The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1944-01-07
FROM EDITORIAL COLUMNS
When You Say ''Bureaucrat" Think

The word bureaucrat is getting strong hold
1t is being used too sweepingly threatens distort
values and confuse our judgments.
suppose Frank Banks is bureaucrat. Ever hear of
Frank Banks? No? Well that probably just because he
bureaucrat If he worked for anybody Uncle Sam he
would be famous.
Frank Banks Maine You know it the second
sentence he speaks met him couple of years ago
Grand Couee Dam He struck then the possibly
great Americans am reminded of him by the fortnight
speech Harold L. Ickes made the other day Ney York
Frank Banks is the 'bureaucrat you call him
that who under bureaucratic administration up Grand
Couee Dam, the greatest structure is declared built
by the hand of AS chief of this imposing enter
$500 He got it when he started the job
1888 He gets today is the top salary the
gives in this grade.
For same job private utility would probably pay
Banks 100000 But there would be this difference Mr.
would get money but he probably wouldn't
such tremendous things to do
There curious breed of not necessarily confined
amongst that very group
referred bureaucrats who much interested
money in the work they doing Money? Oh it's i'm
portant But the job that is the thing that really maers
These with their curious outlook life found in
colleges and schools and churches and in libraries and
private business and everywhere They out building
DAMS of them They have singular strength and
arising maybe of their quaint outlook They often
modest fellows, but with vision and imagination
Sometimes they have inverted engineers poetry,
pressed pure of steel and the knowledge
of hidden strains and stresses justly balanced
'When damn the bureaucrats," said Mr. Ickes last
Tuesday 1--WE ought to take into account this wag dfferen
ta and count of credit to the employee
that for the satisfaction of serving his country he willing
to accept remuneration that another would scorn"
They tell that the Russians know and honor the
of the engineers who build their DAMS that they
household words We don't much for that sort of
thing perhaps because busy using the word bureau
craft But hundred from the stranger will ask
built the awe-nspiring poem Couee
and the guide will Frank Banks and John Savage the
designer And for all know their will be thous
and wears from now looks as ndestructb as the pyramids
in that desert air and million times useful
Well to end the story this Yankee this Frank Banks
by Mr.. Ickes Washington. The "Curmudgeon
values like this The desperately needed
administration he explained for Bonneville the completed
dam and power installation further down the river Ickes
offered Banks the job He brbed him 1t would be easier
and higher ranking task than Grand Coueeand $4,000
Did Mr. Banks spring for that extra $4,000? You know
The answer He protested with all his might with bit of
Maine in his growing stronger and stronger He wanted
finish the hstorymakng structure he was And he did
it, too, though temporarily taking ofer administration
the other task too until the could find
body else.
Next time you think of bureaucrat you might give a /
thought Frank Banks The word deserves quail
cations Mr. Banks is not alone. No live in Wash
without having personal contact many times with
Iue unassumng competent evidently we'll able to
higher salaries elsewhere who thinking of rewards not
alone enveopesRchard L. Stout in Christian
Science Monitor