The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1923-07-05

JectS and see what he could do by
way of reorganizing and putting
them on a better business basis
When he got back and made his re.
port, 1t was announced that the Rec.
lamation department did not need &c
much of engineering now and thai
1t needed more of business sense
The old engineer, A. p. Davis, CHIEF
OF the service, was asked to resign
which he did. F. e. Weymouth, the
younger man, the assistant who had
been handling very large bulk Of
the work for many years was made
chief. D. w. Davis, the commits
sioner who had been sent out as ar
observer, was relieved as commits
sioner and appointed to fill a new
position of director.
Now comes the Idaho Daily States.
man, published at Boise, and says
that there is something mysterious
about it. 1t intimates that there Is
something wrong, and that A. p
Davis was removed to get him out
of the way of some unholy plan
which somebody wants to put across
1t intimates that D. w. Davis was
appointed to put the unholy thing
or things across. 1t intimates that
A. P. Davis has been grossly wronged
because, after holding the same job
for thirty-fie years and being well
paid for his service, that he is let
out and not given any more explain
alton than has been given in this
article. 1t speaks of D. w. Davis
as one who may be expected to do
something that would be a discredit
to the department, and yet in all it's
differences it does not explain on
what theory or what circumstances
it bases it's suspicious. To people
who know neither one, there is but
one conclusion to be reached, and
that is that good, capable man has
been dismissed to make room for one
who is not so capable nor so de-
pendable. The Statesman does not
exactly state that D. w. Davis is
not dependable, but it does say that
A. P. Davis has guarded the peoples
interests and the governments in
terests and that in letting him go,
we lose his guiding hand. BY in
ference it leads the reader to think
that D. w. Davis, the new man, is
not to be depended on for those
things.
The Statesman does not say that
D. w. Davis is not sound on recla-
but it says that he is not
an engineer; it quotes a New York
paper as saying that he was once
grocery clerk and afterwards q
banker and then governor, and the
inference is that being promoted
from grocery clerk to banker and
governor is proof that he could not
design business methods for twenty
six reclamation projects. 1t does
not say that A. P Davis, the old
gentleman recently dismissed, knew
anything about business or that he !
lad any business sense outside of |
to keep out extravaganza
hat was branded extravaganza on
is face.
Sometimes petty business methods !,
ire the most expensive and extrava-
rant of all. Sometimes an organ
ger like Ford can launch out with
increased wages to the men and
greatly increased orders and greater
'olume of business, and get vastly
more done in a 1.-THE of the time and
- ~ Cl SOoto PCl uHlJ u0 luduO
statesman may be as one color blind
n all these things, for it has said
othing in all it's daily discussions
has merely dealt out differences,
nd they have all been to the dis
redit of the Idaho man and a left
anded defense of an aged engineer,
Tho, for all we know, may be in
apacitated and only a dead-weight
starding the achievements of his de-
artment.
ID. w. Dawes reOrganized official t
iashington and Topped off millions t
useless expense everywhere. Will t
. Hayes reOrganized the postal de- i
irtment and Topped off useless help c
Id cut out obsolete methods and a
eeded up efficiency. 1t may be n
at the man who had the spunk
I'd the brains to go from a coal mine e
a grocery store and get a job and Is
axe good at it, and then proved il
worth to the extent that he be- a
me successful banker and AFTER
lrds governor and president of the c
estern States Reclamation Asso- r
ltion, may have seen enough OF
plumbers to be able to 8
nvince the secretary Of the interior A
at it was worth while to appoint IL
N to go out and study fro mthe OF
tide of all those projects and come st
ok with his observations and rec az
and when he came d.
ok, 1t may be that his chief who v
1t him out was convinced of a of
ID many things, and acted on those tn
lvictiOns when he relieved the tr
I'd engineer and closed that Office
made new position, that of "a
'iness director. er
f the Idaho Statesman knows bu
thing definite it should publish on
or three paragraphs in which in,
tell exactly what it means. and WE
at it knows. Having said that, it Tia
lid be at a good stopping place tic
should quit. 1t isn't fair to w
no nor to the department of rec lor
ation to go on like a heckler and th.
not heckle anything. DIR,
.f.-- ~,