how will it help the friends of the party? The grant of funds may be unjust, it may favor a powerful clique or group of interests, it may discriminate in an unfair manner, or it may be positively illegal, but will it help the party? This is the very opposite of the common welfare-it is the service of special groups, interests, and intrigues. The first step in the overthrow of this parasitic growth which has flourished for years in all the States is to show the people clearly where the public moneys go, what proportion of them is devoted to each general purpose and exactly what use is made of them by each of the offices and organizations to which they are granted. A typical means to this end is seen in the Wisconsin Board of Public Affairs composed of six State officials and three appointed members, which has as one of its important duties the establishment of a complete accounting system for every public body which receives State funds, and by "public body" is meant not only public officer, commission or department, but also any institution, body or organization which receives, expends or handles the public moneys. The board requires detailed reports from every such body, showing the use of public funds; it has full authority to investigate such use, to establish efficiency records of employés, and to introduce improved business methods. It may investigate the feasibility of a central purchasing department for all public bodies, a central board of control for public educational institutions, it may test the efficiency of their teaching and educational methods, inquire into the cost of State printing, and other matters connected with the greater vigor and economy of the public bodies enjoying State appropriations. The Board employs a paid secretary and a number of accountants and investigators. It is also authorized to examine and report on other questions of public policy which are especially referred to it from time to time by the legislature; among these have been the duplication of work by public bodies and the possibility of reorganizing these bodies and redistributing their work along more effective lines, and the subject of co-operative credit and co-operative marketing. The board and its work give a striking illustration of the efforts, not always well-directed, but constantly more serious and vigorous, to modernize the State government and make it useful to all classes of the people. The Wisconsin board has been given more duties than it can possibly perform, but every one of them is of immediate value to the people of the State. The accounts and accounting methods of State and local bodies are now attracting public attention. The Oregon Act of 1913 requires the insurance commissioner to conduct an annual examination of the accounts of the State offices, of institutions receiving State funds, and of the counties of the State; he also prescribes a uniform system of accounting for these bodies which they are required by law to observe. Other States are following in this practice, which bids fair to become a general custom and to lift local accounts from their present obscurity and irresponsibility. Central Supervision of Local Administration.-We have now considered most of the needs of the people which receive attention from the State. In all of them the new efforts of each commonwealth to make itself more useful and efficient have produced an increase in the central powers of the State somewhat at the expense of the local authorities. The financial aid or subsidy given by the commonwealth to the local authorities has been the means of effecting the change. This tendency toward centralization is still growing. Although each State began its history with English traditions of local self-government and many of the little local authorities still show the greatest jealousy of any central encroachment on their powers, the old days of complete local independence are past and we are now in a fair way to recognize what has long been accepted as a fact by foreign governments,—that a safe degree of supervision, guidance and even direct control by central officers is necessary in the modern State. The accounts of local authorities should be inspected and audited by central agents. The standard of health of the community may at times be threatened by forces beyond the control of the local board,-the State board must act. The progress of enlightenment and education of the children of a township cannot always wait upon the possible ignorance or failure of a township school board. The traffic through a local district cannot reasonably be blocked by the local official's ignorance of modern road building. In all of these matters something more than local interests are at stake. In all of them, too, it will usually be found that the people of the locality are willing and anxious to do their part towards local improvement, but not infrequently their elected officials in council, board or other office lack all qualifications for their duties and need guidance from skilled, technical experts or other central authorities. It is here that the control and supervision of the State official proves of greatest value in infusing local officers with a keener spirit of enthusiasm, a higher standard of effectiveness and providing them with the requisite technical and administrative knowledge to carry out the new standards of public work. The continental ideal of extreme centralization may never find root on American soil, but in many of our commonwealths we are already developing a plan which is better suited to our conditions, a system in which the duty of the central authority is to educate, inspire and guide and, when emergency requires, to enforce. REFERENCES State Highway Commissioner, Annual Report. See especially that of New Jersey or Connecticut. R. T. ELY: Taxation in American States and Cities. Proce the Annual Conference of Governors, 1912. Proceedings American Political Science Association, 1912. Especially suggestions for a State budget, S. G. Lowrie. Annual Reports of the State Treasurer. JAMES BRYCE: The American Commonwealth, 1910 Edition, Chapter XLIII. The American Year Book. R. H. WHITTEN: Public Administration in Massachusetts. S. P.ORTH: Centralization in Ohio. H. M. BOWMAN: Administration of Iowa, the last three works are published in Columbia University Studies in History, Economics, etc. A valuable discussion of current questions in taxaton is given in the Annual Proceedings of the Conference of Tax Commissioners. The Wisconsin Income Tax Law, with notes, 2d Edition, 1913, The Wisconsin Tax Commission. Readjustments in Taxation, The Annals, March, 1915. QUESTIONS 1. Prepare a summary report on the more important financial provisions of your State constitution, covering the following clauses: 2. (a) Limits on taxation; (b) Limits on State debts for various purposes; (c) Limits on local debts for various purposes; (d) Limits on use of State funds and appropriations; (e) Exemptions from taxation; Resolved that these constitutional limitations should be repealed. Defend either side. 3. Prepare a summary statement of the public debt of your State and show the purposes for which it has been contracted. 4. Show the growth of your State debt and the reasons. 5. Contrast the forms of tax levied by the National Government with those employed in your State. 6. Which of your State's taxes produce the most revenue? Show how much. 7. Prepare a brief report showing the form of the personal property tax in your State, if it exists, and secure some competent opinion as to the evasion of this tax. 8. Explain the defects of the income tax as usually applied. 9. Why have Virginia and Wisconsin again levied such a tax? 10. Prepare a brief report on the Wisconsin income tax and the system of administration which collects it. Explain its results, as contrasted with those of the personal property tax. II. Resolved that the general income tax should be adopted in this State. Take either side. 12. Are inheritance taxes easy or difficult to collect and why? 13. Resolved that a progressive inheritance tax on all legacies above $30,000 should be established in this State. Defend either side. 14. Explain the sources of revenue of the local authorities in your State. 15. Resolved that local administration in all branches should be free from interference of State officials. Take either side. 16. Why are State expenses growing so rapidly? Prepare a brief table showing recent increases in your State, and the purposes or causes of such increase. 17. Does your State legislature try to balance State income and expenditure? Show the plan adopted at its last session, or the difference between receipts and expenditures, if no plan was adopted. 18. Explain the purposes of a State budget. 19. Outline any system or systems now in use, and show their advantages. 20. Resolved that the budget plan should be adopted in this State. Take either side. 21. Explain the duties of the Wisconsin Board of Public Affairs, in State finances. 22. Prepare a brief summary of the Oregon Act governing the State audit of the expenses of local officers, and explain its purposes. 23. Resolved that such a plan should be adopted in this State. Take either side. 24. Why are corporation taxes so popular in the States? Could the entire State revenue be advantageously raised from this source? Reasons. 25. Resolved that the entire system of State taxation should be reorganized to bring it into better relations with national and local taxation. Defend either side. 26. Resolved that the building and repair of roads should be left entirely to the counties and townships of this State. Defend either side. 27. Does a good road cost more to construct than the old-fashioned type? Does it cost more to maintain? Reasons. 28. Resolved that the modern macadam high-cost roads are a better investment than the older type. Defend either side. 29. Explain the plan followed by New Jersey, Connecticut and other Eastern States and show what its advantages are over the older method. 30. Why are good roads not more popular among the farmers? 31. Prepare a report on the road system of your State, showing- (b) The State subsidy, if any, and the number of miles of old and (c) The repair system and cost per mile. (d) The cost of construction per mile. (e) Any expressions of public opinion on the present system. CHAPTER XXIII CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTIONS OF BUSINESS AND PERSONAL RIGHTS.-SAFEGUARDS OF INDIVIDUALS AND CORPORATIONS The Value of Constitutional Protections.-In how far are life, liberty and property secure from the momentary whims of the party in power in State or Nation? How is the private citizen or the business man protected against an oppressive, tyrannical use of the machinery of government? May the State and National Governments regulate every business whatsoever in any way that they please, may they single out any industry or occupation and ruthlessly destroy it? May the executive interpret the laws oppressively against the rich, or the poor, or may the courts or the legislature discriminate between different persons, favoring some and persecuting others? What safeguards does the Constitution offer against such abuses of the regulative power? All these problems usually arise in one of the following practical forms: 1. The dangers of a sudden violent change in the Constitution. 2. How are corporations, as well as individuals, protected against government oppression? 3. Which businesses may be regulated and how? 4. How far may prices, rates or charges be fixed by law? 5. How far may the quality and kind of goods or services offered be regulated by law? 6. May government authorities discriminate by class laws? 7. Other limits of government regulation. 1. Changes in the Constitution.-In the method of amending the Constitution we see one of those ingeniously devised inventions of the Fathers which, they confidently believed, would preserve the government from popular excitement and turbulence. Article 5 provides that an amendment may be proposed either by Congress itself, through a two-thirds vote in both Houses, or else by a national convention which shall be called by Congress on the application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the States. Even after an amendment has been proposed in either of these ways, it does not take effect until it has been ratified either by the legislatures of three-fourths of the States or by special conventions in threefourths of the States. This most difficult method of amendment, more involved and complex than that of any great nation of the world, was chosen with the idea of preventing changes, of raising the Constitution far above the ordinary law and making it some |