Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 69, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 November 1912 — Page 3 Advertisements Column 2 [ADVERTISEMENT]

Jf BUSINESS SYSTEM OF GCVERXMQIJ PUBLISHED BY THE BUSINESS SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT STATE COMMITTEE OF THE INDIANA FEDERATED COMMERCIAL CLUBS

SERIAL NO. 2. Business System of Government Non-Partisan. The Business System of Government for Indiana Cities is non-parti; san. The hatching-place and the refuge of the entire brood Of abases and vices in the government of cities is the party system of election and control. Any plan by which these evils are to be overcome must bebased upon non-partisan conduct of of the government after it is installed. In the Business System of Government the only elective body is the Board of Councilors. Each councilor is nominated by petition. He is placed on the ticket through a primary in which a non-partisan ballot must be voted and he is chosen at an election in which the ballot is also non-partisan. Party organization and machine, boss and henchman, are blotted out together. City government cannot be madj what it should become until this is done. Efficiency is impossible and complete freedom from corrupt practices is unlikely so long as there remains the system of parties and spoils through which to choose officials and operate government. Considerations of politics will continue to submerge questions of the public good. To remedy this situation the nonpartisan plan in the Business System was devised. It puts the politician down; it puts the citizen up. The voter can choose his own men. He does not have to take what a conclave of bosses has picked out for him. He does not have to mix in the dirt and turbulence of city politics in order to have a word as to whom his public servants and what his government shall be. He need no longer be bulldozed by heelers, threatened by bullies or outvoted by the organized riff-raff and colonized hoboes who play leading roles in “practical politics.” With his fellow citizens who are of his mind.he may peaceably join to do what shall to them seem best for the community. The merit of this cannot be overestimated. It will be the means of uniting, not continually dividing, the sentiments and opinions of men who, under normal conditions, are not apt to widely disagree upon what course will most greatly serve the public welfare. They will be concerned only with efficiency and progress in the city’s government. The government will go in with no political promises to make good, no bargains to fulfill, no deals to complete. The administration wifi be without debt or obligation. ItYwlll have nothing to look out for but'thii kind of government it renders the people. It will owe nothing to party; it cannot be terrorized by bosses; it cannot be. coerced by fear of future elections. It is the people’s government, by the choice of the people. Such a government cannot be molested or made afraid. Its whole duty Will be to the people. Failing in this, it will have to answer to a people no longer divided by the folly of partisan politics in their home government. The Board of Councilors. In the Business System of Government for Indiana Cities the Board of Councilors is the only elective body. The membership of this Board varies from nine to twenty-five, according to the class of the city. Any citizen of good character, three years resident in his city, is eligible. Councilors are elected at large from the city, and each is representative of the whole people, not a small fraction of the people, as in the ward system. At the first election half of the Councilors are elected for two years and half for four years. Every two years thereafter Councilors are elected for terms of four years. This makes the body continuous, with always men of experience on the hoard. The duties of the Councilors are: To appoint a Mayor and four Commissioners, the five to compose the Board of Administration and each of them to be head of one of the five executive departments of government; to appoint a board of two Election Commissioners and a Board of three Civil service commissioners; to fix the salaries of the Commlaslomers of these three boards; to finally approve all ordinances. franchises and public i grants; to finally pass upon the tax levy; to remove |the Mayor and any or all commissioners for cause; to receive.! require and publish reports upon city affairs; to cause the auditing of departments by experts- to order and conduct investigations of affairs concerning the city. The Board of Councilors makes no appointments other than the members of the Board of Administration, Board of Election Commissioners and Boai d of Civil Service Commissioners and therefore cannot convert the public service into patronage and spoils. It does not frame or 1 originate ordinances, execute the laws or apportion the revenues. There can be no log-rolling within the Board of Councilors for places of higher emolument in the service of the city. No Councilor is eligible to appointment as Mayor or Commissioner of Administration. The Board of Councilors is answerable to the people at all times. All or any part of the body may be recalled through petition and election. Under these checks the Councilors can serve no interests but those of the people. They must apFor further information addre { BUSIN E