The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1902-06-13

the new capitol. He is also further
quoted as having said that there will
be "a plethora Of furniture for the state
CAPT Of, and that there will be found to
be big surplus on hand after the
rooms of the new building have been
equipped to the point Of overf1owing.'
He calls attention to the fact that un-
der the original arrangement the cleo
tive officers were to have new furni.
ture and appointments, while the men
who hold merely appointive places
We're to have the old. Why this sort
of a plan was considered is not known,
but the evident hypothesis was that
men who held positions only by the
grace of those whom the people have
elected should not be too particular
and should be satisfied with any .told
thing"
Laudable as this course of reason
ing must have appeared to be to those
who employed it, the state furnishing
board was evidently differently mind.
ed and could not see any Justification
for such prejudiced differentiation. In
the minds of it's members no distinc-
ton should be drawn between the
elective and appointive officers, as all
are serving the same liberal and kind
" disposed master and the service
rendered by the one, while possibly
not Sc exalted or literally .renumerat-
ed, is just as necessary and ungrudg-
ingly given as that of the other. Then
why make a difference in the soft
ness Of the chairs or the richness of
the upholstering? A man in a sub
ordinate position may have just as
high an appreciation of the beautiful
as the one in the superior position of
an elective officer and may be expect
ed to have just as much regard for
his bodily comfort. His v takes
the same satisfaction in viewing desks
and other furniture fresh from the
shops and Respondent in glossy warm
ish, and his esthetic mind finds the
same comfort in being exercised over
tables that are free from scratches
and devoid of the. initials of his pre-
decessor, craven deep into their tops
by a blunt jack knife. Even the knowl-
edge that he may be using a desk that
has once done duty for a governor
or other high Official. if it is marred
and broken isEno compensation for
the lack of beauty possessed by a
newer article. No matter what the
other fellows might say, he would al
ways feel that he was the orphan boy
at tile frolic and the recipient of
things cast off by them. Thus reason
ed the board and when it set, about to
order furniture it saw to it that no
body should be sighted.
But in the goodness of it's collective
heart i. seems to have overdone the
thing. It appears that after all the ap-
pointive officers had taken their pick
and supplied their respective rooms
enough furniture still remained to
furnish a few more rooms, or as Mr.
Calderhead is said to have expressed
it, there was sc lot left on hand"
rather vague and indefinite, it is true,
but BECAUSE of the very vagueness x
pressive of . considerable quantity.
What will be done with the plethora
described by the auditor is not known.
Probably some use will be found for
it, a use that has as vet not been
made public by the men who are re-
sponsible for the states possession of
a stock of furniture that seems destin-
ed to find shelter and protection in
some she'd or outbuilding.
But fc: all that it speaks poorly for
the men whom the state entrusted
with the responsibility of being it's
purchasing agents and shows them to
be possessed of judgment and discre-
ton Of a kind that does not commend
them to those in whose behalf they
acted.
WAS UNCONSTITUTIONAL