of 1911? How does it differ from the charters of Palo Alto and Riverside?

14. Compare the charters of Oakland, Los Angeles, Pomona, Alameda, San Diego, and Petaluma, with respect to the nomination and election of officers.

15. Ideas in respect to city government have changed rapidly in recent years. We consider certain features as "modern" and "progressive" (§ 95). Study the charters of 1909 and 1911 and observe which ones indicate a complete surrender to these ideas, and which ones indicate a compromise between them and older ideas.

16. Study the charters that were adopted or amended in 1901, 1903, 1905, or 1907 with respect to the following points: elections by wards, the size of the council, the powers of the mayor, and the powers of the council.

17. In general when did the people of California decide in favor of elections at large rather than by wards? In favor of nonpartisan elections? In favor of a small and powerful council? At what time was the idea that the mayor should possess great power most popular?

NOTE. The years from 1909 to 1913 have been great years in the matter of charter making. During these years we have been endeavoring so to alter the forms of our city governments that they will be more economic, more efficient, and more responsive to the will of the people than they have been in the past. Indeed, we have made the people of every city an actual part of the city government. While we have been laboring with the forms of our municipal governments we have been gradually enlarging our views as to the work that these governments should undertake; and there can be no doubt that the future will witness greater activity on their part than we have hitherto known. This activity will show itself in discharging old duties more thoroughly and in assuming new ones. Among the new duties will unquestionably be the acquisition and operation of public utilities.

Chap. 10, 11, 16.

CHAPTER X

INTRODUCTION TO STATE GOVERNMENT

113. Relation of the State to Local Governments. In the preceding chapters many references to the state have been made. We have seen it as a great controlling power behind counties, cities, school districts, and other public corporations; and we have learned that these public corporations are its instruments or agents, in bringing to the people the protection and benefit of its laws. The government of every public corporation is thus a branch of the state government. This is somewhat disguised by the thoroughness with which we put into practice our principle of local self-government. If we had a centralized government, we could more clearly see the hand of the state in the management of public affairs, for then the will of the state would be enforced among us by officers appointed at Sacramento. But in order that local self-government may prevail, the authority of the state over local affairs 1 is manifested, not in the appointment of officers for the various localities, but in the enactment of laws and charters which create public corporations and assign to them their duties and powers. 114. A Central State Government Necessary. From what has been said it is clear that there must be a central state government with power at least to make laws for the entire state. This of necessity implies that there must be a system of courts of higher jurisdiction than the county and

1 Including the enforcement of general laws in the localities.

city courts, for if the law could be interpreted in each locality without the possibility of an appeal to a higher authority, it would mean different things in different parts of the state, and, in the confusion that would arise, the will of the state as a whole would not be enforced. From the emphasis that has been placed on the fact that state laws are enforced in the various localities by local officers, it might appear that a central executive authority is hardly necessary. But such an authority is necessary, not only to see that the various public corporations attend properly to the matters of state-wide importance that are committed to their care, but to do directly a large amount of public work which cannot be done by public corporations. A vigorous state government complete in all respects is an absolute necessity.

115. The Relations between the Nation and the States. - Inasmuch as the political relations existing between the American nation and the states that compose it are discussed in all general textbooks on civil government, a brief summary of the main points in the discussion is all that need be given here:

1. The people of the United States have certain common wants and interests which constitute their national affairs. The national government was created to look after these national affairs.

2. The American people could adopt any plan of government that would be acceptable to a majority. They have chosen to establish a federal republic. The United States is a nation rather than a confederacy or a league, because it is a union of people rather than a union of states, and because the national government, in looking after our national affairs, deals with people rather than with states.

THE RELATIONS BETWEEN NATION AND STATES 169

It is a federal republic because the people that compose it are divided into groups called states, which in respect to all matters of government other than national affairs are practically independent of the national government and of one another. The national government cannot interfere with the states in the exercise of their respective powers; neither can the states interfere with the national government. Each possesses a modified sovereign power. Complete sovereignty rests with the American people. By amending the national Constitution, or by discarding it and adopting a new one, they could modify in any manner the relations between the federal government and the states.

3. The American people have delegated to the national government certain powers which are definitely stated, or implied, in the national Constitution. The government may exercise only these delegated powers, together with such powers as are incident to them, and such other powers as are implied from the Constitution. The people have denied certain powers to the national government, certain powers to the states, and certain powers to both the national government and the states. The states may exercise all powers not denied to them, nor granted exclusively to the national government. The powers of the states are nowhere definitely enumerated. They are practically without limit,1 although they are subject to certain definite restrictions.

4. The American people in granting certain powers to the national government, and reserving others to the states,

1 In the sense that they cannot be definitely stated and numbered. The tenth amendment to the national Constitution provides that “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." The powers thus reserved to the states, or to the American people, are often referred to as residuary powers. It would be impossible to name them.

intended that the national government and the states should work together, each upholding and supporting the other. Neither is a complete scheme of government within itself; but taken together, they are intended to make provision for all of our public wants.

From this brief statement of the political relations between the nation and the states, it is clearly a very different relation from that existing between California and the counties into which it is divided. When a territory is admitted into the Union as a state, Congress does not grant to it certain powers which may be taken away or altered at any time. Congress simply declares that the people living in a definitely bounded area are to be regarded as a state. This confers upon them all the unnumbered, unnamed powers of statehood; and, according to our present Constitution, there is no legal method whereby any of these powers may be impaired or taken away. The federal government cannot impose duties on a state, except to a very limited degree, cannot control its government, cannot alter its boundary lines, cannot interfere with it in any way so long as it does not violate the national Constitution, laws, or treaties. Its powers are inherent; that is, it may do anything not prohibited to it by the American people. A county, as we have seen, has granted powers; that is, it may do only the things authorized by state law. 116. The Sphere of State Activity. The powers that may be exercised by a state cannot be definitely set forth, but they may be indicated in general terms:

1. Subject to a provision of the national Constitution that "the United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government," each state'

1 The word state means the people of the state.