The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1911-01-02

not been fOrec'osed In some way
which can hardly be possible. That
such work was accepted and paid for
shows loose inetncd cds And the damagel
done by the appointment Of dishonest
or incompetent men. which Is so
often the case when public positions
are treated as mere jobs.
But this Is no reason why A great
enterprise should be abandoned. Bad
management and unfit appointments
can easily be avoided In the future.
The way to do 1t Is to have q single
skilled executive head In charge OF
the actual work and the entire out
side force OF the department. He
should have the sole right to dis
charge men and, subject to the APP
proval of the board. to employ them. !,
and no work should be undertakenl
or accepted and no payments be,
made or rights OF any kind granteds
without his concurrence. The only'
natural and proper person for this is'
the chief engineer. He is appointed
and subject to removal by the gover-'
nor. SO that a trained and independ-
ent judgment is added to that OF the,
board and the purely executive work
Of the department should be placed
more fully in his charge.
While the board Is created by the.
constitution and must be retained, IL
has no powers except such as may.
be prescribed by law Cart. VIII, Sec
13) and these may be confined, as
have suggested, and those OF the
chief engineer enlarged.
The meetings OF the board are held
monthly and. with occasional special
meetings, these. would sufflce for It's
proper duties. But when the new
work was undertaken an amendment
of the law (97 v. 103) made the mem
bers superintendents OF the canals,
required them to give their entire
time and attention" and, as such OFF,
GERS, provided a salary OF $1,000 per
year each in addition to their ordin-'
ary salaries and expenses. II 10 ap-
parent that with engineers and su-
perintendents constantly In the held
there IN no occasion whatever 10 pay
for the same work, even II they were
qualified by training to do 1t. This
provision, now the first clause OF @.
G. 415, Is open to repeal, which | rec
ommend. IL the members render
real service as superintendent then.
with the six regular superintendents
employed at $1,700, and expenses
amounting to $500. each. there are
nine in all, though the chief engi-
neer, after familiarizing himself with
the service to be rendered. reports
that two would be ample.
Single Board For Institutions.
Further consideration and informa-
tion lead me earnestly to renew the
recommendation made at the last ses-
sion. which was as follows:
"The state now has 19 penal, re-
formatory and benevolent institutions
In operation, and when the hospital
at Lima is completed there will be
20. Each OF these has board of
trustees and a steward or financial
officer who makes purchases for 1t.
am convinced that all these institu-
tions should be put In charge OF
single board whose members devote
all their time to their duties. Such
board would, in my judgment. cost
no more, but less. than the amount
paid for salaries and expenses OF he
present 100 trustees and the salaries.
maintenance and expenses Of the 20
stewards. The total salaries alone is
$4,000. / can not give the amount
paid for expenses and maintenance,
but 1t is certainly large. This would
leave as clear gain the saving which
would result from purchasing sup
plies in larger quantities and under
a single system, which gain should
be very great. Then, too. you would
deal, at each session, with appropria-
tions for all the institutions as a sin.
gle subject, on recommendation
which proceed from constant study
and experience of them all by the
same persons, instead OF dealing with
each separately, as Is now done.
II mean no reflection on the mem
bers of existing boards, most OF
whom are capable and faithful The
defect is in the system. Meeting u.s.
ually only once each month and serv-
ing without compensation. except on
three boards which are paid h total
OF $1,000 per year, these men can
not and should not be expected to
give the constant attention which 10
needed; and even II they could, tho
great benefits OF single management
would be lost.
Take single instance. Building.
remodeling and repairing are con-
stantly going on at the institutions.
The inspector OF workshops and fac
tories secures the entire time OF
competent architect for $4,000 per
year. Yet in 1908 various boards, act.
Ing separately, paid to one architect
"a bills. aggregating $24.398.s6, one
item alone being s6.756.91. or more
than the yearly salary of supreme
Judge. Nor was this the total amount