American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1851, 1851-07-29
AN MERICAN TELEGRAPH
From the U. 5. Postal Guide.ll
Jerks In the Departm is.

Il NO one, at all conversant with the Depart
ments, will refuse to admit the truth of the fol-
lowing propositions: 1st. That the present
mode Of appointing the clerks is vicious; 3D.
Thatintheir case, official virtue is without its
rewardsand vice without its punishment; and
3D. That oil the evils which are the legitimate
consequences Of these pregnant causes abound
in the departments. They extend to the heads
OF the bureaus and even of the Departments
The clerks, as a permanent body, are the de-
positories of thefornis, usages and principles
the lea non scripta--of the Departments, and ex-
ercise a material influence, for veal or woe, in
the conduct of the public business, on the part
| OF thosewho are, from time to time appointed
over theni.s il 4stl ,t.Ha.# 81 ,rsF s. ,f
Comparing the several classes of subjects,
upon which these evils exert their baneful in
fiuencc, our chief sympathy and concern arise
for the clerks themselves, to whose whole lives,
natural or official, they lend their dark complex
ion = and next they are due to claimants and
other persons, who have to transact business
with the Departments, and must for time ut
least, in their individual and proper persons,
taste the bitter fruit. As it respects the ma
ton at large, we can only regret the waste of
money and the public discredit these evils in
volve. They gradually lessen in the people
their respect for, and attachment to, their Gov
ernment; and unless Congress interpose, on the
one hand, to prevent that injustice which is
constantly being practised towards the clerks,
and on the other, to rebuke that ansolence of
office assuming garb adapted to the times) to
which claimants are subject, must lead 10 the
painful and inevitable conviction that the freest
may be the worst governed nation upon the
globe Il s 3 ssas. o.r zg III,
Prior to the year 1918, whilst the clerks held
their appointments from the heads of the several
offices in which they were respectively en-
ployed-whilst course of promotions was OBJ
served, the compensation followed the duties,
| and extra compensation extra seryices--the pub
lie business was well done, and although the
compensation of the clerks was small, yet the
sense of its equitable distribution, the prospect
| of advancement and some other little advanta-
| ges of office, long since disconnected from it,
served to supply its -inadequacy. The Offices
! were, in that day, in part a school for the in
| struction of the youug-and in part an asylum,
where men, disappointed in more gaintul or
hazardous pursuits found a grateful refuge,
and, by unostentatious toll, moderate support
for themselves and their families But from the
time when the salaries were raised (but still as
we think inadequately) and fixed; when the
appointments were taken from the heads of bu-
reaus, who being business men selected their
clerks from business considerations alone, and
were placed in the hands of those higher officers,
who, taken for short periods from the field
of politics, brought with them the vividest
| sense of what zeal in it deserves for the past,
and what it requires for the future, this health
ful condition of things was changed. Instead
of the higher salaries in the Departments being
held as incentives to the exertions Of those be-
low, to qualify and prepare themselves, to rem
der for them their appropriate duties, these
salaries have come to be regarded as the fit re-
Xa af nr partioo oI
herents; and the deyolution of the duties upon
the over-slaughed clerks below, to be excusable
if not justifable and proper, thereby practically
reducing the salaries even below what they were
designed to be by the act Of April, 1918. The
result of the appointments of all grades, from the
latter considerations above mentioned, is pre-
ternatural animation in the business of politics.
and lamentabe deficiency of it, and of right
motives and competency on the part of the in
cumbents, in the business of government An
other result is diUSion between the two classes,
and if not antipathy and strife, at least hos
tility on the one side, and dread on the other.
| The clerk smarts under the wrongs of the past
| lie looks upon every mans hand as against
| him, and he pales with apprehension for the
| future. The claims of the mere partisan have
prevailed over those of business qualifications
10 office, and those of tried service, to pro-
motion, and he has no assurance in what he
sees around of the devices of the outs and their
success, but that his most familiar acquaint-
ance may betray, or rather distort and misre-
present his casual conversation, to blacken his
character, and rob him of the pittance he re-
ceiyes, in order to get IN: that pittance, which
the smaller it is, the more he feels its necessity
for himself and his family; the more he values
and the more anxious he is for its preservation.
The general dissatisfaction in the Depart
ments, arising from the various abuses alluded
to the keen appetite for Office without, to-
gether with the unreasonable delays in the de-
spatch of the public business within, have mani
tested their effects within the halls of Congress
and have given rise, at successive intervals
from the period in question, to various discus
sions and proceedings, but without their lead
ing, as yet to any practical or beneficial change
or result. On the Oath January, 1922, reso-
luton was adopted in the House of Represent
auves, to inquire whether any clerk had en-
tered into any contract with the Government
and the propriety of prohibiting such contracts
in future. On the 10Th April, and 1st May,
1892, resolutions were adopted, in the same
body, calling upon the heads Of Departments
for information respecting the clerks. The re-
ports made showed the number of clerks and
messengers retained in office; their compensa-
tion those of them engaged in other pursuits,
in no wise connected with the public business; !;
and expressed the opinion that no more econo-
mical and efficient organization of the Depart
ments could be adopted.
At the session of 1928, n select committee
was raised upon the subject of retrenchmcnt,
including the inquiry whether the number Of
officers in any branch of the public service, or
their salaries, could be reduced. Mr., Hamilton,
its chairman, made his report on the 10th May,
1928, but it led to no result in respect to the
clerks.
At the session Of 1901, various memorials
we're presented from the clerks for an increase
of compensation. AT the succeeding session
General Jackson, in his annual message, ex-
pressed the opinion that, the system of public
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