PROF. HOLCOMBE ASSAILS GOVERNMENT OF BOSTON

Declaring the incompetency of the municipal administration of towns in the Boston metropolitan region to satisfy the growing feeling of community in such a region, Arthur N. Holcombe '06, professor of Government and chairman of the department of Government, recommended the adoption of the city manager type of government, in an address to the delegates to the twenty fifth annual conference of the International Managers' Association Tuesday evening in Fanueil Hall.

"It is one of the painful lessons of recent years in public administration," he said, "that the governments of many of the states, like the governments of cities in the Boston metropolitan district, are incompetent to administer the pressing tasks of the present age.

"Today, Boston has practically ceased to be a community. It is at best but part of a metropolitan district. It is not surprising that the state government has taken over many of the functions of the city.

"The modern sense of community functions on a larger scale and demands larger areas of local administration well suited to the character of the modern urban community. Moreover, we must look forward to the extension of the essential principles of the city manager plan to approved areas of regional administration. Despite the apprehension in some quarters lost our people find themselves confronted with a group of TVA's threatening to get out of hand, the void in our present system of public administration must be filled by the development of regional administrative mechanisms.'

Other speakers were Henry P. Kendall; president of the Boston Kendall Company; Marshal Morton, city manager of Columbus, Georgia; and J. W. Flint, city manager of Cushing, Oklahoma.