Norwich bulletin., 1910-02-24

HON. GEORGE B. CHANDLER ary," neither fascinate nor dismay him. If the sublime ends of law and order and human progress can be best served by change. he changes; if by opposition, he opposes.
 President HadIey's Dictum.
 Your true conservator is often called radical by those who fail to under stand the machinery with which he is working When men behold him fash ioning new device, the high priests of corporation law cunningly put up- on their lips the cries of government bv commission" and individual Iib- tom-toms and lug out all the ancient trumpery of phrase worship ordinarily invoked to exercise political demons. Happy is your builder if he possesses an even temper and a saving sense of humor, and doubly fortunate may he be if at the timely moment there rings out some strong voice of authority to proclaim an elemental truth. Presi- dent Hadley. in his notable address before the New Haven chamber of commerce, on the occasion of Presi- dent Taft's latest visit to the state, pointed out that under modern condi- tions there are two classes of public problems. One of these classes com prises those problems which can be settled intelligently by public senti- nent and large legislative bodies As
 
 the question of whether or not we should retain the Philippine archipel- ago; or, to come to state issues, we might include in this class the ques- laws should be revised. The other class, he said. comprises those prob lems which from the very nature of the ~ese cannot be settled. if settled aright. except by patient investiga- tion and the application of expert knowledge. Of this class he would cite the problems of national currency; or, to come to state issues. we might in- clude such questions as the rate to be charged, the service to be rendered and the equipment to be furnished by public. service corporations
 The Commission Idea.
 Hence the growth of the institution known as the commission-the inter- state commerce commission the rail- road commissions and the innumerable other boards and bodies created for the purpose of affording efficiency and permanency of administration. This device has been growth, not a cre- alton It has developed from the ne- supervision by legislative bodies breaks down under the complicated conditions of modern industry. The state has been compelled to do what the great industrial corporations have done-establish permanent boards of experts, exercising certain delegated powers and making reports at stated periods. A great railroad system does not call a biennial mass meeting of it's stockholders and turn over to them the technical problems of it's opera ton and finance; it establishes de- partments- The institution of the commission is nothing more nor less than an imitation by the state of the methods successfully employed by pri- vate corporations This, then, is the descending monster of government by conmission"-the modern Grendel which infests the fens of representa- tive government and disturbs the vir- tuous slumbers of innumerable @'wid- oWs and orphans
 in Conclusion.
 Tn conclusion, MT. Chandler pleaded for a retention of the sound individu- aIistic principle of private ownership of property He shrank from insidious schemes. which work well on a small scale, but whose ultimate tendency is to undermine the social and industrial system upon which our Englisb-speak- ing civilization has been built up He abhorred paternalistic devices that would luli mankind into the deIusion