Los Angeles herald., 1910-09-20
REs1GNl

general malfeasance of the highway
commission, which is printed elsewhere
in our news columns, without entirely
agreeing with the committee that the
members of the highway commission
ought at once to resign the work into
other hands. The investigators who
make this suggestion have uncovered
a mess that is discreditable to every
one responsible for the delay in high
way construction, and the report de-
stroys every and any excuse for their
longer remaining in charge of the
work Furthermore. the members of
the "solid three" of the board of county
supervisors, Eldridge, McCabe and
Nellis, whose vicious meddling in this
great undertaking is shown to be the
fundamental cause of a disgraceful
situation, ought also to betalxe them
selves TO private life.
Contrast this highway enterprise,
inaugurated with all the opportunity
for success enjoyed by the other large
undertakings here, with the aqueduct
and harbor enterprises. In the former.
freed from all connection with the
petty politician, a competent board
and engineers began the vastly greater
work of bringing from a distance of
29O miles a water supply sufficient for
two and half million people. In less
than three years the work is nearly 20
per cent completed, and more than
million dollars has been saved from the
original estimates.
The highway fund of $500, ,000 voted
by the people of the county for the
immediate construction Cor as fast as
it could be accomplished) of 315 miles
Of good roads in this county, was at
once seized upon by the majority su-
pervisors as a rich source of political
pap. Only the vigilance of the advisory
board Llevented the secret sale of the
bonds by the supervisors at a premium
that would have meant a loss of ap-
proximately 100000 to the taxpayers,
and now, more than two years after
abundant funds have been at the dis
posal of the highway commission to
prosecute the work with vigor, a few
or three miles long, have been done.
Nothing worthy the name of a sys-
tenn of roads has been undertaken.
Dereliction and incompetence and in
difference have characterized the job.
The ever-present supervisors, true to
their records in other respects. used a
weak commission to juggle the work
and the money to their own political
ends, even to the extent of running the
commission, down to the detail of petty
clerkships, for political workers had to
be taken care of with a part of the
public fund. The very situation it was
tried to avoid when the commission was
named came about in more aggravated
form than was ever pictured in the
public mind.
Finally, when the situation becomes a
scandal, an advisory board endeavors
to get the machinery going with some
regard for the impatient public, only
to stack up against the revelation
that the arrogant "Tuss'' Eldridge was
in full command OF the situation and
that anything it might do would only
bring insults from the triumvirate he
does the thinking for 1t is scarcely
to be wondered at that the board de-
veloped into a mere scolding committee
when it finally found itself a buffer be-
tween a hostile political board and a
and servile commission on
one side and a committee of probers
with sharp sticks on the other.
so we say, contrast the aqueduct en-
terprise with this wretched mess to
get a full appreciation of its badness
and of what peanut politics, of which
"Tuss" Eldridge is our best living per-
sonifcation, will do for any job, and
then say whether the people of this
county can afford to permit the con-
ditions in the county to go on a minute
longer than Eldridge's legal tenure re-
quires.
The recommendations made by the
investigators as TO a way out of the
tangle are obviously the only
that could have been
reached. The work ought to be, must
be, divorced from politics-which
means the supervisoriaI three. The
its own good repute and the public to
resign and let another commission take
up the work, and the new commission
must be given free hand to employ
a managing engineer who is a business
man as well as a technical expert,
capable of meeting all the demands
that naturally fail to one who has to
cope with so large an undertaking.
Men of the largest obtainable caliber
are needed for the work if the big
sum at the disposal of the commission
is not to be largely wasted and quality
is not to be sacrificed in the character
of the roads.
The Investigators are right in saying,
not likely to be found willing to take
up the work without a remuneration
that will make it worth their while.
The sooner the public can get the bad
taste from this muddled affair out of
their mouths the better. And the first
step in that direction will be the resig-
nation of the highway commission so
that the way will be cleared to take
up the suggestions for completing a
work that ought now to be well on
toward completion instead of just be-
ginning.
Representative McKinlay told the