Show EXPENDITURE CONTROL 1 Observations by a on an Editorial Entitled 1 Expenditure Control in T The e Telegram of November 18 1931 I It Is Is' clearly evident in m the first paragraph of the editorial l Expendi Expenditure ture ure Co Control and from there on oh that the lie editor wishes there could be a reduction in the salaries of public servantS and andin of people wh who make their living in the public service He also feels that the handling handling han ban dung of public funds is uneconomic and that public work costs inore t than an work vork handled by private corporations or r individuals J JIt It must be admitted that this year yeara a great d deal l of public work has been handled in an m uneconomic manner in n state county and city work and roads and streets for instance machin machinery ry has been dispensed dispensed dis dis- with to a very great extent and md the work done by hand labor Jabor Even this hand labor has bas not been handled by the most economical methods Th The work has been rotated a man would have job a-job for a day or ora ora ora a week and then give way to some other individual However this method of performing the work has hascen been cen in response to an urgent public I demand and at the height of a naI national na- na I ional emergency Heretofore we have lave been wont to measure public work by th the yard ard but this year as noted at the highway convention held here hae recently we have been asked to measure it by heart heartbeats beats A great deal of public work wok is per per- performed formed by contract Including the building of roads schools and other public building buildings and of f course is thereby handled as cheaply as it could be done under any form of private effort It can probably be shown h wn that thata a public school costs no no more to run than docs a 3 private school Th The steadily increasing rise in iri the percentage of the of people employed in public work to the thc total population is certainly In response to fo a public demand and could occur for no other reason Of course if a aman aman aman man wanted to put his automobile away and walk Instead of riding i it probably would do him good one and then we e would not have ave to spend so much money to kee keep up the roads and streets In short it if we wanted to go b. b beck back ck to the little red schoolhouse school- school house mud muddy mudd roads loads tin bath tubs tub and red flannel Underwear it would not cost as much to maintain our public pub pub- lie lic institutions as it does today After Alter all in the matter of public expenditures what is the true function function tion ion of government t I believe it can be shown tb that t th the function of goy goy- is not to save money its function unction is not to make money Rather Rath Rath- er the function of government is to spend money wisely We can can do no nc nomore nomore more than to give the public what i it demands in the way of service er erce ce and public works and of course in times like ike these when the funds have been spread out in an endeavor to employ as many people ople as possible we belIeve believe be- be lIeve that that Is spending money wisely although under ordinary conditions conditions con con- it would be an uneconomic procedure One bright way often orten suggested for helping kill the depression is to cut the he salaries of public A reasonable inquiry suggested under this head would be Are these salaries salaries salaries sal sal- aries now about fair or are they even too low in some instances Another would be Are the duties and responsibilities responsibilities of public officials and em em- Increasing or d decreasing And finally do or do not public help the prosperity of their communIties communities communities by spending money in them especially in those communities in which they happen to be concentrated ed ed as in county seats scats and state capitals cap cap- |