The New York herald., 1922-10-30
The State in Business.
England's Experiences Once Moro
Record Its Failure.

From the Saturday ReDfetc, London.
Two years after the armistice the
Ministry Of Food. which ought to have
been liquidated. was still buying r1our.
bacon, beef and eggs from the Far East.
In one of these cases. a year after the
armistice. E250,00o in excess or the
proper price was paid for Chinese ba-
conan error which would have ruined
even a considerable private business. but
is here laid an additional burden. on the
broad back OF the taxpayer
He has no consolation but the e>Sact
that the officials concerned, whose names
are, astonishingly enough, withheld
owing to the provision or the official
secrets act, have left the department in
which they worked. Then there was the
Board OF Agriculture, which started a
farm for cells, that staple food OF the
people, and having made a dead loss on
it had to give 1t up. The same Ministry
conducted a fruit farm which equally
showed a deficit and which was handed
over to the University OF Bristol. an In
stitution, we should imagine, almost as
inappropriate as the State for the con-
duct OF such an enterprise. The only
story Is the national stud farm, which
showed a considerable profit. 1t was.
however, taken over by the Government
intact as a gift from n private owner.
and as it is the one exception to rec
ord OF failure which in every other con-
siderable case is unbroken we may not
unfairly assume that It reached the
civil service in n fooiproof condition.
Bacon failed so did lard and -four
and beef and cells and fruit and to-
bacco and cheese The losses varied
from close on six millions in the case
OF bacon to smaller sums on the less ad-
venturous enterprises, but in every in
stance, apart from the slender hope OF
getting back the overpayment made to
the no doubt exultant sellers OF the IN
ferior Chinese bacon, they are admitted
to be beyond recovery.
We have said that the stud farm was
q shining exception because It was fool
proof. BY that we do not mean to I'm
ply that civil servants are foolish In
their proper business. Far from 1t: but
they are, by their whole training ana
method, incompetent, in the strictest
sense OF the word, to handle any COM
mercial transaction. The daily conduct
OF Government afrairs requires, or at
any rate receives. the application OF a
method OF working antithetic to that en-
ployed by any manufacturer or mer-
chant. 1t is a method involving the
distribution, and in bad cases the eva
sion, of responsibility, the multiplica-
tion of records at the expense OF action
and the avoidance OF that rapidity or
decision which can alone make COM
merce profitable or indeed possible at all.
Moreover. apart altogether from the
railings OF the instruments which 1t en-
ploys, the state in trading is at the i'm
mense disadvantage that owing to the
sipshod way OF political thinking which
W have been accustomed to in the last
uo..sn years 1t is commonly assumed
that its purse is inexhaustible and that
Its exercise OF demand is unqualified by
any consideration of the conditions OF
supply. In any case we can simply not
AFFORD 1t, and the sooner we restate
our idea or government In accord with
that fact the better.