ABSTRACT
The fundamental ideas underlying the efficiency movement are that there is no panacea for municipal ills; that municipal home rule, commission government, and city managers are merely means to an end; and that municipal problems depend for their solution upon the same scientific study and analysis that banking problems or railroad problems require. The ideas also includes that any attempt to remove inefficiency and waste must be continuous and not intermittent; that honesty and good intentions cannot take the place of intelligence and ability; and finally that city business is like any other business and needs precisely the same kind of organization, management, and control. Most cities, in reaching the final stage of the efficiency movement, pass through two preliminary stages. The first of these preliminary stages is a period of disorganization, of slovenly and careless methods, of duplication, inefficiency, and waste. Cities in the second stage turn to organization and method for the correction of existing conditions.
