November 18, 1922





RECORD   AND   GUIDE





645







A Stumbling Block in Charter Revision

After many months, of quiet work, unheralded by
press agents, the commission appointed by Governor
Miller to revise the City Charter made public this week
a report of its progress. The Governor's Commission
has prepared a document for the future direction of
municipal activities which is described by its propo¬
nents as a Home Rule Charter, but which immediately
drew the fire of Comptroller Craig. This does not
necessarily signify, of course, that the commission's
charter is no good, but the prompt attack made upon
it by so important an official of the City Administra¬
tion does signify that the path for early revision of
the existing charter is not yet cleared. The absence of
two members of the commission from Tuesday's meet¬
ing, and the request of another member to be excused
from voting on a division called for by Comptroller
Craig, seem to demonstrate the fact that vital differ¬
ences of opinion exist in the minds of the charter re¬
visionists. This development is bound to prove dis¬
appointing to all who had hoped that a new charter,
workable and satisfactory in its main aspects, would
be adopted with practical unanimity and be ready for
presentation to the new Legislature which will meet
in Albany in January.

The results of the recent election probably are re¬
flected in the week's developments. The shadow of
politics seems cast over the situation. It is only fair
to believe that the men who have been working for
nine months on the problem feel they have been labor¬
ing for genuine Home Rule in the new charter, and
quite as earnestly as those who express dissatisfaction
with the result. The trouble probably lies in the fact
that Home Rule is a difficult principle to define,—what
one group regards as Home Rule does not square with
the view of another group. Then, too. Home Rule has
come to be regarded by many politicians as a useful
smoke screen with which to obscure the purposes they
are striving to accomplish.

Enough has come out, following Tuesday's meeting
of the charter revisionists, to indicate that the traction
problem is playing a very important part in the deliber¬
ations of the commission. In a way this is unfortunate,
because there are many important points aside from
the city's traction policy which must be considered in
the work of charter revision. If the commission could
agree on plans for the scrapping of useless city depart¬
ments and bureaus, abolition of duplicated county
offices, and increased efficiency and reduced expendi¬
tures through various consolidations of offices and the
firing of many unnecessary employes, a great step
toward charter reform would be taken. This done, all
hands could then concentrate on the difficult task of
finding the proper solution of the traction problem.
But, as long as the traction problem continues to hold
first place in. the minds of charter revisionists the pros¬
pects for genuine charter reform continue discouraging.





Upon Governor-elect Smith now rests the chief re¬
sponsibility, not only as to solving the traction muddle,
but also as to the ultimate fate of charter revision.
Fortunately, he knows New York and he knows the
city government from the inside out, so that when the
new Legislature meets he will be expected to point
the way which Father Knickerbocker may safely follow
in seeking relief from the existing perplexities.





Common Sense Solving the Coal Crisis

Clamorous advocates of municipal, state and federal
ownership and operation or control of public utilities,
railroads, the meat industry and crops, and those who
would like to have Congress pass a bill providing each
family in the land with a sewing machine and a radio
outfit at public expense might do well to consider what
has been accomplished by co-operation between gov¬
ernmental agents and representatives of business or¬
ganizations in effectively solving the menacing situation
due to the almost total suspension of coal mining for
five months this Summer. The Chamber of Commerce
.of the United States, which has adequate machinery for
obtaining accurate information on matters affecting the
industrial welfare of the community at large, is author¬
ity for the statement that the coal crisis has passed and
that the solution of the very difficult problems resulting
from the strikes of miners and railroad shopmen was
found in the participation of officials and business¬
men in a campaign for quickening the natural processes
of trade, production and distribution, the balancing of
demand to supply by self-restraint, and by the dis¬
semination of accurate information which guarded
against undue apprehension on the part of the public.
The Chamber of Commerce calls attention to the fact
that "these natural processes, if they can be set in
motion, can be relied upon as remedies far more effec¬
tive than rigid legislation and regulation, and therein
lies the great value of this effort and of the large scale
demonstration in this case."

Although clothed with autocratic powers, the Federal
and State Fuel Administrations have not resorted to
force except in a few individual cases in bringing about
an orderly and speedy adjustment of prices at mines and
retail depots, and of distribution. That they had power
to enforce their program no doubt made it effective
with the comparatively few recalcitrants who would
have liked to profit at the expense of the public. But
they prevailed generally by the use of moral force in
securing stability of prices, efficient handling of the dis¬
tribution of coal by tlie railroads and equitable deliveries
to such widely-diverse consumers as are represented by
the people in the regions served by shipping on the
Great Lakes, who must fill their bins before ice closes
navigation, and the bucket buyers on the East Side of
New York City, who have no bins to fill nor money to
buy by the ton.

It is, of course, still necessary to be economical in