THE BEAUFORT NEWS THURSDAY DEC. 2, 1926.
PRESS GLEAN1GS
IMPROVED COUNTY
GOVERNMENT ;
Will Oppose Emer- t
gency Judge Act When
The General Assembly
Meets
PAGE THREE
GUARDING EXPENDITURES
The fourth major function to be
(Continued from page one)
building ther oad on the new route
I i-iiiy i-.i-). ins voit on me vet
eran's Loan Fund was slightly la.'ger
and provisions of the act will be ff
'ective at once. A commissioner is
to be selected by an advisory Coun
cil to enforce the act and J. P. Foun
protected in county government is ; w'"h the allegation that the Commis
the matter of expenditures. The sio" was not carrying out the man
counties of the state are spending, I date of the Supreme Court on the
in addition to the rpppin from bond ' matter.
of lack of cooperation from county
?uperintendent3 who wereasked for
information touching school finances,
but Dr. M. S. C. Noble, of Chapel
Hill, had much data on the subject
of teachers training which was given
tain, of Salisbury, is an applicant for ! serious consideration. The matter of
the position. He is a World War finances and schol administration
Veteran and thirty-six years of age. are to be studied closely before the
issues, thirty-five million dollars a
year. Are they getting a dollar's
worth of services or goods for every
dollar expended? It is safe to 'say
they are not. What is the margin of
loss? It it ten percent? If so, the
counties are losing each year an a
mount which is twice as great as the
State Equalizing Fund. Supose it
is twenty percent. . If o,-.it is an a-
mount sufficient to build 200 miles
of concrete highway every year. Are
the counties losing ten to twenty
percent on their purchase, on their
contracts, on their expenditures for
labor? Taken the state over, it is al
most certain that they are. A few
counties are safeguarding expendi
tures very carefully, but in the ma
jority of the counties the system of
buying, the system of auditing, the
whole administrative machinery, is
so loose that waste is inevitable.
Source of Waste
In only a very few counties is there
centralized purchasing. Each office
and each department purchases its
own supplies. This necessitates re
tail rather than wholesale buying, and
consequently buying at a higher
price. Since county bills must be
audited by the commissioners before
being paid discounts cannot often be
taken advantage of. Due to lax
methods of accounting the same bill
is sometimes paid twice, or an ac
count is overpaid. This is most apt
to happen when open accounts are
kept with merchants or supply hous
es. Another source of loss ' is the
... . . .
lanure lu ciieen up un uenvenes ox
coal, hay, grain, lumber, etc. A man
delivers a load of wood to the jail,
or hay to the county home, or lum
ber to repair an outlying bridge.
Later he presents his claim to the
commissioners and they assume that
it is correct. On one county a load
of bridge material was paid for
twiceo in another county the com
missioners paid for wood which was
being cut on the county farm. While
the loss on these items may be rel
atively small, it counts up in the
course of a year.
More spectacular are the losses in
letting contracts. In one county a
heating plant in a jail cost several
hundred dollars yet had to be replac
ed within a year. In another county
a Bchoolhouse roof began to sag
within a few months after the build
ing was completed. In a third coun
ty the commissioners entered into a
contract to build a bridge, and later
paid $7,000 to get it cancelled. Final
ly there is probably not a county in
the state that has not lost money in
road contracts. .Some have lost a
great deal! no county knows how
much.
Another common loss is unneces
sarily high interest rates. Why are
some counties paying six percent on
their bond issues while others are
paying only 4 1-4 4 1-2 percent? The
difference is due in part, perhaps, to
the fact that some counties have pre
served their credit better than others,
but it is just as likely to be due to
poor barganing.
Inefficient Employees
The greatest waste in county ex
penditures is that which is least vis
ible paying for incompetent service.
Administrative positions requiring
experts are dispensed as political re
wards. It is a general practice for
the tax assessors and list-takers,
highway supervisors, deputy sheriffs,
superintendents of county institu
tions, and other officials to be chosen
from the ranks of the, "party regu
lars." Training and ability are sec
ondary considerations. When it comes
to the clerical positions there are us
ually two employees for each posi
tion one who holds, the title and a
stenographer who does the work.
One official was frank enough to ad
mit that he considered he had done
his duty if he entertained the public
so that his deputy could work with
out interruption.
It is common knowledge that pub
lic employees doing road work or
manual labor do as little as possible.
A county job is considered a sinecure,
and to put something over on the
county is considered quite within the
bounds of honesty. If one is sent on
a county mission, with expenses paid,
he is less economical than with his
own money. A man will lose a day's
work and drive fifteen miles to a
county seat to collect a witness fee
or get a release from a dog tax. The
general attitude seems to be to get
all one can from the county and give
as little. There is very little pride
of citizenship.
Remedies
In the interests of economy in
county government, especially in safe
guarding the 'expenditures, three
agencies are almost indispensable,
(1) a budget as an instrument of fi
nancial control, (2) an auditor, and
(3) a purchasing agent. In most
counties a separate officer to act as
purchasing agent would not be nec
essary. The most general practice
is to combine county purchis:::,;-
The suit started against the Cotton
Co-ops brought a hot reply from the
Association in which it referred to
Colonel W. W, Person in terms of
reprobation. - :
A canvass of the vote cast in the
recent State election reveals a small
er vote by both parties , than was at
first anticipated. ' The majority
for the Constitutional amendment
' fn oilMl' .fnU AR " U I I
w uiivn oiaic miners ue iiisiaueQ
the first of the year instead of wail
ing for the General Assembly
was
the duties of an auditor. An auditor
is necessary, for if there is no syste
matic bookkeeping and current audit
ing, waste and error are almost inev
itable. A competent auditor, devot
ing his full time to County work, sup
plies a unity and continuity to admin
istration which is essential to. effici
ent performance.
Along with these improvements in
machinery, it would be helpful' if
there could be developed a higher
sense of civic honor and a greater
pride of citizenship. It is difficult to
keep the expenses d wn when so
many people are willing to impose on
the county just because they can
Paul W. Wage r. University News-Letter.)
All democratic candidates for con
gress and nineteen of the twenty
democrats running for solicitor were
elected. The far western district
sends a democrat to the Senat?, the
"champion runner" of that section
being ex-Sheriff R. J. Roan, of the
republican county of Swain; The
judges elected are all democrnts.
The old State Fair grounds pass
ed into private ownership daring the
week as the result of a big auction
rale which brought in cash and pledg
es $301,000, about $50,000 of which
goes to State College for property ad
joining t!.e btundary, $75,000 indeU
ness on the State Fair property,
$25,000 for grading and the installa
tion of the water system and ST0.000
for advertising, leaving for the North
Carolina Agricultural Society around
$150,000 for the purchase of a new
site.
Railroads serving Raleigh do not
think well of the idea of building a
new union station here and it is their
purpose to demonstrate to the Cor
poration Commission that traffic will
not justify the expenditure. Final
hearing on the petition has been set
for December 4, when it is expected
thatall the evidence will be in the
hands of the Commission. The Nor
folk Southern has already submitted
its contentions which show a heavy
loss in pessenger business.
The North Carolina Educational
Commission "came and went" during
the week. The members complained
compilation of a final report for the
General Assembly. J. O. Ct.rr, of
Wilmington, is chairman of the Com
mission and Dr. J. Y. Joyner, of Ral
eigh, is executive secretary.
"North Carolinians Incorporated"
is the State's latest booster group
which proposes to bring the attarc
tions and advantages of the common-
I wealth to the attention of the "out
side world." At a meeting of the or
ganization here during the week, pre
sided over by Fred N. Tate of High
Point, directors representatives of all
sections of the State were elected and
10 per cent of quotas pledged was
called for. Report was made that
half the $150,000 goal had been
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pledged and that the organization ;
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The Cotporation Commission has .
employed Herdrich and Boggs, certi j
fied accountants of Indianapolis, to j
assist it in determining the justness i
of the telfgraph companies' claims
for an increase in rates and the hear
ings wil not be had until the experts
reports are ready for presentation.
The Western Union charges 30 cents
(Continued on paee evelen)
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