GOVERNMENT RESEARCH
Under one name or another there have been established in the United States within the past few years about twenty local organizations for the study of public affairs. The activities of the Bureau of Municipal Research of New York, have had more publicity than have those of any other, largely on account of the fact that arrangements were made to give other cities the benefits of their findings and of the services of their attaches at low cost. Cincinnati, Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, and Philadelphia have had such bureaus, and seem to have profited by them.
Lately there has been organized the Institute for Government Research. It is to be supported by voluntary contributions, and it is intended that it will "co-operate with public officials in the scientific study of business methods with a view to promoting efficiency in government and advancing the science of administration."
As is pointed out in the prospectus of the organization, such studies, to be beyond suspicion of having a partisan or personal aspect. The function the trustees is to assume the general responsibility for the program of work to be done, and to act as guarantors of the serious and disinterested purpose by which the institute will be controlled.
The showings made by a number of the local organizations indicate that the new association may be reasonably expected to find opportunities for usefulness, and there is no question, course, that the methods of the state and national governments are susceptible of improvement.
A NON-PARTISAN BOARD
The president seems to have been long disposed to be a machine politician. It is said of him that at Prince of Wales. 