Alumni Oration

"Need of University-Trained Experts in Public Affairs" Alumni Bulletin (29 June 1929): 5-7. (UA Case 67a, Box 2)

Introductory

Public Life Becoming More Complex—Views of Governmental Function Changing

Dr. Brittain spoke as follows:
One advantage of the topic of this paper is that it does not require the speaker to offer or the audience to listen to a definition of Education. One can get past the critics by confining himself to a limited description of the educational process, namely, that education helps those submitted to the process to live and to make a living.

The University, in this, does not differ from other educational institutions, although the centre of gravity shifts from subject to subject. Every subject which a university teaches should help the learned both to live and to make a living.

Now the field of human activity, called public affairs, is coming to occupy a greater and greater area both from the standpoint of life and of earning a living. Since the university is the apex of formal education, its attitude toward and relation to public affairs is, therefore, of growing importance. In fact at the present time it is the opinion of close observers that no university can justly claim to be discharging its main duty to society unless the courses and facilities it offers have a close functional relation to public affairs.

Growth in Complexity

Possibly the most interesting social phenomenon in the last fifty, and particularly in the last twenty-five years, has been the growth in the number and complexity of the services rendered by governments and public bodies.

Originally the chief function of every government was the maintenance of order and the protection of life and property. Even a good part of this function was left in private hands. It is not so long ago that every gentleman carried his sword. Not long before that, nobles had their armed retainers, and even more recently, in large parts of the American west, a man's safety depended on his quick reaction time and his accuracy of aim. In Chicago at the present time a business man's safety may depend more upon satisfactory arrangement with a group of racketeers than on the efficiency of the official police.

If I remember correctly, in one of Dr. Bridges' classes, we were told of a Roman millionaire who accumulated part of his fortune by running a private fire department. It was an information and salvage department rather than a fire fighting department, but, according to Plutarch, made him a large property owner. In case of a fire, he would get in touch with the victim and his neighbors. No doubt, if the prices offered were attractive, he would buy the property and, it possible, would have the fire extinguished and, if not, let it burn until the offer became attractive. While some large corporations now have private police operating under government permit, the whole function of protection of persons and property is now practically in the realm of public affairs.

Possibly the next most important function of government is the provision of streets, sidewalks, highways, canals and other means of transportation and communication. In the memory of many now living, some important highways were privately owned and were kept up by privately collected revenues. At one time in England toll roads were found everywhere. Privately owned toll bridges are still quite common in the United States. Many sidewalks are privately owned and constructed. Until recently all railways, electric and steam, were privately owned, constructed and maintained. Now the greatest single steam railway system in the world is publicly owned, and many large cities on both sides of the Atlantic own their tramway systems.

The greater part of elementary and secondary education in modern civilized states is conducted under public auspices and maintained by public funds. In most modern countries university education is partly under public control and supported by public funds and partly provided under public auspices.

Time was when nearly all waterworks systems were privately owned and operated, when all health work, if any was under private auspices and when parks and playgrounds were in the field of private effort. The ancient system of farming taxes to private interests is well known, and indeed until recently existed in some modern states. Such a system would be unthinkable in modern European and American countries.

Change in View

Before 1895, at least, the classes in this University were familiar with the view that that government was the best which attempted the least possible number of services and performed what little it attempted in the best possible way.

The cynical bystander of 1929 is apt to observe that apparently the best government is the one which is ready to assume the largest possible number of services and pass the maximum number of laws demanded by the citizens, irrespective of the quality or results of these services or laws. The direction in which a civilization proceeds is always a resultant of many forces. Our present drift is not a matter of chance, but is the result of disturbance of the forces which have been long operative in human affairs. There have always been two schools of thought as to governmental activities—one which wished to limit the functions of government in the interests of human freedom and one which wished to enlarge the boundaries in the interests of human needs. For generations the opposing forces maintained a fair balance and democratic countries made haste slowly in assuming new functions. The first great seismic disturbance of this equilibrium was the industrial revolution which brought in its wake such profound and disturbing changes in the social structure that governments were compelled by public opinion to enter upon fields of regulation and service which had not been dreamed of. The reverberations of this revolution are still with us. Present policies which twenty years ago would have been publicly advocated only by red socialists, but are now accepted as a matter of course by large sections of the public, are indirect results of forces which were first clearly seen to be operating in the 18th and 19th centuries. Public schools, public health departments, street cleaning and garbage collection, public parks and playgrounds, minimum wage laws industrial compensation, mothers' allowances, old age pensions, have all been denounced as socialistic fallacies—and some still are. The industrial revolution brought about great cities and increased density of population as a whole. This resulted in a liberalizing of the electoral laws and this finally led to universal and compulsory education, at public expense. Things which were quite proper where society was primitive and population was sparse became impossible in the modern large cities. In the country it was not a matter of serious public moment that a family should draw its drinking water from a well in the yard, that the family toilet was an earth-closet not far removed from the house, or even that these two necessities were in close proximity to one another. But, with the advent of the modern city, the existence of wells became a menace to the whole urban community. The earth-toilet was abolished by the tens of thousands and the community drinking water was brought in possibly from a supply 100 miles away, and was carefully filtered or chlorinated or both. When one knew where the butter, milk, meat, and vegetables which his family consumed came from large bureaus for inspecting food products were not thought necessary, but when milk and butter and vegetables are brought hundreds, and meat thousands of miles to the city, there must be efficient inspection as a matter of mere self-preservation.

The automobile also has brought about deep-seated changes in public affairs and the aeroplane and airship may easily bring even more revolutionary changes. We don't know how far we're going but we know that we're on our way and we know the direction of the present trend.

Ability to Adjust

There have been ages when changes were not daily or yearly, but at most secular. There are still countries where life now is practically as it was 1,000 years ago. But modern man exists in a rapidly changing world, and the length of his existence depends upon his ability properly to adjust himself to these changes. A trip on a merry-go-round is apt to make one dizzy, which means simply that one's orientation apparatus is temporarily out of commission. The present situation reminds one, possibly, more of a kaleidoscope than of a merry-go-round and the resulting disturbance is possibly more a mental than a physical vertigo. In any event the problem that faces us as thinking citizens is not how we can manage to disregard the present disturbing conditions and continue in the world but not part of it; but what principle can we establish which will enable us to maintain something like orderly development and to regulate the changes which are inevitable in such a way as to conserve the greatest quantum of individual liberty while meeting the legitimate demands of social well being.

Definition of Government

In the last decade I have found the following formula most stabilizing in my own thinking: "Governments are committees of citizens which exist to produce collectively those human services which cannot as well be produced by the citizens individually." It has the advantage of not being static, as a service which at some times or in some places might best be performed by a public agency might at other times and in other places it might fall naturally within the domain of public enterprise. At the same time, at a given period and in a given place, the definition provides a very real help in deciding upon community action. The extent to which a community may enter upon public utilities is limited by the intelligence, information, courage and honesty of the community. When a concrete question as to whether a community shall enter such and such a field or not comes up for settlement, the citizen may find a means of answering the question for himself by applying the definition in the light of his knowledge of the community's intelligence, information, courage and honesty. Whether or not a community shall own and operate its electric light plant is not a matter of religion or morals; it is a question of expediency, to be answered in the light of all the known facts. It may be consistently maintained that lying is lying wherever it occurs, that thieving is thieving and murder, murder; but thinking people will admit that public ownership and operation of a power plant may be a mistake in Chicago and a proper policy in Saint John.

If the definition quoted had been universally applied as a test during the last twenty years as an aid to thought and not as a support for prejudices, many governments and governing bodies might have escaped serious mistakes in policy. If the development of governmental functions is to be kept on sound lines and within safe limits during the next half century, not only must citizenship be kept at a high level of intelligence and character, but its universities and other educational institutions must produce at the same time a supply of men and women of sufficient education, intelligence and character to represent the citizens as effective members of public policy forming bodies, such as City Councils, Legislative Assemblies and Federal Parliament and, also, men and women of sufficient training, insight and character to advise regarding these policies, and carry them out effectively when once adopted.

The basic element in any democracy is the electorate. If this fails, all fails, but if this has within it the elements of success, it can make proper use of the representative and executive machinery of modern government.

The School Meeting

For years I attended a semi-rural public school in which the annual school meeting was held. What business was conducted at this meeting, how its deliberations affected our interests, none of us knew, and it is doubtful whether any of us thought of the matter until years afterwards. Here was a magnificent opportunity for first hand contact with actual processes of government. We knew the British North America Act almost by heart. We were not interested in it. The local legislative body we knew nothing of. Our interest in it might readily have been awakened. The secondary schools of my day provided very little of vital interest on public affairs. What little of this subject was taught was in connection with history. We learned and enjoyed learning about the Domesday Book, the Magna Charter, the Petition of Right and the struggles between the barons and the King and the King and Parliament; but the appearance of the Canadian History period was marked by shamefaced distaste.

Vitally Important

It has long seemed to me that the teaching profession is of more vital importance than ever before to the body politic. The choices in public affairs that the average citizen has to make are becoming at the same time more numerous and more difficult. To guide growing citizens in their development toward "operating" citizens, a teaching profession of broad sympathies, true learning and deep insight is required. Before we would employ a man to perform the simplest surgical operation, we would satisfy ourselves that he had had at least a minimum medical education, which now means six or eight years beyond the high school. Yet we will employ an immature youth with but a year's training beyond the high school to perform the much more difficult operation of guiding growing human minds and characters of our own children. When we become really intelligent we shall not permit anyone, even in the university, to start out on a career of educating the youth unless he knows more than the youth, not only of the subject matter of the curricula, but about the laws of human growth. May I have the temerity to suggest therefore that throughout Canada there should be not only a closer relation between the university and the training of secondary school teachers, but between the universities and the normal schools. Education has certainly as rightful a claim to be a university faculty as engineering or law. It stems to me that the co-ordination suggested should be mutually beneficial.

Casual and Informal

The university of those days before 1895 provided some casual and informal contacts with public affairs. The daily opening exercises of the normal school gave us a more or less pleasurable but tenuous contact with the processes of educating teachers. The debates in the Legislature gave us interesting contact with provincial affairs and at least provided us with information as to parliamentary methods of political vituperation. Some of us got some first hand information as to police methods of preventing practical aesthetic measures in the business district. The mock parliament gave us an annual opportunity of practice in parliamentary procedure which sometimes degenerated into dignified burlesque, as when the Minister of Finance, now a grave Professor of Physics, in itemizing charges in duties in his Budget Speech, referred to an ad valorem duty on iron in pigs or any other animal. But of formal instruction in citizenship, whatever may have been the facilities for honor students, for the average student there was none. In those days it was quite possible for a student to go through the public school, the high school and the university without any real conception of the nature of public affairs or his organic relation thereto.

Initiative of University

Close Contacts with Provincial and Municipal Affairs Possible—Preparation of Reports

In my judgment, the vitalizing of public affairs for the average citizen may well come from the initiative of the university. Many Canadian universities are located at provincial capitals and can establish close contacts with city, county and provincial governments in both the legislative and administrative phases. As so much of modem living is within the domain of governmental operations, and as universities exist, in part at least, to help people live more abundantly and more effectively, it would seem the duty of universities to use all available facilities in this field not only to augment the lives of its students but to provide leaders and educators of vision without which the people perish.

To illustrate, the possibilities of using existing facilities for educational purposes, I would mention the field of governmental reporting. Many departments of government issue excellent reports, which provide the best type of text-books for classes in public affairs. There is, for example, the field of governmental reporting which offers not only a tremendous amount of class room material but provides an opportunity for concrete public service on the part of university departments of economics and government. I refer to the field of municipal affairs. In recent years great strides have been taken in building up provincial municipal reports, but in all provinces much remains to be done. Reasonable co-operation of governments with universities in certain departments would lead to great improvements in the nature of reports from municipalities to government and, at the same time, would provide living laboratory material for honor and pass students. Why not, in a state university, use all administrative processes and records as the raw material for educational operations, and why not use the student body as the raw material for informed citizenship and trained citizen leadership? Not all public reports are well written. Training in report writing might well be a part of English instruction in universities. There is certainly no lack of awful examples, as well as desirable models.

Earning Living

In the domain of preparation for earning a living, the university is also vitally interested. For many years universities and government have co-operated in the use of technical services and the development of technical education through co-operation.

In Wisconsin this co-operation between the state and the university became so extensive and all-pervading that the charge was openly made that the state university had developed into the university state. If not properly planned, there is danger in such co-operation, either that governmental responsibility will be weakened or that the university will suffer in the public estimation through actual or suspected connection with purely political operations. We are too intelligent a people, however, to allow such a possibility to prevent the fullest use of the state's resources to meet human needs. All that is needed is intelligent planning and honest carrying
out of such planning.

Universities for a long time have seen the need of co-ordinating their courses with the demands of society and the particular needs of the constituencies they serve. The University of New Brunswick has not been backward in this regard. Within my memory, courses in civil engineering, electrical engineering, forestry and law have been established and undoubtedly the university has come into closer relations of mutual service with the people of the province in preparing men and women to earn a living. From very early times, while there was no formal department of education, the university rendered a great service by the preparation of secondary school teachers and thus made an outstanding contribution to public service. The growth in the number of activities undertaken by governing bodies and the consequent growth in the number of professions and occupations requiring training above line secondary schools, has brought a new problem and a new opportunity to the universities.

New Orientation

In the first place the courses given by universities looking directly toward definite callings require augmentation and a new orientation in order to fit graduates for possible employment in the public service. Medical schools are finding it necessary to give courses in public health administration and hospital administration. The medical man connected with a health department needs not only an adequate knowledge of medicine itself, but he needs to know something of methods of dealing with the public in the mass, not merely with the individual patient. A good bedside manner and knowledge of practical individual psychology are important for all physicians, but a public health physician needs to have a good manner in meeting the public and a knowledge of mass psychology.

Similarly as various phases of engineering have worked their way into governmental activities and now form an extremely large proportion of their total, not only have new branches of engineering been developed, but the centre of gravity of many engineering professions has been changed. The engineer in public employment needs not only to know the technical part of his job, but he needs to be an expert in adult education. If profits or savings can be shown, it is a comparatively simple matter to persuade a private employer. It is quite a different matter to enlighten a whole community or even a City Council without going beyond the proper function of an administrative officer. It should no longer be possible to turn out a graduating class in engineering without giving it some insight into the tremendous opportunities for careers in the public service and the essential facts of the relations which should exist between the engineer and the public bodies which employ them. Dentistry offers a parallel to medicine and engineering in this respect and the close relation between forestry and public affairs has been evident from the very beginning.

In order to get a clear idea of the importance of governments as an employer of professional and skilled services, citing positions, two-thirds of them specialized, in which the university-trained person could be used for the improvement of public affairs, Dr. Brittain said that there were 1856 kinds of positions in national life. 494 in provincial and 1671 in municipal.

Duty of University

Demands Become Greater Each Day—Three Conditions to be Fulfilled

Finally, the more specialized becomes industry, the more complex become social relations, the more desires become needs and needs become necessities, the greater are the demands made upon educational institutions and the more vital their relation to public affairs. Whether or not we progress too rapidly, whether or not we make fatal blunders, whether or not we are able to preserve healthy individualism in a world of growing collectivism, whether or not we are able to preserve a proper balance between co-operation and coercion, whether coming generations will have greater fullness of life and greater facility in earning a livelihood, will depend largely upon our capacity to co-ordinate the processes of public affairs and of education, particularly university education.

In order to fulfill the just demands of its constituency on a university, it seems to me, that it must, first, give all students an introduction to citizenship through a practical understanding of how local, provincial and national affairs function and as to their own personal relations thereto as possible citizens and legislators; second, contribute at least in some degree to the ability of all students to earn a living, and equip a considerable number of students for earning a living in professional and technical fields for which the university can provide adequate facilities; and third, give all students in professional and technical courses at least some special training in the requirements in which their callings, differentiate public from private service.