Abstract
THE war has brought many changes of custom and condition, but none is so likely to influence national history as the method adopted in the choice of members of the new Government. For the first time the heads of departments of State have been selected because of their particular knowledge and experience, and not on account of political needs and exigencies. It has been assumed hitherto that a member of the party in power may become in turn the President of the Board of Trade, Board of Agriculture, Board of Education, and of as many other departments as political circumstances may require, without possessing any special qualifications to deal with the affairs of a single one of them. A new principle has, however, now been introduced; and the Government formed by Mr. Lloyd George consists mostly of men who know instead of men who had to be given appointments because of their political claims. The whole nation welcomes this first endeavour to reconstruct on a scientific basis its politics, its statesmanship, its commerce, its education, and its civil and industrial administration. It has been fashionable in political circles to distrust the man who has made it his business to know, and to assume that he must be kept under control by official administrators; but we hope the appointments to offices in the new Government signify that this view has now gone for ever, and Has been superseded by the one in which national use is made of the most capable men.
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At Last! . Nature 98, 285–286 (1916). https://doi.org/10.1038/098285a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/098285a0