EDITORIAL JOTTINGS.

Thames Star, Volume XLII, Issue 10686, 15 August 1905, Page 4

EDITORIAL JOTTINGS.

BUREAUCRACY IN AMERICA.

President Roosevelt is making a determined effort to free the United State® public service from th© trammels of red tape and bureaucracy. Witih this object in view he recently appointed a committee- of five high officials, including a son of President Garfield, to "investigate and decide on. changes necessary to place the conduct of Government business in .all its branches on the most economical and effective basis in the light of ! modern' business practice." The President complains that there- is a type of bureaucrat who believes that his entire work, and the entire work of the Government, should be collecting papers referring to cases, commenting with eager minuteness on each, and corresponding with other officials in reference to every petty detail. These men care nothing for the case as it concerns the. people, but only for their documents of the case, and instead of arriving as quickly rs possible at some-intelligent, soluuonr of a difficulty, they waste their time in seasoning record:; for precedents^ and in j lengthy and fruitless, correspondence. The abuse' of letter writing is stated by the President to seriously impede public business. He has set up the committed with the avowed intention, of making the Civil servants conduct the business of the country with as much common-sense' and expedition as is> displayed, by the employees of a private businessI.'firm, and he has so stirred up officialdom that- every department is strenuously endeavouring to reform itself before, its affairs are spread out for the committee's inspec tion. President Roosevelt's efforts to secure reform will be watched with interest in most English speaking countries. The departmental officer has made himself a terror everywhere to the public, in general and to those who are compelled to do business with him in particular. His ways seem to be the same the whole world over. New Zealand is more fortunate than, other countries in having a Civil Service which, with all its faults, is mainly inspired by a desire to get through the public business as simply and as expeditiously as possible. But even here We have specimens of the old type, who cling on to the methods of their grandfathers, and refuse to learn anything just as persistently as they refuse to forget anything. Mr Seddon might do worse than set up ! another Civil' Service Commission, on the lines of the committee appointed j by President Roosevelt. It would j find plently of useful work to do. j