650 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



says it " corresponds almost exactly with the increase of the num- 

 ber of commissions and departments. . . . These departments and 

 commissions," he continues, " are largely for the purpose of ex- 

 tending social supervision and regulation over many things which, 

 in the earlier days of our Commonwealth, were left to the locali- 

 ties or to self -regulation," Again he says: " The amount of State 

 inspection has become very great, reaching out constantly over new 

 fields, and employing in the aggregate an army of inspectors. . . . 

 The system of laissez faire, which wa.& the rallying cry of democ- 

 racy and free government at the beginning of the century, has 

 yielded gradually to a system of supervision and control which 

 monarchies never attempted. . . . What our State has done in this 

 line can not probably be undone," he says in a repetition of his 

 warning, " but this tendency to expand and multiply and differen- 

 tiate and segregate State supervision and regulation must cease, or 

 the burden will soon become too grievous to be borne." 



But there is no warrant for the assumption that the more civi- 

 lized we are — that is, the greater our self-control — the more are 

 we in need of inspection and regulation. Such an explanation of 

 the enormous increase in public expenditure is worthless. The 

 true explanation lies in the greed of politicians and the delusion of 

 social reformers. To both of these causes must be attributed the 

 evils that Mr. Roberts deplores. " The truth of history," he says, 

 referring to the thirty-six new offices and commissions created since 

 1880, " compels the statement that it looks as if many of these 

 creations were made not so much to satisfy a public want as to 

 relieve a political situation." That is to say, they were designed 

 to provide spoils for the insatiable maw of politicians. One of 

 the most flagrant examples of this popular method of forwarding 

 the beneficent work of civilization and hastening the dawn of the 

 millennium is the State Board of Mediation and Arbitration, cre- 

 ated in 1886. Up to the present year it has cost the taxpayers 

 $195,828.57. For this expenditure little can be shown but a shelf 

 full of reports seldom read, and a pigeon hole of vouchers for sala- 

 ries never earned. With one of the former members of this board, 

 who served thirteen years and received $39,000 for his able services, 

 I am personally acquainted. Of my own knowledge, I can say that 

 for nearly three years at least his duties as commissioner never 

 interfered perceptibly with his duties as editor. That most of the 

 other offices and commissions are equally worthless there can be 

 no doubt. Altogether they have cost the State the startling sum 

 of $31,768,899.85, and are increasing the public burdens at the 

 rate of more than $1,000,000 a year. But their true character 

 as asylums for decayed politicians, or as stepping stones for ambi- 



