added, all operating in the same territory with a city government and a county government, we have still further split up the municipal executive and legislative power. Such situations are common enough. The principle of decentralization has even been applied so as to prevent the assistance to the government which might be derived from experts in various lines. The place where the largest number and variety of experts in the most departments of learning can be found is the largest city of the state. If that city happens to be one of the great cities of the country and of the world, it will also be an important center of intellectual activity of all sorts. It will very likely have in or near it one or more great universities. Yet in such states we are likely to find that an ancient fear of mob influence over legislation has placed the state capital at some distant geographical center which is not even a transportation center. Not infrequently the state university will be found at some point more or less inaccessible to both the largest city of the state and the capital. These are arrangements which tend directly to the separation of the government from the aid of expert knowledge and the best intelligence of the state.[1] Members of the state and municipal legislatures are, of course, elective. Moreover, the judges and state, county, and city administrative officers are also elective. In addition to preventing any officer from holding his place and his power against the will of the majority, the wide application of the elective principle aids in the decentralization of the executive power. It tends to make every elective officer independent of every other officer in the discharge of his statutory duties. By subjecting to an election at a given time a part only of the total number of officers elected, a further check upon the concentration of power is secured. The officers who do not come up for election at a particular time may be of a different political faith from those who are elected. In the same administration, therefore, some officeholders may stand as a check upon the actions of the others. In obedience to the principle of frequent elections all officers hold for brief terms of one, two, four, or six years--usually for two or four years.