Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1907-02-22

eisEaARcK DAILY TRisUNE, ri
must have men Of that caliber. How
does the government get its men?
Look at our government industries
and see for yourself, Graft, not abil-
| ity, political influence, not efficiency,
dictate the offices. 1t is very plain
that the best ability Of the country Is.
not In the employ Of the government.
And what else can you expect? Here
Sis poorly paid Job with an oppor-.
tunity for graft. Who wants such a
job? The CRATER How then do you
expect results? How do you expect!
progress? How do you expect initia-
tive and enterprise?
But we need efficient labor as well
as capable managers. With such
managers as / have shown you the
government gets hiring the men, in-
efficient labor is the result. The abil-
Iity of an employe under government
Ownership would depend upon political
pull instead of business push and.
energy But even outside Of this polit-
lical influence the laxiness and incom-
potency Of government employees is q
standing joke Secretary Shaw, the
| financial authority of the United
States, in speaking Of the work Of his
department, said that although the TO-
900 people in his service we're as good
as government employees go, he be-
lieved that a private corporation could
do the same amount of work with one
third the number of laborers.
Having shown you the kind of man
ayers and men the government gets
my last proposition naturally follows
that the government cannot run a
business on business principles be
cause Of Its extravaganza and waste
fulness. In other words, the govern
ment does not heed those economies
of business on which success depends.
/ With such managers and labor as the
government gets, how can It How
can manager whose influence is pol
/ itical, who has no special preparation
for the business, be expected to attend
Ito that business, to save in repairs and
to utilize by-products? The govern
ment printing Office is a good example
of the way in which a government
4 business is managed. Here we have
an immense plant worth $40 ,0O0. 900,
depending yearly 81, 900 900. Investiga-
ton by committee has shown that
i this plant is turning out inferior work
at from one and one-half to ten times
the price charged by private compa-
4 MES. Extravaganza and lack Of bust
ness management are given as the rea
sons. Big wages are paid the com
positors, but the man who directs this
enormous expenditure receives only
j $4,000, probably the poorest pay for
such work in the United States. On
1 the first. Of this month the business Of
4 printing the stamps was turned over
Ito hte American Bank Note company,
4 a private corporation, for the reason
that the work could be done by them
cheap enough to warrant such q
change. But this kind Of business
method In an enormous industry like
4 the railroads and the disastrous result
can easily be forefold. S@
Instead of taking this rash steps let
us rather resort to the saner expedi-
emit, that of government regulation.
i Control has not yet been tried to any
great extent in the United States. The
railways have grown up unregulated
and the people have just awakened to
a the fact that some thing must be done.
What has been done has proven sue
cessful, as my colleague will show. II,
i then, government ownership and oper-
alton is SO fraught with political dan
gers, if it is utterly impractic cable be
cause Of Its very nature, II the govern
ment cannot run this business on bust
ness principles, and, finally, if this
policy cannot meet the immense prob
lem Of development, we maintain that
1.-The federal government should not
4 own and operate the railroads.
Arthur i. Morgan.
The fifth speaker, Arthur 7. Morgan
i of Montana, Affirmative, said IN part:
We Of the affirmative have shown
4 that there is need for reform in the
present system and that present laws
4 are unable to remedy the situation,
4 that they must necessarily be in the
i future because Of the very nature of