USA > Iowa > Polk County > Des Moines > Des Moines, the pioneer of municipal progress and reform of the middle West, together with the history of Polk County, Iowa, the largest, most populous and most prosperous county in the state of Iowa; Volume I > Part 83
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The Des Moines Union.
On the Ioth of December, 1884, a meeting was held in Des Moines for the purpose of organizing a union depot and railroad company to be operated in and around the city of Des Moines, in pursuance of a contract entered into January 2, 1882, between the Des Moines & St. Louis Railroad, the Des Moines North- western Railway Company, the St. Louis, Des Moines & Northern Railway Com- pany, G. M. Dodge, James F. How and James F. How, trustee. General Dodge Vol. I-39
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appeared for himself and the interests of the St. Louis, Des Moines & Northern ; J. S. Polk and F. M. Hubbell represented the Des Moines Northwestern and J. S. Runnells and C. F. Meek appeared for the Des Moines & St. Louis Rail- road company and for James F. How, in his individual capacity and as trustee. The company incorporated for a period of fifty years from December, 1884. G. M. Dodge was the first president; James F. How, vice president ; F. M. Hubbell, secretary and treasurer. The company purchased from the several parties rep- resented the right of way, track and franchises from the easterly limits of the city of Des Moines to its westerly limits, a distance of four miles.
Since that time the Des Moines Union has from time to time built extensions from the main tracks,-from a point near west Twelfth street south to the Rac- coon river, also an extension from this branch easterly across Ninth street, thence in a northerly and southerly direction parallel with Ninth street; also extensions from the main track on the east side of the river to the starch works, the stock yards, the packing house, etc. The present officers of the company are: presi- dent, F. C. Hubbell; first vice president, H. D. Thompson ; secretary, F. M. Hub- bell ; treasurer, H. D. Thompson ; attorney, N. T. Guernsey ; auditor, E. G. Mitch- ell; chief engineer, A. L. Morgan ; general superintendent, J. A. Wagner.
CHAPTER VI.
DES MOINES' EVOLUTION MEASURED BY FIGURES.
Summarizing the Census Reports of the United States from 1850 to 1910, we find that the evolution of Des Moines has been remarkable, not alone in increase of population but in all other respects. The city's growth has been steady and well-rounded and wholly free from the violent reactions which have visited many another city.
In 1850 the population of Fort Des Moines was 502; in 1860, the city of Des Moines numbered 3,965. The ascending scale since then is as follows: in 1870, 12,035 ; in 1880, 22,408; in 1890, 50,093 ; in 1900, 62,139; in 1910, 86,368. The increase in 1860 was 3,463 ; in '70, 8,070; in '80, 10,373 ; in '90, 27,685 ; in 1900, 12,046; in 1910, 24,229.
The gain by decades may best be measured by percentages. The gain from 1850 to 1860 was 689.84 per cent; from '60 to '70, 203.33 per cent ; from '70 to '80, 86.19 per cent ; from '80 to '90, 123.55 per cent; from '90 to 1900, 24.4 per cent ; from 1900 to 1910, 32.5 per cent.
The census of 1880, the first to specialize as to cities, placed the manufactur- ing establishments of Des Moines-many of them mere shops-at 155; repre- senting capital amounting to $1,463,250; paying wages aggregating $667,699; number of wage-earners, 1,378.
In 1880, the total valuation of property in Des Moines was placed at $4,- 361,090-per capita, $195. Thirty years later the city auditor placed the total valuation of Des Moines property at $95,475,062,-or more than $1,000 per capita.
. In 1890 there were 330 manufacturing establishments in Des Moines,-of which 98 were classed as hand trades. These represented capital to the amount of $3,877,140-of which the hand trades represented $304,367. The number of wage-earners in these manufactories was reported as 3,420; the total of wages, $1,631,107 ; the cost of material used, $4,408,377 ; the value of products, $7,931,- 272.
Compare these figures with those of 1900. The manufacturing establishments had increased to 494, of which 211 were hand-trades. These represented capital amounting to $7,911,764,-of which $383,509 represented the hand trades. The number of wage-earners in these manufactories had increased to 4,557; the total of wages had increased to $1,942,509; the cost of material used had increased to $4,975,568; the value of the product turned out had increased to $10,488, 189. The percentage of increase in the number of establishments was 49.7; in capital, I04.I ; in number of wage-earners, 33.2; in wages paid 19.1 ; in cost of material used, 12.9; in value of products, 32.2.
In 1850 there was one small church building in Des Moines-that of the M. E. church. In 1900, there were 99 church organizations in the city, with 26,905 members- male, 10,353; female, 16,118. Of these 89 were reported as protestant bodies. Following are the denominations named : Baptist, 3, members, 1,553; colored Baptist, 2, members, 600; Congregationalists, 5, members, 1,391 ; Disciples of Christ, 8, members, 4,926; Friends (orthodox), I, members, 521 ; independent churches, 2, members, 442 ; Lutheran, general synod, I, members, 500; general council, 1, members, 800 ; other Lutheran bodies, 6, members, 935 ; Metho- dist Episcopal, 19, members, 4,229; other Methodist bodies, 3, members, 355;
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Presbyterian, 8, members, 2,460; United Presbyterian, 3, members, 383 ; Pro- testant Episcopal, 3, members, 1,300; United Brethren, 3, members, 446; other Protestant bodies, 20, members, 1,688; Roman Catholic, 4, members, 3,658; Jewish congregations, 4, heads of families, 183 ; all other bodies, 2, members, 535.
Taking a final account of stock, from the city auditor's report of April 1, 1910, we find that the little community, which in 1845 was huddled about old Fort Des Moines, had in sixty-five years grown to be a city of magnificent distances and of . great wealth.
The corporate limits of the city of Des Moines in 1910 included one hun- dred million dollars worth of property! To be exact,1 the grand total of prop- erty shows $95,475,062.18. The cost of running the city to every man, woman and child was $9.71, as against $9.56 the year before. Exemptions from taxation aggregate $13,360,938.18, leaving $82,114,124 as the basis for city taxation. While the amount of exempt property had not materially increased, the taxable property of the city increased during the year about five million dollars, for the year be- fore it amounted to $77,546,580. The taxable valuation is three-fourths of the real valuation, so the city's levy of 37.1 mills on the dollar was made on $21,- 028,53I.
The total expenditures of the city during the fiscal year closing April 1, 1910, were $994,025.61 ; those of the year before, $982,001.98, and of the year closing April 1, 1908, $778,450.91.
The exemptions referred to are chiefly public buildings : the capitol, $3,500,000 ; the court house, $1,000,000; the public library, $420,000; the two government buildings, $775,000. The state property altogether stands for $4,282,000; the county, $1,125,000 ; the city exclusive of schools, $1,966,833.18. The school prop- erty of the city is estimated at $1,547,900. Lodges, and charitable institutions including hospitals are placed at $3,475,955. Exemptions to the poor amount to $188,250. Of the city's exempt property $165,000 was for the city hall site, market places and hospitals ; $201,833.18 was for fire station ; $827,000 for parks and $300,000 for cemeteries.
The taxable property inside the city limits in 1910 was classified as follows : real estate, $161,029.31 ; personal, $3,462,110 ; railroads, $927,020 ; express, $2,935 ; telephone and telegraph $33,535.
1 The figures here used are based upon the report of Auditor John W. Hawk, April 1. I910.
STATE CAPITOL
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ĐÊM
POLK COUNTY COURT HOUSE
CHAPTER VII.
"THE DES MOINES PLAN :" ITS GENESIS AND EXODUS-ITS SIGNIFICANCE-ITS OPERATION.
Some call it revolution ; but to those who have followed the story of Des Moines from garrison town to representative city, the "Des Moines Plan" is an evolution. As in nature's evolutionary processes there is an occasional cataclysm, so in the evolution of a community there occasionally occurs an upheaval form- ing the basis of a new chapter in the history of that community.
In 1851, the first articles of incorporation of Fort Des Moines gave ex- pression to a purpose to see to it that the humblest citizen should have his rights. The original charter of the Capital city, granted in 1858, gave evidence of a some- what broader view of citizens' rights and of public duty. From time to time since the city was organized in '58, men have striven, both inside and outside the council, to check the growing evils of a caucus-governed city in which interests, private and corporate, control nominations and elections and direct policies. Every failure taught its lesson. In every contest for the interests of the many, against the in- terests of the few, there has been a storing of energy for future use-a cumula- tive sense of outrage which finally found voice in the slogan "We want a change ! It can't be worse !"
It was a notable campaign-that of 1906. The insistence on a change had crystallized into a popular demand for-
I. An administration of the city's affairs which should be divested of party politics.
2. A business administration by a small board of directors in which each director should be individually responsible for his own department, and yet-so far as his influence and vote would go-responsible also for the other depart- ments.
3. A city council made up of representatives of the city at large, in place of a body in which none were for the city and each was for his ward.
4. Efficiency, not campaign service, the basis of appointments.
5. Honest, economic expenditure of public funds,-not with a view of re- ducing the aggregate cost of maintaining a fast-growing city, but with a reason- able expectation of better results for moneys expended.
On this basis the campaign was fought and won.
It was a hard task to which certain public-spirited citizens applied. themselves -that of formulating an exhaustive measure which would guaranty reasonable success in the directions indicated. No one man could have written the bill as it finally appeared with the governor's signature attached. It was the product of several astute lawyers, modified by the suggestions and objections of a commit- tee of citizens chosen from every walk of life. It was necessarily a lengthy bill covering the whole range of municipal activities and the entire readjustment of the machinery of local government. Without copying the elaborated law in its entirety, it is clearly the province of this history to outline its more important provisions and to review in outline the workings of the plan so far as time has developed its strength and its weaknesses.
.
The Plan in Outline and in Operation.
Passing over the sections which prescribe methods preliminary to the practi-
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cal application of the commission form of government, the student of the plan finds, at the outset, that a mayor and four councilmen are chosen biennially ; that the councilmen are nominated and elected, not by wards as formerly, but at large along with the mayor; that the entire council, including the mayor, terminates its existence after a two years' term of service, thus obviating the objection com- monly raised against a self-perpetuating body. . The probable re-election of of- ficials who "make good" was thought to be sufficient guaranty that the wisdom drawn from experience would not die with the legal expiration of the term of office of any five men.
The sifting process by which a council is created is a very important and orig- inal feature of the plan. A primary election is held on the second Monday pre- ceding the general municipal election, the judges of election serving also as judges of the primary. This primary is any man's and every man's opportunity to test the general judgment as to his personal popularity and general or special fitness for a place either at the head or at the side of the municipal table. All that is necessary to place a man in the running is a statement made under oath and filed at least ten days prior to the primary election, to the effect that the per- son named is a qualified voter, and that he is a candidate for nomination either for the office of mayor or for one of the four seats in the council, and desires that his name be printed upon the official primary ballot for nomination. The one further requirement is that at the same time he shall file therewith the peti- tion of a least twenty-five qualified voters requesting his candidacy.
The city clerk shall cause to be published for three successive days in all the daily newspapers of the city the names of all the candidates duly announced, as the same appear upon the primary ballot. The Australian ballot form is used in the primary as at the polls.
We are now ready for the sifting process-the primary election. The votes are cast and counted by precincts, and returns are duly made to the city clerk within six hours of the closing of the polls. The next day the city clerk publicly canvasses the returns, and the result of the voting is duly published. The two candidates receiving the highest number of votes for mayor are the only candi- dates whose names appear on the final ballot for mayor at the succeeding election ; and the eight candidates receiving the highest number of votes for councilman are the only names placed upon the official ballot for councilmen.
The brief campaign is now duly opened. Its most significant and interesting features are these :
I. It is totally non-partisan. Men who for their entire adult lifetime have not been eligible as candidates by reason of their identification with a minority party are now as available as are the members of the majority party.
2. Men who in times past have found their chief political asset to be their serviceability as rounders-up of indifferent voters and voters susceptible to in- fluence, now find their occupation gone, for they are not permitted to approach the polls, except to vote; and they have no party whip to crack, no one ward to 'protect."
But even here, the heelers and rounders and their would-be employers find themselves "up against" a provision of the new law which declares that "any person who shall agree to perform any services in the interests of any candidate in consideration of any money or other valuable thing shall be punished by a fine not exceeding three hundred dollars ($300), or be impris- oned in the county jail not exceeding thirty (30) days."
The new law makes bribery, or even the attempt to bribe an elector "either in money or other consideration," and the receiving and accepting of any bribe, a misdemeanor subjecting the offender to a fine of not less than one hundred dol- lars nor more than five hundred dollars, and to be imprisoned in the county jail not less than ten nor more than ninety days. Illegal voting, or the offering of an illegal vote, is subject to the same penalties.
With these provisions enforced, the campaign and the election are compara-
LAFAYETTE YOUNG, JR.
President of the Greater Des Moines Committee, and a leading spirit in the new movement to "boost Des Moines "
HON. JAMES R. HANNA
Mayor and head of Department of Public Affairs, under the new "Des Moines Plan" of city governmert.
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tively free from the sordid features which have done so much to discredit popu- lar government of cities.
Organization after Election.
A council elected, that body proceeds to organize by the assignment of the four departments, Accounts and Finance, Public Safety, Streets and Public Im- provements, Parks and Public Property. By virtue of his office, the mayor is at the head of the general department of Public Affairs. It has so happened that in the two councils chosen under the commission plan there has been no friction in the assignments. But it is too much to expect that in the future men are going to be satisfied with assignments to departments for which they have no aptitude or liking. Here is an apparent weakness in the law.
The council at its first regular meeting designates a city clerk, solicitor, asses- sor, treasurer, auditor, police judge, civil engineer, city physician, marshal, fire chief, market master, street commissioner, three library trustees, and such other officers and assistants as in its judgment may be "necessary to the proper and efficient conduct of the affairs of the city." The council also has power to cre- ate, from time to time, or to discontinue, offices and employments other than those expressly named, "according to their judgment of the needs of the city; and may by majority vote of all the members remove any such officer or employe ;" and may prescribe, limit or change the compensation of such officers and em- ployes.
The one question not as yet definitely settled by precedents is that of the power of a councilman to name or to retain officers and employes of his de- partment when such course is not approved by a majority of his associates ; and, too, the right of a majority to force upon the head of any department an officer in his department, or to prevent the head of a department from removing at will an officer in his department. Several cases involving this question have come up in the meetings of the council, and nothing else has done more to weaken popular judgment in favor of the plan than the acrimonious debates following attempts of this sort. It is a two-sided question ; but, forth from unseemly squabbles over offices has come a general judgment that, while the council should not attempt to exercise its power to force upon an unwilling departmental head an official whom he rejects, it should exercise its veto power on appointments which in its judg- ment should not be made; and should insist upon the removal of an official who in its judgment has given cause for removal. In the working out of questions of appointment and removal, publicity has thus far been a sufficient corrective.
It is to be noted that while the council is not required to hold regular meet- ings oftener than once a month, that body itself has arranged for regular meet- ings three times a week, and special meetings at any time when called by the mayor or two councilmen. All meetings, regular or special, at which any person not a city officer is admitted, is open to the public. Special interests are heard, and questions and answers pass between the council and interested parties, with democratic directness and informality.
The duties of the mayor included under the head of "Public Affairs" are to preside over the council and to "supervise all departments and report to the coun- cil for its action all matters requiring attention in either." It will be seen that this measure of responsibility leaves much to the individuality of the mayor. There may come a time when, under some future mayor too aggressive, or one lacking in initiative, it will be necessary to define more specifically the duties of the head of the Department of Public Affairs.
The superintendent of the Department of Accounts and Finance is vice presi- dent of the council, and in the absence of the mayor, or through the inability of the mayor to serve, becomes the acting mayor.
The council cannot lawfully appropriate money for, or order, any sewer, or other street improvement, or make or authorize any contract, or grant any fran- chise or right to occupy or use the streets, highways, bridges, or other public
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places in the city for any purpose, until the ordinance or resolution appropriating money or ordering, or permitting, action in any of these directions shall after its final passage, have been placed on file with the city clerk for public inspection, and shall have remained there open to inspection for at least a week before it can be finally adopted.
No franchise or right to occupy or use the streets, highways, bridges, or pub- lic places in any city can lawfully be granted, renewed or extended, except by ordinance.
Every franchise or grant "for interurban or street railways, gas or water works, electric light or power plants, heating plants, telegraph or telephone sys- tems, or other public service utilities in the city, must be authorized or approved by a majority of the electors voting thereon at a general or special election." The existence of this saving clause has already, by its moral effect alone, saved the city from schemes to make the citizens of Des Moines for all time tributary to organizations of naturally monopolistic tendencies.
Less than a single decade ago, it would have been easy to point out one alder- man who directly, or indirectly, held a contract with the city to supply the city schools, courthouse, library and other public buildings with fuel, and at prices above those paid by other extensive buyers of coal; another who was directly or indirectly behind, or interested in, every building contract executed by the city ; and there were members who, by alliance with these, were able to prevent the saloon interest, the gambling interest, and the red-light district from being se- riously fined or punished. Now and then a lone reformer on the council would point to some practically obsolete ordinance which by subsequent amendment had been devitalized and insist that the public should be protected against or- ganized greed; but the "working members" of that body would coolly dismiss the subject and "proceed to business." How is it now? No officer or employe, either elected or appointed, has any right to be interested, directly or indirectly, in any contract or job for work or materials, or in the profits thereof, or in any services to be performed for the city. Thus far there has been no intimation of a disregard of this section of the law.
The law prohibits officers and employes from becoming directly or indirectly interested in, or accepting favors from, any work or services performed by any person, firm or corporation operating any interurban or street railway, gas works, water works, electric light or power plant, heating plant, telegraph line, or tele- phone exchange, or any other business using or operating under a public fran- chise. Nor is any officer or employe permitted to use any frank, free ticket or free service, or any service whatever on terms more favorable than is granted to the public generally. Such prohibition of free transportation does not apply to policemen and firemen in uniform.
There is still another prohibition of grave significance. Any officer or em- ploye of the city who "by solicitation or otherwise" exerts his influence "directly or indirectly" to induce any other officer or employe to adopt his political views or to favor any particular person or candidate for office, or who shall contribute money, labor or other valuable thing to any person for election purposes, is de- clared guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction shall be punished by a fine of not more than $300, or by jail imprisonment for not to exceed thirty days.
One of the first duties of the first council under the new plan was to appoint three civil service commissioners, one of whom should serve for two years, a second for four years and the third for six years. Each succeeding council is required to appoint a commissioner to take the place of the one whose term expires, thus ensuring a continuous body, retaining the experience of two of its members and ensuring a desirable addition of "new blood" in the personnel of the board. The chairman of the commission is the member whose term is first to expire. The commissioners are chosen from men who have been residents of the city for at least three years. The council is empowered, on a vote of four members, to remove any commissioner and to fill the vacancy. Each com-
ZELL G. ROE
J.WESLEY ASH
MAYOR JAS. R.HANNA
CHAS. W. SCHRAMM
JOHN MACVICAR
GROUP OF COUNCILMEN AND MAYOR, DES MOINES
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missioner is under oath to obey the laws and to "aim to secure and maintain an honest and efficient force, free from partisan distinction or control." These commissioners, in April and October, and oftener if necessary, hold examina- tions in accordance with rules prescribed by the council, for the purpose of de- termining the qualifications of applicants for positions, practically and fairly test- ing the relative fitness of the applicants to discharge the duties of the positions they seek. The commissioners are to certify to the council twice the number of persons necessary to fill vacancies, and all vacancies which come under the civil service prior to the date of the next examination, are filled from this list. Such appointees are subject to removal by the council, for misconduct or inefficiency, and the chief of police, the chief of the fire department, or any foreman or superintendent in charge of municipal work, may peremptorily discharge or sus- pend any such appointee for neglect of duty or insubordination, promptly report- ing such action, with the reason therefor, to the head of his department, who shall affirm or revoke such action, as the facts may seem to him to warrant.
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