sion
form of government, as it was soon characterized, was adopted by Des
Moines, Iowa. The attention of all municipal reformers was drawn to it
and it was hailed as the guarantee of a better day. By 1920, more than
four hundred cities, including Memphis, Spokane, Birmingham, Newark, and
Buffalo, had adopted it. Still the larger cities like New York and
Chicago kept their boards of aldermen.

=The City Manager Plan.=--A few years' experience with commission
government revealed certain patent defects. The division of the work
among five men was frequently found to introduce dissensions and
irresponsibility. Commissioners were often lacking in the technical
ability required to manage such difficult matters as fire and police
protection, public health, public works, and public utilities. Some one
then proposed to carry over into city government an idea from the
business world. In that sphere the stockholders of each corporation
elect the directors and the directors, in turn, choose a business
manager to conduct the affairs of the company. It was suggested that the
city commissioners, instead of attempting to supervise the details of
the city administration, should select a manager to do this. The scheme
was put into effect in Sumter, South Carolina, in 1912. Like the
commission plan, it became popular. Within eight years more than one
hundred and fifty towns and cities had adopted it. Among the larger
municipalities were Dayton, Springfield (Ohio), Akron, Kalamazoo, and
Phoenix. It promised to create a new public service profession, that of
city manager.

MEASURES OF ECONOMIC REFORM

=The Spirit of American Reform.=--The purification of the ballot, the
restriction of the spoils system, the enlargement of direct popular
control over the organs of government were not the sole answers made by
the reformers to the critics of American institutions. Nor were they the
most important. In fact, they were regarded not as ends in themselves,
but as means to serve a wider purpose. That purpose was the promotion of
the "general welfare." The concrete objects covered by that broad term
were many and varied; but they included the prevention of extortion by
railway and other corporations, the protection of public health, the
extension of education, the improvement of living conditions in the
cities, the elimination of undeserved poverty, the removal of gross
inequalities in wealth, and more equality of opportunity.

All these thing