onsibility and co-ordination of
departments.

Honorable Judges, if we are ever to arrive at a solution of our
municipal problem, we must concentrate municipal authority; we must
co-ordinate departments, eliminate useless boards and committees and
fix absolutely and completely individual responsibility. This, we
propose to do by establishing a commission form of government, where
all governmental authority is vested in one small body of men, who
individually act as the heads of administrative departments, but who
collectively pass the needed legislation. Thus, instead of a council
with restricted powers and divided authority, we have a few men
assuming positions of genuine responsibility, as regards both the
originating and enforcing of laws. My colleagues will show that such
a concentration of powers in one small body is necessary and
desirable, both from the legislative and administrative point of
view.

Such a concentration is desirable, since it is accompanied by a
corresponding concentration of personal responsibility. This is
secured in the commission system. Responsibility in administration
is secured, because each commissioner is at the head of a
department, for the efficient and honest conduct of which he alone
is held personally responsible. Responsibility in legislation is
secured, because, first, the body of legislators is comparatively
small. Second, the very fact that each commissioner possesses
information essential to intelligent action, places upon the
commission itself absolute responsibility. Such a system makes it
impossible to shift responsibility from one branch to the other, and
guarantees to us better and more efficient administration of our
municipal affairs for it eliminates all useless boards and
committees and fixes absolutely and completely individual
responsibility.

Mr. Earl Stewart, the first speaker on the Negative, said:

We wish it understood at the outset that no one deplores the useless
boards and complicated machinery in many of our American cities more
than do the Negative.

Before going a step farther let us get right as to what we mean by a
commission form. The gentlemen state that they are standing for a
concentration of all power in one small body. Honorable Judges, they
are standing for something different. It is possible to c