THE GLOBE. TUESDAY, AUGUST 16, 1880.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 202, 17 August 1880, Page 2

THE GLOBE. TUESDAY, AUGUST 16, 1880.

The debate on the Railway Commission is proceeding with due vigour. Of one thing there can be but little doubt. The so-called Government by Commission has been made a party cry of by the Opposition, and yet the beneficent effect of the reports cannot be gainsaid. The country has been moved strongly by the revelations contained in the Civil Service and Railway Commissions. Light has been thrown on dark places, and the very outcry raised in certain quarters is a proof of the necessity of what has been done. Not that we can altogether congratulate the public on the result of the efforts of the Commissioners. These gentlemen have undertaken a thankless office, and with the consequences usual in such cases. They have raised a storm about their ears—that they of course expected—but the Civil Service Commission, at all events, may well complain that they have have not been well backed up by the present Government. Mr. Huctchinson spoke the truth in the House last night when he Jsaid that if these Commissioners were satisfied with the reception their report has mot with, they were very easily satisfied indeed. Buried from the public gaze beneath a heap of replies, reports, and so on, there seems to be little chance during the present session of any radical change being applied to the management of our railways. Not that the Government are to bo solely blamed for this. The dead weight of incumbent officialism has been hacked by members of the Opposition, and the present Ministry finds itself in the unpleasant position of a body of men seeing its way to light, and being unable to carry its ideas into effect. A celebrated writer has made the remark that the most wretched predicament of all others is to see clearly what ought to be done, and not to be able to do it. Wo opine that the Government are in much this state. Give them a clear board to work on, and the public would have some chance that their interests would be seen to, regardless of individuals and existing systems. But all human affairs are carried on by compromise, and the necessary compromises in the present instance will, we fear, result in the recommendations of the Civil Service Commission being entombed in pigeon-holes along with other leas valuable matter. And this result is not only an absolute loss in pounds, shillings and pence to the public, but its moral effect on the conduct of any future Commissions that may be appointed will bo more or less disastrous. Unless future Commissioners are built of very stern stuff indeed they will be little likely to speak the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, respecting officialdom at large when they turn to reflect on the reception the late Civil Service Commission’s Report has met with. The House has more or loss insulted the Commissioners. The latter entered on their duties determined to sift matters to the bottom, and with the firm conviction that what they recommended would, if based on facts, be acted on to a lesser or greater extent. They sent in their report backed up by copious evidence, and the House has been cowed by the interests which have risen against the report. By no other reasoning can the shelving of the affair be explained away. It may bo that the work suggested has overpowered the Government, engaged as it is in an enormous amount of business of importance. But still what more important object, except, perhaps that treated of by. the Railway and West Coast Commissions, could be brought under its notice. It may, indeed, bo said that the reform of the Railway management can wait, while the settlement of what lines are to be constructed is a pressing question. But is it at all likely that the pigeon-holed report will be brought to light again next session. The same officialdom will be there to block the way, strengthened by a further tenure of power, and the report itself will have lost its freshness, and be, possibly, in many cases inapplicable to new circumstances. The iron will not have been struck when hot, and there will be but little chance of its being worked with readiness when cool. The Government, we take it, is to be blamed, and the House is to bo blamed. The Commissioners, although defeated, have retired with more than the honors of war. They must be sore—very sore —but the real losers are the Legislature and the public. With regard to the report of the Railway Commission, affairs are not in quite such a bad state. Their recommendations have been adopted to a very large extent. The same howl has met their suggestions, but the opposition to them is not so compact. Isolated members have risen in the House and denounced the report as a fraud. But there has been no concentrated onslaught. Every man has been for himself. The war has been a guerrilla war, and it has been possible to defeat the enemy in detail. In point of fact, one attacking party has not been at all sorry that the other attacking party has had the worst of it. There has been so little money to claim that logrolling has been almost out of the question, and the cry has not been “ you help me and I will help you,” but the Government has been patted on the back and invited to knock the other man down in order that there may bo more money for the

third party. Out of tho ravenous logrolling lion has issued honey, and the public, though finding it difficult to solve the riddle, has materially benefitted by the transaction.