that in Houston, where the commissioners are required to stay in the city hall every day, business men do not hold those positions, although the salaries are higher than the proposed salaries of the Des Moines commissioners.  One commissioner was formerly a city scavenger, another a blacksmith, justice of the peace and alderman, a third a railway conductor, fourth a dry-goods merchant, and the mayor, a retired capitalist.  Mr. Pollock of Kansas City says of the Des Moines commission, “The commission as elected consists of a former police judge and justice of the peace who is mayor-commissioner at the salary of $3,500; a coal miner, deputy sheriff; the former city assessor, whose greatest success has been in public office; a union painter of undoubted honesty and integrity, but far from a $3,000 man; an ex-mayor and politician, who is perhaps the most valuable member of the new form of government, but whose record does not disclose any great business capacity aside from that displayed in public office.”  The Des Moines committee says of the Galveston commission:  “This is a perpetual body, a potentially perfect machine.”  There has been no change in the membership of the Galveston commission since it was organized.  The extensive power of the commissioners have enabled them to control all political factions and to completely crush the opposition.  The commissioners’ faction is in complete control and even goes so far as to dictate nominations for the legislature and the national congress.  In Des Moines we find evidences of this machine power in the very first session of the commission.  Mr. Hume was appointed chief of police because he had delivered the labor vote to Mr. Mathis.  The Daily News, the only Des Moines paper that supported the plan, was rewarded by having three of its staff appointed to responsible positions.  Mr. Lyman was appointed secretary to Commissioner Hammery, Neil Jones secretary to Mayor Mathis.  Another man was appointed to an important technical position.  A brakeman was appointed street commissioner because he delivered the vote of the Federation of Labor.

These are but a few of the instances where this great centralization of power has shown itself in practice to be a system permitting of unrestricted machine power and political grafting.  New Orleans tried the system and abandoned it over 20 years ago because of this very reason.  The inhabitants were afraid of this tremendous centralization of power.

The friends of the commission idea claim for it the advantage of centered responsibility; but practice has proved that this form of city government is actually formulated to defeat responsibility.  By the construction of this governing body each commissioner is held responsible for his respective department.  But regulation for each department is made not by the commission as a whole but by the whole commission.  This results in a confusion of powers.  Thus in the city of Des Moines,