826 
BruncJcen—Private and Public Business. 
between the purposes and methods of public administration and 
those of private commercial and industrial enterprises. 
The object of this paper is to show that there are differences 
between the purposes and methods of public and private busi¬ 
ness, not merely of detail, but of essential nature; and that con¬ 
sequently the training acquired in private business is not of the 
same character as that needed in public affairs. 1 
These differences concern (1) the purposes; and (2) the methods 
by which these purposes are sought to be accomplished. 
I. THE DIFFERENCES IN PURPOSES. 
There are two principal differences between private commer¬ 
cial and industrial enterprises and public administration. One 
refers to the fact that private business has for its object the 
acquisition of money; public business, the expenditure of it. 
The other difference grows out of the fact that in private busi¬ 
ness the interests of the business man himself are to be pro¬ 
moted, 2 while in public affairs the interests of the official and 
the “ proprietor ” of the enterprise, if that term may be used, 
are separate. 
1. Public business is concerned with the expenditure, not the 
acquisition of money. Prom this fact a number of important 
consequences follow. Of course, it is part of the necessary ma¬ 
chinery of public administration to collect the funds which are 
to be expended. But this portion of the administrative busi¬ 
ness is merely incidental and preliminary to the real work, that 
of expenditure. Looking at the matter from the standpoint of 
political economy, we may say that public administration deals 
with consumption, not with production. The funds necessary 
for its purposes are obtained, not through the production and 
exchange of commodities, but from contributions of the wealth 
already accumulated. This contribution takes place in the form 
1 The word public ” in this paper is applied not only to public business 
in the strict sense, but also to the administration of the affairs of munic¬ 
ipal corporations. 
2 Except in the cases of administrators, receivers, assignees, and other 
trusteeships, which are of an exceptional and ordinarily temporary charac¬ 
ter. 
