Public improvement

“ Every increase of public business brings us nearer to thorough civil-service reform, because it enhances the importance of that reform, impresses the need of it more strongly upon the people, and deepens their sentiment in its favor. ”

“ Public Services — I also propose greater outlays by the Government for public services designed to improve the general living standards of the people, particularly in the less developed areas of this country. ”

“ One of the most difficult and interesting practical problems which now engages the thoughts of the American people is how to maintain economy, efficiency, and purity in the administration of local affairs, and especially in the government of towns and cities, without a departure from principles and methods which are deemed essential to free popular government. ”

“ He will therefore have every inducement to lend a helping hand in the introduction of a thorough and permanent reform of the civil service, which, proceeding upon the idea that established character, knowledge and capability ought to be the only test of fitness for office, will at last give the country an able, honest and economical administration of the public business. ”

“ The great majority of city officials and employees are engaged in rendering social and economic services—such as teaching in schools, caring for the public health, building streets, inspecting markets, attending to the water supply, putting out fires, and making out tax bills; all of which tasks are quite different in nature from the work which legislatures or governors or courts perform. It is work which, in order to be effective, must be done in accordance with the methods of everyday business with emphasis on intelligence, punctuality, and honesty. ”

“ What, for example, are the qualities in the citizens individually which conduce most to keep up the amount of good conduct, of good management, of success and prosperity, which already exist in society? Every body will agree that those qualities are industry, integrity, justice, and prudence. But are not these, of all qualities, the most conducive to improvement? and is not any growth of these virtues in the community in itself the greatest of improvements? ”

“ I conceive the possibility of each group developing into a trust, capable of acting in the interests of the city in years to come, exercising a mighty influence, being relied upon for guidance, and administering great funds for the common good. If we could get in each of our populous centres a dozen thoroughly intelligent broad-minded men, capable of watching all the streams of tendency—all the developments of civic life, bringing their judgment to bear on its progress, and urging the public to move in the right direction, a great service might be rendered. ”

“ We have now, therefore, obtained a foundation for a twofold division of the merit which any set of political institutions can possess. It consists partly of the degree in which they promote the general mental advancement of the community, including under that phrase advancement in intellect, in virtue, and in practical activity and efficiency, and partly of the degree of perfection with which they organize the moral, intellectual, and active worth already existing, so as to operate with the greatest effect on public affairs. ”

“ The establishment of an economical, simple, and efficient government, the maintenance of an independent civil service; the implantation of an adequate system of public instruction to develop moral character, personal discipline, civic conscience, and vocational efficiency; the safeguarding of the health and vigor of the race ”

“ But with regard to one subject after another, such as primary education or sanitation, or the ordinary matters of municipal government, the community has come to the conclusion that it is in the public interest that these services should be rendered to all who need or claim them, whatever their affluence. ”

“ The expansion and increasing complexity of municipal activities, the desire of women for more knowledge about their new responsibilities, the need for better living conditions brought about by greater congestion, the necessity for conserving every ounce of man and woman power, the demand for greater efficiency and rock-bottom economy in every line—all these conditions are making themselves felt with the public official. ”

“ The personal, economic and cultural welfare of the private person shall be fundamental aims of public activity. In particular, it shall be incumbent upon the public institutions to secure the right to work, housing and education, and to promote social care, social security, and a good living environment.
The public institutions shall promote the ideals of democracy as guidelines in all sectors of society. ”

“ They know that it pursues this aim by methods which every intelligent business man standing at the head of a large establishment and exposed to constant and promiscuous pressure for employment would adopt for himself as eminently businesslike. In one word, they know that civil service reform as embodied in the merit system is simply the application to the public service of the plainest principles of common-sense and common honesty. ”

“ The growth—of our cities and the increasing complexity of our industrial life have greatly increased the number of activities which it is to our advantage to carry on, not individually, but collectively or through the agency of government. The spread of altruism and the widening of the concept of social service have caused the extension of governmental activity in such new fields as social insurance, recreation, and public health. ”

“ Improving the quality of American goods and services depends upon each of us. Individual workers, business managers, labor leaders, and government officials must all work to promote a standard of excellence in the public and private sectors. ”

“ Not only has it in this region some of its most faithful advocates, but the practical sense and the public spirit which have wrought here such wonders, seem to produce the very atmosphere in which this cause should prosper; for Civil Service Reform is, in the sense of an enlightened, large and patriotic public spirit, a preëminently practical conception—practical in its principles, practical in its aims, and practical in its methods. ”

“ How this progress may be quickened, is a question which this Society should keep constantly in view.—To devise the means of acceleration, should be their study.—To the first great step towards general improvement, the organization of societies in every part of the state, we have one what was in our power, by petitioning the legislature to take the subject into consideration, and aid the undertaking with necessary funds. ”

“ What the world wants to complete its education are those sound principles of public economy, which contribute most to promote national and individual wealth and happiness, by removing the obstacles to internal communication and the march of useful knowledge, and establishing among us an interchange of commodities, according to the wants and the capabilities of each community. ”

“ It shall be the duty of the State to materialize economic, social and cultural development through democratic ways and for this purpose to increase national savings, to direct investments to priorities necessitated by public interest and to prepare development projects. ”

“ In fine, the substantial improvement, and even the embellishment of towns, is a work which both the central and local governing bodies in a country should keep a steady hand upon. It especially concerns them. What are they there for but to do that which individuals cannot do? It concerns them, too, as it tells upon the health, morals, education, and refined pleasures of the people they govern. In doing it, they should avoid pedantry, parsimony, and favouritism; and their mode of action should be large, considerate, and foreseeing. ”

“ One consequence of this is that some of the difficulties of designing good public policy—a practice that we can think of, in this context, as a kind of social engineering—are inherited from difficulties in model building. ”

“ But if every one would take an active, earnest concern in something, in some one thing, and look into it slowly but thoroughly, this man or woman in the public schools, this in the methods of municipal government, and this in the problems of [198] crime or poverty, reforms would necessarily proceed much faster. ”

“ In course of this discussion, it has been taken for granted that the American people under competent and responsible leadership could deliberately plan a policy of individual and social improvement, and that with the means at their collective disposal they could make headway towards its realization. These means consisted, of course, precisely in their whole outfit of political, economic, and social institutions; and the implication has been, consequently, that human nature can be raised to a higher level by an improvement in institutions and laws. ”

“ I wish that all the citizens of my country could come into contact with the public men whom I have met, and catch something of the earnestness with which they are applying themselves to the solution of the municipal problems that press upon the present generation. ”

“ But it was a pleasure to see the growing manifestation of a commonwealth spirit, the organization of public opinion, and the clearer vision of the demands of public service. Even among the officials the idea that the Government was merely a taxing and office-holding organization was giving way, especially among the younger men, to a desire that the functions of government should be used for developmental purposes, in helping the people towards better methods in agriculture and industry, in encouraging improved communications and public works of many kinds. ”

“ I think the economy, purity, and efficiency of the public service would be greatly promoted by their systematic introduction, wherever practicable, throughout the entire civil service of the Government, together with ample provision for their general supervision in order to secure consistency and uniform justice. ”

“ These men depend for their recreation on public institutions, and therefore it is of the first importance to the national health, happiness, morals, and intelligence that no thought, pains, or money should be spared in providing such institutions, adequate in number and competent in character to meet so important and so immense a need. ”

“ And as there seems no reason why, because of these unresolved differences, a public measure for the health of all––for the recreation of all––for the economic advancement of all––should be held in abeyance, there seems as little reason why, because of these differences, a public measure for raising the general intelligence of all should be held in abeyance. ”

“ Public necessity should now be our criterion. Our needs are great but our resources are small. This calls for careful planning, intelligent selection, and consistent and economical implementation of projects. ”

“ It is the same development which has characterized all other public work—the growth from remedy to prevention—and the growth is stable for the reason that it represents economy in place of the former waste of money and effort and because popular education is leading to the demand for prevention and justice rather than charity. ”

“ And for that matter every occupation—as law, medicine, teaching and the various sorts of business and hand-labor—has its own philanthropies and reforms into which one may put all the devotion he is capable of. If each of us chooses some disinterested form of public service and puts himself thoroughly into it, things will go very well.
Another tendency involved in the rise of public will is that toward a greater simplicity and flexibility of structure [Pg 417] in every province of life: principles are taking the place of formulas. ”

“ In many instances states and municipalities have in late years seen fit to enter upon projects to promote the public welfare which in the past have been considered entirely within the domain of private enterprise. ”

“ Faced with the onerous and complex tasks of reform and development, we in governments at all levels should follow the new vision on development in our work, bear the weight of finishing building a moderately prosperous society in all respects on our shoulders, keep the people's wellbeing at the forefront of our minds, and build a law-based, innovative, clean, and service-oriented government that the people are satisfied with. ”

“ The great question which continually presents itself, whatever department of social work we turn to, is, Shall we attempt to hasten improvement by legislation, or shall we trust to the resources of freely acting individuals to modify things in their own interest and to their own advantage? ”

“ We have to lighten our public burdens and develop the prosperity of the country, not merely by schemes of financial management, but by striking out from our constitutions and laws the trammels which clog the spirit of industrial enterprise, by opening the resources of the land through a network of railroad communications and by developing the intelligence and stimulating the public spirit of our people through an efficient system of education. ”

“ Experience with the various charitable activities of the city, State, and nation, has proven conclusively to me that every endeavor to ameliorate existing conditions ought to be, and rightly is, a governmental function, just as any other department in government, such as police, health, etc. ”

“ I am not aware of any reform, amongst the many which I have promoted during the past forty years, that has had, and will have, better results towards the improvement of the country socially, morally, and politically. ”

“ In order to fix the confidence of the public upon the most firm and immoveable basis, and to engage their good will and cheerful assistance in support of the measures adopted, the citizens were invited to take an active and honourable part in the execution of the plan, and in the direction of its most interesting details. ”