The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-12-02
THE BUREAU SYSTEM.

resolve the city government into rev pu-
reaus, in order to secure greater simplicity,
responsibility, fidelity and efficiency in the
management Of municipal affairs, reminds Us
of the plan adopted by the oriental geographer
for giving the earth solid bottom to stand
on. He first placed it on the back Of a tor
toise; then seeing that the tortoise had nothing
to rest ON, he put under it an elephant; and
there his inventive genius stopped, as he
could not imagine the possibility of a void
space greater than the bulk of the latter ami
NAL. So Mr.. Howell fancies that this COM
munity could shift all the care and trouble
of municipal administration from what he
conceives to be its present unsatisfactory
basis by transferring the whole burden to the
back of q bureaucratic elephant We are
aware that this is not a novel idea. We are
also aware that, whatever salutary results
might be accomplished by the project,
under a rare combination of favorable cir
cumstances, it has never been able
to satisfy either experience or speculative
criticism by solving the fundamental diff
Guilty of guaranteeing responsible, faithful
and efficient administration of affairs without
| 'devolving upon the community most vitality
interested in them the task of perpetual vigil
lance of rigorous inquisition, and, If need be,
| of condign rebuke and swift and thorough
correction. Apparently, the thinking facul-
| ties of the advocates of majestic, elephantine
bureaucratic consolidation, after comprising
this vast stretch of thought, can no further
| go, and consequently are complacently igno-
rant of the unreasonable inadequacy of their
| plan to the achievement of the required solu-
ton. The fact is, there is no royal road to
the desired degree of success in the matter of
administering municipal affairs, any more than
there is in one of the learned professions, in
| scientific pursuit, or in business enterprise.
The thing is, first, and above all, to combine,
| if possible, the qualities of incorruptible
honesty and perfect competency in municipal
servants; the next requisite is to make assur-
anee doubly sure BY throwing about these
servants the light of "a sleepless, unsparing, but
not unjust and captious public scrutiny, and
by causing them constantly to realize that
official responsibility is more than theoreti-
cal fiction--that it is an ever present and infal
libby potent fact, and means, in case
of flagitious delinquency, certain pun.
ishment and inevitable infamy. No
amount of tinkering. no kind of remodeling
of the city government, from this time till the
crack of doom, could, in the neglect of the
conditions above named, cause it to work
more satisfactorily than it does work at this
very moment. But if the people of this city
should deliberately conclude to relieve them
selves to the utmost of the solicitude, burden
and bother of looking after its affairs, there
is q method for shutting off the vexatious
municipal coil infinitely more simple and eff
fectual than the bureaucratic system recon-
mended by Mr.. Howell 1t is to let the ad-
ministration out by contract, to an individual
or joint stock company, it matters not
which. The people in any case must be vi
tally interested in the hygiene of the city,
in the adjustment of its taxes, in the condi-
ton of its streets, in the disposition of its
wharves, in the regulation of its markets
But if they were bent on relieving themselves
from all trouble connected with the manage
ment, they could not do better than to lease
the whole concern to the highest bidder, and
let it be carried on as a private speculation.
In case of breach of contract civil action
would lie against the contractor, and the con-
tract could be cancelled and indemnity obtain
ed in one-tenth part of the time that would be
consumed in prosecuting an investigation into
the grossest delinquencies or corruptions of
any branch of the bureaucratic system.
The Republican amiably permits Congress
to choose between one Jones and one
Menard, as representative from the Second
District of this State which is quite re-