sm in government can never take the place
of simplicity and responsibility. Such schemes are futile. The men
who can make mechanisms can break them. What we must have is a
government that compels efficiency and honesty, not one which
attempts to produce such results through theoretical contrivances.

Finally, the gentlemen claim that the commission form has failed in
New Orleans and Sacramento. Will the gentlemen give their authority
for the statement that these cities had a commission government?
Every authority upon the subject which the affirmative has found
points to the conclusion, that the form of government employed by
these cities was not a commission form.

Mr. Starzinger closed for the Negative and said:

The Affirmative have mentioned our authority. What we have said in
regard to Sacramento, Cal., is based upon excerpts from an article
by the Hon. Clinton White, published in the Cedar Rapids _Evening
Times_. Most of our facts concerning the southern cities which
adopted the new plan are taken from the reports of the Des Moines
investigation committee, headed by the Hon. W.N. Jordan. We would be
glad to submit these pamphlets to the gentlemen for examination. The
mere fact that Des Moines adopted the commission form does not
disprove the integrity of the authorities.

It is claimed that our stand is indefinite. True, we have not
offered a panacea for all municipal ills. But we have advocated
numerous reforms and have pointed out countless instances of
municipal success under various forms, yet all based upon the same
fundamental principle, that there be separately constituted
departments of government. One of the fatal objections to the
gentlemen's proposition is that they are attempting to blanket the
whole country with one arbitrary form, regardless of differing
conditions. They have completely ignored our cases of successful
city government. We demand that they explain them.

The gentlemen have said that state interference has been
precipitated by the decay of the city council. Yet they advocate its
complete destruction. Nothing could be more incorrect than to say
that special legislation was brought on as a result of an inherent
weakness in council government. Under the early council system,
there was practically no state interference. About the middle of the