Mr. Bryce cites as one of the merits of our federal system of government, that the separate states can try experiments in legislation and administration; and that other states profit by the experience of those who first introduce new methods. Both of these statements can be supported by important evidence; but the benefits derived in this way have been much less than they might have been, owing to the lack of means for bringing the results of experiments in one state to the attention of other states. This Association can in some measure supply this need, and reduce the enormous waste in experimental legislation, by furnishing a clearing house for the interchange of notes on the work of the various states. And this paper is a small contribution in that direction, calling attention to some significant legislation in a number of states, and showing the correlation of measures apparently unconnected.

Local administration in the United States during the first half of the nineteenth century developed steadily in the direction of a completely decentralized regime. Our constitutional system inevitably made the local authorities subject to the state legislatures; and there was always a large amount of legislative control limiting the scope of local action. But within the limits of powers conferred by the legislature there came to be no administrative supervision over the acts of the local officials.