Evening star., 1934-09-23

still rest with us and With our rep
resentatives. The executive power is
uniquely in the spotlight. When it
runs amuck We can get at 1t, as we
cannot get at the hydra headed power
of the legislature when it falls victim
to caprice or corruption.
The traditional relation OF Congress
to the President and his administra-
tive colleagues, of State Legislatures
to Governors and officers of State was
wise and workable In the early phase
of the national development. The
problems of government were then
few and negative. The problems of
government are now multitudinouS
and positive.
In the third place, we should, I
think, fix the function of the expert
in American Government and make
permanent provision for his proper
correlation with legislative and eX-
ecutive leadership. EXpertnesS in re-
lation to the formulation of policy
has been. from time to time, boot
legged into Government as brain
trusts and back-door advisers without
portfolio. This is not enough. Effec-
tive government in the midst Of mod
ern compleXity is impossible, apart
from the service of the expert but his
employment must not depend upon
the whims of successive adminiStra-
tions. and he must not be set at tasks
for which both his temper and his
training unfit him.
Scientific Study Needed.
There can, take it. be no effective
dispute of the necessity of a fact
basis for politics. Unless statesman
ship rests upon a scientific study of
the causes of social problems and a
/ statistical study of the results Of social
policies. government must inevitably
, become the plaything of the dema
gogue, particularly in civilization
! as complex and technical as ours
, The statesman must maintain work
ing alliance with the expert. And
! he must leave the expert free to fol-
| low the facts. for, when the expert
is converted into a retained attorney
for the dogmaS OF party ne StultlfleS
| himself and becomes liability instead
! Of an asset to government.
| To confront nation with tax bill
and then to pull the national mind
| this way with Republican statistics
today and that way with Democratic
statistics tomorrow is about as intelli-
gent as to develop Baptist chemistry
| and a Presbyterian physics. To put
| politics on a fact basis may well play
havoc with the traditional tactics of
| our parties: but if the choice must be
made, intelligence must fight for the
party of fact rather than the fact of
party. 1t is not safe as Dean Inge
| suggested some years ago. to go on
, indefinitely with the theory of gov
ernment in the hands of experts who
nave knowledge. but no power. and
the practice of government in the
hands of politicians who have power,
but no knowledge.
Place OF Specialists.
But the problem remains Of fixing
the function of the expert in govern
ment and Of making permanent pro-
| vision for his proper correlation with
| legislative and executive leadership
Realism Is important at this point.
The expert can play havoc with gov
ernment unless the limitations of spe-
clallZed judgment are taken into ac-
| count and the specialist restricted 10
functions for which the temper and
| technique of specialization fit him.
The expert is essentially specialist
in means, not ends. The statesman is
an artist in ends. The function Of the
lnxy i l. I
| drawer of water to the statesman as,
with infinite patience and supreme
sense of social needs. social values and
social possibilities. the statesman
builds the broad policies that will serve
and satisfy the time and the people
he is called to rule.
| The Roosevelt regime had hardly got
under way before critical storm be-
| gan sWirling about the brain trust it
had brought IN its train. Direction
TO the brain trust stems from two
/ sources. In the first place. the per-
! Sonnel OF the brain trust is disliked by
the obleCtorS. And. in the second
place, the principle of selection rather
than election that brought the brain
trusters into positions of power is
| diSllked by the objectorS
| l am not interested in venturing a
Judgment upon any individual brain
! truster the presidential dragnet has
drawn TO Washington. 1 am keenly
interested. however, in the attack on
the practice Of using selected men for
tasks that elected men have tradition
| ally been supposed to do The elective
| process Of democracy does not, by and
/ large, throw up the expert intelligence
and specialized background needed for
! the technical diagnosis and treatment
OF the political, social and economic
! diseases that aflict our social order.
| This failure of democracy to recruit bv
| election requisite competence has
elsewhere led to dictatorship. If it is
! not to lead 20 dictatorship in the
| United States, a wider and wider use
must be made of men selected because
OF particular competence for dealing
with particular problems.
Business Brain Trusts.
The brain trust idea began with big
business. The whole elaborate appli-
cation of the results of research in the
! physical sciences to industrial produc-
tlon, that gave US this age of plenty,
which we have still to learn how to
manage, was made possible by the in
Vulnerable brain trusts assembled by
industrial leadership and installed in
the laboratories of American indus
tries. But research in the social SCI
ences did not keep pace with research
III the physical sciences. at least at the
point of practical application. with
| the result that the age of plenty these
brain trusts of business helped to Gre
ate got seriously out of hand. It is
surely not radical to assume that
brain trusts of social scientists might
prove quite as helpful in the develop
ment of distributive policies as the
brain trusts of physical scientists have
proved in the devising of productive
processes. 1t surely cannot be safely
assumed that while the creation of
abundance calls for expertness. the
use of abundance can be left to
amateurism.
Government will do well, however,
to tear a leaf from the experience of
business in the use of experts. Busi-