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 COMMISSION GOVERNMENT IN AMERICAN CITIES

By ERNEST S. BRADFORD, Pu.D.

Member National Municipal League; Sometime Research Scholar in Political Science, University of Wisconsin; Fellow in Political Science, Untversity of Pennsylvanta; Author of " Municipal Gas Lighting," ete.

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Of the recent developments in the field of municipal politics, none has attracted more attention than the introduction and rapid spread of the commission form of city government, so called from the commission or board which constitutes the governing body.

Under this plan, the organization of a city is similar to that of a business corporation. This popular study of one of the greatest issues to-day before the American people contains an account of the rise and spread of the commission form of government and the results of its operation in Galveston, Houston, Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Huntington, Haverhill and elsewhere.

Accompanying this there is a critical comparison of the various types of commission government so far standing, the principles involved, a list of the cities that rejected the plan, as well as those which have adopted it, atid finally a discussion of the limitations and objections urged against commission government. There is thus presented in this work the most complete and upto-date history of this form of government and of its recent marvelous development in American municipal life.