THE FORUM
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1924.tb02189.x |
| Date | 01 September 1924 |
| Published date | 01 September 1924 |
THE
FORUM
me
object
of
this
section
of
the
JOURNAL
or
F~BLIC
ADMINISTRATION
is
to
provide an opportunity
for
frank
discussion.
Micles
should not exceed
500
words
and should
be
devoted to subjects
of
immediate
intenst
to
the Institute.
They
may or may not be signed, but
must
be
written
by
an
accepted Member or Associate
of
the
Institute,
and
the name and address
of
the sender must be supplied.]
T
is
one of the perplexities of those who have been responsible for the
I
JOURNAL
that
so
little advantage has been taken of the opportunity
of open
discussion
in the
Fonun.
One never meets a
number
of public
servants without
finding
them alert and eager to
discuss
various
aspects
of the possible work of the Institute. The
air
is
thick with suggestions.
Yet it happens that very rarely do contributions reach the Editor. There
is
a wide
fringe
of subjects which might be discussed in this place and the
work of the Institute might be widened in
its
scope by such discussions.
There
seems
to me to be a danger from an over-emphaiss on authoritative
contributions.
No
one can gainsay the weight
of
the contributions which
have been made in the columns of the
JOURNAL
to the more prominent
issues of public administration. But these more prominent issues are not
the only issues nor is it the
case
that in the
sum
total
of
the work of
public administration they monopolize the general interest of those
concerned. Moreover, the contributions are
so
authoritative that
it
would show considerable temerity on the
part
of most of
us
even to
question the conclusions which have been drawn and indeed
in
most
cases
they cannot be questioned. But there are many more debatable
issues
which in their accumulation do affect the general efficiency of the
administration of public offices, and there are many other aspects of our
work which could be brought out
if
only the advantage of
an
open court
of discussion were realized.
I
would venture to say therefore something
more than that contributions
are
invited.
I
would suggest that the duty
lies upon each of
us,
whatever
his
position or experience may be, to formu-
late for the general benefit any ideas he may have
as
to the study of
public administration
on
this
wider plane. J.
L.
CODIFICATION
OF
ADMINISTRATIVE
LAW
EXPERIENCE
has
shown
that the codification of
laws
and
rules
saves
labour and reduces the risk of mistakes. The Education Acts were
codified
in
1921
;
the Income
Tax
Acts in
1918
;
the Children’s Act of
1908
was
a
useful
bit of codification. But the Public Health Acts have
not been codified since
1875,
and the Housing Acts not at
all.
The law
relating to highways badly needs codification. The Lunacy Acts were
957
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