The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1913-01-26
BAD COUNTY GOVERNMENTS.


pal government in the United States il
to great extent failure. Tho did
ferent cities everywhere are cropping
around to find the ultimate solution
of the puzzling problem Of how best to
conduct their municipal affairs. 1t has
been assumed by good many that the
commission form WAS the ultimate solu.
| tion, the last word TO say on the sub.
iect of city government. But il is clear
that this is q mistake For. while some
improvements are noted in some cities
by reason Of the change TO the commits
sion form Of government, other cities
refuse to receive it. and there is a
growing insistcncc that something bet
ter must be found in order really to
settle the question And so, number
of the cities arc turning TO the PROPOSE
tiou of a one.man business manager as
the most promising outlook for the So
luton of the question of getting the
best form OF city government.
In the meantime there is not so much
said about county government; but that
the evils Of county government are
coming to attract wide attention is ap-
parent. On this point we copy the fol
lowing brief editorial from the Portland
Oregonian:
Probably American county govern.
menls are, upon the whole. tho worst OF
all our bad experiments In ruling our
selves. With shiuius exceptions they
are thrlftless and incompetent and oc
casionally dishonest. The glare OF pub
lIcity seldom reveals their transgressions
and they do about as they please. From
among lesser Ills There is now on foot
a movement TO haul county government
over the Goals everywhere and make il
more efficient No task could be more
useful.
There is no question but that the
county governments. upon the whole,
are very bad. The "shiuiug exccp.
tons among those that are "tbrift-
less and Incompetent aud occasionally
dishonest are few indeed. TO go no
further away than home, one can hardly
imagine worse practical administration
than that which has been afforded to
the people OF this county under the
commission form Of government, and
this has been constant evil, a direful
waste of public money, a shocking eS-
ample Of ineffective and grating i'm
beciity, for many years County Of
fcials take interest in public roads
chiefly that they may get good roads to
their own farms. And so il goes as a
rule. The position is utilized largely
for personal advantage, and the public
interests are not considered to have any
special relation to the work that the
county commissioners III fact do. An
instance of the abuse of ex-
tenaive power is under investigation
now in Carbon county, where the Couu-
ty Attorney makes a fierce arraigument
of dishonest financial conditions,
The work Of the county commission.
ers is done very largely in secret, and
1t would be costly business indeed to
keep tab upon the work they do. Pos
sibly the present legislature might be
costly county governments which we
have in Utah. Legislative attention
has very justly and properly
taken the roads out Of the hands Of
these incompetent county commission
ers. Their authority might be prop
erly clipped still further so as to pre-
vent, for instance, such a willfuI waste
of money as the putting up of county
hospital, when we have hospitals here
in the city that could and would treat
all cases that are ever likely to go into
the county hospital, at cost consider
ably less than the cost Of running that
ipirmary will be, to say nothing OF the
money invested in its construction. The
county commissioners should not be al
lowed power TO proceed in matters of
that kind without vote of the people
it. In many ways the couu-
ty governments are the most wastsful,
inefficient, and dishonest of any forms
of government OF administration now
in tho I'nited Sta+aa