National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1876-09-06
THE REELECTION OF FORCE.

There Is no doubt that the present reduc-
ton of force in the several Executive De-
partments of the Government is attended
with a good deal of distress. Whether the
mental or physical agony is the greater is
not now necessary to inquire. Suffice it to
say that as a rule those who have been for
the greatest length Of time in Government
employment are least fitted to subsist with
out a continuance of that employment. 1t
is natural that persons who have been in
receipt of a regular salary for term of
years adequate to their support should be-
come so much in the habit of looking upon
it as a life dependence as to feel utterly
helpless the moment it is withdrawn. They
are like the child who has been taught to
walk with the aid of q stick. and accus-
toned always to have one in his hand upon
him, and he falls. He has no power to
preserve his equilibrium at perpendicular
without it. He must learn to walk anew.
Just so it is with those who have spent
their lives at desk in one of the Execu-
tive Departments when turned loose upon
the world to gain livelihood by their in
dividual efforts. They are as helpless as
the new born babe.
1t matters little with what generosity
nature may have endowed the person with
genius and talents. However brilliant those
talents or gifted the genius, the cart-horse
monotony of Departmental service will
have served to deaden their brightness or
destroy their vitality. This service, as we
have often had occasion to say heretofore,
is the very last which a youth of talent
and promise should enter. 1t paralyzes his
energies and dwarfs his intellect. 1t pre-
sents no field for high spreferment, and
scarcely any incentive to an honorable am
bition. The routine duties pertaining to
the single desk to which he may be as
signed having become familiar to him dur
ing the first few days or weeks Of his SER
vice, he has nothing more to learn in their
performance. He is practicallya finished"
clerk, and his individuality sinks into the
automaton figure monger.
His longer continuance at that desk is
beneficial only by its discipline, which par
takes very largely of that of the galley
slave, the factory operative and the prison
convict. With few exceptions these De-
partment desks afford little more variety of
labor and study or opportunity to expand
the intellect and improve the mind than
does the monotonous movement of the
tread-mill. From one to wo-years ofsuch
service is all that any young man can en-
dure without receiving permanent injury
to his future, if it does not end in utter
ruin. The salary, which may appear
liberal to the youth in his teens, will soon
become small compared with the wants
which are sure to be superinduced by Cap
ital hours, habits and life.
From this time forward the life of the
Government clerk is too apt to become one
OF epslavement and drudgery. He is a
slave to his habits and drudge to his
creditors. He is the victim of the ''cent
per cent" money lender and constantly
annoyed by his washwoman, tailor, boot
maker and landlady. If he takes to gam
bling, or what is now termed in polite
phrase speculation, the chances are that he
becomes regular depositor upon the night
of salary day in the faro, keno or hazard
bank of his monthly earning, and that he
goes home penniless and phllosophically
determines that it is cheaper to move
than to pay rent" This involves an i'm
mediate change of domicile. This de-
moralized condition is the result in great
measure of his monotonous employment
during the day. The ennui resulting from
eight hours of porting over dreary figures
seeks an antidote in diversion and amuse-
ment during the hours of the night
Billiards, cards and drinks being most
accessible and attractive, are very likely
to capture the young man seeking to
dispel the blues and while away the leisure
hours.
Three years of Capital life, away from
the wholesome restraints and virtuous in
fluences and surroundings of home, are
pretty sure to finish" the average Depart
ment clerk. After that he may either be
considered worthless, fast young man or
a settled machine, fully satisfied with his
position in life, without aspiration to any
higher objective point than that of draw
ing his salary regularly at the end of each
calendar month. Should such one marry
ard find family growing up around him
without any adequate increase of pay his
existence will present continuous battle
for subsistence. The larger the family and
the older the children grow the more fierce
and bitter becomes the war. And when he
dies or is dismissed, God help his wife and
little ones
Taking this view of our civil service,
(and who shall deny that it is true oneO
it will be seen that the best thing possible
for young men who are encountered with
family and debts to do in the present ext
gency would be take the month s leave and
pay offered them and "strike out" for some
Western field where they can have full play
for any laudable ambition and good op-
portunity to achieve wealth and distinction
in the ordinary walks of life. They should
60 while there is some hope Of the posi-
bility of becoming selfreliant, strong men.
What is more humiliating 10 a man than
the consciousness of his inability or incapa-
city TO take care of himself simply because
he has worked so long uader direction and
according to a certain routine that he Can
utilize his efforts in no other manner? Il
is not laziness or Incidence, but absolute in
experience in the ordinary walks of life.
II is the loss of free agency.
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