Clearwater Republican. [volume] (Orofino, Idaho) 1912-1922, 1915-01-15
Can The Commission Form of Govern
ment be Adapted to County Needs?

Farm and Fireside, in the is
sue of January %, appeared the fol-
lowing article from the pen Of Her
bert Quick:
How's your county government?
Are you proud of it? Is it gov
eminent of which any citizen can be
proud?
have never yet seen an American
citizen who was proud of his county
government. If there is a county
government in the United States OF
which its citizens are proud should
like to hear from that county.
should like photograph of the coun-
ty officers who are responsible for
such exceptional and blessed condi.
tions.
/ don't say that there is no such
thing, but do say that have never
found it, and have been a student OF
the question for many years.
Something less than twenty years
ago had charge of an Investigation
into the affairs of Woodbury. county,
Iowa, and what found there will be
discovered to greater or less extent
in literally thousands of the five
thousand or so counties of the United
States.
The county supervisors COM
missioners in some states, and men,
bers of the county court in others
had fallen into careless and ineffi-
cient methods which had finally be-
come degraded into actual graft.
A supervisor would draw thousands
of dollars from the road and bridge
funds on his own warrant, put the
money in his pocket, and account for
it by turning in receipts for road or
bridge work. Some of this work was
done, and some was not. Most of the
receipts were signed by political sup
porters of the supervisors. To some
of them were signed names of persons
who never existed.
Everything the county bought was
extravagantly bought. Any dealer
who was willing to put in padded
bills could get the chance to sell his
goods.
There was regular system of let
ting bills go unpaid so that the per-
sons furnishing the goods would put
in the statement the second time,
after which they were paid twice
once to the firm to which they were
really owing, and again to one or
more of the county ring. In most
cases the merchant furnishing the
goods never knew of the double pay
ment. They had system of orders
and receipts by which the merchant
was kept in ignorance.
In some cases the approaches to
bridges were built and charged twice,
once to the road fund and once to the
bridge fund. The man who did the
work got one payment and the graft
ers got the other. The people paid
twice in these cases, and sometimes
three times.
A merchant sold some blankets to
the county for the use of the prisoners
in the Jail. He was allowed about a
hundred dollars on the county claim
register, but refused to accept pay
ment and sued the county. In court
he recovered judgment for all he
claimed, and was paid out of the judg-
ment fund. The general fund calm
he had refused to accept showed as
unpaid. Somebody on the inside went
to him and got an order for "any
sums due me from the county" and
drew the original bill over aagin. So
the county paid the original allow
ance, the amount of the judgment,
and the costs of the lawsuit. Rather
dear blankets!
Orders of this sort were drawn in
the names of people who had been
lead for years.
This is a sample of the sort of work
that prevailed in that county, and
which plunged the county in debt from
which it will not recover, the way
things generally go, for generations.
Not all county governments are as
pad as this was at that time, because
not all of them degenerate from ineffi-