STATE ADMINISTRATION

JOHN M. MATHEWS

State Councils of Defense.-The tual agencies that might have been year 1918 was in some respects an off tolerably satisfactory in times of year in state governmental develop- peace. The war has stimulated both ment, as comparatively few state leg- the invigoration by the states of exislatures were in session and the at- isting agencies of administration and tention of the entire nation was cen- also the creation of new agencies and tered on the various national activi- the assumption of new functions. ties connected with the winning of the The necessity of making provision for war. In spite of the abnormal con- safeguarding munition plants, shipditions, however, and to some extent ping facilities and other instrumenon account of them, there were im- talities for the prosecution of the war portant developments in state admin- from destruction or injury by German istration during the year. The war, sympathizers has developed to some which left no phase of American life extent upon the states. In many untouched, has not failed to affect states the Councils of Defense have the administrative activities of the been active in supervising the organistates deeply and in many ways. The zation of home guards to take the state governments have been impor- place of the state militia which had tant agencies in assisting the Na-been mustered into the national servtional Government in its war activities, and State Councils of Defense in many states have coöperated vigorously with the National Government in the prosecution of the war. In 23 states these Councils of Defense have been established under the authority of formal legislative enactments. The powers granted to and exercised by them have been of a broad and general character, but such powers are to be exercised in subordination to the superior control of national administrative authorities. The specific activities of State Councils of Defense have been carried on both on their own initiative and at the instance of the Council of National Defense and of various departments of the National Government. Among the different phases of their work have been those dealing with the preservation of order, labor supply, fire prevention, food conservation, and Americanization. In some states in which neither regular nor special legislative sessions have been held, they have to some extent filled the breach, as in Minnesota, where, at the instance of the State Council or Commission of Safety, uniform ordinances were passed by a large number of municipalities.

ice, and have directed their activities in maintaining order and security in the various localities. State police forces have already been organized in a number of states. During 1918 a bill providing for such a force in New Jersey failed by a narrow margin to become a law. In Oregon, the State Emergency Board, through its power of authorizing extraordinary expenditures, provided for the organization of the state military police of 200 trained men. The creation of this body provides an instrument whereby the governor may be enabled to carry out his constitutional duty of seeing that the laws are faithfully executed, for the performance of which he has had heretofore inadequate facilities. The tendency is to confer upon these state police forces not only the ordinary police functions of maintaining order, apprehending criminals and bringing back fugitives from justice, but also such miscellaneous duties as acting as special police, detectives and ticket-takers at the state fairs, and promoting the general social welfare through acting as sanitary agents of the state health department, performing the duties now vested in state fish, game and fire wardens and, in State Police. The unsettled and general, any functions of such a charabnormal conditions in the states due acter as not to require more special to the war have convinced the people skill or technical knowledge than genin many states that we cannot afford eral police agents could be expected to continue the attempt to muddle to possess. The taking over of such through with the feeble and ineffec-functions by the state police, or the