ADMINISTRATION.
I have in the 4th and 5th chapters dealt with the fund at the disposal
of the Board of Management, and have endeavoured to show, and I
believe with success, that the rate-rents collected by the trustees in
their capacity of landlords of the towns will suffice, (1) to provide
interest on the debentures with which the estate is purchased, (2) to
provide a sinking fund which will at a comparatively early date leave
the community free from the burden of interest on such debentures, and
(3) to enable the Board of Management to carry on such undertakings
as are elsewhere, for the most part, carried out by means of rates
compulsorily levied.
A most important question now arises regarding the extent to which
municipal enterprise is to be carried, and how far it is to supersede
private enterprise. We have already by implication stated that the
experiment advocated does not involve, as has been the case in so
many social experiments--the complete municipalisation of industry
and the elimination of private enterprise. But what principle is to
guide us in determining the line which shall separate municipal from
private control and management? Mr. Joseph Chamberlain has said:
“The true field for municipal activity is limited to those things
which the community can do better than the individual.” Precisely,
but that is a truism, and does not carry us one whit further, for the
very question at issue is as to _what those things are_ which the
community can do better than the individual; and when we seek for an
answer to this question we find two directly conflicting views--the
view of the socialist, who says: Every phase of wealth-production
and distribution can be best performed by the community; and the
view of the individualist, who contends these things are best left
to the individual. But probably the true answer is to be found at
neither extreme, is only to be gained by experiment, and will differ
in different communities and at different periods. With a growing
intelligence and honesty in municipal enterprise, with greater freedom
from the control of the Central Government, it may be found--especially
on municipally-owned land--that the field of municipal activity may
grow so as to embrace a very large area, and yet the municipality claim
no rigid monopoly and the fullest rights of combination exist.
Bearing this in mind, the municipality of Garden City will, at
the outset, exercise great caution, and not attempt too much. The
difficulty of raising the necessary funds with which to carry on
municipal undertakings would be greatly increased if the Board of
Management attempted to do everything; and, in the prospectus to
be ultimately issued, a clear statement will be made of what the
Corporation undertakes to do with the moneys entrusted to it, and this
will at first embrace little more than those things which experience
has proved municipalities can perform better than individuals.
Tenants, too, will, it is obvious, be far more ready to offer adequate
“rate-rents” if they are given distinctly to understand to what
purpose those “rate-rents” are to be devoted, and after those things
are done, and done well, little difficulty will be placed in the way of
further appropriate extensions of the field of municipal enterprise.
Our answer, then, to the question, what field is to be covered by
municipal enterprise, is this. Its extent will be measured simply by
the willingness of the tenants to pay rate-rents, and will grow in
proportion as municipal work is done efficiently and honestly, or
decline as it is done dishonestly or inefficiently. If, for example,
the tenants find that a very small additional contribution, recently
made in the shape of “rate-rent,” has enabled the authorities to
provide an excellent supply of water for all purposes, and they are
convinced that so good a result at so small a cost would not have been
achieved through the agency of any private undertaking working for a
profit, they will naturally be willing and even anxious that further
hopeful-looking experiments in municipal work should be undertaken. The
site of Garden City may, in this respect, be compared with Mr. and Mrs.
Boffin’s famous apartment, which, the reader of Dickens will remember,
was furnished at one end to suit the taste of Mrs. Boffin, who was “a
dab at fashion,” while at the other end it was furnished to conform to
the notions of solid comfort which so gratified Mr. Boffin, but with
the mutual understanding between the parties that if Mr. B. should
get by degrees to be “a high-flyer” at fashion, then Mrs. B.’s carpet
would gradually “come for’arder,” whilst if Mrs. B. should become “less
of a dab at fashion,” Mrs. B.’s carpet would “go back’arder.” So, in
Garden City, if the inhabitants become greater “dabs” at co-operation,
the municipality will “come for’arder”; if they become less “dabs” at
co-operation, the municipality will “go back’arder”; while the relative
number of positions occupied by municipal workers and non-municipal
workers at any period will very fairly reflect the skill and integrity
of the public administration and the degree of value which is therefore
associated with municipal effort.
But the municipality of Garden City, besides setting its face against
any attempt to embark upon too large a field of enterprise, will so
frame its constitution that the responsibility for each branch of the
municipal service will be thrown directly upon the officers of that
branch and not be practically lost sight of because loosely thrown
upon the larger central body--a plan which makes it difficult for the
public to perceive where any leakage or friction may be taking place.
The constitution is modelled upon that of a large and well-appointed
business, which is divided into various departments, each department
being expected to justify its own continued existence--its officers
being selected, not so much for their knowledge of the business
generally as for their special fitness for the work of their department.
THE BOARD OF MANAGEMENT
consists of--
(1) The Central Council.
(2) The Departments.
THE CENTRAL COUNCIL (_see_ Diagram 5).
In this council (or its nominees) are vested the rights and powers of
the community as sole landlord of Garden City. Into its treasury are
paid (after provision has been made for landlord’s rent and sinking
fund) all rate-rents received from its tenants, as well as the profits
derived from its various municipal undertakings, and these, we have
seen, are amply sufficient to discharge all public burdens without any
resort to the expedient of compulsory rates. The powers possessed by
the Central Council are, it may be noticed in passing, more ample than
those possessed by other municipal bodies, for whilst most of these
enjoy only such powers as are expressly conferred on them by Acts of
Parliament, the Central Council of Garden City exercises on behalf of
the people those wider rights, powers and privileges which are enjoyed
by landlords under the common law. The private owner of land can do
with his land and with the revenue he derives from it what he pleases
so long as he is not a nuisance to his neighbour; while, on the other
hand, public bodies which acquire land or obtain power to levy rates
by Acts of Parliament, can only use that land or spend those rates for
such purposes as are expressly prescribed by those Acts. But Garden
City is in a greatly superior position, for, by stepping as a _quasi_
public body into the rights of a private landlord, it becomes at once
clothed with far larger powers for carrying out the will of the people
than are possessed by other local bodies, and thus solves to a large
extent the problem of local self-government.
But the Central Council, though possessing these large powers,
delegates many of them, for convenience of administration, to its
various departments, retaining, however, responsibility for--
(1) The general plan on which the estate is laid out.
(2) The amount of money voted to each of the various spending
departments, as schools, roads, parks, etc.
(3) Such measure of oversight and control of the departments as is
necessary to preserve a general unity and harmony, but no more.
THE DEPARTMENTS.
These are divided into various groups--for example:
(A) Public Control.
(B) Engineering.
(C) Social Purposes.
GROUP A, PUBLIC CONTROL.
This group may consist of the following sub-groups:
Finance.
Assessment.
Law.
Inspection.
_Finance._
Into this department are paid, after making provision for landlord’s
rent and sinking fund, all rate-rents; and out of it the necessary sums
for the various departments are voted by the Central Council.
_Assessment._
This department receives all applications from would-be tenants, and
fixes the rate-rent to be paid--such rate-rents not, however, being
fixed arbitrarily by the department, but upon the essential principle
adopted by other Assessment Committees--the really determining factor
being the rate-rent which an average tenant is found willing to pay.[14]
_Law._
This department settles the terms and conditions under which leases
shall be granted, and the nature of the covenants to be entered into by
and with the Central Council.
_Inspection._
This department carries out such reasonable duties in relation to
inspection as the municipality, in its capacity of landlord, may with
the tenants of the municipality mutually agree upon.
GROUP B, ENGINEERING.
This group may consist of the following departments--some of which
would be later creations.
Roads.
Subways.
Sewers.
Tramways.
Municipal Railway.
Public Buildings (other than schools).
Park and open spaces.
Drainage.
Canals.
Irrigation.
Water-supply.
Motive-power & Lighting.
Messages.
GROUP C, SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL.
This group is also divided into various departments, dealing with:--
Education.
Libraries.
Baths and Wash-houses.
Music.
Recreation.
_Election of Members of Board of Management._
Members (who may be men or women) are elected by the rate-renters to
serve on one or more departments, and the Chairmen and Vice-Chairmen of
the departments constitute the Central Council.
Under such a constitution it is believed that the community would have
the readiest means of rightly estimating the work of its servants, and,
at election times, would have clear and distinct issues brought before
it. The candidates would not be expected to specify their views upon
a hundred and one questions of municipal policy upon which they had
no definite opinions, and which would probably not give rise within
their term of office to the necessity for recording their votes, but
would simply state their views as to some special question or group of
questions, a sound opinion upon which would be of urgent importance to
the electors, because immediately connected with the welfare of the
town.
FOOTNOTE:
[14] This individual is known to Assessment Committees under the name
of the “hypothetical tenant.”