the principle here are doubtly cogent. The Without attempting to influence the result, obscurity of county officers, the uninterest- but simply drawing his lines through the ing character of their work, and the conse- most convenient open space, a draftsman got quent lack of publicity which surrounds their the picture of unutterable confusion which activity make for dark passages and by-ways appears on the opposite page. A perfect of politics which directly favor any sort of switchboard for tangled lines! And what is bad political and business practice of which the meaning of it all? Simply that there is no irresponsible individual officers or county positively real administrative headship and rings are capable. And, incidentally, these subordination in the county organization. same "rings" are important component parts of State machines.

A NEW YORK COUNTY-ALL OFFICERS ELECTED INDEPENDENTLY OF ONE ANOTHER AND CO-ORDINATED THEORETICALLY BY ELABORATE LAWS, HEADLESS, IRRESPONSIBLE, INEFFICIENT. OBSCURE

flow of $50,000,000. The people elect him. ing board individually to supervise the someBut they do not control him. They have not what artificially divided departments of even the boon of seeing what goes on in his administration, the former arranges for an office.

expert county manager, who would act under the direction of the county directors. This officer would appoint all the local subordinates, such as the treasurer, county clerk,

As evidence of the practical basis of this suggestion, witness this statement from Mr. U'Ren:

The position of the county treasurer just cited is an excellent illustration of the theory generally underlying county organization. It is a 66 'government of laws," an intricate and so forth. tangle of checks and balances with positively no human force to drive it. Like a big touring car, with the engine going and the clutch on but no driver in the front seat, it follows a devious path which leads to destruction. No wonder that county government, like the old-fashioned city organizations, inevitably goes outside officialdom and finds a driver in the person of a county boss, or an irresponsible, unofficial form of commission government-the county "ring."

THE OREGON PROPOSAL

and business man, and even the average private It is commonly believed that the average farmer corporation, gets as much value in business for from forty to sixty cents as our State and local governments get for $1. It is not unusual to hear county, "I could take half the money and get betman of experience say, in speaking of the ter results if I could run it on business principles like I do my own affairs."

a

There is experience to justify this opinion. In the period from January to July, 1902, when the business that is now done by the county clerk's office in Multnomah County was done in three departments by an elected recorder of conveyances, an

In sharp contrast with the typical county ground plan suggested above is the one pre-elected clerk of the circuit court, and an elected pared by the Oregon Progressives. Herein is recognized a principle which most other practical reformers appear to have overlooked. And this is the fact that the county is neither a simple municipal corporation nor a mere civil division of the State, but partakes of the attributes of both. Remembering that the administration of law is a function of the

county clerk, the receipts were $13,968.50; expenses, $23,928.97. It cost $1.71 to do a dollar's worth of clerical work and get the money. In the period from January to June, 1908, with the three offices consolidated in one, the receipts were $31,for the county to do the work and get in one dollar 355; the expenses were $20,200.51. It cost 64 cents under Mr. Field's management of the business of the three departments consolidated in one.

Multnomah County is getting more work for 38 cents than it used to get under the old system for $1. The direct nomination law, by elimination of the party bosses and of the machines, is in some degree responsible for the saving, but we believe it is in equal degree due to the concentration of executive responsibility and power in the hands of

one man.

State, the Oregon leaders have consistently planned to keep the judicial machinery distinct from that of functions which are properly the subject of local control. Thus, although the judges, in deference to local sentiment, would remain elective, the district attorney and the sheriff, who constitute the And so we shall possibly see in Oregon, reprincipal agencies in the administration of placing the antiquated incoherent anachrojustice, would be appointees of the governor. nism which has passed for county governAll else in the county is regarded as the proper ment, a system which at least in the designing subject of "business" treatment. In the is thought modern and scientific,-the direct latter department, the principles underlying antithesis of what every reader of these lines the commission plan have been brought into has known. Based as it is upon a thorough play so that the governing board of the analysis of all the constituent factors in county would be a small and "conspicuously county organization, it is an embodiment responsible" body vested with the corporate of the generally accepted constructive idea powers and duties of the county. But, in recent political thought; unity of orOregon-like, the Oregon plan goes just a step ganization, administration by experts, and further than the commission plan, for, where simplicity of citizenship through the short the latter requires the members of the govern- ballot.

LEADING ARTICLES OF THE MONTH

ELECTRICITY AS A FACTOR OF LATTER-DAY CIVILIZATION

IN

N an address before the Society of Elec- in general of longer electric roads, and we see that trical Engineers of Berlin, Mr. G. Siegel electricity, more than any previously available has summarized very succinctly and strik- resource can serve our needs with the least expenditure of force, energy, and material. ingly the modifications of civilization wrought by electricity within decades few enough to be spanned by the life of a single individual. We quote from an abridged report of the address in a recent number of the Revue Scientifique:

A retrospective view shows that the first important application of electricity was in the field of communication. It is the telegraph and the telephone which enabled us solve the principal problem of communication, the conquest of space and time, in a manner so perfect that the very imagination could scarce surpass it.

The security and rapidity of the transmission of news has attained a development hitherto unknown and hardly dreamed of, and since all civilization rests upon the intercourse of individuals, and this intercourse depends on an exchange as rapid as possible of ideas and experience, we instantly recognize here the civilizing influence of electricity.

We need only recall the miraculous saving by wireless telegraphy of ships in distress, the sure and swift assistance made possible by electricity in cases of catastrophe, the prompt and efficacious advisements and measures of relief in epidemics, to comprehend how electricity furthers the most simple and elementary of all human instincts, that of the preservation of life and health.

Far from confining itself to this defensive rôle, it gives the most active aid to the development of commerce not only by the prompt and exact transmission of news but also by such means as electric lighting, lading devices, turntables,

etc.

Electricity found agriculture in a precarious state. On the great estates the scarcity of labor had become a permanent affliction. The farmers, cheap machines capable of accomplishing the lacking a proper motive power, lacked simple and intensive culture which only is certainly remunerative. Electricity has remedied all this; it has given agriculture not only a cheap and safe illuminant, but a working motive power, more certain and cheaper than man motor, docile and sure, attached to the machine, exacting, like the beast, the least food in the takes upon itself all the mechanical labor, without intervals of service.

or beast. . . . The electric

And the man has only to direct and supervise the work, being thus able to expend his energy in more useful forms of activity.

The lecturer proceeds to give some specific examples, such as electric sheep-shearers, which not only save time by working six times as fast, but annoy the animal less; and milking machines, which have the further advantages of economy and hygienic cleanliness.

THE PROMOTION OF INDUSTRY

But it is in the domain of industry that electricity is most triumphant, because of the concentrated production of the motive power, its simple and easy transmissions and the distribution of the energy to the smallest units.

It is electricity that announces the arrival of trains and facilitates their departure, it regulates The impetuosity of the wind finds itself subsignals, governs needles, assigns their paths to trains and arrests them in case of danger. The jected to regulated service; the solar heat accumufine network of wires it demands has become a formed into brilliant light, useful heat and creative lated there thousands of years in the coal is transnervous system, as it were. But necessary as a nervous system is to every living creature, the energy; the raging cataracts must convert their latter would be inert and impotent without heart violence into useful labor. . . . By creating a and muscles, and electricity assumes these rôles strong and flourishing industry electricity supports also, first, in the service of tramways. More than thousands of people, facilitates the construction any other means of communication these combine of machines, and so transforms these that they are safety, rapidity, frequency and cheapness. They to those of other days as mighty giants to puny permit the centralization of the production of energy, and consequently the maximum of econo

dwarfs.

my, adaptation to the traffic, elimination of In brief, electricity may be said to facilitate smoke, soot, and dirt; acceleration in speed with marvelously the struggle of man with matter. the consequent possibility of separating homes And this is true of the small industries as well from factories and offices, assuring on the one hand

economy, and on the other convenience, comfort as those larger ones such as iron-rolling, weavand health. . . . The same advantages are true ing, agriculture, and so forth.

flow of $50,000,000. The people elect him. ing board individually to supervise the someBut they do not control him. They have not what artificially divided departments of even the boon of seeing what goes on in his administration, the former arranges for an office.

The position of the county treasurer just cited is an excellent illustration of the theory generally underlying county organization. It is a "government of laws," an intricate tangle of checks and balances with positively no human force to drive it. Like a big touring car, with the engine going and the clutch on but no driver in the front seat, it follows a devious path which leads to destruction. No wonder that county government, like the old-fashioned city organizations, inevitably goes outside officialdom and finds a driver in the person of a county boss, or an irresponsible, unofficial form of commission government-the county "ring.'

THE OREGON PROPOSAL

In sharp contrast with the typical county ground plan suggested above is the one prepared by the Oregon Progressives. Herein is recognized a principle which most other practical reformers appear to have overlooked. And this is the fact that the county is neither a simple municipal corporation nor a mere civil division of the State, but partakes of the attributes of both. Remembering that the administration of law is a function of the

expert county manager, who would act under the direction of the county directors. This officer would appoint all the local subordinates, such as the treasurer, county clerk, and so forth.

As evidence of the practical basis of this suggestion, witness this statement from Mr. U'Ren:

and business man, and even the average private It is commonly believed that the average farmer corporation, gets as much value in business for from forty to sixty cents as our State and local governments get for $1. It is not unusual to hear man of experience say, in speaking of the county, "I could take half the money and get better results if I could run it on business principles like I do my own affairs."

a

There is experience to justify this opinion. In the period from January to July, 1902, when the business that is now done by the county clerk's office in Multnomah County was done in three departments by an elected recorder of conveyances, an elected clerk of the circuit court, and an elected county clerk, the receipts were $13,968.50; expenses, $23,928.97. It cost $1.71 to do a dollar's worth of clerical work and get the money. In the period from January to June, 1908, with the three offices consolidated in one, the receipts were $31,for the county to do the work and get in one dollar 355; the expenses were $20,200.51. It cost 64 cents under Mr. Field's management of the business of the three departments consolidated in one.

Multnomah County is getting more work for

38 cents than it used to get under the old system for $1. The direct nomination law, by elimination of the party bosses and of the machines, is in some degree responsible for the saving, but we believe it is in equal degree due to the concentration of executive responsibility and power in the hands of

one man.

State, the Oregon leaders have consistently planned to keep the judicial machinery distinct from that of functions which are properly the subject of local control. Thus, although the judges, in deference to local sentiment, would remain elective, the district attorney and the sheriff, who constitute the And so we shall possibly see in Oregon, reprincipal agencies in the administration of placing the antiquated incoherent anachrojustice, would be appointees of the governor. nism which has passed for county governAll else in the county is regarded as the proper ment, a system which at least in the designing subject of "business" treatment. In the is thought modern and scientific,-the direct latter department, the principles underlying antithesis of what every reader of these lines the commission plan have been brought into has known. Based as it is upon a thorough play so that the governing board of the analysis of all the constituent factors in county would be a small and "conspicuously county organization, it is an embodiment responsible" body vested with the corporate of the generally accepted constructive idea powers and duties of the county. But, in recent political thought; unity of orOregon-like, the Oregon plan goes just a step ganization, administration by experts, and further than the commission plan, for, where simplicity of citizenship through the short the latter requires the members of the govern- ballot.