Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1910-08-06
HOW EUROPE is STRANGLED IN
LABYRINTHS OF RED TAPE.
He Overcome by the Dead Weight of Bureaucracy.


zenith returns It to the seventeenth,
and so on back TO number one, so that
perhaps three years afterwards the pc
titioner gets it back for correction"
IN DARKEST RUSSIA
But even Austria is Pawnee chiefs
wigwam for simplicity OF procedure
compared with Russia. As 2O00.0 900
Russians out OF 155, 600 600 cannot write,
the literate $4,000 900 1mostly offlcials)
must do the documentlng for the rest.
True, the civil "tchin" or list Of Of
fetal ranks is short, consisting only OF
II, from collegiate registrar to
''states-secretary." Germany has va
ranks) The complexities OF the pro-
cedure IN all state departments are such
that the state issues a diagram for
the use OF young officials showing by
lines and arrow heads the order OF the
Instances" whittier every paper has
to go. 1t looks like the Crctan laby-
rinth From the hands of the hall porter
who takes In the mail up TO the min
lister. most papers are handled and read
By from so to 20 officials, so that an
order 20 hll up a rut In state main
road often takes year before II Is
passed finally. A. simple documents
authorizing the expenditure OF say $50
make their way through the In
stances" they have to have leaves past
ed on to them in order to provide space
for the innumerable signatures and
stamps And this complicated system
does not diminish robbery. but rather
fosters 1t. for the thief usually dies o.
old age before his guilt is traced Rus
slams call this amazing system cant
seliiarstChina," or "Chancelloryism;"
and the officials who run II are known
as gentlemen OF the twentieth" owing
10 the fact that they live only for the
twentieth Of each month. the day when
salaries are paid. Tea drinking. cigar
ette-smoking, and "vint'playing for
high stakes complete the happy picture,
so that Russia with the most compicat-
ed administration In all Europe has
also indisputably the most inefficient.
FOE OF BUREAUCRATs.
Three men have warred valiantly
with Russian red-tape. First was
Count Sergius WHITE. witte refused To
read any papers at all, and ran the
ministry OF finance by swearing and
growing through the telephone. He
hurt mems feelings but got things
done. However though the foe of bu-
reaucrats Witte inVoluntarlly did more
than anyone else to increase the
bureauc racy's power by his colossal
state ownership achievements. He
bought up practically all the private
railroads, built 1000 miles OF his own;
and substituted a state drink monopoly
all over the empire for the private sa-
looms and drink shops. which he ex-
propriated BY such means he added
TO the total of state employees about
200. 900 men. and correspondingly d.
minished the number OF employees In
private enterprises. SO Witte left the
bureaucracy more numerous more
powerful. and In control OF twice az
much wealth as before. And with this
increment 10 its power the bureaucracy
became more and more red-tapish.
The second Russian anti-red taper
was the late Prince Michael Hilkoff,
minister Of communications, an Amer
lcan," like Dernberg, who learned
practical ways by driving a locomotive
out west IL was he who In less than
a year sent 700 900 soldiers, with guns
and stores. over the decrepit single
tracked Siberian railway. The latest
Russian who Is fghting red-tape Is also
minister Of communications. His name
is Sergius Ruchlof, For year past
his exploits as foe Of "Chancellory-
ism" have filled the native press. In
stead OF sitting In his office signing pa
pers he wsnderr all over the empire,
sometimes al sgulsed as workingnan
or common soldier, and everywhere he
has ordered the arrest or dismissal %
thieves and oilers But this reformers
days are numbered. The invinclble
bureaucrat Is rising In indispensable
revolt and Ruchlof win soon have IN
20 the way Of W1tte. and Hilkoff, and
Dernberg, and all other champions 81
common sense and business as against
the procedure Of filling up meaningless
forms and stamping unnecessary pa
pers. Red-tape is an essential feature
OF Europe Europe at the bottom Of Its
heart is fond OF IL: and the man who
viii overthrow the all-devouring mon
ster has yet to he born.
HAMILTON DAVIS.