-jf * .
. < y
The Conservative *
graded into a confused and scuffling
bustle of local agency. "
Tlio civil servants , who constitute
from ten per cent to twelve per cent of
the adult male population in a commun
ity in which from twenty-five per cent
to forty per cent of the voters regularly
fail to vote , and are banded together in
powerful civil service unions , thus far
having secured for themselves a scale of
pay entirely beyond the reach of those
not fortunate enough to bo in the state's
employment. Organized labor , acting
through the powerful trades-unions of
the overgrown capital cities , year in aud
year out , forces government expendi
ture upon public works in order that
work may bo made for skilled labor and
unskilled at minimum rates of wages
for the day of eight hours. Local gov
erning bodies that have borrowed money
from the state for the purpose of build
ing water works , irrigation works , and
tramways , bring pressure on the govern
ment and prevent the latter from collect
ing overdue interest payments and sink
ing fund payments. Speculators in coun
try and urban land , use the public credit
toward off financial crisis. For example ,
Sir George Dibbs , treasurer of New
South Wales , in 1883 , floated a loan of
8,000,000 in London , for the purpose of
affording relief to the Sidney money
market , which was tight in consequence
of over-speculations in hind. And the
politics of Victoria from 1890 to 1892 are
unintelligible , unless interpreted as an
effort of the Munro government and the
Shiels government to use the public
credit for the purpose of arresting an
impending financial crisis. Turning to
New Zealand for an illustration of the
matter hero under discussion , one finds
that the trade unions , aided by the ma
chine politicians , in 1898 brought about
the repeal of the railways act of 1888 ,
which had been passed in order that the
railways might be taken out of politics.
The "non-political" officers who had
been put in charge of the railways in
1888 , in 1890 had mortally offended the
trade unions by defeating the attempt
made to tie up the railways in further
ance of the great maritime strike of
1890.
To repeat , the development of the
state in Australasia into an institution
whose expenditures affect , directly and
indirectly , every section and class , has
turned parliamentary or representative
government in Australasia into con
stituency government. The representa
tive in parliament to an alarming degree
has been reduced to an agent whose
business it is to obtain for his constitu
ency a share in the public expenditure.
More than that , the representative must
secure the modification or suspension of
administrative regulations that conflict
with the private interests of classes or of
individual constituents of influence.
Witness the inability of governments to
collect interest and sinking fund pay
ments on loans to local bodies , the in-
ability of the railway departments to
enforce the discipline and insist on the
iiigh standards of efficiency that prevail
in private employment. Again , witness
the fact that in Victoria , and to a con
siderable extent in New South Wales
and the other Australasian colonies , it is
inexpedient for governments to enforce
penalties against contractors. Contrac
tors have a way of getting parliamen
tary boards of inquiry appointed , with
power to award damages , and those
boards are "very careless of the interests
of the state. " In short , the control over
the public purse , as well as the adminis
tration of the various departments of
state , is being taken out of the hands of
the ministry of the day and turned over
to the popular branch of parliament.
The members of parliament , on the
other hand , tend to deem themselves the
mere mouthpieces of their constituencies ,
to do whatever they are bid , and to
throw the responsibility for their actions
back on their constituents. Thus the
control over the public purse and the
administration of the departments of
state , tends to fall into the hands of the
constituencies , or of aggressive groups
of voters who have a personal or class
incentive to exceptional political activity
And in order to appreciate what that
means one must remember the degree
of political apathy indicated in the fact
that from twenty-five to forty per cent
of the electors regularly fail to vote.
When it comes to electing the members
of the upper houses , who have no share
in the distribution of the public moneys ,
it is impossible to bring out more than
fifty per cent of the vote.
This tendency to the displacement of
representative government by con
stituency government extends also to
the work of framing legislation. Gov
ernment by a ministry responsible to
the popular branch of parliament , as
practiced in Great Britain , limits the
right to initiate important legislation to
the cabinet. The British House of Com
mons may amend legislative proposals
in minor matters , but when it comes to
important ones it must either accept
them or reject them. If it elects to re
ject a measure of consequence , it does
so at the cost of a change of ministry ,
and sometimes at the risk of a dissolu
tion. In other words , the government
leads and the house follows. When the
commons will no longer follow there is a
change of government ; but until that
point is reached the ministry holds the
reins. In Australasia on the other
hand , ministries tend to abandon the
position of leaders of the popular cham
ber , and to assume that of advisers to it.
They did not hesitate to accept amend
ments which really constitute a rever
sal of policy. Again , it is not an un
common occurrence for a government
to hold a caucus , not only of its follow
ers but of the whole popular chamber ,
and to adjust its policy to the opinions
in caucus opposed. Hugo B. Meyer , in
structor in political economy , Harvard
University , in Boston Transcript.
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