The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1882-11-29
WASHINGTON LETTER.
tFrom our regular corresrondent.l

~ ChuuUL ue FuIu tldt VIE dibI III
and dependency among the Govern
ment employees over the result of the
election Is unprecedented. They are
not as much surprised as they were
in 1874, when the Democratic victory
was less expected. Nor has the late
election produced the CONSERVATION
among them that the election Of Til
den, 1875, produced. The Republi-
can clerks and Government officials
were not unprepared for this cata.
clysm, and if they are not resigned,
they at least are not utterly cast
down. They have been 30 often pull
ed through by fraud and money, that
they have not unreasonable conf.
dence in their ability to enjoy the
spoils by the same means after 1884,
and forever.
The work in all the Departments
has been much neglected Of late, not
only on account Of the absence of
clerks who are granted from six to
ten days to go home and vote, but for
the last three months, so great has
been the interest in the election, the
legitimate and necessary business Of
the Government, from the duties of
the President and Cabinet down to
those of the 5000 clerk, have been left
undone. President Arthur has not
had time to give his moral support
to the prosecution of the star route
thieves, or to compel the appearance
of SO important a witness as Ex.Sen-
ator Spencer, now holding a Govern
ment position and drawing monthly
pay, but unable to be found when
wanted to testify against Dorsey and
Brady. In the Post Office Depart.
ment, Interior Department, and es.
pecially in the Pension and Patent
Offices, the work is from two to four
months in arrears. There is no rea-
son why it should be SO. The cleri-
cal force is more than sufficient, but
disgraceful neglect, Incidence and
criminal dishonesty will always be
the rule in civil service whose ten.
ure depends upon politics and the ia
vor Of buses, who value a clerk more
for what he can do on the stump and
at the polls than for what he can do
at the desk.
The business Of the Government,
which has grown to be gigantic be-
yond the comprehension of all who
do not make it a special study, is not
managed in the interest of the coun-
try on business-like principles, but,
without principle, in the interest of
politics. If the voters of the country
could only know, as it is known here,
the negligence and incompetency,
the grand and petit larceny practiced
by one hundred thousand office hold
ere, the party in power would receive
a more emphatic order to go than 1t
received in IA, in '76 and in 'S2.
When case Of grand larceny like
the Star Route theft haS been discov.
cred there is great popular indigna-
ton. But when the statement is
made that during every fiscal year,
twice as much is stolen from the Gov
ernment by its trusted servants" as
Brady and Dorsey stole, no sensation
Is created; yet it is the truth, known
by hundreds in governments employ
here. There are thousands of per
sons in Washington who know that
Government clerks are in the habit
of supplying their families with pens,
paper, envelopes, inkstands, erasers,
pen-knlves, ETC., elc. These are
bought by the Government by con-
tract in immense quantities, and
Government clerks carry them home
to their families. The children in
the public schools here, many of
them, use the finest Government le-
gal cap to write their exercises on.
This would seem at first to be q very
small thing scarcely worth public at
.tention, but when multiplied by all
the clerks in the Departments the
aggregate is enormous, amounting to
more than q million annually.
G. A. S.