The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-12-18
NEW ORLEANS BULLETIN
NEW ORLEANS. DECEMBER IS. 1874
CIVIL SERVICE.
An AMAZING WANT OF SYSTEM IN THE GOVERN
MENT DEPARTMENTS.
Alexander Delmar, in Appleton's Journal. I

[ Alexander Delmar, in Appletons Journal
7 maintain that it is idle to talk of civil
service reform so long as the Executive avoid
IN spection of the Departments, SO long a
Secretaries neglect the bureaus, and so lonI
az the bureau officers fail to acquaint them
selves with the work of their clerks. AnC
this sort OF apathy has existed for nearl,
twenty years, with what results let the inter
gzeddling character of the bureau reports, the
emptiness Of them, and the feeble and dis
ordered character of nearly all OF them attest.
Here Is one officer having a specific and
limited function to perform, who annually
addresses the country, over the head of his
superior. with rambling discourse upon a
dozen subjects with which he has no CONCERN
and which he understands nothing about
Here is another who has nothing else to re-
port OF the important transactions OF his office,
except the number of letters which have been
dispatched within given time, how impos-
~ bic 1t Is for him to get along without more
clerks, and how exhausted with overwOrk are
The faithful few who have been allotted to
slim, and inferentially, therefore, how severely
taxed he has been himself!
Taken together. these reports should pre-
sent a complete history OF the transactions of
Ehe Government during the period they cover.
But do they SO? Not bit of it. defy any
man to tell me, beyond the barest summary,
What sums of money the Government has re-.
ceived or expended during any late year,
from whom it received the money, on what
dates, or on what account, to whom it was
paid, at what times, and for what purposes
l defy any man to inform me how much pub
hc property the Government has on hand,
where it is, what it cost, when it was pur-
chased, in what condition it is, and what it is
worth now as an item of stock on hand.
L defy any man to inform me what mer-
chandise belonging to private parties is in the
bonded warehouses of the customs, whom it |
belongs to, when it was entered, and who are |
ats owners. l know very well that there is sn |
account OF commodities in warehouse" pub |
hshed every month by the treasury This
account was started by Robert J. Walker in
1916, was dropped when he went out of Office,
was subsequently resumed by Mr.. Guthrie,
was dropped or neglected when he went out
of office, was resumed by me in 1866 and
has been continued to this day in the exact
form in which l then cast 1.-THE only form
Il which, in the face of the most bitter and
determined hostility in the New York Custom
House and in Congress, could cast it. But
ibis is not an account Of what is in the ware
siOuse. 1t is only an account of what ought !
to be in them according to the books 1t is q .
stock account, not an account of stock; and =
venture to say that there is margin enough !
for some millions Of difference between the :
two
defy any man to inform me whether or !
not the moneys received by the collectors of +.
the revenues are paid Immediately into the ;
treasury. defy any man to say whether or !
not private paper is placed at times in the !,
public repositories, instead of money. have :,
Known these practices to occur, and have !
stopped them. l defy any man to show me :,
by the published reports that the same sums -
iebited by one branch of the gov nment =,
against another have been credited by the ~
after branch in favor of the former. - :;
The evidence before the country is never "
II ore than fragmentary. All is disorder from -
me end OF the system to the other, and all H.
viii continue to be disorder until there is in ~
elligent and watchful supervision l am no =,
ARTISAN. am not finding fault with any ad- -,
1inistration or any party. The administra- e e
ions have been all the same the parties -.
ave been all alike. 1 doubt nobody's mo- b
YES suspect nobody's honesty. l simply
ONT out cardinal defect of our civil SER
lcc-such defect rs only statistician, as A.
My one who himself has been All officer az az
the Government, would be likely on
, observe and perceive the causes and bear an an
~ Of; such defect as Major Gen Balfour, s sls
A English satistician. pointed out years ago ~
in reference to the British government, or ="
NJ. de Audiffret pointed out subsequently,
it'll reference to the French government. ' "a:
Much of what am here saying has been WI
i'd to the various Secretaries Of the Treas
~ whom we have had within the past ten 're
,ars; but the pressure Of their duties or ~..
her circumstances always rendered it i'm $" J"
'ssible for them to apply the only true Ia Ia,
medy-personal supervision. ~