their representatives carefully. Such
responsibility will help restore to our
legislative bodies the prestige they
must have for the successful oper-
ation of a true self-governing system.
P. R. in Cincinnati
^ITHE stimulating story of what one
* city has been able to accomplish
through a revival of wholesome civic
spirit and the adoption of modern
methods is told in this issue in a con-
densation of a report on the experi-
ence of Cincinnati from 1924 to 1944.
It might reasonably be assumed
that the people of a city which has
come so far from the depths of
crooked, plundering politics would be
quick to recognize the basic reasons
for this remarkable progress. But,
curiously enough, some of the news-
papers in Cincinnati overlooked the
most significant findings of the ap-
praisal. In the council-manager form
of government, which Cincinnati
adopted in its great reform move-
ment of two decades ago, the city
council is the key to the situation.
The gains Cincinnati has made were
clearly dependent upon the high type
of councilmen the people have elect-
ed by proportional representation.
After analyzing the results of
typical elections in Cincinnati, the
authorities who made the study con-
cluded that "No one can object to
these results unless he believes that
the majority party is entitled to a
clean sweep. P. R. has thus fulfilled
the purpose for which it was
adopted."
Local Affairs Abroad
TN THIS issue the REVIEW restores
to its pages a department, "Local
Affairs Abroad." The great similari-
ty of the problems of people, no
matter where they live or what their
basic system of government, provides
a rich opportunity for all to learn
from the experience of others. Equal-
ly important is the unprecedented
interest in achieving
progress during the
widespread
fundamental
period after the war when nations
which have been laid waste or had
their systems deeply jarred will find
it easy to face the future with rela-
tively open minds. The new depart-
ment is edited by Edward W. Weid-
ner, a member of the staff of the
National Municipal League.
20 Years Forward in Cincinnati
Authoritative evaluation reveals Ohio metropolis has
benefited vastly from "revolution" against politics-
ridden machine; finds civic parsimony chief weakness.
By THOMAS H. REED and DORIS D. REED
EDITOR'S NOTE. This article is a con-
densation of a study made for the Con-
sultant Service of the National Muni-
cipal League by Thomas H. Reed and
Doris D. Reed and sponsored by The
Stephen H. Wilder Foundation. The
Wilder Foundation was established in
in 1941 under the will of Edith Carson
Wilder, widow of Stephen H. Wilder,
late of Cincinnati, for research in the
field of public affairs affecting the
Cincinnati metropolitan area, for uni-
versity research in basic science, and
for support of summer opera in Cin-
cinnati.
TN 1924 Cincinnati was a sick city.
*- With the best government in the
world it could not have given ade-
quate municipal services on its 1924
operating income. The city was in
the grip of the "Smith one per cent"
law. 1 Real estate was assessed at
55 per cent of true value, and the
low rate on the low valuation meant
small returns. The people persistent-
ly refused to vote extra levies to be
spent by a government they did not
trust.
The city seemingly was doing its
best to aggravate its illness. Since
1915 long-term bonds for current
expenses had been an annual event.
By 1924 the city had piled up a
non-self-supporting debt of $55,562,-
000 $20,000,000 more than in any
other city of less than 700,000. The
city did not get its money's worth
for what it spent. There was no in-
telligent over-all direction of its
Massed by the Ohio legislature in 1911.
affairs. Partisan politics were para-
mount.
The council of 32 members was
capable only of blind obedience to
the machine. The mayor was almost
equally helpless. There were some
competent and conscientious officials
but they were thwarted at every turn
by the fatal combination of poverty
and politics. Civil service regulations
were constantly evaded. Only in-
efficiency could be expected from the
rank and file of city employees, un-
derpaid, subject to political assess-
ments, dependent for their jobs on
political favor.
In 1924 Cincinnati's police de-
partment was inadequate, its fire de-
fenses undermanned, its health ser-
vice below standard, its parks shab-
by, its city hall down at the heel,
its streets dirty and in disgraceful
disrepair. Its garbage was collected
and disposed of by a private com-
pany under an unsatisfactory con-
tract. It had almost no active recre-
ation program. In fact it was a
very sick city.
The city government did not even
possess sufficient initiative to call
in a doctor. But its guardian, the
Republican Advisory and Executive
Committee of Hamilton County, did.
It appointed a survey committee of
prominent citizens who engaged Dr.
Lent D. Upson of the Detroit Bu-
reau of Governmental Research. He
376
1944]
20 YEARS FORWARD IN CINCINNATI
377
brought with him a large staff of
specialists.
The results of the Upson survey
fill a volume of 535 pages. It did
not recommend, except as to the
council, any drastic change in form
of government. Its length and tech-
nical character scared away the gen-
eral reader. But it supplied the fac-
tual basis needed by the movement
then gathering headway for a com-
plete reorganization of the city gov-
ernment. It presents an authentic
picture of Cincinnati's government
in 1924, from which twenty years of
progress can be measured. 2
2 A charter amendment, embodying the
manager plan and a council of nine elect-
ed by proportional representation, backed
by the City Charter Committee, was
adopted in November 1924. At the first
council election in 1925 the City Charter
Committee, running a slate of independ-
ent Republicans and Democrats, captured
six of the nine seats, the three others
going to the Republican organization.
The Charterite councilmen elected one of
their number, Murray Seasongood, mayor,
and selected Colonel C. O. Sherrill, then
in charge of public buildings and grounds
in Washington, D. C., to be manager.
Thereafter a committee was appointed,
consisting of Robert A. Taft, Robert N.
Gorman, and Henry Bentley, to prepare
a complete new charter which was
adopted in 1926. The Charterites, with
the same independent Republican and
Democratic backing, continued to have a
majority in the council until 1936. In
1930 Russell Wilson replaced Seasongood,
and Sherrill was succeeded by C. A.
Dykstra. In the fall of 1935 there were
elected four Charterites, four Republi-
cans, and one independent. Russell Wil-
son was re-elected mayor in 1936 by vir-
tue of an agreement with the independ-
ent member. Colonel Sherrill took over
the managership again in 1937 when Mr.
Dykstra became president of the Univer-
sity of Wisconsin.
The 1937 election again split the coun-
cil 4-4-1. The Republicans came to terms
with the independent, and elected James
It is very significant that the
manager plan in Cincinnati was in
the hands of its sworn friends for
its first ten years. To have turned
the city over to the old machine
which had fought the plan would
have meant its sabotage. Colonel
Sherrill in his first term as manager
had the constant backing of a strong
council majority, and an able and
eloquent mayor to represent his ad-
ministration before the public. Mr.
Dykstra was almost as fortunate.
The manager plan thus had a fair
chance to prove itself. It has come
to be accepted generally by all ele-
ments in the community, except
those rank-and-file politicians known
in Cincinnati as "bolivars."
This does not mean that there are
no critics of the city government.
Omitting, however, those with per-
sonal grievances, their criticisms are
constructive. There is, indeed, a sig-
nificant difference between their
complaints and those of twenty years
ago. The citizen who then groused
about holes in the streets now wor-
ries about lack of super-highways.
The man who then grieved because
there was no active recreation pro-
gram is now wrinkling his brow over
ways and means of keeping the city's
88 playgrounds in operation. The
question in 1924 was "Can Cincinnati
have a decent government?" The
G. Stewart mayor. The same situation
continued in the council elected in 1939.
In 1941 and 1943 the result was five Re-
publicans and four Charterites. Before
the election of 1943 Colonel Sherrill re-
signed, effective December 31, and the
Republican members of council, the
Charterites not voting, named Wilbur R.
Kellogg, manager of the Cincinnati
Union Terminal Company, city manager.
378
NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW
[September
question today is "Can Cincinnati
overcome the legal obstacles and
popular inertia which have prevent-
ed her from pursuing some of the
higher goals of civic ambition?"
Cincinnati's Accomplishments
More specifically, what has Cin-
cinnati accomplished since 1924?
1. It has replaced a politics-rid-
den, inefficient, slovenly administra-
tion with one which performs the
routine activities of a modern city
economically, efficiently and with a
minimum of political interference.
2. Cincinnati has not eliminated
politics, or even partisanship, from
the city government, but has con-
fined them largely to the council
where, if anywhere, they belong.
3. In place of a robot council
Cincinnati now has a lively, intelli-
gent and independent governing body
in which a vigorous minority is
always present to call the majority
to account.
4. Cincinnati, in 1924 debt-be-
devilled and on the verge of bank-
ruptcy, in 1944 has one of the high-
est credit ratings of any city.
5. Cincinnatians continue to pay
lower taxes than the people of other
cities. Local tax burdens are only
62.7 per cent of those in the average
American city.
6. The cost of direct operation in
Cincinnati, omitting relief, was only
$24.30 per capita in 1942 against
an average for cities of 250,000 to
1,000,000 of $33.37.
7. Improvement in departmental
operations has been general, and nu-
merous public improvements have
been made. There are still some
departments, however, notably po-
lice, health and recreation, which are
inadequately supported; and there
are many badly needed public im-
provements calling for expenditures
on a larger scale than Cincinnati has
hitherto known.
8. Some advance has been made
in cooperation between Cincinnati
and Hamilton County, but the prob-
lems created by the outward move-
ment of population from the city to
its environs actually have been in-
tensified since 1924.
The City Manager
The authority of the manager in
Cincinnati is limited to a narrower
range of activities than is usual. The
mayor, with approval of council, ap-
points the auditor, board of health,
park board, housing authority, board
of directors of the University of Cin-
cinnati, and a majority of the mem-
bers of the recreation commission
and the city planning commission.
He also appoints one member of
the civil service commission, the
other two being appointed, one each,
by the board of education and the
board of directors of the university.
Three of the regular line depart-
ments health, parks, and recreation
are thus removed from the authori-
ty of the manager. No disastrous re-
sults have followed. The mayors
have, with a few exceptions, made
good appointments.
The great money-spending activi-
ties, however, are concentrated under
the manager public safety, public
works, public utilities, water works
and the hospital. He also appoints
the treasurer, purchasing agent, so-
licitor, and the personnel officer.
The managers selected have all
1944]
20 YEARS FORWARD IN CINCINNATI
379
been men of proved executive ca-
pacity. Managers Sherrill and Dyk-
stra were specially prepared by
training and experience for the task
of city management. They both ac-
quired nationwide reputations for
their able conduct of Cincinnati's
affairs. From what can be learned
of Manager Kellogg's character and
aptitudes, if given as fair a chance
as his predecessors he should do sub-
stantially as well.
The council has allowed its mana-
gers to manage. Not infrequently
managers have had to endure blasts
of criticism from the floor of coun-
cil. These have come from individu-
al members, however, whose right
and duty it is to criticize. There
has not been any concerted and
persistent attempt to control the
manager within his proper sphere. It
seems to be the present intent of
a majority of council, irrespective of
party, to protect his independence.
On their part, the managers have
scrupulously refrained from going
over the heads of council to the
people.
Budgeting
In only one important respect
have the relations of manager and
council deviated from the theory of
the manager plan and the sound
practice of other cities. The chair-
man of the finance committee has
replaced the manager as the person
responsible for initiating the plan of
the city's financial operations.
Cincinnati does not have a good
budget system. The manager's
"budget" has to be submitted by
June 1. This is too early to estimate
with any accuracy the resources and
needs of the next year. The mana-
ger's budget therefore has degener-
ated into a routine compilation of
department requests. Naturally it is
ignored. The real work of prepar-
ing appropriations begins after the
first of November when the heads of
departments, one by one, present
their needs to the finance committee
of council. The manager and the au-
ditor are there to present their points
of view, and the press and public if
interested.
But no complete scheme of pro-
posed expenditures, balanced against
expected income, is made public un-
til the appropriation ordinance is
brought before the council for imme-
diate action on the first of January.
The press and public have no chance
to review it as a whole. Even mem-
bers of council are left in ignorance
until the last moment, when it is too
late to do anything about it. It is
no answer to say, as is the case, that
financial planning has been honestly
and conservatively attended to by
Chairmen Rose and Gradison, whose
combined terms have extended from
1926 to the present.
Accounting and Reporting
The excellent accounting system
installed in 1928 has been compe-
tently administered ever since by the
present auditor. Monthly reports
showing the unencumbered balances
available in each appropriation are
made to the manager, council and
heads of departments. The auditor's
annual report is a concise and com-
prehensive statement of the condition
of every appropriation and fund. An
elaborate cost accounting system in
the department of public works sup-
380
NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW
[September
plies that kind of information where
it is most needed. But Cincinnati fails
to give its citizens brief, comprehen-
sive, financial statements which the
ordinary layman can understand.
Employment Policies
The Upson survey found employ-
ment policies very unsatisfactory.
Wages were low. There was no re-
tirement system except for police-
men and firemen. Almost all posi-
tions carried flat salaries, so that the
newcomer was paid as much as the
most experienced worker. The same
kind of job was paid at different rates
in the various departments. Finally,
the civil service commission was un-
able to cope with political influences
in appointments and promotions or
to prevent political activity on the
part of those in the classified service.
These conditions have been revo-
lutionized. In 1923 only 2,515 of the
3,905 employees were appointed as a
result of examinations. On January
1, 1942, of 5,423 employees, 5,169,
including all laborers, were appoint-
ed as a result of examinations. Until
war interfered competition was vig-
orous. In 1923 promotion was rare-
ly on the basis of examination. Only
74 such examinations were held in
the five years 1919-1923. In the five
years ending in 1941 there were 287
promotional examinations, with 3,605
actual competitors.
Cincinnati has made a notable con-
tribution to personnel training in the
arrangement by which students in
various departments of the Univer-
sity of Cincinnati work half-time in
related branches of the city govern-
ment. A hundred or more students a
year enjoy this educational advan-
tage, to the city's profit as well.
A general reclassification of posi-
tions took place soon after the in-
auguration of manager government.
A new pay schedule went into effect
in 1941. Although there are some
marked inequities in compensation,
regular increments are provided, to
be earned by length of service and
satisfactory service ratings. An ac-
tuarially sound retirement system
has been provided for all employees
except policemen and firemen, based
on fairly adjusted contributions by
employees and city. Police and fire
pension systems, however, are un-
sound, and a cut in pensions can
only be averted by state legislation.
The city's effort to bring firemen and
policemen into the general pension
system was thwarted, even as to fu-
ture employees, by the Ohio Supreme
Court. 3
Wages have been raised since
1923, but not enough to satisfy em-
ployee demands. Following an em-
ployees' strike in 1942, successive
cost-of-living increases were made
which by June of 1943 amounted to
$20 a month to those with salaries
under $2,000, and $25 to those over
$2,000. Hourly-rate workers were
raised ten or eleven cents an hour.
The cost of these increases will be
approximately $1,000,000 a year.
Another cost-of-living increase be-
came effective April 14, 1944, aggre-
gating $350,000.
The council is required to recon-
sider salary schedules annually in the
light of the cost-of-living index, but
3 City of Cincinnati v. Gamble et al.,
Bd. of Trustees, 138 Ohio State, 220.
1944]
20 YEARS FORWARD IN CINCINNATI
381
with reference also to the financial
condition of the city.
The Council
The council of 1924, with its 31
Republicans and one submissive
Democrat, was only a rubber stamp
for the Hynicka machine. Only a
few of its members were capable of
an active role in its proceedings.
There is not a member of the
1944 council who cannot take an
effective part in the discussion of
city business. Of 35 individuals who
have been elected to council since
1925 a sizeable proportion have been
top-flight business and professional
men. The first councilwoman under
the present charter, elected in 1943,
is well known as a vital civic leader.
At the same time council has not
failed to represent the common man.
Labor has been directly represented
by union officials. Whereas there was
no Negro even from the Negro
wards in the 1924 council, there have
been several Negroes elected to the
new council. Some radical popular
movements have had representation
in Herbert Bigelow and other inde-
pendents.
Party is aligned against party in
council. One is the Republican party
to which a large majority of Cincin-
natians adhere in national elections.
The other is something unique, a
municipal party. The City Charter
Committee was originally a tempor-
ary alliance of independent Republi-
cans, nonpartisans and Democrats.
No one believed it could last more
than two or three elections. It has
survived ten. It has stood the test
of defeat and it can still collect sub-
stantial campaign funds and enlist
volunteer enthusiasm. It has appar-
ently become a permanent feature
of political life in Cincinnati. This
is the more remarkable as it neither
has nor seeks patronage.
Proportional Representation
There is also not a little personal
politics in the council. Its character
is determined by the system of pro-
portional representation under which
the council is elected. The Hare plan
of P. R. is well known to readers of
the REVIEW. Under it a candidate
cannot win merely because he has a
party nomination. He must so com-
mend himself personally as to get
enough first-choice votes to avoid
elimination early in the count. This
is accomplished in various ways. The
ordinary method, critics of P. R.
say, is to cater to a pressure group
economic, racial, religious or sec-
tional. Some members of council un-
doubtedly are the beneficiaries
of prefabricated constituencies or
"blocs" of the kind referred to. But
the council actually represents the
people as a whole, not organized
minorities.
The Upson report recommended a
council of not more than nine elected
at large upon a nonpartisan ballot,
preferably by proportional represen-
tation. The small council elected at
large was proposed in order to raise
the individual stature of council
members and increase council's oper-
ating efficiency. The results have
surpassed expectations. Proportional
representation was suggested as the
most practical means of avoiding the
danger of one-party domination.
This also has been accomplished. It
has not unduly encouraged strictly
382
NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW
[Septembei
independent candidates. Only four
times has one been elected since
1926. It has, however, assured each
party representation in almost exact
proportion to its voting strength.
P. R. has thus made possible the
advantages of at-large election with-
out the evil of one-party domination.
Instead of giving the party with the
most votes all the seats in council,
P. R. offers a seat to any group
which can muster a "quota." The
council members of neither party to-
day are cut from one piece of
machine-made cloth as was its exclu-
sively Republican membership in
1924. Each party shows strands of
contrasting interests and opinions.
To vary the metaphor, as a picture
of popular will the council of 1924
might be compared to an old-fash-
ioned daguerreotype and the 1944
council to a modern photograph. The
latter shows much more detail. If
you do not like what you see, that
is not the fault of the camera.
Racial and religious groups in
municipal politics are to be regret-
ted, but it is better that their views
should be openly represented in coun-
cil than stifled until explosion occurs.
There is, in fact, no way in a democ-
racy that they can be prevented from
seeking representation. No party
thinks of making a slate of candi-
dates, under any system of election,
which is not balanced as between im-
portant groups. P. R. did not give
Negroes, for example, the idea that
their interests call for political ac-
tion. They have that idea in hun-
dreds of cities where P. R. does not
exist. It merely gives the Cincinnati
Negro an opportunity to get a repre-
sentative directly at the polls instead
of indirectly by pressure on the party
slate-makers. Group representation
as it exists in Cincinnati is a low
price for a guarantee against the
paralyzing unipartisanship of 1924.
The alternatives proposed are not
attractive. The one defeated in 1938
provided that the names of candi-
dates appear on the ballot without
party designation, each voter voting
for nine. The nine with the highest
totals would have been elected. There
was to be no primary. This is harm-
less enough under the free voting of
P. R. It would be very dangerous
under straight voting with the plural-
ity system. A decided chance exists
under that system of one party cast-
ing 51 per cent of the votes but elect-
ing 100 per cent of the council.
Against a divided opposition they
might be equally successful with less
than 50 per cent.
Another suggestion is that minori-
ty representation be guaranteed by
a form of limited vote with nine to
be elected, each voter to be allowed
to vote for no more than six. This,
it is said, would ensure at least three
opposition voices in council. The his-
tory of such schemes indicates that
they tend to entrench the dominant
party machine in power and leave
strictly independent candidates no
chance whatever. Boston tried this
method of electing its twelve alder-
men a half century ago. No one
could vote for more than seven ; each
party nominated seven, and the elec-
torate was left to determine which
two of the fourteen should be defeat-
ed. Who the two would be was
pretty well understood in advance by
the two machines.
1944]
20 YEARS FORWARD IN CINCINNATI
383
Departmental Accomplishments
There is not space here to enter
into the details of departmental oper-
ation. 4 Routine operations attain in