The AMA booklet "Parking Space, What American Cities Are Doing To Provide It," continues to attract the attention and interest of municipal officials and other civic leaders throughout the country. Typical of the response that has greeted this publication is a letter recently received by the AMA Washington office from Mr. A. V. Hancock, executive secretary of the Merchants Association of Clearwater, Florida. Writes Mr. Hancock — "I took time for only a brief glance through this book before turning it over to the chairman of our off-street parking project which we expect to present to the City Commission this week, but I saw enough to be assured that this is a very valuable and effective book to have in promoting such a plan as we are now working to get adopted. It is certainly well worth the nominal price you are charging."

A limited supply of the 56-page, attractively illustrated book, dealing with one of the most pressing municipal problems of the day is still available and can be ordered from AMA's Washington office. The single copy price is two dollars.

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"General Motors Official Tells Why Plant Was Not Put Here." This headline appeared September 21, 1955, over an item in the Pharos-Tribune of Logansport, Indiana, a city of 22,000. Revelation that General Motors had decided against location of a multi-million dollar plant employing 3,500 was a rude awakening to the citizenry. Yet, as reported in Town journal, in answer to the question, "What Is Wrong With Our Town?" more arguments were found in favor of their community than against it. Admittedly, Logansport had many strong points to attract new industry. Good factory sites, excellent transportation facilities, easy accessibility to markets, and labor record and labor market measuring up to standard.

Plenty of things were found wrong by the G. M. scout when he made his survey. When the Mayor went to Detroit to find out what was wrong, he came back with an earful. Boiled down, it appeared the town just did not possess the qualities considered necessary to make up a good environment for the GM employees to raise their families. Sewage disposal was antiquated, traffic conditions bad, eating places poor, hotel facilities limited, schools and hospitals inadequate, proper zoning laws missing. Although the Mayor had tried for eight years to improve conditions, he received little help and sympathy. The thanks he got for his trouble was to get voted out of office when it was realized that GM was not at fault.

Other communities desiring to attract industry should note what Logansport is doing now. Interim zoning is in effect, and a consultant has been hired to work up a permanent ordinance. A $6 million sewage plant is being planned. Contributions have been made by local businessmen to secure the services of University of Indiana researchers to make a study of Logansport's assets and liabilities for industry—$3,500 was required and $5,000 was subscribed. Traffic problems have been studied and improvements made. To meet demands of local employers, schools are emphasizing science—especially electronics, and a sort of internship training in connection with several phases of business and industry is being sponsored along with academic training. The aim is to help train and keep the 70% of high school graduates who don't go to college as well as to encourage the city's college graduates to return. Highly significant, as an example of direct action being taken, is a $100,000 Industrial Development Corporation which will buy up factory sites for resale to industry at fair prices. Already, a pilot-operation plastics firm has moved in, and hopes are that 230-300 will eventually be employed.

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Improved public transit must accompany improved highways for private automobiles if full benefits are to be obtained under the Federal multimillion-dollar highway bill according to the General Manager of a Cleveland Transit System. Talking to a meeting of businessmen in New England recently, the Clevelander stated that with the new roads certain to funnel more and more automobiles into metropolitan districts, it now becomes more important than ever to give genuine consideration to transit. This is so, he continued, because the "plain truth of the matter is that local streets throughout most central business and commercial areas are limited in the space available for vehicles and in most cases their capacity has been reached or is close to it." Acknowledging that all major cities need better highways, he continued, they will be useful "only if they do not add more vehicles than local streets can accommodate. Highway planning which contemplates moving to and from a central business area substantial numbers of people and private autos who are now using public transit may create bigger problems than the ones they are intended to solve,'' he observed. At the time of construction, the ultimate capacity of expressways can be multiplied at relatively small additional cost by including a transit lane, he stated, and stressed that such should be provided with a view to the future even though they may not be used immediately.

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The single word "chaotic" was used to describe employer-employee relations in government by the

labor relations advisor to the City of Philadelphia while talking to a meeting of the Civil Service Assembly. The existing state of affairs cannot continue much longer, he observed, for unions are steadily growing in the public service, and public administrators must learn how to deal with them. "The government administrator," he said, "has a major advantage over industry in the fact that in most cases his union cannot strike. The argument that we in government are different and don't need union recognition and collective bargaining is no longer acceptable. Collective bargaining can be good for morale and it can aid and strengthen the merit system.

"However," he challenged, "a major share of the responsibility for bringing about collective bargaining rests squarely on the shoulders of the union. The average union leader in the public service is more often than not a highly frustrated individual. He lacks the right to strike or arbitrate. He is confronted by an often incredibly complex division of authority and shifting of responsibility between various branches and departments of government. Because of that authority he may find himself involved in annual negotiations which take as much as eight months out of each year. He has to rely on political activity rather than accepted union activity to advance his cause. He, as well as his members, fall prey to a whole parcel of easy pre-election promises or to the risk of retaliation which comes from too close involvement with what may eventually turn out to be a losing side. Yet staying out of politics has its problems, too."