But that is secondary. Its real use is as an aid to
representative government and administration both in politics and
industry. The demand for the assistance of expert reporters in the
shape of accountants, statisticians, secretariats, and the like, comes
not from the public, but from men doing public business, who can no
longer do it by rule of thumb. It is in origin and in ideal an
instrument for doing public business better, rather than an instrument
for knowing better how badly public business is done.
2
As a private citizen, as a sovereign voter, no one could attempt to
digest these documents. But as one party to a dispute, as a
committeeman in a legislature, as an officer in government, business,
or a trade union, as a member of an industrial council, reports on the
specific matter at issue will be increasingly welcome. The private
citizen interested in some cause would belong, as he does now, to
voluntary societies which employed a staff to study the documents, and
make reports that served as a check on officialdom. There would be
some study of this material by newspaper men, and a good deal by
experts and by political scientists. But the outsider, and every one
of us is an outsider to all but a few aspects of modern life, has
neither time, nor attention, nor interest, nor the equipment for
specific judgment. It is on the men inside, working under conditions
that are sound, that the daily administrations of society must rest.
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