A more common method is to deal with each city as a special case, giving it a charter by special act of the legislature, the result of this plan being that no two cities of the state are governed in exactly the same way. The special charter system has the merit of adapting the form of government to the immediate needs of each particular city; but it places a great burden upon the legislature, for whenever any city desires an amendment to its charter a special legislative act is necessary. The system also encourages the legislature to interfere in city affairs, making changes in city charters on its own initiative without any request from the citizens. This is particularly objectionable because so many members of the legislature come from rural districts and consequently have little or no knowledge of the city’s problems. [Sidenote: 3. Home rule charters.] =Municipal Home Rule.=—In order to diminish this interference by the legislature many states have made provision for municipal home rule. This is a plan whereby cities make their own charters just as states frame their own constitutions. The methods by which they do this vary somewhat from state to state but everywhere the main idea is the same. The voters of the city elect a charter commission, or board of freeholders as it is sometimes called. This miniature constitutional convention, made up of perhaps fifteen or twenty members, proceeds to draw up the provisions of a new city charter. When their work is finished they submit it to the people of the city at an election and if the people approve it, the charter goes into effect. In some states there are certain formalities to be gone through after the people have voted, but the important thing is that each city obtains, sooner or later, whatever sort of charter its voters desire. In this way the city becomes supreme in the handling of its own local affairs. [Sidenote: Difficulties connected with the home rule system.] But the principle of municipal home rule is subject to some important practical limitations, most of which can be indicated by asking the question “What are _local_ affairs?” Where is the line to be drawn between things which concern only the inhabitants of the city and those which affect the interests of the whole state. At first glance it might seem as though the care of streets, the maintenance of police, the provision of a water-supply system, and the control of education were matters of local concern, which each city ought to handle as its citizens deem best.