CHAPTER V THE BEGINNING OF THE RECENT MOVEMENT FOR ADMINISTRATION REFORM AND A BUDGET SYSTEM TWELVE years ago the machinery of administration was not a subject of popular interest, and the word "budget" was seldom used by the American people. When either subject was introduced into conversation, it was almost without meaning. Now reorganization measures are being passed by every city and state, and "budget" is a part of the vocabulary of every one-a subject of common talk. We can scarcely pick up a magazine without seeing something about scientific management, city planning, household economics, the wage earner's budget, the housewife's budget, the city budget, the state budget, or the national budget. New York City a Center of Interest in Better Adminis tration Twelve years ago, when a New York editor was asked to make his "daily " a medium through which the public might be kept in touch with administrative reorganization, budget and accounting work then in progress, his answer was: It can't be done. We do not make news; we print news. The work of an editor is not to find out what people ought to know, but what they will read. News is made by persons who do things or by happenings that the public are interested in. They are not interested in methods of administration; they are not interested in budgets; are not interested in accounting. Most of them have never heard of a budget; and the rest of them don't care to hear about management or budget methods." This editor was right. Stories of current happenings to people and things that the public are interested in are news; and what the people think about the news topics of yesterday and to-day is public opinion. Community thought and talk about current happenings carried in the news columns, headlined in black face, is the thought and talk that controls the destinies of cities and nations. But the people themselves and those to whom the people look as leaders make news. A Question of News The sayings and doings of men who are looked to as leaders is always news. It is this interest in outstanding persons that gives to leadership its hold on public opinion, and makes the press a force in a community. A great leader is like a great newspaper in this respect; his greatness largely depends on his knowing what the people want. The leader is made by his following. He cannot go farther than his following will go. Whatever other qualities the leader must posses he must have ability to forecast popular approval. It is from this that he takes his reckonings. The fact that administrative reorganizations and budgets have come to be talked about means that through changed conditions and leadership the people have developed a new interest. What is news to-day was not news yesterday. The vital concerns of community life have taken on a new emphasis and leadership has a new basis for appeal. The story of the recent movement for responsible government and budgets in America, of how this new interest has developed during the last ten years, is significant. A budget has come to mean a method of dealing with this question of vital concern. We have always accepted the theory that government should be responsible. This is one of the primary demands of democracy. But the truth is America has not had enough of an interest in democracy before to think out what is needed to make the government responsible. The Revolutionary War was not a war for democracy; it was a war for political independence. The second war with Great Britain was necessary to make good the fruits of the first. Our Mexican War was a war of aggression. Our Civil War was to compel economic and political unity. Our Spanish War was to abate a nuisance. The campaigns waged by Roosevelt and Wilson against special privilege were the beginning of a national democratic awakening. The war against Germany was our first war for democracy. The twentieth century interest in democracy carried with it a demand for responsible government. Our recent movement for administrative reorganization and a budget procedure is one of the fruits of this demand. A Question of Sick Babies and Padded Rolls While the public cannot be interested in doing things through abstract discussion, it may be aroused by relating the methods to a result to be achieved, and abstract discussion follows. Twelve years ago, when the happenings about work under way looking toward the introduction of new methods of administration and control in New York City had no news value, there was a deepseated, long-enduring, and increasing resentment on the part of the people which had been provoked by old methods that made for popular unrest. This long-enduring resentment had periodically expressed itself in paroxysms of popular frenzy " which made and unmade political leaders and overturned administrations. While budget methods and accounting and the machinery of government had no news value, these were made vital through stories of happenings about men in the public eye; and those stories of happenings carried conviction 66 that the methods of administration and the machinery of public business needed overhauling. The rising tax rate became news. Money wasted which was needed to save babies became news; children on the street, while public funds raised to build schoolhouses, playgrounds, and public baths, were being diverted, became news. The uncared-for sick and poor, and padded health rolls were news. The rapid rise in cost of government and some forty thousand obsolete brass fixtures, bought from a friend by a retiring officer in the water department, made news. And above all things else the thought that some one in the public service should be held to account for the abuse of the public trust came to be a subject of daily comment. And so it was that in the city of New York the people came to talk in terms of administrative reorganization and budgets: a budget as a means of holding officers to account; a budget as a means of telling the people beforehand what money was wanted for; a budget as a means of planning for service needed and locating responsibility for the execution of plans; a budget as a community program to be financed. Thus it was that red tape, unbalanced bids, obsolete fixtures, and wasteful methods of doing business were made the mediums for clothing budgets with flesh and blood; the current happenings incident to efforts to introduce a budget into the management of affairs in New York were made news. Beginning of a Nation-wide Campaign This was the beginning of a nation-wide campaign. First it took hold of the people in the cities. Propaganda for budget making was read. The need for a budget spoke through educational, social, and business leaders in every American municipality and through the press; and the people applauded. From the cities it spread to the national government; and from the national govern ment it took hold on the political leadership in the states. The Inspirational Leadership of President Roosevelt President Cleveland had been elected in a campaign which had for its slogan: A public office is a public trust. President Roosevelt did much to quicken public conscience more, perhaps, than any man since the days of Jefferson. He was an outstanding leader, who resorted to methods of direct appeal to the people through the press. And in this he followed in the footsteps of Jefferson, Jackson, and Lincoln. Through the news columns he went before a people conscious of political practices of which they would be rid. Roosevelt had become President at a time of great popular feeling against men and methods through which special interests had gained control of the resources of the nation. This control was being exercised through men not of the people's choice. It had been reduced to a system. The system was in control of an irresponsible boss the head of an irresponsible party organization. And by operation of the system special privilege had found its way into legislatures and departments of public service. The system worked in defiance of public opinion. Through the system the government had become "irresponsible and "invisible." The people felt that they had lost control of their institutions of service. President Roosevelt divined the cause and led the attack. To fight special privilege and to satisfy the demand for more and better service was the task which he set for himself. By his direct appeal and his forcefulness in action, President Roosevelt gained the confidence of a great following. Consideration was also given to methods of administration to prevent waste. Much was done under his leadership to give new direction to national thought. In it all, his strong personality stood out as a public officer, devoted to the cause of better service. But |