The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1916-08-11
WHAT is NEEDED IN OUR
LOCAL ROAD IMPROVEMENTS

If a business man handled his pri-
vate business in the way we have
been running our road business, he
would go broke inside of a year. 1t
is lucky for us that we can't break
the ~tax-paying public; for no'matter
how lax we are, the money con-
tinues to come and the taxpayers con-
tinue to pay. Is It not our serious
and bounden duty to spend this
money wisely and in a scientific and
business-like manner?
In my county, we spent 100000
on our roads and bridges, thru our
highway commissioners, and as yet
Il have been unable to find out what
it costs per mile per year to grade
roads or to drag roads. One town
ship did know what it cost to drag
roads, viz: $1.35, which, however,
represented the total for the year
spent for dragging; yet eve there l
could not reduce it to mileage unit
cost basis.
The hardest job I have is to per-
suade some of our township officials
to keep an adequate set of books.
| have been told by n commission
er that his township did not need
to keep books, because everybody
was honest in that particular town
ship. | would pity this particular
commissioner if somebody accused
him of being dishonest and he had no
records to fall back on to prove his
honesty. This latter case actually
happened in another township, where
"a thoroly honest man, a commission
.er, was accused Of paying out money
to somebody for something that was
not done, and he had no record or
receipt at all from the man.
| would like particularly to call
your attention to the fact that | said
Ito keep an adequate set of books"
Statistics and figures are all right,
but if they are not the right kind of
statistics and figures, they are not
worth the paper they are written on.
For instance, | find that most of the
books simply show that John Jones
or Bill Smith had so many hours to
their credit for hand labor or team
labor. That tells us nothing. What
the people want to know is what
John Jones did with his shovel, or
what Bill Smith did with his team;
how long it took him to do it, and
what it cost to do that particular
kind of work. This what we call dis
tribution of accounts and unit costs.
If you follow this kind of book
keeping you will oon find where the
leaks are. Take one example: Sup
pose we knew that we were spend
ing $500 a year patching up a lot
of wheezy, decrepit, old wooden Gull
verts and bridges, and that when we
were thru sweating and patching and
spending our $500 we still had
nothing, and that we were still lying
awake nights worrying that some 20
horse engine was going to break thru
one of these so-called bridges and
fall on top our neighbor and kill him.
Five hundred dollars is 5 per cent
interest on $4,000. Would it not
be good economy and wise business
to borrow $4,000 and replace a
number Of these old ~culverts and
bridges with modern concrete struc-
lures that would safely carry the
loads imposed upon them and give
us something for u money, rather
than pay the interest on that amount
patching around and getting moth
ing? Concrete bridges cost money,
but I have yet to have anyone prove
to me that they are not IN economi-
cal investment.
You will at once say that all this
sounds very well, and that you agree
with me, but "Get us the money;
our income is limited and the people
will vote down any bond issue that
we might bring up for these things"
I cannot agree with you on this lat
ter point. My own experience in my
own county shows that the taxpayer
is a wise business man, and if he
IS shown that the money is being
handled wisely and that he is getting
somewhere near value received for
what he pays, he will vote right.