results might, and undoubtedly would, ensue. But for once the law-makers were really and truly with the people, high and low, rich and poor, all the people as opposed to the politicians, and, as I have said, the bill was passed and the new charter became law.

It placed the city government in the hands of five commissioners, three of whom were to be appointed by the Governor and two elected by the people without any regard to city ward lines. The avowed object of this was to eliminate politics, as it was believed the Governor would appoint none but honest, capable and efficient men, and that thus a majority of the board could be relied upon regardless of the other two, should the city be so unfortunate as to have the wrong kind of men foisted upon it at the election.

The question now was to find the men to act as commissioners, and the same committee, with its advisors, that had worked for the new charter, at once set to work to examine the qualifications of the men they hoped to secure for the positions. Five men were suggested to the Governor for selection: he appointed three of them and the other two were later elected by the city, and September 18, 1901, the new government was duly installed in office.

I now quote from a letter prepared by the Mayor President:

"On taking charge, the commission government found an empty treasury, city without credit, employés paid in script which was subject to a large discount for cash, and floating indebtedness running back for several years. The personnel of the commission, together wth the heads of departments, inspired confidence, and the city was soon put on a cash basis, her credit restored so that it could go in the open market, buy supplies on same terms and prices as our best merchants or wealthiest citizens, and the outstanding script was being taken up with our surplus cash

as it accumulated in our treasury. "The result of the commission form of government met the expectation of its most ardent friends, and was the pride of every patriotic and civic-loving citizen. Every detail worked without any friction or hitch until a drayman was arrested and fined $10.00 by our recorder for violating a sanitary ordinance. The case was appealed to the Criminal District Court, upon the ground that our whole city government was unconstitutional, hence the recorder had no authority whatever to impose a fine, and the ground for such action was that a majority of our commission being appointive, the citizen was deprived of the right of ballot guaranteed him by the Constitution. The Criminal District Court affirmed the verdict of the recorder, but the case was again appealed to the Supreme Criminal Court of the state, and to the great astonishment of our people that court by vote of two to one pronounced our form of government unconstitutional, on the ground that our citizens had no voice in the selection of our officers who were administering the government. Later the Supreme Civil Court held that the appointive feature was constitutional, thus our commission was constitutional in civil matters but had no police jurisdiction. There was but one thing to be done and that was to apply to the legislature then in session and nearing its close for a change in our charter eliminating the appointive feature, which was the weak point as decided by the Supreme Criminal Court. We regretted to give up this feature of our charter, because we believed that the very best material for our city government could always be had by the appointive clause it contained.

The emergency required quick action, and upon application of our Board, joined by our citizens, the seemingly objectionable part of our charter was revoked, the entire elective feature substituted and in just two days this act was passed unanimously by both branches of the state legislature, signed by the Gov

ernor on March 30, 1903, and election for five commissioners under the new charter was ordered."

This new charter contains, in the main, all the provisions of that granted in 1891, and is a most remarkable and interesting document. It is as much an innovation as was the Magna Charta wrested from King John by Stephen Langton and the barons, for it completely wrests the power, when the citizens choose to exercise it, from the politicians of any and all stripes. Here are some of its salient and novel provisions:

The second section, defines the corporate limits which extend from the point on the east of the island of Galveston to Fifty-sixth street, or to include the league and labor of land known as the Menard Grant, thence to include Galveston Bay and Pelican Island, and one mile north thereof; and the waters of the Gulf of Mexico extending south one league from the shore, from the channel and anchorage on the eastern end of Galveston Island to the western boundary of the city, so as to extend the police authority and jurisdiction, inclusive of Pelican Island, over all the area and territory aforesaid.

Section Five calls for the election of a "Mayor and four commissioners, who shall constitute the Board of Commissioners of the City of Galveston," the Mayor to be President of the board and to be styled Mayor President and to exercise all the functions of mayors in other cities, and the "said board of commissioners shall constitute the municipal government of the City of Galveston."

Section Six confers upon the board all the rights, powers and duties of the mayor and board of aldermen of cities as may be conferred by the constitution and laws of the state, and declares the old board of aldermen at an end.

The pay of the Mayor is $2,000 and that of each member of the board $1,200, per annum, payable monthly, each to

give bond in $5,000 for the faithful performance of his duty.

Section Twelve confers control and supervision over all city departments and calls upon them to designate "from among their members one commissioner who shall be known as 'Police and Fire Commissioner,' and who shall have under his special charge the enforcement of all police regulations of said city and general supervision over the fire department thereof; and one commissioner to be known as the 'Commissioner of Streets and Public Property,' who shall have under his special charge the supervision of the streets, alleys, public grounds and property of said city, and be charged with the duty of lighting the streets, and keeping the streets, alleys, public grounds and property in a clean and sanitary condition, and with the enforcement of all rules and regulations necessary to these ends, and who shall also have under his special charge the supervision of all public improvements, except as herein otherwise provided and shall see that all contracts therefor are faithfully complied with, and that the conditions of the grant of any franchise or privilege are faithfully complied with and performed; and one commissioner, to be known as the 'Water-works and Sewerage Commissioner,' who shall have under his special charge the construction, maintenance, and operation of the water-works and sewer-system and departments of said city, and shall see to the enforcement of all regulations with respect to said departments and with respect to all revenues pertaining thereto; and one commissioner who shall be known as the 'Commissioner of Finance and Revenue,' who shall have under his special charge the enforcement of all laws for the assessment and collection of taxes of every kind, and the collection of all revenues belonging to said city from whatever source the same may be derived, and who shall also examine into and keep informed as to the finances of such city.'

Section Seventeen confers upon the

board all the power and they are charged with the duty" of making all laws or ordinances not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the state, touching every object, matter and subject within the local government instituted by this act."

Section Nineteen requires that they "at their first meeting after their qualification, or so soon thereafter as possible, shall select the following officers, to wit: a secretary, a treasurer, an attorney, a recorder or judge of the Corporation Court, an assessor and collector of taxes, a chief of police, a chief of the fire department, an engineer who shall also be superintendent of streets, an auditor, a secretary of water-works and sewerage departments, a harbor master, a sexton, a superintendent of water-works and sewerage, an engineer of the water-works, an assistant engineer of the water-works; and if deemed necessary by the Board, an inspector of water-works and sewerage plumbing, an assistant chief of police, an assistant chief of the fire department and an assistant city engineer. All said officers so elected shall hold their offices for two years, and until the election and qualification of their successors, unless removed by said Board of Commissioners under the authority vested in it by this Act."

The salaries of the chief of police, secretary of water-works, water-works engineer and city engineer are fixed at $1,500; that of secretary, treasurer, attorney, physician (health officer), superintendent of water-works and sewerage, inspector of water and plumbing, at $1,200; harbor master, $1,000; sexton, $1,000; assistant engineer of waterworks, $1,080; and the commissioners are restricted to a salary of $900 vearly for any officer elected by them to an office created by them.

The board, in Section Thirty-two, is given full power "to remove any officer for incompetency, inefficiency, corruption, malconduct, malfeasance or nonfeasance in office, or such other causes as may be

prescribed by ordinance, after due notice in writing and opportunity to be heard in his defense."

Section Thirty-four confers general powers as to local governments, paragraph C reading: "To regulate, establish and alter the grade of premises and to require the filling up and raising of the same to such grade at the cost of the owner, or cause the same to be done at his or her expense, in which event the cost of so filling and raising said premises shall be assessed against the same."

They are also granted full power to regulate, control or suppress disorderly houses and houses of prostitution or illfame, houses of assignation and gaming houses.

They are also empowered to provide and operate a sewerage system and water-works for fire and other purposes, "and to pass ordinances for the condemnation of property for the purpose of establishing, enlarging or maintaining a system of water-works whether within or without the limits of such city."

Section Thirty-seven confers upon them complete control over the harbor of Galveston, dredging, cleansing and protection, but in Section Thirty-eight they are limited in their expenditure to $3,000 per annum for the purpose of obtaining and maintaining deep water in the harbor.

Under this revised charter the election for the five commissioners was again held, and the same men were elected by handsome majorities. The city to-day is under the control of the same men, save the Mayor, William T. Austin, who died in November, 1905, and in whose stead H. A. Landes is now serving.

To quote again from the Mayor's letter:

"The meetings of the Board are held every Thursday evening at six o'clock, and as the utmost harmony prevails, business at these meetings is held and dispatched in the same manner as that of a bank or private corporation. The city

hall is conspicuous by the absence of politicians and place-hunters, as a simple request in writing from the humblest citizen addressed to the Board meets with the same consideration as would the presence in person or by attorney of our most influential citizen.

All purchases or contracts amounting to $500.00 or over are made or awarded on sealed bids after being duly advertised, and this saves our city thousands of dollars annually.

"Our cash held for the different sinking funds is let out subject to call, on approved security to our different moneyed institutions at three per cent. interest, which is now a source of considerable income.

"Our Commissioner of Finance and Revenue at the beginning of each fiscal year estimates the income and receipts of the year, and our Board sitting as a whole formulates a budget making disposition of our income, first taking care of fixed expenses such as interest and sinking fund on our bonds and salaries and each head of department furnishes an estimate of fixed expenses, and also contemplated permanent improvements in each particular department, care being taken that expenditures do not exceed receipts, and in no case is this budget deviated from. All unexpended balances at the end of each year revert back to general fund.

"Our city owns its water plant and sewerage system, for which they issued special bonds, and the income not only takes care of the interest and sinking fund of these bonds, but pays a revenue to the city. It also owns and operates its electric-light plant, for its own use only, and being run in connection with

With the building of the sea-wall, the raising of the grades of Galveston and other civic improvements, I shall deal fully in a future article. As, however, other Texas cities have followed Galveston's lead in the matter of the commission form of government, I determined to make a study of the conditions in the city of Houston, which was the first to adopt the new method. The extraordinary results which followed have made Houston almost as noted as Galveston.

GEORGE WHARTON JAMES.
Pasadena, California.

HE LEGISLATURE of Maine last spring passed unanimously the constitutional amendment for DirectLegislation. Oregon, adopting DirectLegislation in 1902, has successfully made tests of it at each election since. Thus wide-spread, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, is this movement, now rapidly gaining headway, for the more direct impress of the popular will upon legisla

tion.

In Massachusetts the mildest possible method in this direction has just been defeated in the House of Representatives where the representatives of the people refused to permit the people to make even an expression of their wishes as a guide or suggestion for legislative action. Yet the Constitution of Massachusetts in its Bill of Rights expressly asserts that the people have a right to give instructions to their representatives, that is, not merely to offer advice but to issue instructions.

The conservative classes, who dislike what they imagine to be changes, continually hark back to the good old times of the fathers. Let them consider for a moment, frankly and fairly, what those good old fathers actually thought and did, and then let them ask themselves whether the proposed law involved any change whatsoever in principle, or any deviation from the practice of the fathers.

The Constitution of Massachusetts, with its specific declaration that the people can instruct their representatives, was adopted in 1780. It was prepared by a constitutional convention whose delegates were chosen by the people especially for that purpose. The leading men of the State were its members. Assembled in Cambridge, September 1,

THE

1779, their first action was to vote, 250 to 1, to prepare a Bill of Rights. Why did they set such importance upon a Bill of Rights? Two years before the General Court had resolved itself into a constituent assembly and had drawn up a Constitution which contained no Bill of Rightsno declaration of those fundamental rights which the long struggle of the Anglo-Saxon race had won at great cost and had established as the political essentials of liberty and self-government. This absence of a declaration of rights was one of the chief reasons why the Constitution submitted by the legislature had been strongly defeated by the people. Boston voted against it 968 to nothing.

Therefore the constitutional convention in 1779, direct from the people, determined to set forth and protect the fundamental rights of the people. John Adams, Sam. Adams and James Bowdoin were selected as a sub-committee to draft the Bill of Rights, and with the exception of the article on religion it was written by John Adams, who, afterwards the President of the United States, was probably the most learned authority in Massachusetts on political institutions.

This right of instructions thus proclaimed in our Constitution was no new or unusual right. Our fathers had continually exercised it. Historians state, for intsance, that in 1772 and in 1774 almost all the towns in the State with remarkable uniformity gave instructions to their representatives.

Probably no town gives a better illustration of its frequent and continued use than Boston. According to the Town records apparently the first vote of instructions dates far back to 1661. From that year down to the adoption of the