NON-PARTY ASSOCIATIONS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] Sut,—May I venture to suggest that the time has come for an amalgamation of a great number of excellent non-party associa- Cons and societies—I would not occupy your space with names— which have been devised with a view to bettering our political and social conditions, or curbing the wastefulness. of modern bureaucracy? About once a month the circulars of a fresh one appear, only headed by an imposing array of its committee, executive committee, council, secretaries, &c., and full of admirable suggestions for our improved welfare and prosperity. But the ordinary mortal becomes confused between so many bundles of good hay : he gives a guinea here and a guinea there, and thereafter receives a steady shower of reports of progress and requests for further support. No man nowadays can scrutinize satisfactorily the conduct and processes of a dozen such movements, so if he gives to all these he subscribes and supports without sufficient knowledge. But of one such move- ment he could inform himself thoroughly.
It must surely be evident to all unbiased men that all this induces a great deal of overlapping, an immense waste of effort, and a general ignorance on the part of subscribers; and that if those movements were all brought into one far greater results could be achieved. Quite recently one such society, to whose council I belonged, and which was doing very useful work, acted on the lines I suggested and amalgamated with another one, evaporating itself in the process; and I doubt not that the merge is more useful than both former and separate societies. The main obstacle to a thorough process of this sort through- out consists, I imagine (and not to put too fine a point on it), in the interests of those who direct and of those who draw salaries from these various undertakings. But surely we have recently suffered enough from the folie de grandeur! It is true that every one must live and that many wish to be heard; but in view of the high public spirit of almost all concerned, I cannot doubt that amour-propre might be waived, and that money interests could be satisfactorily considered if someone young, single-minded and active, and gifted with " the Nelson touch," would take the matter in hand. Were the right man to do as I make bold to suggest, and were he to carry the matter through, there should result one powerful organization which would be of real help alike in our present and in future times.—I am,
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