For Cambridge: the CCA

Ten years ago tomorrow, Cambridge voters adopted a new system of government. This was Plan E, which provides for a weak nine man Council and a strong City Manager who administrates the city. At first, Plan E was highly successful. City Manager John B. Atkinson inaugurated extensive changes in Cambridge's administrative set-up, and the City Council went along with the City Manager on most important matters.

Five years ago the Cambridge Civic Association took the place of the deteriorating Committee for Plan E, the original reform group. The CCA gradually increased its strength, building itself up along the lines of a ward organization. But the CCA was formed as a group to perpetuate Plan F, and good government, and this it has done admirably.

Tomorrow, nine City Councillors and five School Committeemen will be elected. There will be two groups of candidates: "CCA-endorsed" and "independents." Some of the independents are well-qualified and some of the CCA-endorsed candidates have similar qualifications. But the issue in the election is not one of personalities, rather whether or not Cambridge voters believe that the Cambridge Civic Association has done good for Cambridge.

The reason that the CCA has been able to remain self-perpetuating is not because of "machine politics" or "propaganda" but because it is composed of people who sincerely want to see good government continued in Cambridge. If those in the professions, in education, thought that the CCA was no longer good for Cambridge, then the CCA would collapse overnight.

But the CCA has not even come near to collapsing. This year it has been able to put up an exceptionally strong slate. Its programs for 1951, although not so extensive nor so ambitious as those in the past, are good. They include adoption of a long-range capital improvement program, increase in off-street parking, better housing facilities, improvement and enlargement of library and recreational facilities, and extension of street paving.

The independents, however, have been unable to coalesce; each candidate has his own platform. The independents for the most part say that they will vote against the CCA, that they will support their own measures in the City Council, and that they will not go along with the City Manager's programs.

Not all the CCA candidates are competent or deserving of election, but if reform is to continue and if the City Council is to have a tangible program next year, then Cambridge voters should by all means return a majority of the Cambridge Civic Association candidates to the City Council and School Committee.