SCHOOL
OF
CITIZENSHIP AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
Deadline for all announcements and material for issues of the Short Course Trojan is 11 o’clock preceding date of publication. Material should be left at Mr. Olson's office in room 251 of the Administration Building,
The Short Course Trojan will be issued each Tuesday and Friday during the two-weeks’ session. Copies will be distributed free to all students and faculty members from the Students’ Store which is located in the Student Union,
VOLUME II.
Los Angeles, California, Tuesday, June 18, 1929.
NUMBER 3
Abolishment Of City Home Rule Seen By Speaker
REPORT RETURNED ON ASSESSMENTS I
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j Civil Service Examinations Are I J Weak In Many Points, States J Harvard Professor.	*
+ *+** ** * *++**+*++*+* *+++•»< J
t Thanhs Extended to ★ University at	{
Friday's Assembly J
City Interests To ] Changes, States
Growth of Influence Munro.
Speaking on the principles of local government as distinct from other branches, Dr. William I!. Munro of Harvard University, stated Wednesday tha tit is erroneous to believe local government, less important than that, of the State and Nation.
“Because they are often more picturesque and striking, the president and the governor >are likely to be ■played up’ in the press and the public mind, while the city hall is con. sidered of secondary importance. The fact is that the great hulk of government goes on in municipalities, including cities and counties. For many people their only contact with the national government is when tliey pay their income tax. while hardly a day goes by when a family is not contacting the municipal administration in the matter of births, schools, vocations, marriage licenses, death certificates, burial permits, and county hospitalization.
‘‘The expenditures of the local government, including the cost of education, equals the state and national expenditures combined,” stated Professor Munro. “Whether a nation Is fundamentally good or bad depends primarily <•)> the rgunicipalitie* and not on the State or nation.”
He explained that in Europe the system of local government is uniform. Rouen, Reime, Marseilles, a n d Bordeaux are governed practically
(Continued on Page Three)
NIGHT COLLEGE STUDIES OFFERED BY S. C. UNIT
Recreation and education combine and do not conflict during evening hours in southern California, according to Dr. Ernest W. Tiegs, Dean of University College, downtown division of the University of Southern Californio. Dr. Tiegs st ites that during the academic year 1927-192S nearly fi.000 adult students attended the classes of the Trojan central-city school at Seventh and Los Angeles streets.
"The tourist and the resident alike are impressed by the recreational diversions which radiate pleasure during nocturnal hours. On the other hand, the tourist and the resident are equally impressed by the eager, enthusiastic, and energetic thousands of men and women, young and mature, who throng our evening high schools and evening colleges," states Dean Tiegg.
“Social calendars are not interfered with, as each cl iss at University College meets but once a week for a double period of about t wo-hours-and-a-half, Instead of breaking into several evenings a week.
“Rest and recreation are not encroached upon, as no student is permitted to register for more than three different courses a Quarter.
"Cultural programs are aided, for lectures on music, art, modern drama, literature, French, and Italian contribute to enjoyment of the artistic, musical, and theatrical offerings of the section.
“Also, University College Is located in the center of the city, near all avenues of urban and suburban transportation, in order that no time or effort need be wasted in reaching it.
"We have students from 150 schools, colleges, and universities, and from almost every section of the country. In one class alone there have been 19
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There are now over "00,000 pieces of property in the City of Los Angeles alone which are under assessment for the financing of special street and other improvements, and about $10,000,000 Is being collccted up the street bonds for the same each year. Improvements upon a commensurate scale are going forward within other counties of southern California, and within the smaller cities as well as the larger ones.
The general purpose was to take up the subject from the standpoint of the public oflicial in order to inform and assist him to understand more fully how the various Improve, ment Acts came into existence, historically speaking and accordingly what his powers and duties are under them. With this understanding the official is in a more satisfactory position to explain to the sometimes irate taxpayer wily certain things have to be done in particular ways, and that the law makes no special victim of him.
In order to accomplish this, the course was organized to develop the principles of common law upon which the Improvement Ads rest and to trace the relation of the several provisions of these acts to ancient doctrines affecting real property from feudal times, down to the present moment. Thus it was shown that against the Magna Charta, established seven bundled years ago, the present doctrines of notice, protest condemnation and eminent domain as exemplified in the several improvement acts could be clearly established. With this relationship established, it was relatively easy to show the practical inevitableness of many steps of procedure which many persons otherwise regarded as wrong and oppressive as it affected them personally. IL was also shown that street improvement bonds possessed many of the incidents of promisory notes as well as mortgages, and that liens and encumbrances were therefore established by them upon substantially that Identical basis.
The principal incidents of practice under the Acts were developed and considered with the assistance of numerous practical experts professionally experienced in handling them, such as a paper by J. H. O'Connor, Assistant County Counsel of l.os Angeles County, who discussed the abuses arising under present practice of street improvement work, and means of preventing them. * K. Steele, In charge of the Assessment, Bureau of the City Angeles, described the •'Spreading” assessments, special problems Shulls, engineer c City of Los Angel
During the last noonday assembly Friday, .1. W. Charleville
past-presldent and present City Manager of Glendale, acting upon the suggestion of president Thomas F. Cooki moved that the University of Southern California and the faculty be extended a vote of thanks for making possible the Summer Short Course and that into the motion should be incorponated the wish of the student body that the course be continued next year.
The motion was carried unanimously.
Southwest Area Confronted With Water Shortage
MUNRO DISCUSSES Sewer Systems CITY EMPLOYMENT Me A§
Vast Increase Creates A Problem.
In Population New Water
There are but two possible solutions to the present problem in water supply for southern California, at least so far as the present population is concerned. We must either stop the present rate of growth and retain the present available water sources for the exclusive benefit of existing development, or else con- | tlnue indefinitely into the future the struggle for water which has never once left us since mankind invaded the desert environment of the South, background of the . wegt thousands of years ago.
Powers and Duties Of Public Officials Under Various Tax \ Laws Explained.
That civic service has not secured the best applicants for public positions, that it has merely protected the government against the worst, was the opinion expressed by Dr.William U. Munro at the final general assembly of Section "A” neia Friday in the social hall of the Student Union building.
“Civil Service is constantly improving.” stated Dr. Munro, "Already it has proven itself a protection against filling public offices with incompetent men. For example, it would be possible to find out by a civil service examination whether a man knew enough about chemistry to become an analyst in the water supply department, but it would he impossible to determine by examination whether or not he would be an industrious and agreeable worker with other members of the department.
"Civil Service has succeeded in doing what reasonable men expected it to do. The only thing an examination | does is to test the ability of the ap-l pllcant taking the test; it cannot pick j out the best to take the test..'
I Professor Munro also discussed de-! sirahle and objectionable features of i the consolidation of cities and counties; the city manager and commission plans of municipal government; re- • borough and township forms of gov-re-| ernments; the basis of senoirity as gguinst the basis of merit, nnd the combination of the two in promotional practice in civil work; staff conferences. He stated that in many in stances the overlapping of city and county jurisdiction is both wasteful and expensive.
New Civic Virtue
C. C. Gillespie, Engineering Bureau Chief, Discloses Increase of Sanitation Facilities.
"The Sewage Situation in California,” was discused by C. C. Gillespie, chief of the Hureau of Engineering. State Department of Public Health, yesterday evening at the University of Southern California, speaking before a "class” of municipal employees in a section devoted to sanitary engineering.
"In less than 15 years sewage works have become a major civic activity, and disposal is becoming one of the civic virtues,” Mr. Gillespie state. “We take it aB a matter of course nowadays that plumbing has passed as a luxury. Public systems are now not uncommon in communities of 500 to <>00 people.
"There were but four schemes of sewage treatment in use In California in 1913, whereas the present survey shows at least thirteen major variations. A large part of the recent inauguration of sewage and disposal works is attributable to a number of extensive joint sewage projects, undertaken particularly in the South . . . Among these joint projects may be mentioned the Los An. geles County Sanitation Districts which embrace thirteen cities entirely, parts of three others, and contemplate the inclusion of ten more within the next few years . . . Los (Continued on Page Four)
of Los work of and the •nteit. C. J reet design, lescribed the
considerations affecting the choice of acts under which to operate, the advantages of each. etc.
This course was under tlie direction of .las. I. Tucker, Assistant to the Director, School ot t itizenship and Public Administration, who was able to approach its treatment trom the standpoint of a legal training as well as that of a civil engineer. Mr. Tucker hail previously conducted a course in the same subject at the City Hall, in l-os Angeles, running over a period of three months, which was attended by thirty-seven persons, chiefly employed by the City and County of Los Angeles.
The first solution would not only’ be a monumental task in self-isolTt-tion or self-quarantine, as It were but it is doubtful if we could maintain the economic foothold we now enjoy if such drastic action were attempted or even contemplated. There are counties in the United States where population is in decline. But not in southern California. There are no panaceas for this great fresh water problem which confronts every phase of community development. Any progress which Hje arid west has made or can expect to make is a reflection of studied effort seeking expression in carefully worked out provisions to supply all walks of life with the bare essentials in quantities and quantity of water. Such is the early history of civiliza tion in the Colorado River Basin a thousand years ago. Again it is the story of the Franciscans over a bun-died and fifty years ago. And certainly it. has been the experience of each generation in recent decades to provide water not alone for the day but for the days they hoped were to follow.
This week the group studying the subject of water supply in the summer course of the School of Citizenship and Public Administration at the University of Southern California is bearing from professional leaders in all phases of the water supply problem. Monday's program was centered around the study of climatology, long time weather predic. lions and the related problem of analyzing available records of ocean con-
PROFESSOR LAUDS MUNICIPAL EXHIBIT
MARRIAGE OF FILIPINOS CREATES NEW PROBLEM
“The fact that most of the Filipinos who are here are young men, that almost no young Filipino women are in this country, represents a serious
--_ situation,” states Dr. Emory S. Bo-
May Urges Officials tardus, chairman of the department of sociology of the University of Southern California, in the Muy-June issue of the Sociology and Social Research, international journal. Dr. Bogardus writes:
"The intermarriage situation is unique. In several states of the Union, including Arizona, California, Idaho,
On
Samuel C To View Exhibit Now Display At Citv Hall.
“The Los Angeles .Municipal Exhibit is a worth-while step in the civic education movement and every citizen of l.os Angeles and every public official interested in civic education would do well to see the exhibit and become ac-
ditions tree growth and astronomical officials desiring further information data said to he related to weather about the variations. Visiting professors were George P. McEwem. Scripps Institute of Technology; 11. P. Gillett.
Consulting Engineer and Editor.
South Pasadena; Robert I,. Wing.
Orange County; Clem A. Copeland.
Department of Water and Power, Los Angeles; (Alexander L. Gram, Metropolitan District of Southern California.
with the many services of j ^e' ada. and Oregon, Filipinos may not freely marry ‘whites.’ Classed as Mongolia: >, they come under the marriage laws prohibiting intermarriage of Mongolians and Caucasians. Although the Filipino is specifically cited as not being an alien, yet he cannot marry Caucasian persons in several states .... Although Malayan or partly Spanish, he is not Mongolian. but may be classed as such .... He is in a peculiar position . . . not an alien, neither is he a citizen, neither can he become a citizen."
Dr. Erie Fiske Young, also of the Department of Sociology of the University of Southern California, in in article on "Race and Religion” in the current number of Sociology and So-cial Research, states:
"Christianity, Buddhism, and Mohammedanism are the great, world religions. These have long since ceased to be primitive tribal religions. A1 ready each has brought within its fold many millions, and each is in active competition for converts with the other in various parts of the world ... Christianity has a sacred literature, and an organized priesthood or ministry. These give it a high degree of authority and stability. A ‘religion of the Book’ has great advantages over a religion based on oral tradition." According to Professor Young. "Fusion of cultures is apparently ultimately inevitable in a world whose boundaries are yearly shrinking almost visibly.”
quainted
city government." This was the statement of Samuel C. May, Professor of Political Science at the University of California and leader of the Public Administration Section at the University of Southern California, upon visiting the City Hall and viewing the Municipal Exhibit Saturday morning.
Officials of government attending the second week of the Short Course, who are interested in the civic education of citizens and taxpayers, will do well to visit the Municipal Exhibit in the corridors of the main floor of the City Hall to view the presentation, which has been made bv the use of photographs, posters, charts, models and motion pictures to show the activities of every city dei«artment, stated Professor May. The Tower Room on the 25th floor, from which a panorama fo the metropolitan area may be obtained, is also open to visitors.
The Municipal Exhibit is sponsored by the Bureau of Budget and Efficiency. Roy A .Knox. Director. Public
about the Los Angeles city government are asked to call at the offices of tlie Hureau of Budget and Efficiency.
ANNOUNCEMENT
The section on Recreation and Parks has been moved from Room :!07 Bovard Administration Building to Room 22(> Old College. All meet. Ings of this section will be held in this room.