Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1869-04-28
Office Seekers.

There was lively debate In the Ben
ate, on the alst, upon the Subject OF Of
fce-seeking and the distribution OF pat
ronase. The Senators are ei1ectuaily
disguised with the demands made upon
them, which demands they are expected
to urge upon the President and Cabinet
We are not surprised that Senator
Trumbull should give notice OF bill
making it a penal offence for Senator to
seek the appointment of any person to Of
fec under the Government The Sena-
tor or Representative is not allowed to
use his discretion Applicants for office
rush 20 Washington by the thousands,
and insist upon being appointed, SIN
gle congressional districts sometimes fur
nish a number of applicants equal to the
whole clerical force of the Government.
Moreover, the demand is no longer cons
fined to men. Women have entered the
lists, and are more pertenacious even than
their male rivals Each man or woman
insists that his or her Representa- must
get him or her an office, or be treated
thereafter, forever, as bis or her person.
al enemy No wonder that Senator's
have grown FESTIVE under these inn
Fortunate demands for impossibiiities.
Senator Pomeroy told the truth when
he said that he wanted all the men from
Kansas holding Office in Washington,
turned out, because il would be a positive
benefit to the men Holding office Mt
Washington is, as rule, the last thing
that any man, having any self-respect
and able to make living by any other
kind Of labor, ought to think about
Those departments are fit asylums Tor the
lazy or for those who have not the brains
or the physical capacity to earn living
otherwise For soldiers, who have been
physically disabled, and for industrious
women who are crowded out OF other
employment, there is an excuse for seek
ing these places; but no able-bodied man
under fifty years of aye should ask for
such an Office.
No man who can hold pillow, drive a
team, saw wood, teach school, or use the
spade, should be permitted to take a
clerkship at Washington 1t is clear
case of mental delusion, or of chronic
lazinesss. In the first place, it IS a cons
fession of inferiority. Any man, really
capable of the mental labor required of a
clerk in Washington, can find a situation
in other business at a better salary than
the Government pays him. To apply for
a government clerkship Is, therefore, an
admission that he cannot compete sue
cessfuliy with those employed for like
business in private life The government
clerk is as near an approach to pens
sional loafer as can be found anywhere.
To the great majority of them an ap~
pointment is equivalent to total demoral-
ization. Thenceforth, they are unfit for
any other business, and become habitual
dependents, getting their daily rations Of
meat and drink, sinking lower and lower
every day in their own estimation, and
becoming more helpless to extrcate
themselves. No man ever went to Wash
ington to hold a clerkship who ever made
more than bare living, and he must be
indeed helpless if he could not have done
as we'll as that at home. 1t won d be
an act of humanity for Senators and Rep
resentatlves to oppose the appointment
of any abie-bodied men from their
States to any clerkship at Washington.
Better by far send them home, there to
labor at any industry, than to perch them
at a clerks desk, to be forever thereafter
dependent upon oilicical favor for the
bread they eat To a man having a fam
lily such an appointment is even greats
er evil 1t destroys forever all idea that
he or any of his is to make a Ii ing in
any otuer way thah ny hoIuih9 oihCe
and on his salary he cannot keep, clothe
and educate his family with anything
like the comfort and responsibility that
he could if at home on a farm or In
workshop or in store. Senator PONIES
ROY is rieht-in saying that these appli-
Giants would be much better off ut home,
engaged in any kind of labor. than to be
loafng around Washington on small sal
aries, learning to despise industry, and
liable to be kicked out without mo-
ment's notice.
This whole business of a change of
suhordinates is vicious. 1t is cOrruptIng
to the outs and destroys the efficiency of
the ms Men ought to be appointed to
subordinate places for their competency
and integrity, and not for their politics
and, once in. ought to be re aimed So
long only as they are competent and hon
est. Had we such a system we should
have no further exhibition of this r9lent-
less and indiscriminate rush Of men and
women for Offices for which the majority
of them are incompetent, and to accept
which means Their Generalization and
ruin.- ChicapO Tribune