Clearwater Republican. [volume] (Orofino, Idaho) 1912-1922, 1913-04-10
Public Economy Hard to Practice.

public affairs, no matter whether
state, county or municipal, is the
reduction of governmental ex-
penses. 1t has become such a
deep rooted custom for a new
board of county commissioners
or town council, to go stronger
and do a little more than their
predecessors have done, that it is
hard to eradicate the evil. It re-
quires a great deal of courage for
a board to dispense with some of
the employees that have been kept
on the pay roll, and it requires
courage TO call a halt in public i'm
provement when it appears that
Improvement is a necessity. But
without a display of courage and
a reduction Of expenses in gov
eminent there can be no change
in conditions affecting taxation in
this state. It is not up to the
state legislature and the state au-
thorities to do all of the econo-
MIXING and cutting Gown Of ex-
penses; some of it must be done
at home. Our county commits
sioners and village trustees should
follow the example of Governor
Haines and cut off everything
they can, even though it does
retard Improvement for a while.
Taxes should come down even
though Improvements are not
kept up. Let every dispensible
officer be discharged and the
place left vacant for a while. II
is not necessary to fill every
place that the law says may be
filled. Let sound business sense
govern in places where there is
no demand for the filling of posi-
tons that the law says may be
filled. The last legislature had
many petitions for the abolish
ment of the probation officer and
a bill was introduced providing
for the discontinuance of this po-
sition, but it got into the hands of
a committee whose chairman was
a probation officer and it never
got back to the house. Had the
legislature remained in session
three days longer the office Of
general road supervision would
have been stricken from the list
of snaps" that are filled by the
board of county commissioners.
Several members of the House
were former county commission
ere and they were unanimous in
favor Of the proposition that the
general road overseer was UNI
necessary. Can not our county
commissioners act on their own
initiative and dispense with the
the services Of the men filling
these places? If the board of
commissioners should submit the
question of the retention of the
retention of the general road
overseer on the list of a~ppointive
offices to a vote of the people
they would be surprised at the
number who consider the place a
useless addition to our official
directory.
Had the legislature been in ses-
sion one day longer a bill would
have reached final action and be-
come a law, that would COMPEL
the board of county commissions
ers to buy all their supplies and
do all of the county printing on
contracts based on competitive
bids for doing the work. Why
could not the board of county
commissioners do this without
waiting for a compulsory law to
be enacted on the subject? 1t
ought not be necessary to enact a
law to compel officers to do that
which they have the power to do
in the exercise of the discretion
airy powers vested in them.
Take it all the way down the
line and you will find that there
are many little items of expenses
that can be reduced by the board