The morning journal-courier., 1908-01-04
A BUREAUCRACY MT. Reuterdahls Criticism of the United States
 Navy. FOUNDATION EXISTS FOR IT Time for the Country to Take Heal Interest in the Spending
 of Its Money.

Rear-AdmiraI Goodrich, in an ih- terview at Chicago, yesterday, went as far as he could, with official proprieY, in sustaining the recent criticisms of the navy department He stated that Mir Reuterdahl knew what he was talking about" The admiral added that he had read the article in Mcclure with great care, and had found little in it that isn't true" Still more sug- gestive was his statement that he, him self, as he believed was the case with many other high officers of the navy, had before communicated his official views on all these subjects to his chiefs in the department This Will lead people to ask with redoubled wonder. Why on earth has no heed been given to all this expert criticism and advice? Why has the navy gone on repeating exposed blunders, and falling again and again into detected errors?" The true answer, we suppose, is that the navy department has been for years helpless in the grip of bu- reaucracy.
 This does not mean that the men in charge of construction and equip ment are all glaringly incompetent; 1 least of all that they are unpatriotic or dishonest They simply illustrate, on great scale, the vices Of government | by bureaucracy. What we mean by this | Is that a deadening routine extinguish- es initiative. The thing that has been done, is done, and will be. world with out end New ideas and inventlyeness knock at the doors in vain. Heads of department, intrenched in their posi- tions. secure of their tenure, and smothered in the dust of their daily work. quietly ignore all that goes on outside. They merely ask to be let alone Ships have always been built and guns mounted in a certain way and why give the intellectuals of the permanent force such a wrench as to demand that they make a change2
 Such stolidity and smiling indiffer- ence 10 proposed improvements have long been recognized as the curse of a bureaucratic government, The old clerks see new head come along with innovating nations, but remain calm ly superior. They will give him three months to beat his head against the dead wall of their impassivity; then he will accept their way of thinking, and there will be no more trouble In tho history of modern governments this evil has been frequently exhibited. A saying was attributed to Lord Sails bury, when secretary for India, which is to the point. He complained that neither he nor the vieeroy of India had really anything to do with the control of Indian affairs, as they were absolutely in the power of the per manent employees of the India office. In similar vein we have heard a mem- Der of the cabinet say: The govern ment of the United States is run by the S1,200 clerks" Everybody knows how they resist change, and fight any of doing thing except that which is consecrated by immemorial use. Go to this body of officials. which goes on , forever, though administrations may come and go, and say to them that new nGfnnlS anu d ltiVit tFti be highly desirable, and they will reply as did the Englishman in Friend , ships Garland" when the Prussiar critic. Arminius, was pointed out how , necessary it was that public officials , should have special training: N' , have never found it SO"
 Stagnation, deadness at the top, may hs,cf1apcG n G well [ department of the government Th' . difference is. however, that most pri , vate concerns feel the spur of com
 petition, while a government bureal has a complete monopoly. A large en i, gjnering firm. for example, has to keel , freshening its blood and taking in neV |. ideas. else some rival will take ava,
 ifs contracts. For it to fall behind tn
 times. or to pile blunder upon blundeI il would mean financial ruin. But the ap
 propriations are voted to the navy de
 partment as regularly as the revolvin year: and the men who have the mon
 ev to spend feel no pressure from an
 one who may oust them if they do no
 keen themselves alert and up-to-datt
 Furthermore. the navy-bureau monop
 olv is double-locked. since public criti
 cism hy competent officers is a breac : of discipline It would be hard f
 imagine a system more cleverly de
 vised to promote a fatal kind of in
 breeding and imperviousness to idea!
 However. a breach has at last bee
 made in the wall of the naval bureau
 cracv. MT Reuterdahls article ha
 kindled a fire which all official col
 water cannot put out Ii is on recor
 that President Roosevelt himself ha
 freauently flung all his energy again:
 the inertia of the navy departmen
 Tn only a few eases has he been abl
 to make it budge, He will now !
 tempted to apply further force. Bl
 the great hope. as we have maintain
 cd from the first. lies in a thoroug
 overhauling of the department by
 congressional committee. It could II