Preface
be constantly advising and criticising local elected
authorities both privately and in particular reports
published in the locality concerned as well as in
general reports which appear in bulky blue books
inaccessible to the ordinary citizen. From my own
experience of ten years service on the council of a
small county-borough, ending in 1908, I feel sure that
the activity of the national government might be
greatly extended in this direction with immense
advantage. But the same experience convinces me
that the more the inspectors and the departments
represented by them have to rely on argument and
persuasion, and the less they have absolute power of
control the better is the work likely to be performed.
Perhaps I may be allowed to give an example of the
kind of dispute which often occurs between local
authorities and the experts in Whitehall who write in
the name of bogus ““ Boards.” During the last great
epidemic of smallpox it was recognised that the disease
was gradually creeping from the seat of government
towards our county-borough and we desired to pfe-
pare for the onslaught. We proposed to take down
an already existing iron building which was in an
unsuitable situation and put it, with an entirely new
one, in an isolated place to which no objection could
possibly be taken. The expenditure was obviously
sapital expenditure, and therefore in the ordinary
course the council applied to the Local Government
Board for leave to borrow the sum required, spreading
repayment over a few years. The official who for this
purpose personified the Board, however, being an
expert in building, did not think wood and iron good
enough for smallpox patients; the iron would rust in