The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1925-10-06
HIGHWAY
PUBLICITY
is NOT NEW
Former Commission Issued
News Matter at Tax
payers Expense

The publication by the highway
commission of !; bulletin for news
purposes, which is being attack ed by
certain newspapers throughout the
state, is not Il pew proposition nor
was the idea originated by the pres
ent commission, il has been pointed
out by highway officials. The COM
mission which was previously IN
power issued Il similar bulletin and
carried on certain publicity work at
the expense of the taxpayers, It has
been shown. whereas the bulletin
which the present commission has
issued and proposes to continue so
doing, is issued at no cost whatever
to the state of North Dakota or the
taxpayers. In fact the records show
that small profit has been made
thus far and it is expected that a
profit will be shown each month.
This profit, the commission states,
will 90 back into the publication.
Subscriptions and advertising in the
bulletin provide the funds necc SSary
for its printing and distribution.
That the former commission be
licved in highway publicity IS evident
from the fact that James Pouporc,
son Of Commissioner j. 4. Pouporc,
was employed from January TO June,
1925, rs "officc assistant" at 4 salary
of 1925 per month. His time almost
exclusively was devoted to publicity
work From June, 1924, to Novembc
1924, Charles G.. Burke, Il college stu
dent, was employed as coffee assist
ant" at monthly salary Of 500. and
he devoted his time to publicity work.
Need For Publicity
The following from the fourth bl-
ennial report of the state highway
commission. July, 1922, to June 30,
1924, indicates that publicity was
considered of great Importance:
Information and Publicity.
There is believed to be Il great
need for some medium Of infor-
nation and publicity which will
give the public al idea of what
the Highway Dcpartn.cn: is doing
and what they hope to accom-
p!ish so with this idea in mind "
modest start was made during
the summer Of 1924 by preparing
mimeograph copies of interesting
data concerning Highway Depart
ment accomplishments and re.
leasing them to all daily and
publication. All of the various
papers in the state to whom
these news items were sent were
very considerable and invariably
printed such without cost to this
department. In ADDITION to the
news items present plans con-
template sometime in the future
when funds are available, to issue
monthly bulletin as Il medium
for supplying the public with
Information of interest concern
ing the progress, activities, etc,
Of this Department in the con
struction, maintenance and mark
ing Of the State Highway System
as such work progresses"
Publicity Man Does Other Work
The man who now holds the title
OF publicity director for the com
mission also performs various other
duties, among which of recent note
is the collection or adjustment OF
over $4,000 of outstanding account.
due the equipment department of tn.
highway commission. Nearly $4,000
in actual cash has already been col
lected, arrangements have been per
fected for the payment of sevcra
other thousands OF dollars. it is sale
that there will probably be severa
thousands of dollars which may have
to be written off as being of nj
meritorious claim against the re
spective counties or due to prior ar
rangements made before the present
administration took charge. Som,
other of these accounts, while prob
ably uncollectable, will likely hav,
to be put into the shape of lega
Judgments to prove that every legit
innate effort has been employed tt
secure collection.
The following is foreword con
tanned in a regular biennial repor
of the highway commission bcfor.
the Sorlie regime came into power
The State Highway Commits
sion has never felt that it had
sufficient funds to regularly
publish bulletin such as most
other highway departments get
ont. For this reason the people
Of North Dakota have had very
limited opportunity for becoming
acquainted with the work of the
department. The regular biennial
report gotten out by the State
Engineer being entirely too bulky
and expensive to print for gen
eral distribution, it appears very
proper at this time to get out a
supplement to the regular report