The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1911-09-29

Denver. Col. Sept. 29.-Denounctng
what he termed q tendency toward
bureaucratic government in Ameri-
ca and declaring that certain re-
formers were introducing doctrines
which are tho antithesis of REFORM"
Richard 4. Ballinger. former secre-
tary of the interior. addressed the
public lands convention last night. He
took occasion TO reply to a recent ad-
dress at Seattle. WASH. of Secretary
Of the Interior Walter L. Fisher.
Us j. progress to give pnsrid lIs
Baliirger. There is a set of people
in this. as there is in every country.
who want the government to do every
thing for them, because they are eth
er too indolent or incompetent to do
for themselves" he continued.
This is the essence Of socialism.
Therefore, every tendency toward the
alteration of our constitutional system
which encourages ~paternalism is de-
structive of the essential principles of
republican institutions. The bureau
cratic theory of government. is de-
structive of u representative system.
I'm the formation of the govern
ment the constitution recognized ex-
ecutive departments as essential and
congress from time to time extended
their number until there are now nine
great executive departments under the
federal government. 1t was found
necessary for the proper dispatch of
business that the functions of each
department should be distributed
among bureaus. which congress desig-
mated as occasion required defining
their powers and authority. These
bureaus We're wholly subordinate to
the heads of their several departments
and their chiefs were generally APP
pointed by the president. In the early
history of the government and until
recent years bureau chiefs were not
advertised: their acts were credited to
the several departments to which they
belonged rather than to the bureau.
demanded that they act through the
head of the department to which they
We're assigned. They were the serv-
ants of the departments as the depart
ments were of the executive. Execu-
tive discipline in the early days Of
the government tolerated no SEM
blance of INSTRUMENTATION: this was
for the simple reason that the respon-
sibility to the executive for the con-
In the head Of the department.. So
long as the federal bureau retained
Its subordinate character it performed
a necessary and wholesome function.
by the laxity Of this discipline. by
the encouragement of congress to
ambitious bureau chiefs and through
the itching for notoriety the bureau
cratic idea of government secured a
foothold. The bureaucratic idea is
founded on the assumption that the
bureau head. or chief, is better fitted
to handle the affairs of the people
than they are themselves. A govern
ment becomes bureaucratic when the
power of its officers is exercised in
ruling rather than in serving the pub
lie. The advocates Of this system say:
The people do not know what is best
for them: We will. therefore, have
specialists to direct them or to do for
right thing If this is a sound view
Of executive administration in depart
ments. there Is no reason why the
chief Of a bureau should be an Ameri-
can citizen. He might be an Austrian,
or of any other nationality, 80 long
as he possesses the special capacity.
The representative idea is wholly lost.
The sympathetic relation Of the official
to the public, as its agent and servant,
is entirely obliterated and the very
elements which encourage and pro-
mote arbitrary power and despotic
tendencies are here given full sway.
Congress gave the mea whereby this
idea could be carried into effect by
investing certain bureaus with the
power of making rules and reglla-
tions having the effect of law, which
is tantamount to the substitution OF
the bureau chief for the lawmaker
and is wholly unrepublican in princi.
pie. Tho tendency in all bureaucratic
administration is p%aternal; that is
for the officer to decide what is best
to be done rather than to inquire what
an applicants rights are. and If he has
placed himself within the law.
Superior knowledge.
"The public is always ready to i'm.
pitc superior ability to executive of.
ficers, in whose selection they have
no part. rather than to their own rep
rescntatives. White this is paradoxi.
cal. the reason for it lies in the fact
that they are better acquainted with
their representatives than they are
with the executive officer. It is no ex.
cuse for the public to say that thei,
representatives in congress have de.
generated in capacity; If this be true
the people alone are at fault. 1t ma,
be an easy way to repudiate their own
civic infdelity in the selection OF
qualified representatives by abandon.
ing representation for bureaucracy
but there seems to be no logical con
nection between this view and the
doctrines of initiative. referendum. re.
call. and other populistic panaceas
Perhaps, on the theory that distance
lends enchantment.' ETC., the bureau