state and national
government is the only excuse for its retention in our cities, yet
the failure, for over a century in all its different forms and
variations, proves that such a government is unsuited to them. There
are several important and fundamental characteristics of the city
that demand a different form of government and show conclusively
that there is no need of a separate legislative body. In the first
place, the city is not a sovereign government, but is subordinate to
state and nation. There is no reason for a distinct legislature to
determine the broad matters of policy, for they are determined for
the citizens of the city as well as those of the country, by the
state and national legislatures, in which both the city and country
are represented. In the second place, the work of a city is largely
administrative and of a business character, as my colleagues will
show, and there is no necessity for a separate council to legislate
when a commissioner is better able, as we shall show, to pass the
kind of legislation characteristic of the city.

In the third place, we do not find, as in the state, the necessity
of a large and separate body to represent the various localities.
The city has a large population living in a restricted territory; in
the state it is scattered. The city is unified by means of its rapid
communication and transportation facilities, and its interests are
common. These, Honorable Judges, are some general reasons why there
is no necessity for trying to maintain a separate legislative body
at the expense of efficiency in administration and the fixing of
individual responsibility.

But let us now examine as to wherein this principle of separation
fails to meet modern municipal conditions. In the first place we
find that this system has failed to produce efficiency, because, in
actual practice, it has been impossible to keep the legislative and
administrative branches within their proper spheres of action. To be
sure, such difficulty does not exist in state and national
governments where the work is naturally divided. But in city
government, where the work is of a peculiar kind, where it is
unified in character and is largely administrative and of a business
nature, it has been found impossible to maintain a separation. It is
not at all surprising to fi