*
S
FEB 2 1921
Supplement to the
NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW, February, 1921.
The Story of the
City-Manager Plan
Civil
Service
Comm
154
The most democratic form
of municipal government
The People
The Council
The
City
Manager
8
OC
8
099
The People
elect
on a non-partisan ballot
Council
a
popular representatives
who
hire, supervise and
control with right to remove
City Manager
a well-paid, full-time non-
political central executive
who
10 CENTS
appoints, supervises,
removes
the heads of all departments
1
who
in turn control
↓
-the rank-and-file of the
administration
IS
344
.cs
P18
HAD

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN LIBRARIES

A Typical Story.
In 1920 Dubuque, Ia., adopted the city-
manager plan and elected on its first
council a banker, a union labor man, a
lumberman, a manufacturer and a phy-
sician. Labor led the fight for the adop-
tion of the plan, feeling that under this
plan its representatives would not be-
come white-collar job-holders at city hall
but would remain workingmen among
their fellows, for members of the council
under this plan give only the time needed
for weekly meetings and continue their
private careers. The same fact enabled
the banker, the lumberman, the manu-
facturer and the physician to serve.
The council hired as city manager the
experienced manager of Springfield, O.,
who had previously been manager of
Niagara Falls, and, before that, of Cadil-
lac, Mich.
This city manager came to Dubuque at
a salary of $8,400, and within the first
ten days, by eliminating needless posi-
tions, he saved the city $20,000 net.
Nov. 12, 1920.-Organized labor, being
responsible for the present form of gov-
ernment in a large measure, is very well
pleased with the progress and method of
application of the manager plan.
Dubuque Trades and Labor Congress.
ED. SCHUMPF, President.
S. N. KRAHL, Secretary.
2
t
20:
The Story of the
City-Manager Plan
D
URING the last ten years, 140 American
cities and towns have changed their mu-
nicipal charters and adopted the city-manager
form of government (diagrammed on the front
page).
This plan has aroused wide attention and the
results are already so striking that city mana-
gers are being seriously advocated in such
cities as Chicago, Cleveland and Kansas City.
The development of city managership as a
new profession is well under way. Thirty-
seven times, men who did well as managers of
small cities have been called to larger cities at
increased salaries. Of these managers, several
have gained promotion twice and three are now
in their fourth city;-for instance, Mr. E. A.
Beck started in 1914 as manager under ordi-
nance powers in Edgeworth-Sewickley, Pa.,
won promotion to Goldsboro, N. C., thence to
Auburn, Me., and finally to Lynchburg, Va.,
where he is now, each step in the ascent involv-
ing larger salary and opportunity. When a new
managership is created, or an old one vacated,
the successful managers of smaller cities are
usually the candidates who receive first con-
S
344
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3
sideration. Over half of the cities have chosen
their manager from out of town. The man-
agers have had conventions for interchange of
technical experience every year since 1914.
How It All Started.
In 1908 the Mayor and Council of Staunton,
Va., in disgust over the inefficiency of govern-
ment by councilmanic committees, hired Mr.
C. E. Ashburner and passed an ordinance dele-
gating to him all administrative detail and re-
sponsibility, giving him the title of "general
manager." He made good and became some-
what famous for his novel title. (Since then
Staunton has changed over from the make-
shift ordinance arrangement to the real city
manager plan.)
In the fall of 1910 Lockport, N. Y., was
looking for a chance to get aboard the com-
mission government movement, which was then
sweeping over the country. The Lockport
Board of Trade accordingly had to prepare
legislation and proceeded to improve on the
regular commission plan by combining its
single-elective-board feature with the Staunton
idea of an appointive manager. Lockport did
not succeed in getting its bill passed by the
legislature, but the "Lockport plan" was talked
about all over the country.
In the summer of 1912, Sumter, S. C., a city
of 8,000 inhabitants, adopted a new charter
ļ
4
embodying the Lockport idea and began oper-
ating under the new system early in the follow-
ing year. This was the first city therefore to
have the city-manager system. Two neigh-
boring towns, Hickory and Morganton, N. C.,
copied Sumter immediately.
Dayton, O., had been through a long siege
of wasteful, inefficient administration headed
by spoils politicians. When the charter com-
mission had thoroughly investigated all the pre-
vailing and proposed types of city government,
they concluded that Sumter had the best on
the market. Then came the big Dayton flood
of 1913, and the incapacity of the old govern-
ment was emphasized anew. When things be-
came normal again, the people adopted the new
charter by a big majority.
Springfield, O., took similar action a few
weeks later, the councils of both Springfield
and Dayton taking office in January, 1914.
Eleven other towns, small cities in Texas and
Michigan also installed the plan that year.
Since then, an increasing number of cities have
adopted it every year, the 1920 list of accre-
tions being by far the largest. (The full
list is printed on pages 28-30.) The pressure
on the legislatures became so widespread that
twelve states-Massachusetts, New York,
Virginia, Ohio, Oklahoma, Kansas, Idaho,
Montana, North Dakota, North Carolina,
5
Wisconsin and Louisiana-have passed state-
wide laws permitting their cities by a simple
referendum procedure to adopt the city mana-
ger plan.
Some Typical Results.
The city which first made the commission-
manager plan famous is Dayton, O. When
the first Dayton commissioners took office in
1914 they realized that the success of the new
government depended largely upon the per-
sonality and equipment of the man whom
they would select to fill the City Managership.
The job was offered to Colonel Goethals, the
builder of the Panama Canal, at $25,000 a year.
He declined. The commission then discovered
H. M. Waite, the city engineer of Cincinnati,
and right hand man of young Mayor Hunt,
whose brilliant reform administration there
was just closing. Waite had had a long and
important engineering experience. He refused
an offer of $15,000 a year from a private corpo-
ration and took the Dayton managership at
$12,500.
During the next seven years the new govern-
ment reduced the death rate and infant mor-
tality; inaugurated free nursing, medical serv-
ice and clinics, and extended food inspection;
passed pasteurization ordinance; eliminated
seven thousand dry vaults; substituted cor-
rection farm for work house; abolished prison
contract labor; established parole system; en-
larged Summer and Winter recreation pro-
gram; supervised over five thousand vacant lot,
home, school, and boys' and girls' gardens,
6
www

Is the Plan a Success?
1. No city which has tried this plan has
gone back to the old way.
2. The plan spreads fastest in regions.
which know most about it. For
example, it was adopted in Dayton
in 1913 and has spread rapidly
over Ohio and now twelve cities
of that state have it. It got an
early start in three small cities in
Michigan in 1914 and now twenty-
four places all over Michigan have
adopted it. Likewise in Texas
(seventeen cities) and in Virginia,
where it governs one-fifth of the
population of the state.
3. Numerous investigations, not always
friendly at the start, have been
made, and the reports have been
invariably favorable.
4.
Four out of every five new charters
now follow the city manager plan.
5. The "Model Charter," drafted for the
National Municipal League by an
eminent and well-informed com-
mittee including A. Lawrence
Lowell, President of Harvard, is
a city manager charter.
6. Political scientists without exception
consider it the best form, and the
college political science courses
teach it as accepted doctrine.
7
furnishing free seed; increased park area from
twenty to five hundred and forty-one acres;
increased public charities; inaugurated free
legal aid bureau handling one thousand cases.
a year; eliminated eleven loan shark com-
panies; operated free employment bureau for
women; reorganized police and fire depart-
ments; established training schools, and mem-
bers incorporated an educational society; or-
ganized crime prevention bureau and juvenile
police; employed police women; abolished
segregated district; motorized all fire appa-
ratus; passed building code and provided in-
spection of buildings, sanitation and smoke
prevention; established eight-hour day for all
city labor; constructed self-supporting garb-
age disposal plant; bought water supply and
lands for $67,000 as against an earlier bid four
times as high and gave abundant supply for the
first time; operated a municipal garage; saved
several hundred thousand dollars per year to
gas consumers by securing universal natural
gas at 34c instead of artificial gas at 85c; con-
tracted for better street lighting at lower rates
despite modern costs; provided adequate bud-
get procedure; central purchasing; central
billing; reduced floating debt from $125,000
to $50,000 first year; put civil service on hon-
est basis; provided annual audit of accounts;
publicity on all city matters; appointed city
plan commission and numerous other citizen
advisory boards; fostered a civic music league;
published 35,000 annual reports, annually dis-
tributing same to all homes.
Norfolk, Va., (pop. 115,777) had doubled
its population suddenly during the war yet
8
the new government, dating from September,
1918, reduced the inherited deficit $2,000,000.
added $1,500,000 of public improvements,
made the police and fire departments the best
paid in the country, established a juvenile court,
employed visiting nurses, opened free medical
and dental clinics, and established a city hospi-
tal. Through cooperation between the city-
planning commission and the citizens, a street
extension project which would ordinarily have
cost the city $250,000, was completed for $20,-
000. A 50-acre water frontage worth $750,-
000 was acquired for $250,000. Fourteen new
playgrounds were opened and recreation de-
veloped for adults, a municipal tennis tourna-
ment, for instance. Infant mortality was radi-
cally reduced.
Wheeling, W. V., (pop. 54,322) adopted
the plan in 1917 and when the first manager
died in 1919, this was what they said of his
regime: Raised all wages of all city employ-
ees. Saved $12,000 by combining jobs. Mo-
torized the fire department. Wiped out the
red light district and gambling. Gave city a
new electric light system without extra cost.
Negotiated new contracts that saved the city
$9,500 on gas and $20,000 on electricity per
Made the traction company pay half
year.
"The city manager plan of government has
been tried and has been found to have the
advantage of simplicity and directness of re-
sponsibility."-From resolution of Pennsyi-
vania Chamber of Commerce, 1920, urging a
law permitting Pennsylvania cities to adopt
this plan.
-

9
the cost of two new bridges. Settled garbage
problem. Discovered old government had
signed away city's rights in a telephone merger,
started suit and recovered cash and privileges
worth $110,000. Sold old city gas plant to
good advantage. Defeated street railroad fare.
increase by proving over-valuation.
Kalamazoo, Mich., (pop. 48,487). The new
government found $2,000,000 more real estate
values by equalization and $82,500 of property
that had escaped taxation. Established a bud-
get and lived within it. Cleared off inherited
defiicit of $82,000. Centralized purchasing.
Saved the people $100,000 annually by earn-
ing better fire insurance rate. Established
venereal disease clinics. Sold coal from city

A Labor Resolution.
From the Wheeling (W. Va.) Register, Sept.
13, 1920.
"At a four-hour session The Ohio Valley
Trades and Labor Assembly went on record
yesterday at the semi-monthly meeting in en-
dorsing the commission-manager form of gov-
ernment, as it has been operative in this city
for the past several years. Action as taken
by the assembly was prompted by a communi-
cation received from the municipal officials of
Lorain, Ohio, asking labor's opinion of such,
after having been tried out here. The princi-
pal reason that the manager form of govern-
ment was sanctioned by the assembly is that
it eliminates politics in the selection of the
officials to conduct the affairs of the city."
10
yard at cost. United private and city nursing
under full-time city physician. Enlarged the
parks 30 acres. Made the government more
understandable by a municipal exhibit, by a
bulletin periodically distributed to every home
and by a readable annual report.
Alameda, Cal., (pop. 28,806). Adopted
modern zoning ordinance excluding business
from residential areas. Enlarged parks.
Cleaned streets by direct labor at one-third of
the old contract price. Now cleans principal
streets twice a day instead of three times a
week. Makes a profit on garbage. In 1919
carried through street construction at 10 per
cent less per mile than the old government did
at pre-war prices.
Waltham, Mass., (pop. 30,891). Although
labor went up 54% and materials 82%, the
tax rate went up only 8% in the years from
1917 to 1919. Combined service of water and
engineering departments, saving salaries and
increasing efficiency. Avoided $300,000 ex-
penditure for new water supply by stopping
Îeaks and waste of 33%. Central purchase and

A Labor Editor Who Knows.
E. A. Nunan, editor of the Labor Review,
Dayton, published by and for organized labor.
"From the standpoint of the laboring man
no objection can be voiced to the commission-
manager form of government. In fact, our
experience in Dayton has shown the system
to be satisfactory in every respect; not mean-
ing that labor receives any special considera-
tion, but it does receive all that it asks-an
even break."
11
cash discounts. Community street dances and
free movies.
St. Augustine, Fla., (pop. 6,192). Paid off
inherited floating debt of $37,000, and put
$16,000 into a sinking fund on water bonds.
Adopted full instead of quarter valuation.
Modernized the accounting system which has
since been widely copied. Crime practically
eliminated. Weekly street dances. Concerts,
bowling greens, quoit pitching and other recre-
ations established.
Cartersville, Ga., (pop. 5,810). Council un-
der this plan has now twice been re-elected
without contest or a single dissenting vote!
Griffin, Ga., (pop. 8,240). Saved $43,000
the first year while improving every depart-
ment. Did more street work in one year than
in any previous five years.
Sandusky, O., (pop. 22,897). Since this plan
took effect reduced bonded debt $230,000 and
paid off $25,000 of floating debt. The 1919
operating expenses, despite ascending wages
and materials, were less than under old plan
in 1914 and 1915. Saved 180,000,000 gallons
of water leakage.
Ashtabula, O., (pop. 22,082). In the recent
period when costs increased 50%, lived within
its income from the old tax rate. Municipal
ownership of street car line voted.
Grand Rapids, Mich., (pop. 137,634). All
sidewalks in city brought up to standard. Sew-
age problem solved. The city has assumed
care of all destitute families. School dentist
and medical inspector work extended. Large
public works carried through effectively.
12
Jackson, Mich., (pop. 48,374). All public
works planned for fifty years of growth on
basis of complete topographical survey. Pub-
lic health nurses visit every new baby, rich or
poor. Seven clinics. Pre-natal clinic has re-
duced infant mortality. Restaurants rated for
cleanliness. In coal shortage, city bought
abandoned coal mine in neighborhood, pumped
it out, operated it successfully and profitably
till shortage was relieved, then leased the mine
at a profit.
Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., (pop. 12,096) saved
$67,000 in two years. Conducts municipal
entertainments, concerts and lectures.
f
Manistee, Mich., (pop. 9,690). New gov-
ernment found $80,000 authorized for new
trunk sewer, but spent $1,200 cleaning tons of
debris from old sewer which was then found
adequate.
Tyler, Texas, (pop. 12,085). For the first
time in many years operated without a deficit.
Coalgate, Okla., (pop. 4,000). Found de-
partments badly run down, water supply so
meagre that it was only available for house-
hold use six hours a day. Street lights "re-
fused to burn without constant coaxing, sewer
system was stopped up in several places and
disposal plant was out of business."-All of
which was speedily corrected.
San Jose, Cal., (pop. 39,604). ran in 1919
with less expenditures than 1916 despite dou-
bled costs. Fire loss only 50c per capita. Fi-
nances in order. Surplus in the city treasury.
Alhambra, Cal., (pop. 10,000). Purchased
the water system and ran it for $14,000 a year
less than the private company did.
13
Auburn, Me., (pop. 16,985). First year in
over twenty years which closed without a defi-
cit or a floating debt.
Watertown, N. Y., (pop. 31,263). New
government January, 1920, found $75,000 of
unpaid accounts, some of them five years old;
3,000,000 gallons of water, enough to supply
the city, wasted daily; decentralized and ques-
tionable purchasing and bookkeeping; ridicu-
lous red tape; police department 50% under-
manned; fire department unduly costly;-all of
which problems are being vigorously and effec-
tively corrected by the experienced manager,
Mr. Bingham, formerly manager of Waltham
and Norwood, Mass.
Wichita, Kans., (pop. 72,128). New gov-
ernment reelected after two years with slight
contest; first time any administration had
unanimous press support. Built sewer with
direct labor for $214,000 when lowest con-

W. G. Lee, National President, Brotherhood
of Railway Trainmen, says:
"I have personally investigated how the
city manager plan has worked out in Dayton.
I have asked railroad men about it. I don't
see how any workingman can oppose the
plan after investigating it.
"I see nothing undemocratic in having the
city manager selected by the commissioners.
A city manager doesn't rule anybody. He
doesn't pass any laws. He doesn't determine
any public policies.
"I'm for the city manager plan because it
makes possible the elimmation of politics from
public business, and that means better govern-
ment and lower taxes.
"I should like to see Cleveland adopt the city
manager plan.”
i
14
tractors' bid was $316,000. Began long-needed
flood prevention work. Municipal entertain-
ments, admission 10 to 50c, with grand opera
singers, etc. Venereal disease clinic started.
Tax levy not increased despite modern costs.
Hays, Kans., (pop. 2,339). Old govern-
ment had never lived within its income. New
government increased revenue of electric plant
134% while decreasing cost of operation 11%.
Increased water receipts 116% while cost de-
creased 71%. Overcame deficit of $22,000.
Modern budget and no deficits.
Webster City, Iowa., (pop. 6,000) saved
$36,000 a year since adoption of the manager
plan.
Phoenix, Ariz., (pop. 29,053) despite rapid
increase in costs, the valuation and tax levy
were not increased in 1919.
These are instances. So many such accounts
are in evidence that the cumulative mass of
them is overwhelming. That does not mean
that there are no exceptions. There are and
always will be. In a few of the towns the
change in the form of government has not
altered the prevailing complacent stagnation
and the improvement has been slight. There
have been a few odd cases where the people
have elected the old political crowd to the
Council and the Council has either chosen a
local chronic job-holder as manager or has
made miserable the life of an imported ex-
perienced man by petty nagging and cheap
politics, but even in these cases there has been
15
a cold air that blew in with the Council's clear-
cut responsibility for all results and there hast
been an unexpected amount of progress. In
some towns the business crowd has dominated
the new government, in others it has been
labor.
The city managers are not miraculous ex-
perts; the great majority of them are hard-
working full-time-and-then-some practical men
with alluring chances of promotion ahead of
them if they make good and a rather unusual
opportunity to do it. Many a mayor has
wished he had their freedom from red tape,
and at the annual conventions of the City
Managers' Association when anecdotes are
told of the ineptitudes and follies of the older
regimes, it is often observed and freely ad-
mitted that the officers of the old-style tangle-
foot governments never had the managers'
chances to give good administration.
Labor and Civil Service.
One of the favorite political manoeuvers to
defeat city manager charters is to stir up the
municipal employees by the assertion that they
will lose their civil service protection and be-
come subject to the whim of the new manager
who will discharge them all including the uni-
formed fire and police forces. In no manager-
city has any thing of this sort ever transpired.
On the contrary it happens that the record of
G
16
the manager cities in dealing with labor and
the civil service is particularly good. They
have been quick to adopt the eight-hour day
and to advance the rates of pay. Promotions
have been by merit and as to most of the cities
it is fair to claim that politics has disappeared
from the administrative personnel. These re-
sults are natural enough in a government freed
from red tape and headed by an executive who
can work almost as freely as a private business
executive. Just as it is the enlightened pro-
gressive business house which treats its em-
ployees generously and gets, in return, high-
grade service and low labor turnover, so the
manager cities are the ones which have con-
trived to adjust their budgets most promptly in
order to treat their workers right.
The Underlying Principle.
The reason why the manager plan averages
so markedly higher in quality of government
is because it is more democratic; i. e., more
sensitive and obedient to public opinion.
Two unusual basic features explain this su-
periority in true democracy, namely:
1. The "Short Ballot" principle.
2. Unification of powers.
(1) The "Short Ballot" principle is the doc-
trine that only a few offices should ever be
scheduled to be filled by election at any one
17
time so as to permit adequate and unconfused
popular examination of the candidates. In
other democratic countries the plan of govern-
ment usually calls on the people to fill just
one single office on a given day, e. g., member
of Parliament or member of a city council
from a ward. We really hold not an election
but ten, twenty, even fifty, elections in a
single election day! Our complex American
ballots frequently deserve to be labelled:
"For politicians only, not for the people." The
slogan of the Short Ballot movement runs
"The long ballot is the politicians' ballot; the
short ballot is the people's ballot."
The commission manager charters respect
this Short Ballot principle. It would be a
violation of principle if the council were made
so large that the typical voter was called upon
to vote for more than five officers simultane-
ously. When the duty of making more than five
selections at any one time is thrust upon the
voter, the voter ceases to make an individual
choice for every office and begins to fall back
upon ready-made tickets prepared for him—

From Labor News, Watertown. Editorial,
May, 1920:
"The Labor News helped to elect the new
city administration, and we never have re-
gretted it... We predict confidently that
the new government will win an unshakable
hold upon the esteem of our citizens."
18
by corruptible cliques or machines. Obviously,
when the ballot thus requires more choices
than his majesty, the voter, cares to remember,
power gravitates away from the voters into
the hands of the ticket-makers (politicians)
who thus acquire opportunities which are open
to great abuse. But when politics is made
clear, simple and understandable by a very
short ballot, the voter can protect himself—
and usually he will.
In most of the cities which have thus far
adopted the plan, the number of councilmen is
five. In the larger cities the number can
well be more than five, providing, however,
that terms expire in rotation so that not too
many would be chosen at any one election,
or provided that the ballot, as the voter sees
it, is shortened in some other way, as by divid-
ing the city into wards, each of them electing
a portion of the Council.*
(2) "Unification of powers" (the other
basic merit of the manager plan) means the re-
posing of all power in a single place-the
Council. This gives to the whole mechanism
the single controlling composite mind which
is essential to the success of any organism.
(The mayor-and-council plan, for example,
lacks unification of powers and permits dead-
*For a full discussion of the far-reaching philosophy
of the Short Ballot, see "Short Ballot Principles" pub-
lished by Houghton Mifflin Co., or the pamphlets of The
Short Ballot Organization, New York.
19
{
locks and "passing the buck," since the mayor
and the council are prevented by the charter
from getting together and composing their
differences by so simple an expedient as the
taking of a joint vote.) It would be a viola-
tion of the principles of the city-manager plan,
for instance, to give to a separate mayor the
power to veto the acts of the council. It would
then be a two-headed city instead of a one-
headed city.
It is easier for the people to control a uni-
fied government than a ramshackle one. For
example, the council in the manager plan has
power to raise the taxes and hence has power
to yield to a public demand for better serv-
ice; but at the same time, it has power to re-
duce service and yield to a public demand for
low taxes. It cannot say in the first case-
"we haven't the money" nor in the second
case "We can't make the administration
economical." It must always accept the com-
plete responsibility, as there is no one else on
whom blame can be thrust.
App
Advantages of a City Manager.
The advantages of having a city manager
are obvious to any business man. For coun-
sel, many minds are needed; for execution,
a single directing head is required. Universal
business practice demonstrates this as does also
the superior success which we have had with
20
our typical public school systems where a
school board does all its work through a hired
superintendent.
It is essential to the plan that the city
manager shall be appointive. Even the freak
feature of one city-manager charter, which
subjects the manager to direct recall by the
people is damaging to the principle involved,
since it diverts responsibility from the council.
He must be completely the servant of the coun-
cil, else it cannot fairly be forced to take re-
sponsibility for his acts. He must in no way
be independent of it.
Making it possible to hire the city manager
from out of town not only has been helpful
in getting trained service, but is highly im-
portant to the growing profession of city man-
agement. If a city manager could not look for-
ward to similar positions elsewhere in case he
is displaced or outgrows his town, a powertul
incentive toward the development of personal
efficiency would be lost. The fact that the
city manager is not necessarily involved in
local politics, or in disputes on matters of gen-
eral policy, permits comparative permanence in
the office of the chief administrator of the city,
a most important thing to the development of
a smoothly running mechanism. In all plans
involving elective executives long tenures are
rare. To rid us of the amateur and transient
21
executives which our present mayors are, and
to facilitate the substitution of experienced
executives in municipal administration, is
enough in itself to justify the coming of the
city-manager plan.
For the first time the people have gotten
their own corporation into such shape that it
can hold its own with private corporations in
competition for competent executive talent,
providing these attractive conditions: tenure
for as long as the man "makes good," chance
for advancement and professional reputation
and a chance to achieve things by familiar
straightforward unincumbered business meth-
ods.
Democracy of the Plan.
A generation ago reformers exercised their
wits to devise complications of governmental
machinery in a vain endeavor to prevent bad
government. Thereby they made government
so complex and roundabout that no one but.
professional politicians could operate it and
the rank and file of the citizenship were left
almost helpless spectators. Government by a
compact ruling class variously called "the poli-

"I regard the commission-manager plan of
municipal government as a marked advance
over any plan hitherto tried in this country,
from the standpoint of both efficiency and
democracy."-Woodrow Wilson.
22
ticians," "the ring," "the machine," etc., was
the result. But such government by politicians
is not democracy; it is oligarchy. The old idea
was intended to be democratic but it didn't
"democ!"
To-day the winning principle is to simplify
and clarify the processes of government so
that everybody can and will understand and
take part effectively without special attention
or effort. Politics under the manager plan be-
comes so primitively bare and simple that there
is nothing for a politician to be a specialist in.
Every citizen can and does pick out his own
favorite five candidates without the aid of a
party label or ticket and without letting inter-
ested persons guide his pencil for him. There
is no one for the candidate to appeal to but
the voters; the old intermediary "machine"
with its ready-made ticket has no function.
The busy ordinary non-political citizen who
counts for so little in the old politics, finds
himself exercising his full share of control in
the new plan.
That is democracy and it explains why the
plan works better. For the old government
obeyed a party machine which was wide open
to the intrusion of new members whose mo-
tives might be corrupt whereas the new gov-
ernment connects direct with the masses who
are usually ready to applaud and reward those
23
who serve them well, and, who at any rate are
the best base to build upon.
Manager charters are usually primitively
simple and short. They safely extend munici-
pal powers in the most free-handed way.
More things are done by flexible administra-
tive rulings, and less and less by wordy, in-
elastic ordinances. The corporation counsels
have little to do in digging up ancient ordi-
nances or interpreting or stretching the chart-
er. Red tape simply disappears and actions.
that once took weeks are attended to in a few
minutes.
The Most Democratic Plan.
The first-thought objection to the commis-
sion-manager plan is that it is undemocratic
to make its most important single official ap-
pointive instead of "directly responsible to the
people by election." Democracy, however, con-
sists in controlling public officers, not neces-
sarily in electing them, and that way is most
democratic which gives the people the surest
control. The most effective way for tne people
to get a firm grip on the neck of the govern-
mental organization is by sending a representa-
tive group of citizens down to city hall to see.
what the executive is doing, with power to fire
him and get another any day of the week if he
is unsatisfactory or insubordinate. Compared
with that method, direct election and recall are
24
crude, clumsy, insufficient and relatively un-
democratic.
Furthermore, a capacity in government for
vigorous effective execution of policies is es-
sential to true democracy. A policy desired
by the people and obediently voted for by their
representatives may yet be defeated by jelly-
fish inefficiency in execution. Administration
by a trained manager is therefore more demo-
cratic, (i. e., obedient) than by Tom, Dick or
Harry.
It
This new government is not a cure-all.
is capable of going in the wrong direction like
any other human organization. A city chart-
er is like an automobile-nothing mechanical
can be devised that will keep the owner from
driving it up the wrong fork of the road. The
makers must strive to make the car infallibly
obedient to the steering-wheel and completely
under the driver's control. The city-manager
automobile is of all kinds the one that is least
able to defy public sentiment or escape popu-
lar control. It is the best make and the easiest
for the general public to drive without the
help of politician chauffeurs.

"Basing my opinion on what I have been
able to gather since I arrived in Norfolk, I
should say that the city manager plan is work-
ing out successfully and well here. I am very
much interested
""
J. HAMPTON MOORE,
Mayor of Philadelphia (1920).
25
STANDARD CHARTER DETAILS.
The city-manager plan, (or council-manager,
or commission-manager plan,) provides for a
single elective governing board of popular
representatives usually called a "council." No
other elective officers. The title of Mayor is
often given to the chairman of the council,
but he has no veto or separate administrative
powers. The council receives nominal sala-
ries, or none, and the members give only their
spare time to municipal work, and thus are
left free to continue their private careers with-
out interruption.
Their functions are to hire and supervise
an appointive chief administrator, the city
manager, who holds office at their pleasure;
also to pass ordinances and to contribute to
the city government the amateur and repre-
sentative element.
The city manager, as chief executive, ap-
points, directs and can remove the rest of the
administrative staff, subject to the usual civil
service restrictions. He is not necessarily or
usually a local resident. Supposedly he is an
expert in matters of municipal administration.
In small cities he is frequently a practical civil
engineer, thereby making a separate city en-
gineer unnecessary. In large cities broad
executive experience is, of course, a major re-
quirement. The city manager's salary is the
largest in the city's service.
A logical exception to the appointive power
of the city manager is a civil service commis-
sion appointive directly by the council.
Non-partisan ballot. All nominations are
made by petition and appear on the ballot at
26
the primary election in alphabetical order or
in an order determined by lot or by rotation,
without party labels. The highest names in
the primary election go on the ballot at a final
election two or three weeks later. If a po-
litical party endorses a candidate, the action is
apt to be denounced as contrary to the spirit
and intent of the charter as adopted by the
people and the partisan endorsement becomes.
an unwelcome handicap to the candidate. Un-
der both the old commission plan and the man-
ager plan, the non-partisan election feature
works exceedingly well.
Several cities combine the two elections into
one by various methods of which the Hare
plan of proportional representation* used in
Ashtabula, O., and Sacramento, Cal., is con-
sidered the most promising.
Initiative, Referendum and Recall. Nearly
all the city-manager charters include these
much-discussed features, but as yet they have
been little used in any of these cities. In cities,
at least, these devices do not seem to have
proved to be as important as their supporters
assert nor so dangerous as their opponents
fear. The city-manager government is so
promptly responsive to public opinion that "the
gun behind the door" stays there.
*Literature on this subject is obtainable free from the
American Proportional Representation League, Philadel-
phia.
"It is my belief that the city manager form
of government is the true way out for the
American cities."
Sta

OTTO KAHN,
New York Banker (1920).
27
141 CITY-MANAGER MUNICIPALITIES CORRECTED TO JAN. 1, 1921
1920
POP.
STATE CITY
Ariz.
Ark.
Cal.
Colo.
Conn.
Fla.
PHOENIX
HOT SPRINGS
ALAMEDA
ALHAMBRA
BAKERSFIELD
IN
EFFECT
29,053 Apr. 1914
14,000 Apr. 1917
28,806 May 1917
10,000 July 1915
18,638 Apr. 1915
45,334 May 1921
70,000 June 1921
39,604 July 1916
19,441 Jan. 1918
10,989 Jan. 1918
PASADENA
SACRAMENTO
SAN JOSE
SANTA BARBARA
BOULDER
COLORADO SPRGS, 29,572 Apr. 1921
5,300 Mar. 1915
3,581 Feb. 1914 Mich.
8,854 Nov. 1920
3,000 Jan. 1921
Ga.
Durango
Montrose
W. Hartford
New Smyrna
Ocala
St. Augustine
Sanford
Tallahassee
TAMPA
W. Palm Beach
BRUNSWICK
Cartersville
Decatur
Griffin
1920
POP.
5,610 Feb. 1918
6,192 July 1915
5,588 Jan. 1920
5,637 Feb. 1920
51,252 Jan. 1921
8,659 Dec. 1919
14,413 Jan. 1921
5,810 Aug. 1917
6,150 Jan. 1921
8,240 Dec. 1918
STATE
Iowa
Kans.
Maine
Mass.
CITY
ROME
DUBUQUE
Webster City
EL DORADO
Hays
McCracken
WICHITA
Winfield
AUBURN
Mansfield
Middleboro
NORWOOD
WALTHAM
Albion
Alma
ALPENA
BAY CITY
Big Rapids
Birmingham
Cadillac
Crystal Falls
Grand Haven
GRAND RAPIDS
Grosse Pte. Shores
JACKSON
KALAMAZOO
IN
EFFECT
13,252 Apr. 1919
39,141 June 1920
6,000 Oct. 1916
10,995 July 1917
3,300 May 1919
1,000 May 1919
72,128 Apr. 1917
7,933 Apr. 1921
16,985 Jan. 1918
6,255 Feb. 1921
8,500 Jan. 1921
12,627 Jan. 1915
30,891 Jan. 1918
8,354 Jan. 1918
7,542 May 1919
11,101 Apr. 1916
47,554 Apr. 1921
5,100 Apr. 1914
3,694 Apr. 1918
9,734 Mar. 1914
3,394 Apr. 1918
7,224 Apr. 1915
137,634 Mar. 1917
1,200 June 1916
48,374 Jan. 1915
48,487 June 1918
28
STATE
Minn.
N. Mex.
N. Y.
N. C.
CITY
Lapeer
Manistee
MUSKEGON
Otsego
Petoskey
Plymouth
PONTIAC
Portland
Royal Oak
St. Johns
SAULT STE. MARIE
Three Rivers
Anoka
Morris
ALBUQUERQUE
AUBURN
NEWBURGH
NIAGARA FALLS
Sherrill
WATERTOWN
Elizabeth City
GASTONIA
GOLDSBORO
1920
IN
POP. EFFECT
4,500 May 1919
9,690 May 1914
36,570 Jan. 1920
4,000 May 1918
5,064 Apr. 1916
2,500 Dec. 1917
34,273 Nov. 1920
2,747 Jan. 1919
6,000 May 1918
4,035 Aug. 1918
12,096 Dec. 1917
5,209 Apr. 1918
4,287 Apr. 1914
3,500 Jan. 1914
15,157 Jan. 1918
36,142 Jan. 1920
30,272 Jan. 1916
50,760 Jan. 1916
1,500 June 1916
31,263 Jan. 1920
8,925 Apr. 1915
12,871 Aug. 1919
11,296 July 1917
STATE
Ohio
Okla.
CITY
Hickory
HIGH POINT
Morganton
Thomasville
AKRON
ASHTABULA
DAYTON
E. CLEVELAND
Gallipolis
LIMA
Painesville
SANDUSKY
S. Charleston
SPRINGFIELD
Westerville
Xenia
Cherokee
Coalgate
Collinsville
Duncan
Madill
Mangum
MCALESTER
MUSKOGEE
1920
POP.
5,076 May 1913
14,302 May 1915
2,867 May 1913
5,676 May 1915
208,435 Jan. 1920
22,082 Jan. 1916
152,559 Jan. 1914
27,292 Jan. 1918
6,070 Jan. 1918
43,900 Jan. 1922
6,886 Jan. 1920
22,897 Jan.
Jan. 1916
1,500 Jan. 1918
60,840 Jan. 1914
3,500 Jan. 1918
9,110 Jan. 1918
3,100 Oct. 1920
4,000 July 1914
3,500 Feb. 1914
3,463 Nov. 1920
1,760 Nov. 1917
3,405 Nov. 1914
12,095 Nov. 1919
30,277 Apr. 1920
IN
EFFECT
29
STATE
Oregon
S. C.
Tenn.
309
Texas
CITY
Norman
Nowata
Sallisaw
Walters
LaGrande
Beaufort
Rock Hill
Sumter
Alcoa
Kingsport
Murfreesboro
AMARILLO
BEAUMONT
BROWNSVILLE
Brownwood
Bryan
Denton
Eastland
Lubbock
Lufkin
RANGER
1920
POP.
IN
EFFECT
5,004 Sept. 1919
8,000 May 1920
3,000 Nov. 1919
3,600 Sept. 1919
6,913 Oct. 1913
3,700 May 1915
8,809 Feb. 1915
9,508 Jan. 1913
3,358 July 1919
5,692 Mar. 1917
5,935
1920
15,494 Dec. 1913
40,422 Apr. 1920
11,791 Jan. 1915
8,225 Apr. 1916
6,295 May 1917
7,626 Apr. 1914
9,368 Jan. 1919
3,958
1918
4,878 Apr. 1918
16,295 May 1919
9,392 June 1916
STATE
CITY
SHERMAN
Stamford
Taylor
Terrell
TYLER
Yoakum
Virginia Blackstone
Bristol
Hampton
LYNCHBURG
NEWPORT NEWS
NORFOLK
Petersburg
PORTSMOUTH
Radford
ROANOKE
STAUNTON
Suffolk
CHARLESTON
WHEELING
WESTMOUNT, P. Q.
1920
POP.
IN
EFFECT
15,031 Apr. 1915
3,704 June 1918
5,965 Apr. 1914
8,349 Aug. 1919
12,085 Apr. 1915
7,500 Apr. 1915
2,000 June 1914
6,720 Sept. 1919
7,000 Sept. 1920
30,071 Sept. 1920
1920
35,596 Oct.
115,777 Sept. 1918
31,002 Sept. 1920
54,387 Jan. 1917
4,627 Sept. 1920
50,842 Sept. 1918
10,617 Sept. 1920
9,123 Sept. 1919
39,608 May 1915
54,322 July 1917
14,579 Apr. 1913
W. Va.
San Angelo
Canada
There are, in addition, about 60 towns, mostly in states where city manager charters are not yet
legalized, which employ so-called city managers by ordinance and under various make-shift con-
ditions. Only the towns which have adopted the plan by charter are listed above.
References.
"THE NEW MUNICIPAL PROGRAM," including
text of the "Model City Charter," prepared
by a Committee of the National Municipal
League. The Model Charter is widely used
by charter commissions. Its provisions are
explained in chapters by members of the
committee. Obtainable from National Mu-
nicipal League, 261 Broadway, New York.
392 pgs. $2.60 postpaid.
"CITY MANAGER IN DAYTON," by C. E.
Rightor. An intensive study of the work-
ing of the plan in one city during six years
by the director of the local Bureau of Mu-
nicipal Research. 271 pgs. Macmillan &
Co. $3.25 postpaid.
"CITY MANAGERS' YEAR BOOK."
The Pro-
ceedings of the Annual Conventions of the
City Managers' Association. Progress re-
ports from cities operating under manager
plan; statistics and bibliography. H. G.
Otis, Secretary, 1812 Tribune Building,
New York. 50c. postpaid.
"SELECTED ARTICLES ON THE CITY Manager
PLAN OF GOVERNMENT.” E. C. Mabie,
comp. 245 pgs. H. W. Wilson Co. $1.25.
"NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW-the Maga-
zine of Civics"-covers the city manager
news systematically, with frequent articles
dealing with the experience of the various
cities. 50c per issue. $5.00 per year. Na-
tional Municipal League, 261 Broadway,
New York.
31
JS 34L CAMS
L
National Municipal League
Established 1894. 2,800 Members.
President,..
Secretary..
Treasurer...
Office: 261 Broadway, New York
Committee on Municipal Program
M. N. BAKER.
PROF. FRANK G. BATES.
RICHARD S. CHILDS...
PROF. JOHN A. FAIRLIE.
MAYO FESLER...
PROF. A. R. HATTON..
PROF. HERMAN G. JAMES.
DR. A. LAWRENCE LOWELL.
CHARLES E. HUGHES
HAROLD W. DODDS
.FRANK A. VANDERLIP
•
•
•
· •
Cambridge, Mass.
PROF. WILLIAM BENNETT MUNRO.. Cambridge, Mass.
Boston, Mass.
ROBERT TREAT PAINE.
THOMAS H. REED...
San Francisco, Cal.
Elmhurst, N. Y.
Philadelphia, Pa.
• •
DR. DELOS F. WILCOX.
CLINTON ROGERS WOODRUFF.
.Montclair, N. J.
Bloomington, Ind.
..New York
Urbana, Ill.
Brooklyn, N. Y.
Cleveland, Ohio
..Austin, Tex.
•
•
•
If you are interested in this kind of thing and
would like to keep in touch with and help along the
movement for the city manager plan and other good
civic movements, too, such as city planning, zoning,
county managers, budgets, short ballot, state admin-
istrative reorganizations, civil service reform, mu-
nicipal home rule, election law reform, traction con-
trol, initiative, referendum and recall, etc, etc., you
ought to join the National Municipal League, $5.00
a year. Members receive the "National Municipal
Review" each month. Sample copy free on request.

ALETT
JS
3 by sit
ce Commission
Pi
Government
/
with a
City Manager
•
The National Short Ballot Organization
383 Fourth Avenue, New York
A
Essentials of the Plan
1. UNIFICATION OF POWERS.
All powers of the city to be vested in a single group of
elective officers, constituting a council or commission.
2. THE SHORT BALLOT.
The council to be elected in one of the following ways
(a) At large (if the number of members to be choser
at any one time is five or less).
(b) By wards.
(c) By proportional representation.
3. UNIFIED EXECUTIVE ORGANIZATION.
Non-political executive functions delegated to an offi-
cial appointed by the commission to serve during their
pleasure, to be known as the "City Manager" or by
other appropriate title; position of city manager to be
open to non-residents; salary of city manager to be de-
termined by the council and variable from time to time;
the city manager's executive powers to include appoint-
ment and removal and general control of all subordi-
nates, subject to such restrictions (e. g., civil service
regulation and audit) as may be necessary to prevent
abuses of power without diffusing responsibility.
The Plan to Date*
By H. S. GILBERTSON, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, THE NATIONAL
SHORT BALLOT ORGANIZATION.
X
In December, 1910, the board of trade at Lockport,
N. Y., grew weary of the way municipal affairs in that
town were being run under the familiar mayor-and-
council plan of organization. Like hundreds of other
such bodies, they turned almost instinctively to com-
mission government. But there was no optional law
on the statute books at that time which they could adopt
by the simple expedient of filing a petition with the city
clerk and holding a special election.
However, there had just been worked out, in the office
of the New York Short Ballot Organization, a plan of
government which it was hoped would conserve the best
features of the commission plan and eliminate some of
its weaknesses. This organization invited the Lockport
Board of Trade to take its bill and present it for passage
in the New York legislature. This suggestion was
promptly acted on and the bill thus introduced became
widely known as the "Lockport Proposal."
The form of government set forth in this measure was
based upon the idea of unifying all the powers of the
city in a single body elected according to the principle
of the Short Ballot. In this respect it followed explicitly
the example of the so-called commission plan. But on
the operating side of the city government the new plan
introduced an important change. Commission govern-
ment up to the time of the Lockport proposal gave a place
to each member of the city council at the head of one
of the departments of the city government, in either an
active or a supervisory capacity. Every member of the
council or commission was expected to devote all, or at
least a large part, of his time to the service of the city
and was paid a substantial salary. It seemed to the
*November, 1915.
3
framers of the new plan that the commission form
made insufficient provision for the executive control of
the departments. A mayor was designated in most of
the charters as the head of the government, but inasmuch
as he derived his authority directly from the same
source as the other commissioners, it seemed not at all
surprising that in many of the cities there was a lack
of harmony and subordination to executive authority.
In other words, commission government of the Des
Moines and Galveston type was regarded as a five-headed
affair, in which every commissioner prided himself on
being directly responsible to the people for the manage-
ment of his department without due regard to his rela-
tions to his colleagues.
A SINGLE HEADED ADMINISTRATION
In order to overcome this tendency to disunion the
new plan provided that the commission or council should
act always as a group and only in a supervisory capacity.
The actual operation of the city departments was placed
under the control of a chief executive to be known as
the "city manager," who was to be appointed by the
commission, removable by them at their pleasure and
responsible directly to them. In this way there was
worked out a plan which exactly coincides to the organ-
ization of most private business corporations and one
which has been familiar to American people for a long
time in school departments, in which the board of edu-
cation corresponds to the commission and the city man-
ager to the trained superintendent of public schools.
It was further provided that the city manager need
not at the time of his appointment be a resident of the
city, so that the council was given practically unlimited
opportunity to secure the ablest executive available
anywhere in the country.
.
Lockport had no opportunity to vote on such a
4
measure for fully three years, but there was a city in
South Carolina by the name of Sumter, where the Lock-
port idea took root. On June 12th, 1912, the people there
voted on an option between what may be termed the
old style commission plan and the new city manager
plan.
SUMTER TRIES THE PLAN
The latter was adopted by a majority of three to one.
Early in the fall the first commission was elected, and
there appeared at once one of the advantages of the new
system over the old; the commission of three men which
was elected was, according to all reports, composed of
the strongest and ablest of men that could be brought
together. They were not attracted to public office by
the salary, which was only $200 a year. Nor, on the
other hand, were they deterred from seeking office by
the prospect of having to perform detailed administra-
tive duties, which, under the regular commission plan,
would have been imposed upon them. They accepted
the responsibility of running the government as a Board
of Directors, knowing that under the charter it was not
only possible, but required of them, to delegate the de-
tails of administration to a competent, trained man
who would spend all his time upon the job. They set
out to secure such a man by sending this advertisement
broadcast throughout the country:
"October 14, 1912.
"The City of Sumter hereby announces that applications
will be received from now till December the first for the
office of City Manager of Sumter.
"This is a rapidly growing manufacturing city of 10,000
population, and the applicant should be competent to oversee
public works, such as paving, lighting, water supply, etc.
"An engineer of standing and ability would be preferred.
"State salary desired and previous experience in municipal
work.
"The City Manager will hold office as long as he gives
satisfaction to the commission. He will have complete
administrative control of the city, subject to the approval
of the board of three elected commissioners.
"There will be no politics in the job; the work will be
purely that of an expert.
5
"Local citizenship is not necessary, although a knowledge
of local conditions and traditions will, of course, be taken
into consideration.
“A splendid opportunity for the right man to make a
record in a new and coming profession, as this is the first
time that a permanent charter position of this sort has been
created in the United States.
Thus did Sumter emulate the practice of the highly
advanced German cities which never select their city
managers—or burgomasters, as they are called there-
for political reasons, but solely for their ability to
administer their jobs. In January, 1913, Mr. Worthing-
ton, a non-resident civil engineer was appointed the first
city manager of Sumter. Mr. Worthington held this
position for nine months during which he put to good
use his engineering training by materially reducing the
cost of government.
SPREAD OF THE MOVEMENT
Sumter had not been operating long under the system
when the town of Hickory, N. C., became interested in
a new city charter. One of her leading citizens dis-
covered the Lockport law and proceeded to adapt it to
his town. A charter was drawn up which followed this
model verbatim, except that the city manager was
charged with certain specific engineering duties, and
that the council, instead of being chosen at large, was
to be selected by wards. The people accepted the charter
in April, 1913, and, as in Sumter, the city manager was
chosen from the "outside."
The Hickory charter was picked up by the charter
commission Morganton, N. C. Making a few slight
changes they took it to the capitol and had it enacted
as their own.
In the meantime the cities of Ohio had been eman-
cipated from legislative domination and were given the
constitutional right to draft and amend their own city
charters. Immediately after the adoption of the muni-
6
cipal home rule amendment the cities of Ohio began to
talk of charter revision, Dayton among them. The
Chamber of Commerce, the Bureau of Municipal Re-
search and a variety of other organizations decided to
insist upon the city manager idea as a starting point
for the new charter. Their work was well under
way when the disastrous flood came, but this,
instead of dampening their enthusiasm, stirred them
to greater efforts. When the first board of charter com-
missioners were elected, the ticket nominated by the
citizens committee and pledged to the city manager plan
was elected by a majority of more than two to one.
The commission thus chosen fulfilled its pledge and
produced what is perhaps the most advanced city charter
yet drawn for an American city of considerable pro-
portions. It follows in every essential the lines laid
down in the Lockport bill.
Success again attended the plan when it was voted
upon in Springfield, Ohio, on August 26, 1913. This
city's charter follows closely the Dayton model except
that it takes out of the appointive control of the city
manager the financial and legal departments of the city,
and puts them under the separate control of the com-
mission.
There was also passed at the 1913 session of the Ohio
legislature a law which permits any city to come under
one of three forms of simplified government-the
federal, commission, and commission-manager plans.
WESTERN AND SOUTHERN CITIES FOLLOW
In October, 1913, the commission-manager plan was
adopted in La Grande, Ore., and Phoenix, Ariz., and in
December of the same year by the cities of Cadillac
and Manistee, Mich. Amarillo, Texas, was the first city
to abandon the regular commission form for the new
type. Taylor and Denton in the same state adopted the
7
new system a few months later and Collinsville, Okla.,
and Montrose, Colo., also joined the procession. In
March, 1915, the city of Sherman, Texas, adopted the
plan with some interesting innovations, namely, a council
of fifteen members and an executive committee of three
within the council.
State-wide laws permitting cities to adopt the plan
as an option to other simplified forms of government
were passed in 1914 in New York and Virginia and, in
1915, in Iowa and Massachusetts.
The legislature of California has just approved a new
charter for Bakersfield which provides for a council
elected on a non-partisan ballot from wards, thus illus-
trating the greater flexibility as to methods of rep-
resentation which is possible when the city manager
feature is embodied in the charter and administrative
duties are not imposed upon members of the council.
THE PLAN SUCCEEDS IN PRACTICE
So much for the charter itself. It is important now to
note briefly the results obtained under the new system.
Perhaps the most significant of these is the fact that in
nearly every city the type of men chosen to the council
has been materially improved. In nearly every case also
the council has selected for the position of manager an
out-of-town man without the slightest reference to his
political affiliations or inclinations. In this way they
have taken presumably a step in emancipating the city
from political domination and petty localism.
For example, Mr. Henry M. Waite, the city manager
in Dayton, has a fine record of service with both public
and private organizations and was at the time of his
appointment to Dayton the city engineer of Cincinnati.
The city manager of La Grande, Oregon, was a resident
of Salem, Oregon, when appointed, and Mr. Charles E.
Ashburner, who holds the Springfield position, formerly
held the position of city manager in Staunton, Va.
Jackson, Mich., tried to get the managers of Dayton and
of Springfield, and finally secured the city manager of
Big Rapids.
THE CITY MANAGERS' ASSOCIATION
In November, 1914, the city managers got together in
a little convention at Springfield, O., and organized an
association. They spent two days in earnest discussion
of their problems, and these proceedings, which have
since been published, reflect the fine enthusiasm for pub-
lic service that characterizes the new profession. This
association is undoubtedly destined to be ultimately a
great factor in the development of the art of municipal
administration because of the greater permanence of its
membership, as contrasted with the transitory member-
ship of the various state associations of mayors.
The new plan has regenerated the administration of
the cities in innumerable ways. Far more important
than the mere saving of money (although that has been
effected, too) is the spirit which pervades the city
government. Indications of this new spirit are dis-
cernible in the following brief notes from several of the
cities:
Dayton, O.-With an increased income of only $3,812.42
in 1914 over the income of 1913, services totaling $139,947.93
were performed. Typical of this are the following:
The health service was doubled, the death rate from
typhoid fever was reduced 85 per cent. and infant mortality
during the summer months from all causes was reduced
40 per cent.
The saving of $33,000 was effected in the purchase of sup-
plies by standardization methods.
The city hall was heated by purchased steam at a saving
of $700.
Market receipts were increased by $4,000 over 1913.
A Municipal Lodging House was opened and conditions
at the workhouse were improved.
Twenty-six new playgrounds were established.
No bonds were issued in 1914 (as in 1913), for street
repairs and street lighting.
9
Springfield, O.-An unusually high grade group of men
were elected to the first commission, four of them business
men and one a representative labor leader. The manager
selected by them is Chas. E. Ashburner, who was chosen
by reason of his good previous record as an administrator
(he had been general municipal manager at Staunton, Va.).
During the first year under the new system there has been a
reorganization of the health department, which was equipped
with a modern research laboratory; the establishment of a
central purchasing bureau; the fixing of an eight hour day as
the minimum for all municipal employees; the reduction of
the floating debt by fifty per cent.; the organization of a new
system of garbage collection; the installation of a scientific
financial system; and the reduction of gas and electric rates.
has
Manistee, Mich.-The Council
overhauled a great
many ordinances so as to eliminate dead letters and retain
only those laws which can be literally enforced.
In the enforcement of police regulations a consistent effort
has been made to secure the co-operation so far as possible,
Party
of persons interested, e. g., the pure milk ordinance.
politics appears to be buried. There appears to be no
difficulty in getting favorable and intelligent councilmen to
serve without salary. The fear expressed by some that only
men of large means would be elected as councilmen at large
has been effectively disproved.
Improved system of accounting has been introduced and
daily labor records have been used for the first time.
By consolidating offices and in operation of departments,
$3,500 was saved in the first year.
Building of a new sewer obviated by intelligent methods
resulting in a potential saving of $50,000 to $60,000.
Cadillac, Mich.-The first administration saved the city
$3,700 in the first six months and gave better service.
Politicians attempted to recall the first commission eight
months after the beginning of their terms but were defeated
by a vote of three to one, though the charter had been
adopted by a very small majority.
Public improvements in 1915 will be carried on by the
city itself instead of by contract.
The police ordinances, which were formerly violated, are
now respected. (The contingent fund shows an increase in
receipts of $1,500 due to an increase in the amount of fines
and licenses.)
Amarillo, Texas.-In the first year under the new plan
A new system of public
assessments have been equalized.
garbage collection has been installed in place of an annoy-
ing private fee system.
A ten per cent. reduction in insurance rates has been
effected as a result of fire prevention measures.
Pure food ordinance has been enforced for the first time
in the city's history.
Large current overdraft has been wiped out and current
expenses are now met from current revenues.
10
Below is a list of city managers as far as available.
From time to time the list will be revised and full in-
formation given in the Short Ballot Bulletin.
Hickory, N. C.-S. C. Cornwell; salary, $2,000.
Morganton, N. C.-R. W. Pipkin, born 1884; civil engineer,
superintendent of waterworks at Morganton. Appointed
1913; salary, $1,200.
Dayton, O.-Henry M. Waite, graduate Massachusetts In-
stitute of Technology; engineer to various private corpora-
tions; city engineer of Cincinnati. Appointed Dec., 1913;
salary, $12,500.
G
Springfield, O.-Charles F. Ashburner, born 1870; educated
in England, France and Germany; 1896-1899, contractor;
1899-1901, railroad and harbor surveys; 1901-2 with Chesa-
peake & Ohio R. R. (maintenance of way); 1902-1908, con-
tractor (railroad work); 1908-1911, general manager of
Staunton, Va.; 1911-1913, with American Railways at Lynch-
burg, Va. Appointed Jan., 1914; salary, $6,000.
La Grande, Ore.-F. J. Lafky, graduate Winona (Minn.)
State Normal School; taught school fifteen years; farm man-
ager South Dakota; member of city council Salem, Ore.
(chairman of street and ordinance committees). Appointed
1913; salary, $2,400.
Cadillac, Mich.-Ossian A. Carr, born 1877; graduate of
Allegheny College of Civil Engineering 1900; U. S. Coast and
Geodetic Survey; 11 years in various public engineering work
at Pittsburgh, Pa.; Philippine Islands, Seattle, Portland, Ore.,
and Cincinnati. Salary, $3,000.
Manistee, Mich.-Charles E. Ruger.
Phoenix, Ariz.-Robert A. Craig, formerly superintendent
of the Phoenix Water Co.; employed in water department of
the city; former member of territorial Board of Control;
president of the Arizona Motor Supply Co.
Amarillo, Tex.-M. H. Hardin, District Clerk of Potter
County, Texas. Appointed 1914; salary, $3,000.
Montrose, Colo.-P. W. Pinkerton, born 1887; graduate of
University of Chicago; 1910-1912, engineer with contracting
concerns; 1912-1914, member of firm of Foster & Pinkerton,
engineers and contractors; 1912-1914, deputy county surveyor
of Montrose County. Appointed 1914; salary, $1,500.
Lakeland, Fla.-Donald F. McLeod, born 1874; graduate
Cornell University; six years experience as city engineer and
superintendent of water works in several cities, including
Ithaca, N. Y. Appointed April, 1914; salary, $2,100.
11
The Principles Underlying the Plan*
By RICHARD S. CHILDS, SECRETARY, THE NATIONAL SHORT
BALLOT ORGANIZATION, NEW YORK
The city-manager plan, or, as they more exactly call
It in Dayton, the commission-manager plan, provides for
a single elective board of directors, which may be called
a commission or council. This commission receives
nominal salaries or none (except, probably, in very large
cities) and the members give only part of their time to
municipal work, and thus are left free to continue their
private careers without interruption. Their functions
are to hire and supervise an appointive chief executive
called the city manager, who holds office at their pleasure;
also to pass ordinances and to contribute to the city
government the amateur and representative element. If,
for example, the city manager proposes the municipal
operation of the street car line, the commission will have
the duty of examining the proposition, first as to its
wisdom, and second as to whether such a move accords
with public sentiment with which they, as representative
native citizens having wide personal acquaintance
throughout the city, are supposed to be familiar. If the
decision is favorable to municipal operation, they have
the further responsibility of seeing that the city man-
ager is competent to handle the job and that he does
handle it properly in the years that follow.
The city manager, as chief executive, holds universal
appointive power over the administrative establishment.
He is not necessarily a local resident. Supposedly he is
an expert in matters of municipal administration. In
small cities he should be a practical civil engineer,
thereby making a separate city engineer unnecessary.
In large cities broad executive experience would of
• Reprinted from Annals of the American Academy (Volume on Com-
nission Government and the City Manager Plan).
12
course be a major requirement. The city manager's
salary should be the largest in the city's service.
The logical exceptions to the appointive power of the
city manager would be a civil service commission and
an auditor. These would be appointive directly by the
commission. In large cities, the auditor might well be
given such powers as are possessed by the commissioners
of accounts of New York City, who have power to com-
pel witnesses to give testimony under oath whether those
witnesses are city employees or not, and to make free-
lance investigations of city expenditures and work.
The commission-manager plan differs from the com-
mission plan in the fact that the commissioners do not
assume the actual executive management of each of the
city departments, but delegate the administrative work
to the manager.
The plan preserves the basic merits of the commission
plan, which are: (1) The short ballot, and (2) the
unification of powers.
By the "short ballot" is meant the limiting of the
number of elective officers which are to be chosen by the
voters. For example, it would be a violation of principle
if the commission were made so large that the typical
voter was called upon to vote for more than five offices
simultaneously. When more than five officers are voted
for at any one time, the voter ceases to make an in-
dividual choice for each office and begins to use ready-
made tickets prepared for him by interested parties.
This will hold true even if the ballot is non-partisan or
in such form as to compel a separate mark for every
candidate. The "ticket," if it does not take the form of a
column on the ballot, will nevertheless persist in the
form of memoranda circulated through the press by
organized civic and political bodies in such form that
the voter can copy the list when marking his ballot.
Obviously, when the ballot requires more choices than
his majesty, the voter, cares to remember, power
13
gravitates away from the voters into the hands of the
ticket-makers, who thus acquire opportunities which are
open to great abuse.
In Dayton and Springfield, Ohio, the two largest
cities which have thus far adopted the plan, the
number of commissioners is five. In larger cities the
number could be more than five, providing, however, that
terms expire in rotation so that not more than five would
be chosen at any one election, or provided that the ballot,
as the voter sees it, is shortened in some other way, as
by dividing the city into wards, each of them electing
five or less. Proportional representation also provides a
way of keeping the ballot short without necessarily mak-
ing the commission a very small one.
"Unification of powers," the other basic merit which
the commission-manager plan takes over from the Galves-
ton-Des Moines commission plan, means the reposing of
all power in a single board. This gives to the whole
mechanism the single controlling composite mind which
is essential to the success of any organism. The mayor-
and-council plan, for example. lacks unification of pow-
ers, since the mayor and the council are prevented by
the charter from getting together and composing their
differences by so simple an expedient as the taking of a
joint vote. It would be a violation of the principles of
the city-manager plan, therefore, to give to a separate
mayor the power to veto the acts of the commission.
It would then be a two-headed city instead of a one-
headed one.
The advantages of having a city manager are obvious
to any business man. For counsel, many minds are
needed; for execution, a single head is required. Univer-
sal business practice demonstrates this as does also the
superior luck which we have had with our typical public
school systems where a school board does all its work
through a hired superintendent. It is important to the
plan that the city manager shall be appointive. Any
14
scheme which would make him elective is fatal to the
principle. Even the Dayton arrangement which sub-
jects him to direct recall by the people is damaging to
the principle involved, since it diverts responsibility
from the commission. He must be the loyal servant of
the commissioners, else they cannot be made to take
responsibility for his acts. He must in no way be in-
dependent of them, although there is no objection to
allowing the commission to contract with a city manager
and promise to keep him in office for a certain number of
years, not exceeding their own tenure, subject to mutual
penalties. In large private businesses important mana-
gers frequently hold their positions under such contracts
and a certain degree of security of office when arranged
in this way is no more objectionable in city government
than in business. It must, however, not be a charter
matter, but something which the commissioners in their
own judgment decide to risk.
To make it possible to hire the city manager from out
of town not only is helpful in getting expert service, but
is highly important to the coming profession of city
management. If a city manager cannot look forward
to similar positions elsewhere in case he is displaced or
outgrows his town, a powerful incentive toward the
development of personal efficiency is lost. The fact that
the city manager, unlike a mayor, is not necessarily
involved in local politics, permits comparative per-
manence in office of the chief executive of the city, a
most important thing to the development of a smoothly
running mechanism. In all plans involving elective
executives, long tenures are rare. To rid us of the
amateur and transient executives which our present
mayors are, and to substitute, or at least permit the sub-
stitution of, experienced experts in municipal administra-
tion, is enough in itself to justify the coming of the city-
manager plan.
15
How superior, too, is the method thus provided for the
interchange of experience among our cities! At present
we have various bureaus and publications attempting to
do this work in an artificial way-on paper. The city
manager of the future will bring to his task the ex-
perience of perhaps several cities in which he has himself
served. To convey experience spelled out on paper is not
to be compared to conveying it thus in a man's head.
The commission-manager plan is a mere extension of,
or a rank departure from, the Galveston-Des Moines com-
mission plan, according to the point of view, and to some
enthusiasts it seems a sacrilege to presume to dissect the
mysterious vitals of the commission plan, to dub some
features good and some bad and to present proposals
for wholesale alterations.
Let us tackle it, however! The commission plan makes
each of the five commissioners the acting head of a city
department. Mr. John Smith, a wholesale grocer, is well-
liked, has a rather wide acquaintance, belongs to the
Order of Stags, has taken his daughters to Europe once
and has a solid business reputation. So he is elected a
commissioner and is given charge of the department of
safety covering police and fire protection. As a student
of his departmental budget he is excellent, for as a busi-
ness man this is in his line. As a purchaser of new fire
engines he is a hopeless novice, on questions of police
discipline he becomes the joke of the rank and file. He
improves, however, as time goes on and just as he begins
to feel comfortable in his command, his term expires.
Another novice elected as he was on issues of personal
popularity, takes his place and endeavors, more or less.
vainly, to obtain a firm grasp on the department.
Often the commissioner will lack even the little native
ability which is described above. In Wichita a railway
switchman was elected; in Topeka, a barber; in Des
Moines, a laboring man. And as long as popular govern-
ment goes on, these things will occur, for a deep-seated
16
instinct in our people, an instinct truer than the reason-
ing of charter-makers, insists on sending to city hall "our
own kind" of men, men who understand us and whom
we understand. "Yonder kid-gloved employer may be
better fitted to boss a big city department but he is
likely to be more interested in making things pretty up
on the hill than in what goes on down here along the
river where he never comes. So we elect Bob Jones and
maybe things will not run smooth and he will have a lot
to learn and he will be getting more money than he ever
saw before, but we will see him once in a while and he
will do anything he can for us and we will not be ex-
pected to take off our hats if we go to ask for something.'
""
In other words, no matter if commission government
does omit to provide for representation and sets up
simply five executive offices, all demanding broad ad-
ministrative ability, the people will nevertheless sweep
aside the intent of the charter and elect for considera-
tions of representation just the same! I think the people
are right about it, but be they right or wrong, we must
cut our cloth according to the fact.
Now Dayton, at its first election under the commission-
manager plan, has elected a printer-not a master printer,
but a typesetter who works at his case for a daily wage.
As a member of the commission he will contribute his
valuable viewpoint to the joint discussion of municipal
projects. On some matters he will be an amateur and is
due to be harmlessly voted down by his confreres. On
other matters his will be the most anxiously awaited
voice in the discussion and the other commissioners,
merchants to whom the views of Labor are mysteries,
will defer to his superior knowledge of the popular
effect of their proposed acts in certain quarters of the
town. But his value as a representative will not be
tarnished by his personal inability to administer a large.
city department successfully. He will have no adminis-
trative work to do, no subordinates of his own to dis-
Hug
17
cipline, no technical details to supervise. The commis-
sion-manager plan puts him in the position of a juror, for
which he or any intelligent man is fitted, whereas the
commission plan puts him in the position of a judge,
which demands special training.
From the viewpoint of the people, the commission-man-
ager plan is more democratic than the commmission plan,
because it enlarges the people's field of choice. The com-
mission plan, by implication at least, limits the people
in their selection of commissioners to men of the em-
ployer class who are competent to hire and direct the
labor of many other men. It might very consistently
require candidates to demonstrate that they had pre-
viously earned in private life salaries equal to those of
commissioners-and what a yell of "class rule" would
instantly and justifiably be set up against such a char-
ter! In many a city, commission government has been
defeated by the labor element who saw no place in it for
men of their class and promptly dubbed it "kid-glove"
rule.
To state the same thing in a different way, the commis-
sion-manager plan gives the people a better control over
the government because it provides a handier handle.
They can select the truest representatives unhampered by
any considerations of the business experience or salary-
earning capacity of their favorites. Moreover, these rep-
resentatives, after election, have in turn a surer grip on
the government through a manager than if they
were individually compelled to assume departmental
direction. A police "system" resisting public opinion,
could laugh at the series of short-term amateurs who
come and go under the commission plan, but not at the
new city manager with his prior experience and his
indefinite tenure.
Compare the commission-manager plan now with the
old mayor-and-council plan. The commission-manager
plan is safer because it eliminates one-man power. The
18
old-style mayor is frequently one-third of the municipal
government, sometimes he is practically a clear majority.
The city is at the mercy of his whims, his failings, his
prejudices. He starts his term with a number of pet
projects, oblivious to the incompleted projects
of his predecessor. He inaugurates financial re-
forms and when the work is well started his term
expires and his successor, to whom finance is Greek,
enters the city hall and begins talking about a "city
beautiful." Under such vacillating direction the city
moves in a wobbly course and constructive civic effort
is constantly receiving set-backs and discouragements.
No sooner is one executive educated than he is displaced
and the process of enlightenment recommences. The con-
ferences of mayors in certain states represent a crude
effort to provide mutual education for these executives
but they fail to do much, for the simple reason that each
year or two there are wholesale changes of personnel and
the mayors meet again as strangers and beginners.
Under such circumstances the conference remains always
a kindergarten.
Such inherent instability in the chief executive office
makes the whole governmental mechanism unstable.
Minor city jobs become correspondingly insecure and
unattractive to good talent. Tenures depend too little
on expertness and too much on luck; consequently the
civil service employee regards self-education in the
technique of his position as waste of energy. Every
administrative reform rests on shifting sand. And it
will always be so when policies are swayed by single
minds instead of by a group of minds.
This instability begets further complications arising
from the effort to buttress the mayor's weakness with
safeguards. The safeguards promptly become in-
cumbrances not only to the public officers but also to
the people in attempting to supervise and control those
officers. The mayor's appointments are subjected to the
19
necessity of confirmation by the council. Promptly the
council becomes the scene of endless intrigues, and being
largely immune from administrative responsibilities,
dictates appointments regardless of how the mayor's
work may suffer. Minor offices and boards are made
appointive for long terms, longer than the term of the
mayor. Not only is the mayor thus balked in efforts to
direct the administration but the people, who presum-
ably elected him to put through a certain program, are
balked too. The charter often hedges in the mayor with
overmuch language and red tape in a hopeless attempt
to keep him from error, until every progressive effort
must await charter amendment or a special enabling
act. Such devices provide not stability, but rigidity, a
vastly different thing.
The commission-manager plan abolishes one-man power
entirely. It goes even further in this than the com-
mission plan does, for in the latter each commissioner
has a sphere of administrative authority into which
other commissioners do not intrude, since, if they
find things amiss, they can not discharge or even dis-
cipline him. The election of a crank as old-style mayor
would demoralize a town; his election as a commissioner
in the commission plan would demoralize one depart-
ment; his election as commissioner in the commission-
manager plan need do no harm whatever since his notions
are safely submerged and blended in the composite mind
of the commission of which he is simply one voting
member.
But if the crank becomes city manager? Very well.
Instead of being, like a mayor or commissioner, subject
to intermittent control at elections or to the rare and
heavy process of popular recall, he is subject to con-
tinuous control and instant removal by a board of
popular representatives who have every facility for close
supervision and on whom his actions reflect. His follies.
promptly run plump against the questioning of the
20
stable and sober composite mind of a group. On every
question, big or small, the last court of appeal is a group,
never a single and possibly opinionated mind. The city
manager's appointments, too, are subject to the over-
sight of the commission which may, if it desires, insist
on considering every appointment he makes, but unlike
the old-style council, it takes the ultimate responsibility
for all appointees. There is no need of giving minor
boards a protected tenure since the appointing power is
now stabilized. The charter can be primitively simple
and short, and can safely extend municipal powers in
the most free-handed way. More things can be done by
flexible administrative rulings and less and less by wordy
inelastic ordinances. The corporation counsel will have
little to do in digging up ancient ordinances or interpret-
ing or stretching the charter.
The first-thought objection to the commission-manager
plan is that it is undemocratic in making its most impor-
tant single official appointive instead of "directly re-
sponsible to the people by election." Democracy,
however, consists in controlling public officers-not neces-
sarily in electing them-and the most effective way for
the people to get a firm grip on the neck of the city
manager is by sending a representative group of citizens.
down to city hall to see what the manager is doing, with
power to fire him and get another any day of the week if
he is unsatisfactory or insubordinate. Compared with
that method, direct election and recall are crude, clumsy,
insufficient and relatively undemocratic.
The ready applicability of the commission-manager
plan to cities of different size shows its flexibility. Upon
a little town which can afford just one well-paid officer it
fits ideally, better by far than either the commission plan
or the mayor-and-council plan.
For a great metropolis it is equally well suited, re-
quiring no modifications which affect the basic principle.
In fact it is in large cities that the amateurishness of our
21
elective chief executives is most costly. To be sure our
city managers must be rank beginners for some years to
come while the new profession is getting its member-
ship, but our elective chief executives are amateurs now
and our large cities, whose management is highly
technical, display the most wretched need of men who
will regard municipal management seriously as a life
work of high ambitions. And what a noble new pro-
fession it is which opens up to the vision of those dozen
pioneer city managers of to-day!
CITIES UNDER COMMISSION AND CITY
MANAGER
City
Sumter, S. C...
Hickory, N. C..
Morganton, N. C..
Dayton, O..
Springfield, O...
Phoenix, Ariz..
La Grande, Ore..
Amarillo, Tex..
Cadillac, Mich.
Manistee, Mich..
Montrose, Col.
Taylor, Tex...
Denton, Tex.
Collinsville, Okla..
Lakeland, Fla...
Big Rapids, Mich..
Sandusky, O..
Ashtabula, O..
•
•
•
•
3,252
5,314
4,732
1,324
3.719
4,519
19,989
18,266
Niagara Falls, N. Y.... 30,445
31,433
Jackson, Mich...
Sherman, Tex..
12,412
12,727
10,400
27,805
41,641
5,494
Bakersfield, Cal.
Tyler, Tex.
Newburgh, N. Y.
Wheeling, W. Va..
St. Augustine, Fla.
Westerville, O...
Elizabeth City, N. C..
Webster City, Iowa..
San Jose, Cal.
Alpena, Mich.
Santa Barbara, Cal.....
San Angelo, Tex.
Watertown, N. Y.
Portsmouth, Va..
Albion, Mich.
·
•
•
Population
8,109
3,716
2,712
•
.116,577
46,921
11,134
4,843
9,957
8,375
12,381
•
1,903
8.412
5,208
28,946
12.706
11,659
10,321
26,730
33,190
5,833
Date of Adoption
June 12, 1912
April, 1913
April, 1913
Aug. 12, 1913
Aug. 26, 1913
Oct. 10, 1913
Oct. 1, 1913
Nov. 18, 1913
Dec. 9, 1913
Dec. 17, 1913
1914
Apr. 6, 1914
Apr. 4, 1914
June 9, 1914
1914
Feb. 2, 1914
July 28, 1914
Nov. 3, 1914
Nov. 3, 1914
Nov. 3, 1914
Mar. 6, 1915
1915
Apr. 6, 1915
May 1, 1915
May 27, 1915
1915
1915
1915
Aug. 30, 1915
1915
1915
Sept. 5, 1915
Aug. 3, 1915
Nov. 2, 1915
Nov. 2, 1915
Nov. 9, 1915
Laws permitting the adoption of the plan by referen-
dum vote in New York, Virginia, Ohio and Iowa.
23

THE NATIONAL
SHORT BALLOT ORGANIZATION
1
Vice-Presidents
WINSTON CHURCHILL, Cornish, N. H.
HORACE E. DEMING, New York, N. Y.
BEN B. LINDSEY, Denver, Col.
JOHN MITCHELL, Mt. Vernon, N. Y.
WILLIAM S. U'REN, Oregon City, Ore.
WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE, Emporia, Kan;
CLINTON ROGERS WOODRUFF, Philadelphia, Pa.
President
WOODROW WILSON
Washington, D. C.
Advisory Board
LAWRENCE F. ABBOTT
HENRY JONES FORD
NORMAN HAPGOOD
ST. VNAPOLJNA L'HELP WPERTYOGOUT ITIDEMRISER LARRY TERMS
RICHARD S. CHILDS
WOODROW WILSON
Secretary and Treasurer
RICHARD S. CHILDS
Executive Secretary
H. S. GILBERTSON, 383 Fourth Ave., New York City
SHORT BALLOT PUBLICATIONS
Single copies of the following pamphlets may be obtained on
request:
The Short Ballot (32 pp.).
The Story of the Short Ballot Cities (24 pp.).
A brief for the Commission Form of Government.
The Short Ballot Bulletin (Bi-monthly, 25 cents per year).
Back numbers available.
The Short Ballot in Illinois.
Published by the Illinois Short Ballot Organization,
For Sale at Cost:
BEARD'S LOOSE-LEAF DIGEST OF SHORT BALLOT
CHARTERS-Documentary history of commission and com-
Descriptive circular on request.
mission-manager plans.
$5.00.
Short Ballot Principles, By Richard S. Childs (Houghton-
Mifflin). $1.10 by mail.
County Government (Annals of American Academy).
by mail.
$1.00
THE CITY-MANAGER PLAN OF MUNICIPAL GOVERN-
MENT (36 pp.). Including texts of charters. 25c.
154