oblems and the development of particular industries are
concerned. The whole history of representative assemblies shows that
the machinery adequate for the furtherance and protection of general
interests operates unjustly or stupidly in practice against particular
interests. The long neglect of agriculture and the actual condition of
the sweated are instances. I agree that representative government is
the ideal, but how is it to operate in the legislature and still more
in administration? Are government departments to be controlled by
Parliament or by the representatives of the particular class to promote
whose interests special departments were created. I hold that the
continuous efficiency of State departments can only be maintained when
they are controlled in respect of policy, not by the casual politician
whom the fluctuations of popular emotion places at their head, but by
the class or industry the State institution was created to serve. A
department of State can conceivably be preserved from stagnation by
a minister of strong will, who has a more profound knowledge of
the problems connected with his department than even his permanent
officials. He might vitalize them from above. But does the party system
yield us such Ministers? In practice is not high position the reward of
service to party? Is special knowledge demanded of the controller of a
Board of Trade or a Board of Agriculture? Do we not all know that the
vast majority of Ministers are controlled by the permanent officials
of their department. Failing great Ministers, the operations of a
department may be vitalized by control over its policy exercised, not
by a general assembly like Parliament, but by a board elected from the
class or industry the department ostensibly was created to serve. An
agricultural department controlled by a council or board composed solely
of those making their livelihood out of agriculture and elected solely
by their own class, would, we may be certain, be practical in its
methods. It would receive perpetual stimulus from those engaged in
making their living by the industry. Parliaments or senates should
confine themselves to matters of general interest, leaving particular or
special interests to those who understand them, to the specialists, and
only intervene when national interests are involved by a clashing of
particular interests. Our State institutions will never fulfill their
functions efficiently until they are subject in r