tricts to $1600 for a tavern license in a city of over 200,000 population. The total amount paid to municipalities for the license year 1909-10 was $399,167; and the revenue received by the Province for the same year amounted to $497,776.

A schedule shows a list of 275 municipalities in which prohibition was in force in 1910. The largest of these were Galt, Owen Sound and Brantford.

The liquor license act, as amended to and including the session of 1911, has been published in pamphlet form.

State Municipal Leagues.-The Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual Convention of the League of Cities of the Third Class in Pennsylvania, held at Easton, August 29-31, 1911, includes articles on assessment of real estate, the McKeesport filtration plant, the coal smoke nuisance and a discussion on street cleaning.

Among the papers in the Proceedings of the Third Annual Convention of the League of Kansas Municipalities held at Topeka, October 11-12, 1911, may be noted those on the London sliding scale, uniform municipal accounting, the police problem, and municipal reference departments.

The September, 1911, number of The Municipality contains a report of the proceedings of the thirteenth annual convention of the League of Wisconsin Municipalities, including addresses on oiling streets, garbage crematories and municipal reference bureaus.

Reports of the Chicago Bureau of Public Efficiency.-The budget of Cook County, Illinois, January, 1911. Proposed purchase of voting machines, May, 1911. Street pavement in the city of Chicago, June, 1911. Electrolysis of water pipes in Chicago, July, 1911. Administration of the office of recorder of Cook County, September, 1911. Plea for publicity in the office of county

treasurer, October, 1911. The judges and the county fee offices, December, 1911. The park governments of Chicago, December, 1911. Merriam commission reports: The water works system of Chicago; bureau of streets, civil service commission and special assessment accounting system of Chicago.

Public Lectures in New York and Chicago. The department of education of the city of New York has published an interesting report on the extensive system of public lectures conducted by the department for the year 1910-11, with outlines of courses of lectures and illustration.

The council for library and museum extension have published a pamphlet on educational opportunities in Chicago, and a list of public lectures in Chicago for the season 1911-12. Copies may be obtained from the president or secretary of the council, N. H. Carpenter, the Art Institute, and Aksel G. S. Johnson, the John Crerar Library.

Street Lighting.-Bulletin 51 of the University of Illinois Engineering Experiment Station is a monograph on street lighting, by J. M. Bryant and H. G. Hake of the electrical engineering department in the university. This considers the general methods for the production of light, systems of distribution, photometry and illumination, lighting for various classes of streets and cost of operation. The information is presented in a form to be understood by the general public, without requiring special technical knowledge; and the bulletin should be of value in framing ordinances and contracts for street lighting systems.

Sewage Disposal in New York.-The metropolitan sewerage commission of New York City has issued a preliminary report discussing several plans and suggestions for disposing of the sewage of

Alabama. In addition to the legislation noticed in the January issue of the REVIEW, Several laws of importance were passed. One prohibits municipalities from charging as a license fee more than 2 per cent of the gross receipts of public utilities and permitting this intangible tax as an offset on the tax on tangible property. It is said that this has largely decreased the taxes of various public service corporations in Birmingham. Other laws provide for civil service in police departments in cities over 25,000; permit the pensioning of police. and firemen in cities over 25,000;5 authorize street railways to furnish free or reduced transportation to police, firemen and sanitary officers and to grant a reduced rate to school children; authorize cities of 100,000 to control viaducts and subways in order to remedy grade crossing dangers; create a juvenile court for cities of 100,000; and in cities of 100,

1 Mr. Arthur Crosby Ludington, who edited the department of legislation in the first issue of the NATIONAL MUNICIPAL REVIEW, has been compelled by reason of a change in his duties and obligations to relinquish the charge of the department, greatly to the regret of his colleagues. We are fortunate, however, in being able to announce as his successor, Mr. John A. Lapp, legislative reference librarian of the Indiana state library and editor of Special Libraries. Mr. Lapp is admirably fitted both by training and deep Interest to make this department a striking contribution to literature of municipal advance and to the whole subject of comparative municipal legislation.

The summary of legislation by states supplements the reviews published in the January issue of the REVIEW and with the exception of some legislation in five or six other states which will be noticed in general summaries in a later issue, these reviews cover the field of state legislation in 1911.

3 No. 216.

• No. 341.

No. 678.

No. 526. 7 No. 289.

No. 475.

000' provide for collection of taxes by the county tax collector, thus abolishing the city tax collector.

Indiana. Indiana cities are divided under the general municipal code into five classes. The first three classes are based on population; the fourth and fifth classes, on population and assessed valuation. All legislation is general, but care has not been taken to make all laws conform to the classification. Frequently laws are passed applying to cities having a population differing from that of the established classes of cities. Their validity has not been fully determined by the courts though many absurd classifications with small differences have been declared void.

The legislature of 1911 passed many acts relating to cities, but none of wide general significance touching the form of municipal government. Three important measures, the referendum on municipal franchises; commission government; and a street paving bill putting the cost of paving intersections on the abutting property holders, were defeated --the first after one of the bitterest fights of the session.

The measures which were enacted include two relating to schools; the Terre Haute school law,10 making the school commissioners elective by the people. This law was passed first in 1909, but the census of 1910 took Terre Haute out of the classification and left the law with no application to any city. A second school measure" was that enabling Indianapolis to take over and conduct the Winona trades school which had been run as a private institution and to levy a

• No. 155.

10 Ch. 147.

1 Ch. 63-March 1.

special tax for the purpose. The park law of 1909 which created a board of park commissioners for cities of the first class with rather wide powers was extended to cities of the second class.1 A new playground law was enacted for cities of the first class putting the control of playgrounds under the city board of health and charities and requiring the council to levy a special tax for their support. Track elevation or depression which had already been provided for in Indianapolis and Fort Wayne was extended by special classification to South Bend.3 The Fort Wayne law was amended to conform to the new federal census.* The South Bend law makes the cost payable, seventy-five per cent by the railroad and twenty-five per cent by the city. If a street railway is on the street the company pays 10 per cent and the city 15 per cent.

Two other measures are the weights and measures laws and the amendment to the uniform public accounting law." The first makes the state food and drug commissioner the state commissioner of weights and measures and authorizes the appointment of city and county deputies. The significance of this law is the centralization of control in the state department.

The uniform accounting law applying to all offices, state and local, which was the triumph of the 1909 session was supplemented to secure better collection of shortages. It is made the duty of the attorney general and prosecuting attorneys of the counties to institute the necessary proceedings to collect the shortages disclosed. The new law grants a hearing to officials found short in their accounts before publicity is given to the findings. The old law allowed all findings to be made public at once and resulted in many injustices to accused officials.

1 Ch. 231-March 6. Ch. 153-March 4.

'Ch. 128-March 4.

Ch. 143-March 4.
Ch. 263-March 6.

Ch. 116-March 3.

Kansas. Judges, clerks and marshals of cities were made elective at the time of state and county elections." This was made necessary by a recent decision declaring that officers of city courts are county officers. City councils in cities of over 40,000 were authorized' to provide additional street lighting, the equipment to be paid for by the property owners and operated by the city. Power was also given to all cities to treat streets with oil on petition of property owners, the cost to be assessed against the abutting property owners as in paving and the intersection to be paid for by the city.10 Cities of second and third classes may pave intervening streets between parallel paved streets and levy a special amount.11 A. C. DYKSTRA.

Michigan. Pursuant to the provisions of Article 8, sections 20 and 21,12 of the constitution of 1908, the legislature of 1909 passed what is known as the "Home Rule" act,13 which permits any city in the state to frame, adopt and amend its own charter.

It was supposed, when the act was originally passed, in 1909, that it conferred upon the cities the power to amendexisting charters, that is, charters granted by the legislature, but the supreme court has held that that was impossible.11 An

7 1911, ch. 96.

1911, 82 Kansas, 190. 1911, ch. 82.

10 1911, ch. 121. 11 1911, ch. 123.

12 Sec. 20. The legislature shall provide by a general law for the incorporation of cities, and by a general law for the incorporation of villages; such general laws shall limit their rate of taxation for municipal purposes, and restrict their powers of borrowing money and contracting debts.

Sec. 21. Under such general laws, the electors of each city and village shall have power and authority to frame, adopt and amend its charter, and, through its regularly constituted authority, to pass all laws and ordinances relating to its municipal concerns, subject to the constitution and general laws of the state.

13 Act No. 279, P.A. 1909.

14 Attorney General v. Common Council of Detroit, 64 Mich. 369.

amendment to the law was made by the legislature in 19111 to correct this error, but the supreme court has recently held this amendment unconstitutional, thereby withholding from the cities the right to amend charters other than those which they have of themselves framed and adopted.

A city desiring to revise its present charter, or frame a new charter,3 may do so in the following manner: When its legislative body shall by a two-thirds vote declare for a general revision of the charter, or when a petition signed by 25 per cent of the qualified electors shall be presented therefor, the question of having a general charter revision shall be submitted to the electors for adoption or rejection at the next general or municipal election, or at a special election. In case the electors shall, by a majority vote, declare in favor of such revision, a charter commission shall be selected, consisting of one elector from each ward and three electors at large, having a residence of at least three years in the municipality. No city officer or employe shall be eligible to a place on said commission. All names of candidates for charter commissioners shall be placed on one ballot without party affiliations designated; the candidate having the greatest number of votes in each ward shall be declared elected, and the three candidates-at-large having the greatest number of votes cast in the city shall be declared elected. The legislative body of the municipality shall fix, in advance, of the election of such charter commission, the place of its meeting, the compensation of its members, and provide the money for the expenses thereof.

act shall provide for a mayor and a body vested with legislative power, for the election or appointment of such officers as may be deemed necessary, for the levy and collection of taxes, for a system of accounting which shall conform to a uniform system required by law, and that subjects for taxation for municipal purposes shall be the same as for state, county and school purposes under the general law; and generally for such incidental matters as are usually included in such charters.

Each city may provide for annually levying taxes to the extent of not more than 2 per cent, and for borrowing money to the extent of not more than 8 per cent of the assessed valuation of all the property of the city, with certain limits as to the exercise of this borrowing power; and it may provide for owning and operating transportation facilities if it has a population of 25,000 or more; and any city may provide for purchasing franchises of light, gas, waterworks and power companies, and it may provide for a system of civil service and many other incidental matters pertaining to the government of cities generally.

Such cities have no power under the act to increase the rate of taxation now fixed by law, except upon a majority vote of the electors and then only to 2 per cent per annum, nor to submit a new charter more often than once in two years after first one is adopted, nor to change the salary of any public official during his term of office, nor shorten his term, nor to adopt a charter unless approved by a majority of the electors, nor to issue bonds without providing a sinking fund for the redemption of the same.

It is provided that such city may

1 Act No. 203, P.A. 1911.

2 Attorney General ex rel. Vernor v. Detroit Common Council, 18 Det. Legal News, 914; 133 N.W. 1090. See also Department of Events and Personalia under the head "Judicial Decisions."

The supreme court has held that the general revision of a granted charter has the same effect as the framing of an entirely new charter. Attorney General v. Common Council, 164 Mich. 369.

ity pass all laws and ordinances relating to its municipal affairs subject to the constitution and general laws of the state, with the exceptions above noted.

This act was amended in 1911 in several respects and particularly for the purpose of permitting such cities to adopt the initiative, referendum and