for 3d.

Monographien deutscher Stadte.
■ Darstcllung deutscher Stadte und ihrer
Arbeit in Wirtschaft, Finanzwesen, Hy-
giene, Sozialpolitik und Technik. Her-
ausgegeben von E. Stein, generalsekre-
tar des Vereins fiir Kommunalwirtschaft
und Kommunalpolitik. Bd. 1. Neu-
kolln. 1912. 158 p. illus. 4°.

A most useful and attractive volume comprising
a popular display of the various activities of the city.
Four similar volumes have been Issued, dealing resp.
with Dflsseldorf, Chemnitz, Posen and Dresden.
These were Issued as special parts of the Zeltschrift
fQr Kommunalwirtschaft und Kommunalpolitik.

Newark, N. J. Board of education.
Municipal civics leaflets, 1-27. 1912.

> The Editor of the National Municipal Re-
view is happy to be able to announce that he will
answer to the extent of his ability any questions
lequlrlng documentary research. He Is able to
make this announcement through the cordial co-
operation of Mise Haase, who has expressed her
willingness to make the bibliography department
a llbrar>- service department for the National
Municipal Review. All communications must be
addreseod to the editor of the National Municipal
Review, North American Bulldlnc, Philadelphia.

No. 1. The public school system of Newark
4 p. No. 2. The Essex County park system, 4 p.
No. 3. The police department of Newark, 4 p. No.
4. The fire department of Newark, 4 p. No. 5.
Municipal civics; Problems of transportation and
their solution, 7 p. No. 6. Newark geography, 4 p.
No. 7. Same, chap. 2, 3 p. No. 8. Same, chap. 3,
20 p. No. 9. Patriotism, 5. p. No. 10. Playgrounds,
3 p. No. 11. Milk supply, 4 p. No. 12. Transporta-
tion, 7 p. No. 13. Newark city government, 5 p.
No. 14. Same, outline, 6 p. No. 15. Noise In cities,
3 p. No. 16. Shade trees and parks, 4 p. No. 17,
Care of the Insane, 5 p. No. 18. Juvenile courts, 3
p. No. 19. Men and women of Newark, 22 p. No.
20. Literary landmarks of Newark, 4 p. No. 21.
Newark index, 52 p. No. 22. Municipal civics; Be-
ginnings of government, 5 p. No. 23. Municipal
civics; City planning, 6 p. No. 24. Municipal civ-
ics; Watersupply problem, 7 p. No. 25. Municipal
civics; Street paving, 6 p. No. 26. Municipal civ-
ics; Street cleaning, 6 p. No. 27. Municipal civics;
Sewage and Its disposal, 4 p.

Somerville, Mass. Board of trade.
Somerville, Mass. The beautiful city of
seven hills — its history and opportuni-
ties. 1912. 200 p. illus. 8°.

Syracuse, N. Y. Chamber of Com-
merce. Year Book. 1912-1913. 156 p.
illus. 8°.

Among the constructive efforts of the chamber
may be noted the steps which have been taken to-
ward organizing a remedial loan association.

Taylor, Frank H. and W. H. Schoff.
The port and citj^ of Philadelphia. Pre-
pared for the 12th International Con-
gress of Navigation. May, 1912. IGO p.
illus., map. 8°.

Union of Canadian Municipali-
ties. Annual convention held at Wind-
sor, August 27-28, 1912. (Canadian
Municip. Journ., October, 1912, p. 380-
414.)

Walsh, Richard J. Boston: a brief
description of the principal facts about
the city. Presented by the city of
Boston to the delegates of the Fifth

174

BIBLIOGRAPHY

175

International Congress of Chambers of
Commerce, etc. September, 1912. 78
p., map. illus. 8°.

Accounting

Frazer, George'E. Who can qualify
for governmental accounting. 1912. 16
p. 8°.

Mr. Frazer is of tlie Wisconsin state board of pub-
lic affairs. The above paper was presented at the
annual meeting of. the American Association of Pub-
lic Accountants, Chicago, September, 1912.

Building Construction

CoMEY, A. C. Maximum building
height regulations. (Landscape Archi-
tecture, October, 1912, p. 19-24.)

Illinois. Building laws commis-
sion. Proposed building law for the
State of Illinois. 1912. 74 p. 8°. Pre-
liminary report of a portion of the work
of the commission appointed by the
governor to revise and codify the build-
ing laws of Illinois.

Preliminary report of a portion of the work of
the commission appointed by the governor to re-
vise and codify the building laws of Illinois. Wm.
S. Stahl, 1109 Tacoma Building, Chicago, Is secretary
of the commission.

New' York City. Bureau of build-
ings, borough of Manhattan. Bulletins.
1912. No. 9. Rules for the inspection
of plastering. 2 p. No. 13. Rules and
regulations for plumbing and drainage,
water supply, gas piping and ventila-
tion of buildings. 5 leaves. No. 19.
Dumb-waiter shafts. 1 sheet. 4 .

It Is not the usual thing for this bureau to Issue
printed copies of its bulletins; they appear, however,
In the annual reports of the bureau.

City Planning

Abercrombie, Patrick. Brussels:
A study in development and town plan-
ning. (Town Planning Review, v. 3,
no. 2, July, 1912, p. 97-113.)

Sheffield under the town plan-
ning act. (Town Planning Review, v.
3. no. 2, July. 1912, p. 125-132.)

Dallas, Tex. A city plan for Dallas.
Prepared by George E. Kessler, land-

scape architect of St. Louis and Kansas
City. Report of the park board. 1912.
58 pp., maps, plans, illus. 4°.

Address: The park board, Dallas.

Hodgetts, C. a. Housing and town
planning. Pp. 130-148 i third annual
report of the commission of conserva-
tion of Canada. 1912. 8°.

Contains a synopsis of the active measures rela-
tive to housing and city planning taken by the larger
Canadian cities.

Lewis, Nelson P. How city plan-
ning bills are to be paid. (Amer. City,
July, 1912, p. 31.)

Montreal City Improvement
League. Third annual report (city
planning supplement) for the year end-
ing April 30, 1912. 28 p. 8°.

Mr. W. H. Atherton, 62 Beaver Hall Hill, Mon-
treal, Secretary. The League is actively engaged In
housing Improvement, city planning and a general
social survey.

Newarker (The), v. 1,
October, 1912, p. 189-203.

no.

12,

A Newark city planning number, relating espe-
cially to the development of the Newark meadows.

Olmsted, F. Law. Prim^ considera-
tion in town planning. (Canadian Mu-
nicip. Journ., September, 1912, p. 367-
371.)

A paper read at the first Canadian National Con-
gress on Housing and Town Planning, held at Win-
nipeg, July 15-17. A synopsis of the proceedings of
the congress is given In the same number.

Vivian, H. Co-partnership and gar-
den cities. (City Club of Chicago Bul-
letin, October 12, 1912, p. 281-289.)

WiLKiNS, W. G. English and conti-
nental town planning. (City CI b of
Chicago Bulletin, June 8, 1912, p. 248-
251.)

Commission Government

Bradford, E. S. Commission gov-
ernment and city planning. (Amer.
City, Augu t, 1912, p. 113.)

Ryan, Osw^ald. The real problem of
commission government. (Pop. Sci.
Monthly, September, 1912, p. 275-283.)

170

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

WicKETT, S. M. Municipal govern-
ment by c mmission. (Municipal World
August, 1912, p. 175-178.)

Civil Service

Goodwin, E. H. Need for an ade-
quate civil service law. (Amer. City,
September, 1912, p. 214.)

Municipal Association of Cleve-
land. The municipal Bulletin. Civil
service number. September, 1912. 18
p. 4°.

Work of the Cleveland civil service commission
— attitude of the administration — the pay-roll.

New York Citt. Municipal civil
service commission. Rules and classifi-
cation as prescribed and established
December 3, 1903, with amendments to
August 8, 1912. 144 p. 8°.

Electoral Reform

Catlett, Fred. W. The working of
the recall in Seattle. (Annals Amer.
Acad. Political and Soc. Science, Sep-
tember, 1912, p. 227-236.)

City Club of Chicago. The short
ballot in Illinois. Report of the short
ballot committee. October. 1912. 32 p.
8°.

The Club's address is 315 Plymouth Court, Chi-
cago.

Municipal Association of Cleve-
land. The necessity of the short ballot
in Ohio. The most vital and urgent
reform before the electorate of Ohio.
October, 1912. 14 p. 8".

New York City. Report on a special
examination of the activities of the
board of elections in relation to the prim-
ary election of March 26, 1912. 12 p
12°.

Published by the commissioner of accounts.
Excess Condemnation

Warner, John De Witt. Report on
scope and limits of expropriation. "In-
cidental" vs. "P]xcess" condemnation.
May, 1912. 30 p. 8°.

Report was made as special counsel to the com-
missioner of docks and ferilcs of New York City.
It is No. 19 of the department's numbered series of
publications.

Exhibitions

DiJssELDORF, Germany. Katalog der
Stadte Ausstellung Diisseldorf. 1912.
Auflage 2. 332, 106 p., maps. 8°.

Fiihrer durch die gruppe II.

Einrichtungen fur die Gesundheit. 1912.
144 p. illus. 8°.

Ferries

See "Public Utilities."

Finance

Bridgeport, Conn. Charter amend-
ments and bond issues. What they are
and what they are for. Published for
the enlightenment of the voters with a
view of obtaining an intelligent expres-
sion at the polls. 1912. 7 leaves. 2
maps. 8°.

Address: The Mayor.

Pasadena, Cal. Annual report of
the auditor for the fiscal year ending
June 30, 19 2. 100 p. illus. 8°.

D. D. Kellogg, city auditor. A very compre-
hensive report. In addition to the matter natur-
ally to be found there is a summary of the work of
the various city departments and cuts of public
works in course of construction, among them one
of the incinerator and the 1470-foot bridge across
the Arroyo Seco.

Philadelphia. Mayor's message
with suggestions and recommendations
for increasing the current revenues and
borrowing capacity of the city. Pre-
sented September 19, 1912.

Upson, Lent D. Sources of munici-
pal revenues in Illinois. September,
1012. 12G p. .8°. (University of Illi-
nois Studies in the Social Sciences, vol. 1,
no. 3.)

Fire Regulation

See above the "General" group, under Newark.

Garbage
See " Refuse Disposal."

BIBLIOGRAPHY

177

Housing Reform

See also above "City Planning of Fall River,"
under Montreal.

Aronovici, Carol. Housing condi-
tions in Fall River. Report prepared
for the Associated Charities of Fall
River Housing Committee. September,
1912. 29 p. iilus. 8°.

The committee raised a fund of S500 and engaged
the services of the Bureau of Social Research of New
England to carry on the work. The Investigation
was started oo February 1 and lasted for six weeks.
In all 279 buildings were examined. These buildings
contained 1171 apartments with a population of 5980
persons or 5 per cent of the population of Fall River.

Reich, Emmy. Der Wohnungsmarkt
in Berlin von 1840-1910. Munich and
Leipzig, 1912. 160 p. 8°.

Staats und sozialwissenschaftliche Forschungen.
Heft 164. ■

Union Relief Association of
Springfield, Mass. Report of housing
committee. October, 1912.

The report made jointly by the committee and
Carol Aronovici was printed in full in The Spring-
field Union of October 5, 1912.

Juvenile Courts

See above the "General" group, under Newark.

Labor Conditions

McPherson, John Bruce. The Law-
rence strike of 1912. Boston, 1912. 46
p. 8°.

Lighting Companies

See "PubllcUtillties."

Loan Offices

See also above under the " General" material
under Syracuse.

Brooks, Franklin. Report to Dis-
trict Attorney Charles S. Whitman on
work of usury bureau. 39, 6 folios.

The usury bureau was established in the office
of the district attorney of New York County In
July, 1912. The present report was made In the fol-
lowing November by Franklin Brooks, a member of
the state legislature representing the seventeenth
assembly district. It relates to the operations of
loan sharks in New York City and the methods

taken for their suppression. While the report is still
in manuscript it has been made public.

Markets

How Des Moines Solved the High
Cost of Living. (Civic Progress. Au-
gust, 1912.)

Relative to the public market of Des Moines.

King, Clyde Lyndon. A. study of
trolley lighl freight service and Philadel-
phia markets in their bearing on the cost
of farm produce. Made under the direc-
tion of Rudolph Blankenburg, mayor.
October, 1912. 58 p. 8°.

The report, which is published by the depart-
ment of public works, is a preliminary study to
find out whether a program can be adopted by the
city that will lower the cost of getting country pro-
duce from farmers to Philadelphia consumers, the
purpose being to furnish data upon which a munic-
ipal policy might be formulated. In showing the
rise of prices from producer to consumer it is revealed
that the latter pays from 67 per cent to 266 per cent,
with an average of 136 per cent, more than the pro-
ducer receives. The volume includes a discussion
of the effect on prices of certain statutes, ordinances
and licenses, the full text in each case being given.

New York State. Report of the
committee on markets, prices and costs
of the New York state food investigat-
ing commission. 1912. 76 p. 1 map.

Nuremberg, Germany. Statistisches
Amt. Zur Frage der Fleischversorgung
mit besonderer Beriicksichtigung Niirn-
berger Verhaltnisse. 1912. -109 p., 15
leaves. 8°. (Mitteilungen, Heft 3.)

Tompkins, Calvin. A report on
wholesale terminal markets at the port
of New York. Submitted to the New
York food investigation commission.
1912. 21 p., 1 map. 8°.

Mr. Tompkins is commissioner of docks of New
York City, and the above report is no. 20 of the num-
bered series Issued by the dock commissioner.

Municipal Forestry

New York State College of For-
estry at Syracuse University. Press
bulletins. A successfully managed city
forest in New York. Syracuse main-
tains the first commercial forest devoted
entirely to the production of trees as a

178

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

forest croj). A course in city forestry
offered by the New York State College
of Forestry at Syracuse University.

Tlio build Ins were reloasod for pulillcatlon on
Noveiiibor 25, 1912. The College of Forestry has
also outlined a four year course leading to the posi-
tion of city forester. It Is believed that these trained
city foresters will accomplish a great work In the
future.

Municipal Home Rule

Commonwealth Club of ('alifornia
(Transactions, v. 7, no. 4, October, 1912.)
Home rule in taxation, p. 375^60. 8°.

In 1911 the board of governors of the Club ordered
that a permanent committee on taxation be formed
to observe and report on the workings of the new
state t.ix system. The problem of "home rule," or
local option, In taxation was brought before the com-
mittee by a constitutional amendment proposed by
petition for vote at the election of November 5, 1912.
The above noted number of the Transactions con-
tains the text of the discussions at various meetings
of the committee on taxation during August and
September, 1912. A very useful appendix contains
a chapter respectively on the local government rev-
enues in California, a report by George T. Klink on
the Vancouver system of taxation with a compara-
tive statistical table, 1886-1911, and a report by A.
B. Xye opposed to the proposed abolishment of the
poll tax in California.

Fuller, A. M. Efficiency in city gov-
ernment. The general manager plan. 9
p. 8°.

An address delivered before the adjourned meet-
ing of the allied civic bodies committee held at Har-
rlsburg, October 2, 1912.

Municipal Association of Cleve-
land. A home rule charter for Cleve-
land. Address by Mayo Fesler, secre-
tary, before the Council of Sociology,
Cleveland, October 14, 1912. 20 p. 8°.

Municipal Government Associa-
tion OF New York State. What we
did in less than one year. October. 1912.
9 p. 8°.

Home rule for cities. Since

everybody believes in it, why don't we
have it? Address by Robert S. Binkerd
to the third annual conference of mayors,
at Utica, June 10, 1912. 11 p. 8°.

Home rule memorial submitted

to Utica conference of mayors on behalf
of Municipal Covernment Associations
of Now York State. 1912. 7 p. 8°.

Business Men's League of St. Louis.
Home rule for St. Louis. Three bills for
the government of the police, elections
and excise departments of the city, to be
submitted to the Legislature of Missouri.
12 folios. 4°.

The bills wore written by Mr. Ciiarles W. Bates,
formerly city counselor of St. Louis, and the pub-
lication described above Is a diftest of their contents,
prepared by Mr. Bates.

Museums, etc.

Prague, Bohemia. Kunstgewer-
blicher Museum der Handels-und gewer-
bekammer in Prag. Bericht des Kura-
toriums fur das Verwaltungsjahr 1911.
1912. 30, 28 p. 8°.

Ordinances

Great Britain. Local government
Board. Model by-laws. Series IV. (a).
Rural district councils. New buildings
and certain matters in connection with
buildings. 1912. 19 leaves. f°.

Series IV. (b.) By-laws with

respect to drainage of existing buildings.
1912. 7 pages, f °.

Series IV. By-laws with re-
spect to new streets and buildings. 1912.
43 leaves. f°.

Texas. State insurance board. A
fire marshall ordinance (advisory) issued
by the board. 1912. 4 p. 8°.

Moving picture machine booth.

Requirements for construction and equip-
ment, (advisory) 1912. 1 sheet.

An ordinance regulating the

construction and operation of electric
theatres (advisory) 1912. 1 sheet.

An ordinance regulating the

storage and handling of gasolene or other
volatiles (advisory) 1912. 1 sheet.

An ordinance to regulate the

keeping and storage of calcium carbide
within the city (advisory). 1912. 2
sheets.

Parks

See also above the " General" group under New-
ark; also above "Municipal Forestry."

Bronx Park Commission. Report
of the commission organized under ch.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

179

594 of the laws of 1907. 1912. 38 p.
illus., 2 maps in pocket. 8°.

Thr proposed Bronx parkway extends from New
York City into adjoining Westchester County and
has been discussed ever since 1895 when the first
commission to Inquire into the reclamation of
Bronx R iver was appointed.

CoTTERiLL, R. The parks, play-
grounds and boulevards of Seattle.
(Amer. City, September. 1912, p. 204.)

Wheelwright, Robert. The ap-
pointment and powers of park commis-
sioners. A comparison of Chicago, New
York and Hudson county. (Landscape
Architecture, October, 1912, p. 25^0.)

Police

See also above the "General" group under New-
ark; also below Port development under New York
City.

Brooks, Sydney. Problem of the
New York police. (Nineteenth Cen-
tury, October, 1912, p. 687-700.)

Chief Constable's Association of
Canada. Official report of the seventh
(Canadian Municip. Journ., July, 1912,
p. 257-262.)

Police pensions; society's obligation to the dis-
charged prisoner.

Russell, Capt. John H. Report on
the Bridgeport police department. Au-
gust 28, 1912. 16 p. 8°.

Population

Bavaria. Statistisches Landesamt.
Bayern und seine Gemeinden unter dem
Einfluss der Wanderungen wahrend der
letzten 50 Jahre. Miinchen, 1912. iv.
302, 264 p. 4°.

Comprises Heft 69 of the "Beltrage zur Statistlk
des Konigreichs Bayern." This very minute study
Is occasioned by the alarming depletion of the popu-
lation of Bavaria, caused both by high infant mor-
tality and by emigration. While not entirely treated
as a city problem much careful work has been done
on the question of urban migration, both as to its
causes and its effect on the food producing element.
The textual part of the report closes with a chapter
on the influence which changes in the population
have on the taxing power of cities. A similar study
on the relation of the migratory population to the
taxes is entered below under taxation.

Schott, Sigmund. Die grossstadti-
schen agglomerationen des deutschen
Reichs 1871-1910. Breslau, 1912. 130
p. 8°.

Heft I of Schriften des Verbandes der deutschen
Stadtestatistiker. Dr. Schott is Professor of Statis-
tics at the University of Heidelberg. The Germans
apply the term " Gross-stadt" to cities of 100,000
population or over. This very suggestive study of
one of the most remarkable modern developments,
viz. the German city, will be useful to every agency
Interested in the dynamics of the urban movement.
In 1871 there were 8 German Grosstadte. In 1910
their number had increased to 48. Dr. Schott pre-
sents the progress of coagulation and its relation to
the process of redistribution viz. city building, or,
as he had modified the work, city bildung.

Port Development

Boulogne-sur-Mer. Chambre de
Commerce. Port de Boulogne. Notice
etablie a I'occasion de I'inauguration
du bassin Loubet. 1912. 50 p. illus.
1 map. 8°.

City Club of New York. Bulletin,
September-October, 1912. 2 leaves. 4°.

New York City police investigation — dental hy-
giene in the public schools — The freight terminal
problem of New York City.

Great Britain. Foreign Office. Re-
port on the economic development of
France in 1910 and 1911. London, 1912.
105 p. 8°. (Diplomatic and Consular
Reports, Annual series no. 5001.)

On p. 26-31 is given a very clear summary of the
operation of the act of January, 1912, establishing
administrative councils at the eight great French
ports, viz., Marseilles, Havre, Rouen, Dunkirk, Bor-
deaux, La Rochelle, Nantes and Cherbourg.

New York City. South Brooklyn
water front committee. Letter from the
president of the Bush Terminal Company
and report of the committee relative to
proposed control by the city of the Bush
Terminal Railway. (City Record, Octo-
ber 10, 1912, p. 8007-8012.)

Tompkins, Calvin. A comprehen-
sive plan and policy for the organization
and administration of the inter-state
port of New York and New Jersey. 1912
26 p., 1 map, 8".

No. 18 of the numbered series of reports issued
by the dock commissioner of New York City.

180

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REMEW

Public Health

Sec also below "Tuberculosis Suppression and
Vital Statistics."

BoLDMAN, Chaules F. A guidc to
some of the hygienic features of New
York City. Prepared for the fifteenth
International Congress on Hygiene and
Demography. September, 1912. 66 p.
8° (New York City. Health Department.
Monograph series no. 6.)

Kkkr, J. W., and A. A. Moll. Com-
mon drinking cups and roller towels.
An analysis or the laws and regulations
relating thereto in force in the United
States. 1912. 30 p. S° (U. S. Public
Health Service. Public Health Bulle-
tin 57.)

Organization, powers, and duties

of health authorities. An analysis of the
laws and regulations relating thereto in
force in the United States. 1912. 452p.
8°. (U. S. Public Health Service. Pub-
lic Health Bulletin 54.)

Includes municipal boards.

Liverpool, England. Report on the
health of the city of Liverpool during

1911. 288 p. maps, plates, 8°.

Report is made by E. W. Hope, M.D., the medi-
cal officer of health. The powers of the Liverpool
medical officer are most comprehensive, including
the housing, feeding, sanitation of the infant, young
and mature citizen, as well as refuse disposal, smoke,
abatement, lodging house, bake shop, factory in-
spection, etc. This report has a special return on
the number and varieties of bacteria carried by the
common housefly, illustrated with cuts and charts.

Public Utilities

See also above the " General" group, under New-
ark.

Bristol, England. Electricity de-
partment. Annual report and state-
ment of accounts at March twenty-fifth,

1912. 28 p. 8°.

Maintained by the city since 1883. Operations of
the year 1911-1912 resulted In a gross profit of £50,172.
Included in the report is a special report by Prof.
Lawrence R. Dlcksee on the management of the
reserve (for renewals) fund.

Chicago, HI. Committee on gas, oil,
and electric light. Report on the in-
vestigation of the Chicago Telephone
Company. By Prof. Edward W. Bemis,
October 25, 1912. 127 p. 8°.

Joint report on comprehensive

system of passenger subways for the
city of Chicago by the harbor and subway
commission and sub-committee of the
council committee on local transporta-
tion. September 10, 1912. 14 p., 1 map.
8°.

Dunn, S. O. The problem of the
modern terminal. (Scribner's Mag.,
October, 1912, p. 416^42.)

New York City. Commissioner of
Accounts. Report in the matter of the
investigation of the accounts of the mu-
nicipal ferries, operated by the depart-
ment of docks and ferries, city of New
York. August 30, 1912. 6 leaves, 6 fold-
ing tables. 4°.

New York State. Public service
commission, first district. Dual sys-
tem of rapid transit for New York City.
September, 1912. 54 p., illus.

Plattner, William. Report to the
municipal electric light investigating
committee of Rockland, Mass. 1912. 25

p. 8^

Mr. Plattner, a consulting engineer of North At-
tleborough, Mass., was employed by a special com-
mittee of the town of Rockland, to make an examin-
ation of the existing physical conditions and oper-
ating efficiency of the present property of the Electric
Light and Power Company of Abingdon and Rock-
land.

Richardson, W. S. The terminal —
the gate of the city. (Scribner's Mag.,
October, 1912, p. 401^16.)

"What is a Million Dollars to the
City of New York Anyway?" Letter
to the mayor of New York City by Dun-
can D. McBean. September 24, 1912.
94 p. illus. 4°.

Written by the originator of the French method
of constructing subaqueous tunnels. A review of
the building of the Harlem River Tunnel, New York
City, the first time the French method was used,
the Detroit River Tunnel and the Lexington Avenue
Harlem River Tunnel. A protest against alleged
extravagance In expenditures for public construction
works by the City of New York.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

181

Refuse Disposal

Municipality (The), v. 13, no. 1,
July 1912. Garbage collection number.
27 p. 8°.

Garbage collection In Wisconsin; refuse collection
In the U. S.; garbage wagons, etc.

New York Public Library. List of
works on city wastes and street hygiene.
(Bulletin of the Library, October, 1912,
p. 731-783.)

Schools

See also above the " General" group, under New-
ark.

London, England. The organization
of education in London. Printed for
the London County Council. 5th edi-
tion. 1912. 32 p. 8°.

Regulations made by the Council

with regard to the education service.
VIII. Management of public element-
ary day schools. August, 1912. p. 309-
391. 12°.

:Same. X. School attendance.

September, 1912. p. 431-441. 12°.

New York City. Board of educa-
tion. Report of a special committee ap-
pointed by the board in regard to the
teaching of shorthand in high schools.
2 leaves. 12°.

Report submitted to the com-
mittee on school inquiry of the board of
estimate and apportionment on the con-
dition and efficiency of public school
buildings of the city of New York by
Charles G. Armstrong. July, 1912. 68
p., illus. 8°.

An earlier print in the City Record was noted In
the October number of the Review.

Estimate and apportionment

board. Special report by the commit-
tee on school inquiry. October 31, 1912.
36 p. 4°.

On the report of Ernest C. Moore upon the or-
ganization and methods of the board of education
and functions of local boards. Dr. Moore's report
had not been published when this special report was
Issued, it is, however, at this time in press and will
be noted later.

Neukolln, Germany. Das Schul-
wesen Neukollns im Lichte der Hygiene.
Herausgegeben vom magistrat. 1912.
31 p. illus. 4°.

Especially useful to those Interested in the care
of backward and defective children. Neukolln is
the name which the ancient city of Rlxdorf was au-
thorized to adopt on January 27, 1912.

Philadelphia Public Education
Association. Thirtieth annual report,
1911-12. 32 p. 8°.

The Association at present has a membership of
1046. The report is an Inspiring record of civic help-
fulness. Address 1015 Witherspoon Building, Phil-
adelphia.

Sewage Disposai

See also above the " General" group, under New-
ark.

New York City. Metropolitan sew-
erage commission. Preliminary reports
on the disposal of New York's sewage.
IV. Study of the collection and disposal of
the sewage of the upper East River and
Harlem Division. July, 1912. 17 p.,
1 map. 8°.

Present sanitary condition of New

York harbor and the degree of cleanness
which is necessary and sufficient for the
water. Report of the metropolitan sew-
age commission of New York. August
1, 1912. 457 p. plates A-G. 4°.

Address: Metropolitan sewerage commission.

Smoke Abatement

• Flagg, Samuel B. City smoke ordi-
nances and smoke abatement. 1912. 55
p. 8° (U. S. Mines bureau. Bulletin
49.)

Since the fuel-testing Investigations were begun
by the government in 1904, and in some measure
because of them, a marked improvement has been
made In the smokeless burning of many fuels. This
advance has resulted partly from a desire to Improve
general power plant economy, but more largely from
a public demand for less smoke. The greatest ad-
vance has come and must continue to come through
the organized effort of city smoke departments, sup-
plemented by the active cooperation of citizens.
In connection with its fuel investigations the bureau
of mines has accumulated much information as to
smoke abatement activities in various cities. The
essential features of the infcrmation are presented

182

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

In the ul)ovo noted report. The substance of t}io
smoke ordinances of the 28 American cities having
over 200,000 population la given, and the text of the
smoke ordinances of ChlcaRO, Pittsburgh, Des
Moines, >rilwaukce and Los Angeles Is printed In
full.

MiLWAiKEE, Wis. Annual report of
the smoke inspector for 1911. 16 p. 8°.

Charles Pootke, Inspector. Office was created by'
chap. 21, General Ordinances of 1906.

Perkins, Geo. H. The international
smoke abatement exhibition held in Lon-
don, March and April, 1912. (Journ.
Amer. Socy. Mechanical Engrs., October
1912, p. 1543-1556.)

An Informal report to the trustees of the Lowell
Textile School who delegated the writer to attend
the conference held In connection with the exhibition.

Smoke Abatement League of Great
Britain. Text of a smoke abatement
bill, 1912. 4 p. S°.

Watt, Ernest. Smoke prevention.
(Public Health (London) October 1912,
p. 13-14.)

On a practical experiment in Partick, Scotland.

address of the Russell Sage Foundation Is 105 E.
22d Street, New York City.

Wheaton, H. H. Survey of Roches-
ter's Polish-town. (Cornmon Good of
Civic and Social Rochester, August 1912,
p. 11-15.)

Continued from an article In tlii'.TiuniHiy tin in bar.

Special Investigations

See also above "Housing Reforms," "Ix)an
Offices," "Markets," "Police" (under Russell! "Pub-
lic Utilities," Traffic Regulation" and "Schools."

Municipal Association of Cleve-
land. The sheriff's office. Report of
the investigation made by the Municipal
Association in the interest of economy
and efficiency. September, 1912. 26 p.
8°. (Efficiency series. Report no. 1.)

Weil, A. Leo. Argument (steno-
graphic report) for the Voters' League on
charges against Jos. G. Armstrong, di-
rector of department of public works,
September 30 and October 1, 1912, before
the city council of Pittsburgh. 100 p.

Social Surveys

See also above under "City Planning," under
Montreal.

Aronovici, Carol. The Newport
survey of social problems. Prepared for
the Newport survey committee. 1912.
59 p. 8°.

Burns, Allan T. Need and scope of
a social survey for Montclair, N. J.
September 25, 1912. 23 p. 8°.

The report Is made to H. E. Fosdick, chrm. of
the Survey Committee, of Montclair.

Byington, Margaret F. What soc-
ial workers should know about their
own communities. Ed. 2, revised and
enlarged. 1912. 42 p. S".

Russell Sage Foundation. The
social survey. Papers by Paul W. Kel-
logg, Shelby M. Harrison, Geo. T. Palm-
er, Pauline Goldmark and Robt. E. Chad
dock. 1912. 62 p. 8°.

Reprinted from the proceedings of the Academy
of Political Science, vol. 2, no. 4, .July 1912. The

The address of the League is 1374 Fiick Annex,
Pittsburgh.

Argument (stenographic report)

for The Voters' League on charges
against John M. Morin director of de-
partment public safety, on October 4,
1912, before the city council of Pitts-
burgh. 78 p. 8°.

Streets

Seealsoabovethe "Generar'group, under New-
ark!

Gabelman, F. Roadway and lawn
space widths and maintenance of boule-
vards and streets in Kansas City, Mo.
(Amer. City., October 1912, p. 350.)

New York City. Report of the
mayor's committee on pavements. Ap-
pointed in October 1911, to investigate
and report on the present condition of
the pavements of the city and how they
can best be improved. March, 1912. 95
p. illus. 4°

BIBLIOGRAPHY

183

Street Railways

See "Public Utilities/

Subways

See "Public Utilities."

Taxation

Halle, A. S. Die gemeindeeinkom-
men steuerleistung von Zuzug und Fort-
zug in Halle a. S. Ein Abgleich der
steuerlichen Leistungsfahigkeit der Zu-
und Fortgezogenen. 1912. HI p. 8°.

Beitrage zur Statistik der Stadt Halle. Heft 19.
A study based on a card record for 1909 of 70,000 mi-
grants, of whom 15,500 were taxpayers. A chapter
on the influence which the migratory population
has on the taxing power of cities is Included in the
Bavarian report entered above under "Population."

New York City. Factors of value of
new buildings and explanation of land
value maps. 22 p. oblong 8°.

Published by the department of taxes and assess-
ments. The land value maps referred to are an an-
nual publication. In the issue for .913, Issued in
September, 1912, the unit of value is flexible and not
unalterable as was the case with former issues. This
innovation will enable the taxpayer to make a com-
parison with the assessment and value placed on the
property for taxation. In the case of former maps
the unit of value could not be changed whereas under
the new system the figures simply show the conclu-
sions of the appralseis.

Taxation of personal property in

the state of New York. 21 p. 8°.

Compiled by Edward L. Heydecker and pub-
lished by the department of taxes and assessments
of New York City.

Telephone Companies

See "Public Utilities."

Traffic Regulation

Cincinnati, O. Text of traffic ordi-
nance of September 3, 1912. (Citizens'
Bulletin September 7, 1912, p. 6.)

London Traffic. (London Munici-
pal Notes, no. 90, November, 1912, p.
489-506.)

Discussion In the London County Council on
October 15, on the subject of a central traffic author-
ity for London. The London Times of October 4,
15-16, 19, 23-25, publishes a series of notable articles
on the London traffic problem.

New York City. Report of the spec-
ial committee appointed by the rules
committee of the board of aldermen to
investigate the speed regulations of the
city together with a proposed ordinance.
July 9, 1912. (Proceedings, Board of
Aldermen, July 9, 1912, p. 156-163.)

Transportation

See "Public Utilities."

Tuberculosis Suppression

Billings, John S., Jr. The tubercu-
losis clinics and day camps of the depart-
ment of health. July, 1912. 123 p. 8°.
(New York City. Department of Health.
Monograph series no. 2.)

Vital Statistics

Berlin, Germany. Tabellen iiber die
Bevolkerungsvorgange Berlins im Jahre
1910. 1912. 4 p.l., 134 p. f°.

Published by the Statistlsches Amt of Berlin.
An annual publication and a model of municipal
vital statistics.

Water Supply

See also above the " General" group under New-
ark.

Philadelphia, Penn. A great in-
dustrial plant and its owners. Septem-
ber, 1912. 20 p.

Water supply educational series, booklet no. 1,
bureau of water, Philadelphia.

184

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

BOOK REVIEWS

The Regulation of IVIunicipal Utili-
ties. Edited by Clyde Lyndon King,
Ph.D. New York: D. Appleton and
Company, pp. ix-|-404, $1..50.

In the annual meetings of the National
Municipal League no subject has re-
ceived a larger share of attention than
the adequate control and regulation of
municipal utilities. The discussion of
this subject began with the first meeting
of the League in Minneapolis, in 1894,
when Edward W. Bemis presented a pa-
per on "Some Essentials of Good City
Government in the Way of Granting
Franchises," and it has continued almost
without interruption through all subse-
quent meetings down to that held in Los
Angeles during the past summer, when
papers were presented on "State versus
Municipal Regulation of Public Utili-
ties" and "Street Railway Franchises."
To go through this mass of material and
present the best there is in it to the
public in a thoroughly usable form was
no easy undertaking. This task Dr. King
has admirabh^ performed in his book,
which is the third in the series now being
published by the National Municipal
League for the purpose of making avail-
able for the general public the great mass
of material heretofore to be found only in
the published proceedings of the annual
meetings.

The author divides his subject into
five parts. Part I, which is introductory,
discusses the need for public regulation
and the relative value of regulation and
municipal ownership, and closes with an
account of the Minneapolis gas settle-
ment as a typical struggle between the
modern city and the corporations in-
tended to minister to the wants of its
citizens. Part II is entitled "Regulation
Through Franchise," and as the title
suggests deals with the essentials of a
good franchise and the necessity of a con-
structive policy in granting franchises.
"Regulation Through Municipal T^tility
Commissions" forms the subject of Part

III, which, after a discussion of the need
for utility commis.sions in general, gives
some of the results obtained by Munici-
pal utility commissions in Los Angeles,
Kansas City and St. Louis. Part IV
considers the regulation of public utili-
ties by state commissions, as distin-
guished from city commissions, and sum-
marizes in separate chapters the results
obtained in three typical states: Mas-
sachusetts with its three advisory com-
missions of the older type; New York
with its two strong commissions having
jurisdiction in different territorial divi-
sions of the state; and Wisconsin with its
single commission possessing vigorous
regulatory powers. Part V is very brief
and consists of a few pertinent conclu-
sions drawn from the preceding discus-
sions. A brief but well selected bibli-
ography and the index complete the
volume.

In the preparation of the volume Dr.
King has played the part of author as
well as editor. Six of the nineteen chap-
ters are from his pen and they are cer-
tainly not the least valuable parts of
the book. One will scarcely find the
reasons for public regulation of pub-
lic utilities more clearly and concisely
stated than the author has stated them
in the opening chapter. In his chapter
on "Municipal Ownership versus Ade-
quate Regulation" he appears as an
advocate of public ownership, not as an
end desirable in itself, but, in a way, as
a gun behind the door to be used when
necessary upon refractory utility corpor-
ations. If, however, our attempts at
regulation should ultimately prove in-
effectual, he would not hesitate to urge
public ownership, for he believes that .
the abuses of non-regulation are far
greater and more pernicious than the
evils of municipal ownership. "Only in
case these abuses of private ownership
can be abated, should the tendency to-
ward municipal ownership be checked."
The rest of the book is a search for means
and methods of abating these abuses, in

BOOK REVIEWS

185

order that public ownership with its at-
tendant evils may not be forced upon us.

In his chapter on "Franchise Essen-
tials," Dr. King reaches the following
among other conclusions: (l) That the
franchise term should be as short as is
consistent with profitable investment.
(2) That the indeterminate franchise
"has distinct merits over the definite term
franchise. (3) That proper extensions
and adequate service are more important
than financial compensation to the city.
(4) That the franchise should reserve to
the city and the state unrestricted pow-
ers of regulation and unhampered means
of franchise enforcement. (5) That pro-
vision should be made for an amortiza-
tion fund and for ultimate reversion to
the city. This chapter, supplemented
by Dr. Maltbie's careful summary of
New York City's franchise experience
and the excellent paper by Dr. Wilcox
on "A Constructive Franchise Policy,"
furnishes the reader with a fairly com-
plete view of the most recent conclusions
on what should go into a utility fran-
chise. As a still further aid in this direc-
tion there is presented the "Model Street
Railway Franchise," which was prepared
and presented at the Richmond Confer-
ence of the League, in 1911, by James
W. S. Peters, president of the City Club
of Kansas City, and Dr. Delos F. Wilcox,
chief of the bureau of franchises for the
public service commission for the first
district of New York-.

The author's presentation of the need
for utility commissions leaves little to
be desired, and he shows conclusively
that the problem can not be solved by
local commissions alone. There must be
state commissions with power to deal
with corporations that extend beyond
the jurisdiction of a single city, such as
interurban railways and long-distance
telephone and telegraph companies.
State commissions, too, are needed to
furnish help to the smaller cities, for to
them the expense of maintaining an effi-
cient utilities commission would be pro-
hibitive. The local commissions should
not be abolished, however, but should

be retained to deal with purely local
problems and to serve as supplements
to the state commissions, which the au-
thor regards as the essential agencies in
the work of regulation. He would con-
centrate power and responsibility in a
few hands and he would secure the best
possible talent for the commissions by
offering liberal salaries and relatively
long terms of service. "The attempt"
to quote directly, "to regulate million-
dollar corporations through men of wee
calibre is but another way of saying that
the million-dollar corporations may do
the regulating. The highly paid, well-
fed corporate expert must -be met with
a highly paid, highly equipped civic
expert. The commissioners themselves
need not be technical experts, but they
must be sufficiently trained to supervise
the most technical of experts. By this
method the community can protect itself
against the most cunning and greedy of
its serving concerns."

In conclusion, it may be said that the
book seems destined to prove a very
useful tool in the hands, not only of
students of municipal problems, but of
the men actually engaged in operating
the machinery of city government. It
is a distinct contribution to the litera-
ture of the subject with which it deals.

C. S. Potts.

The University of Texas.

*

The New City Government. By Henry
Bruere. New York: D. Appleton and
Company, $1.50, postpaid $1.62.

Every reformer knows within his heart
that his own reform is the one essential
and he endures with more or less secret
indulgence the other men who think that
theirs is the sine qua non. Without such
an undying inward spark of fanaticism
the enthusiasm of the promoters of bet-
terment schemes would all flicker out
before they could kindle the cold hearts
of mankind. But the average reformer
acquires, a bit unwillingly, a saving
sense of humor regarding his hobby and

isr.

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

manages to see good in other men's
efforts.

"The bureau of municipal research
crowd" have been a bit slow in finding
the aforesaid sense of humor and have
been in years past rather careless about
allowing the reformer's instinctive pro-
vincialism of spirit to develop in the
foAi of offhand and cocksure disparage-
ment of proposals advanced by other
thinkers.

It was with misgivings, therefore, that
we saw them sally out to see if this
much-praised commission government
would really stand expert investigation
of its administrative side. Now, com-
mission government has smashed a host
of old obstructions to clean politics and
has become for a time the most available
vehicle to carry us toward municipal
freedom. We knew it was not perfect,
but w'e knew it was a better and sounder
environment for municipal ideals than
the cumbersome, boss-ridden, machine-
managed complication of obscurities that
preceded it.

But how would it stand a broadside
of 1300 questions? Suppose they found
myriad shortcomings in these little west-
ern cities, reckoned by New York's latest
administrative standards — would they
recklessly exploit them in such fashion
as to furnish plausible ammunition for
every boss elsewhere who wanted to de-
fend his rotten citadel from invasion by
the new movement?

Well, they have come back and written
a book — Bru^re's The New City Govern-
ment— and it is my pleasant task to
record here the fact that although they
missed some of the biggest things in com-
mission government, they perceived much
good in the new plan and were exceed-
ingly careful to say nothing that could
be construed as opposition to the com-
mission government movement as such.

It has turned out to be not a book on
commission government at all, but a
study of ten cities, which happen to have
commission government, in comparison
point by point with the best standards
of the day. Any other ten cities would

have served as object lessons equally
well, and in fact the book would have
been a more helpful contribution if cities
of both the old and new tj^je had been
included. The latter scheme of study
might have happened to show up the
conunission cities as decidedly inferior
in administrative efficiency to the se-
lected examples of the old type — the
best work is not necessarilj^ produced
by the best tools — but the hope of Amer-
ica would still lie, for some years to come,
in the spread of commission government.

The real test of the success or failure of
a given sj^stem of government would be
not the answer to the question, "Are the
municipal accounts correctly planned?"
but the answer given when you ask —
"The current accounting system being
so inefficient as to cause widespread dis-
satisfaction among the people (provided
it does), does reform promptly ensue?"
It is of no scientific value to learn that
Dallas permits open vice in a segregated
district unless we also learn whether that
condition flourishes in the face of public
disapproval or receives general sanction.
Des Moines, on the other hand, is re-
ported practicall}^ viceless, but the "Re-
searchers" should have made sure that
a viceless town is what Des Moines really
wants to be. It might have been that a
few powerful citizens had forced virtue
on an unwilling electorate in which case
the clean conditions W'ould be an indict-
ment of the commission plan and not a
commendation.

However, some incidental light is cast
on these municipal governments as tools.
Many claims as to their real democracy
are proven sound and from the stand-
point of political science nothing ugly
or even disappointing, is disclosed. In
fact a reprint of certain pertinent chap-
ters would constitute an excellent piece
of propaganda literature for the com-
mission government movement.

There is an over-concentration upon
problems of administration as if these
city governments were mere business cor-
porations. They have examined the ad-
ministration of those towns and praised

BOOK REVIEWS

187

or censured in the light of what they
know an administration ought to be, and
the lesson of the book consequently is
that while commission government is
a success so far as it goes, it doesn't
and can't succeed without "municipal
research." Very true. And other
reformers, coming to ten commission
governed cities after the "Municipal
Researchers" had gotten them all fixed
up would say that commission govern-
ment doesn't and can't succeed without
proportional representation or single
tax or socialism. It depends on what
"succeed" means and the only standard
for success is the eagerness and com-
pleteness wherewith the government
conforms to the local popular demands.

For the commission government move-
ment is not a movement toward efficient
government or good government — but
toward bossless, politicianless, popular
government, a pre-requisite to estab-
lishing the former on any lasting basis.
And since that point did not loom large
in the philosophy of the municipal re-
searchers, their report gives disappoint-
ing! 5^ little data on commission govern-
ment's main claim for consideration.
They observed the commonplace collars
and traces of these new goverimients
instead of the new bridles and reins.

Accordingly, the real interest and
value of the book — and it is interesting,
and it is valuable — lies in the illuminat-
ing make-up of their examination paper
with its suggestive implications rather
than in the answers given by the ten
cities. Richard S. Childs.

New York.

*

Sewage Disposal. By George W. Ful-
ler. New York: McGraw-Hill Book
Company. $5.

Practical Methods of Sewage Dis-
posal FOR Residences, Hotels and
Institutions. By Henry N. Ogden
and H. Burdett Cleveland. New
York: John Wiley and Sons. SI. 50.

Rarely does a book appear which deals
so thoroughly with a large and complex

technical subject as does Mr. Fuller's
Sewage Disposal. More remarkable still
the volume, while addressed primarily to
engineers, chemists and bacteriologists
having to do with sewage disposal, may
be readily followed by any layman of
fair intelligence who through official
position or interest in one of the most
trying problems of modern sanitation
has occasion to inform himself as to
various current methods of getting rid
of sewage. The success of the author in
meeting the large task which he under-
took needs no explanation to those fa-
miliar with his quarter-century of close
experimental and practical studies of
his subject. These began at the Law-
rence Experiment Station of the Massa-
chusetts State Board of Health, of which
Mr. Fuller was for some time Director,
and have been continued as a consulting
engineer and sanitarian who has directed
many other experiments, as well as the
building of many of the most important
water and sewage purification plants in
this country.

Added to this Mr. Fuller is a facile and
lucid writer, so that what flows from his
pen has not onlj^ the authority of knowl-
edge and experience but also the grace
and clearness of good literary style.

This is not the place, nor is space avail-
able here, to enter into a detailed consid-
eration of the contents of Mr. Fuller's
book. Suffice it to say that it deals at
length and authoritatively wuth the
composition of sewage, and with the
chemistry and bacteriology of sewage
and of sewage disposal methods; with
the problems of sewage disposal in re-
lation to general nuisances, to public
water supplies and to health; and with
the different means of sewage disposal,
including disposal by dilution, and by
all the many methods now in general
use or which promise to come into use
in the near future. Under disposal by
dilution, or by discharge into water,
which Mr. Fuller, in common with other
well-posted engineers and sanitarians,
considers perfectly legitimate when
properly controlled, inland streams,

188

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

lakes, tidal estuaries and the ocean are
separately considered. The chapters on
preliniinarj^ or preparatory treatment,
sucli as may be required prior to disposal
by dilution or before subjecting the
sewage to a more or less high degree of
final treatment, take up screens, septic
tanks (including the Travis and Imhofif
"two-story" tanks), chemical precipita-
tion tanks and electrolytic treatment.
The final processes considered embrace
filtration or oxidation, by means of slow
sand, sprinkling or percolating, and con-
tact filter beds; also aeration, as well
as hypochlorite and ozone disinfection.
There is also a brief chapter on small
plants, for treating the sewage of resi-
dences and institutions.

By means of frequent references, con-
densations and oftentimes quite exten-
sive extracts, the author brings to the
reader a large amount of information
from many scattered sources, all properly
correlated with his own expository and
critical remarks. The illustrations are
few, compared with many other books, but
thej^ are well chosen and well rendered.
Most of the chapters close with a brief
r6sum6, which is one of the best features
of the book. There is a full index.

Mr. Fuller's book is concerned with
underlying principles and with what
may be expected from their application,
rather than with the actual engineering
details of design and construction, al-
though considerable attention is given
to many of the elements of design.
Throughout, the volume presents and
interprets data impartially and judi-
cially, but with no uncertainty where
finality of opinion seems to be war-
ranted. It is these features of the book,
together with its clearness of exposition
and its freedom from technicalities,
where these can be awarded without
"writing down," which make the book
promise so much for the health officer,
the physician and the layman and state
official who wishes the latest authorita-
tive information on sewage disposal.

Finally, the book may well be urged
upon the attention of all those whose
interest in measures to prevent water

l)()llution has but lately been aroused,
but who have not yet had or taken time
to inform themselves upon the real
nature and complexity of the sewage
disposal problem, both in itself and in
its relation to water supplies, the public
health and the public purse.

The relatively small book by Profes-
sor Ogden and Mr. Cleveland appears to
have been prepared to meet the present
large demand for practical information
on the design and construction of small
sewage treatment plants for a single
building or a small group of buildings.
After a brief introduction, in which the
problem of sewage treatment and the
essentials to its solution are set forth,
the authors take up settling tanks, valves
and siphons, sub-surface irrigation, the
various types of filters, broad irrigation
and cost estimates. Little is said about
sprinkling or percolating filters, which
the authors do not regard as well suited
for small installations.

The drawings presented are unusually
clear and suggestive. The text is, 'as a
rule, well calculated to inform the non-
technical class of readers for whom the
book is more particularly intended. Its
contents might well aid in laying out
works for a small village or group of
isolated houses.

Doubtless the authors did not intend
their book to be of the every-man-his-
own-engineer class, for they of course
realize that even the owner of a single
house would, in 99 cases out of 100, save
money and much trouble by engaging
an engineer to design sewage treatment
works for him. But many laymen find
themselves in a position where such a
book as this would be of great help to
them, even if they finally called in an
engineer. M. N. Baker.

Montclair, N. J.

*

The Milk Question. By M. J. Roscnau.
Boston and New York: Houghton-Mif-
flin Company. $2 net.

Originally delivered at Northwestern
University as "The N. W. Harris Lec-
tures" for 1912 the contents of this

BOOK REVIEWS

189

volume comprise a scientific, compre-
hensive, scholarly and up-to-date ex-
position of the milk problem in its rela-
tion to public and private health. The
viewpoint, naturally, is that of hygiene
and sanitation, but the economics of the
subject and fair play for milk producers
and sellers are repeatedly brought to
the front.

After an introductory chapter the au-
thor takes up, with much detail, milk as
food, dirty milk, the diseases caused
by infected milk (tuberculosis, typhoid
fever, scarlet fever, diphtheria, septic
sore throat, etc.), clean milk and pas-
teurization. Then comes a brief chap-
ter on infant mortality. The conclud-
ing chapter, "From Farm to Consumer,"
considers the farmer and the price of
milk, the sanitary phases of milking the
cow, the middleman, the care of milk in
the household (an important but gener-
ally overlooked matter) milk grades,
milk standards, various milk products,
preservatives and many other subjects.
A reference list of sixty-five entries and
a good index complete the volume.

In his opening paragraph Professor
Rosenau well says that the milk question,
although "only one small part of the
pure-food problem," which "in turn is
only one chapter in the great book of
hygiene and sanitation," is really a
broad and deep question, and one which
"pervades the whole domain of preven-
tive medicine and touches many eco-
nomic and social forces." In this spirit
has the book before us been written.
The solution of the milk problem, as
expressed in the closing paragraphs of
the book, is as follows:

To keep milk clean, we need inspection.
To render milk safe, we need pasteuriza-
tion.

Inspection goes to the root of the prob-
lem. Through an efficient system of
inspection, the milk supply should be
cleaner, better, fresher and safer. In-
spection, however, has limitations. These
limitations may be guarded against by
pasteurization.

A milk supply, therefore, that is both
supervised and pasteurized is the only
satisfactory solution of the problem.

Better than inspection and pasteuriza-
tion, for infants, is mother's milk. This
is well explained in the text and forcibly
illustrated by a "Long and Short Haul"
drawing. The "Long Haul" shows a
long tube passing from a cow in a barn
through a dozen or more intermediate
stations, each with opportunity for
infection, before it reaches the baby's
bottle and then the baby itself. The
'Short Haul" can be guessed.

Thousands of lives and millions of
dollars would be saved if this book
could be given the wide circulation
and close attention which it deserves.
Members of health boards, family physi-
cians, milk producers, middlemen, and
dealers, and milk consumers of years
and discretion, would profit by close
study of the book. Women's Clubs in
particular might well make the volume
a subject for close study, to the end that
their members would constitute them-
selves one great army of milk inspectors
— for once the women insist on clean safe
milk and become willing to pay a reason-
able price for it the milk problem will
be well-nigh solved. M. N. Baker.

Montclair, N. J .

*

Majority Rule and the Judiciary.
By William L. Ransom. New York.
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1912. pp. xx,
183.

This little volume, by a well-known
member of the New York bar, contains
an interesting discussion of various mat-
ters connected with the recall of judges
and the place of the judiciary in a system
of popular government. While not an
extremist in his views upon these sub-
jects the author is in sympathy with the
proposals to make judges and even judic-
ial decisions subject to recall. He be-
lieves that a better adjustment in the
constitutional relation of the courts to
the law-making power is bound to come,
and this before very many years have
passed. It is his hope that such read-
justment may be secured without an
explosion such as might wreck the right-

190

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

fill piTstigo of the courts. The uutJior
contends th:it the Massachusetts policy
of permitting the romoval of judges by
a majority vote of the legishitiuc lias
impaired neither the indei)endence nor
the caliber of judges in that common-
wealth. Therein he has read the history
of IMassachusetts aright; but it is to be
remembered that in this matter the leg-
islature of the Bay State has developed
a tradition which seems to be quite as
strong as a constitutional prohibition;
for not once in the last thirty years has
Massachusetts recalled a judge from
office under this provision.

In discussing this whole matter of
judicial recall and in pointing so fre-
quently to the Massachusetts provision
for removal by legislative action there is
a point which Mr. Ransom and most
other writers on the subject seem to over-
look. That is the fact that this Massa-
chusetts arrangement was borrowed from
England where judges had long been
subject to removal from office by the
crown on an "address" from both houses
of parliament. But the genesis of this
provision in England is not to be found
in any endeavor to facilitate the removal
of j udges. On the contrary it was brought
into being by parliament in an endeavor
to render the tenure of judges more se-
cure, and to prevent their displacement
for other than the soundest reasons.

On most of the matters which he deals
with, Mr. Ransom is accurate as to his
facts and fair in his conclusions. He has
done us a* real service in making clear
just what supporters of that proposal
mean by 'the recall of judicial deci-
sions." The volume contains a spirited
introduction by Colonel Roosevelt.
William Bennett Munro.
Harvard University.

Handbook for Highway Engineers.
By Wilson G. Harger and Edmund A.
Bonney. New York: McGraw-Hill
Book Company.

The authors of this handbook, aided
by thin paper, good typography and

pre.sMWork have compressed into a real
"pocketbook" a mass of information
needed by engineers and contractors
engaged in road building. At the same
time thej^ have given many facts and sug-
gestions which would be useful to the
layman who wishes to post himself on
the design and construction of good
roads. The volume, however, is not
designed for laymen and a large part of
its contents would be of no use to most
of them. It is intended, the authors
state, for inexperienced as well as ex-
perienced road builders. The authors,
it may be added, are members of the
engineering staff of the New York state
department of highways and have drawn
largely upon data pertaining to the exten-
sive work of that department.

Without going far into the details of
the contents of the Handbook it may be
stated that it takes up, in order, grades
and alinement, road sections, drainage,
foundations and top courses for broken
stone roads, and the various materials of
construction, also surveys, office prac-
tice, cost data, and specifications. There
are many pages of tables — for earthwork
computation and for use in surveying and
like calculations.

The volume promises to be a valuable
addition to the rapidly growing list of
indispensable engineers' handbooks. It
is all the more welcome because it is the
first one to be published solely for the
benefit of the road engineer and con-
tractor. It should be understood that
city streets and pavements are not cov-
ered, except in so far as the various
types of water-bound and bituminous-
bound macadam are available for city
use. M. N. Baker.

Montclair, N. J.

Housing Problems in America. Pro-
ceedings OP THE J'lRST National
Conference on Housing. New York
City, 1911.

The proceedings of the first annual
conference on housing, now made avail-
able by the publication of this well-edited

BOOK REVIEWS

191

and printed volume, have a significance
apart from the topics discussed in the
very fact that this was the first confer-
ence of the sort. The president, Robert
W. DeForest, calls attention in his open-
ing address to the circumstance that the
bringing together of men and women
interested in this reform followed a half-
century of work and agitation, and was
the natural outcome of a spreading inter-
est in the subject and increasing con-
sciousness of its national scope. The
papers and discussions range from broad
and general subjects like city planning,
presented by Frederick Law Olmsted,
to severely practical details such as the
disposal of garbage and rubbish and the
abolition of the unsanitary privy vault.
The impression that they make upon
the reader might be expressed in the
words of the health officer of Hamilton,
Ontario: "I am delighted with every-
thing I have heard — it is so practical."
There is a notable absence of fads from
the discussion and through all is appar-
ent a healthy optimism, which neither
blinks unsatisfactory conditions nor
quails before them. A glance through
the list of delegates is equally encourag-
ing, as showing how widely representa-
tive they were, and how many agencies
for human betterment stand behind
them.

George Lynde Richardson.

Philadelphia.

*

Landscape Gardening Studies. By
Samuel Parsons. New York: John
Lane Company, paper boards, 6x85
inches; pp. 107, with many inserted
plates, $L50 net, postage 12 cents.

The high reputation of the author of
this book leads to expectations in respect
to its value which are not fully borne
out in its examination. The preface,
for instance, quite adequately outlines
the work of the landscape architect, as
might be expected, but it is followed at
once by a chapter on the intimate detail

of lawn-making, which is, even if admir-
able in its detail, simply a gardening
essay. So, too, the first page of a chap-
ter on evergreens introduces this subject
most adequately and practically ends it,
save for a mere nursery list of species.
Throughout the book there is this con-
stant intrusion of the details of garden
work, which, while excellent in them-
selves and the result of a lifetime of
practical experience, do not seem to fit
the dignified and stated purpose of the
book.

There is a chapter on rhododendrons
which is a pleasing discussion of that
great plant family, but it is not a land-
scape gardening study, nor is the account
fully given in one chapter of Mrs. Russell
Sage's mile of rhododendrons in Central
Park, a landscape gardening study in the
true sense.

Much more to the point of the title
are the chapters describing St. Nicholas
and Coney Island parks in New York,
country places in Pennsylvania and Ala-
bama, and several "homestead" parks.
The long service of Mr. Parsons in the
sometimes arduous work of maintaining
Central Park in the heart of New York
City naturally colors his utterances, and
it is as a record of the difficulties sur-
mounted in that work that this little
volume has its highest value.

J. Horace McFarland.
Harrisburg, Pa.

The Official South African Munici-
pal Year Book. Edited by W. P. M.
Henderson, assistant town clerk, Dur-
ban, and Francis G. Pay, Cape Town,
540 pp.

This volume contains the usual inter-
esting statistics about the cities in Cape
Province, Natal, the Transvaal, the
Orange Free State and Rhodesia. It
also contains a number of articles on
special subjects including a digest of
legal decisions affecting municipal cor-
porations. There are also a number of

102

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

unofFicial articles on special subjects, as
municipal abattoir and hygienic scientific
removal. The volume contains in addi-
tion to the statistics the names of the

chief officials. The illustrations deal
mostly with mining plants and seem de-
signed to reinforce the advertisements
rather than the reading matter.

BOOKS RECEIVED

The Call of the New South. Addresses
delivered at the Southern Sociological
Congress, Nashville, Tenn., May 7-10,
1912. Edited by James E. McCuUoch.
Nashville: Southern Sociological Con-
gress. 1912.

Child Labor in City Streets. By
Edward N. Clopper. New York: The
Macmillan Company. $1.25.

Civics for Foreigners. By Anna R.
Plass. Boston: D. C. Heath and Com-
pany. 50 cents.

The Conservation of the Child. By
Arthur Holmes, Ph.D. Philadelphia:
J. B. Lippincott Company. $1.25.

The Evolution of Suffrage, the Rem-
edy FOR the Evils of the Present
Rudimentary Suffrage. By Frank
J. Scott. New York: Longmans, Green
and Company (Pamphlet.)

Fire Prevention. By Edward F. Crok-
er. New York: Dodd, Mead and Com-
pany. $1.50.

The Government of American Cities.
By William Bennett Munro. New
York: The Macmillan Company. $2.25.

Guide to the United States for the
Jewish Immigrant. A nearly literal
translation of the second Yiddish edi-
tion. By John Foster Carr. Pub-
lished under the auspices of the Con-
necticut Daughters of the American
Revolution. 15 cents, postpaid, 20
cents.

Helping School Children. By Elsa
Denison. New York: Harper and
Brothers. $1.40 net.

Hygiene for Health Visitors, School
Nurses and Social Workers. By C.
W. Hutt. London: P. S. King and
Son. 7/6 net.

Law Making in America. The Story
of the 1911-12 Session of the Sixty-
second Congress. By Lynn Haines.

Bethesda, Md. Cloth, $1.00; paper,
65 cents.

Municipal Work from a Christian
Standpoint. By A. W. Jephson.
London: A. R. Mowbray and Compa-
ny, Ltd. 18 pence.

The New Immigration. By Peter Rob-
erts, Ph.D. New York: The Macmil-
lan Company. $1.60 net.

Official Register and Directory of
Women's Clubs in America. Helen
M. Winslow, editor and publisher.
Vol. XIV, 1912. Shirley, Mass. $1.50.

Party Organization and Machinery.
By Jesse Macy. New York : The Cen-
tury Company. $1.25.

The Power of the Federal Judiciary
and Other Legislation. By J. Hamp-
don Dougherty. New York: G. B.
Putnam's Sons. $1.00.

Proceedings of the Fourth National
Conference onCity Planning. Bos-
ton, Mass. May 27-29, 1912.

Railroads: Rates and Regulations.
By William Z. Ripley. New York:
Longmans, Green and Company.
$3.00.

South America Observations and Im-
pressions. By James Bryce. New
York: The Macmillan Company. $2.50.

Street Pavements and Paving Mate-
rials. A manual of city pavements:
The methods and materials of their
construction. By George W. Tillson.
New York: John Wiley and Sons.
$4.00 net.

A Text-book on Roads and Pavements
By Frederick P. Spalding. New York :
John Wiley and Sons. $2.00 net.

Modern Philanthropy: A Study of
P>FiciENT Appealing and Giving.
By William H. Allen. New York:
Dodd, Mead and Company. $1.50.

/f3

NATIONAL
MUNICIPAL REVIEW

Vol. II, No. 2 APRIL, 1913 Total No. 6

THE NATIONAL MUNICIPAL LEAGUE
AND THE NATIONAL MUNICIPAL

REVIEW

BY RT. HONORABLE JAMES BRYCE, O.M.
British Ambassador to the United States

THE problems of municipal government in this country are among
the most difficult with which its people has to deal, having regard
to the extremely rapid growth of the cities and to the enormous
influx into them of immigrants, many of whom do not know the language
or understand the institutions of the country. There is, therefore, no
field of inquiry in which exact knowledge of the facts and a scientific treat-
ment of existing difficulties are more needed than in that of municipal
administration, and I venture to believe that the work of the National
Municipal League and the service rendered by the National Municipal
Review as its organ may be very great. So much experience is already
accumulating in all quarters with regard to the forms and working of
municipal institutions, and the best methods of dealing with problems
incident to vast populations crowded into the narrow limits of the city,
that it is most important to have a journal in which this experience can
be recorded and the results of it made available for the students of munici-
pal problems. European experience is hardly less valuable in this respect
than American. And just as American experience is valuable to Europe,
so too is European experience valuable to America, and I am glad to think
that such a journal as the Review exists to record for each continent what
the other is doing.

Id3

THE MARCH OF DEMOCRACY IN
MUNICIPALITIES

BY C. F. TAYLOR^
Philadelphia

WHEN the onl}^ artificial light was the tallow candle, and the
source of water for household use was the spring, the well or
the cistern, there were no "franchises" concerning these things.
AMien manufacturing was done chiefly in the household and the blacksmith
shop near by, hundreds of operatives did not hasten out of great factories
at 6 p.m. to "catch a car" for a distant home. Local transportation was
chiefly by foot, for the distances were short, though the streets were fre-
cjuenlly very bad. Life was simple, both public and private, and public
prol^lems were few and simple.

The United States constitutional convention devised a certain form of
government for the nation, which Avas copied by the states; and, as though
the mind of man could devise nothing different for local needs, the same
form was imposed upon our mimicipalities, and, in form of government,
cities became miniature states or nations, each with its executive with
his cabinet, and (as a rule) two legislative bodies.

But the similarity was only in form and not in authority, for the city
was, and still is in most states, in bondage to the legislature, even regard-
ing minute local affairs. The states have ahvays been free in their local
autonomy; without interference from congress, but cities have had to seek
legislative permission even to stretch a wire across a street.

The discovery of gas and its distribution in pipes under public streets,
the distribution of water in pipes under public streets, the laying of tracks
on public streets for cars, all involved the use of public streets by private
interests, as all these enterprises were undertaken by private companies;
and m their nature these services were monopolies, for more than one
track on one street was impossible or impracticable. Hence grants to
comj^anies were necessary, and these grants were in their nature monopo-
listic grants. These grants became known as "franchises," and it is fair
to state that at first their value was not appreciated by anybody, unless
it was by a few acute and far-seeing individuals who were more interested

' Dr. Charles F. Taylor has been interested in municipal affairs for many years.
It was clue to his public spirit that Frank Parsons's book The City for the People
has received so widespread a circulation. He had 7000 copies of this printed and dis-
tributed to every considerable library in this country and to all the leading civicists.
lie has also edited the Equity Series which have had a wide circulation and which have
had a distinct influence upon the movement for direct legislation. — Editoh.

194

DEMOCRACY IN MUNICIPALITIES 195

in obtaining these privileges for themselves than in educating the public
concerning their value.

The great and growing value of public franchises in cities and the ease
by which they could be obtained was perhaps the beginning of municipal
corruption, and perhaps the cause of corruption extending through the
entire local political structure, as the letting of contracts to favored con-
tractors for street improvements, for the construction of public buildings,
etc. (

For many years the inefficiency and corruption of government in our
cities was a disgrace to the nation, and this unsavory reputation became
world wide. It did not occur to us that the cause might be in the structure
of our local governments — that the plan conceived for a great nation, and
adopted by states, might not "fit" cities. We attributed the unhappy
condition to many causes, but not to the right cause, and the remedy uni-
versally advocated was ''elect better men." That was tried time and
again and in various places with indifferent or but temporary results.
In the meantime, though unloiown to us, the God of Terrors was preparing
for us a vision — "a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night"
that would lead us out of the wilderness of inefficiency and corruption.

If ever a heart-brealdng tragedy was a blessing in cUsguise, the Galves-
ton horror of September 8, 1900, was one, though it seems cruel to think
of it as such. A catastrophe so horrible a blessing? Impossible. Then let
us construe it differently, and say that the Almighty overruled this calam-
ity to our enlightenment.

The hurricane lashed the waters of the Gulf of Mexico into a fury and
swept wave after wave over the helpless city, causing wreck and ruin
almost beyond description, and the loss of many lives. The old-fashioned
city government was incompetent to cope with such a situation, as was
that of Chelsea, Massachusetts, after as great a calamity caused by fire
in 1908. The test of a person or of an institution is in calamity. The
constituted government in both these instances broke down.

Galveston found its salvation — its restoration and continuous efficient
government to the present time- — in a commission of five, in which was
placed all the authority for municipal government, ^vith division of execu-
tive duties among the commissioners. Under this commission the city
has been remade — the grade of the entire city has been raised to a height
thought to be safe from similar calamities, a protective sea wall has been
built, and many other vast improvements have been made, all with a
far-seeing wisdom, a wonderful efficiency and without a suspicion of
"graft."

Houston, forty miles away, observing the wonderful progress of her
once stricken sister under the new form of government, began to plan to
follow her example. In December, 1904, the new charter was adopted by

lUd NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

poi)ul;ir vote, and in IMiirch, 1905, it was granted to the city by the state
legislature.

In Galveston there are no provisions for popular control of the commis-
sioners, except as to bond issues, but this need has not been felt there,
because of the superior and public-spirited men fortunately chosen, and
the activity of a city club whose influence is powerful in the affairs of
the city. Bond issues must be authorized by a majority of the qualified
electors who are tax payers. Houston requires that bond issues of over
$100,000 must be submitted to tax paying voters, and also makes the dis-
tinct addition to the Galveston plan of requiring a referendum on franchises
on the demand of 500 voters, and franchises for more than thirty years
must be submitted to popular vote without the necessity of a petition.
Here we see a decided advance step in practical democrac3^

The next decided step (we might call it a "jump") in practical democ-
racy as applied to municipal affairs, was taken by Des Moines, Iowa, in
1908, extending the referendum to ordinances, as well as to bond issues and
franchises, and adding the initiative and recall, adding these to the Gal-
veston commission plan. Since then, these three graces, the initiative,
referendum and recall, the trinity of democracy, have usually gone hand
in hand ^^^th the commission form of municipal government in its remark-
able sweep from the gulf to the great lakes, and from ocean to ocean.

This outline is painfully brief, but the details of commission government
with all its accompaniments may be found in that extremely useful l)ook,
Commission Government in American Cities, by Ernest S. Bradford, Ph.D.
The purpose here is not to dwell on commission government 'per se, but
to trace the march of local democracy, and to present what seem to be
its immediate prospects. And let it here be clearly stated that while the
initiative, referendum and recall are not necessary parts of nor accompani-
ments to the commission form of municipal government, a happy associa-
tion of this democratic trinity and the commission idea has been formed,
so that one may now say to the other, like Pvuth to Naomi, "Whither thou
goest, I Avill go." Indeed this association caused the "Des Moines plan"
to take the place of the "Galveston plan" in the minds of municipal re-
formers all over the country.^

We have been sounding an optimistic note. Now we must sound a
minor strain. Look at a map of the United States with the commission
governed cities dotted upon it, and we will see great states like New York,

*Thc great popularity of the initiative, referendum and recall in commission
governed cities may be seen by a glance at the tables on pages 273 to 277 of Brad-
ford's book above mentioned, where over 150 cities and towns are tabulated, almost
all of which have the initiative, referendum and recall. That was up to August,
1911. Up to February 1, 1013, the number was 222, with an increasing proportion
having the initiative, referendum and recall.

DEMOCRACY IN MUNICIPALITIES 197

Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana without a redeeming dot! Ah. The
domination of legislatures over the cities of this great nation! The bond-
age of cities! "Home rule" is an issue and a need in our cities as well as
in Ireland.

But the cloud is not so dark as the reader might judge from the para-
graph just written. In 1911 a large degree of freedom was given to the
cities and towns of New Jersey, and many of them have availed themselves
of the provisions of the general act then passed by the legislature of that
state. In 1911 the legislature gave to Pittsburgh an improved govern-
ment, but much inferior to that of the commission cities that we have
referred to, and without the initiative, referendum or recall. In Sep-
tember, 1912, Ohio adopted a home rule constitutional amendment, and
many of the cities and towns in that state are now actively- engaged in
revising their charters. Several cities in New York have actually adopted
by popular vote improved charters and are now awaiting permission from
the legislature to put them into operation, while powerful influences in that
great state are working for a general act better than any now in operation
in any state, which will apply to all the cities in New York State except
New York City. It is our anxious and enthusiastic hope that this act
may pass the legislature during the present session. And the legislature
of Indiana must do some artful dodging if it shall avoid passing the bill
now before it providing for the "business" form of municipal government.
The Pennsylvania legislature refused in 1911 to pass Senator Clark's bill
providing for commission government with the initiative and referendum
in third class cities (up to 100,000 in population), but the good senator was
returned by a greatly increased majority, and he is now in Harrisburg ^^dth
his bill, improved, and it seems probable that the hand of tyranny reaching
from Harrisburg to the throat of everj^ municipality in the great Keystone
state will soon be at least relaxed, if not removed.

These are only samples of the great activity in the field of municipal
democracy now in progress all over the United States. But these samples
are taken from the darkest places. The light of democracy is rapidly
coming, which will banish the darkness.

Here we are tempted to pronounce an apostrophe to democracy, the
light bearer, the dehverer from bondage, the Goddess of Liberty! But
let us restrain ourselves and consider quietly and deliberately the question,
What is democracy? In answering this question we will avoid the words
of the dictionary and consider rather the larger essence.

On close scrutiny we find that in essence democracy does not consist
in the number of candidates we are permitted to vote for, nor in the fre-
quency of voting. The object of government is honesty and efficiency in
the management of pubHc affairs in harmony with the popular will; and
to secure these is the purpose of democracy. The method of securing

198 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

these most certainly, most easily, most prompt 1}^ and least expensively
is the concern of democracy.

Democracy does not wish to divorce itself from representative govern-
ment, l)iit it docs demand the possibility of ultimate popular control of
its affairs and its officers; and it demands adequate machinery for accom-
plishing these ends when occasion may arise. Democracy is unthinkable
without the possibility of ultimate control by the electorate. The initia-
tive and referendum are the means for controlling public affairs by the
voters, and the recall is the means of controlling officers. Democracy
insists upon possessing these instrumentalities as a primary right. But
it "wnshes representative government to be so improved and perfected that
it will meet the wishes and demands of democracy so faithfully and per-
fectly that the instruments of primary democracy, the initiative, referendum
and recall, will seldom or never be called into operation. Representative
government is the improved and labor saving machine which we wish to
use and will use as long as it is truly representative. But the moment
that it fails to do its work truly and faithfully, we insist upon the privilege
of falling back upon the more cumbersome, but always true machinery
until the new machine shall again "ring true" and do its work faithfully.

Democracy does not wish to be officious. Democracy welcomes the
short ballot as an improvement in the machinery of democracy — an im-
provement by which the purposes of democracy may be achieved more
direct^ and more easily than by the confusing maze of the long ballot.
Commission government of cities gives a much shorter ballot than the
old form of government, and democracy welcomes it because experience
proves that it better accomplishes the purpose of democracy — good gov-
ernment.

Democracy emphasizes methods, because, other things being equal, the
best methods produce the best results. The commission plan of munici-
pal government was a vast improvement in method over the old style;
hence very welcome to democracy, but never entirely safe without the
initiative, referendum and recall being associated with it. But the com-
mission plan as at present practised does not satisfy advanced' thinkers.
The commissioners are elected by the city at large (so far, so good), but
by the block vote, which leaves large masses of voters unrepresented. The
commissioners have a plurality or a majority of voters behind them, but
the block vote ("vote for five") puts the same voters behind every com-
missioner. The single vote ("vote for one") would procure better repre-
sentation, but one or two popular candidates may have majorities so large
that the lowest successful candidate may go in with a very small vote.
The single transferable vote with multiple choices (the "Hare" or some
similar system) would give a unanimous constituency, instead of a major-
ity or plurality constituency, to each commissioner, thus leaving no part

DEMOCRACY IN MUNICIPALITIES 199

of the electorate unrepresented. This system is erroneously called "pro-
portional representation," because in partizan contests it may, and if
desired will, return elected representatives in proportion to the numerical
strength of the parties entering the contest. In municipal government we
discourage partizan contests; but if party strife should enter a municipal
contest, the block vote is far more dangerous than the Hare system, be-
cause all the commissioners elected would belong to the same party. And,
particularly for municipal purposes, let us cease to call the Hare system
a method of producing proportional representation, but rather a method
of effective voting, by which every voter may express his true preferences
without "throwing away" his vote, and a method which will place a wnan-
imous constituency behind every elected commissioner.

This method will reduce democracy to a single effective vote; but if
the writer may be considered a champion of democracy, he is satisfied
with it, because, by that plan every vote is effective; and the plan will produce
results highly satisfactory to democracy.

Other features of the commission plan as now practised are now under
scrutiny; as, shall the commissioners themselves be heads of departments?
or shall they be prominent men of superior judgment who shall not be
expected to devote their time to administrative work, but who shall only
determine policies and select administrative officers and supervise their
work — perhaps only one such officer, a "city manager." We mention
these things only to say that they are not inconsistent with democracy
so long as we have the democratic trinity as a basis and as a refuge in case
of need, but always hoping that the need will not come.

THE MUNICIPAL HEALTH PROBLEM'

BY M. N. BAKER-
Montdair, N. J.

IX an ideal city eveiy inhabitant would be guarded at every point
from menace to life or health by causes beyond his control and would
be so instructed by one means or another as to make it readily pos-
sible for him to guard himself against dangers which are within his indi-
vidual control. The health problem of today is how to make this ideal
a reality. As will be seen, the problem is two-fold. It includes matters
affecting the health of the community as a whole which must be controlled
in turn by the city as a whole and matters which concern the individual
alone and must in large measure be controlled by him. In other words,
the problem is one of public health and of private health.

For the present at least, the health of the individual, in so far as it de-
pends on his own action or lack of action, must be left to him, except in so
far as he is instructed by the state or the city how to conserve his health.

How to instruct the individual so that he can guard himself against all
menaces to health which are within his control is an educational problem
which as yet has been given scarcely any attention, but it undoubtedly
will be the basis of a large part of the public health work of the future. If
time permitted, it would be possible to show that if each person were thor-
oughly instructed in health protection and lived up to his knowledge the
public health problem would be greatly simplified if not entirely solved.

^ ^Municipal health and sanitation is a subject to which the National Municipal
League has been giving attention since 1907 when it created a committee on the sub-
ject as a result of the all-day conference held in connection with the Providence meet-
ing. Dr. Alexander C. Abbott of Philadelphia was the first chairman and in 1909
was succeeded by M. N. Baker who has made yearly reports of great value and help-
fulness. The paper presented at the Los Angeles meeting to which tliis is a note
represents an important constructive contribution to the whole problem. Other
reports presented by Mr. Baker deal with the questions of "Municipal Health Prob-
lems and the General Public" and "City and State Boards of Health and the Pro-
posed Federal Department of Health." He has also contributed a paper in regard
to the board of health of Montclair, N. J. The question has also been discussed
by others, among the more important contributions being: "Work for Personal and
Public Hygiene in Rochester," Dr. George W. Goler; "Sanitation in Providence," Dr.
Charles C. Chapin; "Chicago's Municipal Sanitation," Dr. William A. Evans;
"Health and Sanitation in the District of Columbia," William Crcighton Woodward,
]\LD.; "Public Health and Municipal Sanitation in Cleveland," William Travis
Howard, M.D.; "The Relation of Municipal Sanitation to the State and the National
(lovernmcnt," Dr. Charles O. Probst, Columbus, Ohio; "The Work of Boards of
Health," George A. Soper, Ph.D.; "Economy and Efficiency in Municipal Health
Administration Work," Selskar M. Gunn.— C. R. W.

= Editor, Engineering News, New York City, and president board of health, Mont-
clair, N. J.

200

THE MUNICIPAL HEALTH PROBLEM 201

Certainly this would be the case if each person followed the golden rule
by doing unto others in health matters as he would have them do to him:
that is, if he refrained from any action which would endanger the health
of others.

Considering the extent to which the curricula of our schools and colleges
are already overburdened, one hesitates to urge that it should be the duty
of our educational institutions to give each pupil full instruction regarding
the preservation of his health, in so far as this is practicable. Yet it may
well be asked what kind of education could be more valuable than this.
Two difficulties arise at this point: one is that few persons live up to
their present limited knowledge of health conservation so that if everyone
who passes through our schools and colleges were fully instructed how to
guard his health, but few would make full use of this knowledge. The
other is that a large proportion of the population has already passed beyond
or never been benefited by instruction in the schools and in the universities.
Moreover, all knowledge is ever progressing, so the health education prob-
lem does not cease Vvdth the reception of the school or college diploma.

The best we can expect to do for the present and immediate future is
to make sure that during his school life every youth be thoroughly instructed
in the principles of public and private health and that beyond this there
be made readily available to every person by means of public lectures
and printed matter such instruction in health protection as he can utilize.
This does not mean that every person is to become his own physician, but
merely that he shall be informed as to those things which he should do
or not do for the protection of his health.

Education aside, the health protective work of the municipality is con-
cerned with protecting the individual from dangers to health and life which
are beyond his control. Intelligent effort is dependent upon clear and
exact knowledge of what these dangers are. A large part of the health
protective work of our cities is misdirected because of lack of this knowledge.
This misdirected work may be essential to the comfort and convenience
of the citizens but it falls properly in other city departments by which it
can be performed more efficiently. By confining its efforts to its own
proper field a health department will gain in efficiency and will have less
difficulty in securing the necessary funds for its work.

The chief menace to health beyond the control of the individual and
within the domain of the health department is infection by the germs of
some communicable disease. It, therefore, follows that the primary work
of a municipal health department should be the control of communicable
diseases. Since all infection of this kind springs from an individual suf-
fering from one of these diseases the fight should be concentrated on con-
trolling the diseases at their source. This means the promptest possible
identification of every person suffering from or harboring the germs of

202 NATIONAL AIUNICIPAL REVIEW

any conimunicablc disease and the establishment and continuance of such
means of control as will prevent the sj^read of infection to others. These
facts are more or less fully recognized by all municipal health officers worthy
the name, but as yet they are little appreciated by the general public and
for this and other reasons are not made the basis of full and proper remedial
or preventive action by every health department of the country.

The spread of communicable diseases from persons harboring disease
germs is by direct or by indirect routes of infection. If attending physi-
cians, nurses and responsible heads of families as well as the patients them-
selves did their full duty in preventing the escape of infectious material,
both direct and indirect infection would be reduced to very small propor-
tions. It is the special province of the health department to see that this
is done. If every health department did its full duty in this respect a
large part of the other work which health departments now attempt to
do would be unnecessary.

Indirect infection from communicable diseases spreads chiefly by the
pollution of water, milk and other food supplies, the air, various household
utensils and the clothing and bedding of the patient. This pollution, as
already stated, arises through improper control or lack of control of the
persan infected. A considerable amount of infection both direct and indi-
rect springs from undiagnosed cases of disease or from persons who are
harboring disease germs without injury to themselves. Because of these
facts there will always be more or less infection of water and food supplies,
but this infection will diminish as the sum total of infectious disease is re-
duced by health protective work. For a long time to come it will be nec-
essary to guard water and food supphes from possible unidentified sources
of infection and in some cases to install and operate works for the removal
or destruction of such disease germs as may have gained access to foods
and drinks, particularly water and milk supplies. These works of puri-
fication or destruction should not as a rule be operated by health depart-
ments, although some of them may very properly be inspected by these
departments. Reasons for this statement will be given later.

Closelj^ associated with the control of communicable diseases is the
reduction of infant mortality. As is well known, many of the communi-
cable diseases make their attack early in life and have as their chief harvest
infants and 3'oung children. To control communicable diseases, there-
fore, is to reduce infant mortality in large degree, but even after deducting
the attacks from connnuni cable diseases upon children there remains a
heavy slaughter of the innocents. The prevention or reduction of this
slaughter by agencies outside the control of communicable diseases should
be one of the chief efforts of every health department. This is not the
time nor place to present and discuss statistics of infant mortality. The
subject is mentioned in order to lay emphasis upon the fact that the con-

THE MUNICIPAL HEALTH PROBLEM 203

trol of communicable diseases and the reduction of infant mortality are
two lines of work which demand the chief attention of our municipal health
departments today, both because of the large number of deaths in these
two classes and because work in these two fields may be^ made tellingly
effective and can be measured in terms of lives saved, whereas work in
most of the other lines attempted by boards of health in America is vague
and indefinite, and if it yields any results worthy of the effort, the results
are uncertain and cannot be. recorded in vital statistics, which are the chief
means of testing the efficiency of health protective work.

This brings me to one of the main points of my discussion, which is the
need of better means than are now employed by most municipal health
departments to judge the efficiency of their work. This subject has been
brought home to me with increasing emphasis during the eighteen years
of my connection with a local board of health. Properly classified, com-
plete and accurate vital statistics show better than anything else the
health of the community from year to year and if properly studied in con-
nection with the various lines of health protective work they should indi-
cate the efficiency or inefficiency of the work. They should also indicate,
and this is of great importance, whether or not the funds placed at the dis-
posal of the health department are being wisely distributed among the
several branches of work.

After much study I have concluded that the efficiency of municipal
health departments could be greatly increased by a classification of their
annual expenditures in such a way as to show clearly from year to year
the amounts of money spent to achieve specific objects. The classification
should, so far as possible, be designed to measure the cost of results achieved
and show their effect upon vital statistics. Such a classification is properly
named functional. In a tentative classification of this kind which I for-
mulated, all health board expenditures were first divided into (I) Direct
health-protective work; (II) Indirect or remote health-protective work;
and (III) General; the latter to include such overhead and other expenses
as are not readily distributed between the first two classes.

Under (I) or direct health-protective work were placed first the preven-
tion and control of communicable diseases; second the reduction of infant
mortality, and third, general health building and maintenance. Each
of these three main subdivisions is still further divided, as may be seen by
the detailed schedule given at the end of this paper.

Indirect or remote health-protective work includes a large variety of
undertakings, some of which are rarely placed under boards of health and
all of which should and will I hope ultimately be placed in other municipal
departments. These undertakings may all be described as cleansing oper-
ations and I have divided them into municipal cleansing and private cleans-
ing. Under municipal cleansing are placed the collection and disposal

20-1 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

of garbage, ashes, rubbish and other associated refuse, street dirt and sew-
age. I have also put here smoke prevention, fly, mosquito and rat reduc-
tion, lender private cleansing I have placed all matters pertaining to the
control of plumbing and suppression of smells and various other nuisances.

It may seem either radical or reactionary, according to one's point of
view, to class these various undertakings as indirect or remote health-pro-
tective work. In a well organized scheme of municipal administration,
some of these undertakings should unquestionably be placed under other
departments than the one designed to safeguard public health, even though
they have more or less effect upon health, while others are chiefly matters
of comfort or convenience. Most of the operations under indirect or
remote health-protective Avork involve the expenditure of large sums of
money in the employment and direction of many employees for the conduct
of public works which, as already suggested, can be more efficiently admin-
istered by other departments. In so far as these cleansing operations
have any considerable effect upon the public health it will be sufficient
if the health department inspects the work and insists upon its proper
performance. Sewerage and sewage disposal and street cleaning and
sprinkling are not often entrusted to health departments, but since this is
done in some cases, they have been inserted in this list. The collection
and disposal of garbage ife often entrusted to the health department, but
it has nothing like the vital relation to pubHc health that sewerage and
sewage disposal have, which are seldom placed under the health depart-
ment, and still less than the public water supply, which is almost never
administered by the public health department. The fact of the matter is
that if everything directly and indirectly affecting public health were to
be placed under the health department it would embrace nearly every line
of municipal activity. Progressive health officers and sanitarians are
becoming more and more firmly of the opinion that the work of health
departments should be restricted to the control of communicable diseases,
'the reduction of infant mortafity and such other work of general inspection
and supervision as will hold other municipal departments, private corpor-
ations and individuals up to their duty in the way of providing pure water,
pure milk and other foods, unadulterated and other\\dse safe drugs, proper
housing, and the regulation of other environmental conditions affecting
the health of the individual citizen and of the people as a whole.

It should be understood that the classification of health board expendi-
tures which I have proposed is not only tentative, but is also subject to
regrouping to meet the widely differing local conditions which prevail in
the different parts of the country. For instance, fly, mosquito or rat reduc-
tion in some large sections of the country would make for the comfort and
convenience of the public, while in others it would have a vital relation
to public health. Th(> sujijiression of such pests or nuisances might, there-

THE MUNICIPAL HEALTH PROBLEM 205

fore, be classed under indirect health-protective work in one city, for the
time being at least, because, ultimately, under proper municipal and private
cleansing, flies, mosquitoes and rats will cease to exist or will fall in numbers
to a tolerable, irreducible minimum which would have no effect upon public
health. Finally, so far as this phase of my subject is concerned, it should
be understood that my tentative classification of health board expenditures,
while available as a possible general basis of a system of accounting, is
designed chiefly to point out the need for the formulation and adoption
of some classification which shall show whether the funds available to a
health department, which are often far less than it needs, are being wisely
apportioned among the different objects of expenditure and whether some
of the money now used for remote or even doubtful health-protective work
might not far better be used for work which has direct bearing- upon the
conservation of health and the prolongation of life.

An important and difficult phase of the municipal health problem which
should never be lost sight of is how well-trained and eflicient health oflficers,
with their various classes of assistants, are to be secured and retained in
ofliice. Until recently, there have been no schools for the training of health
officers in the United States. The schools recently established are far
too few in number and most of them fail to offer the courses needed for
the efficient training of health officers and sanitary inspectors. While
this is a true and deplorable condition and one which we should all aim to
remedy as rapidly as possible the fact should not be lost sight of that many
of our cities are not employing as health officers and inspectors the best
of the men available for the work. All friends of good and efficient munic-
ipal government and all interested in the maintenance of public health
should unite in an effort to secure and retain the best available men for
the public health service and to set higher and higher standards of- educa-
tion and eflficiency. The medical, engineering, biological and chemical
schools of the country will most assuredly respond to an increasing demand
for more, and for better trained, health officers.

Thoughtful consideration should be given to the place occupied by the
health department in the general scheme of municipal government. This
has already been suggested in so far as the work of the department is con-
cerned, but such questions remain as whether the department should be
headed by a board or by a single oflacer and whether the department should
be independent of, or subordinate to, other branches of the city govern-
ment. For progressive, fearless work there is little question but that
organization as an independent department with legislative as well as
executive powers is the best plan. This would be inconsistent with some
schemes of municipal governrrient, including the commission plan, which
makes the commission the fountain-head of all authority. Possibly the
sacrifice resulting from making a health department subordinate instead

206 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

of independent may be offset by other benefits resulting from a scheme
of absohitely centralized government. But if a health department is to
be a subordinate branch of the city gov(Tnm(Mit and particularly if it is
to possess no legislative power, efficiency demands a single executive head.

It goes without saying that the health officer like the head of any purely
executive department should be appointed not elected to office. For the
greatest efficiency of his department he should have power to appoint and
dismiss all hrs subordinates, subject only to such limits as may be imposed
by civil service regulations. Whether or not the chief executive health
officer should be chosen by civil service examinations is a question open
to discussion and the same is true only in a lesser degree of his chief assist-
ants, at least in the larger cities of the country. If, however, permanence
of tenure or continuance in office during efficiency and good behavior is
possible in no other way then by all means the chief executive health
officer and all his assistants should be under the civil service.

It may not be amiss to call attention to the fact that under the new Los
Angeles charter as tentatively drafted the chief executive health officer
is only one of a presumably large number of city officials subordinate to
the commissioner of public welfare. He will be nominated by the com-
missioner who serves as mayor and his nomination must be confirmed by
the commission as a whole. He will, therefore, be nominally under the
control of one and actually under the control of seven, while at the same
time he will be under special obligations to the mayor who alone can nom-
inate him to office. Under the Los Angeles charter, legislation affecting
the public health, like all other legislation, is under the direct control of
the legal voters of the city through the initiative and the referendum. The
commission can, of course, enact such health legislation as it chooses, but
this will always be subject to veto by popular vote. Under such condi-
tions, the position of the executive health officer, if he be a well trained,
well informed, progressive and fearless man, will unquestionably be beset
with many difficulties and some obstacles which will be unsurmountable,
or at least unsurmountable for many years. In many much needed health
reform measures he will first have to educate the commissioner of public
welfare, then a majority of the commission and finally, if the referendum
is in^•oked on health ordinances, a majority of the voters of the city. In
addition, the chief health officer and presumably his assistants are to be
subject to the recall.

I mention these undeniable facts not to condemn the commission plan
in general or the commission plan in its application to Los Angeles, but
merely to call attention to them as conditions which must be met in the
future health jirotective work of the city. I do not undertake the task
of comparing health dc]iartment conditions under the i)roposed charter
with those which prevail under the present charter. The comparison.

THE MUNICIPAL HEALTH PROBLEM 207

if any were drawn, should be with an ideal system of municipal health
organization.

One of the great underlying principles of the commission plan is that
the people should rule. Fundamentally desirable as this may be, no one
who advocates democratic government carried to its extreme should forget
that rule by the people, especially in a large city — to confine the statement
to municipal health administration — gives the most ignorant foreigner
lately naturalized an equal vote on health-protective matters with the
physician, the engineer and the sanitarian who has given all his mature
years to the studj'^ of measures for the conservation and prolongation of
Ufe. If the inherent rights of humanity demand this, it is imperative that
no effort should be spared to select and retain in office the very highest
grade of public health officials obtainable and to keep them free from sin-
ister influences of whatever kind so that they will exercise such powers as
are conferred upon them by the people without fear or favor and in accord-
ance with the latest teachings of sanitary science and public health.

If the mass of the voters are to legislate in public health matters it be-
comes doubly important that every citizen, as suggested at the outset of
this paper, be thoroughly instructed in the principles of public health. This
makes the health educational problem one of \'ital importance. The edu-
cational problem is of vital importance under any scheme of municipal
or state government which may prevail since upon the intelligence and
the morals of the public at large and each individual composing it the health
of the public and the individual alike depend. The health department,
like the police department, would scarcely be a necessity if every citizen
was educated to high standards of knowledge of health and of morals and
lived up to both standards.

FUNCTIONAL CLASSIFICATION OF HEALTH BOARD EXPENDITURES SUGGESTED

BY M. N. BAKER, AUGUST, 1911

I Direct health-protective work

1. Prevention and control of communicable diseases

a. Laboratory

b. Notification and investigation

c. Immunization

d. Isolation in the home

e. Hospitalization
/. Disinfection

g. Medical school inspection — for communicable diseases
h. Records
i. Educational

2. Reduction in infant mortality
a. Medical

h. Nursing

c. Supplying milk, etc.

208 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

d. Records

e. Educational

3. General health-building and maintenance
a. Laboratory
h. Physical and mental inspection of school children

c. Housing control

d. Factory inspection
c. Milk control

/. Pure food and drugs
g. Pure water
h. Pure air

Ventilation

Gas inspection
II Indirect or remote health-protective work

1. Mimicipal cleansing
a. Garbage

h. Ashes

c. Rubbish

d. Dead animals

e. Offal and market refuse
/. Night soil

g. Sewage

h. Street cleaning and sprinkling

i. Smoke prevention

j. Fly reduction

A'. Mosquito reduction

I. Rat reduction

m. Records

n. Educat onal

0. publicity

2. Private cleansing

a. Plumbing permits and inspection
h. Suppression of smells and miscellaneous nuisances
III General — so far as not distributable under heads and sub-heads of
II and III

1. Records .

a. Vital statistics

b. Accounting

e. Miscellaneous

2. Research

3. Publicity

4. Legal

5. General supplies — including rent, water, light, heat, etc.

6. Administrative salaries

Distribute under each head and sub-head, as far as practicable, every
such item as salaries, supplies (including freight, express and cartage),
transportation, publicity, communication (postage, telephone, telegraph),
educational, research, legal, records, etc. Sums that cannot be so dis-
tributed, which should be comparatively few and small, go under III, Gen-
eral, but even here they should not go under "miscellaneous" or "unclas-
sified."

THE MUNICIPAL HEALTH PROBLEM 209

Communicable diseases, items a to /, should preferably be given sepa-
rately for each disease, or at least for typhoid fever, scarlet fever, diphtheria
and tuberculosis.

This classification is easily expanded by further classification to any
extent desired, and it may be simpHfied even more readily by omitting all
the sub-heads designated by letters or still further by using only the three
grand divisions I, II and III. In either case of simplification the sub-
heads not used as separate accounts would serve as a guide to such of the
classifications or accounts as were retained

CONSTRUCTIVE HOUSING REFORM

BY CAROL ARONOYICl, PH.D.^
Philadelphia

THE wide spread and far reaching movement in the direction of
improving the character and conditions of our housing accomo-
dations as carried on in the United States may be character-
ized as an effort to improve and control existing evils, rather than as a
broad social movement towards far reaching housing reform. The accom-
i:>lishments of the last decade and a half center about the individual dwell-
ing as a thing apart from the community, while the complicated legisla-
tive and administrative machinery provided is intended as a means of
dealing with a fixed minimum of safety and sanitation regardless of the
effect that such minimum may have upon the community as a Avhole both
socially and economical!}'.

The reason for this failure to meet adequately and permanently a moment-
ous problem should not be sought in the indifference of the public, nor in
the lack of appreciation on the part of legislators and social reformers of
the importance of dealing with the housing problem promptly' and ade-
quately, but in the fundamental error so frequent in reform work: namely
a lack of careful and extensive study of the causes of the problem and the
undertaking of changes and improvements on a broad, scientific basis.
Instead of asking "what shall we do with the tenement" we should ask
"why the tenement?" instead of centering our entire attention upon
restrictive and almost confiscatory legislation intended to reduce the evil
we should endeavor to provide adequate answers to the questions that
relate to the causes that make housing evils possible and necessary, instead
of dealing Avith structural defects and the revolting evils attending them
we should attempt to use this knowledge as an incentive to investigation
which will strike at the very root of the evil, so that fundamental principles
may be discovered and lasting reform secured.

We do not ])roi:>osc in the present articde to offer a compk^te stud}- of
the fundamental causes of the housing problem and the principles that
underly them. All we can hope to do is to suggest a more or less broad
outline for future study, with a view to meeting the essential requirements
of constructive housing reform.

Hundreds of (■iti(>s in the United States have Avithin recent years made
j-tudies of their housing conditions, or rather housing evils, and the writer

' General secretary, Siil>iiil);ui I'laiiniiig Association, I'luhulclpliia. Dr. Aronovici
is director of the national bureau of municipal and social service and has within
recent years been employed as^n expert on housing in over a score of New England
cities. ,

210

CONSTRUCTIVE HOUSING REFORM 211

is responsible for more than a score of such studies. With very few excep-
tions these studies present material that bears mainly upon sanitary con-
ditions. The recommendations and final action on the part of private
citizens as well as legislative and administrative departments of city and
state governments have been mainly of a sanitary character. This was
unavoidable. The vast literature available in this country has dealt with
conditions rather than causes. The reforms, if reforms they may be
called, have been the natural outcome of the point of view of those inter-
ested and supposedly best informed leaders' in the movement. Even the
most widely known and most authoritative book published in the United
States within recent years bearing the title Housing Reform is mainly a dis-
sertation on ''lobbjdng" for housing legislation. It lacks the vision of the
German studies where such splendid results have been accomplished within
recent years, and where the housing problem has been recognized as being
the result of the lack of foresight in the building of our cities. As cities
are the "hope of democracy" and the home of civilization providing ade-
quate homes is the foremost duty of the state and the city. These pro-
visions should be placed upon a sound economic basis since the quality
of the homes occupied by the mass of the people is largely determined by
economic factors.'

Before we enter upon the discussion of the requirements of proper hous-
ing accomodations and their relation to the community two important facts
should be pointed out in order to emphasize the difference between the
problem abroad and the problem as it exists in the United States.

The Americans of the present day, I mean that amalgamation of races
and nationalities, the opportunity-seeking multitude living under the
American flag, are not home builders. The country is growing too rapidly
and opportunities are coming into being in such new and varied sections
of the country, that stability is impossible and home building hazardous.
In other words the constant shifting of industries and the lack of stability
of emplojanent compel many of the wage earners to move on and on until
we are facing the problem of housing a vast army of nornad industrial
herds which follow the trail of migrating industy, invade cities and towns
and endanger the economic, sanitary and moral standards of comunities.

Another factor in the housing problem in America is immigration which
taxes the housing capacity of the oldest and best established communities
to a point where health is endangered and a general lowering of the physical
and moral fiber of the people results.

To draw the comparison a little closer, it should be said that the cities
of Europe are facing a problem of housing due to a general rise in the

^Posadowsky: Die Wohnungsfrage ah KuUurprohleme. Ernest Reinhardt, Pub.,
1910.

Prof. Dr. L. Pohle: Die Wohnungsfrage, vol. i, p. 6, 1910.

212 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

standard of livinp; and a ^radnal normal growth of the population closely
related to and with a real love for place of birth. In America the housing
prol)lem, due to a normal increase in population and a rise in standards
among the natives, is seriously aggravated by immigration and a spas-
modic and dangerous shifting of population from one center to another.

For the sake of clearness we have endeavored to define constructive
housing reform. The definition is as follows: The providing of healthful
accommodations, adequately 'provided luith facilities for privacy and comfort,
easily accessible to centers of employment, culture and amusement, accessible
from the centers of distribution of the food supply, rentable at reasonable rates
and yielding a fair return on the investment.

This definition differs from the usual conception of housing reform in the
recognition of the economic factor and in the socializing element which
regards the individual home in organic relationship to the business of
life and labor in the community. Let us consider each phase of the prob-
lem as presented in the definition in the order given.

Healthful accommodations. This is an age of fighting disease and pro-
tecting health. Pure food laws, national health departments, open air
schools, medical school inspection, limited hours of labor for women and
children, protection against accident are the order of the day. Human
life is becoming more and more valuable and its preservation is gradually
taking place among the positive sciences. It is easily conceivable there-
fore that housing reform should have been made a subsidiary of a large
health movement. The failure of housing reform solely as a health move-
ment is the natural outcome of a narrow vision and its consequent limited
method of procedure.

The sum total of all reform work leading towards improved sanitary con-
ditions in the home has found its most potent expression in legislation and
the administrative machinery provided for its enforcement. This sanitary
legislation has been so exacting and far reaching that it has been mistaken
for the whole of housing reform. That the fundamental principle of this
legislation has been prohibitory and restrictive goes without saying, since
little legislation intended to promote and encourage good conditions is
ever passed by our state or national legislature. We have come to a
common agreement that the tenement or multiple dwelling is undesirable
and we have proceeded to legislate against it, emjihasizing the evils of the
large city and forgetting the smaller communities. The result has been
that we have driven the tenement builder out of the city and have per-
mitted him to infest the smaller communities. We have placed confis-
catory regulations upon the large dwelling and have thereby reduced the
number of such buildings without ]:)roviding a substitute in the form of
subsiflics or other means for fostering the building of the single and more
desirable dwelling. The result of this method of procedure has been a

CONSTRUCTIVE HOUSING REFORM 213

rapid increase in the rental rates with increase in the cost of construction
and a limiting of 'the supply of homes necessitated by an abnormal increase
in population; a condition that has further helped to raise the rental rates.

The fact that most of the restrictive legislation is confined to the new
structures and leaves the old and dilapidated building under the control
of regulations that do not go beyond a minimum standard of safety and
sanitation has encouraged the continued maintenance of old and ill adapted
dwellings which have proved a strong competitor of the builder of sanitary
homes.

We have no fault to find with the present agitation for the securing of
comprehensive and enforceable housing legislation. Many of the laws
already in force are models of the art of law making, but they .fall short
because they meet only part of the problem and place a premium upon the
structure that is old and least desirable for the purposes for which it is
used. If the rights of private property make strict legislation for the con-
trol of old houses impossible, some advantages should be placed in the
hands of the builder of new and sanitary houses so that he may not suffer
through unfair competition created by one sided restrictions.

Privacy and comfort. As in the case of health, privacy and comfort are
provided for in the laws now in force throughout the country. That the
standards set by these laws are not above a minimum no one doubts, but
that even this minimum when not coupled with favorable conditions for
its attainment is an increased financial burden upon the tenant can not
be doubted. To what extent rents are affected by a rise in the standards
of privacy and comfort when provided by law little is known although it
is an aspect of the problem that should commend itself to the attention
of housing reformers, as a condition that must be met on a purely econ-
omic basis.

Accessibility to place of employment.- — The experience of New York City,
where factories have made their homes in the most congested section of
the city in order to be within easy reach of the labor supply indicates that
there is a close relationship between the location of the home and the place
of employment. The congestion of population that is becoming more and
more serious in our cities further emphasizes a tendency of which New York
is the most flagrant example.

How to meet the problem of accessibility to the labor market and cen-
ters of employment has not been the concern of the housing reformer, and
yet the lower east side of New York and many of the slums of our larger
and even the smaller cities and towns are largely the result of an inade-
quate distribution of manufacturing plants and the absence of easy means
of intercommunication provided either by intelligent community planning
or cheap and efficient means of transit. That the wage earner and his family
have followed the line of least resistance should not be a matter of surprise

211 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

or criticism. A low wage and a loiifz; working day arc ini])ortant consider-
ations in determining the distance between the place of emploj'ment and
the liome. Especially is this true where the transportation system is in-
adequate and requires an hour or two out of the limited leisure of the wage
earner during whicli time he is ])acked into stuffy cars Avith not wholly
dependable time schedules.

Recently a hoi)eful tendency has developed among manufacturing con-
cerns. Many of tliem are moving out of the congested parts of our large
cities to smaller communities or into the open country. This removal
is due to an increased demand for the expansion of business which is made
impossible by the high cost of land in the congested sections of our cities.
The removal of the manufacturing plant from the center of population
and the supply of labor to sparsely settled districts is extremel}' interesting.
It follows soon after the exodus of the country folk to the city has taken
place. This game of hide and seek between labor and employment centers
shows how full of blunders our process of community ])uilding is. It is
now time for the housing reformer to follow up the industrial exodus coun-
tr^'ward with a housing policy which will avoid the congestion created by
the same industries in the city and lay the foundation for a community
planning policy that will keep the multiple dwelMng out of the open country
and allow the light to shine in every room *and grass to grow about every
home that is to be built.

That an efficient and cheap transportation systeni is essential to a re-
duction of congestion is obvious. In the newer communities however and
those Avhich have not been fully developed as industrial centers a com-
munity plan carefully distributing homes and industry and taking advan-
tage of every opportunity for the reduction of distances without increasing
congestion is the only safe means so far discovered that can and will render
congestion impossible in the future.

Accessibility to centers of culture and amusement. Congestion, long hours
of labor and the necessities presented bj^ a highly developed civilization
have created demand for culture and amusement which must be met and
which, because of their psychic rather than physical character, are most
difficult to handle. It is only under the stress of the most jiressing need
that efficient workers are willing to leave the privileges afforded by the
city for the monotony of the country district. The "great white way,"
the theaters, free lectures, libraries are assets which the wage earner con-
siders as part of his rights as resident of a large cit3^ If he is to move from
the city these privileges must be brought within easy reach of his new res-
idence, or something that is as good or better in his estimation must be
substituted. The cry "back to the land" will not be heard by the wage
earner of the city unless he can carry with him all the advantages that
urban life affords. A movement countrA-Avard must and will be accom-

CONSTRUCTIVE HOUSING REFORM 215

panied by a gradual urbanizing of the rural communitites and a closer and
easier contact with the things of the city.

The reduction and final removal of congestion from our large cities will
be accomplished more easily and with less loss of time if cultural and
amusement centers are provided in the newer communities at points that
will make them accessible to the larger proportion of the population, by
locating them according to a plan based upon the principle of econom}^ of
time and maximum of service. Where communities have already become
integrated to an extent that makes extensive planning inpracticable, cheap
and comfortable rapid transit facilities only will lure the mass of the peo-
ple from the slum and tenement district into more sparsely settled dis-
tricts.

Accessibility to food supply. So far we have dealt with factors which
are mainly sanitary and psychic, we shall now deal with the economic fac-
tors in housing reform.

The cost of the food supply depends to a very considerable extent upon
the quantities required in certain sections and the nearness to the center
of distribution. On the east side of New York the cost of food is consider-
ably lower than it is in other cities where there is less congestion and where
the centers of distribution are less accessible. Even within the limits of
New York a difference in the cost of food will be found and this variation
in cost stands in indirect ratio with increase in congestion and distance
from distribution center. The economic advantages presented by a low
price of food can be readily seen, especially where families are large and
wages are low.

It is true that so far we have not secured sufficient data upon which
to base reliable conclusions concerning the differences in cost of food as
determined by congestion and the distance from distributing centers.
Every observation points in this direction, but further inquiry should be
made so that the determining factors in the cost of food may be discovered
and their relation to housing and congestion adjusted.

Regulation of the transportation facilities carried on by pubhc service
corporations, the promotion and development of the recently established
parcel post system, the establishment of cooperative stores or cooperative
purchasing, the encouragement of small farming for household needs, such
as the immigrants some times undertake, and other similar well known
and tried methods should be adapted and aided.

Reasonable reyits. The efforts that have characterized the housing move-
ment in the United States for the last fifteen years were as has already been
stated, wholly or almost wholly sanitary. They have added to the cost
of construction and in consequence have caused a rise in the rental rates.
This means that families are now paying higher rentals regardless of income,
and the rise in rentals has caused a lowering of housing standards.

210 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

A study of 500 families recently moved from one home to another
has clearly shown that in 63 per cent of the cases poorer accomodations
were secured because of a recent change in the family income which has
caused a necessary change in the amount of rent that could be spared.
Social workers and real estate dealers are familiar with the frequent
changes of residence among the poorer families and the changes in income
which cause this frequency of change of residence.

The rise in rental due to increased regulation and a rise in standards of
construction on the one hand and the flexibility of rents due to changes in
income, raise a serious and fundamental question as to efficacy of regula-
tion and restriction without some fundamental changes in the economic
factors that determine cost and rents.

After a series of studies in over a score of New England communities
and a careful examination of the literature on the subject, I venture to
summarize the main principles which seem to me to determine cost and
rent. These principles are as follows:

1. An increase in the population without a corresponding increase in
the housing accomodations of a community determines an increase in
rental rates.

2. Rents increase with the increase in the height of buildings.

3. Land values increase with the intensity of land use and intensity of
land use increases with the increase in the height of buildings.

4. Rentals per cubic foot of air space increase with the decrease in the
size of apartment and the size of apartment decreases with the increase
in height of buildings.

5. The taxation of improvements on land and the failure to tax potential
land values curtail building enterprise, thereby reducing the supply of
homes which results in a rise in rental rates.

6. The strict regulation of new construction without a corresponding
increase in the control of old buildings tends to promote the maintenance
of old rather than the building of new homes and thereby affects the rentals
without a corres]){inding increase in the quality of accomodations.

7. Accessibility by means of transit facilities or actual proximity to
place of employment, anmsement and cultural centers etc. when furnished
only partially throughout the community tends to increase rentals in
direct proportion with accessibility.

These principles are not new. They are the result of com.mon observa-
tion and have been repeatedly proven both by economists and students
of the housing problem. They have been brought together here so that
they may be considered under the general head of housing rather than as
mere theories which have a scientific value, but no practical application to
the problem before us. Let us consider briefly each of the principles
stated above.

CONSTRUCTIVE HOUSING REFORM 217

1. Supply and demand. We have spoken of the spasmodic and vast
changes in the population of our cities both in number and in character.
It is obvious that an industrial boom which calls hundreds and thousands
of workers to a community without at the same time making provisions
for their accommodation will create a demand for homes that can be met
only by increased congestion and a corresponding rise in rentals.^

So far cities and business concerns have been free to advertize the advant-
ages of specific communities with a view to private gain. That booms and
undue efforts to attract population should be controlled is self evident.
The task of the housing reformer should be to couple movements for local
increase in industrial development and growth in population by fore sight
as to the necessary housing facilities required to meet the ch9,nges in
population.

S. Rents and Height of buildings. Professor Eberstadt of Berlin, one
of the foremost authorities on housing says: ''The higher the building the
higher the rent." This same view is taken by another German writer
who maintains that with the intensity of land use, of which height is the
most important, rentals increase.* My limited experience in New England
has led me to the same conclusion. A study of rentals in five Rhode
Island cities has shown a constant increase in the rental rates in the sec-
tions in which the tallest tenements have developed and where a conse-
quent intensive use of land has taken place.

The importance of this principle is clearly evident. It adds strength
to the increasing demand for single dwellings by supplying a purely eco-
nomic basis to a demand for better sanitary conditions and an increased
amount of privacy and comfort. A further working out of this principle
upon a broad scientific basis is necessary in determining a constructive
policy of housing legislation and the housing reformer would be fully repaid
by the results of such undertaking.

3. Land values and land use. We have pointed out that intensity of
land use increases rentals. The speculation in land values due to an ill
fitting system of taxation and the necessity for congestion caused by poor
transportation facilities and inadequate community planning are con-
stantly increasing the value of land in the densely settled districts and
are thereby affecting the housing cost and rental rates. Professor Eber-
stadt and his followers consider the rent problem as inseparable from the
cost of land and the intensity of land use permitted by law.

In the direction of intensity of land use we have sinned in America to
an extent that will take scores of years if not centuries to remedy. We
have had our vision obstructed by the New York tenement and have per-

^ See reports on housing conditions in Fall River, and Springfield, Mass. by the
writer.

* Prof. Dr. L. Pohle: Die Wohnungsfrage, vol. ii, p. 105.

218 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL RP^VIEW

mitt(Ml similar land uso in some of our smallest communities. This in-
tensive and uncontrolled or ])artially controlled land use has resulted not
only in the most alaiormal increase in land values, hut has made possible
the destruction of some ol" our most beautiful residential districts where
a tlesire for gain has prompted the construction of high buildings occupy-
ing abnormal proi)ortions of the lot area and wholly out of iiarmony with
the rest of the district.

Had we realized with regard to community building what we have long
learned relative to fire protection we would have created building zones
such as are to be found in most German cities restricting the tall multiple
dwelling to sections in which land values would make the construction of
single dwellings too costly while at the same time we would have protected
the strictly residential section against the abuse whic^h results from inten-
sive land use and unreasonable rental rates.

The "fire zone" is an accomplished and generally accepted fact, why
not have a building zone for the protection of health and comfort as well
as the esthetic values of the community?

4. Rents and size of accommodation. Measurements of a])artments taken
in nine New Engkuul cities — Providence, Springfield, Fall River, New-
buryport. New Haven, New Britain, Waterbury, Stamford, Portsmouth
have invariably shown that with the increase in the size of the building and
the number of families accommodated there is a corresponding decrease
in the size of the rooms. The rentals per apartment in the larger buildings
are on the average larger than in the smaller buildings accommodating
fewer families. There is a fundamental principle involved in this reason-
ing based on known facts which should not be overlooked. It has an
economic value that would appeal to the individual interested in the wel-
fare of the community, and has an application to the present problem
of securing comfortable accommodations without placing the burden upon
either the builder or the tenant. The full burden would fall upon the land
speculator whose share in the ui)building of communities may profitably
be dispensed with.

5. Taxation of land and imj)rovements. For the last decade the problem
of city and state revenue has l)een increasingly the subject of stud}' and
criticism throughout the United States. We can not at this time consider
the merits and demerits of the various systems at present in vogue. All
that we need to do is to point our in a general way some of the fallacies
of the prevailing methods of taxing housing accommodations as related
to taxes upon land. A\'hile the principle of taxation for revenue alone is
adequate in the (^ase of some commodities, the social requirements of tax-
ation are equity and promotive qualities which will encourage progress and
restrict monopoly. In the case under consideration, namely the taxa-
tion of housing accommodations we find thnt it is neither e(]uitable, pro-
motive of progress or restrictive of monopol}'. The man who improves

CONSTRUCTIVE HOUSING REFORM 219

his land by placing upon it buildings that are sanitary, comfortable and
beautiful, even if that beauty is due to mere skill in the selection of models
and materials, is taxed for the fullest value permitted by law and estab-
lished by custom. The owner who fails to keep his property in repair,
who neglects to make the best of the potential value of his holding, pays
a low tax on the basis of a low assessment. The real estate dealer who
holds out of use the land which is wanted for building purposes and who
compels builders to concentrate structures upon a limited area, pays only
a very small share of the taxes. The individual builder of homes is com-
pelled to meet the terms of the land speculator who has full control over
the most important commodity necessary for home building. Frequently
the land speculator who secures tracts of land on the outskirts -of the city
sells the land in smaller parcels to smaller land speculators who in turn
sell it to still smaller speculators. The man or woman who in the end
places the improvement upon the land pays taxes not only upon the im-
provement placed upon the land, but upon the land which he has improved
plus all the profits of three or four and sometimes as many as ten land spec-
ulators.^ The burden of final cost therefore is placed upon the builder and
the return upon this cost must be secured in rents which the tenant pays.*

We have known of exemptions from taxation in cases where business
blocks are to be erected and in some instances manufacturing establish-
ments have been so encouraged . The building of sanitary homes has alwaj^s
been carried on under the burden of inequitous taxation and land specula-
tion.

The Germans were quick to realize the importance of controlling land
that is available for building purposes. They have secured control over
large areas which are being sold at reasonable prices to prospective builders,
thereby eliminating to a considerable degree the land speculator and secur-
ing for the city a revenue in the form of profit on the sale of land which is
not burdensome to the purchaser and at the same time assists in meeting
the cities' financial obligations.

If the cities of this country were to secure control over the large tracts
of land particularly in the outskirts they would eliminate the land spec-
ulator and would at the same time be in a position to remove a large share
of the burden of taxation from the shoulders of the ultimate builder and
tax payer. In controlling such tracts of land a competition between the
city and private land owners would be secured that would reduce prices
of land and profits on speculation.

We do not propose to solve the problem of taxation in this brief discus-
sion; what we desire to do is simply to suggest a field of inquiry which

^ An examination of the tax books of two Rhode Island cities has shown instances
of increases in purchasing value of land from 100 to 650 per cent in less than fifteen
years.

220 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

would unquestionably lead towards more ecjuitable taxation methods and
increase tlic possibilities of i)roi)er building without unnecessary and unjust
restrictions both public and i)rivate.

6. New and old building laws. In the earlier part of this article we have
discussed the ])roblem of securing adequate regulations to be applied to
old buildings. The competitive element that the old and unrestricted
building presents against the new building hardly needs emphasis. Where
the old buildings are permitted to exist without regulation and under a
system of taxation that sliifts the burden from the old to the new and
improved property it is unavoidable that the number of new structures
should be limited and the rentals in the old buildings for which the demand
is constantly growing should increase. Unless land cost is reduced by
some legislative and administrative means and strict regulations are
imposed upon old buildings rentals can not be reduce or controlled as
long as a considerable supply of such buildings exists.

7. Accessibility. The transit facilities that prevail in many of our cities
and towns are so illy adjusted to the needs of the community, and the
granting of franchises has been so long the source of private gain that
we seldom find proper transportation facilities particularly in the sections
of our communities accupied by wage earners. Adequate transit provis-
ions have come to be considered an exceptional privilege rather than a
public right and the land owner and house owners are not slow in realizing
the market value of such facilities. Only when our transportation system
reaches a point where it is considered the right of all rather than the excep-
tional privilege of a few will rents cease to be affected materially by access-
ibility to place of emplo3'ment, amusements etc.

In the foregoing discussion we have endeavored to bring out in a general
way the fundamental principles of constructive housing reform. We have
gone beyond the generally accepted conception in this field of social service
and have pointed out some economic and social aspects of the problem
that should and could be met before a scientific and far reaching solution
of this most momentous problem could be secured. We are aware of the
difficult}" that such a broad program would encounter, but we also realize
that there is no short cut to permanent improvement, that we have reached
a limit in the securing of mere palliatives and that ])ublic opinion demands
more tangible results than have so far been attained.^

"This paper is based upon an address delivered before The Pennsylvania Hous-
ing Conference on Docembor 6, 1913.

NEW YORK CITY FINANCES

By William A. Prendergast^

New York City

SINCE consolidation (January 1, 1898,) the city of New York has been
doing things upon a tremendous scale. While it is true that her
expenditures in that period have been characterized by some
extravagance and a certain degree of corruption, it is also very true that
these main outlays have been made in deference to public demand.

In the early part of the history of the greater city this demand came
most strongly from those communities which were merged into the city of
New York and which prior to that time had not been financially able to
give to their people all that modern municipal convenience required; but
during later years the cry for great public improvements of all kinds has
been general and no one portion of the city can be charged with greater
rapacity in this respect than any other.

The extent to which this policy of continuous improvement has been
carried is shown by the fact that from January 1, 1898, to June 31, 1911,
long term bonds of the city of New York have been issued for the following
purposes :

Water supply $129,923,568

Streets and roads 99,111,159

Schools 93,517,622

Docks and ferries 82,676,225

Bridges 78,734,452

Rapid transit railroads 73,162,337

Public buildings 49,008,909

City parks and places 37,578,461

Libraries 11,495,400

Fire department 6,049,389

Police department 3,602,984

Department of health 3,216,809

Department of street cleaning 3,170,541

These figures refer only to permanent improvements and have nothing
whatever to do with the cost of general city maintenance.

The city of New York has a large debt and the size of this indebtedness
is sometimes commented upon adversely. The gross funded debt on June
30, 1912, was $1,082,662,851. 75; of this amount the city holds in its own
sinking fund, bonds to the aggregate value of $279,783,560.61. The net
funded debt on June 30, 1912 (bonds of the city of New York held by the
pubhc), was $802,879,291.14.

1 Comptroller of the city of New York.

221

222

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

The exponditures of the city of New York are divided into two classes:
Those made under the authority of the tax budget, and corporate stock
(or long term bond) authorizations.

The tax budget is prepared and approved by the board of estimate and
apportionment and nmst receive the approval of the aldermen. The
aldermen have power to reduce the amount of the items contained in the
budget, but cannot increase any. Neither can they alter the character of
any appropriation from the form in which it is inserted in the budget by
the board of estimate and apportionment. This budget provides for the
general maintenance expenses of the city goverimient and also the county
departments and courts within its jurisdiction. An illustration of the
scope and fvmction of a New York City tax budget is best shown in the fol-
io-wing statement of the budget for this year:

GROUPING OF APPROPRIATIONS ACCORDING TO GENERAL
FUNCTION OR PURPOSE

GROUP TOTALS

PER CAPITA
COST

General administration

Legislative (aldermen and city clerk)

Judicial

Educational

Health and sanitation

Protection of life and property

Correctional purposes

Charitable purposes

Streets, highways and bridges (care and mainte-
nance of)

Recreation, science and art, viz:

(a) Parks, parkways and drives.

(b) Zoological and botanical gardens, museums,

etc

Public buildings and offices (care and maintenance

of)

Board of elections and county canvassers

Publication, advertising and printing

Taxes, rents, pension and relief fund, etc

Public enterprises (docks and municipal ferries)

Totals

Interest on the city debt and provision for the
rot irement of its bonds

$3,042,915.00

285,810.00

8,437,835.26

36,116,559.31

17,076,279.18

30,179,314.61

1,362,404.00

8,165,773.38

5,083,476.84

• 2,454,853.00

1,003,476.57

1,370,906.63
1,208,675.00
1.353,890.00
6,445,569.20
2,960,623.62

$126,548,361.60
51,254,528.17

$0.59
.06
1.63
6.98
3.30
5.83
.26
1.58

.98

.49

.19

.27
.23
.26
1.25
.57

$24.46
9.91

Total cost for maintenance of government, inter-
est and amortization for the year 1912

$177,802,889.77

$34.37

Tli(> f()t;il lunnbcr of cinploycos of the city is approximately 107,000.
Of these about 85,000 are regular omi)loyees, 22,000 temporary. The tem-
porary em])loyees consist cliictiy of election officials, landlords of polling
places, and those engaged in the removal of snow to the number of 15,000.

NEW YORK CITY FINANCES 223

Checks are used to pay about 65,000 of the regular employees, the chief
beneficiaries being the teachers, 17,200; poHcemen, 10,118, and firemen,
4346. The amounts paid by check aggregate about $75,000,000; those
paid in cash, about $14,000,000. When one appreciates that the item of
salaries and wages alone represents an average outlay of seven and a half
millions of dollars per month, it is not hard to understand that for many
years New York has been one of the greatest borrowers in the world.

Borrowings necessary for these purposes had from consolidation to the
middle of the year 1910 been made in the form of revenue bonds — short
term evidences of the city's indebtedness. These bonds were issued for
periods of from one to twelve months, or for such longer time as the size of
the amount to be borroAved and a study of the money market would justify.
In the last years of the previous administration the amount of these borrow-
ings had become so large that it was deemed necessary to broaden the mar-
ket for them bj^ seeking foreign buj^ers. It was found, however, that owing
to the fact that these short term evidences of indebtedness were issued under
the name of bonds, that name being applied to them in the charter, they
were not acceptable for quick handling, especially in England, because as
bonds they were subject to the bond tax of one-half of 1 per cent, whereas,
if they could be issued in the nature of bills, they would only be subject to a
very small tax of one-twentieth of 1 per cent.

In order to assure the city a broader market I asked the legislature of
1910, the first year of my administration, to give us authority to issue these
evidences of indebtedness in the form of bills and payable in the currency
of foreign countries. This was promptly done and the city has now an
extensive market for her short term obligations, enjoying the advantage
not only of a wider field for the placing of these bills, but an opportunity to
take advantage of the best rates wherever they may be found.

The question would naturally arise why should New York City put itself
in the position of being so heavy a borrower instead of collecting the funds
for her current maintenance either in advance of its incurrence, or at least
at such periods as would enable her to be a fairly self-supporting concern;
''self-supporting" in this sense being used as opposed to the principle of
constant borrowing.

The first step that was undertaken in this direction involving the collec-
tion of a sum approximately $130,000,000, was a change in the system of
preparing the city's tax bills, it being our idea that if the bills were ready
promptly it would lead to payments being made more promptly. To the
mind of the average business man the very idea of the city not being ready
with its bills promptly would no doubt occasion amazement.

The mere proposition upon my part to prepare all bills in advance natur-
ally aroused great opposition in the office of the receiver of taxes, and
not less than fifty objections were urged by so-called experts and mossback

224 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

offico holders to any such system. My idea was that not only should the
tax bills be ]irei:)ared in advance, so that they would be ready when the tax-
payer called for them, but that they should be prepared in duplicate and
triplicate form, so that when an application was made for a tax bill, the
triplicate or advice showing all the necessary information could be given
to the taxpayer. When the payment was made the original would be
receipted and handed to the taxpayer and the duplicate used by the auditor
of receipts as a check upon the collecting officers. The system had another
purpose in that it enabled the department of finance for the first time to
exercise a thorough control over the colle(!tion of the city's taxes.

The results of the introduction of this system were excellent not only in
inducing quicker payments, but in the very much greater convenience to
the taxpayers of the city in discharging their tax paj'^ments.

Side by side with this change, however, we had in contemplation the more
important principle of collecting the city's revenue in time to enable it
to pay its bills. After much study and a thorough investigation of the tax
systems in force in all the leading; cities of this coun'ry, I announced
at a meeting of the City Club on the night of February 6, 1911, that as
the city's financial officer I was in favor of a system of semi-annual tax
collections, and would ask the legislature to give me authority to make
them in that way. The necessary legislation was secured and this year
the plan went into effect. The annual tax is payable in two equal parts,
on the first of May and the first of November. Those who desire to pay
their entire taxes at one time are at perfect liberty to do so and as an induce-
ment to make full payment, a discount at the rate of 4 per cent per annum
is allowed upon the money due on the second half, if paid in advance of
November 1, and calculated from the date of payment to November 1.

Total collections, May 1 to and including September 3, 1912. . . $80,456,202 . 74

CoUect'ons representing first half of yearly period 63,778,797.48

Collections representing second half of yearly period 16,677,405.26

What it means to the city of New York to be in receipt of this great sum
of money ^nd not to be compelled to be a borrower marks not only a great
advance in the method of conduf^ting city business, but it also means that
the city will be the richer this very year by approximately one million and a
half dollars, saved in interest charges. The entire extra expense to which
the city has been subjected through the introduction of this system has
this year been S50,000, and probably this amount can be reduced in sub-
sequent years, so the gain is not only great in respect to administrative
efficiency, but also in actual financial results.

If the city takes the attitude that it is entitled to quick payment of
that which is due, it is just as essential that the city should promptly
pay its own bills. A govornmont should be just as careful of its credit as

NEW YORK CITY FINANCES 225

a private individual, and one of the surest means of enjoying good credit
is to be prompt in payments. It must be said with, regret that heretofore
those charged with the care of the city's credit have not seemed to appre-
ciate this fundamental principle, although they probably recognized its
force in their private business and transactions. This laxity also brought
about a system of petty imposition practised by clerks and others who had
the payment of accounts in their charge. There being practically no sys-
tem under which payments of bills should be made, it was every man's
race. Those who were willing to "make arrangements" could get their
money in quicker time than those who were out of favor or were not
willing to pay for what was their right. One of the first measures of
reform which I undertook in the department of finance was to devise a
system which would govern the payment of bills.

Every voucher entering the department is put upon a schedule and that
schedule must be recognized throughout the entire audit. To pay a
voucher out of its order is now an infraction of the rules, unless in very
rare cases there be some special reason for taking a bill out of its
order. This cannot be done except with the sanction of the comptroller
or one of his deputies. This power is so seldom used by them as to insure
the absolute integrity of the original system. Instead of its requiring
from twenty to thirty days for the payment of bills they are now made on
an average of less than five days. This, of course, refers to accounts
over which there is no dispute and represents 95 per cent of the accounts
passing through the department of finance.

I am not claiming that the city's bills are paid on an average of five
days from the time they are incurred. This time refers only to the
period required for their transmission and payment through the depart-
ment of finance. There is not the slightest reason, however, why bills
should not be passed in even less time than this through the different
departments and bureaus incurring the obligations, and if this were done
it would mean that the city of New York could take advantage of the best
cash discounts and be in a position thereby to demand the very best prices
obtainable. It has not enjoyed any such advantage in the past because
of this delay in paying its obligations.

Even within the past year there have been cases in which certain of the
city departments have not transmitted accounts to the department of
finance inside of three, four, five, six, seven and eight months. This con-
dition, however, is rapidly being improved and ought to be almost entirely
obhterated through the operation of the new accounting system and the
better treatment of all municipal work, the merit of which is now being
generally recognized in city departments.

I have already called attention to the large amounts borrowed by the
city through the sale of its corporate stock, or long term bonds, this cover-

22G NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

iii^ tlic olluT class of city oxponditures as differentiated from the outlays
made on account of the tax l)udfi;<'t.

In 1911, some of tiie principal expenditures of this character were as
follows:

Educational purposes $5,002,626.80

Health and sanitation 1 ,196.771 .25

Water supply 30,774,994.86

Streets and highways 12,287,760. 18

Bridges 11,551,974.25

ruhlic buildings and offices 3,220,617 .93

Docks and ferries 2,545,178.82

Rapid transit railroads 10,010,526.38

It has been the city's practice to go into the market for its long term
bonds at frequent intervals, sometimes three different times a year. This
meant that at such periods as the city was greatly in need of money it
would find that it was embarrassed because of an unfavorable money
market, and the history of recent administrations will show that this em-
barrassment was on some occasions very costly to the city. At the time
I became comptroller there was relatively little corporate stock money on
hand, although there had been a sale of $12,500,000 during the preceding
month; but this amount was wholly inadequate to meet what were even
then pressing demancis, especially for land liability.

I believed that the city would serve its best interests by letting it be
known in the financial world that it would not go into the market for long
term borrowings more than once a year. With that object in view I asked
the commissioners of the sinking fund to confirm my plan of issuing $^50,-
000,000 worth of corporate stock during the early part of the year 1910.
The sale took place on March 21, 1910, and was a great success. The
interest rate on these bonds was fixed at 4| per cent. The second sale
was for $60,000,000 at 4j per cent and took place on January 24, 1911, and
the third sale of my administration was for $65,000,000 at 4| per cent and
was held on May 7, 1912. .

There is no doubt whatever that this policy of yearly sales has the ap-
proval of the financial world and is also a great help to the city because it
enables the department of finance to select what is generally known to be
the most acceptable period of the year for a bond sale. These large sales
were open to the criticism that they left a good deal of money on hand in
the city treasury and that as the city has to pay 4j per cent on its money,
and only receives on an average of 2 per cent from its deposits, it suffered
an unnecessary loss. This criticism was justified in a measure although
it must be remembered that the ability of the city to sell its bonds readily
and at good prices is a compensating advantage. But under a new system
which we have established this criticism is read out of court. It was with

NEW YORK CITY FINANCES 227

the object of avoiding the carrying of large sums of long term money in the
banks, and also of being in a position promptly to pay the obligations
incurred by the city under its corporate stock authorizations that we found
it necessary to devise a new method in municipal finance.

It might be asked why should the city ever be behind in paying its bills.
It must assuredly have large sums of money on hand; for instance, in former
times, when a contractor would call for his money and be told that there
was none on hand, he would naturally wonder why the city could not pay
his bill when he would read from a published report that it had a number of
millions of dollars in banks. The point is that possibly none of this money
in the banks belonged to the fund from which his account could be paid,
although the sanctity of these accounts had been frequently violated and
bills which should be paid from corporate stock authorizations had been
paid from the tax budget collections, and vice versa. This brought about
a chaotic condition in the city treasury and became an embarrassment
because it has happened that when it was necessary to replenish a certain
fund it was found to be cUfficult to get the money with which to do it. This
was called the general pot theory of mixing all moneys and making pay-
ments indiscriminately; but this general pot theory was one of the things
that I evicted from the department of finance immediately upon becoming
comptroller.

Another difficulty was this : Under the law, although corporate stock had
been authorized for a certain improvement and a contract awarded for the
work, no payment could legally be made on account of that contract unless
bonds specifically covering that particular authorization had been sold.
This created much confusion and delay in paying the city's bills but the
delay was especially oppressive against the city's creditors for land liability.
Where land had been taken for public improvements the condemnation
proceedings would drag along for a number of years, and although the claim-
ant would be entitled to interest from the time when title vested in the city,
still the city's failure to make payment promptly for these awards created
great hardship on a large number of people who were really in need of the
money, and unless bonds had been sold covering specific authorizations
for these land liabilities, payment could not be made. In 1910 we paid
$15,000,000 for land acquired, and in 1911, $28,000,000, as against an aver-
age of $10,000,000 for preceding years.

All these different considerations led us to the conclusion that there
should be some method provided for paying promptly the city's obligations
for permanent improvements, and as a means of meeting this very trying
situation we decided, in the year 1911, to ask the legislature to permit us
to issue corporate stock notes, these notes to be issued for a term not longer
than one year, and to be paid out of the next succeeding bond sale.

The necessary legislation was secured and the consequence is that through

228 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

our ability to l)()rrow money for corporate stock ])uri)o.sc.s on tliese short
term notes, making a considerable saving in interest charges, we are now in
a position to make our borrowings whenever necessary and there need not
be a single day's delay in the payment of a corporate stock liability. This
new device, also very simple, has in conjunction with the semi-annual tax
])lan practically revolutionized New York's financing and tends to place
it upon a basis of absolute business integrity and efficiency.

The corporate stock note also disj^oscs effectually of the necessity of
ever reverting to frequent bond issues and confirms the policy of yearly
bond sales which I had the honor of introducing.

While discussing some of the lights I deem it Avell to also call attention
to at least one of the shadows because it refers to a subject to which the
thought of all those interested in better municipal administration should
be directed. On June 30, 1912, the city of New York had an estimated
land liabiHty of $22,943,914.28. Of this amount $5,236,741.57, or 22.8
per cent represented interest charges. This means that nearly one-quarter
of this great sum will have to be paid by the taxpayers of the city of New
York because of an antiquated, cumbersome and wasteful method of con-
demnation proceedings.

The delays take place almost entirely in the work of the condemnation
commissions, which is prolonged unduly, and largely, I am assured, because
the longer the work can be delayed, the more meetings can be held and the
greater will be the remuneration of the commissioners. For the purpose
of maintaining and enriching these favorites of the courts, selected generally
because of political preference and favoritism, the city of New York must
pay this great tribute in interest charges.

In addition to handling current responsibilities, which it is apparent
from the figures already given are of great magnitude, this administration
has been called upon to adjust many difficult problems left by its prede-
cessors. One of the most trying of its financial difficulties has been the
handling of a large indebtedness due to uncollectible taxes. Under the
system already explained, the city has been compelled to borrow for its
budget requirements, but in cases where the taxes could not be collected,
the revenue bonds or bills issued against these deficits constituted a debt
that must be taken care of in some other way.

From January 1, 1898, to 1905, there had accumulated $36,000,000 of
uncollectible taxes. This was one of the great problems which the second
administration of Mr. McClcllan was called upon to face immediately
upon going into office. It is the law that the sum of all taxes deemed uncol-
lectible shall be included in the next succeeding annual tax budget and
defrayed therefrom. This practice has not been lived up to, largely because
of the fear of each administration to face the situation in a manly way and
let the people know in the budget exactly what their real condition was and

J

NEW YORK CITY FINANCES 229

the responsibilities they had to meet. Shortly after the beginning of the
second McClellan administration legislation was secured authorizing the
liquidation of this great sum of $36,000,000 of uncollectible taxes through
the issue of long term bonds. The poor business policy of such a proceed-
ing is manifest, and at the same time this deficit had become so great that
its inclusion in a single tax budget, or even spreading it over two or three
years, would be regarded by the taxpayers as an unnecessary burden. It is
simply a question whether a man wants to discharge his indebtedness and
be done with it. The same thing occurs to the city, but we find that there
are many taxpayers who believe that the longer they can put off the pay-
ment of a claim, and thus keep down even to a small degree the amount of
taxes they have to pay annually, the better off they are. They do not
stop to figure that the city is not better off but that its condition is annually
becoming worse.

Although the city of New York had the authority to issue long term bonds
to pay this deficit, during the entire preceding administration of four years
only $3,000,000 was used in this way, leaving a balance for this administra-
tion of $33,000,000. In order to rid the city of this burden of $33,000,000
I concluded that it would be a safe policy to issue corporate stock to the
amount of $5,000,000 per annum. This would, during the present adminis-
tration, liquidate $20,000,000 of this amount, and I thought it equitable to
spread the balance through the next administration on the theory that as
this great deficit represented the accumulations of eight years, it was fair
to spread the liquidation of it over about the same period.

This administration has now been in office three years and we have
paid off $15,000,000. The remaining $5,000,000 will be paid off during
the year 1913 and this means that what has been a floating indebtedness
is being funded into a long term indebtedness. This situation, however,
presents a very stirring object lesson to a municipal government, whether
it be large or small. This lesson is that it should endeavor to pay its way
as it goes along, and if it finds itself running behind the best thing to do
would be to frankly tell its citizens that such is the case and handle the
situation in a manly way.

THE VALUATION OF REAL ESTATE

FOR TAXATION

BY W. A. SOMEllS^

BEFORE undertaking to describe how land values are ascertained by
the Somers System it will be well to consider what "value" is.
One of the standard dictionaries says: "Value, the property or
aggregate properties of a thing by which it is rendered useful or desirable,
or the degree of such property or sum of properties; concrete purchasing
power; the specific quantity of another object for which a given object
can be exchanged; a price which can be actually obtained; market price.

As a matter of fact, value, the word, is used to inchcate an attempt on
the part of man to measure and compare his desires.

A man may desire a head covering, and going into a hat shop finds hats
and caps varying in price from 50 cents to $10. His desire may be sat-
isfied with a $3.50 derby, and he is willing to exchange for it $3.50 of money
received by him as wages. In this transaction he has valued the hat to
him at as much or a little more than $3.50. At the same time he may con-
sider that this hat is worth more than the $10 hat, and his judgment or
measure of value is final and absolute.

The next man may satisf}^ his desires by the purchase of a 50 cent cap,
while the next man may desire a $10 silk hat and think it worth the price;
and these purchases show the individual idea of the comparative value
of the different articles. No matter what the article may be, its value to
an individual can only be determined by his desire for it, and the only
terms in which he can measure this desire is to compare one article with
another, and he cannot make this comparison for anyone but himself.
This being true it is evident that in the attempt to arrive at a community
opinion of value for each one of a number of things, there must be some
basis or foundation other than the indivudual opinions of the people.
That is, there must be found or created some expressed community opinion
from which specific values can be deduced, and by which such values can
be compared and checked before a satisfactorj^ list can be made.

To illustrate: If it were possible to obtain from each individual of the
community his opinion of the comparative value of a certain list of articles,

'Mr. Somers has had h)ng expcrienfc in the assessment of property for the pur-
poses of taxation. In 1891 he was made deputy assessor of St. Paul and Ramsey
County, Minnesota, at which time he evolved his method of real estate vahiation,
which in 1896 was adopted for the assessment of the city of St. Paul. Afterwards
Mr. Somers was engaged for some years in the cities of Clevehmd, Minneapolis, Chi-
cago and New York in examination and assessment revisions. Upon the completion
of his service in Cleveland, Mr. Somers arranged with the Manufacturers' Appraisal
Company of that city to operate his system. — ]']ditou.

230

J

VALUATION OF REAL ESTATE 231

the comparison in all cases to be made with money, and to be based upon
his idea of the value of the article without regard to its cost, there is no
doubt that in many of the lists some one or more of the articles not being-
desired by the individual making the list would be marked valueless; and
the chances are that each one of the articles listed would be found on some
one or more of the lists so marked. Therefore, average values based on
individual opinion would not be satisfactory because the opinions would not
be based upon the same standards.

One man whose income is obtained by hard labor at $2 per day would
have a very different idea of the value' of things compared with money
than the man whose income from inherited wealth, without exertion on
his part, amounts to $100 per day. Therefore it is safe to say that it is
impossible to deduce a community opinion of the value of things directly
from the only true measure of value — individual opinion.

Nevertheless, we do find in market prices a community opinion which
limits the value of all things that have or are subject to market prices.
That is, an article can never be worth more than the cost of producing it
(the price of the article in the open market), and it never can be worth
less at any given time than the amount that can be obtained for it.

With the great development of trade and commerce during the last two
hundred years, and the almost universal use of gold as a measure of value,
there has been created in the minds of the people generally the idea that
everything and anything has a certain discoverable value which can be
expressed in gold dollars, and this thought has been common with reference
to the valuation of land. To find a specific value for each lot is commonly
considered a simple problem, requiring only honest care to make a correct
assessment of land values.

Now when we realize that the value of anything, even the most common
article, is only an individual opinion, and that the only guide to a commun-
ity opinion as to the value of these common things is market prices, and
that city land is not subject to market prices, we have discovered the cause
of the difficulty in obtaining satisfactory assessments of city land, and it
seems to me that this makes it plain why the assessments of city land for
taxation is almost universally condemned as unequal and unjust. The
work may be the honest, conscientious opinion of the assessor, but it is
open to criticism by every other citizen, each of \yhom has the same right
in his opinion as the assessor; and as it is human nature to express our
fault-finding more emphatically than our praise, it is not astonishing that
the work of the assessor is condemned.

Exception may be taken to the statement that city land is not subject
to market prices, and a few words are necessary in explanation of this
statement. Market prices can only exist for exact duplicates. There can
be no market price for any one thing which cannot be duphcated. The

232 NATIONAL JVTUNKIPAL REVIEW

market price of wheat is fixed hy tlie bushel; of coal by the ton; and the
l)rices are based on uniformity of (luality so that each ton or bushel is
exactly like every other ton and l)usli("l.

A city lot cannot be du])licated. It is a certain definite portion of
the earth's surface; and while there may be other lots similar in size
and shape, they occupy different parts of the earth's surface, and as the
predominant value of city land is its usefulness as a site or location, the
fact that several lots may be of the same size and shape is no indication
that they are of the same value. Therefore there can never be a market
price for city lots except to a very limited degree, such as the case of sub-
(li\ i(Un<i; an untleveloped farm into city lots of uniform size. They may
be offered in the first sale at a uniform price, but this uniformity immediate-
ly disappears with the first transfer of the property.

As an illustration of the radical difference in value of different locations
I find from the tentative land value maps of the city of New York for 1913
that at the point of highest value on lower Broadway a 25-foot lot would
be worth half a million dollars; that lots of the same size less than two
blocks distant from this point are rated at $50,000; and taking the high
jjoint on Fifth Avenue near Thirty-fourth Street, where an inside 25-foot
lot would be valued at $375,000, within a radius of two blocks there are
many lots of the same size which are valued at less that $100,000, and
very many ]ilaces in all parts of the city where lots of the same size and
in the same block will differ in value as three to one.

The fact that market prices are an expression of community opinion of
the value of all things used by man that can be moved from place to place
— in fact all things except the surface of the earth, land — has caused an
imi^ression that the value of city land can be determined from prices as
shown by sales. The fallacy of this supposition is demonstrated when
we realize that the prices for sales of land are in all cases merely a com-
promise between the individual opinons of the purchaser and seller, and
that each piece of land represents a particular and specific location on the
earth's surface, which cannot be duplicated, and which cannot be moved;
and therefore its value does not necessarily indicate the value of any other
piece in the world.

If every lot in the city were sold each year, there is no doubt that from
these sales some averages could be deduced that would fairly represent a
community opinion of value, but the fact is that only a very small propor-
tion of city land is sold during a year, and it is very common to find lots
or tracts of land that have not been sold for two or three generations.

Although the term "value of land" is in common use, as a matter of
fact land lias no value of itself. It can only be valuable to man in using
it; therefore any statement of the value of a given ])arcel of land is based
entirely upon an estimate of its future usefulness; and this usefulness can-

J

VALUATION OF REAL ESTATE 233

not be foretold, because it is dependent entirely upon the conditions of
the use. Under certain conditions the use of land may be made to pro-
duce valuable crops, or if used as a site for residence purposes it may be
very useful and very valuable as a shelter or home, and if used as a site
for business projects, it may be made to produce very large return as rent.

It is evident that the only list of values that can be absolutely satisfac-
tory to a community would be a list representing the unanimous opinion
of the community, which of course is an impossibility. The assessor must
therefore undertake to obtain a community expression of some common
knowledge so related to the land values that this community expression
can be used as the basis for calculating the value of each lot.

This common knowledge is found in that knowledge common.to all the
people of the community of the relative importance of the streets. The
fact that the value of city land is directly comparable with the compar-
ative usefulness of the streets which make it accessible to the trade and
life of the city makes this knowledge a reliable and accurate basis for
calculating the value of the lots. While this community opinion is not
expressed in definite form of price or value, it has been demonstrated that
a very clear expression of it can be obtained by comparing the streets one
with another on the basis of their frontage values. By assuming as a unit
the frontage value per foot of an inside lot 100 feet deep, then starting
with the best street and limiting the inquiry to a few blocks, it will prove
surprisingly easy to obtain an agreement or consensus of opinion as to the
comparative frontage value of these blocks and streets. Then extending
the work from this center in all directions, working out along the best
street and through streets of less value until the whole city has been cov-
ered, a schedule or frontage value map may be established that can be
used as a basis for the appraisal of each separate parcel of land in the city.
This is the foundation of what is known as the "Somers System of Land
Valuation."

The practical construction of this unit value map was one of the serious
problems, but within the last two years such maps have been made in
more than a dozen cities, and it is proven that when undertaken by com-
petent authority (the assessor) with the idea that the maps shall be used
as the basis for taxation, the owners and occupants of city property enter
into the work with enthusiasm, and are willing to give all of the assistance
necessary. The valuation must be started under some proper authority
to secure the attention of the property owners, and must be carefully con-
ducted, the object and use being explained, and it has been found that as
soon as the people understand the practicability of this method, they will
appreciate the importance of it and realize that not only can they help
in preparing a map, but that after the work is completed they will be
enabled to form a better judgment as to the uniformity of the valuation.

234 NATIONAL MUNTCTPAL REVIEW

It is very desirable ;iiul almost an a}).solute neeessity that the unit value
for 100 feet in depth shall be fixed at what is considered the actual value
of an inside lot 100 feet in depth. Any attempt to use a percentage of
the actual value will result in confusion and make it impractical to com-
pare one portion of the city with another. To make use of the unit
value map, it is necessary to fix definite rules that will apply to all the vari-
ous sizes, shapes and positions of the individual holdings by which this
frontage unit can be converted into the value in dollars of anj^ particular
lot.

Experience has demonstrated that the value of about 95 per cent of
the lots, or individual holdings can be determined directly from the front-
age value units in connection with the other information on the map, that
is, size, shape, and accessibility as shown by position with reference to
streets and alleys, the influences of accessibility to the community's life,
leaving not to exceed 5 per cent of the lots that will require special investi-
gation. At first sight this may appear to indicate a greater uniformity
than is generally thought to exist. Because it is so frequently stated that
to determine the value of a lot one must make a complete and thorough
examination of the lot, and estimate the many conditions that affect this
value, it is astonishing to learn that all of the conditions affecting the value
of 95 per cent of the lots in the city can be expressed in street value units
in connection with the size, shape and position as shown on the map.

However, 95 per cent is a low estimate because the frontage units may
be valued to show every change along each street, and will naturally show
the effect of any change in any or all of the streets, such as grading, side-
walks, sewers, water, etc. If one block is graded and paved, and the next
block is not graded, the value of this difference will show in the value of
the unit. If a sewer has been constructed along a part of a block only,
there will be two units showing differences in value. If the land on one
side of the street is depressed below the street level and the other side is
at the street level, there will be two units, one for each side, showing the
value of this difference.

A very common thought that each lot is different from every other lot
grows out of the fact that in the valuation of a city lot each one values it
from his own point of view, thinking only of his use of it, and from each
tlifferent use there will be a different income, therefore a different value;
and this accounts for the great discrepancy that frequently occurs in the
valuation of a given tract by different individuals. Even "experts" fre-
quently differ verj'- widely in their valuation of the same lot.

To make use of these community opinion unit values rules must be
established by which the specific value of any given lot can be computed.
The first rule to be considered is called the curve of value, and is a rule
for determining the effect of frontage value at different depths.

VALUATION OF REAL ESTATE 235

For one kind of business, such as a cigar store, the front part of a lot
will be very valuable, and the rear part of less value, while for a restaurant
the lot should have its front on the street, and at the same time enough
space in the rear for the proper conduct of the restaurant business, making
the rear part as important and as valuable to the business as the front. The
fact is that the different uses to which city land is put results in giving a
higher average value to the front portion of the lot, because it can be
adapted to more profitable use by a larger number of people, and to a
greater variety of uses than the rear portion of the lot, but there is no fixed
positive relation.

Having established 100 feet in depth as the fixed unit of quantity —
the yardstick — ^the first investigation was made to ascertain the compara-
tive usefulness of a lot that was only 50 feet in depth, having only one-half
the area of the unit depth, and next to ascertain the comparative value
of a lot 150 feet in depth.

This investigation was begun in St. Paul, Minnesota, where the business
portion of the city is laid out in blocks 300 feet square, divided into 12
lots, each 50 by 150 feet, and as the business developed in the cross streets
many of these corner lots lying 150 feet along the street have been joined
with the adjoining lot, and divided so as to make lots of 100 feet deep front-
ing on the cross street. In other cases a corner lot had been used as
frontage on a cross street, making a lot only 50 feet deep, thus giving many
examples of lots 50 and 100 feet in depth.

It is evident that the front half of a lot is worth more than the rear half,
and that an addition of 50 feet to the rear of a 100-foot lot does not increase
its value in proportion to the added area. After a careful investigation
of many hundreds of lots in actual use, and of many hundreds of sale of
lots of different dimensions, it was determined to use as a tentative scale,
70 per cent of the value of the 100-foot unit as representing the value of
the first 50 feet of depth and giving 30 per cent of the value of the unit to
the rear 50 feet, and considering the third 50 feet as having a value equal
to 15 per cent of the 100-foot unit. Plotting these effects upon cross-
section paper .developed a curve of value, that is a curved line drawn
from a zero point to represent the street line through a 50-foot point repre-
senting a lot 50 feet in depth, and at an elevation to indicate 70 per cent,
then through a 100-foot point at an elevation to indicate 100 per cent,
then to the 150-foot j^oint at an elevation to indicate 115 per cent.

This tentative curve was then tested by applying it to many lots in
several cities, and by submitting it to the best authorities, and it was
determined that for retail business property the first 50 feet absorbed a
little more than the tentative curve indicated, and this was changed to
72| per cent. The curve thus formed has been used and tried in many
thousands of cases in many cities, and it is evident that it fairly represents

•J.iti NATIONAL IMUNKIPAL REVIEW

a general consensus of oi)inion as to the pro])ortionate value of different
(le])ths iu retail business ])roi)erty up to 100 feet, and that for residence
or wholesale property it and its extensions fairly represents a proportionate
value for 75 to 250 feet in depth.

The next rule to be established was the rule for djetermining the effect
of tlie value on corner lots. It was discovered that very little if any
attem])t hati been made by real estate men to formulate rules to determine
the enhanced value of corner lots. The idea was very commonly expressed
that a corner lot was more valuable than an inside lot by a percentage
varying from 10 to 100 per cent, but without any fixed reason for different
percentages. These tlifferences appeared to be individual, and to have
been determined in each individual case by an examination of the lot,
and while it was evident that the value of a cross street had to an extent
controlled this percentage it had been unconscious, and the conclusion
had l)een reached from the actual use of the corner, and not as deduced
from the value of the cross street.

It is evident that with the unit maps as a foundation, values of corner
lots can be unifonnly determined by some combination of the values of
the unit on the streets forming the corner; and it was not difficult to com-
pile a set of rules that v^'Ould give uniform results for lots 50 by 100 feet
fronting 50 feet on the best street for any combination of street values.

The next step was to determine the effect where the lots had their long-
est frontage of 100 feet on the best street instead of 50 feet, and it was
realized that the only possible method of formulating rules to cover all
cases would be by assuming some convenient limit for corner tables, and
then distributing the value of the cross street over this unit lot by definite
rules in small areas, so that it can be easily stated for any given dimension
or ])lot lying in any position. This was accomplished by a careful investi-
gation of the recognized effects on standard corner lots 50 by 100 feet,
from which was formulated tables to fit all combinations of street values;
then a second lot next to and adjoining the corner was worked out with
the same range of corner values. The increase of value to this second lot
is very slight, if anything, where the cross street is of but little value, and
when the cross street is of nearly the same value as the best street then
the effect on this second lot will be considereble.

Having worked out the effect on the two lots 50 by 100 feet each gave
us 100 feet square as the corner unit, and this was then divided into 100
squares, each 10 feet, and the effect of the cross street values is worked
out on each one of these 100 squares, maintaining in all cases the original
proportions as found from actual experience in the use of lots.

The existing dimensions of lots in business centers were found to be so
irregular that 10-foot squares were found the best division that could
be practically used, and it was found for this use more convenient to use a

J

VALUATION OF REAL ESTATE 237

set of tables rather than scales as originally planned. These tables show
the value in dollars of each one of the 100 squares each 10 feet by 10 feet
in a unit corner of a 100-foot square, for every combination of street unit
values. There are for practical computation use 100 tables in which the
best street unit is valued at $1000 the cross street unit varying in value
from zero in Table No. 1 to $1000 in Table No. 100 by differences of
$10 between each table. This arrangement makes a convenient method
for working out the value of any sizes or shapes coming within the 100-
foot square on the corner. Practically every corner-value problem can
be solved from these $1000 tables by proportion.

The third rule to be considered was the effect of alleys laid out across
or through a block. By alleys are meant thoroughfares running into or
through a block, the use of which is practically confined to the occupants
of the block. When they are strictly alleys, used exclusively for the bene-
fit of the lots in the block, it is safe to assume that the ground thus used
is worth as much as if it was used as a lot. Otherwise it would not be
used as an alley, and the alley not being of any use or value to the property
outside of the block, and being exempt from taxation, the value of the
ground so used must be added to the value of the lots which are benefited
by its use as an alley. It is therefore assumed that a proper method for
caring for alleys, is first:

To ascertain the value of the ground used as an alley, computed by the
rules of frontage and depth. Then to distribute the amount of this value
to the several lots in the block which are accessible to the alley in pro-
portion to their accessibility.

There are exceptions to every rule, and cases have been found where
the alleys in a block covered so much ground that the value of the land
amounted to more than the benefits accruing to the lots as in the case of
an alley 20 feet wide through a block where the only use if the alley was
as a rear entrance to the lots, and where 10 feet in width would have accom-
modated the property as well as 20 feet. In such a case it is evident that
there is a loss in maintaining a 20-foot alley, and it may be that the amount
of benefit to the lot is less than the value of the land so used. When there
is more than one alley in the block, or where the widths of the alleys in
the block are not uniform, the advantages or benefits to the lots must be
adjusted in accordance with the facts.

Alleys benefit lots first by making them accessible to the public thorough-
fares; second, by giving them the advantages of unobstructed light in pro-
portion to the width of the alley; third, by insuring the free circulation of
air. In all three of these cases any increase in the width of the alley will
tend to increase the benefit. Therefore if we have in one part of the block
a narrow alley, we should not charge the same rate per front foot as should
be charged when the alley is wider. The exercising of a little common

238 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

sense in ad justing the value of the different conditions and features will
be necessary, and it will not be difficult to work out a satisfactory result.

From the very nature of the case each block must be worked out sepa-
rately, if there is only one alley, and that is of uniform width running
through the block, passing we will say the back end of each lot, and the
lots 'being all of the same width, the case is very simple, as the benefits
to the lots must be equal. A division of the total value of the land used
for the alley by the number of lots will give a fair proportion of the amount
which must be added to the value of each lot.

It is frequentl}^ stated that rules cannot be formulated that will take
into consideration all of the conditions that effect the value of city lots.
While it may be admitted that this is true, it must be admitted that in
so far as similar conditions exist their treatment by the use of rules will
tend to simplify the work of the appraiser, result in greater uniformity,
and greatly facilitate the work of comparison or review. While it is true
that there appear to be many conditions that affect the value of a lot,
a little thought will demonstrate the fact that when we eliminate those
features that affect the same lot differently, depending upon the use that
is made of it, or the ideas of the individual having control of it, we find
the real forces that give value to city lots are not so complicated. The
complication grows out of the fact that cities are not built according to a
fixed plan, but grow from a cross-country road, through the village to
the city, by the addition of new people, gradually developing from time
to time, and that the value of the land increases with the number of people
who desire to use it, and the only measure of the value is this desire, which
is based upon an estimate of the profit to accrue from the use of the lot.

This may sound radical, and some will say, "Why, I can sell that lot
for a certain price at any time." Therefore, that is its value, but this
can only be realized Avhen there are a number of people who think that the
future use of the lot can be made to produce an income sufficient to pay
interest on the sum offered, or more.

EFFICIENCY IN CITY PURCHASING

BY W. RICHMOND SMITH^

THE one paramount economic issue in the United States today is the
necessity for a reduction in the high cost of hving to the individual.
While other considerations enter into the solution of the question,
the fundamental problem is the reduction of the costs of production by our
great commercial and industrial enterprises. This reduction in the costs of
production involves many important considerations, but none more vitally
necessary than the elimination of waste in overhead carrying charges and in
the purchase of raw materials and supplies.

During the past half century this country has revolutionized the indus-
trial map of the world. With the greatest of nature's raw material store-
houses at command, the people of the United States have set the world's
pace in commercial and industrial development. Every other industrial
nation has contributed in knowledge and skill to this wonderful march of
progress, because in thus coining the natural resources of the country the
United States could afford to pay the highest market price for all kinds of
labor. In no other land could the willing and skilful worker reap so great
a reward. But during this time the laws of cause and effect were at work
creating new conditions. Abundance bred waste. Our great natural
resources have been dissipated with a prodigal hand. Vast wealth and
high wages have produced a new and higher standard of living. The lux-
uries of yesterday have become the necessities of today. Unparalleled
expansion of profitable production for enormous home and still greater
foreign markets compelled our great manufacturing industries to devote
their energies to attaining perfection in methods of disposing of their prod-
ucts. There was neither the time nor the urgent necessity for making the
same close study of the methods and costs of production. Excessive over-
head carrying charges and loose and inefficient systems of purchasing and
handling raw materials and supplies came as a natural consequence of
enormous yearly increases in production. The steadily increasing cost of
raw materials and supplies — clue to the gradual depletion of our natural
resources combined with the insistent demand of labor of every class for
higher wages to meet the increased cost of living — has compelled our cap-
tains of industry, during the past few years, to face the problem of new and

^ Mr. Smith is the expert in charge of the work of commission on standardization
connected with the New York department of finance, of which William A. Prender-
gast, comptroller, is the head. This article should be read in connection with
Comptroller Prendergast's article on "New York City Finances" (see National
Municipal Review, vol. ii, p. 221) and Prof. Robert Livingston Schuyler's article on
"Centralization in City Purchasing" (see vol. ii, p. 251).

239

240 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

better methods of purchasing and handhng raw materials and supplies in
order to reduce to a minimum the costs of production.

The first great national industries to feel the urgent need of efficient
systems of purchasing and handling supplies were the railway systems of the
country. The need was felt in that quarter first because of the enormous
annual outlay necessary to supply and equip thousands of miles of railway
spread over vast expanses of territory where the lack of efficient system of
purchase and distribution meant the waste of millions of dollars annually.
Great railway organizers like James J. Hill and the late E. H. Harriman
were among the first to realize the importance of efficient systems of supplj^
purchase and distribution for the gigantic industries under their control.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars were annually expended in revolutionizing
administrative methods to permit the application of the principle of central
control over the purchase and distribution of the forty to sixty millions of
dollars-AVorth of supplies annually purchased by these great railwa}' sys-
tems. It is less than a dozen years since the first efficient system of suppl}'^
purchase, distribution and control was created and put into effect by pri-
vate corporations in this country, and today there is not a railway system
of any importance in the United States or Canada which has not applied
the essential principles of efficient purchasing in some form to this branch
of its activities. The great manufacturing industries were also quick to
see that, under the new conditions briefly outlined, perfection in selling
methods had to be accompanied by reduction in costs of production in
order to profitably market their wares. Efficient systems of purchasing
and handling raw materials and supplies that would eliminate waste have
gradually assumed an importance which they did not command in the past,
but as yet the idea is little more than in its infancy because the problem of
efficient purchasing, though based upon definite fundamental principles,
differs in essential particulars in the application of those principles to differ-
ent industries.

The application of efficiency to the purchase and distribution of materials
and supplies by municipalities represents perhaps the newest idea in city
administration. There is no necessity, with an audience such as this, to
dwell upon the urgent need of system and efficiency in city purchasing.
In practically all our large cities, and I am afraid in most of our smaller
cities as well, the definite relation between the supplies required for the
city service and the supplies actually purchased is a question into which
comptrollers and accounting officers have not gone very deeply. I have
listened to interesting addresses upon the very important sul^ject of city
buflget making, but I have not heard any plan outlined for determining the
amount of supply appropriation on the basis of tlie supplies required for
any particular function of city government, where the amount of the appro-
priation was measured by the quantities needed and the importance of

EFFICIENCY IN CITY PURCHASING 241

the function for which it was intended. Nor have I Hstened to any well-
defined plan for controlling the unit prices paid for supplies purchased under
a budget appropriation by measuring those unit prices against the ruling
market prices at the time the purchases were made. I have often known,
however, of millions of dollars more or less blindly appropriated in city
budgets year after year upon requests of city departments unsupported by
any intelligent data regarding quantities actually needed, the unit prices
proposed to be paid or the importance of the function to be served.

On the other hand I have watched the working of every part of one of
the best devised and most efficient systems of supply purchase and distribu-
tion created and used by one of the largest railway corporations on the con-
tinent. Through the medium of a central purchasing department I have
seen eighty million dollars-worth of supplies and materials purchased annu-
ally for every requirement or over twelve thousand miles of railway with
its sleeping and dining car services, a trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific
steamship line and a string of high-class hotels extending across the entire
continent. Every dollar's worth of this tremendous amount of supplies
and materials of all kinds is purchased upon standard specifications — ^under
what is known as continuing agreements with selling firms regulating the
prices — with a perfect control over quantities and prices upon requisitions
before purchase. Through the medium of centrally located storehouses
an equally complete control is maintained over storehouse stocks and
the distribution after purchase to thousands of delivery points extending
across the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific. By means of the
simplest of forms requisitions are made and filled with amazing prompt-
ness, largely because one of the aims of the system is to keep a three
months' stock of supplies and materials in greatest demand on hand in
the central storehouses all the time. Every form is designed, in addition
to contributing to the permanent record, to secure the closest kind of control
reports over the quantity and cost of supplies and materials for each func-
tion of the different branches of the company's enormous enterprise.

While the fundamental principles underlying a system of purchase and dis-
tribution such as I have described are essential to every efficient system, the
extent to which and the methods by which those principles can be applied
to city purchasing depends in a very large measure upon the character of the
legal restrictions which define every administrative function of our cities.
The board of directors of a railway company or a private commercial cor-
poration can at will revolutionize every administrative method and intro-
duce in place thereof an entirely new and different system in order to secure
a maximum of results. Any suggested improvement in a city's methods
of doing business must be worked out within the limits of restrictive laws,
unless a sufficiently strong case can be presented to secure legal sanction
to further freedom of action. For this reason, even if there were no other,

242 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

(ho introduction of modern methods and systematic efficiency into city
sup])ly ])urchasing is a ]irol)lom which each individual municipahty must
work out for itself. The results in each case will depend upon the intelli-
gence with which the task is undertaken, and the extent to which actual
concrete results secured within a limited field of action are successful in
securing the gradual removal of restrictive legislation which prevents further
action and the securing of still greater results.

I do not know that I can illustrate what I mean in any more convincing
manner than by endeavoring to summarize, in as few words as possible,
the lines along which the administration of the city of New York is working
to create an efficient system of purchasing supplies and materials required
by the various departments of the city government. When the present
administration of the city of New York assumed office at the beginning of
1910, a small committee of the governing body of the city was appointed
to determine as far as possible the character and probable amount of each
class of materials and supplies annually purchased by the city and to for-
mulate specifications imdcr which such materials and supplies might be
most advantageously purchased. The committee was directed to report
to the governing body from time to time such standard specifications as
were prepared in order that the same might be approved for general use by
all city departments. As a general direction the committee was instructed
to consider first the standardization of specifications for the purchase of
materials and supplies which were purchased by the city in the largest
quantities. In the city budget for the same year a clause was inserted
providing that in so far as possible all contracts and open market orders for
the purchase of materials and supplies should be based upon such standard
specifications as might be promulgated, and the comptroller of the city was
instructed in certifjdng as to the sufficiency^ of the appropriation out of
which such supply payments were to be made, also to certify that the speci-
fications used in such proposed purchases were standard specifications in
all cases where such specifications had at the time been promulgated.

The actual work of determining as far as possible the character and
amount of each class of materials and supjilies annually purchased and of
preparing standard specifications under which such materials and supi)lies
could be most advantageously purchased was entrusted to a small sub-
committee, which has since come to be known as the commission on stand-
ardization, working under the direction and authority vested in the
committee appointed by the governing body of the city.

Some idea of the magnitude of the task undertaken can be had from
the fact that the city of New York expends annuall>' some S22,()00,()()0 u]>on
materials and supplies purchased through one hundred or more ])ur('hasing
officials for the various dei)artments, ])oards, bureaus and commission under
the city government. Here was a condition at the very outset which inter-

J

EFFICIENCY IN CITY PURCHASING 243

ferecl with the putting into effect of one of the fundamental principles in
existing efficient purchasing systems that have produced results elsewhere.
Under the provisions of the charter and the laws governing the adminis-
trative functions of the city the power to purchase materials and supplies
was vested in the heads of the various departments, and those officials
were likewise directly responsible for the character and cost of all materials
and supplies purchased by them. It was therefore impossible to apply to
any improved system of city supply purchase the very important funda-
mental principle of the centralization of purchasing power, a principle
regarded as essential to efficiency in the best existing systems created by
private commercial corporations. It also rendered difficult, if not actually
impossible, the centralization of distribution after purchase, and made the
problem of control over both purchase and distribution far more difficult
to solve satisfactorily than the same problem in systems where such central-
ization could be immediately adopted and put into effect.

The amount of work involved in getting at definite information showing
the volume and range of the city's annual supply purchases, and the unit
cost and conditions under which such purchases were made was obviously
prodigious. It was found that no two of the hundred or more different
purchasing departments used the same methods. There was also the
amazing lack of uniformity in the character and completeness of the records
maintained by the different departments. But intelligent standardiza-
tion could not be successfully accomplished under the existing conditions
without the most complete information, and that information could only
be accurately had by tabulating and classifying for a given year the essen-
tial details of purchases contained in thousands of contracts and many
hundreds of thousands of payment vouchers on file in the comptroller's
offices. It has taken the commission on standardization almost two years
to complete the colossal task, but the work is now almost finished. With
the information thus laboriously secured the commission has been able
to work out the following tentative general classification of materials and
supphes purchased by the city at a cost of approximately $22,000,000 annu-
ally by more than one hundred purchasing departments :

TENTATIVE GENERAL CLASSIFICATION OF SUPPLIES PURCHASED BY THE CITY

OF NEW YORK

1. Apparatus (laboratory, etc.).

2. Arms and supplies, ammunition and explosives.

3. Athletic goods (including games, toys, etc.).

4. Books, publications, etc.

5. Cleaning materials and compounds.

6. Cleaners' machines and supplies.

7. Clothing, etc.

8. Cordage, rope and oakum.

244 NATIONAL MUNICIPAJ. REVIEW

9. Drafting and engineering tools, instruments and supplies.

10. Drugs, chemicals, etc.

11. Dry goods, notions, etc.

12. Electrical fixtures and supplies.

13. Fire apparatus and appliances.

14. Food products.

15. Forage (including all food for animals).
1(). Fuel (including fuel oils).

17. Furniture and furnishings (including kitchen supplies and utensils).
IS. Hardware (not otherwise classified).

19. Hospital supplies and surgical instruments.

20. Iron, steel, and other metals (including castings).

21. Leather, saddlery, belting, hose and hose fittings.

22. Live stock (including horses and all other animals) and laboratory

specimens.

23. Machinery and parts (not otherwise classified).

24. Materials of construction (including lumber, timber and building

material).

25. Materials for manufacture of prison goods.

26. Miscellaneous.

27. Nails, bolts, nuts, washers, rivets and screws.

28. Nautical supplies (including boats and equipment).

29. Office equipment (other than furniture), supplies and stationery.

30. Oils (lubricating and illuminating), greases and all lubricants.

31. Paints, oils, varnishes and painters' supplies.

32. Pipe, valves and pipe fittings.

33. Photographic materials and supplies.

34. Plumbers', steam fitters' and machinists' supplies.

35. Printed, lithographed, engraved and bound books and forms.

36. Rubber goods (not otherwise classified).

37. Stable equipment and supplies.

38. School supplies (not otherwise classified).

39. Seeds, plants, shrubs, trees, etc.

40. Tools and implements.

41. Vehicles (including automobiles, trucks, wagons, carts, carriages,

bicycles and motorcycles).

42. Wire rope and wire.

There is also in course of preparation an alphabetical list of every article
of materials or supplies purchased by the city listed under these forty-two
general classes. This alphabetical list contains hundreds of articles of
both materials and supplies which are used for practically the same pur-
poses. It also contains any number of articles which cannot be found in
any trade catalogue because they have been manufactured specially for
the city. Supporting the general classification and the alphabetical list
of articles of materials and su])plies are schedules giving the gross quantities
of each article in each general class purchased by every department in the
city and showing the unit cost and conditions of purchase in everj' case.
Summarized schedules carry the average unit price paid for each article

i

EFFICIENCY IN CITY PURCHASING 245

in each class for every city department, and show the percentage purchased
upon pubhcly awarded contracts and the percentage purchased upon
what is known as open market orders without competition. The infor-
mation contained in these schedules is the basis for standardizing speci-
fications, and the general classification affords a means of handling the other-
wise unwieldy mass of information in orderly sequence as far as possible
according to the different functions for the use of which supplies are pur-
chased. In addition this systematic marshalling of the essential informa-
tion effectively discloses practically every abuse which has crept into the
existing methods of supply purchase in every city department, and makes it
possible to get at, actually and concretely, the resultant waste, and worse,
due to over one hundred different loose and inefficient methods. A single
example will illustrate what I mean: The city charter permits depart-
mental heads to make emergency supply purchases up to the value of $1000
upon requisition without competition, all purchases of a greater amount
being made by public letting and contract. The schedules disclosed that
nearly 30 per cent of the gross amount paid out annually for materials
and supplies is expended upon open market order purchases at unit prices
averaging almost 25 per cent increase over the average unit price paid for
the same supplies when purchased upon contract.

This is the first and by all means the most important step taken by the
commission in laying the basis for the creation of an efficient system of
city -supply purchasing upon standard specifications. No great railway or
other private corporation would attempt the solution of the problem in
this roundabout way. Their methods would be much more direct. A
new system carefully planned to meet all requirements would be devised
and immediately installed to replace the old and inefficient system. Ad-
ministrative and other restrictions which might interfere would be at once
swept away, and the new method, with every essential principle that could
make for efficiency, would be used in place of the old and discarded machine.
No such direct and complete method is possible in the case of a municipal
corporation. The reform must be made gradually within the limits of legal
restrictions until a sufficiently strong case can be presented to demonstrate
the necessity for a wider field of action. The changing of the administra-
tive machinery of a municipal corporation to permit of the introduction of
new and better methods must always be a much more serious and difficult
undertaking than the changing of the administrative machinery of any
private corporation for the same purpose. Too much emphasis cannot be
placed upon the urgent necessity for the systematic marshalling of essential
information showing the weakness of existing systems to demonstrate the
necessity for changes in administrative methods essential to the working
out of an efficient plan.

As a result of the work done during the past two years the city of New

246 NATIONAL MUNK^IPAL REVIEW

York is in possession of all tlie information necessary to intelligently pre-
pare exact specifications covering the entire^ field of its material and supjily
purchases antl standardize those specifications for use in every department
of the city government. It is in possession of accurate data demonstrat-
ing the necessity for uniform methods of purchase, distribution and account-
ina; control of its supply requirements. It has also the necessary infor-
mation to carefully weigh the advantages for and against the creation of
a central department for the i^urchase, distribution and control of the
materials and supplies required by all city departments.

Concurrently with the work of compiling the records of supply purchases
the commission on standardization proceeded with the formulation of
standard specifications for such supplies, the basic data regarding which
was most readily obtainable and for which the city annually expended the
largest amount of money. Fuel, forage, horses, and food products were
the general classes first taken up. The annual expenditure under these
classes aggregated something over $6,000,000.

Coal. The city's annual coal bill is in excess of $2,500,000. In the past
each purchasing department prepared its own spe(;ifications. The result
was every conceivable kind of more or less loosely drawn specifications in
most of which there was absolutely no quality standard either set up or
insisted upon. One of the largest coal using departments in the city pur-
chased its supply upon what is known as the '' coal area basis," that is, the
specifications required that coal delivered should come from certain -well-
known mines in certain coal areas. These specifications might have worked
well, but the city charter has a provision that in all specifications for the
purchase of any kind of supplies, when an article or commodity is specifi-
cally named or described, the words "or equal thereto" shall be inserted.
This meant that a coal contractor bidding under the specifications framed
on the coal area basis could deliver any kind of coal he liked, and the bur-
den of proof rested upon the city to prove that the coal delivered was not
equal in quality to that demanded in the specifications.

The city now purchases heat, not coal, under standard specifications upon
what is known as the heat unit basis, under which the coal delivered is
pai<l for in exact proportion as it comes up to a fixed standard of physical
r('f]uirements as determined by chemical analj^sis of sami:)les taken from
tleiiveries. The new specifications have worked well and the city today is
getting a better quality of coal than ever before, moreover, it is getting it
at a slight reduction in the actual cost.

Forage. The city employs year in and year out some 5261 horses and
its annual bill for forage approximates $1,00(),()0(). For a dozen years
forage contracts specified, and the city paid for, the delivery of "No. 1
white (•lij)ped oats" — one of the highest and most expensive grades of oats
in the market.

EFFICIENCY IN CITY PURCHASING 247

In framing standard specifications for forage the commission discovered
that the grade of oats known as "No. 1 white clipped" did not come into
the New Yorlc market at all, and that all the quality gradings for forage
sold departments were virtually made by the contracting firms supplying
the city. The new standard specifications called for "No. 2 white clipped
oats" as officially graded by the New York Produce Exchange. It was
then discovered that the same contractors, who for years previous had been
able to deliver what they represented to be "No. 1 white clipped oats" the
year around, found themselves unable to deliver under the new specifica-
tions the lower and cheaper grade of oats known as "No. 2 white clipped"
during certain seasons, and it was found necessary to call for the still lower
and cheaper grade known as "standard oats" during those seasons. Under
the standard specifications the city is now saving many thousands a year
and is getting what it pays for, because it insists upon having the official
gradings of the New York Produce Exchange as to quality, instead of allow-
iilg individual contractors to make their own equality grades for deliveries
to city departments.

Horses. The city owned and had in use at the end of 1909 5261 horses
of various classes valued at approximately $1,762,435, an average cost of
$335 per horse. There were purchased in 1910 1110 horses at a cost of
$364,760.50, an average price of $328.61 per horse. There was received
for 328 horses condemned and sold during the same year $26,911.30, an
average price of $82.05 per horse, so that the actual cost of renewals to the
horse establishment during the year was $337,649.20.

In former years each city department which required horses had its own
specifications. The result was some twenty-five different sets of specifica-
tions, each differing from the other in essential particulars. For instance,
the trial period in one department was fifteen days; in another the trial
period was twenty days, and in practically all the other departments the
trial period was thirty days. Requirements as to weight, size and age
were different in practically every department, even when the same class
of horse was specified for practically the same kind of work. Many of
the specifications were loosely drawn and left important questions, which
should have been settled in the agreement of purchase, to the judgment
of departmental officials, with the results that disputes very often tied up
large payments for many months, with consequent increase in bid prices
and a restriction of competition. Others contained special requirements
which, not only restricted the market for selection, but had the effect of
unduly increasing the cost of the animals purchased under them.

Today every city department is purchasing horses under standard speci-
fications with a universal ten-day trial period, and a uniform classification
of the age, weight, sex and size of horses to be purchased for different
purposes.

24S; NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

Food products. The city uses anuuuUy in its various iiospitals, chari-
table institutions and jjrisons approximately $l,G()(),000-\vorth of all kinds
of food products. These purchases are practically all made through four
large city departments. In formulating standard specifications for the
purchase of the hundreds of different commodities included under the
general classification of food products — a great many of them bought under
contracts calling for daily deliveries^ — the commission was compelled
to secure uniformity of methods and conditions of purchase before it was
possible to promulgate standard specifications. After long delays the diffi-
culties were gradually removed and todaj'" the city is purchasing every
dollar's worth of food products under exact standard specifications in which
the quality, weight and definite character of the product is clearly stated.
Where it has been found necessary to use samples as quality measuring
mediums the samples set up for that purpose have been carefully standard-
ized and are in use by every city department. It would take too long in an
address of this character to go into details of the methods used and the
character of the specifications prepared and put into effect covering the
many classes of supplies included under the general class head of food prod-
ucts. I have with me, however, copies of the schedules used as a basis for
the work of standardization, and will be very glad to go further into the
methods pursued and the results accomplished with any who are interested.

Methods of Standardizing. Briefly stated the process of formulating
standard specifications involves:

1. The tabulation and analysis of the quantities and cost of commodities
purchased by city departments with the conditions under which they were
bought.

2. The preparation by a sub-committee of the commission, with this
detailed information in its possession, of tentative specifications which are
submitted to technical and trade experts for criticism.

3. The submission of these tentative specifications, after they have been
revised, to a conference of the members of the commission and the purchas-
ing officials of every city department authorized to purchase the class of
supplies therein called for.

4. The submission to each member of the governing body of the city,
in the shape of a report recommending their adoption for general use, the
specifications thus prepared well in advance of the time when that body is
requested to act upon the report for adoption.

Standard form of contract. More than a year ago the commission pre-
pared standard forms for all supply contracts. After a year's use these
forms have been perfected from the experience gained from actual use.
Today the forms are as nearly perfect as city contract forms can be made
and make for economy in printing, uniformity in method and a tremen-
dous saving in time. Intending bidders and departmental officials, knowing

EFFICIENCY IN CITY PURCHASING 249

that the principle of uniformity exists, are not compelled always to analyze
carefully each new contract. The city's law officers approve as to form
speedily, and the city is protected against the results of the possible inser-
tion by different departments of special clauses which are likely to lead to
litigation and resultant costs.

Standard testing laboratory. The promulgation of exact specifications
for the purchase of materials and supplies demonstrated at the very outset
the urgent need of exact methods of determining the quality of deliveries.
The adoption of heat unit specifications for the purchase of coal carried
with it the necessity pf submitting samples from every delivery to exact
chemical analysis. The standard testing laboratory was created to supply
this need with the understanding that its staff and equipment should be
increased to meet demands for exact analysis of every kind of materials
and supplies. Some idea of the extent to which this element in city pur-
chasing is a vitally important factor can be had from the facts contained
in the first report of the director of the standard testing laboratory for the
first six months the laboratory was in operation. This report shows that
out of 551 samples of some 70 different kinds of materials and supplies,
submitted to chemical and physical analysis, 162 samples, or almost 30
per cent failed to comply with the specifications under which they were
purchased.

Conclusion. What the city of New York has begun in the way of secur-
ing efficient- city purchasing it can complete if it so desires. What New
York can do in this direction any other city in the country can do, the
great majority much more quickly, and with a certainty of securing results
in both efficiency and economy within the life of a single administration.
The main consideration, in my opinion, is to start right with the fullest
and most complete knowledge of the inadequacy of existing methods, and
then proceed along well-thought-out lines to put into effect the fundamental
principles which have produced the greatest measure of efficiency in the
best of existing systems now in use by private commercial corporations.
The rapidity with which progress will follow well directed effort in most of
our cities depends, in a very large measure, upon the extent to which charter
and other legal restrictions may interfere with the process of applying the
underlying principles which have already produced the greatest measure of
efficiency in the systems of our large private corporations. In this respect
the problem is one which must be solved by each individual municipality.
Some of our cities will be able to overcome the obstacles in the way of
progress more quickly and effectively than others, but in no case is progress
along right lines impossible, and in no single instance can such progress
fail to produce actual concrete results that will quickly find favor with the
best elements in any electorate.

Efficiency in the purchasing and handling of materials and supplies is a

2-)0 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

problem winch is today commandiug a very large share of public attention
for reasons which I have tried to Ijriefly outline at the beginning of this
address. There never has been a time in the history of our cities when
intelligent efforts command more thoughtful public attention, and no time
when the success of such efforts secures so large a measure of public appro-
bation. There is a universal call for efficiency in this direction, and wise
cit}^ administrations will see in that call an opportunity to introduce
sound principles of efficiency into, not only the purchase and distribution
of matcn-ials and supplies, Ijut into many other important functions of city
government.

Standardization of specifications for the purchase of supplies involves
the application of practically the same principles and the utilization of
precisel}'" the same methods as are required in the standardization of sala-
ries and grades. The creation of an efficient system of supply distribution
requires the application of almost the same principles and the use of similar
methods to those which will produce the best results in the efficient distri-
bution of the energies of well trained and adequately paid municipal em-
ployees. The development of an efficient system of control over the pur-
chase and distribution of materials and supplies means the application of
the same principles and the use of closely similar methods to the develop-
ment of an efficient system of control, over services of every kind rendered
to a municipality, over the appropriation contained in the annual expense
budget, and generally over the conduct of its every function. •

In securing efficiency in city purchasing, therefore, by the application
of the fundamental principles and the use of like methods to those employed
in the creation of similar efficient systems by the great commercial corpora-
tions of this countrj^ our municipalities are laying the basis for the creation
of other systems, applicable to every important function of city govern-
ment, embodying the highest standard of efficiency known to the world.

SHORT ARTICLES

CENTRALIZATION IN CITY PURCHASING^

THAT the public business cannot be carried on with the same intelli-
gence, system and efficiency as private business is a theory the
acceptance of which has caused many respectable citizens to view
as a matter of course, or at least to tolerate as inevitable methods employed
by government which, if applied in private business, they would regard as
evidence of incapacity or dishonesty. It is a leading purpose ot" the Na-
tional Municipal League and the bureaus of municipal research to destroy
this theory and forward the adoption by American cities of business-like, up-
to-date and efficient methods. Not very much is gained, it has been learned,
by turning out ''grafters" and electing "reformers," if the latter, however
anxious for "civic betterment," allow the old slip-shod methods, on which
the grafters have fattened, to continue. The movement for municipal
reform is doing its mightiest work in teaching us that government is an
enterprise to all the people, the success of which requires public enlighten-
ment, investigation and experiment.

The purchasing of supplies is obviously an essential function of the
city government, which demands honesty and efficiency in the interests
of all. Inefficient or dishonest purchasing evidently affects every tax-
payer. Shall the purchases be made by the several departments of the
city or by a single agency or bureau?

In those municipalities Avhere no central purchasing bureau has been
established the heads of departments or commissioners are called upon to
conduct the purchasing of the city. The commissioner or subordinates in
his office are thus diverted from the work of which they have expert
knowledge and required to perform work of which they have no such knowl-
edge. The head of the fire department is not likely to be an authority
on soap, which he must buy in large quantities, it may be. Departmental
purchasing means to a great extent purchasing by amateurs and violates
the great principle of modern science and business, specialization and the
differentiation of function. Departmental purchasing, further, means
small-scale purchasing which means high prices and makes the city's orders
unattractive to wholesalers. Certain articles are required by several de-
partments. It is clearly in the interest of the community that they should
be ordered in large quantities and .at low prices. Departmental purchas-
ing, moreover, makes uniformity in standard impossible. Stephen W.

^ See. article on "Efficiency in City Purchasing" by W. Richmond Smith, National
Municipal Review, vol. ii, p. 239.

251

252 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

AIcGrath, purchasing agent for Cincinnati, in a speech deUvered in April,
1912, reported such lack of uniformity in standard as these before the
advent of the reform administration: 43 kinds of soap in 52 orders, 21
kinds of ink in 20 orders! Lack of standardization means looseness of
specification and impossibility of testing deliveries with precision. Depart-
mental purchasing in addition means lack of uniformity in orders and
contracts which may cause serious embarrassment to the city, and lack
of concentrated responsibility for quality and price. If the city is purchas-
ing inferior stationery at exorbitant price no individual is especially respon-
sible. Against these manifold disadvantages of decentrahzed purchasing
it is believed that no compensating advantages worthy of mention can
be brought.-

Cincinnati under the present reform administration has instituted note-
worthy improvements in its methods of purchasing, following to a great
extent the recommendations of the Cincinnati bureau of municij^al research.
All the city's purchases are now made through a central agency. On
talcing charge of the purchasing dej^artment in January, 1912, Mr. McGrath
found a veritable reign of chaos. Each department was buying its own
supplies in small quantities and at retail prices. In common articles in
use by all departments there was the utmost diversity of standard. The
introduction of efficient inspection methods revealed the fact that the city
had been systematically cheated by fraudulent contractors. The work of
standardization was at once taken up with energy. In an address delivered
before the City Club of Cincinnati on April, 1912, only three months after
the new administration had come into office, Mr. McGrath was able to
report that material progress had been made. All stationery and office
supplies of all kinds had been standardized, and were being bought in
large quantities at greatly reduced prices. In the single item of pencils
the new method of buying meant a reduction in price to the city from $4.60
to $2.20 per gross. On the purchase of soap a saving to the city of 25
per cent had been made. The process of standardization involved the
drawing of precise specifications on the basis of a tabulation and analysis
of the quantities and cost of articles purchased by the departments in the
past. After a conference and agreement between the purchasing agent
and the departmental officials concerned these specifications were adopted
as the standard. In buying standard articles in large quantities the " con-
tinuing agreement" was found advantageous in protecting the city from
increases of price without dci)riving it of the advantages of a falling market.
As a result of exact specifications and continuing agreements, terminable
on reasonable notice, no time is now lost in asking for bids from contractors
or in finding out what quality the department concerned desires. It was

''The adv;int;igfH of contralizod purchasing are clearlj- set forth by Henry Brudre,
in liis irrcni work on The New City Governmenl, ch. viii.

i

CENTRALIZATION IN CITY PURCHASING 253

found that there was great need of an efficient system of inspecting pur-
chases. A certain vendor, proved to be guilty of furnishing material in
grossly deficient quantity, declared that the reformers were getting "en-
tirely too d-^n smart," that he had been supplying the city for years
and that no complaint had ever been made before ! Until the new adminis-
tration took office the city never enjoyed the customary discount for cash.
At present the great majority of its orders are subject to this discount.
On the basis of a three-months' experiment in efficiency Mr. McGrath
felt justified in predicting that, when the process of standardization had
been carried somewhat farther, the city would be saving 10 per cent on
its purchases, or about $150,000 a year.

Fort Worth, one of the most progressive of our commission* governed
cities has adopted an efficient plan for city purchasing. A purchasing
agent, at a salary of SI 800 makes purchases for all departments. Requisi-
tions are made upon the purchasing agent by the division heads in the
several departments and, if approved by the commissioner concerned, are
sent to his office. As a record a copy of the requisition is kept by the
department making it. Invitations for bids are then sent by the purchas-
ing agent to wholesalers and retailers; nearly all the city's purchases are
made at wholesale prices. The orders are made in triplicate, one copy
going to the successful bidder, one to the department making the requisi-
tion and the third retained by the purchasing agent. When supplies are
delivered they are checked against the copy of the order in the department
which made the requisition, which is then forwarded to the purchasing
agent, on the basis of which he certifies the invoices, which are then sent
to the auditor for approval and payment.

Under the present administration remarkable progress has been made
in Philadelphia in puttmg the city purchasing on a business-like basis.
During the mayoralty campaign of 1911 the bureau of municipal research
submitted to the candidates a series of proposals. Under the caption
" Some opportunities open to Philadelphia's next mayor" were the following
suggestions :

Establish exact standards and specifications for supplies and materials
to be purchased so that the city's agents and the public alike may know
just what has been or is to be bought, at what advantage or disadvantage
to the city.

Require that the department of supplies be organized and conducted
as a highly efficient modern business enterprise, giving to the city the benefit
of central buying; to departments the benefit of prompt action; and to
dealers the benefit of prompt settlement and business-like treatment in
the city's purchase of $3,000,000 of supplies annually.

Secure independent inspection, by a properly equipped bureau under the
city controller, of materials and supplies furnished to the city; of service
rendered; and of construction work in progress.

254 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

The (lo])artment of suj^j^lios under the direction of Herman Loeb is
being administered in a manner in keeping with these suggestions. In
the first place a business-Hke system of bookkeeping has been adopted in
the making of requisitions, placing of orders and paymerft of bills. A
thorough inspection of supplies delivered has been instituted. Samples
of the goods delivered are compared by the inspectors with the specifi-
cations, and here use is made of the city's chemical laboratory. Mr. Loeb
has further advocated the establishment of a general warehouse, where
standard supplies can be stored in large quantities and whence they can
be distributed as needed. This would make possible purchases on a larger
scale, at lower prices, and would insure prompt delivery of supplies to the
departments.

Both in the dra^^^ng of precise specifications, which is necessary to safe-
guard the city's interests, and in the effective testing of suppHes furnished
to the city, New York has been a pioneer. The testing laboratory con-
ducted by the city is now used for the drawing of specifications for S20,000-
000 worth of purchases annuall3^ It is also used in cases of dispute between
the department and the contractor, to test deliveries. Especially in the
important item of coal scientific specifications and the application of chemi-
cal tests to supplies delivered has saved large amounts to the city. The
adequate provision made for the standard testing laboratory in the new
municipal building shows that the importance of this work is fully appre-
ciated in New York City. Municipal testing laboratories have existed
for many years in the larger cities of Europe, but they are in their infancy
in the United States. It is clear that efficient testing depends on precise
specifications which are greatly facilitated by centralization in purchasing

Departmental purchasing, a heritage of days when our cities were mere
overgrown towns, continues in our municipalities as a result of inertia.
Wherever centralized purchasing has been given a trial it has demonstrated
it superiority to the old method, which is seen to be inefficient because
wasteful, inexpert, and irresponsible. Centralized purchasing is an essen-
tial part of the efficiency movement in municipal affairs.

Robert Livingston Schuyler.'

' Assistant i)rofc.ssor of history in Cohinibia University anci a niombcr of the
board of editors of the Political Science Quarterly.

LIBRARIES AND COMMISSION GOVERNMENT 255

THE PUBLIC LIBRARY IN COMMISSION-
GOVERNED CITIES

FEW OF those who advocate the commission plan of city government
would say that the last word had been uttered as to the best
method of adjusting the various departments under this plan of
government, or that the classification of the many interests of a munici-
pality under the existing departments is wholly satisfactory. The scant
consideration that is given the educational function of the municipality,
in connection with municipal government by a commission is surprising
when we consider the wide discussion that has been given to the general
subject throughout the country. The enlarging group of educational
agencies that have developed in the past few years outside the school-
room, including museums, public libraries, art galleries, free lectures and
amusement or recreation halls, calls for fuller consideration in connection
with the attempt to define and classify the many interests of the city, as
some of these are already recognized as having a large place in the activities
of a municipality.

The early promoters of the commission plan apparently did not realize
that it might properly include educational interests — not only the public
schools, but so called minor educational interests — many of them as vital
and as far reaching in their influence as the schools. Sufficient time has
now elapsed to reveal some of the handicaps that have been placed upon
public libraries under the commission plan by the attempt to classify them
in unrelated departments of the city — -departments pertaining entirely to
material affairs. Clearly the early plans for such a form of government
did not contemplate the unrelated and irrelevant grouping of these edu-
cational interests such as has developed. Those who have first-hand
knowledge of the commission plan are not inclined to condemn it because
of certain weaknesses or omissions, when the admirable work which has
been done in rescuing cities from the perils of ward politics is so evident;
but surely it becomes imperative that readjustment of some sort should
be made, to correct the obvious omissions which experience has re-
vealed.

Those who are engaged in public library work and have had oppor-
tunities for direct observation in connection Avith libraries in commission
governed cities, are convinced that a continuation of the present method
of classifying public libraries in departments entirely unrelated and some-
times unsympathetic, is a serious mistake that should be corrected now
that conditions are recognized. The classification of the public library
under existing departments, — ^such as parks, finance, or, public safety,- is
illogical and arbitrary; and it is timely to consider the vital question of
the relation of popular education to the municipal government.

25(3 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

Some who have written on the subject have urged that there be a com-
missioner of education as one of the elected officers, who shall have the
supervision of the various educational and semi-educational interests. This
seems logical, but carried with this suggestion must necessarily be the
insistence that each commissioner shall be elected for a specific depart-
ment, ratiier than elected as commissioners at large with the assignment
made after the election. A "hit or miss" selection of a commissioner of
education out of the group of commissioners elected, would be a very
uncertain and uuAvise method of selection for so important a department.
Hence, in any discussion of the question of a department of education
there must necessarily be the assumption that the commissioners are to
be elected for specific departments; and this is a point regarding which
there is wide difference of opinion.

Granted that a commissioner of education should be one of the governing
board of the city — -how shall these special and intricate interests be dealt
with by one man? It is reasonable that there should be a departure from
the "one man" idea of the commission plan here, because of the unusual
problems involved in education. If the schools shall be included as well
as the other agencies for popular education named above, the problem is
indeed a large and difficult one. If, however, the effort is in line with
the trend toward a unit of taxation, it would seem logical that the schools
should be included in such a plan; certainly no one would question the
necessity of an advisory school board, of which the commissioner of edu-
cation would be the ex-officio chairman, and such board would elect the
superintendent of schools and be especially responsible for the selection
of teachers and the educational side of the problem, the commissioner
giving personal attention to the finances, buildings, etc., in addition to
his general duties as a commissioner.

The chief concern of this article is the public library. Assuming for
the present, that education is recognized as a part of the municipal respon-
sibility, and that all classes and ages should have equality of educational
opportunity outside the class room, the same reason would apply for an
advisory library board, as for a school board, with the commissioner of
education ex-officio chairman. This board would deal with the questions
of library supervision and extension, the election of the librarian and staff,
the selection of books and other matters which are of a sufficiently special
nature to call for more careful attention and fuller information than could
be expected of one man, a large part of whose time would necessarily be
given to the general interests of the city, as well as those of his own depart-
ment.

Provision is made in the commission ]>lan hnv, as adopted in some of
the middle-west states, for the api)ointment of three library trustees,
among other officers to be selected by the council at its first regular meeting

LIBRARIES AND COMMISSION GOVERNMENT 257

after election; but the law also states that "the council and its members
shall exercise all executive, legislative and judicial powers and duties now
had, possessed and exercised" by the usual city officers, which are enumer-
ated, including the board of library trustees; hence the powers of such a
board are reduced to a minimum, unless by legal opinion, the powers given
under the general library law of the state are authorized. Furthermore
the indefiniteness of the law as to the total number of library trustees and
their powers, clearly indicates that the place of the public library in the
general plan was not fully recognized by those who formulated the law.

The responsibility of a municipality for the education and wholesome
recreation of those who are entirely outside the school and the class-room
is rapidly becoming recognized. The field of the pubhc library is large
enough to reach every inhabitant of the city or town Avith the free use
of books for both inspiration and information. No municipality can dis-
regard the fact that well-informed citizens are a safe-guard and source
of strength to the community, and that the dissemination of general
intelligence is a necessity. An institution for popular education such as
the public library, which shall stimulate the study of public questions and
make accessible literature on all suljjects of municipal interest, is entitled
to cordial and'helpful recognition.

If, however, those who are students of the commission plan of municipal
government doubt the wisdom of creating a department of education, then
there seems no logical place for the public library, or, for education, as an
integral part of the commission plan as at present constituted.

Another phase of the matter, which should not be overlooked, is the
question of civil service as applied to the public library. Civil service,
while not an inherent part of the commission plan is usually incorporated
into it, and the merit system is one which is surely not to be questioned in
this connection. The public library, however, from the character of its
work and the necessary qualifications of its workers, both technically and
personally, does not belong in a municipal civil service plan, anymore
than do the schools. Every library which reaches that stage of growth
when a staff of workers is necessary, must adopt standards of service, and
methods of selecting workers who are especially qualified to maintain
those standards. A good general education, wide knowledge and exten-
sive reading of books, technical ability to arrange and handle collections
of books and quick and ready sjrmpathy with the needs and requirements
of those who use books — all these are absolute requisites; and professional
standards have been established by the library training schools during the
past twenty-five years and are generally accepted in the librarj^ Avorld.
An examination within the library, which tests apphcants by these require-
ments is practical and feasible and is used in many of the best libraries
of the country. This is library civil service, or, internal civil service, and

258 NATIONAL .AIUNICIPAL REVIEW

sh(iul<l 1)0 irithin the institution, thus exempting librarios us well as schools
from municipal civil service examinations, whicli however good for selecting
firemen, jiolicemen, etc., do not a])ply to sjiecialized educational service.

■ If, under the commission i)lan of government, the public library, because
of its classification under a certain municipal department, must select its
workers from applicants passed upon by the municipal civil service board,
and such emj^loyees retain their positions under the provisions of that
board, whether rendering adequate service or not", as measured by the
advancing and enlightened standards of twentieth century library work,,
then indeed is municipal civil service a calamity for the future of that
hbrary. It would be as reasonable for the city hall to pass upon the
qualifications of the teachers in our public schools as to fix the standards
of service in our ])ublic Hbraries.

Possibly the logic of the situation makes it desirable at this time to con-
sider the (juestion from another point of view, viz: Is education a matter
for mimicipal decision, or is it not rather the larger subject of state con-
cern? Is not the commonwealth so vitally concerned in the question of
education that the responsibility is that of the state to say when and how
provision shall be made for any phase of public education? If the inter-
ests of the state in education are paramount, it will justify the reluctance
felt b}^ many to the inclusion of the public schools under the direct munici-
pal control of a department of education. If we shall class public libraries,
art galleries, museums and free lectures as educational, the decision which
applies to schools will with equal propriety apply to all of these, which
are sometimes termed popular educational interests.

The public library movement is taking on such scope and strength in
the United States tJiat it cannot be disregarded in dealing with the ques-
tion of education, and cannot be set aside as a minor educational interest.
The field is so broad, the activities so varied in connection with the fur-
nishing and distribution of books to all classes in a municipality, that the
American Library Association not only urges the recognition of the public
library as an educational factor, but also "the necessity for securing
independence of action of the public library as an educational agency
coordinate icith the schools.''

If independence of action is to be secured, it is much more likely to be
obtained under the provisions of a general state law regarding libraries,
than by muni(;ipal action; and the financial support would be more likely
to be adequate and stable, if based on a tax provision of the state law,
which would apply to all of the cities of the state, whether under the com-
mission form or not. Such law would provide for a Board of Library
Trustees either elected or appointed and with tlefinite powers. One of
the uncertainties regarding the library, or the school, or any other educa-
tional interest, under the commission plan, would be the fluctuation of the

LIBRARIES AND COMMISSION GOVERNMENT 259

maintenance fund, depending largely upon the attitude of the commission
as a whole, as to the relative importance of these interests; while under
the provision of a state law there would be definite provision for a tax
which need not fluctuate and which should be reasonably ample for the
development of such interests. The present method of an elected school
board which can fix its own tax levy, has this very obvious advantage,
when we consider the specific interest involved.

The field to be reached by the free public library, supported by a munici-
pal tax, is only limited by the number of people in the community who
are able to read, and who know that the resources of the library are at
their command. The great task before the American public library today
is to lead the people to realize that the books are there for them, and that
there is no interest or concern of theirs but may be definitelj^ advanced
and benefited, if only they learn, by means of the printed page, the best
that has been thought or said or done regarding it.

Such information often brings actual returns in dollars and cents to the
business man and the worker, as well as to the community, and the insti-
tution making such information available is a paying investment. Surely
the task is no small one, if in addition to this, the public library lifts the
toilers and the burdened workers, both in the home and in the business
world, for a few hours each week or month, into the realm of imagination
and aspiration through books of entertainment that take them out of
themselves and into the world of idealism and fancy. The children are
the especial concern of the public library and must be given access to the
books that are fitted to the needs and aspirations of every growing year,
and which may lead them into higher and larger views of life and of the
responsibilities of citizenship.

With such a field and such an outlook a municipality cannot afford to
hamper this democratic institution, and classify it under the department
of finance, or of parks, or of public safety, or of public property, when,
if directed in a large and sympathetic manner, the possibilities are great
for rendering service to all classes in the community.

Alice S. Tyler.*

' Secretary Iowa library commission and director of library extension in Iowa>

2()() NATIONAL MUNICIPAL Ki:\'IEW

MUNICIPAL PENSIONS

BIOCAUSE a fireman has been half-killed in a burning building is
no reason people should dance, if they do not wish to. Yet what
frequenter of a city hall has not been compelled to i)uy tickets
for a charity ball, to pay such a fireman's doctor bills? He who has
escaped may thank evolution that his city no longer knows the benefit
performance and the man with the subscription paper. The municipality
has taken over the charity ball and made it into a new branch of govern-
ment.

The process of change was simple. At first the fireman's fund was
sporadic. Then, as gifts were made in recognition of special fire-fighting
achievements, it became an institution and required municipal over-
sight. Formerly the benefits, even for a man permanently disabled,
included onlj^ a wheel chair and an occasional collection. But justice
demanded for him an annuity for life. Other men, too, might become
similarly incapacitnted. So the firemen gave a part of their monthly
earnings and th(> municipality contributed fees from oil licenses or bon-
fire permits to provide a permanent fund. But there were men worn
out by long service as well as those injured in accidents. Did not the
city owe them something? It seemed so. Provision, therefore, was
made for retirement of veterans aged fifty-five or sixty, or for the pen-
sioning of all men who had been on duty twenty or twenty-five j^ears.
Further fees and tax moneys were appropriated and, lo, the cit}^ had
become partner in an insurance business.

But that was not all. Here were the policemen, subject to danger
and exposure. When they had been provided for, there were the street
cleaners, whose risks also were great. And how about the health officers
and their assistants? Indeed, if a policeman or a fireman were to be
supported in old age because he had worn himself out in making the
city safe, why should not the accountant who had grown blind in keeping
the city's books? Or, indeed, anj^ employee who had been on duty
twenty or thirty years or who was sixty years old? Why not, indeed?
These queries carried strong appeal, and so it came about that, while
certain cities pensioned their firemen, otliers their police, and yet others
both, a few arranged that benefits might be provided for any of the
city's workers. States, even, passed statutes empowering their cities to
adopt universal pension plans.

The National Bureau of Labor reported in 1910 that eighty-six munici-
palities in the United States had firemen's funds and that eighty-one
provided for police relief. New York City firemen, policemen, street
cleaners, health department employees and teachers all participate in
benefits administered by their respective departments, and any other

MUNICIPAL PENSIONS 261

city employee, at the close of thirty years' service, m^y be pensioned
by the board of estimates and apportionment. Pittsburgh employees
have organized a mutual benefit association, open to 3500 persons.
Chicago has inaugurated the system provided by an Illinois law of 1911,
which estabhshes pension funds for all civil service employees in cities
of more than 100,000 inhabitants, excepting firemen, policemen or others
already provided for by special schemes. Many states authorize by
statute the maintenance of firemen's and police pension systems. By
a law of 1910, amended in 1911, Massachusetts permits any city or
town, on popular vote, to adopt a retirement plan for all employees.
No locality has yet taken action under this statute.

Europe has far outstripped the United States in municipal pensioning,
as in social insurance generally. The list of cities which pension all
officers and employees includes London, Paris, Berlin, Madrid, Stock-
holm, Antwerp, Birmingham, Breslau, Dresden, Edinburgh, Frankfort,
Liverpool, Lyons, Nuremberg and Rotterdam.

''Pension plans" the municipal schemes are called, but some of them
have no element of pension and are purely systems of insurance. In
•one or two localities official charity is dispensed. The typical arrange-
ment, however, combines pension principle and insurance idea with a
naive assumption that they ar-e identical. What, indeed, is the dif-
ference?

A special committee on retirement, reporting in 1911 to the New York
Civil Service Reform Association, contended that the term "pension"
should describe only payments made entirely from the public treasury
to "civil employees engaged in hazardous occupations who suffer injury
or death in the performance of duty." "Insurance," on the other hand,
would be paid from moneys contributed by the employees themselves
for their own support in old age. The committee maintained that muni-
cipal support of men retired except for accident would be poor public
policy. For those who should grow old in the service it recommended
compulsory insurance. It contended that if wages were not sufficient
so that employees could afford to pay their premiums, such wages should
be increased.

Few cities have distinguished between pensions and insurance, either
in raising the funds or in paying the claims. In most cases, contri-
butions are made jointly by municipality and employees, the city's
proportion usually being much the larger. Funds are paid out for old
age and accident benefits alike. Participation by the employee usually
is compulsory, premiums being deducted by the controller on basis of
the payroll. Some systems are optional, as those of the New York
health department and the Baltimore poHce. A Chicago laborer may
be insured only on written apphcation. In Massachusetts an employee

2r)2 NATIONA L .A f UN I (' I PA L RE VI EW

participates autoinatically unless he gives written notice that lie wishes
to be excused.

Not content with hybrid systems, some cities must have two — even
two in the same department. Minneapolis has both a police benevolent
association and a police relief association. The income of the former
is chiefly from "amusements" and dues, while the latter receives one-
tenth of one mill from the tax levy and practically nothing from the
employees. Boston has several interesting relics of old plans. The
Boston police relief association is voluntary, paying a member $1 a daj^
during sickness and $100 on the death of his wife and insuring his life
for $1000. Income from the police charitable fund, which amounts to
over $200,000, is expended in benefits by the police commissioner, with
the approval of the mayor. The Boston city council has power, in addi-
tion, to' provide annuities for widows and orphans of officers killed while
in discharge of their duty. All of these are provisions supplementing
the established pension system.

Boston policemen are retired on half pay. Pittsburgh employees pro-
vide their own insurance. Cities in Maine give police pensions of $1
a day. The firemen's relief association of Richmond, Virginia, is entirely,
a voluntary life insurance organization.

The New York accountant gets a pension free; the policeman contrib-
utes 2 per cent of his salary. But the policeman is protected by a sort
of insurance, while the accountant depends upon the will of the board
of estimates and apportionment. Funds cover the risks of both street
cleaners and firemen. The street cleaner pays 3 per cent, the fireman
nothing. The New York retirement system was built bit by bit, begin-
ning in 1857, with the establishment of a police pension system, and
concluding with two acts of 1911 which provided for retirement from
the health department and for the pensioning of employees not other-
wise cared for. Teachers contribute 1 p^r cent of their salaries, and
employees in the department of health, for whom participation is volun-
tary, 1 per cent.

Each fund receives fees collected by its own department. Thus is
maintained the fiction that payments do not come from the taxpayers'
pockets. Such is the general practice throughout the country. Police
pension funds receive fees from issuance of licenses for street peddling,
keeping dogs, selling scond-hand goods, giving entertainments and the
like; proceeds from the sale of stolen property; gifts for unusual services
by the department; police witness fees, etc., and are likely to draw on
the liquor tax money. These are revenues aside from the participants'
own contributions. Budget appropriations are a last resort. Firemen's
funds are drawn from sources similarly related to the fire dejiartnient.
In addition to direct appropriation of $700,000 for the police fund and

MUNICIPAL PENSIONS 263

$150,000 which that fund received from the sale of special bonds, $1,501,-
586.93 of revenues of the city of New York went into the various retire-
ment funds in 1911, over and above the contributions of employees.
Nor was the scheme for the street cleaning department yet well under
way. The city budget for that year was $173,967,835.16.

The Illinois plan, under which the new Chicago system has been
organized, provides that each employee shall pay $2 a month. The
pension, in case of disability, or after twenty years' service, if the pen-
sioner be fifty-five years old, is $50 a month. No one will become a
beneficiary prior to the year 1916, but an arrangement is made whereby
persons retiring sooner may continue membership in the association and
receive benefits when payments begin.

The Massachusetts system is unusual in that it distinguishes clearly
between contributory insurance and payment entirely from city revenues.
It defines the first as "annuity" and the second as "pension." The
annuity fund is provided by a deduction of from 1 to 5 per cent of each
participant's salary, as determined by the board of retirement for his
class of employment. The man who draws an annuity is paid a pension
of equal amount. That is, he insures himself and the city doubles his
insurance.

Rule-of-thumb particularly appears in the differences in premiums
required by the various cities, in the variety of sizes of annuities or
pensions and in the diversity of terms on which they are offered. Col-
lections vary from nothing to 3 per cent of the salary, or they may be
fixed sums of from 50 cents to $2 a month. Benefits may be in specified
amounts or they may be in proportion to the salary. They may take
the form of life annuities, sick benefits, life insurance or pensions to
widows and orphans. In the majority of cases the annuity is half, or
not more than half, of the annuitant's salary. The age at which the
pensioner retires varies from fifty to seventy, with sixty the most com-
mon, and the length of employment ranges from fifteen years to thirty,
centering at twenty. There is likely to be a space of five or ten years
in which a man may secure a pension voluntarily, before his retirement
is compelled. A comparatively young man of long service, too, may
be pensioned on the same basis as an older man who has been employed
for a briefer period.

With all this confusion, does a city know how much to collect and
how much to pay? Trained statisticians say. No. For some systems
there is no actuarial basis whatever. The city simply has calculated
on one side of the slate how much the employee and the city will be
willing to give and on the other side how much the employee would like
to draw, has enacted each set of figures into a law and gone about other
business. Occasionally someone has reasoned that, where one papers

. 2G4 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

;iu unmeasured wall with an unmeasured amount of paper, either the
paper or the wall space may give out first. Interesting provisions have
been made for shortages. Milwaukee, Philadelphia and Providence pro-
vide that, where the funds are insufficient, paj^ments shall be pro rata.
Amounts of Richmond, Virginia, police benefits are not fixed except as
funds warrant. Baltimore provides that, after the usual dues, fees and
forfeitures are exhausted, the balance shall be provided by taxation.
The Baltimore theory is the one usually adopted. For a rule-of -thumb
arrangement it is not bad; it may work as well as has the rough-and-
ready system of the labor unions. It is as uncertain for the taxpayer,
however, as the pro rata plan is for the beneficiary.

Here, again, Massachusetts demands attention. Her law provides
that mortality tables are to be prescribed by the state insurance com-
missioner for the use of boards of retirement in fixing both premiums
and annuities. All retirement associations are to report to the insurance
commissioner and are by him to be supervised and examined. The
charity ball of a generation ago has become a state system of municipal
insurance.

The benefit in a retirement system is not only that to the employee.
What the city gains is of no less value, although it is less measurable.
Pensioning is not only an expression of justice but also a means of effi-
ciency. It tends to keep good men in their places; it rids the service of
wornout workers. Corporations practice it. When cities try it they
approach that ideal state which candidates mention, where municipal
affairs are run "as I would run my own business." To cast off a worn-
out rtian is cruel. While spending a city's money, the official will not
be cruel. If there be no retirement system, the city payroll will be
filled with the names of men who should be, and really are, pensioners.
In Boston in 1910, when conditions were investigated by the Massa-
chusetts commission on old age pensions, annuities and insurance, 168
employees were over seventy years old and 491 were over sixty-five.
The compensation of the 491 was $419,888.45. Of their number, 296
were reported as inefficient. They were paid $200,194.35. Under such
circumstances city machinery will creak. Money will be wasted by semi-
charities of questionable pu])lic honesty which it would be much better
frankly to give away.

Edward F. Mason. ^

' Edward F. Mason, formerly of the editorial staff of the Tacoma Tribune, is now
a student in the School of Journalism at Columbia University. His previous article
in the National Municipal Revip^w (see vol. i, j). r».W) was entitled "Learning to
Use the Recall."

A SHORT CHARTER 265

A THIRTEENTH CENTURY SHORT CHARTER^

IN THE year 1200, King John granted the following charter to the
city of Northampton.

We will that in the said burg of Northampton, by the general vote of
the citizens, there shall be elected four of the more learned and discreet
men of the burg, who shall safeguard the interests of the Crown and other
matters which to us and our Crown pertain in that burg, and who shall
see to it that all the citizens of the said burg, both rich and poor, shall
conduct themselves according to law and right.

Other charters in almost identical language were granted about this
time to English municipal corporations. The "burgesses" or corporate
members of these communities having the right to vote were generally
limited to the merchants of the guilds. As the cities grew, this power
came to be vested in a small minority of the population. The unenfran-
chised citizens, with increasing clamor, demanded some share in the city
government and eventually this clamor was recognized by the formation
of a common council with limited powers. This is the origin of our bi-cam-
eral councilmanic system. It was not based on any sound theory of admin-
istration, but was simply a grudging concession made by the burghers to

' The point which Mr. Wallace makes in this article is one of great practical inter-
est as well as historical interest. It is interesting to contrast this thirteenth cen-
tury short charter with the proposed twentieth century short charter prepared by
A. B. DuPont, the street railway expert of Cleveland. It is reproduced herewith
in full.

SHORT (Democratic) CHARTER

Article I. All power now possessed by or hereafter acquired by the city of Cleve-
land in its officers, servants or council, shall be vested in the mayor, subject to modi-
fication through the initiative and referendum.

Article IT. Legislative action, other than through initiative, shall be by proc-
lamation and shall become effective thirty days after said proclamation but if, within
said thirty days, a petition of 5000 electors be filed, said proclamation shall not
become effective until sustained by a majority of those voting on the question at the
election held in pursuance to said petition.

Article III. Executive action shall be in pursuance to and in accordance with
legislation.

Article IV. Legislation may be initiated by the filing of a petition signed by
5000 electors and shall become effective when approved by a majority of those voting
on the question at the election held in pursuance to said petition.

Article V. The mayor shall be recalled if defeated at an election held in pursu-
ance of a petition of 15,000 electors filed with the board of elections or where required
by law. Said election shall take place on the first Tuesday thirty days after the
filing of said petition.

Article VI. Executive and legislative action, except as modified herein, shall
be in accordance with existing law until changed in accordance with this charter.

266 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

tlie demands of the populace. Other corruptions complicating munici])al
machinery crept into the English charters until they became almost as
imbecile as American city charters, with the result that one hundred
years ago the corruption and inefficiency of English municipal government
was as bad as anything we can boast of today.

The Englishmen took hold of this problem before we did and have
solved it, substantially, by goin,g back to the simplicity of the King John
charter. The whole power of the city government is vested in a single
councilmanic body and within certain restrictions it may exercise that
power as it sees fit. The English courts have been more liberal than
our courts in construing the powers of cities and they have, therefore,
been able to develop more freely.

About ten years ago Galveston went into the hands of receivers, called
a commission, and there was evolved from that accident a form of govern-
ment which is called the commission form of government and has been
widely heralded as a great discovery of this age. It is nothing of the
kind. We have simply found out by accident what we should have found
out by investigation, namely, that well governed cities almost universally
are governed by the simple organ of a councilmanic body with full powers.

We have still an immense amount of debris to clear away before we
can get our cities back to where they were in the thirteenth century.
There is a striking contrast between the development of municipal cor-
porations and , private corporations under English law. The private cor-
porations have maintained until this day the King John form of charter,
providing simply for the ele(;tion of a board of directors and vesting the
government in that board. This is mainly due to the fact that efficiency
is necessary to the life of a private corporation. A municipal corporation
can be a failure and still continue to exist.

The English city government was almost at its worst at the time the
United States became independent. We not only borrowed the corrupt
forms of English city government, but made them still more inefficient
by incorporating into them the impracticable philosophies of eighteenth
century France. Historically viewed, the task which now confronts us
as city organizers, is to cut away the vast impeding growth of compli-
cated structural form and legal restrictions under which oiu' larger cities
today are still smothered.

We will only have accomplished half of our task when we get back to
the simple organism of a board of directors or a single councilmanic body.
The second half of our task is to give this body power to act. In this
word-b(!ridden age, it is hard for our legislators to get out of the habit of
defining and limiting the powers of city governments with all the niceties
of a lawyer drawing a spendthrift trust. In many states it is felt that
in order to get home rule for cities, it is necessary' to await a constitutional

A SHORT CHARTER 267

amendment. A study of the charters of King John would seem to indi-
cate that we can get a very large measure of home rule without any con-
stitutional amendment. The restrictions in most of our state charters are
only against special legislation. So long as we persist in hampering our
cities with the full detail of working machinery and finely drawn limita-
tions of powers, classification of cities will be necessary, with all the atten-
dant restrictions; but in very few states would a general grant of power
vesting the government of a city in an elected council be unconstitutional.
A charter can be drawn restricting the city only from such activities as
may conflict with the general laws and the constitution. This breadth
of intention would have to be clearly expressed on account of the drift of
legal decisions in this country construing charter grants to municipalities
strictly against the city.

Such a simplified form of charter would accomplish two things. In
the first place, it would remove the necessity of classification excepting,
perhaps, as to the number of councilmen. In the second place, it would
free the cities from their present insupportable position. Cities have
different needs, differing conditions, and year by year they are outgrowing
their old legal clothes. They cannot be their own tailor, and so are now
constantly hammering at the door of the legislature for leave to do some
detail of administrative business the way they wish to do it. They have
no recognized organ for expressing their opinion on such matters. Political
leaders, volunteer bodies of citizens and neAvspaper articles constitute the
means used to persuade the legislature that a community wants any given
thing. The legislatures are often in honest doubt as to just what the
community does want. By board general grants of power, each com-
munity will be authorized to solve these problems for itself.

Both in the amendments to our state constitutions and to our state
charters, as illustrated by the record of the past few years, there is still
a very strong tendency to great multiplication of detail. This necessarily
results in two things. First, a constant agitation to change the funda-
mental law as conditions change; second, a burden upon the courts to
relieve against the fundamental law by judicial decisions which give flexi-
bilit}^ to the rigidity of the law. So long as we put this burden upon our
courts, they will necessarily have to bear it. We can get rid of all this
clamor about government by judicial decision, by carefully studying King
John's charter and modehng our fundamental law upon its lines.

Of course, in order to apply this principle to our state governments,
with safety, it will be necessary to secure a more efficient form of organi-
zation there. For instance, the state of Pennsylvania employs two hun-
dred fifty-seven $1800 men, divided into senate and house, a governor
and a supreme court to provide its law. The two legislative bodies are
supposed to check each other. The governor checks them both with his

208 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

veto ami the suj)r('me court cliecks tlieiii all by decisions as to constitu-
tionality of acts. Administration is confused 1)}' numerous otlier elective
officials with limited powers of various kinds. So complicated and irre-
sponsible a state government must necessarily be inefficient and that is
why our legislatures have been hobbled by overgrown constitutions which
permit them to take only very short steps in any direction. Here also
we might study to advantage, not only the early charters of English
cities, but also the present government of England where one legislative
body has vested in it all of the law making power.

George R. Wallace.^

1

ST. PAULS COMPTUOLLER: AN INTERESTING

EXPERIMENT

SAIXT PAUL, Minnesota, has broken new ground in its commission
charter. It has selected as legislative and administrative officers
a council of seven, including the mayor, and in this respect it has
followed usual lines of commission plan charter practice. These adminis-
trative officers have been given full power and authority, subject to ini-
tiative and referendum, to do as they please in the carrying on of the city's
business. There are few checks and balances in the ordinary sense.

A check has, however, been supplied — the check of effective publicity.
St. Paul has as an eighth elective officer a comptroller, having no j^art
whatever in administering the business of the city, except in connection
with finances and the countersigning of documents and contracts. His
function is that of controUing, checking and publicity officer. Pains
have been taken that he may get possession of the facts which he would
make public.

He has no patronage except the appointment of a personal staff, and
that is not large. The comptroller is given an auditor, and an engineering
officer for the purpose of inspection and the developing of facts.

First of all such an officer must be put effectively in possession of the
significant facts relating to administration. To do this we have provided
that the comptroller shall install and supervise an accounting s^'stem
for the city, and keep controlling accounts with all de})artnients and
officers.

This means nothing more than that he shall see that such a record is
made of facts as to revenue received, revenue spent, purchases, salaries,
costs, work performed, as to present to him at all times an intelligil)l(^
summary of these facts. The usual well digested accounts will deal with
the revenue and expenditure sides.

^ Of Pittsburgh. I'diiucrly a civil service coiiiinissioiier ami an active iiieiiiber
of the committee which drafted the present charter U)v tiiat city.

J

ST. PAUL'S COMPTROLLER 269

Authority is given the comptroller to require systems of cost accounts.
His inspector may be used to control inspections, and the comptroller
may install such a system of inspection records for each department as
may readily yield to control. In other words he is in position first to
know that the books on the face of them show that the money has been
properly spent and accounted for, for lawful purposes, and second that
value has been received for the money spent, or the services rendered.

As part of that plan of control, we have made the comptroller the civil
service commissioner. I want to call attention to the fact that St. Paul
is a city of 225,000 inhabitants, and the comptroller can take up the
direction of this service with his other duties without being overloaded.
Whether such a system might successfully be applied to New York or
Chicago or Philadelphia, is for the moment beside the point.

The situation resolves itself in this way: Civil service systems are for
the purpose of controlling employment in public office with a view to
securing efficient help and seeing that such help is efficiently managed.
That control heretofore has been in the hands of the local executive officer,
the mayor, through his appointees, or it has been in the hands of the gov-
ernor of the state through his appointees.

Control is not the business of the mayor; his task is administration of
city business. Control and administration cannot be joined in the same
officer without making the control a farce. The appointees of the mayor,
who are the creatures of the mayor, cannot be expected to control him.
Neither is the governor a controlling officer. Even if he were successful in
controlling the internal administrative system of a city he would be giving
it irresponsible government; violating the principle of home rule. There
is no excuse in systems of democratic government for having any political
sub-division controlled in local business by an officer not responsible to
the people of that sub-division and to them alone.

St. Paul met the problem by placing civil service control in the hands
of the officer in which it placed accounting control and financial control,
the comptroller. He is elected by the people and responsible to them
alone. Without the power of spending money, or of appointing any con-
siderable number of employes, he can make a record only by seeing that
other officers do not abuse these powers.

By giving him charge of the civil service, we place in his possession
another class of significant facts, of the utmost importance in the control
of administrative departments. He has as comptroller at his disposal a
great many of the facts which he needs as civil service commissioner. It
is an economical plan as well as an effective plan.

Of course in the civil service he will act through civil service executive
clerk or examiner, just as in the inspection service he will act through an
engineer and in the accounting service through an auditor and accountant.

270 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

Besides collecting these facts luul making tlicra available to liimsclf
for control purposes, he is obliged to digest these facts, place them in
understandable form, and give them to the public periodically — at least
monthly.

As a portion of the plan of giving him financial control, we inake the
comptroller a necessary factor in the issue of bonds, in the final execution
of contracts, in the making of the budget. In the process of budget-making
he comes into possession of another set of facts, of crucial importance in
working out control. His budget may be increased or cut down, but
not radically increased;

It has been suggested that the comptroller may yield to pressure in
this budget-making, should the council threaten to cut down his allowance
for help. Salaries of his department are fixed for definite terms by admin-
istrative ordinances not in issue at the time of passing upon the budget.
Should the council and the mayor attempt to change administrative ordi-
nances and hamper the comptroller while the making of a budget was
pending, the attempt would be so obvious and the circumstances so sinis-
ter, that the comptroller might confidently appeal to public sentiment
and receive complete protection.

St. Paul has made its comptroller far more important than the comp-
troller of any city with which I am acquainted, but it has limited him
strictly to control and publicity functions. He is given control of fact
records, or accounts, including inventories of city property; control over
bond issues, control over contract execution, control over budget-making,
control over civil service appointments and discharges. It is made his
duty to make public an intelligible summary of facts developed along all
of these lines. We believe in thus assigning to an elective, non-adminis-
trative officer all control functions and giving him authority to make his
control effective and complete, we have blazed a trail which municipalities
and states will follow as soon as they see what has been done. This, we
hope, is especially true of the civil service. St. Paul, we beUeve, has
placed this civil service control where it should be, in the hands of an
elective officer responsible to the people served by the civil service con-
trolled. J. W. Bennett.^

THE RECENT ENGLISH BOROUGH ELECTIONS

ALTHOUGH the municipal elections that were held throughout
England on November 1, 1912, presented little that Avas unusual
or surjirising to students of English local government and jioli-
tics, they illustrate, or at least recall to mind, some of the features of such
contests in England which may strike those persons acquainted only with
similar phenomena in the United States as interesting if not peculiar.

' Of the St. Paul Diapalch.

ENGLISH BOROUGH ELECTIONS 271

In the first place it is to be noted that in Enghsh municipal elections,
which occur annually in November, the voting is for councillors only, not
for a number of executive officers also, as is the usual case in the United
States. Only one-third of the councillors are elected each year for a period
of three years.

The nominations are by petition of ten registered voters and the official
ballots contain no party designations. While the candidates usually fine
up for local elections under the banner of the various national parties
and are supported by the local organizations of these parties, the central
party organs make no attempt to dictate to the local associations who their
candidate shall be. It is no doubt true that, generally speaking, a liberal
in national politics will vote for a liberal candidate in the municipal elec-
tions and that a conservative will ordinarily support the conservative
candidate, but there is no necessary connection between the national and
the local policies of either one of the parties. OAving to the relatively
light vote for borough councilmen the majority of the council may well
be and not infrequently is of one party while the representatives from the
constituency in the house of commons belong to the other.

Third candidates are uncommon, though labor candidates and inde-
pendents and even socialists now and then succeed in electing some coun-
cillors.

Perhaps the most striking feature of the qualifications for candidacy is
the fact that not only is residence within the ward or borough not a nec-
essary qualification for voting but even candidates need not as a matter
of law, and do not as a matter of practice necessarily reside in the ward or
even borough in which they are elected. The law permits a person who
satisfies all the other requirements for voting to reside outside of the limits
of the municipality to a distance of seven miles and still be an elector.
In the case of candidates this radius is increased to fifteen miles and as a
matter of fact there are in each election a surprisingly large number of
these non-resident candidates; thus violating what to most Americans
seems the fundamental principle of having the candidate reside in the dis-
trict he represents. This feature of the English elections — parliamentary
as well as municipal — manifestly operates to eliminate the evils of ward
politics.

Another striking feature of English municipal contests, illustrated
again in these recent elections, is the fact that at each election there are
a large number of seats that are not contested at all, and where conse-
quently there is no election contest. This peculiarity, which again is
just as marked in the parliamentary elections, serves of itself to free English
local elections from much of the corruption that is incident to municipal
elections in this country. But it may be added that the English "illegal
and corrupt practices act" imposes very minute restrictions on the cam-
paign activity of the candidate and his followers. Furthermore where

272 NATIONAL MUNK'IPAL REVIEW

thore are contests for seats, there are rarely more than two or at most
three candidates in spite of the simple nominating method. Not only is
the number of candidates small, but the number of voters who go to ihe
jjolls are frequently only about 25 per cent of all who are entitled to vote.

Unmarried women and widows are eligil)l(' to be elected as councillors.
In the provinces the disqualification of married women prevents any con-
siderable number of women candidates from running, but in London where
married women are admitted to candidacy there are always a number of
aspirants.

Conditions are somewhat different in the London boroughs in almost
all of these respects from those in the provincial towns, though not to a very
marked extent. London is divided up into twenty-eight metropolitain
boroughs, besides the city of London, and in these the elections come only
every three years, and all of the councilors are elected at the same time.
Furthermore, the local parties have distinct names in the borough coun-
cils, as also in the London county council, being called moderates or muni-
cipal reformers and progressives, respectively, instead of conservatives and
liberals. But this does not prevent the party division from being about
the same as in parliamentary elections, though frequently the majority
in the councils is of the opposite party to that of the parliamentary repre-
sentatives from the same areas.

Turning now to the actual results of the election in the provincial towns
it is seen that all parties made some gains and suffered some losses. Accord-
ing to the returns in the London Post of November 2, the unionist and con-
servative gains together were 56; those of the liberals 30; those of the labor
party 23; those of the independents 9; those of the sociaHsts 4. This does
not mean net gains, however, and it is impossible to see from the returns
just what the losses of each party were. According to the information
available it seems that the unionist-conservative losses were 26; those of
the liberals 40; those of the labor party 7; those of the independents 3 and
those of the socialists 4. This leaves the conservative-unionists with a
net gain of 30; the liberals with a net loss of 10; the labor party with a net
gain of 15; the independents with a net gain of 6; and the socialists with
neither gain nor loss. The excess of 41 total gain over the total loss is to
be accounted for partly by the fact that the returns were not completely
available, partly by the fact that some of the party gains were from local
parties that were not listed, and partly by the fact that the number of
councillors was increased in some boroughs prior to this last election.

It is apparent from the figures that no very far-reaching changes re-
sulted in the constitution of borough councils by the recent elections.
This is the more obvious when it is remembered that the party gains and
losses are spread over more than 350 boroughs and that moreover in any
given borough only one-third of the council was voted for. Add to this
the further fact that in a large proportion of the boroughs a number of

ENGLISH BOROUGH ELECTIONS 273

the vacancies were not contested at all but left to the prior incumbent
without a vote it will not seem surprising that in a large number of bor-
oughs there was absolutely no change in the political makeup of the coun-
cils as a result of the elections, and that among those boroughs from which
reports were available there were only two in which the majority in the
council was altered by the last elections.

In the London borough elections the changes were even less apparent.
Prior to the last election the parties controlling the 28 metropolitan bor-
oughs were moderates, 24; progressives, 3; independents, L As a result
of the last elections the moderates now control 23, the progressives 3,
and the independents 2}

One of the interesting features of the London elections was that out of
something over 50 women candidates 18 were successful, as compared with
10 out of 61 who ran in the elections of 1909. The women councillors are
distributed among the parties as 8 municipal reforms, 2 progressives, 6
labor party and 2 independent.

There were 276 uncontested seats assigned, mostly to municipal reformers
and in two entire boroughs there were no contested seats. For the 1100
contested seats there were only 2500 candidates in the field.

Another feature of the last elections in London was the unusually small
poll. As stated above, the vote in municipal elections is generally small
but this year it seems to have been even smaller than usual. According
to Mr. Galton the explanation of the small poll, and at the same time of
the insignificant progressive vote (for he maintains that the larger the
vote the better the vote of the progressives) is partly in the fact that the
polling day was on a Friday, which he states is the worst possible day for
the laborers, and partly in the fact that the war in the near East and the
autumn session of parliament prevented the newspapers from giving much
space to the borough elections.

Mr. Galton contends, furthermore, that while the liberals are in power
the progressives strain every nerve to prevent a progressive majority from
V)eing elected to the local authorities, and that this as true of the borough
councils as of the London county council. The London Post, on the other
hand, a moderate newspaper, maintains that the progressives are not en-
thusiastic about their fight for the borough councils because they want
them abohshed with the hope of then controlling the county council and
thus dominating the whole of the municipality. The elections for the county
council which occur in March of this year promise a closer contest between
the progressives, who were in power for 15 continuous years from 1889
until 1906 — although in national politics London was conservative — and

' Accoi'ding to Mr. Galton, secretary of the London Reform Union, the moderates
now control 22, the progressives 4 and the independents 2, a difference to be ex-
plained by the fact that in one of the boroughs the parties are equal and hence both
reformers and progressives claim that borough.

274 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

the moderates or munici]xal reformers who came into power after the liberal
party had carried the London constituencies by a large majority.

This brings us to a consideration of the platforms of the two principal
parties in the London elections. According to the campaign literature of
the municipal reformers or moderates their ])rogram includes the main-
tenance of the borough councils to deal with local affairs as heretofore;
relief for the ratepayer by securing further grants from the national gov-
ernment for services preponderantly national in character; the limitation
of municipal trading to such undertakings as cannot be effectively carried
out by private enterprise. They decry the progressives as the socialist
party. The other party stands, according to Mr. Galton, for greater cen-
tralization and for equalization of rates in London, for an extension of
municipal enterprise, and for fair and generous treatment of labor. Ac-
cording to his view the municipal reformers arc opposed to these ideas.
As the county council is charged with the functions that pertain to the
whole of London there are not many points on which the contest can
turn throughout all the boroughs in London.

As regards the conduct of the campaign both in London and the pro-
vincial cities, the London Municipal Journal regrets that matters were so
generally brought in to arouse political enthusiasm which had only a remote
connection with party politics instead of letting municipal elections be
fought on municipal issues. Especially reprehensible does the Journal
find the general promises of candidates to reduce rates, when it is appar-
ent to every one that in the very nature of things rates must continue to
go up and that no party can relieve the ratepayers.^

Herman G. James.'

2 According to an Associated Press dispatch dated l.ondon, March 6:

The municipal reformers for the third time gained today a majority in the London
county council, although not so large as in 1907, when they had a majority of forty.
They improved their position, however, over 1910, when their majority was two.

Of the lis members elected today, 67 are reformers and 51 progressives. The nine
seats gained by the reformers and the two by the progressives are widely distributed
and indicate no specially noteworthy change of opinion.

The reformers, who are allied in opinion to the conservatives in parliament, besides
increasing their majority to sixteen, will be able still further to strengthen it by the
(^lection of ten aldermen.

Municipal ownership of the street railways was the chief issue in the election. The
council already owns and operates 146 of these, built when the progressives (who in
imperial policies are liberals) were in power. The members of this party favor the
extension of the system and other legislation which would ])lace the municipally
owned roads in a better position to compete against the privately owned transpor-
tation companies. Their opponents, the nuinicipal reformers, are conservative in
municipal affairs and were never enamored of public ownership. Very few extensions
have been made since they came into power three years ago.

The council consists of a chairman chosen by the council, nineteen aldermen, also
chosen by the council, and 118 councillors elected by the rat(>payers direct. It has
administrative authority over an area of 117 scpiare miles in matters of a general
nature. The annual expenditure is about $7.5, 000,000, more than half of which is
for education.

' Adjunct Professor in the School of (iovcrnment, University of Texas.

THE ALCOHOL QUESTION 275

THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR THE
SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF THE ALCOHOL

QUESTION 1

THE first meeting of this body was held at the College de France,
Paris, January 27 to 29. The opening exercises were conducted
by M. Emile Loubet, former president of the French Republic,
who is the honorary president of the international committee. Delegates
representing the different national groups attended from the following
countries: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain,- Italy, Rus-
sia, Switzerland and the United States. In all, there were forty-three com-
mittee delegates.

Among the men of special note who took part may be mentioned : From
Austria, Baron Vladimir von Prazak; from Belgium, Professors Zunz and
Schoofe, both of the Commission Permanente de T Alimentation Humaine;
from France, professors of the College de France, d'Arsonval, Gautier and
Bordas, M. Yves Guyot, former minister of public works, M. Ribot, former
prime minister of France, M. Lucien March, director of statistics, Prof.
Levy, the economist; from Germany, Dr. Konigsberger, Dr. Hartman
(both connected with the International League for Comparative Legisla-
tion and Political Economy) and Count Schweinitz; from Great Britain,
the Right Hon. Lord Lamington, privy councillor. Professor Dixon of
Cambridge University and Professor Armit of the Lister Institute; from
Italy, Commandatore Magaldi, vice-president of the National Institute
of Insurance, and Professor Niceforo; from Russia, His Excellency Alexis
Yermoloff, secretary of state to the emperor, etc., Professor Poussepp,
vice-president of the Psychological Institute at St. Petersburg; and from
Switzerland, Dr. Gobat, councillor of state, and Professor Milliet.

Several of the countries had sent official delegates representing minis-
teries in the different governments or public institutions. Thus the French
ministeries of the interior, finance, foreign affairs, war, navy and agricul-
ture were officially represented. For the United States, Consul-General
Mason of Paris was delegated by the state department to attend and report
the meetings which were necessarily conducted in the French language.

The earlier sessions were given over to a discussion of the general pro-
gram of study. Each national group had prepared its suggestions in ad-
vance. Some of them were very elaborate, not to say over-ambitious,
and hardly practical for the purposes of an international body. It was
therefore resolved that the brief French program should be used as the basis
for discussion. After many hours of debate and explanations, the follow-
ing general program was unanimously adopted :

^ See article in National Municipal Review, vol. i, p. 680.

27(1 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

ARTICLE I

Docs iilcolu)! possess any nutritive jiroperties?

ARTICLE II

a. "What is the relative influence of the forms in and customs under which
alcohol is consumed?

b. What arc the effects of the degree of alcohol and of foreign substances
added to it or derived from the distillation of fermented products?

ARTICLE III

a. What are the principal causes and what are the principal effects of
alcoholism?

b. What are the principal means employed to combat alcoholism and
what are their results?

ARTICLE IV

A critical inquiry into the tlifferent national statistics relating to the pro-
duction and consumption of alcohol and of alcoholic drinks.

ARTICLE V

The various inquiri^-s may have reference to colonies as well as to the
mother country.

With reference to Article IV, the following resolution was adopted:

"Each national group shall appoint one or more reporters whose dut}- it
shall be:

L To present all the official statistical documents for their respective
countries relating to the production, consumption and effects of alcohol;

2. To accomj^any these documents with a critical commentar}' indicat-
ing in detail so far as possible the causes of error which affect the respective
statistics.

3. It is desirable that these statistical documents shall cover a period
of twenty years.

4. At the end of November, 1913, each reporter shall send the results of
his inquiry to a reporter-general whose duty it shall be to control the whole
work, so that it may be carried out according to a uniform ]-)lan, and thus
made coni|)arable for the dilTerent countries. Thereupon the reiwrter-
general shall present the whole of these reports to a general meeting which
will piobably be held at Easter time in 1914."

To some the international program as finally adopted may seem alto-
gether too general jind elementary. Considerable inclination was shown
at first to be more elaborate and specific. It was pointed out, however,
that the desideratum is a ]ilan of work so ])road that it meets the common
needs of an international body and yet affords the different national groups
an opportunity to consider conditions of special interest to them. To
fashion a program in del ail which might have answered all the wants of
each participating country would prol)ably have been an impossibility.

THE ALCOHOL QUESTION 277

It was emphasized that the adoption of the international program would
in no wise prevent the different national groups from laying stress upon
special studies of peculiar interest to their countries. Moreover, it will be
noted that the terms of the international program are so broad that it is
feasible to comprehend under them practically all of the suggestions made,
for instance, by the American section, as will be seen from the subjoined
program framed by it and submitted to the general meeting.

SUGGESTED AMERICAN PROGRAM

1. The food value of the different alcoholic beverages.

2. The physiological and psychological results of the drinking habit,
in their relation to the kinds of alcohohc beverages consumed.

3. The relation of drinking to morbidity.

4. The relation of drinking to mortality.

5. The relation of drinking to economic efficiency.

6. The effects of parental inebriety upon the birth-rate and offspring.

7. The relation of the drink habit to mental disease.

8. The relation of the drink habit to crime.

9. Liquor legislation: (a) fundamental principles of regulation; (b)
fundamental principles of the taxation of the manufacture and sale of
intoxicants.

10. The social treatment of inebriety; (a) by the state; (b) by private
endeavor.

n. The effects of changes in the drink habits of the American people.
12. Statistics of the liquor problem.

A particularly instructive discussion preceded the resolution concern-
ing the proposed study of the statistics of the production and consumption
of alcohol and of the effects of alcohol. Professor Milliet, M. Lucien
March and others showed how utterly unreliable these statistics are at
present, and how they give rise to fallacies not only in regard to the extent
of the production and consumption of alcohol, but also in regard to the
actual extent of alcoholism. The air will be greatly cleared by a scientific
presentation of the whole subject.

In regard to the methods of organizing the international committee
there was at the outset a marked difference of opinion. For various reasons
which need not be fully restated here, it seemed inexpedient to try and work
out a form or organization at the initial general meeting. Among other
things, several of the delegates felt that they had not sufficient authority
in this respect without specific instructions from their sections. Instead the
following resolution was adopted :

The general assembly decides that a drafting commission (commission
constituante) shall be created and invites each national section to elect one
of its members as a delegate to this commission. The drafting commis-
sion shall be charged with formulating the statutes in regard to the organi-
zation and constitutions of international committee for the scientific

278 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

study of the alcohol question and sliall accomplish its task within six
months from February 1, 1913. Tlio national sections shall give notice
of the members thus elected to the airc-ady existing provisional bureau,
whose duty it shall be to assemble the drafting conunission and to see to it
that the latter discharges the duty ^vith which it is entrusted. The pro-
visional bureau shall receive the plans formulated by the drafting com-
mission and convoke a general assembly to take action on them; and mean-
while it shall conduct the affairs of the international committee."

In explanation of the above it may be said that for some months a pro-
visional bureau has been maintained at Paris, which had charge of the work
preliminary to the first general meeting.

It is expected that the drafting commission will convene some time in
May, probably at Brussels. When the next general meeting is to be held
w\\\ then be decided.

At the closing session, a brief presentation was made of the work of the
psycho-neurological institute at St. Petersburg and plans were submitted of
the new department for the treatment of alcoholics and study of alcoholic
diseases. The vice-president of the institute brought an official invita-
tion to the medical members of the committee to use its laboratories for
scientific study as it offers facilities hardly to be obtained elsewhere for
carrying out a part of the international program. The invitation was
received with much favor after Professor d'Arsonval and others had told of
the value of the institute, which from now on is to be known as the inter-
national institute for the study of alcoholism.

One may fairly say that the project of forming an international body
for scientific study of the alcohol problem, which has been agitated for two
years or more, is now realized. The formalities of organization which yet
remain will not hinder the different sections from beginning active work.
Both on the part of the scientific men present and the official delegates
keen interest was shown.

In all likelihood some of the sections will receive subsidies from their
respective governments for carrying on the different inquiries. In other
countries, notably Great Britain and the United States, the necessary
means must be obtained from private sources. The different groups will
also be asked to contribute toward the expenses of a central bureau.

It will probably take several years before the international committee
can finish its work. The field is large and in some countries practically
unfilled. Perhaps no delegate to the Paris meeting entertains the hope that
what is commonly spoken of as a "solution of the alcoho' question" will be
reached through the projected studies. But it is something to make pro-
gress and present facts u]ion which rational action may be based in the
future. The hope for it lies in the fact that representative men of some
principal countries in the world are joining hands in a scientific study. It

NEW YORK POLICE INVESTIGATION 279

is fully expected that several other countries will take part later on. There
may be differences of attitude toward the drink problem among those who
were present, but they will approach it without bias, simply concerned to
find out and state the truth.

It is interesting to note that at the Paris Meeting frequent mention was
made of the work of the American Committee of Fifty which, it was con-
fessed, furnished the idea of forming an international body; and the wish
was freely expressed that the results of the new undertaking may fully
measure up to the standard set in the United States.

John Koren.'*

THE NEW YORK POLICE INVESTIGATION

ALTHOUGH those who have opposed the present police inquiry by
the board of aldermen of New York are declaring that the
investigation by this committee has been a publicity campaign
with a view to making the police department a political issue for the com-
ing election in New York City, and although those in power and in charge of
the administration have endeavored to obstruct at every turn the inquisi-
tors, this committee by the first of May will have completed the first intelli-
gent study and analysis of the administration of police in the city of New
York.

When the committee started its work in the summer of 1912, the opinion
was general in New York that the investigation was to be "a hunt for the
grafters," and that a small army of detectives would be assembled for the
purpose of running down these police grafters and creating a sensational
scandal in the city which might well be used as political capital later on.

Great fear was felt that this aldermanic committee would become so
ambitious in its desire for publicity of a sensational character, that it would
meddle and tamper with the investigation already begun by the district
attorney of New York County, which would result in chaos and perhaps in
giving immunity to a number of vicious police officials who m'ght be turned
up as grafters in the course of the investigation.

Much to the satisfaction of all those who wish well for New York and its
citizens, and I might say to the surprise of the many civic agencies in New
York, out of what seemed to be and almost was, a hysterical condition,
grew a well defined, honest, sincere, and constructive analysis of the police
department by the aldermanic committee. This study not only in no
way interfered with the district attorney in his research for violators of the

^ Secretary of the American section, member of the committee on liquor problem
of the National Municipal League and president of the American Statistical Associa-
tion.

280 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

law, but on the contrary biouKlit about a cooperation between counsel
for the aklennanic committee, Emory R. Buckner, and the district attor-
ney's office which has resulted in a great many indictments and prosecutions
by the district attorney's office and a comjirehensive study of administra-
tive police matters by the aldermen.

The police department was divided into various branches, and under tlie
supervision of the Bureau of Municipal Research, accountants, investiga-
tors, and experts were sent into tliem to examine carefully their methods
and operations. In order to reach a diagnosis, in its effort to locate the
disease from which the department is suffering, the aldermanic committee
has called in within the last week many doctors on police, among them
George B. McClellan, who served two terms as mayor of New York City;
Seth Low, who served one term; District Attorney James C. Cropsey, a
former police commissioner; Chief City Magistrate William McAdoo, a
former police commissioner; Arthur Woods, former deputy police commis-
sioner; Bert Hanson; John McCuUough, former chief of police of the city;
and a number of others who have been connected with police work in the
city at some period.

The testimony of these men as experts varies so much that the problem
of diagnosing in order to find a remedy is made very difficult for the com-
mittee. The difference of opinion as to "just what is the matter with
New York's police?' and the remedies suggested to cure these ills, may be
best illustrated by extracts from the record.

Questions which have been uppermost in the minds of those inter-
ested in the police problem in New York, and even elsewhere, have
been "what should be the tenure of office of a police commissioner," "who
should appoint him," and "how should he ])e removed."

On these points various experts testified as follows :

J. C. Cropsey, former police conunissioner: Personally, I would not favor
having any fixed term for the police commissioner; I would not have the
police commissioner elected ; I would have the police commissioner appointed
})y the mayor and subject to his removal at will.

WilHnm McAdoo, former police commissioner: During tlie term I was
polii^e commissioner, I became convinced that the first cardinal wealoiess of
the police administration in New York is the tenure of the commissioner.
Tlie commissioner has absolutely no tenure of office .... The
result of it is this, if he is a very able and honest man all the crooked and
in(>ffi('i('nt element in the police department want to get rid of him, so from
the time he takes office — and they have his measure — thej^ begin coun-
terplotting against him. They will even go so far as to create a crime wave
through the newsjoapers, as they think that is the speediest Avay of i)utting
them out .... My idea is that the pohce commissioner ought to
be a])])()int(Ml by the mayor for a term of ten years, not less, and should not
be subject to removal except by the appellate division of the sui)reme court
on trial and charges made.

NEW YORK POLICE INVESTIGATION 281

Leonard F. Fuld, civil service examiner and author of "Police Administra-

ion'" : I should think that the pohce commissioner should have a fixed term. At

least he should have as secure an office as his subordinate, the patrolman

He should be appointed by the mayor, subject to removal

upon charges.

George B. McClellan, former mayor: I believe the police commissioner
shouldbeappointedby the mayor and subject to removal only upon charges
It might even be wise to give him a public hearing.

Seth Low, former mayor of New York: I am sure the governor exercising
state functions should have the right to dismiss the police commissioner
after hearing charges, but the mayor of the city should appoint the police
commissioner and have a right to remove him at will.

Arthur Woods, foriner deputy police commissioner: If the police commis-
sioner should be appointed by the mayor for a term, we will say, of ten
years, subject to removal by the mayor arbitrarily, but only after a public
hearing in which the police commissioner has full opportunity to be
heard, to be represented by counsel if he chooses, I think that we should
have an improvement over the present situation. Give the police com-
missioner the assurance that he will stay ten years in office, unless the mayor
is ready to brave public opinion in removing him .... My
object would be to make it difficult for a mayor to remove a police com-
missioner for improper reasons, and yet make it easy for a mayor to remove
a police commissioner for proper reasons.

Frank Moss, former police commissioner: My opinion is there should be

one commissioner, as there is at present; that he should be appointed by

the mayor; that he should be subject to removal at will by the mayor

I think that it was a mistake to abolish the office of chief of

police.

In the city of New York policemen before being dismissed from the force
are entitled to a trial before their commissioner or a deputy, and this trial
takes the form of a court procedure, the policeman being represented by
counsel. After dismissal the policeman is entitled to a court review. Police
commissioners and experts on police, — if there be any — are at a wide
variance as to the efficiency of this law. The differences of opinion on this
subject can be more fully appreciated by the following extracts from the
record of the inquiry.

James C. Cropsey on this point testified as follows :

I would give them (members of the police department) certainly no less
protection, and neither would I give them any more protection, than
any other civil service emploj^ees .... that would mean, that a
man about to be removed .... would have an opportunity for
making an explanation, a chance to present an explanation or his excuse,
then l^efore he can be dismissed or when he is dismissed, if at all, the head of
the department should file in writing the reasons for his dismissal.

Chief Magistrate McAdoo, former police commissioner, when asked his
views on this question, had this to say :

282 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

A patrolman must have secuiit}-. Must know tliat he has a tenure of

office I had a plan worked out, foUowingthe lines of the

army and the navy in the United States, that I thought would be a good
substitute for the present system. The highest penalty now for a police-
man is thirty days' fine or removal. I have always believed that there
should be an intermediary punishment like demotion, that is, in those fixed
ranks where a promotion is not an ar])itrar3^ matter; but above all I think
tiiat the thing would be this: that the finding of facts by the police commis-
sioner, through his (lei)uties, should be final. The question of review- before
the higher court would then be this: Did this man have a fair trial? Were
his constitutional and legal rights under the charter and under the law
observed? .... TIk; only (juestion for review should be whether
he was tried regularl3^ There I would stop, and I would not go any further
in arbitrary demotion.

Assistant District Attorney Frank Moss, also a former police commis-
sioner, at a different point of view testified as follows :

I think a patrolman ought to have the right of review. Probably the
present method enlarges that right of review more than is necessary. I
have thought tlmt there might be a special board of review legally created
by which the sentence of a policeman might be reviewed quickly and on a
broader basis than is done in the courts. There are not so many men
restored.

Arthur Woods, former deputy police commissioner, gave an entirely
different point of view. He said:

I do believe that if a ])oliceman's offence has been so serious that he
has been justly and properly dismissed from the force, he ought not to
go back on the force. I believe it is important for the general morale of
the force for him to stay off. I think he should have the right to a court
review of his dismissal, and if court tlecides that the dismissal Avas not
merited, he should be allorwed to bring a suit for damages against the city.

Bert Hanson, a former deput}^ who served as a trial commissioner, agreed
in some respects and said:

I think the reinstatement question is a very serious thing, and I think
that under no circumstances should a man be reinstated on the police force.
If he has been improperly dismissed, he should have redress in some other
way. I think that it would be cheaper for the city to pay him damages
than to take him ])ack on the force, and in fact a good deal better.

On the question of whether or not the head of the force should come from
the uniformed ranks rather than be a civilian, almost all the experts have
agreed but vary in their opinions as to just whether there should be a chief
of police and if there should be a chief, just what his powers should be.
Some believe that there should be a ])ermanent chief who should rise from
^he ranks, receive a much higher salary than tiie other inspectors, and be

NEW YORK POLICE INVESTIGATION 283

given full control of the uniformed force, subject to the approval on matters
of policy by the commissioner. Former commissioner Frank Moss was
strongest in favor in this, while Mr. Cropsey believed that there should be a
head of the uniformed force, regardless of what he was called, who would
be directly "under the control of the commissioner, subject to appoint-
ment and removal at will by the commissioner.

All of the experts are agreed that the present salary of the police com-
missioner of New York is entirely too small, and the majority have recom-
mended a salary of $1 5,000 a year.

The constructive study of various bureaus of the departnient, and partic-
ularly that of pensions, will be continued until about April 1, when the
reports and recommendations of the various experts now engaged in exam-
ing the department will be filed.

Clement J. Driscoll.^

^ First deputy under former Commissioner Cropsey. He is now supervising the
police studies which the New York Bureau of Municipal Research is making in behalf
of the aldermanic committee.

NOTES AND EVENTS

Professor Charles Austin Beard, Columbia University, New York,
Associate Editor in Charge

assisted by

Professor Murray Gross, Drexel Institute, Philadelphia

Professor Edward M. Sait, Columbia University, New York

I. GOVERNMENT AND ADMINISTRATION

The Commission Government Move-
ment.^— The meeting of thirty-seven leg-
islatures in the early months of 1913 and
the adoption of home rule amendments
last November in Ohio, Nebraska, and
Texas has been the occasion for unusual
activity throughout the country in the
field of city charters.

The following cities should be added
to the list of accessions to the commis-
sion government movem.ent during 1912
and 1913: Fort Smith, Ark.; Denver,
Col.; Pensacola, Fla. ; Cairo, Harrisburg,
and Murphysboro, 111.; Ottumwa, Iowa;
Garnett, Hiawatha and Sabetha, Kan.;
Alexandria, Jennings, Natchitoches,
Lake Charles and New Iberia, La.;
Vicksburg, Miss. ; Vineland, N. J. ;
Devil's Lake, Williston, N. D.; Spar-
tansburg, S. C; Watertown, S. D.; Leb-
anon, Tenn.; Ashland and Ladysmith,
Wis. The following cities have recently
rejected the plan: West Orange, N. J.;
Taylor, Texas; Princeton, Champaign
and Joliet, 111.

General Laws. — Indiana Business
Plan. What is termed the "business
system of city government" is now before
the, Indiana legislature. The plan was
drafted by a committeee of lawyers, edu-
cationalists and business men represent-
ing the I'^'ederated Commercial Clubs of
the state. It was first suggested at a

1 These notes were prepared In February and the
legislation In many cas^s has been materially ad-
vanced since tliut date and will be taken up In the
July notes. — Editor.

convention of this organization held in
October, 1911. In effect the plan is a
combination of the old form of munic-
ipal government and the commission
system. It provides for a board of coun-
cilors elected by the people, varying in
number from nine to twenty-five ac-
cording to the class of the city; cities
of the first, or largest class, will of
course have the biggest board. This
board selects and appoints a mayor and
four commissioners, and these five men
constitute the board of administration
which is the operating branch of the
government, and also the legislative
body and passes all ordinances, subject
to the approval of the council. All
offices of a subordinate nature are
created and filled by the board of
administration, and it fixes the salaries
for these offices.

The board of administration is sub-
divided into five coordinate departments
— ^public affairs; revenue and finance;
public safety; streets; public property
and imjirovement; health and sanitation.
The mayor is ex-officio head of the de-
partment of public affairs, and the board
of councilors designates each of the other
four commissioners to one of the remain-
ing departments.

The councilors are nominated by peti-
tion, and elected every two years. The
ballots used are free from any emblem,
device or other indication of a political
party.

The people have the power of recall
over the councilors, and thej^ exercise
the same power over the members of

284

NOTES AND EVENTS

285

the board of administration. The ref-
erendum is compulsory on all matters
involving franchises or public grants,
and the people may initiate ordinances
that the government fails or refuses to
pass.

A third-class-cities commission gov-
ernment bill passed the senate on Jan-
uary 31, applies to cities of from 19,050
to 35,000 inhabitants, which would in-
clude Anderson, Elkhart, East Chicago,
Hammond, Lafayette, Logansport, Mar-
ion, Muncie, Richmond and New Albany.
Kansas. — A bill favored by the Kan-
sas municipal league, providing that
candidates for city commissioner in cit-
ies that have adopted the city commis-
sion form of government shall declare
for what particular places on the board
of commissioners they are candidates for,
has been recommended for passage in
the house. A similar measure has been
introduced in the senate.

Pennsylvania. Senator Henry A.
Clark of Erie introduced on January 21
a bill which would give the privilege of
adopting the commission form to cities
of the third class. This measure retains
the principal features of the one of sim-
ilar import before the legislature in 1911
with the exception of the recall and the
provisions which would legislate the
present incumbents out of office. The
bill has the backing of the Allied Civic
Bodies of the third class cities. A sec-
ond bill for third class cities introduced
by Dr. Thomas A. Steel of McKeesport
would establ sh a council of eleven
members.

Ohio. Late in January the Munici-
pal Association of Cleveland published
a proposed bill providing three optional
forms of organization which any city
mi^ght adopt by referendum vote, in-
cluding the federal plan, a commission
plan and a city manager plan. This
document was approved by a confer-
ence of the Ohio Municipal League on
January 23.'

' Copies can be had of the Association, Engineers
Building, Cleveland, O.

Minnesota. Representative Kerry
Conley of Rochester has introduced a
bill to permit cities to adopt the city
manager plan.

Missouri. A general bill which will,
in fact, permit the cities of Joplin and
Springfield to adopt the commission
form has been introduced in the legisla-
ture and appears to excite no opposition.
New Mexico. Senator Earth's bill
authorizes cities of 5000 or more in-
habitants to initiate a local charter by
popular election of a board of three
freeholders, instituted on petition of
voters equal in number to 25 per cent of
the votes cast at the last preceding
municipal election. The charter sub-
mitted by this body must be ratified
by popular vote. This is an attempt to
secure home rule by statute.

New York. The Municipal Govern-
ment Association plans to introduce
four bills in the legislature covering
practically the whole field of funda-
mental municipal reform. One of these
is a constitutional home rule amendment;
a second is a non-partisan municipal
elections act; third a municipal empow-
ering act. The fourth would permit any
city of the second or third classes to
adopt any one of six simplified forms of
organization.

North Dakota. By the provisions of
a bill relating to elections upon the
question of commission form of govern-
ment, several cities which rejected the
commission form in the past will have an
opportunity to resubmit the question
this spring.

Tennessee. A meeting of the mayors
of Tennessee was held at Nashville on
January 28 to draft a bill permitting all
cities and towns to adopt the commission
form of government. A bill of this char-
acter has been introduced in the legis-
lature.

Texas. The general law allowing cit-
ies of under 10,000 population to adopt
commission government is one of the
most poorly drafted pieces of legisla-
tion imaginable. A bill passed in the
Senate aims to clarify this law by giving

286

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

tlic cities (Icfinito powers as to police
regulations, taxation, lionds, etc. and
extends its provisions to all cities of
over 2000 poiiulation.

Utah. Alleged dissatisfaction with
the result of eoniniission government in
Ogden has inspired Senator Craig of that
city to introduce a bill which would
practically repeal the present commis-
sion government law, and substitute a
system under which there would be
a mayor with veto power popularly
elected and a council elected from wards.
Another bill introduced in the lower
house by Representative Barnes of Salt
Lake City provides for the recall of city
officials, submission of all franchises to
the people, the appointment of a civil
service commission and an election com-
mission. The bill would also increase
the number of councilors to seventeen in
cities of the first class, eleven in the
second and nine in the third class, to
be elected at large, in rotation. The
mayor would be elected by this board.
The adoption of the law would be op-
tional with the cities.

Special Charters. — Besides the local
movements specially mentioned below,
active efforts to secure either special
charters on the commission plan or char-
ter amendments to that purpose have
been begun in behalf of the following
cities.

Douglas and Bisbee, Ariz. ; San Diego,
Cal., election February 27 fixing recall
petitions at 25 per cent, making auditor
and superintendent of streets charter
officers), Meriden, Stratford and Middle-
town, Conn; Pensacola, Fla. (commission
and semi-aldermanic forms submitted
to popular vote February 25) ; St. Peters-
burg, Fla. (form of charter under dis-
cussion during February); Atlanta, Ga.
(charter committee at work); Honolulu,
H. T. (Governor Frear and others dis-
cussing commission and city manager
I)lans); Chicago, 111. (resolution passed
bj' council provided for a committee of
three to interview the mayor as to the

feasibility of a charter convention);
Auburn, Mo. (Progressives i)u))lished
form of commission govenuiicnt charter);
Baltimore, Md. (City-wide Congress on
January 3 accepted a report of its com-
mitt(!e on municipal government rec-
ommending a charter which would pro-
vide for the short ballot, initiative and
referendum and division of organic law
into charter and code); Quincy, Somer-
ville, Pittsfield, Lynn, Lowell, Cam-
bridge, Worcester, Beverly, Brockton,
Maiden, Newburyport and Lawrence,
Mass.; Saginaw, Mich, (charter reported
by commission during January) ; Owosso,
Mich, (charter commission asked to pre-
pare charter with city manager plan) ;
Battle Creek and Kalamazoo, Mich,
(charters ready for submission) ; Nashua,
N. H. (one of two forms of new proposed
charter provides commission plan);
Charlotte, N. C. (charter sent to legis-
lature vests powers of city in mayor
and two commissioners, subject to re-
call) Raleigh and Asheville, N. C.
(legislature asked to pass commission
government bills); Norman, Okla. (free-
holder charter reported in January)
Charleston, S. C. (commission govern-
ment bill has been introduced in legis-
lature) ; Fairmount, Clarksburg, Graf-
ton, Sistersville, Piedmont, Cameron,
St. Albans and Wheeling, W. Va. (com-
mercial bodies are supporting commis-
sion government charters in the legis-
lature); Kenosha Wis. (petitions for
adoption . of state law circulated during
February).

The Ohio Movements. — The consti-
stitutional home rule amendment adop-
ted is bearing abundant fruit. On Febru-
ary 4 elections were held in Cleve-
land, Youngstown and Coshocton on the
question of calling local charter con-
ventions and electing the requisite fif-
teen charter commissioners. In Cosh-
octon only about a third of the vote was
cast, and the proj^o-^ition was defeated.
In Cleveland the ticket nominated by
Mayor Baker and including himself and

NOTES AND EVENTS

287

Prof. A. R. Hatton, was elected. This
ticket is pledged to non-partisan elec-
tions, the short ballot, the merit system
and the initiative and referendum.

In Dayton a number of commercial
and civic bodies have been studying
the several new types of city government.
The city manager plan has in this city
an unusual number of adherents. The
Socialists have drafted a general plan
calling for the election of a council from
wards, a mayor and president of the
council.

Charter elections have been called as
follows: Akron, April 1; Salem, April 18;
Marietta, April 22, Toledo, April 26;
Middletown, May 6. Petitions for such
action have been presented to the city
councils in Springfield. In Columbus
the question of a charter convention is
unofficially but actively discussed.

The Denver Election. — On February
14 the city of Denver voted on four prop-
ositions; (1) for a charter convention
to provide a commission form of gov-
ernment, (2) a popular initiative amend-
ment providing a specific form of commis-
sion government, (3) preferential voting
amendment, (4) an ordinance regulating
telephone charges. All but the first of
these propositions carried.

The adoption of the initiated commis-
sion form will have a unique and far
reaching effect in that it will bring county
as well as city departments under a sin-
gle governing board. The traditional
five members, an auditor and an election
commissioner will be the only elective
officers; the mayor will be selected by
the commissioners from their own num-
ber. The commissioner of property, in
addition to his municipal duties, will be
county clerk and recorder of deeds.
The commissioner of finance will per-
form the duties of county treasurer and
assessor. The commissioner of safety
will be sheriff as well as head of the police
department. The commissioner of im-
provements will supersede the county
surveyor. And the commissioner of

social welfare will perform the duties of
county superintendent of schools and
coroner. There will be no independent
civil service commission.

The terms of the commissioners will
expire in rotation, so that after 1915 not
more than five city and county officers
will be elected at any one time. If the
recommendations of the governor and
the retiring governor are followed, the
short ballot principle will be applied to
the state ticket, and Denver citizens, in
place of what Judge Lindsay called "The
Jungle" will have a ballot which for
"shortness" can hardly be surpassed.

The Los Angeles Charter.^ — The ad-
verse vote on the Los Angeles charter
on December 3, 1912, is explained by
the secretary of the charter commission
chiefly on the grounds of insufficient
publicity. The vote, especially of the
women was unusually light. Apparent-
ly the Socialists voted with the "special
interests" to defeat the new law. Im-
mediately after the election the People's
Charter Conference was organized with a
view to getting amendments before the
people in time for approval by the leg-
islature. The conference has reported
eight separate amendments, which pur-
port to give the city increased power
in the purchase and regulation of public
utilities and the power of excess condem-
nation, when it shall be provided for by
state law. The nine members of the
council would each be designated, re-
spectively, a committee of one to look
after a division of the city's affairs. One
amendment provides for a form of pro-
portional representation in the council.

Philadelphia Suggestions. — Sugges-
tions of fundamental changes in the com-
position of the city council of Philadel-
phia have been proposed by the Com-
mittee of Seventy and Clinton Rogers
Woodruff. Both of these proposals
would do away with the present bi-cam-
eral system and substitute a council of

288

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

fifteen members elected at larpje. The
Committee of Seventy calls attention to
the great inequalities of representation
which are inherent in the ward system
and offers as a substitute a method of
proportional representation by means
of the single untransferable vote. Mr.
AVoodruff would incorporate the initia-
tive, referendum and recall in the city
charter as a method of controlling the
council. Maj'or Blankenburgh has put
himself on record as favoring a council
of fifteen members.

The Portland Situation. — Compro-
mises have been effected in Portland
between the opponents of the official
commission government charter and
the mayor by which the question will
be resubmitted to the people May 3.
The mayor conceded a number of
amendments which were incorporated
in the charter drafted by W. C.
Benbow. The "short charter" men-
tioned in the last issue of the National
Municipal Review was disapproved by
both parties to the compromise. ^

Massachusetts Activity. — Represen-
tative Keenan of Lynn has introduced
a bill by which that city would abandon
commission government and return to
the system of the mayor and eleven
aldermen. Considerable dissatisfaction
is expressed with the workings of the
town meeting feature of the Lynn char-
ter, but aside from this the instrument
does not appear to be seriously defective.

An amendment to the citj^ charter of
Haverhill is being sought to eliminate
the "bullet" voting that has prevailed
since the change was made from a bi-
cameral system to a commission form
in 1908. Under the present system there
are four candidates for the two alder-
manic positions at the city elections and
it has been possible for friends of a
candidate to vote for him alone by cast-

ing a bullet vote, where they are allowed
to vote for two or four candidates.

Two charters for Cambridge have
been brought forward. The one pre-
pared by T'rof . L. J. Johnson of Harvard
has again been introduced in the legis-
lature. Another prepared by Repre-
sentative Mahoney substitutes for the
present council a single chamber of seven-
teen elected one from each ward and
six at large. The administrative boards
would be appointive by the Mayor.
*
Miscellaneous.— .l//c/n'£?(7n; The grand
jury of Wayne County in January
after bringing a number of indictments,
severely criticized the common council
and the school board of Detroit and rec-
ommended adoption of commission gov-
ernment, believing that it would attract
a higher grade of men to the public serv-
ice. Oklahoma. Charging that the
commission form of government in Ard-
more is undemocratic; that it is too ex-
pensive; that the city has gone into debt
under the system, petitions are being
circulated to abolish it and go back to
the aldermanic form. Arizona. A com-
mission government charter adopted in
1912 by Phoenix has been found to con-
flict with the constitution in a number
of details, especially those relating to
the initiative, referendum and recall.
Governor Hunt has pointed out that
there is no relief except in retracing the
entire process of the charter convention.
Oregon. A commission government
charter adopted in Klamath Falls, on
May 21, 1912, is in a state of litigation
growing out of the apparent adoption of
another charter of legislative origin, in
February of the same year, and a con-
fusion of elections.

H. S. CiILBERTSON.'

*

Duluth, Minn.— Having voted last

December to adopt the commission form

of government, it was proposed to the

old city council that an expert should be

lis.

• Hr^e National Municipal Review, vo/. (/, p.

1 .Assistant soorptary
Hallol Orcaiilzatlon.

of The National Short

K

NOTES AND EVENTS

289

employed so that when the new govern-
ment goes into effect in April, he might
have ready diagrams for the organiza-
tion of departments and for disposing
of powers and duties on an efficiency
bases.

The council shied at the word expert.
The argument was used that "we had a
perfectly good system of municipal ac-
counting already and that it would not
be fair to the new commission to tie
their hands by a system prepared with-
out consulting them. But the real rea-
son was that we are tired of hearing about
experts and by jinks we can do just as
good a job of experting by our own com-
mon sense as any of these fellows with
superhuman wisdom."

John S. Pardee.

New Municipal Program Committee.
— Ten years ago the National Municipal
League adopted a municipal program on
the recommendation of a committee of .
seven men who gave to the whole matter
careful and thoughtful consideration
during a period of upwards of two years.
Since its adoption it has been a source
of widespread influence, but the League
has thought it desirable to have the rec-
ommendations of the report reexamined.

and to that end a new committee has
been authorized consisting of five mem-
bers of the old committee and an equal
number of new. The members of the
former committee who will serve are:
Horace E. Deming, Esq., New York
City, author of Government of American
Cities; Prof. Frank .J. Goodnow, of
Columbia University, and for a time a
member of the President's commission
on economy and efficiency; Hon. George
W. Guthrie, former mayor of Pittsburgh,
and now chairman of the Democratic
state committee of Pennsylvania; Prof.
L. S. Rowe, of the University of Pennsyl-
vania; and Clinton Rogers Woodruff,
secretary of the League and chairman
of the board of registration commission-
ers of Philadelphia. The new men are:
Richard S. Childs, secretary of The Short
Ballot Organization; Prof. John A. P'air-
lie, of the University of Hlinois, and
author of several volumes dealing with
municipal problems; M. N. Baker, editor
of Engineering Neivs and president of
the Montclair board of health; Arthur
C. Ludington, New York City; and the
Hon. William Dudley Foulke, Richmond.
Ind., president of the League, as chair-
man. This committee, which has been
just completed, will shortly be at work
on its assignment.

II. FUNCTIONS

Philadelphia's High - Cost - of - Living
Program. — Can Philadelphia affect the
cost of living?

Granting that many of the factors in
the high cost of living are national or
international, are some of them suffi-
ciently local to be controlled by pur-
poseful civic action on the part of the
city?

Mayor Blankenburg is keenly inter-
ested in doing all he can to lower the cost
of living, especially to the small house-
holders and wage earners in Philadelphia.
Accordingly he asked Morris L. Cooke,
director of public works, to supervise
the investigations necessary to deter-
mine whether or not anythiiig could prof-

itably be done by the city, and if so,
what steps had best be taken.

The director, one of the few men
trained as efficiency engineers, to be ap-
pointed to important governmental posi-
tions, decided that the proper method
of approaching the problem was to
take a typical sample of each class of
goods, on which the average householder
spent a considerable portion of his in-
come, and follow that sample from the
earliest stage in its production until it
finally reached the Philadelphian's table.
To the author of this paper was given the
task particularly of following the third
of these costs — that of getting goods
from the producer to, the consumer.

290

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

Moreover, tlio floods under considera-
tion were limited to farm produce grown
in tlipcountiessurrounding Pliiladeljihia.

Tlie first step in the investigation was
to find out just what was the increase in
consumers' prices over producers' prices.
From numerous and diverse sources were
gathered the prices received by the
farmer, by the jobber, by the wholesaler
and by the retailer. These prices re-
vealed that the increase of consumers'
prices over producers' prices range from
73 to 105 per cent for butter; from 106
to 154 per cent for potatoes; from 67 to
173 per cent for eggs; from 114 to 166 per
cent for huckleberries; from 150 to 200
per' cent for blackberries; 266 per cent
for live poultry; 167 per cent for corn,
and 150 per cent for tomatoes. The
percentage of increase in price due to
transportation from the farm to the city
ranged from 1 to 25 per cent of the price
received by the farmer; the percentage
of increase due to the jobber ranged from
6 to 36 per cent; the percentage of in-
crease due to the wholesaler ranged from
11 to 22 per cent; while the percentage of
increase of retailers' prices over whole-
salers' prices ranged from 30 to 100 per
cent. This last increase includes the
high cost of distribution later to be dis-
cussed. By jobber is meant the country
store-keeper or the huckster or traveling
agent who buys direct from the farmer.

Products are brought from the farm to
the city by water, wagon, steam rail,
motor truck, and trolley freight. In
each of these there is ample opportunity
through proper governmental action for
definitely increasing the efficiency of
transportation and for lowering trans-
portation costs.

Water transportation can be improved
through the use of the motor boat. For
the development of such transportation,
Philadelphia's location is especially for-
tunate. The development of transpor-
tation by wagon will best be increased
through improving inter-county roads.
Related to the possibilities of this devel-
opment will be the possibilities of send-
ing farmers' produce into the city by

parcels post. The rates under the new
law will be five cents for the first pound,
within a radius of fifty miles, with a
charge of one cent additional per pound
until a maximum weight of eleven pounds
is reached.' Farmers in the vicinity
might ship some produce to Philadelphia
consumers at these rates, but its greater
use will be in getting the city's output
directly to the farm. The efficiency in
transportation by steam rail can be in-
creased, if not by lowering the rates,
certainly through better and quicker
service. Transportation by motor trucks
is in its infancy, and has most significant
possibilities. Five trucks of one and
one-half tons each can do the w-ork
of twenty horses, and still double the
radius of action. With better inter-
county roads, and with a well de-
veloped farming country, this method of
transportation will no doubt play a
large part in getting goods most eco-
nomically and directly from the farmer
to the city consumer.

It is in the development of trolley
freight, however, that there are the
greatest possibilities. Its extensive de-
velopment would mean transportation
facilities from every section of the city
to each outlying hamlet, and would make
it possible to bring it direct to the several
parts of the city, country produce from
the farms within a radius of thirty to
fifty or more miles in every direction
from the city. Such a development
would in effect add about one thousand
square miles to the territory upon which
Philadelphia could depend for its coun-
try produce.

Along several of the trolley lines, the
trolley freight service is in a fairlj^ satis-
factory condition. Along many others,
however, such service is both inadequate
and unsatisfactory. This unsatisfac-

> That Is, these are the charges for the first 50
nilloa, the distance In which Philadelphia Is espe-
cially Interested. The law further provides that
the rates will Increase through eight zones, varying
from 50 to 1800 or more miles, the charge for the first
pound for the greatest distance being twelve cents. —
C. L. K.

NOTES AND EVENTS

291

tory condition is due in the main to three
reasons: (a) the difference in gauge or
in wheel specifications so that through
freight cars cannot be run into the city;

(b) want of proper traffic agreements;

(c) want of interest in certain of the out-
lying trolley lines in the development of
trolley freight.

About the same situation now exists
with certain trolley lines that existed in
the decade or two preceding the Civil War
with certain railroad lines; that is, they
have been built on a different gauge or
with different wheel specifications. The
result is that freight must be trans-
ferred from car to car. This leads to
loss in time and damage to freight, both
of which are most objectionable to the
shipper and cause added costs to the
consumer. This condition can be reme-
died on some lines, a few lines contem-
plate changes in gauge, but with a couple
of lines the only solution at present seems
to be to provide for a quick, inexpensive
and careful transfer.

Trolley freight is blocked on other
outlying lines because of the want of
proper traffic agreements, either between
two or more of the outlying companies,
or between one or more of these com-
panies and the Philadelphia Rapid Tran-
sit Company. However, the Philadel-
phia Rapid Transit Company is deeply
interested in developing its freight traffic
and has not, therefore, been a leading
obstacle in the making of reasonable
traffic agreements.

Often the leading reason for the want
of proper traffic agreements is the desire
of certain of the lines to pay good divi-
dends on highly watered stock. This
situation thus far has led, in all too many
instances, to unreasonable rates and
poor service. The situation points to
the need of a state public service com-
mission with plenary powers overcapital-
ization, service and rates. Philadelphia
consumers and the outlying farmers
would then have a tribunal which could
give them facts upon which to base a
sane policy, and before which they could

go to demand reasonable service and
rates.

A third reason for the unsatisfactory
condition of the trolley freight service
lies in the want of interest in trolley
freight by certain of the outlying electric
companies. It is only in recent years
that trolley lines have seen the value or
have been allowed to develop the possi-
bilities of trolley freight. Too often
this development has been held up by
restrictive legislation fathered by other
transportation concerns, or by local jeal-
ousies and inter-town controversies.

However, most of the lines centering
in the city are now willing to develop
through freight service. The few that
are not can be reached after such freight
has proved to be a paying investment on
other lines.

There are significant possibilities also
in the development of trolley freight
over the lines in New Jersey, Delaware
and Maryland.

Another reducible cost in getting farm
produce into the city is due to an ante-
quated system of taxation. The state's
mercantile tax, which ranges from $2.50
to $11 per year for farmers selling produce
other than their own, and the city's
vendor's license fee, which amounts to
$10 for one horse, or $15 for two horses,
do not have to be paid by farmers who
bring into the city and sell their own
produce. This provision was adequate
at the time the law was passed, about
1840, for then the farmers who lived
more than a day's drive from the city
had little motive to bring their produce
to Philadelphia. Today, however, the
most valuable fruit and produce growing
sections are within thirty to sixty miles
from the city. It is unprofitable for
any farmer living out that far to drive
to the city in order to sell his own pro-
duce solely. The result of these taxes
and licenses, therefore, is to compel the
farmer to sell his produce to some one
else, and thus make necessary the in-
crease in prices due both to the jobber
and the wholesaler. If these statutes

292

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

and ordinances could be so amended as
to allow any farmer or gardener cultivat-
ing his own farm or garden to secure a
permit, after inspection by a city official,
at a cost of not more than 50 cents, and to
sell without added fees or taxes not only
his own produce but the produce of any
farmer with a like permit, the cost of
farm produce would be greatly reduced.

Another cumulative element in the
cost of farm produce is the city's ineflfi-
cient and outgrown distribution system.
The reports on prices received from each
of the wards of the city indicate very
clearly the relations between the distance
from freight terminals and the prices
paid by consumers. The wards paying
high prices had long hauls; the wards re-
porting medium high prices had medi-
um long hauls; the wards with medium
low prices had medium short hauls; and
the wards reporting low prices had short
hauls. There is here a definite social
waste. This waste is increased by the
fact that there is a double haul in many
instances. Thus farmers from beyond
the 41st ward drive over ten miles,
through the 41st ward, to Dock Street
and Vine Street commission merchants;
the goods are purchased here by a re-
tailer who carts them back again to the
41st ward — a useless twenty-mile haul.
In all sections of the city there is a
double cartage of this character. The
result is an unnecessary and very large
increase in the cost of consumers' prices.
Moreover, the transportation methods
used are often costly and largely ante-
dated. To a large extent transportation
is still carried on by horse-drawn vehi-
cles at a cost of 25 to 50 cents per ton mile.
Motor trucks for distribution are as yet
not so extensively used as in other cities,
say New York, where there are over 2000
such motor trucks in use.

A distribution system that would best
conserve the interests of the farmers
in the outlying counties, whether they
vend on the streets, or sell to the
wholesaler or retailer, that would best
conserve the interests of the retailers
in every section of the city, who care

to buy direct from farmers, that would
best further the interests of the consum-
ers, is the development of trollej^ ter-
minals. There are in the city at the
present time but three trolley freight
terminals. The development of such
terminals would also make it possible
for manufacturers and stores in each
section of the city to send goods to the
outlying stores and consumers without
the added cartage costs that now^ have to
be paid, would increase the number of
farmers that come to the city, and in-
crease the type of business now charac-
teristic of the Washington Hotel. About
sixty-five farmers, from twenty-two agri-
cultural districts, ship their produce
to the 11th and Huntingdon Street sta-
tion, then remain over night at this
hotel, and the next day hire teams from
the proprietor and vend their goods on
routes in the city. With adequate ter-
minal facilities, the farmers could sell
not only in this way but at the markets
or to the retailers directly. This would
eliminate the costs due to at least two
classes of middlemen. Such a distribut-
ing system would also prevent great
waste due to the decay of perishable
products and fruit. At the present
time such goods are often two or three
days in transit from the farmer to the re-
tailer or the consumer. This waste could
be very definitely decreased through a
more facile distributing system.

Another unnecessary element in the
cost of farm produce is the existence of
certain abuses whicli imdermine the faith
of the farmer in Philadelphia markets,
and the faith of the consumer both in
farmers' markets and in the goods bought
from retail stores. Manj' of these abuses
can be eliminated through proper ordi-
nances and statutes. Thus an ordi-
nance could he passed forbidding the use
of farmers' signs by those not bona fide
farmers. This abuse today is outrage-
ously common in certain of the city's
markets. Ordinances could also most
stringently regulate the existing markets.
The city could create a bureau of weights
and measures, and thus protect both

NOTES AND EVENTS

293

k

the farmer and the consumer. It could
use its influence to get a statute com-
pelling wholesalers to file bonds with
a designated state official, conditioned
upon performing their services faith-
fully, and upon the reporting of goods in
the condition in which they are actually
received, and the payment to farmers of
the money properly due them. There
are at present all too many abuses along
these lines. A state statute could pro-
vide that cold storage eggs should be
clearly marked as such. Such a statute
would protect the consumer and would,
in all probability, have the same effect
as the oleomargarine statute — the de-
velopment of the cold storage business,
and the protection of the honest dealer.

Another step that the city could take
to reduce costs on farm produce is to
establish a wholesale market and retail
markets in those sections of the city
where retail markets may prove to be
needed.

In the city are two dozen markets,
two of which are municipally owned.
None of these is now administered pri-
marily with the thought of bringing
consumer and producer together. Most
of them are no longer markets in the old
sense of the word, but are simply groups
of professional retailers. The estab-
lishment of a wholesale market or a
farmers' market, coupled with thorough
regulation of existing markets, would
no doubt have a wholesome effect on
consumers' prices. In several cities of
the United States, such markets have
not only lowered prices, but have been
of financial profit to the city. The New
York market commission urges that a
terminal, wholesale market for New
York City will relieve congestion in
several parts of the city, provide a con-
spicuous place for producers to send to,
provide an economic stand so that they
can sell cheaper, make it possible for
licensed gardeners and farmers to sell
their articles of food, permit segregation
of live poultry, provide better refrigera-
tion and storage facilities, reduce the
cost of distribution, provide sanitary

conditions for handling food stuffs, pro-
vide for a storage of food in time of
plenty, eliminate two classes of middle-
men between producer and consumer,
and put the control of the food supply
under public authority. Such a whole-
sale house, coupled with the transporta-
tion and distribution system outlined
above, would, no doubt, be of great
value in making for a better and greater
Philadelphia, and for lowering food costs
to every consumer therein.

To the author's mind, far more impor-
tant than the establishment of municipal
markets, is the establishment of the
transportation facilities into and out of
the city, as described above, the develop-
ment of distributing facilities and trolley
freight terminals within the city, and
the stringent regulation of municipal
markets, weights and measures, and com-
mission men.

The carrying out of these proposals
will definitely affect consumers' prices.
The development of a network of a facile,
accessible transportation and distribut-
ing system, coupled with the measures
indicated above, will encourage the far-
mer to come into the city; will make
it possible for the farmer to go around
one or two sets of middlemen; will save
cartage costs to the farmer, and, there-
fore, to the consumer; will save time to
the farmer, and, therefore, increase his
output; will give better prices to the
farmer, and, therefore, encourage him
to grow fruits and produce especialh'
needed in Philadelphia; will focus his
attention upon produce and fruit rather
than upon the staple products that can
better be grown in Kansas and Nebraska;
will fasten his attention to packing
and sorting, and thus save food waste
through decay; will shorten the time
from the farm to the city table, and thus
give fresher goods with a decreased
loss through deterioration; will extend
the bounds of economic possibilities in
each agricultural district; will enhance
the facilities through which the outlying
stores and smaller towns can more eco-
nomically handle their freight both

294

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

from and into Philadelphia; will give to
the retail stores a lessened transjiorta-
gion charge; will give to Philadelphia's
manufacturing establishments and stores
increased facilities for sale; will make
possible the elimination of one or two
classes of middlemen, without any seri-
ous injurj^ to their business; will give to
Philadelphia consumers fresher produce,
and will materially lower prices.

Philadelphia can lower the cost of
living to her citizens.

Clyde L. King.

Municipal Utilities. The National
Civic Federation department in charge
of the inquiry into the regulation of
public utilities is nearing the end of
its work. One of the achievements is
the compilation of all existing regulatory
laws, analyzed and annotated. This is
a task of extreme value and convenience
to every person at all interested in the
regulation of public service corporations.

The department has also drawn up a
model public utilities law, has made
special reports on the regulation of cap-
italization, the sliding scale method,
and profit sharing, and has made a care-
ful study of state versus municipal reg-
ulation. The sliding scale principle was
a subject of special inquiry in England.
Particular attention was also given in
the English investigation to methods
employed in the regulation of capital
issues and in the public audit of com-
panies. The plan of selling stock at
auction was also examined in detail.
The report of the English investigation
will constitute a valuable addition to the
literature on the subject.

Court decisions have been examined
and compiled. A careful line was drawn
between decisions which involved merely
the application of the statutes and deci-
sions which interpreted the language of
the statutes.

The inquiry is in charge of J'rof. John
H. Gray. For the consideration of the
various parts of the proposed model bill,
the activities of the department were

divided among the following committees :
Accounts and reports, capitalization,
form, franchises, rates, safety of oper-
ation, service.

The Geary Street Municipal Railway
of San Francisco, was opened for busi-
ness on December 28, 1912. The road
at present has 5^ miles of track, built at
a cost of $139,000 a mile. $1,900,000 was
voted in bonds for building the road from
Kearny Street to the Ocean. The bonds
were sold for $1,902,341.50, of which $842,-
376.26 still remains in the treasury. Of
this sum about $400,000 will be called for
in order to complete the extension to the
beach and meet the outstanding con-
tracts.

The contest for the municipal opera-
tion of the Geary Street road began as
far back as 1896 when the corporation
then in control of the cable road on Geary
Street attempted to secure a fifty-year
franchise seven years before their exist-
ing franchise expired. This was de-
feated through legal proceedings and
much agitation, as were other subse-
quent attempts. Several efforts to se-
cure a bond issue for the reconstruction
of the cable road as a municipally owned
electric line proved unsuccessful, as, in
the three attempts made, a majority
vote, but not the requisite 'two-thirds
vote, was secured. Finally, in Decem-
ber, 1909, the proposition carried by a
vote of three to one.

The new road is but the beginning of
a municipal system. Plans are under-
way to connect the Geary Street road
with the Union Street road by two cross
town lines. These cross town lines will
furnish the necessary transportation to
the grounds of the Panama Pacific Inter-
national Exposition. It is expected that
they will becompletedsometimenext year.

New York Electrical Rates. William
D. Marks, consulting engineer of New
York City, has issued a special report on
the electricity rates of New York City.
He claims that the rates for small con-
sumers are inconsistently too large. His
report gives tables and other data com-
paring a service scale of rates with a

NOTES AND EVENTS

295

commodity scale of rates. He feels that
the commodity scale of rates is not fair
even when figured out carefully, but if
used, may be consistently applied under
the assumption that increased sales re-
quire an increased plant. His statistics
and diagrams reveal the fact that under
the New York Edison Company's month-
ly power rates, all consumers using more
than about 25 kw. hours per month are
charged inconsistently high rates. They
also reveal the fact that from 100,000 to
200,000 kw. hours, the rate is inconsist-
ently high, and that it is consistently
fixed only when 200,000 kw. hours is
reached, and after that runs below a con-
sistent profit until at 833,333 kw. hours
commodity cost is reached at 3 cents
per kw. .hour. He contends that there
is no consistent or rational or practical
method underlying the random quanti-
tative rates approved by New York
City's public service commission, and
that those rates rob the great multitude
of small consumers and secure no profits
from the large consumers.

In 1910, the New York Edison Com-
pany's profits were $7,366,864.39. In
the writer's opinion, a fair profit would
not have exceeded $4,800,000. He feels
that the public service commission
should establish rational and practical
rates, giving citizens of New York the
benefit of the difference of $2,500,000 and
preventing future extortion. He also
holds that the commission should have
adhered to a tested and practically fair
system until some equally rational and
simpler system than the "discarded"
public service rate giving even profits
to the producer was presented.

San Francisco in June of last year es-
tablished by ordinance rates for water,
gas and electricity. The water rates
were based upon the ground surface for
buildings occupied by a single family,
with special regulations as to flats and
houses occupied by two or more families.
There are also special rates for bath
tubs, horses, cows, boarding and lodg-
ing houses, irrigation, private gardens,
building purposes, business houses, fire

pipes, etc. All other water is to be
furnished at meter rates. Another ordi-
nance fixed the maximum rate and price
to be charged for illuminating power of
gas at 75 cents per 1000 cubic feet, with
8 cents per lamp per night for incandes-
cent gas lamps. The maximum rate and
price to be charged by any person, com-
pany or corporation for furnishing elec-
tricity for heat and power purposes to
the city and county of San Fr.ancisco
were also fixed.

Chicago Telephone Rates. A de-
tailed, exhaustive report has been sub-
mitted by Prof. Edward \V. Bemis, to
the committee on gas, oil and electric
light of the Chicago council, upon the
earnings, expenses, valuation and rates
of the Chicago Telephone Company.
This is the third report to be made on
telephone rates and service in large, cit-
ies. The first was made in 1909-10 by
the Massachusetts highways commission
for Boston and its suburbs; the second
for Maryland in 1911 by the Maryland
public service commission. The Wis-
consin railroad commission and the New
Jersey public utilities commission havR
made several investigations of telephone
rates in smaller places, but these have
little bearing on conditions in large
cities.

Professor Bemis's report, therefore,
has special significance. He finds that
a reasonable valuation of the physical
property of the company within the city
of Chicago alone is $32,259,947, while
for city and suburban property it is
$42,290,562. The average plant invest-
ment, including land but not the work-
ing capital of all Bell companies, was,
in 1911, $638,830,314. As a result of his
studies in valuation, depreciation, oper-
ating and maintenance expenses and
dividends, he concludes that the com-
pany should make a reduction of $700,000
annually in its charges within the city.
He shows that this can be done and still
reduce the dividends paid by the com-
pany only from 8 to 7.1 per cent.

One of the most interesting facts
brought out in the report is that main-

290

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

tenance costs have not increased in the
same proportion as operating costs.
There is a universal belief that (he greaf-
er the number of telephones, the liijiher
the maintenance charge. From 1891 to
1893 inclusive, the ratio of maintenance
and reconstruction to average invest-
ments was 9.38; for the three years 1910
to 1912, inclusive, it was 7.39. For the
five year period from 1891 to 1895, in-
clusive, the ratio was 9.78; for the five
year period, ending with and including
1912, it was 7.77. Prolonging the trend
line to 1917, the ratio would be 7.2 in
1917 as compared with 7.5 in 1912, or an
average of 7.35 for the coming five years.

The author recommends a city tele-
l)hone bureau to receive all comi)Iaints
from customers and take them up j)rompt-
ly with the company. The company
would then be spurred on by public ap-
proval to improve its services.

The reason for the issuance of the
report was that under the franchise of
1907, Chicago's council has the right to
fix new telephone rates every five years.
The first city ordinance fixing telephone
rates in a city of any size was the Chicago
ordinance of 1907.

Memphis, following a disagreement as
to rates and franchise privileges with
the local public utility companies, is
considering a plan to vote the requisite
amount of municipal bonds to establish
a heating and lighting plant owned by
the city.

Local vs. Stale Refjulalion of Munic-
ipal Ulilities. Governor Deneen of Illi-
nois in his annual message for 1913 rec-
ommends the creation of two public util-
ities commissions for the state of Illinois
and the city of Chicago, resjiectively.
His reasons for feeling that the greatest
advantage to the people would accrue
from the creation of two commissions are,
first, that home rule as a princii)le should
be "conserved as far as possible in ail
governmental activities," and second,
that "the public utilities problems of
Chicago are so great and so complex as
to require the entire attention of such
a body of experts." He feels that the

efficiency of the state commission would
be impaired by any other limitation of
their authority by city lines. In this
same connection it is interesting to note
that at a recent meeting of the League
of Washington Municipalities, a fight
was started by representatives of Seattle
and SjJokane ujjon the public utilities
commission of the state because of its
tendency to hamper the local govern-
ments in dealing with local problems.

Street Control in Canada. At the
request of Toronto, the Union of Cana-
dian Municipalities appointed a delega-
tion to appear before Premier Borden,
to ask the government for remedial leg-
islation in the matter of the control of
streets and roads by the municipalities.
The different members of the committee
advanced evidence to show that many
municipalities had suffered from the
want of this legislation, and urged that
the adopted statute should cover any
and every company, including those
already incorporated. The delegation
agreed with the proposition that, failing
to receive the consent of the municipal-
ity, the board of railway commissioners
of Canada should have jurisdiction.
Mr. Borden assured the Committee that
the matter would receive the early con-
sideration of the Cabinet.

Local vs. State Regulation of Municipal
Utilities. — At the recent meeting of the
officials of the commission governed cit-
ies in Illinois, resolutions were adopted
opposing the granting of power to any
state board, commission, or officer, to
control or regulate the ojioration or rates
or services of any public utility except
upon the invitation of the local author-
ities. The sentiment throughout Illi-
nois in other than official ranks seems to
be equally' strong in the same direction.
Eighty Cent Cas in Philadelphia. — In
his cam))nign for election, Rudolph
Blankenburg, Mayor of Philadelphia,
pledged himself to obtain 80-cent gas.
In his New Year's letter of January 1,
1913, the mayor, in reviewing the acconi-

NOTES AND EVENTS

297

plishments of the first year under his
administration, pointed out the great
economies and savings that had been
made and stated:

I at last feel able to redeem my pledge,
made during the mayoralty campaign,
to ask of councils a reduction of the price
of gas from one dollar per thousand cubic
feet to eighty cents per thousand cubic
feet. . . This desirable reduction in
the price of gas has been made possi-
ble by practical and rational economies
instituted in all departments, without
affecting their efficiency.

In the same letter, however, he pointed
out the necessity for increased resources
for making improvements in streets,
highwaj's, sewers, etc., that were essen-
tial to the city's welfare. These, he
pointed out, would require an increased
income of about eight and one-half mil-
lion per year. He made at this and
other times, definite recommendations
as to how the city's income could be in-
creased. The city also needs from sixty
to eighty million dollars to carry out
necessary improvements in wharves,
docks, subways, boulevards, civic cen-
ters and other municipal improvements.

Soon after the New Year recommenda-
tion was made, councils passed an ordi-
nance providing for 80-cent gas, begin-
ning January 1, 1913, but failed to take
any steps toward increasing the city's
resources. The mayor, therefore, felt
it necessary to veto the bill and thus con-
tinue dollar gas until after other ave-
nues for municipal resources have been
obtained. He has thus far been opposed
to increasing the rates on real estate, but
is looking about for new sources of rev-
enue.

The contract with the United Gas
Improvement Company, approved in
December, 1907, leasing the city's gas
works to that company until December
31, 1927, provided that the price of gas
should be $1 per 1000 cubic feet, and that
councils could, by ordinance, reduce the
price of gas to any point not below the
following: until December 31, 1907, 90
cents; from 1908 to 1912, inclusive, 85
cents; from 1913 to 1917, inclusive, 80

cents; from 1918 to 1927, inclusive, 75
cents. The price thus far has been kept
up to $1, and the difference between that
price and the prices above noted has, in
accordance with the lease, gone into the
city treasury. The returns therefrom
for 1913 were estimated at $1,750,000.

Cost of Gas. One of the fundamental
questions in all communities where the
price of illuminating gas is under consid-
eration is the relative proportion of cost
for each of the items in its manufacture
and distribution. In a city whose con-
sumption approached 100,000,000 feet
of gas a year, the different cost items in
the operation of the gas plant were as
follows : For manufacturing gas and plac-
ing it in the holder, 31| cents per 1000;
for distributing it from the holder to the
consumer's meter, 20 cents; for manage-
ment and general operating expenses, 33
cents ; to afford a return of around 6 per-
cent on the value of the property, 30
cents. This does not include profit to
the owners, and includes depreciation
only in so far as depreciation was in-
cluded in the amounts expended during
the current year for repairs.

These relative costs would vary in
different localities. In the above figures
coal was taken at $3.20 per 2000 pounds.
There was a good market for coke and
power at fair, but not extreme, prices.
Thus these figures represent fairly well
the relative costs of the different items
which have to be considered in supplying
gas to consumers under these conditions.
Clyde L. King.^

Frank Putnam's Report to the City
of Houston, Texas. — In the recent report
of Frank Putnam, special commissioner
of the city of Houston, Texas, to examine
the administration of European cities
there is much that is of interest both as
regards the findings and as regards the

1 Of the University of Pennsylvania and editor
The Regulation of Municipal Utilities in the National
Municipal League Series.

298

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

recommendations he bases on these
findings.

One fact that makes Mr. Putnam's
report of general interest is that it is
the result of investigations, hurried and
superficial as they necessarily were
through lack of time for the accomplish-
ment of the desired purpose, not by a
technically trained student of city gov-
ernment but by a trained observer who
has the newspaper man's insight and
oversight enabling him to grasp almost
at a glance the salient objective facts.
Hence instead of indulging in theoreti-
cal discussions about the legal relations
between the government and the people,
the relation of the various organs of
government to each other, or the method
of state control, Mr. Putnam's chief
interest lay in seeing just what the
European cities he visited were actually
doing in the business of local govern-
ment and what suggestions could be ob-
tained from their manner of doing busi-
ness for our own city governments, es-
pecially of course for the city of Hous^,on
whose commissioner he was.

Mr. Putnam visited in the six months
he was engaged in the task, two cities
in Ireland, two in England, Paris, and
a number of large cities in Germany.
His general findings, condensed in his
report from the weekly letters sent by
him to Texas newspapers, were in brief
as follows :

He found that municipal taxes were
from 25 to 100 per cent higher in those
cities than in Houston. He found the
ordinary public services such as water
supply, paving and drainage in admira-
ble condition and a very general owner-
ship of tramways, electric light and gas
plants, with a marked tendency to in-
crease the public ownership of these
ordinary public utilities as well as of
such municipal undertakings as markets,
housing, play-grounds, baths, etc. This is
especially noticeable in Germany where
the municipal savings banks are an im-
portant feature of public activity, as
well as employment bureaus and the ab-
olition of slums.

The continuity and relatively long
terms of the city oflScers, especially of
the trained professional ofBcials, was a
striking feature to Mr. Putnam and par-
ticularly the methods of getting mayors
and other professional ofSicials for the
German cities. Of special interest to
the city of Houston were Mr. Putnam's
findings with regard to the undertakings
of European cities, in the building and
maintenance of great harbors, for Hous-
ton hopes at some time to become a sec-
port of the first rank. But of more gen-
eral interest to all American cities was
the account of the great care and large
sums expended in the matter of city
planning.

Among the recommendations Mr.
Putnam makes to the city of Houston as
a result of his trip abroad there are some
that are of local interest only, but there
are others that might as well be directed
to a host of other American cities, always
remembering that Houston is a city of
somewhat less than a hundred thousand
inhabitants operating under the com-
mission form of government.

Mr. Putnam recommends an increase
of salary from .$4000 to $10,000 for the
mayor, with a lengthening of the term
from two to four or six years. The
four commissioners should be allowed to
engage in other business, in order to
secure competent men who cannot afford
to give up their regular business as they
are now required to do. Their terms
should be lengthened to four years, one
to be elected each year in order to secure
continuity of policy. The commission-
ers instead of acting as the heads of the
city departments should constitute a
board for framing policies, making the
mayor actiuil head of the administra-
tion under whom technical experts, ap-
pointed on merit during good behaviour
should carry on the detailed administra-
tion.

Mr. Putnam's advocacy of the initia-
tive, referendum and recall is certainly
not inspired by his European experience
hut is probably a necessary concession
to the extreme deinocracv of his section.

NOTES AND EVENTS

299

of the country. Even at that, however,
he puts the percentage of voters re-
quired for a recall petition at 30 per cent
of the number voting at the last election,
which is higher than that found in the
usual commission charters.

Mr. Putnam recommends municipal
ownership and operation of the gas and
electrical lighting systems as well as of
the street railways, as soon as the bor-
rowing power of the city can be increased
meanwhile advocating an increase in the
tax rate for municipal improvements.
He recoinmends the creation of a city-
planning commission to take into ac-
count the future growth of Houston, the
creation of a free municipal employment
bureau, the establishment of public
baths, the creation of a municipal
slaughter house, and the building of pub-
lic comfort stations. In addition to all
this Mr. Putnam urges an enormous
undertaking for making Houston one of
the great harbor cities of this country.

Surely this is an interesting and far-
seeing plan for a pioneer city of 100,000
and if Mr. Putnam's recommendations
are acted upon the development may
well be watched with interest by other
American cities whose present conditions
are at least as sorely in need of improve-
ment as are those of the prosperous city
of Houston.

Herman G. James. ^

*

Police News. — Civilian Deputy. The
board of aldermen of Chicago have
passed an ordinance providing for a
civilian second deputy superintendent
of police with a view to increasing the
efficiency of the department by the intro-
duction of new blood into the staff. The
members of the uniformed force united
in their open opposition to the legislation
which they feared would lead to the
introduction of a spy system detrimental
to efficiency.

Three Platoon System. Director of

Public Safety Porter of Philadelphia
has introduced tentatively a three pla-
toon system of patrol in that city. Un-
der this system the policemen patrol
eight hours on the street, are eight hours
in reserve in the station house, and are
at home for eight hours. Although the
three platoon system requires the ap-
pointment of more policemen, it in-
creases the individual efficiency of each
man, by shortening his hours of -service
on patrol.

Single Commissioner System. Eliot
Watrous, of New Haven, has introduced
into the board of aldermen of that city
a bill substituting a single police com-
missioner for the present antiquated bi-
partisan board of six police commission-
ers. Although Mr. Watrous's plan is
absolutely correct from a scientific and
from a practical point of view, the polit-
ical situation in New Haven renders it
extremely doubtful whether his bill will
be enacted into law this year.

Perjury. In refusing to suspend from
duty several Chicago policemen pending
their trial on charges of perjury, pre-
ferred by the civil service commission,
Chief of Police McWeeny is reported by
the Chicago Inter Ocean to have made
this statement : "Perjury is not a heinous
crime. A policeman who commits per-
jury is not particularly dangerous to th^
community." The charge is frequently
made in courts of justice that policemen
are prone to swear falsely on the witness
stand. It is believed that this charge is
unfounded in fact and that policemen do
not as a class have a lower regard for the
sanctity of their oath than citizens in gen-
eral. These quoted words of Chief Mc-
Weeny should arouse conscientious cit-
izens however in an endeavor to raise
the regard in which the oath is held at
present, not only by policemen but by
the public in general. Perjury is a
heinous crime in every case, and especi-
ally in the case of a police officer.

New York Annual Report.^ The an-

' Of The School of Governmont, University of
Texas.

See National Municipal Review vol. i., p.

167.

300

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

nual ic])oii of the New York police de-
partment for 1912 contains the following
statistics:

Felony complaints 46,178

Felony arrests 18,780

Felony convictions 5,404

From these statistics the following
indices may be deduced.

Complaint — arrest index of
police activity 41

Arrest — conviction index of
police efficiency 28

Complaint — conviction index
of efficiency of police pro-
tection 11

United Police of Chicago. At the
request of the board of Aldermen, (he
Chicago civil service commission re-
cently conducted an investigation of
the "United Police of Chicago," an
organization composed of members of
the Chicago police dej^artment. The
civil service commission found that this
organization was formed ostensibly for
the protection of police officers from lia-
bility arising from the honest perform-
ance of [)olicc duty, that it has been
perniciously active in politics, that it
collected a large sum of money for pur-
poses of bribery, and that this money was
misapi)ropriated by one of its officers.
After discussing the history and activ-
ities of the United Police in detail, the
report of the civil service commission
recommends that the organization of an
association similar to the United Police
of Chicago be prohibited and that the
city of Chicago undertake to defend
those police officers who may be sub-
jected to civil suits, criminal prosecu-
tion or charges before the trial board,
resulting from the discharge of their
official duties. The report which was
prepared by James Miles, efficiency
examiner of the Chicago civil service
commission, is a very interesting and in-
structive document for those who are
professionally or theoretically interested
in police administration.

Li;(j\H.AKD Felix Frr.n.

A New Police Brigade in Paris. — The
night dangers of Paris have led to the
organization of a special indei)endent
night brigade of police, but cooperating
closely with the regular force. This
force will have a uniform of its own, and
will be armed with revolvers and night
sticks. Each man will have a police dog
trained to pull down anyone running,
and to hold him until called off by the
policeman. These dogs, largely bred in
Belgium, are as a rule a cross between
the wolf and the European sheep dog.
It has therefore become a good deal of a
risk for a night wayfarer in a Paris street
to run for a distant cab. He is likely to
be startled by one of these swift animals
darting out from a dark corner and leap-
ing for him, unless arrested by the sharp
call of the policeman.

Accounting Notes.' — How Fargo De-
clared Dividends. When Fargo, North
Dakota, recently declared a taxpayer's
dividend of S10,000, newspapers through-
out the country printed the news — many
many of them with comments or edi-
torials. That most of the latter were
written by persons unfamiliar with mu-
nicipal finance, and also the facts in this
particular case, was evident.

When properly understood, the situa-
tion in Fargo at budget making time was
no difTerent from that in almost any
other city. When the 1913 department a!
budget estimates were added up, it was
found that it would cost $146,561 to con-
duct the government for the next year.
Now, instead of levying a direct tax for
this amount, what did the city fathers
do? They did exactly what should be
done by city fathers everywhere, and
what is done in practicallj' every city.
They estimated the amount of miscel-
laneous revenues which would accrue to
the city during the next year, the total

1 Ts your city Instnlling now accounts? The
author of these "accounting notes" would appreciate
the receipt from officials, research and efficiency bu-
reaus, reference bureaus, accounting firms, etc. of
all Items of news pertaining to this subject.

NOTES AND EVENTS

301

of which they found would probably
amount to $12,000. Just as every other
city when determining the amount which
must be raised by taxation deducts the
estimated miscellaneous revenues, so did
Fargo. That is, they deducted from
their budget of expenditures $10,000 of
the estimated $12,000. Thus far, the
procedure had been ordinary every-day
municipal finance and absolutely sound,
but at this point someone saw an oppor-
tunity for an advertising display, and
Fargo, being comparatively small and
somewhat removed, succeeded in "put-
ting it over." So the word was sent out
that Fargo had declared a dividend of
$10,000, or the equal of 6 per cent on the
entire tax levy for the year. Under the
attractive headlines it was explained that
the dividend was to be paid from a sur-
plus which the city by its thrift had man-
aged to accumulate — not from the tax-
payers, but in a commercial way, the
same as a private corporation. Most of
the news items, however, failed to state
that the "commercial undertakings"
which enabled the city to accumulate
the $12,000 surplus were based entirely
on its governmental power to levy im-
posts and make police regulations. In
fact, the "estimated $12,000 surplus"
comprised taxes on gross earnings of
utility companies, licenses, dog taxes,
and police court fines.

The use of the term "dividends" in
connection with this transaction is not
only incorrect but misleading. If by re-
ducing the total tax levy by the amount
of the estimated miscellaneoiis revenues
the city of Fargo is declaring a dividend,
then practically every city in the United
States declares a dividend to its tax-
payers every year. This device rings
false, and so does the statement of an
auditing company, noted in these columns
in the January issue, that the city of
Spartanburg, South Carolina, had made
a "profit" of $11,983 during 1912.

Modern Accounting for Pittsburgh.
No better illustration of the present
demand for accurate and complete mun-
icipal accounts is afforded than in Pitts-

burgh. After administering the city
comptroller's office for more than twenty
five years and after passing his sixty-
fifth birthday, Comptroller E. S. Morrow
within the last year began a thorough
revision of the city's accounting and
auditing system. On coming to a real-
ization that his accounts actuallj^ meant
nothing to the public at large, he delib-
erately turned his back on the precedents
of years and began the new installation.
The work accomplished thus far has been
done by H. S. Breitenstein and others
of his own staff with the cooperation of
the New York bureau of municipal re-
search and Comptroller Prendergast of
New York City.

The installation thus far completed
includes the introduction into the gen-
eral ledger of funding accounts, registra-
tion of open market orders and contract
liabilities. A study of revenue control
methods has been commenced which, it
is intended, shall lead to the establish-
ment of accounting and auditing control
over both revenue accruals and receipts.
A property appraisal has also been au-
thorized, and it is contemplated that by
the end of the present year a complete
capital balance sheet can be produced.

How the Universities are Helping.
The municipal reference bureau of the
extension division of the University of
Kansas has recently compiled a table
showing the bonded indebtedness, as-
sessed valuation and tax levy of each of
the eight first class and 31 second class
cities of that state for the year 1912.
Similar bureaus have been established
at Harvard, the University of Wisconsin,
and other universities and are proving
of much value both to the students and
to the public.

Milwaukee's Bureau Reestablished.
During the last quarter the bureau of
efficiency and economy of the city of
Milwaukee has been rejuvenated. The
old bureau lapsed or went out of bus-
iness at the close of the recent socialist
administration of that city. In rees-
tablishing it on a firmer basis the mayor
and council have taken a most commend-

302

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

able step. Ralph Bowman, of the New
York training school for public service,
has been made director of the new
bureau.

Surveys of Springfield and Walerhury.
During the past quarter the New York
bureau of municipal research made pre-
liminary surveys of the organization,
accounting and business methods of the
cities of Springeld, Mass. and Waterbury,
Conn. Both surveys were financed by
public-spirited citizens in the respective
cities.

Uniform System for New York's Cit-
ies. State Comptroller Sohmer of New
York and his accounting staff have been
engaged for several months in devising
a uniform system of accounts for second
class cities in New York. The details
of the systems have been practically all
worked out and the comptroller's office
is ready to install the system upon re-
quest. This is the same plan which has
been followed by Director Gettemyof
the Massachusetts bureau of statistics,
the board of public affairs in Wisconsin,
and similar bureaus in Ohio, Indiana,
Iowa and other states. Readers who de-
sire further information regarding Comp-
troller Sohmer's system are referred to
an article in the February number of the
Journal of Accountancy by John J. Ma-
gilton, auditor to the comptroller.

Describes Method of Collecting Taxes.
The General Manifold Printing Compa-
ny of 30 Church Street, New York, has
issued a descriptive pamphlet of the new
method of making tax collections, re-
centy installed in the cites of New York
and Buffalo. It is sent free upon re-
quest.

Herbeiit R. Sands. 1

♦
Standing Room in Portland. — Port-
land, Oregon, has passed an ordinance
providing that no passenger who has to
stand shall be required to pay more than
3 cents for a full fare ride or 2\ cents for
tickets bought in quantities of one hun-

' Certified public accountant, with Now York-
bureau of municipal research.

dred. Persons paying only 3 cents arc
entitled to transfers, and to all the privi-
leges of a regular passenger. The city
has also fixed by ordinance a SO-cont
minimum monthly charge for each con-
sumer of gas or electricity. Neither
ordinance has as yet been enforced for
the reason that the Portland Railway,
Light and Power Company has secured
an injunction against the city restraining
their enforcement. However, the gas
company has already reduced its mini-
mum rate to 50 cents. The city is ex-
pecting that the temporary injunction
will not be made a permanent one.

Mayor Henry J. Arnold, of Denver,
has vetoed a light ordinance, the prim-
ary purpose of which was to prohibit
discrimination in distributing or selling
electric current for lighting purpo.ses,
and prohibiting the granting of rebates,
drawbacks, refunds or discounts to any
consumers and users except to charita-
ble institutions. The mayor vetoed the
ordinance primarily on the ground that
it would practically close every advertis-
ing lighting feature in the main streets
of the city and would prohibit the com-
pany from making any donations of
light or service for any convention or pub-
lic gathering brought to Denver. He
agreed to draw up a bill that would give
reasonable regulations and yet be sat-
isfactory both to the consumer and to
the cit3''s various civic and commercial
organizations.

Des Moines Wa ter works.— Des
Moines has taken over the waterworks
under public ownership. The price was
determined b}'' a court of three district
judges appointed by the supreme court
of the state upon the application of the
city. This court is in fact simplj' a
selected condemnation jury and the pro-
ceedings are in every way parallel to
those before the ordinary sheriff's jury,
except for the unusual character of this
particular jury. This proceeding is in

NOTES AND EVENTS

303

accordance with a special Iowa statute
on the acquisition of public utilities by
cities. The local water company and
the city have been in a contention over
rates and regulations for a great many
years. Meantime, the franchise of the
company has expired and the people
decided by an overwhelming vote that
the proper solution is public ownership.

*

Los Angeles Municipal Cement Pro-
duction.^ — The production of cement by
the city of Los Angeles in connection
with the construction of the city aque-
duct furnishes an unusual phase of mu-
nicipal activity. The city has been oper-
ating four cement inills, three of which
are devoted to the manufacture of modi-
fied or tufa cement, obtained by grinding
tufa with pure cement. Up to June 30,
1912 the mills had turned out 711,190 bar-
rels of pure cement and 227,486 barrels of
modified or tufa cement. Owing to the
failure of the aqueduct bureau, under
which the mills are operated, to take
uniformly into account all elements, var-
ious figures have been given in the
monthly statements of the bureau as to
the cost of production, leading to incor-
rect and conflicting quotations of figures;
but according to City Auditor Myers
who has made an exhaustive examina-
tion of the cost of the city cement pro-
duction, the pure cement averaged $2,485
per barrel and the tufa, $1.38, allowing
in both instances for depreciation, inter-
est on money invested and insurance.

A Municipal Dairy. — The city of
Cleveland has purchased a great tract
of two thousand acres (more than three
square miles of land) absorbing twenty-
five farms. This tract is two and one-
half miles long and more than a mile
wide. Upon this vast area are four sep-
arate enterprises. The Colony Farm for
the almshouse people, the Overlook Farm

1 See National Munictpal Review, October,
1912, p. 725.

for the tuberculosis patients, the Cor-
rection Farm for the House of Correc-
tion prisoners, the Highland Park Farm
for the development of a great municipal
cemetery. The whole tract, named by
the city council "The Cooley Farms"
after Harris R. Cooley, the director of
charities and correction who has been the
father of the plan, thus consists of four
estates of five hundred acres each.

In the development of the dairy to
provide milk for the tuberculosis sana-
torium and the other institutions, there
are now about one hundred cows, a part
of them registered Holsteins. A model
dairy has just been completed, the barn
unit to accommodate fifty cows. Two
more are to be built, and two hundred
cows will be provided for. The quality
of the stock will be developed until there
will be one large herd all thorough-bred
Holsteins.

The plan is to supply the groups on
the farms and also the municipal insti-
tutions in the city with pure milk pro-
duced from the best cows living under
the best conditions. The last test show-
ed the herd free from tuberculosis.

The farms are all of rolling clay land
with springs and running streams furn-
ishing an ideal place for pasturage. The
results will be pure milk for our munici-
pal institutions, thorough bred stock for
sale, the enrichment of the great farms
and for the surrounding country the fine
example of a well kept dairy.

The Atlantic City Trolley Lines will
fight Mayor Riddle's ordinance fixing a
3-cent fare for those who are not given
seats in the street cars, and imposing a
$5000 fine for violation.

Contractors and Public Officials. —

The Municipal Journal, October 17, 1912,
reports the interesting address of C. A.
Crane, secretary of the General Contrac-
tors' Association, delivered to the Amer-
ican Road Congress, which met in Atlan-
tic City, October 5, relating to the Rela

304

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

tion between Contractors and i'lihlic
Officials. Tn the course of his address,
Mr. Crane makes the pertinent sugges-
tion :

Cut out tlio personal relations between
the contractors and the public officials
and let these relations bo through the
proxy of an engineering official. Choose
a big man in his profession and pay him
a big salary — put him under a heavy
bond to guarantee tlie accuracy of his
work and the validity of his certificates
of payment. Why should a* disbursing
officer be held responsif)le for an engi-
neer's voucher, unless he has equal facil-
ities for chocking the work that the engi-
neer had in computing the amount?
Centralize the power and the responsi-
bility.

The Flint (Michigan) Equal Suffrage
Association has accepted the invitation
of Mayor Mott of that city to cooperate
with him in improving the municipal
housekeeping of that city. The mayor's
idea is to have a municipal housekeeping
commission composed of five women.

signed by six of the seven members of the
commission. A minority report was
presented by William Coleman P'recman
of Lebanon. Twenty-two bills accom-
pany the report. They deal with such
subjects as, a system of party enrollment
with the payment of the taxes at the time
of registration; regulating the preemp-
tion of party names; separate ballots for
national, state and local elections, and
extending the time of registration. Two
years ago a comprehensive election code
was ])resented as a part of this report
at that time. The commission makes
no recommendations on the subject of
the initiative, referendum, recall, com-
mission form of government or woman
suffrage, declaring that these fields are
beyond the scope of the commission's
duties. Mr. Freeman in his minority
report declares for the submission of the
question of woman's suffrage to the
voters of the state, the limitation of cam-
paign expenses and a commission form
of government.^

Electoral Reform in Pennsylvania. —
The commission appointed by Governor
Stuart in 1908 to revise and codify the
election laws of Pennsylvania presented
to the legislature its third and final report

The Merit System in Milwaukee. —
The fight for the extension of civil .ser-
vice reform in Milwaukee continues
under the leadership of John A. Butler.
The City Club has also taken up the
matter with intelligence and vigor.

III. CITY PLANNING AND IMPROVEMENT

Lincoln Memorial. — The erection and
dedication of a fitting national memorial
to President Lincoln in the City of Wash-
ington, has been made possible by the
pa.ssage of a bill by Congress, approving
the report of the Lincoln Memorial Com-
mission, recommending the adoption of
the plans prepared by Henry Bacon of
New York, for the building in Potomac
Park, along the Potomac River, of a
memorial building of the Greek type of
architecture, to cost .ii;2,nn0,n00. Care-
ful consideration was given by the com-
mission to several plans, all of which
were referred to the commission on fine

arts which reported in favor of Mr.
Bacon's plan.

For a time it looked as if the memorial
undertaking might fail of passage because
of an effort made in the House of Rep-
resentatives to substitute for the mem-
orial structure in Washington, a roadway
to bo built by t he government from Wash-
ington to Gettysburg and to be called
the "Lincoln Memorial Road." That
undertaking was urged with great vigor
by individuals and organizations, but

' Copies of Ijoth reports can be had on applica-
tion to the chairman, Frank P. Prltchard, Land
Title Building, Philadelphia.

NOTES AND EVENTS

305

was opposed on the grounds that a road-
way would not be a fitting memorial,
that it would be a very expensive under-
taking, and that the $2,0f)0,000 appro-
priated for such a memorial would be
but a small portion of the money neces-
sary to build a road, to say nothing of
its maintenance.

By united effort on the part of various
organizations, such as the American In-
stitute of Architects, the American Civic
Association, and others public sentiment
was aroused in all parts of the United
States in favor of the report of the Lin-
coln Memorial Commission, and latg in
January, the bill was finally passed by
the House of Representatives by a large
majority, the Senate having taken action
almost unanimously a few weeks before.
Work will be commenced at once on the
new structure, and when it is completed
it is believed that it will be one of the
most dignified and beautiful memorials
ever erected. It will occupy a command-
ing position on the Potomac, overlooking
the river, and facing the beautiful Lee
Mansion in Arlington. It is expected
that in the course of a few years, the
federal government will build a beauti-
ful bridge connecting the memorial with
Arlington, and that will make it a part
of the proposed scheme for the larger
development of Washington according
to the report of the McMillan committee
of some years ago.

Richard B. Watrous.^

*

City Planning Competition. — The com-
mittee on the study of city planning ap-
pointed at the last National Conference
on City Planning has been holding con-
ferences to discuss the method of outlin-
ing the data as a basis for the proposed
study. It is proposed that the committee
prepare and send out a blank form of
statement, to be filled in by all partici-
pants, which should include among
others the following points: (1) area of
tract; (2) the total cost of the land; (3)

1 Secretary, American Civic Association.

the percentage in streets, parks, play-
grounds, saleable lots, etc. ; (4) the value
of lots per acre; (5) the cost of streets,
(pavement, curb, sidewalk, grading,
trees, etc.); (6) the cost of parks and
playgrounds; (7) the cost of sewers; (8)
carrying charges including interest,
taxes, selling cost; (9) profit; (10) the
selling price of lots ready for building;
also that tmit costs be assumed by the
committee in a number of instances
where there would be variations in diff-
erent parts of the country. These var-
iations would have no particular bearing
upon the solutions of the problems. For
example, there should be two or three
kinds of road pavements listed, «vith
cost; but the entrant would be free to
choose any other kind of pavement he
might desire. The same method would
apply to sidewalks. So far twenty-two
entries have been made in the competi-
tion from all parts of the country.

Chicago's City Planning Competi-
tion.— The Chicago City Club held a
housing exhibit on March 7. As a stim-
ulating and constructive feature it dis-
played plans showing the possibilities
according to the best current practice
for laying out and improving for resi-
dence purposes areas in Chicago now
unoccupied. In conjunction with the
Illinois Chapter of the American Insti-
tute of Architects the club established a
competition for plans for laying out as
a residence district a typical area in the
outskirts of the city, Alfred L. Baker, the
president of the club, offering $600 for
prizes for such plans.

City Improvements. — Scranton, Pa. —
Mayor John Von Bergen has appointed
a city planning commission of nine men.
Louisville, Ky., has taken the first step
for a general plan toward improving
Louisville. A committee has been ap-
pointed with Mayor W. O. Head as chair-
man. This committee will consider the
question of appointing a committee to

306

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

lay out ;i |)l:in. New York — The City
Club is forming an Olmsted Memorial
Commit toe to erect a suitable memorial
to Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer
and creator of Central Park. Although
Mr. Olmsted died in 1903, none has been
erected for him either in Central Park
or elsewhere. Chicago — The city's fight
aginst the "wall of exclusion" raised
along the lake shore from Twelfth Street
south by the Illinois Central Railway
and other property owners is set forth
in the newly issued report of the Lake-
shore Reclamation Committee appointed
in" January 1910. Omaha — Representa-
tives of fifteen civic organizations coop-
erated in forming a civic league to plan
definitely for the physical improvement
of Omaha. Lo!^ Angeles — A proposition is
pending tobuild a highway from the (jenter
of the city to the port of San Pedro, now
a part of the city in order to provide ade-
quate transportaiton facilities for ship-
pers. Another interesting proposition
under foot is that of reclaiming the waste
places in and around the city, especially
adjacent to the new aqueduct. Detroit
— Plans for an outer boulevard are being
considered by the City Plan and Im-
provement Commission. Cincinnati —
Mayor Hunt has appointed a city plan-
ning commission to cooperate in prepar-
ing a plan of action in the construction
of the new court house and jail. Atlanta
Ga. — An improvement commission has
been appointed to advance the planning
of work for the improvement of the city.
Joplin, Mo. — Lender the leadership of the
Commercial Club the civic clubs of the
city have been brought together to coor-
dinate efforts in behalf of the extension
and development of the city. Erie, Pa.
— The city planning committee of which
F. Irving Bleakiey is chairman, has
planned a bill for third class cities pro-
viding for the appointment of city plan-
ning commissions in such cities. Chica-
go— Lorado Taft has been commissioned
by the board of trustees of the Art Insti-
tute to begin work on the great fountain
of Time designed for erection at the west-
ern terminus of the Midway Plaisance.

Canada — A Town Planning and Civic
Improvement League for the province of
Ontario has been launched. A prelim-
inary meeting was held at Berlin, On-
tario, and representatives from Toronto,
Gait, Ottawa and other leading cities in
the province were present. Davenport,
Iowa — A levee improvement commission
has had plans drawn for a systematic
and harmonious improvement of the
levee following the example of other
cities along the river which have trans-
formed its appearance in many places.
Seattle has gone a little backward in its
city planning movement, having recently
voted $950,000 for a county court house
in the down town congested district at
a point other than that suggested by the
city planning commission. Cincinnati
will codify the legislation on smoke
abatement and pollution and furnace in-
stallation. Mayor Hunt having appointed
a commission consisting of Prof. John T.
Faig, George Wright and William Mitten-
dorf to perform this work. The smoke
inspector is a member ex officio of the
commission. Pittsburgh is providing for
a number of public comfort stations hav-
ing votd $90,000 in a recent loan bill for
that purpose.

Philadelphia Mayor Vetoes for Aes-
thetic Reasons. — Recently Mayor Blank-
enburg, of Philadelphia, returned with-
out approval a council ordinance per-
mitting the erection of a platform scale
on a sidewalk for the reason that it
would mar the beauty and attractiveness
of the locality, and that the ordinance
was contrary to the aim of the city to
make more attractive the streets and
parks of the municipality.

Philadelphia Inaugurates Economic
System of Waste Paper Disposal. — Fol-
lowing the example of cities abroad. Di-
rector Cooke, of the Philadelphia depart-
went of public works is inaugurating a
system for the collection of wastcpaper
by having the house-holder place the

NOTES AND EVENTS

307

waste in bags which are furnished by a
contractor or purchaser of the waste.
As yet the experiment has not been car-
ried far enough to enable the director to
say whether the city will pay for having
the waste removed or the contractor pay
for the privilege.

A Municipal Cemetery. — Mayor Kut-
cher, of Sheridan, Wyoming, is advocat-
ing a municipal graveyard and asserts :

Practically everybody with whom I
have talked approves the idea. They
want a cemetery maintained by the city,
where they may purchase lots at reason-
able cost, with provision for the perpet-
ual care and maintenance of the plot
included in the purchase agreement.

Canadian City Planning. — The Union
oi Canadian Municipalities for about
four years has carried on a campaign
throughout Canada in favor of complete
city planning. The more important cit-
ies have been particularly urged to take
up the question definitely and all have
movements more or less developed in the
right direction. The most advanced
movement is that of the metropolitan
parks commission of Montreal, which
became permanent in May 1912 with pow-
ers similar to those of Boston. In the
city of Quebec something has been done
by the Dominion government which has
established the Quebec battlefields park
commission, and in Ottawa the Dominion
government improvement commission
has been beautifying the capital for
years. In Toronto, the movement is
principally centered in the activities of
the civic art guild. Decided assistance
was rendered the efforts of the Union
by a tour through Canada in the summer
of 1911 by Henry Vivian, M. P., London,
the well known authority on garden cit-
ies.

The National Conference on City
Planning will be held in Chicago, May 5,
6 and 7.

Los Angeles School Gardening Shows
Interesting Development. — For several
j^ears school gardens were carried on in
Los Angeles by some of the schools, but
not until lately was special provision
made for developing the work in a sys-
tematic manner through the creation of
an agricultural department of the Los
Angeles schools under the supervision
of Clayton F. Palmer and four assistants.
The special teachers go from school to
school, giving instruction and develop-
ing agriculture in its various phases in
the different grades, each of them respon-
sible for the development and mainte-
nance of the work in a definite portion
of the city. In each of these there is
being established a demonstration center
at a school where conditions seem most
favorable for developing the work
through all the grades. Available school
grounds and nearby vacant lots are
utilized, and even distant lots are turned
to account by special arrangements for
the pupils. In addition to ordinary
gardening, considerable practical work
is done in the propagation of fruits,
ornamental and forest trees. Home gar-
dening is especially encouraged. Dur-
ing the coming year ornamentation of
the school grounds will be pushed, the
material for which will be propagated
largely as part of the class work of the
students. The board of education, the
superintendent of schools, and the teach-
ers themselves are giving the project
their sympathetic support, and during
the past summer the board made a most
encouraging move in favor of better re-
sults in school gardening in providing
summer gardeners to care for the grounds
during school vacation.

Madrid has many ambitious plans
under consideration for the beautifying
of the city itself and for the improve-
ment of the municipal services,^ but it
has been unable to carry through many
of its most important projects on account

1 According to Consul Charles L. Hoover.

308

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

of the lack of funds arising from a radi-
cal change in tlic manner of raising reve-
nue inaugurated on July 1, 1911. Prior
to that time, the principal source of
income was from the octroi taxes. These
were abolished on the date mentioned on
all foodstufTs except fresh meat, up»on
which the octroi dutj^ is about 2.5 cents
a pound. To cover the deficit thus
caused in the revenue, a graded tax on
rents, running up to 15 per cent of the

rent, and an increased tax on "carriages
of luxury" were instituted. The rent
tax is paid by the renter, as the land-
lords already pay an income tax on the
rentals they receive. The new taxes
were at the outset unpopular and difficult
to collect, so that the municipality has
been unable to push the work of widen-
ing and straightening streets, laying
new pavements and extending the park
system.

IV. POLITICS

Seattle and the Recall. — The exper-
ience of Seattle in the recent movement
to recall the mayor presents some feat-
ures that throw light upon the practical
use of the recall in municipal affairs.
Soon after election, Mayor Cottcrill
found himself charged with general in-
efficiency and failure to enforce the laws
by a recall association, said to have been
financed largely by saloon and gambling
resort interests, which circulated recall
petitions and conducted a campaign to
have him removed from office. The agi-
tation of the recall association received
little support however, until the mayor
became inadvertently intangled in a
controversy between the Spanish Amer-
ican War Veterans and the Industrial
Workers of the World by criticising a
group of the former for making an attack
upon the latter while engaged in a peace-
ful parade carrying the red flag, the
emblem of the I. W. W. Several newspa-
pers took up the controversy and ascribed
the mayor's criticism to opposition to
the American patriots and support of the
I. W. W. As a result of this incident, a
large number of persons put their names
to a recall petition which was finally
filed as complete. A careful check of the
names on the petition was made, how-
ever, and it was found that there was a
very large number of duplications, spur-
ious names and addresses and a consid-
erable number of forgeries, reducing the
signatures below the recall number.

Under the circumstanes the petition was
held insufficient.

Seattle is unfortunate in having a
daily newspaper of large circulation,
that is notorious for its support of every
special interest and for its bitter oppo-
sition to every kind of civic reform.
This paper was the defender of the vice
regime under Gill. It has consistently
opposed all the modern features of the
charter, such as election of councilmen at
large, initiative and referendum, recall
and public ownership.

From the time that Gill was ousted
in the recall election of 1911, this paper,
allied with the worst interests in the
city, has constantly assailed the mayor
and the police in editorials, cartoons
and distorted news articles in the attempt
to create a public sentiment that would
make it possible to recall the mayor.
But in spite of this newspaper support
the efTort to recall Dilling, who succeeded
Gill, failed.

The election of Cotterill was a menace
to all that this paper represented and its
attack on the forces of order and decency
was renewed with increased vigor. Af-
ter months of the most active support
given to the movement the recall peti-
tions were filed. About one-half the
names on these petitions were found to
be forgeries or the names of persons not
registered.

Seattle's experience has fully vindi-
cated the principle of the recall. It was

NOTES AND EVENTS

309

successfully invoked against the repre-
sentative of vice and special privilege,
biit both subsequent attempts to employ
it against good government have failed.^

Boston. — At the last municipal elec-
tion held in January there were only
four candidates to be elected, three mem-
bers of the city council and one member
of the school committee. There were
fewer candidates than ever before. There
was also very little interest in the elec-
tion. The registration was 112,126;
46,853 names or 41.8 per cent were
checked upon the voting list as voting
for councilmen; 11,127 women werereg-
istered for the school committee; 4939
or 44.4 per cent voted. Two out of the
three candidates for council endorsed
by the Good Government Association
were elected. The third successful can-
didate was an erratic politician for
whom many people voted either as a
matter of good nature or to see what
would happen, with the result that he
ran third in the poll. His election will
do no serious harm to the city as seven
of the nine members of the city council
are men who were recommended by the
Good Government Association at the
time of their election. The two good
government candidates reelected in Jan-
uary had given such generally satisfac-
tory service that no one connected with
the dominant political organization
thought there was the slightest chance
of defeating them. For the school com-
mittee Miss Curtis who was endorsed
by the Good Government Association,
defeated the candidate backed by the
dominant political organization.

1 Based on statements of C. J. France and Prof.
J. Allen Smith.

Cleveland Urges Official Municipal
Lobby at State Capitol. — Following the
idea of the New York Citizen's Union
and the practice of cities in Europe, the
Cleveland city council committee on leg-
islation is urging the formation of a
league of the committees on legislation
of the councils of all the larger cities of
the state for the purpose of providing a
powerful official municipal lobby at Col-
lumbus. Chairman E. P. Dowling, of
the Cleveland city council committee on
legislations, "says:

Each city has its own problems. The
conditions arising in many cities are very
similar, but up to the present time there
has been no coherent, concerted action
by the legislators from the counties in
which the cities are located looking
toward passage of laws enabling cities
to meet their conditions.

Mr. Dowling also believes the coun-
cils should provide in their rules that
the mayor of the city be ex officio a mem-
ber of the council committee on legisla-
tion.

Detroit Graft Prosecution. — Prose-
cuting Attorney Hugh Shepherd, of
Detroit, November 9 filed a petition for
a change of venue with Judge Phelan for
the cases of Alderman Theissen, Hindle,
Deimel, Walsh, Glinnan and other men
named on the blanket warrant charging
them with conspiracy to accept a bribe.
No date was set.

The Governor of Washington has re-
fused to pardon Seattle's former chief
of police, Wappenstein, who was con-
victed on July 19, 1911 of receiving a
bribe and sentenced to a term in the
penitentiary of from three to twelve
years.

310

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

V. CONFERENCES AND ASSOCIATIONS

Second World's Congress of Inter-
national Associations. — The Second
World's Congress of International Asso-
ciations will be held at Ghent, Brussels,
this summer. From the central office of
this body two important circulars have
been sent out, one noting the questions
to be considered by the union of inter-
national associations, the other describ-
ing the first town planning and munic-
ipal organization congress, which is to
follow. Among the questions to be con-
sidered at the meeting of the interna-
tional association is that of organization
and practical measures necessary to de-
velop an international center and to
give it a location and a material instal-
ation. This international association
is a very broad organization and considers
a great many other questions than those
which relate to cities. The officers of
the congress have in mind the organiza-
tion of scientific, technical and social
publications in such a way as to increase
the diffusion of knowledge and to "draw
closer the bonds of the intellectual, inter-
national cooperation." Terminology
will also come in for a consideration.
The congress has been organized with
the aid of the delegates who attended
the first meeting and of the special com-
mission which has been formed since.
The invitation has been sent to all of
the international associations which
have adhered to the union and will also
include the official delegates of the states,
individual members and those who have
been specially invited to take part in
the debates.

To ascertain the wishes of those
who expect to be present where will be a
preliminary referendum inquiry on the
various questions that will come up for
discussion. In this way information will
be gathered concerning the thoughts,
suggestions and precedents to be
considered and followed. There will be
adequate reports of the results of the
referendum. It is e.xpected that eight-
een countries will be represented at the

congress and the subsequent exhibition,
and steps are being taken to create "a
life in common during the portion of
the congress so that there may be a real
community of interest among the dele-
gates.'"

The first congress was held in 1910.

The town planning conference will
be carried on through July and August.
In its circular the organizing committee
points out the very remarkable growth
of cities during the nineteenth century
and how that has brought to the front
for urgent and thoughtful discussion
problems of the first consideration. It
very properly declares that the solu-
tions found by one community are use-
ful for the guidance of others and "it
follows that everyone who is concerned
with the betterment of town life will
profit by bringing his experience to a
common centre of discussion, where he
can modify or develop his schemes by
comparison with those of other students."
According to the London Municipal
Journal, in the matter of town planning
it is intended to continue the work of the
London town planning congress, the
Berlin exhibition of 1910, and the Diis-
seldorf exhibition of 1912. A general
program of matters for debate has been
tentatively prepared in which the sub-
ject is divided into sections as follows:

A. Town Extension. General i)rin-
ciples of town growth — The street, clas-
sification of its types — -Undeveloped
areas — Public buildings — Housing, build-
ing regulations, etc. — Transport — Town
divisions or quarters — Classes of towns,
e.g., garden cities, modern villages, in-
dustrial areas, places of resort, etc., and
their various treatment — Congested dis-
tricts.

B. Preservation and Administration
of Old Districts. Street works, new roads
— Public monuments — ^Town beaut if}'-
ing — Public thoroughfares— Traffic reg-
ulations— Metropolitan transport— The
necessary legal and administrative pow-
ers.

I Bas3d on the translation by Anna Florence
WooilrufT.

NOTES AND EVENTS

311

Besides this general scheme, a number
of specific questions on the same matters
are set down as suitable topics of debate,
on which it is proposed that papers
should be read, to be followed by discus-
sion. The following examples will indi-
cate the nature and scope of the pro-
posed agenda?

Question 1. When an authority asks
for plans of an intended extension, what
data would be required by the architect
and engineers before proceeding with
the plans, i.e., with reference to bye-
laws, information as to quantity and
nature of rolling stock, relief of the land,
points of convergence of roadways, bound-
aries of various quarters, etc.?

Question 2. What proportion of
space in a city should be open — as parks,
squares, public places, etc. — judging
from the plans of the great capitals?

Question 8. What aesthetic rules are
to be applied to the town-planning of
places of resort such as are constantly
being formed on the sea coast and near
thermal springs?

Question 9. Study the rules to follow
for the creation of (a) garden cities, (b)
places of resort in picturesque sites
which have to be preserved, (c) indus-
trial centres, (d) modern villages, and
(e) colonial or settlers' towns.

Question 10. Is the construction of
circuses or open spaces at the intersec-
tion of large roads in urban areas to be
recommended?

Question 12. Describe the best con-
ditions for the construction in towns of
routes for heavy traffic by modern means
of transport. State the cases in which
recourse must be taken to overhead ways
as in New York, or underground, as is
proposed by M. Henard for certain
streets in Paris.

Question 14. What conditions are to
be fulfilled by plans for public parks in
large cities? Is it desirable to construct
reserved roadways for (a) motors, (b)
pedestrians, (c) cyclists, (d) tramways?

Question 15. ' What are the possible
means of passage "super" and "sub,"
i.e., overhead and underground, at cross-
ings and quadrants, intended to facili-
tate the circulation of traffic in large
modern cities?

With regard to the second section of
the congress, it is proposed to consider
the subject under the following headings :
(1) The legal and (2) the financial, con-
stitution of the authority, (3) its eco-
nomic scope, (4)its intellectual and moral
well-being, and (5) its social activities.
The committee suggests that the follow-
ing questions should be brought up for
deliberation:

What should be the legal constitution
of the authority; what should be its
relations with its superior authorities,
with other similar authorities, and with
the inhabitants of the district or bor-
ough?

What should be the financial constitu-
tion of the authority, the extent of its
control of the real and mobile estate
which form part of its resources, and
the rates and imposts, from which it
draws its revenue?

How the staff of the municipal admin-
istration should be regulated with regard
to its recruitment, formation and remu-
neration.

How can the authority's economic
activity reach its highest stage of devel-
opment; what should be the rules gov-
erning grants, rating, excise, etc.?

How to develop the intellectual and
moral well-being of communal organ-
isms. Schools excepted as being so
large a subject; other educational works
still demand attention, such as libraries,
museums, lecture halls, etc.

What is the extent of local powers in
social matters? What is the communal
liability to the various stations of life-
infancy, youth, and old age — in partic-
ular circumstances, such as maternity,
accident, unemployment, etc.?

The Second National Housing Con-
ference.— In Philadelphia, the city of
homes, a delegate to the second national
housing conference last week, during one
of the inspection trips, opened a cellar
door and started down the steps to in-
vestigate. His investigation stopped at
the first step for below him was a pool of
filthy water rising almost to the level
of the ground outside. His exclamation
of surprise drew the attention not only
of the rest of the delegates but also of
one of the tenants. "That water," she
said, "has been there three years."
"Then why don't the health authorities
do something about it?" demanded a
Philadelphian, "and if thy don't act
why doesn't the housing commission
demand action? Certainly the people
of Philadelphia will stand behind any
measures to abolish such a condition as
this."

But that is the question ; will they? To
abolish just such unwholesome conditions

312

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

costs money, it calls for a health dep;ut-
ment adequately supplied with funds,
with men and with legal powers. Few,
if any, of our American city health de-
partments are now so supplied and one
of the chief purposes of the second na-
tional conference on housing in America
was to call the attention of the people to
the imperative need for them.

But this was far from being the only
purpose of the conference. The evils
that must be cured form one phase of
the housing problem, the constructive
work that may be done in future city
building forms another quite as impor-
tant; and the two hundred and thirty-
one delegates representing seventy-six
cities and twenty-three American states
and Canadian provinces were interested
in both. So the first inspection trip
showed the bad housing conditions of
Philadelphia; the unsewcred streets
flanked by old houses with privy vaults
in the tiny, dirty yards, ill-smelling and
sodden from surface drainage, the un-
ventilated rooms of back to back dwell-
ings, the dark rooms and halls of old
tenements. The second trip took the
delegates into newer parts of the city and
showed them the typical single family
houses — houses which ensure a privacy
and a sense of family unity impossible
in tenements, the houses of the Octavia
Hill Association — once as bad as the
worst but repaired and remodeled so
that while yielding a fair return on the
investment they also provide attractive
homes at small rentals, the houses of the
Girard Estate — too expensive for the
wage-earner but indicating by their
centralized management, their central
heating plant, and their construction,
economies which may be applied to the
building and management of less costly
dwellings.

The program of the conference covered
both sides of the housing problem.
Health officials from more than a score
of American and Canadian cities, from
the federal health service and from that
of the Dominion told of the progress
they are making in cleaning up the .slums.

In this the Canadians appeared to have
the advantage, at least those from On-
tario cities, for there seems to be no
doubt of the adequacy of their powers.
In some of the American municipalities
inspectors hesitate to enter private
premises even when they suspect the
existence there of unsanitary conditions.
This seemed strange to Dr. Charles J.
Hastings, medical health officer of To-
ronto, who said that he sends his inspec-
tors into any house whether that of a
poor man or a rich man, "How else,"
he asked, "can we know what the con-
ditions are?" As for his powers of en-
forcement and the way in which those
powers are upheld by the courts and
the legal end of the city government —
a very weak point in many American
towns — he told a little anecdote. "Some
time ago the health officer had occasion
to order repairs on a house owned by a
member of the city council. Unable to
get him to modify his order the council-
man sought the city solicitor. "Did the
health officer tell you to do that?" asked
the solicitor. "He did," replied the
councilman indignantly. "Then," said
the solicitor comfortingly, "all I can tell
you is that if the health officer tells you
to go to hell, you've got to go." So
Toronto is being cleaned up.

This matter of the health , officer's
powers in the improvement of housing
was dealt with at length by Mrs. Albion
Fellows Bacon, author of the Indiana
state housing law, in her paper on "Regu-
lation by Law," by Mrs. Johanna von
Wagner, under the title "Instructive
Sanitary Inspection," and by Lawrence
Veiller, secretary of the National Hous-
ing Association in his discussion on
"Room Overcrowding and the Lodger
Evil." These twin evils are almost
universal and so far only two cities have
made any consistent attempt to deal
with them, New York and Boston. Mr.
Veiller stated that the only practical
method is to hold the owner responsible.
The city can hold the owner, the owner
can control his tenants, but the city can
not effectively reach the tenants. To

NOTES AND EVENTS

313

attempt to divide responsibility between
owner and tenants, as is often proposed,
will simply result in falling between two
stools.

This position was endorsed at various
times during the conference by delegates
who have had practical experience with
properties of the kind that usually cause
the most trouble. Alfred T. White,
owner of the Riverside Buildings in
Brooklyn, one of the pioneers in the
American housing movement and for
more than thirty-five years an owner of
tenement property, said: "If I had my
life to live over again, I would rather do
without any other investment I ever
made than the one I made in tenement
houses. The tenants will take care of
the property if it is properly managed.
We hear no more of the old libel that they
won't take care of the improved houses."
A representative of the Octavia Hill
Association, after showing that the last
annual bill for repairs due to carelessness
of tenants in the association's 500 houses
was only $50, answered the question, "To
what extent are tenants responsible for
bad housing conditions," by the one word
"None."

The constructive side of housing was
dealt with in a number of discussions
beginning with Lee K. Frankel's address
on financing the small houses. Grosve-
nor Atterbury showed the reverse side of
the promising picture so often presented
under the caption "Garden Cities." El-
mer S. Forbes, described the improve-
ments possible in rural and suburban
housing. John Nolen discussed the
relation between the factory and the
home and John Ihlder described the best
practicable types of wage-earners' houses
in three locations; near the center of
the city, on the outskirts and in small
communities, laying especial stress on
the necessity for discouraging the build-
of tenement or multiple dwellings and
holding out as the ideal to be kept con-
stantly in mind the single family de-
tached house with its own yard or gar-
den.

Among the delegates were a consider-

able number who are now actively en-
gaged in building small houses for wage-
earners. In order to take advantage of
each other's experience in practical
details they held a session between the
regular meetings. Their purpose was to
learn what experience has shown is the
least amount for which a house meeting
the minimum requirements can be built.
This would then set a standard. The
two-family houses built by the Wash-
ington Sanitary Improvement Company
in which three rooms and bath rent for
$9 a month seemed to come the nearest
to this, and General George M. Stern-
berg's description of their arrangement,
the number of rooms, and the method of
financing them gave standards upon
which the discussion was based.

England as well as Canada contributed
to the conference for at the banquet
which brought the three days' sessions
to a close Ambassador Bryce told of the
housing movement in Great Britain,
in which he has been one of the leaders.
It is the smaller cities, he said, that have
the greatest opportunities to become
home communities, and therefore he de-
cried the desire for mere bigness.

At the opening of the conference
Robert W. de Forest, president of the
National Housing Association, stated
its purpose. "We are here to help,"
he said; "let us aim at practical things.
Do not let us try to do everything, for
we can't. Some things we can do; let us
pick the most important and do them.
And everywhere let us hold up the hands
of our officials at home, not merely pur-
sue them with hostile criticism." That
expressed the spirit of the conference,
cooperation between citizens and offi-
cials in the doing of practical things.

John Ihlder.

Conference on State Control of the
Milk Industry. — On February 5 there
was held in New York City, under the
auspices of the New York Milk Commit-
tee, a conference to consider a program
for "legislation Looking toward Uni-

814

NATIONAL IVrUNICIPAL REVIEW

form State Control of the Milk Industry."
The governors of nine northeastern
states had been requested by the Com-
mittee to name three delegates each to
represent their state departments of
health and of agriculture and also the
private dairy interests. All the New
England states e.xcept Maine and Rhode
Island participated in the conference,
as did New York, New Jersey, Pennsyl-
vania and Maryland. The federal pub-
lic health service and the bureau of ani-
mal industry were also represented.
Over twenty delegates responded to the
roll call.

While the conference was free to vote
as it chose on the questions placed on the
program, a series of suggestions after
most of the questions plainly indicated
the opinions if not the desire of those
who had framed the program. Most of
the questions raised were decided in
accordance with the program sugges-
tions, but quite the contrary was the
case with what might be termed the
fundamental administrative suggestions.

Briefly stated, the conference declared
in favor of (1) state inspection of dairy
farms, centralized in the state board of
agriculture, or where such a board does
not exist then in the state live stock san-
itary board; (2) state control of all milk
products, as well as milk itself; (3) the
classification or grading of dairy herds
into (A) tuberculin tested and physically
tested, (B) not tuberculin tested but
physically perfect, (C) not tuberculin
tested and not physically examined;
(4) the use of the U. S. government score
cards for scoring dairies; (5) that all
milk should be divided into four classes,
according to the classes of herds from
which it comes, its bacterial contents
(numerical counts)and conditions making
for cleanliness or non-infectiousness; (6)
and that the function of municipal
boards of health should (virtually) be
confined to the control of milk after it
comes within the municipal boundaries.

Aside from establishing the principles
of (1) state control of everything per-
taining to the milk sui)ply outside tlie

municipalities concerned and (2) local
control within those cities and towns,
which was accomplished, the apparent
hoiJC of the program framers, and pre-
sumably of the New York milk committee,
was to secure a declaration from the
conference in favor of vesting centralized
state milk control in a state milk board,
composite in character so as to represent
various interests, and then to divide the
administrative work (chiefly inspection
of various sorts) between the health and
agricultural departments of each state.
The program suggestion for a state milk
board provided for a chairman, who
should be thfe state commissioner of
health; a vice-chairman, who should be
the state commissioner of agriculture (or
of the state cattle bureau) ; the assistant
attorney-general; the dean of the state
dairy school; and a sanitarian learned
in bacteriology and medicine.

As might have been expected, the
representatives of the state agricultural
department and of the private dairy
interests joined votes against the state
health department delegates and com-
pletely smashed this part of the program.
That is, the composite milk board sugges-
tion was overwhelmingly defeated and
in its place the conference voted in favor
of placing centralized milk control in
the state department of agriculture.
The Conference did declare, however, in
favor of giving the state department of
health certain inspection work, although
a strong effort was made to confine this
within narrower limits than the program
framers had suggested.

So far as local boards of health were
concerned the conference left them, as
the program framers evidently desired,
with powers much more limited than
those now exercised by a goodly number
of the more progressive boards of health
of the country. Assertions were not
lacking to the effect that there was no
intention of curtailing any of the exist-
ing powers of local boards of health over
their milk supplies, but the spirit of the
program, of much of the discussion and
(if tlir majority of those who voted was

NOTES AND EVENTS

315

to give the states full control of the pro-
duction, canning or bottling and ship-
ping of milk and leave the local boards
no powers until the milk was within the
city or town limits. The strongest pleas
in support of this plan were that by it
alone would duplication of inspection
be avoided and efficient inspection of
any kind be established; but little at-
tention was paid to the small likelihood
that for years to come any state in the
Union will provide the money and the
efficient organization needed for so
thorough-going a state-wide dairy in-
spection as would render it safe for local
boards of health to give no attention to
their milk supplies until the milk enters
the municipality.

Notwithstanding the unhappy way
in which portions of the program were
framed (not of all which have been men-
tioned here), and even though the milk-
producing delegates out numbered the
health delegates present by more than
two to one, the conference gave promise
of helpful cooperative work among these
conflicting interests in the future.

M. N. Baker.i
*

The Ohio Municipal League organ-
ized a year ago' at a conference of Ohio
cities, held its first annual meeting in
Columbus on January 22 and 23. The
Conference was called last year primarily
for the purpose of securing some unan-
imity on a municipal home rule proposal
to be submitted to the Constitutional
Convention. 2

The main subject for discussion,
therefore, at the first annual meeting of
the league was the scope of the home rule
amendment and the legislation necessary
to put the amendment into full effect.
The opinion of Mayor Newton D. Baker,
president of the League, and others was
that it grants to the cities of the state
the broadest home rule powers in strictly
local affairs and permits them to adopt
and enforce within their limits such local

285.

' President, Monlclalr, N. J., board of health.
2 See National Municipai. Review, vol. I, p.

police, sanitary and other similar regu-
lations are as not in conflict with general
laws. This view was declared to be the
intention of the constitutional conven-
tion by three members of the convention
who were delegates in the Conference.
Whether the Ohio courts will so hold is
yet to be seen.

A committee of the Municipal Asso-
ciation of Cleveland submitted to the
conference the drafts of three forms of
charters for consideration and submis-
sion, later, to the legislature: the com-
mission plan, the city manager plan and
the federal plan. These were all dis-
cussed at some length; a number of
amendments were offered; the plans were
approved in general and were then sub-
mitted, with amendments, to a com-
mittee of fifteen from various cities with
full power to revise, and submit them to
the legislature in completed form.

The general assembly seems to be in
full sympathy with the league's pro-
gram, and the three plans in their final
form, will in all probability, be enacted
into law. Many of the smaller cities of
the state are waiting to see the shape in
which these so-called "hand-me-down"
charters will emerge from the legisla-
tive hopper before taking any steps to-
ward preparing charters of their own
making. The League took a firm stand
in favor of the civil service act also
framed by the Municipal Association
and introduced into the Senate by Sena-
tor Carl D. Frieboiin. The taxation
question was discussed at some length
and a number of amendments were rec-
ommended to the Smith 1 per cent law.

More than three hundred delegates
from sixty-three municipalities were
present. Twenty-four of these were
mayors. The others were officials and
unofficial representatives appointed as
delegates by the mayors of the various
cities.

The following officers were elected
for the ensuing year: President, Henry
T. Hunt, Mayor of Cincinnati; secretary-
treasurer. Mayo Fesler, Cleveland.

Mayo Fesler.

310

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

League of Missouri Municipalities. —
The fifth annual meeting was held in
St. Louis on December 17, 1912. About
thirty delegates from twenty Missouri
cities attended. The discussion cen-
tered about the necessity for a constitu-
tional convention in order that the
smaller cities of Missouri might get the
needed relief from present constitutional
restraints. Practically all the consti-
tutional amendments seeking to give
this relief have been defeated through
the indiiTerence of the electorate.

The delegates also favored a law pro-
viding for a non-partisan board of public
utilities with power to regulate fares and
service of all public service corporations.
The delegates pledged themselves to
work for the enactment of a law giving
cities and towns power to adopt the com-
mission form of government. The fol-
lowing officers were reelected for another
year: president, Samuel D. Hodgdon,
Webster Groves; secretary, Sydney J.
Roy, Hannibal.

*

The Tennessee Municipal League was
successfully launched on January 16.
Twenty-two mayors of cities and towns
were present, and many questions of
vital municipal interest were discussed.
Dr. A. D. Martin, of Lebanon, led the
discussion on a bill enabling all Ten-
nesee towns to adopt commission gov-
ernment if they so desire. A committee
was appointed to draft and work for the
passage of such a bill. A good roads
committee was appointed, and the good
roads movement in Tennessee endorsed.
The mayors also favored a movement to
provide for more tuberculosis hospitals
in Tennessee, and it was urged that the
state do as much as possible to stamp out
the white plague. The following officers
were elected: president, Mayor H. F.
Howse, of Nashville; secretary and treas-
urer J. W. Horton, of TuUahoma.

*

West Virginia Mayors. — Responding
to a call of Mayor Chapman of Hunting-
don, the mayors of thirty cities of West

Virginia met in convention at Charleston
and the Municipal League of West Vir-
ginia, the first organization of its kind
in the history of the state, came into
existence. Municipal control of public
service corporations was strongly ad-
vocated by Mayor Chapman. He also
favored a law granting the right to mu-
nicipalities to regulate such corpora-
tions. Mayor Chapman was elected
permanent chairman of the organiza-
tion, and Mayor W. H. Garnett, of Hin-
ton, was elected secretary.

The Arkansas Municipal League, the
outcome of a conference of mayors, city
attorneys and aldermen, came into exist-
ence on January 16. The object of this
conference was the framing of legislation
permitting municipalities to issue bonds
for improvements. A committee was
appointed to prepare a constitution and
by-laws.

*

The State League of Utah Municipal-
ities held its seventh annual convention
on January 10, 11, at American Fork.
Addresses were given on necessary leg-
islation on liquor, public health, moral
questions, and good roads.

The Mayors' Association of Connecti-
cut held a midwinter meeting in the
office of Mayor Cheney of Hartford.
Among the subjects considered was that
of the practicability of a municipal sur-
vey of the administrative practices of
of Connecticut cities and especially of
Hartford.

Clyde L. King.*

The Mayors' Society of New Jersey is
a new organization designed to advance
all the policies that may be of benefit to
the various municipalities of the state.
Concerning the work of the Society
Mayor Donnelly of Trenton writes:

» Of the University of Pennsylvania.

NOTES AND EVENTS

31"

We believe that by regular meetings
and the resultant interchange of thought
each city will receive the advantage of
becoming familiar with the policies that
have been found beneficial in neighboring
cities. We also draft and support leg-
islation that is needed by any of the cit-
ies, and do so with the view of giving each
city just what it needs without encumb-
ering other cities whose needs are diff-
erent. This society has already gone
on record as of favoring the abolition
of grade crossings; the entire expense to
be borne by the railroad. We have
fought for this measure during the past
two sessions of the legislature and be-
lieve we are about to gain a notable vic-
tory in this respect. We have also gone
on record as favoring absolute home rule
for New Jersey municipalities giving
each city the right to look after its own
requirements. We are also in back of
the bill giving municipalities a uniform
system of accounting, a uniform system
of purchasing, and arranging for a uni-
form system of issuing bonds in contract
work. We have also advocated estab-
lishing headquarters in Trenton, and
the employment of a permanent secre-
tary for research work to ascertain ad-
vantages of the various forms of munic-
ipal government that are in vogue in
American cities, and to keep records of
the society for the benefit of those who
want to learn what various cities of the
state are accomplishing.

St. Louis's Federation of Federations

is a central committee made up of rep-
resentatives of the Central Trades and
Labor Union, the School Patrons Alli-
ance, the Central Council of Social
Agencies, the Central Council of Civic
Organizations, the Federation of Cath-
olic Societies, the General Jewish Coun-
cil, the Federation of Churches, the Coun-
cil of Women's Organizations, and the
Council of Business Organizations.

*
Port Officials. — At the suggestion
Calvin Tomkins, dock commissioner of
New York, George W. Norris, director
of docks of Philadelphia, and Hugh Ban-
croft, director of the port of Boston, a
conference of harbor officials was held
in New York, December 9 and 10, 1912,
with the result that the National Asso-

ciation of Port Officials was organized.
This is the first attempt that has been
made to bring about cooperation between
the harbor officials of the different ports
of the United States, with a view to an
exchange of information as to the best
and most scientific development of har-
bor facilities. It was decided to hold
conferences annually, to exchange in-
formation relative to port construction,
maintenance and operation, and to for-
mulate as far as possible recommenda-
tions for uniform policies and the stand-
ardization of port facilities.

Colonel Tomkins was elected presi-
dent; Colonel Goethals, of the Panama
Canal, first vice-president; Alexander
R. Smith, of New York, secretary and
H. C. Gahn of Cleveland, treasurer.

Cincinnati and Indianapolis. — Combin-
ing the energy and enthusiasm of the
younger Commercial Association with
1500 members with the prestige and
solidity of the Chamber of Commerce,
Cincinnati is to have one of the largest
and most solidly financed and powerful
commercial bodies in the United States.
In Indianapolis a similar consolidation
movement is on foot. A committee rep-
resenting the several commercial bodies
including the Commercial Club and the
Chamber of Commerce is at work.

The Municipal Association of Cleve-
land has changed its name to the Civic
League of Cleveland. There has been no
change in the membership or officers.
This action was taken to prevent misun-
derstanding resulting from confusing the
association with the various municipal
undertakings in the city, also because
the newspapers had gotten into the habit
of calling the organization the "Muny."

Grand Rapids Junior Association of
Commerce. — The Grand Rapids Junior
Association of Commerce, was organ-

318

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

ized on October 5, with a membership
in the neighborhood of two hundred, for
a year of study and work in the industrial,
commercial and civic problems of Grand

Rapids. The movement ought to bring
about a closer relationship between the
public schools and the business commun-
ity.

VI. EDUCATIONAL AND ACADEMIC

The Progressive Municipal Service. —
in its municipal phase, the Progressive
Service has undertaken an application
to local conditions of the scheme of its
national organization. The experiment
is an interesting one, extending as it
does to boroughs and towns no less than
to cities. Under the administrative
board of the party executive committee,
a committee has general charge, through
a chief of service. From this head, the
service radiates into two bureaus: that
of education, and that of legislative ref-
erence. There are four general depart-
ments: Social and industrial justice,
conservation, popular government, cost
of living and corporation control. Both
the bureaus and the departments have
their appropriate subdivisions. The
idea has been to extend this scheme in it
entirety to municipal progressive ser-
vice organizations. The municipal,
borough or town service committees
operate through local chiefs of service.
In the local organizations there are the
same bureaus, and the same general de-
partments, with their appropriate sub-
committees.

Its operation may be illustrated, in
the case of cities, by the example of the
New York County Progressive service
organization, New York County and the
Borough of Manhattan having the same
boundaries. Under the general charge
of education and publicity committees,
corresponding to the education and leg-
islative reference bureaus of the nation-
al scheme, there are fourteen subcom-
mittees, covering the recruiting, train-
ing and placing of speakers; matter of
housing and congestion problems; mar-
kets; licenses; police department and
board of education, city and state offic-
ials and the conduct of their offices; the
board of aldermen, their records and

votes on important questions; local and
auxiliary organizations and the organ-
ization of clubs among the foreign pop-
ulation; poll watchers and elections
workers, to insure honesty in elections;
finance and printing. Every sphere of
political and social service activity is
covered. The organization is as complete
and as thorough as the national organ-
ization, and even more detailed.

In the case of towns, Greenwich, Con-
necticut, may serve as an example of the
application of this general idea. There,
the Greenwich Progressive Club acts
through a service committee, following
the model of the national service.

The activities touching municipal
problems are not, however, confined to
furnishing a scheme for local organiza-
tions, nor even to encouraging and assist-
ing in the establishment of such organ-
izations. Recently, a draft of a civil
service law for cities, prepared under
the auspicies of the National Civil Serv-
ice Reform League, was secured for the
use of the Progressive Party of St. Louis
with the idea that it might be incorpor-
ated into the platform of the Party in
that city..

Paxton Hibden.

Cincinnati Municipal Editor. — For the

purpose of editing the annual city depart-
mental reports, the executive depart-
ment of Cincinnati has called (o its
assistance a municipal editor who is
officially known as inspector for the
mayor. INIaj'or Hunt rightly believes
that the city's reports can be made in-
teresting to the public and still be a
succinct accounting of the work of the
city departments for the year; and it is
his intention to eliminate all unintel-
ligible and uniiiiportant statistics, to put

NOTES AND EVENTS

319

the tables and figures that are used in a
form that will be readily comprehended
by the average reader, and especially to
make the introductory and explanatory
remarks something more than mere per-
functory statements.

A Municipal Newspaper in Dresden.

— It is an interesting fact that a news-
paper is owned and administered by
Dresden, the property having been be-
queathed to the municipality. In 1856,
Dr. J. Guentz, publisher of the Dresden-
er Anzeiger and proprietor of an adver-
tising bureau, willed said bureau and
the right of publishing the Anzeiger to
the city as a special foundation for the
common welfare, under the condition
that the profits be used for beautifying
Dresden and for charitable purposes.
In 1895, C. Blochmann, who had printed
the Anzeiger since 1848 enlarged the
foundation by the gift of his well equip-
ped printing establishment. The annual
profits of the united foundations now
amount to about $60,000.

National Municipal League Prizes for
1913. — The Baldwin prize for this year
was for the best essay on the subject of
"The Best Sources of City Revenue."
The judges are George C. Sikes, secretary
of the Chicago bureau of efficiency, and
Dr. LeGrand Powers of the census bu-
reau. The school prize is devoted to
"The Milk Supply in My City," for
which an elaborate outline was prepared
by M. N. Baker, chairman of the execu-
tive committee of the National Munici-
pal League. The interest in this prize
has been so unique and widespread and
the treatment of it so suggestive that
Mr. Baker will present a brief article on
it in the July issue of the National INIu-
nicipal Review. The judges are Prof.
Selskar M. Gunn of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology and John
Spargo, of Yonkers, N. Y. The sub-
ject of the Cincinnati prize is "The Best
Charter for Cincinnati." The judges

are Prof. Robert C. Brooks of Swarth-
more College and A. J. Freiberg of the
Cincinnati bar.

Public Control of Vocational Educa-
tion.— At the recent Philadelphia con-
vention of the National Society for the
Promotion of Industrial Education, the
even progress of this movement was
slightly jarred by a division of opinion as
to whether the control of vocational ed-
ucation shall rest with the public school
authorities or be turned over to a new
body entirely separated from the school
department.

Several able addresses advocated new
departments both in the state and mu-
nicipal management of vocational edu-
cation. It is fair to say, however, that
the prevailing sentiment of the conven-
tion, while favoring a separate adminis-
tration of vocational schools, neverthe-
less insisted on some positive articula-
tion between the public school system
and any system of vocational education.

Divergence of opinion as to the best
form of control for this new type of
training is natural enough, arising as it
does from a common disbelief in the
efficacy of vocational instruction under
academic auspices. There is experience
available, however, in this .country
which throws light on the problem of
control. Massachusetts has had its ex-
perience with a dual system and is now
convinced that while different motives,
buildings, aims, equipment, and even
budget must be applied to a system of
practical education, still a centralized
and a coordinating authority must be in
possession of the entire field of educa-
tion. This is an essential in a democrat-
ically supported school system.

Meyer Bloomfield.^

Winston-Salem High School Boys
Making Economic Survey of City. — As a
first step in an industrial survey of the

1 Of the Boaton Vocation Bureau.

320

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

city by (he board of trade, the boys in
the dopartnient of government and econ-
omics of the High School of Winston-
Salem, N. C, will be set to work under
the direction of the secretary of the
Board of Trade to gather industrial sta-
tistics for 1912. This is considered an
advanced step in training the boys for
citizenship by giving them an opportun-
ity to study at close range the industrial
situation of their home city.

The Journal of Social and Civic Chi-
cago is the title of a monthly publication
issued in the "interests of good citizen-
ship" for the cooperation of the sundry
social and civic agencies of Chicago, par-
ticularly those which are sustained by

the city. The February issue which is
a fair sample of the publication, discusses
such questions as why the park districts
of Ciiicago should be consolidated, and
the appointment of police women, as well
as giving the news of the various cooper-
ating agencies.

*

Baltimore has begun the publication
of a semi-monthly municipal journal
with A. S. Goldsborough as managing
editor. The first issue appeared January
15, and consisted of 12 pages.

Greater Portland is the title of the
official organ of the Greater Portland
(Oregon) Plans Association, the first
number of which was issued February 1.

VII. SOCIAL AND MISCELLANEOUS

Public Health Notes. — A notable mos-
quito reduction cami)aign was waged in
Essex County, N. J., during the summer
of 1912. Probably more was done in the
town of Montclair than elsewhere in the
county, for the town was first in the
campaign, the town council, at the re-
quest of the local board of health, appro-
priating $2000 for mosquito fighting as
early as. January. Later on, the state
legislature, prompted in large measure
by the North Jersey Mosquito Extermi-
nation League, authorized the creation
of mosquito commissions in every county
of the state, the appointments to be made
by the county court and money to be
provided by county boards of free-
holders, to such extent as they saw fit.
The act, it will be seen, was permissive,
not mandatory. A commission was cre-
ated in Essex County and $75,000 placed
at its disposal. The commission en-
gaged inspectors and assigned them to
districts. Montclair employed six in-
spectors for some months. Some of these
were "taken over" and i)aid by the
county commission, but they remained
imder the direction of the Montclair
health officer, Chester H. Wells. The

plan of campaign in Montclair was to
divide the town (about six square miles
in area, with a population of 23,000) into
six districts, and have each district
thoroughly gone over once in each week
or two. Under the Montclair sanitary
code the maintenance of mosquito breed-
ing places is a nuisance. Public notice
was served that if mosquitoes were found
breeding on any premises a second time
the property owner would be prosecuted.
Any breeding places found were either
abated by getting rid of the water or
else they were oiled as a temporary
measure. The net results of the cam-
paign cannot, of course, be stated in
exact terms, but the general consensus
of citizens in Montclair was that the
mosquitoes were materially less in num-
bers in 1912 than in i)revious years.
Some of this may have been due to natu-
ral causes far beyond the control of man,
but it seems only fair to assimie that the
campaign against the pests was in con-
siderable measure a success. It should
be added that Iiesides earlier local work
for the elimination of breeding places in
Montclair and other municipalities scat-
tered through New Jersey the state has,

NOTES AND EVENTS

321

for a number of years past, done exten-
sive drainage work on river and sea coast
marshes. By far the greater part of the
notorious Jersey mosquitoes are mere
pests, and not malaria spreaders, a fact
which raises a question as to the extent
to which mosquito reduction in that
state is a health function.

The state work has been done under
the state entomologist and the county
work of 1912 under independent com-
missions.

The Health Department of Asheville,
N. C. is one of the most wide awake
departments in the country, judging
from the account it gives of itself in its
monthly bulletin. The health board
consists of the mayor, the city engineer,
the chairman of the finance committee
of the board of aldermen, and four phy-
sicians. There is a health officer, a sani-
tary inspector, a meat and milk inspec-
tor, and a sewer and plumbing inspector,
besides which the water superintendent
is listed as one of the executive officers
of the board. All this, as well as the
bulletin, speaks well for a city of 20,000
people.

The International Milk Dealers Asso-
ciation was organized five years ago.
Each of its 43 members has subscribed
to a platform which declares for an im-
proved milk supply and a lower infant
mortality. The association has employ-
ed Dr. Charles E. North, of New York
City, as consulting sanitarian.

A Municipal Tuberculin Dispensary,
for administering tuberculin to consump-
tives, is being operated by Portsmouth,
England, under the direction of Dr.
Hilda Clarke. A building was erected
in the center of the town, near the town
hall. It is about 20 by 35 feet in plan,
with waiting and consulting rooms, at
either end and dressing rooms between,
besides a laboratory and toilet rooms.
Plans for the building were drawn by the
borough engineer's department. Dur-
ing 1911 a total of 445 persons were
registered as applying for treatment,
besides which some would-be applicants
were turned away. Of 368 persons who

were examined 291 proved to be tubercu-
lar and 216 were thought to be suscepti-
ble of improvement by treatment. A
floor plan and perspective view of the
dispensary building, with some particu-
lars not here given, may be found in
The Surveying and Housing World for
September 21, 1912.

A Reorganization of the Bureau of
Records of the New York City health
department, with subdivisions for rec-
ords proper, for research and for pub-
licity, was strongly urged in 1911 by
an advisory committee of statisticians.
This recommendation is again urged,
with a number of others, in a "Report
on Vital Statistics and Health Reports
of New York City," prepared by E. H.
Lewinski-Corwin, executive committee
of the public health, hospital and budget
committee of the New York Academy of
Medicine, and published in the Medical
Record of November 23, 1912. Owing
largely to lack of funds, the present
Bureau of Records is not efficiently and
sufficiently manned, its reports are so
long delayed as to lose a large part of
their value, and the reports are inade-
quate— particularly in general public
appeal.

M. N. Baker. 1
*

A Suggestion for the Improvement of
the Liquor Traffic. — There .are indica-
tions in various parts of the country that
the brewers are contemplating a sever-
ance of their hitherto more or less close
relations with the dealers in distilled
liquors.

At present this is not an easy matter
because saloon keepers get larger profits
from the sale of distilled liquors than
from sales of beer; but the activity of
the Prohibitionists and of the Anti-Sal-
oon Society seems to have aroused a feel-
ing among the brewers that their own
trade has received blame which rightly
belongs to the other branch of the busi-
ness. The connection of the brewing
interests with the saloons is so close that

I President, board of health, Montclair, N. J.

322

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

a general change of heart in this respect
would be a factor of importance in aid
of the temperance movement.

A prominent brewer in Buffalo reports
that he has successfully tried the exper-
ment of abolishing the bar in a large
saloon under his control and has dropped
the free lunch and somewhat improved
and enlarged the bill-of-fare, making a
moderate charge for all viands furnished.
He reports that the profit made in this
way balanced the loss of the special bar
trade, and that, incidentally, the result
has been an increase in the amoimt of
beer sold, and a marked diminution in
the sale of distilled liquors. It would
seem that there is a subtle connection
between the American bar and the use of
distilled liquors. This appears to the
writer a hopeful straw in the direction
of improvement in the liquor traffic.
Camillos G. Kidder.

Wisconsin Social Center Movement. —
Under the stimulative influence of Carl
Beck, social center director of the pub-
lic schools of Superior, the social center
movement in Wisconsin is pushing be-
yond the limits of the city and is invad-
ing the rural districts. Xot only is
Superior to have an organized system of
civic and ward improvement clubs, con-
stantly supplied by a lecture bureau of
local talent and assisted by a clipping
bureau on civic, social and municipal
matters, but the rural schools of the
state will become the social centers where
farmer' clubs will meet weekly or month-
ly to consider rural problems such as edu-
cation, road improvement, county taxa-
tion and other questions, which today
are largely settled at the county seat.
A large exposition representing all of
the organizations and industries of the
city is now being planned.

Cleveland and Seattle Centralize
Social and Philanthropic Agencies. — As
a result of the efforts of the Cleveland
chamber of commerce, the philanthropic
agencies of Cleveland have been brought
together in a federation for charity and
philanthropy which is to serve as a
clearing-house for the affiliated associa-
tions and their donors. Under the plans
of the federation, the innumerable ap-
peals made each year by the individual
agencies will be pooled into one which
will be made by the federation. Tags,
tickets, benefit bazaars, fairs, enter-
tainments and balls will be done away
with. The management of the federation
will be in the hands of a board of thirty
members: ten elected by the philan-
thropic agencies; ten elected by donors
making themselves responsible for defin-
ite contributions to the funds of the agen-
cies through the federation; and ten
appointed l)y the president of the cham-
ber of commerce. In Seattle, a central
council of social agencies has been cre-
ated for the purpose of promoting fellow-
ship among the agencies, social intelli-
gence, and social efficiency through the
prevention of duplication.

Our Country and the Immigrant. —

New York City and Mt. Vernon are fos-
tering movements for assisting the immi-
grant in preparation for citizenship.
These movements aim at a better adap-
tation of school and library facilities
to the needs of the immigrant and crea-
tion of opportunities for the immigrant
to hear in his own language simple, plain
talks upon his problems in this country
and the institutions of his new homeland.

Negro Segregation. — The St. Louis
Civic League has adopted a resolution
opposing the proposed ordinance segre-
gating the negroes of St. Louis. The
committee in reporting on the matter
declared:

Our committee is unanimous!}^ of the
opinion that the problem of the relation
of white and colored people cannot be
solved by crystallizing prejudices into
legislation. The proposed law frequent-
ly would prevent colored people from
improving their condition by moving
into better neighborhoods. We cannot
believe that any broad minded American
can regard the legal segregation of races
as American or Christian.

NOTES AND EVENTS

323

VIII. PERSONAL MENTION

Reginald H. Thompson, City Engineer
of Seattle. — In the rapid development of
western communities from smaller set-
tlements into fully developed metro-
politan cities, particularly those of the
Pacific coast, the individuality of the
small group of citizens who directed
their affairs has done more in many in-
stances 1>o make for the success of these
communities than their geographic sit-
uation. A marked incident of person-
ality dominating the growth of commun-
ity life is that of R. H. Thompson, who
for many years had in hand the destinies
of Seattle, the great metropolis and sea
port of Puget Sound. During the period
with which Mr. Thompson was connected
with the Seattle, the most unpreced-
ented development ccurred from a small
town of several thousand, to a commu-
nitj' of 250,000 people covering an area of
57 square miles, with a fully developed
sewer system; a water supply unequalled
for its purity and volume; 177 miles of
street pavement; a municipal electric
power plant of 14,000 horse power; a
model building code, etc.

Mr. Thompson was born at Hanover,
Indiana, March 20, 1856. He received
his education at Hanover College, taking
the full classical and scientific courses,
graduating in 1877. In 1880 Mr. Thomp-
son came to Seattle and in the fall of 1881
to 1883 served as deputy surveyor for
the city and deputy county surveyor
for King County. Through his work as
surveyor of the city from 1884 to 1886 he
obtained accurate and valuable inform-
ation of the varied topography of the
city. For three years he was assistant
engineer of a railroad project east of
Lake Washington, during which period
he spent a portion of his time in the city
of Spokane. On finishing his railroad
work in 1889 he opened a private office
in the city of Seattle and engaged in
town plat work and mineral surveying.

In May 1892 he became city engineer
for Seattle, which position he held until
November, 1911, when he entered the

service of the Canadian government as
engineer for Strathcona Park, Vancouver
Island.

During the latter part of Mr. Thomp-
son's connection with the engineering
department he was subjected to constant
criticism by one of the Seattle daily pa-
pers. This criticism was always deroga-
tory and exceedingly vindicative in char-
acter. He had at one time drawn' upon
himself the disfavor of the editor and
combined with the element of discontent
of those endeavoring to obtain special
favors this, made it exceedingly difficult
to continue the broad constructive policy
that the city was then pursuing. Mr.
Thompson however, ignored these crit-
icisms and continued his work undis-
turbed.

Quoting from Mr. Dimock, the pres-
ent city engineer:

I think Mr. Thompson's success has
been due to the fact that he is a tireless,
patient and persistent worker, always
seeking to extend his knowledge on all
topics which concern a city's growth;
second, that he has had ample time
through the early years of his admini-
stration for a thorough study of the
problem of Seattle's future. He came
to believe intensely in the fact that Seat-
tle was to become a great city. With
absolute faith in its future, he worked
steadily and tenaciously toward his
ideals with a definite program, regard-
less of obstacles and undismayed by
temporary reverses. No doubt his vis-
ion of what the city should be enlarged
and grew from time to time as he had
opportunities for study and for travel,
but he had always in his mind a well
defined general program, to the develop-
ment of which he steadily worked. He
has also a practical sagacity and knowl-
edge of human nature which enabled
him to impress others with his views and
use them as instruments for the carry-
out of his plans. I should say that these
two things — first, his ideal, and second,
his practical sagacity in the working out
of these ideals, are his leading charac-
teristics.

It was in attacking the problem of
creating an adequate business area that
Mr. Thompson perhaps deserves most

324

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

credit. The work was of such magnitude
that it took many years to mature, and
unless there had been a definite program
and a strong hand, changing policies and
avaricious contractors would have made
the cost of this work so great that there
is very little doubt that it would never
have been completed. Mr. Thompson
always insisted that the main traffic of
the city would be forced by virtue of its
topography to travel in a north and
south direction. He sought consistently
to provide such arteries as would open
up the city in these directions. The
great Northern Railway Company at one
time sought to build its terminal yards in
such a manner as to prevent the possibil-
ity of extending these arterial highways,
and through Mr. Thompson's efforts Mr.
James J. Hill was induced to modify his
plans and First, Fourth and Sixth Ave-
nues which have now become the great
traffic streets of the city were left open.
The city to the north of the then business
area, was obstructed by a hill 135 feet
high, called Denny Hill. First Avenue
was graded in 1890 and no further work
was done due to the panic of 1893 until
about ten years later, when a regrade of
Second Avenue was agitated. The suc-
cess of this project from a real estate
stand-point lead to a much vaster scheme
of regrade, including Third, Fourth and
Fifth Avenues, and this is known as the
Denny Hill regrade area, and these ave-
nues and streets are now paved and
lighted. At the same time was under-
taken the Jackson Street and Dearborn
Street regrade, which latter undertaking
was made a part of the Harbor Island
development which used the material
for filling, the work being accomplished
by means of hydraulic sluicing. The
total area thus regradcd is approximately
620 acres, and is ideally located for down
town business development.

Perhaps more than anything else the
development of the Cedar River water,
light and power system brought Mr.
Thompson into the public eye. There
is no doubt that other men in his depart-
ment rinfl in the affairs of the city as-

sisted him greatly in his work, but he
was the master-mind which correlated
the data and he was able to keep the
execution of the work along definite and
constructive lines. In 1890 there devel-
oped strong opposition to the city's ac-
quiring and developing its own system;
private companies then, as are now,
endeavored to prevent the city from de-
veloping these projects.

Mr. Thompson, to quote from Mr.
Dimock, "threw himself heart and soul
into the fight for municipal ownership,
and he carried the day." The exist-
ing private company at that time was
charging from $1.50 to $2.50 a month for
a single water tap without sprinkling
privileges. The rate now is 50 cents per
month. A few years later a charter
amendment was secured with the nec-
essary ordinances providing for the in-
stallation of the Cedar River light and
power plant. The effect of the installa-
tion of this system has made a reduction
in the rate for residence lighting from
20 cents per kilowat to about 5 cents per
kilowat. There is no doubt that some
reduction would have been made if the
municipal plant had not been installed,
but this municipal plant put into the
hands of the people the power of con-
trolling and regulating rates that in no
other way could it have been done so ad-
vantageously. The result has been that
the citizens of Seattle are now paying
for their light about one-half of what
other people are paying by the coast cit-
ies supplied by private enterprises. In
all these undertakings whether street
paving, sewer contracts, or contracts
for the regrading, no charges have ever
been substantiated of misappropria-
tion of funds. The work has been car-
ried on uniformly with foresight, and
has been executed with thoroughness un-
precedented in the works of a public
character in American municipalities.
Quoting further from Mr. Dimock "It
is no small tribute to Mr. Thompson's
rugged integrity that Seattle should
have been free from any scandals in its
many works department."

NOTES AND EVENTS

325

There were no projects of magnitude
undertaken by the city with which Mr.
Thompson was not connected. He was
very largely consulted during the pro-
gress of the bill creating a port commis-
sion whose function it was to develop the
port facilities and establish equitable
relationship between public and private
enterprises. In March, 1910 a charter
amendment was passed by the city creat-
ing a plans commission, whose duty it
was to procure plans for the arrange-
ment of the city with a view to such ex-
pansion as may meet probable future de-
mands; taking into consideration the
improvement and changes in public util-
ities and lines of transportation by sur-
face, underground and water, the widths
and grades of arterial highways neces-
sary for the best treatment of the city,
location for public buildings and munic-
ipal decorations, etc.

Mr. Thompson was appointed from
the board of public works as one of the
21 plan commissioners. He worked un-
tiringly for the preparation of this report
and gave his unqualified support in furth-
ering its adoption. The same elements
which opposed Mr. Thompson, opposed
the adoption of this report, which unfor-
tunately was voted down by the people.
The Seattle Times attacked the report
and stated that it would cost the city
.$100,000,000 and bankrupt its citizens.
As no newspaper came to the active sup-
port and as the body of citizens who un-
derstood the importance of city planning
was small, there was no way of informing
the voters. A small group of advocates
for the plans including Mr. Thompson
gave illustrated talks at all the improve-
ment clubs and made as strenuous a
campaign as it was possible in support of
its adoption. The plan if adopted
would have taken the control of the
city's growth out of the hands of a few
interested property owners and put it in
the hands of the people. Mr. Thompson
was always found on the side of the
broader citizenship and with those who
were working for the general civic de-
velopment. Carl F. Gould.

Travis H. Hoke who has been assist-
ant secretary of the St. Louis Civic
League since January, 1912, will be the
director of the publicity bureau of the
Conference of Federations, which rep-
resents practically all the larger fed-
erations of associations in St. Louis.
Among the organizations supporting the
publicity bureau are the Civic League,
the Federation of Churches, the School
Patrons Alliance, the Central Council
of Civic Organizations, the Central Coun-
cil of Social Agencies, the Federation of
Catholic Societies and the Social Service
Conference. The Conference will issue
a publication Public Affairs.

*

Reginald Mott Hull has resigned the
secretaryship of the Citizens' Taxpayers
Association of Cambridge, Mass., and
has gone into business. He has been
elected a member of the executive com-
mittee and so will keep in touch with the
work which he has so successfully man-
aged for four years. His successor as
secretary is Donald Justin Lynn.

Robert E. Kenyon has retired as gen-
eral secretary of the Chicago Association
of Commerce to become superintendent
of public service of Cook County. As
such he will make the purchases for all
the institutions of the county, some half
dozen in number, amounting to about
$3,000,000 a year.

Clinton Rogers Woodruff is taking the
course of Prof. Henry Jones Ford in
Municipal Government at Princeton dur-
ing the present semester. Professor
Henry Jones Ford has been granted a
leave of absence to study political con-
ditions through the country.

Rev. Alan Pressley Wilson, a priest
of the Episcopal Church, has been
elected president of the Lykens-Wicon-

320

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

isco Board of Trade, Lykens, Pa. It is
the first time in the liistory of Pennsyl-
vania that a clergyman has been thus
honored.

John Nolen of Cambridge, Mass., is
working on i)lans for the following cities:
.Scranton, Pa., Erie, Pa.; Schenectady,
N. Y. ; New London, Conn.; Keokuk,
Iowa.

Dr. S. G. Lowrie of the University of
Cincinnati has, at the request of Gov-
ernor Cox, been granted a leave of ab-
sence so that he ma}^ work with the Ohio
legislature in the founding of a legisla-
tive reference bureau.

Dr. Clyde L. King of the University
of Pennsylvania has been delivering a
series of lectures before the New Cen-
tury Club of Philadelphia on "Some of
Philadelphia's Governmental Problems."

Albert de Roode, formerly civic sec-
retary of the Civil Service Reform Asso-
ciation of New York, has been appointed
by Mayor Gaynor to take charge of the
examining board of plumbers.

Dr. Frank A. Wolfe of the federal bu-
reau of standards, Washington, D. C,
has been appointed chief of the depart-
ment of social economy for the Panama
Pacific Exposition.^

Robert Catherwood, president of the
Chicago Civil Service Reform Associa-
tion, has been appointed a member of
the Chicago civil service commission.

Mrs. D. C. McCan, president of the
Friday Morning Club of Los Angeles, has
been appointed a member of the Los
Angeles civil service commission.

Prof. Charles E. Merriam of the Uni-
versity of Chicago is a candidate for
nomination as alderman at the coming
municipal election in Chicago.

Mrs. Melville F. Johnston, of Rich-
mond, Indiana, has been made chairman
of the committee on art of the General
Federation of Women's Clubs.

Rev. Cyrus Flint Stimson of Water-
ville, Alaine, has been elected secretary
of the American Playground and Recre-
ation Association.

Robert D. Jenks of Philadelphia was
elected chairman of the council of the
National Civil Service Reform League
in succession to the Hon. Charles J.
Bonaparte.

Everett P. Wheeler has been elected
president of the New York Civil Service
Reform Association to succeed the late
Silas W- Burt.

E. H. Bennett of Chicago is now en-
gaged on city i)lans for Brooklyn, New
York and T)otr(ji(. Plans for Minne-
apolis and Portland, Oregon, have been
finished.

' For Information concernlnR the scope of this
work sse National Municipal Review, vol. II,
eupplement to the January Issue, p. 33.

Mayo Fesler, secretary of the Cleve-
land Civic League, has been elected
secretary of the Cleveland charter com-
mission.

Scott R. Dekins has been appointed
assistant secretarj' of the St. Louis
Civic League.

DEPARTMENT OF LEGISLATION AND
JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Edited by John A. Lapp

liegislative Reference Department of the Indiana State Library

Richard W. Montague, Esq., Portland, Ore.

In charge of Judicial Decisions

Constitutional Amendments. — During
the year 1912, 203 amendments to state
constitutions were submitted to the
people of the various states for ratifica-
tion. Of this number, 118 were adopted.
Of the whole number, 203, were fifteen
relating to cities and towns alone; ten
relating to cities, towns, counties and
other minor civil divisions, and seven
relating to all elective officers in the
state including cities.

An examination of the fifteen relating
specifically to cities shows that the three'
which failed of adoption were as f olows :
Arkansas, permitting cities and towns
of more than 1000 population to issue
bonds for municipal improvements; Min-
nesota, granting to cities and villages the
right to frame and amend their charters ;
Missouri, increasing the constitutional
tax rate in certain specified municipal-
ities.

Among the twelve relating to cities
and towns alone which received popular
approval, seven related to home rule
charters. Colorado extended the priv-
ilege of home rule charter making already
granted to a limited extent ;i Nebraska
and Texas granted the same to all places
of over 5000 inhabitants; Michigan un-
tangled a peculiar constitutional situa-
tion by expressly permitting cities and
villages to amend existing charters with-
out a general revision of the charter
through convention; Virginia adopted an
amendment which granted a measure of
home rule, but any such charter "must
be such as the general assembly may
deem best;" Ohio in its series of thirty-
three amendments adopted in Septem-

121

1 See National Municipal Review, vol. ii,p.

ber, 1912, dealt at length \frith munici-
palities, a subject much vexed of- late in
that state. Municipal corporations were
divided into cities and villages, the line
of demarcation being fixed at 5000 in-
habitants.^

Of the six remaining amendments re-
lating specifically to municipalities, one
in Georgia relates to the abolishing of
justice courts in certain cities, two in
Virginia to the election of revenue com-
missioners and treasurer in cities, one
in South Carolina permits a specified
town to exceed the constitutional debt
limit of 8 per cent and two others in the
same state permit specified cities and
towns to levy special assessments to pay
for public improvements.

Ten amendments of the year applj^
alike to cities and to the state or some
other civil division. Seven such relate
to finance. Of the whole number, ten,
five were defeated. Among those adopt-
ed was one (Arizona) regulating the
debts of cities, counties and other local
divisions; one (Wisconsin) extending the
time of extinguishing the debt of certain
cities and counties; one (Louisiana) re-
lating to public improvement bonds of
parishes, cities and various minor divis-
ions; one (Arizona) permitting the state
and cities to engage in industrial enter-
prises; and one (Wisconsin) authorizing
the state and cities to acquire lands. The
defeated five included two (Louisiana)
giving parishes and the cities authority
to exempt certain kind of property from
taxation; one (Utah) changing the limit
of indebtedness for counties, cities and
towns; one (California) for the consolda-
tion of county and city governments in

2 See National Municipal Review vol. i, p. 715

327

328

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

certain cases and one (California) ex-
tending the home rule principle in mat-
ters of taxation by permitting counties,
cities and other local taxing authorties
to levy taxes for local purjioses accord-
ing to any system which they may see
fit to adopt and to classify property for
purposes of taxation provided that such
taxes be uniform for each class and that
no tax to mc9t future expense or indebt-
edness shall be levied on pioperty re-
served for state taxation.

Cities were also affected by amend-
ments voted on in seven states and
adopted in five, providing for the remov-
al of public officers in general by means
of the recall. The states ratifying these
were Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada,
and Washington, Those rejecting were
Arkansas and Louisiana. The Idaho,
Louisiana and Washington amendments
did not extend the recall to judges.

The most salient feature of the year
progress in the field under review are the
larger proportion of the whole number
of amendments devoted to the cause of
municipal home rule, and the almost un-
iversal ratification of such proposals
when made.

Frank G. Bates. ^

Governors' Messages, 1913. — In the
messages of the governors of the various
states transmitted to their legislatures
at the opening of the sessions of 1913, the
affairs of cities receive a fair measure of
consideration. Three subjects stand out
distinctly as commanding attention:
public utility regulation, municipal
home rule and municipal finance. While
a subject state-wide in scope public
utility regulation is obviously of especial
interest to cities. The governors of no
less than seventeen states made rec-
ommendations on the subject looking
toward either the inauguration of the
policy of utility regulation bj' commis-
sion or some amendment of existing laws
on the subject.

1 University of Indiana, Bloomlngton, Indiana.

In the following states the creation of
a commission is called for: Iowa, Indi-
ana, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota,
Missouri, Pennsylvania and West Vir-
ginia. In Michigan and Montana it is
suggested that the powers be conferred
in the railroad commission, and in Idaho
combined with the tax commission.
Two commissions are suggested in Illi-
nois, one for Chicago and one for the
rest of the state. Among the recommend-
ations for the extension of powers of
existing authorities are these: New Jer-
sey, to give discretionary power in the
matter of grade crossing abolition; Ohio,
to give power to make a valuation of
physical properties, and Rhode Island,
to include not only the valuation of
physical properties, but to supervise
security issues, require uniform account-
ing and inspection of equipment. Ex-
tensions of the power of the public serv-
ice commission of Wilmington is sug-
gested in Delaware.

Municipal home rule suggestions take
these forms: New Jersey, to give wider
range of freedom in local affairs; Dela-
ware, to give Wilmington a new charter
with extended powers of home rule; Mich-
igan, to give greater liberty in respect to
the initiative, referendum and recall in
the general city law; Missouri, to give
to the larger cities the right to select
their own excise and police officers; New
Yorl<, to give home rule to cities of the
second and third classes and recommend-
ing a cessation of legislative tinkering
with city charters; Pennsylvania, to
give a "larger measure of home rule and
greater freedom of action" for third
class cities; Ohio, to enact laws under
the recent constitutional amendment
permitting to cities a choice of either the
business manager, commission or short
ballot federal plans of government.

That the importance of uniformity in
accounting supervision of accounts is
forcing itself upon public attention more
widely is shown by the following recom-
mendations: Illinois and New Jersey,
that uniform systems of accounting be
established; South Dakota, that the ex-

DEPARTMENT OF LEGISLATION

329

isting accounting law be extended to
include county and municipal offices;
Oregon, that the office of auditor of
public accounts be established; Rhode
Island, that not only uniform accounting
and reports be required, but that, follow-
ing the example of Massachusetts, audit
of town accounts be made on request of
the municipality and that supervision
be extended over the form and issue of
town notes. The governor of Washing-
ton recommends the abolition of the
bureau of inspection and supervision of
public offices and the appointment of a
committee of accountants to devise a
system of uniform accounts for counties
and cities. The work of supervision was
to be placed under the state auditor.
In Connecticut it is suggested that gen-
eral borrowing power be conferred on
cities and boroughs within a fixed limit
on referendum. Non-partisan nomina-
tions in cities are recommended in both
Pennsylvania and Washington; commis-
sion government to be made permissive
for second class cities in Missouri; meas-
ures for greater efficiency of civil service
regulations in cities of the second and
third classes in New York; the annull-
ing of all exclusive franchises existing
and their prohibition in the future in
South Carolina; the making effective
an existing law for the censorship of
moving picture films in Pennsylvania;
the establishment of municipal museums
of safety appliances in New York, and
the appointment of city, police, borough
and town judges by the governor with
the confirmation of the legislature instead
of by election in Connecticut, are the
remaining recommendations in the field
of city government.

. Frank G. Bates. ^

Traffic Regulations and the Use of
Streets by Pedestrians. — The safety of
the streets for pedestrians has been the
subject of legislation both specific and
general by large cities, and in one or two
of the larger municipalities special traffic

' University of Indiana.

policemen are assigned to the care of
the pedestrian traffic aside from the reg-
ular vehicular traffic.

There are a great many regulations
that are common to all cities. Vehicles
are not allowed to be ridden or driven
on or across any sidewalk except a reg-
ular marked crossing. The speed limit
varies in certain districts and at special
times of the day. The specified limit
for public bridges is four miles per .hour,
while for the congested districts the limit
of speed on the regular streets is from
six to ten miles. In other districts the
limit runs as high as eighteen miles per
hour, except for physicians, the city fire
department, and the hospital service.
Motor vehicles must be provided with
gongs or some sufficient alarm signal and
all vehicles must be provided with lights
between sunset and sunrise.

The board of police commissioners in
American cities has supervision of all
traffic. Pedestrians and drivers of ve-
hicles and cars must at all times comply
with any direction by hand or voice of
any member of the police force as to
placing, stopping, starting, approaching
or departing from any place.

Oakland, California, provides that
no driver shall approach within four
feet of the running board or lower step
of any street or interurban car that may
have stopped to take on or discharge pas-
sengers. St. Louis has considered a
similar ordinance, but the traffic squad
in the congested districts prevents ve-
hicles passing stopped street cars as a
matter of precaution.

A strict provision of the Oakland ord-
inance is the restriction of peddlers' carts
or wagons for the use of vending mer-
chandise. Such carts are not allowed
to stand in any street or on any side-
walk.

Boston regulations are typical and
guard the safety of people on the streets
very well. The road-beds of highways
are primarily intended for vehicles, but
pedestrians have the right to cross them
in safety, and drivers of vehicles must
exercise all possible care not to injure

330

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

them. Persons are urged to cross streets
as nearly as possible at right angles prcf-
erablj' at regular crossings. This law
adds greatly to safety, facilitates traffic
and makes it much less difficult for the
horses, which often have to bo reined
in suddenly and painfully in order to
avoid careless and unthinking persons.
Special efforts to expedite traffic on side-
walks directs pedestrians to keep to the
right while walking and when stopping
for anj^ purpose to do so on the side near
the curb and not in the way of a crossing.

The rules of Boston are both specific
and general. The specific rules are in-
tended to apply to the congested part of
the city and are to govern in the streets
and places referred to, while the general
rules are intended to apply to all sec-
tions of the city. No vehicle, except in
an emergency or to allow another vehicle
or pedestrian to cross its way is allowed
to stop in any public street except close
to the curb, and near no intersection of
a street. Vehicles can not be left stand-
ing in public streets for more than
twenty minutes, except in case of a
physician attending the sick, or a licensed
cab or truck, when the owner holds
a license from the board of street com-
missioners, authorizing him to occupy a
part of the street for the sale of mer-
chandise. Certain public streets and
squares are specified as places for the
exchange of merchandise. On certain
specified streets no vehicle is allowed to
stand for more than five minutes. The
city is now considering a proposal sub-
mitted by automobile associations asking
that parking places be established w'here
vehicles may stand for a longer time
than present traffic regulations allow,
this for the benefit of the public who
come to the business districts for shop-
ping i)urposes.

There is an ordinance prohibiting
the standing of people in the streets for
a period exceeding five minutes at a
time. Street crossings are numerous,
being placed at every intersection of
the street. Where the pavement is con-
tinuous there are no marked crossings.

There are a number of streets designated
as "one-way streets" and on these
streets vehicles can move only in such
direction as is specified.

Delivery of coal, ice, barrels or kegs,
or the backing up of vehicles to the curb,
collection of garbage, refuse, waste ma-
terial, cleaning of cess-pools and opening
of manholes is prohibited between 9 a.m.
and 5 p.m.

Pittsburgh marks crossings on block
pavements by large crossing stones but
asphalt streets are not marked at the
crossings. The director of public safety
may specify streets and certain areas
restricting the handling of certain mater-
ials and traffic as in the case just men-
tioned of Boston allowing certain excep-
tions in emergencies.

The traffic regulations of Chicago di-
rect pedestrians to cross streets at reg-
ular crossings and at right angles. They
should wait for the signal from the traffic
policeman whenever near his station
and move only in the direction of the
traffic.

Horse-drawn vehicles have the right-
of-way over power-driven vehicles, street
cars excepted, they have the right-of-
way between crossings over all other
vehicles. Drivers of all vehicles pro-
ceeding upon the street car track are
required to turn out upon signal from
the motorman or conductor of the car.
During blockades or stoppages a clear
space of ten feet must be kept open be-
tween the cars opposite an alley or an
intersection of the block if there be no
alley. Drivers of vehicles overtaking
street cars must exercise great care in
passing not to interfere with or injure
any passenger who may alight from the
car. Vehicles and street cars must stop
back of the cross-walk so as not to inter-
fere with passengers or pedestrians.
Drivers of all vehicles must sit in their
vehicles so as to have a clear view of the
traffic at all sides. Xo vehicle not in
charge of a driver is allowed to stand in
the business district between 6 a.m. and
7 p.m. for a period exceeding sixty min-
utes except in certain specified districts.

DEPARTxMENT OF LEGISLATION

331

Horses are not allowed to be left unat-
tended in any street unless securely tied
or fastened. Automobiles are prohibited
from standing in any business district
for a period exceeding sixty minutes.
Continuous pavement streets are not
marked to show places of crossing.

A. J. Cunningham.^

Speed Regulations for Motor Vehicles.

It has been said that owing to the large
number of deaths occurring annually
from vehicular, motor and transporta-
tion accidents the streets and highways
of our cities have become more perilous
than a battlefield. Most marked has
been the increase in the number of auto-
mobile fatalities. In a message to the
Chicago city council on May 13, Mayor
Harrison called attention to the great
increase in the number of automobile
and motor cycle accidents, and suggested
the advisability of more stringent regu-
lations controlling the operation of auto-
mobiles and motor cycles within the city
limits. Chicago mortality statistics
show that in the year 1907 there were
but 16 deaths due to automobile acci-
dents while in 1911 the total number was
75, or an increase of 368 per cent. The
number of deaths from this cause in
New York City in 1911 was 159.

As a result of Mayor Harrison's sugges-
tion the city council passed three ordi-
nances designed to insure the safety of
pedestrians and the fixing of responsibil-
ity for these accidents. The most impor-
tant ordinance was one prohibiting oper-
ators of motor vehicles and motor cycles
"upon overtaking any street car which
has stopped for the purpose of discharg-
ing or taking on passengers to permit or
cause said motor vehicle or motorcycle
to pass or approach within ten feet of
said car as long as the said car is so
stopped or remains standing for the pur-
pose of discharging or taking on passen-
gers." The other ordinances provide
(1) that "the light or lights illuminat-
ing or reflecting upon the number plate

1 Missouri School of Mines, RoUa, Missouri.

or plates with which a motor vehicle or
motor cycle is equipped shall be con-
trolled by a switch or similar device
placed outside of such motor vehicle
or motor cycle so as to be inaccessible
to and beyond the control of any person
riding therein or thereon, so that such
switch or device controlling such light
cannot be turned off by any occupant of
such motor vehicle or any person upon
such motor cycle while in motion.." and
(2) that "the license number plates in
the rear of motor vehicles shall from sun-
set to one hour before sunrise be unob-
structed, free from grease and dirt and
plainly legible at a distance of 150 feet."
In New York City the special commit-
tee on speed regulations in a report made
to the board of aldermen of July 2 found
that the present city ordinances regulat-
ing speed are "antiquated, ineffective
and inadequate." The ordinance regu-
lating the speed of vehicles as reported by
this committee provides (1) that no vehi-
cle shall be driven at a speed or in a
manner likely to endanger the life, limb
or property of any person; (2) that the
rate of speed shall not be greater than
15 miles per hour except on certain high-
ways passing through sections undevel-
oped and sparsely settled where the rate
shall be 18 and not to exceed 25 miles
per hour; (3) that "upon approaching
a bridge, or in turning a corner or inter-
secting public highways, or in passing a
public school on school days between the
hours of 8 o'clock a.m. and4 o'clock p.m.,
the person operating, driving or propell-
ing any vehicle subject to the provisions
of section 1 of this article shall not pro-
ceed, nor shall the owner of any such
vehicle driving thereon or therein, cause
or permit the same to proceed at a rate
of speed greater than 10 miles per hour,
and in meeting, overtaking or approach-
ing a street car which has been stopped
for the purpose of receiving or discharg-
ing passengers, every such vehicle afore-
said shall be brought to a full stop at a
point not less than six feet from such
street passenger car, and shall not pro-
ceed and pass such street passenger car

332

NATKJNAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

between said car unci the near curb or
sidewalk until such street passenger car
shall have proceeded." In addition
penalties to punish reckless drivers are
provided.

Detroit and Cleveland also have ordi-
nances similar to that of Chicago requir-
ing motor vehicles to come to a full stop
whenever street cars are discharging or
taking on passengers.

Frederick Rex.^

* .

Censorship of Moving Picture Films.
—Certain municipalities, have decided
not to rely wholly on the decisions of
such bodies as the national board of cen-
sorship, and have established or are try-
• ing to establish a system of legal re-publi-
city examination of moving picture fijms.
Probably the most comprehensive and
effective ordinance i n force is that adopted
in San Francisco, and reliable authori-
ties report that its results have been
beneficial. The ordinance provides for
an advisory board, composed of five
members, as follows: One member ap-
pointed by the mayor, one by the board
of education, one by the police board,
one by the society for the prevention of
cruelty to children, and one by the mov-
ing picture exhibitors' association.
This board must pass on all films in-
tended for exhibition, and may prose-
cute violators of the ordinance. The
board has the right of free entry to mov-
ing picture theatres. The censoring has
been done by photograph but it is now
proposed to run the films in the regular
way before the board, a license fee of SI
for each film being provided to defray the
expense of operator, room and machine.
Berkeley, California, handles the
problem by providing for an advisory
committee which may inspect moving
picture exhibitions and prosecute ex-
hibitors of improper films, but which
does no actual pre-publicity censoring.
The committee is composed of the chief
of police, the truant officer and a third
member appointed by the city council,

» Assistant city statistician of Chicago.

and has the right of free entry to mov-
ing picture theatres. The wording of
the ordinance follows very closely that
of the San Francisco measure.

Seattle has a censorship board with
little power, the right of free entry to
theatres being denied. In Chicago the
superintendent of police acts as censor.
Permits are refused for improper films,
and appeal may be made to the mayor
whose ruling is final. The Chicago vice
commission reports that this system
has given good results in the way of
eliminating the undesirable exhibitions.
Detroit deals with the question in about
the same way. In Pittsburgh the chief
ordinance officer views most of the "first-
run" pictures before they are exhibited.
The censorship question is at present
receiving a great deal of attention in
York. In 1912 an ordinance for the reg-
ulation of moving picture theatres, which
provided for police censorship with
appeal to the mayor, was defeated.
Other similar measures have been pro-
posed, and there are now a number of
ordinances before the board of aldermen,
dealing with the regulation of these
theatres, and containing various pro-
visions regarding censorship. One of
these, the "Folks" ordinance, was
passed almost unanimously by the board
last December after various influences
had caused the insertion of a censorship
clause providing in the main as follows:
The bureau of license issues the per-
mit for the exhibition of a motit)n picture
but before such permit is issued the pic-
ture must be inspected and approved by
a censor or censors authorized by the
department of education from the teach-
ers, examiners or supervising staff there-
of, and a letter sent by the censor to the
bureau fully describing the film in ques-
tion. If the film is undesirable, the
bureau of license must refuse to grant
the permit. Appeal may be had to the
Mayor. No charge is allowed for permits.
The ordinance was vetoed by Mayor
Gaynor on account of this censorship
section. The mayor expressed himself
of the opinion that such censorship was

DEPARTMENT OF LEGISLATION

333

not warranted by the condition of mov-
ing picture shows, that it might even
work actual harm, that it was contrary
to the principles of our government and,
moreover, illegal. Regarding this latter
point, the counsel for the emergencj'
committee submitted a memorandum to
the effect that moving pictures should
and can be rendered subject to the
right of the state to control stage per-
formances. A hearing has been held
by the board of aldermen on these pro-
posed ordinances, but at the present
writing no further action has been taken.

In Kansas City, Missouri, the board
of public welfare^ has proposed an ordi-
nance which provides for the examina-
tion of all moving pictures by an in-
spector of the Board before a permit for
exhibition is granted. The board of
public welfare itself would be the final
judge in an appeal.

There has been some agitation in St.
Louis on the censorship question, but
no legislation has yet been actually
brought before the municipal assembly,
owing to difference of opinion as to who
should constitute a censorship board.
One proposition was to have the board
composed of the superintendent of
schools, a business man, representatives
of the film companies and exhibitors, and
the President of the council. At pres-'
ent, undesirable exhibitions are sup-
pressed by the police on complaint.
' In Baltimore an ordinance providing
for film censorship was defeated in 1910.

In Canada, the Province of Quebec
has established a board of censors, and
no moving pictures may be shown any-
where in the province that have not
been passed on by the board. The head-
quarters of the board will be in Montreal,
where a hall will be provided for the
exhibition and censoring of pictures.
Expenses are to be paid from the pro-
ceeds of the tax on moving picture
theatres.

Andrew Linn Bostwick.*^

1 See National Municipal Review, vol. 1, p. 417.

2 Municipal reference librarian, St. Louis Public
Library, St,. Louis, Missouri.

The Common Drinking Cup and the
Common Towel. — The dangers of the
propagation of disease through the use '
of the common drinking cup were rec-
ognized as early as the sixteenth cen-
tury in connection with the visitations
of the plague, but the subject attracted
no wide interest until the discovery of
the bacteriological causation of disease.
A period of agitation has led, in the
last four years, to the enactment of a
body of statutes and the promulgation
of many administrative regulations on
the subject, looking to the removal of
this menace to the public health. The
progress of this movement to July, 1912,
with the laws and regulations thereon
in force is reviewed in Bulletin No. 57
of the United States Public Health
Service.

Down to the mid-summer of 1912
twenty-six states and one territory had
taken action in the matter, either by law
or through regulation of the health au-
thorities. In nine states and one terri-
torj^ the action was by statute. These
were Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii,
Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland,
Massachusetts, New Hampshire and
New Jersey. In seventeen states, viz.,
Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mich-
igan, Mississippi, Missouri. Montana,
Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina,
South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Vermont,
Washington and Vermont, the same end
was sought by regulations of the state
board of health. Six of the states
specifically confer authority on the
health boards to this end, while in the
others the boards work under their gen-
eral regulatory powers. A number of
important cities have taken action by
ordinance on this subject. Among these
are New York, Buffalo, Albany, St.
Louis, St. Paul, Toledo, Atlanta, Pasa-
dena and Louisville. Certain railroads
have also voluntarily abolished common
drinking cups.

The application of these rules and
regulations varies widely. In Texas the
provisions apply only to railroads, in
Indiana and Montana to schools and to

334

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

botli schools and railroads in seven
states. The more coniprelionsivc laws
include specifically one or more of these
in addition to the foregoing: hotels,
restaurants, steamboats, ferry boats,
stores, parks, streets, factories, libra-
ries, public buildings and institutions
and theatres. Louisiana includes also
"other publicly frequented places;"
New Jersey makes it apply to "all
places to which the public have the right
of access." Only Colorado and South
Dakota specifically mention churches.
In Colorado common cups may be used
anywhere "in case proper and adequate
provision be furnished for sterilizing
the same, and such cup be thoroughly
sterilized after each use thereof." Mas-
sachusetts requires the furnishing of
individual cups on trains and Missouri
recommends the provision of them.
Massachusetts has prohibited the use of
the suction shuttle popularly called the
"kiss of death" and the public use of
lung-testing machines or other such de-
vices which require the application of
the lips.

Even more recently, on the conviction
that a like measure of danger inheres in
the use of common towels similar legis-
lation has been enacted on that subject.
Nine states have taken action previous
to the legislative sessions of 191.3. Three
of these have acted through statute,
viz., Connecticut, Massachusetts and
Wisconsin, and six, Indiana, Kansas,
Missouri, South Carolina and Washing-
ton by regulation of the state board of
health.

As in the case of the drinking cup the
scope of the regulation varies from
schools in Indiana and railroads in Wash-
ington to "all places used by the public
or where persons are employed." Mis-
souri places under similar ban public
combs and brushes. A numl)er of cities,
including Chicago, Buffalo. Detroit, St.
Paul and San Francisco, have by ordi-
nance abolished the common towel.

In several departments of the federal
government, including the marine iios-

pitals, the common cup and towel have
been dispensed with.

Frank G. Bates.'

Chicago's New Bureau of Fire Pre-
vention and Public Safety. On July 22,
1912, the Chicago city council passed
an ordinance creating a bureau in the
fire department to be known as the bu-
reau of fire prevention and public safety.
New York has organized a fire preven-
tion bureau, which is almost entirely
independent of its fire department. In
Chicago, however, the bureau is wholly
within the fire department and under
the direct supervision of the fire marshal,
with an assistant fire marshal in charge.
Excepting a few technical men, known
as fire prevention engineers, all of the
field inspectors are detailed from the
parent department and are taken from
the civil service eligible list for lieuten-
ants in the fire department. Hereafter
every man before becoming an officer will
have secured experience as an inspector
in fire prevention.

The ordinance as passed is far reach-
ing and comprehensive, embracing in
considerable detail the following sub-
jects:

Article I. Draft of ordinance creat-
ing bureau, designating employees and
prescribing their powers and duties.

Article II. Classification of buildings.

Article III. Designating buildings
and conditions under which automatic
sprinklers shall be installed.

Article IV. Designating buildings in
which inside or outside stan(lpif)es shall
be installed.

Article V. Designating buildings and
classes of business in which portable
fire apparatus shall be maintained.

Article VI. Designating buildings and
conditions under which private fire bri-
gades shall be maintained, and fire
drills conducted.

Article VII. Miscellaneous provis-
ions for theatres.

' University of Iiuilaim.

DEPARTMENT OF LEGISLATION

335

I

Article VIII. In fire escapes, exits,
etc.

Article IX. Lighting and ways of
egress in certain buildings.

Article X. Construction and Safety
requirements for garages.

Article XI. Construction of dry
cleaning plants and safety requirements.

Article XII. Construction and safety
requirements for chimneys, stacks, flues,
etc.

Article XIII. Regulating sale, storage
and use of explosives.

Article XIV. Regulations for acetyl-
ene gas.

Article XV. Regulation of motion
picture films.

Article XVI. Regulating manufac-
ture, storage and sale of matches.

Article XVII. Regulating transporta-
tion, storage and handling of volatile oils.

Article XVIII. Miscellaneous pro-
visions containing 80 sections.

The force of the bureau now consists
of an assistant fire marshal as chief of
the bureau, a fire prevention engineer in
charge, a deputy fire prevention engi-
neer in charge, three fire prevention engi-
neers, one principal clerk, twenty-six
first class firemen as fire prevention in-
spectors, and two stenographers. Pol-
itics and political prestige are entirely
eliminated from the Chicago Bureau,
all positions save that of the chief, who
is appointed by the fire chief, being filled
by open competitive civil service exam-
inations. Frederick Rex.^

Chicago's New Police Ordinance. —
On December 30, 1912, the Chicago city
council passed an ordinance readjusting
the police department of the city. The
ordinance divides the entire department
into two distinct bureaus, each subordi-
nate to the general superintendent of
police. The two bureaus created are (1)
The active bureau, under the immediate
supervision of the first deputy super-
intendent of police, and (2) the clerical,
mechanical and inspection bureau which

1 Chicaao, Illinois.

is subject to the supervision of the second
deputy superintendent of police.

The ordinance provides that the first
deputy superintendent of police shall be
a member of the police force and have
charge of all matters pertaining to the
enforcement of the municipal laws and
ordinances, the prevention of crime and
the apprehension of criminals. He also
has control over the assignment and
distribution of the police force and the
regulation of street traffic.

The second deputy superintendent of
police according to the ordinance "shall
not be a member of the police force."
He is charged with the general care,
custody and inspection of the property
and records of the department, the in-
struction of the members of the police
force and of ascertaining and recording
their relative efficiency, both individual
and grouped and with the receipt and
investigation of all complaints of citi-
zens regarding members of the uni-
formed force. The censoring of moving
pictures and public performances of all
kinds is placed under the second deputy's
supervision as well as "the supervision
of the strict enforcement of all laws and
ordinances pertaining to all matters
affecting public morals."

Frederick Rex.'
*

Standard Lamp Posts. — On January
27 an ordinance was passed by the Chi-
cago city council providing for standard
lighting poles for electrical street light-
ing. All lamp posts for electric lights
are divided into three classes, namely
(1) posts for commercial incandescent
lighting; (2) posts for down town dis-
trict arc lighting; (3) posts for outlying
district arc lighting. The ordinance
makes specific provisions concerning the
quality, height, painting and equipment
of the posts in each of the three classes.
Before the erection of an electric lamp
post in any public street applica ion
must be made to the commissioner of
public works on a form prescribed by
the department of electricity.^

' Chica<ro. Illinois.

2 Frederick Rex.

336

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

II. JUDICIAL DECISIONS'

Commission Government in Missis-
sippi:— The validity of the statute enab-
ling cities in Mississippi to adopt the com-
mission form of government was upheld in
Mayor, etc., of the City of Jackson against
the State ex rel Howie, ^ against an assort-
ed variety of miscellaneous objections,
none of which have any necessary rela-
tion to the validity of the commission
form of government. A visitor from
another planet where cases are tried on
their merits, disregarding extraneous
questions (if haply there is such a place),
would be filled with amazement quite
unmingled with admiration at an exam-
ination of the large list of cases in which
the question of commission form of
government has been agitated. Among
them has been urged about every objec-
tion that ingenuity could devise or
meticulous technicality trump up, and
by far the greater majority of these
would be equally applicable to statutes
of any other subject. It is impossible
perhaps to keep all collateral questions
out of a case and still more difficult to
prevent litigants from resorting to any
possible means of winning their cases,
but a system Which actually promotes
and encourages the determination of
important causes, even temporarily,
upon grounds which have no connection
whatever with the real point at issue;
disposing of the cause without settling
the grievance, is certainly wrong some-
where.

*

Amending Commission Charters. —
The commission charter of Spokane,
Washington, provided for its amendment
bj' popular vote. It was contended in
State ex rel Hindlcy v. Sxiperior Courts
that this power applied only to such
revisory or supplemental changes as the
working of the present charter might

'Prepared by Richard W. Montague, Esq., of
the Portland, Oregon, Bar.
2 59 Southern Reporter 873.
» 126 Pacific Reporter, p. 920.

suggest, and did not include amendments
which altered or annulled the basic
plan on which the government is founded
— a curious belated echo of the argument
on the reserved right to secede and there-
by violate the original compact of Union
which once rang loud through the coun-
try. The court held that it was not its
function to classify amendments or draw
the line between such as were in harmony
with and such as were hostile to the basic
principle of the charter, but that the
whole question was a political one.
This decision is one of many — notably
the decision of the United States su-
preme court in the initiative and refer-
endum case — which mark a tendency on
the part of courts to withdraw from the
extreme position in respect of the power
of constitutional interpretation and of
the construction of legislative acts which
has been strongly criticised of late both
in the study and on the street. It may
not be true, as Mr. Dooley says, that the
"shupreme court hears the iliction re-
turns," but it is certainl}^ true that,
however slowly and cautiously, they do
yield to great currents of public opinion.
The city of Spokane was permitted to
vote upon return to the old form of
government.

. *

Swapping Water for Taxes. — ^The Ken-
tucky court of appeals held in City of
Winchester. Winchester Water Works Com-
pany,^ that an agreement between a city
and a water company whereby the com-
panj' furnished to the city water to an
amount equal to the taxes assessed upon
the system and franchises, is valid and
not an unlawful exemption of the com-
pany from taxation. The decision is
clearly correct and is supported by a
large number of authorities. The poli-
cy embodied in the law is quite as cer-
tainly unsound. Nothing rnore point-
edly marks the advance of business

* 148 Southwestern Reporter, p. 1.

DEPARTMENT OF LEGISLATION

337

morals on the part of public service cor-
porations than the increase of the prac-
tice of paying money for what they get
and not collecting money for what they
give, to and from all alike. "No passes
nor discriminations in favor of public
officers or bodies, gentlemen," said a
member of a new public utilities commis-
sion, addressing a conference of man-
agers the other day, "Let your dealings
with them be on a strictly cash basis."
The general laugh which followed was a
recognition of the old system; the fact
there was nothing conscious or embar-
rassed about it was certainly a tribute
to the new. Short cuts in services or
bookkeeping in public utility business
are pretty sure to "short-change" some-
body.

The Smoke Nuisance. — The smoke
nuisance has won another round, or
more accurately speaking, another point;
this time in New Jersey. Jersey City
adopted an ordinance declaring it un-
lawful to "permit the emission of dense
smoke from any stack connected with
any locomotive within the' city limits
which smoke contains cinders or other
substance in sufficient quantities to
cause injury to health or property."
Erie Railway Company v. Mayor, etc., of
Jersey City.^ The court declared it to
be "a fundamental proposition that the
chartered right of a railroad to operate
its line included the right to make such
noise, smoke, and smells as are really
unavoidable in the proper and careful
conduct of its business, even if some in-
jury to health or some damage to prop-
erty be caused thereby. " On this ground
the court held the ordinance invalid and
held further that a finding that more
smoke was actually emitted than was
necessary did not cure the defect. One
might fancy this decision was based on
the views of Dr. Woods Hutchinson in
a current magazine to the effect that
smoke is really pretty wholesome, and

except for the looks of it soot in very
moderate quantities as we acquire in an
ordinary smoke-laden atmosphere, is
perchance a blessing in disguise. It
should be said in justice to the court,
however, that on the same day it sus-
tained a conviction of the Erie Railroad
Company under a state statute for
maintaining a public nuisance in "emit-
ting divers noisesome, unwholesome, and
dense smoke and noxious vapors from
its engines and roundhouse in greater
quantities than were required for the
legitimate and proper use and operation
of its railroad." In the latter case the
court strongly intimates that even the
constitutional right to use soft coal can-
not be pushed to excess, and they speak
this cheering language :

"We find nothing in the charters of
the constituent companies of the defend-
ant which concedes to it the absolute
right of burning soft coal ad libitum re-
gardless of the public right, and in the
absence of such a concession we must as-
sume that while the legislature granted
to the defendant the right to operate a
railroad this right carried with it no
grant of power to commit a nuisance."
The decision makes good "reading. State
V. Erie Railway Company.^

Devoting the Whole of One's Time to
a City Office. — The requirement that a
municipal officer shall devote his whole
time to the duties of his office seems to
be pretty strictly interpreted in England.
A barrister writing for the Municipal
Journal lays it down as the law that while
a technical employee might prepare and
read a paper at a meeting of his fellow
engineers he would have to consult the
city about taking any pay for it. He
quotes a rule of the London county coun-
cil forbidding any city official to publish
a book on the title page of which or
elsewhere it appears that he is such offi-
cial. It may be surmised that that

1 84 Atlantic Reporter, 697.

* 84 Atlantic Reporter,

338

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

rule at any rate would not be often
violated in this country for at least
two good reasons. The London county
council it appears has also a regulation
prohibiting an employee to take out
patents for inventions without the
special consent of the council and on
conditions as to its free use by the city
if available for their purposes. It is
strongly insisted that the intention to
have the entire benefit of the employee's
services is at the maximum in regard
to principal officials and lessens in its
force with the subordinate ranks ; a doc-
trine which sounds incredibly democratic
to the inhabitants of this democratic
republic.

Making Cities Pay for Improvements.
— Decisions have been previously noted
in the National Municipal Review
upon the liability of a city to pay for
public improvements where the pro-
ceedings required to fix the liability of
the abutting property owners had not
been properly carried out, notwithstand-
ing provisions both of the law and the
contract that those doing the work should
look to the fund derived from the bene-
fitted property alone. The decisions re-
ferred to were placed on .the ground that
it was the duty of the city to take the
proceedings necessary to fix the liabil-
ity in proper and legal form and that its
failure to do so was a wrong which
neither statute nor contract could ex-
cuse. The supreme court of Iowa in
First National Bank v. Emmetshurg,^
reaches the same result by a somewhat
different route. It holds that in such a
case the contract being fully performed
and the city having had the benefit of
the improvements is estopped to deny
that it had power to make them. This
doctrine depends upon the further hold-
ing that the making of such public im-
provements as sewers and street paving
is an exercise, not of the city's public
and governmental, but of its private and

» 138 N. W. Rep., 45.

proprietary powers, wherein it is prac-
tically a private corporation. The dis-
tinction is one difficult to maintain with
any logical strictness or practical con-
venience, and the estoppel doctrine is
very likely to bind a city with dangerous
severity to bad or improvident con-
tracts. The other doctrine, it is sub-
mitted, has the advantage in simplicity
and exactness of application to the facts,
and is especially preferable in that under
it the city would probably not be bur-
dened in any case beyond the reasona-
ble value of the improvement without
regard to the contract price. In either
there is a marked tendency to require
fair and honest conduct in the teeth of
strict requirements of law.

The Dictagraph Again. — More coun-
cilmen have been getting into trouble
with dictagraphs. In Atlantic City,
New Jersey, one of these wicked inven-
tions was installed in a room where a
supposed wealthy promoter was sepa-
rated from large portions of tainted
money by members of the city's govern-
ing body desirous of transmuting base
franchises into gold. A stenographer sta-
tioned without took down the conver-
sation and read it later in corroboration
of the supposed promoter, who was really
a detective hired for the purpose. The
reporter's evidence was admitted. It is
hard to see how it could be excluded
since it is a matter of physical demon-
stration that the instrument transmits
the sounds in the room where it is in-
stalled— even very faint ones — to the
stenographer without, and his testimony
therefore stands on precisely the same
footing as that of anyone who had heard
the conversations while himself in the
room. Rulings to the contrary, if any,
must be put on the ground that there is
not sufficient evidence that the instru-
ment has been installed, or that the opera-
tor has heard the conversation over it.
In any case the testimony has no pecu-
liar value — more than if the listener had

DEPARTMENT OF LEGISLATION

339

bored a hole in the wall and put his ear
to it. The efficacy of the instrument
as a detecter of fraud rests in the fact
that it can be disguised as a typewriter,
a filing case, or any article of furniture
desired and deceive the unwary grafter.
Suspicion of them is becoming pretty
prevalent, however.

Municipal Ice for Cities. — The Geor-
gia supreme court in the case of Holton
V. the City of Camilla^ has held that the
issue of bonds by the city for the pur-
pose of acquiring an ice and coal stor-
age plant was constitutional. The court
declared that such an act was constitu-
tional because it is understood that a
city has a right to bring water from a
long distance so as to make it purer.
Therefore in analogy to this right it has
the further right to carry it if it can in
pipes, "and if it be necessary to the
welfare, comfort and convenience of the
inhabitants that its temperature be low-
ered, it being used for drinking purposes,
why cannot the city," the court asks,
"provide for the delivery of a part of
it in a frozen condition to be used in
cooling such part of the balance as is
used for drinking purposes? Is the dif-
ference between water in a frozen con-
dition and in a liquid form a radical one?
Upon what principle can the doctrine
rest that liquid water may be delivered
by the city to its inhabitants by flowage

1 134 Georgia Supreme Court Reports, 560.

through pipes, but that water in frozen
blocks could not be delivered by wagon
or otherwise? If the city has the right
to furnish its inhabitants with water
in a liquid form we fail to see any reason
why it cannot furnish it to them in a
frozen condition." Under its police
power the court held that the city has
a right to purify water. Warm water
is just as deleterious to public health as
impure water and therefore the city may
cool it. The court further held that
there is nothing in the objection that
the city may be said to be engaged in
manufacturing. Equally well might it
be said to be manufacturing when by the
use of a filtering process it changes im-
pure water into that which is pure.
"When in connection with its water-
works system it produces ice, it merely
by certain processes changes the form
and temperature of a part of the water
supply by that system. "^

The Attorney-General of Ohio has

ruled that under the new constitutional
amendments cities cannot engage in the
business of manufacturing and distribut-
ing ice. He makes a distinction between
public utilities such as gas, heat and light,
street car and water works plants and ice
manufacturing plants by declaring that
the latter do not like the others use the
public streets and thoroughfares.

2 From Hubert J. Horan, Jr., of the Philadelphia
Bar.

DEPARTMENT OF REPORTS AND

DOCUMENTS

I. CRITICAL AND INTERPRETATIVE
Edited by John A. Fairlie

Professor of Political Science, University of Illinois

State Public Service Commission Re-
ports.'— The movement started in 1907
by New York and Wisconsin toward the
establishment of state commissions for
the general regulation of public utilities
has steadily spread until at present such
commissions have been established in
nearly a score of states. The reports
and decisions of the more important of
these commissions form the most valua-
ble source of information upon the gen-
eral subject of the regulation of public
service corporations.

I Report of the Public Service Commission, First
District, New York, for year ending December 31,
1910, 3 volumes.

Reports of Decisions of the Public Service Com-
mission, First District, New York, volume 1, 1912,
789 pp.

Fifth Annual Report, Public Service Commission
Second District, New York, year ending December
31, 1911, 3 volumes.

Forty-third Annual Report of the Board of Rail-
road Commissioners, State of Massachusetts, for
year ending December 31, 1911, 450 pp.

Index-Digest of Decisions of Board of Railroad
Commissioners, Massachusetts, from 1870 to 1911,
115 pp.

Second Annual Report of Board of Public Util-
ity Commissioners, State of New Jersey, for year
1911,478 pp.

Report of Public Service Commission, .State of
Maryland, for year 1911, 724 pp. and Index.

First Biennial Report of the Public Service Com-
mission of New Hampshire for period ending Novem
ber 30, 1911, Volume 1, 593 pp. and index.

Fourth Annual Report of the Corporation Com-
mission of the State of Oklahoma for the year ending
June 30, 1911, 822 pp. and index.

Twenty-first Annual Report of the Railroad Com-
mission of Texas for the year 1911, 482 pp. and index.

Orders Issued by the Public Service Commission
of Ohio In formal proceedings from July 1, 1911 to
May 1, 1912, 124 pp. and index.

Report of the Railroad Commission of California
for 1912.

Pamphlets on Public Utility Regulation, Issued
by the National Civic Fcder.aflon, 1912-13.

The report of the New York commis-
sion of the first district for the year 1910
was issued in three volumes, the first of
which was noticed in the January, 1912,
number of this Review. The second vol-
ume contains the formal orders issued
by the commission during 1910. The
principal matters regarding which orders
were issued by the commission were rates
and fares, operation, service and equip-
ment, reports to be filed by corporations,
the abatement of nuisances and the elim-
ination of grade crossings. The third
volume of the report contains a compila-
tion by the chief statistician of the com-
mission of the statistics of transporta-
tion companies derived from the annual
reports made by them to the commission.
These reports were the first made under
the new accountancy rules prescribed
by the commission in 1908. An attempt
has been made to analyze the returns
and to draw conclusions. With regard
to the relation between the increase of
street railway traffic and the increase of
population, the conclusion is reached
that "traffic may be expected to increase
in New York City at twice the rate of
increase of population." The factors in
this problem are illustrated by a number
of interesting diagrams.

During 1912 the commission for the
first district issued a volume containing
all the opinions rendered by the commis-
sion in cases decided between July 1,
1907 and September 1, 1909. The opin-
ions relate principally to such matters
as the granting of franchises, bond issues,
rates and charges, safety devices and
transfers. The volume contains, at page
70-5, the opinion in the well-known Coney

340

REPORTS AND DOCUMENTS

341

Island rate case. At page 756 is printed
the opinion of Commissioner Maltbie
on the requirement of the adoption of a
uniform system of accounts for transpor-
tation and lighting companies.

The New York commission of the
second district differs from that for the
first district chiefly in having to deal
with a larger number of corporations,
but of smaller size and capitalization.
At the end of 1911 there were 940 public
service corporations subject to the super-
vision of the former commission, of
which 62 were steam railroads. In the
report of the commission for 1911 it is
stated that a fu'Uer inspection of such
roads was made by the commission in
that year than in previous years, atten-
tion being directed not only to construc-
tion and maintenance as related to safety
but also to sufficiency of service and
general conduct of business. The com-
mission has also pushed rapidly the work
of eliminating grade crossings, the ex-
pense of which is borne in part by the
state. A series of interesting tables is
published in the report of the commission
exhibiting the results of the investiga-
tion of the quality of gas furnished con-
sumers and of the efficiency of telephone
service. An appendix contains a plan
for a uniform system of accounts for
telephone corporations. Volumes 2 and
3 of the report contain abstracts of the
reports made to the commission by all
corporations under its supervision.

The board of railroad commissioners
of Massachusetts has jurisdiction over
steam railroads and street railways.
The report of the board for 1911 contains
a tabulation of the returns received
from such companies and a compilation
of the orders issued by the board. Among
the investigations conducted by the
board has been one as to the types of
fenders used on street cars in the prin-
cipal American and European cities. A
general tendency is discovered toward
the abandonment of the use of protrud-
ing fenders and the adoption of automat-
ic wheel-guards. The report of the board
is accompanied by a separate volume

containing a useful index-digest of the
the reported decisions, precedents and
and general principles enunciated by
the board from 1870 to 1911.

The New Jersey board of public util-
ity commissioners is an outgrowth of
the former board of railroad commis-
sioners. The transformation took place
by an act of 1910, but the powers of the
new board were by that act allowed to
remain inadequate for effective work.
In particular, the rate-making power
was not granted. By an amendatory
act of 1911, however, this defect was
remedied, the jurisdiction of the board
was expanded, and since that time it
has taken on new life and activity.
The problems with which the board has
had especially to deal are commutation
rates and charges for gas and telephone
service. According to its report for 1911
the board has made substantial progress
toward a satisfactory settlement of the
question of commutation rates to New
York City, through the cooperation of
the interstate commerce commission.
The report contains a synopsis of the
decisions and orders of the board. It
is recommended by the board that the
public utility law be amended by the
adoption of the device of the indeterm-
inate franchise, similar to that in the
Wisconsin law, to be compulsory for all
new public utilities and permissive,
where possible, for existing public utili-
ties.

The report of the public service com-
mission of Maryland for 1911 deals prin-
cipally with the opinions and orders of
the commission upon such matters as
applications for authority to issue stocks
and bonds, complaints of excessive or
discriminatory rates, mergers of cor-
porations, accidents and grade cross-
ings. An appendix contains a report
upon telephone rates in Baltimore.

Under a law which went into effect
in 1912 the jurisdiction of the California
railroad commission has been consider-
ably enlarged so as to include street rail-
ways, gas and electric light companies
and other public utilities in addition to

342

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

railroads. The number of members of
the commission has been increased from
three to five and they are now appointive
by the governor instead of elective by
popular vote, as was formerly the case.
The enlarged jurisdiction of the com-
mission undoubtedly increases its useful-
ness, as is indicated by its unusually
full and valuable report. The commis-
sion has been engaged in making an
exhaustive list of the public utilities over
which it has supervision. It has heard
numerous complaints as to service and
petitions to increase rates and has dis-
posed of such cases by the issuance of
suitable orders. The work of the com-
mission has been systematized and spe-
cialists have been employed to manage
the technical branches of the work con-
nected with public utility regulation.

The report of the corporation com-
mission of Oklahoma indicates that that
body has been principally occupied with
rate cases. The orders of the Commis-
sion establishing railroad, express and
telegraph rates have tended toward rad-
ical reductions, and in a number of
cases have been set aside as unreasonable
by decisions of the United States courts.
The commission has represented shippers
of the state before the interstate com-
merce commission in a number of com-
plaints with regard to interstate rates.
The report contains the text of the
orders of the commission and statistics of
corporations over which the commission
has supervision.

The Ohio public service commission
has issued a pamphlet containing the
text of its orders issued in formal pro-
ceedings during the past your. These
consist principally of orders issued in
cases of applications of railroads and
other corporations to issue stock and
bonds.

The report of the railroad commission
of Texas contains the orders issued and
the tariffs and rules adopted and promul-
gated by the commission during the past
year. In the appendices appear num-
erous statistical tables dealing with the
railroads of Texas.

The department on regulation of in-
terstate and municipal utilities of the
National Civic Federation has recently
conducted an investigation into the
regulation of public utilities in the prin-
cipal states of this country and in Eng-
land. Examination has been made of
state laws, court decisions and decis-
ions of public utility commissions and
digests of these materials have been pre-
pared and issued in a series of pamphlets
dealing with such topics as the organi-
zation of commissions, franchises, regu-
lation of stock and bond issues, and reg-
ulation of service and rates. Special
attention has been given in the investi-
gation to the regulation of capitaliza-
tion, the device of the sliding scale,
profit sharing, and to the question of
state versus municipal regulation. On
the basis of the information collected a
model public utilities law has been
drafted.

J. M. Mathews.

University of Illinois.

*

Reports of Municipal Civil Service
Commissions. — One cannot examine the
recent annual reports of civil service com-
missions in the most important cities of
the country without a growing feeling
of optimism. In cities like Philadel-
phia, where the merit system has been
for many years a by-word and a laugh-
ing stock, it is now a real system with
real merit. Elsewhere new, as well as
the old, principles of civil service admin-
istration are being developed and im-
proved and there is increasing recogni-
tion of the duty which civil service com-
missions must perform if they are to
meet the insistent and intelligent de-
mands for business-like efficiency in the
public service.

The report of the Philadelphia com-
mission for the j-ear ending December 31,
1911, is an outline of the plans of work
which the present commissioners, who
came into office under Mayor Blanken-
burg on December 6, 1011, had mapped
out for themselves and the principal

REPORTS AND DOCUMENTS

343

steps taken in the twenty-five days of
their term. 'Discussing the question of
classification, the commission points out
that the exempt and non-competitive
class had been unduly extended and said,
"this commission resolved to advance
the work of maintaining the competitive
principle through reformation of both
of these classes," and further on it
points out that, "One of the earliest
acts of this commission was to transfer
from the non-competitive to the com-
petitive class the clerical and other em-
ployees of the law department below the
grades of assistant city solicitors. The
commission began arrangement also to
include under the competitive examina-
tion system the non-competitives gen-
erally in the offices of the mayor and
directors of the executive departments
and including the employees of the civil
service commission's office who, under
the preceding administration, had been
placed in the non-competitive class."
In the matter of promotions the present
commission found that the old rule allow-
ing the appointing officers to appoint
any person on an eligible list establish-
ed through a promotion examination
amounted to nothing more than a non-
competitive system and practically
broke down the promotion system.
"The present commission therefore
planned a rule to be adopted early in
January, 1912, for certification of eligi-
bles to the appointing officer in the man-
ner prescribed by law for making origi-
nal appointments, requiring that he
make his appointment from among the
four highest upon the list and that each
name be certified four times."

The physical requirements for patrol-
men and firemen were found upon exam-
ination to be below the standards else-
where. The commission therefore sus-
pended work upon the examinations
which had been held for these positions
in October, raised the physical require-
ments, and then ordered all who had
taken part in examinations under the
old requirements to present themselves
for a physical reexamination, which, if

passed, would allow them to enter the
next examination without new applica-
tion. Other evils which the commission
says it intended in its new rules to cor-
rect were connected with the reinstate-
ment of policemen and firemen, the ex-
cessive number of provisional appoint-
ments without competition because of
the absence of an eligible list, and the
faulty system of registration and cer-
tification of laborers. This last evil
was particularly bad, because the rule
in regard to the certification of laborers
allowed the appointing officer to appoint
anyone they pleased from the register,
with the result, as the commission pointed
out, that it "practically left groundless
the hope of applicants to be appointed
if unable to procure endorsers to influ-
ence the appointing powers." Another
serious abuse in the same connection was
the practice of assigning laborers to
"clerical, skilled labor, or other work
rightfully belonging to persons who have
passed competitive examination." "To
prevent the appointing officer from assign-
ing laborers to positions in the competi-
tive class and to confine them strictly to
the class in which the law places them
has been among the purposes of the com-
mission in framing new rules generally
to become effective as early as possible."
The report of the Chicago commission
is of particular interest as indicating the
extent to which that commission has de-
veloped efficiency in the service through
standardization of work, grading of the
service and investigations into the effi-
ciency of the various departments; ' 'The
positions," says the report for 1911, "are
now graded on a duties basis, schedules
of grades, titles and salaries are uniform
for positions in the engineering, clerical,
police, operating engineering, fire and
labor services, positions in the medical,
inspection, supervising, skilled labor and
labor services have been classified and
uniform schedules of grades and titles
adopted. Schedules of uniform salaries
in the inspection, medical and supervis-
ing services are now before the commis-
sion for adoption."

344

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL Rt:VIEW

The idea of departmental organization
charts has been further developed and
improvements in the methods of their
preparation have been made. The com-
mission points out that, "the prepara-
tion of these charts has served two pur-
poses, one administrative and the other
educational. Since preparing the first
charts showing departmental organiza-
tion and distribution of employees im-
portant changes have been made by
means of consolidation and further co-
ordination between different depart-
ments. In all cases the commission has
cooperated with departmental officials
and members of the city council in the
analysis and presentation of constructive
recommendations for the purpose of in-
creasing the efficiency and economy of
the administration and amending the
same where such has been amended.
Several department heads used the com-
mission's analysis of departmental ac-
tivities in making their appropriation
estimates for 1912."

The efficiency division has conducted
a number of investigations, the most im-
portant of which was the investigation
into conditions in the police department,
and "it has aided department heads in
the solution of many problems in refer-
ence to the organization, S3'stcm and
methods of controlling efficienc}' of in-
dividuals and groups of employees in
the service." Among the departments
which have had the benefit of the expert
services of the efficiency department are
the commissioner of public works, the
bureau of food inspection under the
commissioner of health, the commis-
sioner of buildings, and the public
library.

In New York City the commission in
its report for 1911 notes that, "the
volume of the business of the commission
continues to increase steadily and

the commission finds difficulty
in satisfying the demands of the service
and keeping within its appropriation."
The statistics in the report show that
there were 52,929 places under the jur-
isdiction of the conmiission, of which

29,201 were in the competitive class.
During the year it held, including non-
competitive and promotion examina-
tions, 354 tests, involving the examina-
tion of 18,053 candidates.

Among the improvements which it
notes particularly are the establishment
of a bureau of investigation to examine
into the character and record of candi-
dates for patrolman and eventually for
the entire service, and the extension and
development of the promotion system.
Referring to the promotion system and
the efficiency records which form a part
of the system, the report says: "Every
candidate knows that his ability to rise
in the service depends on his own merits.
This is a splendid device for good gov-
ernment and for the recognition of abil ity
and faithful service." The commission
also points, with pardonable pride, to
the high character and marked success
of the promotion examination last year
for chief of the New York City fire de-
partment, and says: "It is acknowledged
generally that this is the most important
position ever filled by competitive exam-
ination in this or any other country and
the experiment, costly and exhaustive
though it was, shows that practically
any public office that does not involve
the creation of and responsibility for
administrative policies may be satis-
factorily filled by intelligent and just
competition."

Two long standing abuses which were
corrected were the practice of allowing
eligibles to waive their rights to other
positions on the eligible list and altera-
tion of efficiency records by department
officers. The practice of recognizing
"waivers" was without any recognition
by law and resulted in pressure being
brought to bear on persons who were at
the head of eligible lists or were in line
for promotion to get out of the way in
order to allow the appointment or pro-
motion of some favorite. The commis-
sion properly took the position that a
waiver should be treated as a declina-
tion, which deprived the candidate of
right to another certification for the

REPORTS AND DOCUMENTS

345

same position at the same salary, and
the report says: "In one week that evil
had come to an end in every department
of the city government." Administra-
tive officers were denied the right to
alter efficiency records because to allow
such alterations would break down the
promotion system. The commission not
only insisted that such alterations should
not be made, but "decided that wherever
records are not maintained properly and
subject to frequent inspection by its
(commission's) examiners no promotion
will be allowed in that department and
vacancies will have to be filled from open
competitive lists."

In Kansas City, where the civil serv-
ice law has been be operation a little
over two years, the commission had to
meet the difficult problem of filling de
novo every position in the classified serv-
ice. Its first annual report, dated Jan-
uary 16, 191], which is the last report at
hand, has a full statement of the pur-
poses, policies and methods which the
commission had determined upon. Af-
ter careful study and consultation with
experts, the commissioners agreed upon
their main lines of policy described in
part in their report as follows:

First, to employ as examiners for each
examination a board of citizen experts —
men of well recognized ability and integ-
rity, specialists in the duties of the par-
ticular positions to be filled — who could
cooperate with the commissioners and
secretary in framing examination ques-
tions, conducting the oral examinations
in person and in actually grading the
papers .... Second, in starting
the system it was deemed best to hold
examinations for the higher positions

first Third, the board

found it impossible under the circum-
stances to make a complete scientific
classification of the city service.

. The board, therefore, attempted
no further classification than that which
is embraced in the various ordinances
of the city creating the several positions
and accordingly proceeded to hold exam-
inations for the several positions in the
different departments, taking them in
order as they appear on the payroll in
the comptroller's office.

Following these policies, the commis-
sion in its first six months held 148 ex-
aminations, in which 1,866 candidates
took part, and filled 366 positions from
the resulting eligible lists. The list of
positions for which competitive examina-
tions were held includes such important
places as that of commissioner of street
cleaning, superintendent of street re-
pairs, city engineer, assistant city coun-
sellor and superintendent of Swope Park.
Specimen examination papers printed in
an appendix to the report show that these
tests were developed along highly prac-
tical lines.

Not the least interesting part of this
report is the statement of the economy
and efficiency which have followed the
application of the merit system in Kan-
sas City. In the office of the inspector
of weights and measures the collections
for the four months of September, Octo-
ber, November and December of the
year 1910 amounted to $1,018.70, as
against $853.55 for the corresponding
months of the preceding year. "The
market master certified by the board col-
lected during the months of September,
October, November and December, 1910,
$433.25 more market fees, $1,198.55 more
market rents and $1195 more wagon rents
than his predecessor during the corres-
ponding months." The city license in-
spector showed "the astonishing in-
crease in collections of his department
for November and December, 1910, of
$13,638.51 over the corresponding months
of the previous year." Numerous other
instances of a similar sort are cited in
this report.

In rather striking contrast to the
report of the Kansas City commission
is that of the Cleveland commission for
the year ending December 31, 1911.
The report is brief, taking only about
two and one-half pages. The work of
the commission covered the following
points — appeals from dismissals, the
holding of examinations and revision of
rules relating to such matters as lay-OS's
and reinstatements, physical qualifica-

346

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

tions of patrolmen, emergency appoint-
ments, etc. With reference to the last-
mentioned activity the Cleveland report
reads as follows:

During the year the commission in a
few instances secured outside assistance
in the preparation of examinations,
chiefly in connection with the more tech-
nical branches of the service While the
commission here make grateful acknowl-
edgement of the valuable help receiv-
ed in these instances, it still believes it
to be impractical to attempt to apply
this method to the examinations gen-
erally.

The Municipal Association of Cleve-
land has severely criticised the commis-
sion for its insistence on the antiquated
idea of the commissioners themselves
setting and rating examination papers.
The amount of work which this entailed
upon the commission may be appreciated
when it is considered that according to
the report of the secretary the commis-
sioners had to review approximately
18,000 examination papers and over 98,000
answers on a great variety of subjects.
The Cleveland commission evidently has
something to learn from Kansas City.
Robert W. Belcher.
New York City.

*

Taxation of Land Values. — The United
Committee for the Taxation of Land
Values is a central organization com-
posed of representatives from the Eng-
lish, Scotch, Welsh and Irish leagues.
There are many subordinate leagues in
England and Scotland. The fifth annual
report of the United Committee speaks
in a hopeful tone as it records the year's
work. It calls attention to the gen-
eral work of agitation and propaganda
throughout the United Kingdom and
prints a long and imposing list of meet-
ings held in all parts of the country,
addressed by members of parliament and
others well known to the voters. It re-
cites the work of the "land values" group
in parliament and the presentation of
the land and taxation reform memorial,
signed by 170 members out of a total of

670, and notes the significance of the
response of the prime minister that "he
regarded the question of great import-
ance, both in its urban and in its rural
aspects, although in his opinion, the
rural aspect was more urgent at the
present time."

It records the victories at bye-elec-
tions, where at North-Wcst, Norfolk,
Holmfirth and Hanley, brilliant victor-
ies were won by candidates who stood
unequivocally for the taxation of land
values and who subordinated every other
question to that one. And finalh' it
shows a revenue account disclosing
nearly £6000 received and disbursed in
support of their cause.

To the average American, however
great his interest in economic reform, it
is a little difficult to understand the
British situation, because he must con-
stantly keep in mind the difference be-
tween America and Great Britain. Here
we have 48 state legislatures competent
to alter and amend state tax laws; there
they have one imperial parliament which
alone can deal with this question. Here
we have land and buildings assessed
regularly and taxed each year for the
support of government. There they
have the remnant of a "land tax" based
on an assessment made two centuries
ago and local taxes called rates imposed
on tenants and occupiers in proportion
to the rent paid.

Into this situation, the British land
value taxers have interjected the idea
of assessing and taxing land values.
This secrJis so natural to us that we can
scarcely understand the stir that it
makes when it is proposed in a country
where such a thing does not exist. But,
as single taxers, they limit their proposal
to the taxation of land values and not of
improvements, and that can be per-
rectly understood here.

The finance act of 1909 (i.e. the im-
perial budget of that year) carried with
it the valuation of all land in the United
Kingdom and imposed a tax of a half
penny in the pound on all agricultural
land fit for suburban development. The

REPORTS AND DOCUMENTS

347

valuation of all the land in the United
Kingdom is in progress, but sometime
will be required for its completion.
When it is completed there will probably
be a still stronger demand for an in-
creased tax on land values and for an
act that will permit municipalities to im-
pose local rates on land values.

E. L. Heydecker.

East St. Louis East Side Levee and
Sanitary District. ^-An interesting and un-
usual method of carrying out and financ-
ing an extensive public improvement
affecting a number of neighboring munic-
ipalities is being undertaken by the East
Side Levee and Sanitary District. This
district covers an area of 96 square miles
forming part of what is known as the
American Bottom on the Illinois side of
the Mississippi River opposite St. Louis
and includes the cities of East St. Louis,
Granite City, Madison, Venice, Brooklyn,
Mitchell, Nameoki and Cahokia in St.
Clair and Madison counties, with a popu-
lation of over 80,000. The low lands of this
section have been subjected to the floods
of the Mississippi River and its tribu-
taries, doing immense damage to crops
and lands as well as in the several cities
and villages. After engineering studies
by United States officers and a local
association, an act of the Illinois gen-
eral assembly of 1907 was passed under
which the district has been organized.
In 1908 the district was formed, by pop-
ular vote, and a board of five trustees
elected.

The law authorizing this district is
an adoptive act, of a type highly devel-
oped in Illinois as a means of overcoming
constitutional restrictions. It follows
some of the general principles of the law
for the organization of drainage districts,
but with important modifications some-
what like those in the act under which
the Chicago sanitary and ship canal has
been constructed. The district is a

' Proceedings of the Board of Trustees of the East
Side Levee and Sanitary District, 1908-1912. Mes-
sages of President H. D. Sexton, 1911 and 1912.

distinct municipal corporation with
power to levy taxes and borrow money
over and above the financial powers of
the cities and other municipalities in
the same teritory. This multiplication
of overlapping authorities is one of the
banes of local government in Illinois,
but it seems to be the most feasible way
of carrying out certain large public
works under the provisions of the present
state constitution.

To meet the conditions a series of
related works have been planned and
have been partially undertaken. These
include the diversion of Cahokia Creek
from its present course east of the river
cities directly to the Mississippi River in
the north of the district, levees along
the river front and on the southern
boundary back to the bluffs, and a sys- ,
tem of drainage canals within the dis-
trict. The whole work is estimated to
cost $6,600,000. The diversion channel
has been completed, and the levee has
been built from the diversion channel
almost across the river front of East
St. Louis.

Under the. law the district trustees
are authorized to levy an annual tax of
2 per cent on the taxable value of prop-
erty in the district and to issue bonds
up to 5 per cent of the taxable value.
By the revenue law, the taxable value
is one-third of the "full value" as de-
termined by the assessors; and in fact
is a smaller fraction of the true value of
property. Under these provisions the
trustees could issue bonds, at the present
taxable valuation, for less than a million
dollars, and levy less than four hundred
thousand dollars a year in taxes. Under
the usual method of issuing long term
bonds, it would take about seventeen
years to complete the work. To raise
the funds more quickly an extraordinary
use of the bonding power has been pro-
posed and in part followed. Instead of
issuing twenty year bonds, the trustees
have borrowed up to the limit on one
and two year bonds; and the taxes to
pay interest and principal on these bonds
must be levied, although this calls for a

348

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

higher rate of taxation than the normal
limit of two per cent. By continuing
this process, paying off and issuing half
a million dollars in bonds each year, it
is estimated that funds can be raised to
complete the project in about ten years
more.

*

Bibliographical and Library Notes. —
The Division of Recreation of the Rus-
sell Sage Foundation (400 Metropolitan
Tower, New York City) has issued
as publication 121 a "Recreation Bibliog-
raphy" of 37 pages. It is a classified,
annotated, and select list aiming particu-
larly to note titles that most definitely
meet the demands of the present day.
In the preface the publishers request
to be advised of the appearance of new
'material on this subject as the bibliog-
raphy will be revised from time to time.
For the convenience of those ordering
from the list a page and a half is de-
voted to an alphabetical list of publish-
ers with addresses. Entries are fre-
quently priced.

Recent numbers of Special Libraries
continue of interest for their municipal
affairs data. The June 1912 issue prints
another bibliography of "Public Utility
References," p. 133-13G, a "Selected
List of Recent Available Collections of
Laws and Allied Material" which notes
several compilations of municipal ordi-
nances as well; its "Current References"
include titles on charities, city planning,
fire prevention, high schools, street
lighting, etc., and its "Bibliographies"
section notes recent bibliograpies on
city planning, excess condemnation,
municipal welfare, and public utilities.

Miss Imhoff's paper on "Cataloguing
for Legislative Reference Work" (Sep-
tember issue) applies almost equally as
well to municipal reference libraries as
far as principles are concerned; pages
154-158 present a list of references on
motion pictures including laws and leg-
islation and bibliographies noted include
educational museums and the social
evil.

The October issue's "References on
Special Libraries" covers municipal
reference libraries under the title "leg-
islative reference."

The American Library Annual 1911-
1912 (Publishers' Weekly Office, X. Y.)
pp. 83-103 lists bibliographies that have
appeared in 1911. Ten entries occur
under the subject Municipal Government
and many under specific headings for
phases of municipal activity.

That public libraries in cities where
there is no municipal reference library
are alive to the general public interest
in municipal affairs is evidenced by the
numerous lists of references on various
municipal topics that continue to appear
in library bulletins and as separate pub-
lications in pamphlet form. A recent
illustration is the Jersey City library's
list of 22 pages on municipal governement.
What library bulletins for the last eleven
years have been published on municipal
subjects may be learned by consulting
the "Index to reference Lists Published
by Libraries, 1901-1906, inclusive" pub-
lished in the Bulletin of Bibliography
(Bost. Book Company) volume 4, 159-
166, and volume 5, 17-20. The "Index"
for 1907-08, 1909, 1910, 1911 will be found
in the same publication as follows : 1907
-1908 in volume 5: 125-126 and 149-
152; 1909 in volume 6: 74-77; 1910 in vol-
ume 0: 177-180; 1911 in volume 6: 303-
306.

These cumulations have been re-
printed separately and may be obtained
from the publishers of the Bulletin.

For earlier library bulletins a key to
reference lists published will be found in
Alice Newman's "Index to subject. Bib-
liographies in Library Bulletins to De-
cember 31, 1897," published as New York
State Library Bulletin, Bibliography No.
14, Albany 1898.

The Bulletin of the New York Public
Library for September, 1912, contains
Part I of a "List of City Charters, ordi-

REPORTS AND DOCUMENTS

349

nances and Collectd Documents." The
October Bulletin contains a "List of
Works on City Wastes and Street Hy-
giene."

John B. Kaiser.
Urbana, Illinois.

Civic Surveys. — Pittsburgh. The Re-
port of the Economic Survey of Pitts-
burgh, by J. T. Holdsworth, Ph.D. is a
substantial volume of over 200 pages,
with many illustrations, especially of
vporkmen's houses in Pittsburgh and
other cities. The survey was made un-
der authority of the mayor and council,
and embraces investigations in a wide
range of topics, such as the cost of liv-
ing, recreation facilities, social surveys,
municipal taxation, uneconomical use of
land, municipal economy and efficiency
and municipal reference library. The de-
tailed report is preceded by a summary
of findings and recommendations. The
first fundamental need is held to be the
eradication of smoke, the second great
need is for a large increase in the sup-
ply of comfortable sanitary workmen's
homes.

The major portion of the report was
submitted in manuscript in March, 1912;
and it is published under date of May
15. A note by Mr. Holdsworth as the
report went to press October 1 records
that several of the important betterments
recommended had been accomplished or
were in process of early realization.

Atlanta. The commitee on municipal
research of the Atlanta Chamber of Com-
merce has published reports of a pre-
liminary survey of the city government
by Herbert R. Sands and S. G. Lindholm
of the New York bureau of municipal
research. One' report covers the general
organization and administration of the
city government, except the health and
educational departments, which are
covered in the other report. While
recognizing much to commend, the re-
ports purposely emphasize the critical
and constructive suggestions. The im-
mediate steps urged are the establish-

ment of a bureau of municipal research
and a simpler form of government and
the adoption of more efficient business
methods.

The Chamber of Commerce has also
brought about the creation of the Atlanta
Improvement Commission, including cit-
izens and city and county officials, to
undertake the preparation of a city plan
for the development of the city.

Chicago. A report on appropriations
and expenditures for the'bureau of streets
in the City of Chicago has been issued
by the efficiency division of the munic-
ipal civil service commission, as the re-
sult of an inquiry conducted at the re-
quest of the finance committee of the
city council. This is based on an in-
vestigation of the cleaning and repair of
streets and the removal of garbage and
other refuse, with an analysis of the dis-
tribution of funds by wards and a dis-
cussion of uniform standards and sched-
ules, on the basis of which estimates by
wards for the year 1913 were prepared.

Baltimore. The bureau of state and
municipal research issued in January 18,
1913, report no. 2 on "The Baltimore
Budget." This is a study of the receipts
and expenditures of the city from 1900
to 1913, inclusive, based on the ordinance
of estimates for the various years and
the estimates of receipts on which the
board of estimates based its action.
The report is a 16 page quarto, illustra-
ted with six charts.

County Administration. — The in-
creased attention being given to prob-
lems of county administration is well
illustrated by a number of reports on
county affairs recently published. The
Chicago bureau of public efficiency has
added to its former publications reports
on inquiries into the organization and
administration of the clerks of the cir-
cuit, superior and county courts and the
sheriff of Cook county, the growing cost
of elections in Chicago and Cook County,
and a protest against a contract for the
purchase of voting machines.

350

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

The Municipal Association of Cleve-
land has published a report of an inves-
tigation of the coroner's office in Cuy-
ahoga County.

An investigation into the affairs of
Hudson County, N. J., made by order
of Justice Francis J. Swayze on request of
the board of chosen freeholders, has re-
sulted in a series of reports made be-
tween June 77 and October 31, 1912,
which together have been published in
a pamphlet of 225 pages. These reports
have been distributed through the Cit-
izen's Federation of Hudson County,
which has also published, in January 13,
an illustrated comparison of appropria-
tions and salaries from 1901-02 to 1910-11.

*

Mayor's Messages. — New York. The
annual message of Mayor Gaynor to the
board of aldermen dated January 23,
1912, includes a statement of the comp-
troller showing the condition of the city's
debt on December 31, 1911, and a brief
summary report from each department
of the city government under the mayor
for the year 1911. The department re-
ports serve to illustrate the lack of sys-
tematic administrative organization in
the city government. There are no less
than twenty distinct departments or
bureaus; and the absence of any effective
correlation is indicated by the alphabet-
ical arrangement, beginning with the
commissioners of accounts and ending
with the mayor's bureau of weights and
measures.

Philadelphia. On September 19, 1912,
Mayor Blankenburg submitted to select
and common councils a message with
suggestions and recommendations for
increasing the current revenues and bor-
rowing capacity of the city. On Jan-
uary 1, 1913, he issued a New Year's
letter to the citizens of Philadelphia,
outlining the accomplishments of the
first year of his administration,

Minneapolis. The annual message of
Mayor James C. Haynes, dated June 14,
1912, does not attempt to review the
work of all the city departments, but
discusses a few subjects of special im-

portance, including public utility prob-
lems, the police department and social
and recreation centers.

Cincinnati. Mayor Hunt in his annu-
al message of January 7. 1913, discusses,
among other topics, the housing problem
the newly established purchasing agent
(called the greatest single administra-
tive success of the year) and the work of
an informal efficiency board, established
to coordinate and control the work of the
several departments.

Winnipeg. In his retiring message
at the end of 1912, Mayor Waugh rec-
ommended a number of changes in the
organization of the municipal govern-
ment. The most important change pro-
posed was that the members of the board
of control should be elected for a stated
office.

*
Associations of Municipal officials. —
League of Virginia Municipalities. The
report of the sixth annual convention
held at Cape Charles, Va., September
14 and 15, 1911, includes, among others,
papers on public health, commission
government and city finances.

New York State. In the Proceedings
of the third annual conference of mayors
and other city oflBcials held at Utica,
N. Y., June 10-12, 1912, appear a num-
ber of interesting papers and discussions
on such questions as home rule, the so-
cial evil and street railway franchises.
Among the speakers may be noted: Lieu-
tenant-Governor Thomas S. Conway,
Prof. Paul H. Harris, Robert S. Binkerd.
Delos F. Wilcox, and Clinton Rogers
Woodruff. The appearance of such men
at a gathering of municipal officials in-
dicates a new note in the attitude of the
officials to municipal problems.

Kansas municipalities.^ The pub-
lished report of the Proceedings of the
fourth annual convention presents a full
account of the papers and discussions,
prepared by the Municipal Reference
Bureau of the University of Kansas.
Fifty cities are enrolled as active mem-

i See National Mdniopal Review, vol. 2, p.

in.

REPORTS AND DOCUMENTS

351

bers of the League. The list of oflBcers
and committees indicates an active or-
ganization, fourteen committees being
provided for various municipal problems.
The League of Pacific Northwest Mu-
nicipalities. The Proceedings is a well
printed and indexed pamphlet, including
both the papers and discussions. Among
the papers not previously noted in this
Review^ may be mentioned the following
— a municipal reference library, by
Chas. G. Haines; regulation of public
utilies, by Wm. J. Hagenah; and the
practical working of commission govern-
ment, by Mayor Hodges of Boise, Idaho.

Business and Civic Organizations. —

The Minneapolis Civic and Commerce
Association was organized in December,
1911 and with it there has been amalga-
mated the Publicity Club, the Com-
mercial Club and Minneapolis Traffic
Association, forming a strong central
organization for the discussion of busi-
ness and municipal problems. The first
annual report, for the year ending Octo-
ber 1912, shows a well planned committee
system; and a number of committees
have already taken up important munic-
ipal betterments, — for example those on
highways, smoke abatement, taxation,
street lighting, fire prevention, public
health and child welfare.

Massachusets Civic League. In its
annual report for the year ending Octo-
ber 31, 1912, most attention is- paid to
the problem of housing, including a dis-
cussion of housing laws and the report
of the state housing committee. Other
committee reports are on playgrounds
and village improvements.

Boston Chamber of Commerce. Among
the committee reports printed in the
Chamber of Comrnerce News for Nov-
vember 18, 1912. may be noted those on
municipal and metropolitan affairs (Wil-
liam Bennett Munro, Chairman), public
health, and public utilities.

Womari's Municipal League of New
York City. The Year Book for 1912 in-

» Volume 2, p. 111.

eludes the annual report of the Presi-
dent, Mrs. E. R. Hewitt, and reports
of the various committees and local
branches of the league. Among the
committee reports may be mentioned
those on motion pictures, streets, the
women's court and tenements.

Cooperation and Marketing.— The Wis-
consin state board of public affairs has
published in four parts, dealing with
agricultural cooperation; cooperative
credit, municipal markets and distribu-
tive or store cooperation. The section
on municipal markets includes chapters
in European, Canadian and United States
cities. A summary cites among the
advantages of municipal markets : lower
prices, fresher produce, better enforce-
ment of sanitary regulations, inspection
of food, accurate weights and measures,
competition, revenue to the city, and
increased demand for truck farms. But
the author considers that the most im-
portant function of the municipal mar-
ket will be as a supplement to the present
retail system rather than as a substitute
for it. He also finds that the character
of the population has much to do with
making a municipal public market a
success, and that if the people value
convenience more than lower prices, pub-
lic markets are likely to be a failure.

Public Markets. — Under the direction
of Mayor Blankenburg, Dr. C. L. King
of the University of Pennsylvania has
made a study of trolley light freight serv-
ice and Philadelphia markets in their
bearing on the cost of farm produce.
The main recommendations of the re-
port are:

1. Better through trolley freight serv-
ice from farm to city;

2. Removal of restrictions on bona
fide farmers wishing to sell their goods
in Philadelphia;

3. Stringent regulation of existing
markets, coupled with the development
of municipal markets where needed;

4. The development of trolley freight
terminals on different sections of the
city; and

352

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

5. A thoroughgoing revision of the
present transportation and distributing
facilities.

Iowa Applied History Series. — The
State Historical Society of Iowa has
begun the publication of a series of
papers under the title of "Applied His-
tory." This will present a historical
and comparative study of legislation on
important topics of public interest at
the present time. Volume I, already
published, includes a brief statement of
the series by B. F. Shambaugh, editor
of the series, and short monographs on
road legislation, by John E. Brindley;
regulation of urban utilities, by E. H.

Downey; primary elections, by F. E.
Horack; corrupt practices legislation, by
H. J. Peterson, work accident indemnity,
by E. H. Downey; and taxation, by
John E. Brindley. While giving special
attention to legislation and conditions in
Iowa, each paper also presents a com-
parative and critical analysis of the
laws of other states, with a discussion
of standards set by such laws. Mr.
Downey's paper on the regulation of
urban utilities will be of most interest
to the readers of the National Munic-
ipal Review; and forms what is perhaps
the best brief discussion of the recent
movement towards state administra-
tive control of such utilities.

DEPARTMENT OF REPORTS AND

DOCUMENTS

II. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL
Edited by Miss Adelaide R. Hassb

Chief of the Division of Documents, New York Public Library

General

Minneapolis, Minn. Civic and Com-
merce Association. First annual report.
October, 1912. 140 (1) p. 8°.

Montreal, Canada. Commercial re-
view of the season ending 30th Novem-
ber, 1912, showing the export trade from
the port of Montreal in Canadian prod-
ucts. 181 p. 8°.

Compiled by the Commercial department of
The Gazette, Montreal.

Automobiles

Hutchinson, R. W. The automobile
in municipal service. (Municipal Eng-
ineering, November, 1912, p. 204-211,
Illus.)

Roll call of cities operating automo-
biles. (Municipal Engineering, Octo-
ber, 1912, p. 238-251.)

Bibliography

London, England. County Council.
List of official publications. December,
1912. 16th issue. 48 p. 12°.

Address P. S. King and Son, Great Smith 8tr.'
Westminster, London; gratis. A notice of all new
official publications of the Council is given in the
London County Council Gazette, Issued weekly.

New York Public Library. List of
city charters, ordinances, and collected
documents in the New York Public Lib-
brary. pp. 1-4. A — S. (Bulletin N.
Y. Public Library, September, Novem-
ber, December, 1912; January, 1913.)

Billboards
City Club of Chicago. (Bulletin,
December 16, 1912, p. 393-408.)

Billboard and other forms of outdoor advertising.

FosDicK, Raymond B. Big billboards
in big cities. (American City, Decem-
ber, 1912, p. 511-517.)

Address delivered at the eighth annual conven-
tion of the American Civic Association, Baltimore,
December 1912. Mr. Fosdick, late commissioner of
Accounts for New York City, made an elaborate
report to the Mayor on bill boards in New York
City, which was noticed in the October, 1912, num-
ber of this Review (p. 758).

Great Britain. Advertisements reg-
ulation act, 1913.

Text of and comment on this Act is printed in
the Municipal Journal London, of February 12, 1913
p. 243.

Hoardings Control. An overture
to the London Chamber of Commerce.
(Municipal Journal, London, January
17, 1912, p. 73.)

Comment on a circular, also printed, Issued by
the London Chamber of Commerce In opposition to
the crusade for municipal control of hoardings.

Hurt, C. B. High French tax on
signboards. (Municipal Engineering, No-
vember, 1912, p. 264.)

The matter of a billboard tax Is up for considera-
tion by the board of supervisors of San Francisco.
The proposed tax is i cent annually for each square
foot. The tax met with so much opposition that
an agreement was postponed for four weeks on Jan-
uary 30, 1913, and, at the time of writing no further
advices were available. (See San Francisco Munici-
pal Record, January 30, 1913, p. 5.)

The Montreal city council has passed a bye law
regulating illuminated signs. (Municipal Journal,
London, January 24, 1913, p. 114.)

Harrisburg, Penn., passed an ordinance regulat-
ing billboards which was protested and decided
against the city. (Municipality, December, 1912,
p. 72.)

Perhaps it is not out of place to refer here to the
fact that the regulation of billboards, or outdoor

Note.— The editor of the National Municipal Review is happy to be able to announce that he will
answer to the extent of his ability any questions requiring documentary research. He is able to make this
announcement through the cordial co-operation of Miss Hasse, who has expressed her willingness to make
the bibliography department a library service department for the National Municipal Review. All
communications must be addressed to the editor of the National Municipal Review, North American
Building, Philadelphia.

354

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

advertising, was brought before the people of Ohio
for vote at the recent constitutional convention of
that state. The vote on this, the 38th amoncinient,
was 261,351 for and 262,440 against.

Cabstands

See also under "Finance," New York City.

New York City. ^layor. Message
urging the passage of a comprehensive
cab ordinance for New York City. Feb-
ruary 18, 1913. (City Record, February
20, 1912, p. 1477-1478.)

Child Welfare

HiATT, James S. The child, the school
and the job. An address by James S.
Hiatt, scretary of the Philadelphia Pub-
lic Education Association. 1912. 12 p.
8°.

Reprinted from the City Club Bulletin, Decem-
ber 27, 1912. Address 1015 Witherspoon Building,
Philadelphia.

New York City. Department of
health. The division of child hygiene
of the department of health by S. Jose-
phine Baker, M. D., director of child
hygiene. September, 1912. 103 p. 8°.

Monograph series. No. 4.

City Planning

Great Britain. Local government
board. Housing and town planning. Fur-
ther memorandum relative to the op-
eration of the housing, town planning,
etc. act, 1909, and the earlier housing
acts as amended by that act. London
1912. 14 p. f°.

Command na. 6494, pilce 2d. The earlier mem-
orandum wa,s dated Novemljei 1911, and was printed
as command no. 5933.

Newark, N. J. City plan commis-
sion. (Report no. 2) Preliminary re-
port to the commission by Messrs. Ford
and Goodrich. August, 1912. 24 p. 8°.

The first report Is dated July, 1911, and com-
prises the text of the enabling act, members, officers,
rules and outline of work.

Portland, Oregon. Greater Port-
land. OfTicial organ of the Greater Port-
land Plants Association, ^'ol. 1, no. 1.
February, 1913. 14 p. f°.

Address 86J Seventh St., Portland Oreg., 5 cents
the copy.

Puff, Charles F. The city plan of
Newark, N. J. Report on the compre-
hensive planning of the metropolitan dis-
trict of Greater Newark. Submitted to
M. R. Sherrerd, chief engineer, depart-
ment of public works. July, 1912. 52 p.
maps, plans. 4°. (Newark, N. J., board
•of street and water commissioners).

Salem, Mass. City Plans commis-
sion. First annual report, December,

1912. 63 p., 1 map. 8°.

Commission Government

City Club of Cincinnati. Synopsis
of discussion on January 18, 1913, on
commission rule problems. (The Cit-
izen's Bulletin, January 25, 1913.)

The participants were Henry Biuere of the munic-
ipal research bureau of New York City, Mayor
Hunt of Cincinnati and Alfred Bettman.

Cost of Living

See also Markets.

Carter, J. F. Public markets and
marketing methods. Suggestions for
reducing the high cost of living, based
on an inquiry into marketing conditions
in 71 cities. (American City, February,

1913, p. 121-138, illus.)

Theauthorlssecretary of the San Antonio Cham-
ber of Commerce.

City Club of Philadelphia. Bul-
letin. February, 17, 1913. v. 6, no. 12,
p. 259-298.

Comprises discussion on prominent factors In
tlie high cost of living. Among the participants
were Prof. Irving Fisher, Mr. E. C. Spring of the
Lehigh Valley Transit Company, Ml.«s Mary E.
Pennington, director of the food research labora-
tory, U. S. Bureau of Chemistry, Hon. C. C. Miller,
Chairman New York municipal market committee
and president of the borough of the Bron.x, Mrs.
Wm. B. Derr, president of the Housekeepers' League
of Pennsylvania, and Prof. C. W. Thompson, direc-
tor department of agriculture. University of Minne-
sota.

A very short time ago this subject would have
been considered outside the domain of civics. To-
day It Is a conspicuous object of civic Interest, chiefly
from the point of view of handling food products.

New York State. Food Investigat-
ing Commission. Committee on Mar-

BIBLIOGRAPHY

355

kets, Prices and Costs. Report. August
1, 1912. 76 p. 8°.

Address 404 Pearl street, New York City.

Electoral Reform
Chicago, 111. Bureau of public effi-
ciency. Growing cost of elections in Chi-
cago and Cook County. December,

1912. 16 p., 2 leaves. 8°.

In sixteen years the annual expense has more
than trebled. Abolition of city and judicial prim-
aries and. repeal of statutory provision making all
primaries and election days legal holidays recom-
mended. The monograph closes with a calendar of
election events In Chicago in each year, 1911-1919,
and a tabular presentation of election costs In Chi-
cago each year 1895-1912.

The voting machine contract.

A protest against its recognition in any
form by the City Council. January,

1913. 12 p. 8°.

Electoral Reform

Oakland, Cal. Tax Association.
Bulletin January 1913. No. 1. 8°.

Movement to obtain a new charter for Oakland
inaugurated; contains a letter from the county man-
ager of the National Short Ballot Organization, H.
S. Gilbertson, defining the "one-man power."

Pennsylvania. Third and final re-
port of the Commission to revise and
codify the election laws of Pennsylvania.
1913. 1.55 p., 1 foldg. table. 8°

Same. Minority report made

by William C. Freeman. 1913. 48 p.
8°.

Rutherford, Wallace T. The pref-
erential system of voting. (Pacific
Municipalities, November, 1912, p. 547-
550.)

Mr. Rutherford is city attorney of Napa, Calif.

Excess Condemnation

See also tlite New York City report on new sources
of revenue under " Finance."

Long, P. V. The doctrine of excess
condemnation. (Pacific Municipalities
October, 1912. p. 485-489.)

Mr. Long is city attorney for San Francisco.

Finance

Iowa. Department of finance and
municipal accounts. Fifth annual re-
port. 1912. 235 p. 8°.

Contains, in an appendix, extracts from the law
governing the mimlclpallties of Iowa. These re-
ports also contain a list of the mayors, clerks and
treasurers of each city and town In Iowa and the
dates when the term of each expires.

New York City. Department of
finance. Budget classifications. Expla-
nation indicating the articles which
belong to each classification and giving
the definition of "supplies," "equip-
ment," and "materials," as used in the
budget of 1913. 8 p. 8°.

New York City. Report of the com-
mission on new sources of city revenue.
Submitted to the Mayor, January 11,
1913. 116 p. 8°.

The members of the commission were the late
Edgar J. Levej^,. Joseph F. Johnson, Wm. Jay SchlefF-
elln; F. S. Tomlin, Robt. S. Binkerd and Robt. B.
Mclntyre, secretary. Among the recommendations
are the adoption of the excess condemnation consti-
tutional amendment which was defeated when sub-
mitted to the people of New York In 1911 by a vote
of 254,095 for and 357,881 against out of a total vote
of 1,112,546. A tax on advertising billboards is sug-
gested not only as a revenue measure, but a'so as a
regulative measure. The nominal charge now made
for vault privileges under city streets is shown to be
capable ot yielding a very substantial revenue if a
proper annual charge were made for the use of the
city's subsurface. Increased payments to the city
for cab stand privileges, the exaction by the city
of its share of profits of subway conduit companies.
Increase in the fees of county offices, the sale by the
city of garbage and waste removal privileges are
others of the recommendations made. The most
radical of the recommendations, that of the unearned
Increment tax, has aroused vigorous opposition.

This report is also printed in the City Record of
January 24, 1913, p. 624-048. It is reviewed In Amer-
ican City, February, 1913, p. 209, and In the Chicago
Real Est.ate News reprinted in Citizen's Bulletin,
February 15, 1913.

United States. Census bureau. In
structions to clerks and special agents.
Statistics of cities having a population
of over 30,000. 1912. Municipal finance
187 p. 12°.

Fire Prevention

Cleveland, O. City inspector of
buildings. Report of tests of partitions
by fire and water made under the direc-
tion of" Mr. Virgil D. Allen, city inspec-
tor of buildings, June 28 and 29, 1912.
78 p., pis. 8°.

The committee in charge of the tests was com-
posed of Prof. John H. Nelson, Case School of Ap-

356

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

plied Science, Mr. L. H. Miller, engineer, Bethlehem
Steel Company, and Mr. William S. Lougee, archi-
tect, Cleveland, O.

National Board of Fire Under-
writers. Suggested ordinance to reg-
ulate the manufacture, keeping, stor-
age, sale, use and transportation of ex-
plosives (for villages or cities whose
population does not exceed 100,000).
18 pp. 8^

Suggested ordinance regulat-
ing the manufacture, storage, sale and
distribution of matches. 4 pp. 8°.

Either of the two foregoing Items may be had
upon application. Addres.s: 135 Williams street,
New York City.

New York City. Fire department.
Report on incendiarism in greater New
York. 1912. 158 p., illus. 8**.

Fire department. Rules and

regulations of the uniformed force of
the fire department of the city of New
York. 1912. 144 p. 12°.

Government

Atlanta, Ga. Chamber of Commerce
Report of a study of the Department of
Health and the Department of Educa-
tion. December, 1912. 42 p., 1 diagr.
8°.

Made for the Chamber of Commerce Committee
on Municipal Research by S. G. Lindholm for the
New York Bureau of Municipal Research.

Chamber of Commerce. Or-

ganization and administration of the
city government of Atlanta, Ga. (Ex-
clusive of health and educational depart-
ment). 64 p. 8°.

Report of a general survey made for the Atlanta
Chamber of Commerce Committee on Municipal
Research by Herbert R. Sands for the New York
Bureau of Municipal Research November, I!il2.

Boston, Mass. Finance commis-
sion. A report on the building depart-
ment of the city of Boston. 1912. 54 p.
8*.

Bradford, England. Municipal pro-
gress in Bradford. (U. S. Daily Con-
sular and Trade Reports December 26,
1912, p. 15G6.)

At his Installation on November 9, 1912, the new
lord mayor of Bradford levlewed the progress of the

city during the past 14 years. The facts printed In
the report listed above are taken from the lord may-
or's speech.

Chicago, 111. Bureau of public effi-
ciency. The office of sheriff of Cook
County, 111. A supplemental inquiry
into its organization and methods of
administration. November, 1912. 26 p.
8°.

Administration of the office of

clerk of the county court of Cook County
111. November, 1912. 43 p. 8°.'

The office of clerk of the cir-
cuit court and the office of clerk of the
superior court of Cook County, 111. No-
vember, 1912. 27 p. 8°.

Address 315 Plymouth Court, Chicago. The
purpose of.the Chicago bureau of public efficiency
l3 to scrutinize the systems of accounting In the
eight local governments of Chicago, to examine the
methods of purchasing materials and supplies and
letting and executing construction contracts In these
bodies, to examine the payrolls of these local govern-
ing bodies, to make constructive suggestions and to
furnish the public with exact information.

Civil service commission. Re-

port on appropriations and expenditures
bureau of streets, department of public
works. 64 p., tables, diagrs. 8°.

Inquiry conducted at request of the committee
on finance of the city council and the special commis-
sion regarding ward appropriations, July 15, 1012-
November 15, 1912. Uniform standards and per-
centages for ward estimates and appropriations.

Cleveland, O. Chamber of Com-
merce. The Cleveland federation for
charity and philanthropy as proposed by
the committee on benevolent associa-
tions of the Cleveland Chamber of Com-
merce. January, 1913. 32 p. 8°.

The coroner's office. Report of

the investigation made by the coroner's
committee of the Municipal Associa-
tion in the interest of economy and effi-
ciency. December, 1912. 30 p. 8°.

Efficiency series. Report no. 2.

The sheriff's office. Report of

the investigation made by the JNIunic-
ipal Association in the interest of econ-
omy and efficiency. September, 1912.
26 p. 8°.

Efficiency series. Report no. 1.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

357

Dallas, Tex. Municipal handbook.
City of Dallas. 1913. 106 p. obi. 12°
illus.

Dayton, O. The Dayton bureau of
municipal research. Efficient city man-
agement bulletin no. 1. n.d 8 p. 8°.

Address 601-603 Schwind Building, Ludlow
street, Dayton.

Bureau of municipal research.

Shall we change our city government?
A statement of three types of municipal
administration. 1913. 16 p. 8°.

Edmonton, Alberta. Municipal In-
formation bureau. The growth of Ed-
minton. 8 folios.

Typewiitten document. Edmonton besides be-
ing the capital of Alberta, Is the divisional and dis-
tributing point of three large railways, the Canadian
Pacific, the Canadian Northern and Grand Trunk
Pacific. It has a population of 57,045 (census of 1911)
and that it Is a progressive community there Is no
better evidence than in the increased assessment of
land values, viz., 5673,694 In 1892, $1,724,420 in 1902
and $123,512,580 In 1912. These assessments are on
ground values only, there being no improvement,
business, Income or personal tax in Edmonton.

HoDGEHEAD, B. L. A Comparison of
the methods and efficiency of modern
European and American city govern-
ment. (Pacific Municipalities, October,
1912, p. 489-499.)

Howe, Frederick C. Where the
business men rule. (Outlook, January
25, 1913, p. 203-209, illus.)

Business principles In city administration,
man cities.

Ger-

New York City. Law department.
A history of the office of the corporation
counsel and the law department of the
city of New York. Compiled by John
H. Greener. October, 1912. 63 p. 4°.

A revision of an earlier publication, also by Mr.
Greener, which appeared in pamphlet form In 1907,
and which was also embodied in the annual report
of the law Department for 1906.

Schaffer, Frank H. Eliminate na-
tional politics from municipal affairs.
(Citizen's Bulletin, January 11, 1913, p.

4-5.)

Address before the Hamilton County Progressive
League.

Home Rule

See also under "Taxation"; also under ' Police."

Civic League, St. Louis, Mo. Home
rule legislation. 14 p. 8°.

Report of a special committee of the League
appointed by the executive board to examine the
many proposals for so-called home rule for St. Louis.
The committee is composed of Clifford B. Allen, J.
L. Davis, Edw. C. Eliot, and Tyrrell Williams.

Housing Reform

See also under "City Planning."

Ball, Charles B. Health depart-
ments and housing. (American Journal
of Public Health, January, 1913, p. 1-10.)

Markets

See also "Cost of Living."

Black, Mrs. Elmer. A terminal
market system New York's most urgent
need. Some observations, comments
and comparisons of European markets.
1912. 32 p. illus. 8°.

Mrs. Black was a member of the advisory board
of the New York terminal market commission.

Newark, N. J. City plan commission.
Newark market problem. Report by
Geo. B. Ford and E. P. Goodrich. Au-
gust, 1912. 8 folios.

Milk Supply

New York City. Department of
halth. The milk supply of New York
City and its control by the department
of health by E. J. Lederle, commissioner
of health and R. Raynor, chief of divis-
ion of food inspection. September,
1912. 79 p., illus. 8°.

Motion Picture Theatres

On March 6, 1913, there was introduced In the
state legislature of New York a bill requiring moving
picture theatres to be licensed In the same way as
are tne laiger playhouses, taking this power away
from the board of aldermen of the city of New York.
The measure was requested by John D. Lindsay,
tpresldent of the New York Society for the Preven-
ion of Cruelty to Children.

The following list of moving picture magazines
may be useful to libraries. Of American magazines
there are The Motion Picture Story Magazine rep-
resenting the licensed films. This magazine now in
its fifth volume Is published monthly at 26 Court
Street, Brooklyn, N. Y., at $1.50 per year. The Mov.

358

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

Ing Plfture World, a quarto weekly, Is published at
17 Madison Avenue, New York City at S3. 00 per
year. It Is now tn Its fifteenth volume. Moto-
graphy. Is published bi-weekly by the Electricity
Magazine Corporation, Monadnock Bldg., Chicago,
at S2.00 per year. It Is now In Its ninth volume.
The Moving Picture News, now In Its seventh vol-
ume, Is published In New York City. Moving Pic-
ture Stories represents the Independent films. The
Edison Klnetogram and the Vltograph Life Por-
trayals are house organs. In England there Is The
Byoscope and In Germany there are Der Klnemato-
graph and Das Llchtblld Theatre.

Fisher, Boyd. Regulation of mo-
tion picture theaters. (Amercan City,
December, 1912, p. 520-522.)

New York City. Committee on
laws and legislation. Report on ordi-
nances in relation to motion picture
theatres in New York City. December,
1912. (City Record, December 19, 1912.
p. 10408-10412.)

Municipal Reference Libraries

United States. Committee on the
Library (senate). Legislative drafting
bureau and legislative reference division
of the library of Congress. Hearings.
February 4, 1913. 145 p. 8°.

Of course this does not relate to a municipal ref-
erence library, but no one interested in municipal
reference libraries can fail to be instructed by a read-
ing of these healings. Almost exactly a year before,
on February 26 and 27, 1912, similar hearings were
held before the House Committee on the Library.
114 p. 8°.

Greene, Charles S. Municipal ref-
erence library movement in the United
States and especially in Oakland, Calif.
(Pacific Municipalities, October, 1912, p.
461^67.)

Ordinances

See also under "Bibliography;" and "Traffic
Regulation."

Pacific Municipalities (monthly) prints In each
number a list of ordinances received, The Munic-
ipality, November-December, 1912, p. 79-80, prints
the curfew ordinances of three Wisconsin cities, viz.
Chippewa Falls, Superior and Platlovllle.

Attention Is again directed to the weekly Public
Health Reports, which contain the text of ordinances
relating to public health, vital statistics, sanitation
and food and drug regulation.

St. Louis, Mo. The rcvi.-ed code of
St. Loui.s, 1912. liy Edgar R. Roinbauer.
St. Louis. 1913. 4 p. 1., 1285, xvp. 8°.

The last previous revision of the St. Louis code
was that of 1907.

Playgrounds

Great Buitaix. Board of education.
Report of the departmental committee
appointed to inquire into certain ques-
tions in connection with the playgrounds
of public elementary schools. London,

1912. 171 p. 8°.

Can be purchased through any bookseller. Price
8}d.

Gross, T. A. Chicago playgrounds
(Municipal Engineering. October, 1912
p. 226-229.)

Teller, Sidney A. Chicago's rec-
reation centers. (Municipal Engineer-
ing, November, 1912, p. 297-298.)

Police

City Club of Philadelphia. (Bul-
letin. December 5, 1912, v. 6, no. 4, p.
79-91.)

Confined to consideration of "Forward steps in
the policizig of Philadelphia," with remarks by Mrs.
Wells, woman police officer of Los .Angeles, the Rev.
Henry Berkowltz, member of the Philadelphia vice
commission, and the Hon. Geo. D. Porter, director
of the departmet of public safety, Philadelphia.

New York City. Police Department
Investigation Committee. Preliminary
legislative report of special committee of
the Board of Aldermen of the City of
New York. 20 p. 8°.

The report of the Curran Committee. It was
made public on March 9, 1913. The preliminary
repoit Is made at this time In order that it may
be available during the present session of the
Legislature. Chief among the recommendations of
the committee aie home rule In the administration
of the Police Department and of excise regulation.
The committee expresses opposition to the transfei
of vice suppression from the Police Department to
a Department of Public Morals, as well as to the
establishment of a Board of Social Welfare. The
final report of the committee, which will be com-
pleted late In April, will contain a summary of the
entire Investigation of the committee. This has ex-
tended over a period of six montlis.

United States. Census Bureau. Po-
lice statistics for cities. February 4,

1913. 2 sheets.

Number of employees, officers, sergeants, patrol-
men and detectives, amount of appropriations, per
capital cost per year, average number of patrolmen

BIBLIOGRAPHY

359

per 10,000 inhabitants, area In acres and number of
patrolmen to 1000 acres, for 19 American cities. Sta-
tistics are for the last fiscal year only.

Port Development

California. Commonwealth Club.
Transactions, vol. 7, no. 6, December,
1912, p. 515-554.

Largely devoted to addresses and dlscusslona
on state vs. local control of harbors.

New York City. Department of
docks and ferries. Plans for freight
terminal systems at South Brooklyn and
west side lower Manhattan with explan-
atory statement as to each. September,
1912. 11 p., 3 maps. 8°.

Report no. 21 of the numbered series of reports
of this department.

Department of docks and fer-

ries. Plans for freight terminal facil-
ities and equipment thereof, along south
Brooklyn water-front. February 10,
1913. (City Record, February, 26, 1913,
p. 1618-1619.)

Public Health

See also under Housing Reform.

New York City. Department of
health. Monthly bulletin, December,
1912. p. 293-320. 8°.

Almost the entire number is taken up with com-
ment on two recent judicial decisions upholding the
police power of the New York City Health board.
The decisions are those of Justice Russell rendered
In court of special sessions of New York City, No-
vember term, 1912, concerning the cleaning of milk
receptacles, and of Justice Seabury In the New York
supreme court, appellate term October, 1912, con-
cerning slaughter-house odors. The text of each
opinion is printed In full.

Public Utilities

Reed, R. W. The relation of munic-
ipal public utility corporations to the
public. (Pacific Municipalities, Decem-
ber, 1912, p. 646-655.)

Mr. Reed is a member of the city council of Los
Angeles.

Public Works

Boston, Mass. Public works de-
partment. Annual report for the year

1911. Boston, 1912. xi, 584 p. folding
tables, maps and an organization chart.

This is the first repoit of this Department which
was created by Ordinances of 1910, chap. 9, and is a
consolidation of the engineering, water and street
departments. The engineering department, which
had been in operation since 1867, had made 44 annual
reports at the time of the merger, the street depart-
ment had existed since 1895 and had made 20 annual
reports, and the water department had operated
since 1895 and had 15 annual reports to its credit.
Mr. L. K. Rourke Is commisslonei of the new board.

Schools

Moore, Ernest C. How New York
City administers its schools. A con-
structive study. Yonkers, N. Y. 1913
X, 321 p. 8°.

Professor Moore's report was noted In the pre-
ceding list of this department. The report was made
to the committee on school inquiry of the board of
estimate and apportionment of the city of New York.
The committee rejected the report, but published
it, omitting the final chapter, in the City Record.
The text of the report as described above, is now
printed In its entirety.

Sewage Disposal

Great Britain. Royal commission
on sewage disposal. Eighth report of
the commissioners appointed to inquire
and report what methods of treating
and disposing of sewage (including any
liquid from any factory or manufac-
turing process) may properly be adopted.
Standards and tests for sewage and sew-
age effluents discharging into rivers and
streams. Vol. 1. Report. 1912. 17 p.
f°.

Command no. 6464, price 3d. The commission,
as at present constituted, compilses Lord Iddes-
leigh, chairman, T. Walter Harding, William Ram-
say, W. H. Power, T. J. Stafford, R. A. Tatton, F.
J. Willis, and R. H. H. Keenlyside, secretary.

Smoke Abatement

Haskin, F. J. Smoke abatement —
Europe leads the world. (Citizens' Bul-
letin, January 4, 1913, p. 1-2.)

Social Evil

Bonaparte, Charles J. The social
evil. (Citizen's Bulletin, January 25,
1913, p. 1-2.)

360

NATIONAL INIUNICIPAL REVIEW

City Club of Chicago. (Bulletin.
November 18, 1912, p. 343-349.)

Contains an address by the Hon. Goo. Cosson,
state's attorney for Cook County, 111., on "Newer
Methods of Dealing with Commercialized Vice."

PoRTL.\ND, Oreg. Vice commission.
Report of the commission to the mayor
and city council of Portland, January
1913. 216 p. 8°.

This is the fourth and final report of the com-
mission. The volume Includes the Ist-Sd reports,
which were also published separately.

United States. District of Colum-
bia committee (Senate). Abatement of
houses of ill fame. Plearings before a
subcommittee. December 9 and 19,
1912, and January 7, 1913. 85 p., 1 Rap.
8°.

WiLLSON, Robert N. The eradiction
of the social diseases in large cities
(Journal of the American Medical
Assoc, Sept. 21, 1912. p. 924-928.

Also reprinted In pamphltt form.

Statistics

ToKio, Japan. Ninth annual statis-
tics of the city of Tokio. Compiled by
the statistical department, the Tokio
municipal office. 1912. 955 p. 8°.

In English and Japanese.

Street Railways

Edinburgh, Scotland. Burgh engin-
eer's office. Report on various systems
of tramway traction. September, 1912.

10 p. r.

Wisconsin. Railroad commission.
The City of Milwaukee vs. The Milwau-
kee Electric Railway and Light Com-
pany. Decided August 23, 1912. Opin-
ion and decision. 3G9 p. 8°.

Streets

Kellogg, D. D. Physical records of
street cleaning service and the value of
uniform accounting. (Pacific Munici-
palities, November 1912, p. 539-542.)

Mr. Kellogg Is auditor and assessor of P.tsa-
dena.

Simmons, Fred G. Paving exper-
ience of Milwaukee, (Municipality, No-
vember-December, 1912, p. 59-70,)

Address delivered before the fourteenth annual
convention of the League of Wisconsin Munlclpal-
Itlfs, July, 1912. Mr. Simmons is commlss'oner of
public works of Milwaukee.

TiLLSON, George W. Street pave-
ments— Selection, care and maintenance.
(American City, December, 1912, p. 545-
551.)

From a paper presented at the American Road
Congress, Atlantic City, October, 1912.

Taxation

Heydecker, E. L. Municipal fin-
ances and taxation. (Pacific Municipal-
ities, October, 1912. p. 508-515.)

Mr. Heydecker Is assistant tax commissioner for
New York City and secretary of the New York
State Conference on Taxation.

Kierstadt, W. C. Reform in local
taxation by the taxation of the land.
(Canadian Municipal Journal. Decem-
ber, 1912. p. 489^92.)

Address before the seventh annual convention of
New Brunswick Municipalities. Professor Klerstad
is of the faculty of the University of New Brunswick.

Preston, England. Borough treas-
urer's office. Rates levied in various
towns 1912-13. (28th annual state-
ment.) 13 p. 4°.

Rates of 86 towns In England and Wales, together
with charges for gas, water and electricity; also prof-
Its and losses on municipal undertakings by which
rates in those towns have been reduced oi Increased.

Wilson, J. S. Home rule in taxation.
(Pacific Municipalities. January, 1913.
p. 20-35, 1 d. February, p. 63-07.)

.A.ddres3 before the fifteenth annual convention
of the League of California Municipalities. Mr. Wil-
son Is mayor of Berkeley, Calif.

Traffic Regulation

A synopsis of the recent Cincinnati vehicle ordi-
nance, Including automobiles. Is printed In Munici-
pal Engineering, December, 1912, p. 388-389.

Hudson, N. Y. An ordinance to
regulate traffic on the public streets.
1912. 11 p. 12°.

BOOK REVIEWS

361

Lewis, William Y. Tram, bus, — or
" continuous transit." (Municipal Jour-
nal, London, February 7, 1913, p. 175-

177.)

The London tiaffic problem liaving become a
political question, the literature on the subject has
grown. The above paper while not long, gives a
good r63um§ of the situation.

Traffic on streets and roads. Pro-
posed standard method for recording

and comparisons. (American City, De-
cember, 1912, p. 553-559.)

Water Supply

Council Bluffs, la. Board of water
works trustees. First annual report for
1912. 38 p., 21 plates. 8°.

Report for the first year of municipal ownership*
It summarizes the municipalization of the plant and
the organization of the new board.

BOOK REVIEWS

The Government of American Cities.
By William Bennett Munro, Ph.D.,
LL.B. New York: The Macmillan
Company.

American City Government. By
Charles A. Beard. New York: The
Century Company.

These two volumes form important
■ additions to the already extensive lit-
erature on municipal affairs in this coun-
try. And the scope and variety of the
subject is well illustrated by noting that
these books not only supply such infor-
mation not hitherto available, but also,
while bearing similar titles, offer mark-
ed contrasts to each other in the topics
discussed, in their method of treat-
ment and in their literary style.

Professor Munro uses the term govern-
ment in contrast to administration, and
states that his aim is to describe the
machinery or framework of municipal
organization. In fact he does more than
analyze the anatomical structure; and
discusses also what President Lowell
calls the physiology — and also the path-
ology— of the principal organs of munic-
ipal government. After introductory
chapters on municipal development and
the social structure of the city, he treats
of the legal position and powers of cities,
municipal politics, the council, the may-
or, the principles of administrative or-
ganization, commission government, di-
rect legislation and municipal reform.
These topics are discussed with more
thoroughness than in any other work cov-
ering the whole of this field; and the

presentation throughout bears the stamp
of the scientific observer.

While the work thus deals with both
the constitution and procedure of the
political organism, it does so as a biol-
ogist would analyze the structure and
conduct of plants and animals, without
considering the external results of these
activities in relation to economic and
social problems. This limitation is how-
ever recognized by the author; and an-
other volume on administration is prom-
ised to present this phase of the subject.

Professor Beard's book from one
point of view has a broader scope, but
in other respects is more limited. The
distinctively political phases are treated
briefly in four chapters; and the greater
part of the volume discusses the econ-
omic and social problems of the modern
city, with chapters on such topics as
finances, police control, public utilities,
public health, education and city plan-
ning. Moreover as indicated in the sub-
title, "a survey of newer tendencies,"
only the most recent developments in
connection with the various topics are
discussed. The purpose of the author
seems to be to present selective illus-
trations for the general reader, rather
than to give a comprehensive analysis
for the more serious student.

The contrast in literary style is not
between good and bad — for both authors
display distinct literary ability which
other writers may envy. It is rather
between distinctive styles, each adapted
to the author's general method of treat-
ment. Professor Munro's scientific dis-

362

NATIONAL ^MUNICIPAL REVIEW

cussion is not cumbered with statistics
or technical terms; but is presented with
the clear and dignified diction of the
modern Harvard school of English.
Professor Beard's language has a lighter
touch, that befits an instructor in the new
Pullitzer school of journalism.

From the point of view of the univer-
sity teacher of municipal government,
these books will take a leading place
among the works used in connection with
courses in this subject; and the differ-
ences in content and method make them
complementary rather than competing
volumes. But neither in itself will be
adequate as a suitable text book for a
comprehensive and systematic univer-
sity course.

John A. Fairlie.

University of Illinois.

The New Immigr.'i.tion. By Peter
Roberts. New York: The Macmillan
Company, pp. 386, $1.60.

The present unsettled condition of
southeastern Europe gives an added in-
terest to this book. Since the early
eighties immigration into the United
States has shifted from northwestern to
southeastern Europe introducing into
this country masses of new people far
removed from American standards and
creating a serious task in the work of
assimilation. The author is sjanpathetic
in his study of the quality, industrial
efficiency, social life and the relation of
the new people to the native born popu-
lation, and his book shows an optimistic
vein of belief that the new immigrants
need chiefly systematic direction and
sympathetic treatment to make them a
highly useful asset to the country.

If a line is drawn from the northwest-
ern corner of Minnesota to the south-
western corner of Illinois and then east-
ward to the Atlantic, passing between
the cities of Washington and Baltimore,
we cut off less than one-fifth of the area
of the United States but in it is found
more than 80 per cent of the new immi-

gration. Thirty-two of the fifty cities
of 100,000 or more population in the
United States are found in this territory
and the new aliens are found in every
city of the angle. These cities are the
hives whence industrial and manufac-
tured products are sent in a continuous
stream to enrich this and other nations,
and the one great factor that has made
possible the industrial development of
this part of the United States is the
inflow of 80 per cent of the new immi-
gration coming to America. The brawn
and sinew of the peoples of the Danube,
the Carpathian mountains, southern
Russia, the Balkan states and the Italian
peninsula have been freely drawn upon
to man mine, mill, shop, factory and
railroad, and never did any civilized na-
tion get an army of more docile, industri-
ous and efficient workers. As the men
of the new immigration reside in indus-
trial centers, they can easily be reached,
for the remedies for the evils incident
to their coming are more available in
populous centers than elsewhere. In the
cities are to be found the best brains, the
highest executive ability and the great-
est concentration of the wealth of the
nation. These are the tools with which
to wage war upon the superstitions and
ignorance of the immigrants, the un-
cleanness, the unsanitary, overcrowded
dwellings of the aliens, the helplessness
and inefficiency of the foreigners' homes.
''Another twenty-five years of conditions
too common in congested quarters of the
large industrial cities," the author says,
"will bring a slum situation that will Be
a check to progress and a menace to our
industrial peace. The best prevention
is to cure the present condition of the
representatives of the backward races
now in the tenements of our cities."

The chapters of the book dealing with
the part they play in the industries of
the United States, the way thej^ live in
the American cities and the manner in
which they are treated by the native
born are especially interesting.

Murray Gross.

Drexel Institute, Philadelphia.

BOOK REVIEWS

363

Gtjida degli Stati Uniti per l'Immi-
GRANTE Italiano. . Pubblicata a cura
della Societa delle Figlie della Rivo-
luzione Americana, Sezione di Connec-
ticut. By John Foster Carr. New
York: Doubleday, Page and Com-
pany, 1910, pp. 85, paper, 15 cents.
Also Polish version, 1912, and Yiddish
version, 1912.

Under the auspices of the Connecticut
Daughters of the American Revolution,
Mr. Carr has prepared a guide to the
United States for the use of immigrants
of various nationalities. The versions
in Italian, Polish and Yiddish have been
received for review. In special ways
each of these versions has been adapted
to meet peculiar needs of the nationality
directly concerned, but the Italian ver-
sion will illustrate the general contents
and character of the guide.

The little volume is filled with just the
information the immigrant needs, stated
concisely but with sufficient detail.
Among the many matters discussed and
explained are the immigration law and
the system of inspection, the various
immigrant aid societies, public and pri-
vate employment offices, methods of
travel in the United States, the school
system and other educational and cul-
tural opportunities, ways of buying or
renting land on advantageous terms,
location and characteristics of Italian
agricultural colonies, physical geography
and government of the United States,
advantages of citizenship and method
of naturalization, the laws of the coun-
try most likely to concern an immigrant,
precautions to preserve health and facil-
ities for the treatment of injuries and
diseases, savings institutions and meth-
ods of transferring money, the postal
and telegraph system and rates, and
Italian diplomatic and consular repre-
sentation in the United States. There
are appended useful tables of money,
weights, and measures, and also a map
of the United States. The guide is well
illustrated, containing as its frontispiece
a picture of the President of the United

States, and including also several illus-
trations of occupational training work
in the New York schools.

The work deserves especial commen-
dation for the wholesome advice it gives
the immigrant. He is urged to learn the
English language, and helpful sugges-
tions are made as to the ways and means.
To speak English, he is informed, is to
make progress toward the better paid
occupations. He is also advised to see
to it that his children go to the public
schools regularly, and the opportunities
for them in manual training and trade
schools are explained to him.

Stress is placed upon the great desira-
bility of country life. Wealth and
health, says the guide, are to be found
in the country. The newcomer should
establish himself there with his family
and buy land. How this may best be
done is told in detail, especial attention
being called to the chances afforded by
abandoned farms in New York and New
England. Several pages are devoted to
a description of Italian agricultural
colonies in various parts of the United
States.

The immigrant is encouraged to be-
come a citizen, and the steps in the
naturalization process are explained.
From the handbook he can obtain such
essential information about the relative
position and powers of federal and state
governments, and about the various gov-
ernmental organs, as will qualify him
for admission to citizenship.

About fifteen pages of the guide are
devoted to the laws of the United States.
The sketch of the laws of the land, as
affecting an immigrant, is simple but
remarkably comprehensive. Strong em-
phasis is placed upon the matter of
obedience to law. Special attention is
directed to such laws as those forbidding
lotteries, compelling school attendance,
restricting child labor, and prohibiting
the carrying of concealed weapons and
the sending of threatening letters.

The community at large will profit by
the observance of the directions regard-
ing health and hygiene here given to the

364

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

immigrant. One who is familiar with
the ordinary habits of Italian laborers
will find a flavor of humor in this serious
advice. The immigrant is told to keep
his person clean, to eat well, to drink
pure water, to avoid bad habits, to
bathe, and to guard against flies; he is
informed that, " In America it never does
any harm to sleep witli the windows
open."

Taken as a whole, the guide is truly
the immigrant's vade mecum. Such a
book ought to have been written long
ago. It anticipates the problems and
difficulties the newcomer is sure to meet,
and gives him counsel which, if followed,
will save him from many blunders and
will greatly increase his value to his
adopted country. May the volume have
the widest possible circulation ! No work
could be more appropriate for Daughters
of the American Revolution than the
patriotic service involved in giving sup-
port to a publication of this nature.
William H. Glas^on.

Trinity College, North Carolina.

Civics for Americans in the Making.
By Anna A. Plass, New York: D. C.
Heath and Company, 1912, pp. viii.
187.

When this unique little book was
turned over to me for review I soon dis-
covered that no opinion concerning it
would be of value that was not the out-
come of its actual use with those for
whom it was intended. Accordingly,
the book was at once turned over to Mr.
J. J. Maioriello, a recent graduate of the
Philadelphia School of Pedagogj'-, who
for over two years has been conducting
with splendid success a class in citizen-
ship with Italian imigrants at the Social
Service Settlement House, Philadelphia.

After several weeks of constant use of
the text Mr Maioriello writes the follow-
ing appreciative letter, which amply
confirms the favorable opinion one gets
from a mere reading of the book.

The twofold aim, as shown in Plass's
Civics, is (1) tohelp teach the foreigner the

language so that he may earn his living
more easily; (2) to make him a more de-
sirable citizen, by making him acquainted
with the manners, customs and laws of
this country. The material is adapted
to the varied intellectual development
and educational progress of the pupils.
The form in which the lessons are written
makes them adaptable to a class where
the pupils are of unequal ability, with
the result that everybody takes part in
the work.

The pupils gain confidence. The les-
sons are so constructed that by their
very nature they promote conversation.
They are all arranged in short concise
sentences, the authors seeming well aware
of the fact that to foreigners the reading
of long sentences is very difficult.

One advantage is the introduction of
a practical vocabulary, containing Eng-
lish equivalents in Italian, German,
Swedish, French, Polish, Greek and
Yiddish. It presents carefully selected
words, such as are in every day use, and
which familiarize the pupils with their
environment. But very often the one
meaning of a word is not sufficient prop-
erly to convey the ideas contained in
different sentences. However, this helps
to encourage the individuality of the
teacher.

The "true to life" pictures are of
inestimable value in helping the pupils
to grasp ideas. Their use forms a very
important part in the teaching of foreign-
ers. The illustrations are in keeping with
the subject matter.

The lessons are regularly graded, with
progressive steps— dealing with the sim-
ple story of community life, and then
leading to the larger field of state and
nation."

Besides enabling the foreigner to
understand the English language the
book helps him to become acquainted
with his American environment. He
recognizes himself as a part of the com-
munity— of the country's rule — he helps
to elect officers — to make, explain, and
execute the laws, etc. Thus the study of
Civics commands the interest of all, with
an appeal of "patriotism."

J. Lynn Barnard.
Philadelphia.

Child Labor in City Streets. By
Edward N. Clopper, Ph.D. New York:
1912, The MacAIillan Company, SI. 25.

This book shows the extent of street
trading in America and P^urope, its

BOOK REVIEWS

365

effects, its regulation in Europe and the
struggle for regulation here. It is a
convincing and concise account based
on four years of field work by Dr. Clop-
per, the secretary of the National Child
Labor Committee for the Mississippi
Valley States.

The problem of the street working
children 9,nd its relation to other prob-
lems, the extent to which children engage
in street activities in America and
Europe, newspaper sellers, bootblacks,
peddlers and market children, messen-
gers, errand and delivery children, ef-
fects of street work, the relation of
street work to delinquency, and trades
regulation — these are the main subjects
of the volume. To this is added a good
bibliography, appendices containing,
among other things, the law of Wisconsin
relative to street trading and the by-
laws adopted by the London county
council, and an index. Numerous tables
throughout the volume enforce the dis-
cussion and add to its usefulness as a
general work.

The "street trades" of newspaper sell-
ing, peddling and bootblacks are ^.s yet
almost untouched by legislation in the
United States for there are only a few
state laws and municipal ordinances rela-
tive to this matter; and those states that
have prohibited the employment of
children under fourteen years of age "in
any gainful occupation" have been ham-
pered by the courts which have often
construed the word "employ" to mean
the purchasing of the services of one
person by another. Children who work
on the streets on their own account do
not, therefore, enjoy the protection of
such statutes. In other words a legal
distinction has been made between chil-
dren working for wages and those work-
ing for profits. This distinction the
author considers ill-advised. His inves-
tigations lead him to the conclusion that
children working for profits are in even
greater need of regulation than those
under the control of an employer. In
both cases the effects have been morally
and materially deteriorating. This is

shown by reports and compilations from
various cities. For example a report on
the house of refuge of New York City
shows that 63 per cent of its inmates had
been street traders of whom 32 per cent
were newsboys. Another report, com-
piled from different cities, shows that a
majoritj' of street traders are backward
in school. Truancies, delinquencies, bad
habits, petty crimes and often gross
immoralities are directly traceable to
street work. It should, therefore, be
subject to stringent laws and undertaken
jointly with the movement to supply
playground facilities.

The book is an ea'rnest appeal for re-
form and in it Dr. Clopper proposes a
constructive remedy which not only
strikes at the exploitation of children,
but makes a real contribution to the
problem of adults who are physically
unfit to earn their living in other ways.
The work is of practical service to all
who are working for child welfare, par-
ticularly in the forty states whose legis-
latures are now in session. Incidentally
it also again reminds us of how far we
are behind Europe in laws providing for
the conservation of human resources.
Karl F. Geiser.

Oberlin College.

Modern Philanthropy. A Study of
Efficient Appealing and Giving. By
William H. Allen. New York: Dodd,
Mead and Company, 1912.

The phrase in the sub-title, "efficient
appealing and giving," would make a
clearer name for this work than the one
it bears. It is based on a study of 6000
letters of appeal to Mrs. E. H. Harriman,
made in 1910 and 1911 by the bureau of
municipal research, of which Dr. Allen
is director. Dr. Allen considers such
letters "much too valuable for the waste-
basket," and foUo^ys out his own sug-
gestion (p. 282) of a bureau which shall
"read letters of appeal, not reluctantly
but with avidity" to see what lesson or

366

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

opportunity they may have. The lesson
of the letters is not, however, made very
clear in this book. They are often cata-
logued with a detail that is tiresome
though relieved by the author's scent
for what is comical. The book is exas-
perating in this detail, but it is also full
of valuable and sometimes compact sug-
gestions on the neglected subject of
appealing and giving.

The chief suggestion of the book is
for a national "cooperative clearing
house for givers and appealers," which
would serve both classes, for a fee, as a
consulting adviser, or as a Dun's or
Bradstreet's agency; or, we might add,
as a Baedeker, to tell appealers and givers
where they should go, and how to get
there. Efficiency is certainly needed in
these directions, and will be- promoted
by a study of this book, but at times
the reader feels like the Harvard pro-
fessors who resented successfully a recent
effort to introduce efficiency schedules
into their work. Dr. Allen speaks often
of the need of a complete list, or in his
favorite phrase, a 100 per cent list, "of
the things remaining to be done," in
Chicago or elsewhere, though only om-
niscience could furnish such a list. He
does well to urge the importance of
scrupulous honesty in appeals, without
exaggeration; and he expresses vigor-
ously his preference for prevention
rather than cure in the sentence: "Fail-
ure to enforce health laws is a more seri-
ous menace to health and morals than
drunkenness and tobacco cancer" (p.
384). A sentence on the page following
this will strike most readers as extreme:
"The schools are probably injuring the
physical, mental and moral health of
more children every year than private
philanthropies are relieving in a genera-
tion."

. Mrs. Harriman's short preface is ex-
cellent and inspiring. She wishes that
charity and philanthropy might be made
to mean "loving one's neighbor as one's
self, and doing one's utmost to insure
equal opportunity for all to become effi-
cient," and speaks with approval of the

reaction from intense individualism to
efficient government for the benefit of
all.

Frederic Almt.

Buffalo.

*

Municipal Work from a Christian
Standpoint. By A. W. Jephson, A.
M. London : A. R. Mowbray and Com-
pany Ltd., I8d. net; cloth, 2s. net.

Such a title as the above will no doubt
seem to many as absurd as a discussion
of Christian chemistry. But, as one of
the "Christian Social Union Hand-
books," the study is simply designed to
set forth the duty of Christian men to
be zealous and useful as members of the
community. Not more than a dozen
pages are devoted to the grounds upon
which the appeal is made. The volume
as a whole is an intelligent and restrained
statement of municipal opportunity, and
of the need of the citizen's watchfulness
and support of local boards. The latter
is reminded that these boards are repre-
sentative, and "the breath of their nos-
trils is public opinion," and that he is
responsible for the formation of an opin-
ion that will embody the social con-
science. It is significant that such mat-
ters should be recognized as religious
concerns. It is the outcome of the
modern conception of Christian serv-
ice as finding its characteristic expres-
sion in social service.

This, however, indicates merely the
atmosphere of the study. The general
thesis is that the well-being of the com-
munity is tested b}^ the smallnoss of the
number of those who suffer at the bottom
of the social scale. Under the three divi-
sions of public health, public works, and
public services, is given a highly en-
couraging record of recent English mu-
nicipal progress. The idea of the duties
of the local authority has greatly de-
veloped, as is shown by the number
of services in which it now accepts re-
sponsibility, which were formerly dis-
regarded or left to individual initiative.
A classified list of the powers and duties

BOOK REVIEWS

367

\

of the London County Council covers 151
details, and is suggestive of what a
municipality can do and may be called
on to do. Among the many matters in
which the community is understood to
owe some duty to the citizen may be
selected sanitation, women inspectors,
adulteration and public analysts, infant
life, town planning, fair wages and
hours, unemployment, and small hold-
ings. In each of these, ways are sug-
gested in which the vigilance of the
citizen may keep the authorities up to
their work. Although naturally confined
to English conditions, we find something
familiar in the references to the occa-
sional absence of civic pride, and also
to the common attitude towards an
increase of local taxation whose social
benefits are so immediate and tangible.
The chief value of the book is its history
of the enlargement of the spheres within
which the municipality is now expected
to be active; for this is the differentia
of the present-day idea of municipal
function and obligation.

George C. Foley.
Philadelphia, Pa.

A Textbook on Roads and Pavements.
By Frederick P. Spalding, Professor
of Civil Engineering, University of
Missouri. Fourth edition, revised and
enlarged. New York: John Wiley and
Sons, 1912, pp. xi + 408, illustrated,
$2.00.

In his preface to the original edition
of this book (issued in 1894), the author
stated its purpose by remarking that
"successful practice in the construction
of highways must depend upon correct
reasoning of elementary principles in
each instance, rather than upon follow-
ing definite rules or methods of con-
struction." He said that the aim of his
book would be, then, to provide a brief
discussion of the engineering principles
involved in highway work, "and to out-
line the more important systems of con-
struction."

Whatever the permanency of engineer-
ing principles, systems of construction
change, and it is because of that fact
that new editions of this book have had
to be considerably re-written to keep
them up to date. During the last few
years especially, advances have been
rapid in the methods of constructing and
maintaining highways. Changes in the
character of traflic due to the introduc-
tion of automobiles have created new
problems, while, as the author remarks,
"modifications in the standards of life
both in city and country render the old
methods no longer satisfactory to the
public." In the present edition, for
example, entirely new chapters have
been added on bituminous, macadam and
concrete pavements, while the chapters
on brick, asphalt and wood pavements
have been considerably modified. These
additions and changes have increased
the size of the volume, but with its thin
paper and small pages it is still a handy
and convenient little book. Of its value,
it is hardly necessary for a reviewer to
speak. The successive editions and the
continued demand for it nearly twenty
years after its first printing are sufficient
evidence of that.

The principal defect in the volume is
its lack of an index. In a book of this
kind, for which the largest use — outside
of the class room — must be for quick
reference, an index is of such importance
that it is a pity it was not included in
the new edition. The chapter subheads
in the table of contents cover many
points, but are by no means complete.
Thus in chapter iv, on "Improvement
and Maintenance of Country Roads," so
important a discussion as that on the
crown — a discussion containing specific
and valuable comment — is not separately
listed. This is true, also, of gutters,
earth settlement, varieties of scrapers,
etc., all of which are included under the
one sub-head "Grade and Cross Sec-
tion." One would like, moreover, to
be able to refer to illustrations, to the
concrete examples cited, or to authorities
quoted, but there is no index of illus-

368

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

trations and no listing of examples or
autliorities in the chapter sub-heads.

There can also be criticism of the
author's final chapter, which is devoted
to city streets. His statements as to
desirable width for both the streets and
pavements of cities, is rather sweeping,
a little Western perhaps in its viewpoint,
and not quite in line with the best
modern judgment. But this criticism
applies only to a paragraph or so, in a
chapter which is somewhat apart from
the main thesis of the volume. The
book as a whole is rich in practical
advice, briefly and accurately given.
Charles Mulford Robinson.

Rochester, N. Y.

*

Trees in Winter: Their Study, Plant-
ing, Care and Identification. By
Albert Francis Blakeslee, Ph.D., Pro-
fessor of Botany and Director of Sum-
mer School, Connecticut Agricultural
College, and Chester Deacon Jarvis,
Ph.D., Horticulturist Storrs Experi-
ment Station. New York: The Mac-
millan Company, $2.00.

The title of this book is explained
by its authors in the introduction to
be much more comprehensive than its
phraseology indicates. It does, to be
sure, discuss trees in winter, but from
the standpoint of considering trees in
their dormant condition, and in all the
relations they sustain in that condition.
.There is presented a comprehensive
analytical key, a description of species,
with excellent illustrations, and trees
and shrubs broadly are treated in its
pages.

The chapters on the structure, propa-
gation, selection, planting, care, injuries,
parasites and diseases of trees are excel-
lent, but to readers of the National
Municipal Review the pi-incipal inter-
est will be in the chapters on "Tree
Planting in Rural Districts" and on
"Tree Planting in Towns and Cities."
These are comprehensive and modern,
and include not only suggestions and
directions, but desirably strong argu-

ments for better treatment of trees and
for municipal control of them in cities.
Lists of trees for special purposes and
places are included, as, for instance,
those resistant to smoke, those best for
avenues, for seaside planting, for dry
situations, for wet soils, etc. The work
is thus well adapted to promote the
proper estimation and the proper hand-
ling of the trees, which, even under our
present hit-or-miss methods, are abso-
lutely essential to comfort in civilization.

Mechanically the book is not up to
the average of the publications of the
Macmillans. It is unnecessarily heavy
and bulk}^ and the printing of the illus-
trations does not parallel the excellence
of the text.

The book should be in everj' municipal
library, and would be of service not
only to those charged with the handling
of trees in cities, but to those interested
in them.

J. Hor.\ce McFarland.

Harrisburg, Pa.

*

Fire Prevention. By Edward F.
Croker. New York: Dodd, Mead and
Company, $1.50.

Any contribution to the discussion of
a subject so vitally affecting everj' hu-
man interest as fire prevention, even
though it does nothing more than pre-
sent well known facts and principles
from another standpoint, should be
welcomed.

In Fire Prevention, by Edward F.
Croker, the former chief of the New York
Fire Department, the principal preva-
lent safeguards against loss of property
and life by fire, are discussed in a read-
able manner, based on his long experi-
ence as a fire fighter. While the purpose
of the book includes the description of
what the author considers the most
effective means of extinguishment, the
more important message he would con-
vey is the necessity of preventing the
outbreak of fires.

We may not be prepared to accept the
author's conclusions as to the necessitv

BOOK REVIEWS

369

of additional laws, the means to be
adopted in enforcing such laws or the
efficacy and adequacy of the proposed
improvements of present safeguards, but
we cannot too strongly commend for a
careful perusal the chapters dealing with
the all-important topic known to insur-
ance men as housekeeping. On account
of its simplicity and ease of observance,
it is a matter too readily overlooked.
If every one in any way interested in
the safe management of a household,
workshop or business establishment (and
who is not so interested?) could not
only read but thoroughly absorb and
practice the simple suggestions made in
the first chapter, a long step will have
been taken toward a reduction of the
fire hazard.

It is probably not realized that the
fire loss of this country, if. saved for two
years, would more than pay the entire
cost of the Panama Canal. Nor is it
generally appreciated that most of this
enormous loss originates from trivial
causes. In most instances, these causes
are preventable; the author even goes
so far as to say that every fire is pre-
ventable. And, generally speaking, fire
prevention is secured by proper house-
keeping. In stating in a pamphlet pub-
lished in 1900 that "the only persons
who can prevent loss by fire are the
owners or occupants of the premises"
Mr. Edward Atkinson, one of the great-
est exponents of fire prevention, has
long since placed the responsibility
where it properly belongs.

Rudolph P. Miller.

New York.

*

The Law of Light. By R. G. Nicholson
Combe. Philadelphia: Cromarty Law
Book Company, .$7.50.

Combe's Law of Light is a book on
the easement of light, giving its history
and its present-day form and content in
England, which cannot fail to be of inter-
est to every lawyer, who desires to grasp

the underlying principles and historical
accidents which have made existing posi-
tive law what it is, as well as to every
citizen, who hopes to take an intelligent
interest or exercise a reasoned influence
on the branch of municipal reform with
which it deals. The law of ancient
lights has never existed in America, a
fact which gives a freer rein in the mat-
ters of urban aeration including the
apportionment of air and light, which is
so cognate a subject. But, while this
freedom is to be taken advantage of, it
should not lead us into the mistake of
making hasty legislation without close
study of the experience of a nation, which
has struggled with the question for four
centuries. Perhaps, the English conclu-
sion, reached in Colls vs. Home and Colo-
nial Stores (1904 A. C. 179), where the
right to light was placed upon the right
of the owner of a building to non-inter-
ference with the light coming over a
servient tenement and needed for the use
of his building, acquired by grant or
prescription, in other words, making the
question one of nuisance, is not as broad
a rule as should be the goal of a legisla-
ture unhampered by precedents in a
country, where landmarks are constantly
changing, and where building operations
present physical aspects very different
from those in England, but the difficul-
ties met in the English cases should
be known by all who are interested in
the subject in order that, they may be
avoided at the start. Some of these
difficulties, under the guise of erroneous
interpretations of common law were
over-ruled by the decision of the court
of appeals. Many of them are upheld
by the well-meaning, but too enthusi-
astic and unversed propounders of law
providing for the aeration and lighting
(by the sun) of the tenements of Ameri-
can cities. These theories, which have
been proved impracticable (technically
not held to be law) include the belief
that the quantum of light depends upon
the amount used or needed. That is,
that a jeweler can demand better light
than an innkeeper. It has been held that

370

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

an owner of a lot in a city is entitled
qua his building to reasonable light.
This decision has not been avoided by
forced constructions of the adjective,
but has consistently been enforced as
providing against an increase or dimi-
nution of light, because of the occupa-
tion of the owner of the dominant tene-
ment. Another such belief leading into
difficulties, bases the right upon the
windows or apertures. This, of course
is wrong in principle, as a right exists
qua a building, and is a right of the
owner to have access to a reasonable
amount of light, not a right to have a
definite column of air.

The object of Combe's work, however,
was not future legislation for municipal
improvement, but past legislation in
England. His work is of interest to the
American municipal reformer only in-
directly, as a thorough treatise on the
law of ancient lights in England, the
litigations under which throw light on
the difficulties of legal control of urban
aeration. But his treatise cannot be
commended too highly as a law-book.
It reviews all the cases; is written in
polished and clear English. Its con-
struction is logical and helpful. Dealing
first with easements in general (cap. i),
he then takes up the content of the
easement of light (cap. ii). His next
chapters are concerned with the creation
of the right, by grant, implication of
law, and prescription. Before consider-
ing the last origin of the right, which
he divides into two chaptes, one before
the prescription act (cap. vi) and one
after (cap. vii) he treats prescription
generally (cap. v), as he treated ease-
ments generally before he considered the
easement of light particularly. The
extinguishment and variation of light
easements are given one chapter (cap.
viii) and the last (cap. ix) is devoted to
remedies.

John Lisle.*

> Of the Philadelphia bar.

Somf: Chemical Problems of Today.
By Robert Kennedy Duncan. New
York: Harper and Brothers, $2.

It would hardly be too much to say
that the number of chemists capable of
writing attractive and comprehensible
magazine articles on their science may
be counted on the fingers of one hand
without going beyond the thumb. In
other words Mr. Duncan comes near to
having a monopoly of the field he has
made his own, the popular interpretation
of recent scientific discoveries. Not-
withstanding the fact that more chem-
istry is being taught then ever before,
it still remains even for the majority of
those w^ho have studied it a dark and
esoteric science, remote from the affairs
of everyday life. "Philosophy does not
bake bread" and most people think the
same of chemistry. Not so Professor
Duncan, for one of his "industrial fel-
lows in the University of Kansas earned
his Ph.D. b}^ discovering a commercial
process for making "salt-rising" bread,
one of the cherished secrets of the west-
ern housewife. Professor Duncan is a
second Rumford in his zeal to draft
chemistry into the service of men and
in particular to utilize the unconsidered
trifles which now go into the scrap heap
and the garbage can of the cities and the
county. His saving soul has been wor-
ried by the thousands of carloads of
oranges and lemons left to rot under the
trees or thrown into the sea because
they were over-ripe or under-ripe or
slightly bruised. This wasted fruit, he
knew, contained essential oils and citric
acid which could be used to flavor food
or drink if they could be extracted and
purified. So he set his young men in
the University of Pittsburgh at work on
the problem and we learn from his own
lips since this volume appeared that the
problem has been solved and the wealth
of the country enriched; doubly enriched,
if the old proverb holds that "a penny
saved is tuppence earned."

The system of industrial fellowships
invented by Professor Duncan is ex-

BOOK REVIEWS

371

plained in this volume, not from the
standpoint of what it might accomplish,
but of what it has accomplished in four
years' experience in the way of bringing
the problems of the manufactory into
the laboratory and in bringing the knowl-
edge of the university to the aid of
industry. Beginning with a timid appro-
priation of $500 a j^ear fjom a laundry
firm for researches in the chemistry of
that business he now has offers of $5000
a year for capable young men to devote
their time and to utilize the facilities
of the university for the improvement
of manufacturing processes. Besides the
bread and oranges already mentioned
Professor Duncan's fellows at Kansas
and Pittsburgh have conducted investi-
gations at the expense of the corpora-
tions concerned in such subjects as the
diastase of alfalfa, buttermilk, petro-
leum, glass, cement, the ductless glands
of whales, wood, borax, vegetable ivory,
soap, oysters, smoke, gilsonite, glue, com-
position flooring and natural gas. The
young chemist is provided with the crude
materials and all necessary information
as to the trade processes by the manu-
facturer and ordinarily if he "makes
good" enters into the employ of the
company, receiving a bonus on the in-
creased value of the output due to his
discoveries. These are recorded in a
monograph deposited in the university
which after three years has the right to
publish them for the benefit of the world
at large.

The advantages of some such plan of
cooperation as this to a state or munici-
pal university is obvious. How much a
university can do for the people is shown
in the chapter on the work of the Univ-
versity of Wisconsin in popularizing edu-
cation and aiding the state government.
In the first chapter, "The Prizes of
Chemistry," which is as it ought to be
the most attractive of the book, Pro-
fessor Duncan presents a list of needed
inventions enticing enough to lure any-
body into the laboratory in the hope of
capturing one of these "prizes" that

seem, as he tells it, almost within
reach.

Edwin E. Slosson.

New York City.

American Water Works Association.
Proceedings for 1912. Troy, N. Y. :
J. M. Diven, Secretary.

The papers and discussions at the
annual meeting of the Association make
up a large cloth-bound volume. Among
the topics treated are pumping plants,
reservoir construction, water disinfec-
tion by use of hypochlorites and also
water softening, sewage disposal and
water pollution, water-works organiza-
tion and the purchase of water-works
supplies for New York City, and the
general subject of efficiency. The appeal
of the contents of the volume is chiefly
to water-works officials and engineers,
but some of the papers are of more gen-
eral interest.

The Call of the New South. Edited
by James E. McCulloch. Nashville:
Southern Sociological Congress, 1912,
pp. 387.

This volume contains the addresses
delivered at the First Southern Socio-
logical Congress. There are ten sub-
divisions, eight of them deal ng with
substantive questions: child welfare,
courts and prisons, public health, negro
problems, enemies of the home, educa-
tion and cooperation, the church and
social service, the call and qualifications
of social workers. The sundry papers
contained in the volume are important
in themselves, but their special signifi-
cance lies in their application to the
southern problem and to the disclosure
of a growing public interest in social and
political obligations in that section.

The Congress, of which Mr. McCulloch
the editor of this volume is secretary,
has already 1006 members and is pre-
paring for another convention in Atlanta
in the month of Mav.

372

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

Swedish Books

Stockholm, (^uelques Donn^es Sta-
TisTiQUES. Pub. par le Service Muni-
cipal de Statistique de Stockholin.
Edition 1912. Norstedt & Soncr.

'i'liis little volume of sixty pages con-
tains very brief sections on the govern-
ment of the city of Stockholm, elections,
finances, imports, hygiene, industries,
mortality and kindred subjects. The
book is beautifully illustrated and has
two large maps.

KOMMUNAL FORKATTXINC.SHANDBOK FOR

Stockholm 1910. Utarbetad af Stock-
holms statistiska kontor. Stockholm,
1911. Handbook (or Manual) of Muni-
cipal Statutes for Stockholm, 1910,
pp. 889.

The book, containing "the most im-
portant and for daily use most necessary
statutes which are still in force for the
capital," is divided into eleven sec-
tions or parts (each part being fully
indexed). Among the subjects treated
are the following: "General Statutes
(ordinances) Concerning the City Gov-

ernment" (I); "Finance and Economic

Activity" (II); "Commerce and Inter-
communication" (IV) ; "Sanitary Condi-
tions" (V); "Poor Relief" (VI), etc.

The book is well edited and is a valu-
able source for students of city govern-
ments.

Berattelse Angaende Stockholms
KoMMUNALFORVALTNiNG AR 1910 (Re-
lation Concerning the Municipal Ad-
ministration of Stockholm for the
Year 1910). Number II in the series
of Stockholm Stads Statisiik (The Sta-
tistics of the City of Stockholm).
In the same series occurs a statistical
inquiry into the cost of living in Stock-
holm for the years 1907-1908, which is
also another valuable volume. It is
based on a large variety of sources and
contains statistics which, in some cases,
cover a period of fifty years and more (as
for instance statistics on births from
1751 to 1910, on the Gothenburgsystcm,
1877 to 1910, etc.), but most of the tables
are for recent years.

Amaxdus Johnson.
University of Pennsylvania.

BOOKS RECEIVED

British Social Politics. By Carlton
Hayes. Boston: Ginn and Company.
580 pp. $1.75.

The Cotton Manufacturing Industry
of the United States. By Melvin
Thomas Copeland, Ph.D. Harvard
Economic Series. Published under
the direction of the Department of
Economics, Harvard University, Cam-
bridge, Mass. 415 pp. $2.00.

Economic Survey of Pittsburgh. By
J. T. Holdsworth, Ph.D. 1912.

The Found.\tions of Freedom, The
Land and the People. A series of
essays on the taxation of land values.
Middleton, England: John Bagot, Ltd.
158 pp. Fourpence.

Immigration and Labor: The Econ-
omic Aspects of European Immigra-
tion TO THE United States. By
Isaac A. Hourwich, Ph.D. New York:
G. P. Putnam's Sons. $2.50.

Messages of the President of the
United States Transmitting the
Reports of the Commission on
Economy and Efficiency. Commu-
nicated to the two houses of Congress,
January 8, 1913. Washington: Gov-
ernment Printing Office. 1913.

The General Federation of Women's
Clubs. Eleventh Biennial Con-
vention: 1912. Official report com-
piled and edited by the retiring re-
cording secretary, Mrs. George O.
Welch. Published bj' the Federation.
1912.

Housing Problems in America. Pro-
ceedings of the Second National
Conference on Housing. Philadel-
phia, December -4-6, 1912. Cambridge,
Mass.: The University Press.

The Immigrant Invasion. By Frank
Julian Warne. New York: Dodd,
Mead and Company. $2.50.

BOOK REVIEWS

373

The New American Citizen, A Reader
DOR Foreigners. By Frances S.
Mintz. New York: The Macmillan
Company. 206 pp. 50 cents.

Principles of Prussian Administra-
tion. By Herman Gerlach James,
J.D., Ph.D.— New York: The Macmil-
lan Company. 309 pp. $1.50.

Report of the Lake Shore Reclama-
tion Commission. Chicago, 1912.

The Social Center. By Edward J.
Ward. New York: D. Appleton and
Company. National Municipal League
Series. $1.62 postpaid.

Social Service in Virginia. P^ourth
Annual Report of the State Board of
Charities and Corrections to the Gov-
ernor of Virginia for the year ending
September 30, 1912. Richmond: 1913.

Statute Law Making in the United
States. By Chester Lloyd Jones.
Boston: The Boston Book Company.
327 pp.

How New York City Administers its
Schools. By Ernest C. Moore. Yon-
kers: N. Y., World Book Company,
1913. 310 pp.

The Celebration of the One Hun-
dred AND Twenty-fifth Anniver-
sary of the University of Pitts-
burg. University of Pittsburg Bulletin.
Pittsburg, Pa. 1912.

Year Book and Proceedings of the
Fifty-Second Annual Convention
OF the United States Brewers' As-
sociation. Boston, Mass., Septem-
ber 19-20, 1912. New York: The
United States Brewers' Association.
1913.

Proceedings of the Fourth Annual
Convention of the Central Asso-
ciation OF Commercial Secretaries.
Indianapolis, Ind., September 20-21,
1912.

Proceedings of the National Con-
ference OF Charities and Correc-
tions AT THE Thirty-Ninth Annual
Session. Held in Cleveland, Ohio,
June 12-19, 1912. Edited by Alex-
ander Johnson. Fort Wayne, Ind.:
Fort Wayne Printing Company, 1912.

Proceedings of the Seventeenth An-
nual Convention of the Inter-
national Association of Municipal
Electricians. Held at Peoria, 111.,
August 27-30, 1912.

Proceedings of the Thirty-Second
Annual Convention of the Amer-
ican Water Works Association.
Held at Louisville, Ky., June 3-7, 1912.
Published by the Association.

Report of the Investigation of the
United States Patent Office made
BY the President's Commission on
Economy and Efficiency. December
1912. Washington; Government Print-
ing Office, 1912.

Report of the Proceedings of the
National Conference on the Pre-
vention of Destitution. Held at
Caxton Hall. Westminster, June 11-
14, 1912. London: P. S. King and
Son. 1912. 593 pp.

Old Towns and New Needs. Also the
Town Extension Plan: being the War-
burton Lectures for 1912, delivered
by Paul Waterhouse, M.A., and Ray-
mond Unwin. F.R.I.B.A. Manchester:
The University Press. 36 cents.

Statement of the Ownership, Management, etc., of the NATIONAI
MUNICIPAL REVIEW, pubhshed ([uarterly at 2419-21 York Road, Balti
more, Md., required by the Act of August 24, 1912.

Name of Post-Office Address

Editor, Clinton Rogers Woodruff, 703 North American Bldg., Philadelphia

Publisher, National Municipal League, 703 North American Bldg., Phila.

Owners (if a corporation give names and addresses of stockholders holding
1 per cent or more of total amount of stock) : National Municipal League
a voluntary organization without stockholders; William Dudley Foulke
Richmond, Ind., president; Clinton Rogers Woodruff, 703 North Americai
Bldg., Philadelphia, secretary; George Burnham, Jr., Philadelphia, treasurer
M. N. Baker, Montclair, N. J., chairman, executive committee.

Known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security holders, holding 1 pe
cent or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages, or other securities : None

CLINTON ROGERS WOODRUFF,

Editor.

Sworn to and subscribed before me this fifteenth day of Feburary, 1913.

Emma D. Chappell,
(Seal) Notary Public.

Commission expires January 18, 1917.

INDEX TO NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

ALSO TITLE PAGE.

The editor has prepared a detailed index to Volume I
of the NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW which
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NATIONAL '
MUNICIPAL REVIEW

Vol. II, No. 3 JULY, 1913 Total No. 7

THE NEW YORK SUBWAY CONTRACTS

BY DELOS F. WILCOX, PH.D.^

THE Chicago street railway settlement ordinances, coming just
before the day of regulation by commission, marked an era in
franchise contract regulation, and in spite of the vigor of the
commission movement the stimulus given to elaborate regulation by con-
tract has not yet been checked. In 1910 the Cleveland street railway
settlement and the Minneapolis gas ordinances embodied the spirit of
local regulation in complex agreements which have since vied with the
Chicago ordinances in public interest. Many other cities are wrestling
with big franchise problems, and seeking to realize settlements patterned '
more or less after the "Chicago plan" or the "Cleveland plan."

There seems to be a tendency toward more and more elaborate franchise
contracts wherever private ownership or operation is regarded as tem-
porary, and preparatory for municipal ownership or operation. Why this
should be so, is clear when we consider the financial interest which the
city has as the prospective owner of a great public utility. Immense prop-
erty rights are involved. Sometimes the investment in a single utility
is greater than the entire outstanding debt of a city. When the city is
granting a franchise for the construction, reconstruction or development of
such an enterprise, and looks upon it as something which the city itself
will sooner or later acquire, it is only common business prudence — one
of the established ways of the world — to insist that the grant of privileges
shall be carefully defined and restricted, and tied up with corresponding
obligations for the benefit of the city.

These are stirring days in public utility regulation. Six years ago the

first public service commissions were established in two states — -New

|York and Wisconsin. The public utilities commission idea has spread

' . . .

' ^ Dr. Wilcox is chairman of the National Municipal League's committee on

franchises, is the author of two volumes on municipal franchises as well as sundry-
other volumes dealing with municipal questions, and, since 1907, has been chief of
the bureau of franchises of the public service commission for the first district,
NfewYork. See also his article on "How the Chicago and Cleveland Street Rail-
way Settlements are Working Out," National Municipal Review, vol. i, p. 630.

375

376 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

80 rapidly that now there are commissions with wide powers in about
one-half of the states, and more are coming.

It has been thought by some that the advent of commissions embodying
the idea of continuous regulation of rates and services under the police
power, sounded the death knell of the franchise contract. In certain
localities, state regulation has been striding across the horizon brushing
aside local ordinances and even home rule charters and accepted franchises
as if they were cobwebs in the corners of the sky. People have asked:
"Why do we need any elaborate franchise documents, when we have the
power to regulate the utilities at any time? Why not forego the attempt
to foresee the future and to write down in a contract things which only
time can prove? Why not leave all such matters to the public utilities
commission, to be decided as the specific need arises?"

If public utilities are viewed as a permanent function of private corpora-
tions, so that no one has any interest in the property as such except the
present OAvners and the users of the utility, it may be said with some show
of reason that a franchise need be nothing more than a permit to occupy
the public streets. If, on the other hand, ultimate municipal ownership
is kept in view, either as an established policy or as a lively option, it is
evident that commission regulation cannot take the place of a contract
between the parties, covering at least the elements going to the determina-
tion of the purchase price, the upkeep and extension of the property, the
audit of investment accounts, the amortization of the capital value out of
earnings, and other kindred matters.

Commission regulation has been looked upon, either as a permanent
substitute for public OAvnership or as a final experiment and preparation
for it. Which it is, makes all the difference in the world. If it 's the
former, elaborate franchise contracts will not be considered necessary and
the municipalization of public utilities will become more remote and more
difficult from year to year. If it is the latter, regulation will not inter-
fere with franchise contracts, except where they are devised to weaken
ultimate public control, and will look with favor upon specific arrange-
ments between cities and utility companies tending to prepare the way
for municipal ownership.

As if to prove beyond peradventure that continuous regulation cannot
take the place of the contract method, it was left for the public service
commission having jurisdiction in New York City, though a state body
created for regulatory purposes, to carry the idea of contract regulation
furthest of all. The subway contracts and elevated railroad certificates
signed by the commission on March 19, 1913, are volumes -with an aggre-
gate of no less than 700 printed pages. With its right hand, as represen-
tative of the city, the commission marshals 125,000 cunning words and,
after many an interminable conference, organizes them into contract form

THE NEW YORK SUBWAY CONTRACTS 377

and requires the companies to sign them. At the same time, with its
left hand, as an organ of the state, the commission holds taut the reins
of regulation by administrative order, and jealously asserts its prerogative
to regulate, independent of franchise contracts. The secret of the vol-
uminous contracts in New York, as in Chicago, Minneapolis and Cleveland,
is the fact that in each case the idea of future municipal ownership dom-
inated the negotiations.

The New York City rapid transit settlement just consummated after eight
years of subway negotiations and more than twenty years of intermittent
dickering with the elevated roads, constitutes the most stupendous local
franchise bargain that has ever been considered by any city in the world.
With a population of five million people within its municipal bound-
aries. New York now has three systems of local rapid transit railways,
representing an aggregate capital investment of about $250,000,000 and
an annual capacity of about 800,000,000 passengers. The city also
has four great bridges over the East River connecting the borough of
Manhattan with the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, constructed at a
cost of about $100,000,000. These bridges were constructed to carry
altogether twelve rapid transit railroad tracks, of which only the two
tracks on the New York and Brooklyn Bridge have thus far been used to
their capacity, while of the rest only the two on the Williamsburgh Bridge
have thus far been used at all.

The rapid transit plans just agreed upon involve the expenditure of
about $330,000,000 of new capital in transit lines, and the putting of the
bridges across the East River into full use. Thus it appears that these
plans call for an immediate increase of about 130 per cent in the invest-
ment in rapid transit railroads proper, and an increase of more than 200
per cent in the utilization for rapid transit purposes of the $100,000,000 in-
vestment in the bridges. The so-called ''dual plan," as embodied in the
new contracts and franchises, provides for an increase of 150 per cent in
the total passenger capacity of the rapid transit lines, so that, at the end
of five years, with all the proposed new lines constructed, connections made
and additional facilities provided. New York City's rapid transit capacity
will be at least 2,000,000,000 passengers per annum. How stupendous the
plan is and how important the influence it must necessarily have upon
the financial, social and industrial conditions in New York may be seen
from the fact that in the fiscal year ending June 30, 1912, the total number
of fare passengers carried in New York City on all the local transit lines,
including the surface street cars, was less than 1,700,000,000. In other
words, it is now proposed to enlarge the rapid transit system at one
stroke so that it will accommodate within four or five years more than
the total number of passengers now conveyed on the rapid transit lines
plus the surface street railways,

378 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

The engineering problems connected with this vast enterprise have for
the most part been overcome in the construction of the old subway and
the bridges. It is possible that still greater difficulties may be met in
burrowing under the narrow roadways of Nassau and William streets,
among the roots of the sky-scrapers of the financial district, but the engi-
neers approach the problem with confidence, believing that in the main the
difficulties still to be encountered are similar to those which have already
been overcome.

It is the political and financial aspects of the problem that have caused
most of the trouble. When we reflect upon the variety of the financial
interests involved, upon the complexity of the legal requirements and the
multiplicity of authorities whose cooperation is required, it is a marvel
that any subways at all have been constructed and put into operation in
New York. It is inevitable that plans involving so much and the inter-
ests of so great a population in matters so vital to every day comfort,
convenience and business success, should have been the subject of fierce
controversy. Ever since the present subway was opened in 1904, the
public authorities of New York have been planning, negotiating, re-plan-
ning and wrestling with the problem of subway expansion, and ever since
1891 the problem of additional franchises for the improvement and exten-
sion of the elevated railroads has been acute. Nothing had been accom-
plished with the Manhattan Railway since J. P. Morgan headed a com-
mittee to negotiate new franchises with the rapid transit board and old
Jay Gould tottered down to tell the board that the elevated railroads were
one of the chief health agencies of the city, warranted to cure any disease
but grip, all by reason of the atmospheric circulation induced by the rush
of the trains through the upper regions of the streets. Now that a com-
prehensive plan of subway and elevated railroad expansion has at last
been agreed upon, and the contracts signed, sealed and delivered, even
the reluctant consent of the thrifty and reactionary heir of "Doctor"
Gould having been secured, the country should find it worth while to
pause long enough to cast an inquiring glance in the direction of New
York City's achievment, and look to see how far the metropolis is ahead
of or behind its sister cities in the franchise procession.

Briefly, the dual plan, as the city's newly adopted rapid transit policy
is called, involves the following main points:

1 . The elevated railroads in old New York (Manhattan and The Bronx)
are to be extended and third-tracked by the Interborough Rapid Transit
Company, the lessee of the Manhattan Railway Company, under eighty-
five year franchises. The existing franchises are perpetual. The new ones
for the third-tracking and extensions are to be indeterminate after ten years
within the eighty-five year limit, and provision is to be made for the amor-
tization, within that time, of the new capital invested. The Manhattan

THE NEW YORK SUBWAY CONTRACTS 379

ele"viated railway, as extended and improved, is to be operated as a separate
5-cent fare system, serving Manhattan and The Bronx, with the addition
of trackage rights over certain rapid transit lines to be constructed by
the city, serving a portion of the borough of Queens tributary to the
Queensboro Bridge, which enters Manhattan at 59th Street on a line
with the southern boundary of Central Park.

2. The present municipal subway, extending north and south through
the borough of Manhattan with two branches running into The Bronx,
north of the Harlem River, and one short extension to the business heart
of Brooklyn, now operated by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company
under leases from the city, is to be extended by what is practically a
doubling of its lines in Manhattan and The Bronx, by the addition of
another tunnel under the East River to Brooklyn, by the construction of
lines to serve an important V-shaped section of Brooklyn not now served
by any rapid transit lines and by the utilization of the Steinway Tunnel
under 42nd Street and the East River with two extensions into the north-
west portion of the borough of Queens.

The present subway was constructed with city money and equipped by
the operating company. The extensions of the present subway are to be
constructed half with city money and half with money furnished by the
operating company, and are to be equipped by the company. The present
subway is held under two leases. One, covering the portion north of the
City Hall, originally extended for a period of fifty years from 1904, with
the right of renewal for twenty-five years more upon a readjustment of
the rental. The other, covering the line from City Hall to Atlantic Ave-
nue, Brooklyn, extended for a period of thirty-five years from 1908 with
a similar right of renewal. During the renewal terms, the rentals were to
be readjusted, and at the final expiration of the leases in 1979 and 1968,
the city was to get possession of the subway free of cost and to purchase
the equipment at its then fair value. In all probability, the rental during
the renewal periods would have been more than sufficient to pay for this
equipment.

Under the new subway contract with the Interborough Rapid Transit
Company, the existing leases have been levelled by the extension of their
original terms to December 31, 1965, and by the abrogation of the com-
pany's right to the renewals. The new lines connected with the present
subway are to be leased to the Interborough Company, and not only the
new subways themselves, but the new equipment will come into the pos-
session of the city without cost at the expiration of the new contract, some
fifty-three years hence. In the meantime, however, although the city's
investment of about $60,000,000 in the present subway will continue to
be taken care of as a first charge on the earnings of the extended system,
the company will be entitled to take out of earnings the sum of $6,335,000

880 NATIOXAT. .MrXirTPAL REVIEW

annually, representing its average annual net profits for the two-year period
ending June 30, 1911, and six per cent on all new capital furnished by
it, before either interest, sinking fund or profit is paid upon the city's
share of the new investment. The $6,335,000 i)referential to the company
represents something over thirteen per cent on the company's present
investment. When coupled with the 6 per cent upon new money immedi-
ately to be furnished by the company, this preferential payment is fig-
ured out as 8.76 per cent upon the entire amount of capital to be invested
in the enlarged system prior to the beginning of operation in 1917. Follow-
ing this preferential the city is also to receive 8.76 per cent upon the new
mone}' furnished by it. After the enlarged system has gone into operation,
however, the company will be required to contribute one-half of the cost
of additions and betterments needed from time to time, and the entire cost
of the additional equipment that may be made necessary by the growth
of traffic. Upon this additional monej^ the company will receive 6 per
cent annually as a preferential wedged in between its original preferential
and the city's 8.76 per cent. If anything is left after the paj^ment of these
huge preferentials and the establishment of a contingent reserve, the
balance will be treated as net profits and will be divided equally between
the city and the company.

The present subway, with the extensions included in the new lease to
the Interborough Rapid Transit Company , is to be operated for a single
five-cent fare, but without transfers (except at one point) to the elevated
railroads of the Manhattan Railway system, which is to be operated by the
same company, and also without transfers to the other subways and
elevated railroads, not operated by this company.

3. The existing elevated railroad system of Brooklyn is to be in largo
measure reconstructed, third-tracked and extended. As extended it will
have three lines running into Queens, serving certain limited portions of
that borough not reached by the proposed extensions of the Steinway tun-
nel. The elevated railroads of Brooklyn now dump their passengers at
the Manhattan terminals of the New York and Brooklyn bridge and the
Williamsburgh bridge, but have no facilities for distributing them through
the main business district of the city. It is proposed, therefore, to con-
struct a new system of subways to provide adequate terminal facilities in
lower JXIanhattan for the elevated railroads of Brooklyn, and to serve
portions of the borough of Brooklyn not noAv adequately provided with
rapid transit lines and not included in the V-shaped section which is to
be developed as a part of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company's
area. Of the cost of these new subways the citj^ will furnish about six-
sevenths and the company about one-seventh, while the company will
furnish the entire cost of equipment. This company is also to have
trackage rights over the rapid transit lines to be constructed b\^ the city

THE NEW YORK SUBWAY CONTRACTS 381

as extensions of the Steinway tunnel in the northwestern part of the bor-
ough of Queens. It is to be noted that while the Tnterborough Company-
will operate two separate and independent systems without exchange of
transfers (except as noted), the New York Consolidated Railroad Com-
pany (operating subsidiary of the Brookljm Rapid Transit Company) will
operate the elevated railroads of Brooklyn and the subways allotted to it
as a single 5 cent fare system. But the free transfers now being given at
many points between the elevated railroads of Brooklyn and the surface
street car lines will be discontinued, unless future arrangements are rtiade
with the city's approval, for their continuance. The general terms of the
contracts under which the elevated roads of Brooklyn are to be improved
and extended and a system of municipal subways is to be operated in con-
nection with them, are similar in most respects to the terms upon which
the city deals with the Interborough Rapid Transit Company. But the
company's fixed preferential and the city's percentage preferential are
both much smaller under the Brooklyn contract than they are under the
Interborough contract, thus leaving a better hope for divisible profits.
The plans for the extension and third-tracking of the elevated roads are
to be carried out by the company under eighty-five year franchises ter-
minable after ten years, and the subways are to be leased for a period
ending December 31, 1965, when the city will come into possession of the
subway property, including both construction and equipment, without
purchase. The existing elevated railroads, however, will be retained by
the company under the perpetual franchises which it now holds.

The dual plan, therefore, is "dual" only with respect to the number of
operating companies. With respect to operating systems it is a triple
scheme. The Manhattan Railway now has a capacity of about 300,000,000
passengers. As enlarged, its capacity will be about 450,000,000. The
present subway also has a capacity of about 300,000,000. As enlarged it
will have a capacity to carry between 750,000,000 and 800,000,000. The
elevated system of Brooklyn, as now constructed, with its inadequate
terminal facilities, has a capacity of scarcely 200,000,000; while the new
combined system of elevated railroads and subways to be operated by
the Brooklyn company will probably have a capacity of from 800,000,000
to 900,000,000 per annum. The three systems will represent roughly
an investment of $120,000,000, $250,000,000 and $210,000,000 respectively,
excluding the cost of the East River bridges, three of which will be used
exclusively by the Brooklyn company, and one jointly by the two com-
panies. In the subway contracts, provision is made for the extension of
either subway system from time to time in the future, the city to construct
the extensions and the respective companies to equip and operate them,
subject to certain terms and conditions which are calculated to protect
the financial interests of the companies while at the same time leaving

382 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

the city free to extend its rapid transit lines at any time if it has the nec-
essary funds. One of the chief difficulties under the old subway leases
has been that the city has had no power to compel the company to build
or equip a foot of extensions, or even to operate an extension if built and
equipped by the city.

The New York subway contracts and elevated railroad franchises are
so long and so complex that many interesting details must be omitted
from this analysis. It will be worth while, however, to attempt a general
appraisal of these contracts and franchises in comparison with the Chicago
and Cleveland settlements and in the light of fundamental principles of
franchise regulation.

The big features of the Chicago settlement were the following:

1 . Surrender of all outstanding franchises and inclusion of substantially
the entire surface street railway system, with future extensions, under
the terms of a single contract plan.

2. Definite fixing of purchase price, with increase for additional invest-
ment, and contract right of city to take over the street railways at any
time upon payment of the price thus fixed.

3. First class construction and equipment under control of impartial
board of supervising engineers.

4. One-city-one-fare, the same at all hours, 5 cents for adults, 3 cents
for children from seven to twelve years old, with universal transfers except
in the downtown business district.

5. A fixed return of 5 per cent upon capital value, plus a share in net
profits to the operating companies to supply the motive for economy and
efficiency.

6. Fifty-five per cent of surplus net profits to go to the city and be accu-
mulated as a street railway purchase fund.

7. The right of the city to require a fixed mileage of extensions each
year, and such additional extensions as will not reduce the companies'
surplus profits to an unreasonably small amount.

8. Right of city to regulate service subject to the approval of the board
of supervising engineers.

Certain weak points in the Chicago settlement have developed. They
are mainly these:

1. Inclusion of franchise values and superseded property to the extent
of many millions of dollars without any provision for the amortization of
this dead capital.

2. No provision for the investment of the city's profits in the securities
of the companies, thus leaving the purchase fund to accumulate in the
banks at the rate of 2| per cent, while new capital is being poured into
the system drawing 5 per cent interest on par, with a 5 per cent allowance
for brokerage and a 10 per cent allowance for contractor's profit on con-
struction included in par.

THE NEW YORK SUBWAY CONTRACTS 383

3. No provision for purchase by the city except upon payment of the
full purchase price of one or both of the systems in cash in a lump sum,
thus making purchase difficult and requiring the unnecessary disturbance
of the bonded debt.

4. Inadequate provision for continuous control of service by the board
of supervising engineers, the initiation of service regulations being left
to the city council.

5. No certain provision as to what will happen to the property at the
expiration of the franchise in 1927, if the city does not choose to buy it
before or at that time.

Though based upon the expectation of municipal ownership, the Chicago
settlement has, through its weaknesses, made municipahzation more re-
mote and difficult. After six years the city has accumulated a purchase
fund of about $11,000,000 and the purchase price has increased about
$80,000,000. Dead capital alone has probably increased more than the
entire accumulations of the purchase fund, though with the completion
of the rehabilitation period the increase of dead capital should now
cease.

The Cleveland settlement came three years later than the Chicago settle-
ment, and while the two plans have many points in common, they are
radically different in certain respects. In Cleveland, as in Chicago, all
outstanding franchises were surrendered and the entire street railway sys-
tem brought under the provisions of a single ordinance. Also, Cleveland
fixed the purchase price at which the city can take over the property at
any time. But instead of a fixed fare, division of profits and a purchase
fund, Cleveland provided for service at cost by means of a sliding schedule
of fares and a fixed rate of return on a fixed investment. Extensions are
under the control of the city, subject to the company's ability to finance
them within the limits of the fare-schedule, the maximum rate allowed
being 4 cents cash fare, seven tickets for 25 cents, and 1 cent for a transfer.
But if the twenty-five year franchise granted is ever allowed to come within
fifteen years of expiration, then the city's right to propose extensions will
cease and the company will have the right to charge the maximum rate
allowed by the schedule and use its surplus profits for amortization pur-
poses. If subsequently the city purchases, it will get the benefit of the
amortization. The city retains a check upon new capital expenditures and
repairs and renewals, and has full control of service to the extent of the
company's ability to earn its fixed return under the maximum fares al-
lowed. Matters of dispute, if arbitrable under the law, are to be deter-
mined by arbitration.

The weak points of the Cleveland franchise are these:
1. It capitalizes several million dollars of franchise values and makes
no provision for their amortization or the amortization of any part of

3S4 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

the ca])ital value except when the franchise comes within fifteen years of
its expiration.

2. By absolutely fixing the company's profit, it kills the motive for
economy and efficiency supposed to be the main excuse for the continu-
ance of the private operation of public utilities. It is thus compelled to
rely upon arbitrary checks and continuous control by the city street rail-
road commissioner to make the dead motive act as if it were alive.

In practical operation what may be considered an over-emphasis of the
low-fare idea in Cleveland has a tendency to limit extensions and to keep
the standard of service down, while at the same time leaving no surplus
with which to amortize the investment out of earnings for the city's bene-
fit. But the Cleveland plan at least has the merit of not being heartily
approved by the corporations in every municipality where they are trying
to get the city to pull their chestnuts out of the fire by the capitalization
of ancient losses and the guaranty of future profits on a swollen invest-
ment. The Cleveland plan has faults, but from the standpoint of future
municipalization, these faults are far less serious than those of the Chicago
plan, even thougli Cleveland is not accumulating a purchase fund.

Three years are an era in these swiftly-moving days. In 1907, Chicago

" settled. In 1910, Cleveland settled. In 1913, New York settled. But

New York's settlement has to do with subways and elevated roads, not

with surface street car lines. Yet it may be truly said that rapid transit

in New York has come to be the major factor in local transportation.

In the new subway contracts and elevated railroad franchises New York
has gone both forward and backward. It has not only made provision
for an indeterminate franchise within a maximum time limit, but has made
provision for the amortization of the entire original investment within
that maximum period. It has reserved the right to terminate the contracts
and recapture the subway lines in seven separate divisions. It has re-
served to itself unlimited authority to compel the companies to operate
extensions, the city assuming the deficits. The city has definitely assumed
the risk of the rapid transit enterprises and has reduced the entire new
investment in subway and elevated lines to a bond basis, with the bonus
for motive offered in the form of a division of net profits with the operating
companies. Capital as such will receive a definite and fixed return. Addi-
tional profits, if there be any, will not go to capital at all, but to the operat-
ing agencies alone. The city itself constructs the subways and retains
the supervision of their equipment and of the reconstruction, extension and
equipment of the elevated roads. The city has the right to object to
particular items of operating expenses and maintainance, and to invoke
arbitration to determine their reasonableness and propriety. In these
respects — (1) amortization of the entire investment within a fixed period,
(2) recapture of the subwaj^s in detail, (3) authority to require the opera-

THE NEW YORK SUBWAY CONTRACTS 385

tion of extensions, (4) assumption by the city of the risk of the investment,

(5) actual construction and close supervision of equipment by the city, and

(6) the city's right to challenge operating expenditures — New York may
properly be said to have gone forward.

There is, however, a different side to the story. Let the reader judge for
himself whether New York has not made considerable net progress back-
wards. The new contracts and franchises do not resettle the outstanding
rights of the companies, but leave perpetual franchises undisturbed except
to strengthen them, and leave long-term leases of city lines untouched
except to "level" them by lopping off fag ends of little value and extending
original terms of great value to the company, and by providing in a doubt-
ful manner for an exchange of certain old and new lines in the event of
recapture of the new lines by the city. The city goes into partnership
with the companies, furnishes vast amounts of capital toward the construc-
tion of the new lines, sets this contribution to work to help earn the present
profits of the companies and their additional interest and sinking fund
charges on account of new investment, and accepts for itself what is equiva-
lent to the second mortgage with no right to foreclose for non-payment of
interest. Moreover, the city buys these second mortgage income bonds
at par, while it allows the companies to take the gilt-edged first mortgage
bonds at 97 with a provision for their retirement in the case of one com-
pany at 107^ and in the case of the other at 110. New York does not
adhere to the one-city-one-fare principle, even as to rapid transit lines,
but perpetuates three operating systems, or, if we count the Hudson
tunnels, four, without requiring an exchange of transfers. The city drains
its credit almost to the last dollar for rapid transit purposes alone, leav-
ing nothing with which to meet the capital expenditures for other civic
improvements bound to follow in the wake of subway expansion, and at
the same time permits the companies for fifty years to take our of rapid
transit earnings as a preferential the amount of their present profits,
swollen by congestion and neglect. New York even provides for the ex-
penditure of many millions of dollars in the reconstruction and improve-
ment of the companies' old lines, these millions to be amortized as a prefer-
ential, though the reconstructed property, maintained at the top-notch,
will remain the property of the companies for all time, even though it
has been paid for. While the city retains authority to compel the com-
panies to operate any number of extensions, it has to build the extensions
itself, and unless they are profitable on their own account, it will have to
make good the deficits out of its own pocket. The city has the right to
recapture the new fines, but all of them are to be hooked up in operation
with old lines that caimot be recaptured. So, the termination of a con-
tract in whole or in part will involve the dismemberment of an operating
system, the upsetting of established habits of travel and the substitution

380 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEAV

of two fares for one. The New York contracts ignore the relation of sur-
face Hnes to rapid transit Unes and make no provision for transfers between
them, except at a single point of little importance. Existing transfers to
surface lines are to be cut ofif. With one of the companies, the hope of
divisible profits is so remote that the incentive for economy and efficiency
bids fair to be entirely absent, leaving the company with its guaranteed
profits and interest, and its hand in the city's pocket to spend freely the
margin that ought to go to the payment of interest and sinking fund
charges on the city's investment. By the spirit of its partnership with
the companies, the city pledges itself not to attack, but rather to acknowl-
edge and protect as far as possible or necessary the perpetual franchises
that might otherwise be forfeited by vigilant public officials. The new
elevated railroad franchises run for a maximum period of eighty-five years
although their cost is to be fully amortized in less than fifty years out of
preferentials allowed for the purpose.

New York had the benefit of its own experience and the experience of
Chicago, Cleveland and other cities to guide it. In this enterprise it did
not start at the bottom of the well. If we were to apply to it the problem
of the frog, the conundrum would have to be put something like this:
"A frog finds himself half-way up the side of a forty-foot well. He starts
to climb out. Every day he climbs two feet and every night he slips back
four. How many days and nights will pass before he gets out?" To one
looking at the fundamentally progressive principles theoretically embodied
in the subway settlement and then considering the limitations put upon
them in the actual working out of the bargain with the rapid transit com-
panies, it seems likely that captious critics in the outside world may regard
New York as headed right, but going backward.

The controversy over the contracts caused a sharp division among good
men who might have been expected to stick together upon fundamental
questions of civic policy. But the preponderating influences that put the
contracts through, though stoutly proclaiming that the bargain meant
municipal ownership, were cold toward the possibility of municipal opera-
tion. Official opinion in New York has very little sympathy with munic-
ipal operation of public utilities, and the city was so faint-hearted on this
subject that its enjoyment of full power to operate the subways, with-
out further legislation of any kind, scarcely furnished its negotiators with
a talking point. Indeed, the enthusiasm for full municipal oivnership in
the technical sense seems to have been stimulated by the thought that if
title to the subways and their equipment vested in the city, the companies
would not have to pay taxes on the property as a charge in advance of
profits. The city was at a disadvantage because the existing elevated roads
were held under perpetual franchises and because the present subway had
been improvidently alienated for a long period. It is orthodox among

THE NEW YORK SUBWAY CONTRACTS 387

the politicians of the dominant parties in New York, among the boss-
selected judges and among the pubHc officials generally, to bow the knee to
vested interests. While the city's representatives might express a mild
regret that their predecessors in some other era had seen fit to hand out
perpetual franchise grants and enormously profitable leases, the claim or
possession of these advantages by the companies already in the field was
something to be accepted as an established fact. To attack an endless
franchise merely because it was corruptly acquired or acquired by the
exercise of squatter sovereignty, or merely because the companj^ claim-
ing the franchise has failed to perform its obligations in law and equity,
or to cut down by competition the exorbitant profits of an overworked
monopoly, is not looked upon with favor. Official New York has great
respect for the princes of this world who have money and financial power,
and regards it as unethical and impolitic to inquire too closely into sources
or to question titles. And so, although the law specifically authorizes
the public authorities to require the surrender of old outstanding franchises
as a condition of the grant of additional rapid transit rights, no official
body in New York has ever seriously contemplated such action.

Coupled with this official aversion to municipal operation and this pre-
cept of official ethics that whatever a public service corporation has, or
stoutly claims, it is entitled to keep, is a timidity such as characterizes
a man who is carrying all the debt he can and a good deal more than he
wants to. New York City now owes nearly $1,000,000,000 net, includ-
ing its contribution to the new subways. Its debt has been piled up in
part by the issuance of fifty-year bonds for ten-year improvements and
even for the purpose of funding current budget deficits. It has made a
rule not to pay for anything now that can be saddled onto an unborn
future. It rejects profits as if they were plebeian and courts extrava-
gancies as the emblems of municipal dignity. It is always impecunious,
and the unsatisfied judgments of civilization pile up against it year by
year. So, now, in the city's great crisis, when it had one last opportunity
to assume a dominant role in the development of its own transit facili-
ties, the official mind was deterred from aggressiveness by its tenderness
for vested privileges and was restrained from independent constructive
thought by reflection upon the notes in the bank.

These three things made the city's position weak: (1) unreadiness to
compel the surrender of existing perpetual franchises and long-term leases
by whatever means might prove necessary, (2) unreadiness to undertake
municipal operation even as a last resort, and (3) present inability to
finance its big projects along established fines without help from private
capital.

The New York subway contracts have the lure of a great enterprise.
Though we may not approve of fifty-story buildings, yet it gives us a

388 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

thrill of joy to look up at the Metropolitan tower, or the cathedral spires
of the Woolworth building just across the corner from New York's little
old city hall. There may be more art in the weather-stained structure
of a century ago, but the mighty office building with its top lost in the
mist one morning and standing out in clear relief against the shining sky
the next fills our untutored souls with a kind of savage joy. So this sub-
way scheme, second only to the Panama Canal as a tremendous engineering
enterprise, attracts us with its very bigness. The "boosters" have the
advantage over the "knockers," for the subway contracts, once signed,
spell physical accomplishment as the immediate next step. New York's
need of additional transit facilities has been scandalous for man}' years,
with only partial and temporary relief from time to time. The Brooklyn
Bridge crush and the subway jam are barbaric institutions. Then, the
profit-hunger of the real estate dealers, who hover like a Parthian army
on the outskirts of the city, creates an atmosphere in which academic dis-
cussions about franchise principles meet with scant toleration. The land-
men have waited long for the expected brood of rapid transit birds to be
hatched, often fearing that the eggs were rotten after all, and in the mean-
time have felt the frequent stings of a long tax-payers' winter.

These considerations explain wh}?- in New York the subway debate,
which from a cool academic standpoint seems to run strongly against the
contracts, was decided the other way by the preponderant influences that
bore in upon officialdom. The people had no voice except the voice of
clamor, pro or con, for in New York franchises are not subject to the
referendum.

It would fill this magazine to present in detail the provisions of the
contracts and the arguments for and against them. No more subtle and
complex partnership was ever devised. Law, engineering, accounting,and
public policy are woven together in infinite detail. There are dozens of
subjects upon which whole articles might profitably be written. The pro-
visions in regard to recapture of lines, extensions, amortization, replace-
ments, reconstruction, equipment, determination of cost, interest during
construction, engineering and legal expenses, joint trackage rights, treat-
ment of existing franchises, preferentials, depreciation, default, indemnity
bond and deposits, operating routes, control of operating expenses, divi-
sion of profits, taxes, debt discount, construction and operating accounts,
"exchange of legs," — are all interesting, controversial and important. It
may be worth while, however, in bringing this article to a close to enumer-
erate the chief points in the argument for and against the contracts.

In favor of the contracts, it was urged :

I. That the dual plan as a route scheme meant the first effective step
in remaking New York from a highly congested, unsymmetrical, long city
into a less congested, more evenly developed, round city.

THE NEW YORK SUBWAY CONTRACTS 389

2. That the dual plan meant a great extension of the five-cent fare
zones, and the provision of direct and convenient access to the business
district for vast areas and populations now suffering from the inconven-
ience of indirect routes and double fares.

3. That the dual plan utilized to the full not only the extensive and in
part unwise investments in subways and bridges already made by the
city, but also the existing facilities of the rapid transit companies already
in the field, thus securing a maximum of service for a minimum of new
investment.

4. That the dual plan would at last put the city in control of future
rapid transit development by the provision authorizing it to build and
compel the companies to operate extensions whenever and wherever
needed.

5. That the dual plan would enlist the cooperation of private capital
to the extent of $165,000,000 of new money, without which the city could
not possibly carry through the immense and beneficent enlargement of
rapid transit facilities immediately necessary for the public welfare,
except after long, painful and disastrous delays.

6. That the dual plan, while recognizing the right of the companies to
maintain their present profits, definitely limited the preferential return
on new capital to an amount substantially equivalent to interest and amor-
tization charges.

7. That by the new contract with the Interborough Rapid Transit
Company the leases of the existing subway would be levelled and made
coterminous with the lease of the new lines, thus bringing the entire subway
situation to a head at one time.

8. That by the right of recapture at any time after ten years of opera-
tion, this right being applicable to the entire new subway system operated
by either company, or to any one or more of several specified divisions of
each system, the city would remain in continuous control of the situation
with the power to shift lines from one company to the other, to throw both
of the companies out and get a new operator, or to institute municipal
operation.

9. That under the dual plan not only would the city own the subways
and their equipment from the beginning even though it was to contribute
only a portion of the cost, but the entire investment, private and public,
would be amortized within the period of the contracts and possession of
the property fully paid for and unencumbered by debt, would then revert
to the city.

10. That the elevated railroad improvements included in the dual plan
would give the quickest possible relief to existing congestion of traffic.

11. That the consummation of this vast scheme of rapid transit develop-
ment would greatly stimulate the growth of the city, increase its values

300 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

and add to its borrowing capacity and taxing resources, thus insuring the
city's ability to recapture the subways whenever it might choose to do so
and making the burden of any possible deficits arising under the contracts
too insignificant to be considered.

On the other hand, those opposed to the contracts, while admitting
the actual soundness of some of the arguments just enumerated, and the
theoretical soundness of most of them, contended that several of the ad-
vantages claimed could not actually be realized under the terms of the
contracts as worked out in detail, that others were in no sense peculiar
to the dual plan, and that the positively objectionable features of the
contracts more than offset any possible advantages obtainable only through
this plan.

Specifically, they urged:

1. That the preferentials guaranteed to the companies were exorbitant,
and that those of the Interborough in particular were the result of ne-
glected depreciation and shameless congestion of traffic, the outgrowth of
the company's reactionary policy in the past.

2. That the Interborough's plans for financing its share in the scheme
involved the payment of an outrageous tribute to J. P. Morgan and Com-
pany, the money kings, who were to get $170,000,000 of Interborough new
and refunding bonds at 93|, although these bonds would easily be worth
par in the open market, and in fact were to be redeemed from time to
time for amortization purposes at 110, while the Brooklyn company's
financial scheme, after being worked out through the intricate con-
volutions of interwoven companies, showed an even worse result.

3. That the allowance of 1 per cent per annum for a sinking fund
covering a period of forty-nine years would enable the Interborough to
accumulate a surplus of from $30,000,000 to $60,000,000 within the life
of the contract, out of which it would take care of the excessive discounts
not directly chargeable to capital account under the contract, while the
Brooklyn company would be enabled to charge its discounts to interest
during construction, and thus keep for itself the surplus in its sinking fund.

4. That the levelling of the leases of the present subwa}'^, instead of
being an advantage to the city, involved the gift of $30,000,000 or
$40,000,000 more to the Interborough Company during the life of its
new contract.

5. That the Interborough contract, by reason of the excessive prefer-
entials both to the company and to the city, could never promise a divis-
ion of profits, and hence would destroy the company's motive for economy'
and efficiency, leaving it free, without loss to itself, to wallow in extrava-
gance and exploit politics on the city's margin.

6. That by reason of the deficits the city would surely have to pay, its
rapid transit bonds would remain subject to the debt limit and its tax

THE NEW YORK SUBWAY CONTRACTS 391

resources would be drained to the utmost, thus nuHifying for practical
purposes the recaption scheme depended on to keep the city in constant
control of the situation.

7. That in amazing disregard of the first principles of equity, if not of
law, the reconstruction and improvement of existing elevated railroads
was to be charged entirely to capital account, fully amortized out of earn-
ings by an annual preferential in advance of the city's interest on its
investment, and then left at the expiration of the contracts — all- paid
for and maintained at the topnotch of efficiency — in the perpetual pos-
session of the companies.

8. That the city's subways would be hooked up by a sort of Morgan-
atic marriage with the princely family of Perpetual Franchises, to be
exploited for their benefit, and in the end cut off unfitted for independence
by the habits of half a century.

9. That the franchises for the elevated railroad extensions and improve-
ments, running for eighty-five years, represented a mere wanton and inex-
cusable throwing away of public rights, provision being made by which
the companies would amortize out of their preferentials the entire invest- '
ment in these improvements and extensions within the period of the
subway contracts, namely, forty-nine years.

10. That full municipal ownership (and municipal operation if the com-
panies were unreasonable) of a comprehensive, independent system of
new subways, financed so far as necessary by rapid transit certificates
secured directly on the property and income of the subways, would be
infinitely preferable to an unequal partnership with discredited corpora-
tions.

There is nothing new under the sun. In 1875, nearly forty years ago.
New York debated whether the elevated roads should be constructed with
public or with private capital. Then as now there was a sharp divergence
of opinion among the city's official representatives. The prevailing view
was that "private enterprise should most assuredly be given the prefer-
ence, in all works of this character, and an opportunity should be given
to private capitalists to secure the advantages of investing in an undertak-
ing that is in such popular demand as to be morally certain of proving
highly profitable and remunerative." Should we say that the enlight-
ened aldermen of those days, whose words we quote, were some forty
years ahead of their times? or that the public officials of 1913, who have
been so solicitous for the protection of private profits and who proclaim
so confidently the triumph of justice and fair-dealing in the new subway
settlement, are still thinking in the grooves of 1875?

SCHOOL PROGRESS IN NEW YORK CITY

BY JOHN MARTIN^

New York City

THE New York school system baffles comprehension by its magni-
tude. The significant statistics of the system defy realization ; like
stellar distances they are beyond mental grasp. There are 750,000
youngsters enrolled. This is an army which marching four abreast would
stretch all the way from New York to Philadelphia. There was an increase
of 23,000 on the rolls of day schools last year. The yearly increase involves
as great an expenditure for new buildings and equipment as the total
outlay in a city like Syracuse since its foundation for housing its school
system. There are over 18,000 on the teaching and supervising force, not
including janitors nor those on the repairing and building force. This
number with their families would make a town the size of Savannah. The
increase in the teachers' salaries for the year 1912 was $3,500,000, the
•increase alone surpassing the total outlay for teachers in Colorado, Ken-
tucky, Georgia, Maine, Virginia or Vermont. The appropriation last year
for current expenses and new buildings exceeded $40,000,000, a sum greater
than the combined revenues of the states of Oregon, Rhode Island, South
Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Massachusetts,
Virginia and Washington, and as great as the revenue of the Empire
State itself. Who can encompass such prodigious facts or fully grasp
their significance?

With responsibiUties so huge it would be excusable if the New York
board of education and board of superintendents were content to keep
moving in the old ruts without trying new experiments or making fresh
advances; but, on the contrary, they are so open to fresh ideas that it is
doubtful whether any school system the world over shows more courage
and ingenuity in devising new ways to help the child and its parents. A
brief review will prove this assertion.

A special effort has been made recently to aid slow and dull pupils so
as to lessen the number who fail to win promotion. Formerly the child
who fell behind in one or two major subjects was forced to repeat all the
work of a grade, with the result that the number of over-age children in
the grades, of children who were really too old for the class they occupied,

*Mr. Martin is a member of the board of education of New York City and some
years aeo was associated with the school system of London, so that he writes out
of a fullness of knowledge and wide experience, which gives added force to his
words. His reference to the social activities of the Xew York schools is supple-
mented by Mr. John Collier's article based on Edwnnl , I. Ward's The Social Center,
see page 455.

392

SCHOOL PROGRESS IN NEW YORK CITY 393

ran into the tens of thousands; while the bright children, who could easily
reach the goal of graduation in a shortened time, were kept- back with the
average and so wasted one or more school years. Only by the use of spe-
cial classes and group work, and by elastic organization can all the pupils,
the backward, the ordinary and the clever alike, be given the chance to
progress at the rate their faculties will allow. Father Knickerbocker has
1500 children in his classes who, recently arrived from across the Atlantic,
cannot yet speak English. He has 25,000 — as many as are in all the
classes of all kinds of the schools of Nashville — in special classes for over-
age pupils, to help them to make more rapid progress and to catch up with
their mates.

At the same time that this notable advance was achieved in the mental
work, the work in the more popular subjects, like music, dancing, drawing
and gymnastics moved forward.

Only a decade ago the high school principal who introduced dancing for
his pupils was reprimanded and, only by changing the name to "aesthetic
steps," was he able to retain the startling innovation. Today no girl need
leave school without a knowledge of a dozen graceful folk dances, which,
borrowed from all the countries of Europe, have won such popularity as
to modify the civilization of congested sections. May day festivals were
held in the parks, when 7000 white-clad maidens danced around the May-
pole and, more remarkable, displayed with wonderful rhythm and beauty,
the steps and combinations that the peasants use to express their gladness
in Russia, Finland, Roumania and France.

The lads, more lusty and less rhythmical, show their prowess in athletic
competitions, for which most of the schools enter. The intensive form of
athletics, with its unavoidable neglect of the many for the few and the
glorification of the athlete, is discouraged in favor of the extensive form,
which tempts every boy to join in, which fosters group loyalty, avoids the
adulation of star performers and gives everybody a chance. Badges are
given to every youngster who reaches a normal standard — ^can chin him-
self so many times on the horizontal bar, and the like. Last year 8299
won this distinction, an increase of one-third over the previous year. One
employer of many young men has written :

I have come to recognize the badge given by the board of education for
athletic work and particularly for good posture to be of real significance.
It is rare indeed that I do not find every boy who has won a badge superior
to those who have not won the badge. I wish every boy would go through
your course of sprouts' and come to us alert and strong and standing up
straight — the way these fellows do.

Class athletics, a scheme by which four-fifths of the boys in a class must
compete in the making of the class average record, and in which the win-
ning class is the one that gets the most points, is fast increasing. When

394 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

8000 boys in the grammar grades compete in class running, benefits are
not being confined to a few star performers. One lad, who helped to make
his class record in jumping among the best, was himself one-legged; but
he out-jumped many of his two-legged mates.

A goodly number of schools have their own school athletic meets and
interclass competitions in basketball, baseball, running, and so forth, while
more pretentious meets, in which the schools of large districts engage, have
been common. In the high schools, to the delight of the lovers of the
army, marksmanship has been practised with such effect that for the third
time the boys of New York city hold the championship of the United
States against the competition of scores of preparatory and military
schools.

For the better physical development of the girls, who, despite the suffra-
gettes, carmot imitate their brothers in the heavier outdoor sports, no less
than 269 clubs have been organized by 941 of the teachers for taking long
walks together. Periodically these bands wander forth, in charge of an
adult selected by the principal, many of them lasses who formerly had
never dared to roam beyond their own block, in order to explore the parks,
see the distant sights, or breathe the fresh air of the woods and fields.
Who can measure the benefit to body and mind of such strolls, especially
for those girls who have spent their narrow lives in a squalid tenement
and to whom a few trees and a patch of grass are a wonder and a mystery?

Besides the city armories, which are by courtesy utilized in the winter
months for the athletic meets, the board operates itself, for summer use,
four superb athletic fields, finer in equipment than the aristocratic youths
of Eton and Harrow enjoy. And so that spirit of fair play, strenuous
endeavor and ready cooperation, which led the Duke of Wellington to
declare that the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton
is likewise being fostered on the athletic fields of New York, and fostered
not in a select aristocratic class but among tens of thousands who dwell
in lowly tenements and must win a livelihood by arduous toil.

Allied to physical training is the teaching of hygiene, in which, also, a
transformation is taking place. The practice of healthy habits instead of
the inculcation of health precepts is aimed at. It is more important for
a child to learn to come to school with clean body, teeth brushed, finger-
nails white and get into the way of doing some simple setting-up exercises
morning and night than it is to learn by rote the horrors of alcoholism or
the fell dangers of tobacco. The kind of hygiene that is being taught
more and more widely is illustrated by the report of a boy sanitary
commissioner of one public school who writes:

My first duty is to see that every boy comes to school clean. A sani-
tary chart with the names of the boys written on it is kept in every class
from the sixth year up. A monitor, appointed by me, marks this chart

SCHOOL PROGRESS IN NEW YORK CITY 395

every morning, according to the boy's cleanliness. At the end of every
month a list of the dirty boys is given to me by the different monitors.
The offenders are summoned to court, where they are tried, and, if found
guilty, are sentenced by the judges.

Athletic exercises and healthy habits will sharpen hunger. ''Let good
digestion wait on appetite." With 150 special teachers of home economics
— cooking, housekeeping, laundry work and nursing — the girls of the upper
grades are being prepared for their destined and appropriate vocation of
hometaking better than ever before since the colonial days when mother
taught daughter a multitude of household arts. In well-equipped kitchens
under skilful guidance bevies of white-capped girls may be seen any school
day, daintily weighing and mixing, tasting and cooking, the simple dishes
which every woman should be able to prepare, practising the tactics by
which that great enemy of Americans, dyspepsia, may be routed.

Meanwhile their brothers are handling hammer, chisel and saw in handy
workshops under one of the 137 special instructors, who, themselves skilled
artisans, command respect by their thorough workmanship. Nobody can
see for the first time, without surprise, the pieces of furniture and dainty
models which were shown at recent exhibitions, the work of the older lads
in the grammar schools. So the city child is getting some of that all-
round training which the farmer's boy gets as a matter of course on the
farm, a training which has produced from the soil the most eminent Amer-
icans from President Lincoln downwards.

But indoor manual work, good as it is, is not the best for summer months.
When the soft south wind blows and the sun shines through the windows
beckoning to the outer air, the proper workshop is the garden. Of course
in a monstrous city like New York space is lacking to give all the boys
and girls a plot of soil to work; but, nevertheless, a goodly proportion have
of late years been put in contact with nature's beauties. Of window or
indoor gardens there were more than 6500 blooming last year, all tended
by the youngsters; and on the outdoor gardens, the property of the board
of education, there were 50,287 flower pots and 82,918 vegetable plots, to
say nothing of the 29,539 plots under cultivation by scholars on property
not belonging to the board — an amazing record for city-bred pupils. One
result was the encouragement of tens of thousands of window gardens in
the homes. Literally hundreds of teachers, to whose unselfish enthusiasm
the rapid development of this work is due, gratuitously aided the young
gardeners out of school hours, and financial help from the city treasury and
from private sources did the rest. Thus, despite its many handicaps, the
most crowded city in Christendom is forging into a front place in the devel-
opment of a school activity which was supposed to be pecuharly ill-adapted
to massed populations.

After so much training of hand and eye naturally a fair proportion of

390 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

the graduates are ready to learn a trade if the opportunity offers. For
several years the manual training high school, the commercial high school,
and the practical departments of the other high schools have given courses
which i)repared, somewhat indirectly, for business life. Rut the specific
teaching of a trade, in workmanlike shops, has had only about two years'
trial— for boys in the vocational school established by the board, and for
girls in the Manhattan trade school, which, established by a voluntary
committee, was later taken into the school system. Roth are fast enlarg-
ing and have justified themselves. The lads learn house carpentry and
construction, cabinet work, wood turning, pattern making, electric wiring
and installation, printing, machine shop practice, forging, plumbing, mold-
ing, bookbinding and industrial design. An automobile repair shop is
about to be installed. The girls, who come mostly from homes which can-
not afford more than a brief training to increase immediate earning power
in trades not highly skilled, learn dressmaking, millinery, novelty work,
machine operating and designing. The practical character of the instruc-
tion is proved by the output of goods commercially valuable. The bo3^s'
school did, during the year, $3437 worth of work for the department and
the girls' school sold in the open market $7579 worth of goods.

Graduates of both schools show increased earning capacity and a rapid
advancement when they enter shops. Case after case is reported in which
a lad, within two or three months, had his wages raised to eight or nine
dollars from the four or five dollars a week at which he started. At both
schools teachers advise and help the graduates in getting a suitable job,
the girls' school having a secretary to do exclusively this work, and to
discover the kinds of work for which there is a demand, that the school
may always keep in touch with the trades. In twelve months this secre-
tary placed 486 girls, ensuring to them proper wages and suitable sur-
roundings.

Within a year three additional evening trade schools have been opened,
including an industrial school especially for colored persons, which will add
several hundreds to the 4000 men, who, last winter, registered at the exist-
ing evening trade schools. The notable event in the history of these schools
last winter was an agreement entered into, officiall}^, with the pattern
makers' union, under which the union will see that every apprentice to
the trade attends the classes and will cooperate with the principals and the
board in arranging the most beneficial curriculum and equipment. Such
recognition by the workmen themselves of the value of the work done and
the equal interest of employers, will turn the success of the evening trade
schools, already assured, into a triumph.

Not many years ago the school buildings and grounds were shut tight
for three months in the summer in New York, as in other cities, the chil-
dren being left to welter on the streets while the teachers recruited at

SCHOOL PROGRESS IN NEW YORK CITY 397

seashore and mountain. We have changed all that; and New York leads
the way. Last summer in thirty-two different buildings vocation schools
were conducted six weeks. These were not feeble imitations of the regular
schools, but offered attraction which few unemployed youngsters could
resist. The boys were taught Venetian ironwork, wood work, whittling
(that immemorial boy's delight), fret sawing, chair-caning and basketry.
The girls (5000 of them) took cooking and housekeeping, sewing and dress-
making, milhnery, embroidery, knitting, crocheting and basketry.

The making of bread and biscuit was specially emphasized; and, during
the winter in many families "home made bread" has been possible because
of the fact that daily lessons were given during the summer in the prepa-
ration of this staff of life.

Competent nurses gave frequent lessons on such important health
matters as the cleaning of the teeth, individual drinking cups, and anti-
septic preparations as well as elementary instruction in ''first aid to the
injured."

No wonder the percentage of attendance was high. No truant officers
were needed to bring the "reluctant schoolboy unwillingly to school."

To help mother and to prevent the keeping of the older children at home
"to mind the baby" morning kindergarten classes were also conducted in
regular indoor kindergarten rooms, as well as one hundred and eleven
kindergarten classes in afternoon playgrounds. These were brightly decor-
ated with the handiwork of the little ones, and "cosy corners," "play
lands," and "slumber lands" in corners showed where the babies were con-
signed. Story-telling by the teacher was general, the tots sitting wide-eyed
and open-mouthed as the dramatized tale was unfolded.

In other places were playgrounds for mothers and babies, where the
infants could sleep in hammock swings in the shade while the mothers,
some of them "little mothers" but few years older than their charges, rested
on the benches or gently swayed their infants and crooned lullabies to
them.

Special attention was paid last summer to music and to song. An at-
tempt was made to sing only good songs, the results showing a willingness
on the part of mothers and children to accept higher standards. Some
of the old-fashioned melodies like "Annie Laurie," "Auld Lang Syne,"
"Suwanee River" and "The Old Oaken Bucket" woke tender memories
of the past to some weary mothers and gave to their children material for
similar future memories.

Even the work of the vocation schools, attractive as it was, being done
indoors, could properly be used only half the day. For the afternoons
play for everybody was the rule at 248 centers, where over 600 teachers
supervised baseball, basketball, rope quoits, handball and more formal
gymnastics. In baseball a championship tournament was organized which

398 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

roused great enthusiasm and kept teams at every center up to concert
pitch. Field days were held on the public school athletic fields, when
several thousand children would gather with their parents to enjoy the
races and athletic features. For those who got tired of the bustle of the
playground a game room and reading room offered checkers, dominoes,
pictures, and puzzles, besides a collection of high class juvenile literature,
provided by the New York library.

In the evenings, in some congested i)ortions of the city, the school house
roofs were equipped with electric lights and benches, small bands discoursed
sweet music for part of the evening, and later the girls and women, to the
bright strains, enjoyed folk and social dancing. Every place of the kind
was crowded to its fullest capacity, the aggregate attendance during the
season running close up to a million.

Altogether it may be claimed, in reason and with due modesty, that
Father Knickerbocker did as much for his children last summer as any
colleague in the w^orld.

When the days shortened and outdoor sports and studies were no longer
attractive the recreational classes for the young and blithesome and the
serious classes for the studious were transfered to the warmed and lighted
interiors.

Eighteen evening high schools and one hundred and one evening elemen-
tary schools, more than ever before, were opened for the winter months,
for which, altogether, 112,000 pupils enrolled. No less than 40,000 for-
eigners enrolled for the study of the English tongue which was still to
them a mystery, a fact which illustrates the unusual and burdensome
difficulties with which the New York school system ever struggles. Only
after two or three years' special work on the language are such students
capable of profiting from the teaching in the regular courses.

For the less studious and for the neighborhood sociability forty-three
recreation centers, thirty for men and boys and thirteen for women were
conducted, where gymnastics, games, music, dancing and clubs of many
varieties gave amusement and development to over two million visitors in
the course of the season.

In the library and game room, books carefully selected to meet the wants
of the youthful readers, magazines, checkers, chess and other games, bowls
and a "correspondence table" offered rest and refreshment to many weary
toil(Ts after the labors of sweat shop, store, office or factory. Manj^ tour-
naments in chess and checkers were run off. One man over sixty years
old missed not a single night and defeated all comers at his favorite game
of checkers.

For the first time teachers of music were assigned to a number of the
centers and systematic attempts were made to organize glee-clubs and
choruses. Round the piano forty or fifty youngsters would gather and

SCHOOL PROGRESS IN NEW YORK CITY 399

warble more or less melodiously time-honored songs like "Way Down the
Suwanee River," while, occasionally, some budding Caruso or Sembrich
whom the teacher had discovered, would troll with spirit a popular air or
a violinist would display his budding powers. In several of the centers
small orchestras have been started. In some centers regular gymnastic
squad work was maintained and creditable displays were given of exercises
by groups on the horse, buck and parallel bars by the men. The women
at the same time indulged in folk dancing, and athletic contests. As in
the day schools, the aim in all the organized athletics was not to develop
"stars," but good all round athletes, so that the average physical develop-
ment would be improved.

"A center without clubs can have little real success," says the enthusi-
astic superintendent of their work. Club directors have therefore enlarged
their activities until nearly 700 clubs — athletic, literary, social, musical,
civic, philanthropic and so forth — ^were run during the winter for thousands
of young men and maidens, under capable supervision, in rooms furnished by
the board of education without any cost of money to the members. Such
a mass of social service could hardly be duplicated in any other city. Still
the work keeps growing. Boy scouts were recently added to the list of
beneficiaries. Even more notable, an active competition has been started
with the dance halls which have lured so many young girls to ruin.

Mixed dancing classes is at last a regular feature of the centers for girls
and women. • Each young man who takes part presents a certificate from
the principal of his center to the effect that he is a member in good standing
of one of the clubs. The music is played on a piano by a teacher regularly
appointed as a pianist. Often, however, a violin or cornet or both, paid
for by the membership dues of the young men, adds to the gaiety of the
dance. The lower forms of popular music are barred, and, of course, the
turkey trot, the grizzly bear and the other indecencies which found their
way into high society are rigorously barred. Thus, under the fostering
guidance of the women principals, who regard carefully all the convention-
ahties necessary, the school is able to raise the social tone of the neighbor-
hood.

In conjunction with committees of citizens the board of education, last
winter, gave high class concerts and moving picture displays for the first
time. Under the will of Mr. Pulitzer funds were provided for giving orches-
tral music of the highest quality in working-class neighborhoods perfectly
free. The board of education gladly cooperated by loaning the superb
halls and organs in various high school buildings, with the result that
packed audiences heard concerts that rivalled the best performances in
Carnegie Hall. On a number of Sunday evenings, also in the high school
auditoriums, concerts and lectures were given in cooperation with the
Peoples' Institute, of the character which have made Cooper Union the

400 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

synonym for peoples' evenings. Along with the same committee a start
was also made with educational moving picture shows which drew great
crowds.

All these new enterprises were supplementary to the evening lectures for
adults, which, begun twenty-three years ago, have expanded into a veritable
university for the people. In the season just closed extensive courses in
electricity, on literature and on history were delivered, as well as shorter
courses and single lectures on civics, geography, hygiene, travel, astronomy,
music — on well-nigh every subject in which instruction could conceivably
be desired. With 6000 lectures delivered to audiences which aggregated
during the season close upon a million, this free, municipal university for
the people takes rank with any institution of the kind the world over.

Altogether, the work of the New York board of education makes an
amazing story, wonderful in its variety, stunning in its magnitude, incalcu-
lable in its beneficence. Yet, astonishing and inspiring as are the past
achievements, there are still worlds awaiting conquest. Broad as has been
the scope of the work in all its varieties it by no means covers the territory.
To bring to all the children and all the people in Father Knickerbocker's
family every opportunity which any of them now enjoy will involve the
outlay of more millions. But the accomplishment of the past decade gives
bright promise for the next decade. A metropolis which, within a few
years, has pushed forward from the rear to the front of the procession of
cities, will not readily relinquish its leadership. There is every indication
that the rate of improvement will not only be maintained, but may even
be accelerated.

THE NEW YORK POLICE SITUATION'

BY CLEMENT J. DRISCOLL^

New York City

THE period of clamor and falsehood seems now to be passing, and
the whole community is beginning to see how basely they have
been imposed upon by the invented falsehoods which have been
published, especially by those newspapers which pass among us under the
name of degenerate.

"While all this falsehood and clamor against the force was going on,
I watched with anxiety to see whether it was breaking down the discpline
of the force, for which it was designed. I am happy now to congratulate
the whole force on the admirable way in which they have conducted them-
selves under the most trying circumstances. Notwithstanding that one
of their number was found grafting, I have faith in the force as a whole.
Please communicate this to the force. It has been hard to suffer the
abuse which they have gone through, except to those who consider the
sources from which it came. What degenerates think of us is of no con-

^ Immediately after the murder of Herman Rosenthal and the indictment of Police
Lieutenant Becker, the following investigations were inaugurated:

August 5, 1912, the board of aldermen appointed a committee to investigate the
police. Its final report is now in the hands of the printer.

August 14, at a mass meeting at Cooper Union, a citizens' committee was organized
and formed into a non-official investigating body for the purpose of assisting the alder-
manic committee and the district attorney. This committee filed its report with the
legislature on March 19, 1913.

In September, District Attorney Whitman began a grand jury investigation of the
police department, which was subsequently abandoned.

Following the confessions before the aldermanic committee of George A. Sipp and
Mary Goode, implicating high police officials, the district attorney caused the indict-
ment of many high police officials.

Early in March, the state legislature appointed a joint senate and assembly com-
mittee to investigate the New York police department. This committee did not
conduct any investigation or study, but held a number of public hearings and invited
former police and city officials to appear before it and give their views on how the
police department should be managed. As the result of its work, a bill was introduced
in the legislature creating a board of social welfare. The object of this bill was to
remove from the police department all jurisdiction over gambling and disorderly
houses and to place the enforcement of the laws against these vices in the hands of a
non-salaried commission. The bill passed both houses but was vetoed by Mayor
Gaynor.

The only legislation affecting the police department enacted at this session of the
legislature was a law creating additional deputy police commissioners to the number
of 19. This was vetoed by Governor Sulzer.

^ Former deputy police commissioner and now connected with the New York
Bureau of Municipal Research.

401

402 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

cern. We must look to get the estimate and good Avill of all intelligent and
good citizens.

W. J. Gaynor."

Thus "wrote the mayor of the city of New York, to his police commis-
sioner on September 18, 1912. The letter from which the above is taken
was published to the entire force on September 19, just ten days after the
board of aldermen of the city had begun its investigation into the affairs of
the police department.

On September 20, the police commissioner was a witness before the alder-
manic police investigating committee, and in answer to a question of its
chief counsel, Emory R. Buckner, defiantly stated: "There is nothing wrong
with the police department except public clamor." Both of these state-
ments "put heart" into the dishonest members of the force and made them
more bold to obstruct the district attorney and the aldermanic committee
in their researches. 10,500 members of the force had read to them the
mayor's letter quoted above.

Nine months of investigation and research by the aldermanic investigat-
ing committee, the district attorney and his grand jury, have served to
show that indeed there is much more the matter with the police depart-
ment than public clamor. As the result of the researches of the Curran
committee and the activity of District Attorney Whitman, one police
lieutenant is now in the death house at Sing Sing, convicted of murder in
the first degree. Four police inspectors are in the penitentiary. Two
patrolmen are behind the bars at Sing Sing. One captain of police, a self-
confessed criminal, is awaiting sentence. One patrolman, confessedl}'
a collector for high police officials, is awaiting sentence. A la^^er, who
confessed as to his part in police corruption, is awaiting sentence. A ser-
geant of police, five patrolmen, and five "citizen go-betweens," are under
indictment for extortion, perjury, and bribery. The four police inspectors
have also hanging over them many other indictments, and the district
attorney is still following the trail of graft in the department pointed out
to him in the confession of police captain Walsh. ^

During the trial of these police barons, the workings of the "system" were
laid bare, but the criminal investigation of itself would be of little value to
the city except for the constructive study into the administrative methods
of the department made by the Curran committee.

At the very outset of the inquiry the Bureau of Municipal Research placed
at the disposal of the aldermen, without charge, its entire staff of lawyers,
police experts, accountants, investigators, and stenographers. Thus Mr.
Buckner was enabled to take over a well organized ])lant and undertake a
constructive study of the department.

' See article of C. R. Atkinson, National Municipal Review, vol ii, p. 439.

NEW YORK POLICE SITUATION 403

The aldermanic committee held eighty pubHc sessions in the aldermanic
chamber of the city hall, beginning September 10, 1912, and ending March
27, 1913. It received the testimony of 224 witnesses, and examined through
the investigators of the Bureau of Municipal Research tens of thou-
sands of documents on file in the police department and elsewhere. The
record of the proceedings before the committee consists of 4,800 printed
pages. The entire investigation cost the city $40,000. In addition to
this sum, however, about $25,000 was expended by private citizens and
civic agencies assisting the committee in its work.

A careful review of the printed record proves conclusively that corrup-
tion and inefficiency in the police department are for the most part due to
administrative methods which make intelligent direction and accountability
impossible. The organization with regard to rank was found to be without
serious fault, and the record points out clearly that great reforms toward
increased police efficiency can be attained with scarcely a change in the sub-
stantive law or statutes governing the creation of the department. The
majority of the experts who have analyzed the record are agreed that the
single change in the law needed to bring about a permanent reform is a
longer term of office with added security of tenure for the police commis-
sioner. The close observer of municipal affairs should not marvel at police
inefficiency and corruption in a city of five millions of people where the
police department has had eight police commissioners in eleven years. Not
one of these commissioners had ever had any connection with police work
prior to his appointment to command the 10,500 members of the depart-
ment. Some of them were former army officials, others lawyers, politicians,
and business men.

With each incoming commissioner came new rules and changes in the
old regulations, and of course the ''fad and fancy" of his lay mind. These
"fads and fancies" and lay notions as to how a large police force should be
managed, have been subject to such kaleidoscopic change that they have
been productive of nothing short of chaos. No commissioner has ever been
in command of the police department long enough to work out efficiently
any scheme or idea of management. A commissioner to be successful must
know intimately the personal history and character of all his commanding
officers. He must become thoroughly familiar with the spirit and ethical
standards of the entire force. Under the present system the policemen
do not respect their commissioners.

Inspectors, captains, and lieutenants feel more powerful than the commis-
sioner. They know that they are permanent, while he will probably be
short-lived, and thus in passing among the members of the force one fre-
quently hears it said: "Commissioners come and commissioners go, but
the 'system' lives on forever."

Our policemen in New York have never been taught to understand that

404 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

it is their sole duty to enforce the laws, but on the contrary each new com-
sioner creates a new policy of enforcement. One commissioner believes
in the rigid enforcement of the excise law. Another permits and encour-
ages a liberal enforcement. Some commissioners have attempted to
enforce the laws against gambling and prostitution, while still others have
been frank to admit that it was not their desire that the laws against com-
mercialized prostitution should be rigidly enforced. The result, as made
clear by the aldermanic investigation committee's record, is that the police-
man realizes early in his career that the law which he is required to enforce
today he must wink at tomorrow. It is but natural, then, that corruption
and dishonesty must necessarily follow, because the policemen, realizing
that his commissioner has no more legal nor moral right to have a policy of
enforcement than he himself has, soon follows the example of his commis-
sioner and creates his own policy of enforcement on his beat, to his own
profit and gain.

A secure tenure, subject only to dismissal for proved inefficiency, would
not only give the commissioner the necessary experience to become compe-
tent, but would go a long way toward breaking the backbone of the
"system."

The aldermanic committee recommended to the state legislature in a pre-
liminary report that the commissioner be appointed by the mayor for a term
of eight years, subject to removal by the mayor and also by the governor,
but in either case only after charges preferred and after he has been given
an opportunity to defend himself in a public hearing.

In addition to the right of the mayor to prefer charges, it was also recom-
mended that the board of estimate and apportionment or the board of
aldermen by a majority vote should be given power to prefer charges
against the police commissioner, and that the mayor be compelled to give
a public hearing after reasonable notice.

This would not destroy centralization of power in the mayor nor relieve
him from responsibility for the entire city administration, because he could
remove the commissioner at any time after a pubUc hearing. It would,
however, place him under the moral necessity of publicly justifying his
action. While it is indeed proper for the mayor to advise with his police
commissioner on large questions of policy, it is destructive of discipline for
the mayor to interfere in matters of administration.

The police commissioner is underpaid. If the citj^ of New York desires
the entire time of a first-rate executive, it should be prepared to pay a fitting
salary. The present salary of the police commissioner is $7,500 per year.
This salary should be increased to at least $12,000.

To eliminate police corruption and to encourage efficiency, it is necessary
that the standard of character for entrance to the force should be raised.
Except for their first two years of service, the policemen as a whole are well

NEW YORK POLICE SITUATION 405

paid and the inducements to bright, active young men to join the force
include a pension after twenty-five years of service, a pension to their widow
or dependent children or parents in the event of death in the performance
of their duty, a pension in the event of their becoming disabled in the service,
permanent occupation and opportunities of promotion to the various com-
missioned ranks. Thus the police commissioner should demand and be
able to secure the services of young men of the very highest moral standing.
But the aldermanic committee in its investigation discovered that the
examination into the character of the men appointed was wholly inadequate
and that Commissioner Waldo appointed to the force men who had sworn
falsely in their applications in order to conceal previous arrests, indict-
ments, discharges from employment, etc.

One illustration will suffice to make clear the low standard of fitness for
policemen accepted by the present police administration. Michael Im-
briale when applying for the position of patrolman swore that he had never
been arrested. Records in the police department which were specifically
called to the attention of the present police commissioner, disclosed the
fact that Imbriale had previously been arrested for murder, indicted, tried,
and acquitted. Later he was accused of having slashed the throat of a six-
teen year old boy with a razor. He was arrested, indicted, tried, and ac-
quitted. Subsequently he was charged by his wife with cruelty and non-
support. The files in the police department contained many complaints
against the character of this man. The boy who accused Imbriale of hav-
ing slashed his neck with a razor urged the police commissioner personally,
as he did also the mayor, to refuse Imbriale appointment to the police
force. Notwithstanding that Imbriale swore that he had never been ar-
rested or complained against, and notwithstanding the appeal of this
boy, the police commissioner made Imbriale a policemen. When Mr.
Buckner questioned Deputy Commissioner McKay and the police commis-
sioner concerning these appointments, and particularly concerning the
appointment of Imbriale, he received answers which revealed the low stand-
ard of fitness for policemen in this city:

Deputy Police Commissioner McKay (page 6^2)

Q. Then if anybody can escape going to jail he is a good enough police-
man for you, is that right?

A. Yes, sir; if the complaints against him are dismissed, he is a good
enough policeman for me.

Q. Don't you regard that a very low standard for a police officer?

A. I never criticize the courts.

Commissioner Waldo {page 655)

Q. Commissioner Waldo, we were going over, this afternoon, the case
of one of your patrolmen, Mike Imbriale, and we have already touched this

406 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

case before. And I find he was appointed by you on June 28, lUll. Wc
have had, this afternoon, evidence which I do not suppose you would recall
of certain protests being made regarding the appointment of Michael
Imbriale, whom Commissioner Cropsey had rejected, but whom you
appointed after the Civil Service Commission had recertified liim, and we
find, among other things, a letter from the Mayor's office, concerning a
complaint which was sent to Chief Inspector Schmittberger, on which he
niade a report to you. We also find a report of Commissioner McKay.
It was the case of an Italian, and it was alleged that he had killed one man
and cut the throat of another, although he had been acquitted by the courts
on both charges. It was also alleged that he had sworn falsely regarding
his ever being arrested. I wonder if you now recall anything at all about
the case?

A. I do recall appointing Imbriale. I did not remember his name right
away, but I recall the circumstances. In this country we have courts to
try people who are charged with various crimes.

Since it is possible for a man to enter the police department with a lie
upon his lips, one must not marvel when he reads in the daily press of police-
men committing perjury in the courts, of policemen betraying the trusts
imposed upon them by their superior officers, and of policemen selling to
the highest bidder their testimony in important cases.

Incredible as it may seem, the committee discovered that a burglar pre-
viously convicted for his crime, whose picture and record adorned the walls
of the Rogues' Gallery, had passed through the gate undetected, been pre-
sented with the shield of office, and sworn in as a public protector. It was
not until he displayed again his criminal traits that he was exposed, and
then instead of being removed from the force in disgrace was permitted to
quietly resign.

The commmittee pointed out that the lack of proper and efficient charac-
ter research was one of the most striking defects of the police department.
Since it was possible for a felon upon the expiration of his term of imprison-
ment to join the ranks of the police department undiscovered, and for per-
jurers whose untruthfulness was known to the department and whose false
statements were a matter of record to obtain appointment, then the casual
observer need not marvel at the criminal activities of a Becker, a Sweeney,
a Hussey, and a Thompson, as recently disclosed. The most scientific
methods of efficiency, the most skillful administration, and the most intel-
ligent executive control, Avill all fail in police work unless the entrance to the
force is effectively guarded against untruthful, dishonest, and innnoral men.
The police force of the city of New York is today suffering from the laxity
of investigation of years past, and the bulk of the corruption is among the
superior officers who entered the gate when it was not guarded. The city
is paying the penalty through police corruption and inefficiency of the dis-
honest methods of appointment and promotion of many years ago. It is
an undisputed fact that in the past policemen purchased their appointments

NEW YORK POLICE SITUATION 407

and their promotions. Many of these men are today the officers of the
department.

That there has been wide-spread blackmail levied by responsible police
officials upon the keepers of gambling and disorderly houses, was indeed
estabhshed by the aldermanic investigating committee. The committee
made no pretense of studying the gambling and prostitution subjects as
moral questions, but simply as a police problem. Viewing the enforcement
of these laws from a purely administrative viewpoint, a glance at the record
of the aldermanic inquiry will suffice to show that police graft and corrup-
tion are due entirely to faulty administration. While it is apparent that
the present police commissioner endeavored to enforce the laws against
gambling — but failed in his efforts — -it is equally apparent that he did not
desire or attempt to enforce the laws against prostitution except where
outward conditions were disorderly. That there was graft collected is
not surprising when one considers the following facts in connection with the
enforcement of the laws against gambling and prostitution, brought to light
by Mr. Emory R. Buckner, counsel for the aldermanic committee :

1. A total failure effectively to check the work of police officials and to
punish demonstrated inefficiency or significant inactivity.

2. A stubborn confidence in the integrity of the men selected by the com-
missioner to supervise this work.

3. Giving to the very men accused, for their own information, letters
charging them with graft, without making any independent investigation.

4. The commissioner's lack of information as to actual vice conditions.

5. That the inspectors and captains were able to keep from the commis-
sioner and his deputies information and the complaints of citizens. Indeed,
two captains of police testified before the aldermen that they very fre-
quently "tore up and threw in the waste basket" the complaints addressed
to them by citizens.

6. Faulty methods of handling complaints sent to the commissioner.

7. The citizen complainant regarded as a hostile critic rather than as
one furnishing information to the department.

8. A total la^k of supervision over the testimony of policemen in the
courts.

With a police commissioner having a fixed tenure of office and removable
only by the mayor or the governor after a public hearing; with a searching
inquiry into the character of men appointed to the police force; with the
information concerning vice conditions properly used by the police com-
missioner, and delinquent inspectors punished for inefficiency or signifi-
cant inactivity, the police department of the city of New York could easily
be brought up to a high standard of efficiency, and police graft and corrup-
tion to say the least minimized.''

* See National Mtinicipal Review, vol. ii, p. 279.

CONDITIONS OF VICE AND CRIME IN

NEW YORK AND THE RELATIONS

TO THESE OF THE POLICE

FORCE OF THE CITY-

BY GEORGE HAVEN PUTNAM"

New York

IT IS apparent from the evidence recently secured by the district attor-
ney that the poHce force of the city is now, as in 1900, at the time of
the appointment of the committee of fifteen, utilizing its responsi-
bilities and the powers placed in its hands for the control of vicious and
criminal conditions, for the purpose of securing gain for its members and
for the powers back of the force.

The investigations carried on, in 1900-1901, by the committee of fif-
teen brought its members to the conclusion that the stringent laws enacted
in Albany for the control of the social evil, the restriction of the sale of
liquor and the suppression of gambling and of the pool-rooms, were the
result of a combination between the chiefs of Tammany Hall and repre-
sentatives of the up-state rural communities who had convinced them-
selves that it was practicable to make our great city moral by means of
legislation and that their duty had been fulfilled when they had enacted
laws to this end.

It is my belief, based on an experience of more than half a century as
a citizen in this city, and of more than one-third of a centur\^ in work on
the grand jury, that part at least of the difficulties in securing an effective

1 See also articles by Clement J. Driscoll in this issue, page 401, and in the April
issue, page 279, dealing with the investigation of the police department of New
York City.

* This statement on the condition of vice and crime in New York and their
relation to the city's police force was submitted by Mr. Putnam to the New York
legislative committee on remedial police legislation of which Senator Wagner was
chairman. This important contribution to the discussion received such scant atten-
tion both in the daily papers and at the hands of the committee that the editor feels
justified in presenting it in its entirety to the readers of the National Municipal
Review. Mr. Putnam is a long time observer of conditions in New York and his
statement reflects not onlj' his views as a thoughtful and public .spirited observer, but
as a member of the grand jury during a third of a century, as he himself points out in
his statement. The committee to which this statement was submitted was appointed
by the New York legislature at the instance of the representatives of Tammany Hall.
It was the intention of the committee, according to a well informed correspondent,
to prepare "a report that might offset the serious injury to the reputation of the
Tammany administration which had been brought about through the action of the
district attorney and by the investigations of certain citizens' committees." Ap-

408

VICE AND CRIME IN NEW YORK 409

and trustworthy administration of our police force is due to confusion in
the minds of the legislators in regard to this matter. It is the honest
belief of a good many people that all forms of sin and vice are to be treated
as crime and to be controlled by law, and as such control, particularly in
a great city like New York, is, of course, impracticable, we have as one
result a contempt for law and as another the demoralization of the officials
whose business it is to enforce the law.

It was the conclusion of our committee of fifteen, as a result of investi-
gations extending over two years, that the purpose of the Tammany organi-
zation in bringing about the enactment of such laws had been the very
substantial advantages to be secured in selling the privilege of breaking
the law. We arrived at an estimate (the figures could, of course, be but
approximate) that during the year 1900, the amounts secured through the
sale of such privileges, a sale, of necessity, conditioned upon "protection"
to be given by the police to authorized breakers of the law, aggregated no
less than $2,500,000. I noted a report brought into print some months
back that an estimate of 82,400,000 had been arrived at as the amount
secured in 1911 through similar sales of law breaking privileges.

The estimate reached by our committee of the amount so paid in 1901
was arrived at by ascertaining specific payments made weekly or monthly
by certain bad houses, pool-rooms, gambling houses and liquor shops, and
by multiplying these payments by the number of concerns in the city
doing a like business with similar receipts.

parently only that material was utilized by the committee as tended to put Tammany
in a more favorable light.

As bearing on the same question the attention of the readers of the National
Municipal Review is directed to the address of Dr. Frederic C. Howe, director of
the People's Institute of New York on "The Police, Excise and Gambling Evil:
Is the Trouble with our State Laws?" made at the City Club last November, in con-
cluding which address Dr. Howe said:

And I am morally certain of one thing in regard to these problems. If we had
home rule, if this were our problem, and we were free to deal with it in our own way,
if the city itself had to control it, I am certain that the first thing a mayor-elect
would do would be to call into conference a group of men to help him work out that
problem. I am sure he would say to them: "The most troublesome problem of all
to me is this problem of vice. What will we do with it? What orders shall the
board of estimate adopt? What policy shall we pursue? I want your help and
assistance, your cooperation and advice."

And such a group of men would then be able to work on that problem as they can-
not work on it today. They, we, all of us would face it as our own. It could not
be dodged. It could not be avoided.

And out of all the wisdom of this city, out of the immediate widespread; now im-
possible experimentation on the subject a program would be evolved for the social
evil, the excise question and the saloon, that would be infinitely better than that
which we have today. It would minimize temptation and protect the innocent.
It would open recreation and alternatives to the street, the saloon, the dance hall. ,
It would make its policy open and free to all without the payment of tribute, and
would free the police from the policy of piracy that the state laws now inevitably
produce.

410 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

There was in force a business system for assessing the amounts of these
payments which were graded according to the estimated weekly or monthly
receipts of the concerns protected. The system of the assessment pro-
vided, however, only for a minimum payment that was exacted. Extra
charges were imposed from time to time as a result, for instance, of the
coming in of a new captain or a new inspector, or in connection with special
requirements arising from a municipal election.

It was impossible to carry on the machinery for making such collection
throughout the entire city from these various divisions of law breakers and
maintaining protection for those who had paid without the use of a large
number of persons, chiefly, of necessity, officials. Each roundsman, ser-
geant, captain, or inspector, through whose hands the money passed, must,
of course, be permitted to retain a portion or a percentage for his remuner-
ation.

The statement recently made by Mayor Gaynor that not more than
fifty members of the force were now concerned with the collection of graft
moneys, is a manifest absurdity in the face of the evidence that a city -wide
system for the collection of such money is again in force. Our committee
was forced to the conclusion that a system has been arrived at under which
after the payment of the several intermediaries, a substantial portion of
the funds secured went into the general Tammany treasury. Some of
this money was undoubtedly used for the benevolence funds administered
by the district leaders. It is my impression, based not only upon the
work of these two years but upon the knowledge that has come to me in
other ways, that these benevolent funds have been on the whole well
administered, and that they give very valuable help in cases of real need
and misery. It is evidently, however, essential that the name of the bene-
ficiary should be on the books of the district leader, and that the voters
in the family assisted must hold themselves ready for work at the pri-
maries and at the polls and in any other channels in which their service
may be required.

During the past seven years, I have had experience in work on the later
committee of fourteen, which, chiefly under the able direction of the Rev.
.lohn P. Peters, has done what has seemed to be practicable to restrict the
serious evils from the Raines' law hotel — -a combination of a drinking
saloon and a place of assignation — that came into existence as a result of
legislation attempting to prevent the sale of liquor on Sundays. The
work of the Peters' committee has reduced these houses by more than
two-thirds, and the other one-third are under such supervision as keeps
their business fairly satisfactory, but the law itself, a fair example of un-
wise legislation due to ignorant sentiment, is an absurdity, and it ought
to be repealed.

It is my belief that our police force contains today, and has contained

VICE AND CRIME IN NEW YORK 411

through the period in question, excellent material. In my grand jury in-
vestigations, I have found myself continually impressed with the good
judgment, the ability and the courage shown by the privates of the force
in the handling of crime and of criminals.

It is evident, however, that no man entering the police can have any
hopes of promotion, or can even be sure of retaining his position unless he
accepts the system that is in force at the tima Any criticism on his part
of the actions of his superiors, any willingness to give testimony that
might bring his superior into criticism, or any lack of zeal in obeying in-
structions for service of whatever character constitutes, of necessity, a final
bar to the man's success in the force.

Under pressure of this kind, the best material becomes promptly demor-
alized. The moral tone, or lack of moral tone, on the part of commis-
sioner, inspector, or captain, comes to be promptly reflected through all
the grades of the force.

Some years back, I had occasion during a municipal campaign in this
city to refer in an open newspaper letter to a series of appointments made
by Mayor McClellan. I was quite willing to believe that Mr. McClellan,
himself a gentleman, would have preferred, by placing decent men in
positions of responsibility, to secure a good record for himself and for his
administration. As a fact, however, and doubtless under the pressure of
instructions from the powers that had made him mayor, McClellan made
some of the worst appointments that the city had known for years. He
brought in, for instance, as commissioner of police a man who had been
shown up by the Lexow committee investigation as a receiver of money
from bad houses. This man, at that time holding a high position in
the force, instead of demanding to be heard, promptly resigned from the
force for the purpose of avoiding investigation. A few years later he was
placed by Mayor McClellan in control of the police of the city. I had
stated in print over my signature that such an appointment was not only
a disgrace to the city, but was necessarily demoralizing to the police force,
and for this statement I was sued for libel for an amount of $50,000. In
place of making payment of the very much smaller amount which would
have brought the suit to an end, (the claim was finally reduced to SI 000)
I insisted upon "justifying," i.e. making good my contention. As "jus-
tification," my counsel succeeded in getting before the court the record
of the Lexow committee (which was, of course, a public document) and
the jury gave verdict for the defense.

I do not myself believe that New York City, or any great community,
can be made moral by legislation. I am convinced that it is unwise and
unfair to bring upon a body of officials the pressure and the temptation
to which the officers and the rank and file of the police are exposed in
having in their hands the opportunity of selling the privilege of breaking

412 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL RE^'TK^^'

(he law, and who are in fact under instructions, obedience to which is
essential for their own continued service, to make such sale and to extend
the continued protection.

I believe that the control of its domestic affairs should be left in the
hands of the voters of the city, and that the well-meaning up-state farmers,
who can have no direct knowledge of our municipal conditions and difficul-
ties, should lie freed from any responsibility for the management of our
problems.

The measures for the control or the supervision of vice of one kind or
another would, under a home rule government, be shaped according to
the standard of our own citizens. No laws can be effectively and con-
sistently enforced which are not in accord with the ideals, the wishes, and
the convictions of a substantial majority of the voters of the community.
Laws which, instead of being enforced, are left as empty shams, lead to
contempt for government and for the makers of law, and are demoralizing
as well to the officials, who are charged with their enforcement, as to the
people who are permitted to break them at will or as a result of graft
payments.

If the city of New York had in its own hands the control of the liquor
business, certain of the present restrictions would certainly be removed.
Liquor selling on Sunday would, for instance, be permitted during cer-
tain hours on Sunday, as is found advisable in London and in other Euro-
pean cities.

The city would probably also decide to repeal the measures which make
gambling a crime. I have myself no interest in antl no sympathy with
the practice of gambling; I think of it as folly which may easily develop
into a vice. But I believe that if men are fools enough to be willing to
thiow away in this fashion money which ought to be })etter employed, they
cannot be prevented by law from so doing and that it is unwise to make
the attempt. I should, therefore, prefer to follow the practice of cities
like London.

Under the methods of London, Paris and Berlin, places like the old-
time Canfield's (the attempt to control Canfield's w^asted the time of a
series of grand juries), the business of which does not interfere with the
peace or the quiet of the city, would be i)ermitted to go on as long as the
managers could secure fools to enrich them.

The municipal regulations ought, however, in my judgment, to he so
framed as to remove from the streets suggestions or incentive for gambling.
I would permit no signs, announcements, or advertisements of gambling
concerns. The gambler should always be placed under the necessity of
incurring some effort and of seeking the place for this special form of
amusement.

VICE AND CRIME IN NEW YORK 413

A similar suggestion would apply to the management of pool-rooms.
It may possibly however be a question for consideration, whether if a
pool-room be permitted to carry on business, it would not be in order to
determine through some competent authority as to the necessity for the
business. I have had before me in our committee rooms and • on the
grand jury evidence that pool rooms which undertook to receive bets on
races, held for instance in New Orleans, had no connection whatsoever
between their offices or any race courses. The so-called "winnings"
were distributed at haphazard or according to the judgment of the mana-
gers in such manner as to encourage continued "investments" on the
part of the fools from outside.

The question of the legahzing of bad houses, or of accepting the necessity
for their existence is one attended with enormous difficulties. In our com-
mittee of fifteen, we did not succeed, after two years' study, in arriving
at any final conclusions or recommendations. In the operations of this
committee and in grand jury investigations I have had before me evidence
in regard to the management of certain of these houses, showing condi-
tions that made it seem impossible to permit their continued existence but
we were unable to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion as to the kind of
supervision and regulation to be recommended.

It is evident, however, that a law which leaves in business houses of
this class, whether the management be decent or abominable, from which
regular payments are secured through the police and by the authorities
back of the police, and which are closed out only when payments have
been evaded or have been found impossible, is not in the interest of the
community and that it is oppressive for the poor victims of the system who
are themselves entitled to some protection.

The present system of supervising these houses by police officials who
not only cannot be trusted as to intelligent discrimination, but who have
an immediate interest in maintaining bad conditions because the profits
from bad conditions are larger, is entirely unsatisfactory.

I have always found difficulty as foreman of the grand jury in inducing
a majority of the voters to vote for an indictment against a liquor concern
the business of which has been carried on in infringement of the law.
The jurors understand perfectly that charges are brought only against a
concern that has not met the requirements of the collectors. For one
concern brought under charges, there will be fifty guilty of similar breaches
of the law that have given the necessary satisfaction to the collectors and
against which, therefore, no evidence can be obtained.

The jurors have shown more readiness to make indictments against
bad houses, although with these also it was evident that the charges were
as a rule brought against the house not because its management was

414 NATIONAL Ari^NICIPAL REME^^'

particularly bad, but because it had failed to make the payment de-
manded.

The higher the fine imposed upon the manager of such a house, the
"madam" the greater the burden that is placed by her upon the poor
women under her control. Any fresh imposition upon the houses is likely
to result in a diminution of the pittance left to the women.

The enormous responsibility of supervising a situation of this kind calls,
of course, for a full measure of integrity of purpose and of wisdom of man-
agement on the part of the authorities, and such integrity and such wisdom
are not to be found in a force the main purpose of which is not the preser-
vation of the peace of the community, but the securing of profits for the
higher officials and for the organization back of those officials.

It is my contention that the work of the police calls for a discipline that
should be fully up to the military standard, As a veteran, I may possibly
have an exaggerated belief in the value of army discipline, but I may recall
that this is the standard that is in force for the police of Berlin, of Paris,
and of London. In the latter city, I have for half a century been a tax
payer, and I am fairly familiar with its conditions. The chief of police
is a permanent official working under the direct authority of the home sec-
retary. He retains his post for life or as long as he is physically capable
of his duties, unless relieved for malfeasance or incapacity.

Believing, as said, in the wisdom of leaving our city in the control of
its own affairs, I hold that the head of the city police should be appointed
by city authorities. The appointment might be made by some such
group of officials as those that now make up the grand jury list, for in-
stance, the mayor, the district attorney and the judges of general sessions.
The appointment should either be during good behavior, or at least for
a long term of years, A man placed in such a post needs a series of years
to secure knowledge of the conditions of the city and of the personnel of a
force of ten thousand men. The post should be one not only of authority,
but of dignity, and the salary sufficient to tempt a first class man to ac-
cept the burdensome responsibilities. Such a chief of police should be
removable only under trial, a trial to be conducted under the direction
of the authorities to whom he owed his appointment.

The chief should have full control over the force commanded by him ;
and inspectors, captains, and privates would, under my suggestion, be
liable to reduction of rank or to dismissal after trial by a police court-
martial, and without the privilege of further appeal. A man dismissed
from the service should, of course, forfeit his claim on the pension
fund.

We cannot free a great city like New York, the gateway to the continent,
from vice and crime. We can do much to prevent the exploitation of
vice and crime being made a source of enormous gain to the officials who

VICE AND CRIME IN NEW YORK 415

are charged with the duty of controlling the criminals and with the respon-
sibility of protecting the community.

A system which brings to a police force, and to a so-called political or-
ganization back of the force, large gains through the licensing and protec-
tion of crime, tends, of necessity, to the maintenance, and even to the
development, of criminal conditions, and demoralizes the government of
the city and the life of the community.

THE VITAL POINTS IN CHARTER MAK-
ING FROM A SOCIALIST POINT

OF VIEW

BY CARL D. THOMPSON^
Chicago

DURING the last ten years no less than four different and new forms
of municipal government have been proposed and are being tried
out. The commission form came first. But no sooner was it
put in operation than certain serious defects were apparent. So the "form"
began to be modified. It has been undergoing that process ever since.
Some of the defects appeared to be so fundamental that new plans were
proposed — plans that were given new names so as to win attention and
approval which the mere commission form could no longer command.

Thus we have had the so called federal plan, the Sumter or city manager
plan, and now most recently the representative council plan — all modifica-
tions of the commission plan.

It is our purpose in this article to consider the vital and necessary prin-
ciples in charter making and suggest a plan containing some of the features
of all the newer forms, but a plan formulated with reference to the principles
and practice required rather than with reference to theories or plans already
advanced.

DEMOCRACY AND EFFICIENCY — BOTH ESSENTIAL

Two things are vital and fundamental to good city government ; namely,
democracy and efficiency. How to attain the one and keep the other, how
to adapt our forms and organization to this end — that is our problem.

To attain democracy we require a truly representative body — call it
council, commission or what you will — the essential point is that it be truly
representative. It should be elected by the people, controlled by the people
and should be in all ways a true reflection of the sentiments, ideas, interests
and purpose of the people.

' Mr. Thompson is director of the bureau of information recently established by
the Socialist party in Chicago. Before that he was city clerk of Milwaukee during the
administration of Mayor Seidel. Mr. Thompson has also been for several years the
secretary of the special committee chosen by the National Socialist Party for the
study of commission government for cities. This committee has made an exhaustive
study of the questions and has made two reports to party conventions. At the last
convention the committee was for a second time continued and then charged with the
work of further study of the forms of municipal government, with a view to the sub-
mission of a proposed form that would be consistent with Socialist ideas and principles.
This report was made to the national convention held in May. Mr. Thompson's
article is an outline of the plan submitted.

416

VITAL POINTS IN CHARTER MAKING 417

But such a body elected by the people, representing different and often
contending forces and factions, changing constantly and sometimes sud-
denly, never has given us efficiency. And there seems to be no promise
anywhere that it ever will. Yet efficiency we must have. Especially as we
are constantly extending the function of municipal government in every
direction. And this is what the sociaUsts desire most of all. They espe-
cially, above all others, have reason to desire and insist upon efficiency in
municipal government. The whole success of our plans depends upon it.

It is this imperative demand for efficiency, and the lack of it under the
old council forms, that has given the greatest weight to the argument for
the commission form of city government.

But there are considerations that outweigh ''efficiency." Vital as it is,
absolutely essential and increasingly so, there is one thing more essential
and that is democracy. Efficiency may be a detriment and certainly will
be unless it can be made to be efficient in the interests of the people, in the
direction of the common good. Efficiency in the direction of further
exploitation and plunder only makes things worse, not better. It is the
direction of efficiency, the purpose to which it is put that determines its value.
And the ability of the common need to make itself felt in directing efficiency
is even more vital than efficiency itself.

Democracy, then, is even more vital than efficiency. Any sacrifice of
democracy to efficiency cannot be regarded as a gain. It is rather a decided
danger, a retrogression. The real problem then is to develop. a form of
municipal government that shall contain the two.

So far, every form of municipal government that has been in operation
or that has been proposed (with the possible exception of the representative
plan), is defective in the matter of democracy. The representative plan
is an effort to remedy this fatal defect.

THE REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL PLAN

This plan of city charter has been worked out by the secretary-treasurer
of The American Proportional Representation League, C. G. Hoag.^ The
general idea is as follows :

1 . A council elected at large by proportional representation.

2. A mayor elected by the council acting as presiding officer of that body.

3. A manager elected by the council and selected with sole reference to
his qualifications as an expert and efficiency in municipal administration.

^ The plan was outlined in "Equity Series" and has been reprinted as American
Proportional Representation League Pamphlet No. 1, January, 1913, and may be
secured by addressing C. G. Hoag, Haverford, Pennsylvania. The April issue of The
American City has a more recent and revised article by Mr. Hoag which presents the
plan still more effectively.

418 NATIONAL -MUNICIPAL REVIEW

4. Heads of departments appointed by the manager with the approval of
the council, chosen with sole reference to their technical administrative
qualifications and kept on the professional basis for indefinite periods during
satisfactory service.

It will be seen at once that this plan supplies the one most vital element
missing in all commission forms of municipal government, viz., democracy.
For, in addition to the initiative, referendum and recall, which are features
of this as well as of all the other forms, it adds proportional representation,
which is the only truly representative system and is the nearest approach to
democracy that is possible. We shall discuss the details of this feature
farther on.

At the same time it provides for efficiency by putting the administrative
departments upon a professional and efficiency basis. It really fixes respon-
sibility, which the commission form everywhere claims to do, but which, it
has always seemed to us, it did not do by centralizing the responsibility for
administrative efficiency upon one official head — the manager. And this
much more may be said in its favor — it appropriates the best features of
the municipal government of Germany and England while avoiding the
objectionable ones.

This plan seems to the writer to be far superior to the old council plan
and to all modifications of the commission form. So far it is the nearest
approach to a true conception of the proper function of municipal govern-
ment. Our plan described below will follow the general principles of this
proportional representative plan outlined by Mr. Hoag. At one or two
points we shall depart from the details of that plan and in at least one very
important respect shall differ from all of them.

ESSENTIALS OF MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT

Before discussing the details of the plan, it is well to state what seems to
us to be certain essential features of municipal government in general. The
following are, we believe, agreed upon by all:

1. Home rule. The first and most essential feature of efficient municipal
government is home rule — the right of the city to govern itself with refer-
ence to all those matters which pertain to the city alone. Everywhere,
throughout the nation there has been going on for years a very vigorous and
effective movement in this direction, and a considerable degree of success
has attended these efforts. Laws granting a greater or less degree of home
rule to the cities have been secured in many of the states, notably California,
Oregon, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma, Washington, Minnesota, Texas,
Nebraska, Arizona and Ohio. The recent home rule law adopted in Ohio,
as a part of the new constitution of that state, is perhaps one of the best of
these home rule measures. Whatever else may be done in the effort to

VITAL POINTS IN CHARTER MAKING 419

secure efficient municipal government, this struggle for home rule must go
on until it is completely successful.

In this connection, we may say in passing that a recent decision of the
supreme court of Wisconsin declaring unconstitutional a certain state law
which had been passed by the legislature of that state with a view of secur-
ing home rule for the cities, lends emphasis to the contention that has often
been made that home rule to be secure must be based upon constitutional
amendments. If this is the case, those who are fighting for home rule
should not be content with amendments of their state laws, but should keep
up the battle until their state constitutions are amended so that the victory
may be final and secure.

2. Direct legislation. Practically all charter revisionists now seek to
incorporate in some form provisions for direct legislation. Whether the
charters are commission form, federal form, or whether an effort is made to
merely improve the old form of charter, practically all agree in proposing
direct legislation. The only point here to be guarded is the matter of per-
centages and forms required in order to make the provisions effective. The
initiative should require only 5 per cent of the voters for the mere initia-
tion of a measure, but 15 per cent or thereabouts — certainly not more than
20 per cent — ^to require the calling of a special election for the submission of
a measure. Provision should also be made, and generally is made, for a
"stay of ordinance" for a certain period of time, during which opportunity
is given for a demand for referendum on the matter. The percentage
required to force the submission of an ordinance which has been passed by
the council and without popular vote should not be more than 15 per
cent.

On the matter of the recall a special feature should be noted. Where
proportional representation is introduced the recall should be made to
operate against the whole group and not against a single councilman. For,
if the recall could be used against an individual member of the group elected
under proportional representation, the minorities would be at the mercy of
the majorities. A group in the community, for example, that was large
enough to command a single quota, might elect a representative to the
council by some small fraction of the total vote. Whatever such a repre-
sentative did would, presumably, be in conflict with the settled policy of
the community as well as all the other representatives. If the recall were
operative in such a case, it would be very easy for the majority parties to
force such a representative out of office.

The further point to be guarded here is that the percentage required to
insure a recall election shall be reasonable. It should not be so small that
the stability of the municipal government could be disturbed by constant
recall elections. It should not be so large on the other hand as to make
it impossible to initiate the recall. We should say that experience has

420 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

taught that a percentage of between 20 and 25 i.s about right for this feature
of direct government.

3. A representative council. The only way to scu-uro a truly representative
council or governing body is by proportional representation. Every other
method fails. The present and usual method of election everywhere is by
})luralities or at best by majorities. And this is true of the commission
forms as well as of the others. Where there are more than two candidates
the successful ones are almost always elected by much less than a majority
and sometimes by only a little more than a third of the voters. For a num-
ber of years Milwaukee was ruled by administrations elected by only a little
more than a third of the voters. And this was true of the Socialist adminis-
tration as well as the Republican and Democratic administrations that
preceded it. Such a condition is wholly bad.

This objectionable feature is partly met in some of the commission
charters by a system of two elections, the last of which is restricted to two
candidates or sets of candidates, thus compelling a majority election. In
others, as in the case of Grand Junction, Colorado, and Spokane, Washing-
ton, a similar result is attained by a system of preferential voting saving the
expense and trouble of a second election.

But the fatal defect in all these systems is that they do not provide for
minority representation. All of them eliminate all minorities from the
governing body, either council or commission. This defect the propor-
tional representation system will remedy.

ADVANTAGES OF PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION^

The advantages of this plan are numerous and very important. Among
them may be mentioned the following:

The first and most important is, as indicated above, that it permits a
representation of minorities. This advantage is so obvious that further
discussion, we believe, is not necessary.

A second advantage is in the greater stability of the government. The
new idea or new policy that is always struggling for expression will, under
proportional representation, be gradually reflected in the council and will
be represented there in proportion to its strength in the community. This
permits of gradual change of policy and lessens the danger of sudden and
complete overturning of things such as result from elections by majority
or plurality.

' For a discussion of the general principles of proportional representation, as well
as its history, its application to municipal elections and the details of its workings,
the reader is referred to a book by John H. Humphreys, secretary of The Propor-
tional Representation Society of England on "Proportional Representation." See
National Municipal Review, vol. i, p. 743.

VITAL POINTS IN CHARTER MAKING 421

This is important also as affecting the administrative side of the work.
It is difficult to secure expert and specially trained men to serve in municipal
administrations that are subject to sudden overturnings and changes of
policy. Such changes are likely to result in interruptions of important
undertakings and change of personnel that are fatal to efficiency.

A third advantage is that proportional representation permits, if it does
not presuppose, party or group voting. It assumes that there will be
differences of opinion upon matters of public policy in the municipality,
just as there are similar differences in national and state affairs. It assumes
that those favoring a certain policy will seek to work together in its behalf ;
that they will seek to effect the public policy in the direction of their con-
victions ; and that to do so they will organize and conduct campaigns ; will
select candidates and seek to elect them; and that to facilitate the massing
of their votes at the polls they will have ballots so designated as to enable
the voter who desires to support their policies to quickly and readily choose
his ballot accordingly.

THE NON-PARTISAN FALLACY

All of which is perfectly logical and quite obvious. Yet we have th(5
astonishing fact that our whole host of municipal reformers in America have
been swept off their feet with the so called non-partisan idea. As though
by the simple device of striking the party name off of ballots we would
eliminate, as by the stroke of a magic wand, all the evils of municipal
misrule! "

And the zeal with which the reformers have hunted out this witch of parti-
san elections and striven to drive it out is worthy of a better cause. The
commission charter recently proposed in Traverse City, Michigan, for exam-
ple, provides:

The ballots for election of city officers shall be separate from any other
ballot and shall he without insignia, emblem, or designation, etc. (Section 26).

The charters of Grand Junction, Colorado, and of Spokane, Washington,
which are worded identically the same, are even more extreme. They
provide : *

Nothing on the ballot shall be indicative of the source of the candidacy,
or of the support of any candidate. No ballot shall have printed thereon
any party or political designation or mark, and there shall not be appended
to the name of any candidate any such party or political designation or mark
or anything indicating his views or opinion.

Nothing could be more complete. These charters are not content with
merely denying the Republicans, Democrats and Socialists the right to the
use of their names as a means of helping the voter to quickly and readily

422 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

select the ballot which will represent his conviction — they prohibit the use
of any and all kinds of designations whatsoever on the ballot — anything
and everything that would in any way connect an individual's name with
the policies he represents.

At this point we dissent entirely from all the proposed forms. To exclude
all possible designation from the ballots seems to us unwarranted and abor-
tive. And we frankly believe not only that a partisan or designated ballot
is right but that it is the best method for securing desirable results in our
civic affairs.

There are distinct differences of opinion and different policies possible
with regard to municipal affairs, just as surely as there are in state affairs.
There is a wide range of possible legislation and administration in which
the cities are free to act as they will. The cities also have large powers in
the determination of methods of taxation and the distribution of the money
raised. Under the home rule laws that are being passed this range of pos-
sibilities is being constantly increased. The question of the municipal
ownership of water works, gas plants, electric lighting plants, street rail-
ways or other public utility is one upon which there is and must be a differ-
ence of opinion. And upon all these matters there are choices to be made
among all sorts of policies, ranging "from those of the Marxian socialist
through those of the single taxer to those of the out and out believer in plu-
tocracy." Now, the only form of election that will enable the people to
settle these questions and settle them intelligently will be such as enables
them to express themselves in groups formed according to the policies advo-
cated by the groups. And the form of ballot that will enable the voter at
the polls to quickly and accurately express his purpose must be one that has
some designation other than an individual's name. If there is nothing on
the ballot, no distinguishing mark, that connects the names of the candi-
dates with the policies which they represent, is it not obvious that that kind
of ballot fails to supply the voter with the information he needs at the most
critical point?

It may very easily happen that certain individuals may be prominent in
the advocacy of certain ideas, while the actual candidates put forth may be
much less prominent. The name of the. individual, therefore, is not a reli-
able guide to the voter. In many cases it may be no guide at all.

Furthermore, allowing the names only to stand upon the ballot, with
no distinguishing or explanatory remark, gives the advantage to the men of
wealth and prominence. Elections carried on upon that basis put the
working classes and the common people at a disadvantage.

The strong personalities are on the other side. Individuals who own
banks, railroads and great daily newspapers are not on an equal footing with
individuals of the working class. The latter have no hope of matching the
power and influence of the former except by group action. And the possi-

VITAL POINTS IN CHARTER MAKING 423

bility of that group action must be maintained up to the very moment that
the ballot is cast.

In all of this the power of the press must not be overlooked. A minority
party never has a strong press at the beginning. The press is generally
on the side of the majority. By constant and imposing advertising, by
judicious and adroit editorial writing, and a news comment now and then,
the people may be made to believe that a certain candidate stands for things
for which he really does not. This is one of the most common and most
dangerous tricks of a capitalistically controlled press.

The people need the assistance of very possible device with which to meet
these difficulties, and above everything else, they need a designated ballot
to help them connect the individual candidate with the principles he is sup-
posed to represent, and which also serves to connect the individual with the
group of people that have put him forward as their candidate, so that they,
too, may be held to account for him and his course after election. These
principles, it seems to us, are fundamentally essential to the integrity of
municipal as well as state and national elections.

Against the elimination of national party names and national issues even
more may be said. Upon this phase we quote the report of the committee
on the commission form of government made to the last convention of the
Socialist party at Indianapolis, May, 1912:

There is hardly a serious problem of municipal government that can be
solved at all aside from a state and national movement. Take the question
of home rule. Here in the very nature of the case the city is powerless in
the hands of the state legislature. The fight for home rule itself is a state
and national fight. Take the question of the commission form of govern-
ment itself — ^it has been an issue for state legislation very largely. Or
consider some of our commercial and industrial problems. The real diffi-
culties that concern a people in a city, involve state and national issues.
For example, the supply of coal for a city — -what can any city in America
do on a problem of that sort without state and national action? The city
may establish a coal yard? But that is only the merest fraction of the
problem. The coal must be shipped to the city over railroads that are
owned by the monopolies and trusts. The transportation of the coal
becomes a problem of interstate commerce. Thus the most elemental prob-
lem of the city becomes a state and national problem, a question requiring
a consistent and comprehensive program for state and national action.
To undertake to solve problems of this kind by limiting our efforts to local
issues, and separating our cities from state and national issues, is absurd.

It may be quite true that neither the Republican nor the Democratic
national parties have anything in their platforms or programs looking to
the relief of the people that live in cities. But to attempt to find relief from
the evils that torment them, without state and national action, is the height
of folly. If the Republican and Democratic parties have no program and
no principles that apply to the great problem of municipal government,
so much the worse for them. Let the people know it, the sooner the better.

424 NATIONAL l^IUNICIPAL REVIEW

Such is not the case with the Socialist party. It has a program — munic-
ipal, state and national. And each is a part of one consistent whole.
The same principles for which the Socialist party stands in the state and
nation apply with equal force, though with different details, to the city as
well. And what is more, there is no solution of municipal problems apart
from the principles of social democracy. And the princij)les of social democ-
racy cannot be applied except through state and national action. The
effort therefore to eliminate national and state issues and to prevent the
organization of a state and national political party that shall have also a
municipal program, is to block the way to a final solution of the problems
of municipal government.

There is an issue in municipal government that is bound up inseparably
with the state and national program. It is impossible to solve the muni-
cipal problems apart from these larger state and national problems. So
the lines of this struggle may as well be drawn sharply and as closely as
possible. We believe it to be the task of the Socialist party to bring this
issue into the open and to make the people of this country realize that the
struggle between plutocracy and the common people is not only a municipal
struggle but a state and national one as well. And the effort to conceal
this struggle by detaching the city and its issues and problems from the
state and national situation, serves only to deceive the people and to
prolong the period of their enslavement.

One of the chief advantages, therefore, of the proportional representative
plan is that it makes possible and provides for the group or party, or, if you
like it, partisan voting.

Some attempt has already been made to provide for proportional repre-
sentation in some of the municipal charters. Amendments prepared by
the Peoples Charter Conference of Los Angeles, 1913, include among others
a provision for proportional representation. Although this particular
measure was defeated the idea is evidently gaining favor in Los Angeles and
its adoption seems to be only a matter of time and better understanding.

A final advantage in the proportional representative council lies in the
fact that by making the body truly representative of all the interests and
opinions that actually exist in the cummunity, it will obviate the necessity
of constant appeal to the initiative, referendum and recall. This is, we
believe, a decided gain. For while these devices are

admirable for the retention by the people of the power to check or to supple-
ment the council's legislation if necessary and to disentangle at any time
one issue from all the others that may have been involved in the election
of the councilmen, their use involves, nevertheless, a sacrifice of those oppor-
tunities for the threshing out and the amending of legislation by leaders
which are offered by a representative body. A political system, therefore,
which forces the people to have frequent recourse to the initiative and
referendum, in order to avoid one-sided legislation, is gravely dc^fective.
The way to combine excellence with democracy in the determination of a
city's policies is to provide for the use of the initiative or the referendum
on the demand of small percentages of the voters, but to provide also so

VITAL POINTS IN CHARTER MAKING 425

truly representative a council that the initiative and the referendum will
be demanded very seldom.^

4. A responsible executive. Another essential feature in efficient munic-
ipal government is a responsible executive. It is very desirable that there
should be some point at which responsibility for the administrative work of
the city can be located, and through which administrative efficiency can be
secured. This is accomplished in the representative council plan by -sepa-
rating the functions of the official position, usually known as mayor, from
those of administration. To do this it is proposed that the city council shall
elect both a mayor and a manager. The mayor is the official head of the
city, is presiding officer of the council, and holds an honorary position at
a nominal salary. This follows the English system. The manager on
the other hand, is the administrative head of the city government and repre-
sents executive efficiency. He corresponds to the German burgomaster.
This official, being given the power of appointing the heads of the depart-
ments, makes him at once the responsible head and gives him the power to
secure efficiency.

The council should be free to select a manager solely with reference to
his ability and efficiency in municipal administration. They should be
free to seek for such a manager anywhere in the country or in the world,
for that matter. He should not be required to be a resident of the city pre-
ceding the time of his selection. This idea follows the practice of the Ger-
man municipal government, which is notoriously efficient.

5. Efficient admiriistration. Equally important as an essential of munic-
ipal government is the requirement of efficient administration. To this
end the heads of all purely administrative departments should be chosen
solely with reference to ability, experience and efficiency in the particular
hnes for which they are chosen. In other words, the heads of the depart-
ments, as well as the chief executive officers, should all be upon a profes-
sional basis rather than upon a political basis. For this reason, provision
is made in this form of government for the selection of the manager by the
city council rather than by a popular vote. The idea is that the city coun-
cil will be able to more effectively consider the necessary qualifications of a
manager for technical administrative purposes than it would be possible
for the popular electorate to do.

In the same way the manager is given the right to appoint the various
heads of departments. The only restriction is that these appointments
shall be subject to the approval of the city council. It would be desirable
that even this limitation should be exercised with utmost care so as to give
the manager the greatest possible degree of freedom in the selection of
those who are to work out with him the various administrative policies.

* Representative Council Plan, p. 8.

426 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

AVith the two features of this form of government outlined above, we have
a very decided improvement over all other proposed forms. The policy
determining body being elected directly by the people reflects in exact pro-
portion the will of the people as expressed in the various groups, organi-
zations or parties. The administrative body, however, is selected with
reference to another principle, i.e., that of efficiency.

6. Provision for progress. To the features of the municipal form outlined
above, another one should perhaps be added. We shall undoubtedly have
a steadily increasing extension of the functions of municipal government.
The city which today owns and operates only its water plant will within the
next few j^ears undoubtedly undertake the ownership and operation of its
gas plant, lighting plant and possibly its street car system. At any rate,
this is the experience of cities in various countries. Again, the city which
today has merely an ordinary health department will tomorrow extend its
functions to care for children, to give free medical assistance to those who
need it, to conduct day nurseries and perhaps to teach the mothers and help
them in the care of their children. It is very desirable that these functions
shall be carefully Avorked out and gradually introduced, so that the greatest
degree of efficiency may be secured and the greatest assurance of their suc-
cessful operation attained. To this end a suggestion from foreign municipal
governments has already begun to be applied in some American cities. Non-
salaried commissions are selected by the mayors or councils for the study of
some new phase of municipal activity and perhaps for the development and
conduct of the same during the period of experimentation. After the sys-
tem is well wrought out and in successful operation, it then may be turned
over to some department of the municipal government or made a separate
department and thus take its place as one of the regular functions of the
municipal government.

Where such an arrangement seems desirable, it may be provided for by
the election of such commissions by the city council.

INSTRUCTION IN MUNICIPAL GOVERN-
MENT IN THE UNIVERSITIES AND
COLLEGES OF THE UNITED

STATES'

BY WILLIAM BENNETT MUNRO
Harvard University

FIVE years ago the National Municipal League's committee on
instruction in municipal government conducted an inquiry with
a view to finding out how much instruction in the subject of
municipal government was undertaken by the different universities and
colleges of the United States. Circular questionnaires were addressed to
more than two hundred such institutions situated in every part of the
Union, including educational establishments of every rank from the
largest universities down to the smallest rural colleges. As result of
this investigation it appeared that one or more courses devoted wholly
to the subject of municipal government were offered in forty-six institu-
tions, and that about one hundred colleges maintained general courses
in political science in which a part of the instruction was devoted to
municipal affairs. Tables giving in detail the information gathered at
this time were printed in the Proceedings of the League for 1908.

In view of the great interest manifested in all phases of municipal
government during the last few years, it was thought desirable that a
new investigation somewhat along the same lines should be undertaken
in 1912, with the idea of discovering how far a growing popular interest
in the subject had reflected itself upon the curricula of educational insti-
tutions. In its endeavor to secure full information the committee broad-
ened its range of inquiry somewhat and questionnaires were this time
sent to about four hundred institutions, including all those of importance
listed in the report of the United States Commissioner of Education.
These circulars called for data concerning the number of courses devoted

' Beginning with 1900 the National Municipal League has given attention to the
subject of instruction in municipal government in the universities and colleges of
the United States. Its first committee of which the late Thomas M. Drown,
president of Lehigh, was chairman, investigated the instruction being given
in universities and colleges. Its reports are to be found in the Proceedings of the
National Municipal League for the years 1901, 1902 and 1905. This committee was
followed by another on the coordination of instruction in municipal government in
the universities and colleges of the United States, of which Prof. L. S. Rowe of the
University of Pennsylvania was the first chairman and Prof. William Bennett
Munro of Harvard the second. The reports of this committee are to be found in
the volumes of Proceedings for 1908 and 1909. ' The present investigation was under-
taken by Professor Munro with a view to ascertaining what is now being done
and what should be done. — C. R. W.

427

428 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

wholl}^ to municipal government, the number of courses devoted partly
to municipal government, and the figures of students enrolled in each.
Likewise information was sought concerning the methods of instruction,
whether by lectures, discussions, or thesis work, the text-books used,
and the opportunities afforded to students for practical training in the
subject. Instructors were asked by the committee to indicate any way
in which the National Municipal League might be of service in improv-
ing the range of materials available for instruction in municipal govern-
ment, whether by the publication of an annual yearbook of municipal
affairs, or by compiling for use in college courses a syllabus and bibli-
ography of municipal government. Replies were received from one
hundred and seventy-two institutions and in all these cases full answers
were given to the questions asked in the committee's circular.

It appears from the data gathered by the committee that independent
and distinct instruction in the subject of municipal government is given
in sixty-four American universities and colleges as compared with forty-
six institutions affording this five years ago. That is a very notable
increase and illustrates the degree to which colleges are responding to
the development of popular interest in this subject. Most of these insti-
tutions maintain only one course in this field of study, several of them
provide two courses (as, for example, Swarthmore College, University
of Cincinnati, University of Illinois, University of Wisconsin, and Co-
lumbia University), while a few of the largest institutions provide three
courses. The number of enrolled students varies from five to eighty-six,
the largest independent class being that of Professor Currier at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which numbers eighty-six. For
the most part these courses are attended by undergraduates, but a fair
sprinkling of graduate students may be found even in the general courses
offered by the larger institutions.

The methods of instruction naturally show no approach to uniformity.
Some instructors conduct their classes wholly or almost Avholly by lec-
tures, although this method seems to be losing ground somewhat ; others
prefer the system of classroom discussions based upon outside reading
either in a text-book or in official material. Most instructors endeavor
to combine both methods. In something more than half of the courses
devoted wholly to municipal government, a thesis or written report upon
an assigned topic is required. Some instructors prefer several short
reports to one long thesis, particularly where undergraduates are con-
cerned. It is the practice in a few institutions to allot a general
task to the whole class, as, for example, the work of preparing a city
charter. This is done by assigning certain sections to each student,
requiring him to present his proposals for discussion and adoption by
his classmates.

INSTRUCTION IN MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 429

Opportunities for some sort of actual contact with the practical prob-
lems of municipal administration are afforded by fifty-five institutions.
Such opportunities are of the widest possible variety and depend of
course upon the location of the college. Where the institution is situated
in or near a large city or a state capital, the facilities for training of this
sort ought to be most abundant. It appears from the data gathered by
the committee, however, that while the opportunities may not be so
extensive in the case of colleges located in smaller municipalities,' more
work of a practical nature is really undertaken by students in these
latter institutions. In many of these it is the custom to have city
officials lecture occasionally to the classes, to have the students attend
meetings of the council or municipal boards, and in some cases to assist
in minor official investigations. Particularly at the time of the regular
municipal election a good chance is afforded to those college students
who desire, by serving as checkers or watchers at the polls, to gain a first-
hand acquaintance with the workings of electoral machinery.

In many educational institutions both large and small, there exist
political clubs or, in some cases, city government clubs which hold regu-
lar meetings throughout the college year and secure speakers for such
meetings from among the officials of neighboring cities. By means of
debates on various questions of municipal government both in the class-
room and at the meetings of these clubs, a useful method of stimulating
undergraduate interest in the subject has been commonly employed. In
a few cases the "vacation report" plan has been used with satisfactory
results, each member of a college course in municipal government or
of a political club being asked to make- some small investigation during
the Christmas or Easter recess in his home city. The results of this
study are presented to his classmates after the re-opening of college.

Attention is devoted by colleges and universities, for the most part,
to the study of American city government only; but some have broad-
ened the scope of their work so as to include a study of European city
government as well. Where this latter field is included, however, it is
usually in an elementary way and with a view only to securing a proper
background for the study of municipal administration in this countr3^
A few instructors endeavor to follow a syUabus or outline of topics, but
the majority do not appear to have pursued this plan. There seems,
however, to be a strong sentiment that a suitable syllabus, if prepared
under the auspices of the League or some other capable supervision,
would increase the efficiency of instruction in the subject. In response
to the committee's query as to whether such a syllabus would prove of
service, eightj^-four instructors answered in the affirmative, while eleven
expressed the opinion that such a syllabus would probably be of service.
Three instructors replied with a decided negative, one expressed doubts,

430 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

and nine either expressed the opinion that a syllabus would not be of
assistance to them or made no answer to the committee's inquiry on this
point. Practically^ all of this negative expression of opinion came from
instructors in the larger institutions, while by far the greater portion of
the affirmative replies came from instructors in the smaller colleges. It
appears, therefore, that the programme of instruction in municipal gov-
ernment at the larger institutions has been already worked out with such
care that no practical benefit would probably be obtained by the prep-
aration of a syllabus or outline, but that in the great majority of colleges
the materials and methods of instruction are still at a somewhat tran-
sitional stage and that a publication of this sort, if prepared on a suffi-
ciently flexible basis, would render a real service. The chief objection
to the use of any extended syllabus is that it tends to stereotype instruc-
tion and to take from a course that quality of constant adjustment to
changed conditions which is, from every point of view, extremely desir-
able. In the larger institutions, moreover, the printed syllabus is too
often a source of undue advantage to the professional tutor and to the
vendor of typewritten notes. The instructor who announces at the
beginning of the year just what reading will be required from week to
week, extends thereby an invitation to some bright student to prepare
summaries for his classmates wherever the classes are too large to permit
personal questioning of every student from day to day. As it is scarcely
practicable to print a new syllabus each year, the use of such an outline
might indeed, under some circumstances, prove a deterrent to progress
in the methods of instruction rather than an incentive.

One of the distinct needs of present-day instruction in municipal gov-
ernment, it appears, is for a working bibliography of literature on the
subject. Since the publication of Professor Brooks's compilation a dozen
years ago, no serious attempt has been made in any quarter to classify
and make available, either for instructors, students, or the general public,
the large annual output of literature on the subject of municipal admin-
istration. The time has undoubtedly come for such an undertaking and,
in response to the committee's inquiry on this point, ninety-six instruc-
tors express the opinion that a bibliography would prove of service to
them. Only eight expressed themselves as having no interest in the
proposal, while seven showed some doubts as to its feasibility or useful-
ness. An undertaking of this sort would involve a large expenditure of
labor and probably some outlay in money, for the literature of the sub-
ject has been very large during the last decade; but the results of the
committee's investigations prove that from the standpoint of service
both to college instruction and to the reading public, the enterprise is
one which ought to be undertaken either by the National Municipal
League or by some other body of men interested in the subject.

INSTRUCTION IN MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 431

, Students of municipal government have found a serious handicap to
their work in the fact that we have in this country no local government
yearbook corresponding to the Year Book of the United Kingdom or the
German Statistisches Jahrbuch deutscher Stddte. The annual report on
the statistics of cities of over 30,000 issued by the United States Bureau
of the Census is of great value as far as it goes, but it gives little more
than the figures of population and the statistics of municipal finance,
with nothing concerning the administrative organization and the non-
financial activities of American cities. Moreover, this publication does
not usually appear until two or three years after the date at which the
statistics have been compiled. Ninety-five instructors expressed the
opinion in response to the committee's questionnaire that a municipal
yearbook of the United States would prove of service to them in their
work. About a dozen had doubts concerning its utility or believed that
the undertaking could not be successfully carried through.

An interesting feature of the replies received on these three questions
was the apparent readiness on the part of many instructors to cooperate
in the preparation of a syllabus or a bibliography or a municipal year-
book. Several instructors volunteered to give a part of their own time
to such enterprises if undertaken on a cooperative basis. From several
colleges which do not now offer any independent instruction in municipal
government the committee received the suggestion that the publication
of a syllabus, bibliography or yearbook would be of importance in mak-
ing independent instruction possible in their institutions.

The committee's circular included also the following general query:
"Have you any suggestion as to how the League, either through its
administration of the Baldwin Prize competition or otherwise, might be
of further service to instructors in municipal government?" In response
to this question came a considerable number of suggestions which can-
not, of course, be very easily tabulated. Some of the more important,
however, ought to be mentioned. One instructor suggested that the
National Municipal Review should publish every three months a
short critical bibliography of books, pamphlets and articles on current
municipal affairs, and that reprints of this section of the Review should
be sent to every college offering instruction in municipal government.
Another suggestion was that if instructors were asked to submit for
publication in the Review short articles of good quality written by
their best students, this would stimulate interest in their courses. Prof.
R. C. Brooks made the interesting suggestion that the National Munici-
pal League might get together a collection of lantern slides illustrating
municipal progress in both foreign and American cities, and that these
slides, with brief printed explanations of each, should be loaned at nomi-
nal expense from time to time to college instructors for use at one or two

432 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL RF.VIEW

class meetings. This suggestion is one which appears to the committee
to be very well worth adoption. From one institution comes the sug-
gestion that special provision should be made for the enrollment of
college students as members of the National Municipal League at a
reduced membership fee. From another the committee received a pro-
posal that the League should prepare and distribute to the debating
societies of colleges and schools, lists of suitable topics in municipal
government for intercollegiate and interscholastic debates, with sugges-
tions as to books from which materials for such debates might be obtained.
Some other suggestions received by the committee, however, were hardly
so concrete in their nature. One college president, for example, expressed
the hope that the League might "succeed in creating a conscience that
shall lead people to refuse to remain responsible for the iniquities of
our time;" but gave no hint as to the practical steps through which any
advance in this direction might ever be taken.

Owing to the limited nature of their resources, many colleges have
not found it possible to establish independent instruction in municipal
government, but have endeavored to handle this subject in connection
with their general courses in political science, sociology and economics.
The courses in American government, if they are at all comprehensive
in scope, must deal to some extent in the government of cities. Instruc-
tion in public finance, if it is to be made worth while, must take the
student into the field of municipal taxation and accounting. Courses
in sociology naturally include many topics which connect themselves
directly with departments of city administration such as health, poor
relief, and housing. The committee has not been able to follow up all
this incidental instruction; but has endeavored in a general way to find
out how much attention is given to the subject of municipal government
in the regular courses on political science. Nearly every college in the
country has one or more courses of this nature, and one hundred and
eighteen institutions report that some attention is given to municipal
government in their general political science instruction. This is a
slightly larger number than the figure of five years ago. The time
allotted to municipal government in general courses varies from two to
thirty exercises per year. Where there are independent courses on
municipal government little time is devoted to this subject in the general
courses; where there is no independent instruction, the general course
must supply the gap so far as it can. From some of these latter insti-
tutions intimation has come that a separate course in municipal govern-
ment will be arranged whenever the resources of the college permit.
The intrinsic importance of the subject seems everywhere to be recog-
nized.

INSTRUCTION IN MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 433

Such statistical data as lends itself to compilation in tables has been
arranged as an appendix to this report. It should be stated that this
tabulation does not include statistics of instruction offered in professional
schools, many of which offer courses bearing directly on problems of
municipal administration. Many engineering schools, for example, afford
instruction in municipal engineering and sanitation; some of the larger
law schools have courses in the subject of municipal corporations; the
best equipped medical schools of the country give instruction in hygiene
and the public health; schools for social workers give training both
theoretical and practical in the methods of municipal poor relief; while
schools of commerce and of business administration are giving attention
to municipal accounting and kindred subjects. The amount of instruc-
tion afforded through these channels is large, but accurate statistics
concerning it are somewhat difficult to obtain.

In concluding this general survey of instruction in municipal govern-
ment a word or two may perhaps be said concerning the experiment in
the methods of undergraduate instruction represented by the establish-
ment of a bureau for research in municipal government at Harvard
University.^ Through the generosity of two Harvard graduates the
University was enabled to establish a year ago a special library and
workshop for students in municipal government. In the rooms set apart
for this subject a collection has been made of city charters, ordinances,
and other official materials covering practically all American cities of
any importance. In addition the publications of reform organizations,
city clubs, research bureaus, and a host of other such organizations are
secured as they appear and placed on file. All periodical publications
relating to municipal affairs are also received and placed at the disposal
of students. A special librarian is constantly in attendance to guide the
students in their thesis work and in the making of the special reports
which are assigned to them from time to time. This institution differs
from the bureaus maintained by cities throughout the country in the
fact that it does not have as its primary aim the supplying of information
for public authorities. Its chief purpose is to afford facilities for the
proper training of students in the use of first-hand materials relating
to the subject. From time to time requests for data are had from city
officials or from semi-official organizations, and these requests are always
complied with. But the main purpose of the establishment is to afford
the discipline of training rather than to secure such information as may
happen at the moment to be needed by some municipal officer. The

^ A list of somewhat similar bureaus in other American universities may be found
in the Review for January, 1913, p. 56.

434 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

results of the experiment during the past year have demonstrated to
the entire satisfaction of those immediately concerned that this is the
best way of teaching the subject. The time has gone by when a real
grasp of municipal problems can be obtained by any one, whether in
college or outside of it, by the study of somebody's text-book. Intimate
contact with the live, day-to-day material is what the student must
have if he is to obtain mastery of even a small part of the subject.

REFERENCES FOR TABLES

(a) Incidental lastructSon in courses on history, sociology and government, and In debating
(6) Incidental Instruction in courses on economics and government.

(c) Incidental Instruction In courses on government (or political science).

(d) Incidental instruction iu courses on economics and sociology.

(e) Incidental Instruction In courses on sociology, social problems or American society.
(/) One course on municipal chemistry and one on municipal sanitation.

(g) For 1911-12; In 1912-13 there will be two courses on municipal government.
(h) A course on civics.

(i) One course given In Law School on corporations.

U) The total time given to municipal government In these three courses would be equivalent to one course,
three times a week for one semester.
(A:) New course.

(/) Parliamentary law, acting as city council,
(m) Course on government and sociology.
in) Six hours to municipal government,
(o) Courses of research or seminar courses,
(p) To be Increased to forty-five hours In 1912-13.
(g) Ten weeks to municipal government,
(r) Incidental instruction in course on economics.
(s) Incidental Instruction In course on economics of engineering.
(t) Other courses treat of municipal problems.
(u) Incidental course.

(c) About thirty hours devoted to municipal government,
(ui) Several courses in history, government and economics.
(j) Offered for the first time in 1911-12; registration in 1912-13 Is 29.
(y) This course is entitled "American Social Conditions and Municipal Problems."

INSTRUCTION IN MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT

435

INSTITUTION

1. Adelpht College

2. Albany College

3. Allegheny College

4. Amherst College

5. Atlanta University

6. Barnard College

7. Bates College

8. Belolt College

9. Benedict College

10. Bowdoln College

11. Buchtel College

12. Carthage College

13. Central University of Iowa. ..

14. Central Wesleyan College

15. Clark CoUege

16. Clemson College

17. Coe College

18. Colby College

19. Colgate University

20. College of the City of New
York

21. Colorado College

22. Columbia University

23. Concordia College

24. Cooper College

25. Cornell University

26. Dakota Wesleyan University. ,

27. Dartmouth College

28. Davidson College

29. De Pauw University

30. Dickinson College

31. Drury College

32. Earlham College

33. Elon CoUege

34. College of Emporia

35. Flsk University

36. Franklin College of Indiana. .,

37. Furman University

38. George Washington University

39. Georgetown University

40. Goucher College

41. Grinnell College

WHERE LOCATED

Brooklyn, N. Y.

Albany, Ore

MeadvlUe, Pa. ..
Amherst, Mass. .
Atlanta, Ga

New York City. .

Lewlston, Me

Belolt, Wis

Columbia, S. C...
Brunswick, Me...

Akron, Ohio

Carthage, 111

Pella, Iowa

Warrenton, Mo.. .
Worcester, Mass. .
Clemson Collegfe,

S.C

Cedar Rapids

Iowa

WatervlUe, Me...
Hamilton, N. Y..

New York City. . .

Colorado Springs,
Colo

COURSES DEVOTED
WHOLLT TO MUNICIPAL

GOVERNMENT

a>

8

3

New York City. . .

Fort Wayne, Ind.. .
Sterling, Kan

Ithaca, N. Y

Mitchell, S. D

Hanover, N. H

Davidson, N. C...
Greencastle, Ind . .
Carlisle, Pa

Springfield, Mo. . .
Richmond, Ind. . .
Elon College, N. C
Emporia, Kan... .
Nashville, Tenn.. .

Franklin, Ind

Greenville, S. C...
Washington, D. C.
Washington, D. C.

Baltimore, Md

Grinnell, Iowa

Hg)
1

1

1
1

o

2®

Hours
45

45

30

(k)

45

30
each

Number of
students

. 1
a ^

12

12-20

16

13

12

45 61
45 30

a)
3
T3
OS

o

51

120

30
36

COURSES DEVOTED

PARTLT TO MUNICIPAL

GOVERNMENT

25

25

XI

8

a

1
(a)

1
(b)

2

1

(0

1
(d)

1

(c)
(6)

1

1

1

(e)
1
2

2

1

1
2

1

1

1

(e)
ie)

2

1
1
1

w

2 >

Hours
45

30

90
each

90
90
45

45
18

20

75

30(/)
30

60
45
90

60

45

each

45
45
90

30
each

60
90
45

1

60

(6)

1

45

10-12

2-3

(i)

1

120

2

30
each

35

Number of
students

67
35
17
38
35
51

13
350

47

60

53
190
258

77

20

100

56

34

3

O

95

28

34

Note: — Explanation of Italicized letters will be found on page 434.

436

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

INSTITUTION

WHERE LOCATED

COURSES DEVOTED

WHOLLY TO MUNICIPAL

aOVEBNMENT

O

i

iz;

i

Number of
students

2>

-a OS
d *-

c4

a

o

COURSES DEVOTED

PARTLY TO MUNICIPAL

GOVERNMENT

4>

s

3

I

° >

Number of
students

(UTS
T3 OS

eg

3

o

42. Guilford College.

43. Hamllne College

44. Harvaxd University.

45. Haverford College

46. Heidelberg University.

Guilford College,

N.C

St. Paul, Minn. . .
Cambridge, Mass.

Haverford, Pa.
Tiffin, Ohio...

47. Hendrlx College.

48. Hope College....

Conway, Ark..
Holland, Mich.

49. Illinois College

50. Illinois State Normal Univer-

sity

Jacksonville, III.
Normal, III

51. lUlnols VVesleyan University...;

52. Indiana University

53. James MlUlken University

54. Juniata College

55. Kansas State Agricultural Col-

lege

56. Knox College

57. Lake Forest College

58. Lawrence College

59. Lincoln Memorial University.

60. Lincoln University

61. Macalester College

62. Massachusetts Agricultural

College

63. Massachusetts Institute of

Technology

64. McMlnnvllle College.

65. .Miami University. . .

66. Mills College

Bloomington, 111. .
Bloomington, Ind.

Decatur, 111

Huntingdon, Pa. .

Manhattan, Kan. .

Galesburg, 111

Lake Forest, 111 . . .
Appleton, Wis

Cumberland Gap,
Tenn

Lincoln Univer-
sity, Pa

St. Paul. Minn....

Amherst, Mass

Boston, Mass

McMlnnvllle, Ore.

Oxford, Ohio

Mills College, Cal.

67. Mlllsaps College

68. Milton College

69. Mississippi Agricultural and

Mechanical CoIIeKO

Jackson, Miss.
Milton, Wis . .

70. .Mt. Holyoke College.

71. MuliU'til)orK College. .

.■\grlcultural Col-
lege, Miss

South Hadley,
Mass

AUentown, Pa...

Hours

90
90
45

60
45 (ft)

60

45

30-45 86

54
45
45

45

50

7

43

35

90 10

48

17

40

3

2

id)
2

1

2

(6)

(c)

1
1
1
2

(d)
2

1
2

(m)

W
(6)

(e)

Hours

60
20
90
45

450)
each

45
each

60
60

150

60

60

30

{k,v)

60

30(1)
45
60

75

45
60

45

12

35

479

14

78

10

150
135

9

40
60
35

200

25
28
42

25

14

30 300
each each

30

13

INSTRUCTION IN MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT

437

INSTITUTION

72. Nebraska Wesleyan University

73. New York University

74. Normal College of the City of

York

75. Northwestern University

76. Oberlin College

77. Ohio State University

78. Ohio University

79. Oregon Agricultural College .

80. Oskaloosa College

81. Parsons College

82. Penn College

WHERB LOCATED

83. Pennsylvania College

84. Pennsylvania State College

85. Polytechnic Institute of Brook-

lyn

86. Pomona College

87. Purdue University

88. Radcliffe College

89. Rhode Island State College. . . .

90. Richmond College

91. Rockford College

92. Rutgers College

93. Smith College.

94. State University of Iowa

95. Stevens Institute of Technol-

ogy

96. St. John's College

97. Swarthmore College

98. Talladega College.

99. Trinity College...

100. Trinity College....

101. Tufts College

102. Union College

103. University of California .

104. University of Chattanooga.

103. University of Chicago

106. University of Cincinnati

107. University of Colorado .

108. University of Illinois .. .

University Place,

Neb

New York City. .

New York City.. ,

Evanston, 111

Oberlin, Ohio. ...
Columbus, Ohio. .

Athens, Ohio

Corvallls, Ore

Oskaloosa, Iowa. . .
Fairfield, Iowa . . . .
Oskaloosa, Iowa. . .

Gettysburg, Pa. .
State College, Pa..

Brooklyn, N. Y. .
Claremont, Cal . . ,
Lafayette, Ind. . . ,
Cambridge, Mass.
Kingston, R. I. ...
Richmond, Va. .. .

Rockford, 111

New Brunswick,

N.J

Northampton,

Mass

Iowa City, Iowa. . .

Hobokeu, N. J. . . .
Annapolis, Md. .. .
Swarthmore, Pa...

Talladega, Ala. . ..
Hartford, Conn. ..
Durham, N. C...
Tufts C9llege,

Mass

Schenectady, N.Y,
Berkeley, Cal

Chattanooga,Tenn

Chicago, 111

Cincinnati, Ohio.

Boulder, Colo

Urbana, 111

COnBSGS DEVOTED

WHOLLY TO MUNICIPAL

GOVERNMENT

.a

3

a

O

3«
<1

Number of
students

Hours

30

60
30 (o)
30 (o)

45
45
45
45

45

30 (p)

90

OQ

50

15-20

7

22

15

30

1 45

30
30

(o)

60
45

34
34
30
45
45

65

16

20
31

15

22

47
33
30

C3

o

COURSES DEVOTED
PARTLY TO MUNICIPAL

GOVERNMENT

3

1

(A)

(m)

2

1
1

1
1

1

(0

(c)

1
1

(s)

(b)

1

(d)
1
1

1

(c)
2

(r)

(0

2 >

Hours

60
90

90
(n)

45

45

45
60

( 9)
45
90
90
(r)
45

90
60

90

90
90

45

90
90

50
50
30
45

U)

Number of
students

01

o

i 3

0)73

-a 03

25

58

75

80

19
15

45

48
24
39

20

100
48

37

40
35

18

340
36

29
31
13

140

(3

3
u

o

438

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

INSTITDTION

109. University of Kansas

110. University of Maine

111. University of Michigan

112. University of Minnesota

113. University of Missouri

114. University of Nebraska

115. University of North Dakota.

116. University of Oklahoma

117. University of Oregon

118. University of Pennsylvania .

119. University of Pittsburgh. . ..

120. University of Rochester

121. University of Southern Cali-

fornia ,

122. University of South Carolina

123. University of South Dakota.

124. University of Texas

125. University of Utah

126. University of Virginia

127. University of Wisconsin

128. United States Military Acad-

emy

129. Urslnus College

130. Utah Agricultural College

131. Vassar College

132. Washington University

133. Wellesley College

1.34. Wells College

135. Wesleyan University

136. Western Reserve University.

137. West Virginia Wesleyan College

138. West Virginia University

139. Wheaton College

140. Whitman College

141. Willamette University

142. Williams College

143. Worcester Polytechnic Institute

144. Yale University

145. Yankton College

COURSES DEVOTED

WHOLLY TO MUNICIPAL

GOVERNMENT

WHERE) LOCATED

Lawrence, Kan. . .

Orono, Me

Ann Arbor, Mich.
Minneapolis, Minn

Columbia, Mo

Lincoln, Neb

University, N. D
Norman, Okla. . .
Eugene, Ore

Philadelphia, Pa. .
Pittsburgh, Pa. ...
Rochester, N. Y. .

Los Angeles, Cal . .

Columbia. S. C. ..
Vermillion, S. D. .
Austin, Texas

Salt Lake City,

Utah

Charlottesville, Va.
Madison, Wis

West Point, N. Y
Collegeville, Pa . . .

Logan, Utah

Poughkeepsie, N.Y,

St. Louis, Mo

Wellesley, Mass

Aurora, N. Y ....
Middletown, Conn
Cleveland, Ohio...
Buchannon, W. Va.
Morgantown.W.Va.

Wheaton, 111

Walla Walla, Wash.
Salem , Ore

WlUlamstown,

Mass

Worcester, Mass . . .
New Haven, Conn
Yankton, S. D...

B

1
1
1

1

1

li

I

K M

Hours

45
30
30
45
30
30
each

60

30

60
60

45

30

30
45

30
45
45
60

45
45
30
30

30

45{*)

60

Number of
students

i 3

T3 3

5&

24
24
20
51
18
36

15
24

16

10

48
40

10

6

14

30

85

40

10

5-10

10

28

cs

3

n

u

o

2

4

1
14

19

1
10

COURSES DEVOTED

PARTLY TO MUNICIPAL

GOVERNMENT

1

(u)
2

(c)

(u>)

1
1
1

(c)

1

2

I

Number of
students

■^ OS

2 > I ■'s S

<

P

Hours

75

168

30

21

45

(o)

75

100

each

30

4

45

45

45

25

60

20

30

40

60

7

45

40

90

140

each

90

20

90(b)

65

30

60

45

30

90
45

90U)

180

30

90
45
45

20
17

65

20

6-12

38
15
18

a

3
-O
a

u

O

1 60 I 115 ,

1 90(1/) I 100 I 6

I I

No figures could be obtained from Brown University, the University of Chicago, or Princeton Uni-
versity.

SHORT ARTICLES

REVIEAV OF GRAFT PROSECUTIONS AND
EXPOSURES FOR THE PAST YEAR

IT IS no joy in muckraking that has led the writer to undertake to
compile for the National Municipal Review a summary of the
leading graft cases in America for the past year. If space permitted
in this connection an attempt would be made to show that this formidable
array of graft is traceable to a comparatively few eradicable causes;
and further, that far from being a subject for pessimistic conclusions the
scandalous revelations of the past year are a sign of approaching civic
health.

In preparing this article reliance has been placed largely upon the news
columns of the daily press. The compilation may not, therefore, be exhaus-
tive but it is believed that no material fact has been misstated.

In searching newspaper columns for graft material one can hardly escape
the conviction that the evils charged against newspaper exploitation of
crime are more than offset by the service rendered through publicity. A
compilation of editorial opinion on graft exposures for the past year would
make this more evident. If we can not accept without corroborative evi-
dence the statement of the Evening Wisconsin that "despite the revelations
regarding the prevalence of grafting which have been rife of late in the
United States it is probable that there is less of that sordid vice on this
side of the Atlantic than on the other," we can agree with this journal
that 'Hhis is no reason for the apathetic endurance of graft that exists"
and we can endorse the prediction that "graft will never be eliminated in
public office until it has been driven out of private hfe." It is encouraging
also to read in the Pittsburg Leader that "the grafter and corruptionist
are being ousted and the doors closed and locked with locks provided by
progressive reforms." And it may be good for the souls of all of us as we
peruse the record of official graft to give heed to the words of warning of
the Ohio State Journal: "Whenever a man loafs on a job, or adds an item
of expense that does not belong, or makes a thing cost more than it ought
to, he is a grafter."

Arranged arbitrarily in the order of their apparent gravity the graft
records of American communities for approximately the past twelve months
seem to be as follows :

New York City. The world-wide notoriety of the Becker case is justifi-
cation for its mere mention in this review, giving space chiefly to the less
well known but almost equally appalling disclosures which were the out-
growth of the Rosenthal murder and the death sentence imposed upon the

439

440 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

police lieutenant. Before the winter was over three committees, one
ai:)pointed bj' the state legislature, one bj' the board of aldermen and one
by an organization of citizens, together with a John Doe investigation con-
ducted by Justice Goff on the order of Governor Dix, were busily engaged
in unearthing the graft of Gotham and considering ways and means of
suppressing its future growth. But the practical immediate results were
secured through the activity of District Attorney Whitman and the extra-
ordinary grand juries cooperating with him. As a result the highest police
officials ever brought to bar are either serving time in the penitentiary or
are facing trial as this is being written.

Aside from the conviction of Lieutenant Becker and the four gunmen,
the most effective work of the district attorney was done in Harlem, the
section of New York City above 106th Street between the East and Harlem
Rivers, considered one of the best business and residence portions of the
city. Captain Walsh, who had been in command of the 126th Street
Station since April, 1907, made a complete confession implicating Dennis
Sweeney, James E. Hussey, James F. Thompson and John J. Alurtha, in
turn inspectors in the Harlem district. These men were placed on trial in
the supreme court on April 29 on the charge of conspiracy in plotting to
buy the silence of a resort keeper and convicted. They still await trial
on the more serious graft charges. The testimony of Captain Walsh
cleared up the mathematics of the graft situation in Harlem: "I collected
from saloons, gambling places and disorderly hotels. Fifteen to 20 per
cent went to Eugene Fox, a patrolman who collected for me. The rest I
divided with Inspectors Thompson, Hussey, Murtha and Sweeney as they
took charge of the district in turn." It is estimated that by this system
$500,000 was mulcted annually from Harlem.^

In the same Harlem net the district attorney caught James F. Robinson
for years Inspector Sweeney's most trusted graft collector, getting for him
a six to ten-year term in Sing Sing; Geo. A. Sipp, former proprietor of
a Raines law hotel in Harlem, who made a full confession after a conspiracy
had been defeated to spirit him out of the court's jurisdiction; Policeman
John J. Hartigan, convicted of perjury in swearing falsely for the system
either through a feeling of loyalty or, as is suspected, for a cash consider-
ation; Edward J. Newell, Sipp's former lawyer, who pleaded guilty to the
charge of wilfully persuading a grand jurj' witness to remain out of the
jurisdiction; and a number of minor police officials. And the district
attornej'' intimates that he has just begun to fight, his objective jioint
being the head of the ''System" at headquarters.

' Before the Curran committee, Samuel H. London, from an actual census
reduced to a card index form, swore that there were 26,000 women in New York
City who handed over a part or most of thc'r earnings to men connected with
the "business."

REVIEW OF GRAFT PROSECUTIONS 441

In his prosecutions, District Attorney Whitman was greatly assisted by
women who had run disorderly resorts in the city for years. Their appar-
ently truthful evidence concerning the amount of money the police had
wrung from the fallen sisterhood was even more shocking than the revela-
tions of the Becker trial.

Omitting numerous minor charges, dismissals and convictions in alder-
manic, fire and police circles during New York's 1912-13 campaign against
graft, the unhappy condition of the metropolis in high and low places will
perhaps become sufficiently evident through the mention in conclusion of
the conviction of Charles H. Hyde, formerly city chamberlain, and one time
law partner of Mayor Gaynor, for bribery in connection with the per-
formance of his official duties.

Says Rabbi Lipkind:

However, amid these disconcerting revelations there are one or two
compensatory features that show a healthy complexion, that give promise
of some amelioration for the future, and one is this : The general and per-
sistent movement toward exhaustive investigation of present conditions,
for probing to the root of the evils that surround us. There seems to be
an impatience with abuses that until now were considered permanent and
ineradicable characteristics of America.

Chicago. In Chicago the air has been filled for the past year with charges
of big and petty graft, bribery and various forms of political corruption
but no such developments have resulted as in the city of New York. For
a time, however, the testimony of Michael Heitler, known as "Mike de
Pike," promised material for another Rosenthal case. Heitler laid bare
the alleged politico-police graft in the old westside levee, charging Barne}^
Grogan, saloonkeeper and west side Democratic boss with being the head
of the graft syndicate of which he (Heitler) was one of the collecting arms.
But Heitler is still alive and Grogan still a tower of political strength.

Equally ineffective was the attempt to involve John I. Tansey, a Roger
Sullivan henchman, who was acquitted by the county civil service com-
mission over the protest of the president of the charge of having extorted
a bribe of $300 in return for which he was to see that a certain name was
placed at the top of the list.

Charges of graft in connection with the purchase of property for the
county hospital site and other irregularities on the county board were freely
made but it is difficult to tell whether official dishonesty or political rancor
is mostly responsible for these charges.

Chicago has been giving much attention during the past year to the
question of segregation with special reference to conditions on the south
side. Public opinion seemed to favor the wiping out of the disorderly
resorts and a series of spectacular raids under the direction of Prosecuting
Attorney Way man followed. The public conscience having been thus sat-

442 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

isfied, a sufficient numl^er of resorts later opened up quietly in less offensive
forms.

The activities of the organization known as the "United Police" were
investigated by the civil service commission l^eginning in the latter part of
December. On the 21st of January' the commission reported that the
United Police had raised a "slush" fund of $60,000 for the purpose of
bribing the state legislature and city council but had failed in its purpose.
The discredited organization thereupon disbanded and the commission
issued a strong recommendation against permitting prospective successors
and ordered embezzlement charges to be filed against William J. Stine,
former president of the United Police and unfaithful custodian of the
$60,000 "slush" fund.

A large number of cases of petty but very annoying graft have been
charged during the year against the building and smoke inspectors and a
few convictions have been secured. These conditions led Mayor Harrison
to appeal to* the public for aid in stamping otit petty grafting by city
inspectors.

The graft situation developed by the local authorities and the vice inves-
tigation conducted bj' the senatorial welfare commission were doubtless the
inspiration for the resolution offered in the state legislature by Representa-
tive Frank J. Rj'^an for a joint legislative investigation of the relation of
public service corporations with the legislative bodies and public officials
of Chicago and Cook County.^

Philadelphia. Henry Clay, director of public safety under IMayor Rey-
burn for four years ending December, 1911, and Colonel John R. Wiggins
and Willard H. Wall, heads of the Wiggins Construction Company, build-
ing contractors, were convicted of conspiracy to defraud the city of Phila-
delphia in the alteration and erection of public buildings. On April 2 they
were sentenced to serve not less than eighteen months nor more than two
years in the penitentiary and to pay a fine of $500 each. Suits have been
begun by the city against the Wiggins Construction Company to compel
it to refund $150,000 which it is alleged to have fraudulently collected from
the city.

Atlantic City. Of the nine councilmen involved in the attempted million
dollar concrete boardwalk swindle, three were acquitted, four confessed
their guilt and two, Harry F. Doughert}'^ and John W. ]\Iurtland, were con-
victed in December and sentenced to terms in the penitentiar}^ ranging
from one to three years. Dougherty was convicted on dictographic

'^Representative Ryan in an 'nteiview said : "The system, backed up by such
public utilities corporations as the Peoples' Gas, the Commonwealth, Edison and
Chicago Traction Companies, has dominated certain newspapers, corrupted pub-
lic departments, public officials, city councils and legislators too long."

REVIEW OF GRAFT PROSECUTIONS 443

evidence secured by Detective Burns. Fines of $1000 and costs of the
prosecution were also imposed on each defendant.

Detroit. The arraignment in September, 1912, of seventeen Detroit
aldermen and former Council Committee Clerk Edward R. Schreiter, for
accepting bribes in return for municipal favors provided one of the most
discussed graft sensations of the year. Schreiter confessed, the cases of
seven of the councilmen were dismissed and the remaining ten were bound
over and are still awaiting trial.

Clinton, Iowa. Thirty-one indictments were returned against three
county officials, two former officials and three contractors and supply men,
sharers in graft in the construction of bridges and other county work. As
a result of the exposures, two supervisors were forced to resign and $23,000
has been refunded to the county.

West Hammond, Ind. Miss Virginia Brooks continued her campaign of
the previous year against vice and graft in West Hammond. During the
summer and fall of 1912 many sensational reports came from this quarter,
at one time the county, state and federal governments all conducting inves-
tigations there. This spring Miss Brooks announced that the little city
had become a model in clean government and morality.

Gary, Ind. Former city clerk, Harry Moose, whose disappearance in the
spring of 1912 brought the bribery cases against Mayor Thos. E. Knotts,
aldermen and former city officials of Gary, to a sudden conclusion, returned
in November and was convicted and sentenced to a prison term. As a
consequence of this trial an investigation of the official doings of Mayor
Knotts was begun by the state board of accounts. On March 29 the
board reported to Governor Ralston serious shortages of Knotts making
him liable to criminal prosecutions. The specific charge of the board is
the illegal retention of fees, fines and other moneys by Knotts acting in
the capacity of pohce judge at the same time he was drawing a salary of
$]500 as mayor.

Milwaukee and Des Moines. Charges of receiving double pay have also
been made in Milwaukee and Des Moines but without any serious develop-
ments. In Milwaukee the Sociafists charged the city clerk's staff with
illegally drawing two salaries from the city through receiving pay for night
work on the city tax roll; in Des Moines the board of supervisors began in
January an investigation of the cost of probing criminal cases brought
before the grand jury, the principal charge being that police officers of the
city also received compensation for appearing before the grand jury.

Bloomsburgh, Pa. An unusual case of grafting was presented to a com-
mission for trial by the district attorney at Bloomsburgh. Three judges
were accused of accepting bribes for liquor licenses but the men involved
were all associate or lay judges and not regular or law judges of the court.

MI NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

In a few counties of Pennsylvania the old system of electing laymen to
sit as associates on the bench with the law judges is still preserved.

Atlanta, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Denver, East St. Louis, Portland,
Providence, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis. In the remaining larger cities
of the country graft developments have not been serious. The rumors and
charges in some cases were weighty enough, but they have not as yet been
followed up with adequate proof that has come to the writer's attention.

In Atlanta the smoke commission has investigated serious charges of
bribery against the "smokeless" furnace interests alleged to be seeking
special privileges. In Cleveland the padding of city payrolls has been
charged. Columbus has investigated alleged graft in connection with citj''
contracts for asphalt pavements. Daj^ton acquired much newspaper adver-
tising through a Burns investigation with dictograph accompaniment and
grand jury probe. Denver has led the hst with grand jury indictments of
city officials and corporate heads but there has been thus far a lack of
developments promised by the initial proceedings.^ In East St. Louis charges
were made by M. M. Stephens, former mayor and member of the (^ity
Protective Association, that the lawless element paid $3000 to .$5000 a
month for protection and that an assessment of .$15,000 for a campaign
fund was levied on the "bad lands." Providence has wrestled with the
question of graft in its highway department. San Francisco has brought
to light but one case of embezzlement, due to faults in the check system
recently put into effect in the city administration.* Seattle has discovered
corroborative evidence tending to show that, as suspected by the council,
the city has been regularly swindled under the garbage collection contract.
St. Louis has indulged in charges of grafting against workhouse officials
and the plumliing department, with counter charges of "frame-up" on the
part of the accused, all without definite result so far as heard.

'Tho latest from Denver is the charge made by Sheriff Daniel ^I. Sullivan that
nearly every policeman in Denver collects regular tribute from women with the
knowledge of higher public officials. The vice district in Denver was closed re-
cently by order of the fire and police board. Since that time, according to the
sheriff, practically all the former denizens of the underworld have moved into the
residence section of the city, where cadet practices are thriving unmolested. The
sheriff's charges are under investigation by the grand jury.

*A much more serious condition has just developed in San Francisco in the
matter of the alleged relations of police officers with a gang of confidence men in
the city's Italian quarter. Eight police officers were suspended by Chief of Police
White pending the investigation by the commission of the charges of collusion
made by convicted bunco men. The police commission later postponed its hearing
until after the trial of the accused officers in the superior court, which is now
progressing. The guardians of the law are charged with having received a 15 per
cent "rake-off" from a gang of confidence men who secured $.300,000 in one j'ear
from San Francisco's foreign population.

Five additional policemen are involved by the immigration authorities in charges
of protecting women held as undesirables for transportation.

DEVELOPMENTS IN BERLIN 445

MINOR CASES

Bloomimjton, III. True bills filed against mayor and chief of police
alleging omission of duty and malfeasance in office.

Canton, 0. Chief of Police Smith suspended by order of mayor and
charges investigated that vice league exists among dive keepers to permit
gambling, cock fighting and Sunday saloons.

Darke County, 0. Court house officials sentenced for collecting fraud-
ulent bills.

Elkhart, Inrl. Chief of police and assistant resigned while under investi-
gation on charges of grafting in office.

Evanston, III. Investigation of charge of grafting made by "blind pig"
operator against alderman.

Keokuk, Iowa. Chief of police dismissed after having been under fire
for several months.

McComh, III. City weigher ousted, charged with padding weights of
coal and pocketing proceeds.

Marinette, Wis. Grand jury indicted sheriff for accepting money for
protection of gambling house.

Montgomery, Ala. Discrepancies in accounts of state convict depart-
ment investigated and found not so large as at first thought.

Muncie, Ind. Affairs of the pohce department investigated. No official
statement.

Newport, Ky. Henry Reusch, former delinquent tax collector, pleaded
guilty of embezzUng $14,000 of city funds and sentenced to a term of two
to ten years in the penitentiary.

Niagara Falls. Supervisors Joseph Percy and Clifford H. Bowman con-
victed of having tried to bribe supervisors to vote for favored poor house
architect and sentenced to terms in penitentiary.

West Seneca, N. Y. Grand jury investigated alleged charity sewer graft
with special reference to statements made by Henry Lunn. convicted former
chairman of town board.

C. R. Atkinson.^

RECENT INTERESTING DEVELOPMENTS IN

BERLIN

THE phenomenal increase in the number of foreign visitors to Berlin
within the last fifteen years has resulted in making that city as
interesting to travelers now as it has been for years to students
of city government. The visitor to the capital of Prussia and of the

'Lawrence College, Appleton, Wis. See article on "Recent Graft Exposures
and Prosecutions" by the same author. National Municipal Review, vol. i, p. 672.

44() NATIONAL MTTNK'TPAL REVIKW

German Emijire, whether he remain for a few weeks during the sunnucr
or for an entire year finds opportunities for study and recreation, and
above all the possibilities of a comfortable enjoyable daily life, unexcelled
by those of any city in the world. Naturally even a laymen is interested
in hearing of new developments in a government which is able to pro-
vide such well-paved, well-cleaned streets, such beautiful parks, such
magnificent pul^lic buildings, such admirable transportation and such
freedom from slums and other centers of poverty and filth.

To the student of cit}^ government Berlin is of particular interest because
of the fact that the Prussian system of city government, which works well
in little towns of 1000 inhabitants or less is just as satisfactory in the
metropolis of over two and one-half million people. In France the munici-
pal code of 1884 was not applied to Paris. In England the epoch-making
municipal corporations act of 1835 and its successor the consolidation act
of 1882 were not extended to the capital. In each of these cases it was
thought that the general law could not be applied with advantage to the
capital city of the state. In this country, the city of Washington has a
form of government wholly different from that of other cities in the United
States. But Berlin is governed by the same law which applies to cities
of, it may be, only a few hundred inhabitants.

Inasmuch as the government of Berlin varies in no essential respects
from that of other Prussian cities, it is not the purpose of the writer to
treat a subject which has already been dealt with in various works in *
English,^ but rather to point out some recent governmental events of inter-
est in the German capital. Two of these are of particular importance,
viz., the election of a new mayor for the city proper, and the creation of a
new unit of local government for the entire metropolitan area.

As is well known, the election of a mayor in a German city is as much
a business proposition as is the election of a director of a private business
corporation. Political considerations are excluded and the cit}^ council
acting through the administrative board goes systematically about finding
the best man for the place. In the smaller cities it may be necessary to
advertise in the public press for applicants to fill such a vacancy. In a
city like Berlin the fact that a vacancy exists is universally knoA\Ti among
the persons interested and of course applications would be numerous enough
without any such action.

That the cities have a wide field from which to choose their mayors —
the larger cities have two, a first and a second or vice-mayor— and are
not necessarily restricted to officials of prior municipal experience, if there
are others available who seem to be possessed of the necessary qualifica-

1 See, among others, William B. Munro, The Government of European Cities, pp.
109-208; Herman G. James, Principles of Prussian Administration, pp. 128-146. Ber-
iin luis 144 councillors, 34 members of the administrative board and two mayors.

DEVELOPMENTS IN BERLIN 447

tions to a higher degree, is well shown in the election of the new mayor last
year.2 The retiring mayor, Herr Kirschner, who served in that capacity
for thirteen years in Berlin was called there from the same post in Breslau,
one of the most important positions of that character outside of the capi-
tal in Prussia. Before that he had been mayor of Bromberg. He resigned
the Berlin position at the age of seventy, largely because of his years, and
partly because of some difficulties arising in the administration.

When the city fathers were confronted with the necessity of selecting a
successor for that important position, their difficulty was not so much in
finding duly qualified men as in choosing among a large number of candi-
dates, any one of whom would have been qualified by natural ability and
training to fill the post. So some of the influential men were favorably
disposed toward Dr. Adickes,^ for years the mayor of the important city
of Frankfort. Others inclined toward Herr Dernburg, formerly secretary
of colonial affairs in the imperial government.

But the choice finally fell on Herr Wermuth, who had just resigned the
position of imperial secretary of the treasury. The new incumbent of the
office presents the rather unusual spectacle of a man elected to the most
important municipal position in Germany, if not in Europe, without any
prior experience in similar work in other cities. He had extensive adminis-
trative experience in other lines, however, in which he displayed qualities
that proved his possession of the requisite executive ability.

Herr Wermuth entered the Prussian government service at an early age
and was made privy councillor in the department of the interior when still
a young man. In 1893 he was made president of the German commission
to the World's Fair in Chicago and was in a large measure responsible for
the success of the German exhibit there. After returning to Berlin he
was promoted from one position to another and finally in 1909 he was
made imperial secretary of the treasury. In that capacity he displayed
great energy and initiative and became one of the most prominent figures
in the government. In the spring of last year he came into conflict with
the chancellor on the question of the inheritance tax and resigned. A few
weeks thereafter he was elected to the Berlin position and his election
confirmed by the crown. Today, a man fifty-eight years of age, with
undoubted capacity for administration he is expected to handle the increas-
ingly difficult problems of the government of Berlin to general satisfaction.

In an earlier part of this paper it was pointed out that Berlin is unique
as a capital in being governed by the same laws as other cities of the state,
great and small. With the enormous growth of the city in recent years,

^ For the following facts concerning the retiring and the incoming mayors of
Berlin, the writer is indebted to Guenther Thomas, Berlin special correspondent of
the New Yorker Staats-Zeitung .

' For years a member of the National Municipal League.

448 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

however, some problems have arisen that called for special treatment.
But they are pro))lems caused not by mere increase in population, but by
the fact that this increase has been to a large extent outside of the cor-
porate limits of the city proper. This brings us to the consideration of
a second development of even greater importance than the election of the
new mayor, namelj'' the organization of the new municipal corporation for
Greater Berlin.*

The urban territory consisting of Berlin and the surrounding communi-
ties comprises besides the city proper, six other "city circles" and two
"rural circles"-^ with a total population of over 3,500,000. The "rural
circles" comprise a number of communes, the eight most important of
which are regarded for the purposes of this law as independent units. As
all these various public corporations constitute in reality a single urban
area, there were inevitably matters which concerned them all in common
and yet were not within the jurisdiction of any central authority.

Among the concerns which were especially in need of some unified treat-
ment were the housing conditions of the poor, the park and playground
facilities for the children of the working classes, and transit facilities which
would give the congested areas cheap and rapid communication with the
surrounding open country. These and other matters could be satisfactorily
dealt with only if there were some central authority. But such central
authority did not exist and twenty years ago consolidation was opposed
by the fear of the Berlin authorities that the city would be burdened with
the upkeep of schools, etc., for the poorer outlying districts. Since that
time, however, these suburbs have attracted the wealthy taxpayers from
the city proper and consequently every attempt since then to solve the
difficulty by incorporation of the surrounding corporations with the city
proper has been blocked by the determined resistance of the smaller
communities which objected to losing their independent existence.

Finally the demand for some steps in the direction indicated above led
to the creation by state law of a new corporation for special purposes which
should be competent to deal with these matters without, however, swallow-
ing the surrounding corporations which still retained their independent
existence for all other purposes except those specified in the law. Unions

* For some of the facts concerning this latest development in Berlin city govern-
ment, the writer is indebted to an article written by Dr. Ahrens of Berlin at the
request of the Amerika Institut in that city and kindly put at the disposal of the
writer by the Institut. The text of the law may be found in the official collection of
Prussian laws (Preussische Geselzsammlung) , for 1911, p. 123.

^ "Circles" are administrative subdivisions in Prussia for both state and local
matters and include both urban and rural communes. But the larger cities, over
2.5,000 inhabitants, regularly constitute "circles" for themselves called "city circles"
while "rural circles" include less thickly populated areas as well as smaller urban
centers. See James, op. cit., pp. 112-122.

DEVELOPMENTS IN BERLIN 449

of local corporations for special purposes of common interest had been
introduced by law in some provinces of Prussia as early as 1891 and by
law of 1911 the subject was regulated for the whole of Prussia save Berlin.

The Berlin law of July 19, 1911, creates a new public corporation or
union (Zweckverband Gross Berlin) of the sixteen communities mentioned
above with the corporation of Berlin proper and gives it jurisdiction over
the three classes of matters for which a central authority was considered
most essential; street railways, building undertakings, and open areas for
parks, playgrounds, etc.

The organs of government of the new corporation are constituted along
the lines followed in Prussia for local government in general: a general
council, an executive committee and a director.

The council is composed of one hundred representatives of the constitu-
ent corporations, under the chairmanship of the first mayor of Berlin.
The councillors are apportioned among the local corporations on the basis
of population, each corporation having at least one representative. To
insure against control of the council by the representatives from the city
of Berlin — -which comprises over two-thirds of the population — -there is a
provision that no one of the constituent corporations may have a number
of representatives on the council exceeding two-fifths of the total member-
ship. The representatives for each unit are elected by the governmental
organs thereof. Any resident of the local corporation is eligible to member-
ship in the council provided he is eligible to a place in the local govern-
mental organs.

Among the enumerated functions of the council are: the determination
of the budget, the audit of accounts, the passage and amendment of local
by-laws, the apportionment of the contributions to be levied on the dif-
ferent local corporations, the negotiation of loans, the framing of the gen-
eral policy of the union, the management of its property, the creation and
filHng of corporate offices so far as not provided for in the law, the election
of the director, lay members of the executive committee, and other execu-
tive officers of the union, the enactment of measures in the field of activity
assigned to the union, and the acquisition and disposal of corporate realty.
The council meets at least once a year on convocation of the chairman and
as much oftener as the chairman or a third of the members may demand.

The executive committee consists of the first mayor as chairman, a mem-
ber of the Magistrat or administrative board designated by the mayor,
the first mayors of the six next largest units represented in the union, the
chairman of the circle committees within the area of the union, and eight
lay members chosen by the council from among persons eligible to mem-
bership in the same. The term of these lay members is fixed at six years,
but may be lengthened by act of the council.

The duties of the executive committee are extensive, including the prep-

i:.() NATIONAL MUNICIPAL HFA^EW

aration of measures for enactment by the council and their enforcement
after passage, the supervision of the activities of the director of the union,
the adoption of measures in regard to all corporate matters not entrusted
to the council, and the collection of the quotas assigned to the constituent
corporations.

The director of the union is chosen by the council for a period of not
less than six nor more than twelve years and his appointment must be
approved by the crown. He is the chief executive officer and is directly
responsible for the administration of its affairs under supervision and con-
trol of the executive committee. He is charged with the duty of preparing
the measures for enactment by the executive committee.

State supervision is exercised in the first instance by the province presi-
dent of Brandenburg and in the higher instance by the minister of the
interior acting with the ministers of public works and of finance. Certain
acts of the union require for their validity the approval of the higher
authorities and certain others may be brought into question before these
authorities, and in some cases before the supreme administrative court.

Considering now the scope of powers granted to the union in the accom-
plishment of its purposes one sees that they are very extensive. In execu-
tion of its control over means of transportation the union may either
purchase or build street railways within its limits and either operate them
itself or lease them to private corporations. The constituent members
may still continue to build, own and operate street railways as before,
so long as such undertakings do not interfere with the purposes and inter-
ests of the union.

The second class of powers comprise the right to fix the building lines
and other building regulations, not only in the exercise of the powers over
thoroughfares, street railways and open park areas, but also in the interests
of pubhc health, especially as regards housing conditions. Here again the
powers conferred on the union are not exclusive in character so long as
the local regulations of the individual communities do not conflict with
the measures or interests of the union. The cost of carrying out building
regulations enacted by the union are shared by it with the local corporation
that has to put them into effect.

The third class of functions, namely, the care for open playground and
park areas may be entrusted by the union to the local communities. But
here also the union must bear its share of the expense.

The revenues of the union are obtained by apportionment among the
various constituent corporations in a manner specified in the law, and
these local units in turn raise the necessary funds through the ordinary
process of local taxation.

It is hoped by some students of the situation that the creation of this
new corporation for specified purposes will lead to an increasing centrali-

POLLING PLACES IN THE SCHOOLS 451

zation of powers and ultimately to the complete union of all of these dif-
ferent areas under a full fledged municipal corporation embracing all the
powers granted to any other local corporation.

Before closing this discussion of recent important events in Berlin it
may not be out of place to mention the new street regulations of the city
proper which went into effect this spring. The average American already
feels very much in danger of being in a state of continual violation of local
ordinances in a German city, but here are a few more "don'ts" to be
observed in the future, in order to avoid arrest and fine.

Don't walk three abreast and crowd your fellow pedestrians off into the
street; don't stop on the sidewalk to chat with j-^our friends and so interrupt
traffic; don't swing your umbrella or cane or carry it in such a way that
other people may fall over it or be poked with it; don't whistle, sing,
shriek, shout, or talk in a loud voice on the street where others may be
disturbed; don't litter up the streets with paper, remains of fruits, cigars
or cigarettes; if you are a musician don't leave your doors or windows open
when following your vocation or avocation; if you are in charge of a truck,
drive so that there be no more noise than is absolutely necessary; and if
you are a lady see that your skirt does not drag along the street, for that
raises dust and is unhygienic.

If these regulations are enforced as rigidly as are most police orders in
Prussian cities, it will no longer be necessary to leave the city for a rest
cure.

Herman G. James.^

POLLING PLACES IN THE SCHOOLS

THE SCHOOL HOUSE— THE HOPE OF THE AMERICAN

CITY

HOMER P. LEWIS, superintendent of schools at Worcester, Mass-
achusetts, is a plump, quiet and capable man well over fifty.
I asked him if public opinion in his city approved the use of
schools for registration and polling places. He seemed very much puzzled
and after considerable deliberation answered: "Why — er — there is no
public opinion." He explained that he had been superintendent for sev-
enteen years and that the schools had been used for election purposes when
he first assumed his duties. ''Worcester," said he, "has probably had
polling places in schools for thirty years. We accept it as a matter of
course." ^

There is no provision in the election law of Massachusetts authorizing

^ University of Texas; Author of Principles of Prussian Administration. See also
his article on "Recent English Borough Elections," in the National Municipal
Review, vol. ii, p. 271.

452 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

the use of public buildings for such purposes. The aldermen in each city
are required to designate the ])olling places and in Worcester they have
whenever possible selected schools.

Of the forty-one polling places in use at the last election, thirteen were
in schools, twelve in portable booths erected in vacant lots or in the high-
ways, four in social halls, three in churches and only nine in rented stores.
For party caucuses schools and police stations are used.

The superintendent of public buildings, George C. Halcott, estimates
that the city saves about $75 a year on each polling place located in a
public building.

So far as I could learn no one in Worcester is opposed to the use of the
schools. Mrs. Nellie C. Thomas, a grammar school principal for twenty
years, now teaching at the North High School, said: "I have never had the
slightest trouble in all my experience. In this school the men and children
enter by the same door. I have to be around on election day to oversee
things, that is all."

Jane E. Millea, assistant principal at the Chandler Street School, said:
"I have never heard an\^ criticism of the use of these })uildings. I have
never had any trouble though I have had experience for ten years. Elec-
tion usually comes when the schools are in session and I think it is helpful
to the pupils, especially those in civil government classes. It gives them
a practical object lesson and stimulates their interest. I always take my
children down to watch the balloting. The day before we usually hold a
mock election. The pupils are very much interested, even the girls, and
insist that all the forms be strictty followed." It seems that in all of the
schools the children are shown the election machinerj^ in operation and
I could not find a single principal or teacher who did not think the bene-
fits to the community and the pupils far outAveighed the slight trouble
caused by the interference with school work. In a few of the schools the
room is ordinarily used for manual training or physical exercise. When
such is the case the class has to be passed for the day. In almost all of the
Worcester schools the polling place or "ward room," as it is called, is in
the basement.

The "ward rooms" in the Worcester schools are used not alone for
elections but are rented to political parties for caucuses for $5 and to polit-
ical leaders for rallies for $2.50 a night.

It is generall}^ thought that the use of schools and other jiublic buildings
is dangerously new and untried. Most of the cities using public buildings
have done so for the first time within the past two years. Los Angeles
was among the first to try out the use of the schools and the progress of
the experiment there has aroused much interest throughout the country.
In the election of December, 1911, twenty-nine schools, a church and a
branch library were designated for polling places. Success was so marked

POLLING PLACES IN THE SCHOOLS 453

that the number of public buildings used has been increased and there is
no thought of going back to the old system. The granting of suffrage
to women has made it all the more important that light, commodious,
dignified polling places be selected. To gage the success of the plan a
circular letter was sent to the principals of the schools which were used,
asking among other questions these:

Did its use interfere in any way with the regular school work?

Was there any disorder or disturbance due to such use?

Was the effect on school children good as a training in the duties of
citizenship?

Aside from the large saving of expense to the city do you, from your own
observation, consider the use of school buildings as polling places a bene-
ficial move in elevating the conduct of our elections.

Of the fourteen answers but two reported any interference with school
work. No disturbance was recorded excepting in one case and that was
"slight." To the last two questions every principal answered "Yes."
When it is considered that in most cases the hallways of the buildings were
used it is remarkable that every principal should favor the plan.

The money saving is not the important thing. As Henry O. Wheeler,
chairman of the committee on elections of the City Club of Los Angeles
points out, the social benefit is invaluable. Here are the reasons given
by Mr. Wheeler for the use of public buildings: Improved environment;
more comfortable quarters for election officers; instruction in citizenship
to pupils; enforcement of the idea of the sanctity of the ballot; easier
accessibility to the voter; permanency of polling places.

In the election of June, 1911, every school house in Salt Lake City was
used. This was in vacation time. No attempt has been made to use
them when school is in session. The city and county building has been
designated as the polling place for a number of districts.

Twenty school houses in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and several in Madi-
son, Wisconsin, are successfully used.

Denver is waging a great fight for the complete socialization of its schools.
As the result of much agitation the buildings have at last been thrown open
for public meetings and it is expected that at the next election they will
be used for election purposes.

Milwaukee has used its schools in elections for two years. Of the one
hundred and forty-eight polling places at the last election thirty-five were
in schools. In the opinion of Ralph Bowman, director of the Milwaukee
bureau of municipal research: "The arrangement has been very satisfac-
tory." Here, as in Worcester, basements are largely used. This is done so
as not to interfere with the regular work of the schools. All new school
buildings are provided with basement entrances so that they may be avail-
able for voting purposes.

454 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

Hull House, The Commons, and other settlement buildings in Chicago,
have been used for voting at irregular intervals for several years. Re-
cently Chicago has opened its schools for political meetings and the next
step is the designation of these buildings for election purposes. When
requested for his views as to whether or not the use of settlement buildings
had worked satisfactorily and whether it did not point the way to the use
of the schools, Graham Taylor, headworker of The Chicago Commons,
replied :

Everyone who has public interest and spirit in the matter knows that
it would be better to use public school buildings, or if they can not be
obtained, settlement buildings as polling places rather than barber shops,
undertaker's shops or the back rooms of saloons. The only reason why
these private places are used is the money in it for some one, or the better
^cility it affords for dirty work in politics.

What about the great city of New York with its palatial new buildings
— perhaps the finest in the world! Agitation there has been for some
years, but progress has been slight. George McAneny, president of the
borough of Manhattan, looks favorably upon the proposition and has
given it some thought, but his time has been too largely occupied with
subways and other matters to push it to a conclusion. Raymond B. Fos-
dick, when commissioner of accounts, made an investigation into the
methods of the board of elections in the fall of 1910 and again in the
spring of 1911. He found that in many districts the polling places
were so small that the watchers could not stand behind the guard rail
that they were entirely unsuited to the purpose and in man}" instances
were placed without regard to the convenience of the voters. Among
the districts mentioned as the worst was the second assembly district in
Brooklyn. I was then a resident of the second district and upon inves-
tigation found several of the stores and shops designated ver}^ small and
dark. One was a club room and to reach it the voters had to go through
the rear yard of a saloon. When visited, this room was used as a dog
kennel. In behalf of the United Neighborhood Guild, a social settlement
with which I was connected, I offered the use of two of its buildings which
were very suitable for the purpose free to the city as an experiment which
if successful would point the way to the use of schools and other public
buildings. One of the election commissioners, J. Gratton-MacjMahon, was
heartily in favor of accepting the offer and thought that the other members
would concur. Shortly afterwards the courts held that the maj'or had to
accept for commissioners of elections the candidates suggested by the
political parties. Mayor Gaynor's appointees were removed and the men
selected by the two machines came into office. The offer though renewed
and urged from time to time, was never acted upon and never will be
until pnlilic sentiment demands it. The election commissioners are now

SOCIAL CENTERS 455

under a recent statute, appointed by the board of aldermen, but they are
in fact named by the parties. Polling places are supposed to be desig-
nated by the board of elections, but they are in fact chosen by the
leaders in each district. The district leader does not voluntarily part
with patronage.

The people a^e coming to their own. No party, no politician, nor any
group of politicians, can stand in the way of public sentiment. If we can
interest the people of New York we shall have at least some of the schools
designated for the next election.

The school is the hope of the American city because it will bring us
together. A great city is a federation of neighborhoods with varied inter-
ests, often speaking different languages and professing diverse religions
and ideals. Because these neighborhoods do not know themselves — much
less the other sections — city government has been dubbed the one signal
failure of our American democracy.

The public school building, the home of the town meeting and the
spelling bee in New England, is in a large city the logical capitol of a
neighborhood. Here the people should meet, first of all to get acquainted,
then for enjoyment, to discuss civic, social and political issues — and to
vote. Neighborhood conscience is what we need in our cities, and public
school centers will develop it. That larger patriotism, the lack of which
we so often bewail, lies deep in the heart of the people waiting only the
magic touch which will give it life.

Louis Heaton Pink.

SOCIAL CENTEllS^

MR. WARD is an evangelist, a crusader. America is full of evangel-
ists, but most of them are preaching a negative doctrine of some
kind. They stand for repression — at best for prevention. Mr.
Ward, on the other hand, has lifted into national consciousness a wholly
constructive and astonishingly fertile area. In society nothing is real until
it has entered into public opinion, and in this sense — that he has altered,
on behalf of the social center, the direction of public opinion — ^Mr. Ward
may be said to have created the social center.

His present book is not less valuable from the fact that its introductory
chapters — the philosophic chapters — challenge disagreement a hundred
times. Mr. Ward has the defects of his qualities. He did not happen on
the social center idea as an incident of a professional career. The social

1 Probably most readers would be better advised to read The Social Center, by
Edward J. Ward. National Municipal League Series. New York: D. Appleton
and Company. $1.50. Postpaid $1.62.— J. C.

456 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

center idea seized on him — it obsessed him, in a way — it filled him with the
transforming power of feeling and with a certain ruthlessness which feeling
gives. But it is a fighting problem that Mr. Ward, from the beginning of
his work in Rochester, confronted and still confronts.

There are three paramount feudalisms in America. One of these is the
business feudalism, which largely influences the second, or political feudalism
The third feudalism is the educational feudalism. To overcome any one
of them would involve at least a peaceful revolution, and revolutions need
impassioned leaders. Mr. Ward is a leader in the undoing of the second and
third kinds of feudalism mentioned above. Is there any leader on the ad-
vance line of the struggle for educational and political emancipation, whose
weapons are as wholly constructive as those of Mr. Ward?

Probably most readers would be well advised to read Mr. Ward's book
backwards, or at least to begin with the chapter on ''Beginnings in
Rochester." It was of the Rochester social center work that Governor,
now Justice Hughes, said: "You are buttressing the foundation of democ-
racy."

Mr. Ward and his Rochester co-workers were thoroughly radical. They
believed that the school should not only be used for educational extension
during leisure hours, and for recreation as a substitute for dancehalls and
moving picture shows, but frankly and fully as a political center. The plan
required imagination and a certain recklessness. Free speech is guaranteed
in the American constitution, but rather in the sense of toleration than of
encouragement. Certainly, American practise has not been in the direc-
tion of encouraging free speech. The primary requisites of free speech have
not been provided either in urban or rural districts. Neither parks nor
public buildings nor ecclesiastical buildings have been made available for
free speech. American streets are too narrow for the convenient holding of
public meetings. Free speech has had to pay its own way, through the
renting of private halls, and in large cities these private halls are oftener
than not parts of saloon premises. But whatever might be the passive
American attitude toward free speech, the tradition about separating school
from politics is an active one. It is as vague as most other traditions of the
kind which are inherited and never systematically anatysed b}^ the average
citizen. In Rochester, the pioneers declared, once and for all, that the
promotion of unlimited and organized free speech was the first duty of
government. This was bad enough. It was a challenge to American pru-
dence and to the political feudalism which is organized into parties based on
loyalty and personal interest. It was a further challenge to the view which
holds the school sacrosanct in an archaic sense. Incidentally, it was a
challenge to the boss-ridden common council of Rochester, and after about
two years the funds for keeping the schools open were withdrawn. JSIr.
AVard describes the Rochester beginnings in sufficient detail.

SOCIAL CENTERS 457

A further chapter, which has a bearing even wider than the social center,
has been contributed to Mr. Ward's book by Dr. Edward C. Elliott of the
University of Wisconsin. It is a discussion of " The Magnified School."
Dr. Elliott states epigrammatically two of the three great reasons why so-
cial centers are right. His words may be quoted :

(1) For several decades, competent judges .... have called
attention to the extravagances and conspicuous lack of sensible economy
that characterize all our pubUc doings. The consciousness of the evils of
the wastage of material things is being succeeded by a sharp realization of
the evils of the wastage of spiritual things. This, as I understand it, is the
underlying motive of the movement to expand the school into a center for
community activity.

Dr. Elliott has in mind facts like these: in New York City $54,000,000
of the investment in public school buildings is wholly idle through the 40
per cent non-use of school properties. Throughout America the people's
leisure-time is treated as idle ore — ^is given over to the exploitation of purely
mercantile interests on which the people depend for their amusement life
and in part for their political life.

Professor Elliott continues:

(2) The original constitution of the public school was dominated by
individualism. It was founded to meet the elementary needs of the child.
The twentieth century public school has begun to discard this individualism

for a broader principle of socialization The decline of the

influence of the family, the church, the workshop and of the major nation-
alizing traditions, has meant the increase of the domain of the school.

In other words, the economic changes of late generations have destroyed
most of the old social bonds, have substituted economic for human forces,
and have in a sense pulverized social life. The need of the age is the crea-
tion of new vital social bonds. Therefore, the social center.

The reader will then go back to Mr. Ward's first chapters. He will
find the third great reason for the social center. Mr. Ward says :

When the members of the electorate add to their common function of
participating in the decision upon public questions, the function of con-
sciously organizing to deliberate upon public questions, then the people
become a reasoning, self-knowing being.

We can agree with Mr. Ward when he says: "This proposal goes to the
heart of the whole American problem."

Mr. Ward develops his argument as follows. The ballot-box is the implicit
social center of every neighborhood and of the nation. Public opinion
registers itself only through the ballot. There is no direct manifestation
of the public's soul except the ballot-box.

458 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

Representative bodies, from town boards to the federal congress, are
sub-committees of the pubUc. They act with delegated authority. But
first they discuss in an orderly manner. They gather, for their own illumi-
nation, all facts which bear on the questions which they must decide. They
do not meet in livery stables or butcher shops, as do the citizens in casting
their ballot. They meet in dignified and adequate buildings.

If it is necessary for the sub-committees of the electorate to discuss before
acting, then the electorate itself should discuss before acting. If the sub-
committees are entitled to a dignified assemblage-place, where all interests
may be represented, then he electorate is entitled to an adequate and dig-
nified place of meeting.

The schoolhouse is the logical place of meeting of that great committee of
society, the general electorate. First, it is the convenient place, for school-
houses are everywhere and are now idle half the time. Second, it is the
proper place, because the schoolhouse stands for the interest of society in
its own formative elements, and the recognition by society of a responsi-
bility for the future. The schoolhouse further represents the recognition
by society that citizenship cannot be really formed save through the inform-
ing of the children with the important facts and values of the world. The
school stands for universality and the rights of science and truth.

Assuming that the school is used as the ubiquitous, permanent gathering
place of the electorate, then the electorate must organize to use the school.
This organization must include everybody or at least welcome everybody.
It must have a clerk, for purposes of record and of administrative conveni-
ence. This clerk is the servant of the social center, not the supervisor,
director or boss. He takes orders, not gives them.

Mr. Ward, continuing to reason from convenience and from theory, then
urges that the school principal is the logical peoples' clerk in the social
center. But there should be an associate superintendent, the social center
director of the general school system.

The four chapters in which Mr. Ward expounds this plan with great earn-
estness and positiveness, must needs convince any reader as to the main
proposition. They exhibit at the same time some of the real excesses which
the social center movement has taken on in more than one city and against
which it needs to be safeguarded.

Briefly, the following are some of the exceptions which readers will take
to Mr. Ward's argument

Can or should the school principal be the social center secretary? There
are limits to human endurance. Moreover, though the time may come
when day school work will be wholly merged into the general community
life, as William Morris depicts in his News from Nowhere, it is still true that
today the efficient school principal is not likely to be a very tolerant or mag-
netic social center secretary. The school principal deals in a disciplinar}'

SOCIAL CENTERS 459

and somewhat arbitrary way with children. In the social center the sense
of authority, which seems to be necessary in the day school, is wholly out
of place. A more reasonable plan would seem to be that there should be
social center leaders, salaried by the community, giving their whole time
to the center and to the neighborhood contact which it involves. A second
point which involves not detail but principle, is Mr. Ward's insistence that
public schools when opened as social centers should be used only by the
single, all-inclusive social center organization. The fact is that there is
every reason why labor unions, partisan political clubs, dancing societies,
exclusive groups of all sorts, should be invited and urged to hold their
meetings on public property. At present the people's organized life flows
through the saloon, the private meeting hall, the dance hall, church and
pool room. It is not simply a nondescript mass of humanity that flows
through these special channels, but it is cohesive social groups. Unless
the social center invites these groups as groups, it will not draw to itself
the social life of the people or, save very partially, the political life. Jeffer-
sonian democracy, when logically carried out, may indeed deny to special
classes and groups the right to exist, and Mr. Ward is politically (though
not economically) a JefTersonian. But as a fact of social science, and of
universal experience, people tend to organize into classes, groups and clubs,
and such special groups have been one of the main dynamic agencies of
history. It is probable that group and club life has never been as varie-
gated and universal as it is in America today. If the social center move-
ment refuses to face this patent social fact, and clings to a mere logical
carrying out of absolute democracy, then the social center idea cannot be
generally effected save at great expense to the taxpayers, nor will it reach
the mass of the people in their vital relations.

No one will dispute Mr. Ward's ultimate ideal, in insisting that nothing
shall go on in social centers except that which everybody wants and ap-
proves. But a society where the majority rules in this exhaustive sense
cannot be achieved save through ages of evolution. In America the politi-
cal interest has been a relatively superficial one until very recently and
democracy has not sunk very deep. The public school should invite all
reputable groups and see that they shall give e£,ch other elbow-room, and
should then strive to develop within itself certain focal points of universal
interest, around which all the groups can unite.

This conception of the social center makes the whole problem more com-^
plex and will involve slower progress than would be possible if Mr. Ward's
view — the theory of immediate absolute democracy — ^were true to the facts
of life. But neither absolute logic nor enthusiasm will enable the social
center movement to get around facts.

A third element in Mr. Ward's argument, which will not command gen-
eral agreement, is his assumption that the social center, once established on

400 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

a (lomocratic l)asis, will automatically keep itself on a democratic basis.
This is not the history of democracy. It is an unsolved part of the social
center question, as to how the center can he locally self-governed, with
unlimited freedom of action by the majority, and yet the tyranny of the
majority be avoided. Because the pro])lem is not yet solved, it may
be expected that most cities and states will not give unlimited freedom to
the social center movement except as the movement works out methods
and traditions which will ])e a guarantee of fairness to the social center
minorities.

The reviewer would be sorry to have it understood that he regards these
suggestions as in any sense major criticisms of Mr. Ward's theory. In empha-
sizing the political element and the element of local self-government, Mr.
Ward does a primary service to the social center movement and indeed to
the general school movement of the country.

The other chapters in Mr. Ward's book are: "The B^ranch Public Library"
contributed by Dr. Charles E. McLennigan, public Librarian of Milwaukee;
"The Public Art Gallery," a description by William Dudley Foulke of the
significant work which has been done in Richmond, Indiana; "Music Cen-
ter," contributed by Prof. Arnold Dresden; "The Festival Center," con-
tributed by E. S. Martin; "The Motion Picture Theater," contributed by
John Collier; "The Recreation Center," contributed by Clarence A. Perry
and Edward A. Stitt; "The Employment Center," contributed by Mrs.
Annie L. Diggs; " The Local University Center," contributed b}'- Dean Louis
E. Reber, of Wisconsin University; "The Social Center in the Rural Com-
munity," contrilnited by Charles W. Holman, of Texas; "The Public Health
Office," contributed by Mr. Geo. B. Young, commissioner of health of
Chicago.

These papers wei-ej)repared for the Buffalo Convention of the National
Municipal League in 1911, and are made timely l)y introductory^ words
written by Mr. Ward. Several of these papers are rich in fact and the
chajiters on the rural social center and the school as a public health office are
of acute value.

Mr. Ward's book is an important chapter in the movement which may be
seen, by the Americans of tomorrow, as co-equal in national meaning with
the movement for the conservation of natural resources.

John Collier.-

*0f The People's Institute; author of papers on "Leisure Time: A Problem of
Conservation," "Motion Pictures and Public Education," "Industrial Education
in the Metropolis."

THE BAKER ADMINISTRATION OF CLEVELAND 461

NEWTON D. BAKER'S ADMINISTRATION AS
MAYOR OF CLEVELAND AND ITS
. ACCOMPLISHMENTS

NEWTON D. BAKER became mayor of Cleveland a year and a
half ago. The majority vote by which he was elected was large,
and the votes carried with them an expression of personal liking
and esteem that few candidates for public offices are honored with.

Mr. Baker was handicapped when he took office by a rather unusual
situation. Tom. L. Johnson had left the mayor's office but two years
before, following his defeat by Herman Baehr. Whatever one may think
of Tom Johnson, he will at least be compelled to admit that he was a
remarkable man. His personality permeated his administration for the
many years he was at the head of municipal affairs in Cleveland.

Herman Baehr, good type of substantial German citizen, gave Cleveland
just such an administration as might have been expected from the man.
It was wholly honest, fairly efficient, fairly progressive. Some good things
were done. But Cleveland under Tom Johnson had become a city awake.
The most advanced civic ' and social thought was discussed among all
classes as they might discuss a baseball game. It was, therefore, not strange
that two years of the type of administration given by Mr. Baehr was
enough. Beyond doubt, the people who had repudiated Tom Johnson at
the polls would have called him back; but Tom Johnson was dead.

To Newton D, Baker they turned as the ablest member and closest
associate in the Johnson cabinet. His election meant that he was expected
to restore to the people somewhat the same attitude and viewpoint in civic
affairs that they had come to expect from the great leader who was gone.
At the same time they looked to Mr. Baker for accomplishment along
certain material lines which had been to a degree neglected in the heat of
Mr. Johnson's battle with the street railway company over the 3-cent fare
issue. In a word Cleveland wanted a mayor who had ideals and who
would do something. What Mr. Baker has been able to do in both respects
is the verdict as to the success or failure of his administration. Coming,
as he did, at a time when the demand for a high type of leadership was
accentuated by two years of ordinary conduct of municipal affairs, Mr.
Baker's task has been the more difficult.

An educated community demands certain civic ideals, but any com-
munity demands creature comforts. In the modern municipality adequate
street car transportation, lighting, water supply, municipal buildings, street
cleaning, garbage collection, policing, care of paupers and indigent and a
hundred and one other items of service to the community must become
one of the chief tasks of any administration. It is therefore proper to

4G2 NATIONAL MITNICIPAL REVIEW

consider what Newton D. Baker's administration has done in Cleveland as
affecting these matters.

In the street railroad situation, always a moot matter in Cleveland, a
great deal has been accomplished. The elimination of alternate stops
necessitated by the irregularity of Cleveland's streets and the spacing of
the streets as railway stops, has made possible a much faster schedule of
service. A new power contract has been authorized and 250 new cars,
200 of them trailers, have been purchased. An additional 100 trailers have
been ordered, making 300 in all. This has practically doubled the carrying
capacity of the system, while increasing the operating charge but 60 per
cent. The building of several down towTi loops is now in progress which
will make it possible to avoid sending all cars through the public square,
thus reducing congestion, shortening the miles to be traveled by about
two-thirds of the cars on the system, saving in operation and increasing
both the convenience and rapidity of service.

Work on the new city hall has been resmned. It was begun under the
Baehr administration. When Mayor Baker took office he found the plans
had grown until the building promised to cost $4,000,000 or $5,000,000
instead of the limit of $2,600,000 set by the city. Mayor Baker caused a
restudy to be made of several features of the matter. The mayor now
has the assurance of the Builders' Exchange which had a committee inves-
tigate and of the Thompson-Starrett Company which made an independ-
ent investigation, that the building will not cost in excess of $2,600,000.
There has been some criticism of the Baker administration because of the
delay in the city hall project, but Mr. Baker feels that the saving of two
or three millions of dollars to the city has been worth all the criticism.
Work is now in progress on the building and bids fair to proceed with
expedition.

One of Cleveland's greatest needs is a union railway station. The pres-
ent structure, built generations ago, is the butt of jokes wherever Cleveland
is mentioned, and properly so. Judged by the traffic it handles it is per-
haps the worst station in the w^orld. Plans for a new one have been in
contemplation for some time, but Mayor Baker's predecessor had to break
off negotiations with the railroads because the city of Cleveland did not
have a fee simple title to the land upon which the new station was to
stand. A recent decision of the state supreme court has cleared up the
trouble except for a few minor details. Mayor Baker has resumed nego-
tiations with the railroads with the result that the prospects for a new
union station in Cleveland were never as bright as now.

The lake passenger business is one of the important transportation fea-
tures of Cleveland. For years the lake passenger boats, constantly increas-
ing in size, have been winding their waj^ to wharves along the crooked and
dirty Cuj^ahoga River. Efforts have been made repeatedly to get these

THE BAKER ADMINISTRATION OF CLEVELAND 463

boats out of the river and to wharves along the lake front, thus giving
more room for freight boat traffic in the river and affording a more attrac-
tive approach to the city. The injunction, a device which has done much
to check Cleveland's growth, was used in this case as well. Final court
action has been taken, however, with the result that the city and the
boat companies have come together and great passenger and package
freight wharves are to be built in the outer harbor at once.

Under Mayor Baker the department of public safety has been able to
add one hundred men to the police force, to modernize the fire department
with motor drawn engines and motor drawn equipment carriages, to
increase the number of men in the fire department and to add to the number
of companies, and to estabfish "flying squadrons" which having motor-
equipped apparatus entirely are able to go speedily to the relief of indi-
vidual companies. The police department has been reorganized which, it
is believed, will add materially to the efficiency of the department. Mayor
Baker took prompt action against Chief of Police Fred Kohler, whose
"golden rule" policy had made him known throughout the country, and
Kohler's trial and removal from office on the charge of conduct unbecoming
an officer immediately followed.

At Warrensville farms, Cleveland's colony for its needy, ill and delin-
quent, there has been completed under Mayor Baker's administration
enough of a proposed tuberculosis sanitarium to care for 180 patients and
another wing is now under construction. Discussing this, together with
the general work at "Warrensville, Mayor Baker says:

This sanitarium is now perhaps the most beautifully located, the best
equipped, and the most modern tuberculosis sanitarium in the country.
We have at Warrensville also substantially completed the erection of two
buildings for male and female insane patients respectively, and a main
administration building, all of which are designed as parts of the original
colony group. When they are completed the removal of insane patients
into buildings of their own will greatly relieve the condition and make it
possible for us to care for a greater portion of our indigent and helpless
population. At the workhouse we have in process of construction as a
separate wing of the main correction square group a department for women
prisoners.

We have also taken city water out to the Warrensville group and have
established central heating and lighting facilities, so that economy in the
distribution of electric light and power and steam heat and hot water is
secured. At this place we have also bought a farm of 37 acres and are
remodeling a farm house as an experiment station for the development of
an institution for girls similar to the Boys Home at Hudson. Our begin-
ning there will be largely experimental and until we have determined just
the way in which the city can be most helpful in solving the problems of
the dependent and neglected girl children, we will not undertake the erec-
tion of a permanent building.

464 NATIONAL :\ir\K"TP.\T> HEVTFAV

The municipal lif>;ht plant which was the main issue at the time of Mayor
Baker's election, depends for its successful construction upon the ability
of the city to market bonds. An amendment to the state constitution
imposes grave difficulties upon all the cities of Ohio in selling their bonds
and another amendment makes these bonds taxable. The municipal bond
market of the state is accordingly depressed and every city in the state
is having difficulty in disposing of its bonds. Cleveland authorized S2,000-
000 bonds of the municipal light project of w^hich $500,000 have been
sold. With this money excavation for the building has been made. In the
meantime, three large turbo-generators are under contract, a good deal of
conduit work has been laid and some transforming stations have been
established in various parts of the city. Cleveland already has a munici-
pal light plant in the part of the city known as Brooklyn. Pending the
completion of the new plant, additional generators have been installed in
the old Division Street pumping station, practically doubling the capacity
of the Brooklyn plant.

A new activity undertaken by the Baker administration is the estab-
lishing of a central heating plant to furnish steam heat within a certain
radius. The trial station has given good satisfaction and it is probable
that others will be established, giving much greater convenience and mate-
rially reducing the smoke nuisance. Of this undertaking the mayor says:
"This in my judgment is the most hopeful attack that has been made in
the city since I can remember."

The Baker administration has completed the West Side market house
and turned it over to the public use. It is perhaps the most beautiful
market in the country. Under Mayor Baker a building has been erected
and machinery installed for an electric driven high pressure fire service
by which the entire downtown section of the city willl be reached with a
special system of pipes of large capacity, carrying water at very high
pressure, pumped by electrically-driven centrifugal pumps. This is
expected to reduce the insurance rate and decrease the conflagration risk
of the entire business section of the city. The plant is expected to be in
operation })y midsummer.

Under Mayor Baker the city has been active in recreational matters. It
has established a school for playground instructors with an attendance of
three hundred and more. It is hoped to make the playground work more
scientific, better organized and more effective than heretofore.

The city has opened two municipal dance halls at Edgewater park and
Woodland Hills park at which last year three cents was charged for a
five-minute dance, in competition with the private dance halls where five
cents was charged for a three-minute dance. Both these places were
supervised carefully by a large number of attendants, excellent music
was supplied, good order maintained and the j^oung people of the city

THE BAKER ADMINISTRATION OF CLEVELAND 465

crowded them all last summer. Both institutions were more than self-
supporting.

The city has expanded its bath house facilities, though they still are
inadequate. It has done away with the hiring of impromptu bands for
park concerts and has substituted a municipal orchestra under the direc-
tion of a trained musician. It is the hope that this group can ultimately
become the nucleus of an established municipal orchestra which- will
continue its activities throughout the winter season by giving symphony
concerts at popular prices.

The elimination of grade crossings has progressed rapidly under Mayor
Baker. The engineering department of the city also has been busy recast-
ing the entire method of sewage disposal of the city. Acting under an
expert report from a group of engineers some fifteen years ago, the plan
was made of collecting all of the sewage of the city, sanitary and drainage
water, into a great interceptor, paralleling the lake shore and emptying
into Lake Erie ten miles east of the public square. The contamination of
the waters of the lake by this method became manifest, and after a restudy
of the problem it Was determined to install sewage disposal plants, one at
the mouth of the interceptor, one on the west side of the river and one far
back in the Cuyahoga Valley, reversing the flow in the west side branch
of the interceptor and in the river lateral, so as to carry the sewage into
disposal plants where the solid matter could be extracted and sterilized and
the waters neutralized before being emptied into river and lake. The
plan has so far been carried forward that the city has acquired the land
for the disposal plants and farms and is conducting a series of experiments
with all known methods of sewage purification to determine which one is
best adapted to the raw" sewage output with which the city has to deal.

The city plans this year to pave thirty-five miles of streets. The largest
number ever paved in any preceding year was twenty-seven. It has
enlarged and modernized its garbage plant. Ash and waste paper collec-
tions have been systematized and those in charge of this work assert it is
being done more efficiently than ever before.

It would be wholly unfair to give the impression that the Baker adminis-
tration has escaped criticism. There is and has been a healthful amount
of it. The administration is charged with delay in a number of important
projects. Complaint is made of the condition of the streets, and the ques-
tion of the water supply was for a time agitated as a matter in which the
administration had been derelict. The administration blames litigation for
most of the delays charged against it. It points to the state tax limit as a
reason for inability to repair streets more rapidly. It believes the sewage
disposal plans now under way and a system of filtration will solve the
water problem.

Not the least of the service done his city by Mayor Baker is his tireless

466 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

effort to bring the government to the people. Gifted far beyond the ordi-
nary man as a public speaker, he speaks whenever and wherever there is
an opportunity to discuss municipal problems. The demands on the time
and energy of Mr. Baker in this respect alone are enormous. Speaking of
this phase of his activity, Mayor Baker says:

I have lent a large portion of my time and a great deal of my enthusiastic
interest to the discussion of municipal problems before audiences of every
kind, character and description, throughout the entire city, with the
thought of making Cleveland's government a popular government in the
sense that its people would have an understanding of the city problems and
would be able to reflect their informed will into the activities of the city
government.

As a teacher of civic things Mr. Baker has been eminently successful.
In this respect he has exceedingly ably supplemented and carried further
the work begun by Tom Johnson. There is perhaps no city of its rank in
the United States whose people have the same clear grasp and understand-
ing of civic and social affairs as do those of Cleveland.

In another work, also, has Mr. Baker been of great assistance to his
community. The city is drafting a new charter by a commission of which
Mayor Baker was elected a member and over which he presides. The
charter is practically completed at the time of writing this article and is
a document rich in the most progressive ideas in social and civic thought.
Mayor Baker is responsible for many of the most advanced ideas in this
new constitution for the city of Cleveland. It is quite such a constitution
as one might expect in the city which so long had Tom L. Johnson for its
leader in the past and which saw fit to elect as its mayor a year and a half
ago Mr. Johnson's ablest associate and closest friend.

Schooled by his association with Tom Johnson, Newton Baker has gone
on and beyond it. He is a man of clear vision and wide vision who sees his
city as something more than streets and buildings. Though the time of
his administration has been but a few months more than a year and great
doings are seldom done in such a narrow space, he has demonstrated that
he couples the gift of accomplishment with that of vision. It is wholl}'
improbable that the community which Tom Johnson desired to be a city
set upon a hill will be hidden while Newton D. Baker is its chief executive.

E. C. HopwooD.'

^Managing editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer,

INITIATIVE, REFERENDUM AND RECALL 467

THE INITIATIVE, REFERENDUM AND RECALL

IN SAN FRANCISCO

THE voters of San Francisco had an opportunity on April 22 to use
in one election these three weapons of popular rule.
The initiative was used to place before the voters an ordinance
reducing telephone rates for the coming fiscal year. It was proposed under
the name of a Telephone Users' Organization, but it was charged during
the campaign that the organization consisted of one man who had circu-
lated the petition as a matter of private enterprise, and had entered into
contracts that he was to receive one-half of the amount saved in telephone
rates during the coming fiscal year. The estimated reduction for the entire
city was placed by the Telephone Users' Organization at S600,000 a year;
the estimate of the city authorities was considerably less. In the mean-
time the supervisors, in pursuance of law, fixed the rates for the coming
year, making a considerable reduction, estimated at a total of $255,000.
An attempt was made by the telephone company to prevent the submission
of the initiative ordinance, and a temporary injunction was issued. It was
dissolved, however, on the ground that the legality of an ordinance fixing
rates initiated by petition and passed by the popular vote could not be
attacked by such proceedings, and that the election must be held. The
opposition to the ordinance came froni two sources — the telephone com-
pany alleging that the rates proposed were unjust, and from the city author-
ities and some of the newspapers objecting to commerciahzation of the
initiative. The ordinance, however, was carried by a small majority.

On petition of 5 per cent of the voters an ordinance that had been passed
by the supervisors in settlement of a dispute between the city and the
street railway company was referred to the voters and endorsed by a large
majority.

The dispute originated in the attempt of the "United Railroads" to
monopolize transportation on lower Market Street, the main thoroughfare
of the city.

Under the provisions of the early railroad franchises granted in 1879,
it was agreed that no more than two lines should be allowed to run on
Market Street. The old Market Street railroad was at that time granted
a franchise to run a double track in the center of the street, and the Sutter
Street Railroad Company was permitted to run two outer tracks from the
junction of Sutter Street with Market down to the ferry terminals, which
handle the great trans-bay traffic in and out of the city. When the
"United Railroads" in 1902 took over most of the street railroad com-
panies in the city, it permitted the franchise of the Sutter Street railroad
on lower Market Street to remain in the old company for the purpose of

468 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

claiming tiiat two lines were running on the street, and consequently no
other could be allowed to operate on that thoroughfare.

Four years ago the city attacked this contention on the ground that by
division of the franchises and the giving of merely nominal service on the
lower !Market Street outer tracks, the franchise had been forfeited. A
judgment of forfeiture in favor of the city was given last year in the trial
court and appealed.

With the completion of the first section of the municijial railroad on
Geary Street, the city wished to build and operate the road from the
junction of Geary and Market Streets to the ferries in order to secure a
part of this rich traffic. The rights of the "United Railroads" in dispute
served to block the municipal road until a final decision should be had.
An agreement was therefore drawn up between the city authorities on one
side, and the "United Railroads" on the other, by which the city should
have the right to run its cars from Geary and Market Streets to the ferries,
and that the city on its side should permit the Sutter Street cars to run
to the ferries by electric power (the original franchise had given the privi-
lege of operating by horse or mule power and the company had not been
able to secure the right to use electric power) . Another part of the agree-
ment arranged for transfer privileges between the municipal road on Geary
Street and four cross town lines of the "United Railroads," at Divisadero,
Fillmore, Larkin and Kearny Streets.

The referendum was invoked by the Public Ownership Association, the
ground alleged being that the city had the right already to run its cars
to the ferries without any such agreement, and that the settlement
was in effect the grant of a franchise to the Sutter Street Railroad Com-
pany to use the lower Market Street tracks until 1929 without exacting
any compensation therefor. The agreement, however, was ratified by the
voters.

LTnder the San Francisco charter any elected official may be recalled by
petition of 10 per cent of the electors, and an election must then be held
in which the incumbent is a candidate without any action on his part,
and any other candidate may be nominated by filing a certificate of nomi-
nation accompanied by the affidavits of not less than ten nor more than
twenty sponsors.

Under this provision a movement was initiated to recall Police Judge
Charles L. Weller on the following stated grounds:

That said Charles L. Weller has since the first da}' of January-, 1912, in
his administration of said office, shown himself to be incompetent and unfit
for the position he occupies:

That he has since the first day of .January, l!)r2, frequently abused his
judicial power by extending undue and unreasonable leniency to persons
ciiarged with the commission of heinous and vicious offenses, all of which

INITIATIVE, REFERENDUM AND RECALL 469

has been subversive of public morals, and that the continuance in said
office of said Charles L. Weller is a menace to the moral well-being of said
city and county.

The particular occasion for the movement was a reduction of bail from
$3000 to $1000 in the case of a chauffeur arrested for criminal assault on
two young women. When the case was called for trial the accused had
absconded, and much indignation was aroused. A number of organizations
of women took up the case, and, after listening to Judge Weller's defense,
circulated petitions for his recall. Judge Weller made his defense on the
ground of his good character, and the fact that "bail in like amounts in
similar cases have been fixed for years in the superior and police courts."

Only one candidate appeared against him. The recall was successful
by a small majority. The election returns were as follows:

Wiley F. Crist, candidate of Reoall League 30,751

Charles L. Weller, incumbent recalled 29,927

Crist's majority 824

Referendum. Proposition No. 1. "Shall the settlement ordinance be approved?"

Yes 38,086

No 21,861

Majority 16,225

Initiative. Proposition No. 2. "Ordinance fixing and establishing I'ates to be
paid for telephone service."

For 30,710

Against 27,801

Majority 2,909

The total vote cast was 62,876 out of a registration of about 125,000.

The fact that this recall campaign was initiated largely by the women
and their activity in carrying it on brought out a vote among the women
of 16,967, the number of women registered and entitled to vote being
46,060.

E. A. Walcott.^

1 Executive Secretary, Commonwealth Club of San Francisco.

NOTES AND EVENTS

Professor Charles Austin Beard, Columbia University, New York,
Associate Editor in Charge

ASSISTED BT

Professor Murray Gross, Drexel Institute, Philadelphia
Professor Edward M. Sait, Columbia University, New York

I. GOVERNMENT AND ADMINISTRATION

The Commission Goverimient Move-
ment.— The New York "Sun" on com-
mission government. A significant event
in the life of any constructive movement
occurs when the New York Sun ceases
to harp upon it as an object of ridicule.
Commission government has now reached
that stage, as is demonstrated by the
Siai's long editorial of March 21, the
burden of which is that if commission
government is a thing v/hich gets results,
why not have it? The following para-
graph contains the gist of the argument:

The knot of the matter is to get a
competent, upright, civilized city gov-
ernment. Why blink and flinch at a
mere word of unhappy connotation and
an evil past? If 'commission' govern-
ment can do the job, why not have it?
The people rule just the same whether
they elect three men or one man or a
hundred men. If they choose to hand
over their power to three commissioners,
to say, 'Here, we will elect you and we
shall require of you as our delegates a
city government absolutely honest, reas-
onably efficient, with no man or woman
on the city payroll for political or per-
sonal reasons, a city government by
experts and men of business, and if we
don't get it out you go,' are they not
justified until experience has shown the
contrary?

It'ccnt adoptions. Since the pub-
lication of the last issue of the National
Municipal Review, commission gov-
ernment has made rapid and important
advances, of which perhaps the most not-
able is the adoption of the plan by the
two large cities of Portland, Ore., and
Jersey City. Other smaller communi-
ties which have adopted the i)lan dur-
ing this period are Millville and Borden-

ton, N. J.; Mason City, Iowa; Hickory>
Morganton, and Raleigh, N. C; Tra-
verse City and Battle Creek, Mich.;
Fargo, N. D.; Springfield, Tenn., and
Grafton, W. Va.

General Laws. Itidiawi. The Indi-
ana business plan of city government
outlined in our last issue has gone down
to defeat. In the pamphlet entitled
"What Ails Us," Theodore F. Thieme
of Fort Wayne, the author of the plan,
reviews the political situation for the
last three years as regards the effort to
secure the adoption of this plan.

Concerning the regular commission
government bill a correspondent writes:

Our last legislature, especially the
house, was full of politicians and all of
them optimists, and all knew, that for
many years to come, every city official
in the state, as well as county and state
officials, were to be Democrats, and
hence they would do nothing that might
by any happening, give a chance for a
Republican to be elected to office; and as
a Republican might slip in if the com-
mission form of government be enacted,
or at least some one might get an office
when he was not beholden to the Demo-
cratic part}^, therefore, they would have
none of that kind of legislation. ^

Minna^ola. The bill, permitting cities
to adopt the city manager plan passed
the lower house, but was not reported
out in the s6nate.

Missouri. The first of two commis-
sion government bills passed at this
year's session of the legislature is in-
tended for the benefit of Joplin and

' See National Municipal Review, vol. II, p.

284.

470

NOTES AND EVENTS

471

Springfield, and provides that all the
cities of the third class having a pop-
ulation of more than 30,000 and less than
75,000 shall hold an election on October
7 on the question of adopting the act.
This law provides the commission plan
in its usual form, but also contains one
or two rather unique features, as for
example, the method of nomination by
deposit, by which any voter instead of
filing a petition, may make a deposit of
$10 and thereby become a candidate at
the primaries. The statement of the
corporate powers of the cities is unusually
detailed and complete. A second stat-
ute applies to cities of the third class,
but is primarily for the benefit of the
smaller communities.

New York. The so-called CuUen-
Levy bill, aimed to give larger corporate
powers to the cities, without appeal to
the legislature to pass special acts
amendatory of and supplementary to
the various city charters, received the
unanimous support of the Democratic
organization and was passed in both
houses and signed by the governor. This
law originated with the Municipal Gov-
ernment Association and was intended
to put an end to the great volume of
special city legislation. On the strength
of it Governor Sulzer has already vetoed
a number of special local city bills. The
effect of the law however, because of its
general form, is problematical until it
has been passed upon by the courts.
The other bills supported by the As-
sociation^ including the one offering
an option among six simplified forms
of organization, received little or no
support.

Ohio. The Smith bill, providing for
three optional forms of simplified gov-
ernment (the commission plan, the city
manager plan and the federal plan)
passed during the last days of the legis-
lative session, in April. The non-par-
tisan elections feature was eliminated
and a number of other changes in the
original draft were made.

285.

1 See National Municipal Review, vol. II, p.

Pennsylvania. The Clark bill pro-
viding for the commission form of gov-
ernment for all third class cities without
a local referendum for its adoption seems
at the present time, to be in a fair way
of becoming law. The necessary per-
centage of petitioners under the .initia-
tive has been raised from ten to twenty
per cent and the petitioners must register
with and be identified by the clerk of the
courts in signing the papers.

This measure would affect every city
in Pennsylvania except Philadelphia,
Pittsburgh and Scranton. It provides
for a commission of five and an elective
auditor but not for the recall.^

Utah. Efforts to amend the commis-
sion government law at this year's ses-
sion of the legislature failed in every
instance.

Portland, Ore. The friends of com-
mission government won ttteir long fight
by the adoption of a new commission
government charter on May 3, after a
bitter newspaper controversy. In gen-
eral, the charter conforms to the typical
commission government scheme with
the exception that the mayor is required
to make the designation of members of
the council to the various departments.
The opponents of commission govern-
ment professed to see in this arrangement
a serious departure from commission
government principles and made much
of the idea that under it the mayor of
the city would become a practical czar
or dictator. But while it is not a usual
feature of commission government, it is
not by any means unique and follows
the provisions of the laws under which
Columbia, S. C, and several southern
cities operate. The charter provides for
a system of preferential voting, another
feature which was a subject of attack.
A commendable provision of the charter
is the one which requires the council to
enact an administrative code.

The procedure provided for the annual
audit is interesting. For this occasion

2 The bill has passed both hou3?s and Is In the
hands of the governor, who It Is expected will ap-
prove.—C. R. W.

472

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

the clearing house association will be
invited to submit a list of qualified pul)-
lic accountants from which the council
must choose one to conduct the exami-
nation of the city's financial aflfairs.

Complete copies of the charter in
pamphlet form were sent to every voter
in the city.

The Los Angeles Charter Amend-
ments. The election in Los Angeles on
INIarch 24 resulted in the adoption of a
number of important amendments.
The first two amendments, relating to
the acquisition of public utilities and
the granting of franchises were passed,
as was the amendment permitting the
city to exercise all corporate powers ex-
ercised by any municipal corporation in
the state of California. B}'^ the terms of
the fifth amendment, after the first
Monday in July, all the functions of the
government of the city iire to be divided
into nine divisions and each member of
the council is to be a committeeman for
such division. The functions of the
several councilmcn under this amend-
ment are not those of administrative
supervision, but simply of investigation.
Amendment number six increases the
salaries of the elective officers. Propor-
tional representation was voted down,
but the ninth amendment, relating to
the appointment of a harbor commission
was adojjted instead of a counter amend-
ment providing for an elective board.
Amendments number twelve and thir-
teen provide respectively for the fire-
men's and policemen's pension fund.

The City Manager Plan. The plan of
municipal government which is being
tried out in Sumter, S. C, not only con-
tinues to be watched with greatest in-
terest throughout the country, but has
been already emulated by two other
southern cities. Hickory and Morgan-
ton, N. C. The former, a city of 3,716
inhabitants, adopted the plan on March
17. The people in Morganton liked the
Hickory charter so well that they went
to the legislature and had it enacted
almost verbatim as their own. This
town has a population of 2,712.

The charter revision commissions in
Elyria and Youngstown, O., have re-
ported "city manager" charters antl the
Dayton commission elected on May 20
is pledged to submit a charter providing
that form.

In the Wisconsin Legislature there
has recently been introduced by Rep-
resentative Estabrook a city manager
bill prepared some months ago by Dr.
Ford H. MacGregor, of the University
of Wisconsin. This bill is, in some ways,
the most advanced of any on this sub-
ject thus far prepared. The specific pro-
vision that applications for the position
of city manager shall be secured by ad-
vertisement is a radical departure, al-
though the commissioners in Sumter
advertised on their own initiative.

H. S. GiLBERTSON.

Charter-Making in Ohio, — Ohio cities
are furnishing interesting illustrations
of the desirability of granting to munic-
ipalities the right to frame their own
charters, and to legislate for themselves
in strictly local matters. Eleven cities
in the state have chosen commissions to
frame home rule charters, and a number
of others are considering the question.
Canton, Akron and Salem are favorable
to the commission form of government;
Dayton, Elyria and Lakewood indicate
a preference for the city manager type;
the commission in Columbus has just
begun its work; Youngstown and Cleve-
land have practically completed their
charters.

Cleveland's commission has I)ccn
working since February 4. The draft of
the charter was mailed to every voter,
on June 1. The election will be held
July 1. The commission, headed by
Mayor Newton D. Baker, has held on the
average of five meetings a week since it
began its sessions in February.

Some of the more important features
of the new charter are:

(I. \on-partisan elections witli pri-
maries entirely eliminated; candidates
will be nominated by petition only.

NOTES AND EVENTS

473

I

h. A preferential system of voting
with first, second and other choices.

c. The short ballot principle has been
adopted. The only elective officers will
be the mayor and the council.

d. Elective officials are subject to re-
call upon petition signed by 15,000 elec-
tors, in case of officials elected at large,
and 600 in case of officials elected from
wards.

e. The charter provides for a council
of twenty-six members elected from wards
for a term of two years. Its functions
are limited strictly to legislation. The
charter contains explicit provisions pro-
hibiting members of the council from
having any part in administration.

/. An ordinance may be placed before
the council by initiative petition, signed
by 5,000 electors. If not passed by the
council 5,000 additional signatures will
compel its submission to the people at
a special election.

g. The mayor's term is two years.
He is given the power to appoint the
directors of departments. He and the
directors will have seats in the council
with the right to take part in the dis-
cussion but without the right to vote.

h. Six departments are established,
namely: law, public service, public wel-
fare, public safety, finance, and public
utilities. Under each of these depart-
ments are established from three to five
divisions. The council is given the power
to create, discontinue, rearr nge 6r
abolish departments and divisions and
to assign appropriate functions to each
of them.

?'. A bureau of information and pub-
lic reference is created, to be under the
direction of a commissioner who will
have charge of all city printing, reports,
statistics and the editing of a city Record
and the collection of municipal informa-
tion.

j. Advisory boards, composed of un-
salaried experts and citizens interested
in the subject, are provided for divis-
ions in which the director of the depart-
ment thinks it would be advisable to
have the services of such boards.

k. A city plan commission, with very
broad powers, will have control of the
works of art, the plan, design and loca-
tion of buildings, street fixtures, etc.,
and also have the power to frame com-
prehensive plans for the future develop-
ment of the city.

I. A civil service commission of three
members to be appointed by the mayor
for a term of six years. The commission
will have authority not only to see that
officers and employees are appointed on
the basis of merit and fitness, but also

will keep a record of their efficiency in
the service.

As far as can be ascertained at the
present time there is practically n > doubt
but that the charter will be adopted by
the people. The leading newspapers
have already indicated that th&y will
give the charter their full support. Con-
siderable opposition has been aroused
over the elimination of party primaries,
and the adoption of the preferential
system of voting, but this opposition is
limited in the main to the party leaders
and workers. Cleveland will be the
first city in Ohio to adopt a home rule
charter.

Supreme court decision. The recent
decision of the supreme court in the
Toledo case will tend to increase the
activity of Ohio cities in the direction
of framing and adopting their own char-
ters. The case was the first real test of
the home rule amendment. Mayor Whit-
lock of Toledo had an ordinance passed
appropriating money to establish a mu-
nicipal moving picture theatre. It was
intended to test the home rule provisions.
The city auditor refused to issue the
necessary warrants for the appropria-
tion. A friendly suit was begun and
carried to the highest court in the state.
The decision has been awaited with con-
siderable interest and anxiety by the
advocates of home rule in the state.

The court held, in brief, that the home
rule amendment, so far as it granted
to cities which are organized under
the present municipal code the right to
legislate for themselves in strictly local
matters, is not self-executing; that for
such cities the legislature must first enu-
merate the powers which such cities may
exercise. But the court held clearly
that a city, when it frames its own char-
ter or adopts one of the optional charters
enacted into law by the legislature, can
then legislate for itself in local matters.

The decision was disappointing to
advocates of home rule and yet it does
not prohibit the exercise of the right
of home rule to the cities which go

474

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

to the trouble of framing their own
charters.

Mayo Fesler.^

Ohio Cities.— Daylon. John H. Pat-
terson, the president of the National
Cash Register Company, for years a
member of the National Municipal
League was elected a charter conunis-
sioner of Dayton and subsequently chair-
man of the commission. His victory
foreshadows the recommendation of the
commission form of government. One
of the features of the campaign leading
up to the election was the full page ad-
vertisements discussing the merits of
commission government from both sides.

Coluinbu'^. Martin A. Gemi'mder was
elected to the charter commission, re-
ceiving the highest vote. He was sub-
sequently elected chai.nnan.''

The Canton commission began work
early in March and finished April 26.
The proposed charter provides for a
commission of five members, one of
whom shall be designated by his col-
leagues as president. Akron elected a
charter commission on April 1. There
is a strong sentiment in this city' in favor
of commission government.

On May 12 charter commissions were
convened in Elyria, Middletown, Nor-
wood and Lakewood. The commission-
ers of the latter city, which is a suburb
of Cleveland with a population of 17,000,
have decided in favor of the city man-
ager plan. In Toledo a council of nine
members elected at large but nominated
from wards has been decided upon.

Home Rule for New Haven. — The
most liberal municipal legislation which
the writer has ever known was granted
to New Haven by the Connecticut legis-
lature in May in the so-called home rule
I)ill, drafted by William S. Pardee, a

' Secretary Cleveland Civic Ix>ague aiul of the
charter commission.

' See National Municipal Ukvjkw, vol. I, p.
170.

member of the house from New Haven.
It won its way to the favor of the com-
mittee on cities and boroughs, and fi-
nally the house and senate, because of the
numerous bills introduced into the leg-
i.slature to amend the existing charter.
Among these bills was one asking for a
conunLssion form of government. All
of these bills, some progressive and some
reactionary, were urged with insistence by
large bodies of citizens from New Haven
and after hearings on these numerous bills
the committee decided that the wisest
and safest way was to report most of
them adversely and grant to New Haven
the right to amend and change its own
charter. The bill is entitled, "Confer-
ring upon the freemen of New Haven the
right to amend the charter of the City
of New Haven." The bill covers only
five pages, but it is certainly very sweep-
ing in the privileges which it grants to
the city.

New Haven has for several years
•been governed by a single legislative
board, cojisisting of twentj^-one mem-
bers, and the law grants to this board of
aldermen, or such legislative b'jdy as
may succeed them, the right to change
the charter, which change shall be re-
ferred to the electors of the city at a
special or regular municipal election,
and when approved by them shall be-
come a part of the charter of the city.

The bill further provides that twenty
per cent of the electors themselves may
petition for a change in the charter, and
that change shall be submitted to the
electors, and if approved becomes a part
of the charter. Then follows in the bill
the subjects under which amendments
may be drafted, and they include nearly
all of the work of the city and would
certainly allow the city to adopt a com-
mission form of government if it chose.
It is quite fitting that New Haven should
lead in advanced municipal government,
for it has always been the leader among
the New England cities in that line of
work. New Haven was granted the first
city charter in New England, but was
followed closely by four other cities in

NOTES AND EVENTS

475

Connecticut. The next city to receive
a charter was Boston, forty-eight years
later, followed by Providence and then
other New England cities.

Since the first charter of 1784, New
Haven has lived under six charters, each
one of which has been a little more lib-
eral than the one preceding, and a
study of the progress of the city gov-
ernment is decidedly interesting. Many
people who are interested in municipal
government in New Haven hope to see
features of the commission form of gov-
ernment incorporated into the charter,
and the city run upon good business prin-
ciples, but the whole question is now
in the hands of the electors of the city,
and the experiment must be met and
tried out by the people who live under
the government and pay the bills for
its management. Since the passage of
this bill for New Haven, a sentiment
has developed for similar privileges for
all the cities of the state, and it is pos-
sible that this legislature may grant
to all the cities the same right of self
government.

Albert McClellan Mathewson.'

Ohio Constitutional Amendments. —
Four more amendments will be sub-
mitted to the voters this autumn. Two

deal with the question of the short bal-
lot, the third with the right of women to
hold administrative offices in institutions
devoted to the care and welfare of women
and children, and the last exempts frorri
taxation state, county, munibipal and
township bonds. One of the short bal-
lot amendments makes the of&ces of
attorney general and state treasurer ap-
pointive, and the other one removes the
requirements that county officers must
be elective and leaves it to the legisla-
ture to change them to the appointive
list if it so desires.

Michigan Constitutional Amendments.

— Five constitutional amendments were
submitted at the special election on
April 7. Three were adopted and two
defeated. Those which were adopted
provided for the initiative and refer-
endum on constitutional amendments,
on legislative matters, and for the recall
of elective officers, the votes being re-
spectively 204,796 to 116,392; 219,057 to
152,388; 237,743 to 145,412. Two of the
amendments submitted were defeated,
one dealing with woman suffrage, the
other providing for a fireman's pension
fund, the votes being for the first men-
tioned 168,738 for to 264,882 against, and
for the latter 179,948 for to 206,204
against.

II. FUNCTIONS

Municipal Utilities. — State versus local
utility commissions. The line of demar-
cation between state and local control
of municipal utilities continues to be a
question of importance in many sections.
The question is now raised in Minnesota.
William D. Marks, consulting engineer,
has been one of the advocates for the
local commission for large urban centers
on the ground that the commission is

1 A member of the New Haven common council,
1892, and judge of the New Haven city court, 1905-
1911. For the past twenty-five years he has drafted
many changes to the New Haven city charter and
has been Interested In municipal improvements.
In 1896, he drafted the charter which was enacted
and under which the city is now governed.

essential for each large metropolitan
community in order that the state com-
mission may not be overloaded with
work, and in order to leave to each
metropolis "the right to adjust its own
rates with its public service corpora-
tions."

The new public service commission law
of Missouri, signed March 18, repeals the
statutes under which Missouri cities were
authorized to create local public service
commissions.

The League of Nebraska Municipali-
ties which held its meeting in Lincoln,
Neb., January 14, 15 and 16, adopted a
resolution to the effect that the legis-
lature should not give to the state rail-

47G

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

way commission any jurisdiction over
rates and services of municipal utilities
without the consent of the municipality
to changes in rates or service.

The Canadian railway act, as revised,
includes amendments meeting the re-
quest of the Union of Canadian Munici-
palities, making clear that the railway
commission has jurisdiction over all fed-
erally incorporated power, transmission,
and telegraph and telephone companies,
but reserving to municipalities the right
of control over their own streets.

The basis for the conflict seems to be
in the fact that state control is essential
for the proper regulation and protection
of small urban, of interurban and of rural
interests, while the larger cities espe-
cially are beginning to see the impor-
tance of home rule. The problem is to
get centralized control with adaptability
to local conditions.

Municipal ownership is receiving re-
newed attention. A table prepared by
Frank C. Jordan, secretary of the Indi-
anapolis Water Company, giving the
water rates for 249 cities where a meter
rate is charged and all service furnished
tlifough meters, and 198 cities where a
flat rate is charged, reveals the fact that,
where the plant is municipally owned,
the meter rates average 20 cents; where
privately owned, 30 cents. In the flat
rates, the average rate for a six-room
house is $7.06 where supplied by a private
company and $6.05 where supplied by a
municipal plant. In the absence of data
making sure that municipal plants in-
cluded in their rates sinking funds and
other overhead charges, this seems to
point pretty conclusively to the advan-
tage of municipal ownership of water
works.

J. F. Ford, of Fort Dodge, has pre-
pared a table showing that out of 330
cities in Iowa, 310 have municipally
owned, and but 20 privately owned,
water works. He finds that the cost of
service is considerably lower under mu-
nicipal than under private plants. In
the municipal plants the rates range
from S and 10 to 35 and 40 cents per

1000 gallons. All are self-supporting and
the great majority are paying goodly
profits into the city treasury.

San Francisco is planning to extend the
Geary Street railway which it owns and
operates so as to provide adequate trans-
portation service for the exposition of
1915. City Engineer O'Shaughnessy has
estimated that the total attendance at
the exposition will be 8,640,000, a daily
average of 30,000, with a gross daily
attendance of 40,000. The daily street
car revenue he estimates at $3000, total-
ing $864,000. If to this the fares of 10,-
000 workmen during the year 1914, and
2500 during the year after the exposition,
are added, the grand total of estimated
street car revenue is brought up to
$1,239,000. Operating expenses will take
two-thirds of this sum so that a gross
profit of $413,000 is looked forward to.

Los Angeles, according to a recent edi-
torial in the Los Angeles Tribune, is
finding municipal ownership of its water
works to be a decidedly paying invest-
ment. The city purchased the water
works ten years ago, and found them in
such bad shape that they had to be prac-
tically rebuilt. However, despite this
outlay, rates were immediately reduced
33f per cent. Further reductions have
since been made until the rates in Los
Angeles today are less than 10 cents
per 1000 gallons. In the meantime, the
city has paid off over $500,000 of the
$2,000,000 of bonds issued in pa3'ment for
the plant. As the city today has four
times the population it had ten j'ears
ago, propositions have been submitted
for the extension of the plant. The
bond issue of $6,500,000, in order to finish
the first unit of the aqueduct power sys-
tem and to install a transmission line to
the cit}' of Los Angeles, and provide a
distributing system within the city, on
April 15 received an affirmative vote of
30,615 out of 51,415, but as a two-thirds
vote was essential to its adoption, the
l)ropositiou was defeated.

"Public Service," published at the
Peoples das Building in Chicago, an
organ of tlie gas interests, points out that

NOTES AND EVENTS

477

the taxpayers of Seattle, have lost $50,-
000 a year on their city plant. No evi-
dence is presented as to wherein the loss
occurred, or whether or not it was due
to the probable fact that, in order to
encourage manufacturing and commer-
cial usage and the industrial develop-
ment of the city, charges to consumers
have been slightly increased over those
a private concern might charge.

Subway. The Missouri legislature has
recently passed a constitutional amend-
ment authorizing St. Louis to become
indebted to the extent of $77,000,000 for
the construction of a municipal subway.
The amendment goes to the people for
ratification at the fall election of 1914.
If the amendment is adopted, St. Louis
can issue subway bonds and can own and
operate the subway. Under the pro-
posed amendment, Kansas City is also
authorized to issue subway bonds.
Philadelphia and Chicago are also con-
sidering subway legislation.

Detroit, on April 7, voted to adopt an
amendment to the city charter provid-
ing for the municipal ownership and
operation of all street railways within
Detroit. The control and operation are
vested in the hands of a non-salaried
board of street railway commissioners,
three in number, appointed and removed
at will by the mayor of the city. This
board has full power and authority to
appoint a general manager and to em-
ploy all other experts, officers and agents
needed for the operation of the railway.
An especially interesting section is the
one requiring that:

of the general bonds issued as soon as
practicable, to the end that the entire cost
of said street railway system shall be paid
eventually out of the earnings thereof

The rate of fare on said street railway
system shall be sufficient to pay, and the
said board shall cause to be paid: (a)
Operating and maintenance expenses,
including paving and watering between
tracks, (b) Taxes on the physical prop-
erty of the entire street car system, the
same as though privately owned. (c)
Fixed charges, (d) A sufficient per cent
per annum so as to provide a sinking
fund to pay the principal of the mortgage
bonds issued at their maturity and such
other additional per cent per annum to
provide in the sound discretion of the
board, a sinking fund to pay the principal

The amendment is now before the
courts to test its validity.

Melbourne, Australia. Municipal own-
ership and operation of the entire system
of street railways are planned foi'as soon
as the present franchise expires, in a
couple of years. Melbourne expects to
follow the example of Sydney, the largest
city in Australia (population 750,000),
in which the street railway system is
owned and operated by the state of New
South Wales. In Wellington, New Zea-
land, also, the entire system of street cars
is owned and operated by the city, as it
is in Christchurch and in Dunedin, New
Zealand.

A Municipal Tramways Trust is under
consideration for Melbourne, and sub-
urbs. The scheme hp^s been approved
by the constituent councils. The tram-
ways systems and suburbs and their
future development and extension, in-
cluding present cable and horse trams,
all extensions and additions both in inner
and outer areas, are to be under the con-
trol of a "municipal tramways trust,"
consisting of representatives from the
various municipalities interested. There
are to be ten members of the trust, and
a paid chairman to be elected by the
trust and to hold office for five years.
The chairman cannot be a member of
any of the councils represented in the
trust. The representation of municipal-
ities is on a population basis, with one
vote for every 5000 or part thereof of the
population in the municipality. Mem-
bers of the trust are to be elected for three
years by the council or group which they
represent, one-third to retire annually.

Tele-phone ownership in England. The
post office department of the government
has become owner of the National Tele-
phone Company's plant. The company
claimed nearly £21,000,000 and got £12,-
515,264, not as much as it wanted, but
probably as much as it expected. The
basis of purchase by the post office was

478

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

what is known as "tramway terms," a
phrase which interpreted means the
"then value, exclusive of any allowance
for past or future profits of the under-
taking or any compensation for compul-
sory sale or any other consideration
whatever." The railway commissioners.
Sir James Woodhousc dissenting, have
admitted within this definition an allow-
ance for the cost of raising capital. The
expenses charged under this heading
comprise £85,000 for commission; £85-
000 for brokerage; £66,000 for discount;
£3750 for share capital registration duty;
£2062 for stamp duty; and £1500 for ad-
vertising. As this award stands, tram-
way plants will increase in value every
time it changes hands by reason of the
money spent in raising the capital to
purchase it. "Therefore," as the editor
of the Municipal Journal points out
"the more it changes hands the more
valuable it becomes — an unthinkable
proposition." The commissioners' de-
cision is important, as it would make; a
forbidding item in the purchase of tram-
ways by municipalities.

Returns to gas and electric companies.
The relative increases and decreases of
the gross and net earnings of steam rail-
roads, of electric railways, of gas and
electric companies and of industrials for
each of the nine years from 1902 to 1910,
have been prepared by Henry L. Doherty
and Company, of New York City. The
tables reveal the following increases in
gross and net earnings : industrials, gross
earnings increased 25 per cent, net earn-
ings, 12 per cent; steam roailo, gross
earnings increased 64 per cent, net earn-
ings, 45 per cent; electric railways, gross
earnings increased 68 per cent, net earn-
ings, 48 per cent; gas and electric com-
panies, gross earnings, 105 per cent, net
earnings, 84 per cent. Only the indus-
trials showed a decrease in gross and
net earnings, and that only during 1904
and 1908. The phenomenal increase in
gross and net earnings of gas and electric
companies probably indicates the ex-
tended use of those agencies for manu-
facturing as well as for lighting purposes.

and also their cheaper production. It
would seem from this that we should
shortly expect some diminution in rates
for such services.

Perpetual franchises. Tliat the day of
the perpetual franchise is not entirely
gone may be gleaned from the fact that
the stocks and bonds of the following
companies have been highly advertised
recently with their perpetual franchise
as a main feature of their value.

The Philadelphia Rapid Transit Com-
pany is issuing a series of cooperative
bulletins for the guidance of their em-
ployees and for the general education of
the public. The bulletins are on such
subjects as: Cooperative plan, motormen
and conductors, employees insurance and
pensions, cooperative beneficial associa-
tion, improved car service, etc.

Iowa Municipal Ownership Rates. —
Mayor J. F. Ford of Fort Dodge, Iowa,
has written a paper in which he draws a
comparison between the rates charged in
cities where plants are municipally owned
and operated and those where the service
is furnished by private corporations. In
securing data for this paper, Alayor Ford
received information from 330 Iowa cities,
310 of which had municipal!}' owned
plants. While there is a wide difference
in rates, due to different conditions in
localities, the statement is true that
the cost of service is considerably less
where municipal plants are operated than
where the private plants furnish the
service. Using a table prepared by the
•secretary of the Indianai)olis water com-
pany including 249 cities having meter
service, and 198 cities having a flat rate,
Mayor Ford shows that under munic-
ipal ownership, meter rates average
twenty cents; under private corpora-
tions, thirty cents. In flat rates, the
average for a six room house is $7.06,
when sujiplied by a private company;
S6.05 when furnished by a nmnicipal
plant. IMayor Ford feels that the in-
formation he received was overwhelming-
ly in favor of municipally owned plants.
Clyde L. King.'

' Of the University of Pennsylvania.

NOTES AND EVENTS

479

The Disfrict of Columbia and the
Bruere-Mitchell Proposal.' — The Bruere-
Mitchell proposal, recently submitted to
President Wilson, for establishing a model
government in the district, possesses the
particular merit of forming a possible
basis for a nation-wide movement to
secure federal support for the solution
of municipal problems and the establish-
ment of municipal standards. However,
it seems desirable to point out some of
the obstacles existing to a realization of
the plan for making Washington in every
respect a model for other cities to copy.

It is rather unfortunate, from one
point of view, that Washington cannot
be regarded as typical of American cities
in general, on account of the relatively
small amount of manufacturing and large
business enterprises; the absence of a
large foreign population and the relative
freedom from congestion, all of which
result in special problems which must be
met in other localities and which a sur-
vey of Washington would barely touch
upon.

Washington, moreover, enjoys the
unique distinction of being the nation's
capital and is therefore not to be com-
pared with other American cities, but
rather with the world's capitals. Con-
sequently, the city beautiful idea has
naturally been given a preeminent rank,
thus involving improvements, the cost
of which would in general make them
extravagant examples to follow. How-
ever, this does not offer any obstacles to
giving Washington, as well as all other
American cities, the benefits of the best
governmental methods that can be de-
vised.

The federal government at present
pays one-half the cost of local adminis-
tration, and it will logically demand a
controlling voice as long as it contributes
any portion of the cost. Since the fed-
eral government is a very large owner of
land and improvements and since local

expenses generally are greatly increased

«

1 Sea article on "The Federal Government as a
Potential Contributor to Municipal .Advancement"
In the supplement to January, 1913, issue, page 33.

by virtue of the fact that Washington is
the nation's capital, it is generally agreed
that the nation as a whole should con-
tribute liberally towards the operating
expenses of the district. In recent years,
the so-called half and half principle has
several times been attacked on the
ground that the federal government
should not be called upon to assume so
large a portion of the cost. Naturally,
local sentiment is strongly opposed to
changes in the present form of govern-
ment through which this might be
brought about.

While Washington is nominally a com-
mission governed city, in reality the com-
missioners are responsible to a municipal
council, consisting of the house and sen-
ate district committees on the district.
Since members of Congress would rather
serve on committees having a wider field
of activity or having more direct rela-
tion to the interests of the home state or
home district, membership in the district
committees is seldom a much sought
honor. This and other factors result in
many changes in membership every two
years, so that few members serve long
enough to familiarize themselves thor-
oughly with local conditions. In addi-
tion, Washington is unlike any other city
in the country in that its citizens are not
given a direct voice in its government.
From some standpoints this might be
considered as an advantage, since civic
advancement has too often received set-
backs, before administrative or other
changes undertaken have been given a
fair trial, by unthinking masses con-
trolled by political machines.

The civil employees of the government
generally retain citizenship in the states
from which they were originally appoint-
ed and therefore do not, as a rule, mani-
fest any deep interest in local affairs.
Washington also serves as the home of
many Americans who have attained busi-
ness success or social prominence and
who tarry only during the social season
though many of them have built hand-
some homes. Naturally this class is not
interested in suffrage. A considerable

480

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

portion of the actual resident popiilation
is of southern extraction and is far from
being free from race prejudice. The
majority would therefore prefer to
remain without a vote rather than to see
tliomselves put on equal terms with the
colored race, which constitutes almost 30
per cent of the entire population.

From the above it will be seen that the
difficulties of changing the form of gov-
ernment of the District of Columbia so
as to serve as a model for other cities
must not be underestimated. However,
although the form of government is of
great importance, since it should be of
such a character as to furnish adequate
assurance that continuity of purpose will
not be endangered, and that due regartl
shall be paid to honesty, economy, aijd
efficiency, it is of still greater importance
to determine specifically what work a
city should undertake, to investigate the
methods of attaining the particular re-
sults desired in order to select the method
best meeting the requirements and to
determine the best system of adminis-
tration for carrying out the program
decided upon.

To my mind, the principal results to
be attained through the municipal sur-
vey of Washington which is proposed as
a first step, will not be through bring-
ing to light inefficient methods and
uneconomical practices which might be
found in use, nor in the introduction of
better methods in their stead, but rather
through the recognition which would
result from such a survey that it is well
worth while for the nation to give serious
attention to the urgent need for the solu-
tion of municipal problems in general.

All interested in municipal advance-
ment can find considerable encourage-
ment for federal assistance from the
manifold activities of tlie Department of
Agriculture in the immediate interest of
the farmer. Since the organization of
the department in 1881, the total ai)pro-
priations have exceeded $1SO,00(),()()0, the
last ten annual appropriations averaging
over $12,000,000 and the api)r()priat ion
for next year amounting to almost $18,-

000,000. This work has been undertaken
by tlie federal government for various
reasons. The problems confronting the
farmers are of such a character that they
cannot be solved by individual effort,
requiring jjainstaking investigation and
elaborate experimentation in order to
secure reliable results. Moreover, many
of the problems concerning a given crop
are the same throughout the whole coun-
try and the results obtained from inves-
tigations are therefore equally appli-
cable throughout the land. Hence, the
economy of investigating such problems
through thoroughly organized agencies,
by specially trained investigators in well
equipped laborator-ies, experiment sta-
tions and experiment farms and in the
most thorough manner. The success
obtained and the inestimable benefits
accruing to agriculture have naturally
led to extensions of the work in every
direction. This information is brought
to his very door by the rural free deliv-
ery, in the form of bulletins, and even by
agents of the department whose function
it is to educate him in farm manage-
ment and farm economics in the broadest
sense of the terms. Commissions are sent
abroad in his interest to report on im-
proved methods of agriculture, to inves-
gate agricultural credit systems through
which his effective capital may be in-
creased. Roads are improved so as to
facilitate hauling from the farm to the
shipping point and finally the federal
government is planning to investigate
for him the methods of marketing his
produce so as to yield the largest net
returns.

While this work has been undertaken
at the instance of the farmer, it has no
doubt been of direct benefit to the con-
sumer as well. American agriculture
in the 90's was facing a serious crisis
through the failure of crops resulting
from droughts, the ravages of insect
pests, the wide-spread i^revalence of
plant diseases (then little understood),
etc. The small profits of fifinning, the
long liours of hard labor, the difficulties
of securing farm help and the relative

NOTES AND EVENTS

481

unattractiveness of farm life led to the
extensive abandonment of the farm and
a further increase of the congestion of
our already overcrowded cities, and some-
thing had to be done to remedy condi-
tions. Without any question the benefits
resulting to American agriculture and the
allied industries through the work of the
Agricultural Department have yielded
returns many times exceeding the sums
appropriated by the government.

It is hardly necessary to point out that
the urban classes of our population are
equally entitled to federal consideration.
Municipal problems are multiplying fast
and only a few of our cities have the
means to undertake their solution.
Moreover, this can only be attempted
with a reasonable assurance of success
under the most favorable conditions, so
that a comprehensive program is prac-
tically out of the question in any of them.
Since the individual cities are not
equipped to undertake this important
work as it should be taken up, it might
be suggested that much could be accom-
plished through their cooperation, but
this is obviously impossible under exist-
ing conditions on account of the lack of
authority. The remaining alternative
of enlisting the assistance of the fed-
eral government is the only feasible
one which offers itself and it is to be
hoped that the further consideration of
the Bruere-Mitchell proposal will bring
this issue to an early decision.

F. A. Wolff.

Accounting Notes. — A Handbook. Un-
questionably the most important event
during the last quarter to those inter-
ested in municipal accounting was the
publication by the Metz Fund (New
York bureau of municipal research) of a
handbook on municipal accounting. ^

St. Louis' new system. A special report
descriptive of St. Louis' new accounting
system was issued by Comptroller Taus-
sig of that city in April. The system

1 See review of same by Martin A. Gamiinder
In "R«ok Reviews," infra.

was devised and installed by Peter White,
C.P.A. The report which was also pre-
pared under his direction is both inter-
esting and instructive. The facsimile
productions of the new accounting forms
are of special value. Some of the defects
requiring further action in order to cor-
rect them are clearly enumerated, the
chief one being in the budget procedure.
In devising a cost system for the park
department use has widely been made of
the mnemonic classification. The classi-
fication of appropriations by depart-
ments, bureaus, accounts and objects has
been based on an actual analysis of
vouchers showing the city's purchases.
A combination of figures and letters,
(not however the mnemonics) comprises
the code designations which will be used
in the accounting and auditing processes.
A complete index of commodities com-
prehended within each of the twenty
standard accounts has been prepared for
use of the city departments.

Other classifications. In connection
with the budget classifications of St.
Louis above noted, accounting officers
and students should also be familiar with
the classifications recommended by the
President's commission on economy and
efficiency; also with those developed by
Chicago, New York and Cincinnati. The
department of public works in Philadel-
phia has probably done more in the line of
cost keeping with the mnemonic symbol
than any other city.

Street cleaning costs. Commissioner
Edwards of New York has established
a bureau of efficiency and statistics, the
principal function of which will be to
• develop unit costs of cleaning the New
York streets. The system was devised
with the assistance of the New York
bureau of municipal research and in-
stalled in April. Owing to the varied
methods employed in cleaning and the
varied kinds of streets cleaned the task
of devising an adequate cost system was
most difficult. At the end of each month
it is planned to transfer the unit costs
to graphic charts for the information of
the entire executive force.

482

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

Springfield also wants unit costs. Be-
fore the report of the recent survey
Springfield, Mass., was published the
department of streets and engineering
anticipated its conclusions and retained
the New York bureau of municipal re-
search to devise and install a complete
system of unit costs.

Pacific coast cities also surveyed. The
New York bureau also surveyed during
the last quarter the city accounting and
business methods of Los Angeles, Cal.,
and Portland, Ore., also the administra-
tive methods of the Port of Portland.
Both of the former reports, including
the constructive recommendations, are
being printed in pamphlet form by citizen
committees in the respective cities.^

Heubert R. Sands.

Proportional Representation. — The
election of city councils, especially in
connection with the manager plan of
city government, by the "proportional"
or unanimous-constituency system has
been actively urged during the past few
months by the American Proportional
Representation League. The jjarticu-
lar plan of proportional representation
advocated for this purpose is the Hare,
often called the "single transferable
vote," essentially like that used for the
election of the parliament of Tasmania
and the senate of South Africa, and to
be used, if the home rule bill becomes
law, for both the senate and the house
of Ireland. Under this plan the mem-
bers of the council would be elected from
multi-membered districts and preferably
at large for the whole city, and each ,
would be sent in by a unanimous-con-
stituency of supporters built up at the
election itself, without any primaries,
by means .of the preferential ballot used.
An explanation of the system, the full
text of the provisions necessary for carry-
ing it out, and the advantages claimed
for it in connection with the manager
plan are contained in the League's "Pam-

' This work has hneii under the direct .s\ipe.'Vl8lon
of Mr. Sunds himself. ^Editou.

phlet No. 2," copies of which have been
I)laced at the (jffice of the Review for
free distribution to any reader who may
apply for it.

The idea of electing the council, under
the manager plan, by the Hare system
has been received with favor in many
quarters, notably by individual members
of several of the charter commissions now
sitting in Ohio cities and by the Social-
ist party's information bureau and com-
mittee on municipal government. ^ In
no American city at the time this is
written, however, has proportional rep-
resentation been actually adopted for
the election of the council.

Los Angeles election. On March 24,
when several proposed amendments to
the charter of Los Angeles were put to
vote, an amendment providing for the
election of the council by a novel method
of proportional representation,, devised
by George H. Dunlop, was defeated.
Advocates of the amendment were en-
couraged by the result, however, for
although the campaign of education
lasted but a few weeks, the amendment
came within three votes per precinct of
carrying and a counter proposition to go
back to the ward system was defeated
by over 12,000 votes.

Loi-d Avebury's death. I regret to have
to record the death on May 28 of Lord
Avebury, better known by his earlier
title of Sir John Lubbock. For many
years Lord Avebury has been president
of the Proportional Representation So-
ciety (of Great Britain), to whose effect-
ive propaganda work is largely due the
adoption of the Hare system in Tasmania
and South Africa and its incorporation
in the parliament of Ireland bill.

American Proportional Representation
League. The general organization in
this country devoted to proportional
representation especially and to prefer-
ential majority voting incidentally is
the American Proportional Representa-
tion League, the officers of which are
as follows: President, William Dudley

= .See Sulidlvlslon \l of this department..

NOTES AND EVENTS

483

Foulke; vice-presidents, Prof. J. R. Com-
mons, W. S. U'Ren, and Mrs. Louis F.
Post; secretary-treasurer for Canada,
Robert Tyson, 20 Harbord Street, To-
ronto; secretary-treasurer for the United
States., C. G. Hoag, Haverford, Pa.
(June 1 to October 1, Tamworth, N. H.).
For work in New York and New Jer-
sey a new organization has been formed,
the Representative Government League.
The officers are: President, John E.
Eastmond; secretary, W. Ward Damon;
treasurer, Albert E. Woolf. The offices
of this League are at Room 904, 154
Nassau Street, New York City.

C. G. Hoag.

Electoral Reform. — Missouri. The
McGrath municipal primary bill follows
the state primary law. Each candidate
is required to file a declaration within
twelve days before election naming the
office to which he aspires. He must
make a deposit of 5 per cent of one year's
salary, the money to be paid to the
chairman of the city central committee.
The entire cost of the primary is borne
by the city. No person is permitted to
vote unless he is known to be affiliated
with the political party he names. The
voter must obligate himself by oath or
affirmation to vote the ticket of the
party named. Candidates of each party
must meet and formulate a city platform
on the Tuesday following the primary.
New York. Governor Sulzer is making
an active campaign for the adoption of
a real direct primary. It is expected a
special session of the legislature will be
called to consider it-. Among the lit-
erature being distributed by the gov-
ernor is a pamphlet containing his mes-
sage and a report on the Sulzer bill for
state-wide direct primaries and an
explanation of its features. Pennsyl-
vania. A bill for the registration and
enrollment of the voters of the state
according to their respective party affil-
iations at the time of registration has
been passed. Philadelphia. The city
solicitor has given an opinion that the

members of the police department could
be used to canvass assessors' and registry
lists of voters to check up their accuracy.

Police News. — Suffrage parades .
The police departments of many cities
have had difficulty during the past few
months in policing suffrage parades prop-
erly, but the New York police depart-
ment afforded adequate protection to the
suffrage paraders this year by assigning
an officer and ten men to each 290 feet,
with an adequate reserve force. A street
crowd which is unable to protect suffrage
paraders through motives of chivalry
can easily be compelled to respect their
rights by an adequate police force.

Chicago report. The Chicago police
report contains little of interest to the
student of police administratioa. Its
discussion of police problems is confined
to about six pages. It contains no sta-
tistics of complaints and convictions,
rendering the deduction of indices of
efficiency impossible. About seventy
pages are devoted to details of personnel
of the force and to individual cases
handled by the force. Reprints of the
reports of bureau chiefs comprise most
of the remaining pages of a pamphlet
of 140 pages.

Annual parades. Most of the large
cities in this country have an annual
police parade in spring. Almost all the
members of the force take part in this
parade and devote many weeks to drill-
ing for it. It is believed that this drill-
ing improves the morale of the force and
that the martial appearance and the
numerical strength of the force on parade
has a salutary effect in increasing the
esteem in which the force is held by the
public. It is doubtful whether under
modern conditions the annual police
parade accomplishes either of these two
results. Men who are obliged to devote
to drilling a portion of the time usually
devoted by them to rest and relaxation
derive comparatively little benefit there-
from, especially when it is confined to
only a few weeks of the year. The at-

484

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

titude of the street crowds on parade
day clearly indicates that the parade ex-
poses the men to ridicule rather than to
increase the esteem in which they are
held. It is believed that an annual
field day for the police with athletic
games in which the policemen and the
members of their families take part and
to which the general public is invited
would do much more to improve the phy-
sical condition of the men and increase
the esteem in which they are held than
an annual parade.

Leonhard Felix Fuld.

New York City Health Department
Promotion System. — Under the general
civil service rules in force in New York
City, all promotions from one salary
grade to the next higher grade must be
made from among the first three persons
standing on th:^ pro:notio.i eligible list
as a result of a competitive examina-
tion in which eligible departmental em-
ployees are rated according to their re-
sponses to questions on their duties, on
their length of service, and on their effi-
ciency as rated at quarterly intervals by
the efficiency board of the department.

Commissioner Lederle, of the depart-
ment of health, in his executive order
No. 84, develops the rules in several
respects:

a. In cases of promotion from one
salary grade to the next higher grade,
he appoints absolutely the person whose
name stands at the head of the eligible
list instead of one of the three as required
by law.

b. In cases of advan',;r nent in salary
within a civil service salary grade he
appoints the employee highest on the
promotion eligible list for the next higher
grade. In the absence of a promotion
eligible list he advances to the higher
salary the employe having the best civil
service efficiency and seniority record.

c. Instead of establishing separate
promotion eligible lists for each bureau
and division of the department as is per-
mitted bv the civil service rules he es-

tablishes a single promotion eligible list
for the entire department. As vacancies
are of more frequent occurrence in the
department than they are in any single
bureau of the department this system
increases the chances of each individual
on the promotion eligible list.

By this development Dr. Lederle re-
moves the subject of promotions entirely
from the realm of political influences.

Imperial and Local Taxation in Eng-
land.— There is a growing dissatisfaction
among municipal corporations in Eng-
land with the policy of the national gov-
ernment in forcing new duties upon the
local governments involving ever in-
creasing expenses for matters that in
the opinion of the local authorities are
national and not local concerns. This
dissatisfaction is voiced in questions in
parliament and in public expression in
meetings of local officers of all kinds.
The London Municipal Journal scores
the government in a sarcastic editorial
on this point, criticising particularly
the local government board (John Burns)
and the chancellor of the exchequer
(David Lloyd George) for their attitude
in the matter and ridiculing the depart-
mental committee on imperial and local
taxation appointed in April, 1911, for
not hav.ng as yet come to any conclus-
ions on these questions.

Pittsburgh Tax Readjustment. — Prac-
tically all revenue for municipal ]iur-
poses in Pittsburgh is raised by taxing
real estate. About four-sevenths of this
revenue is raised from the \ alue of land,
while the other three-sevenths comes
from the value of improvements. There
is now afoot in the city, however, an
energetic movement to remove half of
the present tax from real estate improve-
ments, one-fifth of such reduction to be
made each year for a period of five j'ers.
Incidentally the measure seems to be
favored by Mayor Magee, who is credited
with ability to get it through.

NOTES AND EVENTS

485

School Funds in New York City.— The
question has been raised by the board of
education whether or not the finance de-
partment of the city government has the
right to fix the total amount of the school
appropriation and fix the amounts to be
spent for specific purposes. The board
contends that in so doing the finance de-
partment is assuming duties that are
purely a matter of school administration
while the department claims that it is
compelled to take this course to protect
the taxpayers. At present there is no

clear definition of the legal status of the
board's claim.

St. Louis Financial Economy. — Accord-
ing to the Star, Comptroller Benj. J.
Taussig, of St. Louis, has saved his city
$4,000,000 by his arduous attention to
his office, elimination of political sin-
ecures and purchase of supplies at extor-
tionate charges, and introduction of
modern business methods and account-
ng in the business affairs of the city.

III. CITY PLANNING AND IMPROVEMENT

England's Housing Problem Not
Solved. — England has been working for
the betterment of housing conditions for
a good many years and in the course of
those years has tried most known meth-
ods. Its garden city of Letchworth, its
garden villages and suburbs like Bourn-
ville. Port Sunlight, Hampstead and
Ealing, have won deserved recognition
because of their demonstration that good
housing is good from every point of view,
economic and human. Its tremendous
efforts to annihilate the slums by buying
them up, demolishing old buildings and
erecting wholesome dwellings in their
place, all at public expense, have been
worth their cost, if not to the cities which
paid the bills, at least to the rest of the
world which watched and learned that
here was a sure method of bankrupting
the municipality before the end aimed
at had been achieved. Its individual
workers, among the foremost of whom
must be reckoned the late Miss Octavia
Hill, showed on the other hand that hope
and solvency lie in putting the burden
for improvement of slum houses on the
owner and the tenant, whose coopera-
tion in working for higher standards
will redound to the benefit of themselves
and the community. A similar work has
been successfully carried on since 1896
by the Octavia Hill Association in Phila-
delphia, while in New York the late Miss
Ellen Collins demonstrated the practica-
bility of this method of dealing with the

housing problem of the poorest paid wage
earners. Last, England has tried legis-
lation. Its housing acts of 1890 and of
1909 are tremendous in purpose and in
scope. And unquestionably they have
been producing results. But also un-
questionably they have not produced
such results as were expected.

The National Housing and Town Plan-
ning Council publishes in the Municipal
Journal^ a memorandum which expresses
its disappointment over the results of
this legislation, gives what it believes
are the reasons for the present unsatis-
factory situation and proposes remedies.
"It is possible," says the council, "to
travel from Aberdeen to Plymouth and
not find a hopelessly unfit factory, where-
as at almost every village and town en
route there are houses which are quite
unfit for people to live in, and if the
present rate of progress in destroying

1 August 3, 1912. As a result of this agitation a
bill was Introduced in parliament, entitled "The
Housing of the Working Classes Bill," which con-
tained many of the recommendations In the
memorandum, including the proposals for state
grants for housing. This bill had the support of
members of all parties though introduced as a
private bill by a member of the opposition. It
passed second reading In the house of commons
but was killed in committee as the result of an
announcement by John Burns, president of the
local government boaid, on May 1, 1913, that the
administration would not sanction the grants of
money called for. "The gQvernment were opposed
to the grant," he said, "because in their view it
was wrong in principle and inadequate in amount."

48G

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

unfit houses is continued, then some
slums will be existing in a hundred years'
time."

Such a prospect is discouraging to a
nation which has come to realize through
bitter experience that unwholesome
housing is undermining its stamina and
efficienc}\ But the reason for this slow
progress is, in the council's opinion,
easil}^ found. It is a reason quite famil-
iar to Americans, divided responsibility.
Those monumental acts of 1890 and of
1909 were mandatory in their language,
as thej^ should be if anything was to be
expected of them. They were emphatic,
too, in stating that houses unfit for
human habitation shall be closed or de-
stroyed and that those not in all respects
reasonably fit for human habitation shall
be made reasonably Fit. But the duty
of determining what is unfit or not
reasonabh' fit and of acting on the deter-
mination was divided between the local
authorities, many of whom are gentle-
men who own houses of a kind upon
which it is their duty to reach a deter-
mination, and the local government
board, one of the divisions of the na-
tional government.

"The attitude of the local government
board in regard to the administration of
the housing acts," says the housing
council, "has for many years been of a
passive rather than an active kind, and
the tradition governing this action has
in effect been that the full and complete
responsibility falls not upon the local
government board, but upon the local
authority."

The housing council adds, "in the case
of factory legislation parliament has
given the work of administration to a
specially organized and capable body
of civil servants with one code, and
only one code, to administer, and the
compliance with this code, and the dis-
agreeable task of insisting on such com-
pliance has not been left to locally
elected bodies of men, in some cases
interested in the property concerned."
So England has an effective adminis-
tration of its factory legislation and a

non-effective administration of its hous-
ing legislation. But instead of proposing
that the lesson thus clearly set forth in
its own memorandum be followed, the
council recommends a half-way measure.
"The problem," it says, "is not one of
defining spheres of responsibility, but
taking strenuous action to deal with
an evil of grave national importance
. . . . there shall be established at the
board a full}' equipped department for the
purpose of stimulating housing action and
definitely seeking out those areas in which
hou.sing duties are neglected and insisting
on their proper performance." In order
to accomplish this the local government
board shall have a staff of traveling
officers who shall seek out the most in-
sanitary districts and "without spend-
ing unnecessary time in making exhaus-
tive inquiries" report on conditions.
Then the board shall use its power to
make the local authorities do their duty.
This work is much like that now done
in America by volunteer citizens' associa-
tions, the national organizations supply-
ing the necessary experts for investiga-
tion and advice, the local ones bringing
the pressure to bear upon the authorities.
The English plan has an advantage in
that the local government board has
legal powers which a citizens' associ-
ation has not, but the American method
has the very great advantages that it is,
first, of practical educational value in
self government and, second, that the
pressure is exerted by local citizens upon
their representatives, not by an outside
power whose interference may be re-
sented as that of an interloper aiming to
diminish local self-government. But in
the opinion of the housing council, ap-
parently, dependence can not be placed
on English citizens' organizations. "It
maj' be objected," the memorandum
continues, "that the local authorities
will resent this 'interference' on the part
of the board. Parliament, however, in
placing these duties ui)on the local au-
thorities, has recognized that local public
opinion is not sufficient to secure remedial
action."

NOTES AND EVENTS

487

In this memorandum the failure of
English housing methods to date to
meet in adequate measure the greatest
need is virtually admitted by the coun-
cil's argument for government aid in
building houses which shall be rented at
far below a fair return on the invest-
ment. "We anticipate," it says, "that
many objections will be taken on the
ground of economic soundness, but as
these objections were not taken in the
case of Irish laborers, we fail to recog-
nize their validity in the case of English
laborers. The truth is that the whole
policy of dealing with these conditions
of disease is unsound from an economic
point of view. . . . Parliament has,
however, quite wisely determined to put
an end to conditions of disease."

In other words, the English laborer
does not earn enough to enable him to
rent a wholesome dwelling. Living in
an unwholesome dwelling his health and
his efficiency are being so greatly injured
that his condition constitutes a national
calamity. So immediate is the need for
remedial measures that it is proposed to
make a whole class, the great majority
industrious and willing workers, recip-
ients of alms. But discouragement is not
complete, for this situation is expected
to be but temporary. The council con-
tinues, "We take the view that the
charge of properly housing a workman
should be a charge on the industry in
which he works, and that his wage should
be sufficient to enable him to pay a rea-
sonable rent for a proper home without
any state assistance at all. Until parlia-
ment, however, decides to take action
to secure this end the problem of housing
the poor will remain, and action which
seems to be vmeconomic must, as a tem-
porary measure, be taken in order that
much graver evils may be averted."

In America there are abominable hous-
ing conditions; probably instances can
be found here as bad as any in England.
But have we or are we getting a class,
excluding defectives who are proper sub-
jects for state aid, who are unable to

earn enough to pay an economic rent for
a wholesome house?

John Ihlder.*
*

Cincinnati's Smoke Crusade. — Cin-
cinnati is setting an example worthy of
emulation in a successful crusade against
the smoke nuisance. In 1906 a group of
public spirited men and women of this
city, actuated by the desire to improve
conditions hit upon a definite project of
aiming to rid the city of its pall of smoke.
They organized the Smoke Abatement
League and for seven years this organi-
zation has followed a consistent policy
of education, for it declared that the
smoke problem was an economic one and
that its solution was one of education.

At its seventh annual meeting in Feb-
ruary the superintendent, Edward S.
Jerome, presented a report that was a
record of distinct gain. He stated that
no other city in the United Sates had
supported for so long a period a volun-
tary association having for its one object
the abatement of the smoke nuisance.
Emphasizing the educational aspect of
the campaign, he said:

It becomes more and more manifest
that we are in a campaign of education.
Those engaged in it realize more keenly
than ever before that fitful, spasmodic
efforts accomplish little. To go out and
watch a smoking stack is the simplest
thing in the world; to make an arrest of
an offender is not difficult; to secure the
imposition of a fine is comparatively an
easy matter; but to actually stop the
smoke — ^ay, 'there's the rub.' This cam-
paign requires the dissemination of lit-
erature bearing on this subject, calling
attention to it and throwing light on it;
it involves speaking here and there
throughout the city in order to awaken
interest and to keep that interest from
flagging and dying out; it needs an arrest
now and then of those careless and in-
different who must be made to realize
that this is not a matter of opinion, but
of administration of the law. It requires
a happy admixture of tact and firmness to
secure the cooperation of those respon-
sible for this nuisance — -and that's the
great public, without whose cooperation
our efforts will be well-nigh fruitless.

■ Field secretary, National Housing Association.

488

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

And the Cincinnati Smoke Abatement
Loaguo has won that cooperation. In
1912 it employed, besides its superin-
Icrident, three inspectors whose work
included in twelve months 102,138 sep-
arate and distinct watchings from twenty-
minutes to two hours; the sending of
2S() notices to offenders and 640 personal
visits to plants.

A most important result of the work
of this organization has been the pas-
sage of a new smoke ordinance by the
council which prescribes that "the chief
smoke inspector shall be qualified by
training and experience in the theory
and practice of the construction of boil-
ers and furnaces, proper combustion of
fuel, and the theory and practice of
smoke abatement." Under a civil ser-
vice examination a new inspector was
appointed and has for Pome months been
in charge of the city's smoke department.
This is in sharp contrast to the general
custom that prevails of appointing as
inspectors men not qualified for the edu-
cational work of the position but over-
impressed with the idea that their prin-
cipal function is that of a police officer
and the best test of their efficiency the
number of arrests they can make, whether
convictions follow or not and whether or
not the offender has been instructed as
to the correct method of handling his
furnace and boiler. As soon as the new
inspector was installed the policy of his
department became one of help and ad-
vice. In the future, plans for the in-
stalling of furnaces and boilers will be
referred to his office, the result of which,
it is predicted, will be that no more smok-
ing plants will be constructed.

City Improvement Items. — Denver.
Frederick Law Olmsted contributes to
The City of Denver his plan for develop-
ing the civic center. The plan is an
ambitious one and represents the aspir-
ations of a city that has already made
considerable progress in the direction of
municipal improvement. Toledo. The
mayor (Brand Whitlock) describes at

length in the Real Estale Majazine the
plans of Toledo for a civic center. Snn
Francisco. By a vote of 45,129 to 435
against the proposition to issue. $8,800,-
000 of bonds to erect a city hall and cre-
ate a civic center was approved. The
vote was the largest ever polled at a
special election. Boston. Mayor Fitz-
gerald has petitioned the legislature to
allow the board of street commissioners
of Boston to alter and improve Copley
Square by eliminating the original diag-
onal street across it. San Antonio,
Texas has given a contract to Myron
H. West of Chicago for the preparation
of a comprehensive city plan.

Neiv York City. The court house
board having charge of the selection of
the plans for the new county court house
to be erected within the area of the pro-
posed civic center, has selected Guy
Lowell as architect, he being one of
twenty-two competitors. The cost of
the building will be $10,000,000.

Paris. A league for open places has
been organized. In a recent pamphlet
is discussed the question of drainage and
sports and the work that needs to be
done in the conversion of the old fortifi-
cations into open places is described.

Omaha. The suggestion has been
made that a boulevard be run along the
path of the recent tornado. According
to the Chicago News:

Instead of bestowing unproductive
sympathy on the people of Omaha who
were victims of the tornado which
struck that city on Easter Sunda^v, the
rest of the nation's population should
congratulate them on their serene ac-
ceptance of the untoward visitation and
their apparent determination to turn it
to good account. That city is laying
plans to make its tornado permanently

useful The tornado struck

through a part of the city that requires a
new line of communication. By one
hard stroke the path has been swept
clean. Xow ways and means are sug-
gested for coin])leting the job.

Albany. The City rianning .V.sso-
ciation is having remarkable success. Its
weekly Wednesday noon luncheons are
attended by from 150 to 200 persons and

NOTES AND EVENTS

489

much enthusiasm has been manifested.
There is a strong desire to have Arnold
W. Brunner prepare a plan for the city,
but as yet the cooperation of the city
authorities has not been secured. He
has however submitted a plan for the
river front improvement which has been
tentatively accepted. Chicago. Jarvis
Hunt has submitted plans for a great
central union terminal for passenger and
freight traffic which was set forth in
detail in a recent is^ue of Chicago
Commerce. Boston. The Metropolitan
League has issued its third bulletin sum-
marizing the improvements for the year
1912.

Neioark and Jersey City. Sundry
plans have been issued by the city plan
commission. Bulletin No. 2 is a brief
preliminary report prepared by George
B. Ford and E. P. Goodrich. A "Re-
port on the City Plan of Newark, New
Jersey" prepared by the city planning
engineer of the department of public
works (C. F. Puff, Jr.) has been pub-
lished by the board of street and water
commissioners. "Efficiency in City Plan-
ning" is the title of a report recently sub-
mitted by E. P. Goodrich and George B.
Ford to the city planning commissions
of these communities. In the latter
city there was a municipal exhibit held
from April 28 to May 3, in which each
city department showed in concrete
form what it was doing for the citizens.
Its city planning commission has been
issuing a series of short articles dealing
with street cleaning and the regulation
of street traffic.

New York. The annual reports of
the chief engineer of thp board of esti-
mate and apportionment (Mr. Nelson
P. Lewis) have come to be looked upon
as important contributions to construc-
tive city planning work.

Pittsburgh. An effort is making in
the present legislature to secure the
passage of an act giving the city the
right to establish a city planning com-
mission. Mayor Magee is greatly in-
terested in this phase of city work.
Several notable contributions have been

made to a practical solution of serious
difficulties.

St. Paul. The commissioner of pub-
lic works has published the report of the
city engineer which is an interesting
discussion of various phases of city de-
velopment and contains a comprehensive
study of its improvement.

The Harvard School of Landscape
Architecture has issued its tentative
classification scheme covering the field
of city planning, which has been in
preparation since the establishment of
its special reference library in 1911.
The scheme is intended not only to
provide for the classification of reference
material-books, pamphlets, maps, plans,
photographs, plates, and post cards in
the library, but also to serve as a basis
for the arrangement of notes and other
professional data. It will be used in
classifying the titles in the bibliography
of city planning now being compiled
jointly by the Library of Congress and
the school. It has further interest in
suggesting aspects of the field on which
as yet little has been published. The
scheme is constructed on the general
principles of the Library of Congress
classification, which was found to con-
tain no adequate provision for the par-
ticular field of city planning. A similar
scheme for landscape architecture, in
which also the Library of Congress clas-
sification scheme is deficient, has been
developed by the school and will be
issued later. The preliminary outline
may be obtained at ten cents.

The complete city planning classifi-
cation scheme was published June 1 by
the University at fifty cents a copy.

Dresden Allotment Gardens, — Allot-
ment gardening in and about Dresden is
a flourishing and popular industry. ^ For
a nominal sum any citizen may rent a
plat of ground on the edge of the town,

1 According to Vice-Consul General R. C. Tred-
well.

490

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL llEVIEW

which may be used to grow vegetables
or flowers or may be fitted up as a recre-
ation spot for his family. A committee
exists whose business it is to see that
general uniformity of scheme prevails
among the amateur gardeners. The usual
rent is 2 cents a square yard per annum.
Most of the allotments are laid out on
otherwise useless tracts of land on the
outskirts of the city. They are usually
owned by private persons, but in some
instances the city is the original owner,
and rents the ground to someone else,
who subdivides it and re-rents it in small
areas. The lessees come from all walks
of life. The greatest beneficiaries are
small tradespeople, postal employees
and industrial workers who put in their
spare time to good use bj' growing vege-
tables and flowers. This scheme is espe-
cially important and feasible in cities
ranging in population from 200,000 to
500,000 where the densely crowded cen-
ters are not too far from the edge of the
town.

Continuous House Cleaning in Detroit.
— The sanitary committee of the Detroit
Health League is weary of occasional
well-doing and has decided upon having
fifty-two "clean-up weeks" in the year
instead of one. The committee is to be
composed of three delegates from the
board of commerce, each civic organ-
ization, and each fraternal organization
in the city. The city is laid out into
two divisions with two chairmen over
each division; each ward is to have two
supervisors and each precinct is to have
aids to the su])ervisors. In this way the
whole city is laid out and responsibility
fixed. Mrs. Mary S. Seabold is the
secretary of the committee.

Troy Civic Betterment.— The Troy
( 'hanibcr of ('oinmorcc is making an
effort to bring about civic improvement

by way of the various small civic associ-
ation and fraternal societies which are
urged to induce their members to improve
their properties and lawns, plant flowers
and shrubbery, and remove waste and
unsightly conditions. Good results are
already evident from the effort.

Central Park Creators to be Honored.
—The New York City Club is fostering
a movement to provide a suitable mem-
orial to Frederick Law Olmsted and Cal-
vert Vaux to whose, efforts the city is
indebted for its celebrated Central Park,
the first in America designed in the be-
ginning for public purposes.

Vacuum Street Cleaners. — Manches-
ter, England, is testing a patent vacuum
street cleaner invented by J. and P. Hill
of Sheffield, and the experiments so far
indicate that the new cleaner is far su-
perior to the old type in that there re-
main no sweepings to be cleared up by
manual labor and that dust raised by
the horse drawn broom is avoided.

*

The Home and School League of
Philadelphia has made an appeal to
its members to cooperate with the bureau
of highways and street cleaning in im-
proving the condition of the city streets,
The women and children are asked to act
as volunteer inspectors and to assist in
arousing interest in the condition of
the streets among the citizens in their
own neighborhood.

City Planning. — ^The April number of
Landscape Architecture is devoted to
the city planning studies submitted to
the National Conference on Citj' Plan-
ning at its Chicago meeting.

NOTES AND EVENTS

491

IV. POLITICS

The Recent Overturn in Houston.'^
The primary election for maj'or and city
commissioners of Houston on March 7
resulting in the complete defeat of the
administration party marked the cul-
mination of an extremely bitter con-
flict. The administration had been in
office for eight years, in fact ever since
the commission form of government was
there introduced, but the only member
of the commission returned in the pri-
maries was the finance commissioner who
refused to run on the administration
ticket.

Mayor Rice was not a candidate for
reelection, but endorsed a Mr. Geisel-
man, a butcher and meat deader, for
the place. Of the three daily papers in
Houston two were anti-administration
organs and one supported the admini-
stration candidates. The issues in-
volved in the election, according to the
views of the two sides were as follows.
The administration claimed to have ex-
pended money for large municipal im-
provements such as many miles of street-
paving and sewer building, and there-
fore to be unable for lack of money to
have the streets and open ditches kept
as clean as might have been desired. As
it was, the lack of funds necessitated
the incurrence of large debts for per-
manent improvements, which debts were
fought by many influential citizens who,
in the eyes of administration supporters,
were not used to modern city conven-
iences and refused to be taxed for them.
The anti-administration forces, on
the other hand, accused the authorities
of extravagance in administration and
of letting contracts without calling for
competititive bids. But the keynote of
the campaign, as both sides admit, was
the complaint that the administration

' The writer is Indebted for a very Interesting
survey of the Houston situation, from which many of
the facts here stated are taken, to a communication
from Frank Putnam, late commissioner of the city
of Houston to study the administration of European
cities. Mr. Putnam was a warm supporter of the
former administration.

refused access to the books. According
to the administration supporters the
authorities complied with the law in
rendering an annual account and merely
refused access to the books to represen-
tatives of hostile newspapers who wished
to use certain items as a basis for attack.
The successful candidate, Ben Camp-
bell, said after the election:

I announced my candidacy for office
because I did not think that Houston
was getting her money's worth in city
government and because the people are
not allowed full information as to the
public affairs. The result indicates that
the people had the same idea. There
was not enough competitive bidding for
contracts with the city. The business
was conducted in perfunctory manner
in the open sessions of the board of
commissioners.

His view seems to have been born out
by the election returns which showed a
victory of nearly two to one for the
Campbell ticket.

The other successful candidates were
J. J. Pastoriza, finance commissioner
under the former administration who
declining to run for renomination on
its ticket; H. A. Halverton a merchant
of the city and one-time alderman; Matt
Drennan a business man and former
alderman, and Dave Fitzgerald, a deputy
tax collector. The results of the pri-
mary were of course virtually conclusive
and were confirmed in the regular elec-
tion on April 14, the only opposition
ticket being that of the Socialists.

It may be of interest to note what
Frank Putnam, a student of municipal
affairs and warm supporter of the Rice
administration, thinks of the result of
the election in Houston. He sums up
his conclusions in these words "The av-
erage voter sees more clearly a small
fault of administration than a large ben-
efit; it is still easily possible for a bril-
liant sophist, if eloquent, to sway the
•majority to mob-madness, the more eas-
ily if he is aided by widely circulated
newspapers willing for business reasons

492

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

to distort by misrepresentation and sup-
pression essential facts concerning the
faction ^vhich they oppose; government
by newspaper may soon become as much
a menace to sound public service as
government by public service corpora-
tions." We might add the interesting
assertion by the same person that Mr.
Geiselman, the butcher candidate "was
opposed by hundreds of workingmen
voters on the ground that being a plain
workingman he was not a sufficiently
elegant figure to represent the city on
formal occasions." Nevertheless he was
the only candidate "who spoke no evil
of any man," never lost his temper nor
descended to personalities but confined
his platform and his very brief public
talks to a consideration of the issues of
public service.

Herman G. James.

The St. Louis Election. — A complete
new municipal ticket was elected in St.
Louis on April 1 — the mayor, comptroller,
collector, president of the board of public
improvements, auditor, treasurer, mar-
shal, assessor, city register, inspector of
weights and measures, twenty-eight mem-
bers of the house of delegates and a pres-
ident and six members of the city council.
Six former members of the city coun-
cil hold over for two years longer, as
do also the mayor's mid-term appoint-
ees. The recent administration was
Republican.

The election did not present any
issue in so far as party platforms were
concerned. They were all practically
identical. The election resolved itself
largely into a question of personal fit-
ness. St. Louis is neither a Democratic
nor a Republican city. The margin be-
tween the two parties has been so small
for a long time that a comparatively
slight influence could swing the election
either way.

In this situation the newly reorgan-
ized municipal voters' league was able
to play a conspicuous i)art. While not
endorsing any one of the four candidates

for mayor, the otlier nominees on the
general ticket endorsed by the municipal
voters' league were elected almost with-
out exception and all by a margin of be-
tween two and three thousand votes in
a total vote of 115,000. The voters'
league had much less effect in electing
ward representatives. A Republican
mayor was elected largely through inde-
pendent strength and the support of an
evening paper run on Hearst lines. St.
Louis elected a Democratic comptroller,
a Democratic president of the board of
public improvements by a plurality of
85 votes, and three Republican and three
Democratic councilmen.

It is gratifying to note that men who
had been in office and were running for
reelection were reelected where their
record showed them conspicuously fit
and were defeated where their record
showed them to be unfit. A clean record
was the qualification of the municipal
voters' league and the league controlled
just about enough votes — three to four
thousand — to swing the election either
way. On the whole, St. Louis will have
the next four years, a strong municipal
administration.

The most interesting feature of the
whole campaign was the nominations
under the new municipal primary act
recently passed by the legislature. It
was St. Louis' first experience with a
good party primary. The primary was
the means for putting out of e.xistence
the "big boss" in politics. One Dem-
ocratic candidate for mayor, backed by
a "big boss," although well qualified,
was beaten by an opponent of unsus-
pected strength because of the popular
feeling against bossism.

The city also elected a board of free-
holders to draft a new charter for the
city, following the defeat of a proposed
new charter two years ago. Popular
government is really becoming an act-
uality in St. Louis. It has within six
months adopted an initiative and refer-
endum amendment to the charter, au-
thorized the drafting of a new charter,
secured a fairly effective primary act and

NOTES AND EVENTS

493

elected as strong a municipal ticket as
could be secured from the candidates
presented.

Roger N. Baldwin.

Mayor Thum's Administration. — One

of tiie most interesting municipal docu-
ments of the year is the report submitted
by the mayor of Pasadena, Cal., William
Thum, in May, giving in detail the work
done during his administration of the
affairs of that beautiful and well man-
aged city. Pasadena has just turned
its government over to five commission-
ers under charter amendments adopted
last year. Mayor Thum is a believer
in the new sytem, and it was largely
through his influence and with his earnest
support that the change was made. Un-
fortunately for Pasadena, Mr. Thum
positively refused to be a candidate for
a place on the commission; and the report
of his stewardship made when he retired
is convincing proof of the city's loss in
his return to private life. In fact, com-
mission government will have to make
an unusual record in Pasadena if it
shall improve upon the pace set by this
modest and unpretending business man
in his administration of its affairs. May-
or Thum gave the city the enormous ad-
vantage of having its business conducted
with all the care and attention to detail
which characterizes the management of
a well organized private business. He
gave it all of his time; working almost
day and night to systematize and coor-
dinate the departments and the admin-
istration as a whole. He organized
and, under many difficulties, put into
successful operation an efficiency bureau.
He caused an expert valuation of the
properties of the various water com-
panies of the city to be made, and suc-
ceeded in effecting a purchase of them
on a just and mutually satisfactory basis.
He ably championed the cause of munici-
pal ownership and operation of the elec-
tric light business, under exceptionally
trying conditions; and both the water
and light departments made creditable

records of efficiency. With a large and
wise prevision, he negotiated with the
neighboring and adjoining cities of
South Pasadena, Alhambra and Los An-
geles for joint conduct of municipal
enterprises in which they have a com-
mon interest. Taken by and large.
Mayor Thum's official record i§ really
monumental.

John J. Hamilton.

Cuban Municipal Elections. — The Gac-
etaAdniinislralivaof Havana gives there-
turns from the late elections for mayors
of the Cuban municipalities. The elec-
tions were for a period of four years be-
ginning in December, 1912, and the results
by provinces were as follows: Pinar del
Rio, conservatives 9, liberals 6; Habana,
conservatives 9, liberals 13; Matanzas,
conservatives 9, liberals 10; Santa Clara,
conservatives 17, liberals 11; Camaguey,
conservatives 4, liberals 1 ; Oriente, con-
servatives 10, liberals 6. In all six prov-
inces therefore, there were elected con-
servative mayors in 58 municipalities
and liberal in 47.

London County Council. — ^Every three
years there is an election for members.
There are 58 electoral divisions in the
administrative council. The city divis-
ion returns four members and all the
other 57 two each, making a total of
118. As a result of the election held this
year the membership of the council is
made up as follows: municipal reform-
ers, 67; progressives, 50; labor, 1. The
municipal reformers gained 9 seats and
the progressives 3. The losses were sus-
tained by the labor and socialist par-
ties. The only present labor member
of the council is Miss Susan Lawrence.

*

Philadelphia's Public Service Com-
mittee of One Hundred was organized as
a result of the last meeting at which
Mayor Blankenburg was the main speaker
on April 14. This committee, of which
James Mapes Dodge, president of the

494

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

Link Bolt Manufacturing Company, was
chosen cliairnian, has worked hard for a
single legislative chamber elected at
large. Failing in securing that at this
session of the legislature it will devote

its efforts to electing members of council
who will support the policies of the
mayor. The committee pledges itself
to divorce the business affairs of the
city from politics.

V. CONFERENCES AND ASSOCIATIONS

American Art Commissions. — On May
13, a meeting of the members of Ameri-
can art commissions was held in New
York, upon the invitation of the past
and present members of the art commis-
sion of that City. Representatives of
nearly every one of the fifteen municipal
art commissions of the country were
present. Two states (Connecticut and
Massachusetts) have appointed art com-
missions and the federal government has
appointed a national fine arts commis-
sionj and representatives of these were
present.

After an address of v/clcome by Mayor
Gaynor, the discussion of the appoint-
ment, jurisdiction and work of art com-
missions was participated in by nearly
everyone present. An unusual but very
successful feature of the conference was
the absence of any prepared paper. No
set address at all was delivered. It was
all discusson. This applied both to
the morning and afternoon sessions.

At the morning session the veto power
of art commissions was the chief topic.
There appeared to be a general agree-
ment that, so far as a work of art is con-
cerned, there should be an absolute power
of disapproval, either of the work itself
or of its location. The term "work of
art" in this connection is that used in
nearly all legislation creating such com-
missions, which may be stated as follows :
"The term 'work of art' shall inchule
all paintings, mural decorations, inscrip-
tions, stained glass, statues, reliefs, or
other sculptures, monuments, fountains,
arches, or other structures, intended for
ornament or commemoration."

With regard to buildings it appeared
to be the more general opinion that art
commissions should not have an abso-
lute, but merely a suspensory veto power

conferred upon them; so that if it is nec-
essary to proceed immediately with a
building for utilitarian reasons, this can
be done through the passage, by the
particular municipality concerned, of an
ordinance directing the prosecution of
the work notwithstanding the disap-
proval of the art commission; provided,
a stated majority (generally selected as
two-thirds) of the aldermen or council-
men so vote.

The importance of giving the power
of excess condemnation to cities where
art commissions have been appointed
was emphasized by the suggestion that
where this power is put into execution,
art commissions be given authority to
pass upon the buildings to go up on the
excess property re-sold The suggestion
was made that, in the case of such build-
ings, the veto power should be abso-
lute.

It was generally agreed that the jur-
isdiction of art commissions should ex-
tend not merely to works of art, but to
public buildings of all kinds and to all
structures of private or semi-public in-
stitutions that extend over streets; that
it should include the lay-out of parks,
parkways, play-groimds and the grounds
of public buildings; and that it should
also extend to the designs of buildings
erected in whole or in part by state or
city aid, whether that aid be in the form
of appro])riation of money or of the set-
ting aside of land for their occupancy.

The method of appointing art com-
missions was discussed slightly. It ap-
peared to be generally agreed that the
legislation should in some way limit the
choice of the appointing power to a class
of men whose judgment would bo expert
— that is, that the choice should not be
from the general public. The example

NOTES AND EVENTS

495

of Pennsylvania was cited, in which the
choice is:

A painter, a sculptor, an architect, a
member of a commission having control of
a public park in said city, not holding any
other office under the city government,
and four other persons, not engaged in
the practice of the profession of painting,
sculpture, or architecture, but, at the
date of their appointment, members of
the governing body or teaching force of
a corporation or corporations organized
under the laws of this commonwealth
and conducting a school of art or archi-
tecture in said city.

There was some support of the ap-
pointment of an entirely professional
art commission, but there was not suffi-
cient time for the suggestion to be thor-
oughly considered. Want of time also
prevented discussion as to whether the
jurisdiction of art commissions should
extend to private dwellings, provided the
necessary constitutional changes could
be secured, as to which diametrically op-
posed views were entertained.

The afternoon session, held in the Met-
ropolitan Museum, was devoted chiefly
to a discussion of the work of state art
commissions and of their methods of
appointment. This is a little known
field in this country and the two existing
statutes are very different.

In order to present the matter more
satisfactorily at the conference next
year, to arrange for which a committee
was appointed, the chair was authorized
to appoint another committee of five,
to draft model statutes for both state
and municipal art commissions. The
committee, appointed since the meeting,
consists of John B. Pine, chairman,
Arnold W. Brunner, both of New York;
Andrew Wright Crawford, of Philadel-
phia; James G. Cutler, of Rochester and
Freilerick Law Olmsted, of Brookline.

At the dinner at the University Club,
the New York Art Commission was
again the host. The speeches were in-
formal, only one or two individuals hav-
ing been notified that they would be ex-
pected to speak; volunteer speakers were
called for and the call was generally
responded to.

This informal method of holding a
convention was an unqualified success.
The absence of any paper at all, and the
admirable and informative discussions
of suggestions proved the lack of wisdom
in programmes where three, four or five
papers are provided for at one session.
In the writer's judgment, one paper is
always sufficient, provided the author-
ities in charge of the convention know
that it is a good paper; if they have not
knowledge that it is a good paper, they
ought not *o permit it to be given.

The wck of art commissions, which
has been growing very quietly for the
fifteen years since the appointment of
the Boston and New York art commis-
sions, is apt to receive a great impetus
in the near future owing to the general
realization that when a building is
erected, it is erected for a century or
more, and the best thought ought to be
secured. Expecially is this the case
where the cost of such expert advice is
so slight. A example of this is shown
by the recently issued report of the art
jury of Philadelphia, in which the fol-
lowing figures are given:

The total cost of forty-five of the sixty-
seven submissions made or considered
during the year, the total cost as esti-
mated by the departments or bureaus
making the submissions or as shown by
contracts, was $9,132,819.00.

The total cost of maintaining the art
jury during the year, including equip-
ment and other expenses of the initiation
of a new Department, was $3,933.58.

One point clearly demonsti'ated at
the meeting is the distinction between
the functions of city planning commis-
sions and art commissions. An art com-
mission is really a jury. It does not ini-
tiate; it passes judgment upon plans sub-
mitted to it. The work of city planning
commissions is essentially formative in
character. The duty of such a commis-
sion is to foresee and to forecast, to
propose and to initiate. There has been
some confusion in the minds of individ-
uals with regard to the functions of these
two bodies, each of which is a new de-
partment of city government. This es-

496

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL RE\'IEW

scntial diffcrcnco bctwoon the two should
be kept in mind, especially in the fornia-
tive stages of the work of the two bodies.
Andrew Wrioht Crawford. >

The Fifth National Conference on City
Planning, held at Chicago in May, dif-
fered from the preceding meetings in two
important ways. For the first time
since its organization the conference met
west of the AUeghanies in that wide-
awake section where city planning has
manifested its greatest strength. The
conference also, for the first time, under-
took to supplement its papers and dis-
cussions by the presentation of actual
plans, drawings and sketches to illus-
trate more specifically than papers can,
some of the ways in which city planning
problems may be advantageously worked
out.

The chairman of the conference, Mr.
Frederick Law Olmsted, with the coop-
eration of the members of the executive
committee, outlined a city planning
program. The subject was presented
under three distinct heads: (1) The de-
velopment of a city planning movement,
including a discussion of the organization
of unofficial activities and of official bod-
ies to be charged with the duties of city
planning; (2) the principal steps in the
preparation of a city plan after the ma-
chinery for its preparation is established;
(3) methods of putting a city plan into
execution.

The program which Mr. Olmsted pro-
posed may be summarized as follows:
First, to obtain a knowledge of the facts
through a city survey covering informa-
tion as follows— the facts of the physical
environment of the people of the city,
the social facts concerning the people
themselves and the reactions between
them and their physical environment,
then the economic and financial facts
as to the resources of the community
and especially the possible means of
bringing those resources to bear upon

' Secretary of tha Art Jury of Philadelphia.

public improvements; finally, the facts
as to the legal and administrative con-
ditions which must be reckoned with in
any and all attempts to change or con-
trol the physical environment. The
next step in the program after the survey
is to forecast the probable future growth
of the city and to define the more im-
I)ortant problems to be met in planning
its control. After this, as a third step,
is the necessity to seek out tentative so-
lutions of these problems, and the
fourth and final step is to collate and
compare all the serious projects, to pass
judgment upon them and by a process
of selection, elimination, and mutual
adjustment, to weld them into a self-
consistent and sensible general plan of
procedure to be put into execution as
opportunity permits. In concluding his
paper, Mr. Olmsted pointed out that
since the problem is not merely to make
a plan, but to cultivate the habit of
planning and of following a plan, the
people who most need the training and
enthusiasm that come with propagandist
effort are the permanent officials them-
selves. But whether the action is
official or unofficial, the early activities
are apt to be mainly educational. Among
the most effective educational devices
is the preparation and publication of
what may be called a study for a city plan,
of which we have had many illustrations
during the last four or five years. This
study is an indication of what city jilan-
ning means, presenting the principal as-
pects, a survey of conditions, a state-
ment of problems, and presentation of
solutions and explanation of their ad-
justment to each other so as to form a
consistent whole.

The report on the study in city plan-
ning, in two parts, was read by the chair-
man of the committee, Mr. John Nolen.
The first consisted of brief general com-
ments on the plans and on some of the
directly related principles which under-
lie the problems which these plans at-
tempt, in a measure, to solve. The sec-
ond i)art gave special comments by the
committee on the merit of particular

NOTES AND EVENTS

497

features of each plan. The main pur-
pose of this study in city planning was
not that of a competition; so far as pos-
sible, it was a cooperative enterprise
inaugurated as a means of bringing to-
gether, in a form to facilitate comparison,
a variety of sound methods each having
its own advantages.

The tract of land which pai-ticipants
in the study were asked to lay out, con-
sisted of about five hundred acres, which
was assumed to be located on the out-
skirts of a growing city with a popula-
tion of approximately 500,000 and about
four miles from the center of the city.
The original cost of the land was $2,500
an acre. The demand was estimated to
be mainly for the erection of dwellings
and for such other purposes as are nor-
mally incidental to such a development
— ^retail stores, local places of amusement,
schools, churches etc. Practically half
of the population, it was assumed, was
engaged in or dependent upon work in
nearby factories. The majority of fam-
ilies were to occupy dwellings rentable
for from $15 to $30 a month.

In its attempt to appraise the more
important ideas embodied in the plans
submitted by the participants, the com-
mittee adopted an outline as a basis for
comparison which included all the prin-
cipal problems of streets, the location
and character of civic and neighborhood
centers, provision for recreation, the
distribution of private property into
zones with regard to use and income and
the size, shape, and proportion of both
blocks and lots. The committee gave
not a little attention also to a consid-
eration of finances and methods covering
all costs and problems involved in esti-
mating the income on the investment.
Significant figures of special interest,
based on the statistical statements were
as follows: the relative area of property
devoted to streets, to parks and to lots
ranged from 20 to 28.5 per cent, averaging
25.9 per cent for streets; from 5.5 to 12.9
per cent, averaging 9.3 per cent for parks;
from 63 to 74.5 per cent, averaging 64.8
per cent for lots. The average number

of families provided for is 6,287, the den-
sity of population per acre being 70.^

In some respects, the most important
paper presented at the conference was
that on transportation in city planning
by Milo R. Maltbie, of the public service
commission. New York City. His paper
was discussed at length. In general, the
opinion seemed to prevail that the de-
mand for the construction of subways
was in many cases unwarranted and
should be restrained; furthermore, that
the control of transportation develop-
ment by the city, which Mr. Maltbie
a(ivocated, was of the utmost importance.

The final paper was presented by
George E. Kessler of St. Louis, and gave
the actual distribution of the cost of
the Kansas City boulevards. The meth-
od followed was that of a form of special
assessment against benefited land. In
practice the procedure is an amplifica-
tion of the theory of single land tax.
The large financial burden of acquiring
land and making permanent improve-
ments has been equably distributed.
Land values have been stable and the
system has tended toward a segregation
of sections for industrial, commercial
and residential use.

John Nolen.
Cambridge, Mass.

Chicago City Club's Housing Exhibi-
tion.— The growing realization of the
importance of good housing not only to
the individual but even more to the com-
munity and to such important factors
in the community as its industrial, com-
merciaLand labor interests, is illustrated
by the attention attracted by the Chi-
cago City Club's housing exhibition.
A new element has entered into that
"city building" which our associations
of commerce were organized to further,
and it is now recognized that merely to
secure new industries or to provide means
for the expansion of existing industries

' The full report of the committee with repro-
ductions of the plans has been printed as a
supplement to Landscape Architecture for April, 1913.

498

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEA\'

is not sufficient. There must also be
provided homes for the people who are
to man these industries, and the city
or town which can provide the best homes
within the means of the workers will
have an advantage of constantly increas-
ing importance.

The central feature of the exhibition
is a scries of some forty plans for the de-
velopment of a quarter section in an out-
lying district of Chicago. The compe-
tition was not limited to local men, so
though the first prize was won by a Chi-
cagoan, Wilhelm Bernhard, the second
was won by Arthur C. Comey of Cajn-
bridge, Mass., and the third by Albert
Lilienberg, chief of the town planning
commission of Gothenbcrg, Sweden, in
collaboration with Mrs. Ingrid L. Lil-
ienberg. These plans show a radical
departure from the typical rectangular
street system which reached its apothe-
osis in Chicago. Mr. Bernard, in fact,
stated that he desired to eliminate as
much as possible the through running
traffic from Chicago proper and so de-
signed his street system that through
traffic could find no direct means of
crossing the tract. While this would
undoubtedly tend to preserve the in-
dividuality of the district and to safe-
guard its residential character it is at
least a question whether a lack of any
through streets would not make even
so small a piece of land as a quarter
section somewhat less desirable as a
unit in the greater Chicago of the future.
Mr. Comey seems to lay greater stress
upon the fact that the district is not to
be sufficient unto itself but is to be an
integral part of the city and so provides
a diagonal thoroughfare leading from
the corner nearest the down town section
of the city. Such a thoroughfare would
prove a convenience not only as a part
of the street system of the whole city,
but also for the district itself, a consid-
erable proportion of whose inhabitants
must be presumed to have .their business
down town and so find this radical way
a most acceptable short cut to the corner
where the transit lines cross.

It is notable that the Club in drawing
up the rules for the competition limited
the possible population of the quarter
section to 1280 families. This did away
with any t('in|)tati()n which some con-
testants might have felt to show monu-
mental "model" tenement houses. There
are a few multiple dwellings indicated
on the plans, but the great majority of
the people are given opportunity to live
in homes instead of barracks.

As a background for the plans the
club arranged a very interesting exhi-
bition ,of existing housing at home and
abroad. This exhibition was exception-
ally well arranged so that the visitor is
gradually led from one phase of the ques-
tion to another in an orderly sequence
which makes the whole more understand-
able and more interesting. Several or-
ganizations cooperated with the Club
in this, the Woman's City Club, the
Woman's Club, etc., under the direction
of Edward L. Burchard^ of the School
of Civics and Philanthropy. The exhi-
bition is divided into four parts: (I)
Historical types of dwellings in Chicago
from 1830 to date; (II) Types of dwell-
ings now being erected in Chicago; (III)
"In darker Chicago;" (IV) Idealistic
housing in Europe and America.

Part IV contains not only photographs
and plans of the well known garden city
and garden suburb developments in Eng-
land, Germany and the United States
but also a very enlightening series of
views and maps illustrating the zoning
system of the Germany cities. To these
Charles B. Ball added a map of Chicago
showing how that city might be divided
into zones providing constantly better
type of housing as the crowded down town
district is left farther and farthorbehind.

In connection with the exhibition the
City Club held a series of nine discus-
sions on the housing problem. Among
the speakers at these discussions were
Ewart G.Culpin, secretary of the British
Garden Cities and Town Planning Asso-
ciation, ("harh^s li. Ball, chief sanitary

' A Monilx-r of tlie oomicll of the National Mu-
nicipal League.

NOTES AND EVENTS

499

inspector of the Chicago health depart-
ment, George E. Hooker, civic secretary
of the City Club, John Ihlder, field sec-
retary of the National Housing Associa-
tion, John C. Kennedy and Peter H.
Bryce of the department of the interior
of Canada.

John Ihlder.

International Congress on School Hy-
giene.— America for the first time in the
history of the International Congress
on School Hygiene will be the host of
the experts from all parts of the world
when this year from August 25-30 the
Congress meets at Buffalo, the citizens
of which have subscribed $40,000 to
cover the expenses. The objects of the
Buffalo Congress are: (1) To bring to-
gether men and women interested in the
health of school children; (2) To organ-
ize a program of papers and discussions
covering the field of school hygiene; (3)
To assemble a school exhibit represent-
ing the best that is being done in school
hygiene; (4) To secure a commercial
exhibit of practical and educational
value to school people; (5) to publish
the proceedings of this congress and dis-
tribute them to each member. The
National Muncipal League will be rep-
resented at this Congress by the follow-
ing delegates: Isaac Adler, Hon. James
G. Cutler, Joseph T. Ailing, Rochester,
N. Y; Charles W. Andrews, Virgil G.
Clymer, A. C. Chase, Syracuse, N. Y;
Hon. Merwin K. Hart, Rt. Rev. Charles
T. Olmsted, D.D., Thomas R. Proctor,
Utica, N. Y; Munson Havens, Mayo
Fesler, Warren S. Hayden, Cleveland,
Ohio.

St. Louis Conference of Federations. —
To provide an opportunty to get to-
gether, hear and discuss common prob-
lems, the executive officers and the
chairmen of the executive committee of
each of the social federations and asso-
ciations meet once a month in a monthly
conference of federations. It can take
two kinds of action: First, it can hear

and refer a problem to the proper fed-
eration or association for action; second,
after action, it can unite the federations
in common support of one another, and
in this connection maintains a state and
a municipal legislative committee for
securing necessary legislation. From
reports of the various federations the
conference prepares a community pro-
gram setting forth the most important
issues facing the city and the people.

*

The Union of Canadian Municipali-
ties meets this year in Saskatoon, Sas-
katchewan, July 15-17. Among the sub-
jects that will receive special attention
are putting watered stock into public
utility corporations, provisions for the
welfare of working population, inter-
provincial highways, wants of rural
municipalities, treatment of garbage vs.
incineration, improved system of water
filtration and purification, under-rep-
resentation of cities, town planning,
experience of a general city manager.

World's Christian Citizenship Con-
fereice. — -The second Conference will
meet in Portland, Oregon, June 29 to
July 23. Representative men from all
of the Christian countries of the world
have been invited to gather to discuss
and consider the problems of peace and
war, emigration and immigration, edu-
cation and religion, the family and di-
vorce, prison reform and civil service,
intemperance, the social evil, dependents
and delinquents, and the bases of Chris-
tian citizenship.

*

The Seventh International Purity
Congress will be held at Minneapolis,
November 7-12. This organization has
been devoting its attention to combating
the white slave traffic.

*

The Union of Quebec Municipalities

has been organized with Alderman La-
riviere as president and Talbot M. Pap-
ineaii as secretary.

500

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

VI. EDUCATIONAL AND ACADEMIC

The Socialist Party Information
Department and Research Bureau.— In
November of 1912 the Socialist party es-
tablished at its national headquarters in
Chicago an information department and
research bureau. For a number of years
the need of such a department has been
felt throughout the party circles. The
election of a thousand or more Socialists
to public office, 1 which put them in posi-
tions where accurate information on
specific problems was an absolute nec-
essity, served to emphasize this need.
As a result the national secretary, in his
annual report to the national convention
in 1912, and several special committees
joined in urging the establishment of
the department. Acting upon these rec-
ommendations the national executive
committee organized the department and
put it in operation.

The scope of the department is wide.
In general it answers the inquiries of the
party membership on all matters con-
cerning the socialist movement. The
service is rendered without charge, and
while established particularly for the
party membership is not limited to
them. Special attention is given to
labor problems, conditions of labor,
wages, hours, occupational diseases, in-
dustrial accidents, etc. And in keeping
with this the department has given es-
pecial attention to the matter of labor
legislation. With twenty-one^ repre-
sentatives in the state legislatures of
nine difTercnt states the legislative pro-
gram of the Socialist Party is becoming
more and more important.

One of the first things the depart-
ment did was to make a complete col-
lection of all the measures introduced
by the Socialists in previous sessions
of the state legislature inWisconsin, with

1 See National Municipal Review, vol. 1, p.
492.

2 One of the Kansas Socialists was ousted by what
Socialists regard ius u most hlEli-lumdod procedure In
the state senate after his election liad been su.slalned
by court prwcdure. -Another representative In Illi-
nois has just lost his seat in a re-count.

the addition of such other measures as
could be collected from Massachusetts
and Pennsylvania. A complete set of
these bills, numbering over 425 measures,
was sent to each legislative group in
the nine different states.

The department also specializes in
municipal problems. Particular atten-
tion is given to the form of government,
to numicipal ownership, efficiency in
administration and the more technical
problems of municipal government.' In
the nature of the case particular at-
tention is given to measures and means
for improving the conditions of labor.

In addition to these specific problems
the department deals with the more gen-
eral social and economic problems, such
as poverty, vice, crime, cooperation,
immigration and the like. It also con-
cerns itself with all Socialist Party meth-
ods and tactics.

So far no printed publications have
been put out, but each week the national
office of the party mails to several hun-
dred Socialist and labor publications
throughout the country a weekly bul-
letin. The information department has
two or three or more pages each week
in this bulletin.

As to the methods of -^rork followed
by the department obviously the first
task is the collection of material and
information from which the inquiries are
to be answered. As the funds of the
party available for this purpose were
limited, calls were made for volunteer
contributions to socialist writers and
publications. A surprising response was
met with immediately and material on
labor, economic and social problems
has been gathering rapidly. Several
sjiecial students of the Socialist move-
ment have jirovided generously from
material gathered through years of re-
search, and in this way the beginnings
of a reference department have been
gathered. The method of classification

3 See p. 'IIG, this Issue.

NOTES AND EVENTS

501

adopted is an adaptation of the method
used by the congressional library and
all the materal is being thoroughly
indexed.

A most interesting feature of this
department is the various lines of coop-
erating forces that have been brought
together. The Intercollegiate Social-
ist Society of the United States, has in
its membership some of the most noted
scholars in the university circles of the
country. Its secretary, Harry Laidler
at once upon the organization of the
department offered the services of the
organization in cooperation. Special
subjects have been assigned to the var-
ious students and already many lines
of research work are under way. An or-
ganization of lawyers numbering 178
located in 36 different states has also
volunteered its services gratis to help
the Socialist party in its legal problems
through the department. The Inter-
national Socialist Bureau of Brussels,
which is a department similar in nature
to the bureau here, is also cooperating.
And shortly following the establishment
of the American bureau, the Socialist
organizations of England organized one
in that country and there is talk of a
similar department among the French
socialists. All of these bureaus will
naturally work in cooperation.

In view of the fact that a great deal
of the scientific literature on social,
civic and economic problems, as well
as on questions of municipal and state
government, is elaborated in the foreign
countries, it is of especial significance
that the information bureau in this
country has at its command a score or
more of secretaries representing the
different languages. These men have
already been put to work on the trans-
lation of periodicals, pamphlets and
books on various subjects that are
thought to be of value for the work of
the Socialist party.

In addition to these cooperating forces
and effort is being made to gather a
corps of consulting engineers, scientists
and specialists to assist in the mechan-

ical and engineering problems of the
party. Already expert accountants, elec-
trical engineers, civil engineers and sci-
entists, men who are specialists in their
lines, have volunteered their services
in cooperation with the party. When
occasion arises the bureau is able to put
a group of Socialists elected to' a city
council in touch with some of the best
and most competent authorities in Amer-
ica along technical lines. In this way
it is hoped that the various administra-
tions of the Socialist party, when elected,
will be enabled to show the highest pos-
sible degree of efficiency.

In addition to the distinctly socialist
forces an effort is being made to set up
cooperation with all lines of technical
information. To this end the depart-
ment seeks to cooperate with the mu-
nicipal reference libraries that are being
developed throughout the country; with
the legislative reference libraries in the
various states; with public libraries and
technical organizations. The member-
ship of individuals or organizations of
the Socialist party in such societies as
the International Association of Labor
Legislation, the Proportional Represen-
tation League, the Direct Legislation
League, the Academy of Political and
Social Science, the National Municipal
League, etc., makes it possible for the
bureau of the socialist party to get the
very best of service along the lines han-
dled by these organizations.

The members of the party who have
been organizing the department realize
that it will take time to build it up to the
standard desired. But all of the plans
are laid upon a broad basis and with an
idea of enlarged possibilities of future
usefulness.

The director, Carl D. Thompson, was
formerly city clerk of Milwaukee, during
Mayor Seidel's administration.

The New Academy of Municipal Ad-
ministration in Duesseldorf, — The ap-
pearance of the first annual report of the
Diisseldorf Academy of Municipal Ad-

502

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

ministration calls attention to the latest
underfakinp; of this progrossivo Prussian
city. The proposal for the establishment
of a training school for municipal of-
ficials originated almost simultaneously
on motion of Dr. Brandt a member of
the city council of Diisseldorf and at the
suggestion of Professor Stier-Somlo of
the University of Bonn, in June 1911.
The idea was prompted by the ever
increasing need for trained men in the
administrative positions especially of
the smaller cities and towns in West-
phalia and the Rhine Province.

The mayor of Diisseldorf instructed
a member of the administrative board of
the city to enlist the collaboration of
Professor Somlo and within a month
a scheme for the establishment of such
an Academy in Diisseldorf was approved
by the city council, a board of directors
was appointed from among the member-
ship of the council and 10,000 marks ap-
propriated for preliminary expenses.
The Prussian ministry of education re-
garded the proposed Academy as a pub-
lic institution of instruction and hence
subject to the same regulations and
supervision as other institutions of that
nature. It was necessary therefore to
receive the approval of the central au-
thorities and this was given in October
1911. In the same month the institution
was opened and the lectures began.

The ends of the Academy are two-
fold. Pirst it is meant to offer training
for those intending to enter the career
of local administration, and second it
is to offer opportunities for those already
in the work to extend their knowledge
of the problems involved. It has the
rank of a regular institution of higher
learning, for the conditions of admission
for those desiring a certificate of exami-
nation are the same as those for other
Prussian institutions of higher learning.

The instruction is offered for the mOst
part by men who have been admitted to
the privilege of lecturing in a university
and for the rest by experts in particular
fields of municipal administration. The
regular course of study, however con-

templates only one full academic year's
work, althougli this period is regarded
as a minimum and may not be sufficient
for every student.

The new undertaking has apparently
by no means a smooth road to travel. In
the neighboring city of Cologne a some-
what similar institution existed which
required, though not absolutely, a peri-
od of study oi two years. The friends
and supporters of the Cologne institution
seem to have made strenous efforts to
discredit the new Diisseldorf Academy
in every way by designating it as a sec-
ondary school rather than as an institu-
tion of higher learning. They pointed to
the further fact in support of their con-
tention that state control was exercised
over the Diisseldorf Academy by the dis-
trict president instead of by the prov-
ince president as in the case of the Col-
ogne Academy. But the parity of the
two institutions was disclosed by a pub-
lic communication issued by the minis-
ter of public instruction at the request
of the mayor of Diisseldorf.

The Academy is a municipal institu-
tion supported by local revenues. The
board of directors comprises the first
mayor of the city, one member of the
administrative board and six members
of the city council. There are also rep-
resentatives of other local governmental
units on the board and this number is to
he increased. The appointment of all
members of the board as well as of the
director of the Academy and of all the
teaching staff must be confirmed by the
state authorities.

The report for the first year of activ-
it}' of the Academy shows a total atten-
dance of 130 regular students and 49 non-
matriculated students. The first budget
comprised about 50,000 marks, exclus-
ive of costs of fitting up a municipal
building for the purpo.se. In the winter
semester 1912-1913 more than twenty
different courses of lectures were given
by a force of twenty-four instructors
and included among others the following
subjects; criminal law, constitutional
law, law of muncipal corporations, ad-

NOTES AND EVENTS

503

ministrative authorities, general polit-
ical science, and administrative law in
general and of particular branches. In
addition to these a number of single pub-
lic lectures by authorities from elsewhere
were arranged, and to supplement this
technical work lectures on general socio-
logical subjects were also offered. Prac-
tical investigations of administrative
authorities in action are required of all
students.

In view of the growing recognition of
the fact that our municipal administra-
tion in the United States can never be
raised to any satisfactory level without
some organized means of training per-
sons for administrative positions, this
experiment of a progressive German city
cannot fail to be of interest and value. ^

The Philadelphia City Club's Wiscon-
sin Expedition. — One of the most re-
markable educational adventures that
ever took place in this country was the
City Club's expedition to the Universi-
ty of Wisconsin. It consisted of 120
persons. The purpose was to study care-
fully, imder the guidance of the faculty
of the university, the remarkable edu-
cational venture and triumph that the
university has wrought through its ex-
tension division; because in Wisconsin,
better than anywhere else in the world,
perhaps, the educational institutions
and the government of the people are
securely associated for the public welfare,
Not only the faculty of the university
from President Van Hise and Dean Reber
down to the last instructor of the divis-
ion was at the service of the expedition,
but the citizens of Madison associated
themselves with the university to make
the expedition's stay in Madison as com-
fortable and as delightful as possible.

The program for the three-days' stay
from May 22 to May 24, inclusive, occu-
pied every moment of the time. It was
all of a piece and was an endeavor to
show through personal testimony and

' See National Municipal Review, vol. i, p.

306.

by actual demonstrations of results the
"Wisconsin idea" as that idea has been
embodied in the institutions and indus-
tries of that state.

The program culminated in a master-
ful address by President Van Hise at the
Golf Club Friday noon. The President
reviewed the work of the extension divi-
sion from its beginning to the present
hour, and his words were an exposition
of the "Wisconsin idea" of education —
the teaching of man what he wants to
know. Perhaps the address was more
than an exposition — some who listened- to
it called it a defense. I am inclined to
think that it was both. Men and women
who have been accustomed to hearing
great speaking for great causes agreed
that this address stands high among the
foremost efforts of able educators.

The Friday luncheon was devoted to
an exposition by experts of certain char-
acteristic institutions of Wisconsin. The
railroad and public utility commission;
the industrial commission; tax commis-
sion; legislative reference department;
and the board of public affairs. With
the possible exception of President Van
Hise's address already mentioned, these
addresses brought us closer to what is
known as the "Wisconsin idea" than
any others of the program.

Friday night came the faculty dinner.
The club's speakers vied with one an-
other in their endeavor to gather up
the impressions of the three-days' visit.
They all sounded the same note, some
more and some less. It had all been a
very remarkable experience. It had
brought a fresh vision of the great power
of education. It had revised some no-
tions that needed revision, and it had
suggested new points of view and new
endeavors for the state of Pennsylvania.
Well towards the close of this evening's
program the Secretary of the City Club,
Hubert W. Wells, asked the toastmaster
to yield his place to the mayor of Phila-
delphia and then, addressing the mayor
proposed certain resolutions. The res-
olutions were adopted by a unanimous
rising vote. The secretary then went

504

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

on to say: "Mr. Toastmaster, I havo
been asked to condense into a sentence
or two the impressions of this expedition
as to the work of the university's exten-
sion division. I think that I can phrase
it thus: One of the memorable sentence?
in Dean Reber's address Thursday morn-
ing was this, 'The University of Wiscon-
sin endeavors to find out what a man
wants (o know and then to teach him
what he wants to know rather tlian to
tell him what he needs to know and to
teach him what he needs to know.' I
can't help feeling that at the heart of this
policy rests the conviction that to teach
a man what he wants to know is the very
best possible preparation for teaching him
what he needs to know. Through the
golden gate of that experience he will
pass to where his teacher can teach him
in accordance with accepted standards.
I should like to add a word which shall
bring to our hosts what we are beginning
to call the 'Philadelphia idea.' It runs
thus: 'Efficiency in democracy is the
security of democracy.' "

What will be the outcome of the expe-
dition? Two things we trust: First, the
coordination of our great institutions
of learning in a common endeavor for a
better use of the teaching force of these
institutions towards raising the general
level of the masses of our population;
Second, the creating of a public senti-
ment which shall demand of these insti-
tutions of learning an attitude that shall
endeavor to meet the needs of the plain
man as he comes seeking information
with reference to the things that most
concern him. The Wisconsin experi-
ence was an inspiration to these ends
because it demonstrated not what might
be done but what has actually been done
when serious people set their minds to
that training of the masses which is the
salvation of democracy.

HuBEUT W. Wells.

A Vocational Bureau Investigation. —
Starting vocation bureaus to find jobs
for children or to guide children into vo-

cations would be nothing short of organ-
izing a system for exploiting boys and
girls. Such is the conclusion reached by
Miss Alice P. Barrows of the Vocational
ICducalion Survey of the Public Educa-
tion Association of New York City, who
has been conducting for a year and a half
an investigation with reference to the
children who leave school to go to work.

She finds that there are no jobs for
children under sixteen that they ought
to take. Miss Barrows declares that
children need training for the trades they
are going to enter. They should not be
blindly guided into jobs. It is useless
to guide children when those who at-
tempt to guide them know so little about
modern complex trade conditions.

Before the survey was made, the
average person assumed that the chief
reason for children leaving school to go
to work was economic pressure, the need
to earn money for the family so as to keep
the wolf from the door. Miss Barrows
found out the reasons why children left
school, and economic pressure is the
least potent and the least frequent one.
Pupils leave for a thousand and one rea-
sons, and every pupil who leaves has
more than one reason to give.

The most striking thing found was
the apathy of parents and children to-
ward school. More than two-thirds of
the children and more than three-fourths
of the parents had no conviction that
it was worth while to spend more time
in school. Parents could not under-
stand that it was worth a sacrifice to keep
their children there.

Children at work get little or no train-
ing. They are given jobs which do not
develop them, but are merely dead rou-
tine. The years between fourteen and
sixteen are worse than wasted; they are
positively harmful in their effect. The
investigators were impressed with the
great dynamic force latent and struggling
for expression in these boys and girls,
the force of human adolescence, with its
honesty, its fine courage, its high resolve,
its determination to overcome every
difficulty. Yet, these children were

NOTES AND EVENTS

505

found to be restless in their work because
they were not given the chance to ex-
press their growing powers, because
their jobs did not allow them to think,
act or develop. Moreover, Miss Bar-
rows observed among these child workers
an unvoiced but ever-present feeling of
protest against the lack of individual
attention and training, and against the
military discipline and inexplicable tasks.
They want a "job where they can learn."

These facts left the investigators with
a feeling of skepticism about the desir-
ability of guiding children into vocations.

The survey was organized to find an-
swers, if possible, to the following ques-
tions: Why do children leave school in
large numbers as soon as they are four-
teen? What becomes of them? Will
vocational guidance aid them? Said
Miss Barrows :

Vocational guidance is something that
has always been practised, consciously
or unconsciously, wherever there were
growing children. If the school, the
family and the shop were as closely re-
lated as they used to be in the days of
the little red schoolhouse, vocational
guidance would have remained one of
the unconscious duties of the family.

But with the complex growth of in-
dustrial life, the school, the family and
the shop have all become strangers to
one another, with the result that it is
necessary that the welfare of the chil-
dren become a subject of more conscious
thought. The realization of this nec-
essity by people all over the country has
suddenly resulted in a widespread move-
ment for vocational guidance.

But what the children want is voca-
tional training. The kernel of truth
in this popular movement for vocational
guidance is the need of vocational train-
ing for children. Vocational guidance
should mean guidance for training, not
guidance for jobs.

Official Municipal Gazettes.' — The offi-
cial gazette is one of the recognized means
of supplying accurate information to cit-
izens concerning the activities of a gov-
ernment. Of the leading nations of the

' Compiled by Henry J. Harris, Library of Con-
gress, Washington.

world, the United States is perhaps the
only one which does not publish such
a j ournal of official information. In view
of the absence of a federal gazette, it
is a matter of considerable interest to
find that about a score of our American
cities have attempted to publish jour-
nals supplying information of a general
nature concerning the operations of all
the departments of the city government.
In many cities certain departments or
bureaus publish bulletins covering only
the operations of their own division of
the government, the bulletins of the
health departments being the best known
of this type.

In the Library Journal for April,
1911 (vol. 36, no. 4), is a two page bib-
liography by Clinton Rogers Woodruff
entitled "Municipal Periodical Liter-
ature." This article lists six official
journals of information published by
municipal governments; the rest of the
publications listed are unofficial, though
relating to municipal activities.

The following is a partial list of cities
which publish official journals of a gen-
eral nature, together with the titles
of the journals; additions and correc-
tions will be gratefully received by the
compiler:

Atlantic City, Commission Govern-
ment.

Boston, Mass., Monthly Bulletin; is-
sued by the statistics department.

Baltimore, Md., Municipal Journal;
issued semi-monthly.

Burlington, la.. Proceedings of the
City Council under the Commission Plan
of Government; monthly.

Centralia, Wash., Monthly Summary
Proceedings and itemized statement in
detail of the receipts and expenditures
of the city commission.

Chattanooga, Tenn., Municipalrecord;
issued monthly.

Colorado Springs, Colo., Summary of
Proceedings and Department Reports; is-
sued monthly.

Denver, Colo., The City of Denver;
issued semi-monthly by the city and
county of Denver. Successor to Denver
Municipal Facts.

Houston, Texas, Progressive Houston;
issued monthly.

Lexington, Ky., The City of Lexington.

506

NATIONAL .MUNICIPAL llEVIEW

Los An^t'los, (';il., JjO!^ Angeles Munic-
ipal News; published weekly by the mu-
nicipal newspaper commission from April
17, ini2to AprilO, 1913.

Memphis, Tenn., Commission Govern-
ment.

New York, N. Y. The City Record; is-
sued daily by the board of City Record.

Omaha, Nebr., Mnnicipnl Statistics;
issued monthly by the department of
accounts and finances.

rhiladelphia, Pa., Philadelphia; is-
sued monthly by the bureau of contracts
and statistics; now discontinued.

San Francisco, Cal., Municipal Rec-
ord; issued weekly.

San Jose, Cal., Municipal Record; is-
sued monthly.

Seattle, Wash., Municipal News.

Spokane, Wash., Official Gazette.

Tacoma, Wash., Municipal Bulletin;
issued monthly.

"The Los Angeles Municipal News."
— It is anybody's guess as to why a big
city votes as it does, but the following
reasons account for the repeal of the
ordinance establishing the Municipal
News:

1. Many people did not like the paper,
as they are not much interested in mu-
nicipal affairs, but prefer the sensational-
ism of the daily press.

2. After several years of progressive
tendencies in our municipal political
life, a rather marked reaction has been
under way in the last year, and the re-
actionary sentiment rather singled out the
Municipal News as one point of attack.

3. Owing to matters entirely outside
the control of the present city adminis-
tration, our taxes have been higher this
year, with the result that a stronger
anti-tax feeling exists than the city has
experienced in many years. This sen-
timent resented the $36,000 annual ap-
propriation for the Municipal News, as
unnecessary expense to the city.

4. All six of the daily papers in town
opposed the Municipal A^ews, not only
with editorial criticism, b\it with news
column slurs throughout the entire year.
Even the two progressive newspapers of
the city, prior to election day marked
their sample ballot in opposition to the

Municipal Neics. Six metropolitan dai-
lies were too much for our little weekly.
5. The question as it appeared on the
ballot was presented in a negative form,
which undoubtedly confused many vot-
ers. The Municipal News was estab-
lished at a general election at which
over 100,000 voters voted upon the ques-
tion, and repealed at a special election
at which about 39,755 voted.'

Cornell's New Course on Social and
Civic Questions. — Cornell was the first
of our universities and colleges to give
formal instruction on the social prob-
lems that during the past few years
have come to attract such wide spread
attention. So it is natural that a group
of Cornell graduates should have been
the first to form a social and civic com-
mittee whose chief purpose is to put be-
fore the students at their alma mater
the latest practical experience in the
work of which they learned the theory
while under-graduates. The faculty has
met the committee more than half way
and as a result a course on citizenship
will be given next fall as part of the reg-
ular work in the College of Arts.

The wide scope of this course is indi-
cated by the titles of the lectures which
will be given the first year. The intro-
ductory lecture is the citizen and his
community. Following this are: The
citizen and the homes of the communitj^
the citizen and the schools, the citizen
and public health, the citizen and the
recreation needs of the community, the
citizen and the problems of poverty, the
citizen and problems of crime, the cit-
izen and labor problems, the citizen and
problems of immigration, the citizen and
the physical development of his com-
munity, the citizen and politics, the cit-
izen and the church, the citizen and the
press, and the citizen and social and
civic organizations.

A number of the lectures will be given
by Cornell graduates who are now active-

' From George H. Dunlop, the chairman of the
mualclpal newspaper commUson.

NOTES AND EVENTS

507

ly engaged in social and civic work; Dr.
Herman M. Biggs, member of Governor
Sulzer's public health commission, Henry
Bruere, director of the bureau of munic-
ipal research, Lee V. itanmer of the Rus-
sell Sage Foundation, Franklin Mathews
of the school of journalism at Columbia,
Porter R. Lee, of the New York School
of Philanthropy and John Ihlder, field
secretary of the National Housing As-
sociation. The introductory lecture will
be by Robert W. de Forest, a Yale grad-
uate who has been a leader in so many
forms of social and civic work that it
would be useless to try to enumerate
them. Clinton Rogers Woodruff, Penn-
sylvania, 1889, will close the course and
drive home the points made by his pre-
decessors. Among the other prominent
speakers whose degrees were received at
other colleges are Dr. Edward T. De-
vine, director of the New York School of
Philanthropy, Schiff professor of social
economy at Columbia and a director of
the relief work in San Francisco after
the earthquake and at present rendering
similar service in the Ohio flood district,
John M. Glenn, director of the Russell
Sage Foundation, Prof. J. W. Jenks, for
many years professor of political economy
and politics at Cornell and a member of
the United States immigration commis-
sion, and Munson A. Havens, secretary
of the Cleveland Chamber of Coma erce,
which has earned the honorary title of
chamber of citizenship.

John Ihldek.

The Portland, Oregon, Survey. — A
comprehensive survey of the educational
system of the city has been undertaken
by a committee appointed by a taxpay-
ers' meeting. The work was commenced
on April 7 and will continue until com-
pleted in the fall. The members of the
survey are: ElwoodP. Cubberly, director
in charge; Frank E. Spaulding, who will
cover instruction and courses of study;
Fletcher B. Dressier, to whom had been
assigned the subject of buildings and san-
itation; J. H. Francis who will look after

vocational training; Lewis M. Termanto
whom has been assigned school hygiene
and supervision; Edward C. Elliot, is
the general consulting expert. Profes-
sor Cubberly is head of the department
of education at Stanford; Professor
Spaulding is superintendent of schools
at Newton, Mass. ; Mr. Dressier is an ex-
pert from the United States bureau of
education; Mr. Francis has been super-
intendent of the Los Angeles schools
since 1910, Dr. Elliot is director of the
course for the training of teachers at the
University of Wisconsin, and Professor
Terman is associate professor of edu-
cation at Stanford.

Philadelphia Plans Education of Mu-
nicipal Employees. — In order to promote
the advancement of municipal employees.
Mayor Blankenburg, of Philadelphia, in
cooperation with the superintendent of
schools of the city, has selected a com-
mittee of eight members from the facul-
ties of the high schools of the city to act
as an advisory committee to give helpful
counsel to municipal employees concern-
ing the means and methods of educational
improvement. A large number of mu-
nicipal employees have already availed
themselves of the opportunity and are
being individually guided in courses of
study of many grades and character
including arithmetic, English, civil,
mechanical and electrical engineering,
chemistry, bacteriology, social science,
accounting and scientific office manage-
ment.

The Leipzig Library. — As a quasi mu-
nicipal enterprise the proposed library
of German literature is worthy of note.
It is to be established in Leipzig as a
result of the combined efforts of the
Saxon government, the city of Leipzig
and the Borsenverein of German pub-
lishers. It is proposed to collect the
whole literature of the German empire
in German and in foreign languages is-
sued from January 1, 1913. The build-

508

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

ings will be erected by the Saxon gov-
ernment a( a cost of $714,000 on a site
embracing 107,040 square feet, donated
by the city of Leipzig. Title is to be
in the Borsenverein, but the Saxon gov-
ernment and the city of Leipzig will each
be represented in the administration and
will each contribute towards the main-
tenance of the library.

The Indiana Legislative Reference
Department of the state library was made
an independent bureau by the last gen-
eral assembly and the appropriation was
largely increased. The bureau is under
the control of a board consisting of the
governor, state librarian, i)resident of
the two state universities (Purdue and
Indiana), and one additional member
apiiointed by the governor. For this
position Governor Ralston appointed
Evans Woollen, president of the Fletcher
Trust and Savings Co., of Indianapolis.
John A. Lapp was chosen director of the
bureau, Ethel Cleland librarian, and
• Charles Kettleborough statistician and
draftsman. Prof. Frank G. Bates of the
universitj' of Indiana will continue his
work in charge of the municipal reference
division of the bureau.

The Baldwin Prize for 1913 has been
awarded to Miss Sybel Edelweiss Long-
head, a student at Radcliffe College, and
to Edward A. Lawlor of Harvard. The
prize this year was for the best essay
on the subject of "The Best Sources
of City Revenue," The judges were
George C. Sikes, secretary'' of the Chicago
bureau of efficiency, and Dr. LeGrand
Powers of the United States census bu-
reau. It is the first time a woman has
won the {)rize.

*

School Surveys. — The New York bu-
reau of mvmicipal research lias devoted

a number of weekly bulletins to arous-
ing public interest in school affairs and
the encouragement of school surveys.
Among the cities where such surveys have
been or are to be made are St. Paul,
Portland, Ore., Milwaukee, Atlanta.
Oliio has provided for a statewide survey.

"The City of Lexington" is the title
of a monthly paper i.ssued by the city
of Lexington, Kentucky. Volume 1, no.
1, appeared on April 15. In its saluta-
tory it declares:

With this issue The City of Lexington
joins the ranks of municipal publica-
tions which are ra])idly growing in num-
bers with the hope that it may contrib-
ute its small part to the general fund of
knowledge and experience which is to
make city government throughout the
land more efficient.

"The Municipality" for April appears
in enlarged form and with a consider-
able number of new features. This mag-
azine is the official organ of the League
of Wisconsin Municipalities and is edited
by Ford H. MacGregor, secretarj'^ of the
League, and a member of the advisory
editorial board of the National Munic-
ipal Review.

"The Nation's Business" published
by the Chamber of Commerce of the
United States appears in a new and en-
larged form. It is much more attractive
and effective.

A Selected List of Municipal and
Civic Books has been published by The
American City (93 Nassau Street, New
York). It is an interesting publica-
tion of 5(5 pages and can be had upon
apiilicat ion.

NOTES AND EVENTS

509

VII. SOCIAL AND MISCELLANEOUS

Public Health Notes. — A decline in the
general death rate is reported from many
cities for 1912 and will probably be shown
in the state reports and for the whole
registration area when the vital statis-
tics become available. Even more nota-
ble, it . seems probable, will be the 1912
typhoid record, which for many cities
was markedly low. Typhoid in 1910
was high in many cities, but its steady
decline since then has brought a few
American cities down well toward the
low level of progressive European cities.
An important contributing factor in
the falling general and typhoid rate is
given the remainder of the space avail-
able for public health notes in this num-
ber of the National Municipal Review.

Milk is receiving a large amount of
attention from health boards, civic or-
ganizations, and individuals in various
parts of the country. Naturally the
greatest progress in the municipal con-
trol of the public milk supply is being
made in those cities which under their
charter or else under general state leg-
islation have ample powers to enact and
enforce such milk ordinances as seem to
them necessary and expedient. Unfor-
tunately there is a woeful lack of such
power in some states. Thus Massachu-
setts, in many ways a pioneer in public
health measures, has not yet given its
cities power over so obviously important
a matter as insisting that milk for house
consumption shall be sold in nothing
but sealed glass bottles. The question
went to the state supreme court a few
years ago, which decided that Boston
had no right to insist on such a measure.
For several years past the Massachusetts
legislature has refused to pass milk leg-
islation which has been strongly urged in
the interests of public health. The oppo-
sition springs from the agricultural in-
terests, the milk contractors and from
those who are opposed to increasing the
powers of the state board of health, in
which it has been proposed to vest cer-
tain powers of central control.

The New York legislature of 1913
was also unfriendly to extending public
control of the milk supply. It refused
to pass bills containing the substance
of the proposals discussed before the
conference held under the auspices of
the New York Milk Committee on
February 5.^

New York City continues to make
progress in the control of its milk supply.
Besides inspection on the dairy farms, at
shipping points and in the city it began
in 1912 to require all milk sold in the
city to be divided into three grades and
labelled accordingly; Grade A, recom-
mended for Infants and Children, sub-
divided into (1) certified or guaranteed
milk; (2) inspected milk, raw; (3) se-
lected milk, pasteurized. Grade B, rec-
ommended for adults, subdivided the
same as (2) and (3) above. Grade C,
for cooking and manufacturing purposes
only (i.e. so recommended) includes (1)
raw milk not conforming to grades A or
B; condensed skimmed milk and con-
densed or concentrated milk. It does
not appear that there is anything to
prevent a purchaser of milk for home
consumption from using Grades B or
C for infants and children or Grade C
for adult consumption, but if he does so
it will be knowingly and at his own risk.
Milk sold for immediate consumption,
as in restaurants, etc., must be either
grade A or B. Copies of the New York
milk rules, which cover many other es-
sential points besides grading and label-
ling, may be obtained from the depart-
ment of health, Centre and Walker
streets. A valuable article on the san-
itary control of local milk supplies
through local official agencies, by Ernst
J. Lederle, commissioner of health. New
York City, appeared in the Medical Rec-
ord (New York) for December 14, 1912.
As regards New York City, it may be
added that its right to inspect milk at
the 'point of production in the country

1 See National Municipal Review, vol. II., p.
313.

510

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

and its riglil to require milk consumers
to clcatif^c milk conlainors before thoy
are returned to the milk ilealer have
hotli been upheld recently by the higher
courts of the state. ^

Important studies of the milk supply
of Rochester, N. Y., have been made
recently by Dr. John R. Williams, sec-
retary of the milk commission of Mon-
roe County. In The Common Good (Roch-
ester) for March, 1913, Dr. Williams tells
why our milk is going to cost more.
To sum up his conclusion in one of his
own sentences: "This study leads to
the conclusion that the fundamental
error which has defeated the endeavors
of sanitarians in their efforts to procure
clean milk is mainly economic in charac-
ter and accordingly amenable only to
economic solution.'" He also points out
the gross common error of buying milk
with no regard for anything except bulk.
Purity and nutritive value should be re-
garded and paid for accordingly.

The Civic Club of Philadelphia (1300
Spruce street) has recently called at-
tention to the same general points (as
well as some others) as are emphasized
in the last paragraph,'^ in the course of
its investigation of the cost of living
series. It asks householders nineteen
questions about the price, quality and
other features of the milk which they
use daily

Regulations calling for better milk
houses (stone, brick or concrete) at the
country dairies from which Pittsburgh
gets its milk supply have led to the sort
of talk regarding a probable milk famine
which often follows a serious effort to
improve anj'^ milk supply. Such famines
never materialize. At the same time
milk consumers should realize that the
actual i)roduccr of milk gets only a small
percentage of the retail price of the com-
modity and that for the most part milk
prices of todaj' are based on milk pro-
duction under insanitary conditions.

A milk quarantine was declared by

' See Bull. Dept. of Health of New York City
February and March, 1913.
2 Leaflet III, Cost and quality of milk.

the health authorities of New Orleans,
against milk from dairies near Mobile,
Ala., in May of this year. Proposed
stricter regulations governing the milk
supply of Mobile led the local dealers
there to threaten to send thoir milk to
New Orleans, thus leaving Mobile short.
Dr. Dan T. McCall, health officer of
Mobile, wired the fact to Dr. W. T.
O'Reilly, of the New Orleans board of
health, with a request for cooperation,
which was granted in the manner stated.

A Cleveland, Ohio, regulation prohib-
iting the sale of milk at retail otherwise
than in glass bottles, has been declared
reasonable by the circuit court of Cuya-
hoga County, in a suit brought against
the Board of Health of Cleveland.'

Milwaukee, Wis., has won a notable
legal victory in a unanimous decision
of the United States Supreme Court up-
holding its right to exclude from the
city milk from tuberculous cows, to in-
spect dairy herds, to insist on the
tuberculin test, and to order cows
found suffering from tuberculosis to
be killed. Apparently the decision is
broad enought to cover the general right
of dairy inspection and milk regulation
as a condition precedent to its sale
within a city. The court held that the
ordinance was a valid exercise of the
police power of the city, under its charter
from the state. The ordinance had
previously been sustained by the Wis-
consin courts. Apparently the decis-
ion will be of general application
throughout the United States — wherever
cities and towns have been granted leg-
islative power to control their milk sup-
plies. If so, it is one of the most im-
portant court decisions affecting public
health ever handed down.

A new or at least unusual element in
the country-wide campaign for pure milk
is federal inspection and prosecution.
In May it was reported that agents of
the United States department of agri-
culture had detected many dairymen
in southern Illinois shipping impure and

'January Ihitt. Ohio State Board of Health.

NOTES AND EVENTS

511

adulterated milk to St. Louis. Analyses
in government laboratories are said to
have shown abnormally high bacterial
contents. Most of the dealers involved
pleaded guilty and were fined $10 and
costs on the submission of evidence by
the government.

M. N. Baker.i

School Lunches in New York City, —
The New York School Lunch Committee
has decided to ask the board of education
to establish lunches in all schools, the
equipment to be furnished by the board
and the direction to be in the hands of a
committee appointed by the board to
serve without pay. In 1911-12 lunches
were served in seven schools with re-
sults that make the committee favor
their extension. About 12 per cent of
the pupils at each school attend. The
lunches are of the penny an article vari-
ety with the provision that each child
shall spend the first penny for a bowl of
soup. The report claims that there has
■ been a noticeable improvement in scholar-
ship and health in the children who take
advantage of the lunches and that they
are especially necessary in cases where
parents are unable to provide nourishing
lunches from home because of poverty
or employment during the day. The
children are kept from the streets with
their invitation to truancy and from the
penny push carts whose offerings are not
nourishing.

It seems impossible to carry on the
work without a deficit. A satisfactory
lunch costs more than the children are
paying and a rise in price has been found
to result in so great a falling off in sales
that the cost is greatly increased and the
benefits practically lost. However the
problem is not one of cost for the deficit
is insignificant in comparison with the
total cost of the child's education and
the efficiency of schooling is much in-
creased. The problem seems rather to
serve a proper lunch, keep the cost with-

1 President, board of health, Montclair, N. J.

in reasonable limits, and then to charge
enough to keep it from seeming a char-
ity and at the same time not discourage
its use.

Massachusetts Civic League Fighting
the "Three Decker."— Throughout the
state three-flat apartment houses, pop-
ularly known as "three deckers," are
found in such numbers that they may
well be called the "Massachusetts type"
of tenement. They are the result of
attempts on the part of builders to es-
cape the requirements of the law and
ordinances of the various communities
which aim at the preservation of decent
living conditions in houses containing
more than four families. The Massa-
chusetts Civic League is urgently sup-
porting a measure now before the state
legislature regulating the further build-
of wooden three deckers which are at
the present time not only an evasion of
the law and an e.xceedingly dangerous
fire risk but also subversive of good mor-
als, good health and wholesome life. The
aim of the bill is to so guard the con-
struction of each room, the relation of
each house to the lot on which it stands,
and all alterations and maintenance, that
the house may at all times be fit for human
occupancy.

Philadelphia Civic Club Busy Explor-
ing the Cost of Living.—The Civic Club
of Philadelphia is conducting a compre-
hensive study of the cost of living.
Through ward branches and a series of
question pamphlets put directly into
the hands of householders, the club hopes
to obtain enough definite information re-
specting prevailing methods of purchas-
ing household supplies, sanitary condi-
tions in supply market places, prices
and advancement in prices in different
sections of the city, and other data that
will enable it to formulate a constructive
program to improve present conditions.
Already a pamphlet survey of the situa-

512

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

tioii with respect to meat and butter has
been made.*

Dutch Bureau of .Social Advice. — Sug-
gested by the need of workingmcn for a
specific and inexpensive place where they
could get advice on practical subjects,
the Central Bureau of Social Advice, of
Amsterdam, was created in 1898 with
three definite objects at the basis of the
organization: (1) To give information
regarding institutions and regulations
in the interest of workingmcn; (2) to
collect and assort data for that purpose ;
(3) to form a library. The organization
began with about 150 subscribers and
with total receipts in the first year of
about $600. The total number of sub-
scribers is now about 700 and the re-
ceipts $4,200. Information is given not
only to subscribers but to anybody that
asks for it. A fee is asked unless the
inquirer is absolutely unable to pay.
Some of the subjects upon which advice
and information have been given are
cooperation, savings, loans, pensions,
illness, burial funds, people's lodging
houses, labor contracts, regulations- in
commercial enterprises, measures against
imemployment, municipal-workmen reg-
ulations, minimum salaries and maximum
hours regulations. When the question
is of importance it is submitted to ex-
perts before an answer is given.

ments found at dance halls, pool rooms,
and moving picture shows, the People's
Institute, through its department of
recreations, is planning to take a cen-
sus at intervals of two months of all
people engaged on Saturday afternoon
and evening in any sort of amusement.
The count will include all children play-
ing in the streets and all children and
adults at parks and playgrounds, moving
picture shows, pool rooms, bowling
alleys and dance halls. One thousand
census takers will be put into the field.

Massachusetts Civic League Advo-
cating Sunday Play.— The Massachu-
setts civic league has introduced a bill in
the state legislature the aim of which is
to make it lawful to be present at and to
take part in games, play and recreation
on the Lord's Day after one o'clock in
the afternoon, subject to such regula-
tions and conditions as the local gov-
ernments may prescribe; but it is pro-
vided by the bill that no charge directly
or indirectly shall be made for the pres-
ence at or view of or participation in
any such games, play or recreation.
The provisions of the bill, if passed by
the legislature, become applicable in a
local community upon acceptance by a
majority of the voters at an election to
be called to settle the question.

Manhattan Recreation Census. — In
order to settle a controversy started by a
statement of a city official that the peo-
ple do not care for the recreation facil-
ities furnished by the city but prefer
to make use of the commercialized amuse-

289.

» See National Municipal Review, vol. II, p.

New York City Orchestra.— Sometime
ago New York City appropriated $10,000
for providing concerts in public school
buildings throughout the cit}^, and as a
result the city orchestra was organized
and gave its first concert on March 2.
The concerts of the orchestra have been
growing in popularity and attract espe-
cially large crowds on Sunday afternoon.

NOTES AND EVENTS

513

VIII. PERSONAL MENTION

Chief Kohler's Dismissal.— On March
17 Frederick Kohler, widely known as
the "golden rule chief of police" was
dismissed from the service. The dis-
missal was the outcome of his trial before
the civil service commission on charges
of (1) conduct unbecoming an officer and
a gentlemen, (2) conduct subversive
to the good order and discipline of the
police department, and (3) gross im-
morality,-—charges based on three alleged
clandestine visits to a private home
during the absence of the occupant's
husband. The defense was vigorously
contested, Kohler testifying in his own
behalf and summoning more than a
score of witnesses, but without avail.
Kohler's dismissal was noteworthy as
showing the high standard of personal
conduct demanded of Cleveland officials
even in a field of action where many com-
munities are wont to condone personal
misconduct so long as departmental
efficiency is maintained.

The civil service commission in pass-
ing sentence took occasion to commend
Kohler's official conduct, stating that
it regarded "Frederick Kohler as a police
officer of exceptional intelligence and
ability," and calling attention to the
fact that not even a suspicion of dishon-
esty or corruption had been held against
Kohler or his subordinates.

Entering the department as a patrol-
man in 1889, Kohler was rapidly promoted
and was appointed chief of Police by
Tom L. Johnson in 1903. A recognized
master of criminology, he was once char-
acterized by Theodore Roosevelt as the
"best chief of police in America." His
"golden rule" policy which was widely
heralded throughout the country was, in
short, to make as few arrests as possible.
In practice, its main features consisted
in taking intoxicated men to their homes
rather than to the police station and in
warning first offenders in small matters.
The policy was not applied to known
criminals nor in connection with serious
offenses. While the wisdom of the rule

has been subjected at times to harsh
criticism, on the whole it has worked
well in Cleveland.

Kohler's successor as chief is W. S.
Rowe, who has been connected with the
police department of Cleveland for
thirty-three years, and has served as in-
spector of police since 1903.

E. M. Hall, Jr.i
*

Dr. Werner Hegemann.— For the
purpose of promoting a wider knowledge
of town planning and especially the
achievements of European countries
along this line the People's Institute
ofNewYork arranged with Dr. Hegemann
of Berlin, to visit America and make
surveys of town planning needs and de-
liver lectures on the subject throughout
the country. Dr. Hegemann, one of the
best known experts in Germany upon
this subject, is now publishing a three-
volume work upon town planning. He
promoted and was secretary of the Ber-
lin Town Planning Exhibit of 1909 as
well as that of Dusseldorf.

Dr. Hegemann arrived in this coun-
try in March last and spent from a week
to ten days in the cities of Philadelphia,
Baltimore, Syracuse, Cleveland and Sac-
ramento, making surveys and suggestions
as to the possibilities of town develop-
ment and planning especially along the
lines of transportation and suburban
development. He also lectured in New
York, Wilmington, South Williamsport,
Pa., Rochester, Columbus, Hamilton,
Ohio, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Daven-
port, Chicago and Denver.

Dr. Hegemann made substantial con-
tributions to the transportation prob-
lem in Chicago, Philadelphia and New
York by emphasizing its fundamental
importance to the whole subject of town
planning and urged the construction of
better and newer types of elevated struct-
ures in preference to subway construc-
tion. He cited the examples of Berlin

' Assistant secretary, Cleveland Civic League.

514

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

and Paris, where the elevated has been
made both beautiful and practically
noiseless in comparison with the elevateds
which have been erected in New York
and Chicago. He will be in California
in June and then returns to New York,
where he plans to remain until Septem-
ber studying American town planning
and transportation conditions. After
that he leaves for South America on a
trip around the world for a world wide
study of this subject.

Frank J. Goodnow, Eaton professor of
administrative law and municipal science
in Columbia University, on April 5 sailed
for Pekin where he will act as expert
legal adviser to the government of the
Republic of China. He will be consulted
in the very important work of drafting
the new Chinese constitution. The ap-
pointment, which runs for three years,
came indirectly through Dr. C. W. Eliot.
While visiting China about a year ago,
Dr. Eliot was informed that, seriously
as the need of such an adviser was felt,
in the disturbed condition of Europe ap-
plication to any particular state would
be apt to arouse jealousies. On his ad-
vice a request was made through our
state department to the Carnegie En-
dowment for the recommendation of a
man familiar with the republican gov-
ernments of France and the United
States. Professor Goodnow brings to
his new duties unusual qualifications.
As a student of government and a pub-
licist his reputation stands high both in
Europe and America. He is the author
of numerous works on administrative
law, municipal government, and other
subjects. His expert authority has been
recognized by various appointments in
the public service. He was a member
of the committee to revise the New York
City charter in 1900-1901, of President
Taft's commission on elFiciency and econ-
omy, and of the committee of the Nation-
al Civic Federation on public ownership
in 1905-1906. More recently he con-
ducted, with Dr. F. C. Howe, an official

investigation into the public school sys-
tem of New York City. He has been
an active member of the National Mu-
nicipal League and the American Po-
litical Science Association. Professor
Goodnow graduated from Amherst in
1S79 and from the Columbia law school
three years later. He holds the degree
of LL.D. from Amherst, Columbia, and
Harvard.

*

J. G. Schmidlapp of Cincinnati, a well
known member of the National Munic-
ipal League, spent a considerable sum
in the building of two groups of houses
in Norwood and one in Oakley near Cin-
cinnati, with the idea that they should
be rented to workingmen at much less
than the prevailing figures and still pay
a net profit of 5 per cent on the invest-
ment. According to the Chicago Tri-
bune the experiment has been a success.
Mr. Schmidlapp is also engaged in a
pioneer experiment in another direction.
In memory of his daughter he has founded
a bureau for women and girls, which he
endowed with a fund of $500,000. Under
its direction financial assistance is pro-
vided to allow young women to finish
their education. Work is found for ap-
plicants and an investigation made of
the industrial experience and capabilities
of each girl.

*

Hon. George McAneny, president of
the borough of Manhattan, will deliver
the Dodge lectures on the responsibili-
ties of citizenship at Yale for the year
1913-14. The title of his lectures will
be "Municipal Citizenship." Those who
have i^reviously given the lectures are
Governor Baldwin of Connecticut, form-
er Ambassador Brj'ce, Justice Hughes,
Lyman Abbott, Elihu Root, the late
Bishop Potter, the late Justice Brewer
and Hon. William Howard Taft.

Prof. Augustus Raymond Hatton of
Western Reserve University has taken a
prominent part in various charter move-

NOTES AND EVENTS

515

ments in Ohio cities. He is a member of
the Cleveland commission and has
spoken in a number of places. He has
also drafted a bill to carry out the home
rule amendment embodying three op-
tional forms of city government.

Hornell Hart has been elected civic
secretary of the Milwaukee City Club.
He is a graduate of Oberlin and a post-
graduate in economics and sociology at
Madison. He is a son of Hastings H.
Hart of the Russell Sage Foundation
and a nephew of Prof. Albert Bushnell
Hart, formerly chairman of the executive
committee of the National Municipal
League.

*

Frank A. Hutchins, to whom perhaps
more than to any other man, Wisconsin
owes its library development, was the
guest of honor at a recent dinner in Mad-
ison at which he was presented with a
testimonial in the shape of a beautifully
bound volume of letters from over one
hundred friends.

*

Norman Hapgood and associates have
acquired possession of Harper's Weekly.

Mr. Hapgood is deeply interested in
municipal affairs and for some years
was a member of the council of the Na-
tional Municipal League.

Charles G. Haines, professor of po-
litical science at Whitman College and
secretary of the League of Pacific North-
west Municipalities, has been made an
associate editor of Pacific Municipalities
published in San Francisco.

*

Prof. Charles E. Merriam of the Uni-
versity of Chicago was elected on the
Progressive ticket to the board of alder-
men at the election held in April.

Dr. Herman G. James of the depart-
ment of government in the University
of Texas has been appointed a member
of the advisory editorial board of the
National Municipal Review.

Lewis R. Works has been elected pres-
ident of the Los Angeles City Club as a
result of a preferential election.

DEPARTMENT OF LEGISLATION AND
JUDICIAL DECISIONS'

Edited by John A. Lapp

Legislative Reference Department of the Indiana State Library

Richard W. Montague, Esq., Portland, Ore.

In charge of Judicial Decisions

Recent Housing Legislation, — This
phrase in the United States shoukl proji-
erly be applied to legislation passed since
1910, for at that time we entered upon
what was virtually a new era. During
the ten j^ears preceding there had been
some interest in housing betterment,
and in a few of the largest cities this
interest had been keen. But it so hap-
pened that the city which took the lead
in housing betterment during the first
decade of the century. New York, had
in its long, solidly built rows of tall tene-
ment houses a condition peculiar to it-
self. Consequently its reformers came
to look upon housing as practically
synonymous with tenement housing and
the law they secured in 1900, the most
effective legislation up to that time en-
acted in America, dealt only with build-
ings housing three or more families.

New York's successful fight attracted
national attention and many other cities
in the country were inspired to follow.
In some cities, as in Chicago where the
definition of a tenement house was made
to cover buildings housing two or more
families, some of the standards estab-
lished in New York were raised. But
in many of the smaller cities which imi-
tated the metropolis not only were New
York standards not raised, they were in
some instances distinctly lowered. Per-
haps the most unfortunate feature of
this flattery, however, was the spreading
throughout the country of an impression
that the tall tenement house was in some
degree a sign that the city possessing it

' A review of the Important features of state
legislation afTecting municipalities for the year 1913
will be published In the October Issue of the N.'i-
TioN.\L Municipal Review.

thereby demonstrated to the world that
it was growing to metropolitan propor-
tions. Just how much this impression
was responsible for the increase of multi-
ple dwellings it is, of course, impossible
to say, but there is no doubt that it had
considerable effect not only in stimu-
lating tenement house building but also
in blinding public spirited citizens to the
fundamental defects of these multiple
dwellings and to their bad effects upon
the community.

But there was one good result of this
imitation. Those who drafted legisla-
tion for the smaller cities or backed the
investigations designed to show the need
for legislation made frequent demands
upon the New York tenement house com-
mittee for advice and assistance. These
demands finally convinced the commit-
tee, especially Robert W. deForest and
Lawrence Veiller, that the problems of
the smaller cities should be studied in
the light of their own needs, not handled
as if they were merely smaller editions of
New York problems. For this purpose
the National Housing Association was
organized whose members and directors
represent all parts of the country. At
the same time Mr. Veiller drafted a
model tenement house law following
somewhat the lines of the New York law
which he had drafted ten years before
but embodying also the results of his
years of experience as an administrator
of the New York law and as director of
the committee which has aided in de-
fending that law in the legislature and
the courts.

Needless to say this model law sets
higlier standards than were possible in
New York, for the smaller cities have

516

DEPARTMENT OF LEGISLATION

517

still the opportunity to defend them-
selves against abuses which in New York
have become entrenched. Louisville, was
the first to use the model law as the basis
for its legislation and on March 21, 1910,
Governor Wilson signed it. Louisville,
however, still thought only of tenement
houses. To Columbus, Ohio, belongs
the credit of having really inaugurated
the new era by enacting in March,
1911, a housing code which applies to
small houses as well as to tenements.
The Columbus code was the result of an
investigation by a local committee di-
rected by Otto W. Davis which showed
that while Columbus had bad tenement
house conditions it had in far greater
quantity bad small house conditions.
Mr. Veiller was called into consultation
and as a result the Columbus housing
code, based upon the model law but
made to apply to all classes of dwellings,
was drafted and finally passed by the
city council.

Since then housing workers have had
before their eyes a new ideal. Their pur-
pose now is not simply to make tenement
houses as harmless as possible, but i^ to
make and keep our cities what most of
them claim to be, cities of homes. This
does not mean that in all cases they have
been able to live up to their ideal. The
tenement house tradition has become too
firmly established to be overthrown at
once, especially in communities where
tenement houses already exist in consid-
erable numbers. So California in 1909
and 1911 and Connecticut in 1911 passed
tenement house laws which marked
considerable advances over previous
legislation, but left them far short of the
mark set by Columbus. Even the Mas-
sachusetts law for towns (1912) applies
only to buildings sheltering three or
more families, but the proposed Mas-
sachusetts law for cities now before the
legislature raises this to two families. In
all these states such legislation is looked
upon merely as a first step in controlling
an abuse of great magnitude. San Fran-
cisco since the fire had become a city of
wooden tenements; Hartford and other

Connecticut cities had followed the evil
examples of New York and Boston; Mas-
sachusetts is famous — or infamous — for
the three deckers it has permitted to fill
its cities and towns.

But there is evidence that the new
ideal is potent. In spite of tradition and
of opposition based upon a misconcep-
tion of the effect a housing code will have
on certain private interests. Duluth suc-
ceeded (1912) in securing a code similar
to that of Columbus, and Kansas City
has drafted one of the same kind which
is now before its municipal legislature.
Cleveland and Detroit also have drafted
or are putting the finishing touches on
ordinances. The Indiana legislature has
just passed a new law which will apply
to all cities of the state. Pittsburgh
(1912) has passed local ordinances which
greatly strengthen the older state law
and apply it to small houses. Seattle is
drafting a new code. Schenectady drafted
an ordinance, but has also decided to
join the other five second class cities of
New York state in working for a state
law which will apply to them all. This
law is now being drafted.

Could this brief statement have been
written a few months later it is safe to
prophesy that the list of existing recent
housing legislation would be consider-
ably longer, for there were never before
so many states and cities working for
housing regulation. But as it is enough
has been done to show that new stand-
ards must be set by the city which would
keep in the vanguard; that in spite of
old habits of mind housing legislation in
the future must take in all kinds of
dwellings, not merely that which from
practical necessity was singled out by
the early reformers.

John Ihlder.

*

Noxious Weeds. — Legislation govern-
ing the removal of noxious weeds from
property exists in some form or other in
most of our large cities. A few of the
very largest municipalities, however,
seem to have considered such measures

518

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

unnecessary. New York and Boston
have no ordinance at all on the subject.
In Chicago, weeds are cut by the city
only when they interfere with the side-
walk. A state law of 1872 providing for
the destruction of the Canadian thistle
was amended in 1892 to cover all noxious
weeds, but this was declared unconsti-
tutional bj-- the courts in 1906.

With the above exceptions the large
cities generally have adopted measures
looking to the control of the weed nuis-
ance. Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Louis-
ville, New Orleans, St. Louis, Kansas
City, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Buffalo and
Salt Lake City are cities that have ordi-
nances on the subject. Seattle has a
good ordinance applying to thistles.
In Minneapolis, the weed question is
dealt with in a state law most thoroughly
Pittsburgh is given the power to cause
"putrid substances, whether animal or
vegetable, to be removed from any lot"
and Milwaukee is empowered by its
charter to "cause noxious weeds to be
abated as other public nuisances."

The Indianapolis ordinance, adopted
in 1910, affords a good example of the
city ordinances providing for weed re-
moval by the city in case of failure so
to do by the property owner. The ordi-
nance declares the growth of weeds and
other rank vegetation on rea' estate to
be injurious to public health, and a
nuisance. Owners of real estate must
cut and remove all weeds on or before
July 1 of each year. In the event of
failure to comply with the regulations
the board of health will have the work
done and the cost thereof will be as-
sessed against the owner in the same
manner as the cost of street sweeping and
sprinkling. No notice need be sent to
the property owner, but the weeds may
be cut by the board of health any time
after July 1. Violation entails also a
fine of not more than $25.

The ordinance adopted in Salt Lake
City in August, 1912, is a good example
of another class. By its provisions,
weeds higher than one foot are declared
to be a nuisance. The penalty is a fine
of not more than $50.

New Orleans and Louisville each have
two ordinances on the subject of weed
removal, there being in both cases sepa-
rate regulations for weeds in lots and
weeds in sidewalks and gutters. In
Louisville the two ordinances are en-
forced by different authorities. Los
Angeles has a penal and a civil ordinance,
the latter having recently been enacted
to provide for the removal of the weeds
by the city and the assessment of the
cost thereof against the property owner.

Enforcement of the provisions of
weed ordinances is delegated to various
authorities. In Buffalo the matter is
entrusted to the deputy street commis-
sioner; in Kansas City, the street clean-
ing department. Health authorities are
in charge of enforcement in Indian-
apolis, Pittsurgh, Atlanta and Louisville
(as regards lots); the board of public
works in New Orleans, Los Angeles and
Louisville (as regards sidewalks and
gutters) ; the police department in Salt
Lake City, Cincinnati and Seattle. In
Riverside, California, a small cit}^ that
has adopted weed legislation, the inspec-
tion is done by the board of park com-
missioners, violations being reported to
the superintendent of streets, who then
must take action.

The most effective weed ordinances
are those which provide some way for
the removal of weeds by municipal au-
thorities in case the property owner
fails to do so himself. The legislation
adopted in Buffalo, Indianapolis, Los
Angeles and the state of Minnesota pro-
vides that in case of failure of the prop-
•erty owner to comply therewith the citj'
may have the cutting done and the cost
assessed against the owner as a tax.
In Kansas City under these condit ons
the weeds are cut by the municipality
and a bill sent to the owner or occupant
of the premises; this city, however
seems to have been denied the right of
assessing the cost. Pittsburgh and De-
troit have this power of assessment, but
it does not appear to bo used in the
former city, and in the latter it was
found to be cheaper for the city to cut
the weeds in the first place at its own

DEPARTMENT OF LEGISLATION

519

expense, rather than to undertake in-
spection and the sending of notices to
owners of property. This applied par-
ticularly to the non-resident owner. At
any rate, Detroit makes no use of its
powers in this direction. The ordinance
recently adopted in Los Angeles con-
tains most elaborate provisions regard-
ing the assessment and collection of weed
taxes.

In some cases a certain date is spec-
ified before which weeds must be cut.
In Indianapolis, as mentioned before,
this date is July 1 ; Los Angeles has two
dates, May l^ and August 3L In Seattle
notice is given each May in the daily
press reminding the public of the ne-
cessity of removing thistles. In other
instances there is no such specific date, it
merely being provided that at any time,
in case of violation, notice shall be sent
to the property owner. Such regula-
tions are incorporated in the ordinances
of Kansas City, New Orleans, Atlanta
and Louisville. In Minneapolis, the
state law provides that notice shall be
sent on complaint; this is also the case
in Cincinnati. In Riverside, California,
it is the duty of the park commissioners
to make the complaint to the street sup-
erintendent, who then must send the
notice.

In those cases where the city author-
ities are allowed to have the weed cutting
done and assessment made, it is easy to
deal with the out-of-town property
owner. The Minnesota law provides
for personal service of notice whenever
possible, but that "if there be no person
in the county on whom service of notice
can properly be made, of which the cer-
tificate of the officer serving such notice
shall be prima facie evidence, the sub-
sequent procedure shall be the same as
though service had been made." The
experience of Detroit with the out-of-
town or non-resident property owner in
this respect has been mentioned prev-
\ons\y.

Andrew Linn Bostwick.*

• Municipal reference llhrar!an, St. Louis Public
Library.

Quiet Zones Near Hospitals.. — Noise
regulations are usually included in a
number of ordinances which deal with
occupations and actions involving such
noises. It is evident that in these cases
a compilation of a city's regulations of
this character involves a great deal of
labor. The comparative scarcity of com-
prehensive single laws on the noise ques-
tion lends interest to the matter of
establishment of quiet zones near hos-
pitals. In the case of the cities having
such regulations we find excellent ex-
amples of general ordinances dealing
with all unnecessary noises, applying, of
course, only in the immediate neighbor-
hood of such institutions. In some cases
the zones of quiet are automatically cre-
ated within a specified distance of all
hospitals, while other cities have enacted
laws that are merely permissive, author-
izing the establishment of these quiet
zones when desirable.

The ordinance in force in Chicago is
a good example of the mandatory type:

Zones of quiet established. There is
hereby created and established a zone of
quiet in all territory embraced within a
distance of 250 feet of every hospital in
the city of Chicago.

Signs to be posted. It shall be the duty
of the commissioner of public works to
place, or cause to be placed, on lamp-
posts or some other conspicuous place,
on every street or streets on which any
hospital may be situated, and at a dis-
tance of not less than 250 fe«t, in either
direction, from such hospital, signs or
placards displaying the words. Notice
— Zone of Quiet.

Disturbing noises — nuisance — penalty.
The making, causing or permitting to be
made of any unnecessary noise, or the
playing of itinerant musicians, upon the
public streets, avenues or alleys within
any such zone of quiet, which disturbs
or which may tend to disturb the peace
and quiet of any of the inmates of any
hospital located therein, is declared to
be a nuisance, and is prohibited.

Every person who shall be guilty of a
violation of any of the provisions of this
section shall be subject to a fine of not
less than two dollars nor more than fifty
dollars for each offense.'

11911 Code, p. 789.

520

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

The ordinimce in force in Cincinnati is
almost identical with the above, except
the jilacing of the signs is the duty of the
director of public service.

New York has an ordinance that may
be taken as typical of the permissive
type:

The several borough presidents are
authorized to erect, within their discre-
tion, on hunp-posts, or, in the absence of
lamp-posts, on such posts as thej^ may
find occasion to erect, at corners of inter-
secting streets, avenues or thoroughfares
on which may be located a hospital, ly-
ing-in asylum, sanatorium or other insti-
tution reserved for the treatment of the
sick, a sign or signs displaying the words
Notice — Hospital Street, and such
other warning or admonition to pedes-
trians or drivers to refrain from making
any or such noises or fast driving as
may tend to disturb the peace and quie-
tude of an J'- or all of the inmates of any
such institution.

Any person guilty of making any un-
necessary noise or a failure to drive at
a speed not faster than a walk on any of
the streets, avenues or thoroughfares
which have hereunder been designated
as "hospital streets" and for which such
warning signs have been displayed shall,
upon conviction or upon a confession
of guilt, be fined in a sum not exceed-
ing ten dollars ($10). ^

Buffalo has an ordinance that is prac-
tically the same as that of New York,
except the health commissioner is em-
powered to establish the quiet zones. *

Cleveland, by ordinance of March 14,
1910, provides for quiet zones within 250
feet of hospitals. In Louisville, an ordi-
nance (1911) makes any unnecessary noise
unlawful within 200 feet of any hospital
or infirmary, and authorizes those in
charge of such institutions to erect warn-
ing signs if they wish to. In Milwaukee,
two ordinances are pending. One pro-
vides for regular hospital zones of quiet,
and the other empowers the health com-
missioner to declare a quiet zone, erect-
ing the necessary signs, within 100 feet
of any building in which a person is
dangerously ill — an attempt to apply

quiet zone regulations to private houses
in which there is sickness.

Andrew Linn Bostwick.^

Creating Residential and Industrial
Zones. — Owners of residence property in
our cities incur loss because no home
neighborhood is safe from the invasion
by commercial or manufacturihg con-
cerns that reduce the value of the sur-
rounding property for residence uses.
This has a tendency to produce a marked
instability in values and cause those
investing their savings in ^omes or flat
buildings to be deprived of the profitable
use of their investments.

A committee appointed in Chicago to
consider the question of protecting resi-
dential districts from such encroach-
ments has drafted an appropriate bill so
amending the state, cities and villages
act as to give the city authorities full
power in the premises. It has been
approved by the city council and recom-
mended by that body to the legislature
for passage.

Under this bill power is given the city
council to "establish and create exclu-
sively residential districts, to prohibit
the erection therein of buildings other
than residences; to prescribe the general
character of residence buildings to be
erected in such districts, and to prohibit
the carrying on of any business in such
districts except upon the consent of a
majority of the property owners, meas-
ured by street frontage; to direct the
location and regulate the construction
and maintenance of factories, manufac-
turing or business establishments, and
stores, in residence districts in which a
majortiy of the street frontage is used
exclusively for residence purposes."

The Minneapolis council on February
28 and April 11, passed ordinances classi-
fying and designating certain buildings,
business occupations, induslrios and
enteri)rises as business industries and
defining and designating certain districts

' Ord. app. July 2, 1907, Code 1912. p. 58.

* St. Louis Municipal Reference Library.

DEPARTMENT OF LEGISLATION

521

in the city as industrial and residential
districts, within which such buildings,
occupations or enterprises may or may
not be maintained or carried on.

Frederick Rex.^

The Problem of Social Vice.— It is now
little more than two years when the re-
port of the Chicago vice commission was
made public. The very first paragraph
of the report sharply demands the repres-
sion of public prostitution in the name
of parenthood and childhood and the
physical and moral integrity of future
generations. It is only since the publi-
cation of this report that there has been
a marked awakening of the public con-
science as to the meaning of this grave
and terrible problem, challenging alike
the existence of the home and the sta-
bility of our social system.

This awakened interest is easily de-
ciphered in the ordinances passed and
measures introduced endeavoring to les-
sen or repress commercialized vice and
the concomitant evils attending it.
Commissions to investigate the traffic in
women have been formed or appointed
in a number of cities, notably. New
York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington,
Minneapolis and Portland, Ore. Even
a great national political party has en-
tered the lists and by its pronouncement
in favor of a minimum wage law for
women has sought to render less possible
the prospect of the daughters of the poor
becoming the rich man's sport and play-
thing.

The Minneapolis council passed an
ordinance on October 25, 1912, creating
a public morals commission consisting of
nine citizens appointed by the president
of the council, this commission to inves-
tigate the moral conditions and social
vice existing in the city and to submit a
report on the same to the mayor and the
council every three months, or oftener,
with such recommendations as will pro-
mote public morals. The new police
ordinance passed by the Chicago council

' Municipal Reference Library, Chicaiojll.

December 30, 1912, fixes the responsi-
bility for "the supervision of the strict
enforcement of all laws and ordinances
pertaining to all matters affecting public
morals" upon the shoulders of a second
deputy superintendent of police who
"shall not be a member of the 'police
force." In addition, its municipal court
has recently established a branch known
as the morals court for the adjudication
of all cases arising from the social evil.
The select committee of the Chicago
council appointed to investigate the
social evil, in a preliminary report, dated
May 5, recommends among other things,
constant repression with a view to total
annihilation and the utter elimination of
commercialized and segregated vice.

Portland, Ore., on October 23, 1912,
passed two ordinances directed at the
evil. The aim of the first ordinance is
to provide a keener sense of stewardship
toward the community for the proper
conduct of property by its owners by
requiring all buildings used as hotels,
apartment, rooming, lodging, boarding
and tenement houses or saloons, to have
placed on the same a plate bearing the
name of the owner, of such size and dis-
tinctness as will render it easily legible
to persons passing along the street. The
other ordinance provides for the regu-
lation of hotels, rooming and lodging
houses for the purpose of increasing the
hazard under which an immoral land-
lord may attempt to traffic in immoral-
ity. Proprietors of such buildings are
requested to give a surety bond of $1009
to the city as a guarantee for the faithful
observance of the ordinance, such bond
to be forfeited after a second conviction
for the violation of the ordinance in the
municipal court.

A more complete ordinance than the
Portland ordinance providing for the
placing of name plates on the front of
buildings was introduced in the New
York board of aldermen March 19, 1912,
by Alderman Stapleton, and referred to
the committee on laws and legislation.
Thus far the committee has failed to make
a report on it. Frederick Rex.

522

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

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526

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

The Columbus Wire Code.>— The Co-
lumbus wire code was approved October
28, 1912. It is designed to prevent fires,
accidents or injuries to persons and prop-
erty. Its real jnirpose is to remove the
"wire nuisance" as an interference with
the work of the fire department.

The superintendent of the fire and
police telegraph is made the chief execu-
tive officer under the code. Among his
duties are: (1) To supervise and regulate
the placing, stringing and attaching
of all telegraph, telephone, electric light
wires, guy wires, and trolley wires in the
city. (2) To inspect all electrical wires
or apparatus which may become danger-
ous to life and property; if dangerous,
to condemn the wires and order either
the removal or the placing of them on
safe condition. (3) To keep records of
conduits, poles and apparatus outside
of the buildings of each concern doing
business in Columbus, and having tele-
graph, telephone, electric light, or elec-
tric power lines. Maps, descriptions,
and periodical reports are to be made by
the concerns when so requested. The
information to be requested includes the
number and location of poles and posts,
number of cross arms on each, number of
wires attached, and the location of sub-
ways and manholes. The superintendent
is given the right to enter any building,
subway, manhole to make tests of elec-
trical wires or apparatus. All poles now
standing and those to be erected, and
all covers for manholes now in service or
to be placed in service must be branded
or stenciled with the registered mark of
the corporation owning them.

Before a corporation can erect a line
of poles or construct a subway, a map of
the route must be submitted to the super-
intendent together with other details of
construction, and his approval secured.
All corporations are required to take
every reasonable precaution to prevent
contact between the high tension wires
and other wires. The superintendent is
authorized to use the police power of the

» Ordinance do. 26875.

city to cause the removal of all wires
maintained in violation of this ordinance
Charles Wells Reeder.'^

*
Uniform Sidewalks, Columbus, Ohio.' —
All sidewalks hereafter constructed must
he of cement, 5 feet wide, and located so
that the outside line of the walk will not
be less than 3 feet from the outside line
of the curbstone. All grades and levels
are to be fixed by the chief engineer of
the city. No depressions for making
driveways or entrances to private or
public property will be allowed. The
plans and specifications for kind and
quality of materials will be open to
public inspection in the chief engineer's
office. No work can be started on a
sidewalk until the chief engineer is noti-
fied. All work is to be under his inspec-
tion, and no bills are to be paid for the
construction of a walk until it has been
accepted and approved by the chief
engineer in writing.

Charles Wells Reeder.*

*
Ini.iative and Referendum— St. Louis.
— The voters adopted at the Novembei
election the initiative and referendum
amendment to the city charter. Fifteen
per cent of the registered voters may
now require any proposed ordinance
either to be passed by the city assembly
or submitted to the people. No fran-
chise for any public utility becomes
effective except by a vote of the people.
This latter seems to apply to all fran-
chises even for minor switching and other
privileges.

*
Saloons. — Ordinances passed by the
city commission of Pontiac, ^lichigan, in
December, 1912, make it unlawful for any
"posted" man to enter a saloon. An-
other ordinance puts a penalty upon
minors entering saloons. Milwaukee has
also recently passed an ordinance pro-
hibiting the entrance of minors into
saloons.

2 Ohio State University Library.

3 Ordinance no. 26811. Dated Novembei 2.5, 1912.
< Ohio State University Library.

DEPARTMENT OF LEGISLATION

527

Telegraph and Telephone Poles. — An
ordinance of Pontiac, Michigan, taxes
telegraph and telephone poles 30 cents

per pole per year. The ordinance is
being contested by the companies con-
cerned.

II. JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Limitation on the Initiaave. — The
peoiile of Seattle have been informed by
the supreme court of Washington {Dolan
vs. Puget Sound Traction Light & Power
Co.y that their legislative power under
the initiative and referendum is not coex-
tensive with the power of the city council.
The court held that "thepower to grant
franchises is a sovereign power." That
it might be delegated by the state to a
city, but it is not within the power of
the city unless expressly so delegated.

One might think that when the legis-
lature of a state authorizes a city to
frame its own charter and that all the
powers, duties and functions shall be as
provided therein as to its own govern-
ment, the right to grant franchises would
be included. In this case a franchise
was granted violating the terms of the
city charter reserving to the city coun-
cil or the people the right to acquire "all
the property of the grantee within the
limits of the public streets" that it
should not include any valuation for
the franchise itself; and that "every
ordinance making any such grant shall
contain a reservation of these rights of
the city council and the people." The
ordinance in question did not reserve
these rights. The court found the or-
dinance valid and the charter provision
void, on the ground that the legislature
had vested in the city the power to grant
franchises. That granting franchises is
a subject of legislative authority and
that "the legislative authority of the
city means the mayor and city council."
The court fortified its position by the
argument that general law enacted by the
legislature is superior to and supersedes
all "freeholder charter" provisions in-
consistent with it. This is a principle
which has some possibilities as a means

» 130 Pac. 352.

of sapping the strength of the ""home
rule" idea in city government.

Police Power Again. — An ingenious
argument in limitation of our old friend
the police power was demolished by the
supreme court of California in ex parte
Montgomery.- The city of Los A"'geles
has the power under its charter to li-
cence, regulate or prohibit certain named
establishments and businesses. Lumber
yards, however, are not among them.
When a city ordinance made it unlawful
to operate lumber yards in certain pre-
scribed residence districts, the conten-
tion was raised that the naming of cer-
tain businesses in the charter limited
the power of regulation to those named.
The court construed the list as an enum-
eration rather than a limitation, and
held that nothing contained in the char-
ter could affect the constitutional grant
made to the city and that under that
grant the city is entitled to exercise the
whole police power of the state, so far
as local regulations are concerned, sub-
ject only to the control of the general
laws.

The court considered a lumber yard
not per se a nuisance but a legitimate
subject for regulation by the city.

The Heft of the Loaf. — The supreme
court has often qualified as a dietary
expert but in the case of Schmidinger vs.
City of Chicago,^ it had a new phase of
the culinary problem to deal with. The
city of Chicago by municipal ordinance
fixed the weight of the standard loaf of
bread at one pound, and to protect that
standard forbade the making or selling

"■ 125 Pac. 1070.
3 33 S. C. R. 182.

528

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL UEMKW

of loaves not up to it, or a specified frac-
tion or multiple thereof. The court de-
cided, after careful consideration, that,
while the ordinance might cause some
inconvenience to those deprived of the
privilege of selling baked bubbles sur-
rounded by a crust, as bread, it was not
such an imreasonable or arbitrary ex-
ercise of the police powers as to be void
under the fourteenth amendment. That
an attempt to compel a baker to give
full weight charged for does not involve
the taking of property without due proc-
ess of law to such an extent as to nullify
the attempt.

The court also had to meet the hoary
contention that the freedom of contract
guaranteed by the fourteenth amend-
ment was interfered with. In accord-
ance with a well established habit, how-
ever, the api)ellant was informed that
there is no absolute frc-edom in that re-
gard, and that any rights to contract
for under weight loaves that might be
claimed by the citizens of Chicago were
not so fundamental as to stand in oppo-
sition to an otherwise legitimate exercise
of the police power of the city.

Excess Condemnation and the Con-
stitution.— The decision of Judge Sulz-
berger in the Philadelphia case is of
great importance as a precedent even
if it is not the determination of the court
of last resort. The possibility of the
best results from the city planning move-
ments now so popular are largely depend-
ent on the power of excess condemnation.

Pennsylvania cities were given this
right in 1907 as to lands within 200 feet
of parks, playgrounds, etc., and the fur-
ther right to sell the land so condemned
subject to restrictions. This power is
one that has made the large city-better-
ment plans of European cities possible
and in many cases i)rofitable.

The constitutionality of the act giv-
ing the right is upheld by the court in
explicit terms. The hands of those in-
terested in improving the physical as-
pects of municipal life have been tied

too long by our deification of the individ-
ual, and decisions which seem to give
men, as opposed to man, a chance are
being hailed with delight by the great
majority of public spirited citizens.

City vs. County Local Option. — An
interesting question as to the right of a
Michigan city to limit the number of its
saloons has recently been raised at Sag-
inaw. Michigan has local option with
the county as the unit. A charter amend-
ment was adopted by the people limit-
ing the number of saloons to one to
every .500 inhabitants. The bonding
committee of the city council proceeding
to act on the amendment was confronted
with the objection, sustained by the city
attorney, that the charter amendment
is illegal and unconstitutional because
in conflict with the home rule act and
the constitution. That the general law
gives the council the power to fix the
number of saloons by ordinance, but
that the electors of the city have no
such authority. The city attorney seems
to have plenty of precedent and au-
thority in support of his position and the
people of Saginaw are placed in the
rather anomalous position of having
to attempt to get done through their elec-
ted officials something they thought they
had already done for themselves.

The power of direct legislation is re-
cent and in some respects the extent is
not well defined nor the limits well estab-
ished. Situations like that at Saginaw
are sufficiently absurd and should not
long be possible.

*

Ports as Municipal Corporations. —
The Oregon statute prescribing the
method for the organization of ports
was before the court in State ex rel Watt
vs. Port of Bay City.^ ITnder L.O.L. sec-
tion 6115, it is provided that if the terri-
torial limits of the district to be organ-
ized as a port do not include the county
as a whole they shall not extend beyond

< 120 Pac. R. 498.

DEPARTMEINT OF LEGISLATION

529

the natural watershed of any drainage
basin, etc. In this case the court held
that the petition for the organization be-
ing in regular form, the notice of elec-
tion properly given, the returns properly
made and the proclamation of the forma-
tion of the port duly and properly en-
tered, the finding of the county court
that the port had been regularly organ-
ized and incorporated and the entry of
such finding in the journal is res judicata
as to every fact necessary to constitute
a valid corporation including the loca-
tion of the boundaries. That the time
for objection to the inclusion of land in
such boundaries is during proceedings
in the county court and prior to such
finding and that no such question can
thereafter be raised by quo warranto.

*

Parks and Railv/ays in Conflict. — A

decision of great importance to Chicago
is Chicago City Railway Company vs.
South Park Commissioners.^ The decis-
ion confirms the right of the city, about
which there ought never to have been
much doubt, to control its own streets.
In this instance the limits of the author-
ity of theparkcommi-sioners over streets
taken over as parks and the intersections
of boulevards with public streets was con-
sidered. The railway company refused
to comply with the conditions prescribed
by the park commissioners and disputed
their jurisdiction under the theory that
it was authorized to build as it proposed
under the franchise upon which it was
operating and that the authority of the
commissioners was not exclusive.

The court found that the control of
the park commissioners as to park and
boulevard uses is exclusive but that the
city's authority over the intersections
of the boulevards and public streets was
not entirely taken away and that such
intersections remained parts of the pub-
lic streets under the concurrent juris-
diction of the park board and the city.
That while the city retained the sole
power to permit the laying out and

maintenance of street railways and while
the park board could not prevent the con-
struction of a street railway across the
intersections, it did have the right to
require that the work be done subject
to such reasonable limitations and con-
ditions as would cause the least inter-
ference with their use as driveways and
boulevards.

This ruling makes possible the con-
tinuation of the park system and per-
mits the park plans to be carried out
without being broken into too seriously
by the railways. At the same time the
park board is not confirmed in any such
authority as will permit it to interfere
seriously with legitimate and reasonable
traffic plans.

*

The Baseball Peril. — The question as
to the liability of a city for the death
of a passerby resulting from summer
evening baseball was before the court in
Goodwin vs. Reidsville.- The police ap-
parently sympathized with Young Amer-
ica to the extent of permitting the game
to go on in the street. A passerby was
injured by the ball and a claim set up
against the city in consequence.

The court made the distinction between
the governmental and legislative and
the private and ministerial functions of
a municipal corporation, holding that
the maintenance of order and enforce-
ment of the laws for the safety of the
public is a governmental function and
that in respect thereof such a corpora-
tion is immune from suit. This distinc-
tion is a simple enough one in principle
and is one very often made by the courts,
yet the frequency of the cases in which
it has to be applied indicates that it is
not particularly well understood. The
court further announced that the ques-
tion as to whether the playing of base-
ball was or was not prohibited by ordi-
nance was of no importance. That the
duty of the city to prevent injury and
maintain order was the same in either
case, being an act governmental in its

UOl N. E. 201.

"B S. E. 232.

530

NATIONAL xMUNlClPAL REVIEW

nature for a violation of which duty the
city is exempt from suit.

*
Who Owns the Streets.— The ri^ht of
a village to its streets was considered by
the New York Supreme court in the
case of the Northern Westchester Light-
ing Company vs. President and Trustees
of Village of Ossining.'^ The lighting
company was upheld by the court in its
contention that the only interest of a
municipal corporation in its streets is
that of the public in the highways and
that it has no interest in protecting the
rights of abutting owners of the fee
against interference with the highway
by third persons without the consent of
such owners.

In this case the company was making
use of the streets for its own purposes
without reference to the interests of
the village in furtherance of its business
in carrying gas to other towns and vil-
lages. The village authorities could not
see the propriety of their streets being
torn up solely for the benefit of others.
The court was of the opinion however
that the municipal authorities having
once given consent to the use of their
streets by the company for the purpose
of conveying gas, could not object to
such use during the life of the franchise
and that the fact that the gas was to be
furnished to other towns and villages
was not material.

*
Perpetual Franchises.— The supreme
court of Iowa has, in State ex ret County
Attorney vs. Des Moines City Railway
Company,^ overruled the claim of the
company to a perpetual franchise. The
terms of the original franchise are some-
what ambiguous in that its duration is
not mentioned. The rights on certain
streets were however made exclusive for
a period of tliirty years.

The court makes a distinction bctwoon
the case of a municipal corporation

1 139 N. Y.- S. 373.
J 140 N. W. R. 437.

granting a franchise for the use of the
streets by i)ublic service corporations
and contracting with water companies
for water for fire or other purposes the
former being done by it as agent for the
state and the latter in its private capac-
ity. Relying on this distinction it holds
that the muncipality is dependent on a
grant by the state for its authority to
grant franchises and that under the Iowa
code a city co\incil may not grant a
perpetual franchise directly or indirectly.
Thus disposing of the claim that since
the city had acquiesced in the making of
valuable improvements under the terms
of a supposedly perpetual franchise it
was estopped from disputing it. The
public corporations hold onto their" per-
petual" franchises with remarkable te-
nacity, but are gradually being made to
recognize that there must be limits to

all things.

*

Necessity for Securing Leave of Ab-
sence.— The rather too common spectacle
of a city employe attempting to collect
pay for time he did not work for the
city was before the court in Reilly vs.
City of New York.^ The New York city
charter contains a provision authoriz-
ing heads of departments to deduct from
the salaries of subordinates for absence
without leave. The contention was
raised in this case that where the 'ab-
sence is due to illness or other unavoid-
able causes such as would constitute a
sufficient ground for asking leave of
absence, the absence of the formality
ought not to prejudice the position of
the employe. The court could not see
the matter in exactly that light, how-
ever, and held that the power conferred
on the head of the department being
unquestioned, illness or disability where
not of such a sudden and disabling char-
acter as to prevent the application for
leave of absence being made, could not
be set upon as a reason for over-riding
the decision of the department head.
C. D. Mahaffie.
» 139 N. Y. S. 718.

DEPARTMENT OF REPORTS AND

DOCUMENTS

I. CRITICAL AND INTERPRETATIVE
Edited by John A. Fairlie

Professor of Political Science, University of Illinois

Municipal Debts in Massachusetts.' —

The Massachusetts bureau of statistics,
has been gathering, tabulating, and pub-
lishing in annual reports general statis-
tics of municipal finances, including not
only data regarding receipts and expen-
ditures, but debt. It had undertaken,
however, no extensive special investiga-
tion of any one branch of the subject
until somewhat unexpectedly called up-
on two years ago by the passage of an
order in the senate on February 14, 1911,
to make a report not later than March 1
following as to what cities and towns had
outstanding indebtedness, other than
temporary tax loans, "against which
no sinking funds are being accumulated
or for the extinguishment of which no
annual payments of principal are be-
ing made."

Obviously, within such a short period
as two weeks, it was impossible to make
a thorough inquiry covering the entire
state, but by careful examination and
tabulation of such information as was
already on file in the department and by
as much research as competent clerks
working overtime could give to the mat-
ter by examining files of city and town
documents, a report was made within

1 Outstanding Indebtedness of Certain Cities and
Towns of Massachusetts. Bureau of Statistics, Mu-
nicipal Bulletin No. 4, March, 1911.

Report of a Special Investigation Relative to the
Indebtedness of the Cities and Towns of the Com-
monwealth. Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics,
April 15, 1912.

Report of the Joint Special Committee on Mu-
nicipal Finance, to the Great and General Court.
Massachusetts House Reports, no. 1803, Boston,
January, 1913.

Report of a Special Investigation Relative to the
Sinking Funds and Serial Loans of the Cities and
Towns of the Commonwealth. Massachusetts
Bureau of Statistics, March 5, 1913.

the time limit. This is the report pub-
lished as Municipal Bulletin No. 4-

The immediate raison d'etre of this
inquiry was a petition then pending in
the legislature from the town of Danvers
for permission to issue a refunding loan
to extinguish a 6 per cent demand note
for $20,000, given by the town in 1875,
and on which interest payments for
thirty-five years had aggregated $42,000;
and the holder suddenly demanding pay-
ment, it could not be met. The legis-
lature accordingly thought it might be ad-
visable to ascertain the extent to which
municipal indebtedness consisted of loans
of this character which were being per-
mitted to run on indefinitely with no
provision being made for payment, and
also the extent to which the principal
of trust funds (which probably exist
in Massachusetts municipalities more
generally than in any other state) had
been used, interest being paid on the same
so that they constitute a liability instead
of an asset. Numerous examples of
this method of handling trust funds are
pointed out in this first report, which in
view of the shortness of the time allowed
for the inquiry, had but scratched the
sui'face of the question, and recom-
mended that the whole question be given
further careful consideration before any
attempt should be made to legislate
on the subject.

The legislature of 1911 adopted this
suggestion by authorizing the bureau of
statistics to make a more complete in-
vestigation and providing the necessary
funds for the purpose. During the fol-
lowing autumn and winter, accordingly,
a careful canvass was made of the facts
regarding municipal indebtedness in
every one of the 354 municipalities of

531

532

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

the State, particular reference being had
to (ho manner in which debt had been
incurred with respect to the various re-
strictions of the statutes. The results
of this investigation were embodied in
a report made to the legislature on April
15, 1912, which reviewed the manner in
which the general law relating to mu-
nicipal indebtedness had operated since
its passage in 1875, with some incidental
discussion of the operation of the supple-
mentary act passed in 1885, ostensibly
placing a tax limit of $12 in the $1000,
on the amount which could be raised
by cities for local municipal purposes.
The manner in which the law had proved
ineffective for the accomplishment of
its purpose seemed to suggest the nec-
essity of a thorough revision, and this
was embodied in a draft, of a bill printed
on page 215 of the report.

The chief purpose of this proposed leg-
islation was to limit the amount that
could be borrowed in anticipation of
taxes; to prevent the refunding of such
temporary loans (an abuse which had
grown so that at the present time a
considerable portion of w^hat is substan-
tially fixed or permanent debt has been
found, on investigation, to have orig-
inated in purely temporary loans); to
clnHniJu what is ordinarily described as
funded debt according to the purpose of
the loan, and in determining the time
limit of the various classes of loans, not
to permit the life of the same to extend
beyond the life of the improvement, so
far as practicable to fix upon the same;
then to prohibit borrowing for any other
than the several specified pur{)oses.
This theory of classifying municipal
loans by specifying in a general statute
certain particular purposes for which
it is deemed legitimate to incur debt,
and fixing definite periods for which these
several debts shall be allowed to run,
seemed to offer, the best remedy for bor-
rowing on account of current expenses,
and if a<lhered to, a practical method of
stopping the same.

No one, aparently, has ever been able
to define the term "current expenses"

in such a way that the evil of borrowing
on this account could be prevented by
a simple statutory provision prohibiting
the same; for what is a current expense
under certain conditions and in some
municipalities may partake sufficiently
of the nature of a permanent improve-
ment or a capital outlay as to warrant
the issue of debt in other municipalities.
Instead, therefore, of prohibiting bor-
rowing for current expenses, it was pro-
posed to permit borrowing for certain
specified purposes and to prohibit bor-
rowing for any other, and to make the
list of specified purposes sufficiently in-
clusive so that a municipality need not
be hampered in its growth by any obsta-
cles in the general statute calculated to
prevent its issuing debt for properly
legitimate purposes. In other words,
it was intended to give the municipalities
as large powers of local government in
this respect as are safe without neces-
sitating resort to the legislature for
special legislation any more than is nec-
essary,— but on the other hand, to com-
pel individual municipalities to come to
the legislature and prove their case when
they wish to borrow for some purpose
not specifically permitted by the gen-
eral law and which, conceivably, it
might be proper to permit in individual
cases, but especially dangerous to allow
as a general proposition.

One other important feature of this
revision was the exclusion of any provis-
ion for and, indeed, the prohibition of
the further establishment of sinking
funds, and the stipulation that all mu-
nicipal indebtedness shall be issued here-
after by the serial method. This method
has already been adopted by Massachu-
setts with reference to its own financial
policy, and voluntarily by numerous in-
dividual cities and towns, including the
city of Boston, which no longer issues
any sinking fund debt for general pur-
poses; and it was now proposed to make
this inethod of providing for the pay-
ment of municipal indebtedness luii-
versal in Massachusiils, which will be
the first state, to make this the exclusive

REPORTS AND DOCUMENTS

533

method for the payment of municipal
debts.

The legislation above outlined in part
as embodied in the report of April 15,
1912, was referred for further considera-
tion to a special committee appointed
to sit during the recess and to report to
the legislature this year. This commit-
tee labored very faithfully and consci-
entiously during the last summer and
autumn, taking the former reports and
data as a basis in large measure for their
inquiries, but approaching the subject
from a somewhat different angle, namely,
by personally summoning the mayors
and financial officers of every city in
the state and the selectmen and financial
officers of a large number of towns.
These officials were examined in person,
and the committee was well satisfied at
the conclusion of its labors that the worst
conditions reported as having been found
were in no sense exaggerated, and that
the contention that a thorough revision
of the statutes should be made was well
founded. The committee, went into cer-
tain branches of the general subject,
such as the assessment and collection of
taxes, which the previous inquiry did
not purport to cover and which fall
more closely within the jurisdiction of
the tax commissioner's office.

The result of the committee's review
of the reports of the bureau and its own
investigations were embodied in a report
which it made to the current legislature.
The recess committee took the bill and
made certain changes in the same as the
result of further conferences and con-
sideration, and certain additional per-
fecting changes have also been made by
the standing committee of the present
legislature to which the matter was re-
ferred and which has been giving addi-
tional public hearings on the subject
during the past two months, being now
about to make a final report to the Leg-
islature; and there seems to be no doubt
but that the bill now agreed upon will
pass. Both the recess committee of the
last legislature and the standing com-
mittee of the present legislature which

have considered this subject, (notwith-
standing their membership have been
composed, of course, of men of different
political parties who have naturally been
animated by varying personal points of
view) have been dominated by a single,
distinct desire to enact a piece of leg-
islation having for its sole purpose the
public welfare; and in view of the differ-
ences which generally arise in the con-
sideration of such matters, it is worthy
of note that the recess committee's re-
port was the result of a unanimous agree-
ment on the part of the members, and
it seems probable that the committee
of the present legislature having the
matter under consideration will also be
unanimous in its conclusions.

A special report has also been made
relating to sinking funds and serial loans.
This subject naturally fell within the
scope of the report which was made last
year, but was the result of a special
order intended to provide for a more par-
ticular investigation of this matter, —
the findings, which are the result of ac-
tual computations in the Bureau of Statis-
tics of some 1,200 sinking funds, merely
serving to fortify the recommendations
already made and to justify the propo-
sition to prohibit the further establish-
ment of sinking funds and to force the
issue of all municipal indebtedness hence-
forth by the serial method.

Charles F. Gettemy.
Boston, Mass.

*

Municipal Statistics. ^^The U. S. cen-
sus bureau publishes annually financial
statistics of all cities in the United States
having a population of 30,000 or over.
In the 1910 report 184 municipalities are

1 Financial Statistics of Citl^s, 1910. Bureau of
the Census, Washington, D. C. Cloth, 9 x 12; 338 pp.

Statistics of Municipal Finances, Massachu-
sstts, 1909. Published by Charles F. Gettemy, Di-
rector of the Bureau of Statistics. Cloth, 6 x 9|,
348 pp.

Comparative Statistics. Cities of Ohio. 1911.
Published by the Bureau of Inspection and Super-
vision of Public Offices. Paper, 6 x 9^, 222 pp.

Report, Municipal Accounts. Iowa. 1912. Pub-
lished by the Department of Finance and Municipal

534

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL IlEVIEW

represented. It aims to include all lo-
cal govornmont activities whether these
are administered by a single municipal
corporation or by a number of independ-
ent government bodies. The first twenty-
five pages are devoted to a discus-
sion of the general scope and character
of the work and its object. There is
also an explanation of accounting ter-
minology, but this is not so extensive as
in some of the earlier reports. About
sixty pages are given over to a discus-
sion of the general tables, which, to-
gether with the summary tables that are
included, constitutes a valuable part of
the report.

The statistics are almost wholly finan-
cial in character and are arranged in
thirty-seven tables. In general, the facts
presented in these tables relate to mu-
nicipal receipts and payments, amount
and value of public properties and im-
provements, indebtedness, per capita and
per cent distribution of receipts and pay-
ments, assessed and full value of property
and tax levies, receipts and expendi-
tures and other information relating to
schools. There is considerable sub-classi-
fication under each of these heads.

The general plan of presentation of
the financial transactions of municipali-
ties is the result of careful study and
experiment extending over a number of
years. The avowed aim is to supply
such information as will be of definite
assistance to those engaged in directing
the affairs of cities, and for the accom-
plishment of this purpose it is well
designed.

Throughout the Massachusetts re-
port there is evidence of the definite aim
of those in charge to present information
of such a character and in such a manner
as to be of direct assistance in the finan-
cial administration of cities. A note-
worthy feature in this connection is the

Accounts. .John L. Hlcaklcy, Auditor of State.
Cloth, 5ix 8}, 235 pp.

.'\nnual Report of the Department of Municipal
Affairs of the Province of .Saskatcliewan. 1009-10,
paper, fi} x 10, 06 pp.; 1010-11, paper, OJ x 10, 08
pp.; 1911-12, paper, 6J x 10, 98 pp.

section of analysis tables, in which the
results of a stiuly for the years 1907,
190S, and 19()'» of the relation which cur-
rent revenue receipts bear to current
revene expenditures are shown. The
extent to which cities have sufficient
revenue to meet their current expenses,
and the proportion of their revenue ex-
pended for maintenance, for interest,
and for debt requirements are set forth
in these tables in a manner which will
emphasize for the local officials the im-
portance of information of this kind.

The statistics presented are chiefly
financial in character. They deal in
order with the following subjects: i~"um-
mary of financial transactions; receipts
from revenue; payments for mainten-
ance and interest; indebtedness; and
cash balances. Under each of these main
divisions there are numeroiis sub-divi-
sions. Statistics are shown separately
for cities, for towns over 5000, and for
towns under 5000.

Special comment should be made of
the summaries of financial transactions
which present in a comprehensive man-
ner all the financial transactions of each
mimicipality for the year. The classi-
fication follows in the main the lines laid
down by the census bureau. Several
pages are devoted to an explanation and
definition of the terms used. There are
no balance sheets for the cities and no
physical statistics are given.

The Ohio report contains statistics
for the sevent}' cities in the state. In
addition there is a copy of the Ohio
uniform public accounting law. The sta-
tistics arc financial in character. There
are eleven tables in all. Of these seven
deal with receipts and expenditures, one
deals with assets and liabilities, and three
exhibit information of a supplementary
character, such as salaries, wages, tax
levies, miles of paved streets, miles of
sanitary sewers, per capita receipts and
expenditures, etc. The statistics are
comprehensive, and abundant detail has
been introduced, but the report lacks a
satisfactory summary of the financial
transactions for each city.

REPORTS AND DOCUMENTS

535

The classification is on a somewhat
different basis than that employed by
the census bureau and Massachusetts
report, and to an extent a different ter-
minology has been employed. An inter-
esting feature of the report is the state-
ment of assets and liabilities of the
cities. This should be of distinct ad-
ministrative value to the local officials.
The per capita figures indicate an attempt
to make the statistics of value for pur-
poses of comparison. No figures for the
public schools are given.

The Iowa report contains statistics
for 90 of the 101 cities and 630 of the 72.3
incorporated towns in the state. The
statistics for the towns are shown sep-
arately from those for the cities. The
part of the report relating to the cities
contains 17 tables. The first 9 of these
show the receipts and expenditures in
totals and in detail. Table 10 deals
with indebtedness, and the remaining 6
tables present miscellaneous informa-
tion, such as the assessed value of prop-
erty, taxes levied, value of municipal
possessions, salaries and wages, per cap-
ita receipts and expenditures, etc. Tables
16 and 17 contain physical statistics re-
lating to public service industries and
to other city enterprises. There are 4
tables of statistics for the towns which
exhibit information of the same charac-
ter as that shown for the cities but with
less detail.

The classification varies in certain
of its features from that employed in
the other reports, and in some cases
different terms are used. There is room
for improvement in the mechanical ar-
rangment of the different tables, and a
few typographical errors have found
their way into the report. Figures for
the public schools are not included, and
there is also lacking a satisfactory sum-
mary of the financial transactions for
each city. The report contains a list
of the city and town officers in Iowa and
a series of extracts from the law govern-
ing the municipalities of Iowa.

The Saskatchewan reports contain
general information relating to various

phases of municipal organization in that
province. Lists are given of the cities,
the towns, the villages, the rural munic-
ipalities, and the local improvement dis-
tricts together with the principal officers
of each. The reports contain no finan-
cial statistics.

In considering reports such as the
foregoing one naturally raises the ques-
tion as to their purpose. In general,
this may be said to be two-fold. First:
they should provide local officials with
information which will lead to a more
efficient municipal administration. Sec-
ondly: these reports should furnish the
general public with accurate informa-
tion concerning the scope, character,
and cost of municipal activities. In
order that this two-fold aim may be car-
ried out effectively, it is essential that
the classification of financial transactions
should be logical, consistent, and di-
rectly adapted to administrative needs.
It is obvious that much information can
be presented in reports such as these
which is of no direct value in the solu-
tion of the practical problems of munic-
ipal administration, and to a certain
extent information of such a character
is contained in the reports under consid-
eration. On the other hand, the sta-
tistics should be complete. The facts
relating to every phase of municipal ac-
tivity should be reported whether these
are administered directly by the munic-
ipal corporation or by other local gov-
ernment bodies. The absence of statis-
tics relating to the public schools in
the Ohio and the Iowa report has
been noted.

It is essential, furthermore, that the
information be presented in a manner
that will emphasize such facts as are of
particular significance. The reports will
be of little administrative value to the
average local official unless this is done.
To this end the mechanical arrangement
of the report is a matter worthy of care-
ful study. Attention has been called to
the summary of financial transactions in
the Massachusetts report. Such a state-
ment is of value because it presents on

536

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

opposite pages of the report in n concise
and yet a comprehensive manner all the
financial transactions of each munici-
pality for the year. The mechanical
arrangement of the statement is espe-
cially to be commended. When the in-
formation relating to any one city is
spread over a number of pages it is much
more difficult to get a clear idea of the
true financial situation of that city.
Special mention should also be made of
the analysis tables of the Massachusetts
report and the description of the gener-
al tables in the census report. All the
reports contain per capita figures to an
extent, and some of them have intro-
duced per cent figures which are valua-
ble in this respect, but there is still much
opportunity for imi)rovement. Num-
erous pages of statistics are apt to prove
very uninteresting, and if the reports
are to accomplish their chief purpose,
it is essential that they embody sugges-
tions and hints to the local officials for
the proper utilization of the information
they contain.

The reports would be of greater value
for purposes of comparison if a uniform
terminology andclassification were adopt-
ed. Modifications will always need to
be made in order to conform to such pe-
culiarities as there may be in the con-
ditions of municipal organization in the
different states, but it would be highly
desirable if the different state reports
followed more closely than they do the
classification and terminology employed
by the census bureau. If this were done
attention would more readily be directed
to defects in the general scheme of mu-
nicipal organization in the different
states and their elimination could be
brought about.

Total figures are of little value for
purposes of comparison. For this rea-
son it is very desirable to have unit costs
shown in the reports which will reflect
both the quantity and quality of the
service. In time it is to be hoped that
it will be possible to establish standards
for the cost of the various phases of
municipal administration.

All the reports point out the fact
that there is still a lack of ready coop-
eration on the part of some local oflS-
cials in the preparation of these reports,
but they also emphasize a growing un-
derstanding and appreciation on the part
of the greater number of such officials and
of the public at large of the significance
of this work.

O. R. Martin.

UniversiUj of Illinois.

*

Assessment of Real Estate in the
District of Columbia. — The committee
on the District of Columbia of the house
of representatives in April, 1812, dele-
gated a subcommittee to make an in-
quiry into the assessment and taxation
of real estate in the district. The report
of this subcommittee was submitted
August 20, 1912.1 Mr. Henry (leorge,
Jr., of New York directed the inquiry.

The committee found an utter lack
of method in the assessment of both
land and improvements; the sole stand-
ard utilized in either was the "asses-
sorial naked judgment." The legal re-
quirement that land and buildings should
be separately assessed was complied
with in merely a nominal way and the
further requirement that each should be
assessed at its true value, not at all.

As sales in Washington are made on
the square-foot basis, the assessor has
used this method in assessing land. But
in applying it, he has made no allowance
for the fact that the square-foot unit is
a variable quantity. He has ignored
the necessity of adjusting it with refer-
ence to such considerations as the depth,
corner location, and alley access of each
individual lot. The result has been that
comparable lots, adjacent to one another
have frequently been assessed at the
same rate per foot though their dei)th
has varied 50 per cent. Under the Hoff-
man-Neill rule the front half of a 100-
foot lot is worth two-thirds of its entire
value, and the rear half only one-third.
Lots adjacent to corner lots, moreover,

• 62d Congress, 2d Session, House Report No.l215.

REPORTS AND DOCUMENTS

537

have in many instances been assessed at
only 40 per cent of the corner rate when
no such disproportion in values has
existed.

When requested by the committee to
produce tables showing the factors of
value employed in the assessment of
buildings, the assessor was unable to do
so. On investigation, the committee
found buildings that really encumbered
the ground on which they stood to be
heavily assessed. The old Shoreham
Hotel is cited as an instance. Although
this is an antiquated structure that
should have been torn down to give
place to a modern building, it had up
to the time of the last assessment been
assessed at $200,000 when it was increased
to $300,000. All increase in the value of
this property had obviously been an in-
crease in land value and should have been
so assessed. An increased assessment
in land value would, however, have
necessitated a readjustment of the land
value assessments of the entire square
and the adjacent squares.

The committee discovered square after
square of small homes where the build-
ing value, already heavily assessed, had
been increased 20, 25 and 30 per cent
although the structures had in no wise
had their value enhanced by repairs or
by any additional improvements. In
one square, the buildings of which were
all old, the increase was 35 per cent. A
mechanic, for instance, who had paint-
ed the porch of his small home at a cost
of 50 cents had had his building assess-
ment increased by $500.

The real estate in the district has
theoretically been assessed at two-thirds
of its true value. In 1911-12 the total
real estate assessment was $330,000,000.
On this basis, if accurately assessed,
the true value of the real estate would
have been $495,000,000. But the assessed
value on being raised to 100 per cent
constituted only two-thirds of the true
value. The committee estimated the
true value to be $744,000,000.

This under-assessment. of real estate
did not attach equally to land and im-

provements, but overwhelmingly to land.
Land with a true value of $504,000,000
was assessed at $170,000,000, or at one-
third of its true value. Improvements,
on the other hand, with a true value of
$240,000,000 were assessed at $160,000,000
or at two-thirds their ti'ue value. -

In 1894 the land value was 59 per cent
and the improvement value 41 per cent
of the assessed real estate value. This
preponderance of land value has stead-
ily lessened since that time to the point
of disappearance. In 1912, the land
value was 51 per cent and the improve-
ment value 49 per cent of the assessed
real estate value.

For the purposes of its investigation
the committee divided the district into
five areas: the small-home area; the
middle-class area; the fine-residence
area; the business area; and the subur-
ban area. Examined in this manner, the
assessments revealed the grossest dis-
crimination between class and class and
between land and improvements.

Land in the area possessing the 40,000
small hpmes was assessed at 60 per cent
of its true value; that in the middle-class
area at 50 per cent; that in the fine-res-
idence area at 30 per cent; and that in
the business and suburban areas at 20
per cent.

Improvements in the small-home area
were assessed at 90 per cent of their true
value; in the middle class and business
areas at 71 per cent; in the suburban
area at 67 per cent; and in the fine-res-
idence area at 60 per cent.

Real estate in the district as a whole
was assessed at 66| per cent of its true
value. But in the small-home area it
was assessed at 73 per cent of its true
value, an overassessment of more than
6 per cent on the basis of assessment.
In the middle-class area, however, it
was assessed at only 61 per cent of true
value; in the fine-residence area at 38
per cent; in the business area at 37 per
cent; and in the suburban area at 25
per cent.

The district has a fixed tax rate of
1^ per cent. Had 100 per cent of as-

538

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

sesscd value been identical with true
value, this rate would have been equiv-
alent to 1 per cent. But as the taxable
assessment in the district is two-third
of the full assessment and as the full
assessment happened to be but two-
thirds of true value, this tax rate when
applied amounted to only two-thirds
of one per cent.

If the District had had a tax rate of
one per cent on a full and true value
assessment in 1911-12 — a tax rate equiv-
alent to one of I5 per cent on a two-thirds
assessment of true value — its revenue
from the taxation of real estate would
have been $2,490,000 more than it ac-
tually was. Large as this increase in
the tax levy on real estate would have
been — 50 per cent of the one imposed —
the increase would not have affected the
small-home area. In fact, the taxes paid
by this area in that year exceeded by
more than 10 per cent the amount that
it would have paid under a 1 per cent tax
rate on a true value assessment. Not so,
however, with the other areas. The mid-
dle-class area would have had its tax
levy on real estate increased by 8 per
cent; the fine-residence area by 42 per
cent; the business area by 45 per cent;
and the suburban area by 63 per cent.

No city has a more scientific system
of assessing real estate than New York.
The testimony of Lawson Purdy describ-
ing the assessment machinery in this
city is one of the most interesting and
valuable portions of the report submit-
ted by the committee. When analyzed
the recommendations of the committee
simply mean the adoption of the system
that has been so successful in New York.

The committee made five important
recommendations of general interest: (1)
that real estate be assessed at its full
value instead of two-thirds value; (2)
that the fixed rate tax of I5 per cent be
repealed; (3) that real estate be assessed
annually instead of trioiinially; (4) that
land-value maps be published; and (5)
that standard units of value be estab-
lished in determining the separate as-
sessments of land and improvements.

To facilitate assessment at full value
the committee recommended the enact-
ment of a law requiring the true consid-
eration in all real estate transfers to be
recorded. With true value as the basis
of assessment, overassessments and un-
derassessments are more apparent and
therefore more easily corrected. An ac-
curate assessment based on a percentage
of true value entails a greater amount
of work on the assessor than a full value
assessment. He must first ascertain the
full value and then proceed to calculate
the percentage of assessment. A full
value assessment saves this computation.

Assessment at part value, moreover,
gives a low tax rate the appearance of a
high one. This artificial stimulation of
the tax rate, instead of infusing city ad-
ministrations with a burning zeal for
economy, results either in the non-per-
formance of much necessary work, or in
its payment out of borrowed money
when it should really be charged to cur-
rent revenue. The borrowins; power of
many cities has as a consequence of this
policy been seriously abused. The power
to incur indebtedness, being based on
the assessed valuation, is narrower, and
for that reason, all the more precious in
a city having a partial assessment than
in one having a full assessment. When
assessments are at 15 and 20 per cent of
true value, as they are in many cities,
the temptation to borrow for current
purposes is almost irresistible. A 1 per
cent levy on true value when translated
into terms of a tax rate becomes 5 per
cent, $5 in the .$100.

The tax rate should always be fixed
by budgetary requirements, not bj^ stat-
ute. If the fixed tax rate is larger than
that required by a city, it will result in
extravagance and waste. If it is too
small, it will result, either, in the throt-
tling of necessary expenditure; in the
tapping or retention of undesirable
sources of revenue; or, in the borrowing
of monej- for current account.

As the committee stated, a trioiuiial
assessment is not "an honest way of
making an assessment." An annual as-

REPORTS AND DOCUMENTS

539

sessment of real estate greatly improves
the administration of the assessing de-
partment. The assessors being practic-
ally the whole time in the field become
expert valuers. This secures uniform-
ity of assessment. The annual assess-
ment of real estate, moreover, increases
the revenues of a city in that the incre-
ment in land value is intercepted every
twelve months instead of every three
years. It is also true that if real estate
is not assessed annually, land of a declin-
ing value will be overassessed a large
part of the time. Triennial assessments
necessitate large and abrupt increases
in the assessment of property rising in
value. This excites much dissatisfac-
tion among owners. Annual assessments
to a large extent overcome this difficulty
in that the increases are smaller and
more gradual.

Herbert S. Swan.

New Sources of City Revenue. The

commission on new sources of city rev-
enue, which submitted its report to
Mayor Gaynor, January 11, approached
its work with the attitude that the bur-
den of local government should rest on
those forms of property that represent
values largely created by the community
itself. New sources of revenue were not
sought with any view to lessening the
taxation of real estate. It seemed per-
fectly proper to the commission that
real estate should bear the great bulk of
municipal expenditure. The tax levy
on real estate is at present about 95 per
cent of the total tax levy and 77 per cent
of the total budget.

The recommendations made by the
commission if immediately adopted,
were estimated to add $4,000,000 to the
city's income in the first year. This
amount would increase annually over
$1,000,000 until in the tenth year the
increase would be about $15,000,000, and
in the twentieth year about $30,000,000.

Unearned increment tax. The most
important recommendation of the Com-
mission is that for a tax on future in-

creases in land values. It does not,
however, favor the methods of levy and
collection for such a tax thus far fol-
lowed in other countries; but proposes
an increment tax of 1 per cent per an-
num, upon all increments of land value,
as shown by comparison with t'he as- .
sessed valuations for the year 1912, and
to be in addition to the general tax lev-
ied upon all real estate. On the basis
of the average increase in land values
in New York City during the past de-
cade, such a tax would yield a revenue of
$1,500,000 in the first year, increasing
until in the tenth year the yield would
approximate $15,000,000.

Miscellaneous sources of revenue.
Other recommendations include the
grant of broader licensing powers to the
city, an extension of the practice of sell-
ing city privileges and concessions at
public auction, the wider use of water
meters, and taxing the privilege of con-
ducting hack stands at its full commer-
cial value.

Tax on signs and billboards. — A more
specific recommendation is that each
square foot of the area of billboards,
signboards and electric signs be assessed
at one per cent of the value per front
foot of the land occupied (the basis for
assessing land in New York) and taxed
at the rate of two per cent per annum on
the assessed valuation so ascertained.
The city now derives an annual revenue
of about $10,000 from license fees on elec-
tric signs ; but billboards now pay no rev-
enue to the city.

Adequate rentals for vault space. —
The commission recommends that the
charge for the privilege of constructing
and using vaults under the sidewalks
and streets of the city be made an annual
payment based upon the assessed land
value per front foot of the adjacent real
estate, in place of the present nominal
payments.

Excess condemnation: The commis-
sion also recommends the support of
the pending amendment to the state
constitution, granting to cities the power
of excess or additional condemnation.

540

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

The ability of the citj^ to coordinate
land values aloii^ public improvements
into its most usable form would increase
the taxable value of real' estate, and a
part of the value recouped to the public
would diminish the cost of many public
improvements.

Miscellaneous rccommendalions . Other
recommendations of the commission are :

1. That a special commission be aj)-
pointed to report on possible economies
in the city administration.

2. That a new sinking fund policy in-
volving the purchase and cancellation of
city obligations when below par be con-
sidered. This would considerably ex-
pedite the amortization of the city's
debt and increase the earnings of the sink-
ing fund. .

3. That assessment bonds be excluded
in the computation of the city's borrow-
ing power.

4. That the principle of special as-
sessment be applied to the construc-
tion of rapid transit railroad extensions.

5. That an earnest effort be made to
secure a higher rate of interest than two
per cent on deposits of city money.

G. That the city take over the fran-
chises and property of the subway con-
duit companies.

7. That no form of real property, such
as churches or cemeteries, be exempt from
assessment for local improvements.

8. That the city sell to better advan-
tage the asset which it has in the com-
mercial use of garbage and other forms
of city wastes.

9. That the special franchise tax be
amended.

10. That city prison labor be more in-
telligently organized with reference to
thp needs of city departments for sup-
plies and material.

11. That all miscellaneous sources of
revenue now diverted to pension funds
or to quasi-public institutions be paid
directly into the city treasury; and that
in so far as such contributions are nec-
essary or desirable for the future they
be made by direct budget appropria-
tion.

12. (a) That all taxable personal i)rop-
erty not now liable to some special and
exclusive tax be subjected to a tax of
three mills on the dollar in lieu of the
present rate; (b) that indebtedness be no
longer offset against taxable assets; and
(c) that personal property amounting
to less than ten thousand dollars be
exempted from taxation.

13. That the remaining relics of the
payment of county officers by fees for
services rendered be discontinued; that
such officers be paid definite salaries; and
that the fees received for rendering pub-
lic services be turned into the public
treasury.

14. That the mandatory legislative
acts prescribing the payrolls of county
offices be repealed, and that the board of
estimate be made re.sponsible for county
appropriations.

15. That the city create a system of
wholesale markets and discontinue its
present system of retail markets.

16. That all animal-drawn vehicles
be licensed.

17. That the moJ;or vehicle tax be
increased.

18. That certain departmental fees be
increased.

19. That the method of disposing of
unneeded personal property owned by
the city be improved.

20. That real estate owned but no
longer needed by the city be sold and
the proceeds be applied to the acquisi-
tion of needed real estate.

Herbert S. Swan.^

Municipal Asphalt Plant. — In the Dis-
trict of Columbia appropriation bill, ap-
proved June 2G, 1912, there was included
an item of .15000 "to enable the commis-
sioners of the District of Columbia to
make a thorough investigation of the
desirability and cost of establishing a
mimicipal asphalt plant . . . . "
The investigation has been made by
Davis E. McComb, and his report dated
December 31, 1912, has been published

' Chief luveaUgator for llie commlaslon.

REPORTS AND DOCUMENTS

541

as House document no. 1195 of the 62d
Congress, 3d session.

The first part of the report is a de-
scription of the work done in cities hav-
ing municipal asphalt plants; namely,
Detroit; Brooklyn; Cincinnati; Kansas
City, Mo.; St. Louis, Toledo; Columbus,
O. ; Indianapolis; Omaha; Hamilton, On-
tario; Toronto; Dayton, O.; Milwaukee;
Denver; New Orleans, Pittsburgh; San
Francisco; Spokane; Seattle; Winnepeg,
and Cleveland.

The information reported concerning
these plants includes the following points :
Date of installation of plants; kind of
work done, either new, repair, or "cut
work;" cost of physical plant and equip-
ment; capacity in square yards; statis-
tics concerning amount of work done,
with cost; number of men employed, and
wages paid; cost of materials used; num-
ber of working days in the year; descrip-
tion of mechanical equipment; and oc-
casionally comments on the condition
of the asphalt streets in these cities.

In a number of appendices detailed
information is presented on the subject
of asphalt paving work, with a sketch
of the proposed municipal plant in the
district. These subjects are: (1) vol-
ume of asphalt work; (2) number of
days work was suspended on account of
weather conditions, 1911-1912; (3) ma-
terials required for asphalt topping and
binder; (4) estimated cost of asphalt
pavement; (5) materials required for
concrete base and cost of same; (6) cost
of hauling materials for ashalt pavement;
(7) cost of inspection; (8) operations of
portable plant in November, 1912; (9)
comparison of prices of work under con-
tract with estimate cost, if work is per-
formed by the district; (10) estimate of
cost of installation of municipal plant for
the district.

Acting on this report, the commis-
sioners of the District of Columbia have
included in their estimates for 1913-
1914, an item of $90,000 for establishing
and operating a municipal asphalt plant.
Charles Wells Reeder.i

' Ohio State University Library.

New York City Art Commission. — The

report of this commission for the year
1911 is especially important, even though
two years behind time, because it chron-
icles the little suspected value of the
work of the art commission of the city of
New York, and gives some idea -of what
that city has been saved from through
the operations of this commission.

Readers of the National Munici-
pal Review probably realize that this
commission is an unpaid commission,
formed under a state law which assures
a membership of high grade. Robert W.
De Forest is president and John Quincy
Adams is the efficient acting secretary.
The commission has offices in the old
city hall in New York City, and it treats
its work seriously insisting on being
consulted about everything that is to
be placed in the public eye and on the
public property.

The report in question is broad in its
view and admirable in its form. A con-
sultation of it is recommended to those
who are desirous of seeing American cit-
ies put in possession of power to prevent
the assaults of bad taste and self interest
which so seriously interfere at present
with city efficiency.

J. Horace McFarland.

Municipal Surveys. — The growing in-
terest in municipal government is evi-
denced by the number of reports issued
presenting a general survey of municipal
organization and activities in various
cities. Such reports are being prepared
in different communities by different
methods and with widely varying scope,
Peter White, C.P.A., has prepared a de-
tailed report to the committee of audit
of Bridgport, Conn., on the organiza-
tion and procedure of each permanent
board, commission, committee and office
of the city government, — except those
connected with courts, education and
elections. The board of education of
Newark, N. J., has published a series of
twenty-eight leaflets on various aspects
and problems of local government in

542

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

that community. The Wilksbarre, Pa.,
chamber of commerce has issued a brief
report on efficiency of the Wilkesbarre
city councils, by R. Nelson Bennett,
which undertakes to show that many
of the improvements secured under
commission government are already
practiced by the city councils and gov-
ernment of Wilkesbarre. The new com-
mission government of Jackson, Miss.,
has issued (April 1, 1913) the first num-
ber of the Jack.ion Commission Govern-
ment Record, to be issued quarterly,
giving a record of the proceedings and
work of the municipal government.

Municipal Appropriations. — The great-
er attention now being given to the prep-
aration of municipal budgets is illus-
trated by the publication and analysis
of detailed statements of appropriations
for a number of cities. The efficiency
division of the Chicago civil service
commission published, under date of
November 15, 1912, a report on an
inquiry into appropriations and expen-
ditures of the bureau of streets of that
city, with special reference to the bases
of distribution by wards. Baltimore
has published in full the appropriation
ordinance for the year 1913, giving a de-
tailed statement of the amounts appro-
j)riated for each department and office.

The Dayton (Ohio) bureau of municipal
research has published a report on the
appropriations of that city for the fiscal
half year ending June 30, 1912.

St. Louis Municipal Accounts. — Under
date of April 15, Comptroller B. J. Taus-
sig of St. Louis submitted to the mu-
nicif^al assembly, with his approval, a
comprehensive report by Peter White, C.
P. A., who has had charge of an investi-
gation and reorganization of the account-
ing system of the city, covering a period
of two years. This includes extensive
discussions, with copies of forms, of such
matters as uniform classification of ac-
counts, reorganization of budget pro-
cedure, control of disbursements, reor-
ganization of departmental procedure
and general considerations.'

Municipal Finances in Minnesota. —
Prof. E. V. Robinson of the University
of Minnesota and director of the depart-
ment of research and statistics of the
Minnesota tax commission has prepared
for the commission a valuable report on
the cost of government in Minnesota.
The larger part of this report presents
the results of a comprehensive survey
of muncipal finances, including cities,
villages and school districts.

' See Department oi Notes and Events, p. 481.

DEPARTMENT OF REPORTS AND

DOCUMENTS

II. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL
Edited by Miss Adelaide R. Hassb

Chief of the Division of Documents, New York Public Library

General

Citizens' Union of New York City.
The work of the Citizens' Union, 1912-
1913. 32 p. 12°.

Citizens' Municipal Committee of
New York City. Statement of the
plans and purposes of the committee. 2
leaves. 8°.

The "platform" of the fusion party. This body
was organized in the Spring of 1913 with the object
of securing to the city in the municipal election due
in November 1913, a government exempt from Tam-
many control.

Civic Club of Allegheny County.
Annual report, 1911-1912. 48 p. illus.

8°.

An exceptionally vital organization. A copy of
the report will be a valuable addition to every col-
lection hearing on civic progress.

Civic Club of Berkeley, Calif. Ber-
keley Civic Bulletin. Vol. 1, no. 9-12.
March-May, 1913. p. 77-132. 8°.

No. 9. March 15. Detailed review of pending
California legislation of general interest (constitu-
tional amendments; educational legislation; social
relations; workmen's compensation; blue sky leg-
islation; game legislation; moral legislation; red
light injunction and abatement bill).

No. 10. Not seen.

No. 11. April 15. Social centers (social center
movement In the United States; social centertnove-
ment in Berkeley; proposed plan for organization of
social centers in Berkeley).

No. 12. May 15. Report of the committee on
watersupply to the Civic Club of Berkeley. May 15,
1913. 2 maps.

Contains a chapter on the history of the Hetch-
Hetchy water supply, and one on the public owner-
ship of water supplies.

District of Columbia Suffrage
League. The government of the Dis-
trict of Columbia. A memorial. Wash-
ington, 1913. 18 p. 8°. (U. S. 62. cong.
3 sess., sen. doc. 1138.)

Gale, Zona. Civic improvement in
the little towns. March, 1913. 28 p. 8°.

American Civic Association, Union Trust Build-
ing, Washington, D.C. Series 2, no. 7. Price, single
copies, 25 cents.

Kaiser, John B. American municipal
documents. A librarian's view. 4 p.

Reprinted from Special Libraries, June, 1913.

KongressfijrStadtewesen, 1. Dijs-
seldorf, 1912. Verhandlungen. 1913. Bd.
1-2. illus. 4°.

Published under the auspices of the city of Dus-
seldorf, by A. Bagel, Dusseldorf at $2.25.

Ohio. Ohio roster of township and
municipal officers. 1912-13. 491 p.

Compiled by Chas. H. Graves, secretary of state.

Pasadena, Calif. Final report of the
mayor to the city council of Pasadena,
May 5, 1913. 32 p. 8°.

This report is made at the close of the administra-
tion of Mayor William Thum. The distinctive fea-
ture of the report is the explicit and detailed pres-
entation of the work of government. Pasadena is
first and foremost a residential city, which, the
mayor points out, creates civic demands not existing
with a non-resident population. Considerable atten-
tion is given to the public utilities of Pasadena.

Tax Association Bulletin, Oakland,
Calif., monthly.

No. 5. May 1913. The legal and legislative side
of municipal and county reorganization. 4 p.

Toronto, Ont. Toronto Civic Guild
Monthly Bulletin, v. 2, no. 2-5. De-
cember 1912, January-February 1913. 4°.

Vol. 2, no. 2. Miscellaneous, chiefly relating to
town planning.

Vol. 2, no. 3. Town planning and civic Improve-
ment. An address by C. H. Mitchell, first vice-
president of the Toronto Civic Guild at the inaugural
meeting of the Ontario Town Planning Congress, at
Berlin, December 11, 1912. 12 p.

Vol 2, no. 5. Skyscrapers on narrow streets
(leading article). 8 p.

Special Legislation Number. Text of city and
suburban plans act (1912). Apartment house prob-

543

544

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

lem. Height of I)ull(llng3. Street widening. Pres-
ervation of scenic beauty. A New Brunswick Town
planning act. The Park situation In Toronto. 8 p.
The Hullotln Is published hy tlie Toronto Civic
Guild as evidence of the Guild's deep Interest In
town planning a;id Improvement. The secretary of
the Guild Is Frederick L. Rlggs, 923 Traders Bank
Building, Toronto. A feature of the Bulletin Is a
list of magazine articles In each number bearing on
town planning and Improvement.

Weil, A. Leo. Present day evils and
public sentiment. An address before
the alumni and members of the Washing-
ton Literary Society and the faculty
and students of the University of Vir-
ginia, February 22, 1913. 18 p. 8°.

On the Ideals of citizenship.

See also below under the heading "Water
Supply" the title beginning "Discussion of De-
preciation."

Accounting

See also below under the heading "Water
Supply" the title beginning "Dlscus.slon of De-
preciation."

Accounting System of the Mary-
land State Roads Commission. (En-
gineering and Contracting. April 16,
1913, p. 449-451.)

Taken from a paper read by H. G. Shirley, chief
engineer of the commission, on October 2, 1912, be-
fore the American Good Roads Association. The
fact that it is a practical paper on a method applica-
ble to municipal accounting, a subject very much
on the tapis at the moment, seemed to warrant the
Inclusion of this title.

New York City. Bureau of munic-
ipal research. Handbook of municipal
accounting. 1913. xxx, 318 p. 8°.

New York State. Comptroller's
office. Uniform system of accounting for
cities of the second class. 1912. vi.
116 p. 8°.

Prescribed by the comptroller In accordance with
section 36 of the general municipal law.

Oakland, Calif. Tax Association.

Bullet in III). }.

S.ie below under the heading "Taxation."

St. Louis, Mo. Comptroller's office.
Special report transmitting report of the
bureau of revision of accounts and meth-

ods submitted to the municipal as.sem-

bly. Ai)ril 1."), 1013. 2() p., 49 forms.
4°.

The comptroller Is B. .1. Taussig. The work of
Investigation and reorganization of the accounting
system of the city was carried out under authority
of city ordinance 2.5,780, by Peter White, C.P..\.

State (The; Uniform System of Ac-
counting. Established under ordin-
ance. Description and explanation for
towns and cities. 1913. 14 leaves. 8°.

Describing the books and forms to be used by
each officer, the manner In which they are to be used,
the clerical duties of each officer, and the manner
and form of making his monthly reports. Manu-
factured, designed and installed by The News-Dis-
patch Printing & Auditing Company, Shawnee,
Okla.

Bill Boards and Out-Door Advertising

Montreal, Canada. By-law con-
cerning illuminated signs. Adopted De-
cember, 1912. 3 p. 8°.

Bridges

BowEN, S. W. Municipal bridge ap-
proach, St. Louis. (Engineering News,
V. 64, no. 3. January 16, 1913. 14 col-
umns, 10 half tones)

Koester, Frank. Bridges and bridge
approaches. (American City, May 1913,
p. 467^72, illus.)

The fourth of a series of articles on engineering
in city planning, embodying some of the many prac-
tical lessons which American cities may learn from
European practice.

Maintenance op Great City
Bridges. (Engineering Record, v. 67,
no. 4. January 25, 1913. 71 columns, 5
half-tones.)

New York City. Department of
bridges. Annual report for the year end-
ing December 31, 1912. Embracing a
summary of reports for the years 1905-
1912 inclusive. 357 p., plates, folding
diagrs. 8°.

No reports had been printed by this department
since that for 190} wius Issued. Special attention ha.s
been given to the proposed architectural and traffic
developments of the terminals of the four great East
River bridges of Manhaltnn borough.

^

BIBLIOGRAPHY

545

Building Construction

AcKERMAN, Frederick L Building
laws and their disastrous influence upon
tall buildings. (Journal American In-
stitute of Architects. May 1913, p 192
-195.)

CuBiTT, Horace. The London build-
ing law and the development of prop-
erty. (Architect and Contract Reporter,
. London, v. 89. no. 2301. January 24,
1913. 3 columns.)

New York City. Ordinances. Build-
ing and health laws and regulations af-
fecting the city of New York. The
building code, the sanitary code, the
tenement house law, etc. 1913. 96 p. 4°.

Brookln Eagle Library, No. 121. Price, 25 cents.
Includes plumbing rules and regulations as approved
by the several borough superintendents of buildings;
Regulations of the bureau of buildings for the testing
of new materials of construction; Revised regula-
tions of the bureau of buildings covering the erec-
tion and conversion of buildings to be used for
the purpose of moving pictures shows, music halls
or any other public entertamment for the accomo-
dation of not more than 300 people; General order
of February 13, 1912, relative to fireproof booths for
moving pictures; Rules governing buildings used
for dancing schools; Rules and regulations of the
buTcjau of buildings governing open air moving pic-
ture and vaudeville shows; Regulations for the con-
struction, inspection and operation of elevators; Do.
governmg the constuction of fire escapes; Do. gov-
erning the construction, alteration, operation and
inspection of mechanical amusement devices and
escalators; Do. reinforced concrete regulations; Pro-
visions contained in permit from bureau of high-
ways to place building materials on street;
Resolutions adopted by the board of estimate and
apportionment governing width of roadways and
sidewalks intended to pre^'ent erection of build-
ings which would encroach on streets laid out upon
the city map; Ordinance regulating placing of electric
signs; Ordinances regulating courtyard and parti-
tion fences and walls.

The above regulations and ordinances accom-
pany and supplement the building code. The fol-
lowing regulations etc. accompany the sanitary code'
and the tenement house law: Lodging house regula-
tions; Regulations for the construction of new fire
escapes; Bulletins 20-24 issued by the Tenement
House Department; Blasting regulations— rules of
the municipal explosives commission relating to ex-
plosives and blasting; Garage regulations; Sale of
fireworks.

Ray, David H. The future skyscrap-
er. (Building Progress, v. 3, no. 1.
January 1913, 13 columns. 5 halftones.)

Mr. Ray is chief engineer of the bureau of build-
ings of New York City.

Some Important Cases under the
London Building Acts. (Journal Roy-
al Society of British Architects, London.
V. 20, ser. 3, no. 1. November 9, 1912.
5§ columns.)

TiLDEN, C. . J. Kinetic effects of
crowds. (Proceedings American Society
of Civil Engineers, v. 39. no. 3. March
1913, p. 325-340; iUus.)

A notable contribution to a class of literature
that is not very large. The loss of life due to the
collapse of temporary structures for ceremonial pur-
poses or of structures such as piers etc. subjected to
sudden and irregular weight, is sufficiently great to
make every contribution to the literature of the sub-
ject of value.

Toronto, Ont. Toronto Civic Guild
Monthly Bulletin, v. 2, no. 5.

See above under the heading " General."

Buildings

Aggrandissement de l'Hotel de
ViLLE DE Paris et transformation des
Services Municipal et General. (I'Archi- •
tecture, Paris. 26^ annee, no. 1. Janu-
ary 4, 1913. 2i columns. 5 page plate
2 cuts. No. 2. January 11, 1913. 1 col-
umn, 4 halftones and 4 page plates.)

Cab Stands

New York City. Mayor's message
with text of proposed general cab ordin-
ance framed by a specially appointed
commission. April 22, 1913. (City Rec-
ord. April 24, 1913. p. 3773-3775.)

Report of the special committee

appointed Februaiy, 1912, to investigate
the hack and taxicab situation. May 27,
1913. (City Record, May 22, 1913, p.
4815-4819; May 29, 1913, p. 5071-5073.)

The ordinance submitted by this committee was
signed by Mayor Gaynor on June 3, 1913. The text
is printed in full in The City Record of June 7, 1913,
p. 5381-5382.

Census

Moscow, Russia. Travaux du Bu-
reau Statistique de la ville de Moscou.
Livraison 1. Principaux resultats pre-
liminaires du denombrement de Moscou
du 6 mars 1912. Partie 1. Releve de la

546

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

population, logements et immcubles de
Moscou ct faubourgs. 1913. 38 p. 4°.
N.\PLES, Italy, llolazionc sul V cen-
simento generale della popolazione c
sul I censimento industrialc. Naj)oli,
1912. 35, 83 p. 19diagrs.,2maps. Obi.
f°.

A more elaborate report than any yet attempted
by any American city. The diagrams, or charts,
show among otlier facts, numljers of families, con-
gestion and density of population, area of streets
and open places, of monuments, of public and pri-
vate gardens.

Charities

Cleveland, O. Chamber of Com-
merce. The Cleveland federation for
charity and philanthropy as proposed
by the committee on benevolent associa-
tions of the C/lcveland Chamber of Com-
merce. January 7, 1913. 32 p. 8°.

YouNGSTOWN, O. Central Council of
Social Agencies. Report. 16 p. 8°.

List of officers and members, text of constitution
and by-laws, with a special report by the chairman,
J. Warner, on the clearing house of the council.

Charters

Cleveland, O. Chamber of Com-
merce. Proposals for the city charter.
Report of the committee on legislation,
with appendices: Reports of committee
on city finances and committee on munic-
ipal sanitation. Adopted by the board
of directors, April 4, 1913. 18 p. 8°.

GiLiJERTSON, H. S. Progress of char-
ter reform. (American City, May, 1913,
p. 487^88.)

a short article, but full of the sort of Information
frequently called for at the library reference desk.

New York Public Library. List of
works relating to city charters, ordi-
nances, and collected documents. 1913.
383 p. 4°.

Reprinted from the Bulletin of the Library. A
misleading title. It is not a list of works relating
to city cliarters, etc., but a list of charters, ordinances
and collected documents.

Portland, Ore. Charter of the city
of Portland as amended. Including
amendments providing for a commission
form of government draft ci by the char-

ter committee appointed in pursuance
of a resolution adopted by the Council,
February 13, 1913. ISO p. 8°.

Amendments providing for commission form of
government were voted on May 3, 1913. Compiled
and arranged by A. L. Barbur, auditor of Portland.
The new charter adopted by Portland, Ore., makes
some Interesting changes in regard to the power
of the city government over public utility corpo-
rations operating in the city. The commission now
has the general supervision and power of regulation
of all the utilities operating there, and provides for .
as rigid an accounting from the public service cor-
porations as from the city officials themselves. The
city also has the power to own and operate public
utility corporations which it may construct itself or
take over, paying for it by the issue of public utility
certificates secured by a mortgage on the utility pur-
chiised and not a general obligation to the city. The
commission has the power of compulsory Investiga-
tion of corporations and the right to determine wliat
is the reasonable rate for service rendered. Fran-
chises are to be regarded as property and taxed as
such, with the additional provision that no franchise
shall be granted for a longer period than twenty-five
years and that there shall be no exclusive franchises.

Child Welfare

Hartford, Conn. Fourth annual re-
port of the juvenile commission for the
year ending April 30, 1913. S7 p. 8°.

Notable as being the first and up to the present
time the only such municipal commission in the
United States. This report is of especial value
because during the year covered by It a committee of
the commission undertook to make a survey of that
portion of tho population of Hartford under 12 years
of age. In addition the report comprises, p. 51-73,
a bibliography of child welfare.

Model

City Planning

Atterbury, Crosvenor.

towns in America. January, 1913. 9
leaves, illus. 8°.

National Housing .\ssoclatlon Publications no
17. Address 105 E. 22d St., New York City. Re-
printed from The New Suburb Number of Scrlb-
ner's Magazine. Price 10 cents the copy. Hopedale,
Mass., Roland Park, .Md., Gary, Ind., Whitlnsvllle,
Mass., Forest Hills f lardens, Ijong Island, N. Y.

Clay, S. II. CUty building. 1913.
164 p. 8".

Mr. Clay Is secretary of the Lexington, Ky., Com-
mercial Club. The purpose of the book Is to give
practical help to commercial secretaries in promoting
civic welfare. Price, $5.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

547

Ford, Frederick L. Report on rail-
road station approach and harbor front
improvements. 1912. 32 p., 10 plates,
1 map. 8°.

Ford, George B. Scientific city
planning. (Engineering and contract-
ing. May 14, 1913.)

Paper read at the Fifth National Conference on
City Planning, Chicago, May 7.

Garden Village (The), Hull, Eng-
land. (The Builder, London, v. 104, no.
3653, February 7, 1913, U columns, 6
half-tones.)

Goodrich, E. P. and George B. Ford
Housing report to the city plan commis-
sion of Newark, N. J. Newark, 1913.
75 p., illus. 8°.

A statement of principles taken from this report
l3 printed in American City, May 1913, p. 473-480.

Great Britain. Report of the de-
partmental committee appointed by the
president of the board of agriculture and
fisheries to inquire and report as to build-
ings for small holdings in England and
Wales. 1913. 122 p., 37 folding plans.
f°.

Price Is. 3d. While this report chiefly concerns
agricultural holdings it is probably of sufficient
value to those interested in suburban development
to warrant its inclusion here.

Hughes, Harold T." The principles
to be observed in laying out towns
treated from the architectural stand-
point. (Journal Royal Institute of Brit-
ish Architects, v. 20, ser. 3, no. 3, De-
cember 7, 1912, 13 p., 8 half-tones; no.
4, December 21, 1912, 8 p.)

KiRKSviLLE, Mo. Civic Improve-
ment League. 'Second annual bulletin of
the league. April, 1913. "For a cleaner
and more beautiful Kirksville." 44 p.,
illus. 8°.

Landscape Architecture. A quar-
terly. April, 1913. City-planning num-
ber, p. 97-144. 4°.

Price, 50 cents the copy. Contents: City-plan-
ning course at the University of Illinois, by Charles
M. Robinson, p. 97-100. A wasteful competition
by Charles D. Lay, p. 101-107, illus. (The Joseph
Pulitzer Fountain competition In N. Y. City). The
Billerica town plan, by Warren H. Manning, p. 108-

118, illus. A brief survey of recent city-planning
reports in the U. S., by Theodora Kimball, p. 119-
134.

Mawson, Thomas H. and H. Vivian.
Two notable addresses on town plan-
ning and housing. By Messrs. Mawson
and Vivian to whom Calgary owes much.
1913. 20 p. 8°.

Printed by the Calgary, Alberta, city planning
commission.

New York Public Library. Se-
lected list of references bearing on the
city plan of New York. 1913. 15 p.
4°.

Reprinted from the BliUetln of the Library for
May, 1913. Official Town Planning and Expert
Advice. Architects' and Builders' Journ. v. 37,
no. 945 Feb. 15, 1913. 2| columns.)

Perrot, EmileG. Discussion on gar-
den cities. 1913. 6 leaves, illus. 8°.

Description of an industrial village on garden
city lines, being built at Marcus Hook, Penn., for the
American Viscose Co. by Balllnger and Perrot, archi-
tects and Engineers, Philadelphia.

Pope, Robert A. A model suburb
designed by R. A. Pope, town planner,
for the Boston Dwelling House Company,
at Forest Hill, Boston. 4 p. 8°.

Biilletin 1 of the Suburban Planning Association,
Philadelphia.

Portland, Ore. Greater Portland.
Official organ of Greater Portland Plans
Association, vol. 1, no. 2. March, 1913.
14 p., illus. 4°.

Special parks and playgrounds number. Five
cents the copy.

Pray, James S. and Theodora Kim-
ball. A city-planning classification.
Preliminary outline (printed as manu-
script) . Harvard University Press, May,
1913, 11 p. 4°.

Price, ten cents the copy.

Public Ledger, Philadelphia.

On March4, 1913, the Philadelphia Public Ledger,
a widely known dally paper, began the publication
of a weekly section devoted to city planning, archi-
tecture and real estate. The chairman of the com-
mittee on public information of the American Insti-
stute of Architects has been assisting the Public
Ledger in the presentation of material. He suggests

548

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL H]':\'IEW

that here Is an opportunity which lies open In otlicr
cities. Certainly It Is unnecoessary to enlarge upon
the educational possibilities with which such work
might bo fraught.

PrTN.\M, Frank. City govoriinunit in
Europe. Houston's inquiiy into munic-
ipal organization and administration in
the principal cities of Great Britain and
Cfcrmany; with a report of findings and
recommendations for Houston's guid-
ance in developing a great seaport on the
Gulf of Mexico. Published by the City
of Houston, Texas, 1913. 137 p., pis.
8°.

St. Louis, Mo. City. plan commis-
sion. St. Louis central traffic-parkway
recommended by the city, plan commis-
sion. July, 1912. 31 p., pis., 1 folding
map. 8°.

Toronto, Ont. , Toronto Civic Guild
Monthly Bulletin, v. 2, no. 3, 5.

See above under heading "General."

Town Planning from an Engineering
Aspect. (Builders' Guide, Philadelphia,
V. 28, no. 1, January 1, 1913, 5? columns).

Unwin, Raymond. Notes on the
town planning act memorandum. (Jour-
nal Royal Institute of British Architects,
V. 20. ser. 3, no. 4; December 21, 1912.
3| columns.)

Wacker, Charles H. The Chicago
plan. (Journal Western Society of En-
gineers, January, 1913, p. 15-21.)

Civil Service

Chicago, 111. Civil service commis-
sion. Analysis of employment and de-
partmental organization charts. March,
1913. Outline report of work of the
efficiency division. Civil Service Com-
mission, 1909-1912. 99 p. 4°.

Civil Service Reform Association.
Bibliography of civil service reform.
3d edition. Published by the women's
auxiliary to the Civil Service Reform
A.ssociation. 1913. 72, xvi p. 8°.

Commission Government

Munro, William B. Shoidd Cana-
dian cities adopt commission govern-
ment? January, 1913. 13 p.

F^ullotln no. 6 of the Departments of History and
Political and Economic Science in Queen's Univer-
sity, Canada.

United States. Library of Congress
Select list of references on commission
government for cities. 1913. 70 p. 4°.

Finance

Boston, Mass. Finance Commission.
Reports and communications, vol. 8.
1913. 205 p. 8°.

The Boston finance commission Is essentially a
probing commis.sion. The original act creating the
commission contemplated a temporary body. A
subsequent act continued the commission. Owing
to the manner of publication the colhctor may
have some difficulty in collating a file of the reports.
For his benefit an outline collation is given.

First Commission: Appointed under order of the
city council of Boston of March 7, 1907.

HEPORT.S

Vol. 1. Appointments, organization and com-
munications. Boston, 190S. 560 p.

Vol. 2. Reports and communications. Boston,
1909. .304 p.

Vol. 3. Reports of Metcalf and Eddy, consulting
civil engineers, upon the water department, the
sewer division of the street department, and miscel-
laneous matters. Boston, 1909. 1226 p.

Vol. 4. Report of Samuel Whinery, consulting
civil engineer, upon the street departments, Bos-
ton, 1909. 333 p.

Second commission: Appointed under section 17,
Chapter 486, acts of 1909. A permanent commission
appointed by the Governor.

REPORTS

Vol. 5. Appointments, organization and com-
munications. Boston, 1910. 143 p.

Vol. 6. Not seen.

Vol. 7. Reports and communications. Boston,
1912. 320, 256 p.

In a number of Instances parts of these volumes
have been issued separately with new pagination.
The volumes are issued both in paper and in cloth
binding. Not all the volumes bear a volume number.
These volumed reports do not correspond to the
annual reports made to the General Court.

California. Controller's office. An-
nual report of financial transactions of
municipalities and counties for the year
1912. 107 p. 8°.

Compiled and published by authority of chap.
550, statutes of 1911. This Is the second report made
under the act.

Massachusetts. Joint special com-
mittee on municipal finance. Report
January, 1913. 103 p. S°.

House document 1803, 1913.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

549

New York City. Finance depart-
ment. Financial summary for the quar-
ter ending March 31, 1913. 25 p. 8°.

The first number of a new series. In It the comp-
troller proposes giving a current summary of the
city's financial activities. In this first number it Is
shown that the fiscal transactions of the city equal
in amount those of the ten next largest cities in the
country combined.

Government

Bridgeport, Conn. A study of the
organization and procedure of each per-
manent board, commission, committee
and office (except those concerned with
courts, education and elections). Re-
port of Peter White, C.P.A. (111., Mo.),
to the committee of audit. February,
1913. 170, 112 p. 4°.

The supplement (112 p.) contains a digest of the
statutes and ordinances governing each permanent
board, commission, committee and office of the city
except those concerned with courts, eduction, and
elections. It Is prepared by Fred. W. Powell. The
address of Peter White is Harris Trust Bulldmg,
Chicago, 111.

Home Rule

Municipal Government Associa-
tion OF New York State. Home Rule
Advocate, vol. l,no. 1. May, 1913. 12p.
4°.

Housing

Albany, Home Building Company.
History and development of the Albany
Home Building Company, Albany. De-
cember, 1912. 20 p., illus. S°.

Aronovici, Carol. Report on hous-
ing conditions in Springfield, Mass.
Prepared for the Housing Committee
of the Union Relief Association, De-
cember 1, 1912. 39 p., illus. 8°.

BoswoRTH, Marion. Housing con-
ditions in main line towns. An inves-
tigation made under the direction of the
committee on investigation of the Main
Line Housing Association, n.d. 46 p.,
illus. 8°.

An investigation of housing conditions in certain
suburbs of Philadelphia on the main line of the
Pennsylvania Railroad.

Chicago School of Civics and Phil-
anthropy. The housing problem liter-

ature in central Chicago libraries. 1912.

40 p. 8°.

Bulletin 16 of the School.

Norton, Grace P. Chicago housing
conditions, VII. Two Italian districts.
(American Journal of Sociology, ^ Jan-
uary, 1913, p. 509-542, illus.)

Earlier articles In the series have dealt with hous-
ing conditions among the Jews, the Bohemians on
the westside, the Lithuanians backof theatockyards,
the Poles on the northwest side, the Slavic people
clustering about the steel mills in South Chicago,
and the negro.

Veiller, Lawrence. Room over-
crowding and the lodger evil. February,
1913. 15 p. 8°.

National Housing Association Publications no.
1 8. Address 105 E. 22d str., New York City. Price,
five cents the copy.

Woodward, William. Building by-
laws and regulations as affecting the
housing of the working classes. (Ar-
chitect and Contract Reporter, London,
V. 89, no. 2304, February 14, 1913, 4
columns.)

Liquor

New York City. Board of inebriety.
Laws relating to public intoxication and
inebriety. Revised to March 15, 1913.
8 p. 8°.

Markets

New York City. Report of the spe-
cial committee on push-carts and mar-
kets, April 22, 1913. (City Record, April
24, 1913, p. 3763-3764; May 1, 1913, p.
4021^022.

The committee of seven was appointed by the
rules committee of the boardof aldermen, pursuant
to a resolution of July 9, 1912. The present report
deals only with the push-cart problem for the reason
that action on this subject was believed by the com-
mittee to be an immediate need. A further report
on public markets is promised at an early day.

The mayor, on December 18, 1912, appointed a
committee of three citizens to consider the push-cart
question. No report appears, as yet, to have been
made by the mayor's committee. In 1906 a commis-
sion appointed by Mayor McClellan, made an ex-
tended report on this subject peculiar to the metrop-
olis, and of no mean import relative to the cost of
living, congestion of population and traffic in those
localities where the push-cart system obtains.

550

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

Spieqelberg, Mrs. Flora. Some
suggestions in regard to the present
agitation for the establishment of munic-
ipal wliolosale terminal markets from a
consumer's point of view. 1913. 15 p.
8°.

Mrs. Splegolberg, Is a member of the advisory
board to the mayor's terminal market commission
of New York City.

Williamson, C. C. Selected refer-
ences on markets and marketing. (Spe-
cial Libraries, v. 4, no. 3, March, 1913,
p. 49-52.)

Milk Supply

Dunkirk, N. Y. Milk ordinance.
Its production, care and sale. Passed
by the common council on February 4,
1913. 2 leaves. 4°.

Martel, H. La production et le
controle sanitaire du lait destine aux
Parisiens. 1912. (Anna/les d'Hygiene
Publique, V. 18, p. 344-360.)

Xew York Milk Committee. In-
fant mortality and milk stations. By
Philipp Van Ingen and Paul E. Taylor.
1913. 167 p. 8°.

Address: New York Milk Committee, 105 E. 22d
street, N. Y. City. Price $1.00.

. Sixth annual report for the year

ending December 31, 1912. 79 p. 8°.

A citizens' committee, the admirable work of
which in preventing the waste of infant lives, can
not be too highly commended to the attention of all
civic workers. The splendid efforts of this commit-
tee have succeeded in reducing Infant mortality in
New York City to 105, during 1912. The metropolis
is thereby placed in the first rank among the larger
cities of the world In the work of baby saving.

Motion Pictures

National Board of Censorship of
Motion Pictures. Suggestions for a
model ordinance for regulating motion
picture theatres. 1913. 15 p. 8°.

Address: 50 Madison Ave., New York Clly,
Price ten cents the copy.

National Board of Fire Under-
writers. Suggested ordinance to regu-
late the installation, operation and main-

tenance of motion picture machines.
November, 1912. 8 p. 8°.

Adopted by the National Board of Fire Under-
writers and the National Fire Protection Association.

New York City. Report of the
minority of the committee on laws and
legislation transmitting text of an ordi-
nance relative to motion picture theatres
March IS, 1913. (City Record, March
1913, p. 2509-2510.)

Report of the majority and mi-
nority of the committee on laws and
legislation submitting the Folks ordi-
nance providing for the regulation of
moving picture theatres. (City Rec-
ord, May 8, 1913, p. 4296^299.)

Committee on Law and Legisla-
tion. Report submitting an ordinance
relative to motion picture theatres. (City
Record, May 22, 1913, p. 4823-4823.)

Mayor Gaynor's message veto-
ing the Folks moving picture ordinance.
June 3, 1913. (City Record, June 4, 1913,
p. 5279-5282.)

This Is the second time since the first introduction
of a moving picture ordinance in New York City
on December 12, 1911, that Mayor Gaynor has sent
in a veto message on the ordinance. On the first
occasion the insertion of a censorship proviso elic-
ited the mayor's veto. In the present case the mayor
vetoed the ordinance, because, at the instance of the
proprietors of the cheap theatres, the provision in
the ordinance, as framed, regulating the seating
capacity of galleries in motion picture theatres, was
cut out of the ordinance as pa,ssed, the mayor claim-
ing that by this action an injustice had been done
to the proprietors of the "movies."

Municipal Museums

St. Louis, Mo. City Art Museum.
Special exhibition catalogue. A col-
lection of small bronzes by American
artists. Series 1913. no. 7. 12 p. obi.
8°.

Municipal Ownership

District of Columbia. Letter from
the President of the board of commis-
sioners transmitting report of investiga-
tion made as to the dcsii-ability of estab-
lishing a municipal asphalt plant and
I'ecommending the establishment of such
a plant. December 31, 1912. 45 p. 8°.

U. S. 62 cong., 3 sess.. House doc. 1195.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

551

Thum, William, and C. W. Koiner.

Answers to criticisms on Pasadena's
municipal light plant. 1913. 15 p. 8°.

Reprinted from the Pasadena Star of February
10, 1913. The object of the article was to analyze the
alleged unjust attackes made on Pasadena's munic-
ipal lighting plant, In order that the owners might
better understand their opponents.

United States. Committee on ap-
propriations. Municipal asphalt plant
for the District of Columbia. Supple-
ment to hearings before sub-committee.
62d Congress, 3d session. 1913. 16 p.
8°.

Municipal Papers

Atlantic City, N. J. Atlantic City-
Commission Government. Published
monthly by the city. vol. 1, no. 1.
March 10, 1913.

Los Angeles, Calif. Los Angeles
Municipal News, v. 1-52, April 17,
1912; April 9, 1913.

This paper was discontinued with the issue of
April 9, 1913.

Ordinances

See also under "Charters." Ordinances on a
special subject are entered under that subject; see,
for instance, Water Supply.

New York City. Code of ordi-
nances and the sanitary code, the build-
ing code, the park regulations with ad-
denda of all amendments to January 1,
1913, and regulations of municipal ex-
plosives commission, adopted January
3, 1912, as amended to January 1, 1913.
Compiled and annotated by Arthur F.
Cosby. New York: The Banks Law
Publishing Company, 1913. xvii, 511 p.

There are no copies of this for free distribution.
The price is $2.50. It is revised annually.

Pageants

Langdon, William C. The pageant
of St. Johnsbury, Vt. (American City,
May, 1913, p. 481^87.)

The pageant of St. Johnsbury was celebrated in
1912. The "book of the words" of the pageant,
which, it seems, is the proper form of expression
when referring to pageants, may be obtained from
Charles E. Peck, secretary of the pageant committee,

St. Johnsbury, Vt. Price, 25 cents the copy; post-
age 3 cents. In 1911 a pageant of Thetford was cel-
ebrated in Thetford, Vt., and the book of the words
of this pageant may be obtained from Miss Margaret
Fletcher, secretary of the pageant committee, Thet-
ford. Price 25 cents the copy; postage 3 cents.

Parks and Playgrounds

Halle a. S., Germany. Beitrage
zur Statistik der Stadt Halle a. S. Heft
21. Die Sportvereine in Halle und die
Sportanlagen in Halle, 1911-1912. 77 p.

8°.

Outdoor recreation centers In Halle compared
with those of other cities.

LiGUE (La) pour les Espaces libres,
l'Assainissement et les Sports. De-
classement des fortifications et conver-
sion de la zone en espaces libres. Paris,
n.d. 31 p., 4 maps. 8°.

M. Leopold Mourgues is secretary of the Ligue.
Address Paris, Rue Scribe, 7. Price, 1 fr.

Mawson, Thomas. The laying out of
public parks. Report to the Preston,
England, corporation. (Surveyor and
Municipal and County Engineer, Lon-
don. January 10, 1913. p. 47^8.)

NoLEN, John. General plan of a
park and playground system for New
London, Conn. Boston: Press of Geo.
H. Ellis Company. .1913. 41 p., illus.,
1 plan. 8°.

Parker, George A. Making the
parks self-supporting. (Park and Ceme-
tery, Chicago, V. 22, no. 11, January,
1913, 8 columns.)

Portland, Ore. Annual reports of
the Park Board, 1908-1912. 123 p., plates,
7 maps. 8°.

These reports had not, it seems, heretofore been
published separately. The Park Board believes that
at the commencement of the park project which is
being actively prosecuted. It is very vital that pub-
lic understanding of it shall be such as to insure sup-
port when it is imperative and toward that end
It proposes henceforth to publish separate annual
reports.

In addition to the regular administrative reports
this volume includes a special communication from
the park board to the citizens of Portland (p. 77 et
seq) urging immediate action on the need of sufficient
park holdings. Maps of various American cities
showing space given over to park property by each
city as well as charts showing respectively the per
cent of city area comprised in park property and the

552

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

number of i)crsons to each acre of park property
make the report especially iLseful.

See also above under "City Planning," the sub-
title. Portland, etc.

ScHULTZE, Ernst. Amerikanische
Volksparkc. (Korperliche Erziehung,
V. 8, p. 291-298; 355-365, October, De-
cember, 1912.)

Description of parks, playgrounds and hatha In
New York, Chicago, Boston and other American
cities. Well Illustrated.

Shipps, Guy L. Municipal rccroation
centers. (Kindcrgarten-Primarj^ Maga-
zine, V. 25, p. 96-99, December, 1912.)

An address at the International Kindergarten
Union Meeting, Dos Moines, la. Gives a short his-
tory of the playground movement.

Toronto, Ont. Toronto Civic Guild
Monthly Bulletin, v. 2, no. 5.

See above under the heading " General."

Police

Citizens' Union of New York. The
Searchlight, v. 3, no. 2, March, 1913.
Special police number. Police recon-
struction. 8 p. 8°.

City Club of Philadelphia. Bulle-
tin, V. 6, no. 18, April 23, 1913, p. 404-
416.

This number is takerf up with a consideration of
police progress In Philadelphia during 1912. There
are addresses by Hon. George D. Porter, Director of
the Department of Public Safety, Captain M. H.
Ray, aide to director Porter and Major James Rob-
inson, superintendent of police. There is also a chart
of the organization of the police department and a
sample alarm.

New York City. Rules and regula-
tions Police Department, City of New
York. May 15, 1913. 101, xxi p. 12°.

Police department investigation

committee ("Curran Committee"). Final
Report of the special committee on inves-
tigation of the police department, June
10, 1913. (City Record, June 12, 1913,
p. 5603-5632.)

.\t the time of writing the report had not been
printed in pami)lilot form, nor was tlie chairman of
the committee certain that It would be so printed.
A very limited number of copies of the hearings held
by the committee have been printed. They arc held
by the official stenographer, W. Goldburg, 170 Broad-
way, New York City, at $95 the set.

Port Development

Boulogne s. m., France. Chambre
de Commerce. Port de Boulogne sur
Mer. No. 8. Plan du port et de la ville
de Boulogne. September, 1912. Scale
1:10,000. 29x40iin.

With marginal text relative to traffic and navi-
gation and construction of the harbor.

Cresson, B. J. AND Charles W.
Staniford. Report on the mechanical
equipment of New York harbor. De-
cember 19, 1912. 67 p., 36 plates, 1 folded
plan, 11 diagrams. 8°.

Report no. 22, New York City department of
docks and ferries.

Gre.\t Britain. Board of trade.
Port of London. Copy of order author-
izing (certain therein named persons) to
hold inquiry and report to the board of
trade upon certain by-laws made by the
port of London authority as to the licens-
ing of lightermen and watermen in the
port of London, together with copy of
their report and of correspondence aris-
ing thei'con. 1913. Up. f°. (Cd.6700.)

Price Hd. Address II. M. Stationery Office,
London.

Sample, William C. Dock design
and construction in Fort William and
Port Arthur, Ont. (Canadian Engineer,
May 1, 1913, p. 643-648, illus.)

Staniford, Charles W. Modern
pier construction in New York harbor.
(Proceedings American Society of Civil
Engineers, v. 39, no. 5, May, 1913, p.
1089-1107; illus.)

Toronto, Ont. Toronto waterfront
development, 1912-192;). 32 p., illus. 2
foldg. pis. Obi. 4°.

a beautifully equipped volume prepared by the
board of harbor commissioners of Toronto. The
huge development, which is being planned by the
commission appointed under the .\ct of 1011,1s the
outcome of cooperation between the Dominion, the
American federal government and the municipal
government of Toronto. The completed work it Is
estimated will cost $19,000,000.

Public Utilities

Americ.\n Cities Compa.vy, Jersey
City, N. J. Second annual report to

BIBLIOGRAPHY

553

the stockholders for the year ended De-
cember 31, 1912. 6 leaves. 4°.

Arnold Bion J. In the district court
of the United States for the western dis-
trict of the western division of Missouri.
Kansas City Railway and Light Com-
pany, complainant no. 3720 vs. Metropol-
itan Street Railway Company, et al.,
defendants. Report to Hon. William C.
Hook, circuit judge, on the value of
the properties of the Metropolitan Street
Railway System of Kansas City. In
three volumes, v. 1, n.p., n.d., 226 p.,
folding tables, maps. 8°.

Report on an interurban electric

railway terminal system for the city of
Cincinnati. Submitted to the Cincin-
nati interurban rapid transit commis-
sion. October, 1912. n.p., n.d., 163 p.,
plates, folding tables. 8°.

Recommendations for proposed

merger ordinance for surface and ele-
vated railway properties in the city of
Chicago, based upon the February 11,
1907, ordinances. Made to the sub-com-
mittee of the Committee on Local Trans-
portation of the Chicago City Council.
March 6, 1913. 1 leaf, 34 p. 8°.

Byllesby, H. M. The great problem
of the public service corporation. De-
cember, 1912. 16 p. 8°.

Reprinted from the New York Commercial, De-
cember 14, 1912. The H. M. Byllesby Company is
a firm of engineers with offices in Chicago, Insurance
Exchange Building, and New York, Trinity Build-
ing. Other earlier publications of this company are:
"Securities of water power companies as invest-
ments," ed. 2, March 1912. 59 p. 8°. "The Regu-
lation of public utilities," ed. 2, December 1911. 29
p. 8°. etc. etc.

Chicago Railways Company. Fifth
annual report for the year ending Jan-
uary 31, 1913. 4 p. 8°.

Report of Henry A. Blair, chair-
man to the board of directors, April
23, 1913. 31 p. 8°.

Maryland Public Service Commis-
sion. The protective Telephone Asso-
ciation of Baltimore city vs. the Chesa-
peake and Potomac Telephone Company
of Baltimore City, etc. Petition and
complaint regarding telephone rates and

service. Filed March 31, 1913. 50 p., 1
leaf. 8°.

New York City. Board of estimate
and apportionment. The City of New
York acting by the public service com-
mission for the first district and Manhat-
tan Railway Company, Interborough
Rapid Transit Company and New York
Municipal Railway Corporation. Cer-
tificates, contracts 3 and 4 and supple-
mentary agreements for joint use of
tracks constituting "The Dual Subway
System." March 19, 1913. v p. 8°.

Board of estimate and appor-
tionment. Bureau of franchises. Re-
port no. 113-115. 1913. 4°.

No. 113. January 2, 1913. Need of legislation
will respect to stage coach companies in the City of
New York with suggestions as to amendments to
the Transportation Corporations Law and the Char-
ter. 14 p., 1 map. 4°.

No. 114. January 27, 1913. Upon the applica-
tion of the Coney Island and Brooklyn Railroad
Company for a franchise to construct and operate a
street surface railway along Fourth Avenue. 16 p.,
1 map. 4°.

No. 115. March 5, 1913. Upon the applications
of the Merchants' Refrigerating Co. and the Harrison
Street Cold Storage Co. for a modification of the
former company's charter. 8 p. 4°.

■ Board of estimate and appor-
tionment. Resolutions 21-22. 1913. p.
177-281.

No. 21. Approval of proposed contract to be
entered into with l;he New York Municipal Railway
Corporation.

No. 22. Same, Interborough Rapid Transit Com-
pany.

New York State. Conservation
commission. Cheap electricity for all.
15 p. 12°.

Argument for the utilization of the wasted hydro-
electric power of the state, and the consequent bene-
fit to every community in the state in Improved 1 ight
and power service.

Plain (A) Statement op the Proj-
ect TO Furnish the People with
Cheap Light and Power. 8 p., 1 map.
12°.

This pamphlet is prepared by the committee rep-
resenting the chambers of commerce and boards of
trade of the capital district of New York State, the
object being to demonstrate the advantages to be
derived from the enactment of the Murtaugh-Patrie

r)54

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

Idlls. These bills conteniplato a sta(e-\vl(lo flow!-
opment and distribution of cheap light and power.

Public Service Corporation of
N. J. Fourth annual report for the year
ending December 31, 1912. 39 p., 1 map,
S°.

Spring Valley Water Company,
San Francisco, Calif. Report of the
president of the company for the year
ending December 31, 1912. Presented
to the shareholders at the annual meet-
ing.April 9, 1913. 8 p. 8°.

Victoria, Australia. Railway com-
missioner. Victorian railways. The ap-
plication of electric traction to the Mel-
bourne railway system. 1913. viii, 73
p., 2G folding plates. f°.

The problem in Melbourne, a city of 526,400 pop-
ulation, l3 the transportation of suburban passen-
ger traffic.

Purchasing of Supplies

See below under the heading "Supplies."

Railway Terminals

The compiler felt warranted in Including this
heading owing to the fact that both physically and
economically railway terminals exert a powerful in-
fluence on the municipal corporate body. In New
York City, indeed, in the case of the Bush Terminals
the municipalization of this huge plant has been
under consideration.

BusFiELD, J. L. Freight terminals
and freight handling at terminals. (Ca-
nadian Engineer, May 8, 1913, p. 676-
680; May 15, 1913, p. 707-710, illus.)

Terminal passenger stations:

their design and operation. (Canadian
Engineer, May 29, 1913, p. 789-791,
illus.)

New York City. Report of com-
mittee on terminal improvements. Board
of Estimate and Improvement, upon or-
ganization of rail terminal facilities upon
the west side of Manhattan Island and
the elimination of surface operation by
the New York Central Railroad Com-
pany upon the streets of the city. 47 p.
4°.

Opening of the New Grand Cen-
tral Terminal, New York City. (En-
gineering Record, v. 67, no. 7, Januar}'
15, 1913, 10 columns, 6 half-tones.)

Railway Terminals in Large Cit-
ies and the latest Chicago terminal
project. (Engineering News, v. 69, no.
9, February 27, 1913, 4 columns.)

Refuse Disposal

Newark, N. J. Facts regarding re-
fuse collections. February, 1913. 3
leaves, nar.. 8".

Published by the board of street and water com-
missioners.

Staniford, Charles W. Report on
the disposal of city wastes with accom-
panying map showing opportunities for
disposition. February, 1913. 18 p., 1
leaf, 1 folding map. 8.°

New York City. Department of docks and fer-
ries. Report no. 23.

Relates to New York City only.

United States. Bureau of foreign
and domestic commerce. City cleaning
abroad.

Daily Consular and Trade Reports. May 5,
1913, p. 625-629. Vancouver, Cape Town and Johan-
nesburg only.

Schools

See also "Vocational Work."

Civic Club of Allegheny County.
Open-Air School Committee. First re-
port, 1912. 14 p., illus. 8°.

Cleveland, O. Chamber of Com-
merce. Continuation schools. Report
of the committee on education. Adopted
by the board of directors, April 4, 1913.
14 p. 8°.

Greenock, Scotland. School board.
Annual report (2d) of the school medical
inspector for the year ending July 31,
1912. 67 p. 8°.

Hiatt, James S. The child, the
school, and the job. 12 p. December,
1912.

A study of child wage-earners baaed on the school
census of Philadelphia, Juno 1912. Public Education
Association.

HoBBS, W. W., and others. An in-
quiry into the causes of student delin-
quency. 1912. 22 p. 8°.

Reprinted with aildltions for private circulation
from the School Review, vol. 20. no. 9. November,

BIBLIOGRAPHY

555

1912. The cooperating authors are E. Dudley Par-
sons, D. H. Holbrook and W. H. Shephard, all of
Minneapolis, Minn.

New York City. Commissioners of
Accounts. Report on the Brooklyn dis-
ciplinary training school for boys. By
J. T. Mahoney and H. M. Rice. 1913.
31 p. 8°.

Paisley, Scotland. School board. An-
nual report (2d) of the medical inspec-
tion of school children, 1911-12. 60 p.
8'.

Public Education Association of
Philadelphia. Study number 41. The
public schools of Philadelphia. A state-
ment of their organization, finance, equip-
ment and activities. 43 p. February,
1913.

Public Education Association op
the City of New York. Bulletin 9,
February, 1913. Shall the schools serve
lunches? 7 p. 8°.

Renfrew County, Scotland. Com-
mittee on Secondary Education. Medi-
cal Inspection of school children in the
year ending July 31, 1912. Summary of
results by the advisory school medical
officer. 27 p. 8°.

Scotland. Local government board.
Report (1st) on the medical inspection
of school children in Scotland, 1911. Ill
p. 8°.

The report is for the school year ended July,
1911. It was made in December, 1912 and printed
in 1913. The report, in addition to a detailed
administrative account, contains a history of the
medical inspection of schools in Scotland.

Westchester County Research Bu-
reau. School reports in Westchester
County. A study of local school con-
ditions by Alexander J. Inglis. 1912.
29 p. 8°.

. Efficiency series bulletin 3. Dr. Inglis is Pro-
fessor of education in Rutgers College. The address
of the Westchester County Research Bureau ts 15
Court St., White Plains, N. Y.

Sewage Disposal

New York State. Metropolitan sew-
erage commission. Preliminary reports
on the disposal of New York's sewage.
VI. Study of the collection and disposal

of the sewage of the lower Hudson, lower
East River and bay division. February,
1913. 66 p., 8 plates. 4°.

Same. VII. Critical reports of

Dr. Gilbert J. Fowler of Manchester,
England, and Mr. John D. Watson of
Birmingham, England, on the projects
of the Metropolitan Sewerage Com-
mission, with special reference to the
plans proposed for the lower Hudson,
lower East River and bay division. Feb-
ruary, 1913. 33 p. 4°.

United States. Bureau of foreign
and domestic commerce. Disposal of
sewage in Europe.

Daily consular and trade reports. March 15,
1913, p. 1281-1291. One of a series of articles on this
subject, the first having appeared in 1910.

Scientific Management

Cooke, Morris L. Address on sci-
entific management. 1913.

Speech delivered before the Western Economic
Association, at Chicago, March 13, 1913. It was
printed In full in the Chicago Inter-Ocean of March
23, 1913. Mr. Cooke is director of public works of
Philadelphia, the first city in the nation to test the
usefulness of scientific management In municipal
affairs.

Smoke Abatement

Benner, R. C. The cost of an indus-
trial nuisance. (American City, May,
1913, p. 496-497.)

Dr. Benner is connected with the Department of
Industrial Research, of the University of Pittsburgh.

Chicago, 111. Department of smoke
inspection. Notes on smoke abatement,
April 1, 1913. 5 folios.

• Department of Smoke Inspec-
tion. Methods of approaching the smoke
problem. April 1, 1913. 5 folios.

Typewritten.

Social Evil

Bureau of Social Hygiene. Com-
mercialized prostitution in New York
City. By George J. Kneeland. With a
supplementary chapter by Katharine
Bement Davis. Introduction by John
D. Rockefeller, .Ir. New York: The
Century Company, 1913. xii, 334p. 8°.

556

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

Tlu> address of the Bureau of Social Hygiene Is
P. O. Box 579, New York City.

The Bureau came Into existence as a result of
the work of the special grand jury which Investl-
guged the white slave traffic In New York City dur-
ing the first half of the year 1910. The Bureau was
organized In the winter of 1911, the memhors at pres-
ent being two well known New York plillanthroi)-
Ists, one lawyer and Miss Davis, the superintendent
of the New York State Reformatory for Women.
One of the first things undertaken by the Bureau
was the establishment, adjacent to the Reformatory,
of a laboratory of social hygiene. The present vol-
ume is the first In the series of publications projected
by the Bureau. The second volume, it Is announced
will be a report on prostitution In Europe by Mr.
Abraham Flexner and the third volume will deal
with European police systems. The latter will be
the work of Raymond B. Fosdlck, late commissioner
of Accounts of New York City.

Kite, Elizabeth S. Research work
in New Jersey. March, 1913. 27 p., 3
charts. 8°.

Published by the New Jersey department of
charities and corrections. Contains report on social
conditions In the pine belt. The Lackey family.
The Dlxon-Osborn situation. While not an Inquiry
Into municipal conditions, the volume takes its place
with the inquiries being made in various cities look-
ing to the regulation oi the social evil.

Philadelphia, Penna., Vice Com-
mission. A report on existing condi-
tions with recommendations to the Hon.
Rudolph Blankenburg, mayor of Phila-
delphia. Published by the Commission,
1913. viii, 164 p. 8°.

Outside of Philadelphia this report is handled by
the American Vigilance Association, 156 Fifth Ave.,
New York City. Price 40 cents the copy.

Syracuse, N. Y. The social evil in
Syracuse. Being the report of an in-
vestigation of the moral conditions of
the city conducted by a committee of
eighteen citizens. 1913. 127 p. 8°.

The report is handled by the American Vigilance
Association, 156 Fifth Ave., New York City. Price
35 cents the copy.

Social Surveys

Thompson, Carl W. and G. P. War-
BEH. Social and economic survey of a
rural township in southern Minnesota.
April, 1913. V. 75 p., illus. 4°.

Published by the bureau of research in agricul-
lur:il economics, department of agriculture. Univer-
sity of .Minnesota, as Its Studies in Economics, no. 1.

Streets

Average Unit Prices of Pavements
constructed in 1912 in 568 cities. (En-
gineering and Contracting, April 2,
1913, p. 373-389.)

Chicago, 111. Civil service commis-
sion. Report on appropriations and ex-
penditures. Bureau of streets, depart-
ment of public works. 1912. 64 p.,
foldg. tables, diagrams. 8°.

Inquiry conducted at request of the committee
on finance of the city council and the special com-
mission regarding ward appropriations, July 15-
November 15, 1912. Uniform standards and per-
centages for ward estimates and appropriations.

Connell, William H. Municipal
highway oi'ganization. (American City,
May, 1913, p. 526-530.)

Mr. Connell Is chief of the bureau of highways and
street cleaning, Philadelphia. The above paper Is
an abstract of a lecture given in the advanced course
in highway engineering at Columbia University, in
March, 1913.

Fox, Richard T. Street cleaning in
downtown Chicago. (Journal Western
Society of Engineers, February, 1913,
p. 119-136, illus.)

Haldeman, B. a. The planning of
city streets. (Engineering and Contract-
ing, May 14, 1913, p. 544-548.)

Abstract of a paper read before the Engineers'
Club of Philadelphia.

Lacombe, C. F. Street lighting sj's-
tcms and fixtures in New York City.
(American City, May 1913, p. 516-519,
illus.)

New^ York City. Public works de-
partment. Borough of Manhattan. In-
structions of the bureau for the guidance
of its inspectors of street paving. 1912.
43 p. 12°.

Printed In full in Engineering and Contracting,
April 2, 1913, p. 378-384.

Richardson, Clifford. History of
Fifth Avenue asphalt pavement. New
York. January 4, 1913. 10 p. nar.
8°.

Reprinted from Engineering Record, January 4,
1913.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

557

Smith, Francis P. Maintenance of
street asphalt pavements. (Canadian
Engineer., May 15, 1913, p. 727-730.)

Abstract of a lecture delivered at Columbia Uni-
versity.

West, Myron H. A report on the
layout, paving and general treatment of
the streets of San Antonio, Texas. 1913.
22 p.- f°.

Supplies

Cleveland, O. Chamber of Com-
merce. Report of the committee on city
finances, recommending the establish-
ment of a city central storeroom. 1913.
8 p. 8°.

Municipal accounting report, no. 3. Approved
by the board of directors, April 8, 1913.

New York City. Report submitting
plan of proposed system for the central
purchase and distribution of supplies
for the city of New York. Together
with all the forms necessary to carry
the system into full operation and effect.
March 15, 1913. 72 p. 8°.

Prepared by William A. Prendergaat, comptrol-
ler. The Merchants' Association of New York dis-
tributes this report with an insert slip advising a
careful study of this report as it proposes a plan for
stopping very extensive waste in city management.

Oakland, Calif. Tax association.
Bulletin no. 4.

See below under the heading "Taxation."

Taxation

Cederstrom, Sig. Unjust taxation.
Compilation of facts and figures showing
injustice and inequality in real estate
taxation. 1913. 28 p. 8°.

Privately printed by Mr. Cederstrom at 201
Montague str., Brooklyn, N. Y. Mr. Cederstrom
Is an expert appraiser. The author has put into this
book a lot of figures which he has been collecting for
several years, showing that, despite the fact that
realty values have receded in many sections of Brook-
lyn, tax assessors have steadily increased assessments
until in many cases the assessed value Is far in excess
of the market value. The booklet is tor the purpose
of aiding in the bringing about a readjustment of
taxing methods. The whole question of taxing real-
ty is stirring Greater New York at present and many
organizations are forming to effect a standardization.

New York Tax Reform Association
This association has recently reprinted
the following pamphlets. Address: 29
Broadway, N. Y.

Purdy, Lawson. Abolition of personal taxation.
Address by the president of the department of taxes
and assessments. New York City, befone the first
state conference on taxation, Utica, N. Y., January,
1911. 1913. 5 p. 8°.

Fell, C. P. Collection of taxes by foreclosure.
Address before the second state conference on taxa-
tion, Buffalo, N. Y., 1912. 1913. 8 p. 8°.

Rumsey, D. Inter-state comity and double tax-
ation. Address by former asst. corporation counsel,
N. Y. City, before the second state conference on
taxation, Buffalo, N. Y., 1912. 1913. 8 p. 8°.

Oakland, Calif. Tax association.
Bulletin (monthly), no. 4, April, 1913.

No. 4. 4 p. Accounting system for Oakland.
Charter fund campaign. City manager plan. Cen-
tralized purchasing.

Pennsylvania. An Act amending
(certain acts) and providing for the
classification of real estate for purposes
of taxation into two classes; to wit, the
buildings on land, and the land exclusive
of building, and by providing for the as-
sessment of a less tax upon the buildings
than upon the land exclusive of the build-
ings, in cities of the second class. Ap-
proved May 15, 1913. 4 p. 8°.

Pollock, Walker W. Philadelphia's
assessment troubles. A constructive pro-
gram for their cure. December, 1912. 8
p. 8°.

Prepared for the City Club of Philadelphia.
Mr. Pollock is president of the Manufacturers' Ap-
praisal Company, Cleveland, O.

Traffic

See also Cab Stands.

American Society of Municipal Im-
provements. Report of committee on
traffic on streets and roads. Col. J. W.
Howard, chairman.

The report was presented to the Society in No-
vember 1912. It is reprinted in full with commen-
datory comment in Surveyor and Municipal and
County Engineer of January 10, 1913, p. 38-39.

Arnold, Bion J. and T. W. Mayes.
Report on street railway traffic require-
ments of Toronto.

558

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

The report was made public late In April, 1913.
A synopsis of It Is printed In Canadian Engineer,
April 2», 1913, p. 629.

Blanchard, a. H. Value of the traffic
census in the economical design of high-
ways. (Engineering and Contracting,
January 22, 1913, p. 97.)

Paper read before the American Good Roads
Congress, 1912.

Great Britain. Home office. Re-
turn showing the number of accidents re-
sulting in death or personal injury known
by the police to have been caused by ve-
hicles in streets, roads, or public places
during the year ending the 31st day of
December 1912. 16 p. f°. (House of
Commons Paper 516.)

An annual return. The first was made In 1908.
Price 2d. each. Can be secured from H. M. Station-
ery Office, London.

Jersey City, N. J. Rules for the
regulation of street traffic, city of Jersey
City, N. J., authorized by the board of
police commissioners. January 1, 1913.
15 (1) p. 12°.

Distributed by courtesy of the City Betterment
Interests, Jersey City, 46 Montgomery St.

New York City. Report of the
special committee on speed regulations.
April 15, 1913. (City Record, April 17,
1913, p. 3416-3419.)

An aldermanic committee appointed March 19t
1912, the Hon. Ralph Folks, chairman. The com-
mittee had previously reported on January 21, 1913
(City Record, January 23, p. 545-547). The present
report submits an ordinance to take effect on June
1, 1913, and has been voted on In the affirmative.
The existing local ordinance (sec. 354 municipal code)
and the state motor vehicle law, popularly known as
the Callan law (ch. 374, laws 1910), had heretofore
regulated the speed of vehicular traffic In the streets
of New York. The conflict in the provisions of
these two enactments are pointed out In the report
of the aldermanic committee.

Newarker (The). February, 1913,
vol. 2, no. 4, p. 253-271 illus. 8°.

Devoted to the transportation problem In New-
ark, with a full statement of a proposed solution of
the problem, prepared by Mr. John L. O'Toole of
the publicity department of the public service. Sold
at ten cents the copy. Published monthly by the
Free Public Library of New Jersey.

SoHiER, William D. The traffic cen-
SU.S as a preliminary to road improvement.
(Engineering and Contracting, Chicago,
January 22, 1913, p. 94-97.)

Abstract of a paper read before the American
Good Roads Congress.

Vocational Work

Alden, George I. A plan for the
better education of boys and girls who
leave the grammar school to seek employ-
ment in the unskilled industries. 1913.
10 p. obi. 8°.

Read before the Worcester Public Education
Association, January 13, 1913.

Busser, Ralph C. The German sys-
tem of industrial schooling. 63 p. Feb-
ruary, 1913.

From a special consular report. A survey of the
organization, scope, and alms of German vocational
education. Through its system of general and
special trade schools closely adapted to local needs
and often under direction of the manufacturers or
the guild, Germany is Increasing the efficiency of its
industrial organization to a degree not approached
in any other country. Public Education Associa-
tion, Study number 40.

Vocation Bureau of Boston. Rec-
ord of the Bureau. 1913. 28 p. 8°.

Address: 6 Beacon Str., Boston, Mass.

Water Supply

Burlington, Vt. Water ordinance,
city of Burlington, Vt. 1913. 15 p.
12°.

Cooley, Lyman E. The diversion of
the waters of the Great Lakes by way
of the Sanitary and Ship Canal of Chi-
cago; a brief of the facts and issues.
1913. viii, 216 p., maps, diagrams. 8°.

Dayton, O. Bureau of municipal
research. A plan^toTplace the water
works upon a self-sustaining basis. 1913.
29 p. 8°.

Civic Club of Berkeley, Calif.
Berkeley Civic Bulletin, v. 1, no. 12,
May 15, 1913.

See above under heading " General."

Discussion of Depreciation and a
comparison of rates and bookkeeping

MINUTES OF THE COUNCIL MEETING

559

methods of municipally and privately
owned water works. (Proceedings Amer-
ican Water Works Association, 1912, v.
32, p. 325-349.)

Great Britain. Local Government
Board. Metropolitan water supply. 1913.
32 p. 8°.

Extract from the Annual Report of the local gov-
ernment board for 1911-1912.

Final (The) Completion and Oper-
ation OF THE Los Angeles Aqueduct.
(Canadian Engineer, January 9, 1913,
p. 134-138, illus.)

New York City. Department of
water supply, gas and electricity. Bul-
letin 1-4. 8°.

No. 1. Economy and efficiency In the depart-
ment of water supply, gas and electricity. January,
1913. 16 p.

No. 2. Standard specifications, uniform pro-
cedure and forms relating to coal. February, 1913.
43 p.

No. 3. Functional classification of expenditures.
March, 1913. 38 p.

No. 4. Report on the work done for the preven-
tion of water waste. Cost of the same and results
accomplished thereby. 29 p., 3 olates. 8°.

Board of water supply. Cats-
kill water supply. A general descrip-
tion. January, 1913. 32 p., illus. 8°.

Oklahoma City. Report to the
mayor and board of commissioners of

Oklahoma City on an improved water
supply for the city. Februai^y 15, 1913.
232 p., maps, diagrams. 8°. ,

The board of engineers which made? the report
was composed of Hiram Phillips, of' St. Louis, John
W. Alvord of Chicago and J. W. Billingsley of Hous-
ton. * 1 .'

Toronto, Ont. Report upon the ex-
isting water works system and jipon an
additional water supply. 1912. 153 p.,
27 plans. 8°. '

The report of a board of experts consisting of
Isham Randolph of Chicago, T. Aird Murray, J. G.
Sing and Willis Chlpman of Toronto.

United States. Engineer depart-
ment. Hetchy-Hetchy Valley. Report
of advisory board of army engineers to
the secretary of the interior on investi-
gations relative to sources of water sup-
ply for San Francisco and bay commu-
nities. February 19, 1913. 146 p^., illus.,
folding map, diagrams. 8°. 1

In this connection see above under the head-
ing "General" the title Civic Club 6f Berkeley.
Berkeley Civic Bulletin, no. 12.

Varona, I. M. DE. Organization of
the Bureau of water supply. New York
City. (Proceedings 32d annual conven-
tion of the American Water Works As-
sociation, 1912, p. 61-74.)

COUNCIL MEETING

Council Meeting of the National Mu-
nicipal League. — ^The April meeting of
the council of the National Municipal
League was held in the New York City
Club, April 25, 1913, at 4 p.m., with
Vice-President Camillus G. Kidder in the
chair, the president, Mr. Foulke, being
abroad on account of his health. The re-
port of the referendum vote taken among
the members of the council and advisory
committee showing a decided preference
in favor of Toronto, that city was unani-
mously selected as the place of the next
annual meeting and the dates fixed for
November 12 to 15, 1913. The executive

committee was made the committee on
arrangements.

The secretary reported 2531 members
on the rolls as of March 31, the close of
the fiscal year. The treasurer presented
the following report for the year ending
March 31, 1913.

ASSETS

Cash $1,015.36

Dues uncollected 650.47

Inventory account 3,214.44

Sundry debtors account 97.67

Office furniture 173.50

$5,151.44

5G()

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

LIABILITIES

National Municipal League Ac-
count $3,076.26

Liquor committee fund 191 . 69

W. H. Baldwin prize fund 110.00

High school prize fund 95.00

George Buriiham, Jr 250 00

Cincinnati prize fund 497 . 00

Unpaid voucher account '. 93 1 . 49

$5,151.44

INCOME AND OUTGO ACCOUNT

March 31, 1913

Salaries and Clerical Work $7,287. 21

Postage 1,949.69

Printing and stationery 1,551. 13

News clippings 225.41

Traveling expense 510.40

General expense 891 . 72

National Municipal Review 4,801.00

Office rent 750. 00

Gain for year 990.36

$18,956.92

Membership dues $12,715.00

Sales Proceedings 233.41

Appleton books 255.48

Interest and discount 24 11

Life membership dues 100 00

Contributions 3,091 . 42

National Municipal Review Fund 2,227. 50

Review pub. fund 60.00

Publishing fund 250.00

$18,956.92

In response to the request of the editor
of the National Municipal Review,
the policy of the council with regard to
the publication was considered at length,
at the conclusion of which a motion
was introduced wherein the executive
and publication committees were author-
ized to publish the Review bi-monthly
if that were deemed feasible.

On motion of A. Leo Weil, Esq., of
Pittsburgh the following committee to
nominate officers and members of the
council for the 1913-14 was elected:
C'amillus G. Kidder, Orange, N. J.,
chairman; Robert S. Binkerd, New York;
Charles J. Bonaparte, Baltimore; Law-
son Purdy, New York; Charles C. Bur-
lingham. New York.

The secretary was requested to com-
municate with members of the council
and other prominent members of the
League to the end that local prizes simi-

lar to the Cincinnati prize might be
started in order to stimulate interest in
municipal (juestions and in the work of
the National Municipal League.

Mr. Kidder reported the formal organ-
ization of the American section of the
International Committee for the Con-
sideration of the Liquor Problem, and
the acceptance by the Hon. William H.
Taft of the honorary chairmanship of
that committee.

The following delegates were chosen
to the Fourth International Congress on
School Hygiene: Isaac Adler, Hon. James
G. Cutler, Joseph T. Ailing, Rochester;
Charles W. Andrews, Virgil H. Clymer,
A. C. Chase, Syracuse; Hon. Merwin K.
Hart, Rt. Rev. Charles T. Olmsted,
D.D., Thomas R. Proctor, Utica; Mun-
son Havens, Mayo Fesler, Warren S.
Hayden, Cleveland.

The secretary reported that the exec-
utive committee had appointed Mr. M.
N- Baker as the League's representative
on the committee headed by the Hon.
George McAneny to provide for the visit
of the British Cities and Town Planning
Exposition to this country.

Reports from committees then being
in order, Mr. Kidder reported from the
committee on the liquor problem, Mr.
Childs from the committee on state mu-
nicipal leagues, Mr. Cohen from the com-
mittee on electoral reform, Mr. Burnham
from the committee on city budgets and
accounting, Mr. Woodruff from the joint
committee on the selection and retention
of experts in municipal government,
stating that the committee hat! per-
formed the work assigned to it and that
it should be discharged after the joint
report was published, which would be
very shortly.

Written reports in the shape of outlines
of work in hand were presented from
the conmiittees on franchises: Delos F.
Wilcox, chairman; municipal reference
libraries and archives, H. E. Flack,
chairman; sources of revenue, E. L.
Heydecker; municipal courts, Harry
Olson; civic education, A. W. Dunn, and
civic secretaries, Elliot H. Goodwin.

BOOK REVIEWS

561

Concerning Mr. Dunn's report which
was presented by Mr. Weil, the execu-
tive committee was authorized to make
the appropriation asked for by Mr.
Dunn.

Mr. Woodruff reported at length from
the committee on municipal program,
reciting the fact that Professor Good-
now was going to China, Mr. Guthrie

on a foreign mission, and that Dr. Rowe
was already in Panama, and that Mr.
Deming has been compelled to resign on
account of the pressure of work incident
to his recent ill health. The following
names were suggested for the vacancies:
Laurence A. Tanzer, Robert Treat Paine,
Delos F. Wilcox, J. W. S. Peters, A. Leo
Weil.

BOOK REVIEWS

Old Towns and New Needs: Also the
Town Extension Plan. By Paul
Waterhouse and Raymond Unwin.
The Manchester University Press, 1912.
New York: Longmans, Green and
Company; 36 cents.

This little volume embraces the two
Warburton lectures delivered at the Uni-
versity of Manchester in 1912 by acknowl-
edged experts in city planning. The
first is a sort of analysis of the philosophy
of the subject — an inquiry whether there
can be anything like a definite and scien-
tific method in this new field of munici-
pal endeavor. The conclusion seems to
be negative: large and generous plans
for old and well established towns are
of little value, because the perpetual
flux in town development defeats the
best laid schemes. The perfect plan of
one generation — witness Sir Christopher
Wren's project for rebuilding London —
may be rendered obsolete or even a posi-
tive hindrance by the unforeseen develop-
ments of the next. The smaller urban
units which are absorbed into growing
metropolitan areas are usually changed
so radically by their new associations
that the original plotting is ill-suited to
the new needs; and so on. But Mr.
Waterhouse does not preach the gospel
of despair, in spite of this cold water
thrown upon millennial aspirations. On
the contrary he says many pertinent,
helpful, and eminently practical things
about meeting the urgent difficulties of

congested traffic; and at every turn he
puts up timely warnings for those who
would rush in with new diagrams on white
paper before analyzing their problems
properly.

Mr. Unwin looks upon a larger horizon,
and considers such radical matters as
land taxation and German ways of doing
things. He is more discursive than Mr.
Waterhouse and prefers to touch many
points rather than to prove a general
thesis. He criticises English methods of
raising local revenues from rates, speaks
of planning in Diisseldorf, Cologne,
and Chicago, describes Mr. Howard's
garden city idea, shows how many great
things have been wrought to make cities
more convenient and inviting, explains
what can be done under the recent Eng-
lish town planning act, and by much in-
genious figuring fain would demonstrate
' that landlords will be just as prosperous,
and happy under the new law as they
were before. This is really the great
problem before English-speaking town
planners: how to make the city beautiful
and leave the princely revenues of ground
landlords undisturbed. They are in the
position of those estimable gentlemen
who labored to convince Charles I that
the conduct of the Long Parliament
(until 1649 of course) was compatible
with his enjoyment of full royal preroga-
tives.

Charles A. Beard.

New Milford, Conn.

5G2

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

The Law and Practice of Town Plan-
NINC. Editefl by Randol])!! A. (iloii,
]\r.A., LL.B., and Arthur i). Dcaii, .So-
licitor of the Supreme Court. London :
Butterworth and Company, pp. xxxii,
283.

This is an English book for English
readers. The result of much painstak-
ing research and compilation, it is one
of those cheaply issued volumes which
are making easily available to English
workers a mass of valuable data on mu-
nicipal development.

Because it does contain this data, it
has, however, considerable interest for
Americans. It contains parts ii and iv
and the schedules of the housing and
town planning act of 1909, annotated;
it includes circulars, memoranda and
orders of the local government board and
other boards relating to town planning;
it contains model clauses for town plan-
ning schemes; outlines for various plans;
and the housing and town planning pow-
ers obtained by the London county coun-
cil in their new general powers act. In
short, it is an attempt, as the preface
declares, "to place before local author-
ities preparing or considering whether
or not to prepare or adopt town planning
schemes, and owners and occupiers of
land for which a town planning scheme
is in course of preparation or is likely
to be prepared, all the legal and other
useful information now available." All
this material is brought as much up to
date as January 21, 1913. Furthermore,
it is made readily available by most com-
j)lcte indices and cross indices. These
include tables of statutes in chronolog-
ical order and of cases in alphabetical
order.

A chapter on town planning abroad
gives data for New Zealand, Transvaal,
Orange River Colony, Italy, Sweden,
Prussia and Germany, but says nothing
about the United States. This suggests
how little the book is intended for Amer-
ican readers. Nevertheless, American
students of municipal progress are likely

to find it of value for reference in their
lil)raiM('S.

Charles Mulford Robinson.
Rochester, N. Y.

Street Pavements and Paving Mater-
ials. A manual of city pavements:
the methods and materials of their
construction. For the use of students,
engineers and city officials. By Geo.
W. Tillson, C.E. New York: John
Wiley and Sons. $4.00

As its subtitle states this book is for a
limited reading public, not because it is
technical but because the portion of the
public interested in such a subject is re-
stricted. The book is of great value, not
only to the persons indicated above, but
also to secretaries of chambers of com-
merce, boards of trade, good govern-
ment leagues, and organizations that
have as their object the investigation of
municipal affairs. The student of gov-
ernment or of city planning will find mat-
ters of interest treated in a readable and
non-technical manner. As the editor
states, "the main idea of the work has
been to have it practical, so that an engi-
neer unacquainted with the subject could
obtain sufficient information to prepare
specifications for, and intelligently super-
vise the construction of, pavements."
He attains his object.

The book contains an outline of the
earliest roads; a chemical analysis of the
various kinds of stone; a consideration of
the chief materials for road building from
a geographical and chemical standpoint,
namely, asphalt, brick, cement, cement
mortar and concrete. These chapters
deal with the various sources of these
materials, their composition, their rela-
tive merits, the best methods of mixing
and the many considerations of a scien-
tific nature affecting them and their use.
These chapters are valuable to an engi-
neer in aiding him to understand the
causes and effects of weather, chemical
elements, different methods of mixing.

The author follows with a chapter on
the theorj^ of pavements of value not

BOOK REVIEWS

563

only to the technical person but to any
student of paving.

Then follow chapters of a very practi-
cal nature devoted to a minute consid-
eration of each type of paving, stone,
asphalt, brick, wood, broken stone and
concrete. These chapters trace the first
examples of each type, give a careful
description of the best varieties in use
with specifications; costs worked out in
such a way that any engineer with a few
changes in figures to meet local condi-
tions could work out a set of comparative
costs; relative traction merits; and many
practical hints as to the best way of mak-
ing and laying the pavements.

One chapter then is devoted to each of
the following subjects; plans and specifi-
cations; the construction of street car
tracks in paved streets; width of streets
and roadways; asphalt plants; and the
protection of pavements.

Data is obtainable on any of the many
subjects treated which cannot help being
valuable to those studying street con-
struction. The book is evidently writ-
ten with the intention of giving all the
facts in the author's possession without
bias or prejudice. If, in estimating the
relative value to be placed upon the vari-
ous elements entering into a pavement,
he has given figures which to the layman
may seem only personal opinion, the
reader can place considerable confidence
in the practical experience of the author.

The book is an exhaustive survey of
600 pages into one of the most neglected
subjects in municipal government. It is
too bad that the typographical work is
not equal to the subject matter.

Reginald Mott Hull.

Cambridge, Mass.

Fire Prevention. By Peter J. Mc
Keon. New York : The Chief Publish-
ing Company, 1912. i

This volume of 250 pages is described
in its sub-title as " a treatise and text-

' See National Municipal Review, vol. 11., p.
368.

book on making life and property safe
against fire" and is designed to meet the
needs of ''inspectors, fire marshals, bus-
iness men, building managers, shop fore-
men, superintendents of institutions,
janitors, engineers, matrons, and house-
keepers." This characterization, it will
be observed, includes about the entire
range of professional and lay interest in
a subject that is commanding wide and
growing attention on account of its direct
bearing upon a program of scientific man-
agement and conservation of national
resources.

Facts, almost staggering in their pro-
portions, have recently been pla 'ed be-
fore the citizens and taxpayers of the
country by a group of investigators and
engineers regarding the economic and
social waste occasioned by preventable
fire. It has been shown that the value
of property annually destroyed by fire
in this country reaches the enormous
total of $250,000,000. This is about one-
fourth of the annual value of the new
buildings constructed annually. To this
amount must be added $150,000,000 for
the expense of protective measures.
Here is an average annual charge of
over $3 per capita of population, as
against a corresponding charge of about
30 cents per capita in western Europe.
In addition to this stupendous property
loss, there is the shameful annual loss
of more than 1500 lives, and 5000 serious
accidents which are the direct results
of fires.

While this immense property loss is in
large part covered by insurance, it is
obviously a dead loss to the country at
large and not a transfer or redistribution
of wealth, such as takes place in ordinary
commercial or industrial exchange. Fire
insurance is simply a device for distribut-
ing among a large number of individuals
this economic dead loss which does not
work to the advantage of any one. About
one-half of the premium collected by in-
surance companies goes to pay the fire
losses on insured property; the other
half of the premium goes into the expenses
and profits of the insurance business.

564

NATIONAL iMUNICIPAL REVIEW

The actual fire waste of the country is
therefore far beyond the amount paid
in the form of insurance losses.

The reasons for an American per cap-
ita fire waste ten times that of western
Europe are not difficult to find. Better
building codes and more strict enforce-
ment of the law; the more general use
of brick, stone, and cement in construc-
tion, partly on account of the scarcity
and high cost of wood; the lower height
and smaller floor space of buildings; and
the silent influence of long established
habits of caution, are some of the advan-
tages which account for the lower unit
cost of fire waste in Europe. The en-
gineering and actuarial data regarding
fire waste, fire prevention, and fire pro-
tection in this country until recently
have been almost entirely in the hands of
the fire insurance interests. Obviously,
as the premiums paid for insurance are
so fixed as to cover the entire loss through
fires as well as the expense and profits
of the business, it has not been to the
business interest of fire insurance men
to promote a broad program for reducing
fire waste.

The present volume gathers up and
puts into available form much of the data
that has recently been developed by
independent agencies for the study and
prevention of fire waste. In spite of
certain regrettable defects in typography
and style, the material here collected has
very definite value to the student of
fire prevention. In a series of about
sixty chapters on important aspects of
building construction, protection and
occupancy, the writer summarizes, with
considerable force and with frequent
illustration and diagram, the principles
and practices underlying modern fire
prevention.

Such factors of building construction
as fire walls, fire doors, shafts and belt
holes, fire shutters, fire escapes and exits
are treated in a simple, direct, and help-
ful way.

In the treatment of equipment for the
proper protection of buildings, empha-
sis is placed upon the automatic sprink-

ler, the automatic alarm, stand pipes,
chemical extinguishers, fire pails, and
systematic inspection.

The dangers of bad housekeeping and
occupancy occasioned by refuse-filled
cellars, halls, and adjacent yards, un-
safe gas jets and engines, uncovered
lights and defective flues; the effective-
ness of many simple precautions, such
as fire drills, periodic cleaning-up and
systematic inspection, receive proper
attention in several brief chapters.

It is regrettable that page references
were not inserted in the table of con-
tents to enable the reader to refer quick-
ly to the several chapters. This defect
is partly overcome by the references
contained in the index; but the subject
matter of fire prevention is so largely un-
familiar to most readers that the chapter
headings rather than the specific topics
contained in the index must be the main
guides. The very large amount of recent,
practical data makes the book an inval-
uable one to any beginner in the science
of fire prevention and will doubtless
prove of much interest and value to more
advanced students when supplemented by
such technical engineering data as may
be obtained from the current publica-
tions of the National Fire Protective As-
sociation of Boston and the Underwriters
Laboratories of Chicago.

Jesse D. Burks.

Philadelphia.

* '
Medical. Inspection of Schools. By
Luther Halsey Gulick, and Leonard
P. Ayres. Revised and reprinted. New
York Survey Associates, 1913, pp. xx,
224; .$1.50.

A careful and exhaustive statement
of the purpose of medical inspection, its
cost, its results, its methods, and some
of the problems of its administration.
The authors of the book have made it a
practical manual for the guidance of
school authorities and teachers in estab-
lishing such inspection by detailed ac-
counts of methods used in many cities
and numerous forms of reports and rec-

BOOK REVIEWS

565

ords. A chapter is devoted to the his-
tory and present status of the work in
this country. During the past few years
medical inspection has been made a part
of the school activities in nearly half of
the cities of the United States. Twenty
states now provide for it by statute; 443
of the cities of this country have systems
of medical inspection. Most of these em-
ploy school physicians and many of them
school nurses.

New laws compelling school attend-
ance of all children have brought into
the schools many children who are unable
to keep up with others of the same age.
Medical inspection has shown that this
backwardness is intimately connected
with physical defects, and that the large
sums spent annually on carrying these
children over the work of a year for the sec-
ond time could be made much less by sim-
ple measures for correcting these defects.

The work takes the form of school in-
spections with whose results the parents
are made acquainted. In some cities
the school physician invites consulta-
tion. In some free hospital treatment
and clinics are available. The employ-
ment of school nurses has been under-
taken in many cities and their work is
coming to be recognized as one of the
most important factors in linking school
and home, especially in those sections of
the large cities that have a foreign popu-
lation. Through school nurses the effe -
tiveness of inspection is increased many
times.

Throughout the book the writers have
confined themselves to statements of
actual experience and have not made
it a record of individual views. Clear
statement and well selected material
make the volume exceedingly valuable.
Edwin Ray Guthrie.

Central High School, Philadelphia.

Statute Law Making in the United
States. By Chester Lloyd Jones.
Boston: The Boston Book Company.
327 pp.

Onlv in recent years has any attention
been given to the form of statutes in the

United States, and this work of Profes-
sor Jones should prove a handy aid to
the legislator. The second or principal
part is devoted to the drafting of bills, the
matter in which practical advice is most
needed. The first part considers con-
stitutional limitations, and jusj^ly criti-
cises their increasing bulk in the newer
constitutions of the western states; the
third part, "Legislative Expedients,"
considers methods of improving the form
of bills and the legislative sanction to
laws. Professor Jones contemplates the
increase of statute making in years to
come, an opinion which, except as to
merely administrative law, some stu-
dents may not be inclined to agree with,
especially in view of the increasing
frequency of the popular referendum:
"The importance of statute law in the
life of every modern nation will continue
to increase. A dynamic civilization
necessitates easy and rapid adjustment
of law to changing economic conditions.
Law evolved by custom alone cannot
keep up with the developments of our
modern life, and the state must resort
to new rules made to fit new conditions.
In all countries law — -even statute law —
must as as a rule follow, not lead, eco-
nomic and social advance" (p. 306).
Accepting this to be the fact, such work
as that of the present author will be the
more needed.

On page 7 we notice many errors in the
dates given for the original constitutions
of the states, our author having relied
upon Thorpe's American Charters, Con-
stitutions and Organic Laws, instead of
seeking the original sources. Thus, if
we are correctly informed, Delaware,
Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
South Carolina and Virginia adopted
constitutions in 1776; Georgia and New
York in 1777; it is true that the constitu-
tion of South Carolina was held to be but
an ordinary statute. Some others of
these were brief, and some were never
submitted to the people. Nevertheless,
for the sake of historical accuracy, cor-
rection should be made. On pages 10-11
is a most interesting tabulation of the
date and period of legislative sessions,

566

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

with the number of the state senates and
liouses of representatives, their term of
service and pay; the author justly criti-
cises the arbitrary limitation of the
length of session. Law-making by ini-
tiative is criticised as not, as it were,
"due process" of legislation; in that the
persons affected by the law may have no
due notice and hearing. The advocates
of these changes will doubtless reply
that this is far more true of bills in the
legislatures. In the same chapter we
find an excellent discussion of special
and local legislation.

The important constitutional limita-
tions on the form of statute making are
those requiring unity of subject, the
origin of revenue bills in the lower house,
the restrictions against local or special
laws; the enactment or revival of laws
by reference (pt. ii, ch. 3).

Special chapters are given to the titles
to bills; to the preamble; the enacting
clause, and, longest of all, the subject
matter; with an excellent chapter on the
language of the statutes and one on
repeals, the time of taking effect, on
amendments and on resolutions. The
recommendations on the subject of the
form of bills would seem proper matter
to be taken up by the state commissions
on uniform law. S inething might have
been said on the advisability of numer-
ation by chapter, not by date only, of
annual laws; their arrangement — not to
be alphabetical but topical or, at least,
chronological; and the official publica-
tion of revisions. But as a whole we
find the book an excellent pioneer in
a hitherto neglected subject.

F. J. Stimson.

Harvard University.

The Initiative and Referendum. A
pamphlet published by the National
Economic League, 6 Beacon Street,
Boston, Massachusetts, 1912. 25 cents
paper; .")0 cents cloth, i)ostage prepaid.

This paiiiphlot contains affirmative
arguments submitted by Senator Robert
L. Owen, William Allen White, Frederic

C. Howe and Prof. Lewis J. .Tohn.son;
and negative arguments by Senator
George Sutherland, Emmet O'Neal,
Frederick P. Fish and Charles F. A.
Currier, with a keen rebuttal by Profes-
sor Johnson for the affirmative and a
rather unsatisfactory rebuttal for the
negative by Prof. C. F. A. Currier.

The affirmative seems to favor the in-
direct initiative with a state pamphlet
of the character issued in Oklahoma in
which the legislature's position is sub-
mitted in carefully prepared arguments,
the opposing argument being drawn
up by a committee representing the peti-
tioners. The affirmative feels that the
initiative and the referendum improve
the status of the voter, enlist new talent
for public service, are a safeguard against
mob rule, have significant educational
value and have met with splendid suc-
cess wherever used.

The argument against direct legisla-
tion points out particularly the technical
character of acts often submitted under
the initiative and the referendum, urging
that the people cannot vote intelligently
on such subjects as the candle power for
the head light of a locomotive, county
boundaries, salaries of district judges,
three-fourths verdict in civil cases, etc.

Professor Johnson in his rebuttal
points out that for the solution of such
questions, the people have at hand the
advice of experts to the same extent that
the legislators have, and that such ques-
tions have been and must ever be sub-
mitted under constitutional amendments
Clyde L. King.

University of Pennsylvania.

The Foundations of P"'reedom. IMid-
dleton, England: John Bagot, Ltd.
1912. 4d.

This series of twenty-two essays on
the taxation of land values is useful in
several respects though the general tone
of the whole is over-eulogistic and ora-
torical. The authors hail from the four
quarters of the globe, four Americans
being well represented both in space and

BOOK REVIEWS

567

ideas. Probably the most trenchant
and impressive essay is the one con-
tributed by Bolton Hall on charity.
Several of our conservative notions
anent philanthropy receive quite a jolt,
even though we refuse to follow the
writer to the ultimate acceptance of his
own ideals. Mr. Fillebrown of Boston
writes in his usual terse way on equal
rights to land. Several others possess
the real merit of logic made convincingly
interesting. But as in much of their
literature, the single taxers are here
prone to wearisome prolixity and over-
fond of referring to Progress and Poverty
as a veritable Koran — thereby creating
doubt in some minds as to their individ-
ual originality or ability to do their
own thinking. But to those who know
only the "dangerous little" about the
single tax doctrine, a dip into this little
volume will do no harm — except to the
eyes ; the typography leaves a good deal
to be desired. C. Linn Seiler.

Philadelphia.

*

A Political Primer for the New
Voter. By Bessie Beatty. San Fran-
cisco: Whitaker and Ray-Wiggin Com-
pany, 1912, pp. 76.

The title of Miss Beatty's little book
should give a fair guess at its purpose.
But from the introduction it appears that
it is intended as a textbook in elementary
schools as well as a handbook for the new
voter. It is, however, suited neither to
school child nor new voter — least of all
to the new voter who is foreign born.
It is far from being simple enough
for its proposed students and readers.
Phrases like "the destruction of party
autocracy" abound. "Reconstruction,"
"public service corporations," and the
like are without definition or explana-
tion. It is in many cases inaccurate,
carelessly written and printed. The
sketch of the history and policies of the
Democratic and Republican parties is
not sufficiently adequate to be informing
for its declared purpose. And there is
the handicap for wide use that nearly all
the illustrative examples of the workings

of our state governments are taken from
California. The book is thus to a large
extent a description of conditions exist-
ing in that state, often existing in that
state alone.

But this primer still has distinct
value, a value that is in part suggestive.
There has long been need of an elemental
book of civics, brightly and interestingly
written, as is this, but also very carefully
and very simply written, prepared with
a clear knowledge of what our American
boys and girls need to know, of what —
and this should be a separate book — our.
foreign born new citizens and prospective
citizens need to know of our political life
and government and of their civic duties.

There is a further virtue in this prim-
er. The spirit of the book is admirable,
broadly patriotic with a very persuasive
enthusiasm for every good cause, mark-
ing a wide difference from the dull and
stereotyped books of civics that have too
long been imposed on our young people.
The chapters on socialism and the legal
status of women are excellent. So, too,
is the account of California's recent legis-
lation, its progressive achievements and
program.

John Foster Carr.
New York.

The Municipal Year Book of the
United Kingdom for 1913. Founder
and Director, Robert Donald; Editor,
Albert E. Cave. London: The Mu-
nicipal Jouraal, Ltd. 15 shillings,

The present volume contains 1150
pages as compared with 1131 in the 1912
volume. It is divided into 28 sections
and besides giving information con-
cerning the local government board
and municipal corporations in England,
Wales, Scotland and Ireland, it contains
full information about the London gov-
ernment and urban district councils.
Then there are a number of 'Sfections
devoted to specific topics like housing,
markets, baths, free public libraries and
public cemeteries. The section on town
planning has been entirely rewritten and
constitutes a short treatise on the prac-

568

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

tical exo(nition of the provisions of the
act of 1000. Two ontirely new tablos
have been added to the section relating
to local taxation. One of these gives an
analysis of the county rates and assessa-
ble values in English counties, and the
other gives the rates, valuations, etc.,
of Scottish burghs. The entire book has
been very thoroughly revised during the
year. The last section of the book con-
tains a list of municipal societies with a
statement of their objects and (he names
and addresses of the officers.

It is to be hoped that another year will
see an adequate American municipal year
book.

*

The Britannica Yeau Book. Xew
York: The Encyclopedia Britannica
Company, 1913. $1.75.

The American Year Book. Edited by
Francis G. Wickware. New York: D.
Appleton and Company, 1913. $3.50.

The first year book to be issued
by the publishers of the Encyclopedia
Britannica and intended to keep that
important publication up to date, con-
tains 1226 pages and is edited by Hugh
Chisholm, the editor of the Encyclopedia.
Naturally it gives more attention to
international and national politics and
developments than to local matters. It
is to be hoped that future issues will be
fuller in this latter respect. Under the
heads of the various states and countries
treated there are brief references to local
elections and to some local developments,
but it has no comprehensive and coor-
dinated treatment of municipal problems
and the consideration accorded munici-
pal events under the state and national
heads in some cases is fairly full, in others
slight almost to the point of neglect.
Prof. Edward M. Salt of Columbia Uni-
versity, one of the assistant editors of
the department of Notes and Events of
the NAfrioNAL Municipal Review, con-
tributes a full and satisfactory review of
political developments in this country
during the years 1011-1912.

The third volume of The American
Year Book was prepared under the direc-

tion of a supervisory board representing
national learned societies. Included in
these is the National Mimicipal League,
the secretary of which contributes the
department on municipal government.
In addition to one whole section being
devoted to this subject various phases
like public services and pul)lic works are
treated under other heads. A conipro-
hensivc index adds greatly to the value
of the book. The American Year Booh,
as its name indicates, is mainly devoted
to th(> consideration of .American events
and movements, although foreign ones
are included where they have a bearing
on world movements in which America
takes its share or where they have an
American meaning or application.

Both of these year books abound in
useful tables and statistics and list of
officials, and both also have excellent
necrologies.

Hand Book of Municipal Accounting.
Prepared by the Metz Fund from De-
scriptive and Critical Data Collected
and Constructive Recommendations
made by the Bureau of Municipal
Research, New York. New York: D.
Appleton and Company. $2.00.

This volume is evidently a work pre-
pared with care and based on much
practical experience, but somewhat too
abstract for the general, transitory class
of municipal accounting officers. It is
however a guide of a high order for such
officials as have acquired some insight
and experience in municipal affairs and
who assume their tasks with a serious
notion of duties and responsibilities.
Two important points are clearly em-
phasized in the book, points that cannot
be too often brought to one's attention.

1. That the condition of the cash
account is no indication whatever of the
state of affairs maintaining in the city
or the standing of the city as a business
institution. The books of most munici-
pal corporations will show little more
than an itemized account of cash receipts
and payments. Contracts for very im-
portant public improvements are entered

BOOK REVIEWS

569

into and when the last payment has been
made to the contractor the transaction
will entirely disappear from the general
books and a valuable asset in which the
taxpayer has invested large sums of
money ceases to play any part in the
city's live records. All resulting state-
ments therefore to the public are inaccu-
rate and misleading.

2. The absolute necessity of scientific
reports for the guidance of administra-
tive and executive officers, guidance
without which their acts are necessarily
uncertain, crude and wasteful.

These points are clearly stated and
hints given for their practical applica-
tion. The value however of some of the
enclosed exhibits is doubtful owing to
the different terms used in the various
states to specify certain transactions.
Again, concrete duties and methods of
procedure entailed upon officials in dif-

ferent states are far from being the same,
which at times makes it difficult to fully
comprehend the value of any given
exhibit. In order that a journal entry
may be appreciated and correctly made
the transaction itself in all of its con-
crete details must be thoroughly under-
stood. Explanatory footnotes appended
to the exhibits would therefore be a
great help. The main value of this very
excellent work lies in its bringing to
notice fundamental truths for general
guidance and methods for practical ap-
plication. The old rules of thumb meth-
ods so common in municipal administra-
tion are rapidly drawing toward a close,
and books of this kind are to be heartilj'^
welcomed for indicating the true lines
which sooner or later we will all be com-
pelled to follow.

Martin A. Gemunder.
Columbus, 0.

BOOKS RECEIVED

The American Spirit. By Oscar S.
Straus. New York: The Century
Company. $2.00.

City Building. By S. H. Clay. Cin-
cinnati: Clark Publishing Company.

The Civic Theatre, in Relation to
THE Redemption of Leisure. By
Percy Mackaye. New York : Mitchell
Kennerly.

Cooperation in New England, Urban
AND Rural. By James Ford, Ph.D.
New York: Survey Associates, Inc.
$1.50.

Essays in Taxation. By E. R. A. Selig-
man. New York : The Alacmillan
Company. $4.00.

Immigration. By Henry Pratt Fair-
child. New York: The Macmillan
Company. $1.75

London and Its Government. By Per-
cy A. Harris. London: J. M. Dent
and Sons, Ltd. 2/6.

Asphalt Construction for Pavements
AND Highways. By Clifford Richard-
son. New York: McGraw-Hill Book
Company. $2.00.

The Oregon System: The Story of
Direct Legislation in Oregon. By
Allen H. Eaton. Chicago: A. C.
McClurg and Company. $1.00.

The Reduction of Domestic Flies.
By Edward H. Ross. Philadelphia: J.
B. Lippincott Company.

The Making of a Town. By Frank L.
McVey. Chicago: A. C. McClurg and
Company. $1.00.

Specifications for Street Roadway
Pavements. By S. Whinery. New
York: ]\IcCraw-Hill Book Company.
.$1.00.

The Supreme Court and Unconstitu-
tional Legislation. By Blaine Free
Moore, Ph.D. New York: Columbia
University. Longmans, Green and
Company, agents. $1.00.

The Wayback Club. A Text-book on
Progressiveism in Wisconsin, with an
Analysis of the Initiative, Referen-
dum and Recall. Crandon, Wis.:
Crandon Publishing Company.

Report of the Philadelphia Baby
Saving Show, with the Proceedings of
the Conference on Infant Hygiene,
Philadelphia, May 18-26, 1912. Pub-
lished by the Executive Committee,
Child Hygiene Association, Real Es-
tate Trust Building, Philadelphia.
$1.00.

The Convention of the Royal Burghs
OP Scotland, 1913.

Statement of th(> Ownership, Managenuuit, etc., of the NATIONAL
MUNICIPAL REVIEW, pubHshed quarterly at 2419-21 York Road, Balti-
more, Md., required by the Act of August 24, 1912.

Name of Post-Office Address

Editor, Clinton Rogers Woodruff, 703 North American Bldg., Philadelphia.

Publisher, National Municipal League, 703 North American Bldg., Phila.

Owners (if a corporation give names and addresses of stockholders holding
1 per cent or more of total amount of stock): National Municipal League;
a voluntary organization without stockholders; William Dudley Foulke,
Richmond, Ind., president; Clinton Rogers Woodruff, 703 North American
Bldg., Philadelphia, secretary; George Burnham, Jr., Philadelphia, treasurer;
M. N. Baker, Montclair, N. J., chairman, executive committee.

Known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security holders, holding 1 per
cent or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages, or other securities: None.

CLINTON ROGERS WOODRUFF,

Editor.

Sworn to and subscribed before me this fifteenth day of Feburary, 1913.

Emma D. Chappell,
(Seal) Notary Public.

Commission expires January 18, 1917.

INDEX TO NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

ALSO TITLE PAGE.

The editor has prepared a detailed index to Volume I
of the NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW which
will be sent on application to members of the National
Municipal League and subscribers who desire it.

Address

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW,

703 NORTH AMERICAN BUILDING,
PHILADELPHIA.

NATIONAL
MUNICIPAL REVIEW

Vol. II, No. 4 OCTOBER, 1913 Total No. 8

SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN THE
PUBLIC WORKS OF CITIES

BY GUY C. EMERSON^
Boston

THERE has been so much discussion during the past few years of
the effect of the introduction into commercial and industrial en-
terprises of systems of scientific management, so-called, and the
promises of increased efficiency under scientific management seems so
alluring to many minds that it is not unnatural to find people inquiring
whether scientific management may not be introduced successfully into
the government of the cities.

It must be apparent, however, to any one possessed of a working famili-
arity with the combination of municipal governments that such condi-
tions are so unlike those which exist in private industrial and commercial
enterprises that even though it be assmned that scientific management
will succeed in private enterprises it does not necessarily follow that it would
succeed if applied to the public works of cities. It is true, however, that
there is in general more need for the introduction of scientific management
into the government of cities than there is for its introduction into the
conduct of private enterprises, as no one disputes the fact that the gov-
ernment of cities is less efficient and more extravagant than the conduct
of private enterprises.

Employers in private enterprises who have become convinced of the
merits of scientific management are finding that their employees as a
rule do not take kindly to the introduction of improved methods. Never-
theless, if the employer in a given case can convince his employees that

^ Mr. Emerson is a consulting engineer for municipal work and is retained in
that capacity at the present time by the Boston finance commission. He has been
deputy superintendent of streets in charge of the sewer division in Boston, and
later superintendent, also acting superintendent of supplies and acting commissioner
of penal institutions. He has also been employed on the metropolitan sewerage
commission, on the Boston transit commission, and the U. S. Reclamation Service.
— Editor.

671

572 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

scientific management is for the advantage both of the employer and
employee, he has no difficulty in introducing and maintaining the prin-
ciples of scientific management. The head of a city department, however,
would find great difficulties, for not only must he convince himself and
his employees that the system is of mutual advantage, but he must also
convince the electorate that the system is a proper one for the city to
adopt. It would be harder for the head of a municipal departm(int to
convince his employees that scientific management is a good thing than
it would be for the head of a private esta])lishment to convince his em-
ployees, for the head of a private industrial establishment could within
a reasonable time eliminate all those who opposed the introduction of the
system. This is precisely what the head of a municipal department
would probably fail to do. The head of the private establishment could
discharge a man summarily who objected to the introduction of labor-
saving principles of management, but the head of a municipal department
would find that he would have to discuss the case not only with the recal-
citrant employee but also with the labor unions of which such employees
were members, or with which they were affiliated, also with the friends
and relatives of such employees with their political representatives, with
the mayor of the city and finally with the public, which can vote the
administration in or out, as it pleases.

For a thorough understanding of the subject it is necessary to realize
the peculiar conditions which create the working force of the American
city. The members of such forces are almost entirely the creation of the
political necessities of different municipal administrations and are organ-
ized primarily as a political organization, efficiency of work being a second-
ary consideration. The working force of the American city is a compact
body of voters that can be depended on at election time to favor the
candidates who promise the most benefits to their organization in the form
of increased wages, easy jobs and shorter working hours. This body
also controls the votes of an even larger number of relatives, friends and
dependents. As an example, Boston has a working force of perhaps
10,000 permanent employees, whose tenure of office does not change with
the succeeding administrations. The day labor force constitutes by far
the greater proportion of this body. These employees Avith their rela-
tives, friends, and other interested persons constitute a solid political
force of probably 25,000 voters.

In a city like Boston, with an ordinary' voting strength of from 60,000
to 80,000 votes, on election day it is easy to perceive the preponderating
influence of the city laborer. This force is wthout doubt the most power-
ful factor in the political organization of Boston, or of ^Massachusetts.

Scientific management reduced to the simplest and most easily under-
standable form is simply the introduction of business methods. Various

SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN PUBLIC WORKS 573

writers have attempted to reduce such methods to a certain number of
elementary principles, the number depending on the idea of the individual
treating the subject. No author so far as I am aware has created any
new idea in industrial management, but has simply formulated in such
form as may be understood by the average employer those principles,
the application of which has resulted in the greatest efficiency in all fea-
tures of industrial activity. It is the purpose of the present article to
point out in some detail the difficulties in introducing business methods
into the conduct of municipal work.

In attempting to consider the subject one is confronted at the outset
with a reahzation that adequate discussion of the details of the subject
is beyond the Hmits of the space that can be allowed. The complex or-
ganization of the modern municipal corporation, comprising as it does
in some degree nearly every form of industrial activity, renders any com-
plete discussion of the subject out of the question in the limits of a maga-
zine article. The following discussion will, therefore, be confined to a
discussion of such branches of municipal enterprises as are subject to
the principles of scientific management as laid down for industrial enter-
prises, that is, to such municipal enterprises as are fairly comparable with
the operations of private employers doing similar work.

Such activities are best illustrated by those branches of municipal serv-
ice that have to do with the safety and convenience of the community,
as exemplified in the construction and maintenance of sewerage systems,
water works, paving, bridges, street cleaning, and the collection and dis-
posal of city refuse.

Work of the nature outlined is always subject to contract methods,
and when so done is removed from the consideration of this article and
placed under conditions which govern private enterprises. This discussion
will be confined to the conduct of such branches of municipal activity as
are done directly by employees of the city departments.

In investigating the matter it will be found that various methods of
increasing the production of the human machine, such as varying scales
of wages, piece work, the employment of a pace-maker, bonuses for extreme
individual efficiency or for increased production, are not applicable to
municipal work, for reasons altogether beyond the control of the director
of such enterprises. It is plain even to the casual observer that no radical
changes in industrial management are undertaken without incentive, and
the greatest incentive for the introduction of scientific management is
the direct financial return from increased efficiency. It is also clear that
this incentive does not ordinarily exist in municipal enterprises, the munici-
pal water department being the notable exception. There is only one
side to the municipal ledger and such standards of municipal efficiency
as exist are unsatisfactory as they vary in different cities and even in the

574 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

same city. As a matter of fact, the lack of any financial measure is the
greatest handicap to the introduction of improved methods.

Scientific management assumes at the outset a perfect knowledge of
the duties to be performed by the supervising official, and this is a condi-
tion that is very seldom reafized in municipal enterprises. The munici-
pal superintendent is in the greater majority of cases merely a figurehead,
the actual work of supervision being performed by subordinates. The
installation of a suitable superintendent for municipal activities is the
exception, and whenever such a person is secured his tenure of office is
usually brief, owing to political conditions. Moreover, in those cases
where untrained men of exceptional natural ability are secured under
political condition, their tenure of office is usually so brief as to prevent
the absorption of sufficient knowledge of their duties to direct the enter-
prises over which such supervision exists, and the municipality is placed
in the position of paying for the partial education of the official, only to
lose his services at such time as he begins to become of value.

Each new administration, under whatever conditions it assumes author-
ity for the municipal management, is handicapped by pre-election prom-
ises, involving the disposal of the more lucrative and more responsible
offices of the municipality as a reward for the political services of either
of the appointee to office or of his influential and powerful friends. Even
in so-called "reform" administrations such obligations are not entirely
unknown.

To secure efficiency, it is necessary that the department head has not
only honesty, but previous training, natural abilitj'-, tact and a knowledge
of political conditions. Competent persons willing to accept a municipal
position are exceedingly hard to find. Moreover, there are not in the
ordinary municipality sufficient positions, if such an official is found, to
satisfy all the promises that have been made by the political managers of
the successful administration and the official assuming office with the best
intentions finds that he is expected by his superior officer, the mayor, to
make it his first duty successfully to cultivate two jobs where only one grew
originally. The pressure exerted from such sources results in the appoint-
ment of unnecessary employees in the higher paid grades, and in an over-
head cost for municipal work, which alone is sufficient to prohibit any
successful competition with the cost of work done under private control.

It is an unfortunate fact that municipal finances are matters almost
without interest to the average citizen, who views the padding of the
municipal payroll without interest, except as he may be influenced by
envy for the fortunate recipients of the municipal bounty.

While, without doubt, the greatest handicap to the introduction of
scientific methods in municipal work is lack of a financial stimulus, there
is a second consideration nearly as important, to \vit, the lack of an ade-

SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN PUBLIC WORKS 575

quate basis of comparison by which the work of the officials of succeeding
administrations may be judged, or by which the work of the same official
in different years of his administration may be compared.

The greatest, perhaps the only incentive to efficient municipal work is
public opinion and unfortunately, except in cases of extreme conditions,
public opinion, as regards the work of the city official, is very largely an
artificial opinion, created by interested persons. It is dependent, in a
very great degree, upon the friendship or enmity of the city hall reporter.
The average citizen knows very little of conditions beyond those existing
on his small street or in his neighborhood, but a particular citizen with
influence in the community and sufficient talent for gaining the attention
of his fellow-citizens can with little difficulty spread impressions, either
favorable or unfavorable, to the work of city officials, entirely at variance
with the facts, and place the official, however efficient he may be, in a
false position with no means of disproving accusations which have been
made.

From the general conditions already outlined, let us proceed to a con-
sideration of the various artificial limitations controlling the actual work
of city employees.

In the first place, employees of municipal departments cannot be in-
duced to perform extra amounts of work beyond the amount to which
they have been accustomed except upon pain of suspension or discharge.
The matter of public sentiment prevents a municipal superintendent from
securing such efficiency as obtained in private employment through dis-
ciplinary measures. The municipal employee, under the protection of
civil service rules, is enabled to place the burden of proof for inefficiency
upon the supervising official. Direct evidence to substantiate such charges
is exceedingly difficult to obtain and when sufficient evidence is obtained
to prove clearly inefficiency, the friends of the offender immediately de-
scend upon the supervising oflicial with promise of future good behavior
and increased efficiency, and, if such promises do not have the effect of
immediate reinstatement, tactics are changed so that the official head of
the administration is threatened with the wrath of such persons at the
next election. These tactics sooner or later usually obtain the reinstate-
ment of the inefficient employee under such particularly aggravated con-
ditions that he feels, properly perhaps, that he has secured a victory over
his superior officer and that consequently he is entitled to render as little
for the future service as he may see fit.

Again, the mawkish sentimentality of the general public refuses to
sanction the efforts of the city official in securing a more efficient force
through the discharge of its more inefficient members, such as have been
incapacitated through disease, age, mental infirmities, or similar causes.
Not only is the supervising official handicapped by each sentiment, but

57G NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

there seems to bo a general .sentiment in the community that municipal
employment is the proper place for the disposal of the more inefficient
members of society, especially for such inefficient members as are inca-
I^able of supporting themselves in private employment. The municipal
force is considered an asylum wherein a living may be secured by such
persons without the stigma of charity being attached to the compensation
received. The result is that the city secures a working force of more
than an average degree of inefficiency and the force, such as it is, in prac-
tice, has its natural speed reduced to the limit of its most inefficient
member.

The bonus system is not applicable to the municipal employee, nor is
the piece-work system applicable, for the influence of the labor unions
removes these incentives to extra effort from the list of possibilities. Cities
find it practically impossible to pay varying rates of wages to men engaged
in similar employment. Political pressure Avould immediately be asserted
in behalf of the employees who were paid the lower rate, and the head
of the department would immediately be compelled to establish a flat
rate for all persons similarly employed, as he could not withstand the
constant pressure which would be put upon him. Likewise, the piece-
work system would fail because of the influence of the labor unions who
exercise such a powerful influence in municipal poHtics that they could
prevent the introduction of that system. Nor would the labor union
take more kindly to the introduction of a system of differential rates of
wages, based upon actual records of work performed by the various em-
ployees, as they regard this system as a species of "slave-driving" under
which the weaker members would be forced to the wall in competition
with the stronger members of society. The truth is that labor unions
generally act upon the assumption that it is their function to create and
maintain as many jobs as possible, believing that this attitude is neces-
sary in order to counteract the influence of the employer, who, they main-
tain, is constantly striving to reduce the number of jobs to a minimum.

It is apparent, therefore, that the principles of the labor union and
the principles of scientific management are diametrically opposed, the
latter seeking to get the maximum efficiency for a minimum cost, while
the labor unions seek to get the maximum of compensation for a mini-
mum of effort. Generally speaking, this is also the princii^le upon which
municipal employees proceed, and, what is worse, the public seems indis-
posed to take issue against this view. The citizen who sees city laborers
idling in the public streets and who would not tolerate idleness in the
employees of his own business generally makes no eff"ort to increase the
efficiency of municipal labor. He seems to regard existing municipal
conditions as practically impossible of improvement. Unfortunately, too,
whenever the public has been aroused by a disclosure of the inefficiency

SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN PUBLIC WORKS 577

of municipal labor and a reform administration has been elected, the
efforts of the reform administration with respect to labor have resulted
in defeat at the succeeding election, the defeat being due to the influence
of the employees and their friends, actively assisted by the labor unions.
Under such circumstances both the ordinary citizen interested in munici-
pal efficiency and the head of a municipal department find it difficult
to give themselves up to any constant effort to increase the output of
municipal labor.

The law itself opposes obstacles to the introduction of scientific man-
iigement into the business of municipalities. Civil service laws have no
doubt improved the administration of cities, but they have not been
without their defects. They were established for a two-fold purpose.
First, to prove that city employees should have some qualifications for
their work, and second, to protect such employees in office and to pre-
vent their discharge for poHtical reasons, but more attention seems to
have been paid to protecting city employees in office than to the securing
of efficiency. A private employer can immediately discharge an employee
who is found loafing, but experience has shown that it is almost impos-
sible to procure the discharge of a pubhc employee protected by civil
service rules, except for an offense involving moral turpitude.

However attractive the civil service theory may appear, it is a fact
that civil service regulations are not designed to secure the maximum
efficiency, although they may act to prevent the minimum of efficiency.
Undoubtedly the system, as at present enforced, is one of the greatest
protection for the taxpayer, as well as for the municipal employee, that
so far has been introduced into municipal service. On the other hand,
the system is defective as it does not determine the personal character-
istics of the civil service employee, as regards honesty, loyalty to his supe-
rior, or disposition to work.

An illustration of such defects in the civil service system recently came
to the writer's attention in his duties as an assistant examiner. One
examination paper coming under his notice was particularly well prepared,
the composition was almost perfect, the handwriting was of copperplate
type, the mathematics received the maximum mark, and the other sub-
jects indicated almost the same degree of efficiency. The personal expe-
rience paper showed the applicant to be of exemplary habits. The sus-
picion of the examiner was aroused to find why such a high grade man
was an applicant for such a comparatively unimportant position. In
reading over the experience sheet he recognized the applicant as a former
subordinate, whose mental condition absolutely prevented him from being
of any use in the position which he sought, or any other; but it did not
prevent his passing an almost perfect examination. This example is of
course an extreme case, but the principle appUes in a lesser degree to a

578 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

great number of employees selected under the system. Even thougli the
present system be the best possible for modern political conditions, it
does not secure such a class of employees as may be easily obtained by
industrial corporations working under private control.

Again, the law interferes by limiting the hours of labor of the employee
and in some cases by establishing a minimum rate of compensation at a
higher rate than that paid by the private employer for similar service.
The effect of such restrictions is in some cases at least responsible for a
curtailment of output, as compared with private work, of more than 40
per cent, assuming the same degree of efficiency for the municipal em-
ployee as for the man in private employ during working hours.

A consideration of such handicaps as are placed upon municipal work
by statute or ordinance, together with the inefficiency of city labor from
other causes, will show a degree of inefficiency of from 60 to 80 per cent
as compared with labor forces in private employ. For the greater part
of such inefficiency the municipal superintendent is in no way responsible.

In some of our cities, and to a greater extent in foreign cities, the sys-
tem of old age or service pensions has been introduced as an incentive to
efficiency. The excuse for pensions for municipal enxployees is the incen-
tive which they offer to secure the continued employment of especially
efficient men, and that at the end of his period of efficiency he will be
suitably taken care of. It is anticipated that with such a prospect the
municipal employee will reahze the danger of being deprived of the oppor-
tunity for support without work in his old age and therefore prove a par-
ticularly efficient employee. As a matter of fact, so far as observations
have extended, the system works exactly in the opposite manner. No
increase of efficiency has been observed on account of a consideration of
future benefits. The fact is that the municipal employee who violates
rules or regulations, or who has proved to be particularly inefficient, is
made an object of sympathy and regarded as in a great degree exempt
from discipline.

The introduction of such municipal pensions has in practice decreased
the efficiency, for they are based on specified periods of service, and once
the period has begun to run it is found difficult to remove an employee
who has in a certain sense an equitable interest in the pension which he
will receive at the end of the period, if he is not removed. Take the
case of a man who would be eligible to a pension after fifteen years of
municipal service, either good or bad, and has committed an offense after
he has served ten years, of the period, which would justify his removal
from the service. His friends immediately raise the cry that he would
be entitled to a pension after five years more of service and that it would
be a shame to remove him and thus deprive him and his dependents of
the benefits of his ten years of good service. Such appeals are very hard

SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN PUBLIC WORKS 579

for the responsible officer to resist, and reinstatements are the rule in
such cases. In extreme cases, where reinstatement is refused, the offender
simply has to wait for the succeeding administration to restore him to
his privileges.

The veterans' preference laws also impose a formidable barrier to effi-
cient work in municipalities. These aged men are employed in the first
instance, not because of their qualifications for office, but because of the
service rendered to their country at the time of its peril. They are not
expected to do a full day's work, and their presence under these circum-
stances has a demoralizing influence upon the entire force. Moreover, it
is now practically impossible, in some states, to remove a veteran from
office even when he has been guilty of grave offenses. In Massachusetts
municipalities, for example, a veteran cannot be removed except after a
public hearing by the city council and a vote of dismissal by the council.
No case has yet come to my knowledge in which a veteran has been re-
moved since the law was adopted.

In the matter of the purchase of supplies the municipality is handi-
capped as compared with the private individual or corporation. Although
payment is absolutely certain, it is a fact that the city usually pays a
higher price than the private buyer, and in addition very frequently
receives an inferior article. It is a recognized fact that it is the right of
every citizen of a municipality to obtain such share of the municipal
patronage as can properly be obtained, and that the best method to obtain
fair conditions is by competitive bidding for supplies and municipal equip-
ment. While the method of competitive bids is, on the face of it, a fair
one and probably as good a system as can be devised, it does not in all
cases result in the greatest economy. The privilege of a private employer
to use the quotations of one seller in securing lower prices from another,
is of great financial advantage. While the system of competitive bids
usually results in obtaining low prices for a period of time, in the long run
it may result in the discouragement of the more responsible bidders, and
the introduction of an irresponsible class, who will take chances that
municipal officers will accept their goods rather than indulge in the trouble
necessary for rejection after the contract has been made. Later the sys-
tem very often develops into a working agreement or actual collusion
between the surviving firms who bid on the particular articles purchased.
In such cases as responsible firms or new bidders enter competitions after
the system has been developed, it is often found that the long experience
of the older bidders has resulted in such friendships among the purchasing
subordinates, or in the inspection force, as to prevent successful compe-
tition by outsiders.

The category of municipal conditions which prevent the introduction of
scientific management, in the generally adopted term, might be continued

580 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

to a much greater length. Sufficient has been presented to show that
such systems as are a])i)hcable to private inchistrial operations are not
apphcable to municipal work. The truth is that scientific management
can be introduced into municipal government only to the extent that
politics is eliminated. If the public could be induced to take the view
that the affairs of municipal corporations should be conducted on the
same principles that govern the conduct of private business, the principles
of scientific management could be applied to the administration of city
affairs, but politics and scientific management will not mix, any more than
oil and water will mix. It is true that here and there, among the various
departments of a city, heads can be found who have made improvements^
to reduce labor costs, but even in such cases it will be found that further
extension of the principles of good business management has been pre-
vented by the influence of politics and in many other departments it will
be found that politics have permeated the entire force and has put good
business management out of the question.

Up to date the most successful attempt to introduce the principles of
scientific management into the conduct of municipal government has been
found in the introduction and extension of the conti'act system. The
adoption of the contract system, however, is simply the recognition of
good business management on the part of the contractor, for which the
city pays a premium, rather than pay the excessive cost of work performed
by municipal employees. This very fact illustrates the difficulty of secur-
ing scientific management in the conduct of municipal government, for
it is generally conceded that contract work can be done as efficiently as
the work performed by the city labor, at from one-half to three-fourths
of the cost of the same amount of work when performed by city labor,
and still allow a reasonable margin of profit to the contractor. Yet the
labor unions are violently opposed to the adoption of the contract system
by cities in the United States and seek everj^'^here to break it down and
to replace it by municipal labor.

The introduction of the contract system is prevented by the cry "cheap
labor and poor work." The general public accepts such arguments with-
out consideration and does not realize that as regards the labor situation,
it is governed by the law of supply and demand, and that the employees
of contractors are as much entitled to employment for the support of their
families, as a municipal employee, or that the municipal employees con-
stitute an especially privileged class. As regards the quality of work,
there is no question that contract work, performed under suitably pre-
pared specifications and Avith rigid inspection, can be made better in
every way than the work of the ordinary municipal force.

In view of the foregoing, the reader may consider that attempts to
secure economy in the work of city employees is an altogether hopeless

SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT IN PUBLIC WORKS 581

task. Such, however, is not the fact. Even under present conditions,
great economies are possible to the competent, enthusiastic city official;
particularly are such opportunities open to the officials of a new adminis-
tration. Such men usually find large numbers of employees on the pay-
roll, at a high rate of wages, who are retained for poUtical reasons and
who perform practically no beneficial service. It is comparatively easy
to secure assent to the discharge of such individuals and the resistance
which the official can offer to filling such vacant places with the supporters
of his own administration constitutes the measure of saving which he
can accomplish in the work of his labor force. The official will always,
find that there are many other opportunities for substantial savings,
although not by the introduction of scientific methods as they are gen-
erally understood.

As a concrete example, a condition which came under the writer's juris-
diction relating to the cost of teaming may serve as an illustration. On
taking charge of a city department he found that the system had grown
up whereby the city hired teams of private contractors as a matter of
petty patronage. A list of nearly one thousand favored contractors had
been formed, few of whom owned teams, although they were enabled to
hire teams of legitimate contractors, place them in city employ at a rate
considerably higher than the market rate, and receive the difference be-
tween the price paid to the owner of the team and the price paid to them
by the city. Without special effort, by the simple expedient of dividing
the city into districts, and submitting the teaming service to competition
under suitably drawn specifications, the cost of hiring teams was reduced
from an amount in excess of $430,000 to approximately S120,000 per
year, a saving of approximately $310,000 per year, without detriment to
the service and Avith a normal increase in the amount of work done. Simi-
lar opportunities presented themselves which enabled the work of the
department to be accomplished at a cost of nearly one milhon dollars
less than during the last year of the previous administration. In the
matter of teams, the expedient was so simple and so fair, both to the
pubUc and to the teaming contractors, that the former system has never
been reverted to.

In order to accomplish such economies, the official must realize that
in all human probability his tenure of office will end with the adminis-
tration with which he is connected, and that his consideration should be
the welfare of the public which he serves and his own reputation at the
end of the administration rather than the retention of his position under
the succeeding administration. City officials, during the past few years,
have been greatly assisted in the efficient performance of their duties
by the various municipal bodies which have been organized in the larger
cities to supervise and investigate municipal conditions; through the me-

582 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

dium of such bodies the worst existing municipal abuses have been exposed
and business methods have been, to some extent, made possible, particu-
larly has the excessive cost of municipal work been made the subject of
exposure in elaborate reports, and systems of accounting to show the
actual cost of municipal work in comparison Avith private enterprises
have been installed. In general, however, such systems have not been
utilized to their fullest possible extent for the advantage of the city,
although their existence prevents the abuses which at one time existed.
Laws framed with the object of separating the legislative from the execu-
tive departments are of great assistance as giving a great degree of inde-
pendence to the municipal official in the expenditure of city funds. On
the whole, although it seems impossible at present to introduce business
methods in their entirety into city operations, substantial progress in that
direction is being accomplished.

THE BOSTON CITY CHARTER

GEORGE R. NUTTER^
Boston

IT IS impossible to tell of the workings of the present charter of Boston,
without some account of the political framework which preceded it,
and of the conditions and circumstances which led to the change.

Prior to 1910, Boston had the old-fashioned form of government, con-
sisting of a mayor, a board of aldermen, and a common council. The
board of aldermen had been subject to various changes, and just prior
to 1910, it consisted of thirteen members, nominated by districts, but
elected at large, each voter voting for seven, and the thirteen receiving
the highest number of votes constituting the board. The common coun-
cil had three members for each of the twenty-five wards of the city. The
ballot was long. All candidates were nominated in primaries of the na-
tional parties, carefully regulated by statute, and it was thus impossible
to combine on any basis of broad citizenship, irrespective of party. The
average citizen could not follow intelligently the working of this cumber-
some machinery. There was an uneasy feehng in the community that
waste and extravagance, if not worse, were flourishing; but nobody knew
what to do about it, and no relief seemed in sight.

Then by a strange accident, when it was darkest, relief came. John
F. Fitzgerald was elected mayor in 1905. A year of his administration
set the community to thinking, and with a view, as his critics said, of
forestalling an investigation by the legislature, Fitzgerald proposed a
finance commission to be composed of seven citizens appointed by the
mayor on the recommendation of various commercial bodies. This scheme
was taken up by the Good Goverrmient Association; its adherents carried
through the plan, but framed in a really effective way, with sufficient
money for expenses and for counsel and the legislature gave the commis-
sion power to compel the attendance of witnesses. The commercial bodies
rose to the occasion, and a capable commission under the leadership of

^ For some time prior to 1905 Mr. Nutter was a member of the executive com-
mittee of the Public School Association, which was a non-partisan, non-sectarian
organization to secure the election of suitable persons to the school committee,
and later was chairman of the committee. The Public School Association is still
an important factor in municipal matters here, but in 1905 on becoming a member
of the newly formed Good Government Association, Mr. Nutter resigned from the
Association. Since then he has been on the executive committee of the Good
Government Association. Mr. Nutter was also a member of the executive com-
mittee of the Committee of One Hundred, which was organized to procure the
passage through the legislature of the new charter recommended by the finance
commission, and later had charge of the referendum on the present charter.

583

584 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

Nathan jNIathcws, himself the mayor of_ fifteen years before, sat for eight-
een months, and disclosed a state of extravagance and waste that stirred
the community. As one result Fitzgerald went down to defeat in 1907.

The finance commission reported the draft of a charter to the legisla-
ture. Although politicians of both parties were against it, a committee
of one hundred worked effectively for its passage. It passed the legisla-
ture. A choice between two plans was referred to the people by the
legislature, and after an interesting fight, in which for the first time per-
sonalities were absent, plan two, which embodied the advanced ideas of
the finance commission was adopted, and the charter became effective,
much as the commission had drafted it.

The mayor was required to appoint as heads of departments only well
recognized experts, but from the miscellaneous character of IVIayor Fitz-
gerald's appointments previous to the new charter it was feared that the
future mayor might not himself be an expert in recognizing experts, and
there was a distinct feehng that somewhere there ought to be a power of
confirmation. Many plans had been offered to the finance commission
for such confirmation. But the final draft, and the charter when finally
enacted, provided that the mayor should file with the civil service com-
mission of the commonwealth a certificate that his appointee was a recog-
nized expert for the position, and if within thirty days the commission
filed with the city clerk their certificate that after careful inquiry he was
found qualified, the appointment took effect. If nothing was filed, the
appointment was void.

This provision, according to some, violated the principle of home rule.
Some critics thought the child would never learn to walk in leading strings ;
others disliked to see it, for the want of some kind of leading string, fall
into the pit. The latter view prevailed. There was a certain logic in
the choice of the civil service commission, even though a state body,
for this provision compelled the heads of the departments to measure up
to the standards of the same body that passed upon the qualifications of
subordinates, and as it will appear later, it played an important part in
the first year of the charter.

The mayor likewise took the initiative in framing the budget. His
term was made four years, with a mild attempt at recall at the end of the
second year.

Both the board of aldermen and the common council were swept away,
and in their place a single council of nine members was established, three
elected each year for a term of three years. The council had the power
to c^ecrease the budget, but could not add to it; it could not initiate appro-
priat}<)ns, but it could originate loan orders as well as pass on loans sug-
gested by the mayor or originating in the council. This was its chief,
and practically its only, effective power, though it also had the power to
consolidate departments.

THE BOSTON CITY CHARTER 585

Party primaries were abolished. Party designation on the ballot dis-
appeared likewise. Candidates were nominated by petition of 5000 reg-
istered voters, and placed on the ballot without designation, and in an
order determined by lot.

There was added a unique and in many respects entirely novel agency
in the shape of a permanent finance commission, composed of five mem-
bers appointed by the governor, the chairman receiving a salary of $5000,
and the remaining members serving without any compensation whatever.
Its duties were to investigate the departments, to hold hearings and to
report from time to time, but it had no participation in the government.
The idea of course came from the success of the first commission, and the
fact that the people needed a special body to watch the representatives
selected and chosen by themselves excited no comment. It was appar-
ently assumed that such a step was necessary.

The new charter therefore sought to make possible a short ballot, few
officers, non-partisanship, and a government of experts, to the end that
the people might be able to follow what was done, and to act intelligently
in passing judgment on results.

The most important officer by far under the new charter is the mayor.
For the first election in January, 1910, the Citizens Municipal League,
a new municipal party, formed by the Committee of One Hundred, nomi-
nated for the mayoralty James J. Storrow, who as head of the newly con-
stituted school committee, when the number had been reduced from 24
to 5, had served the city in an important position. His opponent was
Fitzgerald, who after his first term had lost the election in 1907. The
contest between the two, aided by the fact that the entire number of
nine councillors had to be elected, and the further fact that it was the
first election under the new charter, brought out a record breaking vote.
Nearly 85.5 per cent of the registered voters, the highest in fifteen years,
went to the polls. The contest was very close, and it was decided, as it
had been in 1905, by the presence of a third candidate, the mayor of the
interregnum from 1907 to 1909, who polled less than 2000 votes, but
enough probably to defeat Storrow. Fitzgerald "won, and thus became
the first mayor under the new charter for the ensuing four years.

The election of Mayor Fitzgerald dampened the hopes of the supporters
of the charter. The prospect had been bright for having at the head of
affairs in the new forward movement a strong and capable executive; but
with the election of Fitzgerald it seemed probable that the broad con-
structive possibilities of the charter would not materialize. Only the pre-
ventive features of the charter would be given a perfect trial and all
that could be done would be to mark time until another election. And
so in substance it has proved. Mayor Fitzgerald is in some respects a
remarkable politician. Consciously or unconsciously he is a past master

586 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW .

in the art of winning a crowd. His versatility catches the unthinking,
his mental agility passes for cleverness with the dull witted, and by skil-
ful management, which is rather easy in the case of Boston, where the
citizens are sharply divided geographically, as well as by race and wealth,
and are therefore sensitive to psychological appeals, he can hinder his
opponents fiom combining. But he is superficial. He has no real stand-
ard of public service. While for the present he is at the head, he really
belongs to a vanishing type. As soon as the standard rises in the mind
of the public, his type will be impossible, and the community will turn
to a very different leader. It was not to be expected that such an exe-
cutive would rise to the real opportunity of the charter. It was enough
if the charter could prevent him from repeating the history of his first
administration of 1905-1907.

The first matter that arose was his appointment of heads of depart-
ments. This was of course his most important function. Under the old
regime, members of the "machine" obtained the positions. Politics gov-
erned the choice. It was an accident if the head of the department knew
anything of its requirements. Any member of the machine was equally
fitted to superintend the streets, manage the penal institutions, or run the
bath department. On the other hand, under the charter, an expert had
to be appointed, and this involved not alone honesty but efficiency on
the part of the candidate. The mayor started in in the old way, and came
almost immediately up against the civil service feature of the charter.

Sufficient to say that in the first eight months the mayor's appoint-
ments fared as follows: He made 62 appointments to paid and unpaid
positions, of which 37 were to paid, and 25 to unpaid positions. Of the
appointments to paid positions, 23 were approved by the civil service
commission, and 14 were not approved. Of the appointments to unpaid
positions, 21 were approved, and 4 not approved. Of 22 new appoint-
ments to paid positions as heads of important departments, 15 accord-
ing to a report of the finance commission appear to have been made as
rewards for political support, and of these 15, 12 were not approved.

The result has been that on the whole the appointments that have
finally become effective have been far better than under the former sys-
tem. How much better they might have been, if the appointing power
had lived up to the ideal standard possible under the charter, instead
of being forced to consider only whether his candidate could "get by,"
no one can say. Such a possibility will not arise until a maj'or of another
type administers affairs. But for the first time in over ten years, there
has really been an engineer at the head of the street department — or as
it is now called, the department of public works — in place of a dispenser
of patronage, ^^arious of the departments have been consolidated, by
the city council under authority given by the new charter, and while it

THE BOSTON CITY CHARTER 587

would be too much to say that matters are not susceptible of improve-
ment, they are much more satisfactory than before. The preventive
feature of the civil service commission was thus put to the test and not
found wanting.

The second important matter which has occurred during the present
administration is its attitude toward the city finances. There ig of course
great pressure upon the mayor to accomplish certain public improvements.
Some of this pressure arises from the growing desire of the community
that more and more things be furnished by a municipality — a disposition
the end of which is not yet in sight. Some of the pressure, however, in
the spending of money and in the creation of new things for which money
is to be spent, comes from the followers of the administration who desire
contracts or employment. It is a matter of skill to yield to this pressure
of one's friends and yet at the same time not increase the tax rate and
encounter the counter pressure of the taxpayer. The only way really of
doing this is to throw as much of the expenditure as possible into loans,
which postpone to another day and another administration the obliga-
tion of payment, and enable the present administration to spend much
more money without noticeably raising the tax rate.

There has been a determined effort under the new charter by the city
council to adopt a more business-like attitude toward loans, and in par-
ticular not to allow loans to be contracted for current expenses, but to
compel the ordinary expenses of the year and such matters as are regu-
larly recurrent to be paid out of the tax levy. While at times and in
spots the present mayor has seemed to sympathize with this financial
policy, his course has not been uniform, and it can be said on the whole
that he has been opposed to it. He has therefore been brought at vari-
ous times into conflict with the city council over the question of loans,
and his desire for loans has been to a considerable extent checked by the
power which rests in the council of confirming loans. This is one illus-
tration of the way in which the council has performed its function, and
in this way its preventive power has been of value.

With the finance commission it was to be expected that the mayor
would come into conflict, for two members out of the five appointed by
the governor were members of the old finance commission which criticised
his former administration. One of his first acts was to propose the cre-
ation of a bureau of municipal research on the New York plan, and his
budget cut down the amount which the finance commission asked for its
expenses. There has been more or less of a running fire of criticism
between the finance commission and the mayor during the whole of his
administration. The commission is of course without any power to en-
force its recommendations, and in the long run the only tribunal that
can decide whether its criticisms are well founded or not is the electorate,

588 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

which has not yet been called upon to give any decision, although under
the modest recall provision of the charter there was a significant majority
vote in favor of submitting to the voters the question of the recall of the
mayor.

An illustration of the manner in which the executive powers granted
to the mayor may be used is afforded in the attitude of the mayor toward
the present lighting system of the city. There was in existence a con-
tract for the lighting of the city, with what is known as the Rising Sun
Street Lighting Company, a corporation operated by the United Gas
Improvement Company of Philadelphia. This contract existed at the
time of Mayor Fitzgerald's first administration, and came to an end in
1906. Since that time it has been renewed for short periods awaiting
some final disposition of the matter. Both the finance commission and
the council have come to the conclusion that the cost of lighting can be
materially reduced by the abrogation of the contract, and finally in Novem-
ber, 1911, bonds to the amount of $300,000, previously authorized by the
mayor and council, were sold by direction of the mayor, the proceeds of
which were to be used by the city in beginning a lighting system of its
own, but although the proceeds of this loan have been in the treasury
now for over a year and a half and the city has been paying interest on
the loan, the mayor has refused for some reason which the community
has not yet fathomed, to apply the proceeds toward street lighting, and the
contract with the Rising Sun Street Lighting Company is still going on.

But there is after all no way in which the full executive powers granted
to the mayor can be restrained or enforced, except through the force of
public opinion. This is as it should be. If the citizens elect a man who
does not administer the affairs of the city properly, there is no reason
why the responsibility should not rest with the electorate and the city
pay the penalty.

It was not supposable that the present maj^or would have much sym-
pathy with the present charter, and a significant s3'mptom of his lack
of sympathy is shown in the efforts which he and the other members of
the machine have made to change the charter. Each year at the legis-
lature a number of bills have been introduced to alter the charter, par-
ticularly to create a larger council to restore ward or district representa-
tion and to render it easier for candidates to be nominated. Thus far
by the united efforts of various citizens' organizations these changes have
been defeated.

So far as the mayor is concerned, therefore, it can fairly be said in con-
clusion that the city has not made much progress under the new charter,
but on the other hand the preventive measures of the charter have proved
to be efficacious, and have checked a recurrence of many of the evils of
his first administration.

THE BOSTON CITY CHARTER 589

The history of the council under the new charter has been as satisfac-
tory as could have been expected. The position of city councillor is not
one of much distinction. The number of councillors was in itself a com-
promise between those who wished a large council and those who wished
the smaller form of commission government. Thus they avoided the
disadvantages of the large council without, perhaps, acquiring the advan-
tages of the small. The powers of the council are very limited, and the
result has been that it has been difficult to get men of large affairs to
run for the position of councillor. At the first election under the charter,
the Citizens Municipal League found difficulty in obtaining candidates.
Under these conditions, the record that the council has made has been
very satisfactory. The majority during the whole period has been made
up of candidates of the Citizens Municipal League, recommended by the
Good Government Association, and the machine has never had even a
fair working minority in it. While there has been some playing at politics
and more or less riding at windmills by some councillors who had more zeal
than stability in their make-up, the council has developed several valuable
members — notably its present president, Thomas J. Kenny — ^who have
taken the lead in formulating the one thing for which it has stood and
which thus far has distinguished its administration. This has been the
financial policy of the city with regard to loans.

The council has steadily pursued the policy of compelling all annual
recurrent matters of indebtedness to be paid for out of the tax levy and
not to be raised by loan. It has likewise been able to look upon the city
as a whole and to treat all the different districts with reasonable fair-
ness in the apportionment of loans. This has been shown in a compila-
tion of the municipal work in the several districts which was prepared
and laid before the legislature at the time it was sought to restore the
large number of the old-fashioned large council. It may be said, there-
fore, that the present council has been a success.

A striking feature of the new charter was the necessity of the confir-
mation of the mayor's appointments by the Massachusetts civil service
commission. This was a new feature; it was a work which the commis-
sion of course did not seek, and one in which to be successful they would
have to encounter considerable odium in the case of an improper mayor.
This turned out to be their fate. The commission started the perform-
ance of its duties by the inauguration of a standard which up to that time
had never been consciously appHed to Boston. While theoretically some
special qualifications beyond character were supposed to be required of
a candidate, there had in fact seldom been any real desire to obtain an
expert in any particular line. The commission set up a reasonably high
standard with the result that during the first year one candidate after
another of the mayor's was rejected, always to the candidate's discomfiture

590 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

and oftentimes to some confusion in the public mind. But it gradually
began to da^^'n upon the community that to fill in a competent manner
a position requiring special knowledge, one must be something more than
even a good husband and father, and that the mere fact that no criminal
proceedings or anything of that kind had been brought against a candi-
date was not in itself a particularly lofty recommendation. The result
was that after the first year or so the quality of the candidates very mucli
improved, and there have been fewer rejections by the civil service com-
mission. The commission therefore is entitled to the credit for estab-
lishing now definitely in the public mind a higher and more satisfactory
standard for the heads of departments that ever prevailed before, and
it will be difficult for any mayor to appoint the old style of candidate.

For this result the head of the commission, Charles Warren, was largely
responsible, and for this he paid the penalty as he was not reappointed
by Governor Foss. How long this feature of the charter will really be
effective will depend of course upon how long the standard of the civil
service commission itself is kept up. It is entirely well understood in
Massachusetts, as it is in New York and various of the other states, that
the city machines in the great capitals in order to prevent restraint by
the legislature must aim not only at controlling the city but at controlling
the legislature itself. There has been a very determined effort on the
part of the Boston machine in this direction already, and of course when
if ever that control is successful, the present safeguard will disappear.
Up to that time, however, it will be effective if it is managed in the future
as it has been in the past, and it deserves credit for the ideal of public
service which it inaugurated in dealing with the first appointments of
Mayor Fitzgerald.

The finance commission has been an active feature of the new charter.
It was perhaps the first bureau of municipal research to be paid for out
of the tax levy, and not by private subscription; but one or two other
cities are said to have followed the example. Its reason for existence
was of course historical. The old finance commission had been found to
be so effective and its members had devoted so much disinterested service
to the city that it was thought advisable to continue the work in the
charter. The humor of constituting a special board appointed by the
governor to investigate and make sure that those whom the people elected
were faithful to their trust has not been wholly appreciated. Yet since
the individual citizen has not the time or the patience to follow in detail
the administration of the city, a board that can represent him has a place,
if it really does represent him and can win his confidence. In spite of
the glaring incongruity with the home rule theory, the finance commis-
sion has been a success largely because of the qualities of its personnel.

Governor Draper appointed as the first head of the finance commission

THE BOSTON CITY CHARTER 591

John A. Sullivan, who was one of the members of the old finance com-
mission. There could not have been any better appointment, or one that
showed more thoroughly the governor's sympathy with the new charter.
Mr. Sullivan began his poUtical career not as a theorist, but as a practical
politician, and he has that familiarity with all sorts and conditions of
men, their wants, and their ways of looking at things which comes only
from that side of political life. At the same time he has developed in
his work in the old finance commission and as head of the present board
a conception of public service which when united with a study and grasp
of details has enabled him to render invaluable service to the community.
The same spirit has animated the other members of the commission. The
result has been that the board has been active and vigorous, and its opin-
ions have met with the respect of the community. It is true that at times
it has a tendency to mingle a little too much acid in its criticisms of cur-
rent events, but perhaps under the attacks to which the old regime has
subjected it this is merely a defect of its quahties.

In any review of these various administrative departments, it becomes
at once apparent how potent is the human side of administration,
and how lifeless and mechanical the machinery might become without
the proper quality of man to run it. Sullivan, Kenny and Warren are
perhaps the three men who from this human side each in his own way
have contributed the most to make the charter a success. The finance
commission might easily have played an inglorious part; the council might
have let the loans shp by; and it would have been less disagreeable as
well as far more profitable for the individual for the civil service com-
mission to have given up any high standard of public service and to have
passed out a confirmation to whatever type of candidate appeared. These
men and those who worked with them appreciated the opportunities they
had in laying a good foundation for the beginning of the new charter, and
they improved them. The charter was thus fortunate at the outset.
But the real test may be still ahead. At any time by a poor appointment
of the governor, or by an unthinking selection by the electorate, the advan-
tage can be lost, and the charter weakened. It certainly will not run itself.

The method of nominating candidates under the new charter is by
petition signed by 5000 registered voters. It was urged at the time the
charter was passed and since then at each effort before the legislature to
change it that this provision prevented the poor man from running and
threw the success to the rich. This objection was due to a curious mis-
conception. It was never intended under the new charter, and it cer-
tainly never should be intended that any one might run for office who
might feel so inclined. The world may owe a man a Uving, but it cer-
tainly does not owe him an office or an opportunity to get one. There
is no occasion for any one to run for office unless he is either backed by

592 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

a number of his fellow-citizens, in other words by some kind of a munici-
pal party, or is sufficiently well knowTi so that he can appeal to a sufficient
number of supporters to aid him to procure the necessary signatures.
This is just what has happened. No one during the last four elections
who was really and seriously worth while, has been prevented from run-
ning. No one who ran has needed to pay out much of his own money.
One prominent candidate, who has been twice elected by a sound major-
ity, stated before the legislature that he had no difficulty in procuring
the signatures. He sent to two hundred friends the necessary blanks,
and within two weeks had 5000 signatures, besides the signatures pro-
cured for him by the Citizens Municipal League. His total expense
was for stamps and envelopes, and amounted to $8.50. On the other
hand, innumerable self candidates have been shut out by this pro-
vision from taxing the patience of the electorate, and encumbering the
ballot.

There has been, however, one grave defect in this system. The candi-
dates are not sifted out bj^ a prehminary vote, as in the days of the pri-
mary. This has not made any difference in the case of the council, for
the candidates have been few and the ballot short. But in the single
election for mayor, the presence of other candidates resulted in the vic-
torious candidate jeally representing only a minority of the voters, and
the result was no more satisfactory than in 1905, when precisely the same
thing happened. It is difficult to suggest a remedy, except by the con-
centration of interest in the candidates of distinctly municipal parties.
The German method of two elections has been adopted at least once
in municipal charters granted in Massachusetts since the Boston charter,
but while the method is said to have worked well, it was in much
smaller cities.

It was of course a corollary to the method of nominations that no
party names could appear upon the ballot. This has had the great advan-
tage of destroying the artificial barrier which the national party lines
raised between citizens whose objects were really the same and who other-
wise would have cooperated in municipal matters. Thus, before the char-
ter, under the old system, the Democratic city committee represented
the machine. To oppose its candidates, only a Republican could be
nominated, towards whom the independent Democrats were lukewarm,
or an independent Democrat, who of course could not win in the Republi-
can primaries. So the opposition to the machine was hopelessly split.
The present method has rather cleverly reversed the process in the case
of the council. The Citizens Municipal League candidates present a
united front, while as there is no longer any candidate who is strictly the
candidate of the Democratic party, any Democrat can run without nec-
essarily losing caste, and the machine vote is thus split.

THE BOSTON CITY CHARTER 593

While the result of the elections under the new methods have been
satisfactory, except perhaps in the choice of mayor, the interest shown
by the electorate has been curiously uneven, and in the case of the elec-
tions for the council only, has been disappointingly sHght. The first
election in January, 1910, was naturally one of great moment. Not only
a mayor, but the entire board of nine councillors were to be chosen. The
election followed the thorough canvass of the city in the . referendum
between the two plans submitted to the voters by the legislature. The
candidates for mayor were prominent. Large sums of money, altogether
too large, were spent in advertising. The emotional appeals which now
must attend any effort of the popular will, were skilful and varied. Four
candidates ran for mayor, nineteen for the nine positions as councillor.
Over 85 per cent of the registered voters came to the polls, a percentage
higher than in any election for over twenty years Avith one exception,
which was only one-hundredth of 1 per cent higher. In 1911, the contest
was only for council. Nine candidates ran for the three places. Two
of the three chosen were nominated by the Citizens Municipal League.
The influence of the machine was desultory, but noticeable, and the
election of the remaining councillor might be classed as the result of that
influence. But only between 52 and 53 per cent of the registered voters
came to the polls. The falling off was not in the rich section where there
is a popular, but erroneous, impression that the interest is less, but gen-
erally throughout the city. In 1912 there were seven candidates for the
three positions as councillor. The machine had a distinct ticket and
made a distinct fight. The Citizens Municipal League ran its ticket,
and there was one independent. The league won a decisive victory, with
all three of its candidates, but only between 45 and 46 per cent of the
voters came to the polls. This last January, only four candidates ran.
The machine retired from the contest. One independent, who was sup-
posed to have had some machine backing, was elected, and two candi-
dates of the league. Between 41 and 42 per cent of the registered voters
came to the polls, probably the smallest in the history of the city.

These figures are interesting and at the same time disappointing. It
is difficult to generalize from only four elections. But they seem to indi-
cate that in the important election of the mayor, the electorate takes
wide interest, but at other times hardly any at all. Perhaps the reasons
are not far to seek. The mayoralty is not only by far the chief office,
but the candidates for it are far more widely known. All the artificial
stimuli for arousing popular interest are applied. Publicity is extensive,
by circulars and posters, and in the newspapers. In the off election there
is Httle doing. Little money is spent. Little publicity is given. There
are almost no issues in Boston affairs. The only issues are the person-
alities, and these in the council fights are little known to the voters. It

594 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

is undoubtedly true that under the old method two stimuli were impor-
tant which are wanting now. The first of these was the national party
organization, which was permanent in character and more highly organ-
ized than is the one municipal party which has come into being under
the charter. The other was the number of candidates running, who
represented all geographical districts and naturally made every effort to
bring all the votes of their friends and neighbors. These do not, however,
indicate that the old method was the better. It excited more interest,
but led to worse administration. It may rather be that elections might
well be less frequent, or perhaps the only remedy is the slow growth of
public sentiment. It is early yet to tell.

In conclusion, the question naturally arises: Whatever may be the mer-
its or demerits of particular features of the charter, what in general has
been its effect on the city of Boston? Has it enabled the community to
carry out more definitely its conception of government? Will it in the
future aid the community in the development of this conception? So
far as any conception of government is concerned, there is a pleasing
fiction that the people have a clear and distinct standard, but are pre-
vented from putting it fully into effect by what are known as the "bosses."
Like many such. fictions, this is a half truth. It is true that the "machine"
must be disposed of before the will of the people can find expression,
but after the machine has been disposed of there must be something to
express.

Frankly speaking, the Boston electorate has been for some time in
rather an elementary condition in its conception of municipal adminis-
tration. The individual has had in a general way a desire for better
government, but neither individually nor collectively have the citizens
had very clear standards on the subject. In other ways, such as its
Chamber of Commerce, Boston has made great progress during the last
few years. But in political matters it cannot be said to have been so
successful in realizing a standard for public service, and in effectively
measuring its public servants by that standard. There is much to excuse
this. To develop a definite standard of public service the electorate
ought to be homogeneous and well put together — the various classes of
its citizens ought not to be separated, particularly by artificial barriers.
But Boston has some very pecuhar obstacles and some very peculiar
artificial barriers with which to contend.

There is not only the natural chasm between the rich and the poor
upon which the so-called tribunes of the people are so fond of dwelling;
but the different sections of the city, both in their geographical situation
and from their former political conditions, are singularly local. Each is
a little world by itself, and until recently there has been difficulty in
sinking local feeling. For example, one portion of the city, East Boston,

THE BOSTON CITY CHARTER 595

is an island, whose inhabitants still talk of going to the "city." In the
opposite direction, Roxbury was once an independent town before its
union with Boston. The last addition to the city, which became a part
of it in 1912, was of course an independent town. Fate has gathered in
Ward 11 — the Back Bay District — those who are supposed to be well off
in this world's goods, and who are therefore supposed to have very dif-
ferent ideas in the way of government than their less fortunate fellows.
In addition, the city is divided into various races, each of which has until
very recently associated largely by itself, so that there is a vertical divi-
sion, as it were, among the citizens, as well as the usual horizontal divi-
sions made by wealth.

A large portion of the substantial business element do not live in Boston
at all, but merely transact business there, and take no part in municipal
politics. In this respect Boston is probably the only city in America
whose suburbs are considerably more populous than the municipality
itself. Of the million and a half inhabitants who make up metropolitan
Boston, the city proper with its 700,000 inhabitants contains with some
few exceptions all the "slums;" while the business element and small
householders who would tend to raise the average intelligence of the
electorate, sleep outside the city and take no part in its pohtical affairs..
It is likewise very difficult for the average citizen to keep much run of
municipal affairs. The matters coming before the mayor and council
for solution are numerous, generally small, and encumbered with a mass
of detail and often uninteresting. Except for the office of mayor, the
candidates are not as a rule well known outside of their particular dis-
tricts, until at least they have been elected and justified themselves by
their career in the council.

The number of city employees, including women, is more than one-
tenth the number of registered voters, and their views on city matters
are necessarily influenced considerably by their positions. Only about
one in every five of the registered voters pay any tax at all outside of the
poll tax, and the women who form the larger part of the resident tax-
payers, owing doubtless to the common practice of putting real estate
in the names of wives, of course have no vote at all except for school
committee. Criticisms of waste and extravagance have thus no direct
personal effect upon many of the electorate, who have not yet learned
that while they do not pay for such administration directly, yet indirectly
the burden of it falls most heavily on them. If any one expected that
as soon as the fetters of the old regime were removed the city would start
forward with a confident step into the possibilities ahead, he certainly
would have indulged an unfounded hope. The acts of the electorate
under the new charter have been often uncer.tain and unexpected. It
has been feeling its way and learning, as it were, to walk. Thus the

596 NATIONAL MUNK^IPAL REVIEW

victory of plan two was a joyful surprise; but it was followed by restor-
ing to power the very mayor whose acts in his first administration had
brought around the agitation for the new charter.

One of the city officials under the old regime who went to jail for a
small fraud on the city, was later sent by a part of the city electorate as
their representative in the legislature. At the very first election, however,
the better class of councillors were elected, and the majority of the coun-
cil have continued to be of the better type. Yet at the last election a
good candidate for the council, endorsed by the Citizens Municipal League,
but unfortunately not particularly well known in the city, outside of his
own district, was defeated by a self-nominated candidate, who in 1905
had run as an independent for mayor, and regarded b}^ his fellow-citizens
as more or less of a joke, had succeeded in obtaining for that office 457
votes!

The standard which was set up by the civil service commission created
as much surprise among those who endorsed it as it did consternation
among the machine. It is uncertainty of judgment that makes the aver-
age citizen want to lean on somebody, and this want has led to the power
of the machine and the Good Government Association. Each of them
has decided views and decided recommendations; and it is easier to follow
one or the other than to examine the facts and to arrive at an independ-
ent conclusion. But while some of the results have been unexpected and
disappointing, the general tendency has been in the right direction.

From the past three j'^ears, therefore, the future is hopeful, but by no
means certain. The charter is not yet a fixture. It has met with oppo-
sition each year at the legislature, entirely from the type of politicians
whose activities it has supplanted, but who never sleep. The Boston
machine is a strong, if not the strongest element in the Democratic party,
and if the Democratic party acquires control of the legislature — ^as may
well result from the present demoralized condition of the Republican
party throughout the commonwealth — it is by no means impossible that
the charter would go or at all events that its leading features would be
weakened and changed. Furthermore, a governor may at any time by
improper, or as is more likely by weak or colorless, appointments, destroy
the efficiency of the finance commission, and the civil service commission,
which after all are grafted rather illogically upon the charter. The only
thing which will be beyond the powers of the legislature is the spirit of
the peo])le. If this develops a definite and certain standard of public
service, as it now seems likely in course of time to develop, it will either
prevent any cliange in the charter or may continue to live under any
changes which the vicissitudes of politics may bring. The future alone
can tell.

LEGISLATIVE INTERFERENCE IN MUNIC-
IPAL AFFAIRS AND THE HOME RULE
PROGRAM IN NEW YORK

BY LAURENCE ARNOLD TANZER^

LEGISLATIVE interference in municipal affairs has for many years
been the worst stumbhng block in the path of municipal reform.
Nowhere have its evils been more keenly felt than in the state
of New York. The protests against it date at least as far back as 1846,
when Henry C. Murphy of Brooklyn vainly urged upon the constitutional
convention which was revising the state constitution, the adoption of a
prohibition of special acts for the incorporation of cities and villages.
Since then the evil has grown by leaps and bounds. Proposals looking
to the protection of cities from it were again made in the constitutional
commission of 1872 and by the Tilden commission of 1875, but were again
unsuccessful.

In 1890 the Fassett committee appointed by the state senate to inves-
tigate the subject of municipal government in the state reported that in
the six years from 1884 to 1889 inclusive the legislature had passed 1284
acts relative to the thirty cities in the state, of which 390 affected the
city of New York. In the one year 1886, as Professor Goodnow says
(Municipal Home Rule, pp. 23, 24): "280 of the 681 acts passed by the

1 Mr. Tanzer has been a member of the committee on legislation of the Citizens'
Union of New York City for a number of years, and chairman of the Union's charter
committee. In the latter capacity he has been actively concerned in the study
and discussion of all the charters recently proposed for New York City, commenc-
ing with the Ivins charter in 1909, and was particularly active in aiding in the defeat
of the Gaynor charter in 1911, about which he wrote an article which appeared in
the first number of the National Municipal Review (vol. i, p. 61). He is counsel
for the Municipal Government Association of New York State and chairman of its
committee on municipal home rule. The municipal empowering act and the home
rule constitutional amendment were drawn by Mr. Tanzer with the assistance of
a number of others, most prominent among whom was J. Hampden Dougherty of
New York. The optional city charter bill was drawn by Carlos C. Alden, dean of
the Buffalo Law School^ and has recently been revised and amended by Mr. Tanzer.
The non-partisan municipal election law was drawn by William Allaire Shortt of
New York. On behalf of the Municipal Government Association, Mr. Tanzer has
taken part in substantially all the activities mentioned in the article, the political
activities having been managed by J. O. Hammitt, Robert S. Binkerd and Walter
T. Arndt, all of New York. Mr. Tanzer has intervened for the Association and filed
a brief in the case of Hamitt vs. Gaynor now pending in the New York supreme
court, involving some questions as to the interpretation of the municipal empower-
ing act. An article which he wrote on the home rule bill appeared in Bench and
Bar for April, 1913.

During the past winter he was retained by the New York State factory investi-
gating commission to take charge of the drafting of their legislation.

597

598

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

legislature, i.e., between one-third and one-half of its entire work, inter-
fered directly with the affairs of some particular county, city, village, or
town, specifically and expressly named."

By the time of the constitutional convention of 1894 which prepared
the present constitution, the situation had become so acute as to compel
attention. After careful consideration and prolonged discussion, the con-
vention hit upon an expedient which was expected to stem the tide of
special legislation without prohibiting it altogether. The constitution of
1894 divided all the cities of the state into three classes according to popu-
lation (New York City being then alone in the first class) ; required every
bill relating to a single city or to less than all the cities of a class to be
submitted to the mayor in New York City and to the mayor and legis-
lative body in every other city affected for acceptance, after a public
hearing; and required that every such bill not so accepted could become
law only upon being repassed by each house of the legislature subject to
the governor's veto as in the case of other bills.

The framers of the constitution of 1894 hoped that special legislation
if first submitted to the local officials after a public hearing would be
limited to such as was actually needed by the localities to be affected and
that its volume would be greatly diminished. This hope has not been
realized. Special local legislation has increased in constantly growang
volumes. A somewhat rough calculation of the number of special laws
relating to particular cities, villages, towns and counties passed in each
year since the enactment of the constitution of 1894 as compared with
the total number of laws passed shows the following result:

SPECIAL AND LOCAL LAWS

YEAR

AFFECTING CITIES, TOWNS,
VILLAGES AND COUNTIES

ALL LAWS PASSED

PERCENTAGE

1895

433

1045

41

1893

460

1003

45

1897

332

797

41

1898

238

676

35

1899

265

741

35

1900

279

776

35

1901

303

734

41

1902

236

61

38

1903

270

645

41

1904

282

760

37

1905

333

761

43

19 6

292

699

41

1907

336

764

43

1908

216

524

41

1909

235

596

39

1910

259

707

36

1911

303

903

33

1912

194

553

35

Total

5266

13301

39

LEGISLATIVE INTERFERENCE IN NEW YORK 599

During the eighteen years which have elapsed since the adoption of
the constitution of 1894 special legislation of this character has not dimin-
ished, but has largely increased in quantity and has also increased in its
proportion to the total amount of legislation. The condition remains
substantially the same as that described by the Fassett committee.

This special legislation for the most part is or ought to be unnecessary,
because it deals with matters which the localities affected ought to be
allowed to deal with in their own way. For example, among the laws
passed at the session of 1912, were laws prescribing the manner in which
the amount due to contractors for public work in Albany should be ascer-
tained and paid; authorizing Albany to improve its river front and pro-
viding the method of procedure; creating a board of sewer commissioners
for the village of Albion; increasing the amount of sewer construction
bonds which might be issued by Binghamton from $125,000 to $135,000
and the amount which may be issued in any one year from $25,000 to
$35,000; creating a firemen's relief and pension fund for the fire depart-
ment of Binghamton; authorizing the common council of Buffalo to fix
the salary of the superintendent of education; increasing the amount of
bonds which may be issued by Buffalo for the construction of a municipal
hospital from $250,000 to $300,000 and the rate of interest from 4§ to 6
per cent; authorizing the division of Buffalo into tax sections for the
purpose of assessing taxes; authorizing Buffalo to construct buildings for
conventions and the like; changing the title of sergeants of police in
Buffalo to lieutenants of police, changing the salary of superintendent
of horses in the police department, etc.; authorizing the reinstatement of
firemen in Buffalo who have resigned; directing the park board of Buffalo
to recommend to the common council ordinances for spraying and treat-
ing trees and shrubs adjacent to streets and public places; increasing the
maximum number of policemen in the village of Canandaigua from five
in all to one for every one thousand inhabitants and fixing the salary of
the acting chief of police; authorizing payment of the amount due the
Grattan Construction Company for constructing a certain sewer in an
alley in Cohoes; authorizing Corning to pave and grade certain streets;
authorizing the common council of Cortland to establish building lines;
authorizing the town of Eastchester to spend $8000 for a fire engine; rais-
ing the salaries of the aldermen of Elmira from $100 to $200; authorizing
Fulton to borrow $3575.69 to pay school teachers; providing for a fire
marshal in Ithaca; authorizing the board of education of Lockport to
reconstruct the Union School building; authorizing the corporation coun-
sel of Mount Vernon to appoint an assistant corporation counsel; author-
izing the city counsel of Newburgh to spend $5000 to entertain delegates
to the conventions of the State Firemen's Association and of the Grand
Army of the Republic; raising the maximum salary of the deputy city

000 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

clerk of Newburgh from $500 to S900; fixing tlio salary of the vice-chair-
man of the board of aldermen of New York City and of the chairman of
the comhiittee on finance at $4000 each; permitting any head of depart-
ment in New York City to grant leaves of absence without pay and to
make deductions from salaries by way of fine; adding to the New York
fire department veterinarians with rank and salaries the same as deputy
chiefs; authorizing New York City to convert certain specified market
property into dock property; abolishing the grade of doorman in the New
York City police department; requiring the comptroller of New York
City to pay contractors on the basis of 85 per cent of work done instead
of 70 per cent; authorizing the board of estimate of New York City to
inquire into and pay the claims of John P. Worstell and Joseph P. McNa-
mara for work, labor and services; increasing from 10,000 to 40,000 square
feet the space in the New York hall of records to be allotted to the register
and commissioner of records; providing for an assistant counsel to the
sheriff of New York County at a salary of $3000; increasing from $10,000
to $12,500 the sum which the common council of North Tonawanda is
required to raise annually for the use of the board of fire commissioners;
requiring the county clerk of Onondaga County to index unpaid taxes
and assessments; authorizing the village of Port Chester to borrow $3000
to repair the old Willett Avenue fire house; providing for a property clerk
in the department of public safety of Rochester; requiring the common
council of Rome to designate a single newspaper to publish official notices;
providing in great detail for the licensing of dogs in the village of Saratoga
Springs; authorizing certain streets in Saratoga Springs to be sprinkled
with oil or other substance; fixing the salaries of the president of the
common council of Watervliet at $500 and of the aldermen at $350.

These are fair samples of the kind of legislation on which the legisla-
ture of the state of New York has been expending its time and attention,
to the detriment of its legitimate function of legislating for the state at
large, and to the injury of the cities and villages in every section of the
state, large as well as small.

The compromise of 1894 must be pronounced a 'failure. The restric-
tions on special legislation imposed by the constitution of New York have
been no more effective than the prohibitions of special legislation which
have been contained in the constitutions of other states and for the same
reasons: the diversity of conditions in many different cities variously
situated and circumstanced makes special legislation absolutely' necessary
in order to provide for their varying needs; and the demand for special
legislation most often comes from within the cities themselves. This
demand, however, is largely an irresponsible demand: it comes too often
from persons or parties seeking a change in the law for selfish purposes
and is addressed to' a legislature composed for the most part of repre-

LEGISLATIVE INTERFERENCE IN NEW YORK 601

sentatives from other localities not conversant with or interested in the
needs of the locality affected and under no responsibility to its people.
The real objection lies not against the enactment of special legislation,
but against the kind of special legislation enacted, the manner in which
it originates and in which it is enacted; not to special legislation as such
but to the imposition of special legislation on the city by the legislature.
The evil to be corrected is not special legislation, but legislative inter-
ference. The remedy is not to prohibit or restrict special legislation, but
to do away with legislative interference in municipal affairs by trans-
ferring to the cities themselves the right to adopt their own necessary
special legislation and to manage their own affairs with only so much
control by the legislature as the interests of the state as a whole require.

This remedy — municipal home rule — is now being actively advocated
by powerful influences in New York. For many years various cities
which have been trying to obtain the enactment of necessary legislation
have had bitter experience of the evils of legislative control. No bill
could be enacted whose passage could not be made to appear to those in
control of the legislature desirable for reasons appealing to them, too
often reasons of personal or party advantage. While unnecessary and
vicious special legislation was being passed in great profusion, much needed
and beneficial special legislation often failed of passage. Cities which
desired to change their form of government in some particular respect
or to substitute for it a commission form of government or to obtain
additional powers could not get their bills through the legislature and
often could not even obtain a hearing.

The helplessness of any one city seeking relief from a legislature
governed by considerations of party politics and overwhelmed by a
mass of proposals for general, special and private legislation was so
apparent and so hopeless as to lead the cities to combine for their mutual
protection. This combination has been effected along two lines, one
official and the other unofficial — the conference of mayors and other city
officials and the Municipal Government Association of New York State.
The mayors' conference originated in 1910 with the object of bringing
city officials together to discuss matters of common interest and to work
together for the common welfare of the cities. The Municipal Govern-
ment Association, organized in January, 1912, was a combination of citi-
zens of different cities who had been striving separately for greater freedom
in municipal affairs and who now decided to unite in an effort to obtain
a larger measure of home rule for the cities of the state.

The Municipal Government Association promptly formulated and
announced a legislative program intended to secure to cities the benefits
of home rule. This program comprised the following legislation: (1) At
municipal empowering act granting to every city the power of regulating

602 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

its own property and affairs; (2) an amendment to the constitution of the
state securing these powers against legislative encroachment, authorizing
the citizens of each city to adopt and amend home rule charters and pro-
hibiting special legislation concerning purely municipal affairs; (3) an
optional city charter bill providing simplified forms of city government
which the citizens of any city might adopt in place of their present charter;
and (4) a non-partisan municipal elections bill. Bills were drawn to carry
these recommendations into effect and were submitted to and approved
by a number of men versed in municipal affairs. The first three of these
measures were intended to confine to general laws the activity of the
legislature in purely municipal affairs and to leave all special legislation
on that subject to the city or its inhabitants, the fourth was intended to
concentrate attention on the local exercise of these enlarged powers by
freeing municipal elections so far as possible from state and national
party influences.

Special legislation relating to municipal affairs consists of two kinds of
measures — those determining what powers a city shall exercise and those
determining how its government shall be exercised and carried on and its
local affairs administered. The first of these two classes is rendered
unnecessary by the municipal empowering act.

The municipal empowering act proceeds upon the theory that a city
should have full power to regulate, manage and control its property and
local affairs and that this power should be granted alike to all cities. The
act contains such a grant in general terms and for greater caution it con-
tains also a specific grant (which does not operate to limit the general
grant) of a number of specified powers which together embrace substan-
tially all the powers now vested in particular cities. This grant of power
is not in substitution for, but is in addition to existing powers and fills
up gaps in powers now existing in any city. Every existing power is to
be exercised in the manner now provided in the charter of the city; the
manner of exercising new powers granted by the act is to be determined
by ordinance, subject to safeguards imposed by the act itself on the power
to issue municipal obligations, to sell or lease real estate and to grant
franchises where such power does not now exist.

The constitutional amendment by redeclaring the general grant of
powers preserves it against legislative interference and also extends it to
villages. The amendment prohibits special legislation regarding munci-
pal affairs, and confers upon the citizens of each city and village the power
to enact such special legislation, to be drafted by local commissioners or
convention and adopted by referendum. At the same time it expressly
preserves the power of the legislature to legislate as to matters of state
concern.

The optional city charter bill offers to any city the choice of six differ-

LEGISLATIVE INTERFERENCE IN NEW YORK 603

ent forms of government which may upon petition and by referendum
be adopted in place of its existing government. This bill would offer a
large measure of home rule to all cities pending adoption of the consti-
tutional amendment, and after its adoption to those cities which might
not wish to frame individual charters. The forms of government of
which the choice is thus given are (1) commission government, (2) the
city manager plan, (3) the mayor and council plan with a council of five
elected at large, (4) the same, with a council of nine, (5) the mayor and
council plan with a council elected by districts or wards, (6) the plan now
embodied in the second class cities law (known as the White charter)
which adds to the mayor and council a board of estimate and apportion-
ment, a board of contract and supply, and other specified officers and
departments.

The non-partisan municipal elections bill would empower any city elect-
ing by referendum to come under its provisions to elect municipal officers
on a separate ticket having no party designations and would thus carry
a step further the idea of separating municipal elections from state and
national elections which has been only partly put into practice by the
provision of the present constitution requiring municipal elections to be
held so far as possible in odd-numbered years.

These bills were all introduced in the legislature of 1913, the constitu-
tional amendment in somewhat different form having already been intro-
duced during the session of 1912. Before their introduction drafts had been
widely distributed and publicly discussed. The mayors' conference held
at Utica in June, 1912, adopted a resolution urging upon the legislature
the grant of enlarged powers to cities and the conference through its
legislative committee has been active in support of the entire home rule
program. The advocacy of this program was carried on to such good
effect that the state platforms of all the leading political parties adopted
in 1912 called for the enactment of home rule legislation.

In his first message to the legislature in January, 1913, Governor Sulzer
pronounced in support of home rule and in opposition to "legislative
tinkering and invasion." In March, 1913, a home rule dinner and con-
ference was held at Albany under the joint auspices of the Muncipal Gov-
ernment Association and the mayors' conference at which the legislative
leaders and public men of all parties spoke in favor of the home rule
program.

The municipal empowering act was passed by the legislature without
opposition and was signed by the governor and became law April 7, 1913.
The other bills, however, made no progress in the legislature and remained
in committee.

Since the enactment of the municipal empowering act there has been
some misconception as to what has actually been accomplished by it.

604 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

This was due largely to a failure to realize the fact that this measure
constituted only a part of the home rule program. The municipal empow-
ering act has extended the powers of cities and has made unnecessar}' the
many enabling acts heretofore introduced in the legislature; it has not
put the cities in a position to draw or amend their own charters and so
has not dispensed with the necessity of special legislation for that pur-
pose. In some quarters, however, the impression prevailed for a time
that the purposes of the constitutional amendment had been attained by
the municipal empowering act. That act was dubbed "the home rule
law" and a number of special bills amending city charters with respect
to administrative detail were vetoed by the governor on the theory that
their purposes could be accompHshed under that act. This position ap-
peared to find support in an opinion issued from the attorney-general's
office.

Subsequently, however, the scope of the municipal empowering act was
thoroughly discussed at the mayors' conference at Binghamton in June,
1913, following an able address by Attorney-General Thomas Carmody,
which clearly pointed out what the act had accomplished and what still
remained to be done. As a result of this discussion, it is believed that
a clearer understanding of the situation now prevails. The conference
adopted a resolution urging the enactment of the optional city charter
bill at the extraordinary session of the legislature which had been called
for June 16. The governor after conferring with the legislative committee
of the mayors' conference and with representatives of the Municipal
Government Association recommended to this session the enactment of
that bill and the bill in amended form has been reintroduced; but at the
present writing its fate remains uncertain.

Much has thus been accomplished in the direction of municipal home
rule in a short time and a great impetus has been given to the movement.
The outlook for its success in the near future is bright.

THE STREETS OF NEW YORK CITY

BY FREDERICK F. BLACHLY^

Colorado

NEW YORK CITY has 2677 miles^ of streets, comprised within an
area of less than 327 square miles.^ The value of this land with
its improvements is $9,469,000,000/ a value nearly as great as one-
half of the 512,660,306 acres^ of farm land and property west of the Mis-
sissippi River, or one-fourth as great as the entire 878,798,000 acres of
farm land in the United States. If these streets were placed end to end
they would extend nearly 50 feet wide from New York to San Francisco.
Throughout this distance there would be on each sidewalk a constant
line^ of people every 6 feet apart, and at the busiest portions of this street
during the ten rush hours of the day 1400 vehicles'^ would pass a given
point each hour. When it is considered that about one-twelfth of this
tiny plot of land (New York) is given over to the streets, it becomes evi-
dent that the street problem is of the highest social, economic and political
significance.

Here persons of all ages and all tastes go to meet one another, to talk
over the affairs of the day, to be entertained, to eat, to drink, to inspect
shoD windows, to do marketing, to buy and sell merchandise, and to per-
form a thousand offices which the exigencies of city life make profitable,
healthful, or agreeable.^

If the main arteries of traffic are misplaced or are too narrow thousands
of hours are lost each day. If the residential streets are too wide land
which should have been used for buildings, parks or playgrounds is unnec-
essarily sacrified and the taxpayers are compelled to pay for paving and
maintaining an unnecessary surface of the streets. This cost of paving,
maintaining and cleaning the streets forms one of the heaviest burdens of
taxation and so automatically creates high rents.

1 Mr. Blachly is a graduate of Oberlin College, class of 1911. During the past
two years he has been doing graduate work at Columbia working for his doctor's
degree in political science. He is also an instructor in politics ia New York Univer-
sity.

^ Reports from the different departments having charge of the streets.

' Report of the Commissioners of Taxes and Assessments, 1912, p. 25.

^ Report of the Commissioners of Taxes and Assessments, 1912, pp. 11 and 12. This
amount^ includes the real estate taxable, $7,861,898,890; and exempt citj^ state and
national, $1,607,105,809; total, $9,469,004,699.

^Bulletin Thirteenth Census, 1910, abstracted, "Farms and Farm Property by
States," pp. 1-7.

* From estimated population given by board of health.

' Dr. Clifford Richardson, Popular Science Monthly, August, 1912.

* Quotation from Dr. Soper in Beard's American City Government, p. 242.

605

606 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

The governmental and political significance of the problem lies in the
necessity for determining through charter provisions the interrelationship
of the several departments dealing with the streets: The borough presi-
dent, the department of highways, the street cleaning department, the
board of health, and the department of water supply, gas and electricity,
and finally the local boards, in the various districts. The charter must
define which of these bodies must lay out, pave and keep up the streets.
It must also indicate who shall bear the initial cost and the up-keep, and
who shall determine upon the amount of money to be spent for each part
of the work. It should also provide for a body empowered to see that
the work is properly done and that the appropriations are spent to advan-
tage. In all of these questions the public has a vital interest. It must
determine which offices shall be merely administrative and which political
and determine whether or not political or business methods shall prevail.
The problem is, therefore, complex in the extreme and can only be solved
through trial and experiment.

According to the charter of Greater New York, the city is divided into
five boroughs, Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Richmond. Each
of these boroughs has a president who has control over the streets in his
borough, who has power to appoint and dismiss a commissioner of public
works, who may discharge all of the administrative powers of the president
of the borough relating to streets, sewers, public buildings, and supplies.
The charter provides for no separate department of public works, but the
administrative officers under the jurisdiction of the commissioner are
commonly referred to as the department of public works. This depart-
ment is divided into several bureaus, the most important of which is the
bureau of highways. The chief engineer who heads this bureau, is ap-
pointed by the borough president, and the bureau is provided with the
necessary engineering, inspecting, and clerical forces. This bureau has
charge of existing pavements, the construction of new ones and the removal
of obstructions and encumbrances from off the streets.

The city is also divided for local purposes into twenty-five districts in
each of which is a body, composed of the aldermen of the district and the
borough presideiA acting as president. Every resolution that this board
passes must receive the approval of the borough president. Among the
powers of these boards are those of initiating proceedings to open, close,
■sviden, extend, and pave the streets in their districts.

The borough of Manhattan presents greater difficulties in regard to the
streets than any of the other boroughs, because of its immense population —
an average density of 182.10, and a maximum density of 1103.10 to the
acre' — the high value of land, the great number of self propelled vehicles,

' Report Department of Street Cleaning. 1911, p. 6.

THE STREETS OF NEW YORK CITY 607

both for pleasure and business, and the vast volume of traffic in the busi-
ness districts. The difficulties involved in caring for the streets of Man-
hattan are best seen in the work accomplished in the last three years.

In this borough are 460 miles of streets, all of which are paved except
about 17 miles in the northern part of the island, in the section built up
since the opening of the subway.^"

When the present administration came into power the complaints against
the conditions of the streets were loud and numerous, particularly with
regard to the sheet asphalt pavements. Not only was the surface of these
pavements in bad condition, but the foundations were defective. There
were more miles of this type of pavement than any other and as they
formed the main thoroughfares of the city, the breaks, hollows, and uneven
surfaces were painfully apparent. At the time of the construction of these
pavements loads were much lighter and there were few if any self-pro-
pelled vehicles, consequently there was not the imperative need for extra
firm foundations. The increased weight of the present day vehicle, how-
ever, and the greater loads that they carry have made stable foundations
more necessary than formerly. The tendency of self-propelled vehicles
to slip, causing a scraping action which scoops out the pavement under
the drive wheel requires also a much more durable surface. This is espe-
cially so when chains are used.

One of the greatest difficulties that the present bureau of highways
met with was the fact that the former administrations had kept no accu-
rate statistics as to the age and condition of the streets. When this data
was finally collected the results were astounding. It is a well established
fact in engineering that good pavements are impossible without solid
foundations. The statistics, however, revealed the fact that up to June,
1911, there were 190 miles of 30-foot roadway laid upon the existing old
stone roads as foundations. Of this pavement ten miles were more than
twenty years old and over 60 miles were over fifteen years old. When
it is considered that the average life of a pavement in New York City is
only about twelve years and in the very busy sections much less, the
reasons for the bad condition of the streets becomes evident. For some
unaccountable reason this faulty method of construction was continued
even after the time when the different types of vehicles and the greater
loads made sound foundations essential. In 1903, 30 miles of this pave-
ment with poor foundations were laid in one year, and it was not until
1906 that the practice of laying sound concrete foundations became
general throughout the borough.

Because of the flimsy construction and the old age of the pavements
the cost of up-keep was enormous. It soon became evident that the

^° Special report for writer furnished by E. V. Frothingham, commissioner of
public works gives most of the facts regarding Manhattan.

cm NATTDXAL ^FUNICIPAL REVFirW

greater part of the ])avement would have to l)e renewed. Up to 1910
the annual appropriation for paving the streets had been about S1,0(J0,000.
During the first year of the new administration this sum could not be
increased. But in 1911, thanks to the efforts of President McAneney,
the sum was raised to SI, 400,000 and in 1912 it was again raised to $3,5(X),-
000. As a result of this expenditure 50 miles of streets were laid in 1912.
This milcnige added to the other work done in the last three years amounts
to a 190 miles, or nearly a quarter of the entire length of the pavement in
the borough. The different types of pavement laid are as follows:

Miles

Sheet asphalt 53

Granite 30

Wooden block 14

Asi)halt block 12

The mileage of the different types of pavement at the beginning of
1910 and the beginning of 1912 are given below. They indicate quite
clearly the changes in policy regarding the applicability of various mate-
rials for certain types of streets.

January 1, 1910 January 1, 1913
Miles Miles

Sheet asphalt 259 246

Granite and all other materials 117 113

Asphalt block 48 54

Wooden block 11 25

Macadam 5 5

Total 440 443

This table shows a decrease of 13 miles in sheet asphalt and 4 miles in
stone pavements, and an increase of 14 miles of wooden block and 6 miles
of asphalt block. E. V. Frothingham, the commissioner of public works,
gives the following reasons for the changes:

The increase of the wooden block represents the opinion of the depart-
ment that this material is well fitted to certain t^^Des of streets where for
any reason it is highly desirable that there shall be little noise and also
where the traffic is heavy and the grade is not over 1^ per cent.

The experience of other cities with the Avooden block would seem to
confirm the statement made by Mr. Frothingham. JMinneapolis has not
only found the wooden block satisfactory for this type of street, but
believes it is the best and cheapest material for nearly all of its streets.
The success of the Australian hard wood block pavements in Sj'dney has
been rather remarkable. Queen Street, which has an estimated daily
traffic of 25,000 tons, was thus paved. The wooden blocks after eight
years in the streets, showed a wear of onl}^ one-sixteenth of an inch and
seemed in other respects to be nearly as good as when laid. The original

THE STREETS OF NEW YORK CITY 609

cost was only $3.05 per square yard and the annual cost of maintenance
was only 2 cents per square yard. Whether the wooden blocks will stand
the immense traffic of Broadway or Fifth Avenue remains to be seen after
thorough experiment.

Some little objection is raised against the wooden block because of its
odor and stickiness in warm weather and also because of the difficulty of
keeping it clean. As the blocks become worn dust collects in the broken
fibers and is very hard to dislodge.

The increase in the amount of asphalt block used was against the judg-
ment of the department. It was due to the fact that the present admin-
istration had inherited quite a few contracts from the former administra-
tion, and also that the new contracts in the upper end of the island were
determined upon by the local boards upon the petition of the property
owners. All of these contracts called for the use of asphalt block. As
far as the department is itself concerned, it has almost entirely discon-
tinued the use of this material with the exception of a few streets where
the grade is great and where quiet is imperative.

Whether the local boards should have power to decide on the kind of
pavement in a certain locality is one of those political questions on which
people will continue to disagree. It seems reasonable to suppose, however,
that the commissioner of public works would have much better data on
which to base his determination that the local board, and so should be
given the entire power to say what type of pavement should be laid.

The decrease in the mileage of the sheet asphalt, as shown by the above
table, is because wooden and stone block have been laid in its place on
streets where it had been laid by former administrations with little or no
reference to the kind of traffic it was to bear.

Sheet asphalt seems to be an almost ideal pavement in the residential
sections where traffic is light and quiet is desirable. One desirable fea-
ture about asphalt in such sections is that it is very clean in itself and
is also easily cleaned. In crowded neighborhoods where the children must
play on the streets this feature makes it highly desirable.

The slight loss of the amount of stone block is explained by the fact
that sheet asphalt has been substituted for it in the residential sections.

It is needless to discuss all of the factors that enter into the determina-
tion of the kind of material to be used on any given street. Some of the
things that must be taken into consideration, however, are the original
cost, durability, ease of repair, ease of cleaning and freedom from slipperi-
ness. Noiselessness, freedom from odor or stickiness, and slight radiation
of heat are some of the more important factors to be considered in resi-
dential streets.

The present administration is making some very interesting experiments,
testing the stability and cost of different types of pavement put under

GIO NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

the same traffic conditions. On Broadway, between fifty-ninth Street
and Seventy-eighth Street, wooden blocks are laid to test in comparison
with a strip of sheet asphalt laid on the same street between Seventy-
eighth Street and Ninety-second Street. As these two strips of pavement
have nearly identical traffic conditions a fair test of the relative value of
the two materials can be obtained. On Second Avenue strips of many
different materials of about two blocks each are being laid to test the
value of different materials. These different types are: two different types
of asphalt block, two different types of sheet asphalt, rock asphalt, rock
asphalt block, twelve different types of wooden block, granite block, and
Medina sand stone. Such a test will be of great value in determining
upon the future types of pavements.

The pavements were so old and in such bad condition at the time the
McAneny administration began its work that the expense of up-keep was
enormous. The repaving work has been especially directed to these poor
pavements with the result that at the present time the cost of mainte-
nance has been considerably lessened.

There are two main classes of maintenance work. The maintenance
and repair of the stone work is done by departmental labor. The repair
work of the sheet asphalt and asphalt block, in so far as it is not under
the guarantee of the contractors who laid it, is done by contract, after
pubfic advertisement. Nearly all of the wooden block pavements in the
borough are of such recent construction as to be still under the guarantee
of the contractors doing the work.

An experienced engineer having charge of the stone work has verj^ much
reduced the expenses of repair work. This has been accomplished by
eliminating men who were not necessary and demanding a high grade of
work from those employed. In former administrations the pay roll for
stone work had often been very heavily padded. For instance, in 1909
the pay roll for this kind of work was in round figures $480,000 and only
206,000 square yards were repaired. The total cost for that year, includ-
ing material, was $500,000. In 1912, by the eflacient management of a
competent engineer, the department repaired 325,000 square yards, or an
increase of 119,000 square yards over the former year. The pay roll was
only $240,000, or a decrease of nearly 50 per cent. The total cost of this
year, including the extra material needed for the 119,000 extra yards
done, was only $300,000. As there was an increase of nearly 60 per cent
in the amount of work done and yet a decrease of nearly 50 per cent in
the total cost the figures speak for themselves.

Much has been done to improve the work of repairing the sheet asphalt
and the asphalt block pavements. The cost here can not be controlled
in the same way as in the case of the stone pavements because the city
seems to be in the hands of a few asphalt companies having a monopoly

THE STEEETS OF NEW YORK CITY 611

and whose prices show every indication of a perfect understanding between
themselves. The prices of these companies have arisen very rapidly as
efforts have been made to better inspection and secure compliance with
contract specifications. The prices during 1910 were very low for mainte-
nance work, ranging from 82 cents per square yard to as low. as 77 cents
per yard. During 1911, the prices steadily increased, varying from 97
cents to $1.12 per square yard, and in 1912 reached the maximum price
of $1.75 per square yard.

The 'amount of yardage and its cost for four different years will show
in a rather interesting way some of the results attained by inspection and
the consequent elimination of unnecessary yardage which had been for-
merly laid in the interest of the asphalt companies. This report will
also show how the new pavement lessens the amount of repair work.

TEAB

SQUARE YARDS OF ROADWAT
DONE

COST

1909

1910
1911
1912

244,000
345,000
478,000
363,000

$285,000
409,000
686,000
575,000

As a result of all the different elements combined the total repair work
done in 1912 was at the average cost of 13 cents per square yard for pave-
ments under maintenance as compared to 17 cents per square yard in
1911.

It is evident from the rapidly increasing price of the repair work done
by the asphalt companies that the city has been badly hampered in its
work of repairing the streets. Appropriations have been secured for a
city asphalt plant, plans have been drawn up and the contracts for con-
struction have been awarded. If all goes well, the plant will be in oper-
ation before the close of the present year.

Experience has demonstrated that there is no economy in repairing the
streets after they get in rather bad condition. It is much better and
cheaper in the long run to repave entirely. Old worn out streets are not
only a heavy source of expenditure to the highways department but also
greatly increase the cost of keeping the streets clean. In fact the street
cleaning department is so much dependent for its efficiency on the condi-
tion of the streets that some have advocated placing them both under
one head. In the boroughs of Queens and Richmond the commissioner
of public works has charge of both departments and thus is able to have
these two departments work in harmony with each other.

The proper grade of materials used and the manner in which they are
laid is one of the most essential elements in keeping the streets in good
shape. The proper materials of course can only be determined by com-

612 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

piiring different materials under the same conditions. The specifications
for different kinds of material have been very carefully revised in New
York to meet what are now considered the essential requirements. Every
wooden block must have so many rings to the inch, as it has been found
that- the quick growth rots much faster than the slower growth. The
specifications for the preparation of the creosoted wooden blocks are very
strict regarding the amount of creosote to the cubic foot, the temperature
of ignition and the percentage of volability.

The granite blocks are now cut much smoother than formerly and the
joints between them are consequently much smaller. Such pavements
are well suited for automobiles and at the same time are much less noisy
under steel-tired wagons with heavy loads. Canal Street and Hudson
Street amply demonstrate the advantages of this type of block.

Most of the causes of failure in the sheet asphalt can be overcome by
the proper kind of inspection. The greatest causes of failure are due to
defective foundations, having the surface too soft, the leakage of illumi-
nating gas, and patches where the streets have been torn up for water,
gas or sewer connections. In the Borough of Richmond the bureau of
highways itself replaces the pavement thus torn up and charges the ex-
pense up to the company doing the work. In this way it makes certain
that the new patch is laid of the proper material, at the right time and in
the proper manner.

One of the features of the present administration that has attracted
general attention has been the removal of the sidewalk encroachments and
the widening of the streets and sidewalks.

Prior to the present administration some work was begun on Fifth Ave-
nue. In 1911 the campaign was fairly started' beginning with some impor-
tant crosstown streets — Forty-Second, Thirty-Fourth, and Twenty-Third
Streets. During the past year the work has been continued with splendid
results. The chief object to be accomplished was to get back for public
use the space that had been appropriated by private individuals Avith, or
without a revocable license from the city. In every case the propert}^
owner was forced to move the encroachments from the street at his own
expense. In some instances the entire front of very costly buildings had
to be taken off. In one case it will cost a big skyscraper $25,000 to com-
ply with the rules. At the present time the courts are deciding whether
or not the Singer Building will have to change its front.

This work has made it possible to gain from 6| to 7^ feet on each side
of the street without in any way decreasing the sidewalk space. In other
sections the sidewalks and the streets have both been widened. The
widening of Fifth Avenue, Forty-Second Street, Twenty-Third Street,
Fourteenth Street and Second Avenue has made possible, despite the
fact that a double car line is operated upon them, abundant room for a

THE STREETS OF NEW YORK CITY 613

line of both standing and moving vehicles, on each side of the street between
the car track and the curb. The amount of land thus returned to the
city, without a cent of expense, is equal to 77,000 square yards, or a plot
of land fourteen times as large as the sight of the old Equitable Building.
The area thus restored to the city would equal a strip of land 13 miles
long and 10 feet wide.

By a new rule adopted January 1, 1911, and enforced through the bureau
of buildings, encroachments of any kind, with trifling exceptions, are for-
bidden. This rule is regarded as proper by all interested in the beauty
and welfare of the city, and if lived up to will prevent the further develop-
ment of congested conditions.

The removal of encroachments will be continued throughout the present
year and although the streets affected have not. been as yet fully deter-
mined upon, the progress will probably include Sixth Avenue, the Bowery,
a portion of Seventh Avenue, and a considerable number of streets in the
lower part of the city where the sidewalk congestion is great.

Another feature that has made the streets better and more sightly has
been the removal of abandoned car tracks. In most instances where the
city has had the power, these car tracks have been removed. There are
still tracks which serve no practical purpose but because of the franchises
the city is unable to touch them. A very conspicuous instance of the
removal of tracks is found on Fulton Street, one of the most important
crosstown streets. On this street for years a double line of car track,
extending the full length of the street, had been an eyesore and source
of danger. In connection with the repaving of this street the track was
entirely removed and a fine stone pavement extending from sidewalk to
sidewalk and from one river to the other makes this street both safe and
good to look upon.

Other cities may well take a lesson from New York and refuse fran-
chises for street car tracks unless there is every likelihood that they will
be used to good purpose. A little forethought and good regulations re-
garding encroachments will not only save the city the use of all its street
room but will also save property owners much trouble in the end.

The problems confronting the Borough of Queens are very different in
their nature from those of Manhattan. This borough, which includes a
number of fine summer resorts, is about 14 miles wide and 16 miles long.
It has an area equal to about 40 per cent of the entire area of Greater
New York, but has a population of only 322,191, stretched along the water
front and the main thoroughfares. Large tracts in the center of the island
are entirely undeveloped.^^

'1 From an address given before the road builders by G. Howland Leavitt, super-
intendent of highways, Borough of Queens, city of New York.

614 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

When Queens County was made part of New York City in 1898 the
county had 450 miles of water-bound macadam roads. This roadway,
because of insufficient provisions for maintenance and because of neglect,
had fallen into bad condition. As a result the city found last year that
it was necessary to repave a great portion of it.

The necessary appropriation presented some difficulties. The city as-
sumes the responsibility of keeping in proper condition the streets that
were once paved and paid for by assessment. Because of the urgent need
of main thoroughfares connecting the different parts of the city, this work
was finally authorized by the board of estimate and apportionment. Fif-
teen per cent of the expense was to be borne by the county and 85 per
cent by the city.

The old roadways had good foundations and so it was determined to
use them as far as possible. The nature of the traffic, about 75 per cent
automobiles, the kind of Construction then in place, the first cost and the
cost of up-keep were some of the factors to be taken into consideration.

It appeared uy)on first view that a bitulithic carpet placed upon the
old macadam road would be inexpensive and would meet all requirements.
It had been found by experience, however, that because of the kind of
traffic, a light flush coat of bitumen and stone would have to be put on
the streets yearly at a cost of from 10 to 15 cents per square yard. This
annual cost added to the first cost of the coating would equal about $1.25
per yard for a five-year period and would exceed the cost of a bitulithic
concrete on properly constructed foundations. It was decided to use the
concrete. The low bids for the new work, averaging $1.11 with a five
year guarantee amply demonstrated the correctness of the position taken.
By letting the work to different companies and in fifty separate contracts
and by maintaining the proper force of engineers and inspectors to see
that the work progressed, 102 miles of pavement were laid in a period
of a little over four months. This work was done at a cost of $1,887,820.

The Borough of Richmond has been making some real steps in the solu-
tion of its street and street cleaning work under the presidency of George
Cromwell and his efficient commissioner of public works, Louis L. Tribus
and J. T. Fetherston, the superintendent of street cleaning. This borough
has been fortunate in having practically the same administrative heads
of departments for the last ten j^ears and so has been able to carry on well
thought-out policies. The problems connected with this borough are by no
means as complicated as those of Manhattan, but the present method of
attacking them seems to be correct and applicable to much larger under-
takings.'^

" Report of Borough President of Richmond to board of estimate and apportion-
ment, Suggestions to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment by the President of the
Borough of Richmond, 1012.

THE STREETS OF NEW YORK CITY 615

Mr. Cromwell is making a successful attempt to introduce lump sum
appropriations for the different departments in the borough instead of
the highly segregated budget. In a letter to the board of estimate and
apportionment, he summarizes his plans as follows :

1. Lump sum departmental or office appropriations shall b& authorized
when founded upon unit cost data and work requirements.

2. In any department or office where such cost data are available, sev-
eral salary grades for the same class of work shall be established by the
board of estimate and ajyportionment, so that the head of a department
or office may increase or decrease wages within specified limits, basing
such action upon predetermined standards of work and efficiency records.

3. Each head of a department or office in which fundamental cost data
are available shall have direct responsibility in the expenditure of appro-
priations, the result to be checked by some independent authority such
as the mayor, acting through the commissioners of account or the comp-
troller.^^

Such a system would seem to be much more conducive to efficiency
than the old segregated budget system. Each head of a department would
in this way be able to conduct his department as a business enterprise.
He could control his men, rewarding those who did good work and reduc-
ing the pay of those whose work was not up to the standard. Such a
system, if carefully worked out, gives a scientific basis for determining
the amount of appropriation instead of the system, all too general at the
present time, of basing the appropriation for the present year upon the
amount given during the preceding year. With such a system however,
it would be necessary to work out a plan whereby every factor of cost
was taken into consideration.

A good way to get these different factors is to establish first a unit
basis, for instance the square yard. Then determine all of the factors
making up the total cost per square yard, labor, material, haulage,
etc. The unit cost will be the sum of all these factors. By the monthly
cost sheet, as made up in the office, the engineer can at once see the factor
that is causing the excessive cost, and so can easily determine whether
this extra cost in justified. For instance, supposing the labor per square
yard is 20 per cent greater in section A than in section B. This cost is
immediately noticed by the engineer and he can at once determine whether
the difficulties in section A make this extra cost necessary. If they do
not he can immediately find some way of bettering the conditions.

Supposing, on the other hand, that in section B the monthly report
showed a lower figure of cost in the ton mile haul. The engineer could
either better the conditions in A or else find out exactly what made the
cost in that section greater.

'^ Suggestions to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment by the President of the
Borough of Richmond, 1912, p. 3.

61C NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

This is a very inadequate statement of the plan but may show in a
measure how such a phm would work. It is not different in principle
from the cost price of large manufacturing concerns.

It is to be hoped that the plans suggested by Mr. Cromwell will be given
a fair trial and that they will in a large measure make possible a more
scientific budget.

CINCINNATI'S TRACTION PROBLEMS

BY ELLIOTT HUNT PENDLETON^
Cincinnati

HENRY T. HUNT was elected mayor of Cincinnati in November,
1911, and assumed office January 1,1912. Before entering upon
his duties Cincinnati's new chief executive formulated a pro-
gram of objects to be accomplished during the two-year term for which
he had been chosen. Improvement of the city's street railway service
and the preparation of plans for securing rapid transit facilities — urban
as well as interurban — formed a part of his constructive program.

The benefits that would result from better transportation facilities were
fully appreciated by Mayor Hunt. In his judgment such facilities were
needed not merely for the purpose of promoting the growth and material
prosperity of the city, but in order to render possible the accomplishment
of much more important ends, namely, the solution of Cincinnati's serious
housing problem and a saving in the cost of living to all the inhabitants
of the city.

Any one who has visited Cincinnati will recall that most of its factories
and business establishments are located in the lower part of the city,
and that this section is bounded on the south by the Ohio River and on the
north, east and west, by steep hills. The population in this lower and
oldest part of Cincinnati is very dense, as a large proportion of the fac-
tory workers, and nearly all of the city's poor, Hve in houses and tenements
that were built in this section a half a century or more ago. That quick
and cheap transportation to the beautiful and encircling hills would tend
greatly to relieve the congestion that now prevails in this central portion
of the city is quite apparent. It is equally clear that convenient and
rapid means for reaching houses built upon the upper levels of the city
would contribute in no small degree to the health, comfort and happiness,
of the entire community. The conservation of health, morals, comfort
and happiness, was what led Mayor Hunt into the fight that he has con-
ducted with such vigor to secure better transportation facilities for the
people of Cincinnati.

In order to understand the many problems connected with the traction
campaign which Cincinnati's courageous young maj^or has been carrying

' Mr. Pendleton for many years has been a conspicuous leader in Cincinnati for
higher standards of municipal life and conduct. He has been identified with the
various independent movements and was in the forefront of the campaign for Mayor
Hunt's election. He has been editor and publisher of The Citizens' Bulletin of Cin-
cinnati, and since 1903 has been a member of the council of the National Municipal
League. Harvard University in June, 1913, conferred upon him the degree of master
of arts as a recognition of his civic work.

617

618 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

on, some knowledge concerning the development of Cincinnati's street
railway facilities into the system that is in operation today is esscntiaU

The first street railroads in Cincinnati were authorized by an ordinance
passed July 1, 1859. This provided that cars with "all modern improve-
ments" were to be run "as often as the public convenience might require,"
under the direction and regulation of the city council. Provision was
also made for the sale of tickets in packages of twenty-five and that no
fare should exceed 5 cents. Another provision of this ancient piece of
municipal legislation was that the street railway companies were required
to purchase any competing omnibus lines at a price to bo ascertained by
arbitration. The result of this exaction drove most of the original com-
panies into bankruptcy.

A comparison of the rate of fare charged by the Cincinnati Traction
Company today mth the charges imposed by Cincinnati's old omnibus
companies furnishes a forcible illustration of how great a reduction in the
cost of transportation has been effected since the introduction of the
street railway. The fares collected by the old omnibus lines ranged from
5 to 25 cents, and no one of their routes extended more than half the dis-
tance which passengers may ride for a nickel today.

The city council on July 13, 1859, determined upon six street car routes,
and on the same day franchises to operate cars over these lines were
granted to six different companies. These routes began at some fairly
central point and extended but a short distance into the various sections
of the lower part of the city. One of these grants was made to the Cin-
cinnati Street Railway Company, and the first street car in the city was
run by this compan}^, September 14, 1859. After the six original routes
had been constructed, other short and independent lines were established
in rapid succession and without regard to any general system. These
short and independent routes finally numbered twenty-five. Extensions
of old routes were also granted, from time to time, and authority to col-
lect higher fares than 5 cents was then given.

For the purpose of saving time consumed in ascending, in the horse
drawn cars of that day, the very steep hill that led to the residential dis-
trict knowm as Mt. Auburn, there was constructed in 1872, an inclined
plane from the lower level of the city to the top of the hill. This elevator
was looked upon as an experiment and was not expected by many to prove
a success. It became quite popular, however, owing to the great saving
of time which it effected; and as extra fares were collected from those
who used it, the venture proved a financial success. Five other inclined
planes were subsequently constructed to the tops of the other hills that
surround Cincinnati.

When Cincinnati's inclined planes were first built, passengers were re-
quired to transfer to and from the street cars at both the foot and top

CINCINNATI'S TRACTION PROBLEMS 619

of the hills. Within a short time thereafter, however, large trucks were
constructed upon which to run the cars and lift them up, thus rendering
the removal of passengers at the foot and top of the hills unnecessary.
Serious accidents occurred on some of these inclined planes and proved
very costly to the companies. A few of these elevators have been aban-
doned, but several of them are still operated as they afford the only prac-
tical means of furnishing certain sections of the city with street railway
service.

The problem of climbing Cincinnati's hills led later to the construction
of cable roads. Motive power of this character was adopted by three
different companies. At very large expense cable roads were constructed
to several of the city's principal residential sections on the hilltops. Within
a few years, however, the demands for better service necessitated their
abandonment and the substitution of electric motive power. These changes
in construction and equipment made heavy drains upon the funds of the
various companies. The result was that nearly all of the original com-
panies either failed or went out of business. All of these lines were taken
over and operated by the Cincinnati Street Railway Company.

In the early part of 1896 there were but four traction companies oper-
ating in Cincinnati. These companies were entirely independent of each
other and no transfer privileges were granted. The rates of fare from
outlying districts to the central part of the city varied from 5 cents to
15 cents. Passengers desiring to reach some point on the opposite side
of the city were required to pay an additional fare. Under such conditions
it is but natural that the people of Cincinnati became thoroughly dissat-
isfied with the existing system and that lower fares and universal transfers
were vigorously demanded. This agitation resulted in the passage of a
law — known as the Rogers law — permitting the consolidation of various
lines in any Ohio municipality. The Rogers law authorized the board
of administration, or council of any city, to grant to the consolidated
company a fifty-year franchise, at a rate of fare not exceeding 5 cents for
the first twenty years of the term. At the end of that period a readjust-
ment of the rate of fare for the ensuring fifteen years was to be made,
when the rate of fare was again to be revised for the last fifteen years of
the fifty-year grant.

Shortly after the passage of the Rogers law a merger of the three other
companies with the Cincinnati Street Railway Company was effected.
A contract was then entered into between the city and that company,
in which there was granted to it a right or franchise to operate cars, upon
certain terms and conditions, in and upon designated streets, for a term
of fifty years. This contract provided that cars should be run in such
numbers and as frequently as the public convenience might require, and
at a rate of fare not exceeding 5 cents during the first twenty years of

620 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

the term. Provision was also made that transfers should be gj anted,
without extra charge, to passengers desiring to be conveyed, in the same
general direction, from one part to any other part of the city. It was
also provided that readjustments of the rate of fare, and of practically
all of the other terms o the contract, should be made at the end of twenty
years, and at the expiration of thirty-five years, from the beginning of
the fifty-year grant. For the privilege of using the streets, the company
was required to pay to the city, annually, 5 per cent of its gross receipts.
Car license fees were also to be collected. The payment of car license
fees was subsequently waived, in consideration of the company's agree-
ment to pay to the city, annually, 6 per cent of its gross receipts. This
payment amounted, in 1912, to about $315,000.

At the time of its enactment and, in fact, ever since the passage of the
Rogers law, there has been great misunderstanding regarding its various
provisions. It was at first beheved by the citizens generally that by the
contract entered into with the traction company the people of Cincinnati
would be required to pay 5 cent fares throughout the entire term of the
fifty-year grant. The provisions of the law which provided for revisions
of the rate of fare at stated periods, and which in many other ways safe-
guarded the interests of the public, were not understood by the great
body of the citizenship. For these reasons indignation over the enact-
ment of the law rose to a high pitch. Charges of bribery in connection
with the passage of the measure were freely made. No indictments,
however, resulted. The feeling against Senator Foraker, who was then
acting as counsel for the street railway company, was very bitter, as it
was generally believed that it was through his influence with the general
assembly — the same body that had just chosen him to be one of Ohio's
representatives in the United States senate — that the passage of the law
had been brought about.

The Rogers law was repealed by the next general assembly and Cincin-
nati was the only city that availed itself of the provisions of the measure
during the period that it was in force. The constitutionality of the act
was attacked, but the law was declared valid by the supreme court of
the state, and street railway service has been furnished to the people of
Cincinnati, during the past seventeen years, under the contract entered
into in 1896 in pursuance of the provisions of the Rogers law.

In considering Cincinnati's complicated traction controversy, the fact
should be borne in mind that at the time the new fifty-year franchise
was granted to the Cincinnati Street Railway Company, in 1896, the
average unexpired term of the franchises then held by the company was
about seventeen years.

In 1901 the Cincinnati Street Railway Company leased its entire pro]>
erty to the Cincinnati Traction Company, a new company that had been

CINCINNATI'S TRACTION PROBLEMS 621

organized for the purpose of operating the entire street railway system.
Under the terms of this lease the operating company agreed to pay a
rental amounting to 5 per cent at first, but advancing gradually to 6 per
cent, on the outstanding capital stock of the lessor company. The 6
per cent rate was reached in 1905. The dividends that had been pre-
viously declared by the lessor company had never exceed 5 per cent,
but in accordance with the terms of the new lease its stockholders have
enjoyed dividends at the rate of 6 per cent since 1905.

The story of this lease transaction is as follows : Owing to the constant
demands of the public for improved service and the consequent increasing
difficulty experienced by the Cincinnati Street Railway Company in earn-
ing 5 per cent on its capital stock, its managers grew tired of the business
and took up the matter of leasing the company's entire system. The
proposition was submitted to the Widener-Elkins syndicate, of Philadel-
phia. Prior to this solicitation, the gentlemen composing this syndicate
had entertained no thought of making any investment in Cincinnati
traction property. They consented to consider the proposition, however,
and entered upon an investigation of the Cincinnati traction system
with but little idea of consummating any lease of the property. The
result of the investigation, however, disclosed that the methods of oper-
ation pursued by the old company were antiquated, and that by the intro-
duction of up-to-date and efficient management, savings could be effected
and the property be made to pay. Subsequent negotiations resulted in
the lease above referred to. One of the provisions of this lease was that
the Cincinnati Traction Company should expend at least $2,003,000 in
improvements.

^ The Cincinnati Traction Company was organized with a capital stock
of only $2,000,000, but a holding company, called the Ohio Traction Com-
pany, was subsequently formed, capitaUzed at $17,000,000; $8,500,000 of
this was represented by preferred stock and an equal amount by common
stock. This company sold its preferred stock at about $85 a share, in-
cluding a bonus of an equal amount of common stock. The company
was also bonded for $2,500,000. These bonds were sold for very nearly
par. The funds realized from both stock and bonds went into better-
ments of the system, with the exception of $1,000,000 that was used to
construct an office building on one of the city's most prominent corners
and about $283,000 that was invested in a car building company and in
the purchase of the Cincinnati zoological garden. As the Ohio Traction
Company took over the entire $2,000,000 capital stock of the Cincinnati
Traction Company, the Ohio Traction Company is virtually the lessee
company.

The outstanding capital stock of the lessor company — ^the Cincinnati
Street Railway Company — is $18,738,950 and it is upon this amount that

622 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

the lessee company is obligated to pay 6 per cent interest annually. By
adding to this capitalization of the lessor company the sum of S9,727,000
expended in betterment to the sj^stem by the lessee company, a total
present valuation of $28,465,950 is produced.

As there was practical^ no public protest against the consummation
of the lease to the Cincinnati Traction Company the transaction was
promptly approved by the city council.

Notwithstanding the extensive betterments made by the lessee com-
pany there were still many complaints on the part of citizens regarding
the service rendered. Most of these complaints were directed against the
overcrowding of the cars during the rush hours. The company's answer
to these complaints was that it was impossible to run more cars over the
tracks in the congested district during such periods. This was, to a very
great extent, true. What was needed was a new routing of the lines in
the congested districts. No attempt to apply this remedy however had
ever been made by any city administration during the years that Boss
Cox dominated every department of the government of Cincinnati. ^

WTien Mayor Hunt assumed office he devoted his energies at once to
securing improved street railway service. In order to deal with the prob-
lem intelligently he recommended the employment of a traction expert
to make a careful survey of conditions and to report upon a comprehen-
sive system of rerouting and also as to the number of cars that should
be run over each line, in order to produce adequate and satisfactory serv-
ice. Council made an appropriation for the purpose and R. W. Harris,
of Milwaukee, considered the best expert in the country for the task,
was employed to investigate and report as to what should be done. Mr.
Harris with a large corps of assistants spent several months studying the
situation and, based upon some six million observations relative to existing
conditions, made a comprehensive report as to rerouting and as to the
number of additional cars needed.

The report he submitted recommended the addition of sixty-five new
cars at once. The traction company not only consented to complj^ with
this recommendation, but ordered sevent3^-five additional cars. These
new cars, of the most improved type, have now been in operation for
several months. The traction company also expressed its willingness to
reroute its lines as soon as the council should pass the necessary rerout-
ing ordinance. When Mr. Harris' rerouting plan came before the coun-
cil, however, many who owned property along the old lines began to
protest against the changes therein proposed. After months of public
discussion, and with but few changes in the plan recommended, the re-
routing ordinance was finally passed and the traction company is now
prej)aring to install the new system at the earliest possil)le date.

During this rerouting discussion, Mayor Hunt realized more than ever

CINCINNATI'S TRACTION PROBLEMS 623

that Cincinnati was greatly in need of a rapid transit urban, as well as
interurban, service. The interurban service which Cincinnati now has is
unsatisfactory, because all interurban cars must use the same tracks,
within the limits of the city, as are used by the cars of the local traction
system. On this account, not only has the problem of congestion been
made more difficult, but much more time than should be consumed is
required for the transportation of interurban passengers to the heart of
the city.

To deal intelligently with the city's rapid transit problem Mayor Hunt
appointed a rapid transit commission. The members of this commission
raised a fund and employed Bion J. Arnold, of Chicago, a traction engineer
of national reputation, to make a survey and to recommend the best plan
Cinciimati could adopt to secure adequate rapid transit service. Mr.
Arnold, after devoting several months to the study of the local situation,
reported his conclusions. He advocated the construction of a loop en-
circling the city's hills, parts of which were to be built underground and
parts on the surface and overhead. The report was considered by civic
and business organizations and met with general approval ; but Mr. Arnold's
estimate that the project would cost about $7,000,000 seemed to be a
stumbling block to many. In order to meet the objections relative to
cost which had been raised. Mayor Hunt entered into negotiations with
the traction company for the purpose of inducing it to agree, in the event
of the construction of the proposed rapid transit loop by the city, to lease
and operate the system, and to pay as rental for the property an amount
sufficient to pay interest and sinldng fund upon the cost of the improve-
ment. The mayor's proposition also provided that the company should
grant as many transfers to and from its existing lines as might be neces-
sary to enable passengers to ride from any one point to any other point,
in the same general direction, within the limits of the city. In connection
with and as a part of this new arrangement Mayor Hunt proposed to
effect a resettlement with the traction company of its existing franchise
by the substitution of an indeterminate franchise in place of its fifty-year
grant, through an agreement as to the valuation of the system and the
amount of interest thereon the company should be allowed to earn. Pro-
visions relative to fares and regulation of service were also to be fully
provided for in the new contract.

Mayor Hunt's negotiations with the traction company were progressing
favorably when they were abruptly and seriously interfered with by the
introduction of a bill in the general assembly providing for the revocation
of the franchise of the Cincinnati Street Railway Company. This drastic
measure was fathered by Herbert S. Bigelow, a member from Hamilton
Qounty, in which Cincinnati is located. Mr. Bigelow is a Democrat of
^j^e ultra radical type, and as municipal ownership as well as municipal

624 NATIONAL. MUNICIPAL REVIEW

operation of all city utilities formed a part of his platform, he had for
years been waging a bitter war against the Cincinnati Traction Compan3\
Through the passage of his revocation bill Mr. Bigelow hoped to bring
about the acquisition by the city of the street railway system at a figure
far below that which the city would otherwise undoubtedly have to pay
for the property

The right of the general assembly to revoke the franchise granted by
the city to the street railway company was based by Mr. Bigelow on
article 1, section 2, of the constitution of Ohio, which reads as follows:
"No special privileges or immunities shall ever be granted that may not
be altered, revoked or repealed by the general assembly."

In the opinion of Mayor Hunt and of many other lawyers of the Ham-
ilton County bar, the clause of the constitution quoted relates to privi-
leges and immunities granted by the state in articles of incorporation
and was introduced by the framers of the constitution of 1851 for the
purpose of making it perfectly clear that charters might be altered, amended
or repealed, and to prevent their being construed to be contracts and,
therefore, irrepealable, in accordance with the doctrine laid down by the
supreme court of the L'nited States in the Dartmouth College case. In
the opinion of mam' able lawyers the clause in question was neither in-
tended, nor does it apply, to the right which a city has granted to a com-
pany to run cars over some of its streets, and which formed an essential
part of the contract entered into by the company with the municipality
to furnish transportation to the inhabitants thereof, upon specified terms
and conditions.

During the entire sixty-two years since the adoption of the clause of
the Ohio constitution under consideration and prior to the introduction
of ]VIr. Bigelow's bill, there had never been the least suggestion that the
provision might be interpreted in the manner that Mr. Bigelow claims it
should be construed. In this connection it is well to bear in mind that
the constitution of Ohio, as well as the constitution of the United States,
provides that no laws shall be passed impairing the obligation of con-
tracts.

In the case of the Omaha Water Company vs. The City of Omaha,'^ the
court held as follows:

Neither the power of a municipality to contract with a third party for
the construction and operation of waterworks, street railways or other
public utilities, nor the right of such a party under such a contract, con-
stitutes a special privilege or immunity within the meaning of those
terms in section 16, article 1, of the constitution of Nebraska which
prohibits the legislature from "making any irrevocable grant of special
privileges and immunities."

» 147 Fed. Rep. , page 1.

CINCINNATI'S TRACTION PROBLEMS 625

The power to alter or repeal general laws under which corporations
have been organized, reserved by section 1, article xiii, of the constitution
of Nebraska, 1875, is limited by section 18, article i, of the same con-
stitution, which forbids the passage of any law impairing the obligation
of contracts, and it does not reserve to the legislature the power to destroy
or impair the contract of third parties with such corporations.

The foregoing decision was practically affirmed by the supreme court
of the United States by the denial of a writ of certiorari on December 23,
1907.3

Even if the clause in question were susceptible of the construction
placed upon it by Mr. Bigelow, there is no doubt that a very large pro-
portion of the citizens of Cincinnati are firmly of the opinion that the
power of revocation should not be exercised by the general assembly, as
such exercise would be unconscionable and unmoral. Such action they
maintain would amount to the repudiation of a solemn obligation and
the confiscation of private property. If the terms of the franchise have
been violated by the street railway company, resort to an action of for-
feiture is, in their opinion, the proper remedy. If the city deems it desir-
able to acquire the property and no satisfactory agreement of purchase
can be arrived at, the institution of condemnation proceedings is, i-n their
judgment, the only legal and just course to pursue. These are the views
entertained by many of Cincinnati's most important and most influential
civic and business organizations. By impassioned appeals, however, Mr,
Bigelow was able to bring some of the labor organizations as well as a
few other associations to the support of his revocation measure.

Notwithstanding the introduction of the Bigelow bill Mayor Hunt per-
sisted in his efforts to reach an agreement with the traction company that
would, in his judgment, give to the city of Cincinnati as good transpor-
tation facilities as are enjoyed by any American municipality. Under
the terms of the settlement which was finally concluded, the valuation of
the entire street railway system is to be arrived at in the follo^ving man-
ner: The sum of $18,738,950 — the amount of the capital stock of the
lessor company — is to be allowed without further question. Without this
concession no amicable settlement whatever could have been effected, as
the lessee company was under obligation to pay 6 per cent interest upon
this amount to the lessor company. The amount actually expended by
the lessee company in betterments is to be ascertained by a board of
appraisers and also allowed, but in no event can this amount exceed the
sum of $9,716,286. Should this entire estimate be allowed, the total valu-
ation of the property would be $28,455,236. In consideration of the city's
agreement to permit the company to earn 6 per cent on the valuation
finally fixed by the board of arbitrators, the street railway company has

' 207 U. S., 584.

626 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

agreed to a surrender of its fifty-year franchise and the substitution there-
for of an indeterminate grant. The city is to have the right to purchase
the property at the end of any five-year period at the valuation fixed by
the arbitrators. All matters relating to service are to regulated by the
city. Although the cash fare is to remain 5 cents, the company is required
to sell six tickets for a quarter. Universal transfers must be granted.
The city is to build the rapid transit loop and the traction company is
to lease and operate it and to pay a rental therefor which will meet the
interest and sinking fund charges on the bonds issued to defray the cost
of improvement. The rate of fare on the rapid transit loop is to be 5
cents including transfers to the surface cars of the entire system. Surplus
profits in the operation of either the loop or surface cars are to be divided
between the city and the traction company. Fares are to be revised every
five years.

Before this tentative agreement goes into effect, it will have to be rati-
fied by a vote of the electors of Cincinnati. No date has yet been fixed
for the submission of the question to the voters of the city.

When the proposed settlement between the city and the traction com-
pany was reached the general assembly was still in session and the fate of
the Bigelow bill was still a matter of conjecture. The measure received
a very large vote in the house, but died in the committee of the senate
to which it had been referred.

Since the defeat of his revocation measure Mr. Bigelow has been more
active than ever in his fight against the traction compan5^ He has or-
ganized and is president of a municipal ownership league. By means of
this league he hopes to be able to prevent a ratification at the polls of
the tenative agreement arrived at between the administration and the trac-
tion company. If he accomplishes this end he will bend his efforts to
bring about the acquisition by the city of the street railway sj^stem through
condemnation proceedings. He proposes that the city shall not merely
own, but also operate its traction lines.

Mr. Bigelow has rallied support to his plan mainly on account of his
charge that the collection of a 5-cent fare is robbery, and by his emphatic
assurances that under municipal ownership and operation the rate of
fare in Cincirmati would not exceed 3 cents. The argument constantly
advanced by Mr. Bigelow is that inasmuch as street railway transporta-
tion is furnished to the citizens of Cleveland at a 3-cent rate, there is
no reason why the people of Cincinnati should not enjoy an equally low
fare. The soundness of this contention is certainly open to serious ques-
tion. By advocates of the traction settlement favored by JNIayor Hunt,
Mr. Bigelow's reasoning is regarded as absurd and ridiculous. They
charge him with making promises impossible of fulfilment for the sole
purpose of alluring ignorant voters to accomplish the defeat of the trac-

CINCINNATI'S TRACTION PROBLEMS 627

tion settlement plan recommended by the administration. Attention is
called to the fact that Cincinnati is confronted by conditions that vary
materially from those that prevail in the city of Cleveland. Cleveland
is level, whereas Cincinnati is made up largely of hills, many of which
are very steep. To mount these hills inclined planes which -increase the
cost of operation are essential. Cleveland has nothing of the sort to
contend with. Heavier motors and more current are required to operate
Cincinnati's cars. By reason of the steepness of the grades, accidents
are much more likely to occur. The use of trailers is impossible. That
these conditions tend materially to increase the cost of operating the
system must be admitted. Then again Cleveland is a city of forty-seven
square miles, whereas Cincinnati covers an area of seventy square miles.
Under Cincinnati's universal transfer system passengers may ride from
eighteen to twenty miles for 5 cents. The average haul in Cincinnati is
undoubtedly much greater than in Cleveland. Another very important
factor is that Cleveland has a population approximating 600,000, while
Cincinnati's population is less than 400,000. During the decade between
1900 and 1910 the increase in Cleveland's pojaulation was about 47 per
cent, whereas that of Cincinnati increased but 11.5 per cent during the
same period. It certainly must be admitted that these widely different
circumstances must be taken into consideration in any just determination
of reasonable rates of fare. In the opinion of many who have made a
careful study of the question, the six-for-a-quarter rate to which the
Cincinnati Traction Company has agreed, is, under all the circumstances,
a more reasonable charge than the 3-cent rate that now prevails in the
city of Cleveland.

One of the grounds upon which Mr. Bigelow bases his vigorous oppo-
sition to Mayor Hunt's plan of settlement is the valuation of the traction
system which has been tentatively agreed to. In his judgment this valu-
ation is many millions higher than it should be. His estimate of the value
of the entire property is but $14,000,000.

In order to test the accuracy of Mr. Bigelow's promise that under
municipal ownership and operation the charge for transportation would
not exceed 3 cents, let it be assumed that the city might acquire the entire
street railway system without the expenditure of a dollar. The cost of
operation, excluding taxes, for the year 1912, was about $2,700,000. To
this must be added the taxes which the company was required to pay
and which aggregated approximately $700,000. The total cost of oper-
ation last year was, therefore, $3,400,000. To this figure should be added
at least $500,000 in order to provide for the payment of wages in accord-
ance with the standard Mr. Bigelow deems but fair and just. The cost
of operation would thereby be increased to $3,900,000. Better service —
more cars, more employees, more power, more wear and tear — ^would re-

628 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

quire an additional annual outlay. During the year 1912 the company
carried about 100,()()0,0()() passengers. At a 3-cent fare a gross income
of $3,000,000 would be produced. This calculation demonstrates that
without any allowance whatsoever for better service and without any
pro\asion whatsoever for interest on capital invested or on the mere
physical value of the property, the cost of operating the system, under
Mr. Bigelow's plan, would result in an annual deficit of about S900,000..

Among the obstacles that have confronted Mayor Hunt in his relent-
less fight to secure better transportation facilities was the strike of the
conductors and motormen of the traction company which occurred during
the latter part of May and for which Mr. Bigelow was largely responsible.
Fortunatel}^ the strike lasted for but a brief period. Through the efforts
of Mayor Hunt and others, arbitration of all differences between the
traction company and its employees was agreed to within ten days. The
fact that Mr. Bigelow made no effort whatever to bring about the prompt
and amicable settlement which was effected should be borne in mind.
That the strike was so speedily terminated was undoubtedly a great dis-
appointment to him.

At present writing a campaign for a new city charter is waging in
Cincinnati. Within a few days the voters of the municipality will deter-
mine whether or not a new charter shall be formulated and to whom the
task of drafting the instrument shall be entrusted. Fifteen charter com-
missioners are to be chosen. Two tickets have been nominated; one of
them by Mr. Bigelow and which is known as the "Civic and Labor Ticket"
and the other by the Chamber of Commerce, Business Men's Club, Fed-
erated Improvement Association, City Club, Taxpayers' Association and
citizens generally, and known as the "Citizens' Ticket." Immediate mu-
nicipal ownership and operation of all public utiUties has been the prin-
cipal appeal for support advanced by the candidates on the Bigelow ticket.
The fifteen men who are opposing Mr. Bigelow's candidates believe that
a new charter is needed and that the municipality should have power to
acquire and operate all public utilities but are not in favor of immediate
municipal ownership and operation. There is also a strong movement
against making any change in Cincinnati's form of government at the
present time.

Just how Cincinnati's traction problems are to be solved will depend
largely upon the result of the approaching charter election.

THE STATUS OF LIQUOR-LICENSE

LEGISLATION

BY JOHN KOREN^
Boston

THE bald truth is that, viewed as a whole, the liquor legislation of
the United States invites bewilderment and despair rather than
admiration and confidence. I am not referring to the state-wide
prohibitive measures which are sui generis and stand chiefly for pledges
unfulfilled because impossible. Nor is the question here primarily of
local option laws in their various manifestations, but of legislation intended
to regulate a traffic in liquor; and in respect to this conditions in the
United States must be described as chaotic instead of well ordered. In
other words, the sum total of our efforts to legislate concerning an exceed-
ingly difficult social problem is unintelligent and therefore largely inef-
fective. How can it be other^vise so long as the laws aiming to regulate
"an inherently dangerous traffic" proceed largely from unthinking agita-
tion, careless or undirected experimentation, hasty piling of inconsequen-
tial statutes upon statutes and endlessly amending them in unessential
details?

Perhaps most people are not aware of the true state of affairs. Others
regard it complacently except when the legal machinery created for us
shows too obvious signs of breaking down, and then are content to have
some more tinkering done by incompetent hands. Whether we blame
ignorance or indifference, the fact remains that what we are pleased to
call systems of liquor legislation are, for the greater part, crude make-
shifts that fail of their purpose and often prove a stumbling block in the
way of good government. In proof of this, it almost suffices to state that
there are nearly as many systems of dealing with the liquor traffic as
there are license states, notwithstanding many points of similarity. Yet,
given the same problem, which everywhere produces an abundant crop
of the same perplexities, it is unthinkable that it can be met with equal
success through regulative systems that differ in fundamental principles
Even a superficial consideration of the chief characteristics of present-day
liquor legislation makes this clear. Space permits reference to but a few
of them.

The pivotal question in all regulation of the liquor traffic is that of the
authority delegated to grant privileges to sell. In its simplest form it

1 Mr. Koren is secretary of the National Municipal League's committee on the
liquor problem, and of the American section of the international committee for the
scientific study of the drink problem. He was also the expert investigator for
the committee of fifty, of which the Hon. Seth Low was chairman.

629

630 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

is a question of regulating use and stopping abuse. On all sides it is
agreed that the traffic cannot safely be left to seek its own level. But
in regard to the means by which it should be directed and supervised
there appears to be a singular variety of opinion as expressed in current
legislation. Indeed, its diversity is almost bewildering, as may be gath-
ered from the following summary reference to the laws on this subject
of some of the states.

In a few instances the liquor traffic appears to be primarily an object
of fiscal solicitude, although it may be hedged in to some extent by restric-
tive conditions under which the right to sell is granted, denied or canceled.
Thus, New York has accepted the theory of a liquor tax law made oper-
ative through a state excise commissioner. It marks the culmination of
a long series of disappointments with local licensing bodies and perhaps
more the cupidity of the "up-state" people who wanted to get the license
revenue for the State, hoping incidentally to make political gains out of
the excise department.

Iowa can be said to dodge the whole issue because it takes refuge on a
so-called mulct-law, which may be described as a device for imposing a
money penalty, really amounting to a tax, upon a constitutionally out-
lawed traffic. Other states, exemplifying the idea that liquor laws are
primarily for the purpose of taxation and not of regulation, are California,
where the tax collector is the chief functionary in dealing with privileges
to sell liquor, and Florida, with its state license issued by the county
tax collector, but countersigned by the county judge. In the two last-
mentioned states, however, restrictive measures are given a degree of
recognition. The municipalities of California have a wide discretion in
dealing locally with liquor selling.

Most of the states still hold to the principle that the chief object of
liquor legislation is not to tax the traffic but to regulate it. That is, the
license is regarded as a privilege to be granted, withheld or abrogated by
specified authorities, usually upon conditions more or less circumstantially
defined and intended to safeguard the interests of the community. The
underlying theory seems sunple, perhaps, but the efforts to work it out
in practice have given rise to an astounding variety of legislation and
much experimentation. The statutes enacted on the subject have been
legion, and the end is not yet.

To the question under whose authority licenses to sell should be granted,
hardly two states return precisely the same answer; and when it is asked
further under what restrictions and upon what conditions the privilege
may be allowed, the divergence becomes much more striking. Most of
the laws defining licensing bodies rest upon old foundations, while others
have wholly abandoned them and reach out for something new. There
is not space to enumerate separately the chief statutory provisions in

LIQUOR-LICENSE LEGISLATION 631

regard to licensing authorities and their duties. It must suffice to give
some examples, with the briefest possible reference to the status of this
matter in most of the license states.

Perhaps no commonwealth furnishes a more perfect exan\ple of con-
fused conditions relative to Hcensing authorities than New Jersey. There
licenses to sell liquor may be granted: (1) By the court of common pleas;
(2) by a city council, common council, board of aldermen or other gov-
erning body; (3) by an excise board appointed by the court of common
pleas; (4) by an excise board elected by a city council or other governing
body; (5) by an excise board nominated by a mayor and confirmed by
a city council; and (6) by an excise board chosen at a general election.
It is held, moreover, that when a city adopts the commission form of
government under the new law, all power to deal with liquor licenses
becomes vested in the commissioners. The statutes from which these
different licensing bodies derive their existence date as far back as 1838
and reach doMm to 1911. It can hardly be maintained that New Jersey
attempted to meet half a dozen essentially different conditions within
her borders by as many varieties of licensing authorities. They appear
largely to be the results of accident rather than of a well-conceived plan.
The restrictions to be placed upon licenses seem for the greater part to
be of local invention. It is legislation ad hoc.

Investigators of the subject commonly regard it as fraught with special
danger to give the licensing power into the hands of a locally elected
government body. One generally finds in the practice a survival of old
legislation which may or may not be bolstered up by many restrictions
and conditions governing the actions of the licensing hodiy. Among the
states entrusting the deficate function of licensing the sale of hquor to
some local government body, the following may be mentioned :

In Colorado, the county commissioners, city council and village board
of trustees license within their respective domains. A state license is
also required. Connecticut licenses are issued by the county commis-
sioners upon endorsement of a certain number of electors. Remonstrance
and hearings are provided for, lUinois has the same divisions of licensing
authorities as Colorado. Indiana employs the county commissioners as
licensing authorities, but under very elaborate rules and restrictions. The
right of remonstrance is provided for in profuse detail. Louisiana makes
parish juries and city councils the licensing bodies. Michigan allows
township board and village and city councils to regulate the traffic, mostly
jjnder local ordinances. In Minnesota, the power is vested in county
commissioners and village and municipal authorities under stringent con-
ditions and requirements in regard to bonds, sureties, etc. The Montana
licensers are the county commissioners and city councils. Nebraska
authorizes the county commissioners to hcense the traffic, also the corpo-

632 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

rate authorities of cities and villages, except that in cities of the " Metro-
politan" class and those having between 25,000 and 40,000 population
this duty is performed by the board of fire and police commissioners.
An application must be made on petition.

In Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming,
the licensing power is vested in the local government body, except that
for districts in Oregon outside of cities and towns it is given the county
courts. In Rhode Island the local government body is also supreme in
licensing affairs, but indirectly through license commissioners appointed
by it, except in Providence where the board of police commissioners act
as such. It should be noted that in cities under the commission form of
government, the licensing power usually lies with the commissioners, but
not invariabl}^, as it may be vested in state officials.

Obviously, no licensing body is so likely to be swayed by political and
bad trade influences as the ordinary local government board. For this
statement there is too ample warrant. Yet it is hardly reflected in the
legislation of some states, while others rely, as we have seen, upon fenc-
ing in what may be done or not done by all sorts of restrictions and give
free play to the power of remonstrance.

Another group comprises states that, if I read the history of their laws
correctly, have become less credulous about the efficacy of mere law, or
have grown chastened by experience, for they have largely or altogether
shorn the local government bodies of authority to license the traffic. In
some cases a measure of home rule is preserved by the creation of locally
chosen excise boards. The Massachusetts law, for instance, prescribes
that in cities, except those having a licensing board created by special
statute or under the provisions of a charter, there shall be a licensing
board of three members, appointed by the mayor, while in towns the
board of selectmen exercise the licensing power. For the city of Boston,
after various abortive experiments with locally chosen license officials,
a board of excise appointed by the governor has been established. When
Alabama recently abandoned prohibition, the state board showed its dis-
trust of locally elective or appointive licensing authorities by providing
that in each city or town where the sale of liquor is authorized, (under
the operation of local option), an excise board shall be established whose
members are appointed by the governor. New Hampshire has gone a
step farther in creating a state licensing board with exclusive authority.
In Missouri, cities of more than 300,000 population must have an excise
commissioner who alone may grant saloon privileges. Vermont has local
license commissioners appointed by the assistant judges of the county
court.

The latest experiment with excise boards is that about to be tried by
Ohio under an act passed in May of this year which became operative in

LIQUOR-LICENSE LEGISLATION 633

August, in virtue of the enabling constitutional amendments adopted in
1912. Formerly the constitution of Ohio did not countenance the licens-
ing of liquor selling, and the traffic was maintained under a tax law which
left regulation to the local community. The new act creates a state
licensing board of three members, appointed by the governor. This state
board appoints for each county throughout which the sale of liquor is
not prohibited by law, a county licensing board of two members, with
power to remove them for cause. The county boards have general juris-
diction in licensing matters, subject to law and to revision by the state
board to which appeals lie from all final decisions of a county, except
in cases of suspension or the rejection of an application. The prescrip-
tions in regard to license conditions, etc., are very elaborate. One note-
worthy innovation is that, upon petition of 35 per cent of the electors of
a municipality, a special election may be held to decide whether saloon
licenses shall be further limited than provided by the statute (one to five
hundred of population).

Still another group of states, apparently distrustful of all elective gov-
ernment boards as well as of appointive excise commissioners, charges
the courts with the duty of issuing liquor licenses. Arkansas utilizes the
county courts for this purpose, and selling privileges are only issued in
cities and towns. Kentucky likewise employs the county courts as licens-
ers. Various restrictions and conditions are imposed, among them that
due consideration shall be given the needs of a "neighborhood" in which
a hcense is applied for, but leaves it to the court to define the neighbor-
hood. With the exception noted above, Missouri law makes the licens-
ing body. New Jersey, as we have seen, utilizes the court of common
pleas in part. Pennsylvania requires the courts of quarter sessions to
deal with liquor licenses, and no longer excepts certain localities by spe-
cial statute as in former times when the city of Philadelphia, for instance,
had its own excise board. In Virginia, all licenses are issued by the cir-
cuit or corporation courts. Texas relies upon its county courts, and
requires that all applications shall be rigidly scrutinized by the state
comptroller of public accounts. Maryland takes a partial step toward
court regulation of licenses by conferring the authority upon the clerk
of the circuit court (for Baltimore the clerk of the court of common pleas).

There is not space to enumerate the different kinds of licensing bodies
that may exist under special city charters. It should be remembered,
however, that with the advent of the commission form of government a
new species of licensing authority has come into the field of whose doings
for good or evil there is as yet little evidence, but which offer an inter-
esting field of study.

I have dwelt at some length upon the subject of license authorities,
not only to show the variety of expedients resorted to, but because it is

634 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

the crux of the situation. One many fairly assert that as a rule the liquor
traffic takes its color from the body which exercises the licensing power.
If this is inefficient or caters to unclean interests, the traffic surely sinks
to lower levels and vice versa. It matters, under certain circumstances
perhaps greatly but is not so fundamental, by what devices state or local
laws attempt to hold a licensing body to a performance of its difficult
task through specific prescriptions. The essential thing is to have authori-
ties of the right caliber and trusted character. The most carefully elabor-
ated regulations in licensing and supervising the sale of intoxicants may
become a dead letter unless executed by persons endowed with broad
views and plenty of backbone and who set a just performance of duty
above aught else. This is a truism as old as the history of liquor legisla-
tion.

There is, then, throughout the United States, a bewildering array of
methods designed to work out the knotty questions of controlling the
liquor traffic in the interests of the whole community. Some may con-
tend that here and there current methods have passed the experimental
stage, yet it is an unsafe generalization when applied widely, for although
some of the licensing authorities themselves are above the thought of
suspicion, the conditions of law under which they labor may prevent
them from making their dictates wholly effective. The ideal S5^stem of
licensing is perhaps still to be evolved. Meanwhile it is too patent that
in numerous cases, probably in most, the licensing machinery is- working
badly or has already demonstrated its inherent unfitness.

The origin of these utterly different methods of licensing, which relate
not only to the choice of excise authorities but to the legal provisions that
govern their functions, is not difficult to trace. Most license legislation
has as its foundation ancient fragments of law upon which the statutory
structure has been reared by slow degrees. The usual method has been
to pass new laws to meet specific evils, as they arise, pinning faith on
restrictions and penalties, with little effort to search out sound prin-
ciples. Ordinarily two parties are busy about liquor legislation! The
persons whose sole conception is to surround the traffic with a multitude
of prohibitions since they cannot wipe it out altogether, and, opposed to
them, the trade interests, who fight for their own. Outside stands the
great public with little voice in the final outcome and too often disposed
to accept with meekness the hodge-podge legislation handed them.

Is there no better way? Surely out of the experience with many licens-
ing systems, with legislation embod3ang a multitude of experiments, it
must be possible to extract some guiding principles of the utmost value
to future legislation. The ancient method of fabricating liquor laws
solely on a theory, or entrusting the process to those whose aim is obstruc-
tion rather than sane regulation, has gone by. To those whose philosophy

LIQUOR-LICENSE LEGISLATION 635

in dealing with the liquor question, as with other complicated social
problems, is summed up in the word "experimentation," it should be said.
Experiment by all means; but, for goodness sake, base your efforts upon
careful study of the results experience yields!

Although the liquor problem engages the attention of our law makers
year by year, and is constantly in the pubhc eye, there has been a piti-
ful lack of competent study of its legislative phases. The fulminating
literature against abuse of liquor and the vociferous demand for sump-
tuary laws do not meet the issue. In fifteen years or more not a single
far-reaching investigation has been made of the subject. Meanwhile
our legislative mills have turned out a varied assortment of grist, and
some significant changes have taken place which must not be ignored.

The question of regulative hquor legislation has largely ceased to be
one of supreme importance to the rural district and the village. It has
emphatically settled down to be, what it once was not — a municipal
problem. Those who are entitled to speak for the trade have of late
reiterated again and again that their interest hes altogether in maintain-
ing the traffic in the municipalities, and there is evidence enough to war-
rant our taking them at their word. The Uquor question as a municipal
problem certainly looms large enough. In 1910 (the latest available
figures are for this year), there were only 28 ci'ties of over 30,000 popu-
lation out of a total of 184 in the United States which were not actively
concerned with the business of regulating the legafized fiquor traffic, not
to mention the large number of smaller communities that have to face
it. Of course one may assume that not all of these 28 municipahties
were exempt from the troubles arising from an illegal traffic.

There are, to be sure, those who strenuously deny that the ultimate
problem is one of regulation even so far as municipalities are concerned.
Throwing the experience of generations to the winds, they hold with
unreasoning faith that by a legislative fiat the whole problem can be
solved; and they accept no alternative. Yet, whether one likes to admit
it or not, the old question abides, and those who would do more than
dream must listen to it: What can be done to secure a saner and safer
conduct of a traffic which so vitally affects the order and well-being of
our municipahties?

Hitherto there has been a tacit understanding in license legislation
that no help or cooperation could be expected from representatives of the
trade. Instead the aim has solely been to antagonize and rout them.
If at any time this was at all wise it is so no longer. Hateful as the admis-
sion may be to some far-sighted men are beginning to realize that future
regulative measures must be worked out in cooperation with tlie chief
spokesmen for the trade, who are persuaded that evil conditions are
not conducive to their interests and therefore would welcome whatever

636 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL RE\1EW

makes for stable albeit stringent supervision. They admit the besetting
dangers of the traffic as well as the need for housecleaning. Is not an
aj^preciation of this a better guide to action than the spirit of oppression
or suppression which invites opposition at each stage and invariably
defeats the end sought? There lurks no thought behind this of compro-
mising with patent evils; but of employing effective means of minimizing
them. Objection to this view can only be raised by those whose zeal
obscures their vision of the attainable.

Although perhaps the largest issue in any regulative scheme is the
choice of licensing authorities, it is not the only test of effective liquor
legislation. Closely allied to it are questions of delineating the power
of excise authorities, whether it should be severely restrictive or macfc
elastic; how far the state should undertake to prescribe minute rules
governing selling or whether the local community should have a voice
in formulating them; how licenses should be classified not only for pur-
poses of taxation but with an eye to public safety; how far abuse may
be prevented by favoring the sale of lighter beverages as against the
more alcoholic, etc. These and many other related questions are insepa-
rable from a competent scheme of liquor legislation.

It has already been intimated how diversely our lawmakers answer
them, and, one may add, how ineffectively in most instances. The liquor
laws of some states are infinitely to be preferred to those of others as
making for decent conduct. Yet the statutes of no one commonwealth
embody the final wisdom nor do they offer a universal model. But is
not one remedy against all this faltering, this bhnd experimentation which
frequently does not live beyond two legislative sessions, patient inquiry,
an elucidation of facts and principles and an intelligent comparison of
results? The everlasting agitation and heaping up of new measures demon-
strates abundantly that there is something amiss. Hitherto we have
mostly been concerned — it is an American habit of mind — in casting about
for some new legislative expedient with child-like faith in the efficacy of
any additional "thou shalt not." It irks us to seek out facts and pains-
takingly lay bare the results of wide experience that we may build up
a safer structure. Yet we admit that to capitalize experience spells
progress.

Fully persuaded of some of these things and how intimately the liquor
question bears upon the community life, the National Muncipal League, -
through one of its committees, has essayed to study especially some of

^ The National Municipal League's committee on the liquor problem consists
of Camillus G. Kidder, Orange, X. J., chairman; Very Rev. Walter T. Sumner, The
Cathedral, Chicago; John Koren, Boston; Arthur H. Hall, Minneapolis; President
S. C. Mitchell, University of South Carolina; Maynard M. Clement, Albany, N. Y.,
former excise commissioner of New York; Prof. F. Spencer Baldwin, of the Boston

LIQUOR-LICENSE LEGISLATION 637

the chief legislative phases of the subject. The League has already given
it some attention.

It might almost seem impertinent to emphasize anew how large a fac-
tor the liquor traffic is in municipal affairs. It is a commonplace to
speak of the dangers adhering to the traffic. If left uncontrolled, intol-
erable excesses follow, as all the world knows. It is equally commonplace
to regard the traffic as a dangerous element in politics. The story of
rum-ridden city governments, of saloon-owned police officials, with all its
unsavory details, has often been told. No investigation is needed to
convince anyone that these things have existed and do now exist, in
municipalities under license as well as in those from which the law has
formally banished the traffic. But what underlies such manifestations?
The existence of abuses of one kind or another argues, in the first instance,
lack of proper control or the employment of inefficient methods. It is
history that excesses can be done away with. And there is no inherent
relation between liquor selling and politics. The business easily gravi-
tates toward it, sometimes from sheer greed, and very often as a matter
of self-defense against oppressive and unjust measures. But there is no
necessary connection. There are cities in which the traffic has been sub-
jected to legal restraint in the same way as other business, where it has
no dominant voice in government and where it is under, not over, the
police powers, and where excesses are summarily suppressed. To deny
this were to confess to a situation not offering a ray of hopefulness.

Why, then, does the status of the liquor traffic present such marked

University, and Prof. Augustus Raymond Hatton of the Western Reserve Univer-
sity, Cleveland.

The National Municipal League, as a matter properly incident to its study of
municipal problems decided to undertake a further research, building upon the
foundation of some of the work of the committee of fifty; but carrying the inves-
tigation much further in certain limited aspects. By diligent and painstaking
research, the committee of the League hopes to arrive at definite, practical results
which may serve as a basis for legislative action. The hope will be that ultimately,
through sound legislation as nearly uniform in character as possible, the liquor
traffic may be divorced from politics, graft and the social evil. That this is possi-
ble, the success of efforts in a few localities gives strong reason for hope.

Recognizing that this will take much time and that it is advisable to concentrate
the initial enquiry upon one important phase of the problem, it decided, upon the
report of a committee appointed to outline the scope of the work, to confine the
activities of the League in the first instance to one definite, particular thing, namely,
the licensing question, who should issue liquor licenses, what should be their powers
and what legislative restrictions should govern their actions.

So far no far-reaching authoritative study has been made of the licensing question.
Yet the whole history of license regulat on shows it to be the crux of the situation.
A careful study of the pract cal workings of each of the various methods will, it is
hoped, find the better way. The general adoption of the best system of granting
licenses will be a long step toward the solution of the whole problem. — Editor.

638 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

contrasts in different municipalities? Ideals are not everywhere the same,
to be sure, but human nature is. The bottom cause must be sought in
the divergent regulative means and measures employed. The League has
set itself the large task of finding out about these things, convinced that
much needed information can be extracted by a patient study of them.
How far it may succeed depends, in the first instance, upon the kind of
support accorded the undertaking.

Competent men are already at work upon this problem; but if the
results of their inquiry are to command the approval of intelligent and
unbiased citizens in every state, if they are worthily to supplement and
complete the labors of the Committee of Fifty, these results must be for-
mulated and tested by men who make such work the business of their
lives, their labors must be adequately supported, the expenses paid and
the investigators compensated.

The burden of the foregoing article is that the liquor problem is now
mainly a problem of municipal goveriunent; that it cries for solution and
that it can be solved.

SHORT ARTICLES

THE CITY-MANAGER PLAN OF GOVERNMENT

FOR DAYTON 1

ON AUGUST 12 the voters of Dayton, Ohio, approved a charter
giving to that city a "city-manager" plan of government — mak-
ing it the first American municipahty of considerable size to
secure this form of government. To this feature of a "controlled execu-
tive" has been added a number of progressive administrative ideas.

The power is vested in a non-partisan commission of five, elected at large,
in the place of the ward council. It was urged by a number of authorities
on municipal matters that the commission would be more representative
were its number nine or seven, rather than five, but the latter number
was agreed upon in order to secure a shorter ballot. None of the candi-
dates are for designated offices, so the preferential form of voting was dis-
carded for the ordinary primaries with a later election — it being thought
impractical to ask voters to designate five first, five second and five other
choices. Consideration was given the Hare proportional representation

^ With its adoption in Dayton, the increasing interest in the city manager plan of
municipal government is now elevated to the status of an important movement.
Every charter revision committee must now reckon with this plan, and in fact such
committees are already doing so. The real pioneer, of course, is Sumter, S. C. (8000
population) , which has had the plan in effect since January 1. Sumter in turn got
it from Lockport, N. Y., whose board of trade presented the plan fruitlessly to the
state legislature two years ago. Dayton being the first real city to adopt the plan,
seems destined to assume the position which Galveston and Des Moines have occu-
pied in relation to the commission plan.

The basic theories involved in the position of an appointive city manager, holding
office at the pleasure of an elective commission, have been dealt with at length in an
article entitled "The Theory of the New Controlled Executive Plan," by Richard S.
Childs, in the January, 1913, issue of the National Municipal Review. In brief,
the theoretical gains are as follows:

Unlike the Des Moines type of commission plan, it gives complete unification of
the administrative establishment.

It makes it possible to have a permanent professional expert administrator.

It abolishes the one-man power in the mayor-and-council plan (since this execu-
tive is under continuous control).

It leaves the people free to choose candidates simply as representatives, unlim-
ited by any implied requirement as to executive experience or capacity to earn a
large salary. (This feature is of especial interest to labor.)

It abandons the unscientific plan -of attempting to select executive experts by
popular election for short terms.

Except as to its civil service provisions, the Dayton charter is a valuable contri-
bution to the progress of municipal government. Its features in detail are discussed
in this article. — Editor.

639

640 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

scheme, but it was discarded for the time being, in the belief that its use
would foster political alignment in municipal elections. Elections are to
be held every two years, the three candidates receiving the greatest vote
at the first election being chosen for a four-year term, the others for two
3'ears. The candidate receiving the highest vote at the election at which
the greatest number of commissioners are elected shall be mayor, to per-
form the few duties incumbent upon him by general state law, and "for
ceremonial purposes." All members of the commission, as well as the
city manager, are subject to the recall upon a 25 per cent petition of the
registered electors.

In distinction from the straight commission plan the duties of the com-
mission are purely legislative — passing the annual appropriation orrli-
nance, police and public improvement regulations, with the usual legisla-
tive power to investigate the operation of any department. The cit}'
manager, chosen to serve at the i^leasure of the commission (with the re-
call i^rovision), is the administrative head of the government, appoints
and fixes salaries of his immediate subordinates including the principal
de'partmtntal and sub-departmental heads and their deputies, and is per-
sonally responsible for the entire administration of the city. There is
a striking analogy between the functions and accountability of this officer
and his superiors, as compared A\dth the similar position of the superin-
t(>ndent of public instruction and the school board in many localities.

To comply strictl}' with managerial theories the executive should be
empowered to employ and dismiss such of his employees as he desires,
and to stipulate such compensation as he deems necessary. In this in-
stance civil service clauses are incorporated, which provide examinations
to determine persons eligible for appointment in all but a small unclassified
service; insure the standardization of wages and equal pay for equal serv-
ice in all branches of the government; create a six months probationary
period before appointment; and which requires the certification of all pay-
rolls by the chief examiner — all features of a modern merit law. HoM'ever,
it is further provided that the manager, in consultation with the chief
examiner, shall make the designations for appointment from the entire
eligible list, rather than from the three highest. Such a rule conforms with
private business practice, but in public affairs will probablj'' secure em-
ployment for the politically desirable, and serve to vitiate the entire merit
system. Nor did the charter commission carry their theory of independ-
ence in the selection of city employees to its logical conclusion— freedom to
hire and dismiss at pleasure: persons employed cannot bo permanently
relieved from duty except by substantiation of charges before the civil
service board. It is doubtful if such a law meets the requirements of the
state constitution, which provides that appointments shall be made ac-
cording to fitness and merit.

CITY-MANAGER PLAN OF GOVERNMENT 641

As would be anticipated, the powers and duties of the manager are a
summation of" all powers usuailj^ granted to the heads of departments,
boards, or units of government over whom he will have supervision and
control. Such duties will comprehend:

a. Supervision of departmental administration.
6. The execution of laws and ordinances.

c. Recommendation of legislative measures.

d. Appointment of officers and employes, subject to the provisions of
the civil service sections.

e. Preparation of reports.

/. Preparation of the budget.

After lengthy debate relative to the merits of leaving the creation of
departments and the distribution of their powers to the legislative body
of the city," such plan was adversely decided upon. The departmental
organization of the city consequently has been specified in the charter,
permitting fundamental duties to be assigned to the more important de-
partmental heads. A reservation is made, however, by which the com-
mission may create additional departments, and may discontinue or dis-
tribute their functions. The charter organization of the city, excepting
schools and the courts controlled by general state law, is practically as
follows :

1. The Commission (subject to initiative, referendum, recall and pro-
test) .

A. Civil service board.

B. City manager.

1. Department of law.

2. Department of pubhc service, comprising the construction

and maintenance of streets, sidewalks and sewers; col-
lection and disposal of waste; and management of
public utilities.

3. Department of safety, comprising the divisions of fire and

poUce; building inspection; and the enforcement of or-
dinances relating to weights and measures.

4. Department of finance, comprising the divisions of ac-

counting, the treasury, and the purchasing of supplies.

5. Department of public welfare, comprising the divisions of

health, parks and playgrounds, charities and correction.

A provision borrowed from Germany, but unique in American practice,
recommends the appointment of a city-plan board by the commission,
and provides for such other citizen-boards to act in an advisory capacity
with departmental heads, as the city manager may deem expedient. No
powers are granted these bodies, except as may hereafter be created by
ordinance.

More interesting features of the proposed Dayton charter are to be
found in the administrative clauses which have been ' incorporated— fea-

642 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

tures which have been notably absent in the fundamental law of most mu-
nicipalities. The charter commissioners were thoroughly imbued with the
idea that inefficient government is due to badness of methods rather than
badness of men; and as a proposed remedy have included adequate pro-
visions governing budgetary and accounting procedure, a purchasing dc-
{jartment, granting of franchises, public imjDrovements and other subjects
differentiated from the organic law of the city. The appropriation esti-
mates are to be compiled by the city manager from detailed information
obtained from the several departments on uniform blanks. The entire
classification of expense must be as nearly uniform as possible for the
main functional divisions of all departments, and there must be presented
in parallel columns the following information:

a. A detailed estimate of departmental needs.

h. Expenditures for corresponding items covering the past two years.

c. Expenditures of the present year including transfers.

d. Supplies on hand.

e. Increases and decreases in requests.
/. Other information required.

g. Recommendations of the city manager.

Provision is made for the publication and public hearings on the bud-
get estimate before it can be enacted into law, and an additional proviso
that the appropriation shall never exceed the estimated income.

In connection with these budgetarj^ sections there is an original clause
which will obviate a common difficulty met in municipal finance — the
presence of more than ami)le monej^ to the credit of certain funds, while
legitimate charges and pay-rolls against other appropriations go unliqui-
dated because of temporary financial stringency. It is provided in the
Dayton charter that

all moneys actually in the treasury to the credit of the fund from which
they are to be drawn, and moneys .... anticipated to come
into the treasury .... shall be considered in the treasury to the
credit of the appropriate fund.

The accoimting provisions were arrived at after a lengthy consideration
of best municipal accounting practices including New York and Cincin-
nati procedures, as well as the code in process of preparation for New Jer-
sey. Difficulty was met, not in determining what systems should be pro-
vided, but in reducing the outline of the procedure to fundamentals, and
A\athin the limits of a brief charter. Two sections found in the proposed
Cleveland charter were finally incorporated, and which require that

accounting procedures shall be devised and maintained for the city ade-
quate to record in detail all transactions affecting the acquisition, custodian-
ship and disposition of values.

CITY-MANAGER PLAN OF GOVERNMENT 643

A corollary clause, but the one upon which the above depends for its in-
terpretation, reads in part as follows:

the commission shall cause a continuous audit to be made

such statements shall include a general balance sheet, exhibiting the assets
and liabilities of the city supported by departmental schedules, and sched-
ules for each utility publicly owned or operated; summaries of income
and expenditure supported by detailed schedules; and also comparisons
. with the last previous year.

A strict accounting- interpretation of the terms "income and expenditure"
will place the city accounting upon a liability basis rather than the usual
cash receipts and disbursements basis, upon which most cities operate. Im-
mediately following the inauguration of the new commission it is expected
that ordinances, now in preparation, detailing the departmental procedure
necessary under the foregoing clauses "will be passed. Such ordinances
will specify the ledgers and records to be installed, the method of central
control, character of operation reports, unit cost records — in brief will be
the basis of an accounting manual for the municipality.

Dovetailed to these provisions for financial accounting are regulations
for proper pay-roll control. It is provided that the "head of each de-
partment .... shall require proper time reports for all services
rendered .... to serve as a basis for the preparation of pay-roll
vouchers," and by which each departmental head must submit "current
financial and operating statements exhibiting the transactions (of his de-
partment) and the cost thereof." In this manner it is beheved that ade-
quate fundamental provision has been made for budget making, general
finance accounts, cost accounts and operative records.

Revenue systems and forms of taxation are prescribed by general state
law, not subject to charter modification. However, complete detail has
been provided for the financing of pubhc improvements, too lengthy to
be discussed in a brief article.^

Public utility franchises may be granted, subject to referendum, but
no franchises shall be exclusive, and each shall state the terms under
which the property may be assumed by the city; or the municipality re-
serves the right to condemn public utility property.

So brief was the time allowed for the preparation of thg Dayton charter,
that in many respects the document has a "scissors and paste" character;
however, there are numerous features which were given painstaking
thought and care, — ^notably the plan of organization and the financial
sections. No formal survey of the local government was made, yet the
commissioners were familiar with the shortcomings of most of the city

- Copies of the complete charter may be had gratis from the Dayton bureau of
municipal research.

644 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

tk'liartnients — ^the absolute hick of niodeni accounting sj'stern, the absence
of efficiency, cost and operating records, the need of budgetary procedure,
the weakness of the health service, the partisan and ineffective character
of the merit system — sufficiently familiar with these problems to mould
a procedure and adopt a program commensurate with the needs of the
comnmnit3\ The experience of Dayton will be a distinct contribution to
the science of politics.

L. D. Upson. 1

THE MUNICIPAL REFERENCE* LIBRARY^

MOST people admit that our city governments need improving,
but not so many are ready to point out the way to improve-
ment. Facts are necessary, experience and knowledge must be
consulted and weighed. Newspapers may fatten their circulation list
by exploiting maladministration in the abstract, but how few of them
can and do suggest a course of remedial action. They are quick to arouse,
but slow to educate.

However much we may deplore the many defects in our present city
governments and the inadequacy of present day criticism, great hope is
to be found in those cities where sincere effort is being made to know the
facts; in those cities now looked to as laboratories for the new science of
city government.

There is a decided agitation at present for establishing in every city
of importance in the country a library of municipal reference, a clearing
house of municipal information. This agitation has resulted in several
well established special libraries in various cities, among which we find

•■ Director, Dayton bureau of municipal research.

2 In 1909, the National Municipal League recognizing the value and importance of
municipal reference libraries, appointed a committee to investigate the subject
and make recommendations as to the organization of such libraries. After a thor-
ough investigation of the subject, the committee submitted its report at the meet-
ing of the League in Buffalo, November, 1910. The recommendations made by the
committee for 'the organization of such libraries are contained in the article by
Mr. Crecraft. Copies of this report were sent by the committee to the mayors
and public librarie»of the larger cities, with a letter calling attention to the impor-
tance of the subject. The results have justified the efforts of the League, for since
the report was made the following cities have established such libraries: New York,
Chicago, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Portland, Ore., Oakland, Toronto. All of these,
with the exception of New York, have established the libraries along the lines rec-
ommended by the committee by placing the library under the control of the public
library, with an office in the city hall. The form of organization of the Milwaukee
library has also been changed by placing it under the public library, with an office
in the city hall.

The League has recently appointed a smaller committee on municipal reference

THE MUNICIPAL REFERENCE LIBRARY 645

Baltimore, Milwaukee, Kansas City, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Portland,
Ore., New York, Chicago, Minaeapolis, Oakland and Toronto.

A municipal reference library is not to be assimilated to statistical
bureaus such as are found in Chicago or Boston, each serving a particular
purpose in their respective cities. Nor is the municipal reference library
at all identical with a bureau of municipal research such as the New York
City bureau. A municipal reference library should supplement the work
of a bureau of municipal research, and should be equally advantageous
to all branches of the city government. It should serve as a bureau of
information on experiments in all cities. Such subjects should be followed
and conservative data filed as concern city charters, gas rates, water rates,
cold storage, city planning, grade crossing, efficiency in fire and in police
departments, home rule, industrial education, paving, street railway fares
and franchises, and all other problem of vital interest to every city govern-
ment.

The much advertised mayor of one of our principal cities recently made
the statement that he would need the whole of his first term to learn how
to be an efficient mayor. Traveling from one city to another was to be
included in his mayoralty duties as he understood them. He soon became
known as the traveling mayor. The motive in this case was good, but
the method questionable. Experience could be brought to the very doors of
that executive and to other officials desiring information, and brought at
a great saving of time and of money to the city.

At present New York is interested in establishing the least wasteful
water supply system possible. What fund of experience of other cities
is it to draw upon? Where can New York get information? Again,
Mayor Hunt of Cincinnati recently delivered a speech describing the
system of building inspection by firemen now in operation in that city.
By personal correspondence among city officials it was learned that Minne-
apolis had already originated the system. But the fire chief of St. Louis,

libraries and city archives for the purpose of trying to secure the establishment of
municipal reference libraries in all the more important cities and this committee has
decided to use the article prepared by Mr. Crecraft instead of preparing a new report
or having the 1910 report reprinted. The committee cannot urge too strongly, how-
ever, that in making provision for municipal reference libraries, an adequate appro-
priation be made for their maintenance and that only those of scientific training be
placed in charge of them. It is also absoutely essential that such libraries be so
organized as to prevent political interference. The greater the number of such
libraries, the greater the possibilities for cooperation in this work.

The committee on municipal reference libraries and archives consists of Dr. Hor-
ace E. Flack, legislative reference department, Baltimore, Md., chairman; Hon.
Thomas Lynch Montgomery, state librarian, Harrisburg, Pa; Miss Edith Tobitt,
librarian, Omaha Public Library; Dr. Henry J. Harris, Library of Congress, Wash-
ington; Dr. Robert H. Whitten, librarian, public service commission, New York
City.

646 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

so it was soon learned, was equally certain that his city had been using
the identical system for "years." Cincinnati should have had the benefits
of the experience of these cities, and every city at present facing future
problems of building inspection should be informed as to the results of
such experiments.

The history of the municipal reference library begins with the city of
Baltimore. The department of legislative reference was created by an
act of the legislature of 1906, and operations began January 1, 1907. Its
establishment was the result of interest taken by certain public spirited
citizens of Baltimore who realized the need of having some department
whose business it would be to collect and compile information which
would be of value to the efficient public official and to the interested pub-
lic. The law creating the department provided for an advisory board
consisting of the mayor, the city solicitor, the president of Johns Hopkins
University, and the president of the Merchants and Manufacturers' Asso-
ciation. First among the duties devolving on the board was that of pro-
viding for the employment of a ''competent statistician as its executive
officer," who should ''organize and conduct the said department" and
should "hold office. . . . during good behavior," and "be sub-
ject to removal by the said board, or a majority thereof, for incompetence
or neglect of duty." Further provision was made that it should be the
"duty of said executive officer to investigate and report upon the laws of
this and other states and cities relating to any subject upon which he
might be requested to so report by the mayor, any committee of the city
council or the head of any city department; to accumulate all data obtain-
able in relation to the practical operation and effect of such laws; to inves-
tigate and collect all available information relating to any matter which
is the subject of proposed legislation by the general assembly of Maryland
or the city council of Baltimore." The same law provided that the execu-
tive officer "preserve and collate all information obtained carefully indexed
and arranged so as to be at all times easily accessible to city officials and
open to the inspection of the general public." The salary for the execu-
tive was placed at $2000 per annum, and additional appropriation was
made "sufficient to pay all other expenses of the department."

So much for the creation of the department; now as to the results.
The department is meeting with success. It has been in existence five
years and there is an increasing demand made upon it for information
on a wide variety of subjects. Evidence of its growth is found in the
recent proposition to place under its jurisdiction the present city Ubrary,
or rather the city archives, which is the depository of all city documents.
During the first four years the department has collected 1326 books and
5517 pamphlets, and in addition to these a number of duplicates of the
more important reports, including clippings, magazines, typewritten re-

THE MUNICIPAL REFERENCE LIBRARY 647

ports, letters. In addition to this there are on file in the department all
bills of the Maryland legislature for the past two sessions and a number
of the more important bills of other states. An index is kept also of the
ordinances of the city. These indexes are of great value since ready
reference is possible to any bill or ordinance of Baltimore.

To what extent has the library been of service to the city, might be
asked. The report issued by the executive of the library explains fully
the nature of the material kept on file, but is not so clear in stating specific
instances where the library has been of real service. The report makes
the following statement: "It is not possible to estimate the value of the
services rendered by the department since the information collected is
for the use of other officials and departments." Consequently it is plain
to see that if a fair proof is to be had of the actual work of the hbrary,
testimony must be had from those using the library as supplementing
that of the otherwise excellent annual report of the librarian.

Aside from the mere collecting and cataloging of information, the depart-
ment has followed somewhat the method adopted of issuing bulletins by
the legislative reference bureaus and has prepared, in a number of cases,
compilations on gas (rates, etc.), Hquor licenses, tax discounts, civil serv-
ice laws, boards and commissions, and a number of other valuable com-
pilations intended for a means of guidance for proposed legislation.

The result is that no department of the city government need try any
new scheme or measure without having learned how other municipalities
deal with the same questions and with what success. Experiments are
often costly. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. The health com-
missioner, the chairman of the tax commission, the mayor, city solicitor,
city engineer, all have requested information on subjects appertaining to
the work of their various departments.

The total expenditures of the department for the first year amounted
to $3023.09 of which S2523.34 was for salaries. Thus only $110.38 was
expended for books and magazines, while the worth of the whole material
collected is very much greater than the price paid.

The Milwaukee municipal reference library is a branch of the Milwaukee
public library, but its apartments are situated in the city hall. A sepa-
rate appropriation of $5000 is carried. This covers the expense of the
salaries of the librarian, the assistant and a stenographer. It is the policy
of the librarian to free the municipal reference work as much as possible
from the regulations governing the library proper. The correspondence,
collection of material and cataloging is done independently of the pubUc
library. Orders for books and supplies, however, are made through the
public library.

The material of most value on file consists of government and municipal
reports, the reports of civic organisations and meetings, clippings from

048 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL I^KVIEVV

newspapers and magazines and the like. By the existing arrangement
the director of the branch Ubrary is in constant touch with the aldermen.
It is found very helpful in operating the library to have this physical
proximity of the office to the committee room.

Lately the bureau has taken over the work of drawing up all resolutions
and ordinances, except those of a technical nature, these latter belonging
exclusively to the work of the legal department.

The library was established about the middle of the year 1908 as a
department of the public library. Shortly after, however, it was made
an independent department and the mayor was empowered to appoint
the librarian. The ordinances of January 3, 1911, reorganized the depart-
ment. As to the Ubrarian the ordinance provides that he "shall be an
expert in political science, political economy and statistics. He shall hold
office during good behavior and shall be subject to removal in accordance
with the rules governing other employees of the Milwaukee public library."

The duties of the librarian, according to the same ordinance, shall be
to collect and compare the laws of Wisconsin and other states and the
ordinances of Milwaukee and other cities and report upon the laws and
ordinances pertaining to which he may be requested to report by the
mayor, any committee or member of the common council of said city;
to accumulate all data obtainable in relation to the practical operation
and effect of such laws and ordinances; to collect all available informa-
tion relating to any matter which may be the subject of proposed legisla-
tion by the common council; to preserve and collate all information
obtained and carefully index and arrange the same so that it may be at
all times easily accessible to the city officials and to the open inspection
and use for reference purposes by the general public.

The present librarian has had charge of this librarj^ for one year and
during that time there has been collected a mass of important material.

A municipal reference library has been in existence in Kansas City for
several years. Unfortunately, however, there has been not a little oppo-
sition to the movement on the part of the press and on the part of those
who did not know of the real purpose of the hbrary.

The new administration in the city did not repeal the ordinance creat-
ing the department, but in the general reduction of appropriations, the
fund for the reference library was reduced from $3000 to $2000 for the
year 1912.

The work of carrying on a municipal reference library which is thor-
oughly^ efficient and worthy of the name, involves such an exhaustive
amount of supervision and at the same time such vast detail work, that
it must quite surpass the activities of any one man. It therefore is diffi-
cult to regard a city as having a real munici]oal reference library which
fails to provide for the constant employment of several workers.

THE MUNICIPAL REFERENCE LIBRARY 649

At the present time there is a movement on foot to establish a municipal
reference library in New York City.' Dr. W. H. Allen, head of the bureau
of municipal research, explaining the need of such a bureau, shows that
at present the large number of outside inquiries concerning various branches
of new city government have no one center through which they may be
■ cleared. As a result it is necessary for the outside inquirer to write per-
haps to as many as twenty different city officials in order to be assured of
the information wanted. That there should be a careful and permanent
bureau of municipal information and a professional municipal correspond-
ent in charge is undeniable and the need of such will no doubt be met
in the near future.

The project last year to establish the municipal reference library got
as far as the board of aldermen where it was dropped. In New York a
resolution was adopted by the board of estimate and apportionment call-
ing for the creation of such a library. In compHance with this resolution
a report was made which explained the status of existing municipal refer-
ence libraries.

It was carefully shown in this report that such a library had no function
of criticism, that it presupposed the absolute integrity and probity of
that political representative, the alderman. It asserted its sole purpose
to be one of assisting the representative in putting the government of his
community on a more scientific basis, by placing at his disposal, after
painstaking analyses and exhaustive comparative studies, the successes
and failures of other communities. The appropriation asked for amounted
to $20,450.

The Civic League of St. Louis in recommending a municipal reference
bureau to the board of freeholders, made the following statement:

The value of comparative data in dealing with municipal questions can

hardly be overestimated An officer whose duty it should

be to keep in touch with municipal movements everywhere and be ready
to supply the information to those who are charged with making the laws
and administering them should, we believe, be provided for in the new
charter.

In accordance with a concurrent resolution of the municipal legislature
the municipal reference branch of the St. Louis public library went into
operation October 23, 191L The library is housed in the city hall adjoin-
ing the houses of legislation. The branch is not only a municipal reference
library, but it is a public library as well, and is open to all citizens.

'Since this , article was prepared for the press, New York City has established
a municipal reference library.

650 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

The department is non-political and non-partisan, the data and infor-
mation being so set forth that the facts speak for themselves. The collec-
tion now numbers about L5 books and 2000 pamphlets, the civic league
and the mayor being the chief donors of the material. Information is
sought and given by correspondence such letters and material so collected
forming a large and important part of the collection of the library.

It is not possible to set down in detail the work of the library. The
requests for information have been very numerous, and all receive equal
consideration whether of a trivial or important nature. Departments have
come to make it a regular business of depending on the library for infor-
mation.

The branch has ver}^ recently been made the exchange agency for the
St. Louis city documents. The mailing list for the publications of the city
has up to the present time been in the hands of the city register, who has
charge of the printing and distribution of the documents and ordinances.
Under the present arrangement postage and express charges will be met
from city appropriation, but the register will turn over to the municipal
branch available documents, and the exchange will be carried on under
the direction of the branch librarian.

The use of the library by the city's officials and others has been very
gratifying. At present, however, more requests for information are re-
ceived from other cities than from those persons who have ready access
to the department. The number of inquiries is nevertheless gradually
increasing and there is a trend upwards in the importance of the requests.
There is every indication that there will be a gradual growth in the use
of the department as its functions become familiar to those for Avhom the
branch was primarily intended.

From the beginning a record has been kept of the requests for infor-
mation; the departments of the city seeking information, and a list of
other cities asking information concerning the affairs or problems of St.
Louis.

In Boston the finance commission formed a bureau of municipal research
whose purpose was to collect information for the commission, also to
examine and study the city departments with a view to municipal improve-
ment. The functions of this bureau are so closely allied to those of the
finance commission that it would be difficult to determine the line of
demarkation. In this very important respect it differs from the libraries
of municipal reference which are engaged in work in other cities.

Philadelphia is the largest city yet to establish a municipal reference
library.^ Organized as a part of the Free Library of Philadelphia the

* Philadelpliia is now third, for both New York and Chicago have but just
recently established such libraries.

THE MUNICIPAL REFERENCE LIBRARY 651

municipal department began operation on July 1, 1912. The room is
very pleasantly situated on the fifth floor in the north east corner of the
city hall and is open during the week from nine until four and on Saturdays
until noon.

The establishment of the library is the result of two years of effort.
The Free Library of Philadelphia for some time has been wanting to
start the branch in connection with the department of public documents
and it is largely through the courtesy of the director of public works that
the room in the city hall was turned over to the library for this purpose.

The material in the library consists of the standard atlases, gazetteers,
encyclopedias and dictionaries and a number of reference books and alma-
nacs; also directories, telephone books, cable codes and railroad guides.
In addition it contains all the reference books which are regarded as indexes
to state or city government. Many leading periodicals bearing on city
government are kept on file. In short a larger part of the material is in
the nature of an index to the great collection of documents on state and
city government now in the possession of the library.

A card catalogue makes possible ready reference to a large collection
of municipal material containing the publications of over 350 cities scat-
tered throughout the world.

It is a great satisfaction to those interested in the welfare of Philadelphia
to reaUze that a library has been opened in the center of the city where
city officials and all others interested in public questions relating to the
city may obtain information.

Cleveland is the latest city to establish a municipal reference library.
Mayor Baker has taken the initiative under the law of Ohio which permits
the mayor to appoint two department examiners. One of these examiners
is now organizing a department of information and complaint which is
an attempt to supply the growing need for a central bureau of information
for the use of the officials and the pubfic in general. So far all the work
of organizing the reference library is being carried on without financial
assistance from the city council. Those in charge intend to have the
work well under way and the usefulness well established before appealing
to the city council for assistance. The organization will proceed along
the same lines as described in the accounts of the various other libraries of
this character.

The work of building up a special library of municipal reference is
gaining the attention of a number of our state universities. The Univer-
sity of Wisconsin has taken the lead, and apart from any individual col-
lection such as that of the Milwaukee library, has undertaken to establish
a clearing house of information for the cities throughout the state. At
the University of Kansas similar work is being carried on. The experi-
ences of other cities are brought together and placed at the disposal of the

652 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

Kansas towns. The material is catalogued, filed, and made ready to be
sent to the cities of the state for a loan of two weeks or more.

In the University of Illinois, the university library has been collecting
municipal documents and other printed material Avhich serve as a nucleus
for a municipal reference library. Efforts have been made to secure an
apiiropriation to put this work on an effective basis, but thus far without
success. However, a hopeful sign is that the plan has been indorsed by
one of the party platforms. The incoming legislature will doubtless take
some action on the matter.

At the University of Cincinnati the department of public law is to be-
come, also, a bureau of municipal reference for the city. The city council
has appropriated $5000 for the work in 1913, and has invited the represen-
tatives of the department to take rooms adjacent to the council chamber
at the city hall. Prof. S. G. Lowrie will have charge of this bureau and
a similar one which has been established by Governor Cox at the state
capital for the collection and preparation of material on state legislation.
The first work of the municipal reference bureau will be that of aiding in
the matter of charter revision. Information on all municipal questions is
to be collected and so indexed and arranged as to be accessible to the coun-
cil, the city's administrative officers, and the general public. The bureau
will also serve as a laboratory for the public law students of the univer-
sity. Each officer of the city, head of a department, and committee of
the city council is ,to assist the director by furnishing to him all reports
and copies of correspondence he may deem of value for future reference.
The director is to collect and compare ordinances of this and other cities ;
to assist in the preparation of measures for introduction in the general
assembl}^ bearing on the city's needs; to secure books, pamphlets, period-
icals and documents. He is to collect, classify and index the charters,
franchises, ordinances and departmental reports of this and other cities
and accumulate data regarding their practical operation and effect.

Recognizing the great value of building up municipal reference bureaus
in the cities, the National Municipal League in 1909 appointed a com-
mittee to report upon the feasibility and desirability of municipal reference
libraries. The committee sent out inquiries to librarians in all cities
having a population of 50,000 or over. The replies indicated that there
is almost complete unanimity as to the great need for the establishment
of municipal reference libraries. The committee furthermore made exam-
inations into the then existing legislative and municipal reference libraries,
their organization, operation and efficiency, which examination resulted
in the deliberate conclusions as follows: first, such libraries should be
established; second, generally speaking they should be under the control
of the public library; third, they should be located in the city halls; fourth,
the head of such library should have had suitable training; fifth, the

MUNICIPAL ELEt)TIONS IN DES MOINES " 653

manner of selecting the head of such bureau should be determined accord-
ing to the local conditions of the particular city; sixth, the bureau should
be made the agency for the exchange of municipal documents; and seventh,
the work of such bureau should comprise collecting, collating, compiling
and dissemination of information; to aid in the drafting of ordinances, to
furnish correct information to the press, to issue bulletins, and to remain
neutral on all questions.

The committee again reported at the annual session of the National
Municipal League at Los Angeles in August, 1912. This report gives a
summary of the progress of municipal reference libraries. The cities of
Oakland and Toronto are reported as having recently established municipal
libraries. The committee further favored the bill now pending before
congress for the establishment of a national legislative reference bureau
with the additional provision that the functions of such bureaus be broad-
ened so as to include municipal reference work. '

It is the purpose of this review of municipal reference work, to recognize
the rapid growth of the movement, to point out the -great desirability
of continuing the same, and to present the matter in a form that will
interest the average public spirited reader equally as much as the expert
librarian. It is the interest of the former, more than of the latter, that is
now necessary to the further success of the municipal reference library.

Earl W. Crecraft.^

MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS IN DES MOINES, lOWA^

TO THE careful student, perhaps the most striking result of commis-
sion government is the type of campaign developed by the non-
partisan ballot. Certainly one of the most valuable consequences
of commission government has been the raising of the standard of citizen-
ship. The one is the complement of the other and the two are the essential
foundation for real democratic government in our American cities.

The abolition of party lines in commission governed cities makes it im-
possible for candidates for office to depend upon the party machine for elec-
tion. Indeed when the system is properly introduced, it is impossible for

1 Mr. Crecraft is a graduate of Franklin (Indiana) College and is an instructor
in politics in the School of Journalism at Columbia University.

2 For other articles on commission government published in the National
Municipal Review see: "City Government by Commission," Richard S. Childs,
vol. i, p. 40; "Commission Government," Martin A. Gemunder, vol. i, p. 170;
"Financial Results Under the Commission Form of City Government," Ernest S,
Bradford, vol. i, p. 372; "Ten Years of Commission Government," W. B. Munro,
vol. i, p. 562; "The Public Library in Commissioned Governed Cities," Alice S.
Tyler, vol. ii, p. ?55.

654 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

the party machine to be brought to play at all in a municipal campaign.
The consequence is that the candidate must make his appeal almost entirely
to public opinion, and can rely only upon such political organization as he
can make personally.

Abolishing ward lines and electing officers at large has a similar
effect. The candidate can no longer depend upon log rolling among ward
interests, nor upon the influence of local issues, nor upon the favor of local
ward politicians to secure his election. He must face the entire electorate
on the municipal issues and stand or fall according as he can impress the
voters with his fitness to represent the entire city.

This is all admirably illustrated in the type of campaign developed under
commission government in Des Moines. It is worth a trip half-way across
the continent to observe one of these campaigns.

Under the Iowa law, any citizen who can secure the signatures of twenty-
five of his fellow citizens to a statement of his honorable standing in the
community, may become a candidate for mayor or commissioner. In our
three campaigns this ease of candidacy has been taken advantage of by
great numbers and there have been always from thirty to more than fifty
aspirants to civic honors.

Coincident with the introduction of the Des Moines plan into our city
affairs there sprang up all over the city, neighborhood organizations of voters
under the title of improvement leagues, etc. There is one or more of these
organizations for each precinct of the city. When the campaign, which
generally begins about six weeks before the primary, is well under way, the
various candidates are invited to appear before these leagues to present
their claims to the suffrage of the voters. It will generally be found that
several of these leagues are holding meetings in various parts of the city on
the same night. A given league will invite perhaps a dozen speakers to
appear at a single meeting. It thus chances that one candidate may be
invited to speak at two or three meetings in an evening.

At these meetings, the various candidates, owing to the number that are
to speak, find it necessary to present their claims to consideration in talks
of not to exceed ten or twelve minutes. A speaker must make his impres-
sion upon his hearers in very short order. The more capable men soon
discover that there is time for only two or three main impressions. If the
candidate is wise, he concentrates on a few main issues and attempts to
elucidate them with telling strokes. At the same time he must throw the
force of his personality into the discussion. There is no time for idle words,
for every moment must be made to count.

In the rapid review of candidates, the audience is, in each case, deciding
on about three things. They decide first as to whether the speaker knows
what he is talking about. In other words, they estimate his intellectual
alertness and the soundness of judgment. Second, they decide upon the

MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS IN DES MOINES 655

earnestness of purpose, or conviction, with which the candidate seems to
present his issues. And finally having weighed the intelligence and sin-
cerity of the candidate, they put an estimate upon his courage or deter-
mination of purpose which will or will not lead him to carry into effect the
policies which he professes to stand for.

The candidate who impresses his hearers that he knows what he is talk-
ing about, that he means what he says, and that he has the courage in the
hour of trial to stand for what he advocates, generally has the right of way
to the voters' suffrage, provided of course that his position on the issues of
the campaign appeals to the voter as being sound.

Before the campaign is over, the candidates who have appeared at this
given league upon one occasion will have one or more other opportunities
to appear before the same audience. Upon these second and third occasions
the candidate has a further opportunity to elucidate his views on municipal
issues and to confirm or to better the first impressions which his audience
may have gained concerning him. By the time the primary election is at
hand, the voters in the neighborhood of this league have put their estimates
upon the various condidates, and by processes of comparison and elimina-
tion have pretty clearly decided which five of the total number they will
support.

Even those who may not have attended the league meetings very faith-
fully during the six weeks campaign have heard the neighborhood discussion
concerning the candidates. Opinion in the vicinity is very clearly outlined.
Municipal issues and the personality of the candidate enter with somewhat
varying proportions into the composition of the neighborhood opinion.
If there are striking municipal issues upon which the people may divide,
this has a large bearing upon the fortunes of the candidates. If, however,
municipal issues are not pronounced, the personality of the candidate has a
very large determining force. Indeed, with the impossibility of organizing
candidates into groups, each group standing upon a given platform, the per-
sonality of the candidate has fully as much to do with his advancement
as the issues for which he stands. Sometimes a candidate who marks out
the issues of the campaign strongly secures his support chiefly upon his
platform, while right along beside him some other candidate, who may
stand for even contrary municipal policies, but who has a striking personal-
ity or mental vigor, earnestness and reputation for courageous and deter-
mined action, will also be successful. It is indeed a contest between per-
sonality and municipal issues.

These are undoubtedly the most desirable bases for the selection of the
chief municipal officers. Yet there is the difficulty of raising municipal
issues to their true importance.

At the same time, the influence of party politics upon the fortunes of
municipal officers is entirely removed. The people come to resent the

&56 NATIONAL JVIUNICIPAL REVIEW

intrusion of party politics into municipal affairs. In Des Moines, which is
over-whelmingly republican, the first mayor, a democrat, was as over-
whelmingly elected over his republican opponent. Anyone aspiring to a
municipal office who would lay claim to that office on the grounds of his
party relations would be rejected by the people for so doing.

Another feature of our campaigns is the entire absence of sectional or
ward influence. The candidate must face the entire electorate of the city
upon the issues and interests of the entire city. He cannot go into one ward
advocating measures for the good of that ward alone without incurring the
hostility of the voters in other wards. The consequence is that the resi-
dence of the candidate is no longer inquired after, though at first there was
considerable jealousy over this point. One who is not broad enough to be
a citizen of the entire city has small hope of convincing a majority of the
voters of the entire city of his fitness to participate in the determination of
municipal policies as a member of the city council.

Thus, by the time the field of candidates has appeared successively before
the various improvement leagues of the city and the date of the primary is
approaching, the various hearings secured and the general discussion that
has resulted among even those who may not have attended the meetings,
has established a general public opinion as to the merits of the various
candidates.

One of the most interesting features of a campaign to observe is the
growing or waning fortunes of the respective candidates. A field of forty
or fifty candidates will start out with apparently little difference in the
prospects of success. After a couple of weeks of this style of public discus-
sion, a comparatively small number will graduallj^ forge to the front in
public esteem, until as the primaries approach, it becomes quite evident
that the choice lies among some twelve or fifteen leading aspirants.

But the real contest comes when the primary is over, and the two candi-
dates for mayor and the eight candidates for commissioner who are to
participate in the election two weeks later, have been chosen.

The primary often reveals surprises in the persons of the successful can-
didates. A well organized constituency, furthering the candidacy of a
given man in a large field, will often get more votes than men very much
better fitted for the place. Among the half dozen candidates for mayor,
one of the winners may have polled practically his entire strength in the
primary. In the break-up of the supporters of the unsuccessful candidates,
the vast majority will then go to the other man. This is especially true
if the success of the first main candidate is felt by the majority of the people
to be a menace to the welfare of the city. The same thing is true among
the candidates for commissioner. The consequence is that after the pri-
mary, there is a hasty review of the situation, by both candidates and
-voters. After a brief respite for this review, the campaign is resumed

PRIMARY ELECTION EXPENSES 657

with redoubled vigor. Between the two candidates for mayor, the contest is
especially keen. So far, it has never descended to the plane of personalities
and belittling of character.

The contest among the commissioners is somewhat different. Before the
primary, one candidate for commissioner will seldom attack the record of
any of his competitors for fear of alienating the support of the friends of the
candidate so attacked. While this is not so true after the primary, yet,
in a measure, it holds true even then. This is especially so in case of those
candidates who feel sure of first or second place in the voting. Among the
contestants for third and fourth place, the battle rages with somewhat more
vigor and directness. Those knowing that their success depends upon the
defeat of certain other candidates are less slow to offend the friends of those
candidates, and attack any weak places in their records unsparingly.

The laws providing that no pre-election promises shall be made, and that
no one may give or receive money for personal assistance in the campaign,
have a very salutary effect. It is a great protection to the candidate to say
that he cannot give money or make promises for any assistance. It relieves
him of the incubus of the ward heeler and the political grafter. This pro-
tection is as valuable to the candidate as is the assurance of a higher degree
of purity in the election to the general welfare of the city.

The ability and character of the men who are finally successful in the
election is very good. Only men of superior ability and fair repute, who are
able to contend before 20,000 voters and undergo their scrutiny, can be
successful. The average ability of the commissioners is undoubtedly
beyond what it was under the old plan.

James R. Hanna.^

PRIMARY ELECTION EXPENSES IN CHICAGO

THERE is no doubt that campaign expenses have largely increased
as a result of the direct primary laws that are now on the statute
books of many of our states. When the political bosses of the
various parties could meet in back rooms and select candidates who would
have back of them the organized strength of the machine, there was little
occasion for the candidates to spend money or for their friends to spend
it for them before nomination. Under such a system the only expense
was in connection with the election campaign itself.

Under the primary election system, however, instead of one campaign
there are two campaigns. It is not infrequently the case that there are
more candidates to contest at the primary election than at the election
itself. Where there is a large field of candidates and where from any

2 Mayor of Des Moines.

658 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

reason of general public interest the fight is a hotly contested one, money
is spent and spent freely.

Of course even under the direct primary system the political machine
is a potent factor. By throwing its combined strength to any one candi-
date it gives him a tremendous advantage. A candidate who has the
support of the machine is not under the necessity of spending as much
money in the primary campaign as is the candidate who is fighting the
machine. The machine candidate already has his organization in county
and township or ward and precinct as the case maj- be.

On the contrary the anti-machine candidate has to build up his
organization and to build up an organization overnight is an expensive
proposition.

In the absence of statutes requiring publicity of campaign expenses it is
difficult even to guess at what the cost of primary campaigns have been
in the past. Here in Illinois and Chicago it is safe to say that the primary
campaign expenses during recent years have been very large. As a typi-
cal example let us take the primary campaign of slightly over two years
ago at which nominations were made for mayor and other city officers in
Chicago.

Prior to this campaign there had never been any publication, either
forced or voluntary, of any primary or general campaign funds in any part
of Illinois, so far as I know. In the primary election referred to public
sentiment demanded a publication of campaign receipts and expenditures
with the result that at least two of the candidates, Charles E. Merriam
and Edward F. Dunne, made complete and honest pubfications. Some
candidates made partial publications while one refused to make any dis-
closures at all.

In a direct primary campaign, covering approximately two and a half
months, there were contributions from all sources made to the Merriam
campaign fund of $39,767. The disbursements made by the Merriam
committee in this primary campaign were itemized as follows:

Stationery and Printing $2035

Advertising in street cars and newspapers 2763

Music, bands and wagons for meetings 1474

Hall rent and other expense of meetings 2267

Salaries and headquarters expense 4885

Postage 2008

Ward headquarters and organization work — 35 wards 2100

Lithographing and posting 4500

Young Men's Progressive Republican Club expense 415

Total $22,451

Mr. Merriam was an anti-machine candidate and it was accordingly
necessary for him to build up organizations in the various wards and

PRIMARY ELECTION EXPENSES 659

precincts, a process which legitimately costs money. Nor did he have the
advantage that the machine candidates had of the support of the organi-
zations in the various wards.

It should be borne in mind that in each ward at the same time there
were various candidates running for aldermanic nominations. Each one
of these candidacies meant money collected and spent and where the
aldermanic candidates were also the candidates of the organization, the
campaigns they made and the money they spent were also for the advan-
tage of the city machine primary candidates. There were no aldermanic
candidates on the Merriam ticket.

In this same campaign John F. Smulski, who was the candidate for the
Republican nomination of the Deneen-Busse machine, made a statement
through his committee showing receipts of $9445, and expenditures of
$11,673. It is understood that the Smulski committee also spent not less
than $10 a precinct to man the polls on primary day which would involve
about $13,000 additional which was not accounted for.

John R. Thompson another Republican candidate, backed by the Lorimer
machine, announced that he had received no contributions from any source
and that his disbursements had been $16,228. There was also evidence
on election day that in Mr. Thompson's case probably an amount in the
neighborhood of $26,000, which was not accounted for, was spent to man
the polls in his interests. In considering the amounts spent by Merriam,
Smulski and Thompson, respectively, it should be borne in mind that
both Smulski and Thompson had powerful machine support and their
campaigns covered only a few weeks while that of Merriam's extended
over two months and a half.

On the Democratic side Edward F. Dunne was making an independent
campaign against Carter H. Harrison, the candidate of the old city hall
machine, and Andrew J. Graham was the candidate of Roger Sullivan.
Mr. Dunne accounted for $10,869 received as against expenditures of
$10,242.

Carter H. Harrison made no accounting for primary expenses, but it
is known that he carried on an expensive campaign and it is safe to say
that his disbursements were considerably in excess of those of Mr. Merriam.

No statement was made on behalf of Andrew J. Graham, whose cam-
paign was the longest and most expensive of all. It was the current
belief at the time that money was literally poured out in Mr. Graham's
behalf. It is probably within the facts to say that $100,000 were spent
by the Graham managers in this campaign.

As has already been suggested, in addition to the amounts spent in the
mayoralty campaign there was considerable money spent in behalf of the
minor candidates on the various tickets and in behalf of the various alder-
manic candidates in the thirty-five wards of the city in all instances except

00(/ NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

on the JNIerriain ticket. It would be difficult to estimate what the amount
would total, but it must have been very large.

It will have been seen that in the absence of a law requiring publicity
of receipts and expenditures, it is impossible to give an accurate statement
of the cost of such a primary campaign as the one al)ove referred to, but
probably the entire amount of money spent in this campaign was in the
neighborhood of a quarter of a million of dollars, a tremendous amount,
especially when it is considered that all this money was spent not to
elect, but merely to give the people an opportunity to elect at a subse-
quent general election.

Of course there are many primary campaigns which are run on compar-
atively little money. The amount varies with the occasion and with the
interest in the fight. If there is no contest, as when the machine is allowed
to nominate by default, there is no need for large expenditures which can
then be reserved until the general election as was the case when Fred A.
Busse was elected mayor of Chicago somewhat over six years ago. In
that year there was no direct election law on the statute books of Illinois.
Mr. Busse was nominated by the combined efforts of the Lorimer and
Deneen-Busse machines without opposition so that it cost no money to
make a campaign for nomination. All the money collected was spent at
the general election and more than a quarter of a million dollars was
raised for Mr. Busse's campaign. It is not known what was spent in that
campaign in behalf of Edward F. Dunne, Mr. Busse's opponent, but it was
a small sum compared with the fortune contributed to put Mr. Busse over.

There is hardly any limit to the amount of money that can be legiti-
mately spent in a political fight where an extended campaign of education
is made. There is, of course, no limit at all to the amount of money
that can be spent corruptly in a campaign. Full publicity of receipts and
expenditures required by a statute carrying heavy penalties for non-com-
pliance, would correct a good deal of the evil. It has also been suggested
^ many times that a limitation of the amount that can be spent in behalf
of any candidate would be a proper and salutary law. Personally I am
inclined to doubt the wisdom of a limitation law, although there are many
reasons that can be urged for it. Such a statute would undoubtedly be
to the advantage of a political machine and would make it difficult, if not
impossible, for an independent anti-machine candidate, who has to build
up his own organization and conduct his own campaign of education to
hope to compete successfully with a machine candidate.

Haeold L. Ickes.'

'Of the Chicago bar and chairman of the Cook County Progressive committee.
Mr. Ickes has written this article out of an intimate knowledge of the facts, hav-
ing been manager of the Merriam campaign. Although considerable time has
elapsed since that event, the facts and figures have lost none of their value
or significance.

COMMISSION GOVERNMENT FOR CITIES 661

COMMISSION GOVERNMENT FOR CITIES:

ELECTION TO SPECIFIC OFFICE VS.

ELECTION AT RANDOM

ELECTION to specific office is essential for consistency with the
fundamental principle of commission government that the line
of responsibility from member of the council to the people should
be clear and sharp.

By election to specific office, the member of the council is in a position
which he has agreed with the voters to take, and to which they have
elected him, with all the facts in mind. He can, therefore, be held much
more effectively responsible than if in a position, perhaps unwelcome to
him, into which he has been forced by his colleagues.

2. It should conduce to harmony and attention to business in the coun-
cil to have each member in a position from which the rest cannot depose
him, in which he knows he must stay until the end of his term, and in
which he must make good, if at all.

This does not, of course, prevent minor redistribution of duty under
certain conditions by a vote, say, of all four of the other members.

3. Election to specific office enables a man to know in advance for
what office he is running, and the voter to know to what he is electing
him, something which should make standing for office much more attrac-
tive than otherwise to responsible citizens, and voting a more intelligent
and responsible piece of work than otherwise. It should, therefore, mate-
rially reduce the chance of a mere "good fellow" getting elected to the
Council ; also to deter the ridiculously incompetent— though regarded good
enough for a place in the council under the usual politics — from seeking
a nomination.

4. Election to specific office is not open to the objection that the people
should never elect experts, for there is no necessity that these men should
be experts, but there is a necessity that they should be elected to a place
in which they have an interest and for which the voters will consciously
support them. The bonafide experts may still be appointed, as they
should be.

5. Experience has already developed serious objection to the practice
of election at random. Haverhill's misfortunes in the loss of a highly
competent official in the council by his defeat by a less able but perhaps
more popular person, through the voters not realizing what place in the
council was at stake, led Lynn to adopt election to specific office. Grand
Junction had already done so on general grounds; Oklahoma City, Salem,
Mass., Denver and Colorado Springs have since done so. The commission

662 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

charter drafts of Bangor and South Portland, Me. and New Iberia, La.,
Springfield and Cambridge, Mass., all provide for election to specific
office.

Colorado Springs modified a commission charter of some four years
standing to introduce election to specific office (with preferential voting)
in place of their previous system of election at random. This was done
in April, 1913.

REASONS FOR ELECTION AT RANDOM

1. Election at ranldom makes it unnecessary for candidates to have to
get elected to a certain office, or to be lost from the council. To put the
same thing in another way, if, under election to specific office, all the
good nominees should happen to be running for one office, there couldn't
be but one good man elected.

2. An inferior banker might be elected to the headship of the depart-
ment of finance over a man with general experience in business, greatly
his superior in actual fitness for the office.

3. It is the almost invariable practice of American commission gov-
erned cities to elect their councils at random, presumably for the two
reasons just stated, and also, I believe, on account of their fear that it
means an attempt to secure election of experts by the people.

SUMMARY

It seems to me the first point made above for election to specific office
is unanswerable by anything that can be urged on the other side, and that
that point, with the others, clearly outweighs what can be said against
it. Any efficient volunteer citizens committee, at least where a good
form of preferential ballot is in use like that of Denver should find it
reasonably easy to induce into the field a supply of desirable candidates
for each and every office. Besides, this difficulty is much reduced at all
elections after the first for there should never be more than one or, at the
most, two offices to fill at any one election after the first.

The fact that election "at random" was the universal rule till lately
is of course not conclusive evidence in itself that it is the most expedient
practice. If prevalence were the proper criterion, the case for the dis-
credited double chamber system would have been unansAverable !

Those originating the proposed commission charter for Cambridge have
been perfectly clear from the very first in their support of election to speci-
fic office, although it was the feature which met the most vigorous oppo-
sition in the large committee of citizens which finally went over the whole
draft. That committee, however, after full discussion in which the oppo_

COMMISSION GOVERNMENT FOR CITIES 663

sition was most ably represented, finally voted overwhelmingly to stand
for election to specific office. The idea of direct responsibility above
mentioned, and that a man should know what office he is rmming for, and
that the voters should know to what office they are electing him appeal
strongly to most thoughtful citizens and seem likely to prevail over all
objections.

This ex'tract from an editorial in the Engineering Record (of New York)
under date of June 7, 1913, is worth noting in connection with the topic
of this paper:

The Denver election of May 20 involved two matters of much interest
to engineers — the participation of engineers as a body in the campaign
and the favorable action on the Moffat tunnel proposal. The election
was the first under the commission form recently adopted by Denver and
was conducted along non-political lines. The local organization of the
American Society of Civil Engineers therefore interested itself in the
campaign, endorsing a civil engineer for the position of commissioner of
improvements — ^the officer who has supervision of the board of public
works. The candidate endorsed was elected.

It should be added that the winner here referred to was chosen out of
a list of no less than twenty-three nominees for the place and, what is
more, was high man among the six winners in a total field of 135 nominees.
As the election was by the preferential system without a primary, his vic-
tory reflected the choice of the voters after a free and full expression of
preference and thus was of highly exceptional significance.

It can hardly be doubted that the nomination to specific office (and the
preferential ballot) was an important aid to this presumably excellent
result.

To be sure, the nominee might have been induced to accept a nomina-
tion at random, might have been similarly endorsed and elected at ran-
dom, and might have been finally landed by the council in the place of
preference and for which he was best fitted. But each of these steps
would have been hampered and the whole thing might well have been
prevented by the uncertainties attending election at random. Particu-
larly under these circumstances might a wholly nonpolitical organization
of professional men of the highest standing have been effectively deterred
from taking up an uncertain as well as unwonted step in the public behalf.

The following personal letter from a responsible and close observer of
affairs in Salem (Mass.) under date of December 19, 1912 (underlining
mine) gives some testimony from experience. It should be borne in
mind that Salem retained the primary. Those who appreciate the value
of the preferential ballot and the elimination of the primary have ground
for belief that the Salem results might, by the more modern system, have
been even better than below reported.

664 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

"I have felt ever since we started work on the Salem charter that this
was the most satisfactory method of handling the problem, and the
experience in our election in Salem Tuesday bore me out.

It has been the custom in Salem to vote for men for the board of alder-
men u'itJiout regard to their fitness hut merelij upo7i their personal popularity,
and men have l)een elected without any regard whatsoever to the admin-
istrative work required of them as chairmen and members of the various
sub-committees. Under our new charter this year the men were com-
l^elUnl to run for the specific positions which they wished to occupy, and
for the first time in my recollection the discussion in the campaign turned
upon the qualifications of the men for offices for which they were running,
and the discussion was very general and the interest very keen. We
were disappointed in the result so far as it affected the head of the ticket,
but in every other case the man elected was a man who has had years of
experience in just the sort of work expected of him, and 'whose record in
such work has been good. Our city auditor, who has made a splendid
record and is a very able man in financial matters was elected director of
finance. A man who has been street commissioner for years, and prob-
ably the most successful one we ever had, was elected director of public
works. A man who has been one of the overseers of the poor for j'ears
and a member of the board of health was elected director of public health,
an office Avhich combines supervision of both the health and poor depart-
ments. A man who has been in the lumber and building business for
years and has shown considerable executive ability was elected director
of public property. In every case, the men running against them had
had no experience to speak of in the work of the positions, and the major-
ities of the successful candidates were overwhelming.

I personally feel that far better results will come every year by electing
men in this way, and I know that in one or two of the cities along the
Merrimac River now under commission government the mayors are con-
sidering an amendment to their charters to provide for this same thing,
as they feel that the group method of elections is not proving satisfactory."

Lewis Jerome Johnson.^

VOTERS' LEAGUES AND THEIR CRITICAE

WORK2

IN A country village where each man knows his neighbor's parents and
sat with him in Sunday school, the choice of candidates for public
office is not embarrassed by ignorance of their character or qualifica-
tions. The elector's judgment may be cramped by prejudice, he may refuse
support on principle to a free thinker or a man who does not paint his barn,

' Professor Johnson is a member of the Harvard engineering faculty. He has for
years given close and thoughtful attention to city problems and especially to com-
mission government and preferential voting of whicli he is a strong advocate.
Several years ago he was foremost in the movement for a new charter for Cambridge.

*See article on "Chicago Voters' League," by Frank H. Scott, in the Proceed-
ings of the National Municipal League, 1903.

VOTERS' LEAGUES AND THEIR WORK 665

but he has at least a fair chance of knowing by personal acquaintance
whether John Doe has made or would make a competent selectman or pound-
master. The advocates of the short ballot have argued quite convincingly
that this is far from true in the larger communities, the city and the state,
and have pointed out a remedy in the concentration of attention upon
fewer offices with more responsibility. But even were this beneficent plan
put into execution, the voter might be misinformed or wholly uninstructed
upon the experience and character of aspirants for public office. No one,
I think, would maintain that partisan newspapers have been reserved in
commenting upon the incomparable merits of their own candidates and the
incredible misdemeanors of their rivals. Their vehemence is met with
respect in inverse ratio, and among that portion of the electorate that can
be influenced by information these contests in rhetoric effect but little.
Indeed, under the long ballot that lingers with us, were this invective to
pass for argument, only opinion as to the principal candidate would be
affected. The names of those who bid for less conspicuous honors are
passed over in ignorance and silence; yet, while the offices they seek are less
important to the community as a whole they touch much more nearly the
daily life of the citizens at home. The voter, in a quandary, looks for some
reliable guide that he can credit with impartiality and sound judgement.
Slowly and with much travail such an organ is evolving in the shape of a
civic association which undertakes the investigation of candidates, reports
upon their records, and without regard to party bases recommendations
upon this evidence.

When corruption in a city council or a legislature becomes so gross as to
break the back of patience, mass meetings appoint committees of one hun-
dred and at their instigation permanent organizations are erected to act as
proctors for the public interest. The final and effective instrument is usu-
ally an executive committee of a dozen members, more or less, chosen from
widely known and reputable citizens of every shade of political opinion.
That is in brief the history of the Municipal Voters' League, Chicago, and
may stand for that of nearly all such organizations.

There are two factors in government, the law and the officer. Some
civic associations devote attention primarily to the correction of the one,
some to the improvement of the other. It is not surprising, however, that
there appears to be a tendency for these nonpartisan associations to concen-
trate upon securing better men, since better men can be relied upon to enact
better laws or to enforce poor laws judiciously, whereas the best of laws is
impotent under a dishonest or incompetent administration.

To secure good men in office in the first place demands intelligent and
fearless criticism, and to furnish this to the public is no light enterprise for
an executive committee. It is an awesome thing coolly to print an estimate
of a candidate's personality. • It is not difficult to rehearse his training or

666 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

point the lack of it, but to publish its mature opinion on his character and
temperament imposes heavy responsibility upon a civic body. There
must be honesty in the committee, of course, as well as earnestness, diligence
and rare judgment. That these have not been lacking is demonstrated by
the fact that though such estimates have been published with startling
frankness, to the best of our information, no candidate has seen it worth
his while to sue for damages in libel.

In the report of the Minneapolis Voters' League the following appears:
"Put in the briefest language possible, the real fundamental tests of alder-
manic service are honesty, intelligence and effectiveness, with ability to see
clearly where the public interests lie and the courage and independence to
serve on the side of the public against private or special interests." Of
course such qualifications are hard to ascertain by any scientific gauge.
Some reports on candidates are more amiable and tolerant than others;
some leave an image so shadowy and pallid that the reader cannot quite
understand this man is recommended or disapproved. But many of the
pictures are painted with poster-like vividness. A man may be praised as
a legislator of "foresight, industry and courageous initiative," or he may be
remembered as a "rubber-stamp," "absurd" or "vicious." Frequently
candidates for the same office seem equally satisfactory and a league is
glad to recommend them all, or when all seem equally hopeless little com-
ment is vouchsafed and it refuses to discriminate. For example, consider
the candidates for alderman in the first ward of Denver as they were men-
tioned last May in the voters' directory of that city's civic league :

Archie Bloom (Rep.). Residence 1100 "Walnut; clerk in grocery business;
young, single; never held office; untried.

James P. Coates (Dem.). Saloonkeeper at residence, 842 Lorimer; pres-
ent incumbent; machine alderman; undesirable.

Eugene Madden (Cit.), Residence 1047 9th St.; saloonkeeper at 1140
Lorimer; reported never held office.

There are times, too, when a league frankly chooses the lesser of two evils
as in Minneapolis last September, C. B. Wadell was preferred as a county
commissioner. Perhaps it is worth while to restate the comment of the
voters' league upon him and his rival as it was published before the pri-
maries in the Minneapolis Journal for September 12, 1912:

C. B. Waddell — ^Market gardener. Resides in St. Louis Park. Age 52.
Lived in district thirty-two years. Finishing first term on county board.
Made a fairly good start and offered hope of becoming a useful official, but
his later record is disappointing. In the past two j^ears he has gone over
completely to the combine. Too willing to trade his independence for
patronage and improvements in his district. He was the key to the situa-
tion in the board. It was in his power by his vote in the organization to
have made it a force for effective business administration. He chose the

VOTERS' LEAGUES AND THEIR WORK 667

other course, and should rightly bear his share of the responsibility for the
present unhappy condition in the board affairs. He is not entitled to renom-
ination, but is preferable to four years more of Andrew Smith.

Andrew J. Smith — -Farmer. Resides at Brooklyn Centre. Age '68.
Lived in district fifty-eight years. Civil War veteran. Served two terms
on the county board ending 1908. Member of most of the combines of his
day and a typical representative of the old school political spoilsman. He
had largest opportunities for usefulness, but was interested chiefly in keep-
ing numerous members of the Smith family on the county pay-roll, furnish-
. ing supplies, road repair and contract work, etc. Distinctly not qualified
for further service on the board.

There are other criteria besides personal reputation and voting record,
by which civic associations may seek to judge the qualification of a candi-
date. The Municipal Voters' League of Chicago draws up a little platform
declaring in some dozen articles what constitutes honesty, independence
and efficiency in an alderman, and this each candidate for that office is in-
vited to adopt as a part of his promise to his constituents. His answer to
this invitation is printed with his record in the election bulletin of the league.
The Municipal League of Buffalo last Autumn asked each legislative candi-
date^ to pledge support to a proposition for a referendum to the citizens of
Buffalo on the matter of a new charter. Twenty-seven out of thirty-six
signed that pledge; the recusants were carefully remembered in the League's
reports.

It is a common practice is estimating the legislative career of a candidate
for reelection to select some few measures wherein to the mind of the com-
mittee the moral issue was well defined and using these as touchstones of
the candidate's loyalty to public interest. For example the Buffalo associa-
tion in a broadside to the voters of the second assembly district took as
tests six measures considered in the last session of the legislature and recom-
mended the present incumbent on the ground that he had been found satis-
factory on all these questions.

Associations send their bulletins generally to all applicants as well as
members. Some, like the Citizens' Union of New York City, actively dis-
tribute "literature" in appropriate districts. The work of this organiza-
tion, which is one of the oldest of its kind, is worthy of some special mention.
It maintains an expensive legislative bureau at Albany, reports the bills
introduced by each assemblyman and senator from New York City, and his
vote on all measures that affect the city's interests. The summary, which each
legislator is invited to criticize, is finally published with a short estimate of
each man's service. This is probably the most complete legislative record
of this kind in the country, and is certainly the most convenient hand-book
of the legislation of the session published in the state. The union under-

^See National Municipal Review, vol. i, p. 503.

668 NATIONAL .AIUNICIPAL REVIEW

takes much the same work in connection with the board of aldermen and
has done much to revive interest in this ancient body.'*

Not only in these annual reports does the Citizen's Union express its criti-
cism on the work of representatives, but likewise in its paper, The Search-
light, which appears bi-monthly, it comments on their accomplishment or
lack of it. Candidates without official experience as well as those who stand
for reelection are investigated, and when no nominee seems adequate the
union sometimes names candidates of its own, taking on the function of a
party, as when in 1901 it nominated and elected Seth Low as mayor of New
York.

With civic organizations that seek to influence legislation more directly
than by a criticism of the legislators, however, too much campaign activity
has been found to be embarrassing. The City Club of New York formerly
published estimates of candidates for the legislature couched in language
that left little room for complaint on the ground of vagueness. It pub-
lished its last report on candidates in 1908. "Dry Dollar" Sullivan was
introduced as an "associate of thieves" and a typical New York tough,
"Pat" McCarren found himself described as "a scoundrel" and "wholly
unfit for office," Senator Stillwell was treated to some darksome pages of
his professional history as a Westchester lawyer. After election in which
the Tammany ticket was successful, when the secretary went to Albany he
observed a curious reticence on the part of these gentlemen to cooperate in
any legislation desired by the City Club. They were in no mood for argu-
ment. They remembered the Club's little directory of candidates and set
all their powerful influence against any measure it had to propose. Believ-
ing, then, that it was better to work as amicably as possible with the ser-
vants who were given it, the function of formal criticism of candidates was
abandoned and the club now confines its attention chiefly to legislation in
the city or that enacted for the city by the state. It is "not in politics and
it refrains strictly from any participation in nominations and elections even
in municipal campaigns." The removal of dishonest or incompetent oflfi-
cials it still regards as a function proper and expedient. In 1908 it pre-
ferred charges based on the report of the commissioners of accounts against
John F. Ahearn, president of the borough of Manhattan, who was removed
after a protracted trial. The club also aided by providing counsel and other
wise in securing the removal of borough presidents HafTen of Bronx and
Gresser of Queens.

The executive committee of the Municipal Association of Portland, Ore-
gon, for some time seriously considered the recall of District Attorney Cam-
eron on the ground of ineSiciency and unfaithfulness. The election would
have been called but that no suitable man could be found willing to under-

*See National Municipal Review, vol. i, p. 136.

VOTERS' LEAGUES AND THEIR WORK 669

take a campaign for that important and responsible office. The committee
also attempted to induce capable and trustworthy men to offer their names
as candidates for various places in the general election, with very little suc-
cess. ''While many of them," the secretary writes, "are willing to serve
without pay, they are not willing to be subjected to the unjust suspicion and
criticism they must frequently bear." It may be said that it is in just this
connection that committees of criticism play a very useful part. It is by
such honest, competent and self-respecting citizens who are prevailed to
make the sacrifice to enter public service that the "well done" of anon-par-
tisan civic league published deliberately and distributed at large at the close
of the official term, is most appreciated. The association with its "record"
is not only useful as an avenger to strike the faithless, but likewise as a judge
who offers high reward for service well performed. The salaries of public
office are not alluring, and it is scarcely reasonable to expect men who value
their reputation to engage to defend the public interest against the many
private suitors who will hesitate at no threat to cow him down and no cal-
umny to avenge their disappoifttment, unless he knows that there is some
body of citizens, however small, who, freed from party rancor and possessed
of unusual experience and intelligence, view his work with sympathy and
understanding and stand ready to commend him publicly when his term is
finished.

One of the most hopeful signs in present politics is that, judging from the
reports of these associations, the ancient policy of passing the office around
from hand to hand finds fewer advocates with each succeeding year. It is
coming to be realized not only that the emoluments of public office should
not be used as alms to tide over a loyal partisan who has met with business
failure, but that between two men of equal probity and effectiveness, the
one with some experience has always the advantage. "Permanent tenure
of office," says the Municipal Bulletin of Cleveland for May, 1912, "is much
to be desired. A change should be made only when the good of the service
demands it." "Of two otherwise good candidates," runs the report of
the Municipal League of Buffalo, pubhshed on October 20, 1912, "the one
who has well served in the office is recommended in order that the county
may have the benefit of his experience."

Nearly all of the associations which examine the records of candidates and
make recommendations based thereupon are located in urban districts
where such service is most welcome. But since they concern themselves
in legislation only with that which affects their own locality, there is place
for a like organ of inspection in the interest of the people of the state at large.
In New York State this function has been assumed by the Legislative Voters
Association with an executive committee of eight representative citizens
from all parts of the state besides a secretary and a treasurer. From its
headquarters in Albany it watches the progress of general legislation, pub-

670 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

lishes reports and comments in its Legislative News, which appears
"monthly or oftener," and is sent to every quarter of the state. At the
close of the session it prints a summary of the conduct of each legislator on
the most important bills considered, though it does not hazard the pithy
character sketches that enliven the pages of many city league reports.
In rural counties this service is less indispensable and is more seldom under-
taken. As an example of what can be done, however, the Oberlin Col-
lege Civic Club has published its first annual report on the candidates for
office in Lorain County, Ohio. With the valued counsel of Professor
Geiser the Club prepared a careful report which speaks with firmness and
discrimination. It is difficult to see how students could come more inti-
mately into touch with the personal element in government than by such
an investigation and it is to be hoped that this example will recommend
itself to other college clubs.^

It is interesting now to ask whether or not all this activity produces real
results. By the settled friends of candidates the criticisms are received
of course with delight when they are favorable and with derision or resent-
ment when they are not. But do they attract the attention of the elec-
torate at large and do they actually exert influence upon the result? In the
case of the recommendations of the Oberlin College Civic Club every
one was followed with one unimportant exception. Secretary Fesler, of
the Municipal Association of Cleveland, writes as to the result of the
primaries last spring, "In only one instance when we recommended the
nomination of a candidate did our recommendation fail to carry. That
instance was the nomination of one of the Democratic candidates for com-
missioner, and the cause of his defeat was the fact that he lived in a remote
part of the county and was not well known. In every case where we said
a candidate 'should be defeated,' or said 'not recommended,' these can-
didates received a small vote." The Citizens' Union speaks thus of a
campaign: "All candidates on the Democratic ticket supported by the
Union were elected. The only Republicans elected were candidates sup-
ported by the Union, except where the Union was neutral." This is, of
course, somewhat equivocal. Other arguments than those of the -Citi-
zens' Union will prevail to secure the election of Tammany representatives,
but considered year by year the work undertaken by this organization
years ago and now taken up by many others is telling and effective.

In closing we may quote an editorial comment from the New Orleans
Item for July 13, 1912: "This method of making public each year, prior to
elections, the records of the legislators, many of whom seek reelection,
has proved in the past a great factor in retiring ward politicians, assembly-
men of an unsavory character. To brand a man as 'not very attentive to

"See National Municipal Review, vol. i, p. 506.

ADULT EDUCATION 671

legislative duties' and to show up in black and white where he voted against
every important issue that affected his constituents, which they wished
passed, but in which he yielded to the commands of party bosses, is vitriolic
campaign literature which no amount of buncombe or excuses can wipe
out."

Dixon Ryan Fox.^

ADULT EDUCATION IN NEW YORK CITY^

NEW YORK CITY has municipal departments of which its residents
have no reason to feel proud, but this does not apply to the
public lecture bureau of the department of education. New
York's free lecture system is the admiration of every person who comes
in contact with it. There is a continual expansion and improvement in
the system, and the present course is no exception. Last year lectures
were delivered in 173 lecture centers distributed throughout the various
boroughs of the city of New York. A staff of 696 lecturers spoke on 1746
different topics before 5573 audiences. The total attendance was 1,000,-
190, an average of 179 per lecture.

Getting its start in 1888, when a bill, entitled "an act to provide for
lectures for working men and working women," was passed in the legis-
lature and approved by the governor on June 9, the public lecture system
is now a monument to the genius of the man who originated it. In 1901
the public lectures were extended to all five boroughs of the greater city,
and since that time the scope of the lectures has been gradually enlarged
to include all subjects of the college and university curriculum.

To discuss the free lecture system of New York without mentioning
Dr. Henry M. Leipziger, the supervisor, would be like a history of France
in which there would be found no mention of Napoleon. Dr. Leipziger
is the general who has made adult education a success. It is his creation.
The lectures were placed in his charge at the end of the second year, when
the attendance had not indicated the popularity of this form of instruction
which the committee had hoped for and when it had been decided to
make the public lectures a special subject for supervision.

The term public lecture system does not give an accurate impression of
the true character of the great educational work that is being done. Dr.
Leipziger would have it named the "Institute for Adult Education," for
that is what it is. The purpose of the lectures is not to amuse and enter-
tain, but to instruct and uplift, and during the last year more serious

^Columbia University.

^ This whole subject of adult education is considered at length in Edward J. Ward's
volume Social Centers, published by D. Appleton and Company in the National
Municipal League series.

G72 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL KEVIEW

courses were given than ever before. The spirit in the system is the
s])irit of the school and of the university.

This growing institution offers in part a solution of the immigrant prob-
lem, for its purpose is to educate the immigrant and to provide for his
introduction into civic life, being in this respect a step in advance of the
public school, which waits for the second generation. Typical of the
lectures to immigrants is one given in the Italian language to Italians on
the subject "What the Pubhc Lectures can do for the Italians and Why
Every Italian Should Learn the English Language," or one in Yiddish
attended by a thousand immigrants, on " What Constitutes Good American
Citizenship." Lectures in German are given by visiting professors who
come from Europe to lecture at Columbia University.

A course of twenty-eight lectures given last year on "Principles and
Practice of Electrical Engineering," by W. Wallace Ker, was attended by
engineers, mechanics and automobile men, who were regular in attendance,
and many of whom came from a long distance and after a hard day's work
to attend the course. Professor Guthrie of the College of the City of
New York gave a course of thirty lectures on American history.

Dr. Leipziger hopes to make it possible to secure a degree from a uni-
versity through the medium of the free lectures. There will not, of course,
be invented a short cut to knowledge, but a degree may be had after a
reasonable number of years of study have elapsed. His plans include a
possible future development of the reading in connection with the lectures
into a correspondence school, and he does not regard it as at all Utopian
that courses of study graded to the various capacities of student auditors
could be arranged. In his report to the board of education. Dr. Leipziger
said: "This city contains a number of institutions of higher learning. A
federation of our colleges and universities could be made possible, and by
cooperation with the, public lecture system a correspondence school under
the aegis of this great union could be established. This would greatly
increase the influence of these great institutions of learning, and through
the public lecture system bring them more closely in touch with the peo-
ple!" What a colossal idea! Such a system, the supervisor explains, will
require a staff of regular teachers of adults who will make it their primary
work and not a secondary object as is the case now.

Examinations are now held at the conclusion of every course and a
quiz at the end of each lecture, and this feature is spreading to other lec-
ture centers. Because of the intense interest manifested by the adults in
many of the topics discussed, this quiz sometimes develops into a general
discussion. Such discussions divide themselves into two general classes,
educational and political. Dr. Leipziger proposes, therefore, to have two
types of lectures, one type of a large and commanding character, to be
given in the larger lecture halls, which will attract audiences from all

ADULT EDUCATION 673

parts of the city, and to maintain in increasing number other courses
of lectures which are adapted to the needs and desires of local audiences.

"I am an evangelist in my particular department," said Dr. Leipziger
recently in discussing his work of preaching the gospel of the wider use of
the school house. "What a pity it is," he continued, "that buildings
which are the property of the public should not be open to the public.
Why not let these centers be used more than the six hours a day required
for the education of the children? There is, for instance, no reason why
political meetings should not be held in the school house. The discussion
of public questions in such a forum would be of great benefit. Never
at any time in the history of this country has the public been so alert,
so mobile, so inquisitive. The people are inquiring into the fundamentals
upon which society depend."

It should be a matter for congratulation on the part of Americans that
the public lecture system is an American idea in education. It is just
being introduced into Europe through Paris. Until very recently New
York was the only city in this country which recognized adult education
as an integral part of its educational scheme. During the past year,
however, inquiries came from all parts of the world, including China and
Japan, with regard to the best means of establishing a similar system in
those countries. Everywhere it is being recognized that education does
not end with the elementary school. Milwaukee and San Francisco are
the only American cities in the west that have begun the development of
a similar system in connection with the public schools. The state uni-
versities, however, have taken over the idea and are branching out with
extension courses. Many cities throughout each state are thus given the
benefit of lectures by eminent professors in the universities.

Although only a few cities have adopted free public lectures as an inte-
gral part of the pubhc school system, the work of adult education has been
taken up by other institutions. In many cities the lecture courses have
not yet passed through the woman's club stage, where each lecture is a
social event and where the lecturer is expected to amuse and entertain
more than to educate. The universities and other educational institutions
in and near Chicago have arranged interesting lecture courses for the
practical benefit of those who can not avail themselves of the more re-
stricted educational opportunities. The University of Chicago last fall
featured a course of lectures on the problems of a modern city, in which
some of the most prominent educators in the country expressed their
views. Lectures on modern city problems are advertised all over the
country for this winter.

A comparison of the system developed in New York City with the
irregular lectures in connection with university extension work confirms
the correctness of Dr. Leipziger's assertion that the latter, because of the

674 NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

limitations which their rehitions to scholarship and higher education im-
pose, can never produce entirely satisfactory results. In order to introduce
adult education which will really reach the masses, says the founder of
the New York system, the cities must open their schoolhouses for public
lectures, make them free, and make them a special object for supervision
under the boards of education.

Oliver Hoyem.

NOTES AND EVENTS

Professor Charles Austin Beard, Columbia University, New York,
Associate Editor in Charge

ASSISTED BY

Professor Murray Gross, Drexel Institute, Philadelphia
Professor Edward M. Sait, Columbia University, New York

I. GOVERNMENT AND ADMINISTRATION

The Minneapolis Charter. — For many
years Minneapolis has been making an
effort to secure a new form of city gov-
ernment. The present one in many re-
spects is archaic. The administration of
city affairs is divided between the city
council and a number of boards selected
independently by the people or by ap-
pointment. Most of the departments of
the government, however, are adminis-
tered by committees of the council, which
are responsible to the council as a whole.
For instance, the fire department is ad-
ministered by the fire committee of the
council. Thus, responsibility is divided
among twenty-six men representing thir-
teen wards, and the burden is easily
shifted. The control of the streets, ex-
cept as to permanent improvements such
as sewer and water mains, is handled
separately in each ward and is under the
jurisdiction of a street commissioner
who is responsible to the aldermen of
his ward. This street commissioner is
very often a local political boss. It is
not unusual to find one side of a street
where the ward boundaries come to-
gether sprinkled and properly cleaned
and the other side much neglected.

Again and again have boards of free-
holders spent months in drafting a new
charter only to meet defeat at the hands
of the people because of lack of interest
or an organized opposition which has
found the four-sevenths requirement of
all votes cast at the election for the
passage of the charter to be its chief
asset.

Progress and change in municipal
administrative government, however,

seem to be in the air. Commission and
federal charters have been adopted in
many cities which have given the citi-
zens thereof a part at least of the relief
which tbey have sought. Because of
this added interest in a better municipal
administration in Minneapolis as well
as elsewhere, a group of citizens again
had the courage to prepare a charter for
submission to the people of this city.
For nearly a year this commission of
fifteen men has given its best thought to
the task.

About June 1 a proposed draft of the
charter was presented. Several mem-
bers of the commission recognized that
expert advice upon many sections of
this charter would greatly strengthen it
and it was suggested, therefore, that the
Minneapolis Civic and Commerce Asso-
ciation should secure the best obtainable
assistance in making this charter as
nearly perfect as was possible. This as-
sociation immediately secured the serv-
ices of Messrs. Henry Brudre, A. R.
Hatton, B. A. Rastall, Delos F. Wilcox,
and Clinton Rogers Woodruff, for a
careful analysis of the charter. At the
same time the association appointed a
committee of seven of its members,
recognized as students of the subject, to
lend its assistance to the commission.

Each one of the experts was requested
to make a detailed analysis of the char-
ter and to lay special emphasis upon
those provisions with which he was es-
pecially familiar. The final reports were
carefully studied by the Association com-
mittee and made the basis of its report,
which was then passed on to the charter

675

070

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

commission. Every suggestion made by
each of these experts was given the most
careful consideration by the members of
the board of freeholders, and a consid-
erable portion of the suggestions was in-
corporated in the final draft of the char-
ter, which was submitted July 16.

The great value of securing the best
counsel obtainable with reference to the
various provisions of such a document is
illustrated by the improvement which
resulted in the original draft of the char-
ter as a result of the adoption of these
suggestions. While the charter is still
one which could unquestionably be im-
proved in many respects, it is the feeling
of those in Minneapolis who have studied
this document and who are familiar
with similar charters which have been
drafted elsewhere, that this is one of the
best documents which has ever been
proposed.

The powers which are granted in the
charter are very extensive "and confer
upon the city authority to undertake
all matters of municipal concern. These
powers are in form similar to those grant-
ed in the charter recently adopted in
Cleveland. The government of the city
is vested in a commission of seven,
consisting of a mayor, city comptroller,
and commissioner of public works, of
public utilities and of charity and cor-
rection, and seven members of the school
and library board. Every candidate
must designate the office for which he is
running and election is to that office.
The mayor is paid a salary of $6000 and
the other commissioners $5000 each.

The charter provides that elective
officers are subject to recall upon a pe-
tition signed by 25 per cent of the entire
number of votes cast for mayor at the
last preceding municipal election. The
initiative and referendum are also pro-
vided for. Under the initiative pro-
vision an ordinance may be presented
to the council upon a petition of 2 per
cent of the voters and if not adopted
then after an additional 8 per cent is
obtained the ordinance must be submit-
ted to the vote of the people. The ad-

ministration of city affairs is divided as
follows:

1. Division of public safety: depart-
ment of police, department of fire, de-
partment of architecture and building
inspection.

2. Division of finance and taxation:
department of accounts, department of
city treasurer, department of city as-
sessor.

3. Division of public works: depart-
ment of streets and bridges, department
of sewers, department of street operation.

4v Division of public health: de-
partment of hospitals, department of
sanitation, department of communicable
diseases, department of vital statistics
and publicity, department of labora-
tories.

5. Division of parks and public
grounds: department of construction and
maintenance, department of forestry
and park decorations, department of re-
creation and amusements.

6. Division of public utilities: de-
partment of waterworks, department of
lighting, department of transportation
and communication.

7. Division of charity and correction:
department of correction, department of
charity and social service.

Subject directly to the authority of
the council, but not assigned to any of
the foregoing divisions, there shall be
the following departments: department
of law, department of records, depart-
ment of purchase and supplies.

It is provided that the council may
employ technical exports of recognized
ability when needed for any special pur-
pose. The oflScers of the civil service
board are appointed by the council for
terms of six years in rotation. Their
authority and duties are extensive. The
charter provided that the unclassified
service shall include:

1. All officers elected by the people.

2. All members of boards or commis-
sions appointed by the council.

3. Superintendents, principals, super-
visors, and teachers in the public school
system of the city.

NOTES AND EVENTS

677

4. The librarian of the public library.

5. Special counsel employed by the
city.

6. All heads of departments, except
those of the departments of records, and
purchase and supplies.

7. The private secretary of each com-
missioner.

8. Special technical experts whose ap-
pointment is authorized by section 39.

Several of the experts employed as
well as members of the board of free-
holders favored the placing of a larger
number of positions in the classified
service, but it was urged, possibly with
considerable wisdom, that the inclusion
of other offices in the classified service
might increase the opposition to the
charter. The charter further provides
that the heads of departments shall be
appointed by the commissioner in charge
of the division in which the department
belongs, but that a certificate of this
appointment shall be filed with the civil
service board and that the board shall
then make a careful inquiry into the
qualifications of the nominee. If the
board does not certify to the competency
of the nominee within thirty days, the
appointment shall be considered void.

The civil service section further pro-
vides that only the person standing
highest in a certified list shall be ap-
pointed to the vacancy. The original
draft provided that the appointing of-
ficer might select one of the three high-
est, but the uniform opinion of the ex-
perts upon this point resulted in the
change. The civil service board is also
charged with the duty of investigation
as to the efficiency of the service in all
departments. It is the evident intent
that this board shall act as an efficiency
board as well as an examining board.

The charter provides also for the sub-
mission of an annual budget by the
heads of departments to the city comp-
troller, and the basis of this budget is
provided in detail. The charter pro-
vides that upon receipt of these esti-
mates the city comptroller shall arrange
for their publication in convenient pam-

phlet form, with his own recommenda-
tions and comments, and that these pam-
phlets shall be supplied to any citizen
upon application and to city officials.

The chapter on franchises caused the
largest discussion and it was upon this
chapter that the greatest difference of
opinion existed. A feeling of one group
of members of the board was that the
specification of conditions of a franchise
should be left to the determination of
the council granting the franchise. The
feeling of another group was that the
charter should specify in detail as to the
basis upon which a franchise might be
granted, and that comparatively little
authority should be left to the council
as to the terms of franchises. The latter
plan modified considerably was finally
adopted. It provides that no public
service franchise shall be granted except
by an ordinance approved at a general
or special election by a majority of the
qualified electors of the city voting
thereon. No public service fj^nchise
may be renewed prior to four years be-
fore the date of expiration. No perpet-
ual franchise shall ever be granted and
no franchise shall be granted for more
than twenty-five years. Every corpora-
tion rendering any public service in
the city under a public service franchise
is required to furnish annually a detailed
financial report and the city is given
authority to make examination of the
books and affairs of such corporation.
The charter specifically provides that
in determining a valuation for the fixing
of rates no allowance shall be made for
franchise value, good will, earning power
or going concern value. Every fran-
chise granted also must provide either
for an automatic regulation of rates or
must reserve to the city the right to
regulate rates at intervals of not more
than five years. Every franchise must
provide that at the expiration of the
grant or at intervals of not more than
five years the city shall have the right
of purchase. The city must also be
given the right to regulate the service
and extensions.

678

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

The charter also gives the city the
power of eminent domain, inchiding pub-
lic utilities, and power to make all special
assessments and charges for local im-
provements.

The common criticism of the charter
is that it goes too largely into detail.
However, it seems in general to provide
for a city administration which is in
accord with the best thought of the day,
and is only about one-fourth the length
of the charter and board acts which it is
intended to supersede.

The election for its adoption was set
for September 30.

Howard Strong.^

Municipal Home Rule in Ohio; Su-
preme Court Upholds Cleveland Charter.
— The supreme court of Ohio on August
26, by a vote of three to three sustained
the constitutionality of the election
provisions of Cleveland's new charter.
The sections under consideration pro-
vide for nomination by petition only, for
a non-partisan ballot, and the preferen-
tial system of voting. The legal ques-
tion arose over the conflict between the
state election law and the election pro-
visions of the new charter. The state
law provides for a partisan primary in
September. The secretary of state
ruled that the state law was paramount
and that the charter provisions do not
supersede the state law even in local
municipal elections. The board of elec-
tions was instructed to proceed with the
holding of partisan primaries. The city
brought mandamus proceedings to pre-
vent the misapplication of funds for
that purpose. The lower courts over-
ruled the demurrer to the petition of the
defendant and judgment was rendered
in favor of the city. The case was then
carried to the supreme court.

The six judges, though on vacation,
agreed to hear the case at once. Attor-

1 Secretary Minneapolis Civic Miid Commerce
Association.

ney-General Hogan and his assistant
Robert M. Morgan represented the state,
and assistant city solicitor John N.
Stockwell and Mayor Newton D. Baker
represented the city. Long and ex-
haustive briefs were submitted by both
sides and an oral hearing was granted.
The attention of the entire state was
focused upon the case for it was to de-
termine how broadly the home rule
amendment will be interpreted.

The supreme court refused to reverse
the order of the lower court granting
the injunction, but no written opinion
was handed down at that time. Justice
Johnson was selected to prepare the
majority opinion and Justice Shank the
dissenting opinion.

The city contended in its brief:

a. That the provisions of the charter
supersede the general law in all matters
pertaining strictly to local government.

h. That the right to frame a charter
and exercise thereunder all powers of
local self-government includes the right
to prescribe the method of nominating
and electing municipal officers.

c. That the "powers of local self-gov-
ernment" mean not only proprietary or
private powers, but all local governmen-
tal powers as well.

d. That the method of nomination
and election of officials is not the exer-
cise of a police power.

e. That the charter provisions are
not in conflict with the provisions of the
constitution which require that nomina-
tions "shall be made at direct primary
elections, or by petition as provided by
law," because the charter provisions are
"law" in the meaning of the consti-
tution.

The state on the other hand con-
tended:

a. That the city has and can have no
jurisdiction over state appointed elec-
tion officers.

b. That the city has no jurisdiction
over the subject of nominations and
elections because they are matters of
general and not municipal nature.

NOTES AND EVENTS

679

c. That nomination regulations con-
stitute an exercise of police power in
which matters the state law is supreme.

d. That the constitution itself com-
mits the subject matter of nominations
and elections to the general assembly.

Attorney-General Hogan made much
of the old argument that if the city were
sustained in its contention, there would
be established an "imperium in imperio"
in Ohio.

The full written opinion of the court
will be awaited with more than ordinary
interest by the cities of the state, be-
cause in most of them where charters
have been adopted under the home rule
amendment, provision is made for a
nominating system diilerent from the
requirements of the state law.

Mayo Fesler.^

Commission Government. — In Penn-
sylvania. As the last issue of the Re-
view went to press, Governor Tener of
Pennsylvania signed the so-called Clark
bill providing commission government
in a mandatory form for all third class
cities and in a permissive form for bor-
oughs of over 10,000 population. By this
act the following cities, \^ith populations
as indicated, will come under the com-
mission system without referendum:
Reading, 96,071; Wilkes-Barre, 67,105;
Erie, 66,525; Harrisburg, 64,186; Al-
toona, 52,127; Johnstown, 55,482; Allen-
town, 51,913; McKeesport, 42,604; York,
44,750; Williamsport, 31,860; New Castle,
36,280; Easton, 28,532; Chester, 38,537;
Lebanon, 19,240; Bradford, 14,454; Hazle-
ton, 25,452; Carbondale, 17,040; Oil City,
15,657; Pittston, 16,267; Meadville, 12,-
780;Titusville, 8533; Franklin, 9767; and
Corry, 5991.

On July 30, Beaver Falls voted to be-
come a third class city and ipso facto to
come under the Clark law. An election
for the same purpose was held at Home-

i Secretary of the Civic League of Cleveland.

stead on July 29, but the proposition
was defeated. Petitions for the sub-
mission of the act are being circulated
in many of the eligible boroughs.

A. M. Fuller, president of the Allied
Civic Bodies on Commission Govern-
ment, recently addressed a communica-
tion to the third class cities concerning
the operation of the law. A point of spe-
cial interest brought out by this state-
ment is that the members of the second
and succeeding councils in the various
cities will not be paid the statutory sal-
aries, but will receive such compensation
as is fixed by ordinance. This, Mr. Ful-
ler points out, makes possible the reduc-
tion of the salaries of the mayor and
council to a nominal figure. The money
thus saved may be devoted to the salary
of a city manager, although no mention
of such officer is made in the act itself.

Village manager for Chicago subu7-b.
The popularity of the city manager plan
grows apace. The village of River For-
est, one of the suburbs of Chicago, is
governed by a board of six trustees and
a president, and until recently the vari-
ous departments of the working organ-
ization reported directly to the board.
The system, however, was found to be
unbusiness-like and made very heavy
drafts upon the leisure time of the trus-
tees. It was recognized that the organ-
ization must have continuous supervi-
sion by a responsible head. A village
manager was therefore appointed to
fulfill this function. Considerable pub-
licity was given to this decision. In con-
sequence, some seventy applications for
the position were received from men of
varied training and experience residing
in many parts of the country. Personal
interviews were given by the president
or members of the board to about forty
of the applicants, and from this number
four were selected to be individually in-
terviewed by the board in executive ses-
sion. The qualifications to be looked
for in the appointee were carefully con-
sidered by the board, and while engi-
neering knowledge and experience were
given due weight, administrative and

680

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

executive ability were deemed of first
importance.

The ordinance creating the position
provides that the general superintendent
shall have

general authority and supervision of all
the affairs of said village and all of the
work of said village under the super-
vision and direction of the president and
board of trustees; he shall follow up the
orders and directions of the board of
trustees, see that the same are properly
served and executed without delay, re-
ceive and refer to the proper persons the
correspondence on behalf of the village
and shall be the proper person to whom
complaints as to the public service shall
be made, and shall have power to hear and
adjust the same; it shall be his duty to
make reports from time to time to the
president and board of trustees of the
conditions of the public service in said
village and the public work going on
therein, and of all matters coming before
him which require by law the action of
the president and board of trustees; he
shall also make recommendations from
time to time to the president and board
of trustees, recommending improve-
ments in the public service and munici-
pal affairs, and upon such other subjects
that should come before the president
and board for consideration; he shall
also have general charge and supervision
of the work of the officers and depart-
ments of the village.

Charter trouble in Wichita. A well in-
formed correspondent in Wichita has an-
alyzed for the writer the causes of the
trouble which is arising in that city
under the commission form of govern-
ment, to which considerable publicity
has been recently given in the press
throughout the country. The general
fault found with the plan is that it is
expensive, and that so far from getting
rid of the politicians, politics is played
as much as under the councilmanic form.
It is claimed, for instance, that there are
five different governments at the city
hall — the mayor and each of the four
commissioners; that each has a special
department, and in order to make a
showing, each spends city funds; that if
each did not have to make a showing to
be reelected, certain expensive opera-
tions would not have to be undertaken.

It seems also that there is a strong
objection to giving the same five officials
authority to enact ordinances and to en-
force thoir own wishes, and that this
feature of the commission plan has al-
lowed personal opinion to get into or-
dinances, causing at times a great deal
of unfavorable agitation.

It is pointed out specifically that a
certain man who had been defeated
three times by the people was able to
get an appointment to a responsible
position under four different mayors,
though but one of them wanted him.

The Wichita commission has recently
voted $88,000 in bonds to cover current
deficiencies.

Continued charter activity in Ohio. —
Cleveland. On July 1, Cleveland, the
first of the Ohio cities to take advantage
of the home-rule amendment,' adopted
its first charter by a decisive majority.

Charter defeats. On July 15, three
Ohio cities, Salem, Elyria and Canton
voted down charters which were based
on the general theory of commission
government. The defeat was especially
decisive in Canton. The plan under
consideration in Elyria was the city
manager type and the vote stood 957 to
801, the result turning upon the adverse
vote in two election precincts. On July
22, Youngstown turned down a "city
manager" charter by a vote of 5984 to
2973. This was not unexpected, as the
Youngstown Vindicator, a powerful
Democratic newspaper, consistently op-
posed the charter both as a whole and
in detail. The result of course leaves
Youngstown outside the pale of the home
rule cities as under a recent decision of
the supreme court no city may enjoy
the home rule provisions of the consti-
tution except by adopting a charter.

Norwood on August 19, and Akron
on August 29 defeated charters embody-
ing the commission plan.

Dayton. The new city charter dc-

• See National Municipal Review, vol. II, pp.
472-473.

NOTES AND EVENTS

681

scribed in full on p. 639 of this issue was
adopted on August 13 by a vote approx-
imately of 13,217 to 6,042.

More charters in the making. The
Youngstown defeat, however, did not
act as a damper upon the comissioners
in other cities, and at the present mo-
ment action is about to be taken in two
of them upon city manager charters.

At a recent election Sandusky, Ohio,
instructed its commission to draw up a
charter upon city manager lines. The
ticket elected in this city was the one
put up by the Municipal League.

Cincinnati, on July 29, elected a char-
ter commission of a moderately progres-
sive complexion. This was the ticket
headed by Walter A. Knight and put
before the people by the Citizens' Char-
ter Committee.

In opposition to the.successful ticket
was the one supported by Rev. Herbert
S. Bigelow who had been conducting
many public meetings among the labor
unions in an effort to consolidate the
labor vote in favor of municipal owner-
ship and other radical issues. There
was also in the campaign a rather strong
movement in favor of retaining the exist-
ing charter or rather operation under the
Ohio code.

The Springfield, Ohio, Charter. A real
contribution to charter literature is the
new document put out by the commission
in Springfield and particularly that por-
tion which has to do with the statement
of the general powers of the municipal
corporation. It has been customary in
American cities, due largely to the tend-
ency of the courts to limit the powers
of the city within the narrowest con-
fines, to set down the municipal powers
in the charter in the most detailed terms.
So far as the writer's knowledge goes,
this is the practically universal custom.
The Springfield commission, however,
broke away from the precedent com-
pletely, and if its statement will stand
the test of court interpretation, the
charter is certainly to be commended
both for its brevity of form and for the

latitude which it gives to the city in the
exercise of municipal functions. The
statement of powers as set forth in sec-
tion 1 is as follows:

It [the city] shall have and may exer-
cise all powers which now or hereafter
it would be competent for this charter
specifically to enumerate as fully and
completely as though said powers were
specifically enumerated herein,, and no
enumeration of particular powers by
this charter shall be held to be exclusive.

The charter also, by virtue of section
84 adopts the general laws of the state
applicable to municipalities in so far as
not inconsistent with the charter and
subject to ordinances of the city com-
mission hereafter to be enacted. The
president of the commission writes in
support of its position that there can be
no question of the effect of this simple
method of defining the city's powers and
that it feels sure of its safety and pro-
priety b}' reason of the following con-
siderations :

The municipality has no authority to
prescribe its own powers. Upon the
adoption of the charter the city would
have, by virtue of the constitution, all
powers of local self-government except
as limited by the constitution itself.
The charter might make no reference
whatever to the city's powers arid yet
they would nevei'theless exist.

The city's definition of powers does
not operate to draw the powers to it,
nor to exclude any undefined powers.
. It must be always kept in
mind that under our constitution the
legislature retains no power with respect
to municipalities except as to the few
matters reserved by the constitution.
This is the broad construction of the
home rule amendments of the constitu-
tion for which those cities that adopt
charters must contend and the denial of
which would leave the amendment bar-
ren of any advantage for our cities.

The following corrupt practices sec-
tion in the charter is interesting if not
unique:

No candidate for the office of city
commissioner shall make any personal
canvass among the voters to secure his

682

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

nomination or election, or the nomina-
tion or election of any other candidate
at the same election, whether for munic-
ipal, county, state or other office. He
may cause notice of his candidacy to be
])ublished in the newspapers, and may
procure the circulation of a petition for
his nomination; but he shall not per-
sonally circulate such petition, nor by
writing or otherwise solicit any one to
support him or vote for him. He shall
not expend or promise any money, office,
employment or other thing of value to
.secure a nomination or election; but he
may answer such inquiries as may be
put to him and may declare his position
publicly upon matters of public interest,
either by addressing public meetings or
by making written statements for news-
paper publication or general circulation.
A violation of these provisions, or any
of them, shall disqualify him from hold-
ing the office, if elected; and the person
receiving the next highest number of
votes, who has observed the foregoing
conditions, shall be entitled to the office.

This charter, which includes the city
manager feature, was adopted on August
26.

The Omaha Charter. Under the pro-
visions of the home rule amendment
adopted last November, an elected con-
vention in Omaha has completed for
submission to the people a new charter.
Omaha has been operating under the
general commission government law for
over a year and the provisions of this
act, insofar as they were locally appli-
cable, have been preserved in the new
document. As western cities are wont
to do, Omaha has made provisions for
expansion by annexation of contiguous
territory. The existing combined ma-
chinery for county and city assessment
of property and for a joint office of
treasurer has been continued.

Changes in the Iowa Commission
Law. — At the 1913 session of the legisla-
ture the only change made was to extend
the law from cities of 7000 to cities
of 2000. A new scale of salaries was
adopted for cities of less than 20,000, the
new scale being not to exceed $150 per
thousand population for the mayor and

$130 per thousand for the commissioner
per year. Also a minor change giving
two members of the commission the
right to order paving and other perma-
nent improvements where the commis-
sion has only three members, makes the
rule a two-thirds votes instead of as in
other cases a three-fourths vote.

An Attempted Repeal of Commission
Government. — Sometime ago a few dis-
gruntled citizens of Enid, Okla., cir-
culated an initiative petition to abol-
ish the commission form of government
in that city and return to the old sj^stem.
They secured the required number of
signers and at the election in April by a
vote of 1246 to 636 the commission form
of government was sustained.

Changes in Kansas Commission Law. —
A bill requiring candidates for commis-
sionerships to indicate the specific de-
partments for which they are running
was the only commission government
bill to pass the 1913 session.

St. Louis Charter Suggestions. — Anent
the deliberation of the city charter con-
vention which is now in session a com-
mittee of the Central Civic Council,
composed of William H. Beimes, Henry
W. Barth and Roger N. Baldwin has
pointed out the following defects in the
present instrument.

The initiative and referendum pro-
vision is unworkable, owing to percent-
ages for petitions that are too high.

Removals of unfaithful officials are
possible only through involved court pro-
ceedings or action in the council. The
recall is needed.

Too many offices are elective. The
short ballot is needed.

Salaries are too low.

Unnecessary offices and numerous
boards and commissions that are make-
shifts for efficiency complicate the gov-
ernment and responsibility is divided,
where it could be concentrated under a
simplified form.

NOTES AND EVENTS

683

The contract system is often expen-
sive and unjust.

Many minor details, such as paving
and sidewalk ordinances and minor per-
mits burden the legislative department.
They ought to be in the hands of admin-
istrative officers.

Two houses hamper the legislative
department.

Political spoils system works a handi-
cap on civic service.

Municipal ownership or operation is
not granted the city.

The present charter does not provide
a means whereby parks, boulevards and
other improvements can be acquired by
assessment against benefited property
in the same way streets and sewers are
acquired.

The report of the committee will be
considered by each of the civic organ-
izations in St. Louis and in its final form
will be submitted to the board of free-
holders.

Miscellaneous. At the present writ-
ing, charter commissions are in session
at Brainerd, Minn.; Pendleton, Ore.;
Phoenix, Ariz.; Cadillac, Mich., and
Marquette, Mich.

Commission government has recently
been adopted in Orangeburg, S. C, and
Cheyenne, Wyo. Late in June commis-
sion government was defeated in Cam-
den, N. J., and on July 16 in Valley City,
N. D.

The commission government law in
Missouri for the benefit of third class
cities has been declared by the circuit
court to be unconstitutional on the
ground of a discrepancy in the wording
of the title and the text of the act. This
decision of course, is subject to appeal
to the supreme court.

H. S. GiLBERTSON.l

Civil Service Notes. — Cleveland. The
civil service provisions of the new char-
ter are similar in man}^ respects to those
of the draft of a civil service law for
cities prepared by a committee of the
National Civil Service Reform League.

1 Executive secretary, National Short Ballot Or-
ganization.

The civil service commission will consist
of three members appointed by the
mayor to serve for overlapping terms of
six years each. It is authorized to es-
tablish a system of efficiency records to
be used as a basis for promotion, reduc-
tion and separation from the service.
Particular stress is placed upon the
elimination of political activity on the
part of all classified employees. The
"city fathers" are prohibited from in-
fluencing appointments by the following
clause:

No member of the council shall, ex-
cept in so far as is necessary in the
performance of the duties of his office,
directly or indirectly, interfere in the
conduct of the administrative depart-
ment, or directly or indirectly take any
part in the appointment, promotion or
dismissal of any officer or employee in
the service of the city other than the
officers or employees of the council.

Dayton. The civil service chapter of
the charter is, in several particulars, in
direct violation of the state civil service
law. The chief examiner is made the
chief employment officer of the city and
is authorized to certify for appointment
to the city manager the name of any
person on an eligible list. The state
law specifically provides for the selec-
tion of the first three names on a reg-
ister. By the charter a removed em-
ployee is allowed to appeal to the civil
service commission from the decision of
the head of the department. Such pro-
cedure, besides being absolutely de-
structive of discipline, is contrary to
section 17 of the civil service law, which
does not permit any appeal either to the
commission or to the courts. It is con-
fidently expected that the. civil service
section of the charter will be tested out
in court and that the state law will un-
doubtedly prevail.

Minneapolis. The proposed charter^
contains a creditable civil service chap-
ter. It creates a civil service commission
of three members to be appointed by
the council for overlapping terms of six

> Supra, p. 675.

684

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

years each. No adequate compensa-
tion is provided for the members of the
civil service commission, as the charter
provision fixes the salaries at $600 per
annum. While the unclassified service
is too large, yet an important clause of
the charter provides that the civil serv-
ice commission must give its approval
of the appointments of all heads of de-
partments who are in the unclassified
service. This provision follows, in a
measure, the Boston plan, which requires
that the appointments of the mayor
must receive the approval of the civil
service commission.

New Jersey. On August 7 the state
civil service commission held a very im-
portant examination for the selection of
a chief of police for Newark. The ex-
amination was limited to captains in the
department, who were examined by a
special committee consisting of Martin
H. Ray, assistant to Director of Public
Safety Porter of Philadelphia, and Gard-
ner Colby, secretary and chief examiner
of the New Jersey Commission.

Augusta, Ga. A bill establishing the
competitive system in the police and
fire departments recently became law.

Beacon, N. Y. At its regular session
the New York legislature passed a bill
incorporating the city of Beacon, which
was signed by Governor Sulzer over the
opposition of the New York Civil Serv-
ice Reform Association. This bill was
opposed by the Association because
it authorized the council (composed of
the mayor and four commissioners) to
act as a civil service commission. Such
procedure is contrary to the provisions
of the civil service law, which provides
for municipal civil service commissions
independent of the appointing power and
subject to the supervision of the state
commission. Notwithstanding the char-
ter provisions, the administ ration ^f the
merit system in Beacon has been organ-
ized as required by the state law. The
state commission recently met with
Mayor, Frost and the four members of
Beacon's council and recommended the

appointment of a municipal commission.
On August 4 the council passed a resolu-
tion appointing a commission which has
recently adopted rules governing the
merit system which have received the
approval of the state commission.

New York City. The most important
development affecting the city service
was the appointment by Mayor Gaynor
of a commission of thirteen members to
frame a "scientific pension law." Sev-
eral organizations, such as the Civil
Service Reform Association, Citizens
Union, City Club and Bureau of Mu-
nicipal Research, which have opposed
in the past legislative bills creating
"patchwork" systems of annuities, are
represented on the commission.

George T. Keyes.^

The National Assembly of Civil Serv-
ice Commissions has appointed the
following committee on a model civil
service law: John T. Doyle, United
States Commission; Robert Catherwood,
Cook County (111.) Commission; F. E.
Doty, Wisconsin Commission; Henry
Van Kleeck, Colorado Commission, and
Lewis H. Van Duscn, Philadelphia Com-
mission. The Assembly has expressed
a desire to receive criticisms or sugges-
tions in reference to a model law.

Proportional Representation. A bill
has been introduced into the House of
Commons to authorize the introduction
of proportional representation in munic-
ipal elections, and for other purposes
connected therewith. The object of the
bill is to confer on municipal boroughs
the right, under certain conilitions, to
adopt, in place of the present system
of election, a system of proportional
representation. According to the Lon-
don MiinicipaJ JovrnnI it is not proposed
to make the change compulsory. Unless

' Secretary, National Civil Service Reform
League.

NOTES AND EVENTS

685

it commends itself to three-fifths of the
members present and voting at a council
meeting after due notice, no change can
take place. To ensure that all members
of the council are informed that the
question is coming up for discussion and
decision, special notice of any resolution
must be given not less than one month
beforehand. If the resolution is passed
by a majority of three to two, the prac-
tice of electing annually one-third of
the members will be discontinued, and
triennial general elections will take their
place. Should the results prove unsatis-
factory the bill provides for a reversion
to the old system after three years by
resolution of the council passed by the
same majority as that by which the
change had been effected.

Pennsylvania Adopts Party Enroll-
ment Measure. — In order to keep pri-
mary voting strictly within the party,
the Pennsylvania legislature has passed
a bill requiring electors to declare their
political party affiliations at the time of
registration and to accept the primary
ballot of the party under which he is
registered. No penalty is attached by
the law to refusal to enroll except that
failure to do so deprives the elector of a
vote in the nomination of any party can-
didates except those on non-partisan
ballots — law judges and municipal offi-
cials in second and third class cities.
Violations of the act subject registrars,
assessors, election officials and electors
to a maximum punishment of $1000 fine
and one year in jail.

II. FUNCTIONS

Municipal Utilities. — Dr. Delos F.
Wilcox, on July 1, severed his connection
with the public service commission for
the first district of New York, where he
has been chief of the franchise bureau
practically since the commission's or-
ganization. He will engage in private
practice as consulting franchise and pub-
lic utility expert. He will make fran-
chise surveys, formulate franchise pol-
icies, draft and criticise public utility
legislation, negotiate franchise settle-
ments and draft franchise contracts and
ordinances.

One of his most recent activities has
been a study of trolley congestion in
Newark and a criticism of Newark's
pending terminal franchise proposals.
This study and criticism is entirely too
local to reproduce here even in summary.
Of general interest, however, are the
population statistics he works out as a
basis for adequate future transit plans
for such a city. He believes that by
1960 the city's population will be 1,280,-
610, an increase of 372 per cent. During
this fifty-year period, he concludes, the
number of fares per capita will increase
169 per cent while the total number of

fares paid will increase 894 per cent.
While Newark proper will have a popu-
lation by 1960 of 1,280,000, he believes
that Greater Newark, including the
Oranges, Irvington, Montclair, Bloom-
field, Nutley, Harrison, Kearny and a
few small towns now reached by the
Newark trolleys, will have a population
of 1,990,000 or nearly four times their
present population. Yet the transit
facilities for these future millions are
now being determined by what Dr. Wil-
cox holds to be inadequate and ill-ad-
vised terminal subway plans.

Dr. Wilcox, whose new office is in the
Bennett Building, New York City, has
long been one of the leading franchise
experts of the nation. His new activi-
ties will give him an opportunity to give
to the nation the high grade of public
service that he has thus far so con-
scientiously given, through the fran-
chise bureau, to Greater New York.

New Orleans is lowering distribution
costs through control over its river
front and constructive operation of its
belt line railroad. It now has under
municipal ownership and control nearly
seven miles of river front. More than

686

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

twenty big wharves have been built at
public expense and fitted with steel
warehouses for the storage of freight
and with modern machinery for the
quick and cheap handling of cargoes.
More than eleven miles of double track
of its city owned and operated belt line
have been in operation for some time.
The city stands ready on application to
build a switch track to the plant of any
manufactory near its line and many
switches are already in operation. The
city makes a uniform charge of $2 a car
for handling freight and returns empty
cars free of charge. As long as a year
ago the profits of the belt line were
about $3000 a month.

The belt line performs an additional
service for the city of New Orleans.
Located on special sidetracks along the
line are five stations for receiving and
handling garbage. Specially constructed
cars are in waiting and after refuse is
sprinkled with disinfectants it is hauled
far out into the swamps. The belt line
for coordinating manufacturing estab-
lishments with land, water, and other
agencies for distribution, coupled with
public control and ownership of the water
front in order to keep free water compe-
tition, are steps commendable to any
municipality interested in industrial
betterment and lower living costs.

The New Cleveland Charter orovides
as one of the six departments, a depart-
ment of public utilities. The director
of this department "shall manage and
supervise all non-tax supported public
utility undertakings of the city, includ-
ing all municipal water, lighting, heat-
ing, power, transmission and transpor-
tation enterprises." The accounts for
each public utility owned and operated
by the city must be kept separate and
distinct and must "contain proportion-
ate charges for all services performed
for such utilities by other departments
as well as proportionate credits for all
services rendered." The charter also
provides a division of franchises in the
department. The commissioner of this

flivision has charge of the enforcement
of the provisions of all franchise grants.

The charter specifically provides that
"no rights to construct, maintain or
operate any public utility in Cleveland
should be exclusive," and that all fran-
chises and franchise renewals "shall re-
serve to the city the right to terminate
the same and to purchase all the property
of the utility in the streets and high-
ways in the city and elsewhere, as may be
provided in the ordinance making the
grant or renewal, used in or useful for
the operation of the utility, at a price
either fixed in the ordinance, or to be
fixed in the manner provided by the or-
dinance making the grant or renewal of
the grant. Nothing in such ordinance
shall prevent the city from acquiring
the property of any such utility by con-
demnation proceedings or in any other
lawful mode; but all such methods of
acquisition shall be alternative to the
power to purchase, reserved in the grant
or renewal as hereinbefore provided."
No franchise shall be valid unless it
provide that the price paid by the city
for the property that may be acquired
by it from such utility "by purchase,
condemnation or otherwise, shall ex-
clude all value of such grant or renewal."
Thus Cleveland has reserved in its fun-
damental municipal law continuous con-
trol over her municipal utilities.

Seattle's Municipal Plant. J. D. Ross,
in a recent issue of Street Lighting, pre-
sents facts and data which clearly in-
dicate that the municipal operation of
Seattle's lighting plant has been a suc-
cess and not the municipal failure that
has been alleged in certain quarters.
The lighting plant is competing with two
water power companies. The charges
it makes against the general fund are
$54 per arc of G.6 amperes and $13.80
per year per incandescent of 40-candle
power. In 1905, when the city began to
operate its own lighting plant, the cit}^
was paying the Seattle Electric Com-
pany $66 per year per 6.6 ampere arc
and $15 per year per 30-candle power

NOTES AND EVENTS

687

incandescent. At the time of the trans-
fer, the street lighting system of Seattle
consisted of 213 arcs and 1891 incan-
descents. The street lighting system
now consists of 929 arcs and 5876 in-
candescents, 100 32-candle power car-
bon lamps, and 1168 5-light, 377 3-
light and 137 1-light poles in the cluster
light system. The minimum charge per
month of the municipal light and power
plant has never been more than $1 for
residence lighting. The competition of
the municipal plant has forced the com-
panies to make three reductions, 40 per
cent, 16f per cent and 10 per cent in
their rates since 1902.

Central vs. Local Control. A recent
decision of a select committee of parlia-
ment has raised anew in England the
controversy now occupying the forum
in many sections of the United States
as to the proper relation of central and
local public service commissions. The
decision of this committee requires the
London council to allow outlying com-
panies to run over their municipally
owned and operated lines on terms
agreed to with such outlying concerns;
if terms cannot be agreed upon, however,
they must be settled by an arbitrator
appointed by the central board of trade.
Other English municipalities with pub-
licly owned and operated transit lines
are uniting to support the London county
council in opposing the bill granting such
powers to the central board of trade.
The select committee urged that, with-
out an. appeal from a local to a central
body, the public could not be properly
protected from interruption in through
traffic and that the interests of all
England require an appeal from authori-
ties with only local interests at stake to
authorities with a nation-wide point of
view.

Dayton Charter. The proposed char-
ter prohibits exclusive franchise grants
and requires that all franchise grants or
renewals shall reserve to the city the
power to regulate, the right to ter-

minate and the right to purchase the
utility. With these three powers in the
hands of the commission, the city's pub-
lic service corporations will actually be
public service corporations.

Trackless Trams. The amount in tax
and road assessments to be paid by
trackless trams still remains a burning
issue in England. The Municipal Jour-
nal of May 16 reports that the select
committee of parliament had agreed
on three sets of principles by which
trackless trolley trams and motor omni-
buses are to be regulated in the future.
These principles are " (1) Trackless
trolley trams and motor omnibuses must
not run upon roads of less than a speci-
fied width. (In the Chesterfield case
the limit of the carriageway is fixed at
17 feet, and that of the footpath at 4
feet); (2) The promoters must pay a
third of the cost of widening the roads
to the standard laid down; (3) The pro-
moters must pay the whole of the extra
cost of road maintenance due to the use
of the roads by their vehicles." It is
urged, however, that this is not sufficient
remuneration by such concerns. Motor
traffic, it is alleged, has necessitated the
construction of stronger foundations and
the employment of more costly forms
of caring for modern roads. These neces-
sities have increased the expenditure
in the Greater London area by a sum
which competent experts estimate to
be the equivalent of a penny rate an-
nually levied. The petrol tax, now paid
by the proprietors of motor vehicles,
it is further stated, would defray, not
more than a fraction of the increased
cost of road construction and mainte-
nance resulting directly from the motor
truck. Licenses for motor trucks and
for trackless trolleys will no doubt very
shortly be a leading problem in American
cities.

Clyde Lyndon King.^

1 Of the University of Pennsylvania and editor of
"The Regulation of Municipal Utilities" in the Na-
tional Municipal League Series.

688

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

Pasadena's Municipal Lighting Plant.
— Municipal ownership has been put to
test recently in Pasadena, Cal. This
city's lighting plant was started in
1907 as a protest against high rates and
against unjust bills tendered by the
Southern California Edison Company.
Though but six years old, there were
4333 of its meters in use on January 1,
1913, as compared with 1700 customers
four years ago. The total amount of
money handled in financing the plant up
to July 1, 19113, was $684,409.33. Of this
amount $552,059.48 was used in new con-
struction. On March 29, 1913, the prop-
erty was valued at $580,745.23. Tak-
ing from this the depreciation reserve of
$95,679.32, the plant's present worth is
$485,065.91. During its six years of life
its net profits have totaled $48,004.35.
The net operating receipts for the nine
months ending March 29, 1913, was $50,-
937.34. This amount less depreciation
($18,130.55) and bond interest ($18,446.-
25) for that period shows a profit of
$24,360.24.

This showing has been attained under
no slight difficulties. TheSouthern Cal-
ifornia Edison Company serves from
twenty-five to thirty cities in that state
with a total population of 450,000 to
475,000. These cities include Los An-
geles (320,000) as well as Pasadena
(32,000). The company has lowered its
rates in Pasadena to points quite below
those asked by the city's own plant,
though the city's rates and terms are
much lower than those formerly asked
by the company. The company's rates
are higher, however, in the other cities.
From the proceeds from these cities the
company pays the loss due to its attempt
to bankrupt Pasadena's plant through
lowering rates. And yet, despite the
fact that its rates are higher, the number
of customers of Pasadena's plant is in-
creasing. This loyalty points to ulti-
mate success.

This situation is probably typical of
the competitive conditions publicly
owned plants will have to meet. The

growing centralization of ownership and
operation of municipal utilities will give
a campaign for ownership greater oppor-
tunities for success, as the social and
political opposition of local owners will
not have to be overcome. But as soon
as publicly owned plants are started
they will have to face competitive war-
fare with a company whose war chest is
being daily and indefinitely recouped
from higher rates and poorer service in
other cities.

The opposition to Pasadena's light-
ing plant has found most virile expres-
sion in Public Service, the Chicago organ
of certain lighting interests. The editor
of Municipal Engineering, after a care-
ful study of the facts, finds these state-
ments in Public Service to be "out of
date, incorrect, based on wrong assump-
tions and therefore misleading, appar-
ently with intent."

The best proof of the success of mu-
nicipal ownership is that lighting inter-
ests find it necessary to keep a staff at
work to prove that it is not successful.
But misrepresentation of facts even
from a corporation point of view is not
a paying method for "guiding" public
opinion; it shows malicious intent and
leads to the suspicion that the reason
for opposition is municipal success.

Clyde Lyndon King.

dip

Municipal Ice Plants. — The attempt
of Borough President McAneny to se-
cure the establishment of a small munic-
ipal ice plant in New York by way of an
experiment, although it was blocked by
the veto of Mayor Gaynor, has aroused
widespread interest in that new munic-
ipal activity. Indeed, it must be re-
garded as among the newest excursions
in the field of city government, but its
urgency has long been apparent. The
ice famine in New York a year or two
ago, accompanied by exorbitant prices
and great suffering among the poor, the
strike in Cincinnati this summer, and
the recognition of the relation of a plen-
tiful ice supply to health and particu-

NOTES AND EVENTS

689

larly child welfare have all combined to
bring the subject prominently to the
front.

Searches among the records of Amer-
ican cities, however, seem to throw
little or no light on the subject. The
magazine Concerning Municipal Owner-
ship, in the issue of November, 1906, re-
ported that when Boston experimented
in municipal ice a few years before by
cutting it from the city reservoir the
books showed an expense of about $60 a
ton. If full credence is to be given to
this report, the experiment was certainly
not encouraging. The magazine in ques-
tion was, however, published for the sole
purpose of showing the horrible examples
of failure in municipal ownership, and
it was not always as discriminating as
it might have been in reporting exten-
uating or explanatory circumstances.

The Municipal Journal and Engineer
for September 12, 1912, is authority for
the statement that several American
cities have been prevented by judicial
orders from engaging in the manufacture
of ice, but it does not go into details.
The socialist administration of Schnec-
tady was forbidden to sell or give away
ice in the summer of 1912 by an order
from a court. On the other hand it ap-
pears that the supreme court of Georgia
views the operation of a municipal ice
plant as among the legitimate functions
of a city government. 1 The Municipal
Journal of February 20, 1913, is also au-
thority for the statement that Willi-
mantic. Conn., had been given the right
to harvest and sell ice by a charter
amendment in 1907, and that the board
of aldermen had appropriated the money
to procure machinery and equipment.
The same magazine for April 20 states
that Sacramento, Cal., has prepared a
report on a proposed municipal ice
plant which estimates that the cost to
the consumer would be reduced 500 per
cent by such an establishment. A sub-
ject so closely related to public health

339.

I See National Municipal Review, vol. li, p.

and comfort deserves the most careful
study and consideration, and it would
be a timely service if someone would
make an exhaustive examination of it
in its technical, legal and administra-
tive aspects. 2

Public Utilities in Havana.— The Ga-

ceta Administrativa of Havana, a semi-
monthly publication devoted to ques-
tions of public administration, contains
a severe arraignment of the manner in
which public utilities are permitted to
disregard their obligations, through the
lack of efficient supervision by the ad-
ministrative authorities. As examples
of the need of proper supervision the
Gaceta takes the gas light company and
the tramways of Havana. The charge
for illuminating gas in Havana, a city of
over 300,000 inhabitants, is declared to
be nearly 9 cents a cubic yard, as com-
pared with charges of less than 3 cents
a cubic yard in certain of the large cities
of Europe. With this enormous charge
the service is described as antiquated
and unsatisfactory and the reason for
this state of affairs is laid to the fact
that franchises are extended beyond the
original term of years without proper
publicity and opportunity for other
bidders.

The tramways are said to be in such
a dilapidated and filthy state as to be
in the highest degree unsanitary, while
the railway cars are of mediaeval con-
struction, lighted by petroleum and
without the first conveniences for trav-
elers. The Gaceta declaring that no at-
tempt at all is made by the public of-
ficials to safeguard the general interests
against the selfish attitude of the com-
panies in charge of the public utilities,
hopes that the time may soon come when
these public utility corporations will
not be permitted to do only that which
seems to them best.

Herman G. James.

2 The Editor of the National Municipal Re-
view will welcome additional data on the subject of
municipal Ice plants at home and abroad.

690

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL T^EMEW

Trolley Freight as a means for better
local tlistribution and better facilities
for direct marketing for farmers, and
better food at lower costs for the urban
dweller is discussed in full by Dr. Clyde
Lyndon King in The Aera of June, 1913.
Further illustrating the possibilities for
trolley freight, as indicated in Dr. King's
article, Henry M. Hyde has pointed out
that, within the limits of fifteen or
twenty miles from the center of Chicago,
vegetables, small fruit and other truck
are grown to the value of $7,000,000 a
year. Almost all of this produce is now
hauled into the city by wagons. The
trolley lines of the city not only tap this
farming country, but also have con-
nection with the transportation systems
running into the center of the city.

*

Minneapolis Fixes Seventy Cent Gas
Rate. — By a vote of 22 to 3, the city
council passed an ordinance fixing a 70
cent gas rate to take effect Septem-
ber 1. Prior to this the rate had been
85 cents. Action by the council came
after a spirited debate in which opposi-
tion to the passage of the ordinance was
made on the ground that there is too
narrow a margin between the rate of
67.8 cents fixed by experts as the figure
at which the gas company could make a
bare profit of 6 per cent and the 70 cent
established by the ordinance. It is ex-
pected that a long drawn out battle be-
tween the city and the gas company will
ensue as a result of this ordinance.

Municipal Ownership Contest in
Omaha, Neb. — In view of a recent deci-
sion of the Supreme Court of the United
States upholding the rights of the elec-
tric light company in Omaha, whose
charter expired many years ago, a strong
movement for the establishment of a
competing municipal plant has set in.

Chicago's Financial Difficulty. — As a
result of a decision of the supreme court

of Illinois interpreting the Juul revenue
law of the state, the city of Chicago
found itself in 1912 in the severest finan-
cial difficulty since the days of the great
fire. The Juul law grew out of an idea
that the aggregate rate of taxation, ex-
clusive of specified exceptions, shall not
be more than 1 per cent on the actual
valuation of taxable propertj'-, and up to
1909, property being assessed at one-
fifth its actual value, the maximum tax
rate outside of the exceptions was placed
at 5 per cent of the assessed valuation.
The bonding limit was based on the
assessed valuation and fixed at 5 per
cent. In 1909, in order to increase the
bonding power of Chicago, the Juul law
was amended whereby the assessed val-
uation was increased from the one-fifth
to one-third of the real valuation and
the maximum tax rate decreased from 5
per cent to 3 per cent of the assessed
valuation. As part of the changes in-
troduced by the amendments to the law,
the maximum rates of some of the taxing
corporations were correspondingly re-
duced, and here the city of Chicago got
the Worst of it. Up to 1909 the maximum
tax levy for the city was $2 for each $100
of assessed valuation; for the county, 75
cents; for the sanitary district, $1; for
the board of education, not including
school buildings, $2.50; for the tubercu-
losis sanitarium, 10 cents; and the pub-
lic library, 10 cents. All these tax levies
were subject to a "scaling:" that is,
when the tax rates were figured out, the
levies were cut down proportionately so
that in the aggregate they would not be
more than 3 per cent. In 1909, when the
law was changed, the maximum levy of
Chicago was reduced from $2 to $1.20;
the board of education's levy for edu-
cational purposes was cut down from
$2.50 to $1.50; and the library's maxi-
mum was reduced to 6 cents. The max-
imum rates for the other taxing bodies,
however, remained the same. As a re-
sult of the law the various taxing bodies
swelled their tax levies in order to come
out from the scaling process with as

NOTES AND EVENTS

691

large a proportion of the 3 per cent as
possible. Some of them were even able
to lay by a neat surplus. But the city
could do very little to swell its levy. It
was safeguarded by a minimum of $1.10
but held down by the maximum of $1.20,
with the practical necessity of levying
sufficient in addition to pay principal
and interest on part of its bonded in-
debtedness.

In 1911, the county clerk in fixing the
rate for the city, allowed it the $1.10,
plus the rate necessary to pay the charge
arising under its bonded indebtedness,
or a total of $1.43. Up to that year the
interest and sinking fund on bonded debt
was carried outside the Juul law limi-
tation only on bonds issued subsequent
to the enactment of the law. But by
this time so many bonds had been ap-
proved by referendum and issued after
the passage of the Juul law that the in-
terest and principal charges growing
out of them became evident as forming
the greater part of the city's levy for
interest and sinking fund, and as a result
of this situation the interest and prin-
cipal charge on all bonded indebtedness
was placed outside the corporate pur-
pose limitation.

As usual, the city made its appropria-
tions for the current year early in Jan-
uary and about the same time passed
the tax levy out of which the funds ap-
propriated were to be paid. The levy,
however, following custom, was not to
be collected until the following year.
In the meantime, the city met its run-
ning expense by borrowing in anticipa-
tion of future collections. It has been
customary to borrow about 75 per cent
of the net amount which the city ex-
pected to realize from the levy. Ex-
penditures on account of appropriations
which were based on the remaining 25
per cent were met out of what might be
called a working capital fund made up
in part of cash and in part of unantici-
pated taxes of the prior year.

In 1912, after the appropriation bill

had been passed and a tax levy made ac-
cordingly, the supreme court of the
state handed down its decision that
levies for bonded debt purposes must be
included within the rate limitation.
Under the method followed in 1911, the
city figured on $1.10 for corporate pur-
poses and an additional 33 cents for in-
terest and sinking fund. By the de-
cision of the court, the additional item
of 33 cents was cut off and the interest
and sinking fund charges had to be con-
sequently met out of the tax levy for
corporate purjjoses. As the city had
already largely borrowed in anticipation
of this portion of the tax levy, over half
the funds of which had been actually
spent, in spite of a rigid retrenchment,
it found itself confronted by a deficit of
nearly $3,000,000. Temporary relief was
granted the city by the state legislature
in permission to issue bonds to make
good the shortage, and in May, 1913, the
legislature amended the Juul law pro-
viding that thereafter no reduction of
any tax levy shall diminish an amount
appropriated by corporate or taxing
authorities for the payment of principal
or interest on bonded indebtedness,
thereby removing the threatened possi-
bility of embarrassment or impairment
and restriction of the credit or progress
of any municipality in the state. The
city of Chicago tax rate for 1912 made
prior to the amendnent to the Juul law
was $1.24 on the $100. Estimating 1912
valuations and tax levy figures as a basis,
the rate pursuant to the amendment will
be $1.59, increasing the city revenue
upon taxes extending from $12,124,169
to $14,953,157, or a gain of $2,828,988. In
addition to this gain, the city will have
the benefit to be derived from the park
consolidation act, which has been esti-
mated as $2,556,000. So that as a result
of the amendment of the Juul law and
the park consolidation act the revenue
of Chicago will be increased over $5,000,-
000.

Murray Gross.

692

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

Bridgeport Board of Contract and Sup-
ply Guards City Funds. — By an ordi-
nance of the city council passed January
15, 1912, Bridgeport, Conn., added a
board of contract and supply to the
executive department of the city gov-
ernment. With exceptions created by
the city charter, this board is vested
with the duty of making all contracts
and purchases. During the year end-
ing March 31, 1913, the board issued
orders aggregating $175,000. The total
savings on these orders, where compari-
sons with previous expenditures could be
made, amounted to $20,289 (exclusive
of cash discounts amounting to $577).
The total operating expense of the board
was $4519. Thus, in spite of the difficul-
ties that confronted it in its first year,
the board has demonstrated its useful-
ness to the taxpayer.

Police News. — Police Education. The
greatest need of American police forces
at the present day is a comprehensive
and systematic scheme for the education
of the police. Instances of police in-
efficiency due to ignorance are usually
ascribed by the press and by citizens to
police corruption. If a case against a
prisoner fails of successful prosecution
because the police officer does not pre-
sent the proper evidence to the court, this
failure of justice is believed to be caused
by the corruption of the policeman, al-
though it is really due to his ignorance of
the law and the rules of evidence. Sim-
ilarly, when the detectives are unable,
because of ignorance of the details of
their profession, to apprehend criminals
it is ascribed to corruption and seldom to
lack of knowledge. Police officers can
be rendered efficient and the few cor-
rupt officers in a police organization
can be exposed only by a comprehensive
system of police education. Recruits
should be carefully instructed in the
criminal statutes and ordinances, the
rules of evidence, the treatment of pris-
oners, first aid to the injured, physical
training, revolver shooting and riding.

The course of instruction should be from
three to six months in duration and
should be in charge of competent in-
structors, permanently assigned to this
work. Superior officers of the force and
policemen of experience should also be
required to attend the police school for
a definite period each year and should
be given an opportunity to discuss with
the faculty of the school difficult prob-
lems arising in the course of their official
duties.

New York Manual. A new police
manual has recently been issued to the
members of the force by Commissioner
Rhinelander Waldo of New York. It is
printed on separate sheets bound in a
leather loose-leaf binder, thus permitting
the substitution of a new page when-
ever a rule is amended. The arrange-
ment of the rules is alphabetical and each
rule is numbered consecutively from the
first to the last. In the editing of the
manual the problem of making the in-
formation quickly available was kept
constantly in mind. Many of the rules
have been prepared in topical outline
form rather than in narrative form.
The book also has an excellent index.
It contains only the rules of the depart-
ment and does not contain any extra-
neous material so frequently found in
books of this kind. From every point
of view it is the best police manual that
has come to the attention of the editor
of these notes.

Philadelphia Manual. The new po-
lice manual recently issued by director
Porter to the police force of Philadel-
phia contains in addition to the rules
and regulations of the department much
valuable information for the instruction
of the policemen in the performance of
their duties. It combines the function
of a course of study for a school for
recruits with a manual of rules and reg-
ulations. The police officer who has
mastered the information contained in
this manual regarding the rules of the
department, the principles of criminal
law and of evidence, the municipal ordi-

NOTES AND EVENTS

693

nances, first aid to the injured and the
proper police action to be taken in each
of more than two hundred specified cases
has nearly all of the information which
an efficient police school could give him.
The manual has blank pages for notes
and amendments. If we accept as cor-
rect the opinion that a police manual
should contain in addition to the rules
and regulations of the department, a
compilation of the statutes and the or-
dinances and information assisting the
policeman in performing his official
duties, this Philadelphia manual is an
excellent addition to American official
police literature.

Policeivomen. Women have been em-
ployed as members of American police
forces for many years and have per-
formed extremely efficient service as
matrons (female turnkeys) and as de-
tectives. Several police departments
have recently appointed women for the
performance of patrol service, with
special instructions to confine their ac-
tivities principally to the protection of
women and children. This experiment
has not been tried for a sufficiently long
period of time to enable competent ob-
servers to determine whether such
patrolwomen add to the efficiency of the
police department.

Leonhard Felix Fxjld.

Marshall Field's Private Subway in
Chicago. — The periodical cries of special
privilege grants and of encroachments
upon the rights of the people by big bus-
iness concerns have been heard in Chi-
cago for several months. The occasion
this time is the request of the Marshall
Field estate for the right to build a pri-
vate subway under Washington Street,
to connect its present skyscraper store
with a projected one to be erected at a
cost of six or seven million dollars on
the southwest corner of Wabash Avenue
and Washington Street. The ordinance
introduced in the city council to grant
this privilege provided that the substreet

connection should be approximately 48
feet long and 200 feet wide, to the depth
of. 15 feet. The grant was to be for
twenty years and was to be revocable
without the consent of the grantee by
the mayor and city council.

When this ordinance was introduced
on July 8, 1912, opinion at once became
sharply divided. Those in opposition to
the ordinance recalled that since the
death of the late Marshall Field, in less
than two years, the Field estate has se-
cured nearly twelve million dollars worth
of real estate in the congested "Loop"
district of the city. They held that such
concentration of the valuable property
of the business section was a menace to
the healthy growth of Chicago, and that
the city should take cognizance of this
fact by preventing any further concen-
tration by special privilege. The men in
favor of the ordinance insisted that a
firm of the commercial and advertising
importance of Marshall Field's should
be encouraged in its development. On
the wider question of the future build-
ing policy of the city, there was also a
division.

The committeee on streets and alleys
on July 22, reported the ordinance fav-
orably by a vote of 9 to 3. After a great
deal of lobbying by representatives of
Marshall Field interests, and by various
civic and commercial assocations against
the measure, the ordinance was defeated
on the floor of the council on October
14. The supporters of the ordinance
lacked but six votes of the necessary ma-
jority.

It was well understood that Marshall
Field's would not abandon its object so
soon, and in preparation for the defeat
of the reconstructed ordinance whose
introduction was expected immediately,
the opposing members of the council,
assisted very ably by the City Club of
Chicago, the North-West Side Commer-
cial Association, and the Greater Chicago
Federation, began a strenuous agitation
among the constituents of the favoring
aldermen. Aside from the fear of the

094

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

pncroachments of the p;igantic Marshall
Field estate upon the rights of the com-
munity, these associations pointed out
that the congestion in the "Loop" district
was already a menace to proper and
healthy city growth, and that any in-
crease in this congestion would make
more improbable and more distant the
expansion of Chicago's chief business
enterprises away from the specially fav-
ored and specially congested area which
they now occupy. They maintained
that the construction of the subway
would augment this congestion, although
the very idea of an underground passage-
wa^^ acording to the attorneys for Mar-
shall Field, was to obviate the increased
congestion which the crossing of Wash-
ington Street from one store to the other
w'ould entail. The ordinance was so
w'orded, according to its enemies, that
not only a private subway, which might
eventually be incorporated into a mu-
nicipally owned system of subways, but
also additional sub-basement floor area
might be added to the enormous store
space already held by the firm. This
would necessitate the employment of
many more persons in unhealthful con-
ditions below the level of the ground,
and endanger patrons and employees in
case of a large fire originating in the
basement or lower portion of the store
building. In reply to the claim that
the ordinance make the grant revoca-
ble at any time, the adversaries of the
measure declared that with Marshall
Field's resources for legal warfare, it
would take the city years to recover the
passageway if it were once given away.
As a precedent in city administration it
was stated that the passage of the ordi-
nance would be regretted, as after the
first grant every large business in the
congested district would demand the
right to extend its store space under
the streets. The renumeration prom-
ised the city, some $3,200 per year, al-
though ridiculously low, was not dis-
cus.sed much by either side, as it was
felt that the important matter was the
granting of the special privilege itself,

and not the pecuniary benefit which
might accrue to the city.

After a newspaper attack on the in-
tegrity of Alderman Utpatel, the leader
of the council oi)])osition to the ordi-
nance, and his demand for a committee
to examine the charges against him,
made, as he declared, to discredit his
work against Marshall Field's "grab,"
the remodelled ordinance was introduced
and reported favorably by committee
on November 4. The compensation was
increased to $5000 annually, and the
average width of the Washington Street
passageway reduced from 200 feet to 80
feet. The measure has not yet appeared
on the floor of the council in its amended
form. Alderman Utpatel and the three
associations are making every effort to
defeat its passage when it does come
up. Alderman Utpatel has been exon-
erated of the charges of bribery brought
against him, by the council committee
appointed for investigation. It is to
be hoped that the subway concession
will not be granted, for it is certain to
place the Marshall Field Estate in a
commanding place in the congested
"Loop," and in an extremely advantage-
ous position should the proposed mu-
nicipal subway be constructed through
Washington Street, as is projected. ^

J. R. Everett.^

1 Since the writing of this report the amended
measure has come before the city council and been
passed by a vote of 42 to 24. The ordinance was
passed In spite of Increased opposition on the part
of the various civic organizations, the Munici-
pal Voters' league, and the city sewer engineer
who declared that the subway, when built, would be
likely to Interfere with the future remodeling of the
sewer system. The far reaching questions of policy
raised by the measure have been unanswered by
the city council, which has been content to pass on
the specific Instance without defining Its policy In
regard to other such applications. If the council pur-
sues a thoroughly impartial course, there is little
doubt but that within a short time, all the down-
town streets will be appropriated to similar pur-
poses. The action of the council members in yield-
ing to the pressure of the lobbyists for Marshal Field
has aroused much criticism and dissatisfaction with
the city administration.

' Student in the School of Journalism, Columbia
University.

NOTES AND EVENTS

695

New Standards for the Buying of
Street Lights. — A street testing photo-
metric laboratory — -an achievement of
nation-wide and indeed of international
significance to every city buying light —
has recently been attained in Philadel-
phia as a result of the supervision and
activities of Dr. HoUis Godfrey. In his
efforts, Dr. Godfrey has had the hearty
support of Director Morris L. Cooke and
Mayor Blankenburg. This achievement
has been the proving of the correctness
of street measurements of city light
through the design and construction
of a movable photometric laboratory
for street inspection of public lights.
Street tests and laboratory tests are the
only two means that we have of measur-
ing light, and adequate and reliable
means of testing the accuracy of street
photometric measurement have never
before been made possible.

It is impossible to bring mantle lights
to the laboratory without so injuring
the mantle as to make therein tests
wholly unjust to the lighting corporation.
Dr. Godfrey attempted to bring gasoline
lights to the photometric laboratory
under continuous supervision of high
class engineers, but found that it was
impossible to get them to the laboratory
without the injury above indicated.
Since mantle lamps cannot be brought
to the laboratory, it remained to bring
the laboratory to the lamps. To over-
come this difficulty, he devised, with the
cooperation of some of the best engi-
neers of the United States, a photomet-
ric laboratory, called for convenience
sake "the floating laboratory," mounted
on a 1500 pound motor truck, with a
cover specially designed and with equip-
ment intended to be of a precision as
high as that in any stationary lighting
laboratory in the country.

For the purpose of determining the
accuracy of street measurements six

hundred comparative tests have been
made in this laboratory with a portable
photometer by nine leading illuminat-
ing engineers with seven experts, includ-
ing some of the best readers in the
United States, reading against each
other and the comparison of all these
tests shows variations of but 0.3 of a
candle between the- series records of the
street and the laboratory tests.

Street tests for lighting as the basis
of the purchase of city light, are now a
practical possibility. As a result of
these tests, Philadelphia has been saved
$55,221.91 in the first six months of the
year 1913, January to June, inclusive.
This is in the form of reductions in the
bills of the Welsbach Street Lighting
Company of America, deductions made
for not keeping the lights up to standard
specifications.

Dr. Godfrey, a consulting municipal
and industrial engineer with headquar-
ters at West Medford, Massachusetts,
was appointed to his present position
some ten months ago by the director.
Mayor Blankenburg has recently lent
him to Atlantic City for the purpose
of making a comprehensive lighting
plan for that city. He is also acting as
consulting engineer for the lighting
restoration of Independence square.

Efficiency and economy in the light-
ing of Philadelphia are also being fur-
thered by a recent step taken by Di-
rector Cooke in organizing a lighting
board of supervisors, composed of the
chiefs of the three bureaus of gas, light-
ing and electricity. The former condi-
tions where these three bureaus were in-
dependent and were duplicating each
other's functions produced complexities
and difficulties most wasteful to the
taxpayer. Through the new board the
city will be able to take new steps
towards a coordinated, unified lighting
policy.

696

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

III. CITY PLANNING AND IMPROVEMENT

A Pittsburgh Anti-Billboard Cam-
paign.'— A report of the billboard cam-
paign conducted by the Civic Club of
Allegheny County during the 1913 session
of the Pennsylvania legislature would
not be complete without brief mention of
the preparation made beforehand. The
billboard committee was entirely reor-
ganized, the system formerly in force of
representation of civic organizations
upon it was discontinued and the mem-
bers were chosen only from members of
the club and individuals interested in
the work. The same policy was con-
tinued by which for several years past
the Civic Club, through its billboard
committee, has been making an effort to
stimulate a healthy public sentiment
relative to the danger of longer permit-
ting billboard advertising to continue
without public supervision.

It was found that public sentiment,
however, could do little until adequate
legislation was secured, and it was recog-
nized that the first necessity would be
to obtain from the legislature power for
the municipalities to act in this matter.

In line with the proposed activities,
sub-committees were appointed on own-
ers and advertisers, legislation, public-
ity, finance. During the time the leg-
islative committee was drafting two
bills, the publicity committee was dis-
tributing folders, pamphlets, blotters,
etc., at all public meetings where per-
mission could be obtained. The com-
mittee had a stand for one week at the
East Liberty Exposition, where quantities
of such material were put out broadcast.
This was repeated during the legislative
session in April when the committee had
a stand for a couple of weeks at the
Automobile P]xhibit in Motor Square
Garden. Five of the members of the
Camera Club of Pittsburgh donated
twenty-five beautiful views of Pittsburgh
to be hung in contrast with the photo-
graphs of the views marred and rendered

> Conducted by the Civic Club of Allegheny
County In the Pennsylvania legislature of 1913.

unattractive by billboards. Several thou-
sand flyers containing an explanation of
the bills and the list of representatives
were distributed with the request to re-
cipients to write to the members of the
general assembl}'.

The two bills introduced were pre-
pared in collaboration with the city
solicitor. One extended the police power
of the municipalities respecting bill-
boards, signs, and other outdoor adver-
tising and concerned the regulation and
suppression of the same, known as H. R.
1100. The other provided for including
in the taxable value of lands upon which
are maintained billboards, signs or other
advertising devices, the increased value
of such lands resulting from the use of
such premises for advertising purposes.
This was No. 1101. Both bills were
introduced on February 27 by Dr. Joseph
G. Steedle of McKees Rocks. No. 1100
was referred to the committee on mu-
nicipal corporations and No. 1101 to the
judiciary special committee. The latter
was negatived in committee before a
hearing could be arranged, but was re-
considered. An effort to get them both
in one committee failed but a hearing of
the joint committees was agreed to and
held on March 26. Two members of the
club, one of the Pittsburgh city solici-
tors, and Andrew Wright Crawford of
Philadelphia spoke in favor of the meas-
ures and three representatives of the
billboard interests and bill posters union,
one from Scranton and two from Pitts-
burgh, spoke against them.

On April 2, the two bills were reported
out of committee. It seemed necessary
then to send someone to Harrisburg to
watch the bills, as they were not sent to
the house immediately after being re-
ported out of committee. A competent
and energetic member of the club repre-
sented the committee and won many
friends for the bills.

On April 17, the two bills passed second
reading. They came up for third reading
just a few moments before eleven o'clock

NOTES AND EVENTS

697

on Tuesday, April 22, when many who
had been pledged to vote for them had
left the house. Dr. Steedle, who had
been found to be somewhat lukewarm
in his interest, did little to further their
passage and allowed final action to be
taken, with the result that No. 1100 was
defeated by a vote of 48 to 57. Of the
latter number 21 negative votes were
from Philadelphia, while only one mem-
ber from Allegheny County voted against
it. No. 1101 was put on the postponed
calendar. An effort was made the follow-
ing Monday night, April 28, for a recon-
sideration of bill No. 1100 for amend-
ment to cover only cities of the second
class. One of the representatives from
Philadelphia who had charge of the oppo-
sition from that city agreed to support,
and have his delegation support, the bill
if so amended ; but later he changed his
mind. The representative of Erie Coun-
ty, who admitted he was acting as attor-
ney for billboard owners and their lobby,
decided to make no concession. The ac-
tive representatives of the Pittsburgh
Bill Posting Company were able to keep
their entire state organization in line
to prevent an entering wedge of restric-
tive legislation by way of second class
cities. If the bill had been called up as
arranged on Monday evening when the
Philadelphia members had agreed to "go
along" on it if amended, there was an
even chance it would have gone through,
but the members who had agreed to call
for a reconsideration failed to do so and
no attempt made during the next few
days could inspire them to such action.
The number of pledges were reduced
each day until hardly a corporal's guard
could have been mustered. The lobby of
the billboard interests was too strong and
their arguments against the bills too per-
suasive to be ignored by the majority of
this conglomerate body of law makers,
and the intersts were relieved when the
Civic Club bills were out of the way, for
the only other one touching billboards,
introduced by a Philadelphia member,
was easily disposed of.

It had been decided in case No. 1100

failed of reconsideration in the house to
introduce a new measure through the
senate affecting only cities of the second
class, but this was abandoned upon ad-
vice "that even if such bills were passed
in the senate the continued efforts would
only be of educational value as the op-
position was too strongly entrenched in
the house."

During these weeks there was a very
active publicity campaign being carried
on from the Civic Club headquarters.
Between 2500 and 3000 letters were sent
throughout the state urging support for
bills Nos. 1100 and 1101. In addition to
the leaflets, etc., distributed at meet-
ings, there were talks before clubs, etc.,
but with it all there was very little help
from the newspapers. Conversation with
many members of the legislature and the
later activity of the billboards owners'
lobby testified to the effectiveness of the
state-wide campaign of education that
had been waged by the Civic Club.
Hundreds of letters poured into the leg-
islators from all over the state so that
they already had knowledge of the bills
before it came time to vote upon them.

The chief weakness of the club's effort
was found in the fact that it was making
the only personal effort in behalf of the
bills. While the importance of the letters
is not to be minimized, the pressure of
correspondence from constituents could
not compare with the influence brought
to bear by the representatives of bill-
board owners in half a dozen cities of
the state. The situation the Civic Club
faced was one of a strongly entrenched
and well-organized state-wide vested in-
terest being attacked on the ground of the
public good with the only real activity
in the attack localized in Pittsburgh.

The generous and hearty response of
interested individuals throughout the
state has encouraged the committee
sufficiently, even in the face of defeat,
to enlarge the scope of the work to cover
the state. It hopes by degrees to secure
the support of each county and to push
ahead in a renewed effort to eclipse what
has been up-to-date the biggest anti-

698

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

billboard campaign attempted in the
state of Pennsylvania.

H. Marie Deumitt.'

Property Restrictions. — The first prin-
ciple in restricting property is that the
contract of restriction, for such a restric-
tion is a contract as to the use of land,
be entered into by all the parties inter-
ested in the property, as owners, mort-
gagees, incumbents, or otherwise. The
second principle is that the restriction
be clear and definite as to the nature and
character of the things prohibited and
as to the burdens imposed. The third
principle is that the restriction be clear
and definite as to the extent of the terri-
tory affected.

The second and third principles are
more commonly violated than the first.
Violation of the second principle is
usually merely a question of the use of
language. As to the third principle,
however, it appears to be almost the
universal practice to leave the location
and area of the property to be implied
from collateral circumstances. The more
clearly these last two principles are ob-
served, the fewer the questions left for
judicial interpretation.

It is perfectly possible to impose any
restriction which is not against public
policy or morals in such a manner as to
be enforceable by any owner of property
affected.

In the case of the Sage Foundation
Homes Company, New York, the re-
strictions were imposed upon a tract of
land free from the lien of mortgages and
unincumbered in any manner whatso-
ever. The character of the restrictions
and the location of the property affected
were clearly and definitely set forth in
a recorded declaration. While it is
true that this declaration had no effect
so long as the Sage Foundation Homes
Company was the exclusive owner of the

1 Secretary of the Civic Club.

property, when one lot was conveyed
subject to and with the benefit of the
restrictions as set forth in the declara-
tion, the restrictions were thereupon
immediately put in force as to all of the
property.

John Nolen.

A Summer School of Town Planning.
—The University of London has set an
example which some American institu-
tions of learning may well emulate. It
established this year a summer session
on town planning at Hampstead Garden
Suburb for the purpose of enabling
municipal officers, surveyors, engineers,
and others interested in the subject in
its theoretical and practical aspects to
take a short course. The curriculum
embraced lectures by eminent authori-
ties on the engineering, legal, financial,
and social aspects of city planning, ex-
cursions and visits to model estates,
villages, and similar experiments, and
exhibitions of maps, drawings, and plans.
A university certificate of attendanc'e
was awarded to members of the school,
and special arrangements were made for
the accommodation of those in attend-

ance.

*

Dallas Improves University Grounds.
— The people of Dallas, Tex., have a
new place of interest and beauty as a
result of the improvement of the grounds
of Dallas University as planned by
George E. Kessler of St. Louis. While
the university stands in the center of a
thirty acre tract of land, which has a
natural elevation of 100 feet above the
city, and which abounds in shady groves,
picturesque ravines and rugged cliffs,
the addition of driveways, walks, ter-
races, sunken gardens and fountains has
contributed greatly to a "university
beautiful" which will be a credit to the
city.

NOTES AND EVENTS

699

IV. POLITICS

The Progressive Municipal Platform.
— The national committee of the Pro-
gressive party has published a pamphlet
on "The Making of a Municipal Plat-
form" (with special reference to New
York), by M. L. Ransom, with a foreword
by Colonel Roosevelt. The essence of
the document is as follows : A mere fusion
of reformers and others for the purpose
of "ousting grafters" is futile and des-
tined to disruption and impotency; a
progressive municipal platform should
be confined to purely city issues and not
inject national politics into local con-
tests; municipal elections should be held
in the spring and divorced from other
elections; in New York City, the board
of estimate and apportionment should
be given full control over the budget sub-
ject to the recall; the referendum should
be set up for important franchises and
public utility contracts; perpetual fran-
chises should be fought at all costs; all
utilities should be under public control,
and under public ownership and opera-
tion, "if need be;" municipal ice plants,
terminal markets, and school lunches
should be established; and problems of
housing, city planning, and taxation
should receive careful attention. Mr.
Ransom advised against the nomination
of a partisan ticket by the Progressives,
in favor of the nomination of a ticket of
men ready to carry out a program of
"enlightened liberalism."

Mr. Roosevelt's concise statement of
his philosophy of municipal government
is so significant that it deserves quota-
tion almost in its entirety:

Unlike both the old parties, the Pro-
gressive party has a platform which in
very important respects applies in local
precisely as in state and national affairs.
This may mean that in certain cities the
local Progressive organization offers by
far the best instrument for obtaining in
municipal matters social and industrial
justice through clear and efficient gov-
ernmental action. But in many of our
cities, including all our biggest cities,
the conditions are so utterly different

that our first effort must be to keep the
local and national issues distinct.

In these larger cities, the problems of
administration and policy are sometimes
more formidable and difficult than those
confronting many states; but the con-
ditions of economic injustice, the oppor-
tunities for constructive governmental
activity, and the consequences of retro-
gressive administration, all come a little
more closely home to the citizen, than
similar phases of state and national gov-
ernment sometimes do. It is not so
much that the problems, the conditions,
or the needs, are so much different, in
municipal as compared with state and
national administration, but that they
are more obvious and undeniable. Thus
it comes about that in these cities there
are many good citizens who thus far —
mistakenly, as we believe — oppose us on
national and state-wide application of
our fundamental principles and purposes
but are willing to join with us in giving
local application to essentially the same
humanitarian conceptions of govern-
ment. They disagree with us, for in-
stance, on the tariff, or on the power of
the national government to deal with
child labor and problems of the mini-
mum wage, but agree with us that the
powers of the municipal government
should be actively employed to secure
not merely honesty, economy and effi-
ciency in administration, stability in pub-
lic credit, and enforcement of the law,
but also better housing and living con-
ditions for wage-workers, more adequate
means of effective, continuous control
over franchise-holding public utilities, a
more comprehensive system of public
parks and play-grounds, a coordinated
and cheapened system of transportation
to make the suburban districts a unified
part of the greater city, the socialization
of the facilities for the public enjoyment
of music, art, science, athletic diversions,
and the like, a readjustment of taxation so
as to make its burdens more equitably dis-
tributed and the exercise of the taxing
power of the state a factor for economic
justice. These citizens are in doubt as to
the desirability, for instance, of the intro-
duction of the recall, the referendum, or
the initiative, into state-wide or nation-
wide matters, yet are quite willing to es-
tablish the rule of the people in municipal
affairs, through the introduction of suit-
able forms of these expedients. They
doubt whether minimum wage legisla-
tion, in the form which it has taken in
some of the nations of the world, is con-

700

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

sonant with our economic and political
theories, or they doubt whether our con-
ditions yet call for the enactment of such
legislation in the state of New York;
yet they readily acquiesce in our view
that every large city should begin at
once to do its part and make its contri-
bution toward solving the problem of
the minimum wage, through the estab-
lishment of suitable educational facil-
ities for vocational and "continuation"
training, along lines which will give
every boy and girl a chance for a school-
ing of practical value, thereby obviating
the possibility that he or she will ever
be a problem for the student of the min-
imum wage. Many citizens who are
not yet progressives, with either a large
or a small P, in national affairs, are lib-
erals of demonstrated tendencies in mu-
nicipal matters. It is surely desirable
that all citizens who agree on these fun-
damental matters of municipal policy,
and who desire to work for substantially
the same ends in municipal affairs, should
come together and act together in the war
against both the forces of reaction and
privilege and the forces of sheer corrup-
tion and lawlessess.

This has nothing whatever to do with
party amalgamation, and to be success-
ful it must have nothing whatever to do
with that kind of fusion which consists
merely in dickering for division of offices
among various political organizations.
It must represent the joint action of
decent citizens, irrespective of their
several attitudes on national politics,
on behalf of a platform plainly express-
ing the fundamental needs of the local
situation, and on behalf of candidates
whose characters and expressed con-
victions are such that the sincerity of
their acceptance of the platform is evi-
dent.

The Virginia Fee System.— The Nor-
folk, Va., Gazelle has been engaged in a
warfare on the fee system of paying mu-
nicipal employees in that state. Among
the "horrible examples," it cites clerks
of city courts who receive in fees sal-
aries higher than those enjoyed by cab-
inet officers of the United States, and
police justices who have incomes almost
as large that those received by associate
justices of the Supreme Court of the
United States. To this system, the
Gazelle attributes much of the corrup-
tion and machine politics in Virginia
cities, and as a remedy it demands the
substitution of salaries for fees.

The California "Outlook" for June 21,
gives the following report on the vote of
the women in the recent municipal elec-
tion:

The total registration in Los Angeles,
qualified for the municipal election, was
171,025. The number of men registered
was 97,816, or 56.9 per cent of the total.
The registration of women footed up
73,839, or 43.1 per cent of the total.

The total vote was 89,831— only 52.5
per cent of the registration.

The vote by men was 52,731.

The vote by women was 37,100.

The percentage of registered men vot-
ing was 54.2.

The percentage of registered women
voting was 50.2.

The percentage of the total vote cast
by men was 58.7

The percentage of the total vote cast
bv women was 41 .3.

V. CONFERENCES AND ASSOCIATIONS

British Association Meetings. — At the
Newcastle-upon-Tyne meeting, Maj' 2
and 3, of the municipal and county
engineers, papers were presented by
various officials of the city explaining
the several engineering activities of the
corporation of Newcastle, such as town-
planning, highway construction, street
cleaning and refuse disposal, tramways,
quays and other municipal undertakings.

One hundred and sixty municipali-

ties were represented at the annual meet-
ing of the Association of Municipal Cor-
porations held in London, May 28. The
association adopted a resolution by
unanimous vote protesting against the
delay on the part of Parliament in pro-
viding a just and adequate contribution
by the imperial exchequer towards the
cost of various national services which
are administered by the local authorities.
.\n immediate interim payment of at

NOTES AND EVENTS

701

I

least 2,500,000 pounds as recommended
by the royal commission on local tax-
ation was demanded for the above pur-
pose. The association also unanimously
adopted a resolution to accept the invi-
tation from the Union of Canadian Mu-
nicipalities to join in establishing an
International Municipal League.

The 13th Annual Convention of the
Union of Canadian Municipalities was
held July 15, 16 and 17, in Saskatoon,
and was a great success in the number
and standing of the delegates, mayors,
aldermen and city engineers from the
extreme east and west being in attend-
ance. Saskatoon is practically the cen-
ter of the central western provinces of
Canada, and its rapid progress and bril-
liant up-to-date streets and edifices ex-
cite expressions of wonder.

The annual convention of the union
has frequently been called "The Cana-
dian Municipal Parliament," and rightly
so, as the delegates represent all the
representative municipal bodies in the
Dominion as well as the direct taxpayer.
Many of the delegates from the east
assembled in Montreal, and on the way
west stopped off, as a body, and paid
official visits and exchanged greetings at
the cities of Port Arthur, Fort William,
Winnipeg and Regina. After the con-
vention in Saskatoon the same party,
with some additions, visited the cities of
Edmonton and Calgary, and were im-
pressed with the virility, activity and
methods of the western brethren. Their
careful expenditure of improvement
loans, their solid an'd vast future, and
their determined retention and opera-
tion of all their municipal franchises,
produced a favorable conclusion as to
their financial status — contrary to cer-
tain irresponsible recent critics.

The convention program was lengthy,
perhaps the most important address was
from ex-Mayor W. Sanford Evans, of
Winnipeg, on "Debenture Issues of Mu-
nicipalities," dealing with the troubles

municipalities are having in floating
their bonds, and suggesting that the pro-
vincial (state) legislatures appoint each
a permanent board to investigate any
financial requirement, and if sane and
sound to give it the stamp of state ap-
proval.

"The Increasing Complexity of Mu-
nicipal Government," by Mayor Hoc-
ken, of Toronto, brought out in a vivid
manner the changes taking place in city
government. "City Development," by
Mayor Short, of Edmonton— where they
do things with the "single" or land tax
always in view— revealed some of the
problems of city expansion. C. J. Yo-
rath, city commissioner of Saskatoon,
gave a well-considered paper on town
planning, from the housing, business and
industrial points of view. "An Inter-
Provincial Highway Across Canada,"
from east to west, and "Highways in
Relation to City and Rural Municipal-
ities," emphasized the great importance,
and necessity of good country roads.
"The Treatment of Garbage," and "The
Disposal of Sewage," treated two press-
ing questions before the prairie cities,
and the expert information presented
will help to solve these problems.

The foregoing are but a few of the
many municipal matters brought for-
ward, but will give an idea of the ear-
nestness of the work of the union. The
keynote of the convention was the neces-
sity of expert knowledge in civic gov-
ernment.

G. S. Wilson. 1

The Eighth Annual Conference on
Weights and Measures was held at the
Bureau of Standards, Washington, D.
C, May 14 to 17. The delegates com-
prise state and city weights and meas-
ures officials and sealers from all part
of the country. The significance of this
meeting is the active cooperation of the
government in bringing together the

' Assistant secretary, U. C. M.

702

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

officials of states and municipalities for
the purpose of establishing uniform laws
and regulations, and of administering
these laws for the protection of the
public.

An excellent program was carried out,
dealing with the technical, administra-
tive and legal phases of the work of a
sealer of weights and measures; and
much interest was displayed not only by
the officials who have attended the con-
ferences on previous occasions, but also
by men who were present for the first
time and who were not in any way con-
nected with weights and measures work,
but who were sent by states and cities
for the purpose of obtaining information
with a view to establishing a weights and
measures inspection system or of in-
creasing the efficiency of one already in
existence.

Three different plans of model laws
were presented to meet the conditions
found in the various states. The first
law provides for a state superintendent
of weights and measures with assistants
cooperating with county and city sealers ;
the second provides for a state official
with assistants and local sealers for the
larger cities, but where the thinly set-
tled portions are taken care of by a
state department; and the third requires
the state department to assume entire
jurisdiction, and the state deputies
cover both the cities and outlying dis-
tricts, the administration being under
the direction of a state superintendent
of weights and measures.

In regard to the great progress made
in weights and measures inspection
work, it might be stated that when these
conferences were inaugurated in 1905,
only two states had active weights and
measures departments, while now more
than twenty states have such depart-
ments. This great awakening in regard
to weights and measures matters is not
local in character; activity is found in
everj' section of the country, and in
large, as well as small, cities and towns.
During 1911 and 1012 thirty states passed

legislation of some sort directly refer-
ring to the subject of weights and meas-
ures. The statutes in fourteen of these
were general in their nature and author-
ized or required state-wide local in-
spection service under the general super-
vision of a state department of weights
and measures; state-wide inspection
service under officers of the state with-
out any local inspection service; or local
inspection without any supervision by
the state. The activity of the legisla-
tures of the states during the present
year has, if anything, been more marked
than in either of the two previous years
mentioned.

F. A. Wolff. 1

The League of American Municipal-
ities.— The annual conference of this
League was held in August, at Winni-
peg, Canada. Papers were presented
by C. J. Driscoll, of the New York Bu-
reau of municipal research; W. A. Lar-
kin, street cleaning commissioner of
Baltimore; Ossian Lang, president of
the board of aldermen, of Mt. Vernon,
New York; W. S. Evans, former mayor
of Winnipeg; Charles L. W^illert, coun-
cilman of Buffalo, and J. B. Martin,
election commissioner, of Boston, Mass.

The Fourth Annual Conference of
Mayors and Other City Oflficials of New
York, met at Binghamton on June 5, 6
and 7, 1913. A valuable and in many
respects unique program of activities
for the betterment of the municipalities
of the state was adopted. It was the
consensus of opinion of the 300 officials
present that the conference was the
most instructive and successful ever
held by the organization.

Since the municipal empowering act
became a law in May, there has been
much confusion as to the scope and pow-
er of the measure. Attorney-General

' Of the Bureau of Standnrds, Washington.

NOTES AND EVENTS

703

Thomas Carmody, at first gave it as his
opinion that the new law conferred a
broad grant of power on the cities, under
which they could do about anything
they pleased. Governor Sulzer accepted
this interpretation and vetoed many
bills on the ground that the so-called
'"home rule" law granted the powers
which the special legislation sought to
confer. Several cities proceeded to
change their forms of government, al-
though the Mayors' Conference and the
Municipal Government Association, for
which organizations the bill was drafted,
contended that the law did not permit
cities to change their forms of govern-
ment, nor did it change the form of any
municipal government. At the first
session of the conference the Attorney-
General and Laurence A. Tanzer, who
drafted the bill, participated in the dis-
cussion and the former reversed his first
decision and accepted the interpreta-
tion of Mr. Tanzer and the conference.

The legislative program adopted by
the conference calls upon Governor
Sulzer to ask the legislature at its spe-
cial session to consider favorably the
passage of an optional city charter
bill and the constitutional amendment.
With these two measures on the statute
books and the empowering act already a
law, the cities of New York State will
have genuine home rule. An attempt
was made to include in the legislative
program a declaration in favor of legal-
izing baseball on Sunday. Strong oppo-
sition developed and Secretary Capes
was instructed to take a referendum of
the mayors of the state on the subject.
The conference protested against giving
poor law officials authority over admit-
ting patients to public hospitals and
passed resolutions commending the gov-
ernor and the legislature for enacting
the health bills, calling upon counties
to build tuberculosis hospitals and cities
to employ visiting nurses and to estab-
lish dispensaries. The conference strong-
ly favored the constitutional amendment
authorizing "excess condemnation" and
urged the people of the state to ratify

the action of the legislature at the elec-
tion next fall.

The city planning expert advisory
committee was authorized to make a
survey of the state to determine what
has been done and what needs to be done
in municipalities in the way of city plan-
ning. It was also authorized to arrange
early next year a state city planning
conference. At the symposium on mu-
nicipal needs the fact was established
that the chief problem in many of the
cities of the state is unequal assessments
and poor taxation methods. The con-
ference authorized a survey of assess-
ment methods in the various cities and
appointed a committee to do the work
and to report at the next conference.

A state-wide municipal welfare move-
ment, proposed by Secretary Capes,
was approved by the conference and a
committee was appointed to organize
a welfare program in every city in the
state.

The conference resolved to establish
a state bureau of municipal information,
which will be operated by the cities
through the conference and in cooper-
ation with the State Library. It will
be established at Albany and will be
supervised by a council of five mayors
and directed by a small paid staff.

During the three days of the confer-
ence the officials listened to and dis-
cussed addresses made by experts on
nine important municipal problems.

Mayor John J. Irving of Binghamton
was reelected president; Mayor James
T. Lennon of Yonkers, vice-president;
Mayor Frank J. Baker, of Utica, treas-
urer; William P. Capes, New York, sec-
retary, and E. A. Moore, New York, as-
sistant secretary. The next conference
will be held at Auburn.

W. P. Capes.

The California League of Municipali-
ties.— The fourth annual exposition, in
connection with the sixteenth annual
convention of the League will be held in
Venice, October 5 to 12, inclusive. At

704

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

the same time and in the same place, the
city and county health officers will hold
their fifth annual conference with the
officers of the state board of health. In
this connection the second annual pure
food and hygienic exposition will be
held at the same time, under the aus-
pices of the California state board of
health and under the personal super-
vision of Prof. M. E. Jaffa, director of
the state food and drug laboratory.

A Municipal League in Oregon. — A

league composed of ofiicers and former
officers of cities in Oregon is in process
of formation. The headquarters of the
league will be at Eugene and the uni-
versity will act as a bureau of municipal
research for the benefit of the members
of the organization. Prof. F. G. Young,
of the department of economics, is
taking a leading part in launching the
society.

The Indiana Municipal League held
its twenty-third annual convention at
Gary, Ind., July 8 to 10. One hundred
and ninety-seven delegates attended the
sessions and thirty-two cities out of a
membership of fifty were represented.
The convention devoted its discussion
to a consideration of the benefits to be
derived from public utilities commis-
sions, the problems of engineering in a
city, sewage disposal and sanitation.
A resolution was passed recommending
that the state legislature pass an act
enabling municipalities to increase their
indebtedness from 2 to 8 per cent of prop-
erty valuation. Columbus was selected
as the meeting place for 1914. A. C. Cun-
ningham, Esq., city attorney of Lafay-
ette, was reelected president, and Dr. D.
A. Davison, mayor of Princeton, was
elected secretary.

The Baltimore Plan of Organization
for Civic Worlt.— Organization to bring

about civic improvement in towns and
villages is comparatively simple. There
it is possible for the central committee
to plan out the unit of work and divide
it among the workers. Given enthusi-
asm and intelligence, good results will
follow. But when the territory to be
affected covers from twenty-five to fifty
square miles and the population to be
interested and converted runs into the
hundreds of thousands, the task becomes
complicated and a system of pulleys to
direct and control the power is necessary.
The organization plan which the Wom-
en's Civic League of Baltimore has
tried is simply such a system of pulleys.
The first makeshift that presents it-
self to most municipal organizations is
that of dividing the city into geographi-
cal units in an effort to duplicate the
situation in towns. Districting an
organization into twenty or thirty
sections, however, tends to make the
central body a kind of federation, and
however much different parts of the city
may present local variations, they all
share certain city-wide conditions which
should be met by a united, consistent
policy.

The Baltimore league has made use
of the geographical ward divisions of the
city to subdivide its work, but it has
made provision for bringing the local
districts into direct contact with the
central committees at fully half a dozen
points.

The general working policies of the
league are decided upon by the executive
committee. The active work is carried
on by chairmen appointed by this com-
mittee to take charge of each subject in
which the league is interested. At pres-
ent there are five of these subjects:
Home gardens, smoke abatement, refuse
disposal, milk and education. Their
chairmen are members of the executive
committee which holds weekly meetings,
which also appoints the twenty-four
local district chairmen and meets with
them once a month, when each chairman
gives a report and is brought into con-
tact with the central control and also

NOTES AND EVENTS

705

hears the experience of the chairmen in
other parts of the city.

These district chairmen also find
local chairmen in their wards for the
different subjects and the local subject
chairmen meet about once a month
with the rather small central subject
committee which is planning the work in
each line.

Throughout the year meetings are
held in the districts, quite often at-
tended by fifty to a hundred women,
and at each of these meetings there are
reports from headquarters, from the
district chairman and from all the spe-
cial chairmen, keeping the local members
informed and providing a channel for
their suggestions to affect the work be-
ing carried on. This plan not only
makes it easy for the district members
to keep informed on all subjects, but it
minimizes the number of meetings which
the chairmen must attend — in short, it
unifies the plans and divides the work.

Last autumn (1912) district chairmen
were appointed in the Uth, 12th, 14th
(inc. part of the 13th), 15th and 16th
wards. Quite lately chairmen have been
appointed in the 1st, 6th and 20th wards.
The table given below will show what
the organization has meant to the mem-
bership, and as members are the stock
in trade of civic leagues, a certain de-
gree of success may be argued from the
increase of members. Needless to say,
the league now expects to carry its or-
ganization plan into every district of
the city.

The plan is not meant to be devoted
exclusively to meetings and reports.
At any time when concerted action on
a special subject becomes necessary, or
when a city-wide canvass of a situation
is needed, twenty-four telephone calls or
postals should bring immediate results
from every part of the city. The same
machine serves every subject chairman
and will continue to do so as the subjects
increase.

Some of the district chairmen have
elaborately organized their districts;
others simply hold central district meet-

ings. Methods within the district are
left to the discretion of the district
chairmen.

This machinery, of course, only pro-
vides methods for securing public coop-

TiTQTRTr^TQ

MEMBERS

LTlolXtlUlS

1912

1913

1

2

8

2

2&1G

2& IG

3

0

1

4

6

10

5

0

1

6

3

9

7

0

4

8

1

3.

9

4

7

10

1

1

11

298

JfSO

12

63

147

13

29

81

14

73

168

15

4t

69

16

21

32

17

1

2

18

6&1G

6&1G

19

5

7

20

1 G

5&2G

21

3

3

22

3&1G

3&1 G

23

0

0

24

0

2

Unclassified. .

5

561 &4G

1,006 & 6 G

Suburbs

45

85

Groups

167

385

773

1,476

eration and better-informed and more
conscientious citizens. The construc-
tive policies of the league depend upon
thorough investigations of subject mat-
ters and wise negotiations with the city
officials. As civic improvement, how-
ever, reduced to its lowest term, comes
back to the individual citizens, the Bal-
timore league believes that the organi-
zation plan is an essential part of its
work.

Harlean James.'

The Fifth Avenue Association of New
York. — All civic organizations charged
with the protection of particular locali-

1 Executive Secretary, Women's Civic League of
Baltimore.

706

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

ties or districts must necessarily be more
or less alike in their make-up and in
their work. There are nevertheless
some important differences between the
Fifth Avenue Association and other
bodies of its general class. As there is
one only Fifth Avenue and as it is in a
very real sense a national institution,
the association has been able to draw to
itself perhaps the most representative
membership of any organization of its
kind in the world.

The association was the outcome of a
spontaneous movement among the num-
ber of merchants who suddenly realized
that one of the world's greatest shopping
centers was springing up about them and
that they ought to combine for their
common advantage. But it has long
since become very much more than an
organization committed solely to the
interests of its special locality. Its
active workers include not only most of
, the leading property owners, business
men and residents of the avenue and of
the best retail section of Manhattan,
but men and women in nearly every
station in life, many of whom neither
have any property nor trade interests in
the thoroughfare nor ever expect to
have.

To the latter class and to the public
at large, the association stands not alone
for the preservation and betterment of
America's foremost street but it repre-
sents certain definite tendencies to-
wards bettering not only New York, but
all cities in the future. Because it
does stand for these things, because the
public understands that the fight for
Fifth Avenue is in reality a fight for
New York itself, the association scarcely
ever appeals in vain to public sentiment
when seeking to bring about a needed
reform or betterment.

In one sense of the word the asso-
ciation is a neighborhood organization.
But there is nowhere else in the world
a civic organization of this kind covering

so widespread a section as the long
stretch of Manhattan Island lying be-
tween Washington Square and the far
northern confines of Central Park. The
very size of the district, the manifold
complex problems continually presented
in a street of Fifth Avenue's length in
the heart of cosmopolitan Manhattan
suggest that the association is in a class
entirely by itself.

The association is elastic in its meth-
ods of work, has no hard and fast rules
of action, rides no one's hobbies for him
but is always willing to lend a ready ear
to anyone who has an idea for a Fifth
Avenue or other civic improvement. It
maintains permanent headquarters in
the heart of the shopping section and
acts as a clearing-house for infoi-mation
and data of all kinds dealing with Fifth
Avenue matters.

Keeping on good terms with the re-
sponsible city officials has from the first
been a cardinal part of the association's
policy and a great deal that it has been
able to accomplish has been due to this
fact. One direct result of this policy
has been the recent creation of several
city commissions, which are now work-
ing out plans of great importance to the
city. The association is frankly out-
spoken when matters do not meet with
its approval but at the same time it
tries not to be hypercritical.

Robert Gkier Cooke. ^

City Club of Hartford, Conn. — A social
club with restaurant features has been
organized in Hartford, Conn., under
this title. It is to be regretted that a
title that has come to represent con-
nection with civic work in some one or
another phase has been utilized for an
organization having no connection with
civic work of any kind.

I President of the Association.

NOTES AND EVENTS

707

VI. EDUCATIONAL AND ACADEMIC

The City History Club of Boston.— To

assume responsibility calls for training
to meet it. The chemist is trained in the
laboratory, the geologist in the field,
and the social worker by contact with
human life. In the earlier part of the
last century young men learned in the
meetings of the village lyceum, which
became almost a distinctive American
institution, how to take part in larger
public activities. Society was more
homogeneous, cities were only large
towns, and their government was not so
much a vital problem. It is scarcely
more than a generation since the coun-
try felt its first great wave of indigna-
tion at the exposure of the Tweed ring
in New York. Like a kaleidoscopic
change society has become cosmopoli-
tan* over night. Rural districts are de-
pleted; cities are congested. In place
of the fourteen million people living in
the larger towns and cities in 1880 there
are now about forty-four millions.

The new American must be trained
in citizenship. His enthusiasm for his
adopted country is not enough. Along
with a new tongue, he must learn new
customs, laws and institutions. We
have a double duty, to train those who
know nothing or little of American ways
and also those of the earlier American
stock who care little what happens until
graft and incompetency threaten our
civic life.

Two instances may be cited, as show-
ing prevailing conditions among young
men and voters today. In the course of
the recent strike of employees of the
Boston Elevated Railway about eighty
young car men of various races met fre-
quently to consider the questions in-
volved. After the settlement of the
strike some of them expressed a wish to
continue the group as a literary and de-
bating club. They did not, however,
know how to organize and conduct such
a club, and consequently disbanded.
Several years ago when a fiercely fought
contest was on in Boston over the an-

nual election a committee of three con-
spicuous citizens, one of whom has since
been chosen as governor of Massachu-
setts, sent a letter of appeal to eleven
hundred voters who were supposed to be
deeply interested in the election of good
men to office. When the election took
place only one hundred and eighty of
these voters appeared to cast their bal-
lots. The ward boss, however, and the
city demagogue did not lack votes. Self-
interest brought their supporters to
the polls in overwhelming numbers.
A campaign of education was needed
among those who would have voted for
the right if they had come out to the
voting booth. The strong appeal even
of men of the highest standing failed to
move them. Happily this condition is
changing in Boston, through such organ-
izations as the work of the public school
associations, the good government asso-
ciation, the municipal league, and the
finance commission.

The training given by the public
schools has long followed general lines,
and boys passing out of these schools need
further preparation for taking up the
duties of citizenship. Very many boys
and young men, however, of the incom-
ing races, have not attended our schools
at all, and there is a consequently greater
need for fitting them to become a part
of the body politic.

Nor can settlement houses well give
this preparation for American citizen-
ship. It calls for special work, by per-
sons who have become masters of civic
questions. It is distinctly a work in
civics, a study not yet well formulated
even in the schools. It may best be
done by means of a study of local his-
toi'y and government.

Therefore come the name and method
of the City History Club of Boston. It
began, in 1904, by applying the lessons of
local history to a civic end, a more patri-
otic, enlightened, and efficient citizen-
ship. Groups of boys in all parts of the
city, branches of the larger central or-

ro8

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

ganization, were assembled in indoor
meetings and taken on historic trips
throughout the city and greater Boston.
Solid class work was done; elaborate
note books were kept; exhibitions of the
work were given; mass meetings with
speakers and stereopticon were held;
outings and social gatherings were en-
joyed.

The City History Club of Boston was
the second organization of its kind in the
United States. That in New York was
the first. More recently organizations
have been formed in Philadelphia, Sa-
vannah, and several other cities in the
New England and middle states.
. The work of the City History Club at
the present time is carried on with groups
of young men organized as junior city
councils. These were added to the work
six years ago and their success has been
unbroken. They follow the exact or-
ganization of the Boston city council
under the new charter. In each coun-
cil are elected, in regular order, from
the young men, a president, clerk, as-
sistant clerk, and sergeant-at-arms; and
a full list of committees is appointed,
making each councilman, outside of
those elected to office, the chairman of
a committee. Under the oversight of
the director, the members of the council
introduce motions, orders, and resolu-
tions, and take an active part in com-
mittee work, in debate upon the floor,
and in all that has to do with the
passing of orders and city ordinances.
The results are much more marked than
in a debating club under ordinary con-
ditions. The lively interest in subjects
under discussion, the freedom of debate
allowed, and the incentive brought to
bear upon every young man as a member
of a serious, public-spirited organiza-
tion, produce most satisfactory results.

The young men who are members of
the councils must know all particulars
of city government and be familiar with
the various features of the city charter.
They must at least know about city
officials and public men and moveinonts
for good government and civic better-

ment. Some of the members have made
very commendable studies of city af-
fairs and departments. A feature of
the council work is a committee on pul)-
lication in each. This committee visits
the office of each department of city
government and obtains all available
publications upon the working of the
department. It sends also to other
cities for similar published material.
Thus in each council there is gathered
a considerable library of material deal-
ing with city affairs and city govern-
ment, which is in constant use by the
council members for individual infor-
mation, and for argument in debate.

The subjects for study and debate in
the junior councils are just such matters
as come up in the Boston city council;
for instance, improvements of various
kinds in all parts of the city, the consoli-
dation of several departments into a
single department, suggested amend-
ments to the city charter, the repeal of
the poll tax law, the granting of public
franchises, the establishment of a mu-
nicipal lodging house, the annexation of
neighboring towns or cities to the city
of Boston, and questions having to do
with the elevated railway.

An important and natural develop-
ment of the work with the junior city
councils is the City History Club con-
gress which was organized in 1910. The
membership of this congress is made up
of the most ambitious and able members
of the councils, past and present, and
of young men who are attracted by the
congress itself. Its organization and
procedure follow those of the state leg-
islature and of the national congress.
The questions considered are those of
larger city and state interest, or of state
and national interest. This congress
affords the very best training in parlia-
mentary law, in debate, and in logical
and right thinking.

The City History Club has completed
nine years of continuous work in Boston.
The boys with whom it first began in the
various social and educational centers
of the city have grown to manhood.

NOTES AND EVENTS

709

The club has kept pace with the needs of
these young men, working solely for
training in good citizenship. The young
men thus trained in the club branches
through these nine years have exerted a
strong influence for good citizenship
and good government. They have been
conspicuous as leaders in the various
sections of the city. Being informed on
public matters, and patriotic in spirit,
they have caused many of their friends
and acquaintances to take a right stand
in matters of local and public impor-
tance. They have assisted in the nat-
uralization of foreign-born citizens, in
the registration of voters, and in bring-
ing them to the polls to vote. Directly
and indirectly they have earnestly sup-
ported the work of organizations for
good government. Their influence has
had weight in city legislation, resulting
in local improvements in various parts
of the city.

Each year men prominent in city
affairs, members of the Boston city
council, and of the state legislature have
spoken before the junior city councils.
At such meetings the audiences have
included many young men outside of
the membership of the councils. Thus
our earlier plan of mass meetings in each
center of our work has been continued.

There have been many individual
cases of marked leadership. One young
man, an Italian, while not a voter, in-
terviewed two hundred of his race be-
fore a recent election, leading them to
vote for the candidate of the municipal
league. This young man has since or-
ganized and is now president of an active
local improvement association.

Another young junior city council
member last year made a voluntary sys-
tematic investigation in four sections of
the city, upon the attitude of the public
as to opening playgrounds on Sunday.
He has now been chosen as director of a
house just opened to aid the Italian
immigrant to find himself in Boston.
These are not isolated cases. The City
History Club is preparing many such
young men to be leaders of their fellows

in the perplexing conditions of the Amer-
ican city.

With each year there has been a con-
stant increase in membership in the
various branches of the club, and new
branches have been organized in im-
portant centers as openings occurred.
The settlement houses have cooperated
in providing places of meeting for many
of the groups. Some of our councils
are meeting in the evening centers lately
opened for neighborhood work in the
public school buildings of Boston. In
the nine years' time work has been car-
ried on with about one hundred branch
clubs, enrolling about twenty-five hun-
dred boys and men. In all cases meet-
ings have been held weekly, of from one
to two hours' duration each, and effective
and thorough methods of work have
been followed. From the beginning,
even when dealing largely with matters
of history, the aim has been to make the
work distinctly civic.

After sharing in this movement for
several years the City History Club has
now assumed the conduct of the new
voters' rally in Boston. Each year, in
March, a great meeting of young men
about to cast their first ballot is held in
Fanueil Hall. Prominent men speak,
and the "freeman's oath" is adminis-
tered by a judge of the courts. Alto-
gether the assumption of the ballot is
marked by a most impressive and sig-
nificant observance, the culmination of
the year's work of the City History Club.

The City History Club is preemi-
nently the young men's civic club of
Boston. It is training the civic leaders
and the legislators of the future.

Feederick J. Allen. 1

Boston City History Club Stimulating
Civic Interest Among Young Men. — To
develop an interest in civic affairs among

1 Director, City History Club, and Investigator
of occupations, Vocation Bureau, Boston. See
article on "The Vocation Bureau and the Boston
School System," National Munictpal Review, vol.
il. p. 108.

710

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

the young men of the city, the City His-
tory Club of Boston, through the finan-
cial assistance of the Massachusetts So-
ciety of Colonial Dames of America, is
offering to the members of the junior
city coimcils, prizes of fifteen and ten
dollars for essays touching upon sub-
jects related to town and city history in
Massachusetts. The first four subjects
selected for the essays are: "Suffrage in
Massachusetts before the Revolution;"
"What a Town Could do in Massachu-
setts before the Revolution;" "Witch-
craft in Salem Affairs ;' ' and ' 'The Apostle
Eliot."

A Municipal Survey as University
Graduate Work. — An interesting study
has recently been completed by William
B. Hamilton at the University of Texas
in fulfilment of the requirements for a
master's degree in municipal govern-
ment. Mr. Hamilton undertook single-
handed a social survey of the city of
Austin from the sanitary side, under the
guidance of Prof. Herman G. James of
the school of government.

Beginning early in the fall of 1912
Mr. Hamilton made a personal inspec-
tion of all dairies, bakeries and slaugh-
ter houses of the city and examined the
source of the water supply, other than
that furnished by the city, as well as
investigating the sewerage of the city as
a whole. A partial investigation into
the housing problem and the bill-board
evil completed the examination portion
of the study. A suggested reorganiza-
tion of the health department contained
in large part the conclusions which were
drawn by Mr. Hamilton from his in-
vestigation.

Austin is a city of some 40,000 inhab-
itants which prides itself on the health-
fulness of its location. The result of
the study made by Mr. Hamilton was to
show that while in point of climate,
water supply and natural location Aus-
tin is singularly blessed, yet as regards
human measures for the prevention of
danger to health inevitably connected

w'ith the aggregation of numbers of
people in a city, next to nothing had
been done.

Only a small proportion of the houses
in the city are connected with the sewer
system, which has just been transferred
from private ownership to the city.
Many open drains and ditches offer
breeding places for mosquitoes; cess-
pools are found in close proximity to
surface wells and dry closets in many
instances line the alleys. Trash is col-
lected by the city but in an imperfect
way, and garbage is not collected at all
but left to the house occupiers to dis-
pose of. Nevertheless much garbage is
thrown by persons into the trash receiv-
ers, collected by the city wagons and
thrown into open dumps frequently in
well settled portions of the city.

With regard to the milk supply, every
stage of handling of the milk from milk-
ing to delivery to the customer was in-
vestigated and it was found that in no
case were all the modern sanitary re-
quirements for handling milk observed.
Sometimes the cows were not kept clean,
sometimes the milking room was filthy
and full of flies, sometimes the milk
receivers were imperfectly washed and
the employees themselves dirty, some-
times the milk was not cooled before
starting out for delivery, sometimes it
was transferred from open vessels on
the route or even poured into unwashed
bottles collected on the road, and some-
times all of these elements were found
combined in the business of a single
dairy.

The bakeries were perhaps even worse
from a sanitary standpoint and not one
could be said even to approximate to
the standard of a sanitary bakery.
P>om the mixing room, often at the same
time the bed-room of the baker and his
family, to the actual delivery at the
door the bread was continually exposed
to filth and microbes.

Still worse if possible were found to
be the conditions in the half dozen or
more slaughtering houses that furnish
the butchers of the city with their meat.

NOTES AND EVENTS

711

The description of conditions at these
slaughtering houses was enough to turn
all readers into vegetarians. After the
meat is delivered at the butchers sani-
tary conditions are not improved. Mr.
Hamilton concluded his investigation
with an examination of the housing con-
ditions in the crowded Mexican and
negro quarters of the town, and also
pointed out briefly some aspects of the
bill-board nuisance.

After pointing out these undesirable
conditions Mr. Hamilton sought to dis-
cover the reasons for their existence.
He found that in large part it was due
to a failure to enforce laws and ordi-
nances already in existence. This in
turn he attributed for the most part to
a faulty organization of the health de-
partment by which duties that would
require the whole time of a number of
men were imposed upon a few men, paid
to give a part of their time only. Aside
from this defect it was found that not
sufficient powers were given to the city,
and that state health laws bearing on
these subjects were either inadequate or
not enforced.

Perhaps the most interesting and
cei'tainly the most encouraging fact
about the whole investigation was that
although the avowed purpose of the
undertaking was to discover and make
public the unsanitary conditions al-
lowed to prevail in the city — and as
has been shown they were of a kind to
make any city ashamed — ^yet the mayor
and his colleagues and more remarkable
still, the Chamber of Commerce, an or-
ganization for advertising and boosting
the city, both materially aided and en-
couraged Mr. Hamilton in his undertak-
ing. These persons even offered to pay
the expense of publishing the investiga-
tion for distribution among the inhab-
itants of the city.

With such a spirit of civic pride and
interest it is not too much to predict
that the needed reforms will be under-
taken without delay and as soon as the
investigation, which at present writing
is being published as a University of

Texas bulletin, is placed in the hands
of the citizens of Austin there will be
no opposition to voting bonds for a mu-
nicipal slaughter house and an incin-
erating plant or to raising funds for
other improvements as suggested in Mr.
Hamilton's study.

Aside from still further confirming
the now universally accepted proposi-
tion that the first step in civic improve-
ment is the enlightenment of the citizens
as to actual conditions, this investi-
gation shows that university work on
the part of the students as well as of
professors can be directed into channels
where the public is benefited in a real
sense. The students in turn are given
a training that will enable them to be
real factors in civic improvement in
whatever communities they may make
their homes after leaving the university.
Herman G. James.

Cologne Exposition. — Last year it was
Dusseldorf in Germany, this year it is
Cologne that has sought at one and the
same time to interest and instruct her
own people in municipal affairs and at-
tract visitors. From July to November
last year the former city held an exposi-
tion of her municipal institutions, which
embraced plans and models of the newest
inventions and appliances in regard to
city administration, the enlargement, im-
provement and embellishment of cities,
creation of parks, squares, manufactur-
ing and workmen's quarters, public
buildings,water works, baths, rapid tran-
sit, hospitals, places of amusement, cem-
eteries, etc. The highest point of in-
terest was reached in September, when
a congress of municipal methods was
held, which to a certain extent was in-
ternational in character, because it was
a general exchange of opinions and a
discussion of methods "by which the
greatest degree of perfection in city
building and management may be at-
tained."

To educate its people as to the needs
of the city and the steps to be taken to

712

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

meet the needs, prizes were offered for
the best solution of this problem. For
those the foremost architects and build-
ers of the city competed, and their plans
and models were displayed at the public
exposition.

This year the old Hanseatic city —
Cologne, which has grown from 49,276
population in 1816 to 545,000, and soon
will reach 620,000, when the annexation
of Miilheim is completed, has as a city
a municipal exhibition, which she calls
"Cologne Old and New." It appears,
as the editor of the London Municipal
Journal writes, after a visit to the
exhibition, "that some of the Cologne
taxpayers were inclined to grumble at
the Cologne taxes (we have heard of
people in England who grumble at hav-
ing to pay English rates.") So the of-
ficers of the municipality conceived the
idea of a purely municipal exhibition
illustrating the work of the city by means
of models, pictures, diagrams, plans and
charts, and showing the citizens the
value they receive in return for their
money. These were somewhat on the
plan of our American budget exhibits,
only they were designed to show what
was done with the money after it was
spent, whereas, the American exhibits
are designed to educate the people to
demand the appropriation of adequate
sums. The exhibits are housed in a
building specially prepared for the pur-
pose, and they are wonderfully interest-
ing and are being visited every week by
thousands of the Cologne taxpayers.
The grumblers are silenced, and it is
expected that the grateful citizens will
shortly rise in a body and demand a
general increase in the salaries and emol-
uments of the city. "We have visited,"
the editor says, "other exhibitions in
Germany, but none quite like this one at
Cologne, and it occurs to us that it will
be a thousand pities if the valuable mod-
els, pictures, and charts that constitute
its most attractive feature are destroyed
or packed away in storehouses after the
exhibition closes in October." At vari-
ous cities in Germany, America, and

England, there are in existence valuable
models, etc., "which illustrate the works
of ancient and modern municipalities in
a way that cannot be done even bj'^ books.
If they were ail got together there would
be at hand the nucleus of one of the most
interesting international exhibitions the
world has ever seen."

In Ghent, Belgium, such an exhibi-
tion has been carried on throughout the
summer, carrj'ing forward the work of
the town planning congresses. The
scope of this Second World's Congress of
International Associations was described
in the April issue of the National Mu-
nicipal Review. 1

The Pittsburgh Board of Public Educa-
tion on Friday, June 6, dismissed S. L.
Heeter, superintendent of the schools of
that city. The cause of his removal was
a charge of "immorality in making im-
proper advances and taking unwarranted
liberties with women." The charges
against Mr. Heeter were investigated by
a citizen's committee appointed by the
board. This committee included such
men as A. Leo Weil, president of the
Voters' League; W. H. Stevenson, pres-
ident of the Chamber of Commerce;
Bishop Cortland Whitehead, of the
Episcopal church; the Rev. George W.
Shelton, president of the Ministerial
Association; Rabbi J. Leonard Levy and
Valentine Barie, president of the Iron
Molders' Union.

The charges against Mr. Heeter came
at a time when the political enemies of
the present school were demanding an-
other change in the school system. Un-
der the school code, passed by the state
legislature two yeai'S ago, the school
management of Pittsburgh was placed
in the hands of a board of fifteen mem-
bers, appointed by the judges of the
common pleas court. Two bills were in-
troduced in the legislature then in session
to make the board elective. While the
superintendent's guilt or innocence had

» Page 310.

NOTES AND EVENTS

713

nothing to do with the question of an
elective or appointive board, it was at-
tempted to make this scandal a part of
the fight against the code. Both meas-
ures in the legislature, however, failed
to pass and Pittsburgh's school manage-
ment will continue under the appoin-
tive board for two years more at least.
During this time the present board of
control should be able to complete many
plans for reform that are now under
way.

The present appointive board has
been in charge of Pittsburgh's schools
less than two years and has done much
to reorganize the entire school system.
For the progress already made Mr. Heet-
er was largely responsible and it will be
difficult to find a man of equal ability as
a school executive.

Pittsburgh's old school system was
shot through with mismanagement and
graft. So widespread were these condi-
tions that the Voters' League two years
ago exposed them. This exposition had
much to do with the establishment of
the present system. Under the old sys-
tem many buildings were unsafe as well
as unsanitary. There was an actual
lack of buildings. The courses of study
in the elementary schools served chiefly
as a preparation for high school where
classical courses predominated. Little
attention had been given to manual
training or to the education of the for-
eigner or of the defective. Few evening
schools were conducted. No attempt
has been made to meet the educational
needs of a manufacturing center.

The new board immediately after its
appointment set about to remedy these
conditions. Old buildings wherever pos-
sible were put in good condition, and
others closed. Twenty-nine temporary
buildings were erected and a complete
building program to include four dis-
trict high schools and eleven elementary
schools commenced.

Night schools were opened both in
the high school and elementary grades.
On account of the increased facilities
and new schools there was a large in-

crease in school attendance during the
year. In the night schools the attend-
ance more than doubled.

A new system of grading was estab-
lished, permitting half year promotions,
and all students who made a satisfactory
showing in their term's work were re-
lieved from examinations. All school
courses, which had lead chiefly to col-
lege preparatory work, were revised to
meet the needs of an industrial com-
munity. Practical courses in commercial,
vocational, industrial, household econ-
omy, arts and craft work have been
added. In addition, special schools
have been established for children of
foreign parentage unfamiliar with the
English language and rooms have been
set apart for defectives and those suffer-
ing from tuberculosis. For those fail-
ing in a term's work free summer schools
in all grades have been opened. Finally
a high school has been opened, giving a
briefer course to cover two years for those
who are unable to give four years to
the work. Tensard DeWolf.^

The Training of Secretaries for Com-
mercial Organizations is a new line of
work to be taken up by Harvard Uni-
versity through the graduate school of
administration. Young meA in doubt
as to what they ought to do for a life
work will do well to consider the oppor-
tunities this field presents. The increas-
ed activity of chambers of commerce,
boards of trade and similar bodies dur-
ing the last few years, together with an
appreciation of the breadth of the field
opened to these bodies for their work,
has made the work of the secretary more
and more exacting from year to year.
Those who have grown up in chamber
of commerce work and have kept pace
with the extension of this work are able
to take care of the new demands made
upon them without great diflSculty.
But from all over the country there is
coming a demand for adequately pre-

1 Secretary, Voters League of Pittsburgh.

714

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

pared men to take the place of those who
have grown up with the business and
who for one reason or another have left
it.

The special value of the Harvard
course for commercial secretaries is that
it will first give a training in general bus-
iness matters and then a special train-
ing. There is so much room for well
trained men in business at the present
time, that no man need hesitate relative
to the course for fear that there will be
no opening when he has completed it.

In the first year the following gen-
eral subjects may be studied; business
law, accounting, industrial organization,
business statistics, railroad organiza-
tion, investments.

In the second year the following gen-
eral subjects maybe selected: corpora-
tion finance, the railroad and the shipper,
foreign trade, European trade, South
American trade.

The various forms of activity in
which chambers of commerce and sim-
ilar bodies engage are also to be studied
in the light of the actual experience of
some of the more progressive organiza-
tions. The subjects covered include
various aspects of the supervision of
trading, such as inspection of grain and
other commodities, control of ware-
houses, vigilance work. etc. They also
include some of the methods for city
development employed by trade bodies,
such as methods for securing new indus-
tries, methods for bettering existing in-
dustrial conditions, railway rate activity,
internal transportation problems, etc.
The course also provides for a compar-
ison of the organization and powers of
chambers of commerce and similar bod-
ies in the United States with those in
some of the chief European countries
and a survey of the federation movement
both in the United States and abroad.
The work of this course will be supple-
mented by experience in committee work
in the Boston and other chambers of
commerce. Elliot IL Goodwin.'

> Secretary, Chamber of Commerce of the United
St.ites.

Bureau of Municipal Research and
Reference at the University of Texas.—
The University of Texas has now been
added to the list of American univer-
sities conducting municipal research
and reference bureaus. This new addi-
tion was organized in June, 1913, under
the auspices of the school of government
at the university. Prof. Herman G.
James, in charge of the courses in munic-
ipal government at the university and a
member of the advisory editorial board
of the National Municipal Review, has
been made director of the new enter-
prise. He is assisted by William M.
Hamilton, a fellow in government, who
wrote his master's thesis in municipal
government at the university last year.

A special appropriation has been set
aside for books and other equipment of
the bureau, to which will be transferred
also the entire municipal government
division of the university library. The
immediate purpose of the bureau will be
two-fold; to serve as information bureau
for the municipalities of the state, and
to offer opportunities for graduate re-
search work to the students in city gov-
ernment at the university. It is planned
to extend the scope of the work at the
earliest possible date so as to include
special investigations at the request of
particular cities into their local condi-
tions, and the furnishing of expert ad-
vice on the ground by qualified members
of the various university faculties.

Municipal problems present an unus-
ually fertile field just now in Texas not
only because that state as the home of
the commission form of government has
had the longest experience with it, but
especiallj' because of the recent adop-
tion of a home rule charter amendment
to the constitution. Under that amend-
ment and the legislative acts in pur-
suance of the same many of the Texas
cities will now be framing and adopting
new charters and will be greatlj' in need
of just the sort of information the bureau
is intended to furnish.

In connection with the establish-
ment of the bureau a movement has

NOTES AND EVENTS

715

been launched by the director for the
organization of a league of Texas munic-
ipalities to have its first convention in
Austin in the fall. This league will pro-
ceed upon lines substantially similar to
those pursued by similar leagues in other
states, and although Texas has a popu-
lation three fourths rural and the other
fourth living in cities of less than 125,000
inhabitants, it is thought such a league
will prove quite as helpful there as in
the states with larger cities.

The National Municipal League's
High School Prizes for 1913 were awarded
as follows: First prize to David E. Bar-
ton, Walnut Hills, Cincinnati, High
School; second prize to J. G. Mitchell
MacCartney, of the Altoona, Pa., High
School. The subject was "The Milk
Supply in My City" and the judges were
John Spargo, Yonkers, N. Y., and Prof.
Selskar M. Gunn, of the Massachusetts
Institutute of Technology. Sixty-one
essays in all were submitted. Honorable
mention was made of the essays sub-
mitted by Misses Jessie M. Webb, Ida
Fowler Mealy, Marie A. McCann, West-
ern High School, Baltimore; Althea
Oyster, Alliance, Ohio; Howard H.
Weber, York, Pa., Misses Ethel E.
Tomb, Johnstown, Pa., Eleanor Turner,
Marshall (Texas) High Schools.

Meyer Lissner of Los Angeles, a mem-
ber of the council of the National Munic-
ipal League, has established a National
Municipal Prize of $100 for the year
1914, open to students at the Occidental
and Southern California Universities
and to students of the Los Angeles pub-
lic schools above high school grade.
The subject will be: "The Best Charter
for Los Angeles."

A Municipal University for Akron,
Ohio. — The directors of the chamber of
commerce of Akron have unanimously
recommended that the city council

should transform into a municipal uni-
versity Buchtel College which was re-
cently offered to the city by the trustees
of the institution. If the council heeds
the advice of the directors, Akron will
join that growing list of cities which
boast of municipal universities.

The Wisconsin Library School. — The

library school of the Wisconsin library
commission in cooperation with the Uni-
versity of Wisconsin is prepared to offer
a twelve months course in library admin-
istration and public service. This
work will be given in connection with
the other courses in the university and
is undertaken to meet the demand of
young men and women in colleges and
universities who have an interest in
municipal, political, industrial and socio-
logical problems and their solution with-
out a definite desire to enter distinct
philanthropic work but who desire to
become library workers in legislative
and municipal reference libraries, law
and medical libraries, bureaus of in-
vestigation, tax associations, indus-
trial commissions, boards of public utili-
ties, commercial houses, manufacturing
plants and other similar fields where
knowledge of subject matter is of greater
importance than a preliminary mastery
of library technique. In the School
about one-third of the time will be de-
voted to bibliographic and technical
courses corresponding closely to those
now given in the best library schools of
the United States. These will include
reference work, subject bibliography,
book selection, the acquisition of ma-
terial on current problems, public docu-
ments, cataloguing, alphabeting, classifi-
cation and library economy. Approxi-
mately one-third of the time will be
devoted to courses selected from those
now given at the University of Wiscon-
sin, the nature of which will depend
upon the particular branch of library
work in which the student expects to go.
The remaining one-third of the work for
the year will be in the form of special

716

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

lectures on political science, political
economy, historical, scientific, literary
and other subjects. In addition to the
regular roster, practice apprentice work
in the libraries of Madison and vicinity
will be required throughout the aca-
demic year. The course will be directly
in charge of Clarence B. Lester, who
founded and organized the Indiana legis-
lative reference department and con-
ducted it for two years.

The Chicago Reference Library. — A
little more than a year ago a section of
the public library of Chicago was set
aside for materials on government, ad-
ministration, and economics. This ma-
terial has now been considerably aug-
mented and kindred books classified
in such a way as to make a veritable
municipal reference library. A card in-
dex of the library is established at the
city hall, and a messenger service is
maintained so that now, as the Chicago
Post puts it, "the lightest literary wish
of the alderman may be quickly satis-
fied." Chicago ordinances are classi-
fied under the name of the alderman
standing sponsor for them so that the
citizen may easily find out what his rep-

resentative in the council had been do
ing during his term of service. Thus,
it is hoped, the "system of illumination
in the city council chamber may be im-
proved."

Cincinnati will hereafter make an
effort to put out its department reports
in an attractive, intelligent, even popu-
lar form, and to that end Mayor Hunt
has appointed a municipal editor. In
the past, as is the case with the reports
of most cities, the official reports have
been bulky, voluminous, uninteresting
and unintelligent. It is Mayor Hunt's
idea that these reports should be made
helpful to the public and to fellow offic-
ials and a clear and succinct accounting
of the city departments for the year.
Consequently, all unnecessary statistics
will be eliminated and introductory and
explanatory remarks will be designed to
illuminate rather than submerge. It is
also to be the duty of the editor to devise
reports that will tell the department
heads and the mayor the important
features of the work of each department
without confronting them with a mass
of small details or unenlightening state-
ments. The position is to be officially
known as mayor inspector.

VII. SOCIAL AND MISCELLANEOUS

Public Health Notes. — A Conference
on Infant Welfare was held at Albany,
N. Y., on June 12, under the auspices of
the state department of health. Be-
sides general addresses by the governor,
by Dr. Eugene H. Porter, state com-
missioner of health, and others, there
were reports on infant welfare work in
Buffalo, Rochester, New York and some
of the smaller cities of the State. The
proceedings of the Conference have been
issued as a special bulletin of the New
York state department of health (Al-
bany, N. Y.).

All Milk Sold in Philadelphia after
July 1, 1914, must either be "pasteur-

ized by a process approved by the board
of health" or else "certified and guar-
anteed by an authority approved by the
board of health." Pasteurized milk
must be "placed in a container approved
by the board of health."

A New Milk Ordinance for Hagers-
loivn, Md., is reported as having been
unanimously adopted by the council on
August 14, after vigorous protests
against it by local dairymen. Except
that the ordinance provides that dairy
cows must be free from tuberculosis, or
proven by the tuberculin test, it appears
to be foo easy rather than too hard in
its requirements, particularly if the

NOTES AND EVENTS

717

reports are correct that the bacterial
limit is a half million per cubic centi-
meter and that the milk must be kept
at a temperature of (only) 70 F. until
delivered to consumers. A lower tem-
perature would aid materially in keep-
ing down the bacterial count. Press
reports state that on failing to defeat
the ordinance the dairymen at once re-
solved to increase the price of milk from
6 to 7 cents a quart. A still higher
price would be warranted for safe milk
of proper richness, unless milk can be
produced at a much lower figure at
Hagerstown than at most other places.

Milk Standards. A second and re-
vised report on standards for various
classes of milk supplies was adopted at
Richmond, Va., on May 2 and 3,^ by the
com liis ion on milk standards. This
commission was appointed in March,
1911, by the New York milk committee.
It consists of seventeen well known fed-
eral, state and local health officers, vet-
erinarians, chemists, bacteriologists and
sanitarians. Its chairman is Dr. W. A.
Evans, formerly health commissioner
of Chicago, and now professor of pre-
ventive medicine. Northwestern Uni-
versity, Evanston, 111., and health edi-
tor of the Chicago Tribune. The re-
port contains a full set of standards
for use in producing and judging safe
milk.

Immunization Against Typhoid Fever,
sometimes called anti-typhoid vacci-
nation, is now offered by some city
boards of health without charge. New
York City began the practice on Jan-
uary 1, through members of its own
staff. Choice may be had between in-
oculation at home and at the office of
the health department, or the culture
will be supplied free to physicians for
use in their own practice. The last-
named plan became effective at Mont-
clair, N. J., also, at the beginning of
1913.

A Health Handbook for Colored People

1 See U. S. Public Health Repo. ts, August 22,
1913.

was issued early in 1913 by the Virginia
state board of health. Perhaps the
most notable thing about the handbook
is that it was prepared at the request of
the Negro Organization Society (J. M.
Gandy, executive secretary, Petersburg,
Va.). M(!fet of the suggestions in the
handbook relate to household cleansing,
the disposal of wastes and home water-
supplies, all written from the rural or
village rather than the urban viewpoint.
There are also some good suggestions
for personal hygiene, under the heading
"cautions for t e Colored Man." It is
somewhat amusing to find among these
"cautions," "Do all the work you can."
The handbook (really a thin pamphlet)
contains many valuable hints but it is
a pity so littl« discrimination is shown
between measures which vitally affect
health and those which relate to mere
tidiness and good housekeeping.

Advertising for Sanitary Inspectors,
as for other municipal administrative
officers, is common in England. In a
recent number of The Municipal Jour-
nal (London) applications are invited
for the position of assistant sanitary in-
spector of Richmond (Surrey). It was
stated that "candidates must have had
experience in the duties of the office, and
must possess the certificate of some prop-
erly constituted examining au hority"
[as the Royal Sanitary Institute, pre-
sumably]. The salary offered was a
little less than $450 a year, rising about
$50 a year to a maximum of somewhat
less than $650 a year. At the same time
the city of Liverpool advertised for a
female sanitary inspector, not o^er 35
years of age, "able to produce evidence
of training and acquaintance with do-
mestic sanitation, the care of infants,
and allied subjects." Wages for this
position would begin at $7.10 a week and
rise "by stages" to $9.70 a week. Each
advertisement contained the usual
warning to the effect that "canvassing
members of the Council [soliciting the
appointment] will be regarded as a dis-
qualification."

718

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

The Century. — First under the bril-
liant leadership of the late Richard Wat-
son Gilder, a long time member of the
National ^Municipal League, and later
under Robert Underwood Johnson, some-
time member, The Century has been a
sturdy and intelligent upholder of high
standards of civic life and activity.
Judging from the salutatory of the new
editor — Robert Sterling Yard — the mag-
azine will continue and broaden its in-
terest in all things making for civic and
social uplift, for in it he says:

There is no escaping the fact that civ-
ilization, like the river tumbling and
swirling between two lakes, is passing
turbulently from the old contention of
the last several generations to the un-
known, almost unguessable contention
of the not distant future. The feminist
movement, the uprising of labor, the
surging of innumerable socialistic cur-
rents, can mean nothing else than the
certain readjustment of social levels.
The demand of the people for the herit-
age of the bosses is not short of revolution.
The rebellious din of frantic impres-
sionistic groups is nothing if not stren-
uous protest against a frozen art. The
changed Sabbath and the tempered ser-
mon mark the coldly critical appraise-
ment of religious creeds. And science,
meantime, straining and sweating under
the lash of progress, is passing from won-
der unto wonder.

Perhaps Mr. Gilder's period of liter-
ary flowering, though surely coming,
must be postponed another decade.
The need of the moment is to discover
where we are, what is accomplishing
about us. Where have all these strug-
gling activities brought us? What have
they really done? What do they mean?
Whither do they tend?

It is time we look this question of the
present squarely in the eye, in order, if
for no other reason, that we may intel-
ligently face the future. It is time that,
in business phrase, we take account of
stock. It is time that the chemist, for
example, trembling over the revela-
tions of his amazing combinations, know
that the psychologist, too, is excited
about the astonishing developments of
his own laboratory; that the elated con-
querors of the air realize the achieve-
ment of those who plod in the groaning
• shops of town; that the biologist, amazed
at his artificial propagation of life, ap-
preciate the telegraphic annihilation of
space

Not as an advocate shall we present
these causes, nor again in protest; but
in the fair, free, unbiased spirit of in-
vestigation. Facts must precede opin-
ions. It is poor rowing against the rap-
ids between the lakes. Let us study
these manifestations fairly and sympa-
thetically before we draw conclusions.
It will 1)0 The Century's pleasure and
public duty to enlist the services of able
authorities in every cause, and to pre-
sent each justly from its own point of
view.

Suchaprogram will, we feel sure, help
materially the cause of human progress
because it will help men and women to
comprehend life as it passes.

A cordial welcome to Mr. Yard, not
only to the ma' or editorial ranks, but
likewise to the ever enlarging corps
elite as Richard Watson Gilder so hap-
pily phrased it, in the realm of social
and civic endeavor.

C. R. W.

A Social Center for Colored People in
Chicago. — As a result of the enthusiasm
of a young colored woman, Miss Clotee
Scott, provision has been made for a
social center for the colored people of
Hyde Park, Chicago, by the establish-
ment of a neighborhood house on Jef-
ferson Avenue. The new institution is
patronized by about three hundred men,
women, and children, and offers an im-
portant experiment for the considera-
tion of those interested in the advance-
ment of the race, particularly in great
cities.

A New Community Center in Chicago.
— The west park commissioners of Chi-
cago have under construction a new field
house in Pulaski Park which is in the
center of an enormous Polish popula-
tion. The building is said to be one of
the finest of its kind in the country and
it will be equipped with all of the ar-
rangements for social and intellectual
activities which have been installed in
the most enterprising social centers. It
will be opened this autumn.

NOTES AND EVENTS

719

Clean Towns in Texas.- -The Holland
Magazine has offered a prize of $500
for the cleanest town in Texas, and all
over the state local leagues are being
organized to enter the contest. I n
Mineral Wells, for example, a feder-
ation has laid the town out in several
parts, assigned a committee of women
to each part, and set to work with
the avowed determination to win " the

prize, and have a clean town in the bar-

gain.

*

Mixnicipal Tenements for Widows.—
The bureau of charity of Havre, France,
has established municipal tenements to
be rented to widows who have several
small children and are in destitute cir-
cumstances. A nominal charge of three
francs a month is made for an apartment
of three well-ventilated rooms.

VIII. PERSONAL MENTION

President John H. Finley, of the Col-
lege of the City of New York, has been
elected state commissioner of education
by the Board of Regents of the Univer-
sity of New York, in succession to the
late Andrew S. Draper. Dr. Finley was
formerly professor of politics at Prince-
ton.

William B. Rowland, for years an
active member of the National Munici-
pal League and at one time a member of
its council, has become publisher of The
Independent, New York, having retired
from a similar position on The Outlook.
Mr. Howland is also treasurer of the
American Civic Association.

Reginald Mott Hull, formerly secre-
tary of the Cambridge Taxpayers' Asso-
ciation (see vol. ii, p. 325), is now a
member of the Cambridge council.

Frederick L. Siddons has been ap-
pointed a commissioner of the District
of Columbia by President Wilson. He
is a well known single taxer and an ad-
vocate of the suffrage for the residents
of the District. For years he has been
a member of the council of the National
Civil Service Reform League and at one
time was a member of the Executive
Committee of the National Municipal
League. His colleague is Oliver P. New-
man.

Dr. Graham Taylor, of Chicago Com-
mons and associate editor of The Sur-
vey, was elected president of the National
Conference of Charities and Correc-
tions at the Seattle meeting.

*

Edward L. Heydecker, assistant tax
commissioner of New York City and
chairman of the National Municipal
League's committee on sources of munici-
pal revenue, has been appointed by the
Governor of New York a member of the
commission to codify and revise the tax
laws of that state.

*

Prof. Richard R. Price has accepted
the position of director of the extension
division of the University of Minnesota
and will in that connection establish a
municipal reference bureau similar to
the one he conducted while a member
of the faculty of the University of Kan-
sas.

Julius Henry Cohen, a member of the
council of the National Municipal
League, has issued a pamphlet, entitled
"The Protocols in the Coat, Suit and
Dress Industry and in the Dress and
Waist Industries," outlining what has
been done in the last two or three years
in the settlement of labor difficulties in
these indj^istries and in increasing the
sanitary conditions under which the
work therein is done.

720

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

Elliott Hunt Pendleton, of Cincinnati,
editor of the Citizens' Bulletin of that
place and a leading publicist, and mem-
ber of the council of the National Mu-
nicipal League, had the degree of mas-
ter of arts conferred upon him at the
recent Harvard commencement.

George W. Guthrie, for many years a
vice-president of the National Municipal
League and recently a member of its
council, has been appointed ambassador
to Japan by President Wilson.

Mrs. Owen Wister, a member of the
Nationa Municipal League from the
beginning and at the time of her death
president of the Philadelphia Civic Club,
died suddenly at her summer home at
Saunderstown, R. 1., on August 24.
Mrs. Wister, who was the wife of Owen
Wister, the well known novelist, was an
active and aggressive factor in the social
and civic life of Philadelphia, and her
death will not only come as a severe
shock to all who knew and admired her,
but will be a distinct loss to every for-
ward movement, not only in the city of
Philadelphia, but in the country at
large. Mrs. Wister, who was a young
woman at the time of her death, had
however a long line of credits to her

account. She was chairman of the com-
mittee on civics of the State Federation
of Women's Clubs. She was one of the
two founders of the Civic Club and was
active in the Philadelphia Conference
for Good City Government, out of which
the National Municipal League grew.
Her references to this fact at the Los
Angeles meeting constituted one of the
most interesting phases of a very inter-
esting occasion.

Charles Mulford Robinson has been
chosen professor for the chair of civic de-
sign in the University of Hlinois. This
is the first designated professorship in
this subject in the United States. As
Mr. Robinson was unwilling to accept a
resident professorship, the University
authorities have graciously put him on
part time so as^to leave him free to carry
on his practical work in city planning.
It is interesting to note that in the choice
of the title the University of Illinois fol-
lowed the English precedent. The course
will be included in the landscape gar-
dening division of the college of agricul-
ture. In the same connection we might
point out that a course in landscape gar-
dening was offered in Illinois in 1868, be-
ing probably the first in this country.
In number of students it is one of the
largest, if not the largest, in the country.

DEPARTMENT OF LEGISLATION AND
JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Edited by John A. Lapp

Legislative Reference Department of the Indiana State Library

Richard W. Montague, Esq., Portland, Ore.

In charge of Judicial Decisions •

Civil Service Legislation. — Ohio. The
most important gain during the past few
months for the merit system has been in
Ohio, where a comprehensive civil serv-
ice law has been enacted. This was the
result of the adoption last September
(by a majority of over 100,000) of a con-
stitutional amendment requiring that
appointments and promotions in the
civil service shall be made for merit and
fitness. The only opposition to the bill
came from the spoilsmen and the state
librarians, who opposed the provision
placing the staffs of the several libra-
ries on a competitive basis. Their op-
position was such that the bill was
amended before final passage and the
librarians were placed in the unclassified
service.

The new law applies to the service of
the state, its counties, cities and city
school districts. A civil . service com-
mission of three members appointed by
the governor for overlapping terms of
six years has jurisdiction over the serv-
ices of the state and its counties. The
services of the municipalities are placed
under the control of the local authori-
ties. The state commission is, however,
given supervisory authority over the local
boards and may investigate their admin-
istration of the law at any time.

The new act, for which the Cleveland
Civic League was largely responsible,
provides for the appointment by the
mayor (or the chief appointing authority)
of three civil service commissioners, to
serve for six-year terms. The members
of the existing municipal civil service
commissions are continued in office for
the terms for which they were appointed.

Their successors, the first appointees o^
the chief appointing power, shall be ap-
pointed to serve respectively for two, four
and six years. Not more than two mem-
bers of the commission shall be adherents
of the same political party. Provision

. is made for the removal of the commis-
sioners by the chief appointing power on
charges after a hearing.

If the appointing power of any of the
seventy-two municipalities fails to ap-
point a municipal commission within
sixty days after the passage of the act
the state civil service commission shall
make the appointments. The state com-
mission can also draft rules for the
municipal service if any of the local
commissions fail to prepare such rules
within six months of the passage of the
act.

The public service is divided between
the unclassified and the classified classes.
The former class includes (1) all elective
officers; (2) all heads of departments,
boards of commissions designated by the
chief appointing power; (3) all officers
elected by the general assembly; (4) all
election officers; (5) members of the
national guard; (6) presidents, super-
intendents, directors, teachers and in-
structors in the public schools, colleges

. and universities; (7) two secretaries, as-
sistants or clerks for each of the elective
or principal executive officers, except the
civil service commission, authorized by
law to appoint a secretary; (S; all dep-
uties acting for the heads of departments;
(9) bailiffs of courts of record, and (10)
employees and clerks of boards of deputy
state supervisors and inspectors of elec-
tion. The classified service, which is des-

721

722

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

ignated the competitive class, includes
all other positions.

The law makes provision for the cer-
tification of the three highest names on
the eligible list for the usual probation-
ary period, at the end of which employ-
ees may be removed with the approval
of the civil service commissiori.

In all cases of reductions, suspensions
and removals the appointing officer must
furnish the subordinate concerned the
reasons for the action and give the em-
ployee a reasonable time in which to
make and file an explanation.

A most important feature of the bill
is the provision giving civil service com-
missions power to make investigations
for the purpose of ascertaining the du-
ties prescribed by law and practice for
each employee in the classified service
and all other facts enabling the commis-
sions to determine the efficiency of the
employees. The commissions shall es-
tablish grades in the service based upon
similarity of duties and salaries and
shall standardize employment in each
grade. Standards of efiiciency to be
maintained by the employees shall be
fixed by the commissions, which shall
report to the heads of departments any
failure to maintain satisfactory effi-
ciency records. Such failure on the part
of any employee shall be suflBcient ground
for dismissal.

The civil service commissions are given
further power to investigate alleged
abuses by the appointing ofiicers. If
such charges against the heads of depart-
ments are sustained by investigation,
the civil service commissions shall so
report to the chief appointing power,
who is authorized to remove the guilty
person after a hearing.

No person holding position in the
classified service shall be an ofiicer in any
political organization or take part in
politics other than to vote and to "ex-
press freely his political opinion."

Michigan. The voters of two cities —
Detroit and Grand Rapids — have adopted
charter amendments placing their serv-
ices on a competitive basis. The adop-

tion of the amendment in Detroit com-
pletes a fight begun over three years ago.
It provides for the appointment by the
mayor of a civil service commission of
four members to serve for four-year terms
without salary. A radical provision of
the amendment provides that the head
of the department, in making promo-
tions and removals, is required to file his
reasons with the civil service commis-
sion, and the commission may and if re-
quested in writing by the employee con-
cerned, it becomes its duty to make an
investigation of the promotion or removal
in question. If it develops that the pro-
motion or removal was made for reasons
other than for the good of the service, a
report to that effect to the appointing
officers is sufficient cause for the setting
aside of the promotion or for the rein-
statement of the employee dismissed.

The charter amendments adopted by
the electors of Grand Rapids on April 7
follow the more advanced ideas on civil
service administration, in so far as the
appointment of the civil service commis-
sioners is concerned. They are appointed
by the mayor for overlapping terms of
six years each. An efficiency system is
provided for, to be under the direction
of the civil service commission, which
shall establish standards of efficiency in
all departments of the city government
and all employees are required to render
service according to such standards.

Minneapolis. A bill placing the serv-
ice of Minneapolis on a merit basis
passed the Minnesota legislature late in
March and has received the approval of
Governor Eberhardt. The law affects
some 5000 employees and was drafted
by the civic and commerce association.
The law provides for the appointment
by the mayor of a civil service commis-
sion of three members for three years to
serve without compensation. The ap-
propriation of the commission is safe-
guarded from the attacks of the spoils-
men by a provision in the law that the
city council must appropriate not less
than $25 for each 1000 inhabitants of the
city.

DEPARTMENT OF LEGISLATION

723

Denver. The voters had the oppor-
tunity on May 20 to adopt an entirely
new civil service chapter as an amend-
ment to the charter. Owing to the adop-
tion in February of two poorly drawn
charter amendments which provided for
the commission form of government
there was grave doubt whether city and
county employees were guaranteed a
permanent tenure during good behavior
or were appointed for four-year terms.
The Denver civil service reform asso-
ciation has drafted the new section,
which provides, among other things, for
the appointment by the council of three
civil service commissioners to serve for
overlapping terms of six years each.
Separations from the service are placed
entirely in the hands of the civil service
commission, which shall sit as an admin-
istrative board. Profiting by the experi-
ence of the Colorado state commission at
the hands of the spoilsmen, provision is
made for the annual appropriation by
the council of a sum equal to not less
than $1000 for each 50,000 inhabitants.

Philadelphia. The Blankenburg com-
mission had been under the fire of dis-
appointed place seekers and a futile
attempt was made at Harrisburg to
legislate the present commission out of
office by establishing an elective civil
service commission.

New York State. The legislature has
taken a reactionary attitude by passing
the so-called Walker removal bill, which
affects every competitive employee in
the state, county, city and village serv-
ices. This is the bill, advocated by
the organized employees of the state,
which not only gives a trial on removal
but allows the employee to take his case
to the courts by a writ of certiorari. In
spite of the fact that many mayors and
practically every head of the state and
New York City departments were op-
posed to it, the bill was sent to the gov-
ernor on the last day of the session by
a strict party vote. The civil service
reform association and other organiza-
tions which opposed the bill have asked
the governor for a hearing, as its enact-

ment into law would inevitably break
down discipline in the public service and
clog the service with incompetents.

Another bill which has become law is
intended to give home rule to all cities
of New York state. This act, which
had the endorsement of the Municipal
Government Association and the Citi-
zens Union, was opposed by the Civil
Service Reform Association, because its
language was so vague that it may admit
of a construction which will remove the
civil service commission of every city
in the state from the supervision of the
state civil service commission. i

George T. Keyes.*

«

*

Municipal Ownership, 1913. — Phila-
delphia. Probably the most important
legislation looking to the municipal
ownership and operation of public utili-
ties during the state legislative sessions
of 1913 was an act authorizing Pennsyl-
vania cities of the first class to "pur-
chase, lease, locate, construct and equip"
and "own, use, maintain and operate"
street and suburban railways. The act
was passed by the Pennsylvania legisla-
ture and became a law with the approval
of Governor Tener, June 17. It applies
only to Philadelphia, the one first class
city in the state. The act confers upon
the city the right of eminent domain and
the right to make physical connections
with any privately owned railway. It
also provides for the assessment of dam-
ages to condemned property. Not only
is Philadelphia empowered to acquire,
own and operate street railway lines but
the city likewise is empowered "To enter
into agreements for the construction or
operation, or both the construction and
operation .... including the pre-
scribing and fixing of rates for tranporta-
tion .... Provided, no such lease,
license or operating agreement shall be
for a longer period than fifty years."
Provision is made further for beginning

1 See p. 684, N.\tional Municipal Review, vol. 11.

2 Assistant Secietary National Civil Service Re-
form League.

724

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

the work of construction within eighteen
months from the date of agreement and
for conijjletion of transit facilities within
a period fixed by the agreement. Power
is conferred upon private corporations to
enter into such agreements with the
Philadelphia council as are permitted
to the city itself.

At least ten states made important
additions to the power of municipalities
to acquire, own and operate municipal
utilities during the legislative sessions
of 1913.

Nero Hampshire instituted a departure
in municipal ownership by conferring on
cities the right "to vote money to pur-
chase and manage lands for the purpose
of growing wood and timber." Timber
lands so acquired are to be developed
under the direction of the state forester.
This act marks a new phase of conserva-
tion in so far as its admitted purpose in
the very practical one of furnishing fire-
wood to the people. It represents the
effort of one state to recover what has
been lost in the ruthless waste of timber
lands.

Washington, Kansas and North Dakota.
Country-wide agitation against the
middleman fructified in these states,
where municipalities were given power
to acquire and operate public markets.
In Washington, an act already in force
was amended giving cities power "to con-
struct, acquire and operate public mar-
kets and one or more cold storage plants
for the sale and preservation of butter,
eggs, meats, fish, fruits, vegetables and
other perishable provisions." Kansas
granted to the cities of the first class
power to own, operate and regulate mar-
ket places but the purchase of markets
must first have been authorized by the
people at a general or special election. In
North Dakota, the city council is em-
powered to purchase, erect, lease, main-
tain and manage market houses and
slaughter houses.

Co/rnec^icu/, in four special acts, gave
to four cities, Hartford, New Haven,
South Norwalk and New Britain, the
power to own and operate municipal ice

houses. The amendment to the charter of
South Norwalk also gave the city author-
ity to operate a municipal cold storage.

Wisconsin gave power to all cities to
establish and operate ice houses and
plants.

Iowa. The operation of garbage dis-
posal plants by cities of 80,000 population
or over is authorized by a new statute. A
special tax levy for the purpose of acquir-
ing a plant is provided for in the act.
The levy can not exceed one mill on the
taxable property.

Minnesota. First class cities are em-
powered to construct union depots, while
an Illinois statute authorizes cities of
less than 500,000 population to levy a
tax of not to exceed three mills for the
erection of public coliseums. The tax
must first be sustained by a referendum
vote of the people. North Dakota also
has a new law, permitting city councils
to submit to popular vote the question
of a bond issue for municipal audito-
riums, armories, public playgrounds,
public gymnasiums, public baths, and
other places of public amusement or
recreation. Under the North Dakota act
a limit of 5 per cent on the assessed valu-
ation fixes the amount of the bond issues,
except by a two-thirds vote the electors
may extend the limit three per cent.
All bonds must be sold at par.

New Hampshire. A new act authorizes
cities to operate publicly owned lighting
systems. An amendment to an Iowa act
permits municipalities engaged in the
operation of heating, water, gas, light
and power plants to dispose of their prod-
uct outside the city limits and to pri-
vate individuals or corporations. Kansas
abolished the "fair margin of profit upon
capital invested" as a factor in determin-
ing rates for water furnished by munici-
pal plants. Only operating expenses,
interest, sinking fund, depreciation, im-
provements and repairs and loss of taxes
incident to municipal ownership are to
be considered as rate factors.

The Illiiiois legislature passed a gen-
eral act authorizing cities of all classes
to acquire, own, operate and lease public

DEPARTMENT OF LEGISLATION

725

utilities after an affirmative referendum
vote. Construction and operation are
subject to separate referendums under
tlie act. Leases for a longer period than
five years must be subjected to referen-
dum when petitioned for by ten per cent
of the voters. A special act was also
passed giving to Chicago the right to
own and operate harbors and docks. A
general act authorizes cities of all classes
to levy a "levee tax" of not to exceed $1
on each .$100 of assessed valuation for
the construction of levees in districts
imperiled by floods.

New Jersexj provided for the establish-
ment of public comfort stations by mu-
nicipalities in 1913.

Viewed by comparison with legisla-
tion of other years, 1913 may be regarded
as having been particularly fruitful in
the matter of new laws, extending the
scope of municipal ownership.

Carl Henry Mote.^

Indiana-polis.

♦

Public Utilities. — Eight states created
state commissions for the control of
public utilities during the session of
1913. These states are: Indiana, Illi-
nois, Colorado, Missouri, Montana,
Idaho, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
Massachusetts conferred the duties of
the highway commission relating to tel-
egraphs and telephones and the duties
of the railroad commission upon a pub-
lic service commission. Ohio redrafted
the public utility commission law giving
added powers especially relating to val-
uation and stock and bond issues, ai)d
New Hampshire amended her law by giv-
ing the commission power over account-
ing including depreciation. In each case
the commission is made appointive by
the governor.

These laws uniformly require that
public utilities shall give just and rea-
sonable service at a just and reasonable
price and in most states give the com-
missions ample power for investigation
and enforcement. The municipal utili-

ties placed under control in the different
states are principally heat, light, water
and power companies, street railways,
telephone and telegraph companies. In
most of the states the commissions control
also railroads and other common carriers
and similar services.

Discrimination is prohibited in serv-
ice and rates; free service to any but
certain excepted classes is prohibited
and in all but West Virginia issues of
stocks and bonds is placed under the
regulation of the commission; uniform
accounts are provided for, either in a
mandatory or optional way, and valua-
tion of the property used and useful for
the convenience of the public is author-
ized in nearly all of the states. In
Indiana and Ohio such valuation is
required. In nearly every state munici-
pally owned utilities are subject to the
same regulation as others. The laws
make no exceptions for home rule. Al-
though a strong effort was made in Il-
linois to except Chicago from the law,
it failed. The state commission is there-
fore supreme in most things over the
municipalities but much power is left
to the municipalities to regulate and
control. The cities grant franchises and
regulate by contract or otherwise the
service and condition of occupying of
the streets. In Indiana the indeter-
minate permit is provided for after the
manner of the Wisconsin law. There
are no distinct departures in the laws
from those heretofore enacted in nearly
a score of states but there is a tendency
to give real powers to the commissions.
With the exception of the law passed in
West Virginia and the half way measure
of Massachusetts, the laws of the year
represent nearly all of the best which
has been proven good by experience in
other states.

California. The new public utility
district act^ is worthy of very careful
consideration. Such districts may in-
clude municipalities only or both in-
corporated and unincorporated territory,

1 Formerly Editor, Indianapolis Sun.

2 Chap. 261, L., 1913.

720

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

whether such municipalities or such ter-
ritory are in the same, or in different
counties, but no municipal corporation
shall be divided in the formation of such
a district. Such a district may, "acquire
construct, own, operate" control, or use
within or without, or partly within or
partly without "the district, works for
supplying the inhabitants of said dis-
trict with" light, water, power, heat,
transportation, telephone service or
other "means of communication, or for
the disposition of garbage, sewage,"
storm water or refuse matter, or parks,
and do all things necessary or "conven-
ient to the full exercise of the powers"
granted in the act. Constitutional
amendments proposed are vitally related
to this general subject matter of public
utilities. The constitution as it was
amended October 10, 1911, retains great
powers in municipalities over public
utilities which may be surrendered by
such municipalities to the railroad
commission, and may again be resumed
by such municipalities. It is now pro-
posed, that the powers and rights of
such municipalities would, in case of
such amendment, be as follows :

Provided, however, that this section
shall not affect such powers of control
over public utilities as relate to the mak-
ing and enforcement of local, police, san-
itary and other regulations, other than
the fixing of rates, vested in any city
and county or incorporated city or town
as, at an election to be held pursuant to
law, a majority of the qualified electors
of such city and county, or incorporated
city or town, voting thereon, shall vote
to retain, and until such election such
powers shall continue unimpaired, but
if the vote so taken shall not favor the
continuation of such powers they shall
thereafter vest in the railroad commis-
sion as provided by law; and provided,
further that where any such city and
county or incorporated city or town
shall have elected to continue any of its
powers to make and enforce such local
police, sanitary and other regulations,
other than the fixing of rates, it may, by
vote of a majority of its qualified elec-
tors voting thereon, thereafter surrender
such powers to the railroad commission
in the manner prescribed by the legis-
lature, and provided, further, that this

section shall not affect the right of any
city and county or incorporated city or
town to grant franchises for public util-
ities upon the terms and conditions and
in the manner prescribed by law.

The two significant changes consist
in the phrase, "other than the fixing of
rates," and the omission of the provision
for revesting power in municipalities.

Taxation.' — The subject of taxation
of interest to municipalities did not
receive much attention at the recent
sessions:

Constitutional amendments have
been adopted this year by the legisla-
tures of Kansas and Oregon, to be voted
on by the people in those states in No-
vember, 1914, and intended to permit
the classification of property for taxa-
tion at different rates. Amendments
substantially similar have been rejected
twice (1910 and 1912) in Oregon by a
small majority. Both states now have
constitutional provisions which impose
the rigid general property tax, subjecting
all property, real and personal, to one
rule of assessment and taxation. Iowa
passed an amendment for the first time
providing for the separation of sources
of revenue.

New Jersey enacted one important
tax law, providing for tax maps through-
out the state. This was one of the rec-
ommendations of the commission to
investigate tax assessments. Cities, bor-
oughs, villages and towns not having
maps, or where existing maps are in-
adequate, must provide their assessors
with an adequate map within two years,
showing the boundaries of each property,
together with lot and block designations,
in accordance with rules to be estab-
lished by the state board of equalization
of taxes, which is the central supervising
body.

Maps in townships arc to be pre-
pared without the expense of an actual
survey of each property. New Jersey
is fortunate in having a complete geo-

1 Notes by A. C. Pleydeil and Charles W. Reeder.

DEPARTMENT OF LEGISLATION

727

logical survey, on a scale of one mile to
the inch (similar to the United States
survey). The law provides that out-
line maps for the various townships
shall be prepared by the state board,
showing, by enlargement from the geo-
logical maps, the highways, railroads,
etc. The county tax boards are to ar-
range with the local assessor, or some
other competent person in the county,
to draw on the map the boundary lines
of various properties, by consulting
deeds or by observation, without a sur-
vey; the map is then to be open for pub-
lic inspection in the taxing district on a
day stated and to be corrected in ac-
cordance with criticisms of property
owners. This plan is much cheaper than
an actual survey and suffic'ently accu-
rate for the country districts. It was
first suggested by E. L. Heydecker of
New York, at the second tax conference
in that state last year.

The law provides also that a town-
ship may, by vote of the people, order
a surveyed map, or that the state board
may cause a survey to be made of such
part of a township as cannot be properly
mapped by the above plan, as, for ex-
ample, where there is a suburban lot de-
velopment. This work in the townships
is to be completed within five years.

Ohio had considerable legislation on
taxation. One law^ makes it the duty of
ths state tax commission to direct and
supervise the assessment of all real and
personal property in the state for taxa-
tion. By its terms, all elective asses-
sors are abolished, together with all
boards of review. For the purposes of
this act, each county in the state is made
an assessment district. If less than
65,000 in population, one deputy state
tax commissioner will be appointed for
it; in other counties, two. These of-
ficials are appointed by the governor.
They in turn appoint deputies, assist-
ants, experts, clerks and other employees.

Under the direction of the state tax
commission these officials list and value

1 103 O. L., 786-804.

for taxation all real and personal prop-
erty subject to taxation in the assess-
ment district. The results of the work
are delivered to the county auditor.

In each assessment district there is
appointed by the tax commission a
board of three persons who constitute a
"district board of complaints." The
board hears all complaints relating to
the assessment of both real and personal
property. It may raise or lower an
assessment, or order a re-assessment.
The results of these boards' work are
given to the district assessors. Pro-
vision is also made for appeals to the
state tax commission.

The Smith One-Per Cent Tax Law^
had a limitation that the amount of
money raised by taxation for 1911 and
each succeeding year should be based
upon the amount raised in the year
1910. This limitation was removed. The
law' now provides that the aggregate
amount of taxes levied in any district
shall not in any one year exceed ten
mills on each dollar of tax valuation.
Levies for sinking fund and interest are
made in addition to the above. An-
other law* fixed a limitation on the max-
imum levy, including sinking fund and
interest, at fifteen mills.

Three changes were made by the leg-
islature in allowing excesses over the ten
and fifteen mill limits. Two of these
were due to the great damage done by
the floods in Ohio during March and
April, 1913. One law^ authorizes the
repair or replacement of public property
damaged or lost by the issue of bonds,
the tax levy to pay the interest and prin-
cipal of which shall not be subject to
any limitations. The second law^ al-
lows the replacement of school houses
damaged by the floods from funds se-
cured from bonds, sold above the limit
allowed by law.

2 National Municipal Review, vol. 1, p. 282-

283.

3 103 O. L., 552.

4 103 O. L., 57.

6 103 O. L., 760-763; also 141-147.
oiOSO. L.,527.

728

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

The third* change in the tax law is in
connection with the "good roads move-
ment." The legislature authorized the
levying of an annual tax of one-half of
one mill on all the taxable property with-
in the state to be used in highway im-
provement. This latter levy is in addi-
tion to all other levies made for any
purposes whatsoever.

City and County.—California. The
statutes of 1913 in California contain
many act tending to bring the functions
of the city and county together. There
has long been a fairly well established
line of demarcation between counties
and cities in California, as expressed by
Justice Harrison of the supreme court of
California, in County of San Mateo vs.
Cobur7i^ as follows :

A county is a governmental agency or
political subdivision of the state, or-
ganized for purposes of exercising some
functions of the state government,
whereas a municipal corporation is an
incorporation of the inhabitants of a
specified region for purposes of local
government.

The fight for home rule for cities
being very largely won, the pressure for
a rapprochement between the activities
of the county and of the city has been
continually growing stronger, and, per-
haps, the first substantial step, in ac-
cordance with the facts, and away from
such logical distinction between the
county and the city, was the amendment
of the constitution by the addition of
a new section known as 7^ article 11,
adopted October 10, 1911, permitting a
county to frame a charter for its own
government. This may have been fore-
shadowed by section 7 of that article,
adopted November G, 1894, permitting
city and county governments to be
merged and consolidated into one mu-
nicipal government.

Under this new provision for county
charters there has come into existence

' 103 O. L., 863: also 155-1.58.
' 130 Cal. 631, 636.

the Los Angeles county charter,' and
the charter of the county of San Bernar-
dino.*

The point thus reached is certainly a
far cry from ''a system of county gov-
ernment which shall be uniform through-
out the state" which was and still is
the provision in section 4 of article 11,
and originally a part of the present con-
stitution of 1879.

It may be that the proposed amend-
ment of section 13 of article 11 (by assem-
bly constitutional amendment no. 47),*
so that the legislature shall unquestion-
ably ''have power to provide for the
supervision, regulation and conduct, in
such manner as it may determine, of the
affairs of irrigation districts, reclama-
tion districts or drainage districts, or-
ganized or existing under any law of this
state" may infringe somewhat upon mu-
nicipal powers. Constitutional amend-
ments passed seek to bring the city and
county government together.

Chapter 92 provides

For the assumption and discharge by
county officers of certain of the munici-
pal functions of the cities and towns
within the county, whenever, in the case
of cities and towns incorporated under
general laws the discharge by county
officers of such municipal functions is
authorized by general law, or whenever,
in the case of cities and towns organized
under section eight of this article, the
discharge by county officers of such
municipal functions is authorized by
provisions of the charters, or by amend-
ments thereto, of such cities or towns.

Another constitutional amendment
provides that

the legislature may, by general laws,
provide for the performance by county
officers of certain of the municipal func-
tions of cities and towns so incorporated
(under the municipal incorporation act)
whenever a majority of the electors of
any such city or town voting at a general
or special election shall so determine.

The converse of this is also provided
as an amendment to section 75 of article

3 Chap. 5, Laws 1913.
• Chap. 33, Laws 1913.
s Chap. 91. Laws 1913.

DEPARTMENT OF LEGISLATION

729

11 to enable the assignment of the per-
formance within municipalities of any
of the duties of county officers to city
officials. Further amendments seek to
clarify the application to the new city
county organization of the provisions of
section eight of article II which provides
for incorporation of cities and towns. ^

R. S. Geay.
San Francisco, Cat.

Budget Legislation.— Wisconsin. The
legislature, prohibited by state consti-
tution from enacting special municipal
legislation, has this session revised
budget procedure for Wisconsin cities of
the first class. Heretofore budget mak-
ing, based on meager information, lump
sum appropriations once adopted not
revisable, budget schedules largely per-
missive appropriations requiring fur-
ther common council authorizations to
expend, a financial hiatus during the
first month of every year due to the fis-
cal year commencing January 1 and bud-
get adoption on January 31, confusion
as to time effective of salary revision be-
cause of conflicting charter provisions
reading current year, ensuing year or
next ensuing year, and a long tortuous
journey through committees depend-
ing upon gossip information rather than
on written facts, has been budget mak-
ing on anything but a scientific efficient
basis — a guess proposition and a poor
guess at that.

The new budget law provides (a) that
heads of departments shall file estimates
of proposed expenditures of every kind
and nature, in detail, and the reasons
therefor, with comptroller not later than
October 1, (b) a board of estimate con-
sisting of mayor, comptroller, treasurer,
city attorney, president of common coun-
cil, commissioner of public works and the
five members of the finance committee of
the common council, (c) that from de-
partmental estimates the board shall
adopt a tentative budget by December

' Laws 1913, chap. 90.

15 all meetings to be public, and after at
least one public hearing, (d) that the
common council, after revision, and at
lea?t one public hearing, shall adopt bud-
get by December 31, (e) that board of
estimate shall meet at call of mayor and
may revise budget items upon request,
supported by data, of department heads,
(f) that budget items shall be appropria-
tions. All commissions and boards, over
which common council has limited juris-
diction are also brought under this act.
The legislature has also passed amend-
ments in conjunction with the budget act
which vests the comptroller with greater
and more positive authority as to pre-
scribing accounting methods, forms of
payrolls, etc., in departments. The lot
and block system for writing tax rolls
and tax bills, similar to the system in
New York City, has been authorized.

While there has been no state budget
legislation, great advance has been
made as to making up the general ap-
propriation bill, all items having been
set forth on a scientific budget plan.
Ralph Bowman.''

Ohio. The make-up of the budget
commission' was also changed.* It now
consists of three members: The county
auditor, the mayor of the largest munic-
ipality, and the city solicitor of the larg-
est municipality, provided the amount
of taxable property in the cities and vil-
lages exceeds that outside, otherwise,
the president of the school board of the
school district containing the largest
municipality. This board determines
the tax levy for each county in the state,
after receiving all the requests from all
the districts and the state.

Legislative Reference.— That legisla-
tive reference is still progressing is
evinced not only by the new depart-
ments each year sees created, but also

2 Director Milwaukee Bureau of Municipal Re-
search.

3 National Municifal Review, vol. I, p. 282.
< 103 O. L., 552.

730

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

by the radical changes introduced into
the administration of already estab-
lished bureaus. Three new departments
will date from 1913, New Hampshire,
California and Illinois, In New Hamp-
shire, the work begins modestly as a
function of the state library, with $500
of the library fund diverted for the pur-
pose but with no provision for a special
librarian. In both California and Illi-
nois the issue seemed to be, not the im-
portance of the work which was generally
admitted, but in what way it was to be
established. Several bills embodying
various schemes for legislative reference
were introduced into the assemblies of
each state, resulting, in California, in a
legislative counsel bureau — the governor
and two members from each legislative
house — to be administered by a salaried
chief of the bureau, and, in Illinois, in
a quite similar plan, a joint legislative
commission, — the governor and the chair-
men of the appropriations and judici-
ary committees of both houses with a sec-
retary to carry on the work. Each law
includes bill drafting and, in Illinois,
the bureau is required to furnish each
general assembly with a budget of state
expenses.

In Vermont, Indiana and Ohio, the
legislative reference departments al-
ready existing as branches of the work
of the state libraries, were placed on an
independent basis by 1913 enactments
which removed them from the state
libraries, and made them separate bu-
reaus, granting them more ample appro-
priations. In Vermont, the chief of the
bureau is appointed by the governor; in
Indiana, a separate board of the gov-
ernor, state librarian, presidents of the
two state universities and one other
member controls the bureau; and in Ohio
the work is directly under the super-
vision of the state board of library com-
missioners. The new Vermont law adds
to the bureau two revisers of statutes,
also appointed by the governor, to assist
in bill drafting and endorse or reject as
to phraseology and consistency with ex-
isting statutes, all bills intro(lucc<l.

The following item in the Nebraska
appropriation bill, is of interest as an
entirely new departure in legislative
reference work — designed, perhaps, to
limit the amount of bill drafting falling
upon the bureau to the more important
bills:

Neither the director nor the assist-
ant director, nor any employee of the
legislative ^-eference bureau shall draft
or prepare any bill for introduction into
the legislature for any member of the
legislature or for any other person, ex-
cept on the payment of five dollars
($5.00) for each and every bill that may
be so prepared by any emplo3'ee of said
bureau, which sum shall be paid into
the State Treasury for the benefit of the
general fund.

Without legislative enactment or ap-
propriation, the state universities of
Colorado and Washington have made a
beginning in this line of work and main-
tained bureaus at their respective state
Capitols during the legislative sessions.
Ethel Cleland.^

Social Welfare Board. — Missouri.- A
social welfare board was created for
counties having a city of the first class
in Missouri to take the place of the
charity boards, and to consist of the
mayor, president of the county court,
three members appointed by the county
court and three by the mayor and coun-
cil. The law declares that the board
shall be non-political and non-sectarian.
The duties of the board are those inci-
dent to the betterment of social and
physical causes of dependency, the re-
lief and care of the indigent and the
care of sick dependents excepting in-
sane and those having transmissible
diseases and those admitted to the poor
house. Besides the duties of relief, the
board is made a center of inter-commu-
nication for the charitable organizations
with the end of eliminating overlapping
relief. A confidential registration bu-
reau is to be maintained. The police

' In'^llaiiM Legislative roferenre bureau.
2 Laws 1913, p. 134.

DEPARTMENT OF LEGISLATION

731

commission and health authorities are
required to aid the board whenever re-
quested in matters coming within their
respective functions. The law requires
that the board shall make concentrated
attack on social causes of hardship such
as insanitary housing, child labor, pawn
shops, and loan sharks.

Molion Pictures. — Ohio. The i-estric-
tions on theaters and motion picture
show rooms were lessened by the recent
legislature.^ The minimum size of room
was changed from 25 feet wide, measur-
ing the clear between the walls, to 18
feet; and the height of the room was
changed from 15 feet to 13 feet. A board
of three members is to be appointed for
the state by the industrial commission
to censor motion picture films. ^ The
films are to be submitted to the board
before they are delivered to the exhib-
itor. If passed they are to be stamped,
and numbered consecutively. Before
the films are shown, the words "Ap-
proved by the Ohio Board of Censors"
and the number must be projected upon
the screen. The board may work in
connection with other censor boards as
a censor congress and the action of the
congress will be accepted. Ninety days
after the law goes into effect, no films
can be shown in Ohio unless passed by
the board. The penalty for violating
the act is a fine of $25 to $300 or an
imprisonment of 30 days to one year or
both.'

Advertising — Municipal. — A Washing-
ton law* authorizes cities of from 10,000
to 18,000 inhabitants to create by ordi-

1 103 O. L., 114.
2 103 O. L., 399.

3 Notes by C. W. Reeder, Ohio State University
Library.

<Law8 1913. chap. 57.

nance a publicity fund, to be used ex-
clusively for exploiting and advertising
the general advantages and opportunities
of such city and vicinity, and to levy a
tax not exceeding 2.5 mills on the dollar
of the assessed valuation of the taxable
property of such city. This publicity
fund is to be managed by a board of
three members, who are nominated by
an incorporated commercial organization
of such city having not less than two
hundred dues paying members, then ap-
pointed by the mayor and confirmed by
the council. The members of this board
serve without remuneration and must
be actual residents, voters and property
owners in such city and must give bond
to the city in the sum of $1000. No
part of this fund shall ever be paid to
any newspaper, magazine, or periodical
for advertising or for any services what-
soever, nor for making exhibits at any
fair, expositions or the like.

Residence Districts. — A Minnesota'
law authorizes cities of 50,000 or more to
designate residence districts in which
the erection of anything but residences
may be prohibited. Industrial districts
may also be designated where certain
classes of industries may be carried on.
In the city of Boston^ no building used
as a garage shall hereafter be erected or
enlarged without the approval of the
board of street commissioners after a
notice and public hearing upon an ap-
plication filed with the board. The
board shall hear all parties interested
and after giving due consideration to the
interests of all owners of record notified,
the general character of the neighbor-
hood and the public convenience and
determine whether the permission should
be granted.

» Laws 1913, chap. 420,
• Laws 1913, chap. 577.

732

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

II. JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Brick Kilns in Residence Districts. —

Los An,u;elcs li;is ;in ordinance iiiohihiting
the maintonanco or operation of brick
kilns in certain described residence dis-
tricts. A violation of any of the pro-
visions of the ordinance is made a mis-
demeanor. One Jladachek, who owned
land and operated a brick kiln within
the district described before the territory
concerned was annexed to the city, was
arrested for (continuing to operate it
after the ordinance went into effect.
In upholding the validity of the ordi-
nance in habeas corpus i)roceedings
brought by him, ex parte Hadachek,^ the
supreme court of California very posi-
tively affirms the power of legislative
regulation of possible nuisances. It
holds that this trade conducted in a res-
idence district is one concerning the in-
nocuous character of which reasonable
minds may differ. That absolute pro-
hibition in such districts is accordingly
a matter for legislative determination.
That the courts will not substitute their
judgment upon the issue for that of the
legislative body. It is further held that
the business having antedated the res-
idences made no difference. That the
residents are not cstoppsd from object-
ing to a nuisance by the fact that they
moved into the vicinity of it. That the
power to regulate a given business is
not limited by the fact that the value of
investments made in the business prior
to legislative action will be greatly di-
minished. The point made by the pe-
titioner that the purpose of the ordinance
was to suppress his and one other busi-
ness was held immaterial, the suppres-
sion being otherwise proper, and there
being no showing of an intent to injure
or to discriminate against him as an
individual.

This decision is one of a series in
which the rights of a city to regulate
conditions of living wnthin its boundaries
is affirmed completely.

Uniformity in Water Rates. — The dis-
tinction between the public and private
nature of various activities of a city is
discussed by the supreme court of Ala-
bama in City of Montgomery vs. Greene
et al."^ The city water mains were ex-
tended out-side the limits of the munic-
ipality, and an additional charge made
for water from such extensions. The
court held that all persons are entitled
to have the same service at the same
rates. That the fact that the city had
elected to extend the mains beyond the
limits did not entitle it to charge more
for water so supplied. That when a
city goes into the business of supplying
water to its inhabitants or others, it
does it in the capacity of a private cor-
poration, and not in the exercise of its
power of local sovereignty, and is in
this respect on precisely the same foot-
ing as a private corporation.

*

Rights in the Water Fronts. — The su-
preme court of Oregon in Pacific Mill-
ing and Elevator Com/pany vs. City oj
Portland^ handed down a decision of
vast importance to cities trying to rescue
something from the past prodigality of
the state legislature. The property in-
volved ran high into millions, and con-
sisted of that portion of the bed of the
Willamette river between high water
mark and the line of navigation. The
contention of the city was that this
property was vested in the state for
the use of the public, and that gifts by
the legislature purporting to convey it
to the owners of the riparian lands were
void, and conferred no rights in respect
to it. That the state being in the posi-
tion of a trustee for the people could
not divest itself of the property to pri-
vate parties in violation of the trust.
Various objections were also raised to
the form of the divesting. The court,
however, was impressed with the fact

«P. R. 1.32-.),S4.

i60S. R. noo.

'133 Pac. R. 72.

DEPARTMENT OF LEGISLATION

733

that taxes had been paid on the lands in
question for a number of years. That
investments in large amounts had been
made on the strength of the titles in dis-
pute, and that stability of land titles is
of much importance. It therefore con-
firmed the ancient and wholesale legis-
lative grants placing in private hands
almost the whole of the river banks with-
in the city limits thus infinitely increas-
ing the difficulty of municipal use and
municipal development of the water-
front.

Things a City Ought to Know.— St.
Louis permitted a sink hole to exist close
to an unguarded sidewalk. A heavy
storm filled the hole with water and a
child was drowned in it. The supreme
court of Missouri in Benton et ux vs. City
of St. Louis'^ decided that the city must
be deemed to have known that the hole
was filled with water after the storm, al-
though it did not know thijt any par-
ticular storm had filled it. The court
holds that a city is to be presumed to
have rather full and complete knowledge
as to conditions within its boundaries,
though it may not be informed as to how
those conditions came to exist.

Commission Government and the Con-
stitution.— Opponents of the commission
form of government usually depend on
the constitution as a last defense In
State ex rel. Duniway et al vs. City of
Portland et aPihe futilitj'- of this defense
was again exemplified. Oregon cities,
by constitutional amendments, enjoy a
very large measure of home rule. The
case came up on an application for a
writ of mandamus to compel the city
auditor to place on the ballot the names
of the nominees selected a the primary
held on the day the new charter was
adopted, and which nominations were
avoided by the fact of the proposed char-
ters being adopted. Among the objec-
tions urged was that the charter was

' 154 S. W. R. 473.
2 133 Pac. R. 62.

void for the reason that it prohibited
political designations on the ballot,
that it consisted of a mass of amend-
ments and did not give the voter an
opportunity to vote on each separately,
that the preferential system of voting
is a violation of the constitution, and
that less than a majority of the registered
voters having expressed themselves the
charter could not be considered to have
been adopted.

The court adopted as a test the power
of the legislature to have enacted the
charter before the home rule pr visions
became effective, and held that such an
enactment having been within the power
of the legislature, it is within the power
of the voters of the city now. That the
right to a political designation on the
ballot is no more essential than that to a
religious or fraternal one, and that voters
who did not take enough interest to vote
are to be considered "ciphers, and put
in a column by themselves."

Competition in Water Supply. — In
view of the alleged "holdup" tactics of
private water companies in various cities
the decision by the circuit court of ap-
peals in Town of Glenwood Springs vs.
Gle wood Light & Water Company^ is
of considerable interest. The water
company in this case held a franchise for
a term of years to supply the town and
its inh bitants with water, and to lay
pipes, etc., and the exclusive right to
furnish the town with water for public
purposes, such as flushing of sewers,
fire fighting, and street sprinkling. The
company had executed the contract and
was operating under it when the town
undertook to establish a competing mu-
nicipal system. It was held that the
city was entitled, so far as the contract
was concerned, to construct and operate
waterworks, and to compete with the
company in supplying its inhabitants
with water for domestic and other pur-
poses, so long as it did not infringe on
the exclusive grant made to the company

3 202F. R. 678.

734

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

and that tin injunction restraining it
from so doing could not be sustained.

*
Obligations under a Franchise. — The
right of a city to revoke a franchise for
incomplete compliance with its terms
was considered by the United States
Supreme Court in Grand Trunk Western
Railway Company vs. City of South Betid
el al.^ The company held a franchise to
lay double tracks on one of the city
streets, but had laid only a single one
over the greater part of it. The city
officials revoked the franchise as to that
part of the street having only the single
track. The company was able to show
however that, relying on the grant, it
had bought property from abutting
property owners and was prepared to
lay the additional track as soon as its
traffic demanded it. That a part of the
double track had already been laid.
On this state of facts, the court held
the revocation of the franchise a viola-
tion of contract, and unconstitutional
on that ground. The chief difference
between the city and the company re-

lated to the time to be allowed for full
performance. The court apparently
possessed a greater stock of patience
than the city authorities were able to
command.

*

Property Owners Defended. — The col-
lection of water rates in such a way as
not to use too large a proportion of the
income in the effort, and at the same
time to get the money is an administra-
tive problem, of importance in all cities
with a municipal water supply. Nash-
ville undertook to make all unmetered
rates a charge against the property owner
instead of the user. The supreme court
of Tennessee, however, in Farmer vs.
Mayor and City Council of Nashville'^
hel the ordinance to be unjust and un-
reasonable and an arbitrary distinction
as not bearing on all citizens equally,
and therefore void. That all necessary
protection to the city is furnished by
the terms ,of another ordinance which
requires unmetered water rates to be
paid in advance.

C. D. Mahaffie.'

I 33 S. C. R. 303

2 150 S. W. R. 189.

• Of the Portland, Ore., bar.

DEPARTMENT OF REPORTS AND

DOCUMENTS

I. CRITICAL AND INTERPRETATIVE
Edited bt John A. Fairlie

Professor of Political Science, University of Illinois

The City Milk Trade.i— Most people
think that the milk question is new in
America, that it appeared not over
twenty years ago, but really it began to
make itself felt in the big cities at an
earlier period. Thus, in 1859 the office
of milk inspector was established in
Boston; in 1870 the board of health of
Providence investigated the milk supply
of that city; and in 1871 the board of
health of Washington looked into that
of the federal city. But in a sense the
public is right, for the regular collection
and analysis of milk samples did not
become common in American cities until
the period from 1885 to 1890. It seems
probable that at about this time the
family cow disappeared and dairymen
found it necessary to locate so far from
their trade that t ey found it difficult to
deliver milk in good condition and had
lost personal contact with their custom-
ers. At all events the efforts of those
who were trying to keep milk supplies
pure were almost wholly in the direction
of attempting to stop wa'ering, skim-
ming, and other forms of sophistication.
Such work was certainly necessary, if
the records are to believed, for this kind
of cheating was common, but it was an
attempt on the consumer's pocketbook
rather than on his life. This was force-
fully brought to public attention by
Sedgwick and Batchelder in 1890, by the
publication of the results of their bacte-
riological study of the milk supply of
Boston. The large number of germs
found amazed people and prepared the
way for new methods of controlling milk
supplies.

A few years later the town of Mont-

1 See National Municipal Review, vol. i, pp.
71 and 700; vol. li, pp. 313 and 509.

clair, N. J., suffered from a severe epi-
demic of milk-borne typhoid fever, and
in consequence established a board of
health on thoroughly modern lines that
ever since has stood as an example of
what a board of health should be. It
chanced that the health officers appoint-
ed by this board were pupils of Sedg-
wick; so, for this reason, and, perhaps,
because a milk epidemic begot the board,
it has given much attention to the milk
question. In bettering local conditions
less emphasis was laid on chemical tests
than on dairy inspection and on bacterial
counts, with the result that milk was
improved by correcting conditions that
prevailed on the farms whence it
came. The work was educational both
to the dairymen and the public, for in-
spectors spent much time at the farms
and the annual reports of the board,
both in pictures and words, told exactly
the conditions at the several farms that
supplied the town. This sort of story is
familiar now, but then it was new, con-
sequently the reports had a wide circula-
tion, so that Montclair methods were
widely copied and, in fact, in forms
adapted to the needs of other commu-
nities, came into general use.

That Dr. Henry L. Coit, when he
originated certified milk in 1893, made a
contract for its production with a Mont-
clair dairyman, Stephen Francisco, was
of great help to the board, for there was
already established in the field a sanitary
dairy that was successful enough to impel
other dairies to copy its methods and
that for some time had been educating
people to the value of clean milk. The
idea of having milk certified by a medical
milk commission spread. Certified dai-
ries are established in many places in the

735

73()

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL KEVIEW

United States, and evcrj^where exert a
similar influence to that of Alontclair.

At about the same time that the work
of Sedgwick and Batchelder appeared,
the agricultural experiment stations be-
gan to evince interest in dairy bacteri-
ology and in the production of clean
milk. Conn of Connecticut and Russell
of Wisconsin were the first workers in
the field, and Conn's investigation of
the bacterial content of the milk supply
of Middletown, Conn, was one of the
earliest studies of the kind. The dairy
bacteriologists of the experiment stations
soon focused their attention on cream,
butter and cheese, so that until recently
the city milk trade has been more influ-
enced by medically trained bacteriolo-
gists than by bacteriologists of agricul-
tural experience, but the latter type of
man is again becoming interested in city
milk supplies and may be expected to be
active in the next few years.

Among those having a more general
interest, philanthropists stand out prom-
inently. Nathan Strauss, for example,
has provided funds for the distribution
of pasteurized milk to poor mothers,
thereby doing an act of charity and mak-
ing way for pasteurizing milk by endors-
ing its use and acquainting the public with
it. He ha.s a shoal of imitators, who have
made it possible in many different cities
to maintain milk stations where good
milk can be procured or sick babies at
reasonable rates. Other moneyed men,
feeling that they could best help by
improving methods of production and
distribution, have provided funds for
elaborate studies in these fields.

With so many interested in the milk
problem it was natural that it should be
discussed in societies of various sorts.
Thus, the American Public Health Asso-
ciation, the International Milk Inspec-
tors Association, the Dairy Instructors
Association, the American Association
of Medical \U\k Commissions, the New
New York Milk Committee, and a host
of similar organizations have been ac-
tive in formulating methods of labora-
tory procedure, or in devising score

cards, or in considering methods to
protect the dairy business, or in propos-
ing legislation.

Many other forces have been at work,
but these seem to be the principal ones;
each is powerful, and each has reacted
differently on dairying. What each has
done, and what may be expected of
each may be profitably considered.

The societies have been the center
where the differences of experts and
questions of policy have been thrashed
out, where lines of attack were laid out,
and determination to support or oppose
I>roposed legislation was reached. It is
not likely that these functions will change
or that the influence exerted by the asso-
ciations will be greatly different from
what it now is.

The milk charities too will probably
continue as they are, though there will
very likely be more of them. They will
teach mothers the value of milk and how
to use it. The scientific investigations
that have been made possible by private
gifts may be expected to continue to be
of great importance.

Medical milk commissions and the
dairies they have certified have been
helpful in many ways. In the first place,
they have furnished milk that was known
to be clean and as safe as raw milk can
possibly be. This has been a boon to
infants and invalids. They have demon-
strated that no amount of care can pro-
tect milk absolutely from infection; that
raw milk always may be unsafe. They
have demonstrated good methods, but
they have shown that it is possible to ap-
ply such expensive machinery to the dairy
business and to impose on it such restric-
tions that profits reach a vanishing point
and thereby have warned the commercial
man that so far and no farther can he go.
The milk produced by these dairies is
a valuable asset to a community but is
one that by reason of its cost is available
only to the rich, therefore it can solve
the milk question for only a few.

Physicians perhaps more than others
appreciate the value of pure milk, but
their interest has, perhaps, been stimu-

REPORTS AND DOCUMENTS

737

lated by certified dairies. The doctors
have contributed valuable papers both
from the school and in the medical press.
Tuberculosis, pasteurization, and the re-
duction of infant mortality called forth
their best efforts. They have helped
locate the cause of epidemics, and have
appeared at meetings where questions
of milk supply were under discussion.
The certified dairies will multiply, but
it is hardly to be expected that they will
serve a much larger proportion of the
communities wherein they operate than
they now do. Their influence will be
much the same, but the dairy world has
absorbed their doctrine and it is unlikely
they will add much thereto.

The agitation of the milk question by
boards of health has been conducted from
the city man's view point; that is, its ob-
ject has been to secure a low infantile mor-
bidity rate and to protect the populace
from those diseases that are spread in
milk. A large degree of success has been
attained. Incidentally it has been dis-
covered that the milk question has many
aspects, that the amelioration of condi-
tions involved is most intricate and
touches big investments of capital. The
interests expressly affected by the activ-
ity of boards of health are those of the
dairyman and of the contractor, middle-
man or distributor, as he has been vari-
ously called, but indirectly other large
interests such as the railroads are con-
cerned. The position of the boards of
health has been difficult, for they have
been charged by the farmers with igno-
rance of farm conditions, by the railroads
with imposing impossible orders as re-
gards icing and other matters, and by
contractors with the promulgation of
regulations that were unnecessary, ardu-
ous and expensive. In other words, at
times they have had to face the opposi-
tion, open and covert, of large financial
interests; it is also true that, speaking
by and large, these interests want good
conditions in the dairy business, and by
their cheerful support of regulations of
the boards have secured their quick
application with a minimum of friction.

In reaching the standards proposed by
boards of health both dairymen and
contractors have had to introduce costly
machinery, improve their plants, and
adopt more expensive methods of handl-
ing milk. Moreover, the big contractors
in order to conduct their business prop-
erly have had either to establish sys-
tems of inspection and laboratories of
their own, or else to have this work done in
the large commercial laboratories that are
to be found in the great cities. The latter
custom has resulted in creating a class of
experts who are vigilant to protect their
clients' interests and, to introduce im-
provements that will cut down expenses
both in the city and the country. It
follows that both dairymen and con-
tractors have been drawn into the dis-
cussion of dairy problems, and that
through granges, milk dealers associa-
tions, and other organizations of various
sorts they have exerted an influence on
the price of milk and on the laws enacted
to govern its production and distribution.
Boards of health then have had great in-
fluence, direct and indirect, which they
will probably continue to exert, for they
are working in the consumers' interest
and have the support of a powerful public
opinion; but it is likely that in the future
the experimental and inspection work
will be checked up more closely than
heretofore by other investigators.

The agricultural experiment stations
naturally see the farmer's position and,
perhaps, only less clearly the contrac-
tors. For years station men have been
investigating and collecting data on
dairying. They know, as no one else does,
that the modern dairy farmer has large
sums of money invested in his business
and that he must be a highly trained man
in order to succeed. They appreciate
fully that the profits in dairying are not
easy and that only careful management
can reap them. Consequently, the sta-
tions have labored zealously to get dairy-
men to adopt economical rations, to
weed out non-productive or robber cows,
to pay attention to breeding, and to be
biologically clean, so that the products

738

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

may ho wholcsonio and of frood flavor,
thereby ipsuring the best market prices.
They know that dairying must pay a
reasonable profit to be sound, hence the
stations have tried to make the dairj^men
efficient and have protested when regula-
tions have been proposed that sounded
good and entailed expense, but yielded
no adequate benefit. The work of the
stations will grow in importance, for at
present it is the hope of improving farm
conditions that holds out the bright-
est prospect for a solution of the milk
question.

Horatio N. Parker.
University of Illinois.

State Tax Commissions. — At last we
are developing a tax literature strictly
of our own. "Made in Germany" is a
term no longer applicable to theoretical
and practical works on public finance for
the use of the American student. We
can thank our tax commissions and
National Tax Association for this happy
deliverance.

In looking over the reports of our per-
manent tax commissions and tax com-
missioners, the reviewer is impressed
with the six "Firsts" which are now to
be added to the list of reports. The six
newcomers are Arizona, Colorado, Loui-
siana, North Dakota, Ohio and Wyo-
ming. The old ones arfe, of course, Ala-
bama, Connecticut, Indiana, Kansas,
Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan,
Minnesota, New Jersey, New York,
North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, Ver-
mont, Washington, West Virginia, Wis-
consin— a total of twenty-three in all.

A gross defect, easily avoidable, found
in several of these reports, is the lack of
a table of contents or of an index. Indeed
Alabama, Indiana, and Wyoming have
neither index nor table of contents.
Surely in this modern day of scientific
report making, these flagrant defects are
wholly inexcusable. Another weak point
in several reports is the printing of a
great mass of statistical matter without
comment or explanation. The best re-

ports subordinate the statistical data to
a small part of the report, and prefer-
ably, to an appendix.

Certain familiar recommendations, so
venerable as to be hoary-bearded, are
now reiterated in the newer reports. The
three chief ones are these : (I) The failure
of the personal property tax makes it
necessary to end or mend this barbarity
without delay; (2) A centralized assess-
ment must be had, if any improvement is
to be realized. A state with the county-
assessor system even advises that this
system be supplanted by a direct state
assessment; (3) Constitutional limita-
tions preserve defects in our present
system and preclude benefits of other
systems.

Among the newer things securing
attention and some emphasis, are uni-
form municipal accounting, tax maps for
cities, and a minimum tax on intangibles.
These are all sound recommendations.
Great interest is being shown in the
Wisconsin income tax, although most
commissions suspend judgment on it.
And for the first time the single tax is
receiving serious and impartial treat-
ment.

In my judgment, two reports stand
out above the rest in merit, especially
for the student in municipal finance.
These two are the Wisconsin and the
Minnesota report. These deserve speci-
fic discussion.

An excellent analysis of the income
tax is given in the Wisconsin report. This
tax is shown to be urban rather than
rural in its incidence. It is clearly a
"city tax" and falls most heavily on the
largest cities. It is a revenue-producer;
is not inquisitorial in operation; and is a
very good substitute for the personal
property tax.

Chapter six of the Wisconsin report
deals with uniform municipal account-
ing. The act creating the permanent tax
commission in 1905 provided that the
commission should investigate account-
ing and financial methods of the towns,
cities, villages, counties, and other public

REPORTS AND DOCUMENTS

739

offices, and should formulate and pre-
scribe a uniform system of accounting.
This was not done. In 1909 a resolu-
tion was passed directing the commission
to investigate the question of public ex-
penditures. A volume on state finance
was accordingly published. Chapter 523,
laws of 1911, required more definitely the
formulation of a system of municipal
accounting. Such a system is to be in-
stalled "at the request of any town,
village, city, or county." The system
is to be as uniform as practicable. Under
this statute the commission has com-
pleted and installed a system of public
accounting in three counties, four cities
and villages, and nine towns, and has
audited accounts in three of these cities.
Applications are now pending for the
installation of a system of accounting
in ten additional municipalties, two of
which have also requested an audit.

This work is done at the expense of the
municipality.

The installation of systems of ac-
counts for counties, towns, and villages
and for small cities is comparatively
simple. The financial affairs (but not
the records) of these districts are usu-
ally in excellent condition. "On the
other hand," says the report, "the finan-
cial affairs and methods of the larger
cities have been exceedingly haphazard
as a general rule. In many cases the
plainest provisions of the statute have
been violated with respect to sinking
funds and other important financial
matters."

The pay-as-you-go spirit is exceed-
ingly pronouced in the country districts.
The precise reverse is the common prac-
tice in the cities. "Instead of showing a
disposition to pay for improvements out
of revenues, the common disposition
appears to be to borrow for all improve-
ments and frequently to borrow for
current expenditures. Thus, while gen-
erally speaking, our towns and counties
are acquiring fixed property in values
amounting to large sums with compara-
tively little debt to offset them, our cities
seem disposed to incur large debts, off-

setting to a very large extent, whatever
capital assets the city may own."

"A prime requisite of any accounting
system is that there shall be a proper
audit of every receipt and of every expen-
diture by proper officials," says the
commission, and yet this check is com-
monly wanting.

Bonded debt of municipalities is a
potential menace. "This debt is growing
rapidly and too often bonds are refunded
instead of being retired at maturity."

The serial plan of paying bonds is now
successfully applied in cases where the
state school money is loaned to munici-
palities. This plan avoids the sinking
fund pitfalls.

Chapter twelve of the Minnesota 1912
report (pages 165-180) is entitled "taxa-
tion of land values," and contains a
remarkably clear and adequate discus-
sion of the tax systems of western
Canada. In Canada there are no consti-
tutional restrictions on taxation, and
hence tax systems in the various provin-
ces and cities have been worked out to fit
industrial conditions. It is the single
tax which receives the fullest treatment
in this chapter.

Winnipeg derives its public revenue
from (1) real estate; (2) business; and
(3) franchise taxes. (1) Land is assessed
at full value, buildings at two-thirds.
(2) The business tax takes the place of
a personal property tax, and is levied
on the supposed rental value of the
buildings.

Saskatchewan cities derive their
revenue from (1) real estate, (2) business,
and (3) income taxes. Buildings are now
taxed, but will not be taxed in a few
years. Business taxes are levied at so
much per square foot of floor space, the
rates being classified (50 cents for sash
and door factories, $8 for banks, etc.).

In Calgary, Alberta, land is assessed
at full value, and buildings are to be
entirely exempt by 1914.

Edmonton, the capital of Alberta, is
the only city of importance in Canada
that has adopted the single tax system in

740

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

its entirety. A tax of land values alone
is the only tax levied in that city. "The
city has had a marvelous growth in the
past few years," says the report, but
whether or not such growth has been due
in part to its tax system is a question of
some dispute. That it is giving general
satisfaction, is evidenced by the fact that
nearly every resident of the city is an
ardent single taxer.

In Vancouver, B. C, there is a pro-
vincial tax on personal property and
incomes, but the city itself uses a land
tax. It was the first Canadian city to
exempt all buildings and improvements.
The experiment has been successful.

For Minnesota the conclusions on the
single tax, are as follows: To the aver-
age owner and occupant of a home or
a farm the change would probably not
mean much one way or the other. The
elimination of personal property taxes
however, would undoubtedly add some-
what to the tax burdens of speculators
and owners of idle property.

James E. Boyle.

University of North Dakota.

Housing and City Planning.' — Fourth
National Conference on City Planning.^
In spite of the fact that an increasing
amount of attention was paid by the
Conference to political, economic and
social problems, anyone familiar with
the activities of the European cities
cannot but feel that the full significance
of these phases of city planning is not
realized by the experts in this country.
It is true that engineering and landscape
questions are of large importance, but
they are, in the last analysis, matters
of technical or aesthetic detail whose
solution is not difficult. Of greater sig-
nificance are the questions of housing,
of sanitation and hygiene, of transpor-
tation and terminal facilities, the legal

1 See also review of "Recent City Planning Re-
ports," by Charles Mulford Robinson, National
Municipal Review, vol. Jl, p. 160.

'See National Mimcipal Rkview, vol. 1, p.
728.

difficulties and many others of a similar
nature.

These matters were all discussed to
a certain extent by the Conference, and
yet the important question of excess
condemnation did not receive the at-
tention which it merited. This is espe-
cially remarkable, for a careful study
of the city planning situation in this
country will reveal that it is just this
matter which promises to be a real ob-
stacle in the way of future progress in
city expansion.

Another question which the Proceed-
ings suggest is that of state administra-
tive control, which might be vested in
the public service commissions. To be
sure, city planning in the United States
has not advanced sufficiently to require
such control, but this is a factor which
should be kept in mind with a view to
averting the embarrassing situations in
which the cities in other countries have
been put.

Julius Goebel Jr.

University of Illinois.

Jersey City.^ A report of "Suggested
Plan of Procedure," prepared for the
Jersey City plan commission dififers
markedly from many other citj' plan-
ning reports in presenting a comprehen-
sive consideration of all phases of the
city's problems. It has been prepared,
not by one, but by several experts work-
ing constantly together — an engineer,
an architect and a social worker. At
the beginning of the report are discussed
the methods and principles of the work
of the experts; and at the close there is
a summary of facts and recommenda-
tions, with an analysis of the relative
importance of various items, from which
is worked out an order of inquiry. Such
a procedure program seems to ofifer dis-
tinct advantages as a first step in city
planning work. It costs comparativel)'
little, and should save a good deal of
expense in working out the more de-
tailed items.

'See National Munictpal Review, vol. II, p'
489.

REPORTS AND DOCUMENTS

741

Neivark. In a similar report for New-
ark many of the detailed programs have
been carried out, including studies of
street traffic, the market problem and
the use of the water front. The housing
survey and report, by Dr. James Ford,
of Harvard University, includes a com-
prehensive discussion of present condi-
tions, with more specific consideration
of proposed legislation, law enforcement,
replanning old districts and planning
new areas. The conclusions of this re-
port are in favor of a permanent city
plan commission for metropolitan New-
ark, and also for the organization of a
permanent housing association or com-
mittee, which will create and represent
the enlightened public opinion of the
community. A similarly comprehensive
recreation survey was in charge of Dr.
Seymour Barnard of the Parks and Play-
grounds Association of Brooklyn.

Housing Bibliography. The Chicago
School of Civics and Philanthropy has
published a valuable bibliography of
housing problem literature in central
Chicago libraries. This was prepared
in anticipation of the housing exhibition
at the City Club during the month of
March. 1 The lists of titles are classi-
fied under the following heads: Bibli-
ographies, periodicals and collections,
general works on housing and related
subjects, city planning and garden cit-
ies, public regulation of housing and
city planning, hygiene of towns and
houses, architecture of tenements and
small residences, land question as it
affects housing and garden patches.

Street Improvements in Chicago. The
committee on down town streets of the
Chicago Association of Commerce has
published A Brief List of Suggestions to
Public Improvement Associations, by
Louis A. Dumond, engineer of the com-
mittee. This calls attention to the
opportunities of local improvement or-
ganizations, the importance of mainte-
nance of street pavements, adequate
street lighting, and the cleaning of

I See National, Municipal Review, vol. 11, p.
497.

streets, back yards and vacant lots; and
discusses more fully some details of pav-
ing construction, with reference to dif-
ferent kinds of paving materials.

New York Freight Terminals. A brief
report with maps, showing plans for
freight terminal systems at South Brook-
lyn and West Side Lower Manhattan,
was submitted by Calvin Tomkins,
Commissioner of Docks of New York
City, under date of September 12, 1912.

Financial Reports. — The annual re-
port of the New York City department of
taxes and assessments, for the year end-
ing March 31, 1912, besides the usual
statistics and comparative statments for
a number of years, includes two appen-
dices— one on factors of value of new
buildings and explanation of land value
maps, and one on the taxation of personal
property in the state of New York.

The fortieth annual report of the com-
missioners of accounts of New York City,
for the year 1912, illustrates the value
of these officers to the mayor in his ad-
ministrative control of municipal offi-
cers, in the regulation of departmental
accounts and methods and also in reports
on sundry other matters. The efficiency
staff, organized in 1911, has been con-
ducting an investigation into conditions
in the office of the president of the
borough of Queens. In addition to the
regular examination of receipts and dis-
bursements, special examinations were
made on a variety of subjects, including
billboard advertising, public charities,
municipal ferries, probation officers and
theft of supplies.

Report No. 4 of the Baltimore, Md.,
bureau of state and municipal research
presents a discussion of balance sheets
for the city of Baltimore for 1911 and
1912, with exhibits showing the status of
loan and income funds.

The report of Comptroller Taussig
of St. Louis, for the year 1911-1912, in-
cludes, in addition to a summary report,
detailed statements of the funded debt,
the financial transactions for 1911-1912,

742

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

estimates for 1912-1913, and a list of
exhibits presenting comparative financial
statements for a series of years.

The report of the city auditor of Los
Angeles, for the year 1911-1912, in addi-
tion to the data for that year, includes
comparative tables of receipts and dis-
bursements for five years and also a
number of tables of miscellaneous infor-
mation relating to Los Angeles and its
municipal government.

A novel and commendable practice,
inaugurated by the comptroller of Sche-
nectady, N. Y., is the publication of brief
financial reports during the course of the
fiscal year. On July 1, 1912, a report was
issued showing budget expenditures com-
pared with allowances for the first six
months of the fiscal year; and in October
of the same year a report was published
showing the activities of the department
from January 1.

Civil Service Reform. — The proceed-
ings of the annual report of the Na-
tional Civil Service Reform League, held
at Milwaukee, Wis., December 5 and 6,
1912, includes the report of the joint
committee of this League and the Na-
tional Municipal League on the selection
and retention of experts in municipal
office, and a paper on methods of removal
in the Chicago and Illinois services by
Robert Catherwood and William B.
Hale.

The seventeenth annual report of the
board of city service commissioners of
Milwaukee, Wis., contains a copy of the
city service act, the rules of the com-
mission and the statistical report of the
chief examiner and secretary. The re-
port of the commission covers less than
half a page; and the principal statements
are that the department has been con-
ducted on a business basis and that the
board has worked harmoniously and with
impartiality.

The tenth annual report of the civil
service department of Los Angeles, Cal.,
also presents statistical data, some cor-
respondence and official opinions, charter

provisions, civil service rules and a list
of the positions in the city service.

The annual report of the board of
of civil service commissioners of New
Orlean<, La., notes that the new commis-
sion government law for that city does
not disturb "the organic principles" of
the civil service law. The report also
includes financial and other statistics,
the civil service law and rules, instruc-
tions to applicants and specimen exami-
nation papers.

■ All of the three foregoing municipal
reports indicate a purely routine and
mechanical performance of the work of
such commissions; and there is nothing
to indicate the effectiveness of the merit
system or its results in the municipal
service.

The efficiency division of the civil
service commission of Chicago has pub-
lished an outline report of its work from
1909 to 1912, under such headings as seg-
regated appropriations and expenditures,
standardized employment and uniform
salaries, effective organization and effi-
ciency control and departmental inqui-
ries. With this is printed an analysis of
employment and departmental organiza-
tion charts for the city of Chicago, as of
March 1913.

Social Service. — Municipal Charities
in Philadelphia. W^ith the advent of
Mayor Blankenburg's administration in
Philadelphia, and with the approval of the
mayor; a committee on municipal char-
ities was formed, consisting of more than
one hundred citizens for the purpose of
endeavoring to secure a release for the
city from contracts for two charitable
institutions and to prepare a reasonably
comprehensive plan for the development
of the city's institutions. This com-
mittee was organized with an executive
committee and eleven sub-committees on
various classes of dependents. Under
date of February 3, 1913, this committee
has issued a report, with a series of sub-
committee reports, which embody a sur-
vey of the city's existing system of char-

REPORTS AND DOCUMENTS

743

ities, the various groups of dependents,
and recommendations for a more com-
prehensive system of dealing with the
respective classes of dependents. These
recommendations include changes in the
administrative organization of municipal
charities and a revised classification of
institutions and of beneficiaries of such
institutions.

Virginia. The fourth annual report of
the Virginia state board of charities and
corrections is published under the title
' 'Social Service in Virginia. ' ' It includes
an account of the administration of the
state charitable and correctional institu-
tions and also of county and city institu-
tions, with statistics and recommenda-
tions.

The proceedings of the Virginia
Conference on Charities and Corrections,
held at Danville, January 26-28, 1913,
includes papers on municipal health
departments, the city housing problem,
and the work of the Richmond juvenile
court.

Seattle, Wash. The annual report of
the juvenile court for 1912 has been pub-
lished in a small booklet, with a report
on the clinical classification of delin-
quent children according to causative
pathology.

Park Reports. — Chicago. The public
parks in Chicago are administered by
several distinct authorities, mutually
independent of each other. One result
of this situation is the lack of any com-
prehensive report of the park facilities
as a whole, and a marked contrast in the
style and effectiveness of the reports
of the different park authorities. The
forty-fourth annual report of the West
Chicago park commissioners is an elabo-
rate and expensive publication, printed
on heavy calendered paper, with numer-
ous illustrations. The report of the
special park commission, appointed under
the authority of the council, is much less
expensive, but is a well printed pamphlet
with several good illustrations, giving a

satisfactory account of the small parks
and playgrounds under the control of
this commission. The Lincoln park com-
missioners publish only a small leaflet
presenting a financial summary, but with
no information as to the operation or
development of this portion of the
Chicago parks.

Detroit. The twenty-third annual
report of the department of parks and
boulevards is also an illustrated pamph-
let printed on good paper, including both
financial statements and information as
to the management and development of
the park system. Special attention may
be called to the increased attention to
the care of street trees, the inauguration
of an automobile service to Belle Isle
(the principal city park) and a financial
summary by years since the establish-
ment of the department.

The Pennsylvania Chestnut Tree Blight
Commission has published two bulletins
on the chestnut blight disease and the
treatment of ornamental chestnut trees
affected with the blight disease.

Water Supply. — Illinois. T4ie pro-
ceedings of the fifth meeting of the Illi-
nois Water Supply Association is a sub-
stantial volume of 277 pages, containing
some forty papers on various problems
connected with public water supplies.
The association includes both municipal
water works and private companies, and
the secretary is the director of the
state water survey. The meeting was
held at the University of Illinois, March
11 and 12, and among the papers the fol-
lowing may be noted : "Legal Aspects of
Financing Municipal Water Works," by
E. V. Orvis, commissioner of public
property, Waukegan, Ills.; "Vital Sta-
tistics and Water Supplies," by Paul
Hansen, state water survey; and the
"Appraisal of Water Works Properties,"
by Douglas A. Graham, consulting engi-
neer, Chicago. Other papers dealt with
a variety of technical engineering and
sanitary problems, and with local condi-

744

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

tions in a number of Illinois cities, such
as Moline, Rock Island, Rockford, Pana
and Danville.

Induirial Water Charges. The bu-
reau of water in the Philadelphia depart-
ment of public works has been publish-
ing a water supply educational series of
booklets. No. 2 is a study of industrial
water charges, dealing principally with
charges in excess of $200. This presents
the facts of the existing situation with-
out suggesting improvements; but it is
hoped that the study of these data will
lead the city towards a more equitable
system of levying water charges on indus-
trial plants and other large water users.

Reports of Civic Associations and Edu-
cational Institutions Received^ — Port-
land, Ore. Municipal Association, for
year ending September oO, 1912.

Tax Association of Alameda County
(Cal.) Suggestions for Consideration in
Preparing a Charter for Alameda
County. February, 1913.

The Civic League of St. Louis:
Eleventh Year-Book, 1911-12.

Massachusetts Civil Service Associa-
tion: Report of the Executive Com-
mittee, Boston, 1912.

Citizens' Federation of Hudson
County, N. J. : First Annual Report of
the Secretary, May, 1912-May, 1913;
The New Jersey Legislature of 1913.

City Club of Chicago: Annual Re-
ports of Civic Committees, 1912-13, in
the City Club Bulletin, June 28, 1913.

National Consumers League: Thir-
teenth Report, for the year ending Janu-
ary 19, 1912.

Fairmount Park Art Association:
Forty-first Annual Report of the Board
of Trustees, 1913.

Commission of Fine Arts: Message
from the President Transmitting Report
for the Fiscal Year ending June 30, 1912.

Training School for Public Service,
conducted by the New York Bureau of
Municipal Research: Annual Report,
1912.

Chicago School of Civics and Philan-
thropy: Alumni Register, 1903-1913;
Summer School, 1913.

Central Purchase and Distribution of
Supplies.— Under date of March 15, 1913,
Comptroller Prcndergast of New York
City presented to the board of estimate
and apportionment a report submitting a
plan of a proposed system for the central
purchase and distribution of supplies for
the city, with copies of the forms neces-
sary to carry the system into effect. The
detailed plan was prepared by W. Rich-
mond Smith, with the cooperation of
experts in the department of finance.
This plan was developed from that of
the Canadian Pacific Railway, which
purchases four times as much as the city
of New York.

There are in the city government of
New York one hundred and twenty dif-
ferent departments, bureaus and offices
vested with the power to purchase sup-
plies. The proposed plan contemplates
the centralization of the purchase of all
supplies through a general purchasing
agent, and their distribution to the vari-
ous offices from a general city storehouse,
operated as a clearing house for all except
perishable supplies and coal, wood and
forage. 1

Government Bulletins. — Various bu-
reaus of the United States government
issue from time to time bulletins of infor-
mation and advice on municipal prob-
lems. Public health Bulletin No. o4,
issued by the U. S. Public Health Service,
gives an analysis of the laws and regula-
tions of the various states on the organi-
zation, powers and duties of health offi-
cers. This traces briefly the historical
development, and describes more fully
the present organization of state and
local health authorities. An appendix
contains the text of the various state and

» See National Mcnicipal Revie-w, vol. II, p.

221.

REPORTS AND DOCUMENTS

745

territorial health laws, and head notes of
judicial divisions relating to such laws.

Circular 185 of the Bureau of Animal
Industry gives a brief account of state
and municipal meat inspection and
municipal slaughter houses.

Bulletin 49 of the Bureau of Mines is
a discussion of city smoke ordinances
and smoke abatement in the United
States, by Samuel B. Flagg.

Public Lectures in New York City. —
The report of Supervisor Henry M. Leip-
zlger on the public lectures given under
the direction of the department of educa-
tion of New York City shows that in the
year 1911-12, these lectures were given at
174 centers, to 5573 audiences, aggregating
an attendance of 1,000,190. The report
gives in detail the list of lecture centers,
a classified list of lectures and examina-
tion questions. The various lectures are
grouped in four main divisions: litera-
ture, history, sociology and art; general
and applied science; descriptive geog-
raphy; and lectures in foreign laguages
(Italian, Yiddish and German). In the
sub-division of social subjects are several
series of lectures on municipal topics,
notably on municipal courts and the
work of various departments of city
administration.

Wisconsin Fire Insurance Investiga-
tion.^— -A joint committee of the Wiscon-
sin legislature of 1911 has submitted a
report of an investigation of fire insur-
ance with recommendations for changes
in the laws. The investigation and re-
port deal with the principles of fire insur-
ance, fire insurance companies, the policy
contract, rates and methods of rate mak-
ing, methods and expenses of the busi-
ness, fire prevention, supervision and
state insurance. The recommendations
are summarized under thirty-three heads
and fifteen bills are submitted. The
most important recommendations are for
the review of fire insurance rates by the

insurance department, the consolidation
of the fire marshal and oil inspector with
the insurance department, and a legis-
lative committee to prepare a state build-
ing code and city planning law.

Schenectady Contract Specifications. —
The bureau of engineering of the Sche-
nectady, N. Y., department of public
works has issued a pamphlet of 56 pages
containing detailed information in regard
to contracts for paving in that city.
This includes instructions to bidders,
form of proposal, form of contract and
specifications, for paving and incidental
work. These are significant because
prepared by the Socialist administration
of this city. The commissioner of public
works recommends that a guarantee
bond be not required, holding that under
the new form of contract good pavements
can be secured by proper inspection and
supervision, and that a guarantee is
superfluous and an added expense with
no added value.

Special Libraries. — Recent numbers
of Special Libraries contain the following
bibliographical lists bearing on munici-
pal problems.

February, 1913: Select List of Refer-
ences on Fire Prevention; Public Utility
References.

March, 1913: Selected References on
Markets and Marketing.

April, 1913: List of L^niform Accounts
formulated by companies, associations
and state commissions.

May, 1913: Select List of References
on Scientific Management and Efficiency,
Subdivision on government.

Sewage Disposal in New York. — No. 6

of the preliminary reports of the metro-
politan sewerage commission of New
York is a study of the collection and dis-
posal of the sewage of the lower Hudson,
lower East River and Bay division. No.

746

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

7, in the same series, presents the critical
reports of the Dr. Gilbert J. Fowler of
Manchester, England and Mr. John D.
Watson of Birniinghain, England on the
projects of the metropolitan sewerage
commission. This agrees in advocating
the construction of main drainage chan-
nels to carry off the main sewage of lower
New York into the Atlantic Ocean.

Cleveland Street Railways. — A pam-
phlet entitled "The Essentials of Street
Railway Regulation in Cleveland" has
been issued from the office of the city
street railroad commissioner of that city.
This contains a digest of the provisions
of the ordinances under the terms of
which the surface lines of Cleveland are
operated, with summarized monthly re-

ports of the Cleveland Railway Com-
pany, and a skeleton statement of the
street railroad commissioner's control
over the expenditures of the company.'

Suppression of Noise, — A paper on the
"Suppression of Unnecessary Noise," by
Edward S. Morse of Salem, Mass., read
under the auspices of the Ninth Inter-
national Otological Congress, in Boston,
August 14, 1912, has been republished in
pamphlet form.

The Bulletin of the Medical and Chi-
rurgical Faculty of Marj'land for Janu-
ary, 1913, is devoted to the anti-noise
crusade, which has been actively under-
taken by the anti-noise committee of the
Baltimore City Medical Society.

'See National Municipal. Review, vol. i, p.

830.

DEPARTMENT OF REPORTS AND

DOCUMENTS

II. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL!
Edited by Miss Adelaide R. Hasse

Chief of the Division of Documents, New York Piiblic Library

American City Bureau. Selected list
of municipal and civic books. 1913. 56
p. 8°. Np.

Gratis.
City.

Address: 93 Nassau street, New York

Amsterdam, Neth. Amsterdam in
demographisch en hygienisch opzicht.
1913. 64 p. 4°. Np.

No. 43 of the Statistical Communications of the
Bureau of Statistics of the city of Amsterdam. A
reproduction of the charts exhibited by the Bureau
at the International Exposition at Ghent. An ex-
ceedingly useful publication as it is not confined to
Amsterdam but Includes comparative graphs rela-
tive to the demography of the larger European cities.
Price fr. 0. 50 the copy.

Berlin, Germany. Berliner Jahr-
buch fiir Handel und Industrie. Bericht
der Altesten der Kaufmannschaft von
Berlin. Jahrg. 1912. Bd. 2. ix, 639 p.
8°. Np.

There Is no better source for information on eco-
nomic and industrial conditions of Berlin.

Brunn, Austria. Summarischer Be-
richt der Handels und Gewerbekammer
in Briinn uber die geschiiftlichen Ver-
haltnisse in ihrem Bezirke wahrend des
Jahres 1912. vi, 258 p. 8°. Np.

Chicago Association of Commerce.
A brief list of suggestions to public im-
provement associations, from the com-
mittee on down town streets of the
Chicago Association of Commerce, by
Louis A. Dumond, engineer of com-
mittee. 1913(?) 55 (l) p. 8°. Cj; Cs.
■ Citizen's Federation of Hudson
County, N. J. Citizens Bulletin no. 5.
Report of the legislative activities of the
Federation. The New Jersey Legisla-
ture of 1913. 32 p. 8°. Np.

Among the Important measures affecting munic-
ipal government and which were either drafted or
approved by the Federation is the Kerwln bill pro-
viding for a commission of five mayors to report on
an administrative code for the municipalities of New
Jersey and the Porter bill permitting any munici-
pality to adopt as an alternative to the commission
government plan, the city manager plan.

City Club of Chicago. The City
Club Bulletin. Co; Cj; Cm; Cp; Cs;
Np; Sp.

Vol. 6, nos. 9-11, June 9-July 23, 1913. 167-238
p. 8\

No. 9, p. 175-182. Non-partisan election of munic-
ipal officers.

No. 11, p. 215-221. The railway terminal prob-
lem In Chicago.

No. 11, p. 229-238. The noise problem In Chicago.

1 By arrangement with the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy and the St. Louis Municipal Refer-
ence Branch of the Public Library, the libraries of those cities will hereafter cooperate In the compilation of
the bibliography printed in the National Municipal Review. The task of assembling the Chicago material
has been undertaken by Miss Ren6e B. Stern of the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy. Mr. A. L.
Bostwlck of the St. Louis Municipal Reference Branch will assemble the material for St. Louis. The symbols
attached to titles In the bibliography Indicate the libraries which have reported the receipt of the title.

Explanation of Symbols

Cs, Chicago, Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy
Np, New York City, New York Public Library
Sp, St. Louis, St. Louis Public Library.

Cc, Chicago, City Club Library

Cj, Chicago, John Crerar Library

Cm, Chicago, Municipal Library

Cp, Chicago, Chicago Public Library

In this connection it may be well to state that It is not the Intention to include titles of annual reports in the
Bibliography, except in special Instances. An annual report issued for the first time will always be Included,
as well as one issued in a changed form, as, for Instance, in this issue the report of the Beloit Industrial School
Board and the Los Angeles Housing Commission. An annual report containing unusual features will also
be noted, as was In the last issue, the Portland , Oregon, Park Board annual report.

747

748

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

City Club of MiXiWAUkee, Wis. Ac-
tivities of the City Club of Milwaukee
during the fiscal year ending May 27,
1913. 19 p. 8°. Cs.

Dayton, O. Bureau of municipal
research. Organization and adminis-
tration of the department of health of
Dayton, O. 97 p. 8°. Np.

f-FuNK, N. R. Pictorial history of the
great Dayton flood. March 25, 26, 27,
1913. 63 p. illus. 8°. Cs.

Four pages of text giving data of conditions.

Hamburg, Germany. Hamburg's
Handel im Jahre 1912. Sachverstandi-
gen Berichte, herausgcgeben auf Veraq-
iassung der Handelskammer. 129 p.
8°. Np.

HoAG, C. G. The representative
council plan of city government. 1913.
12 p. 8°. Cp.

American Proportional Representation League
pampMet no. 2, April, 1913.

Kristiania, Norway. Beretning
om Kristiania handel, industri og skibs-
fart; §,ret 1912. Utgit p§, foranstaltning
av b0rs- og handelskomit^en. 1913. 67
p; foldg. diagr. 8°. Np.

Los Angeles, Cal. Municipal League.
Efficiency in Los Angeles city government.
August, 1913? 11 p. 8°. Cc.

New Orleans, La. An act to provide
a commission form of government for the
city of New Orleans. 46 p. 8°. (Act no.
159, senate bill no. 206.) Cm.

New York City. Municipal year
book of the city of New York. 1913.
190 p. S.° Np.

Prepared under the direction of Robert Adamson,
secretary to the mayor. The first year book issued
for New York City.

Richmond, Va. Chamber of Com-
merce. Richmond, Virginia, yesterday
and today. 1913. 69 p. 8°. illus. Np.

Issued jointly by the city and the Chamber of
Commerce.

Sa.skatchewax. Department of mu-
nicipal affairs. Annual report [fifth] for
the financial year ending February 28,
1913. 106 p. 8." Np.

Stockholm, Sweden. Stockholms
Kommunalkalender for §,r 1913. Argang
7. 433 p. 2 maps. 8°. Np.

— — Minnesskrift vid Stockholms
stadsfullmiiktiges femtioS.rsjubileum den
20 April 1913. Stockholm, 1913. 223, viii,
viii, 139 p. plates. 3 maps. f°. Np.

A beautiful volume, being a fifty year summary
of the civic history of Stockholm.

Williams, Edward T. The commer-
cial development at Niagara, 1805-1913.
9 p. narrow 4°. Np.

Address: E.T. Williams, Industrial Agent, Niagara
Falls, N. Y.

Woman's City Club of Chicago.
Hand book, City Welfare Exhibit. Chi-
cago, Woman's City Club. 1913. 28 p.
8°. Cj; Cs.

"Bibliography," p. 3, 24-26.

Bill Boards

New York City. Report of the May-
or's billboard advertising commission
of the city of New York. August 1, 1913.
151 p. illus. 8°. Np.

Building Construction

Chattanooga, Tenn. Building code.
1913. 131 p. 8°. Np.

New York City. Text of the pro-
posed, building code for New York City.
(City Record. July 17, 1913, p. 7027-
7045.) Np.

Charters and Ordinances

Ordinances relating to special subjects are classed
with that subject; see, for instance, "Building Con-
struction," "Pul)lic Health,"' etc.

Canton, O. Text of proposed charter.
Prepared by the first charter commis-
sion. To be submitted to the electors
July 15, 1913. 28 p. 8°. Np.

Cleveland, O. Charter commis-
sion. Journal. February 6-May 23,
1913. 182 p. Np.

In bound form, the Journal includes In addition
to the proceedings, three prints of the charter, of
66, 61 and 80 pages resp.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

749

Cleveland, O. Proposed charter
for the city of Cleveland. Prepared and
proposed by the charter commission.
July 1, 1913. 80 p. 8°. Np.

Cortland, N. Y. Charter of the
city of Cortland, N. Y. Enacted March
16, 1900. Reprinted 1913. 181 p. 8°.
Np.

Dayton, O. Charter commission.
Proposed charter for the city of Dayton.
1913. 51 p. 8°. Np.

Reprinted for and distributed by the Bureau of
Municipal Research, 601-603 Schwind Building,
Dayton.

Elyria, O. Proposed charter for the
city of Elyria. Prepared and proposed
by the charter commission. To be sub-
mitted to the electors July 15, 1913.
40 p. 8°. Np.

Frankfurt a. M., Germany. Blirger-
buch (Sammlung von Verordnungen)
der Stadtgemeinde Frankfurt a. M. Amt-
liche Ausgabe 1912. xvi, 102, 52, 311, 94,
183 p. 4°. Np.

One map In pocket. Map Is a " Bauzonenplan"
of Frankfurt, i.e. a map showing respectively the
residence and factory districts, the suburban quar-
ters, etc.

Stockholm, Sweden. Kommunal for-
fattningssamling for Stockholm. Ny
serie. Arg. 4. 1912. v. p. 8°. Np.

Text of ordinances no. 1-144.

Straits Settlements. The municipal
ordinance 1913. Ordinance no. 8 of 1913.
163 p. 8°. Np.

The municipal code in force In the Straits Settle-
ments.

YouNGSTOWN, 0. Charter commis-
sion. Proposed charter for the city of
Youngstown. July 22, 1913. 80 p. 8°.
Cp; Np.

Origin, substance and principles

of the political program provided for
in the Youngstown charter. 1913. 16
p. 16°. Cp;Np.

City Planning

Delhi, India. Town planning com-
mittee. Report (1-2 and final) on choice

of a site for the new imperial capital.
London, 1913. f.° Np.

First report. On choice of a site for the new Im-
perial capital. 9 pp., 2 maps. Price Is. 2d.

Second report. Regarding the north site with
medical report. 9, 40 p., 2 maps. Price Is. 3d.

Final report. Regarding the selected site. Hi, 19
p., 2 maps. Price Is. 8d.

Jersey City, N. J. Addenda memo-
randa to report of suggested plan of pro-
cedure for city plan commission. City
of Jersey City, N. J. By E. P. Goodrich
and Geo. B. Ford. Issued May 1, 1913.
33 p. 4°. Np.

Report of suggested plan of pro-
cedure for city plan commission. City
of Jersey City, N. J. By E. P. Goodrich
and Geo. B. Ford. Issued May 1, 1913.
64 p., 5 leaves. 4°. Np.

Mawson, Thomas. Address before
the Canadian Club of Calgary, May 26,
1913, on city planning. Np.

Printed in full in the Calgary News-Telegram,
May 26, 1913. Relates chiefly to the beautlficatlon
of Calgary.

National Conference on City Plan-
ning. Fifth national conference on city
planning program held at Chicago, May
5-7, 1913. 7 p. 8°. Cm; Np.

St. Louis, Mo. City plan commis-
sion. The river front; possible munici-
pal ownership of a railway from Chain
of Rocks to River des Peres, with addi-
tional approach to the Municipal Bridge.
1913. Sp.

Wacker, C. H. Creating a world-fa-
mous street; argument of C. H W., chair-
man of the Chicago plan commission
in behalf of widening and extending
Michigan Avenue to properly connect
the north and south sides of Chicago;
with ordinance for same, detailed draw-
ings and estimate of cost as prepared by
the board of local improvements of the
city of Chicago. 1913. 57 p. 8°. Cm.

Gaining public support for a city

planning movement .... being
an address delivered before the fifth
conference on city planning, Chicago,
May, 1913. 16 p. 8°. Cp.

750

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

A statement by Charles H.Wackcr,

chairman of the Chicago plan commis-
sion in rebuttal of the statement made by
the Union Station Company through its
attorney to the council committee on
railway terminals on June 9, 1913. State-
ment to the council committee on Rail-
way terminals on behalf of the execu-
tive officers and the architectural and
engineering staff of the Chicago plan
commission. June 30, 1913. 29 p. Co.

Civil Service

Cook County, III. Civil service
commission. Cook County civil service
laws and rules. 1913. 51 p. 8°. Cs.

Courts

Cook County, III. Adult proba-
tion office. First annual report of adult
probation office of Cook County, from
October 1, 1911, to September 30, 1912.
20 p. 8°. Cm.

New York City. Board of city mag-
istrates (second division). Annual re-
port for the year ending December 31,

1912. 229 p., 1 leaf, 14 plates. 8°. Np.

The report was not issued until June 1913. The
second division comprises the boroughs of Brooklyn,
Queens and Richmond. The report includes among
others reports of the magistrate presiding In the
domestic relations court, and of the chief probation
officer. There are general tables summarizing the
work of the Court from 1898 and detailed tables from
1902.

Electoral Reform

Chicago, 111. Board of election
commissioners. Election laws relating
to general and special elections in the
city of Chicago and Town of Cicero in
the state of Illinois. 1913. Ill p. 4°.
Cs.

State of Illinois. Primary elec-
tion laws. February, 1913. 61 p. 8°.
Cs ; Np.

City council. A bill for non-
partisan elections for municipal offices,
transmitted to city council by Carter H.
Harrison, mayor, on February 6, 1913,
concurred in by city council March 31,

1913. 24 p. S". 4 Cm.

City Club of Chicago. Non-parti-
san election of municipal officers. Dis-
cussion by Kellogg Fairbank, Hon.
John P. McGoorty, Aid. William F.
Lipps, Hon. John O'Connor, Hon. Wil-
liam E. Dever, Hon. Medill McCormick
and Hon. Morton D. Hull, 1912-1913.
June 9, 1913. p. 175-182. (City Club
Bulletin, vol. 6, no. 9.) Cc; Cj; Cm;
Cp; Cs; Np.

Shann, George. Registration, nomi-
nations, ballots, expenses and the cor-
rupt practices act in British elections.
Address before the City Club of Chicago,
March 15, 1913. p. 182-190. (City Club
Bulletin, vol. 6, no. 9.) Cc; Cj; Cm; Cp;
Cs;Np.-

Finance

Baltimore, Md. Bureau of State
and municipal research. Np.

Report 2. The Baltimore budget. Part 1. A
study of the ordinances of estimates from 1900 to 1913.
January 18, 1913. 5 p., 6 plates. 4°.

Report 3-4. Not seen.

Report 5. City of Baltimore. Balance sheets
1911, 1912. General accounts 1912. June 9, 1913.
13 p. 4°.

Cook County, III. Appropriation
bill for 1913. 37 p. 16°. Cm; Np.

Dayton, O. Bureau of municipal
research. Appropriations for the fiscal
half year ending December 31, 1913. 30
p. 8°. Np.

Massachusetts. Bureau of statis-
tics. Report of a special investigation
relative to the sinking funds and serial
loans of the cities and towns of the com-
monwealth. March 5, 1913. 25 p. 8".
Np.

This Is one of a series of special reports on munic-
ipal finance recently issued by this Bureau; viz.
Outstanding indebtedness of certain cities and
towns of Massachusetts. .March, 1911. 34 p. (Its
municipal Bulletin 4.) Report of a special investi-
gation relative to the Indebtedness of the cities and
towns of the Commonwealth. April 15, 1912. 286 p.

In January, 1913, the commonwealth Issued
" Report of the joint special committee on municipal
finance." 103 p. 80".

New York City. Department of
finance. Semi-annual financial sum-

BIBLIOGRAPHY

751

mary. June 30, 1913. xi p., 25 folios.
8°. Np.

The fourth number of this publication. This
number covers the financial operations of the city
for the first six months of 1913 and contains, besides,
many comparative tables covering a series of years.

St. Louis, Mo. Special report of the
comptroller of the city of St. Louis for
the first four months of the fiscal year
1912-13, compared with similar periods
of 1913-14. 1913. Sp.

Valuable figures regarding assessed valuation and
taxation In St. Louis are brought together in conven-
ient form.

Fires

Fire Apparatus Figures. Horse-
drawn, automobile and hand apparatus.
Amount of each kind in each of six hun-
dred American cities. (Municipal Jour-
nal. August 28, 1913, p. 277-294.) Cc;
Cp; Cm; Np; Sp.

Stockholm, Sweden. Berattelse an-
g&ende Stockholms stads brandvasen
jamte oversikt av brand- och ambulans-
statistiken for ^r 1912. Arg. 37. 43,
19 p. plates. 4°. Np.

Grade Crossings

St. Louis, Mo. Public library — mu-
nicipal reference branch. Grade crossing
elimination in American cities. Legis-
lation, work done, and present tenden-
cies. July, 1913. p. 157-174. (St. Louis
Public Library. Monthly Bulletin, July,
1913.) Cp; Np; Sp.

Housing

Ansiedlungs-Verein Gross-Berlin.
Vierter Jahresbericht, 1912-13. 8 p. 8°.
Np.

An association of specialists organized to promote
housing reform and general civic improvement In
greater Berlin. The present chairman Is Dr. R.
KuczlQsky, well known as the director of the statis-
tical bureau of Schoneberg as well as the author of
important economic works.

Bryce, Rt. Hon. James. The men-
ace of great cities. June, 1913. 17 p.
8°. Np.

A plea for better living conditions, housing bet-
terment, more open spaces, etc. National Housing

Assoc. Publications. No. 20. Price, 5 cents the
copy.

Chicago, III. City Club. City Club
housing exhibition, April 25 to June 1,
1913. Guide to the exhibition. Chica-
go, 1913. 55 p. 8°. Cm; Cs; Np.

Forbes, Elmer S. Rural and subur-
ban housing. June, 1913. 10 p. 8°Cc;
Cp; Cs; Np.

National Housing Assoc. Publications. No. 21.
Price 5 cents the copy.

Frankfurt a. M. West- und nord-
westlicher Bezirksverein. Mitteilungen
No. 17. January, 1913. 12 p. 4°. Np.

Contains text of addresses respectively by the
Stadtrat Dr. Hermann Luppe on building ordinances
and building projects, and by the Justlzrat, Dr. Fritz
Meyer, on regulation of mortgages.

Goodrich, E. P. and George B.
Ford. Housing report to the city plan
commission of Newark, N. J. 1913. 75
p. illus. 8°. Np.

Los Angeles, Cal. Report (fourth)
of the housing commission of the city of
Los Angeles, July 1, 1910, to March 31,
1913. 66 p. illus. 8°. Np.

The Los Angeles housing commission was abol-
ished on May 3, 1913. Henceforth it will be a bureau
of the health department, with greatly increased
powers. The previous reports of the commission
collate as follows:

1.1906/8. Feb.20-June30. 1908. 31 p. illus. 8°.

2. 1908/9. July 1-June 30. 1909. 29 p. illus. 8°.

3. 1909/10. July 1-June 30. 1910. 28 p. illus. 8*.

National Housing Association.
Housing Betterment, vol.2, no. 2. July,
1913. 19 p. 8°. Np.

a news issue. Previous issues are as follows:
V. 1, no. 1. February, 1912. 4 leaves, v. 1, no. 2
September 1912. 15 p. v. 2, no. 1. March, 1913.
15 p.

Publication No. 19. "There ain't

no law." June, 1913. 32 p. illus. 8°.
Cc; Cp; Cs; Np.

A pamphlet used during the recent campaign to
secure a housing code for the six New York State
cities of the second class, viz., Albany, Schenectady,
S.vracuse, Troy, Utica and Yonkers. These cities
banded together under the guidance of the National
Housing Association. The result was the best hous-
ing code yet enacted. It became a law on May 31,
1913, and constitutes chap. 774 of the Laws of 1913.

752

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

NoRRis, George W. The housing
problem in Philadelphia. A lecture de-
livered in the Catholic Summer School
Extension Course, Philadelphia, March
3, 1913. 30 p. S°. Np.

No. 2 of the Catholic Summer School Extension
Lectures.

Philadelphia, Pa. Housing com-
mission. Second annual report for the
year ending December 31, 1912. 31 p.
8°. Cc;Np.

There Is a notable paragraph on p. 13, dealing
with the question of improvements and rent. The
statements there made are interesting In that It is
commonly bell?ved that the Imp.ovements forced
by housing reformers Inevitably lead to higher
rents.

San Francisco, Cal. Housing Asso-
ciation. Second report. June, 1913. 32
p. 8°. Cs; Np.

White, Alfred T. The effect of a
housing law. June, 1913. 6 p. 8°. Co;
Cp; Cs; Np.

National Housing AssociatlonPubllcations. No.
22. Price, 5 cents the copy. Address 105 E. 22d
street, New York City.

Motion Pictures

Bartholomew, Robert 0. Report

of censorship of motion pictures and of

investigation of motion picture theatres

of Cleveland. 1913. 32 p. 8°. Np.

Filed with council of city of Cleveland April 7,
1913. Address: R. E. Collins, city clerk, Cleveland.

Municipal Art Commissions

Philadelphia, Pa. Art jury. Second
annual report, 1912. 45 p. illus., Ifoldg.
plate. 8°. Np.

Established under Act of May 25, 1907. The
approval of the art jury is required before any work
of art may become the property of the city. Designs
for public buildings, parks, street fixtures, etc. etc.
may be submitted to the jury. The jury was ap-
pointed on October 7, 1911 and at the time of its first
report, viz., February 5, 1911, ten submissions had
been made. During the calendar year 1912, 67 sub-
missions were made to or considered by the jury.

Municipal Banks

Prague, Bohemia. A report on the
city savings bank of Prague for the year
1912. 42 p. 4°. Cm.

Municipal Lodging Houses

Vienna, Austria. Das Asyl- und
Werkhaus der Stadt Wien. 1913. 27 p.
illus. 8°. Np.

Historical account of the municipal refuge.

Noise Abatement

Nance, Dr. W. O. The noise problem
in Chicago. Address before the City Club
of Chicago, June 17, 1913. p. 229-238.
(City Club Bulletin, vol. G, no. 11.) Co;
Cj; Cm; Cp; Cs; Np.

Parks

Great Britain. Regent's Park enclo-
sures. Papers relating to the enclosures
in Regent's Park. 1913. 64 p., 3 maps.
f°. Np.

Price Is. 3d. the copy.

United States. District of Colum-
bia committee (senate). The improve-
ment of the park system of the District
of Columbia. 1913. 27 p., 20 plates. 8°.
(63d congress, 1 session, sen. doc. 16.
Cp; Np; Sp.

An abridgment of an earlier document, viz..
Sen. report 166, 57th congress, 1 session, compiled by
Charles Moore and published in 1902. The present
abridgment is made by George H. Gall, of Washing-
ton, D. C. Much of the detail of the earlier report '
is omitted in this volume. On the other hand many
projects recommended in the earlier volume have
been completed and are described in this volume.
The plates relate particularly to the Lincoln Memor-
ial and the possibilities of the Rock Creek develop*-
ment.

Pensions

New York City. Commissioners of
accounts. Report on the pension system
of the city of New York. Submitted
May 27, 1913. 12 p. 8°. Cm; Np.

Police

Chicago, III. Civil service commis-
sion. Book of instruction to applicants
for the position of patrolman in the de-
partment of police, city of Chicago,
[n.d.] 64 p. 16°. Cp.

Copenhagen, Denmark. Police reg-
ulations of the city of Copenhagen,
March, 1913. 1913. 71 p. 16°. Cm.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

763

Dublin, Ireland. Metropolitan po-
lice board. Statistical tables of the
Dublin metropolitan police for the year
1912. vii, 33 p. f°. Np.

Issued annually since 1894. Sold by H. M.
Stationary Office, London. Price of 1912 report 4|d.

Great Britain. Home office. Police
weekly rest day. Return showing to
what extent steps have been taken by
various English cities for putting into
force the provisions of the police (weekly
rest day) act, 1910, and the estimated
cost thereof. 1913. 5 p. f°. Np.

Price Id. the copy.

New York City. Report of the spe-
cial committee ("Curran committee") of
the board of aldermen appointed August
5, 1912, to investigate the police depart-
ment. Submitted June 10, 1913. 147 p.
4°. Cp; Np.

Philadelphia, Pa. Bureau of police.
Patrolman's manual. Issued by the de-
partment of public safety. 1913. 231 p.
8°. Np.

Port Development

Chicago, III. Citizens' Association.
Report regarding the so-called Kleeman
bill, now pending in the state senate
providing for the construction of an enor-
mously expansive inland harbor in Lake
Calumet by the Sanitary District of Chi-
cago. May 12, 1913. 4 p. 8°. Cm.

Cleveland, O. Reports of the
Cleveland river and harbor commission
on the improvement of Cuyahoga River.
March, 1913. 28 p., 1 map. 8°. Np.

New York State. Report of the
commission to investigate port condi-
tions and pier extensions in New York
harbor. 1913. 18 p. 2 maps. 8°. Np.

Seattle, Wash. Public Library.
Harbors and docks. A list of books and
references. February, 1913. 40 p. 8°.
Np.

Tompkins, Calvin. New York's port
problem. Railroad monopoly vs. city
control. Argument before the board of
estimate and apportionment of the city

of New York. Upon the report of its
terminal committee on Manhattan West
Side (N. Y. Central) readjustment. May
27, 1913. 15 p. 8°. Cm; Np.

Reprinted by the Reform Club, 9 South William
St., New York City.

Toronto, Canada. Waterfront devel-
opment, 1912-1920. 32 p., maps, diagrs.
8°. Cm.

[Public Health

New York City. Department of
health. Hand book of information re-
garding the routine procedure of the di-
vision of communicable diseases. 1913.
200 p. 12°. Np.

St. Paul, Minn. Anti-tuberculosis
committee. Efficiency and next needs
of St. Paul's health department. Report
submitted by the New York bureau of
municipal research and training school
for public service. March, 1913. 48 p.
8°. Np.

United States. Public health serv-
ice. Municipal ordinances, rules and
regulations pertaining to public health
adopted from July 1, 1911, to December
31, 1911, by cities of the United States
having a population of over 10,000 in
1910. Compiled by John W. Trask.
Washington, 1913. 215 p. 8°. Cp; Np;
Sp.

Public Utilities

Chicago, III. Board of supervising
engineers. Reply to an order by Chica-
go city council for information respecting
improvements made under 1907 ordi-
nance in service, operation and equip-
ment of the Chicago Surface Traction
Company. July 3, 1913. 35 p. Co.

City council. Report of the com-
mittee on gas, oil and electric light on the
investigation of the Commonwealth Edi-
son Company. Chicago, May, 1913. 113
p. 8°. Cp.

Civil service commission. Re-
ports on the department of electricity
of the city of Chicago. Inquiries con-
ducted by request of Mr. Ray Palmer,
city electrician, May 24 to November
29, 1912. Conditions, modifications and

764

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

systems in use and organization of the
department of electricity. Published
July 7, 1913. 40 p. Cc.

District of Columbia. Public util-
ities commission. Order no. 21. In re
regulations for the operation and equip-
ment of street railway cars in the Dis-
trict of Columbia. July 9, 1913. 14 p.
8°. Np.

Electric Light Plants. Data from
municipal and private plants in all parts
of the country; equipment, operation,
finances and rates. (Municipal Journal,
August 7, 1913, p. 171-186.) Cc; Cm;
Cp; Np.

Nebraska. State railway commis-
sion. Before the ... . commis-
sion. Application no. 1637. Lincoln
Telephone and Telegraph Company
applicant (for authority to consolidate
its exchanges in Lincoln district and to
establish rates for service). Findings
and order of the commission. 35 p. 8°.
Np.

Nevada. Public service commission.
City of Ely complainant vs. Ely Light
and Power Company respondent. Opin-
ion and order. Filed June 7, 1913. 14 p.
8°. Np.

New York City. Board of estimate
and apportionment. Bureau of fran-
chises. Reports no. 116-122. 4°.

No. 116. April 28, 1913. Upon application of the
Union Railway Company of New York City for
amendments to contract. 6 p. 1 map. Cm; Np.

No. 117. Upon applllcatlon of New York Quota-
tion Company for franchise to construct conductors
in conduits. May 2, 1913. 15 p. Cm; Np.

No. 118. Upon application of Manhattan and
Queens Traction Corporation for two extensions.
May 12, 1913. 7 p., 1 map. Cm; Np.

No. 119. Upon application of Bronx Traction
Company for franchise to construct a street railway.
May 29, 1913. U p. 1 map. Cm; Np.

No. 120. Upon application of Long Island Rail
Road to construct certain railroad tracks June 2,
1913. 16 p., 2 maps. Cm; Np.

No. 121. Calling attention to excessive expense
to applicants for franchises in providing publicity in
manner prescribed by sec. 74 of the city charter.
June 6, 1913. 7 p. Cm; Np.

No. 122. Upon application of Brooklyn City
Railroad company for franchise to construct street
surface railway. 14 p., 1 map. Np.

Resolutions 23-88. 1913. p. 283-

569. Np.

New York State. Public service
commission (first district). New sub-
ways for New York. The dual system
of rapid transit. June, 1913. 83 p.
plates 8°. Np.

Address: Public Service Commission for First
District, 154 Nassau street. New York City.

»

St. Louis, Mo. Public service com-
mission. Report of the Municipal As-
sembly on the United Railways Com-
pany of St. Louis by the St. Louis Public
Service Commission, vol. ii. St. Louis,
1913. 34 p. 3 maps. 27 tables. 34
diagrs. 8°. Cm; Sp.

Salt Lake City, Utah. Revised
ordinances pertaining to water supply
and waterworks office. Salt Lake City.
In effect July 1, 1913. 28 p. 8°. Np.

United Railways and Electric
Company of Baltimore. History and
description of property and securities.
April 21, 1913. 38 p. 8°. Np.

Published by Alex. Brown and Sons, Baltimore,
Md.

Wilmington, Del. Public utility
commission. First annual report for
the fiscal year ending July 31, 1912.
10 p. 8°. Np.

Rules and regulations. 1912. 12

p. 12°. Np.

Schools

Beloit, Wis. Industrial school
board. First annual report of the indus-
trial, continuation and evening, schools
of Beloit for the year 1912-1913. 23 p.
illus. 8°. Np.

Berlin, Germany. Schulgesund-
heitspflege der Stadt Berlin. 1912. 84
p. 24 plates. 8°. Np.

City Club of Berkeley, Cal.
Berkeley Civic Club Bulletin. Monthly,
vol. 2, no. 1. August 15, 1913. 16 p.
8°. Np.

The entire Bulletin Is devoted to a consideration
of cooperative Industrial education. Sold at 10 cents
the copy. The treatment Is a practical review of
what has been done In American cities to promote
Industrial cooperation.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

755

Smoke Abatement

New York City. • Court of special
sessions. Decision in suit of the New
York City department of health against
the New York Edison Company for
infraction of section 181 of the sanitary
code prohibiting the discharge of dense
smoke. Cm; Np.

An extended quotation of the decision Is printed
In the weekly bulletin of the health department of
New York City of July 19, 1913.

— — Department of health. The
smoke problem in New York. (Monthly
bulletin of the department of health.
April, 1913. vol. 3, no. 4, p. 79-108.)
Cm; Np.

Pittsburgh, Pa. The history of the
smoke nuisance and of smoke abatement
in Pittsburgh. Cm.

Reprinted from the Industrial World, Pittsburgh,
March 24, 1913.

University of Pittsburgh. Depart-
ment of industrial research. Outline of
the smoke investigation. August, 1912.
16 p. 8°. Cm; Np.

■ Bulletin no. 1.

Social Centers

Chicago, III. Board of Education.
Report of social centers in Chicago
public schools. Biennial. 1912. 45 p.
illus. 8°. Cs.

Kansas City, Mo. Research bureau
of the board of public welfare. The
social center in Kansas City. June,
1913. 16 p. illus. 8°. Cs; Np.

New Jersey.

The New Jersey legislature of 1913 in passing the
Hennessy BlU provided that the board of education
of any school district In the state might permit the
use of the schoolhouse and grounds for assemblies
or the purpose of giving and receiving instruction
in any branch of education, learning or the arts, for
public library purposes, for holding social, civic and
recreation meetings and entertainments approved by
the board of education, for polling places, for holding
elections and for the registration of voters, and for
holding political meetings.

New York State.

By an act to amend the education law (ch. 221,
Laws of 1913; passed April 5, 1913) the New York

state legislature made substantially the same pro«
visions for the use of schools as social centers, as does
the above cited New Jersey act.

Perry, Clarence Arthur. How to
start social centers. 40 p. 8°. Np.

Russell Sage Foundation, Department of Re-
creations, 400 Metropolitan Tower, New York City.
Price 10 cents the copy.

Social Evil

See also below "Social Surveys" under Kansas

City.

Commonwealth Club of California,
San Francisco. Transactions, vol. 8,
no. 7. August, 1913. The red plague.
Second report, p. 331-430. 8°. Np.

The first report was published by the Common-
wealth Club as no. 1, of vol. 6 of Its Transactions,
issued April, 1911. The present report is concerned
chiefly with the question of registration and compul-
sory examination. As San Francisco affords the only
American example of the policy under investigation.
It Is worthy of note that the conclusions of the report
are "that registration and compulsory examination
falls appreciably to diminish venereal disease."

Social Surveys

Commonwealth Club of Califor-
nia. Transactions, vol. 8, no. 5. June,
1913. Public recreation, p. 181-309. 8°.
Np.

On December 11, 1911, the executive committee
of the Club authorized a survey of the recreational
facilities of California cities, and a section was organ-
ized for that purpose. After considering the scope
of the inquiry the section was divided Into com-
mittees to Investigate the various forms of public re-
creation followed on the Pacific Coast. The main
work of the section waa an intensive study of condi-
tions In San Francisco, as a preliminary inquiry
showed that the conditions In that city covered all
the recreation problems to be found In all the other
cities of the coast. There are special reports on pub-
lic recreational facilities, on refreshment places, on
clubs and settlements, on shows, on motion pictures,
on dancehalls and on legislation.

Chicago, III. Fourth Presbyterian

Church. A community survey in the

twenty-first ward. 1913. Cc; Cj; Cm;

Cp; Cs; Np.

Extracted from City Club bulletin, vol. 6, March
13, 1913. p. 86-105. dlagrs.

Kansas City, Mo. Social prospectus
of Kansas City, Mo. Published by the

756

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

research bureau of the board of public
welfare. August, 1913. 104 p. illus.
S°. Cs ; Np.

The board of public welfare Is the local agency for
the administration of the cliarltles and corrections
of the Kansas City government. The following
departments are conducted by the Board: adminis-
trative department, research bureau, social service
department, recreation department, factory Inspec-
tion department, legal aid bureau, welfare loan
agency, parole department, department for the
homeless and unemployed, woman's reformatory,
municipal farm, social workers' Institute. The re-
port Is a detailed survey of the housing conditions,
Industries, races, recreations and social evil of the
city.

Streets
See also "Grade Crossings."

Chicago, III. City council. Report
of the committee on street nomenclature
of the city council of the city of Chicago
on a general system of street nomencla-
ture. May 1912. 112 p. 8°. Cm.

Portland, Ore. Department of pub-
lic works. Classification of street pave-
ments for purpose of regulating compe-
tition in contract work. 1913. Np.

Text of the classification Is printed in the Munici-
pal Journal of August 14, 1913, p. 218.

United Improvement Association.
Suggested system of main thoroughfares
for the city of Boston. February, 1913.
4 p., 1 map. 8°. Np.

Address: 8 Beacon Street, Boston, Mass.

Supplies

Baltimore, Md. Bureau of state and
municipal supplies, lleport no. 5. Insti-
tutional supplies. Issued July 21,1913.
63 (1) p. 8°. Np.

Taxation

Cambridge, Mass. Taxpayers' Asso-
ciation. Fourth annual report. June 2,
1913. 20 p. 8°. Np.

Philadelphia, Pa. Real estate and
its taxation in Philadelphia. Questions
and answers relating to a proposed sys-
tem of assessment. Published by the
mayor. 1913. 5(5 p. 8°. Np.

Transportation

Chicago, III. Mayor. Communica-
tion of His Honor Mayor Harrison to the
city council of the city of Chicago rec-
ommending submission of questions of
alternative construction of subways to
a referendum vote, June 30, 1913, and
drafts of ordinances transmitted there-
with. Ordinance for down town subways
to be leased to elevated railroads; ordi-
nance for a comprehensive independent
system of rapid transit subways. Chi-
cago, committee on local transportation.
July 15, 1913. 39 p. 8°. Cp.

Ordinances. Draft of ordinance

for the through routing of elevated trains .
May 15, 1913. 8 p., map. 8°. Cm; Cp.
Union Station Company. A state-
ment concerning the terminal plan now
under consideration by the committee of
the city council on Railway terminals.
[n.d.J 'june 9, 1913(?) 23 p. 8°. Co.

City Club op Chicago. The railway
terminal problem in Chicago. Letters
of the directors of the City Club and
various civic committees to the city
council committee on railway terminals
and city council of the city of Chicago.
June 23, July 7 and July 14, 1913. p.
215-220. (City Club Bulletin, vol. 6,
no. 11, July 23, 1913). Cc; Cj ; Cm;
Cp; Cs;Np.

Manchester, England. Manchester
corporation tramways. Enquiry into the
subject of traffic congestion in the central
streets of the city. Interim report of the
special subcommittee. January, 1913. 33
p., 18 folding plans. 8°. Np.

SiKES, G. C. Recent startling aspects
of the Chicago traction question; an ad-
dress before the City Club. April 25,
1913. 6 p. Cm; Np.

Reprinted from the City Club bulletin.

Wilcox, Delos F. Report on trolley
congestion problem and pending termi-
nal franchise proposals in Newark, N. J.
Np.

An extensive report, as yet printed in full only In
the Newark, N. J. Evening News of July 7, 8 and
9, 1913.

BOOK REVIEWS

757

Water Supply

McLaughlin, Allan J. Sewage pol-
lution of interstate and international wa-
ters with special reference to the spread
of typhoid fever, vi. The Missouri
River from Sioux City to its mouth.
Washington, 1913. 84 p. 8°. Np.

United States Hygienic Laboratory. Bulletin
89. Study of sanitary conditions In Sioux City,
Council Bluffs, Omaha, South Omaha, St. Joseph,
Atchison, Leavenworth, Kansas City, Kans., Kansas
Cityi Mo., Lexington, Mo., Boonvllle, Mo., Jefferson
City, Mo., Washington, Mo. and St. Charles, Mo.

New York City. Board of water
supply. Seventh annual report. Ac-
companied by report of the chief engineer.
December 31, 1912. xiii, 287, xi p. 22
plates. 35 foldg. tables. 8°. Cm; Np.

Issued in July 1913. Relates largely to construc-
tion progress of the new Catskill aqueduct.

Board of water supply. Long

Island sources. Reports, resolutions, au-
thorizations, surveys, and designs, show-

ing sources and manner of obtaining from
Suffolk County, Long Island, an addi-
tional supply of water for the city of New
York. 1912. 2 vols, illus. 8°. Np.

United States. Committee on pub-
lic lands. Hetch Hetchy grant to San
Francisco. August 5, 1913. 43 p. 8°.
(63 congress, 1 session, house report 41.)
Np.

The conversion of Hetch Hetchy Valley into a
storage reservoir to supply San Francisco with water.

Hetch Hetchy dam site. Hearing

before the committee on the public lands,
house of representatives. 63 congress, 1
session. 1913. 2 pts. 373 p. 8°. Np.
Walker, H. H. Pure water for Chi-
cago. Harbor, drainage and water power
solution. June 10, 1913. 12 p. Co.

Water Purification Plants. Meth-
ods employed in 120 cities. (Munici-
pal Journal, September 4, 1913. p.
318-320.) Cc;Np.

BOOK REVIEWS

Immigration and Labor. By Isaac A.
Hourwich. New York : G. P. Putnam's
Sons. $2.50.

The Immigrant Invasion. By Frank
Julian Warne. New York : Dodd, Mead
and Company. $2.50.

These two books, taken together, fur-
nish a dainty morsel to be rolled under
the tongue of the man who loves to say,
"You can prove anything by statistics."
Here are two men writing on the same
subject. Both are men of authority,
both are expert statisticians, and both are
connected with the census bureau. Both
use the statistical method. And they
arrive at diametrically opposite conclu-
sions.

Dr. Hourwich's book bears all the
marks of having been written for a pur-
pose, that purpose being to discourage
the rising sentiment in favor of the re-
striction of immigration, and to combat
any practical measures in that direction.
It is, withal, in view of this purpose, a

very ingenious, clever and dangerous
book. A part of the cleverness is mani-
fested in the expedient of embodying the
conclusions which the author wishes to
• establish in a brief preliminary chapter
called a " summary review. ' ' The author
admits that "such a summary must
necessarily be dogmatic in form," but
assures the busy reader, for whom it is
ostensibly designed, that every propo-
sition here advanced has a demonstra-
tion somewhere in the book. Dr. Hour-
wich can hardly have been unaware of
the fact that not one in one hundred of
the leisurely readers of his book — not to
speak of the busy ones — would take time
to analyze carefully the hundreds of
pages of closely packed statistical mate-
rial which follow, to determine whether
or not they contain an actual demon-
stration of the propositions which they
are supposed to support. It is a safe
assumption that the impressive mass of
material — statistical tables, charts, dia-
grams, and footnotes — will seem to the

758

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

ordinary reader a sufficient proof of any
conclusions which the author wishes to
draw from them. It is because this
assumption is grounded in human nature
that the book is dangerous.

Let us first take the position of the
"busy reader" and see what are the con-
clusions, contained in the summary re-
view, which the author wishes to impress
upon the American public, and inciden-
tally seek to determine whether, even in
this first chapter, all the statements are
thoroughly consistent and trustworthy.

The author asserts first of all that "it
is recognized on all sides that the present
movement for restriction of immigration
has a purely economic object," and that
"the advocates of restriction believe
that every immigrant admitted to this
country takes the place of some Ameri-
can workingman." These statements,
which are the author's justification for
treating immigration solely on economic
grounds, at once challenge denial. One
must have read recent periodical litera-
ture with a negligent eye, who has not
encountered many an argument against
unrestricted immigration, based on so-
cial and political grounds much broader
than the mere competition with the
American workman. Thus at the very
outset the author's main contention is
weakened. On the next page (page 2)
the author states that every objection
to the new immigration is but an echo of
the complaints which were voiced against
the German and Irish immigration when
it was new. This is again a misleading
statement. The argument of economic
competition, which Dr. Hourwich re-
gards as the only one now, was a very
minor one before 1860. The early ob-
jections to immigration were based on
wholly different grounds — religious prej-
udice, and the fear of pauperism, crim-
inality and disease.

On page 3 we find the sweeping state-
ment that "the only real difference
between the old immigration and the new
is that of numbers." To any one who
has given the slightest attention to immi-
gration statistics — as regards illiteracy.

permanence of residence, distribution,
etc.— no refutation of such a claim is
necessary.

The next statement, that immigration
follows opportunity for employment in
the United States is a commonplace, the
truth of which has long been recognized.
Some of the deductions which the author
makes from it, however, do not neces-
sarily follow. The next point of attack
is the popular belief that a large, pro-
portion of immigrants are imported by
capitalists. This is denied categorically
and the author asserts that it would be
a waste of money for capitalists to induce
immigrants when there are so many
thousands coming anyway. The real
inducers of immigration are the earlier
immigrants. Immigrants come when they
are needed on account of a shortage of
labor in this country. Yet the author
recognizes that there is a seeming incon-
sistency between a shortage of labor and
the existence of a large number of un-
employed, which is a familiar feature of
our economic situation. This difficulty
is settled by the assertion that modern
industry demands a certain margin of
unemployed labor at all but the most
exceptional times, and even then there
is likely to be some labor unemployed for
seasonal reasons. So that it is not fair
to assume that if there were no immigra-
tion all this labor would find employ-
ment. Still, admits the author, it might
be said that restriction of immigration
would reduce unemployment. This pos-
sibility he proceeds to disprove by a
comparison with Australia, where emi-
gration is said to exceed immigration;
yet Australia has as much unemployment
as New York state, with all its immi-
grants.

This is an excellent example of one of
the authors most grievous faults — that
of comparing two regions, or two periods
of time, with respect to one particular
factor, in total disregard of an indefinite
number of other factors which might
exist in one and not in the other. Un-
employment is a complicated matter,
and the author's argument would have

BOOK REVIEWS

759

weight only in case he could show that
every other factor which might affect
unemployment differently in one country
than in the other had received due con-
sideration. The mere fact that in an-
other country, which in certain respects
resembles the United States — and in
others differs widely — there may be un-
employment without immigration, is ab-
solutely no proof whatever that with
less immigration there might be less
unemployment here.

The next "widespread belief" con-
sidered by Dr. Hourwich is that the new
immigration is more inclined than the
old to stagnate in the great cities. The
truth of this he denies, and asserts that
"the immigrants have always preferred
to seek employment in the cities." It
is undoubtedly true that certain immi-
grants have always preferred to remain
in the cities. Yet the impression, which
is apparently meant to be conveyed by
this sentence, that there has never been
more of a tendency toward the farms on
the part of the immigrants than at the
present, is a false one. The author him-
self makes this plain enough in other
connections. For instance on pages 15
and 198 (it is expedient at times to depart
from the habits of the busy reader) the
author states that the Scandivanian
immigrants came largely to settle on
farms, and on page 191 he speaks of the
disappearance of the cheap farm lands in
the United States as one of the causes of
the decrease in German immigration.

On page 8 the author attributes the
movement of native Americans to the
cities to the revolution in farming con-
ditions and methods, and the consequent
reduction in the demand for farm labor.
But on page 36 he says that it is the
scarcity of labor on the farms which has
retarded the growth of farming.

Other inconsistencies and misleading
statements must be passed by hastily to
give attention to some of the author's
more important arguments. Among
these'^is his curt dismissal of the theory,
attributed {to General Walker, that im-
migrants have displaced American popu-

lation by diminishing the native birth
rate. Herein lies one of the most serious
and inexcusable weaknesses in Dr. Hour-
wich's book. The truth or falsity of
this theory is absolutely fundamental to
any correct understanding of the effects
of immigration on labor conditions and
industry in the United States, and its
importance demands a decidedly more
careful and critical consideration than
Dr. Hourwich gives it. In his summary
review he states that the theory "rests
on no other foundation than a computa-
tion made in 1815." This is a positive
error, for the question has been the sub-
ject of a vast amount of careful study
since then. And the chapter on race
suicide, in which the principal consider-
ation of this theory is included, is wholly
inadequate. The diminishing birth rate
is pointed out as a world phenomenon,
and Australia is again cited (Professor
Willcox, by the way, always spells his
own name with two "I's"). But there
is no attempt to compare the rate of
decline in the United States with that
in European countries, where it might
reasonably be expected to be much more
rapid, in the absence of some exceptional
factor in the United States. A theory,
supported by such names as Commons,
Hall, Hunter, Bushee, and Rauschen-
busch, and of such vital importance to
the author's whole argument, should
not have been so summarily dismissed.
To disprove the common argument
that immigration has lowered the stand-
ard of living of the American working-
man, the author goes back to the records
of half and three-quarters of a century
ago, in the effort to show that the con-
ditions of labor are no worse now than
they were then. Having demonstrated,
to his own satisfaction at least, that they
were not, he thereupon makes the deduc-
tion that immigration can not therefore
have had a prejudicial effect upon them.
This is another of the fundamental logi-
cal flaws which run all through the book.
The author is constantly making com-
parisons between the present and the
comparatively remote past in the evi-

760

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

dent belief that if conditions are not
actually worse than they were then, or
standards lower, there is no ground left
for the argument that immigration has
injured the workingman. He makes na
allowance whatever for the vast improve-
ments in all sorts of workng and liv-
ing conditions which have characterized
all civilized countries in the last three-
quarters of a century, and which ought
to have been realized more fully in the
United States than anywhere else. The
truth- of the matter is that if there has
not been a tremendous improvement in
the conditions of labor in the United
States since 18-10 or 1850, there must have
been some powerful retarding factor or
factors. And there are many compre-
hensible reasons for believing that at
least immigration may have been one ©f
those factors.

This particular fallacy runs all through
the author's discussion of wages. Com-
parisons of wages over different periods
or in different places are constantly made
in terms of money, without reference to
the relative cost of living. Only once or
twice in the whole book does the author
give evidence of realizing that real wages
and not money wages are the only reason-
able basis of comparison. In fact, one
of the greatest criticisms of the book is
the utter absence of any carefully worked
out and plainly stated theory of wages.
This is unpardonable in a book which
deals primarily with the wages question.
Nowhere does the author state definitely
what, in his opinion, are the determining
causes of high or low wages. The near-
est that he comes to it is the statement,
once or twice repeated, that the willing-
ness of a man to receive a certain wage
has nothing to do with the question, but
the amount which he produces (page
367). Yet he repeatedly speaks of the
willingness of the rural native American
to accept low wages as being a deter-
mining factor of his wages, and as con-
stituting him a menace to the urban for-
eigner (pages 371-2, 492).

Dr. Hourwich's main argument on the
wages question is as follows: The immi-

grants have not supplanted native work-
men, but have filled a shortage in the
labor market which the native labor
could not supply. Immigration varies
inversely with unemployment and does
not increase unemployment. Without
this supply of foreign labor in times of
expansion the material development of
the country must have been seriously
retarded. Since the immigrants merely
supply a demand for extra labor, and do
not supplant the natives, they can not
cause a reduction in the wage scale. In
fact, the employment of a large number
of immigrants has generally happened
simultaneously with an increase in wages.
During the period of the new immigration
trade unions have flourished and the
working day has been shortened.

At this point the author recognizes a
certain "theoretical proposition" which
must have arisen in the mind of every
thoughtful reader who had got this far
in the summary review. This is, that if
there have been these periods of a short-
age of labor when, without the immi-
grant, industry must have languished,
the demand of the employers for more
labor must have reacted favorably upon
the conditions of the workingman. Ac-
cording to almost any known theory of
wages the demand for labor at such a
time must of necessity have raised the
wages of the laborers already in the
country, if the foreign sources of supply
had been cut off. But Dr. Hourwich
says no, and proceeds to show that in
the absence of the immigrant certain
substitutes for foreign labor would have
been developed, so that the demand for
labor would have been satisfied without
raising wages. The calm recklessness
with which the author thus demolishes
his carefully constructed argument that
immigration has been necessary for the
development of the country is truly
amazing. There are indeed substitutes
for human labor, which are always poten-
tially available, and will be brought into
requisition when labor becomes dearer
than society can afford. It is quite prob-
able that if there had been no "new

BOOK REVIEWS

761

immigration" the United States would
have been able to avail itself of these
substitutes to such an extent as to pro-
vide for a healthy industrial develop-
ment, though undoubtedly at the cost of
a higher wage to the workmen who would
necessarily have been employed.

Let us now glance over the main body
of the work, picking out only such glaring
faults as can be considered in a limited
space. The chapter on the report of the
immigration commission is evidently in-
tended to discredit the work of that
body, and its conclusions. The illustra-
tions selected are for the most part triv-
ial and rather anomalous ones, such as
are of necessity included in a work of
such scope. Even these are handled in
a misleading way, and are not always
accurately quoted, as for instance in the
last sentence in the footnote on page
60, where "four families" should read
"twenty-six" families. Throughout the
book the author indulges in many an
ironical sneer at the work of the com-
mission. Yet it is noteworthy that he
quotes from its report freely and unre-
servedly whenever it happens to coincide
with his own opinions.

The chapter on the old and new immi-
gration is a hopeless muddle on which
no time need be wasted. In the chapter
on immigration and the labor market
the statement is made that "during
the industrial crisis of 1908 immigration
dropped at once nearly a million" and
there was "a net loss of nearly a quarter
of a million through emigration." As
there is not a semblance of accuracy in
this statement if it refers to the fiscal
year, we must conclude that the author
has in mind the calendar year. Between
the calendar years 1907 and 1908 there
was a drop in immigration of 859,642 and
a net loss through emigration of 41,198.
General statements in a statistical vol-
ume should come nearer the figures than
this.

Dr. Hourwich regards the returning
immigrant as a much more potent force
in stimulating emigration than "the much
blamed steamship agent." He forgets

that it is impossible to separate these
two classes, as a large proportion of the
steamship agents are themselves return-
ed immigrants. In his effort to prove
that the popular idea of stimulation is
much exaggerated he quotes (page 100)
a sentence from the report of the immi-
gration commission to the effect that
"there are probably at the present time
relatively few actual contract laborers
admitted." In fairness, he should have
gone on, and quoted the very next sen-
tence, which reads as follows: "There
are annually admitted, however, a very
large number who come in response
to indirect assurance that employment
awaits them." And if he had wished to
appear wholly unprejudiced, he might
have quoted another sentence (on page
189 of the same volume of the report) to
the effect that "it is certain that Euro-
pean immigrants, and particularly those
from southern and eastern Europe, are,
under a literal construction of the law,
for the most part contract laborers."
These statements come much nearer to
representing the general opinion of the
commission than the detached sentence
quoted by Dr. Hourwich.

In regard to the author's discussion of
unemployment, this sweeping criticism
may be made. In his entire treatment
of this subject, as well as of other allied
ones, he assumes that the effect of any
phenomenon must be immediately con-
temporaneous with the cause. If immi-
gration increases unemployment, then
the unemployment must be seen to in-
crease at exactly the same time that
immigration is increasing. All of his
tables and charts are constructed on this
assumption. Yet a moment's thought
shows that it is absurd. It is common
knowledge that immigration increases in
periods of business prosperity, when un-
employment is naturally on the decrease.
The unemployment for which a large
wave of immigration is responsible, may
not appear until a year or five years after
the crest of the wave. If the compar-
ative curves which the author uses to
establish his point were shifted forward

762

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

or back in point of time, they would then
appear to prove exactly the reverse of
what he wishes. No sensible student
claims that when immigrant A arrives in
the country he at once throws native B
into unemployment, nor that Franceschi
and Polenski shove Bauer and Svenson
bodily out of their jobs.

The chapter on racial stratification is
vitiated by the fact that the figures are
confined almost wholly to the decade
1890 to 1900 which was a period of excep-
tionally small immigration and numerous
departures. In the chapter on emigra-
tion from northern and western Europe
a very significant statement occurs, viz.,
'The increased demand for labor in
the industrial establishments of Germany
resulted in a substantial increase of the
rate of wages. ' ' The same idea is brought
out in the discussion of the other north-
western European countries, where it is
shown that the industrial expansion has
resulted in a great improvement in the
situation of the laboring classes. The
author fails to show why similar condi-
tions should not have accomplished a
similar result in the United States, in the
absence of an unlimited immigration.

In his discussion of the standard of liv-
ing and wages, the chief weakness of the
argument has already been suggested,
viz., that the author continually com-
pares conditions now with what they
were half and three-quarters of a century
ago, making no allowance for the tre-
mendous advances in sanitation, social
legislation, and public opinion, which
ought to have set the workman of today
immeasurably ahead of his grandfather
in everything that pertains to the com-
fort of life. The decrease in the hours
of labor is called "the effect of the 'new
immigration' " (page 313), quite ignor-
ing the fact that England, with more
emigration than immigration, has wit-
nessed an even more significant reduction
in hours. In fact, the author's method
of comparing conditions in the United
States with those in foreign countries
would be disastrous to several of his
arguments, if consistently carried out.

Perhaps the worst positive statistical
blunder in the book is that connected
with the comparison of the tendency of
native parents and foreign parents to put
their children to work. The number of
children of each nativity at work is com-
pared with the number of all bread-
winners of the same nativity in manu-
facturing and mechanical pursuits. Now,
obviously, the only reasonable basis of
comparison is the total number of chil-
dren of the given ages in each nativity
group in the country. If the author had
made this comparison (as he might read-
ily have done from the same source from
which he drew his figures) it would have
appeared that nearly three times as large
a percentage of all children of foreign
parents, of the given ages, are employed
in the specified occupations, as chil-
dren of native parents. One is in doubt
whether it is more charitable to assign
such a perversion of statistics on the part
of a writer of Dr. Hourwich's ability to
carelessness or to intent to mislead.

In the midst of his discussions of eco-
nomic problems the author inserts a very
cursory chapter on pauperism and crime.
The summary treatment of crime finds its
justification in the fact that the author
has published an essay on the subject,
in which he arrives at the conclusion,
which corresponds with that reached by
many other investigators, that immigra-
tion has not increased the volume
of crime in this country. As regards
pauperism, no similar grounds for so in-
adequate a treatment are evident. The
only reason which suggests itself is that
even so clever a statistician as Dr. Hour-
wich would have difficulty in finding
statistics which would not go to show
that the amount of pauperism among the
foreign-born was vastly out of proportion
to their total numbers in the population.

It is not necessary to continue this
discussion into the consideration of vari-
ous separate industries which closes Dr.
Hourwich's book. Enough has been said
to demonstrate the fundamental weak-
nesses of the work. In addition to many
actual statistical inaccuracies and care-

BOOK REVIEWS

763

less practices (such as referring to a
period of years sometimes with the inclu-
sion of the first year and sometimes with-
out it — as, the ten-year period 1900-
1909 or 1899-1909) the following general
faults run through the book: (1) Arguing
from concomitants — because two things
have happened simultaneously, therefore
one is the cause of the other, or the
other is the cause of the one, if that
suits one's purposes better. (2) The
comparison of a certain phenomenon be-
tween different times or places with ref-
erence to a single conditioning factor,
without consideration of numerous other
factors which might also influence it (un-
employment in Australia without immi-
gration and in the United States with
immigration). (3) The assumption that
an effect must appear simultaneously with
its cause. (4) The neglect of the impor-
tant question of the influence of immi-
gration on the birth rate of a society.
(5) The treatment of the remuneration
of labor on the basis of money wages,
instead of real wages. (6) The confusion
of labor with cheap labor. (7) The as-
sumption that labor-saving machinery
supplants skilled labor to a much greater
extent than unskilled labor. (8) The
failure to allow for any natural progress
in the condition of the American work-
ingman in the last three-quarters of a
century. (9) Finally — the besetting sin
of the professional statistician — ^the as-
sumption that nothing is true which
cannot be proved by statistics.

Less space need be devoted to Dr.
Warne's book, not because it is less
important, but because it contains less
to challenge criticism — and of course the
reviewer finds himself in a more expan-
sive mood when finding fault than when
meting out praise.

In the first chapter the author carries
out the comparison suggested in the title
between the immigration of the present
and the great invasions of history. This
is skilfully done, and while one might
take exception to the use of the word
invasion in such a broad sense, and to

the attitude of hostility on the part of
the author waich it implies, nevertheless
the query which is raised, as to whether
America alone can hope to escape the
consequences of such a movement, is
very pertinent.

In his discussion of the causes of im-
migration. Dr. Warne does well to lay
stress on the question of land, and den-
sity of population, for immigration in a
very real sense represents the redistribu-
tion of population consequent upon the
discovery of America. His view of in-
duced immigration and contract labor is
directly opposed to that of Dr. Hour-
wich, as Dr. Warne regards them both
as of great importance. The now famil-
iar change in the racial character of
immigration is thoroughly discussed,
and well portrayed by the use of tables
and charts.

The chapters on distribution are
among the best in the book. It is clearly
demonstrated that the predominance of
the older immigrants in the agricultural
regions of the west and northwest, and
the concentration of the newer immigra-
tion in the north Atlantic states are the
result of the economic conditions of two
different periods of development rather
than of different racial traits on the part
of certain groups of immigrants. The
primary cause of the small immigration
to the south is found in the institution
of slavery.

As a preparation foV the study of the
effects of immigration upon conditions
in the United States, the author con-
siders at some length the customary
standard of living of the different immi-
grant races in their native European
homes, and finds that not only are the
standards of immigrants in general lower
than those of Americans, but that the
standards of the newer races are decid-
edly lower than those of the older ones.
These standards the immigrants bring
with them.

As a result, there arises that disastrous
competitive struggle between different
standards of living, which Dr. Warne
has clearly depicted in his earlier book,

7(34

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

The Slav Invasion. The outcome of the
struggle is the stagnation of the standard
of the natives and of the older immi-
grants at a point far below that which
they might have reached by this time,
and in some cases an actual lowering of
that standard in the effort to hold out
against the new immigrants.

What is true of the standard of living
is of course true of the wages upon which
it depends, and here we find the most
striking and significant conflict of opin-
ion between these two authors. In prac-
tically everything which concerns the
welfare of the American workingman,
Dr. Warne finds that the influence of the
new immigration has been disastrous,
while Dr. Hourwich fails to see that any
harm whatever has been done. Of the
two, Dr. Warne's method of treatment
and conclusions make a much stronger
appeal to the reader, and seem to rest
on a saner and sounder logic. He does
admit that without immigration the
industrial development of the country
might have been less rapid, but considers
that this might have been a good thing.

In his discussion of the future and of
the responsibility of the United States,
the author is at his best. His appeal is
to the common sense of the nation, and
to a broader human sympathy and sense
of stewardship. His words challenge the
thought of every citizen of this country
who feels motives above mere money-
getting and selfish personal advance-
ment, and demand the consideration of
the menace of unregulated immigration
before it is too late.

Certain minor criticisms of this book
should be made in the interests of com-
pleteness. The long lists of proper names
of races and places which occur from
time to time give an impression of pad-
ding, which the body of the work does
not warrant. The illustrations are some-
what monotonous, and the quotations
from a few authors, as for instance Mr.
Bryce and Mr. Wells, are perhaps too
vol imii nous. On page 117 the author
must have meant to say that more than
one-third, instead of one-half, of the

population was living in cities; and the
present head tax is $4 instead of $2 as
stated on page 309. Taken as a whole,
however, this book gives evidence of a
really remarkable penetration and in-
sight into the more fundamental and
significant, though less obvious, aspects
of the immigration situation in this coun-
try.

The effect of immigration upon wages
and the conditions of labor in the United
States can never be proved by statistics.
Probably it can never be proved at all.
Statistics are good, and furnish valuable
bulwarks to arguments pro and con. But
after all the figures are tabulated, and
all the charts and diagrams drawn, and
all the curves plotted, it still remains
true that one cannot write Q. E. D. at
the end. It is significant that of these
two authors the one who relies less on
statistics, and more on logic, observa-
tion and common sense, "comes much
nearer to proving his point.

Henry Pratt Fairchild.

Yale University.

New Demands in Education. By
James Phinney Munroe. New York:
Doubleday Page and Company, 1912.

One of the most significant things
about this book is the indication it con-
tains that the leaders in business and
industry and the leaders in education are
arriving at a common understanding of
the real meaning of education. The book
will serve a useful purpose by giving to
some of the recent tendencies in education
the support of the "practical" thought of
a layman in the business world. If the
"new demands in education," now recog-
nized by the more advanced industrial
and educational leaders, are to be met,
it will require the closest cooperation
between the two groups, and a book of
this kind should do much to give cur-
rency to the best thought in education,
which is too exclusively confined to pro-
fessional educational discussion.

The fundamental demand in educa-

BOOK REVIEWS

765

tion, the author repeatedly emphasizes,
is for individual efficiency — physical,
mental and moral — as a means to social
or civic efficiency. In his preface he
enumerates eight new demands, and
"upon these theses the arguments of the
following chapters rest." The first
demand is for greater attention to the
individual child through smaller classes;
the second, greater attention to the
physical' well being of the child; third,
greater educative exercise for the mind
by establishing a clearer relation between
the work of the school and real life;
fourth, better training of the senses —
the powers of observation and ability
to use the hands; fifth, that education
shall put its chief emphasis upon charac-
ter; sixth, that the main emphasis of
schooling shall be placed on the social
side — effective living as a member of the
community; seventh, that there shall be
some one to advise the boy "what to do
next" when he reaches the age when he
may legally leave school; and finally,
that, from the age when he may legally
leave school up to manhood and woman-
hood, there shall be "a wide variety of
opportunity for making himself (or her-
self) into the most intelligent, the most
efficient, and therefore the happiest
citizen that it is possible for him to be."

The vocational idea runs strongly
through the book, but not in a narrow
sense. Efficient citizenship is constantly
kept in the foreground as the chief and
all-inclusive vocation. Some of the more
significant chapters are those dealing
with the grievance of the average boy
against the average school; the common
school; education as prevention; the
demand for efficient administration; the
demand for a true profession of teaching;
the demand for vocational training; the
pressing need for industrial education;
the demands of business; the need for
real patriotism; the demand for trained
citizens; the demand for a citizens' high
school; how the colleges ruin the high
schools; the educational bearings of
manual training.

The author declares that we need

"educational engineers," and forecasting
the main recommendations of such engi-
neers, he says they would certainly
include:

Much larger school appropriations, to-
gether with better systems of business
managment.

Much smaller classes (not to exceed
twenty-five) ;

Higher salaries to competent teachers;

Better training for teachers;

A reorganization of most normal
schools in order to bring about that
better training;

he organization of the teaching pro-
fession (like that of law, of medicine, and
of engineering) for the purpose of pro-
moting higher professional standards;

Limitation of the authority of school
boards to matters non-educational;

Establishing of school "faculties" with
authority, under the superintendent, over
all educational questions;

Development of a rational and diver-
sified school program to meet the life-
need of the average pupil, not the ar-
tificial examination standards of the
colleges;

School buildings simply planned and
furnished, but properly ventilated,
heated, and lighted;

Ample provision for physical training
and for health teaching;

Education of each child as an in-
dividual, with due regard to his present
aptitudes and future prospects;

"Social education" — that is, the train-
ing of the child to live usefully and hap-
pily with and for his fellows; and

Wise development of manual and
industrial education, leading to voca-
tional training.

These forecasted recommendations
have recently been substantiated, in
large measure, by the actual recommen-
dations of the "educational engineers"
who have made the inquiry into the
school system of New York City. The
following passages from New Demands in
Education might almost be duplicated
in the report on the New York school
inquiry:'

We must, however, do away with the
curse of uniformity, allowing instead,
full play to individuality; we must, fur-
thermore, fit the means and methods

1 See National Municipal Review, vol. ii;
p. 88.

76G

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

of the school to the real needs of the
future worker and citizen; and we must,
in addition, make the profession of teach-
ing self-respecting by releasing it from
its present bondage to amateurs: to well-
intentioned but inexpert school boards
who are jauntily settling pedagogical
problems that appall trained experts.
The teachers, if they are to teach from
themselves instead of from prescribed
text-books, must have a larger share in
the control and development of schools,
and must be so trained and stimulated
as to be fit to assume that larger share.

A school board constituted as are
those in most of the cities of the United
States is an anachronism in these days of
sociological knowledge and of business
organization.

A school board should then be chosen
largely for its administrative fitness en-
tirely without regard to its political
affiliations; should be small, so that its
plain and comparatively simple duties
of legislation may always be carried on
in open daylight, in committee of the
whole; should be fairly permanent so
that it may pursue a steady policy;
should be dignified and not harassed by
trivialities, so that men of the highest
ability may not shrink from service upon
it; should be chosen not so much for what
its members know (or think they know)
about education, still less for any deep
familiarity with city politics, but because
they are persons of good judgment, of
wide knowledge of affairs, of deep inter-
est in the city's welfare, and of incor-
ruptible integrity This

committee (board) in turn should place
all administrative and executive duties
connected with public education in the
hands of experts directly responsible to it.

Upon the superintendent, thus freed
of all business detail, should rest entire
responsibility for the educational effi-
ciency of the schools, including the ap-
pointment and dismissal of teachers,
and the determination of courses of
study. Such a superintendent must be
an expert in the science and art of edu-
cation, must be a man of broad culture
and wide views of life, must be a person
of boundless zeal, ready tact and un-
flinching moral courage. Moreover he
should have powers as nearly autocratic
as it is wise to give where abuse would
entail far-spreading mischief; should be
assured of tenure of office during good
service; should have an active part,
though not a vote, in all meetings of the
school board; and should have supreme
control of and final responsibility for all
disciplinary measures, including the im-

portant educational question of tru-
ancy.

There should be .... a school
faculty, similar to a college faculty,
wherein courses of study, methods of
teaching, text-books, and the thousand
questions of pedagogics should have free
discussion; wherein every new idea
should have encouragement; wherein all
fair criticism of methods or books should
have respectful hearing.

Arthuk W. Dunn.

New York.

Sources of Municipal Revenue in
Illinois. By Lent Dayton Upson,
Ph.D. University of Illinois Studies
in the Social Sciences. Urbana-Cham-
paign, 111.: Published by the Univer-
sity, pp. 126. 75 cents.

This study has a significance not only
for the information which it contains as
a presentation of certain interesting data
and conclusions of importance in their
local application to the particular com-
munities of which it treats, but in its
broader aspects as suggestive of a great
and heretofore untouched field of oppor-
tunity for similar monographic treat-
ment by advanced students and scholars
of our universities.

The impetus which has been given by
such organizations as the National Mu-
nicipal League and the United States
bureau of the census in the last fifteen
or twenty years to the consideration of
problems of municipal government, it
would be difficult to exaggerate; yet it is
a somewhat curious fact that this move-
ment has reacted chiefly upon the states
in the form of various legislative enact-
ments intended to bring about a more
scientific reporting of the financial trans-
actions of cities, towns, and other minor
political subdivisions, while societies and
the curricula of universities, whose ob-
ject has been the study of political sci-
ence or original research in this broad
field of inquiry, appear to have confined
their activities almost solely to that
branch of the subject which relates pri-
marily to the structure and organization

BOOK REVIEWS

767

of government". Very little attention has
been given to the equally important —
some of us think the more important —
aspect of the problem as to how best to
secure an efficient administration of mu-
nicipal affairs which is involved in the
accurate reporting of properly classified
fundamental data, and an administra-
tion of municipal functions, under what-
ever form of government, based upon an
intelligent use of known facts. This is
not to say that the numerous devices for
nominating and electing and controlling
our public officers, of initiating legisla-
tion and of the administration of mu-
nicipal affairs by commissions, may not
represent wise and salutary reforms;
only, let us not deceive ourselves by
thinking that once we have adopted these
things, our municipal soul is thereby to
be automatically saved, for we shall need
then, quite as much as now, certain
measuring rods of efficiency with which
to check up the system, as well as keep
tabs on individual conduct.

It is no doubt true that the real reason
we have had so few students of municipal
government from the fundamental view-
point of financial administration is not
the lack of appreciation of the impor-
tance of the subject, but the utterly
forbidding and discouraging character of
the material with which students have
been confronted whenever they have
set to work upon original sources. Dr.
Upson's monograph is not only a sub-
stantial contribution to the literature of
the subject, but it is a tribute to his
courage and perseverance, and a concrete
demonstration of a fact, that many
seekers after truth in this field of inquiry
will never learn save by toilsome expe-
rience— namely, that official documents
and the bald statement of financial offi-
cers cannot be accepted at face value.
"Questionnaires," he says, "were sent
to municipal officers; annual reports were
received from nearly (sic) half of the
cities; and personal visits were made

to all but two No one of

these methods of inquiry proved entirely
satisfactory. It was difficult to secure

replies even to direct questions. No
printed report gave a complete report for
a single city. In the cities visited the
data had to be secured from a number of
officials." "Nevertheless, a complete
statement was secured from all but three
of the cities examined," says the author
who has analyzed his material in a man-
ner enabling him to classify the several
sources of revenue and treat each topi-
cally under its own heading, e.g., prop-
erty taxation; licenses and police fines;
gifts, grants, and subventions; revenue
from services rendered, and from munici-
pal industries and property.

These chapters are supplemented by a
brief discussion of loans, by numerous
statistical tables, and by a bibliography.
The final chapter summarizes in excellent
form the author's definite conclusions,
twenty in number, most of which have
a purely local application, though some
of them reflect conditions undoubtedly
prevailing in other states. Such studies
may be expected to increase in number,
scope, and intrinsic worth when we have
more and better compilations of original
data relating to municipal finance upon
which such men as Dr. Upson may draw
for reliable and suggestive material.
Charles F. Gettemy.^

Helping School Children: Sugges-
tions FOR Efficient Cooperation
with the Public Schools. By Elsa
Denison. New York: Harper and
Brothers, pp. 351, $1.40.

The sub-title of this book fairly sug-
gests the scope of the work, and no one
can read it without feeling that " its mes-
sage and its facts are needed wherever
there is a public school or a civic or-
ganization." Based upon an extensive
investigation in all parts of the country
and upon "contributions from 350 city
and state superintendents of public in-
struction and 650 business men, club
women, physicians, dentists, ministers
and editors," besides statistics from vari-

1 Boston.

768

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

ous bureaus of research, the suggestions
made and conclusions reached should
commend themselves to all interested in
the public schools and in general govern-
ment efficiency.

In general it may be said that the work
shows what is being done, and what can
and should be done, in the way of co-
operation, to make the public schools
more effective; and the subject is treated
from every point of contact and viewed
from every angle. In spite of the fact
that perhaps $10,000,000 are being spent
annually by public and private agencies
to supplement the work of public schools
in the Ignited States, which is more than
the income from the Rockefeller and
Carnegie foundations combined, yet the
writer feels that the present activities
do not meet the needs of the public
schools, and the general apathy and lack
of interest still presents a problem which
is far from solved and in which, in many
instances, but a poor beginning has been
made— and indeed in thousands of in-
stances not even a visible sign of a begin-
ning. The solution of the public school
problem, therefore, lies in effective out-
side cooperation, and this can only be
brought about by a general awakening
of the public conscience and applying the
remedies already worked out in the more
favored localities to the unenlightened
communities. This can best be accom-
plished by central organizations which
shall act as distributing agencies of in-
formation necessary to raise the general
level of efficiency. But of course the real
problem is essentially a local one and
local interest must awake to meet the
situation. This interest moreover must
come from voluntary organizations and
associations. Officials will be stimu-
lated to do their full duty, school budgets
will be increased to meet the proper
needs, and an effective teaching staff
will be secured only when the public has
an honest — which is an intelligent — en-
thusiasm for the public schools.

With the general suggestions outlined
in this work, the majority of students
of social reform will agree. Efficiency

in school administration as in othor line.s
of government will only come when a
vital contact between the agents of the
people and the people themselves is
effected, and this can only be brought
about by voluntary action from the lat-
ter. This fact has been demonstrated
by such organizations as the National
Municipal League and the various mu-
nicipal voters leagues. These organiza- •
tions have done much to stimulate an
honest and intelligent interest in politics
and there is reason to believe that the
various voluntary associations suggested
here would do the same for the public
schools. But they must be organized
and unified under a more intelligent
administration than is often the case at
the present time. Minor criticisms may
be urged against this volume. The facts
are not always arrayed in the most log-
ical manner and a certain carelessness
and looseness of expression fails to drive
home the conviction which the facts
would really justify. Quotations are
often made with no indication of the
source, and frequent references to un-
familiar cities are made with no hint as
to the name of the state in which they
are located. There are numerous typo-
graphical errors — too numerous in fact
to be pointed out — which perhaps may
also account, in part at least, for the
faulty punctuation frequently met with.
But on the whole the work is a contri-
bution to a much neglected field of civic
life.

Karl F. Geiser.
Obcrlin College.

The Conservation of the Child. By
Arthur Holmes, Assistant Director of
the Psychological Clinic, University of
Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: J. B.
Lippincott and Company, $1.25.

How to tell when children are men-
tally, morally or physically defective;
how to classify each child so as to secure
for lum the best individual care; how to
conduct a psychological clinic in close

BOOK REVIEWS

769

cooperation with schools, charitable
societies, hospitals and universities; how
to give. physical, pedagogical and psycho-
physical tests and interpret their results —
all this is told with a wealth of case
detail in the Conservation of the Child.

Dr. Holmes' description of the routine
procedure of the clinic, of what its physi-
cians, psychologists and social workers
do every day, his full presentation of
Binet, laboratory and school book tests,
and his historical summaries of interest
in feeble-minded children, are primarily
of value to the physician, psychologist
and teacher of atypical children. For all
teachers of normal children, for parents
and social workers, the book includes
many sign posts and danger warnings
among its analyses of early symptoms of
feeble-mindedness, and its constant ref-
erences to the school problems of retar-
dation and over-age.

Every city is in the midst of or must
eventually go through the experience of
coordinating the agencies, public and
private, that are in touch with mentally
abnormal children. Dr. Holmes has out-
lined a system of cooperation between
these forces in Philadelphia through the
clinic which aims to be a "a helpful co-
ordinating, correlative agency among all
societies and organizations aiming at
the welfare of children."

Every one of the four thousand chil-
dren brought to the clinic since 1896
received a thorough physical examina-
tion, and if adenoids or decayed teeth
seemed the possible cause of backward-
ness or badness, these defects were reme-
died before the mental tests were made.

When a child is classified as corrigible
or incorrigible and its treatment outlined
by the examiner, he is not sent back to
home and school to get along as best he
can, but the necessary watching and
special instruction are given either at
the clinics' hospital school, in the child's
home or in some institution. Each child
receives the continuing service of a spe-
cially trained social worker, a friend till
the last, which means permanent com-

mitment to an institution, or maximum
development of his powers.

For its record of a smoothly running
organization, unique in this country, as
well as for its suggestions to other cities,
and to all people caring for feeble-minded
children, the Conservation of the Child
will be of lasting service.

William H. Allen.
New York City.

Fliijs and Mosquitoes as Carriers of
Disease. By William Paul Gerhard,
C.E. New York. Published by the
author. Forty-second Street Building,
25 cents.

Dr. Gerhard is a well-known writer on
public sanitation, and his works are usu-
ally full of valuable information. The
pamphlet in question, including some 16
pages of text, bears inside as an apparent
sub-title, "What farmers can do to assist
in the campaign against flies and mos-
quitoes," and the paper is as a whole a
reprint of an article written for The
Country Gentleman several years ago.

Dr. Gerhard brings together a brief
and rather capable summary of the fly-
fighting methods and the mosquito exter-
mination practices so far developed and
published. The pamphlet, as far as it
goes, presents, therefore, important mat-
ter which it is well to have widely circu-
lated.

Regret is felt, however, that Dr. Ger-
hard has not said anything new, and that
in common with others who are dealing
with the subject of fly-fighting particu-
larly, he has "side-stepped" the sug-
gestion of any practicable methods
whereby the farmer may prevent the
breeding of flies without destroying the
value of horse manure. It is well enough
of course, to suggest that horse manure
should be promptly removed from city
stables, or that it should be so treated as
to prevent the breeding of flies. It is,
however, futile to propose to the farmer
that he should use chemicals which would
destroy the manurial value of that which

770

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

has much to do with his prosperity as a
fanner.

The same lack of concrete investiga-
tion upon a subject relating to life and
* economics most importantly is found
in the publications of the Agricultural
Department at Washington, and also
in the authoritative work of Dr. L. O.
Howard upon this subject.

Dr. Gerhard's pamphlet gives excel-
lent suggetions as to how proper sanita-
tion about the farm home will reduce the
number of flies and mosquitoes, which
may be carriers of disease, and are cer-
tainly productive of annoyance. It is
to be hoped that some scientifi.c inves-
tigator will appreciate the importance
of carrying on experimentation in such
fashion as to be able to propose to farm-
ers a method of handling horse manu-
so as to prevent the breeding therein of
flies without the destruction in conse-
quence of the value of the manure.

J. Horace McFarland.

Foxv Government, or Fallacies of
THE Des Moines Plan. By P. H.
Ryan. Published by the author, Feb-
ruary 1912.

This is a title which commands atten-
tion, especially from students, debaters
and librarians who have long looked in
vain for "something on the other side."
vSuch searchers will be disappointed, how-
ever, in this slender volume, for it con-
stitutes the sort of opposition which the
friends of the Des Moines plan should
welcome wath shouts of joy.

It is a gale of ill-tempered declamation
assailing the theory of the commission
plan and sneering at the enthusiam of its
supporters in Des Moines. The opening
sections are devoted respectively to
Adam, Abraham ("When Abraham tried
the Commission Plan") Romulus and
Remus, Alexander and Napoleon, all of
whom, it seems, did much damage in
their days by setting up new fool forms
of government.

.\mong the gems (Come now, C. R.
W. — stay that blue pencil! I know the
screed is not worth our space but wc have
to have a Utile fun in thi.s magazine!)
among the gems that shine from the
pages are the following:

Ward representation is eliminated,
destroying a representative form of gov-
ernment.

The United States is the only republic
existing for a greater length of time than
any other.

Rotation in office is the one great
check against trickery and crookedness.

As to initiative, referendum and recall :

Such a system causes turmoil, unrest
and produces a virulent form of anar-
chism.

The only ones desiring it (commission
government, in other cities) are a clique
of muckrakers.

As proof of a nation-wide "conspir-
acy" to spread the commission plan, the
author cites the existence of municipal
leagues in New York, Ohio, Pennsjdva-
nia and other states, "the leaders of
which have no other motive than mer-
cenary."

As to the reason whj' the number of
commissioners was set at five:

If the ball of the thumb is adjusted
in proper juxtaposition with the apex of
the nose, the fingers apart, extended in
the direction of Hawaii, and wigwagged
at the other fellow in a contemptuous
manner, an insinuation of disdain is
implied that may have been the inspira-
tion that led to the selection of a quin-
tette as the most feasible galaxy of units.

Not everything that the author
presents is false or frivolous. There are
fallacies in the commission plan, there
are defects in the details of the Des
Moines charter and the commissioners
have been human enough to err from time
to time, but this glib critic is too poorly
grounded in political science and too
biased to be either an acceptable collec-
tor or interpreter of the facts.

Richard S. Childs.

New York.

BOOK REVIEWS

771

Cooperation in New England. By
James Ford. New York: Survey Asso-
ciates, Inc., pp. 300. $1.50.

In no other part of the United States
has the cooperative movement received
so much attention from economic stu-
dents as in New England. In 1877 George
E. McNeil made an elaborate study of
the history of cooperation in New Eng-
land for the Massachusetts bureau of
labor statistics; in 1886, Dr. E. W. Bemis
published his well-known Cooperation in
New England, and now after a lapse of
nearly thirty years Dr. James Ford pre-
sents a new survey of the same field. We
have thus a unique succession of inven-
tories of the cooperative movement. The
chief interest in Dr. Ford's book to most
students, therefore, will not lie so much
in its faithful delineation of existing co-
operative enterprises, as in the light it
throws on the progress of cooperation
in New England.

In 1886 Bemis found 17 cooperative
manufacturing enterprises in New Eng-
land, in 1913 Ford found not a single
factory managed on genuine cooperative
principles. The total collapse of produc-
tive cooperation is not so surprising
however, as the decline in distributive
cooperation. Cooperation in production
has been declining elsewhere, but in prac-
tically all other industrial countries dis-
tributive cooperation has been extending.
In 1886 Bemis found 53 cooperative stores
with a paid-up capital of $187,466 and
doing an annual business of $2,000; 000.
Of these about a dozen survive with a
capital of $90,000. There are altogether,
according to Ford's reckoning, some 60
cooperative urban stores in New England,
but practically all of the stores estab-
lished since 1886 have been established by
immigrants directly in imitation of the co-
operative stores of their native countries.
It remains to be seen whether these
stores will survive the Americanization
of their clientele.

The results of rural cooperation have
not been much more encouraging. The
chief enterprises of this character found

by Bemis in 1886 were the cooperative
creameries and here again Dr. Ford finds
since 1890 a considerable decline. The
one form of distributive cooperation
which shows substantial progress is the
association for the cooperative sale of
produce, typified by the very successful
New England Cranberry Sales Company.
Naturally, Dr. Ford devotes much of
his attention to the causes of failure. The
decline of the cooperative creameries can
be explained by special causes. But
there are evidently more general causes
for the backwardness of the American
cooperative movement. Dealing more
generally with the question. Dr. Ford
ascribes the failure of distributive co-
operation largely to the fact that the
American prefers to increase his earning
power rather than to exercise thrift.
But things are changing, he thinks, and
in no great while the American workman
too will have to become thrifty. It is
possible that this is the true explanation,
but we should have liked to hear some-
thing as to the other possible explana-
tion— the greater relative efficiency of
American private distributive agencies
over similar agencies in other countries.
It may be that the American workman
finds that the cooperative game is not
worth the candle, not because he esteems
candles less than the workmen of other
countries, but because there is less candle
here.

George E. Barnett.
Johns Hopkins University.

Between Eras from Capitalism to
Democracy. By Albion W. Small.
Kansas City, Mo.: Inter-Collegiate
Press. 431 pp.

Professor Small's book is a singular
combination of conversations, discus-
sions, and moralizings (touched through-
out with a decided human interest) in
which the nature and evils of the cap-
italist system are laid bare and a remedy
sought by practical men of affairs under
the guidance of philosophers and friends.

772

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

It would be difficult to find anywhere a
more acute analysis of modern industri-
alisna or a surer statement of changed
views wliich are coming to thoughtful
men and women all over the world as
they contemplate the havoc which has
followed in the train of imcontrolled
competition — that "natural order" so
blessed in the eyes of Manchester. The
volume also presents a remarkable pic-
ture of all sorts and conditions of men
and women, theorists and tough minded
persons, who are seriously devoting
themselves to "the problems of the
hour," much to the displeasure and high
contempt of the Philistine. Captains
of industry, striking workmen, politi-
cians, socialistic preachers, despised soci-
ologists, insurgents, and professors have
their say, as the author exposes the inner
workings of a great industrial enterprise
under the leadership of resourceful
capitalists. The goal to which it all
runs is a sort of copartnership with
labor a little higher in the scale than
in any such undertakings which have
been realized so far. It may be a for-
lorn hope to which our author leads us.
Such it will seem to be to those who
have seen at close range the sickly plant
of copartnership which has languished
for half a century in the midst of Brit-
ish capitalism. But whatever may be
thought of the outcome of the story
which Mr. Small here tells, all will ad-
mit that he has made impressive por-
trayal of many aspects of the modern
industrial conflict.

Charles A. Beard.

Essays in Taxation. By Edwin R. A.
Seligman. Eighth edition, completely
revised and enlarged. New York:
Macmillan Company, 1913. 707 pp.
$4 net.

Professor Seligman's collected Essays
in Taxation first appeared in 189.'5 and
has gone through seven editions without
material change. The present eighth
edition has however been thoroughly

revised, being expanded from thirteen
to twenty-one chapters and from 434 to
707 pages. The revision has extended
to practically every chapter, while not-
able additions are found in the chapters
on the general property tax, the single
tax, the inheritance tax, corporation tax-
ation, and recent literature in taxation.
The eight new chapters, which are most-
ly based on papers and addresses pub-
lished elsewhere in the interval, cover
modern problems in taxation, a quarter
century's progress in taxation, separa-
tion of state and local revenues, relations
of state and federal finance, the import-
ance of precision in assessments, recent
reforms in taxation (1909-1910), and
American reports on taxation, 1901-1911.
Last but by no means least in importance
is the enlargement of the index from ten
to twenty-five pages.

The work has been a recognized
authority for so long that any review at
this date, beyond an indication of the
extent of the changes, appears super-
fluous. It has in fact been one of the
chief influences making for a sane and
orderly progress in taxation. This in-
fluence will be strengthened b}^ the
appearance of the revised edition, which
is of course indispensable to all serious
students of taxation.

Edward Van Dyke Robinson.
University of Minnesota.

The New American Citizen : A Reader
FOR Foreigners. By Frances S.
Mintz. New York: The Macmillan
Company, pp. 206. 50 cents.

This little volume contains topics of
interest to foreigners, such as the story
of the discovery and settlement of their
adopted country, short biographical
sketches of national heroes like Washing-
ton and Lincoln, national hymns, a brief
outline of our governmental system, pen-
pictures of our great cities, interesting
stories from the lives of our famous poets
and prose-writers, with selections from
their writings, and stories of modern

BOOK REVIEWS

773

inventions and occupations. Instruction
in personal hygiene is made the basis of
several lessons.

Unfortunately some of these topics ex-
tend a little too far beyond the average
foreigner's educational background, and
do not give him that intimate knowledge
he needs of the life and activities that
immediately surround him.

The book best meets the needs of
those who have gained some proficiency
in the English language and have ac-
quired a rather extensive vocabulary.
But on the other hand, the book will
help displace the uninteresting and juve-
nile "I see a cat" reader for foreigners,
and will command the interest of adult
pupils of all nationalities through the
knowledge it will impart of their new
home-country and the appeal it will
make to civic pride and patriotism.

In short, the Reader will serve fairly
well as a short step to the history of
American literature and institutions, and
to an understanding of the duties and
privileges of American citizenship.

John J. Maioriello.
Social Service Settlement, Philadelphia.

The Courts, the Constitution and
Parties. By Prof. Andrew C. Mc-
Laughlin. Chicago: The University
of Chicago. Postpaid $1.63.

Professor McLaughlin has gathered
into a convenient sized volume five of
his fugitive studies in constitutional his-
tory and politics. The one of greatest
interest to the readers of the National
Municipal Review is that on political
parties and popular government. An-
other on the significance of political
parties is also most interesting. In Dr.
McLaughlin's opinion "the object of
the party government is not to seek the
will of the people and by diligent obe-
dience do what the people may wish; it
is not .... to give free play to
local whims and fancies."

The book would have been much more

helpful and suggestive if the several
integral chapters had been revised and
brought up to date. To illustrate: The
chapter on the political significance of
parties was written in 1908. At that
date it was perhaps entirely proper to
speak of Democratic success as a "hu-
morous suggestion" and to say "some
time we shall democratize and constitu-
tionalize parties," a process which had
proceeded far in 1912, and still further
in 1913.

Notwithstanding the fact that the
volume fails to recognize the truly re-
markable developments of the past five
years, it is one well worth attention
even though written from the standpoint
of the historian, rather than that of the
political scientist.

Organized Democracy: An Introduc-
tion TO American Politics. By
Frederick A. Cleveland, Ph.D., LL.D.
New York : Longmans, Green and Com-
pany, pp. 479.

Dr. Cleveland has provided a good,
working handbook of the development
of popular sovereignty in the United
States. The picture drawn is one "of
the continuing evolution of the means
devised by organized citizenship for
making its will effective; for determining
what the government shall be and what
the government shall do; for making
the qualified voter an efficient instru-
ment through which the will of the
people may be expressed; for making
officers both responsive and responsible.
With that wealth of detail which char-
acterizes Dr. Cleveland's work, we have
a volume which while paralleling others
in places, gives within its pages a good
perspective of a complicated process.
It is to be regretted that so much of the
scaffolding in the shape of references
and over-elaborate footnotes has been
permitted to remain.

The book is one of the American Cit-
izens Series, edited by Prof. Albert

774

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

Bushnell Hart, and owes its origin to
the author's essay on "The Growth of
Democracy in the United States."

The American Spirit. By Oscar S.
Straus. New York: The Century Com-
pany. $2.12 postpaid.

Twenty-two essays dealing with those
subjects in which Mr. Straus has been
most interested and those men with
wliom he has been associated, are in-
cluded in this volume. There is no
effort to give it continuity, but running
through all the chapters is a note of sin-
cere patriotism, real devotion to coun-
try and a desire to set forth his idea of
personal and social service.

London and Its Government. By
Percy A. Harris. London: J. M. Dent
and Sons, Ltd., pp. 188. 2 s. 6 d. net.

This is a concise and satisfactory
acccount of a big subject. In less than
200 pages we have an epitome of the gov-
ernment of the British metropolis. As"a
member of the London county council,
Mr. Harris speaks with authority and
yet he does not overlay his treatment
with unnecessary expert details. More-

over the book is illustrated in a way to
illuminate the text. 'I'lic concluding
chapters on the relation of the state to
London and on London reform arc ad-
mirable alike in their perspective and in
their spirit. In the words of the London
Municipal Journal, Mr. Harris's digest
is so well done, and it reads so easily,
that only the expert in London's govern-
ment can appreciate the labour that must
have been entailed in elimination and
compression.

*

British Social Politics. By Carlton
Hayes, Boston: Ginn and Company.
Pp. .58. $1.75.

This is a source book on the follow-
ing topics: workmen's compensation,
child welfare, tradesunionism, old age
pension, the unemployed, sweated labor,
the housing and land problem, the Lloyd-
George budget, curbing the Lords and
national insurance. The British acts
on each subject are described, the history
of their passage set forth and the leading
speeches dealing with them are sum-
marized clearly and fairly. The editor
who is an assistant professor of history
at Columbia contributes an interesting
introductory note.

BOOKS RECEIVED

Addresses and Proceedings of the
Fourth National Conservation
Congress. Indianapolis : October 1-4,
1912.

Bibliography of Smoke and Smoke
Prevention. Compiled by Ellwood H.
McClelland, Technology Librarian,
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. Pitts-
burgh, Pa. : University of Pittsburgh,
1913.

The Commission Plan. By George F.
Rudisill. Columbus, Ohio: The Fed-
eral Printing Company, 1913. 25 cents.

European Cities at Work. By Fred-
eric C. Howe, Ph. D. New York :
Charles Scribner's Sons. $1.75.

The Government of American Trade
Unions. By Theodore W. Glocker,
Ph.D. Baltimore, Md.: The .Johns
Hopkins Press. $1.00.

The New Unionism. By Andre Tridon.
New York : B. VV. Huebsch. 25 cents.
Cloth, $1.00.

Official South African Municipal
Year Book. 1913. Joint Editors:
W. P. M. Henderson, Francis G. Pay.
Published by Francis G. Pay, P. O.
Box 1136, Cape Town. 10/6.

Organization .\nd Administration of
the Department of Health of Day-
ton, Ohio. Report prepared for the
Department of Health by the Dayton

BOOK REVIEWS

775

Bureau of Municipal Research, July,
1913.

Our City Civilization. By Henry
Rawie. Baltimore: Williams and Wil-
kins Company. $1.00.

Privileges and Immunities of Citi-
zens OF the United States. By
Arnold Johnson Lien, Ph.D. New-
York : Longmans, Green and Company.
1913.

Second National Conference of
Catholic Charities. 1912. Wash-

ington, D. C. : Catholic University of
America.

Safety Methods for Preventing
Occupational and Other Accidents
and Diseases. By William H. Tol-
man and Leonard B. Kendall. New
York: Harper and Brothers. $3.00.

Water Works of Canada. Compiled
by Leo G. Denis. Published by the
Commission of Conservation, Canada.
Ottawa: The Mortimer Company.

William H. Baldwin Prize

HERETOFORE the National Municipal League has
established an annual prize of One Hundred Dollars
called the William H. Baldwin Prize, to be given to
the author of the best essay on a subject connected with
municipal government. For the year 1913-1914, a prize of
$100 will be offered to:

Undergraduate students registered in a regular course in any college or univer-
sity in the United States offering direct instruction in municipal government.

The prize will be awarded by judges selected by the
Executive Committee of the League, and the names of the
winners will be announced at the next following annual
meeting.

The Council of the League has selected as the topic
tor next year's competition the subject of

'*/r ^/le Commission Form of Governme7it a

Permanent One''

Th? es-ays must not exceed lo coo wor.ls, ani must be lypewritUn in dupli-
cate, and both coi-ies mailed or delivered to an expres; comj any not l:ter than
Mar h 15th, 1914. a idre S2d to Clinton Rogers Woodruff, Secretary of the
National Muni i;,al League, Norih Amcricin BulJing, Phi'adelphia, Pa., anJ
marked "For llic William H. Baldicin Prize." Competitors wil mark each paper
with a ''mm de-plume," anl encloFe in a sealed envel )pe the full name, address,
cla5s an 1 college corresponding to su h ' nom-de plume."

For any ad "iti^nal deta'ls concerning the scope and conditions of the com-
petiti m inquiries may be addres ed to the Secretary.

Fi teen essys were submitted in 1912 tor the essay on "The Appointment of
Higher Muni ipal Officers by the Merit System." The pri e was aw r ed to
Artiiu" Dexter I'righam, of the Senio-- Cl-s;, Harvard Un versi y. Ri harJ H.
Dana Esi., 01 Cambrdge, Mass., and John H. Tha.her, formerly Civil Service
Commissi ner, Kan as C ty, Mo., acted as juJges.

Ten essays were submitted in 1Q13 for the essay on "The Best Sources of
City Revenue." The firt price was awar.led to Mi s Sybel Ede wei s Loughead,
of Rad lifle C ol'eg •, Cambridge and the ?econ 1 to Mr. Edward A. Lawl r, of
Ha V rd. Dr. L. G. Powers of the Bureau of the Cens is, Washington D. C,
and Geo ge C. Sikei of the Chita^'o Bureau of Public Effi^ien y acted as judges.

0.1 behalt of the National Municipal League,
K wHc^^Buiiding Clinton Rogers Woodruff, Secretary

Philadelphia, Pa.
September, igi3

I r

i

EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING

OP THE

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL LEAGUE

Held at Los Angeles, California
July 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12, 1912

Monday Evening Session
Monday, July 8, 1912, 8 p.m.

The meeting was called to order in the
Temple Auditorium by Lieutenant-Gov-
ernor A. J. Wallace, of California, who,
after a brief and interesting address, in-
troduced Honorable George Alexander,
mayor of Los Angeles. Mayor Alexander
welcomed the delegates, extended the
hospitality of the city to them, and ex-
pressed the hope and belief that the hold-
ing of this convention at this time in the
city of Los Angeles, and the discussions
and advice of the delegates would be of
great assistance to the city's board of
freeholders in its work of framing a new
charter for the city of Los Angeles. Prof.
Albert Bushnell Hart of Harvard Uni-
versity, on behalf of the National Munic-
ipal League, responded happily to Mayor
Alexander's address of welcome.

Hon. William Dudley Foulke, of Rich-
mond, Indiana, president of the League,
was then introduced by Chairman Wal-
lace, and delivered the annual address of
the president, his subject being "Expert
City Management."!

At the conclusion of the president's
address, announcement was made by
Chairman Wallace of the "Civic Ex-
hibit," being held in Temple Auditorium.

Tuesday Morning Session
Tuesday, July 9, 1912, 9.30 a.m.

President Foulke in the chair.

The report of the executive committee
was presented by M. N. Baker, chair-
man of the committee, with the follow-
ing remarks.

1 See National MuNiCTPAL Review, vol. i,p. 549.

Mr. Baker: The work of the execu-
tive committee while most interesting
to its members while in session, would
be very dull to review to those present.
It consists chiefly of going over matters
of administrative detail. The net result
of the work has been reported to and
approved by the council, and the report,
which consists chiefly of statements of
appointed committees, and passing upon
details, briefly, has been filed with the
secretary, and is available for examina-
tion by any who are interested.

The report of the treasurer for the year
ending March 31, 1912, was read by the
secretary.

The report of the committee on nomi-
nations was read by Robert S. Binkerd,
of the committee. Upon motion of Mr.
E. B. Hanson, of San Francisco, seconded
by Mr. Charles A. Murdock, it was unani-
mously amended by adding the name of
Charles Francis Adams, of San Francisco,
as a member of the council. The report,
as amended, was upon motion unani-
mously carried, adopted, and the secre-
tary was instructed to cast the ballot
for the nominees of the committee.

The Secretary: I desire to say that
I have cast a unanimous ballot for the
following:

For -president: Hon. William Dudley
Foulke, Richmond, Indiana.

For vice-president: Miss Jane Addams,
Chicago; Camillus G. Kidder, Orange,
N. J.; President A. Lawrence Lowell,
Harvard University; Hon. George Mc-
Aneny, New York City; /. Horace McFar-
land, Harrisburg, Pa.; Charles Richard-
son, Philadelphia; Chester H. Rowell,

1

EKIHTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING

I

Fresno, Cal.; James M. Thomson, New
Orleans; Dudley Tibbils, Troy, N. Y.

For secrelary: Clinton Rogers Wood-
ruff, Philadelphia.

For treasurer: George Burnham, Jr.,
Philadelphia.

For Council: Robert Treat Paine, Bos-
ton; Harvey Stuart Chase, Boston;
William Bennett Munro, Cambridge;
Albert Bushnell Hart, Harvard Univer-
sity; William G. Low, New York City;
Eugene H. Outerbridge, New York City;
Richard S. Childs, New York City;
Arthur C. Ludington, New York City;
William M. Chadbourne, New York
City; Raymond V. Ingersoll, New York
City; Julius Henry Cohen, New York
City; Knowlton Mixer, Buffalo; Charles
W. Andrews, Syracuse; Merwin K. Hart,
Utica; Clarence L. Harper, Philadelphia;
Thomas Raeburn White, Philadelphia;
Oliver McClintock, Pittsburgh; A. Leo
Weil, Pittsburgh; M. N. Baker, Mont-
clair, N. J.; William P. Bancroft, Wil-
mington, Del.; Charles J. Bonaparte,
Baltimore; John Stewart Bryan, Rich-
mond, Va. ; Elliott Hunt Pendleton,
Cincinnati; Walter L. Fisher, Washing-
ton, Edward L. Burchard, Chicago;
President Edmund J. James, University
of Illinois; John A. Butler, Milwaukee;
Frederick Cook Morehouse, Milwaukee;
N F. Hawley, Minneapolis; Dwight F.
Davis, St Louis; James W. S. Peters,
Kansas City, Mo.; C. G. France, Seattle;
W. G. Eliot, Jr., Portland, Ore.; Richard
W. Montague, Portland, Ore.; Charles
Francis Adams, San Francisco; Rev.
Charles N Lathrop, San Francis; Meyer
Lissner, Los Angeles; Mrs. Charles Far-
well Edson, Los Angeles; W. B. Lighthall,
Montreal, Canada.

The names in italics are new officers or
members of the Council.

The Secretary: I take this oppor-
tunity of saying that it is an imusual
pleasure to cast this ballot because it is
the first time that I have had the pleasure
during my eighteen years of service as
secretary of this organization, to cast

a ballot for a woman member of this
council.

The President: The next upon the
program is an address upon "Simplicity,
Publicity and Efficiency in Municipal
Affairs," by Clinton Rogers Woodruff.'

The next paper upon the program is
"The Federal Government as a Poten-
tial Contributor of Municipal Advance-
ment," by Frank A. Wolff, of the bureau
of standards, Washington, D. C.^

The President: The subject of the
next paper is "Commission Govern-
ment for Large Cities,"' by Prof. Wil-
liam Bennett Munro, assistant professor
of government at Harvard University;
to be read by Mayor Mott of Oakland.

The President: The subject of the
next paper is "Home Rule in Califor-
nia,"^ by Prof. Thomas H. Reed, of
Berkeley, California, the assistant pro-
fessor of government at the University
of California.

Professor Reed: Sometimes city
councils were not very willing to have
boards of freeholders called together.
They did not know what might be the
result of their work. Los Angeles never
lets a chance go by to present to the legis-
lature an amendment to her charter.
That is one of the things for which we ad-
mire Los Angeles, that when she has some-
thing which is not right, she is willing to
change it. Los Angeles is the Athens
of California. She loves new things.

The next subject upon the program
is "County Home Government," by the
Hon. Leslie R. Hewitt, senator from
Los Angeles.

County Home Rule

Senator Hewitt: The National Mu-
nicipal League has appeared here at a
very auspicious time for government

1 See National Municipal Review, vol. II, p. 1.
' See at end of this report for outline of Dr. Wolff's
paper.
^ See National Municipal Review, vol. 1, p. 562.
* See National Municipal Review, vol. I, p. 569.

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL LEAGUE

making in Los Angeles. I presume you
know that the city of Los Angeles is
about to repeat what the genial profes-
sor referred to a few moments ago, of
adopting a new suit of clothes. In other
words, we are going to have another
new charter for the city of Los Angeles.
Perhaps, however, not so many of you
know that the county of Los Angeles is
also about to adopt a charter, or at least
to vote upon a charter. Now, municipal
powers, municipal hortie rule, and those
matters which pertain to local self-gov-
ernment in cities are familiar subjects.
They are rapidly becoming more familiar
subjects. So far as counties are con-
cerned, however, it has been more or less
of an unknown quantity with us. We
have not heard of county home rule. We
have not, in fact, paid very much atten-
tion to county government in any par-
ticular, except perhaps once in four years
to participate in the election of divers
and sundry county officials. It comes
to us as a message quite as important in
its own way, although it does not touch
us at as many points as municipal home
rule does. The city touches us at every
point. The county, however, is some-
thing which we do not hear much about,
except when the tax collector comes
around or the sheriff appears to preserve
the peace, or when the county super-
visors let some contract to build some
building which we did not know anything
about.

It is proposed now, perhaps somewhat
timidly, but nevertheless, most deci-
sively, to adopt a charter for the county,
which shall perhaps eventually result
in a government for the county such as
we enjoy in the city.

The city charter in this state has been
one of the very highest instruments for
governmental purposes, and the county
government law has been merely a log-
rolling performance, therefore county
government has sunk to a low level in
this state. What the people perform
is simply, every two years, to elect the
chief officials of the county. This matter
of legislative power, also, has grown up

from year to year, as a sort of a com-
posite result of what a board of super-
visors in one county would want to have
the power to do and the board of super-
visors in another county would wish to
have the power to do, and so on through
the state; so that, massing this thing
all together, the legislative powers of
the county, outside of the powers which
have been referred to, are merely the
aggregate of these special things which
the counties throughout the state have
seen fit, from time to time, to exercise,
or wished to exercise. This, then, con-
sists, broadly, of the legislative powers
of the county and the executive powers
of the county, as suggested by the vari-
ous county officials. Now then, so far
as municipalities are concerned, infi-
nite variety, of course, of form and of
function is demanded. The municipal-
ity touches the state at a comparatively
few points.

The county has some features purely
of a state agency, and the government
thereof must observe some degree of
uniformity throughout the state. It can-
not have, therefore, the same variety
of operations or functions that a city
can have. It has certain officers whose
duties are the same throughout the state.
The sheriff is the peace-keeper through-
out the state, in one county as well as
another. The county recorder is the
keeper of the public documents and his
duties are- largely the same throughout
the state. The clerk is the custodian
of the records of the superior court and
the files and documents in court pro-
ceedings, and so on, and his duties are
the same throughout the state. There-
fore, there should be, throughout the
state, officers who perform these general
functions which are common to all the
counties of the state. Notwithstanding,
there is a measure of local control which
can be given to the counties.

If there is to be improvement govern-
mentally and politically speaking, it
must be by bringing home to the individ-
ual, of a sense of his responsibility and
participation in matters governmental.

EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING

In the county that has not been the case.
However, it is believed that, by the
adoption of this county charter system,
counties themselves may determine what
officers they shall have, within the limi-
tations to which I have referred; what
salaries they shall receive; and may
provide a civil service system in their
own counties — a thing, by the way,
which we have had great difficulty in
getting even a hearing upon by the legis-
lature. We can require more to be done
by the county officials than the state law
itself requires. We can do with them as
we see fit.

I might suggest, for the benefit of the
gentleman who I believe is to follow me
upon the subject — the matter of the
short ballot proposition. As it is now,
we have a great list of officers to elect,
the ballot consisting, 1 believe, of some-
thing over twenty names. It goes with-
out saying, where the people have to
pass upon twenty officers — that means
at least eighty candidates for these offices
— the people do not know half of them;
perhaps not a quarter of them. There-
fore, abundant opportunity is had for
the slipping in of incompetent officials.
We have hit upon this plan of county
home rule, which has been adopted, per-
haps, somewhat hesitatingly, just as was
the plan of municipal control. We pio-
neered upon that subject. We have not,
of course, obtained complete success yet
upon it. We provided in the old city
charters that they should be subject to
control by general laws, for fear we might
go too far. So, with regard to counties,
in this first attempt at county home rule,
we have provided that the counties shall
be controlled by general laws in certain
respects; but it may be that, in course
of time, if we succeed in the county home
rule as we are succeeding in city affairs
— I have no doubt but what, in good
time, a complete system of county home
rule, within reasonable limitations, will
be successfully worked out.

The President: The next speaker up-
on this novel and important subject is

Richard S. Childs, of New York, the secre-
tary of the Short Ballot Organization.

I\Ir. Childs: I am not speaking par-
ticularly of California counties. I do
not pretend to know the California sj^s-
tem well enough to go into such detail.
I am speaking of counties in general, as
they run throughout the country.

Constructive Suggestions for De-
signing County Governments

The county is an illustration of all the
favorite American faults of government
design, raised to the n'th power. It ex-
hibits at its worst every one of the fal-
lacies cherished by our grandfathers and
the Jacksonian Democrats. For exam-
ple, it carries the disconnection of powers
to its logical extreme and makes each
officer independent of the others and a
law unto himself except insofar as he
may be restrained from excesses by the
fear of prosecution bj' the district attor-
ney or the governor for transgressing a
tangled hedge of legislation. The board
of county supervisors, or whatever they
may be called, must raise money to pay
the bills of numerous officers whose work
is laid out by the state and whose con-
duct they cannot control. The district
attorney must work hand in glove with
a sheriff who has considerable latitude
as to maintaining an entente cordiale with
him. The state, after making laws, must
leave them to the tender mercies of in-
subordinate agents who are free to exer-
cise a pocket veto by silent non-enforce-
ment if they do not like the laws or
think that enforcement will be unpopu-
lar in their neighborhood. The clerk
who serves the judges may embarrass
and annoy his superiors by lax service
and yet feel secure in his office. The
district attorney may let his cases drag
while he goes fishing and the supervisors
must helplessly pay the bills for the
waiting prisoners in the jail till he finds
it convenient to come back.^

» This sketch of the possibilities Inherent In the
present typical county was purely a work of Imagl-

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL LEAGUE

There is nothing in the county to en-
force harmony and cooperation between
its various officers except a chaotic mass
of printed memoranda, called laws, pass-
ed and amended decades ago and quite
too numerous to be read.

The rules for planning a correct county
are the same as for any government.
For instance:

1. The tax levying and tax spending
bodies should be one: (a) so that it will
have the power to raise money needed
to give good service — if the public de-
mands good service; (b) so that it will
have power to compel economy of serv-
ice if the public demands low taxes.
In other words, put the officials between
two fires.

2. The ballot should be short and the
elective officers all conspicuous.

The public cannot be expected to con-
trol officers whom they cannot see. Ob-
scurity destroys democracy. To get a
county democracy that will "democ"
every official who remains on the elective
list must be made sufficiently conspicu-
ous to be visible to his constituency.
He can not be conspicuous in a crowd
so the ballot must be short. He cannot
be conspicuous if his office is insignifi-
cant and overshadowed, so if he remains
elective his powers must be made great
enough so that he will tower up into
public view where the people can see his
good works and hit him with a brick.
Any other condition makes politics the
private bailiwick of a few professionals
and develops bossism.

3. The power that makes the law should
be obliged to face the public resistance
to its enforcement: (a) so that public
resentment will act only on those who
have power to amend the law; (b) so

nation, but when I read it to the Los Angeles County-
charter board there was an unexpected roar of laugh-
ter, and as I halted in some confusion, I was informed
that I had exactly described the existing local situa-
tion. Mr. Casey of Oakland who also heard the
paper volunteered "If I had not known otherwise
I would have supposed that you were reporting the
results of my own intensive investigation into the
workings of Alameda County." — R. S. C.

that laws will not be nullified by local
non-enforcement.

As a judicial unit the county enforces
state-made laws. The people of the
county should not have powef to nullify
a statute by electing a local judge, sher-
iff or prosecuting attorney pledged to
ignore or soften a state law. A public
sentiment hostile to the law should find
no vent save against the local members
of the legislature, who have power to
correct the law at its source in the legiti-
mate way. As county courts cannot set
aside or modify statutes the sentiment
in favor of electing judges because of
their practically legislative powers do
not apply. Therefore let the county
judges be appointed by the governor, let
the court appoint its own clerk and its
own sheriff to keep prisoners, execute
warrants, summons and carry out sen-
tences. Make the prosecuting attorney
an appointive subordinate of the attor-
ney-general of the state, who in turn
should be appointed by the governor.
Let the prosecuting attorney have as
much of the sheriff's power as he needs
to get witnesses and evidence and to
make his own arrests.

Thus far we have roughly followed in
the state the federal plan, the county
courts being parallel to the federal dis-
trict courts, the sheriffs to the federal
marshals, the prosecuting attorney to
the district attorney. The state will pay
all the bills of the judicial system, main-
tain the courthouses, prisons, etc.

The county clerk does what the state
requires. The state therefore should pay
the bills and appoint the clerk, making
him the local member of the staff of the
secretary of state, who in turn should
be appointed by the governor.

As a business unit for maintaining
roads, schools, etc., the county is purely
local in function and it should authorize
the board of supervisors to do the work
and collect the necessary taxes to pay
for it. The supervisors should have
power to hire and fire, for without this
power they cannot compel efficiency in
subordinates or be held responsible for

EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING

the tax rate. Let them appoint their own
treasurer, surveyor, road commissioners.

Abolish the county auditor and estab-
lish a state examiner under the appro-
priate member of the governor's cabinet,
with power to investigate and criticise
any county management at any time
and report to the public, but not to inter-
fere or dictate.

In many well settled parts of the coun-
try there are no purely business func-
tions of the county which could not
easily and appropriately be taken over
by the several cities and townships there-
in. This should be done where possible,
whereupon the county as a political en-
tity would disappear entirely. Nobody
would mourn but the politicians, whose
stoutest and most picturesque citadel
would be destroyed.

' The President: We will now have the
last paper upon this fjame subject of
county home government, by Percy V.
Long, Esq., city attorney of San Fran-
cisco.

Mr. Long: I shall confine myself to a
discussion of San Francisco city and
county. It may interest you to know
that San Francisco, up to a few months
ago, was the only instance of a thor-
oughly consolidated city and county in
this country. There are some cities
throughout the west and in the middle
east which have a form of consolidation,
but it is not such a pure form of con-
solidation as we have in San Francisco.
I was asked some months ago to pre-
pare a paper giving a brief outline of
the experience of San Francisco and of
the origin of the consolidated city and
county government there, and I had
some difficulty in finding the origin of
the idea. I searched through the pro-
ceedings of the legislature in 1855, 1856
and 1857, and through all of the libraries
which have been preserved from our fire,
but found nothing to aid me; and it was
not until I went to the state library in
Sacramento, that I found the origin of
the idea in a petition or memorial pre-

sented to the legislature in 18.56, asking
for a consolidation of the two forms of
government in San Francisco.

The conditions had become almost in-
tolerable. There was a good county
government, but a vicious city govern-
ment, and during that period the city
lost, through the inefficiency and cor-
ruption of the city officials, vast prop-
erties, which would have today run into
the millions — through the neglect and
inefficiency of the city officials. This
memorial set forth the necessity for a
change of the form of government and
the advantages of the proposed consoli-
dation in the saving of expense of admin-
istration, by avoiding the duplication of
officers having similar duties to perform,
and also obtaining increased efficiency
by avoiding conflict of authority between
various officers of the city and of the
county, such as the police force and the
sheriff's office.

In order to meet the prayer of that
petition, an act was drawn, consolidat-
ing the city and county governments,
and after a period of long debate it be-
came the organic law.

Under that act, one set of officials was
to be elected. We did not have complete
home rule, because, unfortunately, the
legislature, from time to time, as Pro-
fessor Reed has pointed out — in fact, at
every session, passed statutes providing
either more officials or making for some
measure of interference; but it certainly
reduced expenses, and, while a many-
shaped measure, was a great improve-
ment upon anything that had existed
prior to the time that it went into effect.
It was not until the constitution was
amended in 1896, prohibiting the legis-
lature from any interference in purely
municipal affairs — and also, I think, in
1897 or 1898, a constitutional amendment
was adopted, permitting a citj^ and
county to be merged under a freeholders'
charter, and enumerating certain powers
which such city and countj^ might have,
that we got a complete measure of home
rule. Right after that, the present char-
ter, or a portion of the present charter,

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL LEAGUE

was drafted and submitted to the people,
in 1899 was adopted, and in 1900 went
into effect. That charter centered the
power largely in the hands of the mayor;
made the board of supervisors a bodj''
for the passage of such local police laws
as might be deemed necessary, and im-
posed upon that body the duty of pro-
viding the revenue and apportioning it
to the various departments. There are
some features of the charter which, in
my judgment, could be effectively cor-
rected, and one is, some plan by which
the police department and the sheriff's
office could be made one. We have the
peculiar state of affairs, by which an
individual is arrested by a police officer
for a. felony and comes up for hearing
before a police magistrate, who is a
purely city official, he is bound over to
the superior court for trial, and then
handed over to the sheriff, who takes
him away from the city prison to the
county jail, and from that time on he is
in the charge of the sheriff; and the
sheriff has charge of the serving of all
process and proceedings of that charac-
ter. Some day I expect to see the city
police force and the county police force
in the control of one department. We
have found, however, the consolidated
city and county government highly effi-
cient, and I believe it will be found that
the use of the machinery of consolidated
city and county government will in-
crease throughout this country. In San
Francisco, we have found it very suc-
cessful.

Round Table Discussion

Tuesday, July 9, 1912, 2 -p.m.

Prof. Augustus Raymond Hatton, of
Cleveland, presiding.

Mr. Robert S. Binkerd of New York:
California is the first state in the United
States that I have ever known which
understands what municipal home rule
means. In the second place, it is the
only state in the United States where I
have even seen five persons together in

any place at any one time who had the
slightest interest in county government.
Municipal home rule is not an academic
theory or a meaningless plank in political
platforms, although in a large part of
this country it is still so considered. It
is a fundamental of statesmenship; so
fundamental that the great historian
Niebuhr, after spending a life time in
the study of the history of the Roman
Republic and the Empire, declared it
to be his profound conviction that as a
result of that study that municipal self-
government is the basis of civil liberty.
And once in a while a truly great states-
man like Von Stein of Prussia has hap-
pened along, and he has seized upon
municipal self-government as one of the
great agencies by which a state shall be
rejuvenated. He seized upon municipal
self-government as one of his principal
agencies for rejuvenating Prussia at the
very time it was under the heel of
Napoleon.

Los Angeles today is a living illustra-
tion of the fact that the only way to se-
cure effective government and the largest
amount of interest in that government
is to throw the government upon the
people. I had the pleasure of speaking
to a conference of New York mayors on
June 10, on "Since Everybody Believes
in Home Rule for Cities, Why Don't We
Have It?" and I took occasion to ana-
lyze, after having heard the governor of
the state and the speaker of the assem-
bly, speak the preceding year on munic-
ipal home rule, and swearing allegiance
to it forever — I took occasion to analyze
the legislation which has been put on
the statute books in this past year by
the New York legislature. Out of 142
laws that first came out of the grist 51
of them interfered in the most specific
and irritating manner with the local gov-
ernment; and if I were to try to epito-
mize the value of the contribution of
the state of New York to municipal gov-
ernment for the year 1912, it would read
something like this: That Hoosic Falls
may pave $50,000 worth of its streets;
that the city of Port Chester may bor-

8

EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL M r]ETING

row money to repair a fire house; that
the town of East Chester may purchase
a fire engine costing not over ISOOO; that
the citj' of Bedford might change the
salary of its superintendent of educa-
tion; that village trustees may now at
last sprinkle village streets; that the
town of Courtland may make an annual
appropriation for the Helping Hand
Association, and that Saratoga Springs
might license dogs.

Mr. F. S. Spence of Toronto: The pe-
culiar form of administration that has
grown up in the city of Toronto is an
outcome of an English principle that
people in the United States do not, for
perhaps good reasons, adopt. We have
heard a good deal about the wisdom
of separating, the wisdom of discrimi-
nating, between the different govern-
mental functions of administration and
legislation; and that is right. The Eng-
lish people always discriminated be-
tween them, but the English people never
looked upon it as a wise course to sepa-
rate them. Consequently, in the English
parliament and in the Canadian legis-
latures and in British and Canadian
municipal councils we have what we call
"responsible government." That is, the
administrative body and administrative
officers must always be responsible to
the legislative bodies whose mandates
they carry out. A British minister of
the crown, who is a member of the cabi-
net council,which is the national adminis-
tration, must have a seat in the dominion
parliament. A member of the provincial
administration in Canada must have a
seat in the legislature. A member of
the municipal administration in our city
must have a seat in the municipal coun-
cil, and be a part of it. We elect a board
of control, a mayor and four control-
lers by the citizens at large. They are
charged with the duty of carrying out
the instructions of the legislative coun-
cil— the body which is the council. They
appoint on ratification by the council
the administrative heads of all the de-

partments. Seven wards elect a council
of 18 representatives. These with 5
members of the board of administration
constitute the common council and they
all sit together and make laws. They
sit together to vote money. Then they
assign to the board of control the duty
of carrying out their instructions, .spend-
ing their money, supervising affairs
through the permanent heads of the de-
partments. The board of administration
meets every day, 11 o'clock every morn-
ing. The heads of the departments meet
with the board for the purposes of their
particular department. We have found
out the system to work well. We do not
have any recall provision because we
have every elective official — member of
the council and board of council — come
back to the people every year for reelec-
tion. We have supervision by the elec-
tors every year, supervision of the
administrative body by the council con-
tinuously, paid heads of departments,
and I think that we have a plan based on
the principles of responsible government
that gives us a good many of the advan-
tages that you propose to obtain by your
commission plan.

There is a difference between our
plan and the Massachusetts plan in
this, that our election does not come
until right at the end of the year of
service of our alderman, and he has got
a full year to put in. And when he is
nominated — and any one can be nomi-
nated by any two citizens — he is elected
in one week from the date of the nomi-
nation, the whole campaign takes only
one week, and it does not take a great
deal out of a man's time, and then we
settle down at once for the ne.\t year's
business. But with the idea of his elec-
tion and the fact people are going to
pass judgment upon him in a very short
time, the anxiety of the general alder-
man is to make a record in the council
because that is what settles the question
of whether or not he will find favor with
the people when the next election rolls
around.

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL LEAGUE

9

Tuesday Afternoon Session
Tuesday, July 9, 1912, 3 p.m.
Mrs. Andrew C. Lobinger, the presi-
dent of the Woman's Club of Los Angeles,
presiding.

Chairman Lobinger: We expected to
have two meetings this afternoon, one
for men and one for women, and what
the women were to discuss was the things
that are especially interesting to them,
about health and children, but there
could be no women's meeting really, be-
cause woman is the race, and what is
interesting to her is interesting to every-
bodj^; and so, perhaps, it is a good thing
that these meetings were put together.
We hear of civil service reform and health
and children and everything all together.
There is no longer a woman question —
only a human question, and we are all
of us equally interested in everything.

The first paper was entitled "Honesty
Plus Efficiency," by Meyer Lissner, Esq.
Mr. Lissner urged that honesty is not
enough — that there must be efficiency. ^

A paper on "The Need for an Ade-
quate Civil Service Law, "^ by Elliot H.
Goodwin, of New York, secretary of the
National Civil Service Reform League,
was read.

Clinton Rogers Woodruff, as chairman,
read the report of the joint committee
on the selection and retention of the
higher municipal officials. ^

M. N. Baker of Montclair, N. J., read
a paper entitled "Municipal Health
Problems," which will be published in
full in a future number of the National
Municipal Review.

The Chairman: We are very sorry
indeed that Mrs. Caroline Bartlett Crane
will not be able to speak.*

1 See National Munictpal Review, vol. I, p. 639.

* See National Municipal Review, vol. 1, p.
639.

' See National Municipal Review, vol. 1, p.
646.

*0n aocount of a disabling accident just before
the time of her addiesa, Mrs. Caroline Bartlett
Crane, of Kalamazoo, Mich., was unable to appeal
again during the convention.

Mrs. Crane is an example of the new
woman, a woman who has gone out into
home-making on a tremendous scale.
She is helping the people to have good
homes. She goes into a town and studies
it. She is really a friendly visitor when
she goes into a city. They often think
she is an unfriendly visitor, because she
tells them the truth, and the truth is salt
and bitter and good, and in the end they
find that what she tells them has been a
tremendous help. There are a great
many cities in the United States that
have had a civic awakening because Mrs.
Crane has been to them and has studied
their problems, has awakened the public
to the need of a change, and we hope
that sometime in the future we may
have the chance of hearing of the work
that Mrs. Crane has done (applause).

Wednesday Morning Session

Wednesday, July 10, 1912, 10 a.m.

Mr. Edward L. Hydecker read a paper
on "Municipal Finances."^

The Chair: We have next a paper by
Prof. Carl C. Plehn of the University of
California, a very well known tax expert,
upon substantially the same subject,
which will be read by Mr. John Mitchell,
Mr. Plehn not being fortunate enough to
be able to be present at this meeting.

Municipal Taxation^

Taxation is perhaps more than any
other one feature of government an out-
growth of local historical conditions.
One can easily demonstrate the great
merits of the British income tax, as
illustrated during many years of exper-
ience, and its vast superiority to our tax-
es. But could the most silver-tongued
orator persuade the American people to
adopt it? I doubt it. But I do know
that if we did adopt it we should have

5 See National Municipal Review, vol. I, p.
677.

6 Condensed by the Editor.

iU

EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING

to spend years of patient endeavor and
educate a new generation or two to new
ideals of taxation before we could make
it work satisfactorily.

Our American municipal tax system
seems to be peculiarly deep-rooted . Dig-
nified and authoritative commissions and
learned bodies have solemnly decided
that some other tax, for example, a
rental tax, would be better than the tax
on land and buildings. But these pro-
posals have fallen on deaf ears. It is,
so far as I can see, useless to suggest
substitutes. Nor am I of the opinion
that the land and building tax is alto-
gether bad.

The taxation of land and buildings
on an ad valorem basis is the main sup-
port of our California cities. The chief
faults of this tax are that land and build-
ings are not uniformly assessed in the
same proportion to value, although
everybody is convinced that they should
be.

The causes of these conditions fall
into two groups. One has its origin in
the past and is so far as California is
concerned happily bygone. That was
the practice of apportioning state taxes
on the basis of local assessments. This
led each county, which in California is
the administrative unit for taxation, to
endeavor to value its property for pur-
poses of taxation far below its true value.
This, .in turn, led inevitably to such
chaos that uniformity was impossible.
Moreover, the county valuations sank so
low that if the cities had adopted the
same valuations for city taxation, they
would not have been able to raise the
funds needed within the tax rate limits
set by the people in their charters.
Hence the cities had to go to the expense
of a separate valuation at a higher per-
centage of true value, and this further
confused the situation.

Since 1910 this state has enjoyed sep-
aration of state from local taxation and
there has been no state ad valorem tax,
except one. While it was not antici-
pated at the time of the adoption of sep-
aration that complete separation could

be attained from the very first, yet such
has been the case. The state raises its
$15,000,000 to $17,000,000 each year and
pays over to the local schools some $5,-
000,000 without recourse to an ad valo-
rem tax.

Subsidiary causes of the inequalities
are the elective system of choosing asses-
sors, the absence of strong central con-
trol, the rapidity of city growth which
makes land values shift erratically, the
existence of many scattered pieces of
unimproved land interspersed among
the improved lots, the absence of any
accepted rules of assessment, and lack
of publicity and lastly, inertia and in-
difference.

There is a movement known as the
"home rule" movement. The gist of
this is well-known. It is really a move-
ment for "local option" in all matters
of taxation. It is backed, endorsed and
supported by many who are single tax-
ers, because they see in it a possible
chance to get their hobby tried out.
The advocates of this movement in this
state assume to find in the report of the
special commission on revenue and tax-
ation, the commission partly responsi-
ble for the adoption of separation of
state from local taxation, some support
for their plan. That commission did,
it is true, point out that after separation
the cities and counties might enjoy a
certain degree of home rule in matters
of taxation. But the same report ex-
plained that this would have to be lim-
ited to a choice as to whether the as-
sessed vahiation should be low and the
tax rate high, or the assessed valuation
high, and the tax rate low. This is
very different from the present proposal
which is that cities and counties should
have the power to tax whom and what
thej' please, to exempt whom and what
they please and to use any mode or meth-
od of taxation they please.

The first argument usuallj"^ advanced
is that if freedom is good for individuals
it must also be good for communities;
that freedom of this kind would tend
to awaken interest in local government

NATIONAI. MUNICIPAL LEAGUE

11

and would make for good citizenship on
account of that interest. In answer to
this it may be pointed out that freedom
is never attained successfully except in
obedience to law. The great apostle
showed the way to freedom when he said,
' ' the law shall make you free. " It is not
"freedom" that is proposed, it is license.

Another argument is that the govern-
ing bodies of the cities know local con-
ditions better than does the legislative
or any other central governing body and
on that account, they are better fitted
than the state to deal with local taxa-
tion. The favorite illustration is what
does the representative in the legislature
from an interior farming community
know about the tax problems of a com-
mercial or maritime city. The unfort-
unate feature of this argument is that
it ignores the fact that the whole his-
torical trend in matters of local taxation
has been in the other direction, namely,
from wide local option and highly diverse
systems, to central control and uniform
systems. The great cities of Europe
which started with a high degree of inde-
pendence have all, without exception,
surrendered to laws providing uniform
taxation throughout the kingdoms to
which they belong. The New England
towns have likewise surrendered their
original independence for the higher de-
gree of freedom which comes with uni-
form law.

What guarantee is there that the pow-
er to grant exemptions to tempt capital
would prove to be not a lure in the hands
of the cities, but a club in the hands of
capital. It is reported to have so worked
in New Hampshire and in the southern
states. But it is the intermunicipal
wars that can be precipitated that are to
be dreaded. San Francisco strives to
build up her port by luring vessels from
Los Angeles, San Diego and Portland.
Los Angeles, San Diego and Portland
retaliate and bitter feelings are soon
engendered. No one of the coptestants
can be expected ultimately to outwit
all the others and in the seesaw back and
forth all lose.

It is not true that each city is suffi-
cient unto itself and without an interest
in other communities. Every commu-
nity is interested in the business, the
products and industries of other commu-
nities. Would not San Francisco, for
example, suffer if Sonoma county under-
took to lay heavy taxes on the raising
of eggs? Would it not raise the price
of garden vegetables in San Francisco if
San Mateo County should by tax exemp-
tion fill its market gardens with factories?

There is, in fact, among the adherents
of this so-called home rule movement a
considerable body of "single-taxers"
whose object is ultimately to remove
all taxes from every class of property
and persons except land and landowners.
This is not the time nor the place to
debate the merits of the single-tax. It
has great merits, and equally great de-
fects, but it is social reform and not
merely tax reform. The object is to use
the power of taxation to take for the
community the entire income from land.
The institution of private property in
land, with full freedom to enjoy all the
emoluments which come from such own-
ership, was one of the best gifts our fore-
fathers gave this country, and has con-
tributed very largely to the growth of
the country and to the development of
its resources. There is no other single-
institution that contains so powerful an
incentive to. industry and thrift, and I
find it hard to believe that the laborer
in the field should be deprived of the
profit on the increase in the value of his
land. Be that as it may, a single city
or a single county is too small an area
in which to try the experiment. Sup-
pose that one city goes the full length
and places all the taxes oh land, will
not under local option some other com-
munity endeavor to tempt settlers by
offering to leave to them half or three-
fourths the value of the "unearned incre-
ment?" Such experiments should be
tried out only under uniform laws, state
wide in their application.

We may now turn to the question as
to what direction the reform of local

12

EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING

taxation should take. The main difficul-
ties are administrative. The admini-
stration must be strengthened both as
to the personnel and as to the methods
used. The work of an assessor is intri-
cate, many-sided and for its proper exe-
cution requires training and experience.
It is work of a professional character
and cannot be learned in a short time.
The assessor must know the law. The
revenue laws of California printed in
fine print with the barest digest of the
cases decided by the courts in interpre-
tation of the law, make a volume of over
.500 pages. To apply this law to all the
varying classes of property under the
varying conditions of ownership is
even more difficult than to master the
law.

We are fortunate in California, as
compared with those states in which the
assessment districts are the small town-
ships, in that in California the main as-
sessment district is the county. We are
also fortunate in that the assessors are
elected for a term of four years, and in
a large number of counties the habit of
reelecting the assessor has become deep-
rooted. Our main difficulty is the dup-
lication of work and expense arising from
the employment of city assessors to re-
value some of the same property valued
and assessed by the county assessor.

It is at least questionable whether pop-
ular election is the best method of select-
ing an officer whose work is so profes-
sional in character as that of assessor.
But probably any other method will be
contrary to the democratic spirit of the
times. No matter how selected, how-
ever, the assessors should be brought
under t}ie control of a strong central
board. This would be a protection to
the assessor himself against undue in-
fluence from his constituents, would
emphasize the professional and impartial
character of his work and would enable
the enforcement of uniformity between
different municipalities and counties,
which is of vital importance to each.

It may be argued that in states which

have separated state from local taxation
there is no necessity for central control.
It is true there is not the same necessity
for it as there is when the state imposes
an ad valorem tax on the same basis of
assessed property. But if the argu-
ments for uniformity of taxation in all
different communities advanced before
are sound, then central control is highly
advantageous. Such a central super-
visory board would be the guide and
instructor of new assessors, would aid
and support the experienced officers and
could be the board of assessment for
inter-county or inter-municipal prop-
erty and for certain classes of property
not easily assessed by the local assessors.
It would be the statistical bureau for
the accumulation of information abso-
lutely necessary for the intelligent bet-
terment and adjustment of the tax laws
and of their administration.

It is also necessary to have improved
methods of assessment. It is too easy
to copy last year's rolls, add improve-
ments and changes made, and to guess at
changes in values. But the most im-
portant means of all for securing uni-
formity of assessment is to insist everj--
where that all assessments should be
made at full value.

It is because the mind more readily
grasps differences in absolute quantities
than in relative ones that the practice
of assessing at an assumed percentage
fails to result in equality.

Of subsidiary devices the most im-
portant, to my mind, is the adoption of
a number of fixed rules as to computing
the values of related pieces of land, and
similar rules for computing the values
of lots of varying sizes, and of build-
ings. There are a number of such rules,
some better than others, such as the
Somer's system, the New York City rule.
I will not enter into any discussion of
the relative merits of these rules. Any
rule is better than no rule, any rule is
better than guesswork.

It is also possible to use more fully
than is the practice the information as

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL LEAGUE

13

to values that is afforded by rental in-
comes. The essential for such a rule is
to determine first the class and size of
building that would under existing cir-
cumstances most fairly exploit the value
of the site, and compute its rental. This
rental capitalized at some .fixed rate,
would determine the value of the site
and the building, and after due deduc-
tion for the value of the building would
give the value of the land.

The greatest of all devices for per-
fecting assessments is publicity. At
present the rolls are open to inspection
for a certain period of time. Few tax-
payers ever take advantage of the priv-
ilege to inspect them and fewer still
learn much more than their own assess-
ments. If the rolls could be published
in sections showing all assessments in
each of certain small neighborhoods, so
that tax-payers could compare their as-
sessments with those of others, public
opinion would soon become a powerful
aid to accuracy of assessment.

The main contentions of this address
then are: that municipal taxation re-
quires more expert officials working un-
dei uniform rules and laws in each state,
subject to the guidance and control of
central authority, improved technical
methods, assessment at full value and
greater publicity.

It may be contended that this deals
solely with practice and ignores theory.
If so, I welcome the criticism. Sound
practice is of itself sound theory. It
will be time enough to talk of new taxes,
substitutes for the personal property tax
and other theories when by developing
the administration of the main tax upon
which we have come to depend we shall
have attained a perfection of administra-
tion capable of enforcing taxation equi-
tably between man and man.

The President: The next paper is,
"Budget Making: Its Necessity and
Significance," by Dr. Jesse D. Burks,
director of the Philadelphia bureau of
municipal research.

The Municipal Budget as A
Community Program

One of the items in the municipal
budget of Philadelphia for 1913 as origi-
nally formulated was the following:

Item 3. _ Bureau of Water. For wages
of mechanics, drillers, laborers and other
workmen connected with repairs to and
improvement of the distribution and
the laying of service mains, the installa-
tion and repairs to meters, the high pres-
sure fire service, the transportation of
water rent inspectors and the traveling
expenses of pipe inspectors, $402,957.

This item illustrates certain principles
or lack of principles, in municipal bud-
get-making which are of such wide appli-
cation that it will be worth while to dis-
cuss in some detail the method involved
and its significance to municipal com-
munities.

In the first place, it will be observed
that the wording of the item is ambigu-
ous, if not actually unintelligible. It
proposes an appropriation of something
over $400,000 for a variety of purposes
related, to be sure, to the activities of
the water bureau, but otherwise not
bound together by any clearly defined
principle of classification. The item
might almost as well read "for the gen-
eral purposes of the bureau of water,
$402,957."

This item, not being subject to unmis-
takable interpretation, cannot be fittecj
in to a well considered and clearly de-
fined plan for supplying a community of
1,500,000 citizens with a prime necessity
of community life. This is one of sixteen
items in an ordinance appropriating to
the bureau of water, in 1912, the sum of
$1,098,671. Some of the other fifteen
items are more clear cut in their language
than the one under consideration; but,
taken as a whole, the sixteen items fail
to give an adequate conception of either
the organization or the functions of this
important branch of the public service.

An analj^sis and classification of the
details included in the sixteen appro-

14

EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING

priation items discloses the fact that the
bureau of water is performing twelve
easily distinguishable functions each
with its specific problems of organiza-
tion and administrative method. To
the extent, therefore, that the mayor,
the director of public works, the chief
of the bureau, the city controller, in-
terested taxpayers, and individual mem-
bers of the appropriating body desire to
think intelligently about the problems
of water supply in Philadelphia, it is
obvious that these problems must be
broken up into their elements and classi-
fied under headings that will facilitate
the laying of plans for economical and
efficient management.

The unanalyzed and undistributed
item 3 which has been used for purposes
of illustration, when broken up into its
constituent patts and so classified as to
show the functions affected and the ser-
vices and things to be purchased, as-
sumes the following form:

1. Levying of Water Revenues — Di-

vision OF Registrar

operation
Services other than personal
Carfare of inspectors $2,000

2. Extension, Care and Inspection of

Distribution Mains and Attach-
ments— Office of Second Assist-
ant TO Chief

operation

Services other than personal

Railroad fares 500

Street car fares 4,500

Hotel expenses — pipe inspectors... 1,000

3. Meter Installation and Repairs

Personal services

Superintendent of meters

at $4.00 per day (325 days) 1,300

maintenance

Personal services
Plumber, 18 at $3.50 per day (325

days) 20,484

Machinist, 3 at $3.75 per day (325

days) 3,657

Laborer, 18 at $3.00 per day (325

days) 17,550

Laborer, 30 at $2.50 per day (325

days) 24,.360

Laborer, 28 at $2.00 per day (325
days) 18,200

4. Extension, Care and Inspection of
Distribution Mains and Attach-
ments

operation
Personal services

Drivers, 27 at $3.25 per day (325
days) 19,737

maintenance

Personal services

Plumber, 5 at $3.60 per day (325

days) 5,850

Caulker, 37 at $3.00 per day (325

days) 36,075

Driller. 4 at $3.00 per day (325

days) 3,900

Laborer, 2 at $3.50 per day (305

days) 2,130

Laborer, 24 at $3.00 per day (305

days) 21,960

Laborer, 17 at $2.50 per day (305

days) 12,954

Laborer, 185 at $2.00 per day (325

days) 120,250

Laborer, 30 at $2.00 per day (305

days) 18,300

capital outlay

Personal services

Caulker, 10 at $3.00 per day (325
days) 9,750

Driller, 4 at $3.00 per day (325
days) 3,900

Laborer, 84 at $2.00 per day (325
days) 54,600

The breaking up of this item into its
constituent elements and the systematic
classification of these elements under
general descriptive headings illustrate
possibilities of systematic budget mak-
ing which have thus far been realized
in very few cities of the United States.
In main outline, the method of classi-
fication illustrated in this concrete ex-
ample is the following:

1. The proposed or actual appro-
priations for each kind of service (func-
tion) performed by each sub-division of
the municipal organization are grouped
together under appropriate headings.
This grouping is designed to make clear
the proposals of administrative officers

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL LEAGUE

15

as to each activity for which support is
requested; to place upon the appropri-
ating body responsibility for specifying
what activities shall and what shall not
be carried on by each department, bu-
reau, or office; to fix responsibility upon
the mayor for approving or disapproving
appropriations for the support of each
activity; and to serve as an authorization
and mandate to administrative officers
for the performance of clearly defined
services.

2. The character of proposed or au-
thorized expenditure for the perform-
ance of each class of public service is
distinctly set forth — that is the amounts
requested or appropriated for adminis-
tration, operation (ordinary service),
maintenance (repairs and replacements) ;
fixed charges (rents, interest, funds for
the payment of debt, etc.); and capital
outlays for permanent improvements.

3. The specific services and materials
for which each bureau or office requests
or for which it is granted appropriations
to carry on its several activities are set
forth in proper detail under the following
standard appropriation titles:

A. Personal services (including sala-
ries, wages, and other compensation for
personal services).

B. Services other than personal (in-
cluding transportation, subsistence, post-
age, telegraph, telephone, advertising,
heat, light and power, and repairs by
contract).

C. Materials not already adapted for
use as supplies, equipment, etc.

D. Supplies (including stationery,
fuel, wearing apparel, and provisions).

E. Equipment (including live stock).

F. Structures and parts, and non-struc-
tural improvements to land.

G. Land.

H. Capital outlay for rights and obli-
gations, and payment of debt.

I. Fixed charges and contributions (in-
cluding rents, interest, insurance, etc.).

J. Pensions and retirement salaries.

K. Losses and contingencies.

Such systematic and uniform classi-
fication of requests and appropriations

not only furnishes the means for avoid-
ing ambiguity and uncertainty in the
intent of individual items, but makes
possible concise and illuminating sum-
maries which are absolutely essential to
the intelligent consideration of the finan-
cial plans of a single department, or of
the municipality as a whole. So long as
public officials or interested citizens are
limited in their vision to single appro-
priation items, taken one at a time, or to
unanalyzed or unclassified totals, it can-
not be expected that large problems of
financial and administrative policy will
receive intelligent consideration or sat-
isfactory solution. Such questions of
policy cannot even be sharply focused
much less given their proper perspective
unless they are thrown upon a screen
as part of an inclusive and well illumi-
nated picture of community needs and
community resources. Such a picture
obviously cannot be drawn unless, by
uniform analysis and classification, all
parts are prepared to be fitted in to a
single inclusive scheme.

Reverting again to item 3 of the
appropriation to Philadelphia's water
bureau, this item cannot be combined
with other items for the same bureau
or with similar items of appropriations
to other offices, unless a method of seg-
regation and arrangement be found which
will provide a common denominator; lim-
ited number of standard headings under
which details for all departments may
be brought together. Such standard
headings are provided by the method of
classification described above. It is sub-
stantially the same basis of classification
employed in the budgets of New York,
Chicago, and proposed by the president
for use in the formulation of a national
budget. It is rapidly being adopted by
other municipalities as they face fairly
the problem of replacing outworn, hap-
hazard, grab-bag methods of budget mak-
ing by a systematic and intelligible pro-
gram of community service.

By reason of the adoption of such a
plan of segregating and classifying all
departmental estimates for 1913, the

U)

EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING

city controller of Philadelphia was able,
on four pages of his annual statement
to the city councils, to present this year
for the first time a clear and compre-
hensive summary of departmental pro-
posals. On one page he presented the
request of each department, bureau, or
office classified in five columns as "ad-
ministration and other general expenses ;
'"operation;" "maintenance" (repairs
and replacements); "fixed charges and
contributions;" and "capital outlays."
On another page he showed the amount
requested for each of the fifty general
functions under which all departmental
activities were included. The "care of
dependent and defective persons," for
example, is a function performed by
three different offices. The amounts re-
quested by all three of these offices were
brought together under the general head-
ing. The amounts requested for the
performance of each function were furth-
er classified to show separately the esti-
mates for current expenses and for capi-
tal outlaj^s separately.

On two pages the amounts requested
by the several departments and offices
were distributed in columns showing the
specific amounts proposed for personal
services, services other than personal,
supplies, equipment, repayment of debt,
etc.

The four pages of this summary fur-
nished by the controller undoubtedly
have been the occasion of wider public
interest and more definite thinking on the
part both of administrative officials and
of the appropriating authority than any
similar document which has appeared in
recent Philadelphia history. The three
classified summaries referred to have
raised, in unmistakable form, the main
questions of financial policy which must
be met and solved during the remaining
three years of the present administra-
tion. The summaries have, for example,
focused attention upon the fact that of
the S62, 600,000 requested for 1913, over
$35,000,000 is for the current operations
of the city government which is about
$0,000,000 in excess of the revenues avail-

able under the existing tax rate. It
further directs attention to the fact that
almost $9,000,000 or 30 per cent of the
year's revenues will be absorbed in the
interest and sinking funds necessary to
carry the city's debt of $100,000,000. It
calls attention to the fact that unless
further revenues are provided, the city
will not only be unable to meet its needs
for current operation, but will be unable
to meet the interest and sinking fund
requirements upon loans for permanent
improvements for which $27,000,000
are requested by the city depart-
ments.

The controller's summary statement
further emphasizes the fact that the
municipal budget constitutes essentially
the community's plan for services affect-
ing vitally the health, education, recre-
ation, safety, convenience, and pros-
perity of its 1,600,000 citizens. Phila-
delphia, like most other cities of this
country, has in the past neglected the
opportunity which budget making time
each year offers to center the combined
attention of citizens and officials upon
100 per cent of the community's need
for public service. With the growing
appreciation of the intimate way in
which the welfare of every citizen is
bound up with the community's annual
effort to plan for a year's public service,
Philadelphia, or Los Angeles, or New
York will every year come to realize
more nearly the value of city planning
that is based upon facts rather than upon
guesses; of a service program that is
more than a collection of vagrant appro-
priation items; of citizenship that is in-
formed and exacting instead of merely
suspicious and critical; and of mimicipal
management that is open-eyed and effici-
ent instead of merely well-intentioned
and honest.

The President. The next and last
paper this morning will be upon the sub-
ject of "Revenue Accounting," by Dr.
L. G. Powers, of the bureau of the census,
whom I have the pleasure of introducing
to this audience.

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL LEAGUE

17

Mr. Powers: I confine myself to
one phase of what you might call the
popular control, that which comes
through revenue accounting.

Revenue Accounting^

The best municipal accounting is the
accounting that provides the most infor-
mation of value in the administration of
cities. To this proposition I add a sec-
ond, which is that the best governedcity
is one in which the citizens as a whole
take an active interest in the conduct of
municipal affairs. Citizens can not form
an intelligent judgment with reference
to questions of public policy unless they
have at their command all the infor-
mation necessary therefor; and hence I
join the two propositions stated to a
third: the best revenue accounting must
provide not only the information needed
by city officials for the conduct of their
offices in carrying out the provisions of
revenue laws, but also that which is re-
quired by the citizens for an intelligent
judgment concerning the success or fail-
ure, the faithfulness or neglect, with ref-
erence to the laws mentioned, of their
public servants in the performance of
their duties.

Taking these three propositions as a
text, I will call your attention to five
aspects of the subject to which I assign
the specific titles of (1) accoimting with
revenue accruals; (2) accounting with
imaginary revenue; (3) the accounting
relations of revenue and costs of govern-
ment; (4) the accounting relations of reve-
nue and the working capital of munici-
palities; and (5) the accounting relation
of revenue and municipal assets and prop-
erties.

ACCOUNTING WITH REVENUE ACCRUALS

When the first society of public ac-
countants was organized in Scotland
about sixty years ago, accountants in
the commercial world had already begun

^ Condensed.

to recognize the difference between reve-
nue earned or accrued, on the one side,
and revenue collected or received on the
other. In basing their statements of
profit and loss upon revenues earned,
accountants established rules for dis-
tinguishing between (1) revenues billed
or recorded in accounts, but not earned
or accrued; (2) revenues earned or ac-
crued, but not billed or recorded; and
(3) revenues earned or accrued and also
billed or recorded. By the use of their
accounts with revenue and their recog-
nition of the differences mentioned, busi-
ness men were enabled to ascertain the
result of their business operations.

Private business undertakings are con-
ducted with the aim of securing profit;
but city business, as all other govern-
mental business, is never conducted with
that primary end in view. It is the
business of (1) protecting person, prop-
erty and health; providing social neces-
sities and conveniences; caring for the
dependent and delinquent classes; bet-
tering social conditions, and performing
other services and carrying on other
activities in the interest of the common
good; and (2) obtaining the money to
meet the costs of the services performed
and the activities carried on. The dif-
ferences noted between governmental
and private business naturally and in-
evitably give rise to many differences in
accounting. The transactions of a city,
as a business corporation, can not be
summed up in terms of profit; and the
reasons for the use of accounts with rev-
enue accruals in governmental business,
other than those for governmental pro-
ductive enterprises like water supply sys-
tems, can never be identical with those
for their use in private business for gain.
Recognizing this fact, the great majority
of governmental accountants and officials
in the United States prior to the year
1900 had no systematic accounts with
revenues accrued as distinguished from
revenues received, and practically took
no notice of revenues recorded or billed
as distinguished from revenues received,
with the exception of the general prop-

18

EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING

crty tax and special assessments. The
introduction by Chicago and a number
of other cities in the early years of this
century of accounts with revenue accru-
als marks the beginning of a new era in
governmental accounting in the United
States.

The trouble with city revenue account-
ing without proper controlling accounts
and accounts with accruals is that it
provides infinite invitations and oppor-
tunities for "forgetting," and creates a
great and unknown gap between the rev-
enues that some cities ought to receive
under their laws and with their general
property assessments and those which
they actually do receive.

The accounts with revenue accruals
which were introduced by Chicago, as
stated, undoubtedly has many imper-
fections, as all scheme.s for extensive re-
form must have in any branch of human
activity. Their greatest value lies in
their recognition of the need of accounts
to show the revenues which a city ought
to receive during a given financial period,
as well as those which they actually do
receive. The new accounts, by assisting
in securing more efficient administration
of revenue laws, are assisting in lifting
the burden of government from the hon-
est citizens and taxpayers and compel-
ling the shifty and dishonest ones to
meet their obligations to the govern-
>ment. They have also provided the
means of measuring the efficiency of
those charged with the duty of enforcing
revenue laws and collecting revenues.

These desirable ends have not, how-
ever, been attained by any city intro
ducing accounts with accruals to any
such extent as is possible. The accounts
in some cities have too often been em-
ployed principally in the preparation of
balance sheets with only small adminis-
trative value, to the neglect of their use
as measures of the efficiency of the mu-
nicipal machinery for a])portioning and
collecting revenue. The annual reports
of city financial offices having these ac-
counts should present lucid statements
or summaries showing for each and every

class of revenue the amounts registered
or billed during the current and preced-
ing years, the amounts that ought to
have been realized, and those that were
realized. These figures should also be
accompanied with the estimates of rev-
enue receipts that were made at the
beginning of the year when the tax rates
were established. Further, such sum-
maries and exhibits to be of the highest
administrative or popular value should
be accompanied with explanations and
statements of the reasons for any failure
to make the revenue collected equal to
the amount which ought to have been
realized, or to that which had been esti-
mated as realizable.

ACCOUNTING WITH IMAGINARY REVENUES

One very forceful reason for the prep-
aration of summaries as mentioned above
is the fact that many American cities
without any clear apprehension of the
difference between accrued revenues and
revenues recorded in tax registers or
ledger accounts have been led into the
administrative error of conducting their
business on the assumption that their
revenues were larger than they actually
were.

One of the most marked cases of the
evil results of this accounting with "im-
aginary revenues" and its resulting error,
the transaction of business on the basis
of uncoUectable taxes, is found in the
City of New York. The extent to which
this legal authority to borrow monej^ on
the basis of the accounting record with
imaginary general property taxes has
been exercised by Xew York Citj'^ in the
past is evidenced by the fact that when
the present comptroller of New York
City took office, the outstanding revenue
loans issued to redeem similar loans of
other years, and thus based largely upon
the old accounts with imaginary because
uncoUectable taxes, amounted to ap-
proximately seventy million dollars.

The facts passed in review bring clearly
to mind the truth that accounts with so-
called revenue accruals mav he made

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL LEAGUE

19

instruments of evil as well as of good
influence in the administration of city
affairs. If associated or combined with
other accounts so as to assist officials
in ascertaining the extent to which the
revenue receipts of a year fall short of or
exceed those expected, or the extent to
which they fall short of the amount that
ought to have been collected by a well-
conducted business administration, they
are of great value.

ACCOUNTING RELATIONS OF REVENUE AND
COSTS OF GOVERNMENT

Revenues are always levied and col-
lected for the purpose of meeting the
costs of government incurred for the
common benefit or the advancement of
the common interests of the citizens.
Good revenue accounting must among
other ends secure the following: It must
prevent the administration from placing
any reliance upon, or making any use
of imaginary revenues with the conse-
quent evil results, the wrongful transfer
of some of the current costs of govern-
ment upon the future. It must aid in
securing the just and equable enforce-
ment of revenue laws, the collection of
all the revenue that ought to be received
during a given fiscal year, and provide
means for measuring the efficiency of the
revenue collecting service.

One of the most pressing of these prob-
lems for a majority of our American
cities is how to obtain revenue legislation
that will enable city officials to secure
receipts from revenue wathout the neces-
sity of annually borrowing large amounts
of money on short term or revenue loans
or, as they are called in some cities,
anticipation tax loans, anticipation tax
warrants, etc. All amounts paid as in-
terest on these loans are generally in-
cluded in summaries of current financial
transactions as current expenses of gov-
ernmental operation and maintenance.

These payments for interest on reve-
nue loans are for most cities in large
part, if not wholly, revenues wasted; not
by inefficient officials, but by the oper-

ation of unwise revenue laws. The pro-
portion of this waste may be seen from
the fact that some cities are borrowing
on these short term loans amounts equal
to 80 and even 90 per cent of their general
tax levy, and borrowing at a rate of
interest that makes the charge equal
to 4 per cent of the current costs of
governmental maintenance. The stop-
ping of this annual waste is something
well worthy of consideration in schemes
of revenue accounting and in the pres-
entation of summaries of current finan-
cial transactions. Revenue should not
be burdened with this cost of govern-
ment, and the best revenue accounting
will find a way of forcibly setting forth
this waste in its summaries of revenue
and costs of government.

ACCOUNTING RELATIONS OF REVENUE
AND W^ORKING CAPITAL

Every well-managed enterprise, in ad-
dition to the capital represented by its
fixed properties and equipment, has a
working capital in such amounts as will
secure its profitable use and reduce tran-
sient borrowing to a minimum consistent
with the largest profit on the investment
of the stockholders. A few of our Ameri-
can cities have such a working capital,
and as a result, borrow but little if any
money on temporary or revenue loans.
The result is that by saving the large
interest charge of other cities they are
able to enlarge the field and amounts of
their expenditures for useful purposes,
and to keep their tax rate much lower
than the cities without any such Working
capital.

Comptroller Prendergast of New York
City, aided by his very competent assist-
ant, Mr. Fisher, the president of the
National Association of Comptrollers
and Accounting Officers, has grasped this
feature of the administration of munic-
ipal revenue, and by a proper analysis
of his accounts has opened the way for
decreasing his revenue borrowings. This
he has accomplished by securing a change
in the date of assessment and tax levy

20

EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING

and tax collection, and the substitution
of semi-annual for annual tax collection.
The changes made save the city not far
from two million dollars annually on
interest charges.

ACCOUNTING RELATION OF REVENUES AND
MUNICIPAL ASSETS AND PROPERTIES

The uncollected but collectable por-
tion of accrued revenues constitute a
part of the assets of the cities, and has
a place in all so-called balance sheet
statements, or statements of the financial
condition of cities, whether those state-
ments are of the current business of
raising and expending money, or of all
the properties, assets, liabilities and re-
sources of the municipality. In private
business these statements of financial
condition are absolutely essential for any
wise administration/ and the importance
of such statements in private business
has led and is leading many accountants
and governmental officials to overesti-
mate their importance in municipal af-
fairs. I do not wish to be understood as
decrying their use in city business admin-
istration. I do wish to say that these
summaries are of value; but that in the
present chaos of revenue laws and the
administration of those laws, the most
important aspects of revenue accounting
are those which will aid in collecting the
revenue that ought to be received; which
will call attention to archaic revenue
laws; and by changes will save the waste
that follows the unwise and unnecessary
use of revenue loans.

The President: There is a committee
from San Francisco that desire to intro-
duce a resolution or make some remarks
in respect to the international exposition
which is to be held there.

Mr. Percy V. Long: In that connec-
tion I desire to offer a resolution to be
considered by this body, or by the coun-
cil, as the custom provides.

IVIr. Long here read resolution to the

eff'ect that the invitation extended to
this League by the city of San Francisco,
the League of California Municipalities,
the Chamber of Commerce and Civic
League of San Francisco to participate
in a world's municipal congress and in-
ternational municipal exhibition in con-
nection with the Panama Pacific Inter-
national Exposition in 1915 be accepted.

The President: The time and place of
fixing the annual meeting of the League
is necessarily referred to the council.
We cannot always determine that one
year in advance. If the resolution is
referred to the council I am sure it will
have very careful consideration.

Mr. Meyer Lissner: I move that the
resolution be referred to the council.

The motion was duly seconded.

Mr. H. a. Mason: I want to extend
to this League, on behalf of the League
of California Municipalities, the cities
and towns of the state of California, a
very cordial invitation for you to accept
this invitation. We are ambitious. We
trust that an exhibition of that kind, a
meeting together of all of the organiza-
tions engaged in this line of work, will
be productive of the highest public good,
and we trust that you will vote to adopt,
with the true eastern spirit, the resolu-
tion that has been presented, and to
accept the invitation which we so freely
give you.

Mr. Adolph Koshland of San Fran-
cisco : We heartily second the invitation
of the California League of Municipali-
ties to furnish an exhibit at that time;
but as a municipality we are now setting
our house in order; we are still building
up, and we think that in 1915 we shall
be ready to show to the other communi-
ties of this country a city government
and a city administration which we hope
will be well worth the study of the gov-
ernmontnl experts which shall come to
the convention. We realize that it is

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL LEAGUE

21

unusual for the council of the National
Municipal League to determine so far
ahead of the time of holding its conven-
tion where that convention shall be held,
but we call attention to the fact that
inasmuch as during the Panama Pacific
International Exposition there will be
a great many world congresses held in
San Francisco, that it will be an oppor-
tune time and place for this convention
to adjourn to then, so that it may take
advantage of the world exhibit, so that it
may also take advantage of the fact that
a new city, the most modern city in the
world, a city regenerated both physically
and spiritually, may then become an
object lesson for the convention.

Round Table Luncheon

July 10, 1912, 2 p.m., Hotel Alexandria

Professor Thomas H. Reed of the tJni-
versity of California presiding.

The papers of the morning session were
thrown open to discussion and were con-
sidered in addresses by Mrs. Charles
Farwell Edson of Los Angeles, Professor
Albert Bushnell Hart of Harvard, Dr.
Jesse D. Burks of the Philadelphia
Bureau of Municipal Research, Profes-
sor Augustus Raymond Hatton of the
Western Reserve University, Cleveland,
Robert S. Binkerd, New York City Club,
and Chester H. Rowell, editor of the
Fresno Republican. George H. Dunlop
gave an account of the establishment
and conduct of the Los Angeles Munici-
pal News.^

Wednesday Afternoon Session

Wednesday, July 10, 1912, 3 p.m.

Meyer Lissner, Esq., of Los Angeles
presiding.

The Chair: The first paper will be
a discussion of "State versus Munic-
ipal Regulation of Public Utilities," by
two Californians, who are eminently

See National Municipal Review, vol. i, p. 441.

qualified to discuss the subject intelli-
gently. Mr. Eshelman, who will present
the view point of the state regulation,
is the chairman of the state railroad
commission of California. If you will
indulge me for just a moment, I
would like to tell you about the railroad
commission of the state of California, as
it existed for about twenty years last
past, and as it exists now and has existed
for the past year and a half. The con-
stitution of California has provided for
a railroad commission ever since it was
adopted in 1879, but it is simply a mat-
ter of the history of politics, when I
remind you of the fact that the govern-
ment of California, and of course, the
railroad commission, because it was a
very important matter to the railroad
company, was, up to veryrecently, un-
der the complete domination and control
of a very great railroad corporation, the
Southern Pacific. That was changed,
and Mr. Eshelman is the head of the
new regime of the railroad commission.
The old commission did absolutely noth-
ing except draw its salary. It was abso-
lutely inert and inane — purposely so.

I want to relate one little incident of
something that happened recently,
which will, better than mere words of
descriptive matter, tell you the differ-
ence between the old regime and the
present. The harbor of Los Angeles is
known as San Pedro. It was the town"
of San Pedro before the consolidation,
and it is still called San Pedro, although
now a part of the city of Los Angeles.
The rate between the city of Los Angeles
and the harbor, for freight, was practi-
cally prohibitive, although it carried
probably more freight than any similar
stretch of railroad in the state. They
charged as much for those twenty miles
as they did for several hundred miles
in other parts of the state. One of the
first things that the shippers of Los Ange-
les naturally did was to apply to the
new railroad commission for a consider-
ation of that rate and a reduction of it,
The new railroad commission heard
testimony, took it under consideration,

22

EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING

and determined that the rate should be
reduced, and issued an order that the
rate should be reduced materially; about
a third on the average. The railroad
company, of course, protested and took
the matter into the federal court to pre-
vent the going into effect of that rate.
The railroad commission filed a demurrer
to the complaint, and on the hearing of
that demurrer, the federal judge decided
that the railroad company had no case,
and threw it out of court. The railroad
company desired to take the matter
higher, and so they suggested to the
railroad commission that they, of course,
had their constitutional rights, which
they had a right to test out to the last
extremity, and they would suggest that
the station agent at San Pedro be ar-
rested and habeas corpus might be issued
in the inatter, and so the matter might
be taken to the court of last resort. The
railroad commission said to those gen-
tlemen representing the railroad com-
pany, "We wont do it exactly that way.
If we arrest anybody in this matter,
and we will arrest somebody unless this
rate goes into effect at two o'clock next
Thursday afternoon — if we arrest any-
body, we are going to arrest the highest
responsible officials of the Southern Pa-
cific whom we can find in this state;"
which meant the president of the road
and the vice president. That was the
Ultimatum of the railroad commission.
At a quarter of two on the day set, the
railroad attorneys and officials came to
the office of the railroad commission,
and said, "Gentlemen, we surrender;
the rate goes into effect." And it is
now in effect. I have the honor to intro-
duce the president of the railroad com-
mission of California, Mr. J. M. Eshel-
man.i

The Chair: I have the honor to in-
troduce the distinguished son of a dis-
tinguished father, Lewis R. Works, Esq.

Mr. Works: The paper that I shall

' Mr. Eshelnian'a paper Is published In the Na-
Tio.VAL Municipal Review, vol. II, p. 11.

present for your consideration deals
solely with the question of the regula-
tion of privately owned public utilities,
and bears no reference whatever to one
of the questions that Mr. Eshelman dis-
cussed with a great deal of vigor; that is,
the question as to whether or not the
city of Los Angeles — if that is the city
that he has had in his mind in presenting
that question — -should regulate and con-
trol the distribution of water from its
own water system outside the city, or
whether that regulation and control
should rest in the state. It may be
proper for me to say something upon
that question, because I do not agree
with Mr. Eshleman — certainly as to the
legal question; and I may say practically
the same as to the moral question. How-
ever we have to deal with the question
as to what the City of Los Angeles and
what the state may do upon this phase,
as a purely legal question; because it is
mj' opinion, that the state, cannot le-
gally or constitutionally control or affect
the regulation of the water supply to
be distributed by Los Angeles to people
outside its borders.

Mr. Eshelman : I did not say that the
state had that power. The power lies
between the state and the local board
of supervisors.

Mr. Works: I do not grant that,
either. Mr. Eshelman presents the ques-
tion, that wherever that power may rest,
outside the city, it is between the state
and some — what I may term alien power,
and I do not agree that that power rests
anywhere; but I do not propose to dis-
cuss that matter right now, but I may,
and in fact, I will, if the time is not too
near consumed when I finish the reading
of my paper, say something orally upon
that question. I cannot hope to touch
it in the manner that Mr. Eshelman has
done, because he has put his ideas down
in a systematic and consistent whole;
but I want to lay before you some things
that may be said upon the other side
of that particular question, whether I

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL LEAGUE

23

may be able to impress you that my
views with reference to that question
are correct or not. But please under-
stand that the question that I am about
to present to you is simply as to the
regulation and control of privately
owned public utilities as between city
and state, and, as you will see, not lim-
ited entirely to the state of California,
but in a somewhat broader view.
Mr. Works then read his paper.i

The Chair: We will next hear a re-
port upon "Excess Condemnation," by
Robert S. Binkerd, of New York, sec-
retary of the New York City Club. It
is a report of the League's committee
on excess condemnation, of which he
is chairman.

Mr. Binkerd: "Excess Condemna-
tion" is a highly technical subject and
before reading to you the very terse con-
clusions of the committee on that sub-
ject, I will try, so far as possible, to
divest it of any technical clothes. The
power of condemnation is the power on
the part of any governmental agency to
take, by process of law, private property
for public use. Practically every con-
stitution of every state in this country
contains, in substance, the provision
that private property shall not be taken
for public use without due process of
law. The highest courts of most of the
states of the United States, however,
narrowly construed what constitutes due
process of law, and they narrowed the
power of cities to take private property
for public uses, to the actual lines of
the physical improvement, so that a city
in opening a street, cannot take a single
inch outside the width of the street on
either side ; and the same rule applies to
parks, playgrounds, sites for public
buildings, and any purpose for which
private property can be acquired by a
city. Now, excess condemnation means
the right on the part of a city to take
abutting or surrounding land adjacent

1 See National Municipal Rbvie-w, vol. ii, p.

24.

to a public improvement. It is excess
because it is beyond what is now legal
for it to take, although the term is whol-
ly misunderstood in Europe— or not un-
derstood, for the reason that there are
no such limitations upon the power of
taking private property for public use,
in European cities. (Mr. Binkerd then
cited instances of public improvements
in European cities by the exercise of
the power of excess condemnation, men-
tioning the work of Baron Haussman,
and important public improvements in
Paris and elsewhere.) One of the most
important improvements of recent years,
which has been done by the city of Lon-
don, England, was done almost exclusive-
ly by what we would call excess condem-
nation, and the exercise of this power
shows that the average recoupment on
re-sale of surplus land is about 40%,
because, of course, the power to take
additional adjoining land involves also
the power to hold, to lease or to sell,
with or without restrictione, the land
which is not needed for actual construc-
tion. Now, I call your attention to the
fact that there has been notable prog-
ress in the last year; excess condemna-
tion having already been achieved in
Massachusetts, and being involved in
the pending Ohio constitution, and hav-
ing passed the Legislature of the state
of New York; and I will read to you the
very brief conclusions of this committee,
which are as follows:

COMMITTEE ON EXCESS CONDEMNATION

The committee of the National Mu-
nicipal League on "excess condemna-
tion" has practically finished its labors.
Thanks to the cooperation on the part
of the officers of the organization the
committee received the services of Her-
bert S. Swan, who has gathered together
the most satisfactory amount of inform-
ation on this subject ever compiled;
together with a large amount of data
from foreign countries and otherwise
available in English.

This material is being edited for pub-
lication in a volume in the National

24

EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING

Municipal League Series on the control
of lands adjacent to jiuhlic improve-
ments.

The term ''excess condemnation" is
one not understood in iMiropc unaccus-
tomed to rigid constitution or to rigid
limitation on the jjowers of government.
In America, however, the term "excess"
is properly usable because of the great
constitutional limitations placed upon
governmental powers and the restrictive
decisions of our courts in interpreting
those' powers.

During the past year notable prog-
ress has been made. Following an ad-
visory opinion of its highest court, Mas-
sachusetts has amended its constitution
so as to confer the power of excess con-
demnation upon its cities. An excellent
provision has also been incorporated in
the pending Ohio constitution. 1 The New
York amendment, which was defeated
last year, as been revised and patterned
after the Massachusetts provision and
was passed by the recent session of the
New York Legislature ; and at the Third
Annual Conference of New York Mayors
held at Utica on June 10, was enthusi-
astically endorsed by the mayors of some
thirty-five cities of the state.

Conclusions of the committee

Your committee having in hand the
material collected by Mr. Swan and the
able and exhaustive legal discussions by
the Hon. Walter L. Fisher, the secretary
of the interior, and Hon. John DeWitt
Warner of New York City, has arrived
at the following conclusions:

A city is entitled to powers which
will enable it to secure the fullest use
of city land and the greatest possible
freedom in adjusting its streets, parks
and transit systems to the needs of city
life;

From time immemorial English com-
mon and statute law has recognized
that government would be paralyzed if
public necessity and convenience were

1 This provlaloa waa adopted on September 3,

1012.

not paramount to private ownership and
enjoyment of land;

In built-up portions of modern cities
necessary street adjustments cannot be
made without leaving much of the abut-
ting property in unusable or unsuitable
form;

The scattered private ownership of
such parcels long retards proper devel-
opment along the improvements, and
represents an economic drag on the
whole city;

It also often involves hardship on the
private owner assessed for a benefit
which has actually been a detriment to
him and destined to wait many years
before the owner of contiguous usable
land will unite with it and after at his
own price the otherwise unusable rem-
nant.

For a city to spend thousands or mil-
lions of dollars in the creation of parks,
boulevards and public places and^then
to permit the destruction of the beauty
it has created by idiosyncrasies of abut-
ting property owners is a waste of public
moneys.

The only thoroughly effective instru-
ment for protecting such public invest-
ments and for correlating city land into
its most usable forms is the power of
excess condemnation vested in city gov-
ernments.

Whatever recoupment may be re-
ceived from the re-sale of property so
acquired is but an incident in the exer-
cise of this power for public purposes.

Even though there be no recoupment,
there is a substantial financial advant-
age in the ability to acquire whole par-
cels and thus escape the payment of dam-
ages for the destruction of the usability
of a parcel.

Wherever the highest courts of a state
have broadly interpreted what consti-
tutes a public use, the power of excess
condemnation can probably be acquired
by more legislative enactment. In some
states where courts have been particu-
larly broad-minded, cities may secure
such power by merely undertaking the
condemnation of adjacent property and

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL LEAGUE

25

carrying suits against such taking to the
highest courts.

In most states, however, where the
courts have given narrow interpreta-
tions to what constitutes a public use,
the safest plan of procedure is by amend-
ment of the state constitution. The
Supreme Court of the United States in
several important cases has fairly clearly
indicated that such constitutional enact-
ments would not be declared void under
the constitution of the United States.

With the widened scope of condem-
nation and its increased use for social
purposes the method of condemnation
becomes of very great importance.
Movements to secure the grant of excess
condemnation ought also attempt the
correction of abuses in existing condem-
nation methods or attempt to secure a
simpler, more direct and less dilatory
and expensive method.

As excess condemnation and other
condemnation have a great bearing upon
city planning, we have appended to this
report a short paper by the Hon. Edward
M. Bassett on the necessity within reas-
onable time limits of preventing the
erection of buildings within street lines
for the purpose of securing damages
when the title to such streets actually
vests in the city.^

These conclusions were arrived at in
a meeting held in New York City on
May 24, 19i2, and are concurred in by
the following members of the committee :
Robert S. Binkerd, Chairman, Lawson
Purdy, Edward M. Bassett, Nelson P.
Lewis, Herbert S. Swan.

The Chair: We will now hear the
discussion of "Effective Housing Cam-
paigns," by Mr. John Ihlder, of New
York, field secretary of the National
Housing Association, and Doctor Dana
W. Bartlett of this city.^

1 This will be published In a future number of
the National Municipal Review In which the
whole subject of excess condemnation will be con-
sidered at length— C. R. W.

2 See article "Housing at Los Angeles," Nation-
al Municipal Review, vol. 11, p. 68.

The Chair: I now have the pleasure
of introducing Dr. Ernest S. Bradford,
of Washington, D. C, the author of one
of the few works on commission govern-
ment, who will read a paper on "Com-
mission Government and City Plan-

ning

"3

Banquet

Wednesday evening, July 10, 1912, 7 p.m.

A banquet was tendered the members
and delegates at Hotel Alexandria with
Meyer Lissner, Esq., of Los Angeles
presiding, who introduced the Hon.
William Dudley Foulke as toastmaster.
Mr. Foulke also responded to the toast
"The National Municipal League." He
spoke at considerable length with regard
to the importance of the establishment
of the merit system in municipal affairs
especially along the lines indicated in the
report and addresses before the League.
He also referred at length to the partici-
pation of women in municipal affairs,
especially through the vote. In conclud-
ing he said :

"Your rate of growth has been far
greater than that of any of our eastern
cities, your percentage of growth greater
than any of our eastern cities of con-
siderable size. That is a wonderful
thing; and you can see that growth is
a healthy growth. There are no slums
here in Los Angeles; there are no vast
tenement house districts where people
are herded together like cattle. You
have a condition of morality in this city
that is reasonably high. That means a
great deal, but it does not mean every-
thing, because it was right here in Los
Angeles that you reached the most crit-
ical point in that confiict which seems to
be going on in our community between
those that have inherited the world's
wine and honey and those who make up
the great masses of the people; between
the capitalistic class and the laborers
of the country. It was here that the

» Dr. Bradford's paper was published In full In
The American City, for August 1912.

26

EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING

conflict which seems to be coming, which
seems to be growing and gathering every-
where, readied its first decisive point
in that dreadful crime which has been
the horror of the world, and yet which
today we cannot entirely say whether
the causes which led to it do not give it
a sort of justification w^hich mere venal
crimes for the sake of purely selfish
things do not have. That has excited
the abhorrence of America. We all of
us agree a crime of that kind should be
punished in a severe way, and yet at the
same time that is one of the great ques-
tions that is before us, and it is before
us in a municipal sense just as it is before
us in a national and in a state sense. We
find on the one side fortunes that are
accumulated beyond all dream of avarice
for past times, fortunes that have arisen
to the hundreds of millions, acquired
frequently bj- fraudulent means, by the
oppression of communities, by means
which are a little less than criminal,
even though they may evade the provi-
sions of the criminal law. On the other
side there is a great mass of humanity
who find that their wages do not grow,
although the cost of subsistence does
gi"ow; who find that their condition is
not very much better in spite of the enor-
mously increased amount of wealth that
is acquired by the whole community.
That condition is fraught with great
danger for the future, and that is a
danger which we ought to try to foresee.
We must try to foresee it in the cities as
well as in the states and in the nation.
We must not let the conditions of affairs
reach that crisis which it reached at the
French Revolution. There you had the
special privileged class; the sovereign
himself and the nobles throughout the
Empire, with their noble chateaus all
through the kingdom, and on the other
side you had the people clamoring for
bread, and a man upon the throne,
amiable, honest, well-meaning, desiring
to do right, but not knowing that it
was loaded, not knowing that there was
a precipice towards which all those thing
must tend. We must be wise in time,

and our municipalities as well as our
states must take care, must see to it that
the great ranks of the disinherited are
well provided for, and the opportunities
of living well. Not that equality of
l)ossessions is ever to be attained — it is
not; while equality of intellect does not
exist, but equality of opportunity should
be given to the young men and the young
women, no matter how low the condi-
tions in which they have been reared.
(Applause.) In the first place, they
should have the opportunity to have
strong and healthy bodies. (Applause.)
Their lives should not be stunted by
child labor (applause), nor by residence
in city slums. They should have the
chance for the cultivation of the sound
mind in a sound body; they should be
given an opportunity to embark upon the
great struggle of life with a fair chance
of success. I believe in individuality.
I believe in individual eflforts, but at the
same time you have got to give them a
fair start, and that is the duty of the
city. The city must see to that. My
friends, that will be the next step that
we will have to struggle for. That is
part of the struggle now, city efficiency
in government, and that the government
shall not hesitate to take under its pro-
tecting care those weaker classes of the
community that cannot so w^ell take care
of themselves. Then there will be other
questions that will arise in the future,
questions that we cannot foresee at the
present time. The course . of reform
never reaches its full consummation."

After Mr. Foulke's address he spoke
of the regret all felt at the inability of
Mrs. Crane who had been announced as
one of the speakers, to be present, and
then introduced Professor Albert Bush-
nell Hart of Harvard who responded to
the toast "Work" with a humorous
application of many of the thoughts that
had been advanced during the formal
sessions of the League.

Mrs. Andrew C. Lobinger, president
of the Women's Club of Los Angeles
responded to the toast "Los .\ngeles,"
in which she set forth the glories and

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL LEAGUE

27

achievements of that interesting city.
She was followed by Mr. F. S. Spence of
Toronto, Canada, on "Reciprocity in
Municipalities," Mr. Robert S. Binkerd
of New York on "Simplicity in Munici-
pal Affairs," and Mrs. Owen Wister on
"The East," who in the course of her
remarks said :

"I think I must begin by saying that
the National Municipal League came out
of the east. (Laughter and applause.)
We are very glad to share it with you.
We are very glad to share all of the good
things that we have with you except
perhaps the Betsy Ross house and those
other relics which have become sacred
to the whole of the American people and
which we think must remain where they
are. But will you allow me to say to Mrs.
Lobinger that while we are very glad to
share with you the National Municipal
League and other things we fully intend
to keep our own part. As a matter of
historj^ it might be interesting to some of
you to hear about the very first meeting
of the League. With the exception of
Mr. Woodruff, I believe I am the only
person present who attended that first
meeting in Philadelphia in 1894. I was
at all of the sessions. I remember those
meetings so well, though I have been to
many conventions since that time and
many meetings which have slipped from
my mind, but the Municipal League was
presenting to municipalities a great, and
what was then a new, idea; and one does
not forget it. I can remember the little
room in which we met, hardly more than
one-half the size of this banquet hall, I
think; and I can remember the mottoes
over the door: 'National Parties for
National Affairs — Municipal Parties for
Municipal Affairs.' And, ladies and
gentlemen, that was heresy in the city of
Philadelphia in the year 1894, and we
who were participating in that meeting
were looked upon as heretics, and per-
haps as not entirely sane heretics. We
were told how foolish we were and how
foolish it was to cling to a visonary
thought. The following of Matthew
Stanley Quay said, 'Don't you see that

municipal government is an indispensable
and integral part of the national govern-
ment? It is the foundation of our party
politics, and American cities can never
part with it.' That was in 1894, and in
1912 in our city, which is a large city and
a hard city to govern because it is large,
and because it is what is sometimes called,
a very conservative city, we have elected
an independent mayor upon a third party
ticket (applause), and we believe we have
in Rudolph Blankenburg one of the best
mayors who ever governed an American
municipality. That is what the National
Municipal League did for our city when
it came to us in those years ago. That
is the reason we believe so fully that it
will do the same thing for every Ameri-
can community which will listen to its
message.

"The League has a large support in the
affiliated women clubs of the east. We
have many, many civic clubs in the east,
all the way along the Atlantic Coast
from Maine to Charleston, splendid civic
clubs, women who are working and aid-
ing this National Municipal League
in the great service which it is rendering
the cause of good government, and the
American Civic Association, although
we have not been so fortunate as the
women of California in the recognition
that has been shown them here. I remem-
ber at that early meeting Mrs. E. B.
Kirkbride of Philadelphia as the founder
and the leader of the leagues of good
citizenship among our school children —
I remember at that first meeting hearing
this little lady say, 'Woman is standing
at the door, she is opening the door and
looking in.' The fortunate citizens of
this community have stood by a door
that swings a little more easily, that does
not have to be knocked at quite so often
or so loud or so long. Nevertheless, that
same door is slowly opening and through-
out our country it is certainly only a
question of time when all the women will
enjoy the privileges of citizenship en-
joyed by you here." (Applause.)

The banquet was concluded with a
brilliant address by Chester H. Rowell,

28

EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING

editor of the Fresno Republican and
vice-president of the National Municipal
Leapue, on "Government by News-
papers."

Thursday Morning Session
Thursday, July 11, 1912, 10 a.m.

President Foulke in the chair

The first paper upon the program is
upon "The Work of the League of Cal-
ifornia Municipalities," by H. A. Mason,
secretary of that League. ^

The President: The next is a sub-
ject upon which the state of California,
and particularly Los Angeles, can per-
haps instruct the rest of the country
more than any other, and that is, "The
Actual Operation of the Initiative, Ref-
erendum and Recall," by Dr. John R.
Haynes, the president of the Direct Leg-
islation League of California, who, of
course, needs no introduction to a Los
Angeles audience."

Mr. Edw^ard L. Heydecker, New
York: We know that Los Angeles is a
most delightful city to come to. We
have had many courtesies extended to
us, and I beg leave to read the following:

Resolved, that the National Municipal
League expresses its warm appreciation
of the many courtesies received from
its hosts, tiie Mayor of Los Angeles,
the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce
and the Municipal League of Los Ange-
les, and gratefully acknowledges the hos-
pitalities extended by the members of
the Los Angeles Committee on Arrange-
ments and the support and welcome it
has received at the hands of the city and
its citizens.

Upon motion duly seconded the res-
olution was unanimously adopted.

The President: Speaking of bosses,
the last subject mentioned by Dr.

' See National Municipal Review, vol. 1, p.

603.

' See National Municipal Review, vol. I, p.

586.

Haynes you will be delighted to know
that the gentleman who was selected to
present the paper on this subject, the
title of which is, "The Boss' Day in
Court," is to be followed by another
paper, "The Elimination of the Party
Boss in California Cities." It may be
that it is in consequence of a fear of that,
that I have been instructed to announce
that Prof. Albert Bushnell Hart is un-
avoidably detained by urgent business
and has asked his young friend, William
Barnes Boies Cox Taggart of Illinoisrado
to take his place. Therefore, you will
hear from the genuine article of a city
boss.

Professor Hart then delivered a bril-
liant, satirical defence of the boss, which
has been published in full in The Outlook,
for October 26, 1912.

The President : We will now hear from
Chester H. Rowell, editor of the Fresno
Republican and a vice president of the
National Municipal League on "The
Elimination of the Party Boss in Cali-
fornia Cities."

Eliminating California Bosses

Mr. Rowell: The little town of
Fresno, was the first city of California to
eliminate the party by law. One of the
first cities in the United States so far
as I know. We passed the first non-
partisan charter, in which we forbade
party tickets of any sort on the ballot,
and got a modern system, with the one
exception that we didn't have any ma-
jority rule in it. At the first election,
whoever gets a plurality vote gets the
election; and in the three times we have
tried it, it gave us a good government
twice and a bad government once; and
the singular thing about it was, the first
time it gave us a bad government, it
gave us the elimination of the party
boss.

Under the new charter we had, the
first time, a non-partisan, an extremely
good Democratic mayor, elected over-

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL LEAGUE

29

whelmingly. The next time we had a
three-cornered fight. We elected a Re-
publican mayor, and the political boss
proceeded to run him, so we had the
bi-partisan boss system, the Democratic
boss running a Republican mayor; and
the government was spectacular and in-
efficient. It did not succeed in being
as bad as those who ran it wanted it to
be, because we had a good system and
we have not any party responsibility
for the government and when the gov-
ernment was responsible to the people,
it did not dare do half the things it had
promised to do. By the end of that
administration, I do not think anybody
in the town, not excepting the mayor
and his boss, knew whether the Repub-
licans or the Democrats had a majority
of our city council. I do not suppose
anybody knew, and everybody had
ceased to care, whether the majority of
the appointees were Republicans or Dem-
ocrats, and non-partisanship had got,
not only into our government, but into
the very hearts of our people; and just
a few days ago, the mayor we have now,
a very good man, and a Republican, had
to appoint a man to a vacancy op the
police commission, and he found that
he could not appoint the man that he
had selected because an old and forgot-
ten bi-partisan provision of the charter
forbade the appointment of the commis-
sion all of one party and if he had ap-
pointed that man his police commission
would have been all Democrats. That
idea had not occurred to him, although
he was a Republican mayor. When you
get rid of partisanship in municipal
affairs, you get rid of the party boss, and
ultimately you get rid of every sort of
boss.

The city of Sacramento has been an
interesting and recent example. Sac-
ramento has had party bosses, two of
them; one Republican, and one Demo-
cratic, co-operating with the most ad-
mirable system of harmony. That last-
ed until a few weeks ago when they got
a new charter which eliminated the old
bosses and the old system. In the first

election they had under the new charter,
they elected a new sort of people and
elected a government that is bound to
be a good government, and even Sac-
ramento has redeemed itself. Evidently
the mechanism of the government is
something.

The system of getting rid of the party
boss here in Los Angeles was started
first in an effort to elect a non-partisan
school board, and that non-partisan
school board was elected. That cam-
paign led to various other matters,
among them, a non-partisan effort to
get possession of the city and county
council; and the first time you tried it,
you got possession of one of them, but
not of the other. The recall, in due
time, gave possession of both. Then,
out of that non-partisan organization
in Los Angeles, and out of various other
things — but out of that, more than any-
thing else, finally came a partisan organ-
ization which reformed the state, and
out of that reform of a party in the state,
is now coming a non-partisan organi-
zation that seems to be splitting that
party all over the United States. So
you started here in Los Angeles in order
to get a non-partisan school board and
now it has grown until it has spread all
over the United States, and made a new
sort of governmental standard in the
United States.

In the city of San Jose is an interest-
ing example of another sort of reform.
San Jose for a long time was horribly
boss ridden, and it had the unique dis-
tinction of being the only city in Cal-
ifornia where the center of machine rule
was in the sdiool department. Out of
the school machine of San Jose ran
the ramifications that ran the political
school machine of California. Wherever
you had machine politics in the school
system of any city in California, you
found it went straight back to the city
of San Jose; and there was a magnificent,
fine city, the same sort of city it is now,
with the same sort of people that, are
in it now, and yet, some way or other,
that fine city, with those fine people.

30

EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING

stood for that bad government in tliat
city; and, worst of all that sort of thing
which good people ordinarily do not
stand for, machine politics in the school
system. That machine got reformed
by another principle, — by the personal
efforts of two men, one of whom is now
in congress, and the other of whom wants
to be governor, and who believed thor-
oughh' in the sort of reform San Jose
needed jnst then. They did not believe
in stealing, they did not believe in drink-
ing. They had all the personal Sunday
school virtues themselves, and believed
in imposing those virtues upon others.
I mean the Hayes brothers, Red and
Black, we call them sometimes, by way
of distinction. They proceeded, by per-
sonal, political and business influence,
to over-throw that machine in San Jose
and establish a sort of boss rule. And
now, some of the people are rising
against that sort of a boss rule.

The name of San Jose has rather an
uniqiie position in the cities of Cali-
fornia of having been personally re-
formed by men whose ideas were limited,
as I said, largely to the Sunday school
virtues; because at the time one of these
brothers was very efficiently and usefully
reforming the city of San Jose, he was
also carrying-on political deals with the
man who was deforming the city organ-
ization of San Francisco.

The history of the party boss in San
Francisco, and of the whole political
upheaval in its government is, in some
ways, one of the most interesting and
one of the most tragic of which I know.
They had for a long time the non-parti-
san system and non-partisnn spirit in San
Francisco. That is, the two parties
would nominate candidates and the de-
cent citizenship of San Francisco would
announce that, "while we have to use the
party machinery to nominate, we do not
care whether the candidate is a Repub-
lican or Democrat; we will organize in
favor of whichever is the decentest,"
and usually the Democrat was the de-
centest. and usuallj' the Democrat was
elected in a city which is not Democrat-

ic; which is over-whelmingly Republi-
can; and the party leaders of the Repub-
licans said, each time, "Yes, we stand
for it this time, but we will not stand
for it any more;" and there was a con-
stant "kicking," because they said,.
"Non-partisanship there means a Dem-
ocrat in office;" and then there was a cry
about the division of the patronage, and
altogether, it took more patriotism than
is usually available, for people to help
non-partisanship in San Francisco, when
the Democratic candidate usually won
by it and the Democratic subordinates
usually had the patronage. Then came
the long Ruef era, which I will not go
into now. Then came again a non-par-
tisanship era, and it happens that the
mayor is a Republican and neither Re-
publicans nor Democrats care whether
he is a Republican or not; and, having
had a good deal to do with the local
politics of San Francisco, I realize now
that the election of the non-partisan,
by non-partisan mechanism, has pro-
duced real non-partisanship in the hearts
of everybody.

The actual mechanism is really worth
while. You eliminate the party boss
by eliminating the parties from the cit-
ies, and then you go through various
other evolutions, and among them is the
development, in the place of the party
boss, of the other sort of boss; of that
boss who does nothing but good, and who
is worthy of yoiu* admiration. You have
been accused of having that sort of a
boss here in Los Angeles, and if the ac-
cusations are true, that Mr. Lissner is
boss of the town, it has been the devel-
opment of the highest and best type of
patriotic boss that can exist; and is an
interesting example of a step in the evo-
lution from a boss government toward
a final government by the people. A very
important and necessary , but not a perma-
nent stage. But after people have got
rid of the old methods of leadership,
there is a stage towards the new one, in
which they still need some sort of lead-
ership, organization and leadership from
above and for their benefit, and finalh'

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL LEAGUE

31

reaches to them and comes back a good
system but not quite the best; and one
of the reasons it is not quite the best is,
that it requires a higher degree of un-
selfishness and devotion to the public
than you can permanently expect. You
happen to have them here in this city.
You happen to have a good many of the
right men in this city; but you can't have
it permanently, from this more or less
centralized leadership that seems to fol-
low the boss system. It seems to me
that the rteople will have to be better
organized to do their own governing and
develop leadership from below upwards,
just as the boss system did, when the
boss reaches the control of his district
and whoever is able to deliver that dis-
trict will be the boss in that district.
It seems to me, the best leadership will
have to come from the development of
. our various civic clubs, which represent
our various interests; the city club,
representing all our interests, and the
civic club, the federated clubs, repre-
senting geographical divisions, and the
labor unions; and I think the labor uni-
ons can be made very useful civic organ-
izations, even in Los Angeles. But, with
these various organizations, the people
can organize themselves gradually into
larger and larger evolutions, until the
time comes that the political organization
of the people is able to develop good and
intelligent political leadership at all
times. Then you will have reached the
final stage of popular government, and
then you will have had all the virtues of
the boss system, just so eloquently enu-
merated to you by a representative of it,
and none of its faults; and it seems to me
that California is now in process of evo-
lution toward that system.

The President: We have two more
papers this morning, and one of them
upon a subject which has excited general
attention all over the country, which
is, "The Actual Operation of Woman
Suffrage in Pacific Coast Cities." I
have the pleasure of introducing a lady
who can speak upon this subject with

authority, Mrs. Charles Farwell Edson,
of Los Angeles, the Chairman of the
Political Equality League of California,
and a member of the Council of The
National Municipal League. ^

The President: We will now have the
last paper of the morning, upon the sub-
ject of "Socialism in California Munici-
palities," by Dr. Ira B. Cross, of Stan-
ford University, Assistant Professor of
Economics and author of "Essentials of
Socialism. "2

Friday Morning Session
Friday, July 12, 1912; 10 a.m.
President Foulke in the chair

Dr. Wilcox: Before commencing I
would like to take a referendum, being
a great believer in popular government.
I want to know first how many there
are in this audience who are generally
familiar with the street railway settle-
ments of Chicago and Cleveland? Will
you please raise your hands? (A few
hands raised.) How many are there who
are not generally familiar with the street
railway settlements of Chicago and Cleve
land? (Many hands raised.) I have
here a paper it will take about twenty-
five minutes to read. I thought if you
were familiar in a general way with the
situation I would throw the paper in
the wastebasket and make a speech of
perhaps fifteen or twenty minutes; but
I think under the circumstances I will
proceed to read it.

Dr. Wilcox then read his paper en-
titled "Street Railway Franchises."^

The President: The next paper
will be by a gentleman who has cooper-
ated with Dr. Wilcox on the committee
on public utilities, J. W. S. Peters of
Kansas City, the president of the Kansas
City City Club.

620.

1 See N.iTioNAL Municipal Review, vol. 1, p.

611.

2 See National Municipal Review, vol. 1, p.
I.

3 See National Municipal Review, vol. I, p. 630.

32

EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING

Mk. Peters: I feel encouraged in
presenting this paper in Los Angeles
rather tluin elsewhere, the first reason
being that it is more or less of a novelty
and if it is good as a novelty the Los
Angeles people will be inclined to adopt
it . If it is not good as a novelty they
will have a sufficient knowledge not to
adopt it and put it into practical oper-
ation.

Mr. Peters then read his paper on "A
Suggested Sliding Scale of Dividends for
Street Railways Determined by Equal-
ity of Service. "1

The President: We now proceed to
the most important subject of all; that
is, the discussion of the proposed charter
for Los Angeles, and Dr. John R. Haynes,
the chairman of the charter commission
will preside and see to the proper conduct
of the discussion.

Dr. Haynes took the chair.

The Chair: On behalf of the people
of Los Angeles and of the members of
the board of freeholders of Los Angeles
and of myself I wish to express our keen
appreciation of the privilege that is ours
today of being aided by this great nation-
al bod}^ of experts who for manj'^ years
have been studying the details of munic-
ipal government throughout the United
States. All those who have met per-
sonally the gentlemen connected with
this organization will remember the
forceful and genial president whose knowl-
edge and progressive ideas, and whose
erudition is such that from his tongue
there fall as gently and easily the cad-
ences of ancient Rome as falls dew upon
still water upon the shadowy current
of the gleaming past. And as far as
the secretary of this organization is con-
cerned, he who has devoted so much
time and gray matter to the conduct
of this organization for so many years,
what can I say about him, excepting

»See National Municipal Revikw, vol. II, p. 31.

that his ability is only equaled by his
overwhelming humility and his shrink-
ing modesty?

The charter commission of Los Ange-
les prepared the following twenty-seven
questions for submission to the group of
experts brought together by the National
Municipal League:

Assuming that the city of Los Angeles
is to adopt the commissioyi form of gov-
ernment with such modifications as local
conditions make necessary —

1. What number of commissioners
should the city elect?

2. Should the entire commission be
elected for the same period, or should
there be a partial renewal at each elec-
tion, with overlapping terms?

3. Should the commissioners be elect-
ed to specific posts, with a mayor elected
as such, or should they be elected simply
as commissioners and assigned to their
places— (a) By the mayor? (b) By the
commission?

4. Should bureau heads in the several
departments be appointed by the several
commissioners absolutely, or subject to
confirmation by the commission, or
should they be named by the civil service
board?

5. Should subordinate city officials
having general jurisdiction, such as city
treasurer, be chosen by the commission,
or appointed by the mayor, subject to
confirmation by the commission, or
named by the civil service board?

6. Should the auditor or controller be
elected by the people, or appointed by
the mayor, subject to confirmation by
the commission or chosen by the commis-
sion or by the civil service board?

7. If there be a separate controller,
not a member of the commission, and
if there be a commissioner of finance
who is a member of the commission,
which of those officers should prepare the
budget?

8. What permanent provisions should
be made respecting the budget?

9. Should the city attorney be elected
by the people or appointed by the mayor,
subject to confirmation by the commis-
sion, or chosen by the commission, or
named by the civil service board?

10. Assuming that the departments of
(1) public works, (2) public service (water
suppljO, (3) harbor and transportation
and (4) public welfare (health, garbage
collection and disposal, etc.), each re-
quire the services of a high-class engineer

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL LEAGUE

33

shorld these engineers act independently
in their respective departments or as a
board of engineers?

11. Should garbage collection and dis-
posal be under the commissioner of pub-
lic works or in the health department?

12. Should the bureau of efficiency be
under the controller or under the civil
service board?

13. Should the civil service board be
subject only to the recall, or should its
members be removable by a large major-
ity, say three-fourths, of the commis-
sioners?

14. Should heads of departments have
the right of summary removal of subord-
inates, without recourse, for stated cause?

15. Is it safe, under the protection of
direct legislation and the recall, to enact
a charter provision for indeterminate
franchises?

16. If indeterminate franchises are
authorized, what is the minimum time
limit on the right to purchase?

17. Is a maximum time limit consist-
ent with the inderterminate franchise?

18. If a minimum limit of five years
is fixed, what bonus, if any, should be
allowed to the company?

19. What requirements should be
made as to amortization, maintenance,
betterments and depreciation?

20. Should franchises be sold, or
should the city receive a percentage of
the net or gross receipts?

21. Should interurban railways, own-
ing their own right of way, be put on

the same basis as to franchises as steam
railways?

22. Is the borough system indispens-
able in a city covering a large area?

23. Is the school system properly a
function of the modern municipality?

24. Is a system of cumulative or pref-
erential voting or proportional repre-
sentation practicable in a large city?

25. Is the statement of powers granted
in the second draft of the proposed chart-
er of Los Angeles sufficiently inclusive?

26. Is paragraph (43) of Sec. 47 of the
second draft of the proposed Los Angeles
charter an adequate provision for com-
prehensive city planning?

27. Should the public library be
placed under the jurisdiction of a single
commissioner, or governed by an inde-
pendent board appointed by the mayor
and confirmed by the commission, or
named by the civil service board?

These questions were taken up one
by one and the opinion of each expert
given. The result was most interesting
and was described at length by John J.
Hamilton, the secretary of the board of
freeholders in a report to that body.
This was published in full in the October
issue of the National Municipal Re-
view.^

Clinton Rogers Woodruff,

Secretary.

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AS
A POTENTIAL CONTRIBUTOR
TO MUNICIPAL ADVANCE-
MENT

The astounding growth of our urban
centers is one of the most remarkable
developments of our generation and ren-
ders it imperative that more serious
efforts be made to effect the solution
of the many problems which have arisen
as a direct consequence. In numerous
instances local efforts have yielded splen-
did results, but the time is now at hand
for launching a great cooperative
movement for municipal betterment.
An unusual opportunity for developing
such a movement is offered through the
Panama-Pacific International Exposi-

tion, one of the principal objects of which
will be to present, in exhibit form, a
record of achievement in all lines of
social endeavor.

Last March I had the honor of sub-
mitting to the exposition company a
proposal for a comprehensive municipal
exhibit which has since been broadened
so as to include all the departments of
social economy.- Briefly .stated, the
project has for its object the thorough
cooperative study of the many pressing
community problems now confronting
us, and the presentation of the results
obtained and the conclusions deduced

iSee NatiOn.^l Municipal Review, vol. I, p. 650.

2 The general plans have recently been adopted
by the exposition company which is about to make
public its classification.

34

EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING

at the exposition. The exhibits would
consist of models, diagrams, apparatus
and appliances, photographs, motion
films, maps, charts, reports, etc. To
indicate more specifically the range of
the subjects it is proposed to cover the
following topics included in the clas-
sification are given: Study and inves-
tigation of social and economic condi-
tions; Movement, composition and
characteristics of population; Economic
resources and organizations; Eugenics;
Hygiene, including state and municipal
hygiene; Labor; Banking; Insurance, in-
cluding social insurance; Cooperative in-
stitutions, including rural credit systems;
Housing; Liquor, drug and tobacco hab-
its ; Charities ; Criminology and penology ;
Preparation and enactment of legisla-
tion; Nomination and election systems;
Municipal statistics; Municipal organ-
ization, including the relation between
the municipality and the state; City
planning and citj^ beautification; Recre-
ation; Public service and its regulation,
including the work of the state public
service commissions; Municipal labora-
tories; Public safety.

The principal features of the plan
submitted are:

L The arrangement of the exhibit
material, as far as practicable, in accord-
ance with the topics treated, and not
as heretofore according to the source,
so as to make it possible to present each
subject in the most logical and intelligi-
ble manner and to facilitate the compar-
ison of different methods of attaining
the same result. At the same time,
most of the otherwise endless and wear-
isome duplication would be eliminated.

2. The cooperation of the American
and foreign nations, states, and munic-
ipalities, in furnishing exhibit material
along' the many lines in which they are
active.

3. The cooperation of the national
and local civic and sociological organi-
zations.

4. The cooperation of the federal gov-
ernment in providing the necessary
funds for the publication of reports on

the principal topics to be illustrated.
The benefits of the exhibit would thereby
be extended to the whole country and
at the same time the results would be
made permanently available.

These reports would correspond to
the bulletins of the Agricultural Depart-
ment which make known to the farmer
the results of investigations concerning
the particular problems in which he is
interested. For that admittedly im-
portant work, the annual appropriations
now exceed $17,000,000. The problems
which particularly concern the public as
a whole are admittedly equally deserv-
ing of federal recognition, and it must
be recognized that they are just as tech-
nical in character as those confronting
the farmer and consequently that they
also require for their solution specially
trained experts, and men of the broadest
experience.

The awakening of public interest in
sociological matters is strongly evi-
denced by the rapid increase, in number
and in membership, of the national and
local civic sociological organizations, by
the numerous articles appearing in the
magazines and in the public press, and
by the interest in local exhibits dealing
with particular phases of social welfare
work. It seems, therefore, that the
time is particularly auspicious for a
broad undertaking of the character pro-
posed.^

The general plan has received the
endorsement of the National Conference
on City Planning, the governing boards
of the American Civic Association and
the National Municipal League and the
approval of many officials of the United
States government and of individuals
interested in sociological matters. The
Panama-Pacific International Exposi-
tion Company fully recognizes its op-
portunities and has agreed to cooperate
in every way.

The merits which may be claimed for

«

1 Also by the prominence accorded to some of the
problems In the platforms and campaign speeches
of all parties during the recent presidential cam-
paign.

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL LEAGUE

35

the project lie, not only in the exhibit
itself and in the topical reports proposed,
but more especially in securing fuller
federal and state recognition of the many
problems with which organized society
is confronted. Above all, the exhibit
can, as stated above, be made the basis
for the development of a nation-wide
movement for a better city, a better
state, and a better coimtry.

An unusual opportunity is obviously
afforded the federal government in lend-
ing its all-powerful aid to the project,
not only to assist in bringing about a
clearer understanding, and an ultimate
solution of the many present day prob-

lems, and thus making a preeminent
contribution to general welfare, but also
at the same time to promote a cooper-
ative movement of unusual promise,
binding together nations, states, munici-
palities, organizations, institutions and
individuals, all working for civic and
social betterment.

The national government is besides
directly interested in the municipal
problem, as it administers the affairs of
our national capital through committees
of the house and senate, and a board of
commissioners appointed by the presi-
dent, the right of suffrage being denied
the citizens of the District of Columbia.

i

INDEX TO NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

ALSO TITLE PAGE.

The editor has prepared a detailed index to Volume I
of the NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW which
will be sent on application to members of the National
Municipal League and subscribers who desire it.

Address

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW,

703 NORTH AMERICAN BUILDING,
PHILADELPHIA.

/

INDEX

NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW

VOLUME II, 1913

Accounting Notes 125, 300, 481

Actual Operation of the Initiative,
Referendum and Recall. John

R. Haynes Sup. 28

Woman Suffrage in Pacific Coast
Cities. Mrs. Charles Farwell

Edson Sup. 31

Adams, Charles Francis... 122, Sup. 1
Adult Education in New York City.

Oliver Hoyem 671

Advertising for Sanitary Inspectors . 717

Akron Charter Commission 474

Municipal University for 715

Alabama, Liquor Licenses in 632

Albany, City Planning in 488

Alcohol Program, General 276

Program, Suggested American. . . . 277
Question, The International Com-
mittee for the Scientific Study of

the. John Koren 275

Allegheny County, Civic Club of.. 87,696

Allen, Frederick J 709

The Vocation Bureau and the Bos-
ton School System 108

Allen, William H 91, 769

Modern Philanthropy 365

New York's Rejection of School

Reports 93

Almy, Frederic 366

American Art Commissioners, Meet-
ing of 494

Association of Commercial Execu-
tives. Seventh Annual Conven-
tion 141

City Government. Charles A.

Beard 361, 605

Civic Association 305

Eighth Annual Meeting of 136

European Tour 147

Federation for Sex Hygiene 169

Institute of Architects, Illinois

Chapter 305

Library Annual 348

Library Association 258

"Municipalities" 145

American Proportional Represen-
tation League 417, 482

Public Health Association, 40th

Annual Meeting of 137

Road Congress 303

Section of the International Com-
mittee for the Scientific Study of

the Drink Problem 629

Society of Municipal Improve-
ments, Nineteenth Annual *

meeting of 138

Spirit. Oscar S. Straus 774

Statistical Association 279

Vigilance Association 169

Waterworks Association Proceed-
ings for 1912 371

Year Book 568

Andrews, E. Benjamin 67

Arizona, Commission Government in 288

Arkansas, Liquor Licenses in 633

Municipal League 316

Arndt, Walter T 597

Arnold, Bion J 623

Arnold, Henry J 302

Aronovici, Carol 144

Constructive Housing Reform .... 210
Ashville, N. C. Health Department. 321
Assessment of Real Estate in the

District of Columbia 536

Association of Municipal Corpora-
tions, Meeting of 142

Associations of Municipal Officials. . 350
Atkinson, C. R. Review of Graft
Prosecution and Exposures for

the Past Year 439

Atlanta Chamber of Commerce 349

Graft in 444

Improvement Commission . . . 306, 349
Preliminary Survey of City Gov-
ernment of 126, 349

Atlantic City 338

Graft in 442

Trolley Lines 303

Atterbury, Grosvenor 313

Augusta, Ga., Civil Service in 684

1

INDEX

Auto Express Wagon 120

Automobiles, Tax on GO

Avebury, Death of Lord 482

Ayres, Leonard P. Medical Inspec-
tion of Schools 564

Bacon, Mrs. Albion Fellows 312

Baker, Alfred L 305

Baker, M. N.. . . 138, 188, 190, 315, 321,

511, Sup. 1
The Jklunicipal Health Problem. . . 200
Municipal Health Problems . . . Sup. 9

Baker, Newton D 315

Administration as Mayor of Cleve-
land and its Accomplishments.

E. C. Hopwood 461

Baldwin Prize 508

Baldwin, Roger N 492

Baltimore Budget 349

Bureau of State and }»Iunicipal Re-
search, Report of the 741

Department of Legislative Refer-
ence 646

Election Fraud 134

Municipal Pensions in 261

Plan of Organization for Civic

Work 704

Municipal Journal 320

Woman's Civic League 136, 704

Barnard, J. Lynn 364

Barrows, Miss Alice P 504

Bartlett, Dana W 69, Sup. 25

Baseball Peril 529

Bates, Frank G 147, 152, 328, 334

Bayonne, Commission Government

in 117

Beacham, Robert J 147

Beacon, N. Y. Civil Service in 684

Beard, Charles Austin. .. . 116, 284, 470,

561, 675, 772

American City Government 361

Beatty, Bessie. A Political Primer

for the New Voter 567

Belcher, Robert W 147, 346

Bemis, Edward W 295

Report on the Investigation of the

Chicago Telephone Co 171

Benjamin, H. W 123

Bennett, E. H 326

Bennett, J. W. St. Paul's Comptrol-
ler : An Interesting Experiment . 268
Bennett, R. Nelson 542

Berlin, Recent Interesting Develop-
ments in. Herman G. James. . . 445
"Best Sources of City Revenue" ... 319

Better Binghamton 160

Bibliography 174, 353, 543, 746

Bulletin of 348

Bibliographical and Library Notes . 348

Bigelow, Herbert S 623

Binghamton, Better 160

Binkcrd, Robert S 597, Sup. 1

Sup. 7, Sup. 21

Excess Condemnation Sup. 23

Birmingham Trailers 128

Blachly, Frederick F. The Streets

of New York City 605

Blakcslee, Albert Francis, Trees in
AVinter, Their Study, Planting,

Care, and Identification 368

Blankenburg, Rudolph 57, 296

Bleakley, F. Irving 306

Bloomfield, Meyer 109, 319

Bloomington, 111., Graft in ; 445

Bloomsburg, Pa., Graft in 443

Bonney, Edmund A., Handbook for

Highway Engineers 190

Book Reviews 184, 361, 561, 757

Books Received 192, 372, 569, 774

Borough Elections, Recent English.

Herman G. James 270

Boss' Day in Court, Albert Bushnell

Hart Sup. 28

Boston 735

Art Commission 495

Chamber of Commerce, Reports

of 351

Citizens JNIunicipal League 585

City Charter, George R. Nutter. . 583

History Club 110, 707

Stimulating Civic Interest

Among Young ]\Ien 709

Civic Improvement in 488

Service House 109

Finance Commission 52, 571

Girls' Trade Education League . . . 110
Good Government Association. 309, 583
Home and School Association. ... 110

Liquor Licenses in 632

Municipal Election 309

Pensions in 262

Residence Districts in 731

School System, The Vocation Bu-
reau and the. Frederick T.Allen 108

INDEX

Boston Sliding Scale System 32

Street Board Flays Highways

Enactment 131

Traffic Regulations 329

Vocation Bureau 319

Women's Municipal League. . 109, 110

Bostwick, Andrew Linn 333, 519

Bowman, Ralph 729

Boyle, John E 740

Bradford, England, Sewerage Profit 130
and a Municipal Coal Supply .... 130

Bradford, Ernest S. Commission
Government and City Planning

Sup. 25
Commission Government in Amer-
ican Cities 196

Brandeis, Louis D 32

Breitenstein, H. S 301

Bridgeport, Conn., Accounting Sys-
tem 126

Board of Contract and Supply

Guards City Funds 692

Survey of 541

Britannica Year Book 568

British Associations, Meetings of . . 142,

700

Municipal Engineers, Fourth An-
nual meeting of 142

Social Politics, Carlton Hayes .... 774

Brooklyn Parks and Playgrounds

Association 741

Brooks, Prof. R. C •. . . . 431

Bruere, Henry. The New City Gov-
ernment *. 185, 252

Bruere-Mitchell Proposal, The Dis-
trict of Columbia and the 479

Brunner, Arnold W 489

Brj^ce, Hon. James 136

The National Municipal League
and the National Municipal Re-
view 193

Buchtel College 715

Buckner, Emory R 280, 402

Budget Legislation 729

Making: Its Necessity and Sig-
nificance, Jesse D. Burks... Sup. 13
Buffalo Convention of National Mu-
nicipal League 460

Municipal League 667

Noise Ordinance 520

Bulletin Thirteenth Census, 1910 ... 605

Bureau of Animal Industry, Circular

185 745

Mines, Bulletin 49 745

Bureaus of Public Efficienc}', Myr-

tile Cerf 39

Burks, Jesse D .564, Sup.21

Budget Making: Its Necessity

and Significance Sup. 13

Burnett, Lester G 70

Business and Civic Organizations . . 351

Butler, John A 304

Butte Socialist Administration Com-
mendable 134

Cab Situation, The New York.

Courtlandt NicoU 103

California 728

Board of Railroad Commissioners 11
Cities, The Elimination of the
Party Boss in. Chester H. Ro-

well Sup. 28

Constitutional Amendment 121

Direct Legislation League .... Sup. 28
Home Rule in. Thomas H. Reed. Sup. 2

Housing Legislation 517

League of Municipalities . Ill, Sup. -20
Sixteenth Annual Convention of

the 703

Liquor Laws in 630

Outlook 700

Public Utilities in 11, 24

Public Utility Legislation 725

Railroad Commission, Report of

the 340

Call of the New South. James E.

McCuUoch 371

Cambridge 8, 662

Charter 288

Mass. Taxpayers Association, Re-
port of the 173

Canada, City Planning in 306

Canadian Commission of Conserva-
tion 73

Municipal Journal 143

"Municipal Parliament" 701

National Congress of City Plan-
ning 141

Railway Act 476

Canada, Taxation in 739

Canton Charter Commission 474

Graft in 445

Capes, W. P 703

INDEX

Carr, John Foster 567

Guida degli Stati Uniti per I'lm-

migrantc Italiano 363

Catherwood, Robert 326, 742

Censorship of Moving Picture Films 332
Central Park Creators to be Honored 490
Central vs. Local Control of Public

Utilities * 687

Centralization in City Purchasing.

Robert Livingston Schuyler .... 251

Century, The 718

Cerf , Myrtile, Bureaus of Public Effi-
ciency 39

Chamber of Commerce of the United

States 714

Charter, The Boston City. George

R. Nutter 583

Defeats 680

Making From A Socialist Point of
View, The Vital Points in. Carl

D. Thompson 416

Making in Ohio ■ 472

Chicago 45

Aldermanic Subway Committee

Expresses Itself 127

Art Institute 306

Association of Commerce, Com-
mittee on Down Town Streets of

the 741

Bureau of Public Efficiency 50

Reports of 340

Bureau of Streets, Report on
Appropriations and Expendi-
tures for the 349

Citizens Association, Report of

the 173

City Club, Annual Report of 173

Housing Exhibition 497

City Improvements in 306

Planning Competition 305

Civic Improvement in 489

Civil Service Commission 39

Report of 343

the Efficiency Division 742

Civilian Deputy 299

Commons 454

Comprehensive System of Passen-
ger Subways for the City of. Re-
port of 172

Financial Difficulty 690

Firearms and Deadly Weapons in . . 152
Graft in 441

Chicago, Lakeshore Reclamation

Committee 306

Marshall Field's Private Subway

in 693

Municipal Pensions in 261

Voters' League 665, 667

New Bureau of Fire Prevention

and Public Safety. 334

Community Center in 718

Police Ordinance 335

Noise Ordinance 519

Police Report 483

Primary Election Expenses in.

Harold L. Ickes 657

Record Herald 10

Reference Library 716

School of Civics and Philanthropy

Housing Bibliography 741

Houses as Polling Plao°s 454

Social Center for Colored People 718

Speed Regulations in 331

Standard Lamp Posts in 335

Street Improvements in ' 741

Railway Settlement Ordi-
nances 375, 382

Suburb, Village Manager for 679

Telephone Company, Report on

the Investigation of the 171

Rates 295

Traffic Regulations 330

Vice Commission, Report of 521

Voters' Leagues. Frank H. Scott . 664

Weeds' in 518

Weight of Bread in 527

Child Labor in City Streets. Edward

N. Clopper 364

Childs, Richard S 187, 770

Constructive Suggestions for De-
signing County Government Sup. 4
The Theory of the New Controlled

Executive Plan 76

Churchill, Winston 122

Cincinnati 317, 681

Annual Message of Mayor of ... . 350
Bureau of Municipal Research 51, 252

Chamber of Commerce 317

Charter Campaign in 628

City Club 252

Planning Commission 306

Purchasing in 252

Commercial Association 317

INDEX

Cincinnati, Municipal Editor. . . 318, 716

Exhibit 144

Noise Ordinance 520

Rapid Transit Commission 623

Smoke Abatement in 306

Crusade 487

Street Railway Company 619

Traction Company 618

Problem, Elliott Hunt Pen-
dleton 617

University of 652

City and County 728

for the People. Frank Parsons ... 194

Improvements 305

Improvement Items 488

Manager Plan 76, 116, 472

of Government for Dayton. L.

D. Upson 639

Milk Trade 735

Plan for Dallas. A 160

Planning, Canadian 307

Planning and Improvement . 131, 304,

485, 696
Commission Government and.

Ernest S. Bradford Sup. 25

Competition, Chicago City

Club's 305

Housing and 740

National Conference on. . . 132, 305,

490, 49G, 740
Proceedings of the First Nation-
al Conference on 190

Reports 172

Recent 79, 160

Study in 132

Transportation in 497

Purchasing, Centralization in.
Robert Livingston Schuyler .... 251
Efficiency in. W. Richmond

Smith 239

Smoke Ordinances and Smoke

Abatement 151

in the United States 745

vs. County Local Option 528

Civic Associations and Educational

Institutions, Reports of 744

Surveys 349

Civics for Americans in the Making.

Anna A. Plass 364

Civil Service Law, The Need of an
Adequate. Elliott H. Goodwin

Sup. 9

Civil Service Legislation 721

Notes 683

Reform 752

Clark, A.J 134

Clark, Henry A 285

Clean Towns in Texas 7I9

Cleland, Ethel 154, 730

Cleveland 49, 627

Central He.iting Plant 464

Centralizes Social and Philanthrop-
ic Agencies 322

Chamber of Commerce, Report of 172

Charter 680

Commission 466, 472

Supreme Court Upholds 678

Civic League 317, 474, 513, 721

Civil Service in 683

Commission, Report of 345

Election 118

Cleveland, Frederick A. Organized
Democracy: An Introduction to

American Politics 773

Cleveland, Graft in 444

Cleveland, H. Burdett. Practical

Methods of Sewage Disposal . . 187

Cleveland, Housing Ordinance 517

Manufacturers Appraisal Co. of . . . 63,

145, 230

Milk Supply in 510

Municipal Association 285, 315,

346, 350, 670

Bulletin 669

Dairy 303

Dance Halls 464

Light Plant 464

Reference Library 651

University 143

Newton D. Baker's Administra-
tion as Mayor and Its Accom-
plishments. E. C. Hopwood... . 461

Noise Ordinance 520

Plain Dealer , 466

Playground Work in 464

Public Utilities in 686

Sliding Scale System 32

Speed Regulations in 332

Street Railways 746

Settlement 375, 383

Urges Official Municipal Lobby at

State Capitol 309

Clinton, Iowa., Graft in 443

6

INDEX

Clopper, Edward N. Child Labor

in City Streets 364

Cohen. Julius Henry 719

Coit, Henry L 735

College de France, Paris 275

Cologne Exposition 711

Collier, John 144

Social Centers . . : 455

Colorado, Home Rule Provisions in 116

Liquor License Legislation in 631

Springs, A General Plan for the

Improvement of 160

Cohniibia University 48

Politics Laboratory 54

School of Journalism 653

Columbus, Charter Commission .... 474

Ohio, Firearms in 152

Garbage in 154

Graft in 444

Ohio. Housing in 149

Housing Code 517

Ohio, Protection of Trees in 158

Traffic Regulations in 155

Uniform Sidewalks 526

Wire Code 526

Combe. R.G.Nicholson. The Law of

Light 369

Commercial Organizations, The

Training of Secretaries for .... 713
Commission Charters, Amending. . . 336

Form of Government 1

The Socialists and the 132

Socialist Party Committee on the 423
Governed Cities, Initiative, Ref-
erendum and Recall in 196

The Public Library in, Alice S.

Tyler 255

Government 679

Arizona 288

Denver 116

Duluth 288

Hoboken 117

.Jersey City 117

Kansas 285

Mississippi 117, 3.36

Missouri 285, 470

Michigan 288

New York 471

North Dakota 285

Ogden, Utah 286

Ohio 285, 471

Oklahoma 288

Commission Government, Oregon. . . 288

Pennsylvania 285, 471, 679

Phoenix, Ariz 116

Portland, Ore 118, 471

Repeal of 682

Revere, Mass 117

Saginaw, Mich 117

Salem, Mass 116

San Jose, Cal 116

Santa Monica 116

Spokane 118

Tennessee 285

Texas , 118, 285

Utah 286, 471

Allied Civic Bodies on 679

and City Planning. Ernest S^

Bradford Sup. 25

and the Constitution 733

Attempted Repeal of 682

Bill, Indiana 470

in American Cities, Ernest S.

Bradford 196

for Cities: Election to Specific
Office vs. Election at Random.

Lewis Jerome Johnson 661

for Large Cities, Wm. B. Munro

Sup. 2

IVIovement 116, 284, 470

Commissioners of Taxes and Assess-
ments, Report of the 605

Committee of Fifty 629, 638

Comparative Statistics, Cities of

Ohio 533

Conditions of Vice and Crime in New
York and the Relations to these
of the Police Force of the City.

George Haven Putnam 408

Conferences and Associations . 135, 310,

494, 700
Conference of Mayors and other City
Officials of New York, Fourth

Annual 702

on Infant Welfare 716

Weights and Measures. The

Eighth Annual 701

Conley, Kerry 285

Connecticut Housing Legislation . . . 517

Mayors' Association 316

Municipal Ice Houses 724

Conservation of the Child. Arthur

Holmes 768

Constitutional Amendments 327

INDEX

Constructive Housing Reform. Carol

Aronovici 210

Suggestions for Designing Court
Government. Richard S. Childs

Sup. 4
Contractors and Public OflScials . . . 303
Controlled-Executive Plan The
Theory of the. Richard S.

Childs 76

Cook County, 111., Better Accounting

system for 126

Progressive Committee 660

Cooke, Morris L 695

Cooke, Robert Grier 706

Cooley, Harris R 143

Cooperation in New England. James

Ford 771

and Marketing 351

Cornell's New Course in Social and

Civic Questions 506

Council Meeting of the National

Municipal League 559

Members of Sup. 2

County Administration 349

City and 728

Government, Constructive Sug-
gestions for Designing. Richard

S. Childs Sup. 4

Home Government. Leslie R.

Hewitt Sup. 2

Rule. Percy V. Long Sup. 6

Officers, Reports of 172

Courts, the Constitution and Par-
ties. Andrew C. McLaughlin . . 773

Crane, C. A 303

Crane, Mrs. Caroline Bartlett. . . Sup. 9

Crawford, Andrew Wright 496

Creating Residential and Industrial

Zones '. 520

Crecraft, Earl W. The Municipal

Reference Library 644

Crichton, J. E 113

Croker, Edward F. Fire Prevention . 368

Cromwell, George 614

Cropsey, J. C 280

Cross, Ira B. Socialism in California

Municipalities Sup. 31

Cuban Municipal Elections 493

Cunningham, A. J 331

Cunningham, Jesse 147

Curran Committee 402

Cutting, R. Fulton 48

Cuyahoga County, Report of In-
vestigation of Coroner's Office. . 350

Dallas, A City Plan for 160

Improves University Grounds .... 698

Darke County, Ohio, Graft in 445

Davenport, Iowa, City Improve-
ment in 306

Dayton Bureau of Municipal Re-
search 643, 144

Report on Appropriations 542

Charter 680

Campaign 474

Franchise Grants under 687

The City-Manger Plan of Govern-
ment for. L. D. Upson 639^

Civil Service in 683

Commission movement 118

Graft in 444

Dean, Arthur D. Law and Practice

of Town Planning 562

De Facto Officer 156

de Forest, Robert W 313, 516

Dekins, Scott R 326

Delaware Franchise Tax Act 159'

Democracy in Municipalities, The

March of. C. F. Taylor 194

Municipal Government 416

Denison, Elsa. Helping School

Children 767

Denver 662, 663

"City of" 145

Civic Improvement in 488

Civil Service Legislation 723

Commission Government in 116

Election 286

Graft in 444

Light Ordinance, Veto of 302

Morals Commission 146

"Municipal Facts" 145

Orchestra 144

School Houses as Polling Places . 453

Dermitt, H. Marie 698

Women and Local Government in

the United Kingdom 81

de Roode, Albert 326

Des Moines, Dance Halls in 156

Gas Fight 127

Graft in 443

Plan 196

Water Works 302

Detroit Graft Prosecutions .309

8

INDEX

Des Moines Iowa, Municipal Elec-
tions in. James R. Hanna 653

Detroit, Charter Conventions 117

City Plan and Improvement Com-
mission 306

Continuous House Cleaning in. . . 490
Department of Parks and Boule-
vards, Twenty-third Annual Re-
port of the 743

Graft in : 443

Health League 490

Housing Ordinance 517

Municipal Ownership in 477

Speed Regulations in 332

Devoting the Whole of One's Time

to a City Office 337

De Wolf. Tensard 713

Dictagraph Again 338

Direct Legislation 419

District of Columbia, Assessment

and Taxation of Real Estate in . . 536

Report on 169

and the Bruere-Mitchell Proposal . 479

Dodge, James Mapes 493

Dogs, Ordinances Regulating 155

Dougherty, J. Hampden 119, 597

Dowling, E. P 309

Dresden Allotment Gardens 489

A Municipal Newspaper in 319

Dresdener Anzeiger 319

Drinking Cup, Common, and the

Common Towel 333

DriscoU, Clement J. The New

York Police Investigation 279

The New York Police Situation. . . 401
Daluth, Minn., Commission Govern-
ment in 288

Housing Code 517

Minn., New Charter 117.

Dumond, Louis A 741

Duncan, Robert Kennedy. Some
Chemical Problems of Todaj^ . . . 370

Dunlop, George H 482, 506, Sup. 21

Dunn, Arthur W 766

Dunne, Edward F 658

Dupont, A. B 265

Diisseldorf 711

Academj- of ]\Iunicipal Adminis-
tration 502

Dutch Bureau of Social Advic e 512

East SI. Louis, Graft in 444

East Side Levee and Sanitary Dis-
trict 347

Edinburgh Tramways Committee. . . 128

Edmonds, Franklin Spencer 145

Edson, Mrs. Charles Farwell. . . Sup. 21
The Actual Operation of Woman
Suffrage in Pacific Coast Cities

Sup. 31

Educational and Academic 143, 318,

500, 707

Review 95

Efficiency. See Simplicitj^ and Pub-
licity .

Bureau in San Francisco 156

Division, Chicago Civil Service

Commission, Report of 542

in City Purchasing. W. Richmond

Smith 239

Municipal Government 416

Election at Random, Reasons for. . . 662
to Specific Office vs. Election at
Random, Commission Govern-
ment for Cities. Lewis Jerome

Johnson 661

Electoral Reform 122, 483

in Pennsylvania 304, 483

Philadelphia 122

Ohio 122

Massachusetts 122

Minnesota 122

Elimination of the Party Boss in
California Cities. Chester H.

Rowell Sup. 28

Elkhart, Ind., Graft in 445

Elliott, Edward C 457

Elyria, Ohio, City Manager Plan in. . 472
Emerson, Guj^ C. Scientific Man-
agement in the Public Works of

Cities 571

Engineering News 200

Record 663

England's Housing Problem not

Solved 485

England Imperial and Local Taxa-
tion in 484

Telephone Ownership in 477

English Boi'ough Elections, Recent.

Herman G. James 270

Qualification of Women Act 83

Equity Series 194, 417

INDEX

Erie, Pa., City Planning Commis-
sion 306

Eshelman, John M. State vs. Mu-
nicipal Regulation of Public

Utilities Sup. 21

Essays on Taxation. Edwin R. A.

Seligman 772

Essentials of Municipal Government 418
Essex Co., N. J. Mosquito reduction

Campaign 320

Evans, Dr. W. A 717

Evanston, 111., Graft in 445

Excess Condemnation. Robert S.

Binkerd Sup. 23

and the Constitution 528

Report of Committee on Sup. 23

Executive Committee, Report of . Sup. 1
"Expert City Management." Wm.
D. Foulke Sup. 1

"Factors of Value of New Buildings
and Explanation of Land Value

Maps" 170

Fairchild, Henry Pratt 764

Fairlie, John A. 160, 340, 362, 531, 734
Farbar, Jerome H. The Houston

Chamber of Commerce 104

Fargo Declared Dividends, How. . . . 300

Fassett, CM 113

Federal Government as a Potential
Contributor to Municipal Ad-
vancement. Frank A. WolfT. .Sup. 2

Sup. 33

Fesler, Mayo 315, 326, 474, 679

Fifth Avenue Association of New

York City 705

Finances, New York City. Wm. A.

Prendergast 221

Financial Reports 741

Statistics of Cities, 1910 533

Finley, John H 719

Firearms, Columbus, Ohio 152

and Deadly Weapons in Chicago. . 152
Fire Prevention. Edward F. Croker 368
and Public Safety, Chicago's New

Bureau of 334

Peter J. McKeon 563

Fisher, Walter L 137

Fitzgerald, John A 583

Flagg, Samuel B 745

Flies and Mosquitos as Carriers of
Disease. William Paul Gerhard 769

Flint, Mich., Equal Suffrage Asso-
ciation 304

Florida, Liquor License Legislation

in 630

Foley, George C 367

Folwell, A. Prescott 138

Forbes, Elmer S 313

Ford, Frederick L 164

Ford, George B 489

Ford, Henrj' Jones 325

Ford, James 740

Cooperation in New England 771

Ford, J. F 476

Fort Waj'ne Commercial Club 4

Fort Worth, City Purchasing m 253

Fosdick, Raymond B. A Report on
the Investigation of Billboard
Advertising in the City of New

York 167

Foulke, William Dudley Sup. 1,

Sup. 25

Foundations of Freedom 566

Fox, Dixon Ryan. Voters' Leagues

and Their Critical Work 664

Foxy Government, or Fallacies of

the Des Moines Plan. P.H.Ryan 770

France, C. J 309

Franchises 194

Frankel, Lee K 313

Franklin, Benjamin 66

Freeman, William Coleman 304

Fresno, Party Bosses in Sup. 28

Friebolin, Carl D 315

Frost, J. E 112

Frothingham, E. V 607, 608

Fuld, Leonhard Felix 127, 146, 168,

281, 300, 484, 693

Fuller, A. M 679

Fuller, George W. Sewage Disposal 187
Functions 123, 289, 475, 685

Galveston 195

plan 196

Garbage in Columbus, Ohio 154

Garland, B. Frank 144

Gary, Ind., Graft in 443

Gas and Electric Companies, Re-
turns to 478

Cost of 297

Gaynor, William J 402

Geary Street Municipal Railway 294

Geiser, Karl F 365, 768

10

INDEX

Gemiinder, Martin A 474, o69

General Municipal Reference Bureau 143
Plan for the Improvement of Col-
orado Springs 160

George, Henry 66

George, Henry, Jr 536

Georgia, Municipal Ice in 339

Gerhard, William Paul. Flies and

Mosquitos as Carriers of Disease 769

German Municipal Statistics 171

Gettemy, Charles F 533, 767

Ghent 310, 712

Gilbertson, H. S 118, 288, 472, 683

Gilder, Richard Watson 718

Girard Estate 312

Glasgow's Employees 146

Glasson, William H 363

Glen, Randolph A. Law and Prac-
tice of Town Planning 562

Glenn, John M 138

Goebel, Julius, Jr 740

Godfrey, Hollis P 695

Goldsborough, A. S 320

Goodnow, Frank J 3, 98, 514

Goodrich, E. P 489

Goodwin, Elliot H 714

The Need for an Adequate Civil

Service Law Sup. 9

Government and Administration. . . 116,

284, 470, 675

Bulletins 744

by Newspapers Sup. 28

of American Cities, William Ben-
nett Munro 361

of European Cities. William B.

Munro 446

Governors' Messages, 1913 328

Grade Crossings 158

Graft Prosecutions and Exposures for
the Past Year, Review of. C. R.

Atkinson 439

Atlanta 444

Atlantic City 442

Bayonne, N. J 117

Bloomington, 111 445

Bloomsburg, Pa 443

Canton, Ohio 445

Chicago 441

Cleveland 444

Clinton, Iowa 443

Columbus 444

Dayton 444

Graft Prosecutions and E.xposures

for the Past Year, Denver 444

Des Moines 443

Detroit 443

East St. Louis 444

Elkhart, Ind 445

Evanston, 111 445

Gary, Ind 443

Keokuk 445

Marinette, Wis 445

McComb, 111 445

Milwaukee 443

Montgomery, Ala 445

Muncie, Ind 445

New York City _ 439

Newport, Ky 445

Niagara Falls 445

Philadelphia 442

Providence 444

San Francisco 444

Seattle 444

St. Louis 444

West Hammond 443

West Seneca, N. Y 445

Grand Rapids Junior Association of

Commerce 317

Polling Places in the Schools.... 453
Grand Junction, Preferential Voting

in 116

Gray, Prof. John H 294

Gray. R. S 729

Great Lakes International Pure

Water Association, Meeting of. 139
Greater Portland Plans Associa-
tion 320

Greenwich Progressive Club 318

Griffin, Walter Burley 137

Gross, Murray. 116, 284, 362, 470, 675, 691
Guida degli Stati Uniti per I'lmmi-
grante Italiano. John Foster

Can- 363

Gulick, Luther Halsey. Medical

Inspection of Schools 564

Gunn, Selskar M 138

Guthrie, Edwin Ray 564

Guthrie, George W 720

Haff, D. J 134

Hagerstown, Md., New Milk Ordi-
nance for 716

Haines, Charles G 515

Pacific Northwest Municipalities 111

INDEX

11

Hale, William B 742

Hall, E. M., Jr 513

Hamilton, John J 493

Hamilton, William B 710, 714

Hammitt, J. 0 597

Hampstead Garden Suburb 698

Handbook for Highway Engineers.

Wilson G. Harger and Edmund

A. Bonney 190

Hanna, James R 156

Municipal Elections in Des

Moines, Iowa 653

Hanson, Ber 282

Hanson, E. B Sup. 1

Hanus, Paul H 88, 94

Hapgood, Norman 515

Harger, Wilson G. Handbook for

Highway Engineers 190

Harriman, Mrs. E. H 365

Harris, Henry J 505

Harris, Percy A. London and its

Government 774

Harris, R. W 622

Harrison, Carter H 659

Harrison, Shelby M 132

Hart, Albert Bushnell Sup. 1

Sup. 21, Sup. 26

The Boss' Day in Court Sup. 28

Hart, Hornell 515

Hartford, A Plan of the City of . . . . 160

Hasse, Miss Adelaide R 174, 353,

543, 747

Hastings, Dr. Charles J > 312

Hatton, Augustus Raymond . . . . 118, 514

Sup. 7, Sup. 21

Havana, Public Utilities in 689

Harvard School of Landscape Archi-

tec ure 489

University 8, 713

Bureau for Research in Munici-
pal Government 433

Haverhill Charter Amendment 288

Havre, France, Bureau of Charity . . 719
Hayes, Carlton. Britjsh Social

Politics 774

Haynes, James C 350, Sup. 32

Haynes, John R Sup. 32

Actual Operation of the Initiative,

Referendum and Recall. . . . Sup. 28
Health Board Expenditures, Func-
tional Classification of 207

Handbook for Colored People .... 717

Health Problem, The Municipal.

M. N. Baker 200

Heeter, S. L 712

Hegemann, Dr. Werner 513

Helping School Children: Sugges-
tions for Efficient Cooperation
with the Public Schools. Elsa

Denison 767

Henderson, Ky., Smoke Nuisance in 157

Hering, Rudolph 138

Hewitt, Leslie R. County Home

Government Sup. 2

Heydecker, Edward L 347, 719, 726

Sup. 28

Municipal Finances Sup. 9

Hibben, Paxton 318

Hickory, N. C, City Manager Plan

in 472

High School Prize, National Munic-
ipal League's 715

Hoag, Clarence G 3, 417, 483

Hoboken, Commission Government

in 117

Hoke, Travis H 325

Holdsworth, J. T 349

Holland Magazine 719

Holmes, Arthur. The Conserva-
tion of the Child 768

Home Rule 197, 418

Conference, Utica 119

in California. Thomas H. Reed .Sup. 2

New York 119

Ohio 678

Taxation 170

for New Haven 474

Democratic Platform Plank on

Municipal 119

Progressive Platform Plank on

Municipal 119

Republican Platform Plank on

Municipal 119

Program in New York, Legislative
Interference in Municipal Affairs
and the. Lawrence Arnold

Tanzer 597

Honesty Plus Efficiency. Meyer

Lissner Sup. 9

Hoover, Charles L 307

Hopwood, E. C. Newton D. Baker's
Administration as Mayor of
Cleveland and Its Accomplish-
ments 461

12

INDEX

Horan, Hubert J., Jr 339

Hourwich, Isaac A. Immigration

and Labor "o~

Household Furniture, Tax on 61

Housing at the Los Angeles Confer-
ence. John Ihlder 68

Bibliography 741

and City Planning 740

Campaigns, Effective. John Ihl-
der Sup. 25

Legislation, Recent 516

Problems in America 190

Reform, Constructive. Carol

Aronovici 210

Houston 195

Chamber of Commerce. Jerome

H. Farbar 104

Clean Up Movement League .... 106
Texas, Frank Putnam's Report to

the City of 297

The Recent Overturn in 491

Howe, Frederick C 98, 144, 409

Howland, Charles P 88

Howland, William B 719

Hoyem, Oliver. Adult Education

in New York City 671

Hudson County, Citizens' Federa-
tion of 350

•N. J., Investigation into the

Affairs of 350

Hull House 454

Hull, Reginald Mott . 122, 325, 563, 719

Hunt, Henry T 315, 617

Hunt, Jarvis 489

Hutchins, Frank A 515

Hutchinson, Woods 337

Hyde, Henry M 690

Ice for Cities, Municipal 339

Plants, Municipal 688

Ickes, Harold L. Primary Election

Expenses in Chicago 657

Ihlder, John 313, 487, 499, 506, 517

Effective Housing Campaigns Sup. 25
Housing at the Los Angeles Con-
ference 68

Illinois Central Railway 306

Liquor Licenses in 631

Municipal Ownership Legislation

in 724

Regulation of Public Utilities in. 296

Illinois Tax Commission, Report of

the 170

Facts for 170

University of 652, 720

Votes on Public Policy Questions. 121
Water Supply Association, Pro-
ceedings of the f^ifth Meeting of

the 743

Immigrant Invasion, The. Frank

Julian Warne 757

Immigration and Labor. Isaac A.

Hourwich 757

Imperial and Local Taxation in Eng-
land , 484

Independent 90, 91

Indiana Business Plan 4, 284

Commission Government Bill .... 470

Federated Commercial Clubs 284

Housing Legislation 517

Legislative Reference Department 508

Liquor Licenses in 631

Municipal League, Twenty-third

Annual Convention 704

State Housing Law 312

Indianapolis 317

Chamber of Commerce 317

Commercial Club 317

Water Company 476

Weeds in 518

Indicting a City 157

Industrial Education 153

Initiative. See Referendum and
Recall.*

Initiative and Referendum 566

St. Louis 121, 526

Limitation on the 527

Referendum and Recall. W. B.

Munro 7

Actual Operation of Sup. 28

in Commission Governed cities. . 196
San Francisco. E. A. Walcott 467

Use of the 157

Instruction in Municipal Gov-
ernment io the Universities and
Colleges of the United States.

William Bennett Munro 427

Interborough Rapid Transit Com-
pany 380

Intercollegiate Civic League 48

International Association for the

Prevention of Smoke, Meeting of 141
Civic Bureau European Tour 147

INDEX

13

International Committee for the
Scientific Study of the Alcohol

Question. John Koren 275

American Section of 279

Congress on Hygiene and Demog-
raphy, Fifth 135

School Hygiene 499

Milk Dealers'Association 321

Municipal League 135

Investigation of the Chicago Tele-
phone Co., Report on the 171

Billboard Advertising in the City
of New York, A Report on the.

Raymond B. Fosdick 167

Sheriff's Office of Cuyahoga

County, Report of 172

Iowa Applied History Series 352

Commission Law, Changes in the 682

Library Commission 259

Municipal Ownership Legislation in 724

Rates 478

State Historical Society 352

Jackson, Miss., Commission Govern-
ment Record 542

Jaffa, M.E 704

James, Miss Harlean 136, 705

James, Herman G 142, 147, 298,

492, 515, 689, 711, 714
Recent English Borough Elections 270
Recent Interesting Developments

in Berlin 445

Jenks, Robert D 326

Jerome, Edward S 487

Jersey City, City Planning in 489

Plan Commission, Report of.... 740

Comniission Government in 117

Smoke Nuisance in 337

Jephson, A. W. Municipal Work
from a Christian Standpoint. . . . 366

Johnson, Amandus 372

Johnson, Lewis Jerome 288

Commission Government for
Cities: Election to Specific
Office vs. Election at Random . . 661

Johnson, Robert Underwood 718

Johnson, Tom L 49, 461

Johnston, Mrs. Melville F 147, 326

Joint Committee on the Selection
and Retention of Experts in Mu-
nicipal Office Sup. 9

Report of 8, 742

Jones, Chester Lloyd. Statute Law

Making in the United States .... 565
Joplin, Mo., City Improvement in. . 306

Commercial Club 306

Jordan, Frank C 476

Journal of Criminologj^ '. . 146

Social and Civic Chicago 320

Judicial Decisions. . . . 156, 336, 527, 732

Kaiser, John B 349

Kansas, Commission Government

in 285

Law, Changes in 682

Municipal Ownership Legislation

in 724

Municipalities, Proceedings of

Convention of 350

University of 651

Municipal Reference Bureau of . 53

City, Mo., City Club 31

Civil Service Commission 31

Report of 345

Housing Code 517

Municipal Reference Library . . . 648

Parks and Politics 134

Star 134

Kenny, Thomas J 589

Kentucky, Liquor Licenses 633

Kenyon, Robert E 325

Keokuk, Iowa, Graft in 445

Kessler, George E 497, 698

Kettleborough, Charles 149

Keyes, George T 684, 723

Kidder, Camillus G 322

King, Clyde L Ill, 124, 142, 147,

294, 316, 326, 351, 478, 566, 687, 690
The Regulation of Municipal

Utilities 184

Koren, John. The International
Committee for the Scientific
Study of the Alcohol Question. . 275
The Status of Liquor License

Legislation 629

Koshland, Adolph Sup. 20

Lapp, John A 148, 327, 516, 721

Landscape Gardening Studies.
Samuel Parsons 191

Law and Practice of Town Planning.
Randolph A. Glen and Arthur
D. Dean 562

Lawrence, E. F 112

14

INDEX

League of American Municipalities,

Annual inoetinp; of the 702

Sixteenth annual meeting of . . . . 13S

California Municipalities 114

Fifteenth animal convention of. 140
Iowa Municipalities, Annual

meeting of 140

Kansas Municipalities, Fourth

Annual meeting of 141

Missouri Municipalities, Meeting

of 316

Third Class Cities of Pennsylva-
nia, Meeting of 140

Virginia Municipalities, Seventh

Annual Convention of 139

Wisconsin Municipalities 53

Pacific Northwest Municipalities,

Walla Walla meeting of Ill

Nebraska Municipalities of 475

Pacific Northwest Municipalities 112

Proceedings of 351

Leavitt, G. Howland 613

Lederle, Ernest J 509

Leeds, England, Trackless Trams

in 128

Legislation and Judicial Decisions,

Department of . . . 148, 327, 516, 721
Legislative Interference in Munici-
pal Affairs and the Home Rule
Program in New York. Laurence

Arnold Tanzer 597

Reference 730

Leipziger, Henry M 671, 745

Lewis, Homer P 451

Lewisohn, Sam A 120

"Lexington, City of" 508

Lighthall, W. D 135

Lincoln Memorial 304

Commission 304

"Road" 304

Lindholm, S. G 349

Liquor-License Legislation, The

Status of. John Koren 629

Traffic, A Suggestion for the

Improvement of the 321

in Municipal Affairs 637

Lisle, John 370

Lissner, Meyer . . . 715, Sup. 20, Sup. 21

Honesty Plus Efficiency Sup. 9

Livcri)ool Municipal Street Railways 128

Lobinger, Mrs. Andrew C Sup. 9,

' Sup. 26

Local Government in the United
Kingdon, Women and. H.

Marie Dermitt 81

vs. State Regulation of Municipal

Utilities 296

Lockport, N. Y 639

Loeb, Herman 254

London and Its Government. Percy

A. Harris 774

Borough Elections 273

County Council 82-83, 274, 493

Municipal Journal 274, 310, 337, 484,

684, 712

Post 272, 273

Reform Union 273

Town Planning Congress 310

University of 698

Long, Percy V Sup. 6, Sup. 20

Los Angeles 4, Sup. 26

Board of Freeholders 24

Public Utilities 24

Charter 287

Amendments ." 472

Discussion of Sup. 32

City Club 453

City Improvements in .306

Civic Exhibit Sup. 1

Civil Service Department, Tenth

Annual Report of the 742

Conference, Housing at the. John

Ihlder 68

Examiner 71

Express 70

Housing Commission 69

Meeting of the National Municipal

League .... 1, 11, 111, 200, Sup. 1
Municipal Cement Production. . . . 303

Election 700

News 9, 506, Sup. 21

Party bosses in Sup. 29

People's Charter Conference . 287, 424
Proportional Representation in . . . 482

Public Utilities in 11, 24

Report of the City Auditor of 742

School Gardening Shows Inter-
esting Development 307

Taxing Weeds in 154

Tenements 71

Louisiana Amendments 120

Liquor Licenses in 631

Louisville, Ky., City Planning in. . . 306

INDEX

15

Louisville, Ky., Housing in 517

Noise Ordinance 520

Low, Seth 281, 629, 668

Lowrie, S. G 326, 652

Lynn, Donald Justin 325

Macfarland, Henry B. F 1 37

MacGregor, Ford H 472

Madison, Wis., School Houses as

Polling Plac,es 453

Madrid, City Improvement 307

Magee, W. A "132

Magilton, John J 302

Mahaffie, CD 530, 734

Majority Rule and the Judiciary.

William L. Ransom 189

Making Cities Pay for Improve-
ments 338

"Making of a Municipal Platform."

W. L. Ransom 699

Maltbie, Milo R 497

Manchester, England, Vacuum

Street Cleaner 490

Manhattan Recreation Census 512

Railway 380

Manufacturers Appraisal Company

of Cleveland : . . . 63, 145, 230

Manufactured Goods, Tax on 59

March of Democracy in Municipal-
ities. C. F. Taylor 194

Marinette, Wis., Graft in 445

Marks, William D 127, 294, 475

Marshall Field's Private Subway in

Chicago 693

Martin, John. School Progress in

New York City 392

Maryland, Liquor Licenses in 633

Public Service Commission, Re-
port of 340

Mason, Edward F. Municipal Pen-
sions 260

Mason, H. A Ill, Sup. 20

The Work of the League of Califor-
nia Municipalities Sup. 28

Massachusetts Activity 288

Board of Railroad Commissioners, .
Index Digest of Decisions of . . . . 340

43rd Annual Report of 340

Bureau of Statistics 531

Civic League Advocating Sunday

Play 512

Fighting the "Three Decker". 511

Massachusetts Civic League, Report

of 351

Civil Service Commission 589

Electoral Reform in 122

Housing Legislation 517

Liquor Licenses in 632

Metropolitan Planning Commis-
sion, Report of the 172

Municipal Debts in 531

Mathews, J. M 342

Mathews, Nathan 584

Mathewson, Albert McClellan ...... 475

Mayors' Messages 350

McAdoo, William 280

McAneny, George 80, 454, 514

McCan, Mrs. D. C 326

McClellan, George B 281

McComb, Davis E 540

McComb, 111., Graft in 445

McCulloch, James E. The Call of

the New South 371

McFarland, J. Horace. . . . 167, 191, 368,

541, 770

McGowan, Patrick F 54

McGrath, Stephen W 252

McKeon, Peter J. Fire Prevention. 563
McLaughlin, Andrew C. The Courts,

The Constitution and Parties. . 773
Medical Inspection of Schools. Lu-
ther Halsey Gulick and Leonard

P. Ayres 564

Record 321

Meetings of Civic and Municipal

Interest, Autumn 139

Melbourne, Australia, Municipal

Ownership in 477

Municipal Tramways Trust 477

"MemphisCommissionGovernment' ' 144

Public Utilities 296

Telephones 129

Merriam, Charles E 326, 515, 658

Merriam Commission 50

Method of Collecting Taxes, in

New York and Buffalo 302

MetzFund 50

Michigan Civil Service Legislation. . 722

Commission Government in 288

Constitutional Amendment . . 121, 475

Liquor Licenses in 631

Milk Industry, Conference on State

Control of the 313

Ordinances 509

16

INDEX

Milk Ordinances, Hagerstown, Md. . 716

Philadelphia 716

Question. M. J. Roscnau 188

Standards 717

Commission on 717

"Supply in My City" 319

Trade, The City 735

Miller. Rudolph P. 127, 369

Milwaukee 43

Adult Education in 673

Board of Civil Service Commis-
sioners, Seventeenth Annual

Report of the 742

Bureau of Economy and Efficiency

39, 52

Reestablished 301

Bureau of Municipal Research. . . . 453

City Club 304

Graft in 443

Merit System in 304

Milk Supply in 510

Municipal Reference Library 647

Noise Ordinance 520

Saloon Ordinance 526

School Houses as Polling Places . . . 453
Minneapolis, Annual Message of

Mayor of 350

Charter 675

Civic and Commerce Association

675, 722

Report of 351

Civil Service in 683

Legislation 722

Fixes Seventy Cent Gas Rate 690

Gas Ordinance 375

Morals Commission 521

Municipal pensions in 261

Voters' League 666

Minnesota, City Manager Plan in. . 285,

470
Control of Municipal Utilities in. 475

Liquor Licenses in 631

Municipal Ownership Legislation

in 724

Report on Cost of Government in. . 542

Residence Districts in 731

Tax Commission, Report of the. . . 739
Mintz, Frances S. The New Ameri-
can Citizen: A Reader for For-
eigners 772

Mississippi, Commission Govern-
ment in 117, 336

Missouri, Liquor Licenses in 632

Commission Government in. . 285, 470

Law 683

Electoral Reform in 483

Liquor Licenses in 633

Public Service Commission Law . 475

Social Welfare Board 730

Mitchell, John Purroy 90, 94

Modern Philanthropy. William H.

Allen 365

Montague, Richard W. . . . 148, 327, 516,

721

Montana, Liquor Licenses in 631

Montclair 320, 735

N. J., Board of Health 200

Montgomery, Ala., Graft in 445

Montreal's Child Welfare Commis-
sion 145

Moore, Prof. E. C 88, 91, 96

Moore Report 96

Controversy over 88, 93

Rejection of 97

Morganton, N. C, City Manager

Plan in 472

Morrow, E. S 301

Moss, Frank 281, 282

Mote, Carl Henry "25

Motion Picture 731

Motor Omnibuses, London 128

Vehicles, Speed Regulations f or . . . 331
Moving Picture Films, Censorship

of 332

Muncie, Ind., Graft in 445

Municipal Accounts, State Super-
vision of 522

Advancement, The Federal Gov-
ernment as a Potential Con-
tributor to. Frank A. Wolff

Sup. 2, Sup. 33

Advertising in Washington 731

Affairs, Simplicity, Publicity
and Efficiency in. Clinton

Rogers Woodruff 1

Appropriations 542

Asphalt Plant 540

Budget as a Community Program

Sup. 13

Cemetery 307

Charities in Philadelphia 742

Civil Service Commissions, Re-
ports of 342

Editor, Cincinnati 318, 716

INDEX

17

Municipal Elections in Des Moines,

Iowa. James R. Hanna 653

Empowering Act, New York 603

Finances. Edward L. Heydecker

Sup. 9
Government Association of New

York State 119, 597

Colleges Giving Courses in 435

in the Universities and Colleges
of the United States, In-
struction in. William Bennett

Munro 427

Health and Sanitation, National
Municipal League Committee

on 200

Problem. M. X. Baker. 200, Sup. 9

Journal 158

League in Oregon 704

Newspaper in Dresden 319

Operation of Coal Lands 130

Ownership 476

Contests in Omaha, Neb 690

Legislation 723

Pensions. Edward F. Mason 260

Platform, The Progressive 699

Program of National Municipal

League 3

Committee, New 289

Reference Bureau, A General 153

University of Kansas •. . . . 301

Library, Earl W. Crecraft 644

Libraries, Report of Committee

on 653

Statistics 533

Surveys 541

Survey as University Graduate

Work ; 710

Taxation. Carl C. Plehn Sup. 9

Tenements for Widows 719

Tuberculin Dispensary, Ports-
mouth, England 321

University for Akron, Ohio 715

Utilities 294, 475, 685

Local vs. State Regulation of . . . 296
Work From a Christian Stand-
point. A. W. Jephson 366

Year Book of the United Kingdom

for 1913 567

"Municipality, The" 53, 508

Munro, William Bennett 190

Commission Government for
Large Cities Sup. 2

Munro, Government of American

Cities 361

European Cities 446

The Initiative, Referendum and

Recall 7

Instruction in Municipal Govern-
ment in the Universities and
Colleges of the United States 427

Munroe, James Phinney. New De-
mands in Education 764

Murdock, Charles A Sup. 1

Murphy, Henry C 597

"Nation's Business" •. 508

National Assembly of Civil Service

Commissions 684

Association for Preventing the Pol-
lution of Rivers and Water Ways,

Meeting of 139

of Local Government Officers,

Annual Meeting 142

Bureau of Labor 260

of Municipal and Social Service 210

Civic Federation 294

Pamphlets on Public Utility

Regulation 340

Civil Service Reform League. 683, 318
and National Municipal League,
Joint Committee on Selec-
tion and Retention of Experts

Sup. 9

Report of 742

Proceedings of the 742

Conference of Charities and Cor-
rections 719

on City Planning •. . . . 305, 307

Economic League 566

Housing Association 68, 312, 487, 516

Conference, Second 311

and Town Planning Council .... 485
Municipal League and National
Civil Service Reform League,
Joint Committee on Selec-
tion and Retention of Experts

I Sup. 9

Report of 742

the National ^Municipal Review.

James Bryce 193

Banquet Sup. 25

Committee on Instruction in Mu-
nicipal Government 427

the Liquor Problem . . 297, 629, 636

18

INDEX

National Committee on Municipal

Health and Sanitation 200

Reference Libraries and Ar-
chives 645

Report of 653

Nominations, Report of Sup. 1

Committee on State Municipal

Leagues. Ill

Eighteenth Annual Meeting of

the Sup. 1

Franchise Committee of 31

High School Prize 715

Los Angeles Meeting of. . 1, 11, HI,

200, Sup. 1

Model Charter 77

Prizes for 1913 319

Municipal Program of 3

Committee 289

Municipal Review, The National
Municipal League and the.

James Bryce 193

Society for the Promotion of

Industrial Education 319

Tax Association 738

Natural Taxation. Thomas G.

Shearman 58

Nebraska Home Rule Amendment 117, 121

Liquor Licenses in 63 1

Necessity for Securing Leave of

Absence 530

Need for an Adequate Civil Service

Law. Elliot H. Goodwin. . .Sup. 9

Negro Organization Society 717

Segregation 322

New Academj' of Municipal Ad-
ministration in Diisseldorf 501

American Citizen : A Reader for

Foreigners. Frances S. Mintz. . 772
City Government, The. Henry

Bruere 185

Demands in Education. James

PhinneyMunroe 764

New England Water Works Asso-
ciation, ^Ist Annual Meeting of. 139
New Hampshire, Liquor Licenses

in 632

Municipal Ownership Legislation 724
Public Service Commission, First

Biennial Report of 340

New Haven, Home Rule for 474

New Immigration. Peter Roberts. . . 362

New Jersey Board of Public Utilities,

Second Annual Report of 340

Civil Service in 684

Liquor License Laws in 631

Mayors' Association 316

Municipal Ownership Legislation

in 725

Tax Law 726

New Mexico, Home Rule in 285

New Orleans, La., Board of Civil
Service Commissioners, Annual

Report of the 742

Item 670

Milk Quarantine 510

Public Utilities : . . . . 685

New Sources of City Revenue, Re-
port of Commission on 539

New Standards for the Buying of

Street Lights 695

New York Civil Service Reform As-
sociation 261, 684

New York, Commission Government

in 471

Constitutional Amendments 285

County Progressive Service Or-
ganization 318

Electoral Reform in 483

Electrical Rates 294

Fourth Annual Conference of May-
ors and Other City Officials 702

Legislative Committee on Reme-
dial Police Legislation 408

Legislative Interference in Munic-
ipal Affairs and the Home Rule
Program in. Laurence Arnold

Tanzer •. . . 597

Liquor License Legislation in 630

Mayors and Other City Officials,
Proceedings of Conference of . . . . 350

Milk Committee 509

Short Ballot Organization 76, 77

State Civil Service Legislation — 723
Factory Investigating Commis-
sion 597

Library Bulletin 348

Uniform Accounting System for

New York Cities 302

City 77

Adult Education in. Oliver

Hoyem 671

Annual Message of Mayor of. . . 350
and Little Bryant Park 131

INDEX

19

New York, City Art Commission . . . 495

Report of 541

Billboard Situation 166

Board of Estimate and Appor-
tionment 88, 93

Building Code 79

Bureau of Municipal Research

39, 48, 95, 99, 280, 349, 402

Police Studies 283

Cab Situation. Courtlandt Nicoll 99

Citizens' Union of 309, 597, 667

Club 306, 668, 684

Civil Service Commission, Re-
port of the 344

Commissioners of Accounts.. .39, 52
Fortieth Annual Report of the

171, 741
Commission on Standardization, 239

Civic Improvement in 488

Conditions of Vice and Crime
in. George Haven Putnam. . . 408

Continuation School 145

Department of Taxes and As-
sessments, Annual Report of. 741
Fifth Avenue Association of.

The 705

Finances. William A. Prender-

gast 221

Freight Terminals 741

Graft in 439

Health Department 321

Health Department of 716

Promotion System 484

Investigation of Billboard Ad-
vertising, A Report on the.

Raymond B. Fosdick 167

Housing in 516

Metropolitan Sewerage Commis-
sion, Preliminary Reports of . 745
Municipal Government Associa-
tion 285, 471

Pensions in 262

Reference Library 649

Testing Laboratory 254

New Accounting System, Com-
pleting 125

Noise Ordinance 520

Orchestra 512

Police, Investigations of . . . .401, 408
Investigation of. Clement J.

DriscoU 279

Department, Annual Report of 299

New York, City Manual

Situation .

Clement J. DriscoU

Public Lectures in

Public Library, Bulletin of the.

Public Service Commission

of the First District of . . .321,
Second District . Fifth Annual

Report

Rapid Transit Settlement

Rejection of School Reports "For
Want of Facts" over Inquiry
Controversy. W. H. Allen. . .
Report on the Investigation of
Billboard Advertising in. Ray-
mond B. Fosdick

School Funds in

Houses as Polling Places

Inquiry

Lunches in

Progress in, John Martin

Reports, Rejection of. W. H.

Allen

Speed Regulations in

The Streets of. Frederick F.

Blachly

Street Cleaning Costs in

Subway Contracts. Delos F.

Wilcox

Sun on Commission Government.

Taxation in

• Times

Training School for Public Serv-
ice

Women's Municipal League

Year Book

New York University

Newark, City Planning in

Housing Report

Reports of Problems of Local Gov-
ernment in

Newman, Oliver P

Newport, Ky., Graft in

Newspapers, Government by. . . . Sup.

Niagara Falls, Graft in

Nichols, J. C

Nicoll, Courtlandt, The New York

Cab Situation

Nolen, John 147, 313, 326, 497,

Non-Partisan Fallacy

North, Dr. Charles E

Northampton, Charter of

692
135
401
745
348
375
340

340
377

93

167
485
454
88
511
392

93

331

605
481

375

470

170

93

50

351
605
489
741

541
719
445
28
445
137

99
698
421
321
265

20

INDEX

North Dakota, Commission Govern-
ment in 285

Municipal League, Meeting of 14:0

Municipal Ownership Legislation

in 724

North Jersey Mosquito Extermi-
nation League 320

Norwood, Mass., Town Manager .... 118
Notes and Events ..... 116, 284, 470, 675
Noxious Weeds 517

Oakland, Cal., Traffic Regulations

Oberlin Civic Club

Occupation tax

Octavia Hill Association 312,

Official Municipal Gazettes

Ogden, Henry N. Practical Methods

of Sewage Disposal

Ogden, Utah, Commission Govern-
ment in

Ohio Budget Legislation

Cities

Toledo Ujiique among

Civil Service Legislation

Commission Government in. ..285,

Constitutional Amendments

Continued Charter Activity in

Ohio

Electoral Reform in

Liquor Licenses in

Motion Picture Legislation

Movements

Municipal League, Annual Meet-
ing of

Ice in

Public Service Commission, Or-
ders issued by the

Refuse Disposal in

Supreme Court Decisions

Tax Legislation

Oklahoma, Commission Government

329

670

57

485
505

187

286
729
474
122
721
471
475

680
122
633

731

286

315
339

in

Corporation Commission, Fourth
Annual Report of the

Old Towns and New Needs: Also
the Town Extension Plan. Paul
Waterhouse and Raymond Un-
win

Olmsted, Frederick Law 306,

Olmsted, Memorial Committee

( )maha Charter

Civic Improvement in

340
170
473

727

288
340

561
496
306

682

488

96

704

773
322

Omaha Civic League 306

Gas Fight 127

Neb., Municipal Ownership Con-
test in 690

Ontario Town Planning and Civic

Improvement League 306

Oregon Amendments, Vote on 120

Commission Government in. .... . 288

Organization and Methods of the"
Board of Education and Func-
tions of Local Boards

for Civic Work, A Baltimore Plan

of

Organized Democracy: An Intro-
duction to American Politics.

Frederick A. Cleveland

Our Country and the Immigrant . . .

Ottawa, City Planning in 307

Overhanging Signs, Tax on 60

Pacific Coast Cities, Survey of 482

"Municipalities" 114

Northwest Municipalities. Charles

G. Haines Ill

Proceeding of League of 351

Paine, Robert Treat 31

Palmer, Clayton F 307

Panama Pacific International Exhi-
bition Sup. 20, Sup. 21

Pardee, John S 288

Pardee, William S 474

Paris, Civic Improvement in 488

Parks and Railways in Conflict 529

Park Reports 743

Parker, George A 137

Parker, Horatio N 738

Parsons, Frank. The City for the

People 194

Parsons, Samuel. Landscape Gar-
dening Studies 191

Pasadena City Farm Successful .... 129

Efficiency Department 52

Municipal Lighting Plant 688

Patterson, John H 144. 474

Pendleton, Elliott Hunt 720

Cincinnati's Traction Problems . . 617
Pennsylvania Adopts Party Enroll-
ment Measure 685

Chestnut Tree Blight Commission,

Bulletins of the 743

Commission Government in 285

471, 679

INDEX

21

Pennsylvania Electoral Reform in,

304,

Housing Conference

Liquor Licenses in

University of

Penrose, Dr. S. B. L

People's Institute 409, 460,

Municipal Efficiency and Refer-
ence Bureau

Per j ury

Perpetual Franchises 478,

Personal Mention 147, 323, 513,

Peters, Rev. John P

Peters, James W. S. A Suggested
Sliding Scale of Dividends for

Street Railways 31, Sup.

Philadelphia Art Jury

Bureau of Municipal Research . . .

Water Bulletins

Citizens Strike Blow at Loan

Sharks

City Club Bulletin

Club's Wisconsin Expedition . . .
Parks Association, 24th Annual

Report of the

Purchasing in

Civic Club 510,

Busy Exploring the Cost of Liv-
ing

Civil Service Commission, Report

of

Legislation

Committee of Seventy

Eighty cent gas in

Electoral Reform in 122,

Finances

Fire Prevention Commission

Graft in

High-Cost-of-Living-Program ....

Home and School League

Inaugurates Economic System of
Waste Paper Disposal

Markets

Mayor Vetoes for Aesthetic Rea-
sons

Message of Mayor of

Milk

Supply in

Municipal Charities in

Ownership Legislation .........

Reference Library

483
220
633
S
112
513

143
299
530
719
410

32

496

51

744

145
169
503

172
253
720

511

342
723

287
296
483
171
123
442
289
490

306
351

306
350
716
510
742
723
650

Philadelphia Plans Education of

Municipal Employees 507

Police Manual 692

Public Service Committee of One

Hundred 493

Rapid Transit Co., Cooperative

Bulletins 478

Suburban Planning Association. . . 210

Suggestions 287

Taxation in. Louis F. Post 57

W^ater Waste Exhibit 123

Phoenix, Ariz., Commission Govern-
ment in 116

Pierce, Frank G 145

Pink, Louis Heaton. Polling Places

in the Schools 451

Pittsburgh Anti-Billboard Campaign 696

Board of Public Education 712

Charter Amendments 118

City Planning in 489

Housing Ordinance 517

Hump Being Removed 132

Leader 439

Milk Supply in 510

Modern Accounting for 301

Public Comfort Stations in 306

Report of the Economic Survey of.

John T. Holdsworth 349

Tax Readjustment 484

Traffic Regulations of 330

Voters' League 169, 713

Plass, Anna A. Civics for Americans

in the Making 364

Plehn, Carl C 170

Municipal Taxation Sup. 9

Pleydell, A. C 124

Police Administration, Problems of . 168

Brigade in Paris, New 300

Chiefs under Civil Service 127

Dogs, Use of 146

Education 692

"Excise and Gambling Evil : Is the

Trouble with our State Laws?" 409
Investigation, The New York.

Clement J. Driscoll 279

News 126, 299, 483, 692

Ordinance, Chicago's New 335

Parades, Annual 483

Power, Limitation of 527

Reports, American 167

Situation, The New York. Clem-
ent J. Driscoll 401

•^'7

INDEX

Police Statistics 167

Interpretation of 168

Policewomen 693

Political Primer for the New Voter.

Bessie Beatty 567

Science Quarterly 254

Politics 132, 307, 491, 699

Polling Places in the Schools. Louis

Heaton Pink 451

Pontiac, Mich., Saloon Ordinance. . 526
Telegraph and Telephone Poles

in 527

Port Officials, National Association of 317

Porter, Dr. Eugene H 716

Portland, Ore., Commission Govern-
ment in 118, 471

Greater 320

Plans Association 320

Municipal Association of 668

Railway, Light and Power Co. . . 302

Situation 288

Standing Room in 302

Survey 507

Vice Commission, Report of 168

Crusade 146

Ordinances 521

Ports as Municipal Corporations . . . 528
Post, Louis F. Taxation in Philadel-
phia 57

Potts, C. S 185

Powers, L. G. Revenue Account-
ing Sup. 16

Practical Methods of Sewage Dis-
posal for Residences, Hotels and
Institutions. Henry N. Ogden
and H. Burdett Cleveland 187

Preferential Voting 122

Prendergast, William A 94, 301

New York City Finances 221

President's Commission on Economy
and Efficiency 481

Price, Richard R 719

Primary Election Expenses in Chi-
cago. Harold L. Ickes 657

Principles of Prussian Administra-
tion. Herman G. James 446

Pritchard, Frank P 304

Progressive Municipal Platform .... 699
Service 318

Property Owners Defended 734

Restrictions 698

Proportional Representation 418,

482, 684

John H. Humphreys 420

Advantages of 420

Society of Great Britain 420, 482

Protection of Trees in Columbus,

Ohio 158

Providence 735

Graft in 444

"Public, The" 57

Control of Vocational Educa-
tion 319

Education Association of New

York 88

Health Bulletin No. 54 744

Notes 320, 509, 716

Legislation on 150

Improvement Associations, Brief

List of Suggestions to 741

Library in Commission Governed

Cities. Alice S. Tyler 255

Markets 351

Service, Chicago 476

Commission of the First District

of New York 32, 340

Utilities in Havana 689

Reports on 171

State vs. Municipal Regulations
of. John Morton Eshleman. . 11

Lewis R. Works 24

Utility Legislation 725

Regulation, National Civic Fed-
eration Pamphlets on 340

Works of Cities, Scientific Man-
agement in the. Guy C. Emer-
son 571

Publicity. See Simplicity and Effi-
ciency.

Pueblo, Preferential Voting in 116

Putnam, Frank 491

Report to the City of Houston,

Texas 297

Putnam, George Haven. Condi-
tions of Vice and Crime in New
York 408

Qualification of Women Act, English 83

Irish 85

Scotch 84

Quebec, City Planning in 307

Quiet Zones Near Hosi)itals 519

INDEX

23

Ransom, William L 699

Majority Rule and the Judici-
ary 189

Real Estate Tax 60

Recall. (See Initiative and Refer-
endum) 79

Seattle and the 308

Recent Interesting Developments

in Berlin. Herman G. James. . . 445
Reciprocity in Municipalities. .Sup. 27

Recreation Bibliography 348

Reed, Thomas H Sup. 21

Home Rule in California Sup. 2

Reeder, Charles Wells 150, 154, 526,

540, 731
Reference Bureaus, Research and.

Edward M. Salt 48

Refuse Disposal in Ohio and Wis-
consin 170

Regulation of Municipal Utilities.

Clyde L. King 184, 297

Repeal of Commission Government,

An Attempted 682

Replanning Small Cities. John No-

len 166

Report of the Economic Survey of
Pittsburgh. John T. Holds-
worth 349

Joint Special Committee on Munic-
ipal Finance to the Great and

General Court of Mass 531

a Special Investigation Relative

to the Indebtedness of the Cities

and Towns of Massachusetts . . . 531

Sinking Funds and Serial Loans

of the C'"ties and Towns of

Massachusetts 531

Municipal Accounts, Iowa 533

Reports and Documents, Depart-
ment of 160, 340, 531, 735

Representative Council, A 420

Plan of Municipal Government. . . 417
Government League 483

Research and Reference Bureaus

Edward M. Salt 48

Residence Districts 731

Brick Kilns in 732

Revenue Accounting. L. G. Pow-
ers Sup. 16

Revere, Mass., Commission Govern-
ment in^ 117

Review of Graft Prosecutions and
Exposures for the Past Year. C.

R. Atkinson 439

Rex, Frederick 152, 155, 332, 521

Rhode Island, Liquor Licenses in. . . 63?

Richardson, Dr. Clifford 605

Richardson, George Lynde 191

Rights of Pedestrians in the Street . 157

River Forest, 111 679

Roberts, Peter. The New Immigra-
tion 362

Robinson, Charles Mulford 166, 368,

562, 720

Robinson, Edward Van Dyke 772

Rochester, N. Y., Milk Supply in.. . 510

Social Center Work in 456

Rockland, Mass., Municipal Light-
ing for. William Plattner 171

Rogers Law 619

Rosenau, M. J. The Milk Ques-
tion 188

Ross, J. D 686

Routzahn, E. G 132

Rowell, Chester H. . . .Sup. 21, Sup. 27
Elimination of the Party Boss in

California Cities Sup. 28

Russell Sage Foundation Survey

and Exhibit Department 131

Ryan, P. H. Foxy Government, or
Fallacies of the Des Moines
Plan 770

Sacramento, Party Bosses in.. .Sup. 29
Sadler, Sir Michael E. Reports of . 90
Saginaw, Mich., Commission Gov-

" ernment in 117

Salt, Edward M HI, 116,

147, 284, 470, 675
Research and Reference Bu-
reaus 48

Salem, Mass 663

Commission Government in 116

Salt Lake City, School Houses as

Polling Places 453

Weeds in 518

San Antonio Citizens League 135

Texas, City Planning in 488

is Overturned 135

Sands, Herbert R 126, 302, 349, 482

Sandusky, Ohio 681

San Francisco, Adult Education
in 673

24

INDEX

San Francisco, Charter Amendments 116

Civic Improvement in 488

Commonwealth Club 469

Efficiency Bureau in 156

Graft in 444

Housing Association 70

The Initiative, Referendum and

Recall in. E. A. Walcott 467

Municipal Railroad 467, 476

Party bosses in Sup. 30

Public Ownership Association .... 468
Rates for Water, Gas and Elec-
tricity 295

San Jose, Cal., Commission Govern-
ment in 116

Party Bosses in Sup. 29

Sanitarj' Inspectors, Advertising

for." 717

Santa Monica, Cal., Commission

Government in 116

Saturday Evening Post 58

Sault Ste. Marie 73

Schenectady Contract Specifica-
tions 745

Embarks in Ice Business 130

Housing Ordinance 517

Reports of the Comptroller of . . . . 742

Schmidlapp, J. G 514

School Funds in New York City 485

Hygiene, International Congress

on 499

Lunches in New York City 511

Progress in New York City. John .

xMartin 392

Reports, New York's Rejection of.

W. H. Allen '93

Surveys 508

Scientific Management in the Public
Works of Cities. Guy C. Emer-
son 571

Scotch Local Government Act 84

Qualification of Women Act 84

Scranton, Pa., City Planning Com-
mission 305

Schuyler, Robert Livingston. Cen-
tralization in City Purchas-
ing 251

Seabold, Mrs. Mary S 490

Seattle 309

and the Recall 308

Centralizes Social and Philan-
thropic Agencies 322

Seattle, City Engineer of 323

Planning in .306

Graft in 444

Housing Code 517

Wash., Juvenile Court, Annual

Report of 743

Municipal Plant 686

Plan of 160

Second World's Congress of Interna-
tional Associations 712

Seiler, C. Linn 567

Selected List of Municipal and Civic

Books 508

Selection and Retention of Experts in
Municipal Service, Joint Com-
mittee of the National Municipal
League and the National Civil
Service Reform League on... Sup. 9

Report of 8, 742

Self-Governing Areas 122

Seligman, Edwin R. A. Essays in

Taxation 772

Sewage Disposal. George W. Ful-
ler 187

Seymour, W. W 113

Shade Trees 158

Shearman, Thomas G. Natural Tax-
ation 58

Shepherd, Hugh 309

Sheridan, Wyo., Municipal Ceme-
tery 307

Short Ballot 6

Organization 6

Charter, A Thirteenth Century.

George R. Wallace 265

(Democratic) Charter 265

Shortt, William Allaire 597

Shurtleff, Flavel 132

Siddons, Frederick L 719

Simplicity in Municipal Affairs. R.

S. Binkerd Sup. 27

Publicity and Efficiency in Munic-
ipal Affairs. Clinton Rogers

Woodruff 1, Sup. 2

Single Commissioner System 299

Six Years of Municipal Research ... 49

Sliding Scale System, Boston 32

Cleveland 32

Slosson, Edwin E 371

Small, Albion W. Between Eras from

Capitalism to Democracy 771

Smith, J. Allen f 309

INDEX

25

Smith, W. Richmond 744

Efficiency in City Purchasing .... 239

Smoke Nuisance 337

Ordinances and Smoke Abate-
ment, City 151

Social and Miscellaneous 145, 320,

509, 716

Center. Edward J. Ward 455, 671

Centers. John Collier 455

Center for Colored People in

Chicago 718

Evil, Reports on the 168

Service 742

"in Virginia" 743

Welfare Board 730

Vice, The Problem of 521

Socialism in California Municipali-
ties. Ira B. Cross Sup.

Socialists and the Commission Form

of Government

Party Bureau of Information

Committee for the Study of Com-
mission Government for Cities

416,
Information Department and

Research Bureau

Somers, W. A. The Valuation of

Real Estate for Taxation

System 63,

"News"

Sources of Municipal Revenue in

Illinois. Lent Dayton Upson . .

Spalding, Frederick P. Textbook

on Roads and Pavements

Spartanburg, S. C

Makes a "Profit"

Special Charters

Districts

Libraries 348,

Speed Regulations for Motor Ve-
hicles

Spence, F. S Sup. 8, Sup.

Springfield, Mass.- Survey of

Unit Costs in

Springfield, Ohio, Charter

Spokane, Commission Government

in

Municipal Chemical Laboratory. .

St. Louis Accounting System

Charter Amendments

Suggestions

Civic League

31

132
416

423

500

230
230
145

766

367
301
126
286
155
745

331

27
302
482
681

118
130
126
117
682
322

St. Louis, Comptroller's Office

Report of the Comptroller of

Conference of Federat-ions

Election

Federation of Federations

Financial Economy

Graft in

Initiative and Referendum in 121,
Municipal Accounts, Report on.. .

Subway

Voters' League

New Accounting Sj'stem in

Public Library

Municipal Reference Library

Smoke Abatement League

St. Paul, Charter of

Civic Improvement in

St. Paul's Comptroller: An Inter-
esting Experiment. J. W. Ben-
nett

Dispatch

Water Board, Organization of . . .

Standard Lamp Posts

Standing Room in Portland Ore. . .
State Control of the Milk Industry,

Conference on

Public Service Commission Re-
ports

Supervision of Municipal Ac-
counts under Existing Legis-
lative Enactments Prior to

1913

Tax Commissions

vs. Local Utility Commissions .
Municipal Regulations of
Public Utilities. John Mor-
ton Eshleman 11, Sup

Lewis R. Works .... 24, Sup.
Statistics of Municipal Finances,

Massachusetts, 1909

Statistisches Jahrbuch deutscher

Stadte

Status of Liquor License Legis-
lation. John Koren

Statute Law Making in the United
States. Chester Lloyd Jones. .

Staunton, Va

Steel, Dr. Thomas A

StefTens, Lincoln

Sternberg, Gen. George M

Stimson, Rev. Cyrus Flint

Stimson, F.J

39
741
499
492
317
485
444
526
542
477
492
481
519
649
487
268
489

268
270
126
335
302

313

340

522
738
475

. 21
22

533

431

629

565
118
285
57
313
326
566

26

INDEX

Storrow, James J 585

Strauss, Nathan 736

Straus, Oscar S. The American

Spirit 774

' ' Street Lighting" 686

Streets of New York City. Fred-
erick F. Blachly 605

Street Pavements and Paving
Materials. George W. Tillson . 562
Railways, A Suggested Sliding
Scale of Dividends for. James

W.S.Peters 31

Franchises. Delos F. Wilcox

Sup. 31

Streets, Who Owns the 530

Strong, Howard 678

Subway Contracts, The New York.

Delos F. Wilcox 375

Suffrage Parades 483

Suggested Sliding Scale of Divi-
dends for Street Railways.

.James W. S. Peters 31, Sup. 32

Suggestion for the Improvement

of the Liquor Traffic 321

Suggestions to the Board of Es-
timate and Apportionment by
the President of the Borough

of Richmond 615

Sullivan, John A 591

Summer School of Town Plan-
ning 698

Sumter, S. C 76, 639

Supplies purchased by the City of
New York, Tentative General

Classification of 243

Suppression of Noise 746

Surveying and Housing World 321

Swan, Herbert S 539

Swapping Water for Taxes 336

Swayze, Francis T 350

Swedish Books 372

Sylvester, Major Richard 126

Syracuse Accounts 125

Tacoma Billboard Movement 132

Taft, Lorado 306

Tanzer, Laurence Arnold. Legisla-
tive Interference in Municipal
Affairs and the Home Rule Pro-
gram in New York 597

Taussig, B. J 485

"Tax Facts for Illinois" . 170

Tax Legislation in California 124

Louisiana < 124

Massachusetts 124

Missouri 124

New Hampshire 124

Oregon 124

Utah 124

Tax Legislation, Notes on Recent . . 124

Taxation 726

in California, A Special Report

on ." 170

in Canada 739

in Philadelphia. Louis F. Post . . 57

of Land Values 346

Reports 169

The Valuation of Real Estate for,

W. A. Somers 230

Taxing Weeds in Los Angeles, 154

Taylor, C. F. The March of Democ-
racy in Municipalities 194

Taylor, Graham 4.54, 719

Telegraph and Telephone Poles, Pon-

tiac, Mich 527

Tennesee, Commission Government

in 285

Municipal League 316

Texas, Clean Towns in 719

Commission Government in . .118, 285

Home Rule Amendment in 121

Liquor Licenses in 633

Railroad Commission, Twenty-first

Annual Report of the 340

University of. Bureau of ^lunici-
pal Research and Reference at

the .714

Textbook on Roads and Pavements.

Frederick P. Spalding 367

Thayer, Russell 129

Thelen, Max 12

Theory of the New Controlled-Ex-

ecutive Plan. Richard S. Childs 76

Things a City ought to Know 733

Thirteenth Century Short Charter.

George R. Wallace 265

Thomas, Guenther 447

Thompson, Carl D 134, 501

The Vital Points in Charter Mak-
ing from a Socialist Point of View 416

Thompson, Reginald H 323

Three Platoon System, Philadel-
phia 299

Thum's, Mayor, Administration .... 493

INDEX

27

Tillson, George W. Street Pave-
ments and Paving Materials. . . . 562

Toledo 473

Civic Improvement in 488

Unique among Ohio Cities 122

Tompkins, Calvin 741

Toronto, City Planning in 307

Trackless Trams 687

Traffic Regulations and the Use of

Streets by Pedestrians 329

Columbus, Ohio 155

Trackless Trams, 128

Traction Problems, Ciiicinnati's,

Elliott Hunt Pendleton 617

Training of Secretaries for Commer-
cial Organizations 713

Treasurer, Report of Sup. 1

Trees in Winter, Their Study, Plant-
ing, Care and Identification.

Albert Francis Blakeslee 368

Trolley Freight 690

Troy Civic Betterment 490

Tyler, Alice S. The Public Library
in Commission Governed Cit-
ies 255

Typhoid Fever, Immunization
Against 717

Uniform System of Accounts 32

Union of Canadian Municipalities

135, 307, 476, 499

Twelfth Annual Convention of . . . 142

Thirteenth Annual Convention of 701

Union of Quebec Municipalities .... 499

United Committee for the Taxation

of Land Values 346

United Police of Chicago 300

Universities are Helping, How the . . 301

Unwin, Raymond. Old Towns and
New Needs; Also the Town Ex-
tension Plan 561

Upson, L. D., The City ^Manager
Plan of Government for Day-
ton 639

Sources of Municipal Revenue in
Illinois 766

LTse of Streets by Pedestrians, Traf-
fic Regulations and the 329

Utah, Commission Government

in 286, 471

League of Municipalities 316

Valuation of Public Utility Prop-
erties. Floy 31

Valuation of Real Estate for Taxa-
tion. W. A. Somers 230

Vault Spaces, Tax on 60

Veiller, Lawrence 312, 516

Vermont, Liquor Licenses in 632

"Vigilance" 169

Virginia Conference of Charities and
Corrections, Proceedings of the . 743

Fees System 700

Home Rule Amendment 121

Liquor Licenses in 633

Municipalities, Report of League

of 350

State Board of Chailties and Cor-
rection, Fourth Annual Report

of the 743

Vital Points in Charter Making from
a Socialist Point of View. Carl

D. Thompson 416

Vivian, Henry 307

Vocation Bureau and the Boston
School System. Frederick J.

Allen 108

Vocational Bureau Investigation . . . 504

. Education, Public Control of 319

von Wagner, ^Nlrs. Johanna 312

Voters Leagues and Their Critical

Work. Dixon Ryan Fox 664

Voting by :\Iail 122

Walcott, E. A. The Initiative, Refer-
endum and Recall in San Fran-
cisco 467

Waldo, Rhinelander 127

Walla Walla, Wash., Commercial

Club Ill

Wallace, A. J Sup. 1

Wallace, George R. A Thirteenth

Century Short Charter 265

Ward, Edward J. The Social Center 455
Warne, Frank Julian. The Immi-
grant Invasion 757

Warren, Charles 590

Washington, D. C 735

Washington, ^Municipal Advertising

in 731

^Municipal Ownership Legislation

in 724

Sanitary Improvement Company. . 313
Svstem of Taxation 112

28

INDEX

Waste Paper, Collection of in Phila-
delphia

Water Fronts, Rights in the

Water Pollution Conference, Joint . ..

Rates, Uniformity in

Supply

Competition in Supply

Waterbury, Conn., Survey of

Waterhouse, Paul. Old Towns and
New Needs; Also the Town Ex-
tension Plan

Watrous, Eliot

Watrous, RichardB

Weights and Measures, Eighth An-
nual Conference on

Weil, A. Leo .'

Wells, Chester H

Wells, Hubert W

West Chicago Park Commissioners,
Forty-fourth Annual Report of

the

West Hammond, Ind., Graft in

West Seneca, N. Y., Graft in

West Virginia Mayors, Convention

of

^Municipal League

Wheeler, Everett P

Wheeling, W. Va. New Charter

White, Alfred T

White, Peter 126, 481,

Whitlock, Brand

Whitman College

Municipal Reference Department .

Wichita, Charter Trouble in

Wilcox, Delos F 31,

The New York Subway Contracts..
Street Railway Franchises . . .Sup.
Wilkesbarre, Pa., Chamber of Com-
merce Report of Efficiency of

City Council

Wilson, Alan Pressley

Wilson, G.S

Winnipeg. Message of Maj'or of

Winston-Salem High School Boys
making Economic Survey of

City

Wisconsin

Budget Legislation

City Manager Plan in

Expedition Philadelphia City

Club's

Fire Insurance Investigation, Re-
port of

30G
732
139
732
743
733
302

561
299
305

701
169
320
504

743
443
445

316
316
326
118
313
541
147
112

54
680
685
375

31

542
325
701
350

319

48

729

472

503

745

Wisconsin. Library School 715

Municipal Ice Plants in 724

Public Service Commission. 375

Refuse Disposal in 170

Social Center Movement 322

State Board of Public Affairs . . . 39, 351
Tax Commission, Report of the . . . 738
University of, Mimicipal Reference

Bureau 53

Wister, Mrs. Owen 720, Sup. 27

Wolflf, Frank A 326, 481 , 702

The Federal Government as a
Potential Contributor to Munic-
ipal Advancement Sups. 2, 33

Woman Suffrage, Actual Operation

of 122, Sup. 31

Women and Local Government in the
L^nited Kingdom. H. Marie Der-

mitt 81

Women's Local Government Soci-
ety 82

Woodruff, Anna Florence 310

Woodruff, Clinton Rogers

134, 287, 325, Sups. 2, 9, 33
Simplicity, Publi3ity and Efficiency

in Municipal Affairs 1

Woods, Arthur, 281, 282

Worcester, Polling Places in the

Schools of 451

Work of the Coroner's Office of Cook

County, TIL, Report of the 172

Work of the League of California
Municipalities. H. A. Mason

Sup. 28

Works, Lewis R 515

State vs. Municipal Regulation of

Public Utilities 24, Sup. 22

World's Christian Citizenship Con-
gress 499

World's Congress of International

Associations, Second 310

World's Municipal Congress and In-
ternational Municipal Exhibi-
tion Sup. 20

Yard, Robert Sterling 718

Year Book of the United Kingdom . . . 431

Young, Prof. F. G 704

Youngstown 681

City Manager Plan in 472

Zion, E.R 156

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