Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/535

 MUNICIPAL REVIEW, 1908-1909 521

ers must give their entire time to the city, to insure dispatch and efficiency in handling the city's business.

There is one danger which advocates of the commission form of government must guard themselves against ; that is, the feeling that it constitutes a panacea for all municipal ills. In the words of one of the principal proponents of the commission form of government in Galveston,

The commission plan is all right. It is an improvement, an unqualified success; but no plan can be devised which is self-operative, or which will relieve the people from the responsibilities of self-government. It is my belief that every city will have just such city government as its people deserves.

Tacoma's charter commission recognizing this principle has determined to carry on the fight, the electorate having already approved the commission form, until the right sort of men are choseh to carry out the provisions of the charter. They realize, as E. L.' Godkin pointed out many years ago, that, "No municipal reform will last long, or prove efficient, without a strong and healthy public opinion behind it. With this, almost any charter would prove efficient." He might have added, that with this the commission form of government, with the safeguards which have been thrown around it by the more recent conventions, will constitute a very substantial step forward in the betterment of municipal government in America.

A conspicuous feature of the movement for the commission form of government is the impetus which it has given to the movement for the "short ballot." No small part of its success may be attributed to the fact that it simplifies the issues presented to the elector, in that he is called upon to choose but five officials charged with the duty^ of carrying on the whole government of the municipality. This represents a striking contrast to the burden placed upon the shoulders of the elector in the large majority of American cities, where he is called upon to select a great mass of administrative, judicial, and legislative officers, not to mention school directors and election officers. The conse- quence is, as has so often been pointed out at the meetings of the National Municipal League, the elector is by force of circura-