Regional
coordination is especially desirable. For legal frontiers often do not
coincide with the effective environments. Yet they have a certain
basis in custom that it would be costly to disturb. By coordinating
their information several administrative areas could reconcile
autonomy of decision with cooperation. New York City, for example, is
already an unwieldy unit for good government from the City Hall. Yet
for many purposes, such as health and transportation, the metropolitan
district is the true unit of administration. In that district,
however, there are large cities, like Yonkers, Jersey City, Paterson,
Elizabeth, Hoboken, Bayonne. They could not all be managed from one
center, and yet they should act together for many functions.
Ultimately perhaps some such flexible scheme of local government as
Sidney and Beatrice Webb have suggested may be the proper
solution. [Footnote: "The Reorganization of Local Government" (Ch. IV),
in _A Constitution for the Socialist Commonwealth of Great
Britain_.] But the first step would be a coordination, not of
decision and action, but of information and research. Let the
officials of the various municipalities see their common problems in
the light of the same facts.
8
It would be idle to deny that such a net work of intelligence bureaus
in politics and industry might become a dead weight and a perpetual
irritation.
Pages:
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404