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Election Over Let Everybody Give Glad Hand for Progress
PUSH IMPROVEMENTS
Make 1911 Best In History of Silk City
Go After More Factories
Lets Pave

With election over and political matters getting settled down to normal conditions again a spirit of harmony should prevail in all lines of business and social conditions in the city, and everybody accept the situation gracefully.

It is the duty of every citizen to give a glad hand, put the shoulder firmly to the wheel and give a good strong boost toward progress in every line for the betterment of the city. Let the year 1911 be the best in the line of progress for the city yet known in its history.

Opportunity waits at our door. The Board of Trade and city council should grasp it at once and set the wheels of progress in motion.

By all means another factory should be added to the business interests of the city this year and the board of trade should get busy to land one.

A portion of Main and Bridge streets ought to be paved, and a new city hall should be put under way. It might not be a bad thing for the board and city council to co-operate and establish a reading room and gymnasium for the boys and girls, giving them a pleasant and attractive place to spend an evening. A responsible gentleman states that he would care for such a place, as janitor, free gratis.

The question of a commission form of government for cities is coming to the front all over the United States, and a number of cities have already adopted the plan. It places municipal affairs and its business in the hands of the mayor and a board of three or five commissioners, doing away entirely with a city council and city officers. The mayor and commissioners to be paid a salary large enough to give their whole time and attention to looking after the business carefully.

It might be well for the board of trade and city fathers to investigate this new feature, and push it if it is a good thing. It puts all power of city administration in the hands of the commissioners, pays them a fair salary, tells them to give all their time to the

H. J. LEONARD, Pres.

public service, and therefore is justified in expecting them to know their jobs.

Like directors in the big corporation, they are expected either to know or to learn the intricate art of city government from a new standpoint. Instead of basing success on political preferment and subterranean jobbery, they are dignified with a position which stands for efficiency. This theory means that city administration itself is viewed by the people, not from the standpoint of opinions on tariff, reciprocity, ship subsidy, or war with Japan, but as a matter of local business. It appeals to the business man with a new dignity.