A CITY WITHOUT A BOSS
Knight, William H.
A CITY WITHOUT A BOSS Los Angeles is Now Governed by its Citizens By WILUAM H. KNIGHT LOS ANGELES is now its own master. This young and vigorous metropolis of the Southwest, a great center of...
...Armed with these advantages, fortified by these safeguards, the city has just passed through an exciting and hotly contested campaign, in which a strongly entrenched political machine, powerful and influential corporations, vicious elements clamoring for a wide-open town, and the newspaper of largest circulation and business patronage, were united in a formidable alliance on one side, and the plain people with their hard-won amendments embodying the principles of Direct Legislation, were arrayed on the opposite side...
...more than the introduction of a genuinely businesslike government—it means something far greater than all these combined:—it proves that a majority of the people can be trusted to choose right rather than wrong—that democracy is magnificently triumphant...
...They have done well...
...We have a civil service provision second to none in the country and its strict and impartial enforcement would place and keep in office on the classified list only fit men...
...Ignoring party-controlled conventions, they choose, nominate, and elect their best men, hold them to strict accountability by means of the recall, initiate the legislation they need, annul unwise or vicious enactments through the referendum, and conduct their municipal affairs as they would their private business...
...thus destroying the spoils system...
...4. To nominate directly whomever they desire without heeding the wishes of corporation bosses...
...2. To veto legislation of the Council they do not desire...
...3. To discharge from office any elected official...
...I have always had faith in the people and have worked for years to help make Los Angeles the pure democracy it is today...
...It persistently fought the city for three years in the courts before it loosed its grip...
...1. To initiate legislation the Council may refuse to enact...
...In the latter case a majority vote elects...
...The majority of our voters have the power...
...Political Bosses Down and Out THE result was a signal and decisive victory for the people...
...Among the progressive measures recently secured is a provision for nominating public officers through a direct primary...
...The fight for these reforms began ten years ago, when the waterworks, which had been leased to private parties, were taken over by the city by a vote of five to one...
...But the corporation did not tamely give up its rich revenue-producing lease...
...But at the general election which occurs a month later, only the names of the two persons who received the highest number of votes at the Primary for any office, will be placed on the ballot...
...The process of elimination has been informing, educative, and thorough, and the final will of the people, without the intervention of bosses or machines, has been decisively expressed...
...as, the public utility commission ordinance just voted upon...
...but let them see to it that they do not take their hands from the plough and look backwards...
...more than the saving of millions of dollars in the city's expenditures...
...more than placing in office honest and capable men...
...for instance, Davenport and Harper...
...It involves two elections...
...John R. Haynes THE victory of the friends of pood government last Tuesday means much more than the release of our city from the long wasteful, debauching and demoralizing misrule of the political machine...
...But while the litigation was going on, the people were being educated to the nature and value of their rights and the means of obtaining them...
...This young and vigorous metropolis of the Southwest, a great center of railways, agriculture, mining, commerce, finance, art, culture and education, with a population of 325,000 today as against 103,000 in 1900, has politically released itself from the thraldom of the Machine...
...Moreover, this contest had called out the largest vote ever recorded except at the last Presidential election, thus making the decision of the people peculiarly emphatic...
...The "Good Government" forces, by majorities ranging fiom 3,000 to 5,000 elected the mayor, all the heads of depaitments, and all the nine members of the Council and the seven members of the Board of Education—in fact every man on their entire ticket...
...From that time on, the charter was gradually amended, step by step, year by year, by referendum votes of the people, till at last the people were enabled to come wholly into their own, Ths People Manage the City's Business THE city now, under its own management of the municipal water plant, is furnishing water to its citizens at a lower rate than its predecessor did, and deriving an annual revenue of more than half a million dollars...
...The people govern...
...as, the telephone rate ordinance and the South Park franchise...
...It is copied from the Pacific Outlook...
...This fund more than pays the interest on the cost of a $23,000,000 aqueduct which is to bring water from the Sierra Nevada Mountains, 240 miles distant...
...Thus under the present plan of city government the people themselves have absolute power and, therefore, sole responsibility...
...The result is well summarized in the following statement, made by one of the main originators and most forceful participants in all these reforms...
...SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ELECTION By Dr...
...At the first or primary election, any citizen whose friends can secure for him 100 names, may be put on the general ballot, all the names for any particular office being arranged alphabetically...
Vol. 2 • January 1910 • No. 2
