Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/540

 526 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

the police commission is charged under the charter with regulat- ing and controlling; because during the two years preceding, gambling had existed unchecked for long periods, and certain saloons and lodging houses had been allowed to do about as they pleased, while others had been held rigidly to the law ; because thuggery and house-breaking had been carried on to an intolerable degree; because the state was about to spend $25,- 000,000 in the Owens River Aqueduct enterprise and because the makeup of the board which has in charge the expenditure of this money was a matter of vast and imperative importance to the taxpayers. It was only natural that there was objection to this course of procedure, the allegation being made that the proper course for the league and its allies to have pursued was through the courts, but Mayor Harper, against whom the recall provision was directed, resigned before the vote was taken. At an election held to fill the vacancy the League's candidate was elected by a substantial majority and the forces for decent and efficient gov- ernment won a twofold victory : first, in securing the elimination of a distinctly and admittedly bad mayor and, secondly, the sub- stitution in his place of a competent successor.

If the methods and principles for which the bureaus of muni- cipal research stand are given a reasonable extension within the next few years, graft in many of its forms will be very much more difficult of accomplishment. Municipal students and ad- ministrators are realizing more and more that progress in mu- nicipal government consists as well in the establishment of rational and accurate methods of doing business as in electing capable men. Knowledge of facts and system are unquestionably essentials of efficiency in public office. In a bulletin recently issued by the New York bureau the following outline of its methods was given. It is reproduced in this connection because it so succinctly states not only the objects and purposes of the work, but the methods its growing progeny of offsprings in Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Richmond (Indiana), Memphis, and Pittsburgh follow:

Ascertain how the powers and duties (and other materials of research) are distributed.