As a committee chairman must be looked to as a student of local municipal problems, so he must be alive to the improvements possible in the relations his city sustains to the state. His study of corporations holding franchises from the city, the operation of dairies, the health department, plumbing and electrical concerns, may suggest to him the need of authority to exercise a larger inspectorial supervision over these, or similar concerns manufacturing and selling goods under the protection of the city. One chairman will have special opportunity to study city finances and the limitations and needs of the city budget. My own connection with the finance committee of my city leads me to the conviction that it would probably be wise for the state to authorize cities to levy a two per cent tax instead of the one and one-fifth per cent now authorized by the statutes (chapter 24, Art. 8:111) and to amend the section authorizing a city to anticipate 75 per cent of its income, by limiting the amount to be anticipated to 50 per cent. Cities like individuals legitimately raise their standard of living, and like individuals find that a fixed income is inadequate to the increased cost of a growing standard. Cities are subject also to the rise in prices, and should have an income justly proportionate to the increase of the wealth of its citizens. To have the power of anticipating three-fourths of its general income has tended, in many cities, to create an habitual arrearage, which is not conducive to successful financiering. Another chairman, making a study of traffic experience in his city, ascertains the character of the experience and needs of other cities in traffic matters. He thus comes into possession of clear and well-defined views which will serve him in his relation to the administration of traffic requirements and fit him for influencing desirable modifications. No man is justified in accepting a chairmanship who intends to escape the responsibility of becoming a student of municipal functions.

I believe that every municipality as a matter of right should be clothed with the power to share in the regulation of economic matters in which its citizens have a vital and imme

diate concern. The rural population depending upon the municipality has also a right to local protection against artificial trade situations where these are imposed by producers, or venders, or carriers of goods offered for public sale and consumption. The municipality would afford in many cases the most direct and effective authority for the control of such phenomena. Matters of public health, personal rights, and personal protection against predatory selfishness in marketplaces are all equally the proper objects of local supervision and regulation to a larger extent than is at present exercised. Our cities should unite in a plea for such additional state legislation as would widen the area of municipal home rule. Not only would the results I have indicated as desirable be more economically and expeditiously managed through municipal action and publicity, but the municipality could be made the unit of information of an economic character which might be made of inestimable public value, if properly handled by the

state.

The futility of the state's capacity to furnish speedy and adequate protection against local trade inflations and perversities has been too often demonstrated to evoke defense. Its capacity to act as historian of trade and labor conditions locally is ineffective, and it may be granted without argument that municipalities need to maintain a more efficacious oversight of those concerns that enjoy its license to make, sell, and carry trade products within the bounds of municipal protection. I believe that a weak local self-government nurtures a weak state and national government. I make a plea, therefore, for larger municipal authority to be exercised by a reduced number of chairmen in conjunction with the mayor, and a greater restriction of the council proper to the function of deliberation and legislation. The ideal scheme for the administration of such increased municipal responsibility would be found, in my judgment, in the general adoption of the commission-manager plan; otherwise, in the control of administration by the mayor and a small number of chairmen clothed around with an ample sphere of action and responsibility.

CITY PAVEMENTS.

(ABSTRACT OF ADDRESS)

PROFESSOR F. H. NEWELL,

University of Illinois

The object of this paper is to call attention to certain conditions well known by most of the members of the Illinois Municipal League, but not always fully appreciated. These may be summed up as follows:

(a) Good pavements are essential to the business prosperity of a city.

(b) The health and comfort of the inhabitants are largely dependent upon the good condition and cleanliness of the pavements.

(c) There is an almost infinite variety of paving materials and methods of using these.

(d) For any one given locality and condition of traffic there is one best kind of paving, first cost, cleaning, and maintenance being considered.

(e) Large sums of money are being expended annually in each state, aggregating millions of dollars, for laying pavements, for cleaning and for renewals.

(f) A large part of this public money, estimated at from 15% to 50% of the total, is being uneconomically used or wasted.

(g) Such waste is preventable by obtaining and following, as in other lines of business, the advice of experienced

men.

(h) The professional service of such men can be had at a cost which forms a small percentage of the preventable losses.

There is nothing particularly novel in the above statements. These facts are being reiterated in various forms in current publications; they are given in textbooks and commented upon in conversation. Yet they must be repeated again and again until the public at large, the vast body of taxpayers, really grasp the full significance, and are ready to back up the city officials in their demand for properly qualified expert aid.

The need in city administration is not only for more money to build good roads, but even of greater importance is the necessity of utilizing the money which is available so as to secure the best results and to maintain the confidence of the taxpayers to the point where they are willing to incur larger costs in the full knowledge that these expenditures will be wisely and economically made.

At this time it is impractical to go into technical details nor would it be desirable to do so. The large point which interests all, however, is the fact that as tax payers, citizens, and officers, entrusted with the welfare of the community, all have a very definite duty to see to it that each expenditure is made in the most economical and effective manner. This does not mean the cheapest way, as the cheapest pavement may turn out to be the most expensive; nor does it mean the most expensive, as this may not yield the satisfaction of a relatively cheap work. Cost alone does not govern. There are many things to be considered.

The wise selection of a pavement, as just noted, governs to a large extent the health, comfort and prosperity of a community. A poor pavement may result in the accumulation of dirt, and aid in spreading disease. If noisy, it distracts the citizens and results in nervous complications. If rough, it forces travel elsewhere and reduces the business prosperity of the section. To the stranger it is an index of shiftlessness or poverty. New industries are driven away or desirable inhabitants move to other parts of the city. There is no one thing perhaps by which a city is judged more than by the character

of its pavements, their cleanliness, and their adaptability to the varied needs of the people.

The building of city pavements is a science as well as an art, and one which is in the making. Although pavements have been laid for centuries and countless millions of dollars have been spent on them, yet it is only within the last few years that the subject has been given searching scientific study and experimentation on details. Beginning with the heavy stone blocks laid by the Romans and progressing up to the granite cobbles so familiar in the narrow streets of the old cities, we have recently branched out in every direction, using a variety of materials previously not even dreamed of, and ranging from the hardest of natural stone on through artificial products of brick and cement up to the softest of materials-asphaltums and oils.

Not only in the materials is there the widest variation, but also in the way of handling these. We have thus an infinite variety of stones, sands, gravels, clays, bricks, cements, bitumens, asphalts, oils, any one of which may be used, but among which there is some one kind or set of materials and some one way of handling which are the best for the particular place in view. In considering this, however, we must bear in mind that the needs of that one place will change and that whereas today on an unpaved street the traffic may be very small, yet with a good pavement the scene shifts, new industries arise, new uses develop, and the material which today is best may be entirely unsuitable next year or the year after. Thus the problem is not a simple one. The number of unknown factors to be considered is very great and we can not simply assume that because a certain pavement in a certain town has been successful therefore a similar pavement will be the best for our needs.

The problem of city pavements is thus not only extremely complicated from natural conditions, but we often have confusion worse confounded by the fact that the planning and selection of pavements are left to men who know nothing