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Show OUR MULTIFARIOUS COMMISSIONS They Are Political Machines Which are Consuming Consum-ing the Substance of the People. Whatever else they are, .there will be none to deny that every one of our appointed state boards and commissions are political machines whose members spend prodigious amounts of time paid for by the taxpayers, to say nothing of the cost of "official" trips so planned as to put the right man in the right place when needed and all to promote the political fortunes of tho appointing appoint-ing power. Few realize what these commissions cost. It appears that the Railroad Commission alone cost the people of the state $670,000 for the last fiscal year. Its main work is in settling quarrels 'between localities and industries and in furnishing investors inves-tors with information wheh they would otherwise other-wise have to pay for themselves or go without. Why should the taxpayers pay nearly three-quarters three-quarters of a million dolars a year for those purposes? pur-poses? The number of individuals who get any benefit bene-fit whatever from the operations of the Railroad 'Commission is infinitesimal. They do not affect af-fect the price which consumers pay for anything. They do very little, except gather data for investors, in-vestors, which would not get done if there were no such commission, and probably get done just as well. And, like all tho other commissions, it is a hotbed of politics. It does not pay the people to tax themselves so heavily to accomplish such work as the commission com-mission does. And, oven if there were pecuniary gain, it would be far out-weighed by the moral injury involved in supporting such a powerful personal political machine at the taxpayers' expense. ex-pense. Six hundred and seventy thousand dollars dol-lars a year is a lot of money to spend for such a purpose. , Doubtless, the Railroad Commission costs the people more than any other single commission, but all the others measure up to the full limit of their opportunities. We have a government of commissions and by commissions and for commissions. com-missions. The Railroad Commfssion is merely , the most costly of the lot. All that is necessary or desirable to bo accomplished ac-complished by all these commissions can be done at a yastly smaller cost to the taxpayers.- San Francisco' Chronicle. |