THE CITY'S NEED, THE UNIVERSITY'S OPPORTUNITY By Herman G. James, J. D., Ph. D. No. 108—Price 10 cents THF. AMERICAN CITY PAMPHLETS Relative to City and Town Improvements Published by The Civic Press 87 Nassau St., New York Catalogue sent on request The City’s Need, the University’s Opportunity By Herman G. James, J. D., Ph. D. Director of the Bureau of Municipal Research and Reference, University of Texas Secretary, League of Texas Municipalities T HERE have been within recent times two independent contemporaneous lines of development, one in the life of American cities, the other in the life of American universities, which ought tc pro¬ ceed henceforth in the most intimate co¬ ordination imaginable. The keynote of the one is administrative efficiency, the guid¬ ing principle of the other is adaptation to community needs. Each of these tenden¬ cies needs for its fullest fruition the com¬ plement of the other. In our cities the evidences axe numerous of the awakening that is taking place. Civil service merit rules, permanency of tenure, adequacy of salaries, together with order and scientific methods of reporting and ac¬ counting, have already shown how much can be done in the direction of minimizing waste and useless expenditure even after graft and other corruption have been for the most part eliminated. The advocates and supporters of the commission form of government have been most insistent on the claim of greater business efficiency said to have been attained by a change from the old aldermanic form. Everywhere the conviction is growing that city administration is work for ex¬ perts, not for politicians, no matter how honest and popular the latter may be. Ex¬ perts are being sought by our cities, and their offices are being made more attractive in a variety of ways. Of greatest sig¬ nificance in this direction is the rise and spread of the city-manager plan in this country. This whole plan is based on the idea of expert administration in every field of the city’s activity, and it is because of its insistence on a fundamental doctrine of efficiency that the plan is destined to re¬ ceive an increasingly widespread adoption. In our cities, then, we are awakening to the need of experts in municipal adminis¬ tration, and, having done what they can to open up the doors to such experts, the cities are seeking for the men to fill the positions. But where are they to be found ? There has been no career of municipal adminis¬ tration in this country, as there has been in Europe, which has trained up the men to fill the present need. Political affiliations have been the chief requisites for getting administrative posts in the cities, as well as the sole conditions for retaining them. There is, in fact, no reliable source from which trained men can be taken for this important work. The Adapting of Universities to Community Needs Meanwhile our universities have been adapting themselves more and more to community needs. The old classical cur¬ ricula were found to be sadly deficient in meeting the multiform needs of our na¬ tional life, and gradually there have been added to the time-honored philosophical, theological, legal and medical faculties other professional schools, such as engi¬ neering and education. In most recent times so venerable and conservative an in¬ stitution as Harvard has provided courses in business, and schools of commerce are arising in connection with a number of our universities. Every year new suggestions come to light for adapting our universities to the needs of the people they are sup¬ posed to serve, and the phenomenal growth and success of agricultural colleges throughout this country show how real a need has there been met. Why have not our universities responded to the call for trained municipal experts by providing departments of municipal admin¬ istration on a par with their departments of law, of engineering and of medicine? It might be answered, because there has not been a call until very recently for such experts and nothing comparable to a career in that direction. This is no doubt true, but students of municipal government and lead¬ ers in municipal development have for years realized that expert administration is the only hope for a way out of the dif- Acuities of city government in this country, and it is, or should be, the business of uni¬ versities to lead in creating an enlightened public opinion, not to follow a generation behind in satisfying its demands. A uni¬ versity might well afford to turn out men fitted to be municipal administrators even before there is any great demand for them, as such men would be equipped for other lines of work as well, and no harm would be done. But how can our universities with a clear conscience emphasize the importance of getting expert administrators in the city’s service when they do nothing to train such experts? If our cities are brought to the point of demanding experts and there are only a very few to be had, will not the cause of efficient city government suffer a severe setback because the universities have neglected their opportunities? Now it is true that some steps have bee i taken here and there in the right direction, and those institutions that have started on the path are to be congratulated on having seen the light and followed it. But there is yet wanting a comprehensive undertak¬ ing in any university which aims to provide a training in each of the most important branches of city administration, so that cities looking for competent department heads may know in which direction to turn. Providing for the Six Branches of City Administration If we divide the work of modern city administration into six general branches it ought not to be a matter of great difficulty for any of our larger universities to pro¬ vide suitable courses in municipal admin¬ istration. For the three branches of city administration comprising public finance, public education, and public safety and wel¬ fare, a thorough grounding in history, po¬ litical science, economics and one or more foreign languages should be required throughout. In the first-named branch at least an entire year should be devoted to business training, dealing with such special matters as accounting methods, purchase and sale methods, budget procedure and principles of taxation. In the group of public education at least a year should be devoted to a study of the history of educa¬ tion, the administration of primary and sec¬ ondary education, and the philosophy and psychology of teaching. In thf group of public safety and welfare special emphasis should be put on sociological studies such as criminology etnd penology, juvenile de¬ linquency, charities, and the social evil. A fourth branch of administration that should receive very careful consideration is that of municipal engineering. The du¬ ties of a city engineer are extremely multi¬ form and widespread, and no single one of the engineering groups now usually given meets his needs. As his duties are for the greater part by far of a civil engineering character,, his training in that line should be most thorough. But he meets many prob¬ lems in his work that are not even touched in a civil engineering course, and he should have at least a working knowledge of the principles involved in these. So, for in¬ stance, he should know something of direct and alternating currents, electric dynamos and motors, wiring and insulation in the field of electrical engineering. He should have training in what is usually termed sanitary engineering, treating of the com struction of sewers, sewage and refuse dis¬ posal plants, water filters, plumbing and ventilation. He should be given a good course in city planning, for that is a sub¬ ject intimately connected with his most ordinary functions. In short, in addition to a thorough acquaintance with civil engi¬ neering matters, he must have some infor¬ mation on a variety of other matters as well. In the same way is it necessary that spe¬ cial courses should be arranged for pro¬ spective city attorneys. They must, it is true, be informed on all matters of law that may come up in private practice, but that is not enough. The work of a city attorney includes some very special problems that rarely arise in private practice. These are the problems of public law. He must know the constitutional law of the United States and of his own state, for he is constantly confronted with the limitations imposed thereby. He must know the law of muni¬ cipal corporations, the law of public officers and the law of taxation. He cannot advise the city nor intelligently frame its ordi¬ nances unless he has a thorough knowledge of these matters. Finally, there is a need for the training of health officers for our cities. The health officer must be more than a good physician; he must be a sanitarian, and his training should have that in view. In addition to the regular medical course given in our best medical schools, the prospective health officer should receive a thorough training in preventive medicine and hygiene in all its phases. In this way provision will have been made for all the principal branches of mu¬ nicipal administration in a comprehensive way. The groups can advantageously be arranged so that the completion of the work in any one of them will take five years, and this should in every case include the writ¬ ing of a suitable thesis on some phase of the work comprised in the group studied. The Conferring of Degrees It is not enough, however, that the train¬ ing should be merely offered by our uni¬ versities. The course should be made as attractive as possible and should at least be put on a par with other professional courses. For this reason suitable degrees should be conferred on those completing the courses as prescribed; and as the work herein out¬ lined contemplates five years of study, it is believed that a master’s degree would best fit in with our present university arrangement. So a master of science in municipal engineering could properly be conferred on those completing the en¬ gineering work; a master of laws on those completing the legal course; and a master of arts in public finance, education, and safety and welfare, respectively, on the students successfully completing those courses. In the case of the public health work, it would be better to confer a doc¬ tor of public health degree to conform to the practice of giving a doctor’s degree after the regular course instead of a bachelor’s degree, as in the other depart¬ ments of the university. Finally, to place this important phase of university work on a par with the other fields of activity, a separate department of municipal administration should be created comprising all the six courses outlined. We are hoping to make of municipal ad¬ ministration in all its aspects a career and profession comparable in every way to any of the private professions. Our universi¬ ties now have departments of law to train lawyers, departments of medicine to train doctors, departments of engineering to train engineers, and even departments of agriculture to train farmers. No reason seems to exist, then, why there should not be a department of municipal administra¬ tion to train municipal officials. The execu¬ tive organization of such a department would naturally consist of. the deans of the various existing departments whose work is included in the new curricula. By adopting such a scheme as this, then, our universities could meet the opportunity- presented by the awakening of the cities and the work of emphasizing the advan¬ tages of expert administration could be car¬ ried on hand in hand with the work of training men who can furnish such admin¬ istration. This is the city’s need, and this the university’s opportunity. [The Bureau of Municipal Research and Reference of the University of Texas has is¬ sued (in Bulletin No. 316, February 10, 1914) “A Model Charter for Texas Cities,” prepared by Dr. Herman G. James. Besides this evi¬ dence of the University’s cooperation with ef¬ forts towards municipal progress, the Bureau has, during the nine months since its organiza¬ tion, given direct personal assistance to cities framing new charters in Texas, has answered a great number of inquiries on municipal ques¬ tions, has been instrumental in organizing the League of Texas Municipalities, of which Dr. James is Secretary-Treasurer, and has issued thefcProceedings of the League’s first meeting. A l^atise on sewage disposal will shortly be issued in bulletin form, intended to aid the cities of Texas in complying with the provi¬ sions of the recent law forbidding cities to pol¬ lute streams by emptying their sewage and waste therein. There are also in preparation a model sanitary code for cities and a model civil service code, which will also be issued as bulletins and distributed to all Texas cities without charge.— The Editors.]