The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLES. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 1913. MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 42, 25 June 1913, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLES. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 1913. MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT.

j To most people in this country it will bo at least a surprise to discover that there is no settled form of municipal corporation in the United States of America, and that even within the limits of a single State more than one form may be found. Professor Charles Beard points this out in his vvork on "American City Government" I in which ho gives some interesting .information. Many American towns still retain the old form, which, like the municipalities of this Dominion, J lias been inherited from England, of a mayor and councillors and in some cases there are aldermen who sit as a second chamber which approves or disapproves the decisions of the councillors. Possibly owing to The corruption which has from time to time apI peared in American local government, and partly also owing to the modern desire for efficiency and expedition, l the drift at the present time is, however, stated to be all in the direction of the single-chamber council, composed of a few members. This ten-j dency has taken its most radical form! in what is known as commission government. The commission is usually' a council of five members, sometimes only three, elected by the citizens a: a whole and charged with the fullest oversight of civic matters. Professor Beard also shows that to safeguard popular rights, commission government is frequently, though not invariably, associated witli "the initiative, referendum, and recall." [h oilier words, the municipal charter provides machinery whereby a certain number of citizens by petition may require proposals they wish the commis-|

siouers to adopt, or schemes proposed by the commissioners to which they object, to be submitted to the arbitrament, of a popular vote. The "recall" is explained ns being simply "a device by which a. general vote may be secur-

0(1 to decide whether or not a certain official is to complete his term or to make way for another." One point very clearly made is that large councils or similar bodies do not tend to expedition of business, but that is pretty well known, even in this land.