34 BULLETIN 414, U. S. DEPAETMENT OF AGEICULTUEE. 



class men, and it is believed that there is still much room through- 

 out the coimtry for improvement in this respect. The salaries 

 necessary to attract good men will, of course, vary in the different 

 sections of the coimtry, but experience has shown that the payment 

 of a reasonably good salary to a good man is invariably a better 

 investment than a poor salary paid to an incompetent one. And 

 it should be remembered that competence in a convict camp officer 

 means not only efficiency in road construction, but also self-restraint, 

 moderation, honesty, sobriety, and firmness of character. 



To complete the organization of the camp, a certain number of 

 convict helpers under the direction of the camp officer or yard man 

 are necessary to perform the various duties of cooking, cleaning, 

 laundering, etc. Even in guarded camps, it is necessary that such 

 men be trusted to a considerable degree, and they should therefore 

 be selected with this in mind. As to their further quahfications, 

 it is very desirable that the cook shall have had some previous 

 experience, but no special aptitude is required in the other helpers, 

 and in fact it will usually be possible to select for such work convicts 

 of inferior physique, whom it is impossible to employ in any other 

 way. The size of the camp force must be varied with the population 

 of the camp. No less than two men will be required for the smallest 

 camps, and for camps of over 20, one camp assistant should be added 

 for every 10 men up to camps of about 100. In camps of popula- 

 tions greater than 100, the proportion of camp help to total numbers 

 may be somewhat reduced. 



RECORDS AND COST ACCOUNTS. 



FINANCIAL. 



In the conduct of a business involving manufacture or construc- 

 tion, it is a well recognized fact that the standard or primary books 

 of an accounting system should be supplemented by certain sub- 

 sidiary records known as cost accounts. The journal and the ledger 

 are well designed to preserve a record of transactions to show the total 

 amounts of receipts and disbursements and the balance between 

 them, but they do not enable the manufacturer or constructor to 

 analyze the costs of his products. To supply this need, cost accounts 

 have been extensively adopted in private business, and compara- 

 tively recently the example set by private business has been fol- 

 lowed in certain branches of public work, such as the water and street 

 departments of municipahties and many of the State road commis- 

 sions. But though such accounts are particularly useful in the 

 development of unstandardized work of a constructive character, and 

 for this reason should be of the greatest usefulness in the conduct of 

 work by convict labor, the study made by this office revealed the 

 fact that, with few exceptions, only the ordinary journal and ledger 



