Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1920-10-06
4 GOOD BEGINNING

a GOOD BEGINNING
The new city commission has organ
issd and appointed these who are to
all the various city offices for the en-
suing erm. The general attitude Of
an administration toward its official
duties is usually reelected with reason
able accuracy In the zchasaoter OF it,
appointments. Judged by this test It
may be said that the commission has
made an excellent beginning. s;s
II any private citizen were to nm
complete list. OF city appointees@ 1t 10
not at all likely that heswosad dupli-
cate exactly the commissions list.
Nor il It likely that any single COM
missioner. acting according to his own
Judgment, and without consultation
with the others, would have made all
of the appointments in which he has
concurred. Mems judgments differ
AZ to the qualities Of individuals and
the demands which must be met in
certain lines Of service. Where APP
pointments are to be made by several
men allowances must be made for
these differences or there - hopeless
conflict from the beginning.
In reaching its decision the COM
mission a adopted the sensible plan
of going over the situation informally,
opinion existed, and formulating q
harnOnizing whatever differences Of
pln which. while it may not repre-
sent exactly the preference of any
member does represent the composite
judgment Of the body.
The commission has wisely decided
to retain in the service of. the city
most of those who were already en-
ployed. 1t accepts these employees on
the basis OF their fitness and expert
ence. and intends that the city shall
have the benefit of their experience
rather than that it shall be plunged
into the turmoil attendant on a .clean
sweep" That is good sense and good
business. In the few cases where new
appointments have been made they
are, with one or two exceptions, of
persons who have already served the
city in positions Identical with, or
similar to those which they are now
to occupy. The commission hns shown
in this matter its intent that the bust
ness of the city sail proceed in an
orderly manner, with as little dis
turbance as possible.
Mayor O'Keefe has indicated in his
message his own attitude toward the
work which he and his associates
have been elected to perform. Reiter.
ating his conviction hat h new sys-
tom is better than the old, he never
theless declares with equal emphasis
that the commission form Of govern
ment will be a success only If the men
chosen as commissioners choose to
make it so. In this he oncur in the
opinions expressed by this p ever
since our discussion of city govern
ment began. He says frankly that the
city has been well governed under the
old system. He hopes for still better
results in the future through the
n work Of himself and his as
sociates under what he believes to be
an improved system.
The mayors discussion Of public
utility problems is interesting and re-
assuring. Quoting with approval from
a message, by his predecessor. he
commits himself definitely to the prin-
ciple that service Of ana kind, no mat
ter by whom rendered is entitled to
Its Just compensation. Applying that
principle to the service Of our public
utility companies, the commission
must put forth every effort to insure
to the people adequate service at real
cost. It must also displav
Willingness to see such rates fixed as
Will insure to the service companies
a proper return on all funds actually
m necessarily invested in their serv-
ice. On the one hand the rights of
the private citizen are to be protected.
n on the other those who serve our
citizens are no to be attacked without
cause or harrassed by unreasonable
and impossible demands.
Undoubtedly many persons vii, feel
that they could have suggested ap-
pointments better than some of those
actually made. But we believe that
the general sentiment will be that on
whole the commission has handled
g dfnicult problem very successfully
and tina there has been displayed at
TINS meeting OF the new body a spirit
which presases satisfactory work in
the future.