4. The council is a more deliberative
^ee "Attack on P. R. Fails in New
York Legislature," NATIONAL MUNICI-
PAL REVIEW, April 1944, page 213.
body than the old Board of Aldermen
and on the whole has introduced and
passed more statesmanlike measures.
5. Racial and religious voting un-
der P. R. is no greater than under the
plurality system; this is clearly demon-
strated by the transfers of votes.
6. Although practically no educa-
tional work is done among the elec-
torate, save that of a few civic and
political organizations, and although
voting under a new and different sys-
tem requires several elections to master
it properly, nevertheless the great
majority of the electorate has been
able to mark its ballots correctly.
7. The number of interested voters
is as great as, if not greater than, un-
der the system previously existing and
could be increased if comprehensive
educational campaigns were conducted.
8. Wider choice is offered to and
greater discretion is exercised by the
individual voter, since emblem voting
has been discarded, the district en-
larged to take in the whole borough,
and candidates with boroughwide repu-
tations run for office.
Recommendations
This committee recommends that the
Hare system of P. R. be retained as
the method of electing the city coun-
cil and that encouragement be given
to the manufacture of machines to
mark and count the ballots.
We earnestly petition our New York
press to give more publicity to coun-
cil elections, which we consider of the
utmost importance, so that the voters
of the city may be better informed of
their rights and responsibilities and
concerning the qualifications of candi-
dates.
We solicit that discriminating con-
cern and eternal vigilance of each voter,
which is, after all, the price which must
be paid for good representative gov-
ernment and liberty.
1944]
NEWS IN REVIEW
265
P. R. History
Prefacing its conclusions, the com-
mittee reviewed the his f ory of P. R. in
New York City, stressing the fact that
after its adoption in 1936 by a vote
of 923,000 to 555,000 the voters of the
city continued to support it by sizable
majorities when various attempts were
made to discard it. The report has
been reproduced in its entirety in the
League's Active Voter of March 20.
E. S. P.
Ballots Re-examined
in Brooklyn
During the last two weeks of March
over 85,000 of the 440,000 P. R. ballots
cast in the borough of Brooklyn last
November were subjected to a second
scrutiny. This was because former
Councilman Louis P. Goldberg, who
was declared defeated on the next to
last count, paid $250 to the Board of
Elections in conformity with the sec-
tion of the city charter which permits
such scrutiny at a cost of $25 a day to
whoever requests it.
Mr. Goldberg, who was leader of the
American Labor party delegation in
the 1942-43 P. R. Council, had a theory
that he should have received several
hundred more ballots than were cred-
ited to him at a crucial stage in the
count. To assure himself of the facts
he paid for an examination of ballots
transferred or held "exhausted" to-
ward the end of the count when his
elimination or continuance in the race
was being decided.
In addition to a regular employee of
the Board of Elections, four temporary
clerks were hired. Mr. Goldberg, two
of his friends, and the writer acted as
checkers. Other candidates whose fates
were involved also attended. At the
end of the two weeks, when the 85,000
ballots had all been examined, the
total number of ballots in the ex-
hausted pile and in the quota piles of
several elected candidates which should
have been credited to Mr. Goldberg
was found to be 153 only a small
percentage of the number needed to
make any change in the election result.
Also no substantial number of mis-
placed ballots of any other candidates
was discovered.
The recount served to give added as-
surance that successful fraud or serious
inaccuracy is extremely unlikely in a
P. R. count. This is because of the
number of persons who would have
to conspire or repeat the same mis-
takes to accomplish it and the amount
of scrutiny there is on the part of
those who would be hurt by it.
WALTER J. MILLARD
New York Home Rule
Extension Signed
The Desmond city home rule bill
referred to in this department last
month has now been signed by the Gov-
ernor as Chapter 602 of the New York
Laws of 1944. It will now be possible
for citizens of any city in the state
to put an extensive charter revision on
the ballot by petition. 1
Rotary International
Considers the Hare System
According to the Rotary Interna-
tional News Letter, which goes to
5,208 Rotary Clubs in various countries
from headquarters in Chicago, "The
possibilities of the use by Rotary In-
ternational of the single transferable
ballot has been suggested several
times, more recently by the Rotary
Club of Dublin, Ireland, at the time
of the Toronto convention."
The single transferable vote or Hare
system is the form of P. R. used for
the election of all public Bodies in
*A fuller discussion of the new law
will appear in the June issue of the
REVIEW section on City, State, and Na-
tion, H. M. Olmsted, Editor.
266
NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW
[May
Eire and for a number of city councils
and school boards in the United States
and Canada. Applied to a single office
it becomes a good system of majority
preferential voting.
The News Letter of October 15, 1943,
continues: "The Board of Directors of
R. I. at its January 1943 meeting ex-
pressed the opinion that in view of the
effect of existing wartime conditions
on attendance at R. I. conventions, the
present method of voting used by R. I.
should be continued. Therefore the
board deferred consideration of the
use of the single transferable ballot
until conditions make it possible to
obtain a more representative vote on
the matter by member clubs in all
parts of the world."
Sensing that many Rotarians in
parts of the world where the system is
not in use could not vote on its adop-
tion intelligently, the News Letter gives
a simple example of its application to
a single office.
It asks, however, that amendments
to the constitution and by-laws, unless
"of an urgent nature," be not pre-
sented for consideration at the 1944
convention, to be held in Omaha May
23-25, because war conditions will make
it impossible for clubs in many parts
of the world to be represented.
Two British Books
on Representation
Two books recently published in
London will be of interest to propor-
tionalists on this side of the Atlantic
Parliamentary Representation, by J. F.
S. Ross, 1 and Coupon or Free?, by R.
W. G. Mackay*
The fact that the University of Lon-
don made a grant to aid in the pub-
lication of the book by Mr. Ross, who
Published by Eyre and Spottis-
woode, London, W. C. 2, 1943. 245 pp.
10/6.
'Published by Seeker and Warburg,
London, 1943. 144 pp. 5/-.
put into it "nearly ten years of detailed
investigation and thought," is proof
that it merits the serious attention of
those who not only believe in democ-
racy but also are equally concerned
in discovering the methods for best
applying that principle. We are pre-
sented in Parts I and II with a care-
ful examination of the British Parlia-
ments of the interwar years from such
sociological and economic angles as age
of members, their education, their oc-
cupations, and the cost of electing
them. No non-Briton can comprehend
these Parliaments unless he is aware
of the facts set forth in Chapter IX.
This tabulates the family and marriage
ties that exist between the two houses.
In the present House of Commons 146
members are related to members of the
other and non-elected house.
Part III, consisting of seven chap-
ters, is an "endeavor to make construc-
tive suggestions for bringing about a
more satisfactory state of affairs." Its
second chapter, An Ideal Member of
Parliament, should encourage an Amer-
ican political scientist to draw up a
parallel set of specifications for an
ideal member of Congress. Two of the
chapters which follow, on electoral re-
form, present the argument for and
the details of the Hare system. This,
with certain financial reforms, is seen
to be the only proposal that "makes
sense" in view of the facts many of
which are arranged in simple graphs
already placed before us.
The British citizen when he votes is
fortunate in not having to consider
anything but "policies," for he elects
only members of policy-making bodies.
This difference in "gestalt" between the
American and British systems should
always be kept in mind by those who
compare the two and who may use
these two books as tools for such com-
parison. The council-manager system
is a parallel of the British system, for
1944]
NEWS IN REVIEW
267
under it only the council, the policy-
making body, is elective. Now that
the Hare system is found by the care-
ful study that Mr. Ross has made of
the "controlled executive system" to
be essential to the proper operation of
the latter, the use of the Hare system
by American council-manager cities is
"indicated."
P. R. Recommended
The unconcealed anger of a majority
of the present British House of Com-
mons at the demand of Winston
Churchill that it reverse itself on the
question of equal pay for men and
women teachers gives rise to great
speculation as to what the next House
of Commons will be like. Mr. Mackay's
book is written "to focus people's at-
tention on the urgent need for electoral
reform now, before the next general
election." His thesis is that Britain will
endanger the confidence of her own
people in the democratic method, and
possibly prevent the organization of a
permanent peace, if that election pro-
duces a Parliament as non-representa-
tive as the seven elected since 1917.
He gives in Chapter III the reasons
why they were non-representative and
these include some not dealt with by
Mr. Ross.
Mr. Mackay's main recommendation
is that of Mr. Ross the Hare system of
proportional representation should be
applied to the election of the House of
Commons. His explanation of the sys-
tem is a model of clarity. The last
chapter, Representative Government
and Democracy, is a discussion of the
relation of method to principle and
principle to method which deserves to
have many American as well as
British readers. It is stimulating and
challenging, even though one may not
agree with such sentences as: "If this
war has any meaning in terms of
economic conflict it is that capitalism
and political democracy must inevit-
ably be in continual conflict, which
can only be resolved by some form of
fascism or socialism." There are many
Americans who believe that "capi-
talism," if not too narrowly defined
and made part of what is called a
"mixed" economic system, is both
compatible with and requires political
democracy.
The two books complement one an-
other admirably. The first gives a
mass of meticulously gathered facts
and forces one to a general conclusion;
the second applies that general con-
clusion to the immediate need of the
British nation and does it with a pas-
sion and eloquence which bring to
mind Professor R. H. Tawney, whom
Mr. Mackay quotes with admiration.
Both deserve careful reading by
thoughtful Americans. We need to be
aware of the shape of things to come
in each of the Allied Nations. These
books will influence, there is no doubt,
the political form of the democracy of
one of them Great Britain and their
message has importance for this nation
also.
W. J. M.
May 21 Is Citizenship Day
In accordance with the Congressional resolution setting aside the third Sunday
in May of each year as citizenship day for the recognition of new citizens who
have attained their majority or have been naturalized, President Roosevelt has
proclaimed May 21 "I Am an American Day." In his proclamation the President
called upon "federal, state, and local officials, and patriotic, civic, and educa-
tional organizations to plan and hold, on or about May 21, exercises designed
to assist our citizens, both native-born and naturalized, to understand more
fully the great privileges and responsibilities of citizenship in our democracy."
268
NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW
[May
Taxation and Finance
Edited by Wade S. Smith
Chicago Changes Basis
of Property Valuation
Assessment to be raised to
100% of full value basis
CHANGES being made by the Cook
County assessor in fixing the 1943
taxable valuation for Chicago and its
sister governmental units threaten to
cause almost as great a disturbance in
the community as did the revaluation
of 1928, from all of whose effects the
community has not yet recovered.
Where the 1928 reassessment effected
the wholesale revaluation of property
to overcome gross inequalities as found
by the State Tax Commission, how-
ever, the present change is for the
more limited purpose of raising the
ratio of assessed value from a present
level of approximately 37 per cent of
so-called full or true value to the 100
per cent basis required since 1927.
The change in the basis of assess-
ment will be accompanied by a rough-
ly proportionate decrease in the tax
rate. The decrease will be only rough-
ly proportionate, however, because the
city and other governments all have
tax rate limits for their operating
funds, and the increased valuations
will permit higher levies than are pres-
ently permissible.
Chicago has for many years been
caught in the vise between declining
taxable valuations and tax rate limits
on its numerous operating and special
funds. From a peak of $4,250,000,000
in 1927, taxable valuations declined to
$3,789,000,000 for 1930 and have since
dwindled, more or less steadily, to
$1,862,000,000 for 1942, the valuation on
which taxes collectable in 1943 were
based. Annual levies have also dwin-
dled, despite increases in the rate. The
following table, from data reported by
the Chicago Civic Federation, sum-
marizes what has happened since 1930
Overall Overall
Assessed Tax Rate Tax Levy
Valuation per $100 in Chicago
1930 $3,788,915,049 $ 6.74 $252,876,877
1933 2,397,652,228 6.49 153,383,325
1940 1,995,827,539 9.52 190,009,685
1941 1,935,481,424 9.89 191,425,646
1942 1,861,585,339 10.42 193,977,192
It is to be noted that the assessed
valuations, rates, and levies apply to
the budget for the year designated,
but the taxes are not collected until
the following year. Thus, 1942 taxes
were not placed in collection until the
spring of 1943, and were not finally
delinquent until last fall.
The assessed valuation now being
fixed by the county assessor (Cook
County is the assessing and tax-
collecting agency for all the local units/
will be the basis for 1943 taxes, which
will go into collection later this spring
and become finally delinquent in
September 1944. Consequently, the first
rates and levies on the new 100 per
cent basis of assessment will reflect
1943 budgets, and the effect of the
higher basis of assessment will not be
fully reflected until 1944 taxes are put
into collection next year.
For 1943 it is estimated that the city
valuation on a full 100 per cent basis
of assessment will be in the vicinity of
$5,000,000,000. (The 1942 assessment
of $1,862,000,000 would have been
$5,031,000,000 on a 100 per cent basis,
but indications are that the downward
trend of valuations will continue when
final 1943 figures become available.)
In drawing 1944 budgets some units
have taken advantage of the prospec-
tively higher valuation and are bud-
geting tax requirements which would
not have been permissible within their
tax rate limits on the old 37 per cent
1944]
NEWS IN REVIEW
269
basis of assessment. In all, according
to Civic Federation estimates, some-
thing near $4,258,000 has been budgeted
for 1944 in this manner for taxes col-
lectable within Chicago. Most of the
increase is for Cook County's general
fund, which has long been on a de-
ficiency basis and which last year
became so involved that a supplemen-
tary levy to take up part of the ac-
cumulated deficit is clearly justified.
Other increases have less justification
and have been severely criticized by
Chicago civic and service groups.
While taxes collectable this year will
not reflect the larger budgets arising
from the expansion of permissible
levies within the tax rate limits, some
increase over what would otherwise be
permissible is in prospect. This is be-
cause in a few cases budgets called
for levies higher than could have been
collected under the 37 per cent basis
of assessment. About $711,000 in higher
levies arise from this source. A smaller
amount will be added because of the
operation of the method of computing
the rate and extending the levies. In
fixing their budget requirements the
units estimate taxes on rates carried
out to as many as six decimal places,
but the assessor, in computing taxes for
collection, is required to use a rate in
even cents per $100 of valuation, rais-
ing the fractions to accomplish this pur-
pose. Obviously, the larger the valua-
tion, the greater the excess over bud-
get estimates that is produced by rais-
ing the rate to the next cent to elim-
inate fractions. It is estimated that
about $551,000 will be added to the
1943 levy in this manner. Even so,
it is estimated that the 1943 tax bill
in Chicago, collectable this year, will
be only about $188,472,000, or about
$5,500,000 less than in 1942.
The 1944 budget developments are like-
ly to lead to litigation and to changes
in the legislation respecting taxation,
since there is evident a conflict as to
what present controlling tax limits are.
For a number of years the tax limits
as established by maximum tax rates
have been so restrictive that successive
legislatures have authorized more ade-
quate levies by providing alternative
limits in the shape of "pegged" levies.
On the new 100 per cent basis of as-
sessment the yield under the tax rate
limits is of course greater than that
under the "pegged" levy laws, and a
legislative re-examination of the whole
matter of tax limits is being urged.
The raising of the basis of assessment
is also having repercussions outside
Cook County. Under Illinois law rail-
road property is valued by the State
Tax Commission, which in order to
avoid discrimination between counties
using different bases of assessment
finds it necessary to equalize its valu-
ations. For this purpose a statewide
weighted average has been used in the
past. If the same procedure is used
for 1943 the practical effect will be
to lower railroad property taxes in
Cook County by something like
$2,000,000 and raise those downstate
by about $8,000,000, since downstate
counties use ratios predominantly well
below 50 per cent.
The situation is to some extent in-
dicative of the chaos resulting from
too-long delayed changes in a tax sys-
tem badly needing overhauling. The
fund system of tax rate limits in use
has long contributed to the piling up
of operating deficits which must even-
tually either be met by the taxpayer
or repudiated, and the lack of home
rule for Chicago and its other units
has unnecessarily brought the state
legislature into the picture as special
legislation was sought, permitting
buck-passing between Chicago and
downstate and making it next to im-
possible for the Chicago units to formu-
late their own program.
270
NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW
[May
Assessment of property at as near
full value as practicable is usually re-
garded as a healthy practice, and if
the Cook County assessor in raising his
valuations to 100 per cent of full value
precipitates a good housecleaning of
Chicago's tax system, he will have per-
formed a doubly beneficial act. The
danger is that the change may become
the occasion for long-protracted delays
in collections, destruction of taxpayer
morale, and increased tax delinquency,
such as followed the reassessment of
1928 and were aggravated by the de-
pression of the early 1930's.
Simplified Income Tax
Plan Approved
A simplification of the federal in-
come tax rate structure and returns is
promised under the plan adopted by
the House Ways and Means Commit-
tee; it will probably go through with-
out substantial change. Under the
plan provision will be made for collec-
tion at the source without the necessity
of filing a return on incomes of up to
$5,000 where income not subject to
withholding does not exceed $100. In
the rate structure, the victory tax is
to be abolished, and the normal and
surtaxes combined into a single rate
ranging from 20 per cent up to 91 per
cent. Tables showing comparatively
the tax liability under the proposed
set-up and that under the present rev-
enue law indicate small increases for
all taxpayers except those in the mar-
ried with two or more children cate-
gory of the middle income group, who
will receive small reductions.
Taxes of All Government Levels
Take 24% of Country's Income
Total tax collections throughout the
country federal, state, and local
were $30,398,000,000 for fiscal year 1943,
or 23.5 per cent of the country's total
income for the same year. This is an
increase of 141 per cent in total tax
collections between 1939 and 1943, but
represents a rise of only 5 per cent in
proportion to the rising national in-
come during those years. 1
The three levels of government col-
lected (excluding social security pay-
ments) $12,602,000,000 during the 1939
fiscal year 18.5 per cent of national
income for that year. The national
income (excluding undistributed cor-
porate earnings), however, rose 90 per
cent during the five-year period, from
$68,021,000,000 to $129,350,000,000.
Relatively moderate increase of total
tax collections in proportion to na-
tional income is explained by the fact
that local taxes decreased, not only
in proportion to the growing national
income but in absolute amount, while
state collections during the same period
did not keep pace with the swift rise
in national income.
State tax collections rose from
$3,057,000,000 in 1939 to $3,906,000,000
in 1943, an increase of 27.8 per cent,
though they were only 3 per cent of
national income in 1943 compared with
4.5 per cent in fiscal 1939. And sig-
nificance of local tax collections in pro-
portion to national income was cut
almost in half during the five-year
period, dropping from 7 to 3.6 per cent.
Federal collections increased 360 per
cent, from $4,760,000,000 for fiscal
1939 to $21,880,000,000 for 1943. On the
basis of per cent of national income
the increase was from 7 per cent
equalled by local collections in 1939
to 16.9 per cent for the 1943 fiscal year.
Preliminary estimates for federal,
state, and local tax collections for the
1944 fiscal year indicate that present
trends are being accentuated still
further.
^From an analysis by the Federation
of Tax Administrators based on figures
issued by the U. S. Department of
Commerce, U. S. Treasury, Bureau of
the Census, and Tax Institute.
Books in Review
Edited by ELSIE S. PARKER
City Problems of 1943-1944. The An-
nual Proceedings of the United States
Conference of Mayors. Edited by Harry
R. Betters. Washington, D. C., The
United States Conference of Mayors,
1944. iii, 216 pp. $3.
The latest edition of the Conference
of Mayors' Proceedings contains articles
giving extensive information about war
and postwar problems of cities by out-
standing authorities. Manpower, eco-
nomic stabilization, disposal of federal
surplus property, and postwar public
works planning are but a few of the
subjects covered. Two of the most im-
portant problems which will continue
to confront cities federal-state-local fis-
cal relations and metropolitan areas
are discussed. As striking as the scope
of articles are the outstanding authori-
ties who write them.
EDWARD W. WEIDNER
American Housing: Problems and
Prospects, Factual Findings by Miles
L. Colean; The Program by the Hous-
ing Committee. New York City, The
Twentieth Century Fund, 1944. xxii,
466 pp. $3.
This book gives a comprehensive
treatment of production and marketing
problems in housing, together with a
recommended program for action. The
survey finds that postwar housebuild-
ing should be concentrated in the
$2,000 to $4,000 price range where the
need is greatest, and the committee
recommends "a reduction of production
costs through the encouragement of
larger producing organizations, through