Los Angeles herald. [volume] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1890-1893, 1891-10-16
RUSSIAN clRcuMLocuTIoM.
How Projects for Improvements In the
Public Service Are Killed.

How Projects for improvements In the
Public Service Are Killed.
The reason why changes that are mani
testify desirable, that are in the direction
of economy, and that apparently would
ini11re no one, are not made in Russia is
one of the most puzzling and exasperat-
ing things that are forced upon travel
ers attention In every branch of the
administration one is constantly STUN
bling upon abuses or defects that have
long been recognized, that have been
commented upon for years. that are ap-
parently prejudicial to the interests of
everybody, and that, nevertheless, con-
tinue to exist
If you ask an explanation of an official
in Siberia he refers you to st. Petersburg.
If YOU inquire of the chief of the prison
department in St. Petersburg he tells
YOU that he has drawn up project" to
cope with the evil, but that this "proj-
ect" has not yet been approved by the
minister of the interior. If you go to
the minister of the interior you learn
that the ''project" requires preliminary
appropriation of money-even although
its ultimate effect may be to save money
and that it cannot be carried into ex-
ecution without the assent and co-opera-
ton of the minister of finance. If you
follow the project to the minister of
finance you are told that it has been sent
back through the minister of the interior
to the chief of the prison department for
modification"
If YOU still persist in your determine
ton to find out why this thing is not
done, you may chase the modified "proj-
ect" through the prison department, the
minister of the interior and the minister
of finance, to the council of the empire.
There you discover that, inasmuch as
certain Observation-Disclosures SEN
ators and generals, who barely know ST.
IBERIA by name, have expressed doubt
as to the existence of the evil with which
the project is intended to deal, spe-
cial commission" with salaries amount
ing to 10000 rubles year and mileage)
has been appointed to investigate the
subject and make report.
If you pursue the commission to ST.
b6ria and back, and search diligently in
the proceedings of the council of the en-
pire for its report, you ascertain that the
document has been sent to the minister
of the interior to serve as basis for
new project" and then, as ten or fif-
teen years have elapsed and all the orig
inal projectors are dead, everything be-
gins over again. At no stage of this cir
cumrotatory process can you lay your
hand on a particular official and say:
"Herel You are responsible for this.
What do you meanby it?'
AT no stage, probably, can you find an
official who is opposed to the reform or
who has any personal interest in defeat
ing it; and yet the general effect of the
circumrotatory process is more certainly
fatal to your reformatory project than
any amount of intelligent and active OPP
position. The various bureaus of the
provincial governor generals Office, the
chief prison department, the ministry of
the interior, the ministry of finance, the
ministry Of justice, the council of minis
tiers, and the council of the empire con-
stitute huge administrative maelstrom
of ignorance and Indifference, in which
a "project" revolves slowly, month after
month and year after year, until it is
finally sucked down out of sight, or, per-
haps, thrown by fortuitous eddy of
personal or official interest into the great
gulf stream current of real life.-George
KEENAN, in Century.