CONTENTS
| CHAPTER | PAGE | |
|---|---|---|
| [I.] | A Political By-way | [1] |
| [II.] | Just What Is a County | [9] |
| [III.] | A Creature of Tradition | [16] |
| [IV.] | Falling Afoul of “Democracy” | [25] |
| [V.] | The Jungle | [34] |
| [VI.] | A Base of Political Supplies | [43] |
| [VII.] | Urban Counties | [57] |
| [VIII.] | County Governments at Work | [66] |
| [IX.] | The Humanitarian Side | [80] |
| [X.] | Roads and Bridges | [94] |
| [XI.] | Nullification | [104] |
| [XII.] | State Meddling | [112] |
| [XIII.] | State Guidance | [120] |
| [XIV.] | Readjustments | [129] |
| [XV.] | County Home Rule | [145] |
| [XVI.] | Consolidation | [151] |
| [XVII.] | Reconstruction | [168] |
| [XVIII.] | Scientific Administration | [181] |
| [XIX.] | The County of the Future | [193] |
| [Appendix A] | Constitutional County Home Rule in California | [207] |
| [Appendix B] | The Los Angeles County Charter | [219] |
| [Appendix C] | Proposed County Home Rule Amendment in New York | [247] |
| [Appendix D] | Proposed County Manager Law in New York | [251] |
| [Appendix E] | The Chief Medical Examiner in New York City | [257] |
| [Appendix F] | A County Almshouse in Texas | [266] |
| [Bibliography] | [275] | |
| [Index] | [285] | |
The County
CHAPTER I
A POLITICAL BY-WAY
To close up the underground passages to political power, to open up government and let in the daylight of popular opinion and criticism, to simplify organization, to make procedure more direct, to fix unmistakably the responsibilities of every factor in the State; that has been the strategy of the reconstructive democratic movement in America in the last fifteen years. Four hundred American cities, without regret and with little ceremony, have cast aside the tradition that complexity is the price of liberty. They have started afresh upon the principle that government is public business to be administered as simply, as directly, as openly and as cheaply as the law will allow. Inasmuch as their former governments were not adapted to that ideal, they have hastened to make them over. Contrary to prediction, the palladium of liberty has not fallen. Business goes on as usual, public business in a way that is amazingly satisfactory, as compared with the “good old” days.
Where will the movement stop? Have all the secret passages been closed? Have all the dark alleys of local politics been lighted? Or does work for explorers lie ahead?
In 1915 the constitutional convention then in session at Albany, was surveying the foundations of the political structure of New York, undertaking to make adjustments to the sweeping changes that had come over the life of the state in the previous twenty-year period. Committees were chosen to rake the far corners of the system for needed adjustment. Hundreds of experts were summoned and hundreds of citizens voluntarily appeared to press their views and their wants. The committee having in charge the organization of the state government listened to an ex-president, the heads of two leading universities, prominent efficiency experts and every important state officer. The committee on cities gave audience to the mayor and chief legal officers of every important city in the state, while the conference of mayors was sufficiently interested to send one of its number to stump the state for an amendment which would promote the welfare of New York cities. The work of these divisions of the convention was of deepest concern to the state. It received from the press and the public no small amount of interested comment.