AGENCIES OF CONTROL
269. =Characteristics of City Government.=--The activities and
associations of such large groups as the people who live in cities
must be under social control. It is a principle of American life that
the individual be permitted to direct his own energies as long as he
does not interfere with the comfort and happiness of others, and in
the country there is a large measure of freedom, but in the close
contacts of city life constraint has to be in force. In contrast to
the strict surveillance that is practised in certain countries,
Americans, even in the cities, have seldom been watched or interfered
with. The police have been guardians of peace and safety at street
crossings and on the sidewalks; occasionally it has been necessary to
arrest the doings of disorderly persons, to the annoyance of convivial
spirits and small boys, but their functions as petty guardsmen have
not given police officers great dignity in the eyes of citizens. City
officials have confined their efforts to the routine affairs of their
office, and have so often spent their spare time and the city's money
freely for the satisfaction of their personal interests that municipal
government has gained the reputation of being notoriously corrupt, and
has been left to ward politicians by the better class of citizens.
Nevertheless, municipal government represents the principle of control
and stands in the background as the preserver of the interests of all
the people.
270. =The Relation of the City to the State.=--The American city is
almost universally a creature of the State. Town and county government
were transplanted from England and naturally accompanied the settlers
into the interior, but the city came as a late artificial arrangement
for the better management of large aggregations of population, and
the form and details of government were prescribed by State charter.
The State has continued to be the guardian of the city, often to the
detriment of municipal interests. If a city wishes to change the form
of local administration, it must ask permission from the State
Legislature, and every such question becomes entangled with State
politics, and so is not likely to be judged on the merits of the
question. Indeed, the whole history of city government condemns the
intense partisanship that has directed the affairs of the city in its
own interest when the real interests of all the people irrespective of
party should have been cared for with business efficiency.
271. =Functions of the City Government.=--Among the recognized
functions of the city government is, first, the normal function of
operation. This includes the activity of the various municipal
departments like the maintenance of streets, the prosecution of
various public works, and the care of health by inspection and
sanitation. Secondly, there are the regulative and reformatory
functions, which make it necessary to organize and maintain a police
and judicial force and to provide the necessary places of detention
and punishment. Thirdly, there are educational and recreational
functions represented by schools, public libraries, parks, and
playgrounds. The tendency is for the city government to extend its
functions in order to promote the various interests of its citizens.
It is demanded that the city provide musical entertainments, theatres,
and athletic grounds, that it open the schools as social centres and
equip them for that purpose, that it beautify itself with the most
approved adornments for twentieth-century cities; in short, that it
regard itself as the agent of every kind of social welfare at whatever
cost. Obviously, this programme involves the city in large expense,
and there is a limit to the taxation and bonded indebtedness to which
it can resort, but better financial management would save much waste
and make larger funds available for social purposes without the
necessity of raising large additional sums.
272. =How the Regulative Function Works.=--Doubtless it will be always
true that the regulative function in its largest sense will be the
main business of the city government. The interests of individuals
clash. The self-interest of one often runs counter to the interests of
another, and the city government is their mediator. At every turn one
sees evidences of public oversight. The citizen leaves home to go to
work in the morning. A sidewalk is provided for his convenience and
safety if he needs or prefers to walk. The abutters must keep it in a
safe condition; open coal scuttles, heaps of sand or gravel, or other
obstructions must not remain there, and in winter ice must not
threaten hurt. A street is kept clear for the citizen's carriage or
automobile if he drives down-town, and a franchise is given a
street-railway on certain conditions to provide cheap and rapid
transit. For the convenience of the public the street is properly
drained and paved, at night it is lighted and patrolled. No
householder is permitted to throw ashes or garbage upon the public
thoroughfare, no landowner can rear a building above a certain height
to shut out light and air. The citizen arrives down-town. The public
building in which he works or where he trades is inspected by the city
authorities, the market where he buys his produce is subject to
regulation, the street hawker who calls his own wares must procure a
license to sell goods--law is omnipresent.
273. =The Police.=--The offender who violates city ordinances must
expect to be arrested. Policemen are on the watch to detect such
violations and promptly give warning that they cannot be permitted.
Repeated violation leads to arrest and trial before a police-court
justice, with the probable penalty of a fine or temporary detention in
jail. In case of serious crime, the trial is before a higher court,
and the punishment is more severe. Such control is necessary for the
preservation of order because there are always social delinquents
ready to take advantage of too great freedom. A certain class of
offenses seems to require different handling. Moral obliquity such as
the maintenance of disorderly houses is a corrupting influence, and
the police departments of cities have frequently been charged with
conniving at immoral practices. Police officials have been found to
have their price, and graft has become notorious. For this reason a
special morals police has been proposed to have charge of such cases,
and experiments have been tried already on that plan.
274. =Organization of the City Government.=--(1) _In America._ The
police department is but one of several boards or official departments
for the management of municipal affairs. The administrative officers
are appointed or elected, and are usually under the supervision of the
city executive. The usual form of city government is modelled upon the
State; a mayor corresponds to the governor and a city council of one
or two chambers usually elected by wards is parallel to the State
Legislature. The mayor is the executive officer and the head of the
administrative system, the council assists or obstructs him,
appropriates funds, and attends to the details of municipal
legislation. Political considerations rather than fitness for office
have usually determined the choice of persons for positions.
(2) _In Europe._ In Europe municipal government is treated as a
business or professional matter, not one of politics, and the results
have been so much more satisfactory that American cities have begun to
reform their governments. In England cities are governed according to
the Local Government Act of 1888, by which cities of more than fifty
thousand people become counties for administrative purposes, and
control of administration is vested in a council elected by voters of
the city. Councillors are regarded with high honor, but their work is
a work of patriotism, for they are unpaid, with the result that the
best men enter the city councils. Administration is carried on through
various committees and through department officials who are retained
permanently. In Germany the cities are managed like large households,
and their officials are free to undertake improvements without
specific legislative permission. The mayor or burgomaster is usually
one who makes a profession of magistracy, and he need not be a citizen
of the city that he serves. In administration he is assisted by a
board of experts known as magistrates, who are elected by the council,
usually for life. The council is the real governing body, and its
members are elected by the people for six years, one-third of them
retiring periodically, as in the United States Senate. The activities
of the German cities are more numerous than in this country, yet they
are managed economically and efficiently.
275. =Organizing Municipal Reform.=--The earliest reform movements in
the United States were spasmodic uprisings of outraged citizens who
were convinced of the corruption of city government. Among the
pioneers in organization were leagues of reform in Chicago, Baltimore,
and Boston, organized between 1874 and 1885. In 1887 the Massachusetts
Society for Promoting Good Citizenship was formed. The weakness of the
early movements was the temporary enthusiasm that soon died away after
a victory for reform was gained at the polls; within a short time the
grafters were in the saddle again. The year 1892 marked an epoch, for
in that year the first City Club was organized in New York, followed
by Good Government Clubs in many cities, and finally by the National
Municipal League in 1894. Two hundred reform leagues in the larger
cities united in the National Reform League, with its centre in
Philadelphia. After 1905 a new impetus was given to civic reform by
the new moral emphasis in business and politics. Better officials were
elected and others were reminded that they were responsible to the
people more than to the political machine. An extension of reform
effort through direct primary nominations came into vogue on the
principle that government ought to be by the people themselves: that
democracy means self-control. The extension of municipal ownership was
widely discussed on the principle that the people's interests demanded
the better control of public utilities. There was apparent a new
recognition that the city government was only an agent of popular
control, not an irresponsible bureau for the enrichment of a few
officials at the public expense.
276. =Commission Government.=--In a number of cases radical changes
were made in the charter of the city. Galveston and several other
Texas cities tried the experiment of substituting a commission for
the mayor and council. The Galveston idea originated in 1901, after a
hurricane had devastated the city, and the mayor and aldermen proved
unable to cope with the situation. Upon request of an existing civic
committee the State legislature gave to the city a new charter, with
provision for a commission of five, including a mayor who ordinarily
has no more power than any other commissioner. Each man was to manage
a department and receive a salary. In four years the commission saved
the city a million dollars. Des Moines, Iowa, added to the Galveston
plan the initiative, the referendum, and the recall, put in force a
merit system for subordinate officials, and adopted the non-partisan
open primary. These experiments proved so popular that in 1908-9 not
less than one hundred and thirty-eight cities, including most of the
large ones, proposed to make important changes in their charters,
adopting the most prominent features of the new plan, or adapting the
new to the old system.
Commission government has been defined as "that form of city
government in which a small board, elected at large, exercises
substantially the entire municipal authority, each member being
assigned as head of a rather definite division of the administrative
work; the commission being subject to one or more means of direct
popular control, such as publicity of proceedings, recall, referendum,
initiative, and a non-partisan ballot." Commission government is less
cumbersome and less partisan than the old system and tends to be more
efficient, but the public needs to remember that it is the men in
office and not the form of government that make the control of
municipal affairs a success or failure. In a few cases only
disappointment has resulted from the changes made, and commission
government is still in its experimental stage.
277. =The City Manager.=--A modification of the commission plan was
tried in several cities of the South and Middle West in 1913-14. This
has been called the city-manager plan. It is founded on the belief
that the city needs business administration, and that a board of
directors is not so efficient as a single manager employed by the
commission, who shall have charge of all departments, appoint
department heads as his subordinates, and thus unify the whole
administration of municipal affairs. The manager is responsible to the
commission, and through it to the people, and may be removed by the
commission, or even by popular recall. Such a plan as this is, of
course, liable to abuse, unless the commissioners are high-minded,
conscientious men, and it has not been tried long enough to prove its
worth. The best element in the whole history of recent municipal
changes is the earnest effort of the people to find a form of
administrative control that will work well, and this gives ground for
belief that the experiments will continue until the American city will
cease to be notorious for misgovernment and become, instead, a model
for the whole nation.
READING REFERENCES
_Commission Government and the City Manager Plan_ (American
Academy), pages 3-11, 103-109, 171-179, 183-201.
GOODNOW: _City Government in the United States_, pages 69-108.
BRYCE: _The American Commonwealth_ (abridged edition), pages
417-427.
SHAW: _Municipal Government in Continental Europe_, pages 1-145.
ZUEBLIN: _American Municipal Progress_ (revised edition), pages
376-394.