the Prussian law bureaucracy is guarded against by the exclusion from the council of all immediate state officials. In Japan the law specifically provides for the inclusion in the council of cabinet officers and members of the legislature. Under the Japanese system it is possible to pack the advisory council with persons in harmony with the government, which may destroy the value of the council. While avenues of communication between legislatures and advisory councils should be kept open, the law should make it impossible for members of the legislature and state officers to hold a seat in the advisory council. State legislatures and Congress may wish to act on the findings of fact or recommendations of advisory councils, and if the membership of councils and legislatures can be made essentially one, the advisory nature of the councils will be annihilated. The exclusion of public officers and legislators from councils should be insisted upon. In Switzerland, circuit councils and an administrative council were instituted by the federal law of 1897. Circuit councils embrace from fifteen to twenty members, of whom the Bundesrath elects four and the cantons eleven to sixteen. The higher or administrative council numbers fifty-five, of whom twenty-five are elected by the Bundesrath, an equal number by the cantons, and the remaining five by the circuit councils. The law expressly provides that in these elections agriculture, trade and industry shall be properly represented. These three- Prussia, Japan, and Switzerland are the only countries in which advisory councils have been created by law. In a large number of other countries similar councils have been established through administrative agents, the composition and functions of the councils following the principles of the Prussian system. For a quarter of a century France has had a consulting committee of forty-five which is quite similar to the Japanese council in that its members are not elected, but appointed chiefly from officials and members of the legislature, and that social and economic interests. are represented only to a limited extent. The functions of this committee relate to approval of rates, construction of laws and ordinances, granting charters, railway agreements, stations, train service, etc. It is similar to the advisory councils of the other three countries in that it may be called upon for opinions and undertake investigations on its own initiative. In Russia, the Minister of Trade appoints representatives of the agricultural and industrial classes; the railway companies elect their members subject to the approval of the minister; and the Czar appoints representatives of the departments of the cabinet. The Italian tariff council consists of higher ministerial officials and railway directors, while the supreme council is composed of general inspectors and chiefs of divisions, divided into three groups, each of which can act only on matters relating to the lines of interest represented by that group. Bavaria has an advi sory council composed of twenty-five members appointed by the king. A number of the members are nominated by industrial organizations. Of the eighteen members in the council of Saxony, six are elected by chambers of commerce, five by agricultural societies, and seven are appointed by the Minister of Finance. More than half a dozen other European states can be added to the list, but it is unnecessary. Enough has been said to show that the system of advisory councils proposed for the United States. is not a leap into the dark. It is a practical scheme, elaborated in various countries by practical men, and it has stood the test of experience. It involves no destruction of existing arrangements. It requires none but nominal appropriations out of the public treasury. It necessitates no important new machinery. In fact, it is but a bringing together of separated wheels and shafts and placing them in proper connection with one another so as to constitute an efficient machine for public service. That the public frequently feels suspicious concerning railways no one will question. That this suspicion is sometimes well founded is beyond controversy; and that this same suspicion on the part of the public is often out of all proportion to the cause is equally true. By way of illustration, a personal incident may be alluded to. Several years ago, through the courtesy of a railway president, the writer came into possession, for private use, of the proceedings of a railway committee, which are private in their nature. He had wondered many times what such a committee might be doing; and, because of the secrecy surrounding its proceedings, was inclined to believe that action contrary to public interests was sometimes agreed upon. After a careful examination of the entire set of documents, he is prepared to state that he firmly believes that the publication of every page of these proceedings could bring nothing but good, or at least no harm, to the railways concerned. Throughout the reading of the many resolutions, orders, petitions, and decisions one is impressed again and again with the earnest desire on the part of the railway men concerned to find the correct solution and to pursue a just line of action. But the public is much like the boy with a balloon it wants to know what there is inside. The public factor in railway enterprise is so large compared with the private factor, that the public is fairly entitled to know, within reasonable limits, what is inside. And this the railways have recognized in many ways, for it is a familiar fact that no stock. can sell well and maintain its level on the exchange unless the promoters take the public into their confidence to the extent of issuing full and accurate financial statements. The chairman of one of the great classification committees struck the core of the question when he said that the general public might without detriment to railway interests know everything his committee was doing and that public opinion would uphold their action, but that per - haps not enough was at present given to the public. A system of advisory councils makes it easy for both railways and people to acquaint each other with their doings, and the resulting knowledge will add as much to harmony between them as it will increase the value of the services performed by the railways. |