The Dominion. FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 1910. NATIONAL ECONOMY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 736, 8 April 1910, Page 6

The Dominion. FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 1910. NATIONAL ECONOMY.

The latest American newspapers to hand contain a great deal of interesting comment upon the proposal that the cost of government in the United States should be reduced by tho appointment, of a "Business Methods Commission." The resemblance between the situation in America and the situation in New Zealand in this respect is quite remarkable, and since the need for reform here is as great as ever, and the advocates of reform as earnest as ever in their intention to make the question a living political issue, we need not apologise for continuing to keep the public informed as to 'the progress of tho "economy" campaign in tho United States. The Presiwho has already given proofs of his sincerity in desiring a curtailment of national extravagance by ordering a reduction of not much less than 100.000JOOO dollars (£20,000,000) in the Estimates, dealt with the problem of the Executive Departments in a speech at Newark on February 23. He did not adopt Senator Aldrich's . view that economies would effect anannual saving of 300,000,000' dollars, but he was confident that a fearless Commission could "make a most material reduction": ■••'■'.' , "They will find opposition in Congress to every change recommended, because there is no branch or bureau so humble that it cannot secure its adherents and defenders within the legislative ha-lls. But if, by the totals that it shows, this commission shall justify its existence, it is probable that it oan secure a majority sufficient to carry through its proposed roforms." ■.■■••'

The success of modern business, he said, had been due to tho adoption of economies, and the time had come for the introduction of such economies by the Government. In its comments upon this speech, the Now York Independent, which is one of the best-and ablest weekly journals in the world, had some observations which show how universally true are the arguments which in this country are advanced in condemnation of the effects of a system under which national expenditure is at the mercy of political influence. The Independent does not : favour a Commission consisting of legislators; it asks for a board of independent experts:

But Congress is jealous of its prerogative and authority,, and it might not regard -.with favour the recommendations of a Commission not directly representing itself.' . . ■ . We are' not saying that a Congressional Commission couid not be made that would be competent, with the aid pf such experts as any commission would employ, or that the average member of Congress is constitutionally and unalterably opposod to. economy in expenditure and administration. But we have in mind the desire of the average member to procure fqr ]his. district or State 'its share, or .a little moro'thari its snare, of tho appropriated money, his approval of methods "and committee ar-. rangements' which faoilitato a' somewhat free distribution of benefits, and his objection to a reduction of the'number of his friends or constituents who may be omployed in duplicated bureaux or unnecessary offices. His attitude toward those questions is not necessarily inconsistent with complete integrity and a fair allowance of enlightened public spirit, •but it makes an atmosphero in which projects of cold-blooded reform and strict economy do not thrive; and the work of a Government Business Commission created in such an atmosphero and made of such material must leave something to be desired.

Nowhere can this argument be better appreciated than in New Zealand, where the roads and bridges member has reached his fullest development and exercises more effectively than in any other country his evil influence upon the nation's affairs.

The operating causes in America are the same as in New Zealand. The Independent, deals with one of thorn—the desire of each member to obtain'as large a share as possible of' the spoil. Another is the multiplication of: the State's functions and the ambitions of the "chiefs of bureaux." In a discussion upon Senator Aldrich's plan which took place in the. Senate on February 21 last, Senator Carter, of Montana, after giving details of the waste and overlapping of Departments, dealt with "bureaucracy's advance to power":

"It is the most natural thing in the world for a bureau, once created and placed under a chief, to endeavour to grasp additional jurisdiction. The chief desires to havo more employees, 'nioro power, greater scope for his activity; and, imbued with that idea,; which Is inherent in human nature itself, tho bureau chief comes to Congress from session to session with' a view to having something added to Ms responsibility, some new clerk added to his staff, some authority given for exploration in some foreign field. Thus it has come to pass that through this method of legislation, largely on appropriation Bills, we havo the strange situation of the Government paying out, ad has been roughly estimated, 100,000,000 dollars annually in excess of what the Government's necessities really are."

The "economy" movement in America is one that is unlikely to die out and be forgotten; there is too much energy and conviction behind it for that. In this country the feeling that drastic reforms are necessary, in the shapo of nonpolitical Boards or Commissions to control the civil service, tho ; railways, and the public works administration, is a growing one, and we are confident that just as th'e. Government has had to retreat from its old defence of the "3 per cent." policy for the railways, it will have in time to surrender to the movement for a general reform of the system of State expenditure. Thero is surely a lesson for New Zealand in the American reform movement, in the growth of the feeling in Franco that the roads and bridges member must *be carefully trained out of politics, and in the fact that the British Government, in dealing with its Development Fund Bill, saw the necessity for placing the direction of expenditure on public works under the Bill in the hands of an independent Commission responsible only to Parliament and independent ,of the Executive. In none of those countries has the annual cost of government increased, "as it' has increased in Now Zealand under the Ward Administration, by something like 33 per cent, in three years. The need for reform is probably greater in New Zealand than in any other 1 oountry in the world.