314 THE BRITISH APPROACH TO POLITICS

by rigorous standing orders prescribing a routine to be observed
by committees in dealing with contracts and responsible appoint-
ments; for ordinary labour they can instruct the surveyor to
supply his needs from the Employment Exchange. If standard
rules were universally adopted, the danger of corruption would
be lessened; but the best remedy is increased interest on the
part of the electorate.

PARTIES.

The party system which does much to stimulate public interest
in Parliamentary elections, is to be found also in local affairs,
though in a modified form. This is a natural, and in the main a
desirable feature. In every human character is the conflict between
the desire to preserve, and the desire to improve, between caution
and boldness, and as one element or the other predominates
men and women are inclined to one or another party. This factor
will operate in local as in national politics. From the account of
the work of local Government, if will appear that there are two
main questions in dispute—the desirability, first, of extending
municipal enterprises, and second, of increasing the social
services with the consequent increase of rates. These are simply
the local form of the chief questions of home politics—the
comparative merits of public and private enterprise and the
wisdom of altering the distribution of wealth by collective action.
Thus the Left, in local politics, stress the benefit of social services
to the community, while the Right draw their attention to their
effect on the rates. The Left advocate municipal trading, and the
use of direct labour, the Right claim that these practices lead to
inefficiency, and are an invasion of the field of private enterprise.
Tlie Left is, for the most part, the Labour Party, whose local
and national propaganda is closely connected. The Right appears
under a number of names, of which Municipal Reform, and
Ratepayers* Association are the most frequently used; their
organisation usually works in connection with the local Con-
servative Association. On some Councils there is a Progressive