Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 74, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 March 1917 — MANAGERS IN FORTY CITIES [ARTICLE]

MANAGERS IN FORTY CITIES

New Plan of Municipal Government Has Grown More Rapidly Than Is Generally Known. in the everbooming and quite frequently blooming West there is not evolved the perfect plan for governing a city, it will not be for lack of experimentation with governmental schemes. A good many cities and towns scattered- over the map .of the United States took up with the idea of government by commission during the first decade of the new century. There was a subsidence to the rush for the commission govern ment scheme about five years ago. Then, in 1913, the Ohio legislature put through a bill formulating what is now known as the city managing scheme. The idea has been acted upon to an extent that the majority of people are not aware of. Dayton, 0., was the first city of over 320.000 population to try-out the manager scheme, but there are now about 40 cities so governed. Twenty urban communities employed a manager last year, Grand Rapids being the Targest_jdtXnextto Dayton tryingtlienewscheme of government.“ The city manager plan seems to be only a variation of the commission government idea. There is a commission, generally of five, behind the manager, and the commission generally appoints the manager. The city manager plan has been adopted even in states where there is no statute providing for such a plan of government. The idert involved is being applied in many instances, without any change in the framework under the old councilmanic and city mayor forms of government.