Bureaucracy and Economic Reform: the Experience of California, 1899-1911

• Author: Gerald D. Nash
• DOI: 10.1177/106591296001300309
• Published date: 01 September 1960
• Date: 01 September 1960
• Subject Matter: Articles

678

BUREAUCRACY

AND

ECONOMIC

REFORM:

THE

EXPERIENCE

OF

CALIFORNIA,

1899-1911

GERALD D.

NASH

Harvard

University

HE

PERIOD

1890

TO

1917

was

one

of

the

most

productive

eras

in

the

~

annals

of

American

reform.

It

was

during

these

years

that

wide

recogni-

tion

was

accorded

the

lag

between

political

institutions,

devised

for

the

simpler

needs

of

an

agricultural

economy,

and

the

requirements

of

an

industrial

society,

and

that

steps

were

taken

to

remedy

the

situation.

Most

of

the

reforms

centered

on

the

renovation

of

political

and

administrative

institutions,

on

the

control

of

Big

Business,

and

on

social

legislation

for

labor,

women,

and

children.

The

remodeling

of

the

American

governmental

structure

was

neither

complete

nor

entirely

successful,

yet

in

1917

governments

at

all

levels

were

better

equipped

to

deal

with

the

problems

of

industrialism

than

they

had

been

a

generation

earlier.

Prime

impetus

for

these

reforms

came

not

from

self-conscious

reformers,

or

from

Progressives,

but

rather

from

public

servants

in

various

levels

of

govern-

mental

administration.

Students

of

public

administration

have

long

recognized

that

it

is

the

officials

in

government

departments

who

form

a

most

potent,

if

subtle,

pressure

group.

In

the

clash

of

interests

out

of

which

the

political

process

emerges,

theirs

is

often

the

decisive

influence.

Since

administrative

agencies

are

specialists

in

a

particular

field

of

competence,

their

knowledge

of

it

is

far

more

intimate

than

that

of

any

other

group.

Thus,

in

recent

years

the

greater

portion

of

federal

and

state

legislation

has

been

drafted

by

these

governmental

bodies

who,

at

the

same

time,

also

wield

great

influence

in

securing

legislative

enactment.

Since

they

shape

laws

to

such

a

very

large

extent,

they

assume

a

very

quiet,

but

most

important

role

in

the

determination

of

public

policy.’

Such

a

situation

was

as

much

in

evidence

half-a-century

ago

as

it is

at

present.

It

is

true

that

this

proc-

ess

has

been

clearly

recognized

only

in

recent

years,

but

its

operation

during

the

period

1890-1917

can

be

as

readily

discerned.

While

the

reforms

of

administrators

were

undertaken

unobtrusively,

and

received

a

minimum

of

publicity,

those

of

political

pressure

groups

were

accom-

panied

by

much

fanfare.

It

was

during

the

early

years

of

the

twentieth

century

that

magazines

underwent

a

transition

similar

to

that

which

had

given

rise

to

a

yellow

press

a

little

earlier.

This

new

development

resulted

in

the

mushroom-

ing

of

journals

such

as

Munsey’s

Magazine,

Everybody’s,

Cosmopolitan,

and

a

host

of

lesser

imitators.

With

great

national

circulations,

ample

resources

for

re-

1

L.

G.

McConachie,

Congressional

Committees

(New

York:

Crowell,

1898),

p.

236;

James

M.

Beck,

Our

Wonderland

of

Bureaucracy

(New

York:

Macmillan,

1932),

p.

205;

O.

Douglas

Weeks,

"Initiation

of

Legislation

by

Administrative

Agencies,"

Brooklyn

Law

Review,

IX

(January,

1940),

117-31;

Edwin

E.

Witte,

"Administrative

Agencies

and

Statute

Law

Making,"

Public

Administration

Review,

II

(Spring,

1942),

116-24;

Elizabeth

M.

Scott

and

Belle

Zeller,

"State

Agencies

and

Law

Making,"

ibid.,

II,

209,

219-20;

Paul

Appleby,

Policy

and

Administration

(University,

Alabama:

University

of

Alabama

Press,

1949),

pp.

7-8,

109-10;

Dayton

D.

McKean,

Party

and

Pressure

Politics

(Boston:

Houghton,

Mifflin,

1949),

pp.

591-602.