And so it is impracticable and not by any means necessary to give the county quite unbridled liberty to control all its officers. Central supervision is a middle course that protects the state and instead of impairing, really conserves the county’s interests. The state, without instructing the county as to _what_ it may do with its purely local powers, may lay a firm hand upon it in telling _how_ to use those powers effectively. Such a course is conceived in quite a different spirit from the destructive sort of state meddling which was described in the preceding chapter, which proceeds from the legislative branch of the central government. What the state government actually does when it regulates or supervises is to hold up the county official to standards of performance. This is the proper work of officers or boards in the administrative branch. It relates not to _what_ the county shall do as a matter of broad policy, but _how_ the county shall redeem its obligation in matters of routine, detail and technique. The state agency may have only the power to “visit and inspect,” like the New York State Board of Charities, or it may, like the Comptroller of the same state, actually impose forms of procedure. In either case, local officers otherwise unstimulated to efficient work, as they must be under the present system of government, are thus given moral support from a responsible quarter. They are subjected to a cold, unescapable comparison with other officers in other localities and they are given the benefit of expert advice on many obscure and complex phases of public administration. [14] See _Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science_, May 1913. pp. 199-213. [15] Prof. John H. Boyle, _op. cit._, p. 203. CHAPTER XIV READJUSTMENTS So much by way of accepting counties as they are. “State guidance” goes a long way as a palliative of unsatisfactory conditions. It is a sort of permanent first aid to the injured. But the county needs surgical treatment! In some cases it is well to _fix_ responsibility. In extremities it becomes necessary to _amputate_. Bear in mind, to begin with, the fact that the county at bottom is really a piece of the state, a local agency. The prevailing practice of local election of officers and its logical sequence, local nullification, have done much to obscure the real interests of the state at the county court house, till the average run of citizens have long forgotten that the distinction exists; that officers like the sheriff, district attorney, public administrator and coroner are not strictly local officers at all but subordinates of the general state government.