Milford chronicle., 1923-01-12

The diagrams shown below were
made from a survey Of the system Of
government by two men employed
from the New York Bureau of Munich
pal Research, in the year 1918. Their
report was submitted to those inter-
ested in a better system of government
for Delaware at that time, and caus-
ed a cOmmotiOn when it was published
in Delaware.
In view of the fact, that there is to
be a plan presented to the present
session of the Delaware Legislature,
to abolish and consolidate several of
the cany commissions existing in Del
aware, we are reprinting an article
which was printed in the Sunday Star
of Wilmington, on July goth, 1913,
which with the two diagrams accom-
panying the article, show the need of
many changes of managing both state
and county system of government.
"a jungle of criss-crossed and con-
f1icting agencies, in which waste,
graft, and gross inefhciency escape
detection, and the will of the people is
defeated, both in State and local gov
ernment."
This picture sums up the findings
of the Bureau of Municipal Research
of New York which conducted the
Delaware State Survey. 1t was clearly
brought out by Charles A. Beard, head
of the Bureau and Chester G. MaXey,
field expert, in active charge Of the
Delaware Survey, before the teachers
of the State at the Summer School of
Delaware College during the past
week.
That the III distinct and discon-
nected agencies of government, nei-
ther responsible nor responsive to
any one in particular, are the tangled
roots of this inefficiency, was the gem
eral criticism made by the experts,
who studied and investigated the State
government for the past six months.
One remedy that could extricate the
State from this maze of ineficiency,
according to these experts, is the sub
stitution of nine consolidated depart
ments, representing the important
field of State government, with heads
responsible directly to the Governor.
In the main the recommendations of
the Bureau of Research amount sim
ply to the application of plain busi-
Government, the theory being that
what has made American business SUI
preme is bound to make State govern
ment efficient.
Such an organization of depart
ments, directly responsible to the
chief executive of the State, the ex-
perts pointed out, will drive into light
the petty graft and corruption which
was discovered in the counties as well
as in the State administration during
the Survey. "The county" said Mr..
Maxey, "is the dark continent of Am
erican politics. Time and time again,"
he continued, "I have come across
trails of graft in the counties of this
State. There is no good in having leg
al tape to tie the matter up; what we
need is to have someone overhead
watching" In the hooks and corners
of the haphazard State structure, too,
Mr. Maxey pointed out, graft end cor
ruption find lodgment. eve found one
State officer drawing fat salary who
comes to the Office once in ten days,
while the work of the Office is done by
a $1,000 clerk. Another official" said
he, "had never reported at his own
Office five or six months after his cleo
ton"
But the purpose of the Survey was,
as Mr. Maxey put it, "to look for
something bigger than graft"
'When we came into this State"
said Mr.. Maxey, 1--WE came to study the
structural foundation of things.
What's the use of rattling the bones of
the skeleton. We see that those things
are merely the manifestation of dis
ease that lies at the heart of a body
polite"