PUBLIC LOSES VITAL SERVICE IN GOP RULE
Public Loses Vital Service In GOP Rule State Attention Focused on Loss of Ablest Civil Servants RESIGNATION last week of E. W. Morehouse, chief of the public service commission's division on rates...
...But that has no consideration when politics creeps in...
...The tax commission has lost some of its ablest men—experts who could stand up against (he high-priced ialen( of big corDorations fighting tax levies...
...Mr...
...Dismissal of department employes has violated civil service laws and has brought discrimination against women, Ohl declared...
...The Wisconsin State Federation of Labor cannot permit the lax department to be reduced in efficiency by reason of a desire for spoils," Ohl said...
...The public service commission is the public's only protection against the utility monopolies, and the division which Morehouse headed is the key unit which keeps tabs on utilities and produces facts and figures when the power trusts try to jump their rates...
...Sometime ago the Republican administration slashed his salary...
...For* instance, the Whitewater Register, a Republican newspaper, made this comment regarding dismissal of an auditor: "Wisconsin lost an efficient public servant when Horace F. Edmands resigned from the tax commission rather than move to Milwaukee as ordered in the recent shakeup...
...His resignation came two weeks after the Republican-dominated commission appointed a Wiscon^n Power and Light Co...
...Neither shall we be silent when apparently (he civil service code of the state is violated...
...His departure &II but wrecks the vital rates and research division...
...The action is being contested in the courts, with the department contending that it is not required to obey the civil service laws...
...Edmands has been assessor of incomes in Racine for 25 years and courteously and carefully looked after his district...
...Some of the tax commission employes left to escape constant harrass-ment and insecurity and others were fired to make room for Republican politicians...
...We cannot permit the discrimination between sex in violation of the law...
...official to the important position of commission secretary...
...The state tax department recently dismissed a number of experienced employes...
...The same disintegration is in process in other departments as a result of Republican manipulation...
...Public Loses Vital Service In GOP Rule State Attention Focused on Loss of Ablest Civil Servants RESIGNATION last week of E. W. Morehouse, chief of the public service commission's division on rates and research, focused public attention on the steady weakening of the state service under the Republican administration...
...Morehouse is regarded as one of the top-ranking experts in the nation on utility rates and finances...
...He has forgoUen more about income tax law than many of the newer appointees will ever know...
...His two chief assistants left the commission to accept better-paying, more secure employment...
...Last week Morehouse revealed that he too was leaving to work in private employment at twice his state saary...
...Ohl Denounces Spoils Assault On Tax Agency HENRY OHL JR., president of the Wisconsin Federation of Labor, struck out last week at the Republican administration's "unwarranted procedure'' in weakening the state tax department...
Vol. 10 • April 1940 • No. 17
