The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-05-30

ment, bureau or commission of the state of New York. The examiners may summon witnesses, examine Mem under oath, and compel the production of papers. The oversight authorized Is not confined to the subordinate officers of the state, but applies to the higher officers-to the secretary of state, the controller, the attorney-general, like the governor, elected by the people.
 Whatever opposition there may be to other features of the governors pro- gram there is practically none to this bill setting up a censor-in-chief. It is probably not an exaggeration to say that ninety-nine out of every hundred citizens of the state approve the plan of making the states chief executive an all around watcher-think the public welfare well promoted by equipping him with the power to Ahrow his eye into the most remote recesses. It is the era of investigations and inquiries. The theory seems to be that we cannot have too many of them-that they cannot harm the innocent and that the guilty should not be considered.
 All of this is interesting not only in the narrow view of the reform of par- ticular abuses, but In the broader view as 8 sign of the change coming over American institutions. It is a further indication of the drift away from those English principles on which our gov ernment was founded. Looking over the history of England it is plainly dis cernible that one of the most persist ent spirits is jealousy of government fear of tyranny over the individual in the name of the group. How to chain government power and secure individ- ual rights-this has preoccupied the English people through the centuries. Consider what studied apprehension is revealed by the English criminal law what extraordinary devices are pro- vided for personal protection. King and Parliament-the thought that they might become enemies has never been wholly absent.
 When our institutions were adopted we took over en masse English ideas and maxims, but, while continuity has never been lost, the tendency Is away from them We are not jealous of centralized power-are coming more and more to confer large discretionary power. The national government, the state governments and the municipal governments are already centralized in way that has made our forefathers gasp. The man who talks about the tyranny that may be exercised Sy the group is deemed an old fogy. Why should we fear our own government ? The main object used to be the well fare of each of us@now 1t is all of us, with the assertion that this is the best thing for each of us. Incidentally the theory of checks and balances-of the distribution of functions under which no one officer or department could become dominant-is distinte- grating.
 We are leaping over the centuries and uneonsciously going back to Rom an ideas. In republican Rome the in- dividual was entirely at the mercy of the feelings and opinions of his fel- lows. He was spied upon from the cradle to the grave. The censors might strike him from the senatorial roll, he could be instantly snatched from his office, every other citizen was his pos- sible accuser. Public, opinion. acting ! through appointed agents, disciplined her upper classes in much the same way that our men of wealth are now being disciplined A curious thing is it to see the revival of this ancient policy-to discover in the Moreland bill so far as public officers are concerned the same essential idea behind the old cen snrsl1irn New Ynri. Glnha