Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-04-03

| they would have il they bore evidence of being
the result of thorough inquiry and deliberate
consideration.
Among the portions Of the report which seem
TO US iudcious are recommendations to abolish
the salaries of the liquor commissioner and as
saver, and make such other changes in the law
as would pay The expenses of the state liquor
business ont of its profits; 10 abolish the board
Of police commissioners, and also the board Of
cattle commissioners. We approve also the
general views OF the committee on the subject OF
the complicated and cumbrous machinery Of
commissions for doing so much of the executive
work of the state government The complaint
is not that the present commissioners are inca
pable or dishonest; the opinion Of most persons
who have watched their work is quite different
from this; it is matter of surprise that the
state has been so faithfully and well served; but
the system is not adapted 10 secure efficiency,
and in the hands Of incompetent or corrupt men
it might foster abuses not easily exposed, and
to he corrected with even more difficulty The
foundation OF the evil is in the fact
that our constitution remains essentially
as it was ninety years ago, well enough
quite untitled for the government of common
wealth with Eve times the population, ard q
hundred times the wealth and with changed
systems of industry, having new and intricate
relations with the social and political life of its
people Wecannot 90 back to the days of sim
plieity, and it is folly pretend that no more or
different machinery is needed than suficed
when our constitution was framed What is
required is to renovate the instrument adapting
it TO the condition of society as it is, providing
for the establishment Of executive Departments,
under the general direction of the governor 10
do the work now committed to various almost
irresponsible commissions. The work must be
done, and until this or some other means of
doing it is provided for in the framework of
the government, the commissions cannot be dis
pensed with.
One quotation we mast make from this report,
not only for the good sense contained in it, but
also as specimen OF its style. The writer, who
touches as we have said, upon all subjects, Just
here discusses the relative claims for state aid
OF the "up-couutry COLLEGES" and Professor
| Agassiz's museums. He says:
"The education of a class Of deserving young
! men, in one of our up country colleges, is OF
more practical, and moral, and absolute advan-
tage to the state, and to the world, than Alcohol
and Jars for the preservation OF all the reptiles
and tish-skins of every genus and species that
| ever hUurished in, or came from trOpic, arctic or
| antarctic regions. There can be no comparison
between the two. The practically educated
brains of Massachusetts boys must hereafter as
heretofore keep her in the influential position
she has so far occupied and those brains here
after as heretofore, mast he mainly educated
| after the common schools, in the common col
legcs of the commonwealth. The competition
| is between the bug and the boy, and so far in
state beneiactions of later dates the boy has
| been Obliged to succumh 10 the bug. We think
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