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Municipal Government

the power vested in the officials of an incorporated town or city to regulate the affairs of the municipality with a limited degree of freedom from interference a demand form arose, and with it for a broader suffrage in the election of municipal officials. An Act of Parliament was then passed conferring the suffrage on the citizens in general, though limited to those owning a certain amount of property.

In the United States municipal autonomy has a peculiar origi origin of its own; in the "township meeting" of the New England States, as a unit of democratic control. Borrowing the principle and the form from their church organization, in which every member had the right of suffrage, the early citizens of New England organized the "township" government on the same basis, and thus established an institution that has had a very far-reaching influence in all democratic forms of government. It is indeed claimed that the Russian soviet, the unit of organization of the Bolshevist Government of Russia, was directly patterned after the old New England township.

The New England townships, however, while based on the right of full autonomy in local affairs, wherein they do not encroach on the authority of the State, are subservient to the State government in all matters under the jurisdiction of the State Throughout the whole of the United MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 347 MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP States municipal government is based on the theory that the State supersedes the city in authority, and that the city government derives its authority from the State, rather than directly from its citizens. As a result of this centralization of power there has been much abuse.

As an instance, while the city of New been Democratic in its party affiliations , the State government quite as invariably is controlled by the Republican politicians in the rural sections of the State. Thus Republican were forced upon a large metropolis with interests different from those of other sections of the State, and with problems of its own.

As a result of this condition, obtaining in all parts of the country, there has arisen a strong movement for municipal home rule, the aim of which is to secure for the larger towns and cities a larger degree of autonomy, based on special charter. Specifically the demand has been for the right of the citizens to pass ordinances, or laws, regulating matters pertaining solely to the life of the city. of the points most emphasized. The pioneer of this movement was Prof. , who has written considerably on this subject.

Local control of the police force is Many of the States of the Union have responded to this demand in varying degree. The first State to grant its municipalities the right to frame their own charters was Missouri, where the necessary amendments of the State constitution were passed as far back as 1875. Other States have followed in this order: order: California, 1879; Washington, , 1894; Minnesota, 1896; Oklahoma, 1907; Oklahoma, 1907; Michigan, 1908; Ari- Nebraska, 1912; Texas, 1912.

While based on more equitable principles, the granting of a broader home rule for municipalities has had one evil result in the greater amount of corruption which has developed in the governments of those cities which have been granted the right to frame their own charters. The notorious "muckraking" were published in prominent magazines during several years, beginning with 1903 , exposing the corruption of municipal politics in some of the largest cities of the country, centered public attention on this evil.

The opportunity for corruption lay in the fact that the heads of the various departments of city government were appointed by the mayor , and were therefore not directly responsible to the electorate.

To correct the evil, reform movements arose in many of the larger cities and a still greater number of towns and cities, which put into effect a new form of municipal government, of the smaller known as the commission form of government. By this method the city is governed by a small group, or commission, sometimes numbering only five men, each of whom is elected directly by the voters, and each of whom is responsible for a certain department of the city administration. The office of mayor is completely eliminated. In 1920 over American municipalities had adopted this form of administration. over