Newspapers / The Franklin Press and … / Feb. 29, 1924, edition 1 / Page 6
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v THE FRANKLIN PRESS rMxy, February 23, 1921 Six ilcLEAN FAVOBS BUSINESS , ' - EFFICIENCY 1 GOVERNMENT In an address delivered ""before the liotariciub of .Elizabeth City, N. C, on Friajl'ehruary lSth, Hon. A. W, McLean said in part: ' ' ' .: North Carolina today is in the sarfte , J. relative position, from an economic standpoint, as a great business in "., duStry, which has, made very large outlays in the expansion of its plant facilities, besides constructing a sys tem of transportation at great cost, ' ' to enable the plant to be operated upon a sound economic basis. " To understand the problems in volved one must visualize the tre mendous investment which the State now has in. buildings ind. equipment for its various administration depart ments, its educational institutions, its hospitals and other similar units for sing the poor and afflicted, its de- partment for. the levying and collec tion of taxes, its Highway depart ment, .the activities of its great agri cultural departments, its penal insti tutions its 'fiscal department and the various other commissions and de- partments which constitute the plant facilities of the State government. It is a great business machine with probably a greatcr.namber of varied and complax prdblems to handle than most of the greatest business con- : 'Ctrus in the United States. It is , needless to remind you that the prob lem of supervising this great organ ization is becoming more difficult and complex' all the time. . New Method Necessary , The old days of simple andather slip-shod methods is government have gone and should never return. The .business' of the State has expanded . more than a hundred-fold.' Old facili ties have betj- expanded and. new facilities have been provided to meet the ever-increasing demand of demo '.. . cratic government for a larger meas ure of service to the people. Unless government meets the re- ' quireincnts put upon it .by these changing, conditions it fails in 'the purpose for which it was established. The ..main responsibilities imposed upon those who are responsible for government is, first, to govern honest- . ly, second, to govern, wisely and third, to govern efficiently. I think it can be .truthfully said that in all the his tory K government there has been less of jffvshonesty among the govern ment vfyficials of North Carolina, from tlretnrie the State was estab lished down tcythc present day, than could be found anywhere in the world. Generally speaking, government has leen conducted wisely and with a reasonable degree of efficiency in JJorth Carolina, taking into consider ation the fact that our system Was created when the needs were so en tirely , different from what they, arc today. , , Every well-informed man realizes now, however, that with the changed ....'..-conditions and the increase in the ' . number and complexity of the func tions of government, that greater effort must be put forth and new methods must be devised to provide for the efficiency in government which is manifestly necessary to take care of the future demand. With the utilization of steam, elec . tricity, the telephone, the wireless itid other similar inventions, a new industrial era has been created, and whrther.we wish it or not. many new aihI vastly complex obligations have been imposed upon the State. , To meet these obligations', govern ment must show a constantly increas 1 decree of business efficiency. This' ' is the real test that must be met, and r.nk-ss Vmeet-it successfullywe will Iiave to admit, sooner Or later, that !cmocratic government has failed to meet the increasing demands pf' ad vancing civilization. ; Eutines -Method in Government Service.' - There seems te have been for a long lime a very universal impression, that 'j-onnd business methods cannot, and : . indeed should not, be applied to 'j-'ovcriin'.cnt. ." I deny that there is any real -basis v - ' for any sudi impression. , On the ctoh-trarj-, there is , no reason whatever . .hy we should not ."apply , the "same principles and. practices,' which have iVicTuced efficiency in private busi- w ... ness.'tq the functioning cf govern jriciit. There have been i-o:i:t rather isolated, but none the less conspicuous exalnples, where, business economy and business metlfods have been ap plied to government .with compPetcftion and benefit of the Executive and success. . , . , . The great secret of business success in private affairs is to produce maxi mum service at a minimum cost. This same economic principle must be ap plied if we are to have real efficiency in government. , - Few men hold positions of leader ship in government seem to have clearly in mindne need for thinking of government in these terms. If you will study, as I have tried to do, ttyc reasons which lie back of the sufccjjss attained -by. some of the greatest business concerns of the country, you will find that the chief basis of such success is efficient service. Theman agers are proficient ; they study every item of cost for the purpose of ascer taining where any reasonable saving can be effected,4 Many of the larger concerns have a supervisory and consultative organ ization .constantly studying the best methods' of tfiiciency, including cost jiccount'ng. They realize, as eve-v intelligent business 'man must realize, that business . efficiency, after, all, is relative, and that it can be' created and kept up, not as a fixed science but as a result of constant effort. Someone recently asked one ,tof Henry Ford's managers what was th'e real basis of Ford's success, and the following reply was forthcoming; "He ' deliberately dedicates his scientific knowledge of mechanics and the art of managing men and things to his satisfaction of human needs and to the enrichment of the life of the average man or woman." ' In principle, I submit that this is a very excellent program to be applied' to government service. Summarizing briefly some of the essentials of efficiency in government Mr, McLean mentioned the follow ing: (a) Correct and ;adequate know ledge of the powers and functions of government in general, with particu lar icgarcf for that department or branch of government in which the service is being rendered by the offi cial and his subordinates. The foundation stone necessary to!LdUlc- rcuuu.ng. mat wn.cn is gooa, .-. nrorrr knnwle,! of' nrivate l.usi-! ,nlt reducing the cost to the lowest i' I ... - O - L ncss, is a profit and loss account, and that part of the bookkeeping which is usually referred to as cost-account-inoj. "I his hies- the observant business man to ascertain whether or not he is making progress in the matter of good management, and particularly whether or not he is pro ducing the service at a reasonable cost. In my opinion the greatest need of government service today is a modem system of accounting of keeping records in such a way , as , that not only the methods of doing business but the cost therdof can be reflected intelligently in periodical statements, to be made to i the public at regular intervals. This system should be so set up that the public can always understand what their government is costing them, the various sources of income and the manner in which the money is spent. The information should be published by the responsible-officers at - frequent intervals. There is nothing more important in public affairs than the fierce light or publicity, (b) The balancing of th'e' budget! in every department of the government, whether it be the State os some political sub-diviilfpn, is of prime inportance. This will' show whether or not current operating ex penses are exceeding current, oper ating incomer.. The present State law creating a Budget Commission has been of great service, and much good has been ac complished by the activities . of ..the Commission. - J. am- strojajta' in;,favor of a budget systen because it '.mean's intelligent state-wide stud and effi cient handling of the .fiscal affairs of the State.' ': ,; v ' .' . I belidve. however, that the present b-udget cotnniission . ! act should be amended so as to give it enlarged and more effective supervision ovCr the fiscal affairs .of. the State. ' The jGovcmor who is under' the present .act ex-officio .chairman of the, Com . . , . ( ' . ' - mission, siiouw- he given : greater powers to act when the full commis sion is not in 'session. Simnle ma chinery could, be 'provided whe'rebyl the Governor, with- the ;:.i.isvance of the secretary," now.' provided for in the act, should have the right, under the direction of the Commission, to tointantly supervise th methods ' pf accounting and other ifiscal operations of the various departments of the State' government, ,for the informa- Legislative branches, (c) Every item of expense pfgovernment, whether State cr kt au should be scrutinized and subjected to the test of public welfare, and necessity, and, if it can not stand such test it should be elim inated just' as quickly as a .prudent business man would eliminate it in the handling of his private business. (d) There should be such efficient service as that waste and extrava gance should be eliminated. . Every effort should be made to eliminate duplication 'of effort and outlay. I have no doubt bufthat a large sum could be saved annually, if this dupli cation, now so prevalent everywhere, in our National,State and local gov ernments, could be absolutely elimi nated, or at least reduced to a min imum, (e) We have been very dili gent in the past in finding out every possible source of revenue and in see ing that it. is' collected. We should exercise the same, and even, greater diligence, in an effort to see that every dollar expended for govern ment service has contributed a dol lar's worth of service to the public welfare. , ; ', Cost of Government. One of the most serious problems of the present day. is t'hp constantly increasing cost . of government. Thoughtful citizens will reflect and then asC the reason for the increase. They will no doubt find that much of the increase is inevitable because of theincrease in population and wealth and the necessity for enlarged. activ ities on the pari of the government, particularly on account of the expen ditures .necessary to provide for the expansion of the educational system and our benevolent institutions, de manded by the people themselves.. I believe the time has come to make a careful survey and provide our selves with an inventory., of what we have what has been accomplished, and what is the cost. We should, .then, resolutely go about the task of, discarding the useless and impracti- point, compatible with sound busi ness judgment and.ihe public good.-. One of the great needs of the pres ent day is to have our business men take a more active part in seeing that sound business principles and methods are applied to the business of government. After all, good gov ernment is founded upon the same economic principle as good business, that is, maximum service at mini mum cost. - We should learn that public' busi ness is, the most, important of all If you hav irvlmit Logs to pffer andvill advise me what, quantity you hqrye and if such offerings in the County are enough to uiakc a car or more than a car of logs, I would like to'begin Jmying them about March 1st next. . - If ye can get the quantity, will pay the following prkes,' viz : No.2 TJogs'will 7unHaccording taleiigth"an(J"siies'"frbrF $15 to" $25 per 'thousand feet. No. 1 Logs will run from $30 to $75'per thousand feet log meas ure, according to sizes and lengths. Wc will be glad to have your advice as to wiat you will sell us ahfl'wiH give you and prices in it. esc business. We can suspend our pri vate 'business affairs for weeks or months, with no serious injury except perhaps' small pecuniary loss, but if the busfiiess of governmcn? is sus pended for any period of time our private affairs would be of little mo ment, because confusion, chaos ami serious damage would probably resist to a lar er of people. We ltavq. less and civic organi- zations,S ie Rotary Clubs and ot to the promotion of busi leness. Manyot these staffs s retain large erts to study aifd recommen est methods to be applied to private business activities They promote the great principles of co-operation and concert of action, to bring together groups of business men to solve business problems on the basis of experience and scientific knowledge. The1 universities . a,nd technical schools are constantly engaged ,in rer search work in order to "discover the best methods of management of pri vate enterprises. These' agencies, unfortunately, are giving very little of their time and effort in discovering the best meth ods for the management of the af fairs of government the greatest business of all, because it touches the life of every citizen.' If I can leave any thought "with you today-, I should like to feel that iii what I have said I have awakened in you the' de sire to take a keener interest in the promotion of good government, which, after all, means that govern ment which is conducted honestly, vvisejy and most' economically. B-tt4U0 m A 1 ..fTr'l'A.k-i MiTil I' rv "V l Mi ; 'WW d l ie b Out of every 100 chicks hatched, 50 ordinarily die. It is the ex perience of poultry raisers who use Purina Chick Star tena that they raise 95. It is the most perfect baby chick ration ob tainable and is sold on a positive guarantee of double developement or money back. MACON COUNTY FARMERS' FEDERATION, Inc. WALNUT LOGS. a Specification Card showing WH, L . North Skeeiiah Iteiris. Mr. E. L Dehart had to leave hi job at East La Forte, on account of sickness at home. . Misses Nellie and Marie 'Cabe, of Riverside', were visiting their aunt. Mrs. J. C. Sanders, last Thursday and Friday. V . , Mr. John Farmer, and "two- sons, Johnnie'and. Charlie, left for Com merce, Ga., last Thursday. Mr. Jake Stockton and sister, Nina, left last Thursday for Toccoa, Ga., to vbit their sister, Mrs. Ruby Bell. Mrs. Pearl Southards, of Teresita, was visiting her parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. C. San'ders, last Saturday and Sunday. 1 ' -Misses Clara and Mae Shope were the guests of Miss Hester Sanders last Sunday afternoon. '",'.'.' Mrr Lawrence Hasting was in this section last week. Mr. Jim Cabe, of Riverside, vvas visiting his sister, Mrs. J. C. Sanders, last Sunday. ; Messrs. -George Kinuey and Frank Shope were visiting at Mr. J. C. San ders' last Sunday evening. : Mr.. Freeman Hasting was visiting on Allison Creek last Sunday. Messrs. Ted Blaine and C L. Hushes, of Cartoogechaye, passed through this section Saturday. "PAPA'S DARLING." ifirsk v STOMACH LIVER.KIDNEYSBLOOD t F. f. SMITH J STA9TBU4 TH BUTTERMILK HU 'OR SURTINi UBY CHICKS sizes, specifications McCOY. '' ( (
The Franklin Press and the Highlands Maconian (Franklin, N.C.)
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Feb. 29, 1924, edition 1
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