States, 2,620 showed a decrease in popu-
lation. Almost half of these counties
decreased by 15 per cent or more. Four
hundred sixty-nine counties showed an
increase in population, but in less than
a third of this number did it amount
to 15 per cent or more.
Hamilton County., Tenn. 9 Praised
for Manager Government
The Tennessee Taxpayers Association,
in its Twelfth Annual Report, has de-
clared that the results of the Hamilton
County, Tennessee, council-manager
government are certain to be studied
by other counties and that such study
should result in improved administra-
tion in other progressive counties.
The report cites the reduction in
membership of the county court
(county legislative body), modern bud-
getary controls, improved accounting
and pre-auditing procedure, installa-
tion of a daily reporting system, and
general tightening of executive con-
trols as causes of improved operations.
Both improved services and reduced
costs have resulted.
The report states: "Hamilton County
has produced these results largely by
creating the equivalent of a private
corporation's usually small, compact,
business-like board of directors and
competent executives, with a carefully
planned financial .program and the will
to make it work, an organizational
structure and procedure designed to
secure results at modest cost."
Wisconsin County
Integrates Veterans 9 Services
Oneida County, Wisconsin, has or-
ganized the Oneida County Council of
Service to coordinate and direct the
employment, rehabilitation, and hos-
pitalization of returning war veterans.
The Council is composed of the chair-
man of the County Board of Supervi-
sors and representatives of the County
Pension Department, County Welfare
Department, County Veterans Service
Department, Rhinelander City Council,
U. S. Employment Service, Selective
Service Board, Red Cross, Soldiers and
Sailors Relief Committe, Re-Employ-
ment Committee, and other groups.
The Council will act as a central
clearing house, keep comprehensive
records on claims, hospitalization,
medical care, rehabilitation, and place-
ment of all World War II veterans'
cases, and refer all inquiries for aid
to the appropriate agencies.
258
NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW
[May
Citizen Action
Kansas City Voters
Score Again
Elect non-partisan mayor and
councilmen for two-year term
T^OR the third time Kansas City
(Missouri) voters have upheld non-
political government in the city that
was once dominated by the notorious
Pendergast machine. The first victory
was won in 1940, when the United
Campaign Committee elected eight of
the nine councilmen including John B.
Gage who was elected mayor and presi-
dent of the council. Again in 1942, re-
form forces won a similar victory.
The election March 28 gave Mayor
Gage a two-to-one majority over A. J.
Stephens, a business man who ran with
machine support. Including the mayor,
who serves as a member of the Coun-
cil, the citizens' administration retains
its eight members in the nine-member
body. The Pendergast machine re-
elected its one councilman from the
North Side, the district that formerly
provided a large share of the machine's
60,000 ghost votes. A feature of the
campaign was the comparatively close
vote in this original machine bailiwick.
The Negro vote favored Mayor Gage
and the citizens' ticket.
The big majority reflects confidence
in the Gage administration and dis-
trust of any ticket sponsored by the
Pendergast machine. The machine is
operated by James Pendergast, a neph-
ew of T. J. Pendergast who is barred
from political activity by a federal
court probation. James Pendergast and
his ward leaders kept out of sight
during the campaign while their candi-
dates attempted to establish their in-
dependence. A curious suggestion of
the changed times was their tendency
to compliment the accomplishments of
the Gage administration. They only held
out the promise that they could do
still better. Stephens' theme was sales-
manship to build the city.
Back of the Gage administration is
a long series of accomplishments. Im-
portant city improvements have been
made on a pay-as-you-go basis and a
large surplus has been built up for
postwar construction. It started four
years ago with finances wrecked by
the machine. About 12 per cent of the
city's real estate levy is still going to
pay off unauthorized debts left by the
machine government. Influencing the
shifting vote on the North Side is an
expanding program for year-round re-
creation and playgrounds.
Still to be tested is the public sup-
port for nonpolitical government when
it is divorced from personalities. Pres-
ent success is identified with the per-
sonality of Mayor Gage. The mechanics
of the city's administrative progress
under L. P. Cookingham, appointive
city manager, is only vaguely under-
stood by the average voter. Many of
the Republican and Democratic poli-
ticians, who have thrown their weight
behind the citizens' association and
the Gage administration, privately re-
sent the nonpolitical government.
The one-sided victory against a dwin-
dling political machine, however, is
highly encouraging for citizens' govern-
ment. Right now there is no organiza-
tion or coalition in sight to stop it.
RICHARD B. FOWLER
Kansas City Star
Los Angeles Citizens
Ask New Charter
A "streamlined" charter for Los An-
geles is recommended by the Citizens'
Tax Committee of that city, appointed
last July to study the city's revenue
problems and to make suggestions and
1944]
NEWS IN REVIEW
259
recommendations. In its recent report
the Committee urged that the charter
"provide a more simplified form of
government with direct lines of au-
thority and responsibility, and that
such revision should be accomplished
by a Board of Freeholders elected for
that purpose at the next regular or
special city election."
The Committee was organized at the
suggestion of City Councilman J. Win
Austin at a meeting of city officials
and a group of citizens to discuss finan-
cial problems confronting the city.
Councilman Austin suggested that
James L. Beebe, a member of the
council of the National Municipal
League, who was recently awarded the
Los Angeles Realty Board service
watch as the citizen "who contributed
the most valuable service to his com-
munity in 1943," be chairman and ap-
point the Committee's members.
The group met for the first time in
September with the following ques-
tions before it:
1. How much additional revenue
does the city of Los Angeles need?
2. What are the purposes for which
it is required?
3. What sources of additional reve-
nue have been considered by the Reve-
nue and Taxation Committee?
The Committee held a number of
hearings where it learned at first hand
of the needs of the city departments,
their costs, and related information.
It worked without benefit of technical
assistance and at no cost to the city
other than the furnishing of a reporter
for its first hearing.
The report includes chapters cover-
ing the present charter, essential in-
formation needed, and discussion of the
city revenue problem, postwar capital
expenditures, and tax policy. In addi-
tion to suggesting a new charter, it re-
commends that provisions of the charter
dealing with the fire and police pen-
sion system be revised, that immediate
steps be taken to provide adequate
surveys and information on city depart-
ments, that qualified outside research
agencies which make investigations at
their own expense be encouraged to
make surveys of city operations, that
any proposal to levy any substantial
additional tax be submitted to the
voters, that at this time additional
taxes for ordinary city expenditures
are unnecessary, that in business license
taxes and otherwise city officials follow
a uniform tax policy, that a charge be
made upon common carrier buses, as
a franchise or tax, to compensate the
city for the use of its streets.
Los Angeles Town Hall Studies
Metropolitan Sewage Problem
The Municipal and County Govern-
ment Section of Town Hall, Los An-
geles, recently completed a study of the
problem of sewage disposal in the Los
Angeles metropolitan area. The results
of the Section's work, under the title
The Los Angeles Sewage Disposal Prob-
lem, have been approved by the mem-
bership of the organization and issued
as a regular Town Hall report.
Over a period of five months, the
Section held fourteen meetings at which
it heard representatives of a large
number of official and unofficial agen-
cies interested in the problem, includ-
ing among others the mayor and city
engineer of Los Angeles, the president
of the California State Board of Public
Health, the chief engineer and general
manager of the Los Angeles County
Sanitation Districts, the chairman of
the Sewer Committee of the Los An-
geles Chamber of Commerce, the chair-
man of the Los Angeles Citizens' Tax
Committee, and representatives of sev-
eral of the smaller cities of Los Angeles
County.
The Section's report is non-technical
in nature. Its avowed purpose is to
260
NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW
[May
provide a brief summary of the basic
facts for the Town Hall membership
and the general public. It contains a
description of the present disposal sys-
tem, a review of past proposals for its
improvement, an analysis of the cur-
rent situation, and discussions of the
engineering, administrative, and finan-
cial aspects of the problem.
Among recent developments have
been: (1) The quarantine, in April 1943
by the State Board of Public Health,
of a ten-mile strip of beach on Santa
Monica Bay and revocation of the per-
mit under which Los Angeles and other
users of the disposal system had been
discharging sewage through the subma-
rine outfall; (2) Appropriation in De-
cember 1943, by the Los Angeles City
Council, of $8,000 for a survey of the
engineering aspects of the sewage dis-
posal problem; (3) The filing of suit
on December 13, 1943, by the Attorney
General of California against Los An-
geles and the other users of the sys-
tem. The complaint asks: first, that
each of 141 defendants municipalities,
corporations, their officers and employ-
ees be fined $1,000 per day for every
day the sewage disposal plant has been
operated without a permit; second,
that the defendants be restrained from
using the present plant, or any plant,
without a state permit; and third, that
the defendants be required to install
a safe and sanitary disposal system
within a reasonable time to be fixed
by the court.
The Town Hall Section reaches cer-
tain general conclusions: (1) That the
menace to health, pointed out in the
report of the Board of Public Health,
must not be overlooked; (2) that the
suit filed by the Attorney General may,
unless adequate planning is undertaken
immediately, force action upon any
plan available, even if it is not the
soundest conceivable plan and even if
there is no general agreement to it;
(3) that the wisdom of appropriating
funds for an engineering study, to be
conducted without reference to the ad-
ministrative, legal, and financial aspects
of the problem, is open to question.
Finally, the Section expressly recom-
mends that a "thorough, impartial, in-
dependent and unified study of the ad-
ministrative, legal, and financial, as well
as the engineering, aspects of the prob-
lem be initiated at once and completed
with all possible dispatch."
PAUL BECKETT, Chairman
Committee on Publications
Town Hall, Los Angeles
Here and There
Planning Activities
A SPECIAL meeting of the Chicago
'City Club's Committee on Postwar
Planning and Progress was attended by
fourteen students of journalism from
Northwestern University. The unique
demonstration meeting resulted from
a letter which Professor Curtiss D. Mac-
Dougall wrote asking permission to in-
clude the City Club in a series of trips
to problem centers and civic organiza-
tions which he was arranging for his
students. The purpose of the series was
to give the budding journalists a fore-
taste of some of the activities with
which they would meet in the course
of their future careers.
Adopting a similar procedure, the
Club's City Planning and Housing Com-
mittee varied its usual form of meet-
ing by visiting the offices of the Chica-
go Plan Commission. The Club's Bulle-
tin reports that the visit afforded an
excellent opportunity to acquaint com-
mittee members with activities of the
Plan Commission, particularly with re-
spect to the progress of the Master
Plan of Chicago.
"Postwar Planning A Dream or a
Reality?" is the theme of one issue of
For Your Information, published by the
1944]
NEWS IN REVIEW
261
Lowell (Mass.) Taxpayers' Association.
Another issue discusses the need for
consolidation of departments under the
city's new council-manager-proportional
representation charter.
Community planning was the subject
of the eighth annual municipal confer-
ence of the Albany (N. Y.) City Club.
Speakers at the luncheon meeting were
Hon. Erastus Corning, 2nd, mayor of
Albany, and Walter J. Millard, educa-
tion director of the Citizens Union of
New York City, whose subject was
"Community Planning and the Aver-
age Citizen."
On learning that certain tracts pur-
chased by the city for playground pur-
poses were about to be sold, the Board
of Governors of the Portland (Ore.) City
Club authorized the appointment of a
committee to study parks and play-
grounds with relation to long-range
planning and with special reference to
the acquisition of properties for the
city and the school board. The com-
mittee will bring up to date the last
report on the subject, published by the
Club in 1930.
# * *
Cambridge Hears Seasongood
Hon. Murray Seasongood, former may-
or of Cincinnati and former president
of the National Municipal League, re-
cently addressed the Cambridge (Mass.)
Club. In his address Mr. Seasongood
urged that committees interested in
good government should not go to
sleep between elections, that the main-
tenance of, good government demands
the continued interest of all citizens
the year round. In its new publication,
titled Plan E in Cambridge, the Cam-
bridge Committee on Plan E (council-
manager plan with proportional repre-
sentation) says that it "stands behind
this statement. We have planned a
definite program of activity and the
Committee needs the help of all our
citizens. The publishing of this bulle-
tin is a part of our program."
Mr. Seasongood recently was re-
elected president of the Hamilton Coun-
ty (Ohio) Good Government League
for 1944. This organization has asked
its members to suggest which of its
committees particularly interests them.
Committees include those on city,
county, civil service, legislative, courts
and law, membership and finance,
schools, program, and election ma-
chinery.
* * #
Keeping the Citizen Informed
"Know Your Government," a weekly
feature article prepared by the New
Jersey Taxpayers Association to pro-
vide citizens with information on their
government and taxes, is now in its
sixth year. Prepared in brief, informa-
tive fashion by the Association's staff,
the articles are distributed through fa-
cilities of the New Jersey Press Asso-
ciation for publication in over a hun-
dred weekly newspapers.
* # *
Questioning the Assessor
The April 1 issue of The Citizen, pub-
blished by the Citizens League of Port
Huron, Michigan', carries a number of
questions on assessment which it asks
of City Assessor Harry C. Schubert, to-
gether with Mr. Schubert's replies.
A bulletin of the Civic Federation of
Chicago discusses the recent decision
to change the Cook County assessment
base from 37 per cent to 100 per cent
of full value. 1
* *
Citizens View the Schools
Civic groups are taking a critical
look at the schools. A report of the
Chicago City Club's Education Commit-
tee, "An Elementary School Curricu-
lum for the Needs of Life in a Free
^ee "Chicago Changes Basis of Prop-
erty Valuation," this issue, p. 268.
262
NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW
[May
Society," is reproduced in part in the
Club Bulletin. It praises certain new
educational methods in use in many
Chicago schools and calls on the Board
of Education and the Superintendent of
Schools to place these techniques in
wider practice. States the report: "The
end product [of the school] is a citi-
zen with a healthy body, a firm grasp
on the essentials of 'book learning,' a
knowledge of his city, country, and
world so that he may become an in-
telligent citizen, a grasp of the fun-
damentals of our society which will
enable him to become proficient in
whatever line of activity he chooses
to make a living."
At one of its weekly luncheons the
Club listened to Mrs. Walter F. Heine-
man, member of the city's Board of
Education, who said that no improve-
ment could be expected until the po-
litical power behind the schools is
eliminated.
The Massachusetts Federation of Tax-
payers Associations, in a release on
"Forethought Now to Control School
Costs During the Next Ten Years,"
points to the fact that "a few years
from now there will be about 80,000
fewer pupils in the upper grades of
the public schools of Massachusetts
than there are now. This suggests that
there is need right now for some care-
ful study and planning if the school
systems of cities and towns are to be
adjusted to what is coming."
The Wisconsin Taxpayer, published
by the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance,
discusses at some length a proposed
two-mill state property tax for high
school aid submitted to referendum on
April 4.
The Nebraska Federation of County
Taxpayers Leagues publishes in Ne-
braska Taxpayer a discussion of the
cost of education.
The Citizens Union of New York City
recently released a statement by Rich-
ard S. Childs, chairman, on behalf of
its executive committee, decrying re-
ported interference by Mayor LaGuar-
dia in the investigation of New York
City education by a special commit-
tee of the National Education Asso-
ciation. "This charge calls for answer
from both the Mayor and the educa-
tion authorities," the Union's state-
ment demands.
Plan E in Cambridge, issued by the
Cambridge Committee for Plan E, pub-
lishes in, its initial number a report on
the city's "School Committee Activities
Since January 1, 1944."
* * *
Strengthening the Merit System
The Connecticut Merit System Asso-
ciation's publication, The Merit Man,
carries an article by its editor, Earl C.
Shedd, on "Freedom from Political
Regimentation," which covers the steps
taken in this country to "guarantee to
the people the control of government
by limiting the political power of its
employees although recognizing the
rights of these employees, as citizens,
to participate in elections and direct
public policy."
* * *
Curbing Juvenile Delinquency
Lake City, a section of Seattle, de-
termined to put an end to "willy-nilly
scattered activity" for youngsters, has
launched a new type of activity pro-
gram for its boys and girls. Twenty-
two local organizations commercial
clubs, community clubs, parent-teacher
groups, war veterans associations, and
churches have banded together in an
Inter-Club Council to promote a recrea-
tional program, reports the American
Municipal Association. A coordinator
has been appointed, his salary to be
paid out of county funds.
Building of a youth center is delayed
by war restrictions, meanwhile the use
of all existing facilities is being ex-
panded. Abandoned stores and old
1944]
NEWS IN REVIEW
263
barns as well as school buildings and
community club houses will be used
as youth gathering places. The council
has offered to provide manpower to
help push completion of a partially
constructed Veterans of Foreign Wars
building so it can house some of the
youth activities planned.
* # #
Information on Candidates
Civic groups are publishing informa-
tion on candidates for spring primaries
and elections. The Nebraska Federation
of County Taxpayers Leagues lists na-
tional and state candidates for the
two major parties. The Seattle Munici-
pal League lists information and com-
ments on candidates for the offices of
mayor, city council, corporation coun-
sel, and the school board, with com-
ments also on two charter amendments
referred to the voters. Citywide dis-
tribution of thet report was undertaken
with approximately 105,000 copies used
in a door-to-door canvass. Greater
Cleveland, organ of the Citizens League
of Cleveland, lists federal, state, and
county candidates and asks that read-
ers scan the list and send in to the
Committee on Candidates estimates
and comments on their qualifications.
* * *
With the Women Voters
The place of meeting for the six-
teenth convention of the National
League of Women Voters was changed
from Excelsior Springs, Missouri, to
the Stevens Hotel at Chicago. Dates
remained the same, April 25 to 28.
Five hundred delegates and alternates
attended, representing 600 local leagues
in 35 states. The League, organized in
1920 when women were first enfran-
chised, has grown into an organization
with members in 1500 communities.
Members of the State Board of the
Maryland League of Women Voters
and of the Baltimore City 'and County
Leagues visited Congressman Streett
Baldwin at his Washington office. The
State League's campaign to elect quali-
fied public officials was launched at a
meeting of the state board on March
8 in Washington.
The Portland (Ore.) League of Wom-
en Voters has been conducting a vigor-
ous campaign to register 250,000 voters
in Multnomah County. Cooperating are
the Retail Trade Bureau, the Chamber
of Commerce, Advertising Federation,
Multnomah County Commissioners, all
political parties, churches, and civic
organizations.
The Minnesota Woman Voter pub-
lishes a statement by Rabbi Albert G.
Minda praising the League for its ac-
tivities. Says Rabbi Minda: "I have
been greatly impressed with what this
organization has done in examing and
analyzing in an objective, nonpartisan
manner the issues, state, national, and
international in character, and in bring-
ing its findings and conclusions to the
public that it may know and act. I
wish sometimes that organizations com-
posed of men evinced the same zeal."
The Minnesota League will hold its
annual meeting at St. Paul May 17-18.
The Illinois League of Women Voters
has published the voting record of Illi-
nois congressmen, but cautions that
this should not be the only basis for
judging congressmen. The League con-
tinues its campaign for a new state
constitution.
* * *
Strictly Personal
The resignation of Miss Grace D.
Treat, executive secretary of the Wom-
en's City Club of Cleveland for the
past 24 years, has been accepted by the
Club. In its acceptance the Board
stated that it "wishes to acknowledge
gratefully her long and splendid sup-
port and direction toward maintaining
those high civic standards by which
the prestige of the Women's City Club
has been established in the community."
264
NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW
[May
Proportional Representation
Edited by George H. Plallett, Jr.
(This department is successor to the
Proportional Representation Review)
Women Voters
Report on P. R.
A survey in New York after
seven years, four elections
TRACED with the threat that the New
York legislature would attempt
to prohibit the use of proportional
representation in New York City as
well as elsewhere in the state 1 the
New York City League of Women
Voters' Committee on Election Proce-
dure and Activities undertook to study
P. R. as it has worked out in the city
and to make recommendations to the
League membership.
After a thorough investigation, which
included not only a review of the his-
tory of P. R. in New York but also in
other U. S. cities and in other coun-
tries, the Committee presented a re-
port which the League's Board of Man-
agement has distributed to members
The report contained the following con-
clusions and recommendations:
Conclusions
1. The P. R. system for the election
of councilmen in New York City has
proved the most democratic since the
representation which the electorate has
received most fairly reflects the vote
cast.
2. The system automatically accom-
plishes reapportionment as between
the different boroughs at every elec-
tion.
3. It has given this city a legisla-
tive body of higher calibre than it had
under the old system.