The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1921-02-28
Valuable Lesson
in Road Building
CONTINUED from Page u

equip itself with eminently fitted
representatives In this struggle, OF
the losses In poor roads and unjusti
fed prices will be appalling.
| had hoped to build up such ar
organization for Wisconsin. Until
the public mind grasps the situation
and supports proper scale of sal.
aries in the public service l am con.
WINGED that ! cannot succeed. AS fast
as we train men, the best are picked
for service in the commercial field.
In 1920 the commission lost q per
cent of its principal employees, and
indications are that the losses in
1921 will be even greater. This will
continue to be the case until the
public realizes that it must protect
itself by paying more nearly the
market price for highway training,
business experience, brains and
energy.
The situation facing the state
highway organizations is serious, but
the situation in the county highway
organizations is infinitely worse. The
salary paid the county highway COM
missioner In most of the counties
does not attract, or IL 1t does attract,
cannot long hold in the service the
type Of men who should and must
! fll these important executive posi-
tions. In a large fraction of the
counties the clerical organizations
charged with the accounting for (ex-
penditures often reaching into the
hundreds of thousands of dollars is
not as adequate as would be required
to operate properly not too busy
corner grocery store. Despite all
that the commission has preached
and sought to teach, the last few
years have seen but little improve
ment in the average standard of the
county organizations, while the ex-
penditures have mounted apace.
There Is little that can sense in
the present. public attitude toward
public service to make it possible
to hope for any great improvement
in the situation. Petty savings to
be made by reducing the compensa-
ton of already and always under
paid public servants are dragged
forth constantly in all UNITS Of gov
eminent as the panacea for all tax
evils. Waste at the bunghole is lost
sight Of, while, pin prick thru the
head of the barrel is magnified into
q geyser. The people cry for effici-
ency in public expenditures and then
strangle 1t, still-born, by i'll conceived |
and shortsighted financing of the
supervision of those expenditures. It
seems impossible to make the peo-
pie, as a whole, realize that il the
entire expense of all national, state,
county and local legislative, execu-
tive, and clerical stats were elm
mated frop their tax bills, they
would sense no appreciable differ
ence in their individual taxes. So
much attention has been centered on
the mole hill of public service ex-
penditures that little regard has been
paid to the mountain of public waste
resulting from inadequate and ILL
paid stats Of public servants.
The consequences of this general
public attitude is not so serious when
only routine clerical public business
Is concerned, but when the states
come into contact with an open COM
,etitive market for skilled service in
great construction enterprise,
where the public buys hundreds of
Millions of dollars worth of ma
'hinery, materials, roads, and bridges
rom corporations, firms, and individ-
lals who equip themselves with the
'est brains and experience that the
market affords, the only possible ul- j