Summary of the Present State Systems for the Organization and Administration of Public Welfare

Abstract

IN attempting to present a summary of the state systems in the field of public welfare, the question asked by Lord Haldane's great Committee on the Machinery of Government suggests itself: On what principle should the functions of departments be determined and allocated? The reply of the committee is that there are two principles between which at any one time choice must be made, namely: Distribution according to persons or classes; and distribution according to service to be performed. The opinion of the committee is positive to the effect that the second of these two is the ultimately sound principle.2 The most superficial examination of the organization in the various states in the field of public welfare shows the need of asking the same question, the lack of any agreement on this subject and a consequent chaotic variety of experiments in which attempts are made to apply one or the other principle without conscious appreciation of the issues at stake. There are, in fact, few points on which there is anything like universal agreement among the states except perhaps on the point that the field of service is one to be recognized as a branch of the state organization, and even on that point three states