Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 86 [i.e. 85], no. 2185: January 29, 1910

Text version:

January fig, 1910 REUUKD AJND UUIDE 211 ^ ESTABUSHED-^ MARna SV>i^ 1858. ""DEV&lfi)pI^LE:ffTWE,SmLDlKG%Cl^rrEOTUTi,E,KoiJSE3i01I»DESaF;\^ BLTsDfess Alto Themes of GEflEH&l itfrERpy., PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS Communications should be addressed tO C. W. SWEET Pablished EVery Saturday By THE RECORD AND GUIDE CO. President, CLINTON W. SWEET '^ Treasurer, F. W. DODGE Vice-Pres. & Genl. Mgr,, H. W. DESMOND Secretary, F. T. MILLER Nob. 11 to 15 Ea.%t 24tlL Street, New York City (Telephone, Madison Square, 4430 to 4433,) "Entered at the Post Office at New York, N. Y.. as s-cDiid-ehi.s.'i malier." Copyrighted. i;)10, by The Rercrd ii; Guide Co. 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 The eye reads what the eye brings the means of reading. fThere is much in these naees: Read,')