Simplification is the prophetic watchword in state government
today. For cities, the City Manager and the Commission have
offered salvation. A few officers only are elected and these are
held strictly responsible, sometimes under the constant threat of
the recall, for the entire administration. Over four hundred
cities have adopted the form of government by Commission. But
nothing has been done to simplify our state governments, which
are surrounded by a maze of heterogeneous and undirected boards
and authorities. Every time the legislature found itself
confronted by a new function to be cared for, it simply created a
new board. New York has a hodgepodge of over 116 such
authorities; Minnesota, 75; Illinois, 100. Iowa in 1913 and
Illinois and Minnesota in 1914, indeed, perfected elaborate
proposals for simplifying their state governments. But these
suggestions remain dormant. And the New York State Constitutional
Convention in 1915 prepared a new Constitution for the State,
with the same end in view, but their work was not accepted by the
people. It may be said, however, that in our attempt to rid
ourselves of boss rule we have swung through the arc of direct
government and are now on the returning curve toward
representative government, a more intensified representative
government that makes evasion of responsibility and duty
impossible by fixing it upon one or two men.



CHAPTER X. PARTY REFORM

The State, at first, had paid little attention to the party,