ity manager plan of municipal government and a
small council of nine elected at large by proportional representation.
In the fall of 1924 the critical issue was submitted to the electorate,
and a significant victory won. "This new movement, its representatives
youthful, clear-eyed, energetic and determined, took its place in the
books of our history as the first reform enterprise of any permanence
in a great city of the United States."[9] In this crusade of civic
warriors Frank Nelson ranked as "a flaming sword," to use the colorful
phrase of his friend Mr. Ralph Holterhoff. He was a constant worker in
planting the first seeds of the moral rightness of the cause, the
crusader whose faith clarified the fundamental religious background
inherent in good government. During the initial campaign of 1924, Mr.
Nelson, preaching this gospel from his pulpit, carried his parish with
him into the righteous cause, and he literally toured the city wards as
well. When the City Charter Committee was given permanent form,
following the sweeping victory of November 1924, it is significant that
the organization meeting was held in the Parish House of Christ Church.
Among the speakers were Mr. Nelson, Charles P. Taft, John R. Schindel,
and Henry Bentley, who was known as "the Commander of the legions that
gave a city a new body and a new soul," all of them leaders in the
campaign, and members and vestrymen of Christ Church. Another
parishioner, Ralph Holterhoff, was, almost single-handed, responsible
for financing the Committee's work for its next fifteen years.

Repeatedly throughout successive years Mr. Nelson spoke at Charter
rallies, giving a series of remarkably effective addresses which
assisted immeasurably in sustaining the zest and interest of citizens in
the reform ideal. As Mr. Murray Seasongood has said, "The technique of
good local government has been developed by study, but the will to bring
about good local government has not been infused into the residents of
our cities." Toward that will and fusion in the city of Cincinnati, men
are agreed that Frank Nelson's moral and spiritual contribution was
enormous. Leaders declare that in routing the forces of corrupt
government from their strongholds, his was the most powerful voice
raised in the city. His trenchant words, his statesmanlike ability
spurred the lagging energies and fired men's spirits to greater effort;
he gave the necessary courage and drive and inspiration to carry