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Vol. LXXXVI.





JANUARY 29, 1910.





No. 2185





A BILL has beeii introduced into the Legislature, pro¬
posing to establish In the city of Buffalo what is
known as the Galveston or Des Moines plan of municipal
government. Presumably it will cot pass, because the
Republican majority at Albany is resolutely opposed to any
change in the machinery of local government that will
dismantle the power of the professional politician in local
politics; but a mild hope may be indulged that enougli
public sentiment in the favor of the plan will be developed
in Buffalo to force its passage. It is very desirable in the
general interest of better municipal organization that the
Des Moines type of municipal government should be tried
in some large city. Hitherto only comparatively small
western cities have tried it, and while it has hitherto beau
very successful in such communities, the consequence that
It will succeed equally well In larger and more complicated
municipalities does not necessarily follow. But at any rate
its success up to date has been sufficient to justify the ex¬
periment in the case of larger cities. The results of the
experiment would be particularly valuable because of the
help which it might afford to the problem of the best form
of municipal government for New York City. The Des
Moines plan is the most complete aud scientific municipal
charter that has as yet been conceived for the purpose of
concentrating local administrative and governmental respon¬
sibilities, and for making the powers granted commensurate
with the responsibilities imposed. In this respect it con¬
stitutes a considerable improvement, not only upon the
existing charter of New York, but upon the proposed Ivins
charter. The latter merely develops those organs of gov¬
ernment, which have worked most successfully in the recent
history of New York municipal government. It gives the
mayor complete administrative responsibility by suppressin.e;
the administrative powers of the borough presidents and by a
more efficient distribution of the administrative departments.
It strengthens the control of the Board of Estimate over
the city finances by providing it with a more efficient ma¬
chinery for exercising its powers. In both of these respects
it is an improvement over anything we have had in the
past; but at the same time the student of municipal insti¬
tutions cannot fail to remark that the plan contains certain
obvious weaknesses. Administrative responsibility is con¬
centrated in the mayor, while flnancial responsibility is con¬
centrated in a board, wherein the mayor has only three
votes out of sixteen. There is always the chance that the
mayor and the board will disagree, and, what is worse, the
authority which appropriates the money has no absolute
effective control over its expenditure. Neither have the
administrative officers, who spend the money and interest,
but to obtain the largest possible appropriation for their
own department. Finally, both the mayor and the Board
of Estimate are supposed to be helped by a Board of Alder¬
men, in whom is reposed the ordinance-making power, but
whose functions are so diminished that citizens of ability and
public spirit rarely want to serve on the board. In all
these respects the proposed new charter is defective, and
while these defects are not sufficient to diminish its claim
to be considered a great improvement on the existing char¬
ter, they must be recognized as possible sources of future
trouble.





sion of five men, each of whom would be responsible for
one of the five departments into which the administra¬
tion was divided, and who would be jointly responsible for
financial economy. This commission would appoint all
subordinate administrative officials, prepare the Budget and
enact ordinances. They would serve for four years, and
each would be elected by the voters of the whole city. The
theoretical advantages of such a scheme over that cop.-
tained in the Ivins charter are palpable and incontestable.
Instead of three separate authorities and jurisdictions, each
of which is derived from popular vote, there is only one
authority and jurisdiction, so that responsibility is abso¬
lute, and the men who exercise the responsibility are granted
every opportunity to redeem it. Moreover, this responsi¬
bility is concentrated in a Board, which Is capable of being
a deliberative as well as an executive body, and whose de¬
cisions would have more weight than those of an Individual.
It has never been considered advisable to concentrate so
much authority in the hands of an autocratic mayor, and
when, as in Boston, the mayor is made the most important
official of the government, he is always checked by a coun¬
cil. But here the council and the mayor must act as a
unit, and the whole Idea of "checks and balances," which
has failed so completely in the local government of the
counties is abandoned. On tbe other hand, popular control
over this commission can be most effectively exercised. An
inefficient and corrupt official can always be removed by the
petition of a suffi:cient number of voters, whereafter a new
election will be held, at which the accused official can be a
candidate and will have every opportunity of vindlcatine
himself. Moreover, by means of tbe initiative and referen¬
dum the people retain tbe right both to pass ordinance an ,
to approve all grants of franchises. In these ways the city
Is protected against any possible abuse of the large power";
granted to the commission. It should be added that th-
method of electing the commission provides against the po^-
sibility of minority-election. Voters in casting their ballots
both for the mayor, and the other members of the commip-
sion are obliged to make not merely a first but also ^
second and third choice. If no candidate receives a ma¬
jority of flrst choices, the second choice vote is added,
and the candidate receiving a majority of the aggre¬
gate of the two votes is elected. If a majority is atill
lacking, then the third choices are also counted. This sys¬
tem of voting should be adopted in New York for the choic^
of all elective officials. At present the mayor is almost
always representative of the suffrage of only a minority or
the voters, whereas by a system of first, second and th*rd
choices, coupled with the necessity of a majority vote to elect,
the real preferences of the voters would receive a much
more accurate expression.





THE  Des  Moines plan is  free  from  any  such  defects.   In
its   proposed   application   to   the   city   of   Buffalo   all
the   administrative   powers   are   concentrated   in   a   commis-





THE head of the Public Service Commission and the
president of tbe Interborough company are stated in
the papers to have resumed their conferences looking towards
the reaching of some agreement about subway extensions,
but not even the most optimistic observer of the spectacle
has any reason to hope that anything will come of the
conferences. The conferees have been shown to be too
far apart in their conditions and claims. The Interborough
company, in return for supplying the money for subway ex¬
tensions, wants even better terms than it secured in the
case of the present conbract; and in making these demands
the company is probably very much influenced by previous
negotiations witb its bankers. The truth evidently Is
that the bankers, Messrs. J. P. Morgan & Co., will not supply
the money, except on something like the terms proposed. On
the other hand, the Public Service Commission believes with
some justice that the city should obtain better or rather
worse terms for additional subways, and that the success
of the present subway affords a sufficient reason for this
belief. Its position in this respect will be very much
strengthened, in case it succeeds in finding a builder and a
tenant for the Broadway-Lexington avenue subway on Its
own conditions. As wc have said, there is absolutely no
indication as yet that the Interborough company is either
willing or able to grant these demands, and it is probable
that the dead-lock wil! continue. In this juncture what
i'lternntive course can the city pursue? Well, it can return
to the plan of the former Rapid Transit commission, which
should never have been abandoned, It^can lay -out alter¬
native routes, which can be operated either as extensions
or connections of the existing subway, or as wholly inde¬
pendent lines of rapid transit. These routes can be pub¬
licly advertised for construction and operation.       If the hiis





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