The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-10-26
COUNTY IMPROVEMENTS

| " duiniulStTuJlOHy anu Jop5 duu Ridl
Ipcrpetrated by the same, AZ proof tina
that administration should be continues
in control, 1t pleads graft as virtue
inefhciency as merit, and jobbery a
worthy of praise.
1t lays particular stress upon tn
work done by the county commission
ers upon the public roads; and yet righ
there is whore the county commission
ers have made their most conspicuous
failure. They waste on the averag,
about $4,000 q year either to no pur
pose or in constructing at the public
expense boulevards to their own resi-
dences. They neglect the great camI
of Bingham for the purpose of iobbine
the people for the benefit of themseve!
and their friends in road construction
and yet this is cited as something com
mendable, and the organ of graft and
grafters says that for this reason the
county administration should be sus
tanned. It was precisely on this &C
count that Mackay lost a thousand
votes in the county two years ago, and
we have no doubt that his administra
tion will be condemned to at least as
great an extent this year as it was
then. But the idea of putting forth
this conspicuous defect, waste, lobbery,
and favoritism as something for the
people to admire, looks as though the
organ of the grafters had gone de,
mented.
Again, the "Grafters' Own com,
mends the proposition to build county
hospitai at a primary cost of $l50,000
and an ultimate cost probably of over
100000, and yet nothing could be more
absolutely wasteful and needless than
county hospital, to say nothing of
the cost of maintenance and of salaries,
of perquisites, and of sinecures that
would inevitably attach under the
grafters regime to such county hos
pital 1t is absolutely sure that all
of the county hospital patients could
be attended to in the hospitals of Salt
Lake City far better and at much less
cost than they could possibly be at
tended to in the county hospital even
after 1t is built; SO that the building
and equipment OF such a hospital is d
sheer waste. 1t is miserable jobbery.
The building of new county jail is
also urged In behalf of the present
county administration If the jobbers
who put up that Job could be locked up
in the new Jail. the people would have
some compensation worth while for the
money that jail cost. We must confess
candidly, however. that this is. about
the most defensible proposition that
the county jobbers and grafters have
engaged in. The old Jail, built under
and for church administration, has
become leaky asa seive 1t never was
of much account, anyway. And the
new Jail is needed. Still, to plead as
merit that this Jail is being built
without increasing the taxes and with
out mourning Indebtedness, is q clear
giveaway that the county commission
crs are taxing the people far heavier
than they have any need to do. The
result is that they have extraordinary
revenues, needless under normal condi,
tions and conducive to. the graft and
peculation that have been so conspicu-
ous They have more money than they
know what to do with; and this is
condition that grafters always delight
in. 1t is clear case, if the county
commissioners are able to build jail
and county hospital, both in the same
year, without incurring any indebted
ness and without raising the tax levy.
that in ordinary years they will have
something like 100000 to distribute
among their friends in the interests of
jobs and steals
1T Is wonder that the organ did not
cite as conspicuous service TO the
public the fact that the sheriff after
undertaking to abolish the redlipht dis.
trlct IN this city and making a loud
proclamation that it should never run.
has allowed it to reopen in form
which the opposition claimed to be more
odious than before. Why does not the
organ claim this as a merit i'm behalf
of the sheriff, since il is so anxious to
P'e"p othc& VcLeCJS, shortcomings and
derelictions of duty and thievcry. as
advantageous In behalf of such plea
the organ might cite the fact that the
sheriff this year, through the appoint
ment of fifty special policemen, has
been able to make the underworld con-
tribute heavily to the church Repub.
hcan campaign fund. and that this is
also white mark in his favor.
The church Republican organ is Ger.
tainly making All exhibition of itself
this year, that will hardly commend
itself to anv voter of sense or honesty.
To plead graft as praiseworthy, neg.
iect OF duty Us worthy of reward. and
lobbefy and favoritsm in. public road
work and the neglect of roads that are
actually needed, as something to be
commended. is the stupidest campaign
clectioneering Of the year,
BETTER SPEAKER THAN SINGER,