330 
Bruncken—Private and Public Business. 
themselves cannot change. As rules and laws must of necessity 
be framed so as to cover the normal conditions but cannot pos¬ 
sibly foresee exceptional cases, circumstances may and very 
often do arise in which these rules, even if they are wise in 
themselves, become a hindrance rather than a promotion of the 
end they seek to attain. If such a thing happened in private 
business, the obnoxious rule would simply be suspended for the 
particular instance. In public affairs there is usually nobody 
who has the power to do so; and even if it could be suspended, 
it would commonly be unwise to do so. The public officer is 
therefore compelled to do the best he can, but to follow the law 
even at the price of injury or inconvenience to the public in¬ 
terest. 
The system of confining the discretion of public officers by 
definite general rules, even at the risk of frequent inconven- 
iencies, is undoubtedly a wise one. -It marks the difference 
between a free and an arbitrary form of government. But at 
the same time it cannot be denied that the drawbacks of such 
a system are manifold, as every person ‘of practical experience 
in public administration knows. No judgment of the character 
of any given instance of public administrative work can be 
correct or fair which fails to recognize the effects of this limi¬ 
tation. 
2. In private business, ordinarily, authority and responsi¬ 
bility is undivided. .Corporations almost always employ a 
general manager, most often himself a director and stockholder, 
who has practically unlimited power to conduct the business as 
he deems best. Where there is but a single proprietor, the 
question of divided authority can not arise at all. Where there 
are several partners their interests as well as habits and opin¬ 
ions are usually so similar that a conflict of authority seldom 
arises. Moreover, it is very common to find one partner the 
only active manager, while the others take little part in the 
conduct of business. The methods of private business are there¬ 
fore, like those of absolute government, irresponsible and un¬ 
limited power in the hands of the manager. 
Far different is the case with public administration under a 
representative government. Here it is the exception to find 
