ould be expected to
choose an executive council who agreed with him in all essential matters
of public policy, just as the President is expected to appoint his
Cabinet. His several councilors would be executive officials,
responsible for particular departments of the public service; but they
would exercise their authority through permanent departmental
chiefs--just as the Secretary of War delegates much of his authority to
a chief of staff, or an English minister to a permanent under-secretary.
The system could offer no guarantee that the subordinate departmental
chiefs would be absolutely permanent; but at all events they would not
be changed at fixed periods or for irrelevant reasons. They would be
just as permanent or as transient as the good of the service demanded.
In so far, that is, as the system was carried out in good faith they
would be experts, absolutely the masters of the technical business of
the offices and of the abilities and services of their subordinates. The
weak point in such administrative organization is undoubtedly the
relation between the members of the governor's council and their chiefs
of staff; but there must be a weak link in any organization which seeks
to convert the changing views of public policy, dependent upon an
election, into responsible, efficient, and detailed administrative acts.
If the system were not accepted in good faith, if in the long run it
were not carried out by officials, who were disinterestedly and
intelligently working in the public interest, it would be bound to fail;
but so would any method of political organization. This particular plan
simply embodies the principle that the way to get good public service
out of men is to give them a sufficient chance.

Under the proposed system the only powers possessed by the state
executive, not now bestowed upon the President of the United States,
would consist in an express and an effective control over legislation.
It would be his duty to introduce legislation whenever it was in his
opinion desirable; and in case his bills were amended to death or
rejected, it would be his right to appeal to the people. He would, in
addition, appoint all state officials except the legislative council,
and perhaps the judges of the highest court. On the other hand, he would
be limited by the recall and he could not get any important legislative
measure on the statute books except after severe technical criticism,
and express popular consent.