Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1914-02-27

= AS LII 1c%o1 ~N
trust the running of your affairs to a man of the first named
class, he would undoubtedly put you in a hole.
The day for the ssgood fellow" in politics has passed.
He passed off when the commission form of government
came into being; for that form of government fixes the
responsibility of doing or neglecting upon certain heads
and there is no way under the shining sun for them to es-
cape the responsibility; of course if he becomes one of active
factors in the government as they frequently do at its IN
ception, and he makes good, that is earns his salary, there
is no serious objection which can be urged against that, in
fact, that is an argument in favor Of efficiency, hold the
man that makes good otherwise eliminate him; the"good-
fellow in the game IS the one who tries to be eyerybodys
friend, that always agrees with the person to whom he is
talking, even if the next person interviewed holds opinions
and views dramatically opposite, and succeeds in keeping
this fact from those whom he comes into contact with; some
have been successful at that, but the time is here when the
people are starting to Judge their employees not by what
they say, but by what they do, by holding them to a strict
accountability in the performance of their duties; the day
for dual office holding g is passing, there are too many men
and women walking the street hunting for a job, to hand
over two or three offices to one man or for that matter to
one family and the sooner every body gets that thought
under their hat and acts and talks it, the sooner will enic-
|iency come into active being rather than remain a subject
for academic iscussion-whethe it is a desirable state of
affairs to have or not.
It's the thought that governs the business world today.
The old time politician was he whose main thought
was to spend his time SO arranging the distribution Of the
|plums that fell from his table in such a way and manner
|Inat they WOulQ IeluIH 10 Ills table AFTER many Gays ldden
with the "votes" of the family and the friends of the appoin-
tees; for instance if it was the appointment Of a police off
Ger the list would be scanned not for the man of athletic
build or superior intelligence or known capacity; that
would be the the proper view Of an efficiency expert but
did not enter into the calculations of the easy boss or city
hall gang; his man would be picked, lacking all these quail
ifcations provided however he had three or four sons who
were voters and especially SO if in addition to that he had
two or three daughters who were married and whose hus-
bands would "fall in line SO the old man could hold his
Job; that day is passing, and it will pass much quicker if
eternal vigilance pervades the community, if the commun-
Iity cries out or awakens public sentiment, it will seal the
doom Of the easy boss it will do more it will serve to loosen
the strings that tie him SO tight to his job. A meeting
to discuss any municipal problem, promptly brings the place
holder to his senses and while he may try to circumvent
any positive action thru the efforts of his place holders or
h~enchmen, yet how quickly will he trim his sails to beat
out the storm of protest and indignation.
Another easy method by which in the olden day they
retained the heeting shadow Of temporary power was by
the establishment Of seemingly necessary offices; berths were
made and filled and men put on the pay roll of the city,
when there was no more need for their services than for
the fifth wheel to a wagon, small cities especially were pos
sessed of a list of employees and attaches whose names
would fill a newspaper column, and while in olden times
the community would look with pride upon their growing
town as shown by the great number of employees, today
they are asking what is the need for SO many office holders,
it is necessary to get the view point of gang in order to
efectually cope with them and when you have your antag-
onists view point you are in q fair way to meet and over
come him.
For instance every place wants as many municipal i'm
provements as possible; why is it that those whose every
thought should be for the common good determinethat the
proper time to start municipal work that. gives employment
to a great number should be commenced upon the eve of an
election. Back of that is the fact that those in power see the
necessity of holding on to what they already have and getting
just a little bit more. It's SO easy to go up against a man
that's working on municipal work and get his support, but
things are different now.
The people are in power and they hire help that does