Great Falls daily tribune., 1920-01-08

taken care of. have some truth on their
! side
The Bureau Of Public Roads has about
/ $500 bGN,GD 10 spend this year. II used
to be run by a man named Logan Waller
Page. He drew the magnificent salary
Of $4,000. but he was rich man aud a
good engineer. Salary was no object
to him When be died and it came to
filling his position the salary was raised
to $4,000. Yet the highway commission
ers in many states draw salaries of Sl0-
0oo. and they have not tithe of respon-
sibility that rests upon the head of the
Bureau of Public Roads.
Another technical bureau of the gov
ernment is taking desperate measures TO
the law for man connected with a
government bureau to do any other work
in the United States. This bureau gives
its best men leave Of absence to go to
foreign countries and do work for other
governments and for private concerns so
that they may make enough money TO
return to the United States and do the
work of the American government.
One government bureau, in order TO
make its ease clear to the recla ssificatlon
commission, studied the fortunes of eight
Of its best men for a period of years be
fore and after the war This study
showed that their earning capacity ac-
tually rose until about 1914. 1t then
began to decline so that they are now
earning less than they did i'll 1917, so far
as power to buy the necessities OF hfe
is concerned.
Another study has been made in 1000
technical men who have left the govern
ment service. 1t shows that nearly all
of them have at least doubled their III
comes, and many have multiplied them
b. three.
You may find this hard TO believe, but
the work of the government IL done very
largely by men who are losing money to
do il. If every technical man in gov
ernment employ who has been offered
better job outside the government should
accept tomorrow. and leave, the govern
ment work would collapse. There are
many instances of men working tor Sd
500 or $1,000 a year who have refused
salaries ranging from $4,000 to $4,000
a year. because they wanted to see
through jobs which they had undertaken.
or because they were deeply Interested
in their work. But these motives can
not be relied upon to hold an organiza-
ton together and the government organ
i2ation is rapidly going to pieces.
These facts and instances speak for
themselves. Little amplification is need
ed 1t should be explained. however
that the government organization IN
Washington consists of about 106.oOO in
dividuals. all of whom are underpaid. OF
these about $500 are technical and pro-
fessional men. 1t is with these men.
and not with the clerks. that this article
deals. These technical and professional
men are the brains of the government
the clerks are its arms and legs. The
quality of the service which your gov
ernment renders to You depends largely
upon the quality of the brains with
which it fills its technical, professional
and administrative positions.
The activities of the government are
constantly expanding. 1t now advises
and aids some industries such as agri-
culture. it operates others such as the
railroads and the national forests and
the postal system. over others it exer-
cses a large degree of control. 1t is a
growing machine which touches the lives
of every one of us. Some of us think
it ought to grow still more, and Others