Wilmington journal., 1876-08-18
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From our Regular Correspondent.
WASHINGTON. Aug. -

WASHINGTON, Aug. II.
| We sing, in these centennial days,
the valorous deeds of our forefathers,
| their sacrifices and their triumphs.
It has ever been a characteristic of
men and nations to ignore the present,
with its colossal heroes, with its exam
| Piles of toiling and enduring patriot
| ism, and to find in the magnifying
haze of history their ideals and demi~
gods. There have been many heroes
since Leonidas, but none of them serve
so we'll to round a fourth of July pero-
ration; perhaps it is because none have
such vistas of antiquity to conceal
their defects and reverberate their
mighty deeds.
This is supposed co be "piping
time of peace;" but, it is fact that
the country has an army go, 900 office
holders) and that it is fighting day
and night for "the party" The army
is in the midst Of a campaign, and
the rank and file, with a patriot
ism unequalled by anything in the
annals of the Revolution contribute
from their pay to purchase the NUM-
tions of war. Who will say these are
degenerate days, and that the sons are
not worthy of their sires? 1t is a
spectacle that may be seen of oil gov
ernment employees after the arduous
labors of the day, after remaining six
hours in office, engaged mostly IN
reading newspapers, talking politics,
and flirting with pretty female clerks,
will repair to campaign headquarters
at night and direct campaign dOcu
ments for two or three hours. They
are regularly organized aud drilled.
Each State is represented here by a
Republican campaign committee,
composed OF clerks in the Executive
Depal tment; they rent rooms and
meet at stated periods to direct cam
paign circulars for the dissemination
of Radical virus. Many of these cir
culars :iare marked on the envelope,
"Hamburg Riot" Part of the Con
gressional Record, Free" This is
why Congress "like q wounded snake
drags it's slow length along"-that
Morton, Boutwell, and Conkling may
place stump speeches on the Record,
and that Chandler and Edmunds may
make excerpts for free distribution
through the mails.
The Democratic Congress has said
in the Legislative appropriation
bill that 165 of these party
patriots must be discharged in
the next three months, and Senator
Conkling and the Republican press
are as Indignant AZ partizans who
know the worth of salarled workers
we're expected to be.
Those acquainted with the idle loaf
ing life of the clerical supernumera-
ries, can believe Senator Conkling
honest, only by presumipg him lgnor~
| ant. He said when we remember that
we are assured that the Treasury De-
partment has of late been administered
with ability the high reformatOry aim
of that administration, with an eye
| single to economy, and with An earnest
| effort for rotrenchment, 1t was dlthcult
to accept "a fact the statement that
491 persons can summary be with
| drawn from the working force that
operates the department, and not ut
terly cripple it. It was az absurd to
his mind, "a it would have been after
A. Il. Stewards death, had some one
attempted to piove that the details OF
his immense business could have been
attended to by -fifths of the force
which Mr.. Stewart himself had deem
ed necessary.
| It is a common remark among the
more Intelligent clerks of the Execu-
tive Department here that A. L. Stew
art could have carried on all the bust
ness of any department with one-'hird
the force how employed. Many clerks
are idle one half the time during office
hours, from nine a. m. to three
o. m.-idle, notwithstanding the
eleborately complicated systems that
have no merit in point of utility,
ard that seem to have been ingeniously
invented to keep up the illusion of EN-
ployment and to furnish sinecures fol
political helpers. The House has had
a hard struggle to secure this small
economical reduction, and it is but al
earnest of what will be accomplished
when the departments shall have beer
thoroughly reorganized and remodel
ed in the spirit and letter of the st
Louis platform or civil service reform
Then, instead of renting houses Q
Boss Shepard for the accommodation
of superhuous desks and clerks. Th
government may derive a revenu
from the rental of superfiuous room
in the clerk crammed buildings know
as the Interior and Treasury Depart
ments. y. a. ..