COMMISSION GOVERNMENT 283 



out a system of city government which does not differ in essential prin- 

 ciples from that with which they started out, the council plan. The ma- 

 chinery of the commission government is more centralized and more re- 

 sponsive, but the relation between the elective official and the permanent 

 administrative staff is common to both systems. . It is upon these 

 principles that the permanent efficiency of the commission government 

 must rest, just as it was contempt for these principles that caused the 

 failure of the reform municipal systems of the past thirty years. If the 

 commission plan conforms strictly to these principles, there is reason 

 to believe that it will not become the subject of a tale a full of sound 

 and fury, signifying nothing." 



