THE POLITICAL ACTIVITIES OF GOVERNMENT 89

making money by speculation and investment, the strictest
secrecy has to be, and is, observed, till plans are complete and
the Chancellor can announce them in Parliament.

Industry to-day is greater and more complicated than it used
to be, and the tasks it undertakes are more ambitious. Compare,
for example, Bell's Comet of 1812 with the Queen Mary, or the
1825 Stockton and Darlington Railway, with the plan of
electrifying the whole railway system. Consequently, unaided
private enterprise is not always equal to the task; the Government
assisted the building of the Queen Mary, and is sometimes
asked to help railway electrification. A new Government activity
is arising—the development of the capital resources of the
nation—for which no Department exists. There are two bodies—
the Development Commission, which can advise the Treasury,
and the Public Works Loans Board, which, under Treasury
control, lends money to local authorities; but neither of these
considers as a whole the problem which has sprung up because
of changes in business. Looking after the income and expenditure
of the political Government is one task; studying the problems
of the State as a partial director of investment is another. The
latter task is likely to grow; the development of the Distressed
Areas is a problem still to be solved; and a regulated programme
of public works is one way of approachiig the Unemployment
problem. The present plan of leaving both tasks under Treasury
control dates from a time when belief in laissez-faire was stronger
than it is to-day.

THE HOME OFFICE.

The Home Secretary's business is to see that the peace is
kept; the power to check crime and bring offenders to justice
is in his hands, and he is responsible for seeing that this power
is used to promote liberty and not to suppress it. To some extent,
also, he is required to promote the personal happiness of citizens,
so far as that depends on Government action. This seems a
wide definition, and there has in fact been a tendency to load