try is distinctly American and is due to conditions peculiar to
America.

As a matter of fact, the gentlemen have held before us the salient
features of a half dozen opposing forms of organization, none of
which have succeeded individually, and the combined features of
which can make nothing more than a conglomeration of theories and
dogmas. Yes, the gentlemen have been painfully careful not to put
their scheme into practical operation.

They talk blandly of more home rule, when it is evident that such a
matter is actually beside the question at issue. In the same way
they speak at length of the cabinet system of England, forgetting
that the form the Affirmative is advocating involves the underlying
features of the cabinet system altered to meet conditions peculiar
to America. The commission form, Honorable Judges, is an evolution
of the cabinet form.

Likewise they have talked much of the need for a separate reviewing
body, citing the insurance scandals of New York state legislature to
prove their contention. Why don't they give instances where a
municipal reviewing body has checked fraud? The reason is obvious.
As Henry Baldwin writes, "Never has there been an instance in
American municipal history where the council has stood out against
the corruption of the administrative department." Rather these
so-called "reviewing bodies" are hand in hand with graft. Look at
the shameful conditions of the "reviewing bodies" of Philadelphia,
St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh, with their hands in the city
treasury up to their elbows, and we realize something of the
absurdity of the argument for a separate reviewing body to preserve
efficiency and honesty in the city government. The people should be
the reviewing body of their government. Its organization should be
so simple, yet so complete, that every citizen from the educated
theorist to the humblest day laborer, can review its facts with ease
and understanding. This is the kind of government the commission
form supplies. Why don't the gentlemen come forward with an
organization equally as simple and complete?

Then the gentlemen go on to tell how they will compel the
administrative officials to confer with their isolated "reviewing
body," and thus secure a proper co-ordination that has failed for a
century. Automatic mechani