The record-union., 1895-07-16
Weather Forecast.
A MATTER OF COMMON JUSTICE.

Some of the press Of the State is busily
engaged in warming the ears of the High
way Commissioners for 'junketing,"
travelling about from town to town."
examining into road conditions and COL
lecting statistics, and SO far as possible
advising with the people and Supervisors
about road matters. Here is San Jose
paper, for instance, roundly abusing the
board for '.junketing" and wasting time
trotting about at State expense. 1t is
told that il had better remain in its office
and work.
All which proves how dark the ignor-
ance, and how dense the asininity OF
newspaper, when it once resolves to
prove where it is plunging by elevating
its heels. The California newspaper that
knows enough to get to press. and the
editor who is capable of distinguishing
between grass and sawdust. knows that
there are tifty-seven counties in the State;
that the law creating the board compels
1t to visit each of these counties and hold
meetings therein once in each year. Pre-
sumably these same editors know that
there are but fifty-two weeks in the year
and that there are some counties that It
takes week to reach from anywhere.
The RECORD UNION is not the cham
pion of the Bureau of Highways nor is it
ha 1f hot
know where it is or where it goes next,
save as the dispatches and news notes in
dicate from day to day. Butthe RECORD
UNION is the champion Of fair play, and
was an advocate OF the system under
which the bureau is operating, and which
is copied after the Massachusetts system.
It therefore protests against these assaults
upon the bureau for '.junketing," be-
cause this travelling and viewing and
counseling is precisely what the bill un-
der which the bureau was created con-
templates and expressly commands. 1t
is the only way to get at the facts in the
road business. Correspondence and of1i-
cial reports have utterly failed to account
for the $23, 900, 900 loss in California on its
country road system.
The only way to correct an evil is to
ascertain its source. Looping off branches
will accomplish nothing so long as the
tap root of the tree lives and succors the
stem. What the bureau was created for
was to exploit the road question and road
conditions and find out what is the mat
ter" 1t is not to build roads. 1t has no
money for surveys or plans or plats. But
it is to search out ''the reason why" to
see with its own eyes and not trust to re-
ports of others. and tell the next Legisla-
ture frankly and unreservedly what the
matter is. Meanwhile it's, so far as time
permits it to be in its office. to advise all
who seek information concerning the
proper and economic construction of
roads, and it is supposed the members
will make special and close study Of such
subjects so as to be capable OF inteIli-
gently and profitably advising and coun-
selling as TO road matters.
So much Is due in common decency.
and 1t is therefore simple justice that
these assaults upon an untrisd commits
sion just starting out to do its duty
should meet with rebuke. The DISPOSE
ton is altogether too great in California
to assail public officials out of hand; to
fancy that every fellow except the speaker
is a rascal that every official trip is a
junket and every official act public
robbery. Let US have the common hon
esty to wait until the tree fruits and then
Judge by the crop that ia borne.