282 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



The principle underlying the organization of the commission system 

 of city government is clearly in harmony with what American and 

 English experience has shown to be the most effective working prin- 

 ciple that may be applied to the government of cities in a democracy. 

 The commissioner, being an elective official, can not be expected to be 

 an expert official. Indeed, experts will never accept an office of such 

 uncertain tenure as that subject to the fluctuating influence of politics. 

 The commissioner may be an efficient unprofessional, supervisory offi- 

 cial, however, acting in the same capacity as the English council com- 

 mittee: and in such a capacity he will reach his maximum efficiency. 

 Under this clearly defined distribution of functions between the elect- 

 ive and the permanent official each official will exercise that kind of 

 function for which he is best fitted. This proposition, clearly under- 

 stood, settles the crucial point in the problem of commission govern- 

 ment. 



If the commissioner's function is defined as supervisory with respect 

 to his relation to the administrative service, the question may arise: 

 Will it not now become necessary to have a permanent expert depart- 

 ment head working under the supervising commissioner? This ques- 

 tion must be decided with reference to the character of the commis- 

 sioner's duties. In the small city, where the affairs of the different 

 divisions of the department are left to the charge of the subordinate 

 officials, these duties would be comparatively light, and only the gen- 

 eral direction of the activities should rest with the commissioner. Under 

 such circumstances the commissioner would be able to direct the work 

 without the aid of a permanent head. It is probable, on the other hand, 

 that the work of directing one of the great departments of the very 

 large city would be too onerous and too complex for the layman to dis- 

 charge without the aid of a permanent administrative head, in which 

 case it would be found necessary to institute the permanent official. 



When it has become definitely understood that the proper func- 

 tions of the commission are legislative and supervisory, and not legis- 

 lative and administrative, charter framers desiring to construct upon the 

 commission model will have a well-understood basis upon which to 

 work, and questions which frequently perplex them at the present time 

 will take care of themselves. For example, one of the mooted questions 

 at present is whether the commissioner would be required to give his 

 whole time or only a part of it. If by the charter expected to spend his 

 whole time in the public service, obviously he is to become an active 

 superintendent, attending to the numerous details of his department, 

 so that any other occupation than that of the city would entail negli- 

 gence and inefficiency. 



With the development of the commission plan into a more dis- 

 tinctly supervisory character, the American people will have worked 



