MUNICIPAL REFORM IN IOWA

President Eliot, in his third Godkin lecture last evening, devoted most of his time to a discussion of a system of municipal administration voled in Iowa in 1907 and now in force in Des Moines. The law is a general one, optional in cities with a population of 25,000 or over, and is intended to provide against all the common evils of city government. It gives the entire control of the city into the hands of five men, a mayor and four councillors of selection elected by the people for terms of two years each. The system of primary elections is used to determine the nominations; any man with the support of 25 citizens may have his name presented to the primary convention. From these men the 10 receiving the highest number of votes are chosen for the final nominees and their names are printed on the ballot without party designation of any sort. The fullest provision is made in the law for publicity in regard to all details of election.

All power of city government is vested in these men. The mayor has no separate powers, but is simply the presiding officer of the council. Each member of the council is charged with the administration of a department of the city's business, but the council is jointly responsible to the people. There is no "single man" power which has proved so unsuccessful in Boston, New York, and other large American cities. The council elects the important city officers and fixes their salaries; the pay of the mayor and councillors themselves is fixed by law and varies with the population of the city concerned. A civil service commission of three men, elected by the people, and distinct from the other departments of the administration, provides for the filling of all but the most important positions. Its power is not absolute, since the council may discharge for cause any of its appointees. Monthly and yearly publication of all the accounts of the city is another of the useful provision of the Iowa system. The rights of initiative and of referendum are two expedients theoretically valuable but not yet practically tested.

From the discussion of the Des Moines system of general administration President Eliot passed on to the question of public school systems as they are in force in all various cities. The main difficulty in all municipal goverment is found in enlisting the intelligent interest of all classes of citizens. School are the one thing in which there is a general interest and as a result they have generally been well provided for.