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MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT. true of ashes, waste paper, and other rubbish. Street dirt must be collected and removed, and the streets must be sprinkled to keep down the dust which is inevitable even with the best sweeping. All these are municipal functions which cannot be left to private enterprise. Finally, the human dead must be considered under the general head of wastes, and cemeteries must be provided for burying or crematories for burning the bodies. Cemeteries are frequently, but crematories rarely, owned by municipalities. The other services included under the heading, in so far as they are performed with regularity and system, are almost invariably rendered by the municipality, either directly or by contractors at its expense and under its supervision.

. The protective functions of a municipal character include the work of the police, the courts, the fire department, and the board of health, together with the building inspection service, and the provision of public baths, wash houses, and water closets. The charities and correction service includes poor relief and the maintenance of asylums and reformatories. The educational service embraces not only the work of the common schools preparatory to the college, but manual training, and sometimes technical education, night schools, vacation schools, libraries, and museums. The municipality in undertaking the work of elementary education and poor relief is acting as the agent of the State, and is subject to more or less central control so far as these activities are concerned. The recreation service includes the establishment and maintenance of parks, playgrounds, gymnasiums, together with the provision for public concerts and lectures. The three first named institutions might also be included under both education and health service, while concerts and lectures may be included under education as well as recreation. Municipal housing is practically unknown in America, but is a marked feature of municipal activity in Great Britain. It has arisen partly through the demolition of whole blocks of unsanitary houses, which seemed to make necessary a provision for rehousing the ejected tenants, and partly from a desire to afford municipal aid in the efforts being made by philanthropists to improve the home condition of the working classes. The houses built at municipal expense are generally designed to provide living places thoroughly sanitary in their construction and appointments for the poorest class of self-supporting wage-earners.

. The successful administration of the many and varied activities just outlined demands a degree and character of organization resembling in some respects that of a large private corporation. In the government of States it is common to divide the functions of government as well as the officials who discharge them into three groups—the legislative, the executive, and the judicial. The same general plan might be followed in considering municipal government, but separation into these three branches is by no means so easy, on account of the greater overlapping of municipal functions. The judicial power, except as it is exercised by municipal mayors, is more a State than a municipal function, and will not be further considered, except to note the existence of municipal police courts for the prompt trial of

persons arrested for misdemeanors or crimes. The legislative functions of municipal governments are exercised primarily by the council, and the executive, by various officers and boards, with the mayor as the chief executive officer. Some of the executive boards possess quasi-legislative powers, while others, such as boards of health, exercise both legislative and judicial functions. The mayor's duties are legislative, judicial, and executive. He often presides over the meetings of the council, casts the deciding vote in case of a tie, usually has the power to veto ordinances, appoints officials, supervises the affairs of the city, hears and passes upon charges involving possible dismissal of officials, and sometimes acts as a judge of municipal courts. In the United States the mayor is elected by popular vote, though formerly he was quite generally elected by the council; elsewhere he is commonly appointed either by the city council or by the central government. (See .) In extent of power the mayors of the United States rank first, and there is a strong tendency to increase their powers and responsibilities. In point of training the mayors of Germany take the lead: in that country the mayoralty is a profession, and a successful officer is promoted from one city to another and larger as his ability and reputation increase. In all countries the mayor is the chief representative of the city, but in Great Britain alone the office is mainly one of dignity and honor. In that country the mayor is a member of the council and presides over its meetings, but he does not possess the veto power. The importance of the mayor's office in the United States is largely due to the control which he exercises over legislation through his power of veto, and to his power of appointing and removing executive officers. The latter power is generally subject to approval by the council, but it is in freedom from this restriction that the growing importance of the office chiefly consists. The extension of the power of appointment is significant because it diminishes the number of officials elected by popular vote, as well as the number chosen by the council, and combined with the power of removal, which is coming to be generally granted, enables the mayor to shape municipal policy and to direct the manner in which that policy is carried out. The later municipal charters quite generally grant the mayor the power to appoint the various heads of departments, except the chief financial officer, who is usually elected by popular vote. Aside from the exercise of judicial power involved in the removal of officials for cause, mayors do not usually act as judges except in the United States and Great Britain, and in these countries their judicial functions are chiefly in the capacity of justices of the peace. In the larger cities of the United States this function is seldom exercised by the mayor, and in some sections it is entirely lacking; but it may still be found in force in Delaware, in the Southern States, Indiana, Iowa, and elsewhere. See .

. The powers and duties of the city council vary greatly in the different countries of the world, and quite as much so in the several commonwealths of the United States, or even in the cities of a single State. Germany leads in the comprehensive control of its councils over municipal affairs, and Great Britain ranks next in this particular. The German