COMMISSION GOVERNMENT 277 



is it so constructed as to provide for the performance of the actual ad- 

 ministrative work by men of technical training and experience? 



That a higher grade of municipal official has been secured under 

 commission government is obvious from the higher standard of public 

 service which, even opponents of the new government concede, has ob- 

 tained under the new plan. It would be difficult to assign any one 

 cause for this. No doubt the method of electing the commissioners at 

 large, instead of by wards, has been largely responsible ; for the munici- 

 pal election is thereby made less susceptible to control by the ward boss. 

 Thus, under election at large, the political leader who is known and 

 recognized by the general electorate has an immeasurable advantage in 

 the election over the ward leader who is without support outside the 

 confines of his own ward — an advantage which tends to eliminate the 

 latter type from the contest. Log-rolling is commonly regarded as the 

 pernicious accompaniment of the ward plan of election, but log-rolling 

 in itself is a lesser evil than the ward type of municipal candidate : the 

 domination of the election by the ward politicians has frequently shut 

 out the higher type of political leader from municipal politics. 



However important a factor the general ticket plan of election has 

 been in bringing a better grade of men into the city's service, the con- 

 spicuous character of the commissioner's office has probably been more 

 important; for, if the elective officer under the commission plan had 

 been wrapped in the same obscurity which gathered around that pro- 

 vided by the ordinary American city charter, it is extremely doubtful 

 whether the character of the public official would have been perceptibly 

 changed. On this point the experience of American cities speaks de- 

 cisively. Nothing has been more influential in keeping competent men 

 from the public service than the curtailment of the powers of municipal 

 officers which took place during the latter half of the last century. In 

 some instances these powers were juggled by the state legislature in the 

 interests of the dominant party in the state ; in others they were distrib- 

 uted among a number of newly created officials no one of whom was 

 conspicuous for his power to accomplish results in the public service — 

 a change which was likewise dictated by party interests. The result 

 was the same in either case : whether the powers were usurped by the 

 state legislature or divided among numerous municipal officials, the 

 individual office became less important and the type of incumbent less 

 efficient. Thus, the experience of these years proves that the character 

 of a public office rises or declines according as the powers associated 

 with it are increased or curtailed. It is this fact which furnishes the 

 key to the success of the commission plan of city government. 



In the commission government the public official has not been made 

 conspicuous so much because of any cession of power to the municipal- 

 ity by the legislature as because of the concentration in a small govern- 



