Oxford eagle. (Oxford, Lafayette Co., Miss.) 1876-current, 1883-03-08
SAILING UNDER FALSE COL.
0RS.


, ferson's was the 'Repnblican
and Hamilton's the anti. Repub
lican. or, more properly, tn
Federal" or Capitalization par
lty. Its practices corresponde'
with it's chosen designation
Some six years ago, when th'
Democratic party was dominan
lin Congress, there was . de
mand, by heads of departments
for more clerks. The Demo
cratic Congress chose to prac
/ tice economy, and instead q
conceding what was asked, add
ed an hour to the number
through which department
clerks were kept at their desks
Practically they thus added
about one-seventh to the nun,
Der of clerical employees of the
government. The clerks did
not complain; but it was enough
and all that should be exacted
at their hands.
But the Democrats won pres
tige for this wise and ecOnom-
ical legislation, and the Repub-
licans, SO. called, think our par
ty has won more by giving pa
ternity to the so-called civil ser
vice reform bill. Therefore,
when there is no demand for
more clerks or more clerical la
Dor, and when every faithful,
honestly laborious clerk finds
himself exhausted by steady,
tedious pai6staking tasks, each
day made more irksome by the
monotonous, wearisome exacti-
tude required, and even more
painfully tiresome by irreyersi-
I BILE attention demanded, then,
the Republicans may get even
with the Democrats as reform
ers, the pseudo Republicans
would add another to the NUM-
Der through which these clerks
must be confined to crowded
prisons, in which the very air
! inhaled becomes poisonous and
the last hours work more pain
full than that of the six preced'
ling it.
/ Six hours for study and three
| for recitations, which are rest
full, are all that are demanded
of students in colleges. Con
tinuous physical exertion, If a
all varied, may be endured ten
and even twelve hours in eacl
twenty. four; but this tedious
: lpainsfahins, s;!onty @sdontasiss
, stupefying toll of a government
clerk who discharges tasks as
signed him with fidelity, and for
such alone Congress is suppos-
ed to legislate, are burdensome
enough as they are, and the Re
publican party, in its shameless
effort to get even with its op
ponents by wronging the de-
fenseless clerks, should not be
approved. This party has been
lin power more than twenty
years. At any time within that
period it might have reformed
| the abuse rectified by the Demo.
cratic majority in Congress six
years ago; but now, when II
sees Cleveland, Democrat
governing New York, and Pat
terson, a Democrat, set over
Pennsylvania; and another over
Massachusetts, and a Demo
cratic Congress elected, it be
comes suddenly over-virtuous
and over-righteous, and would
practice it's pharisaism and hum
bug the country, when no ad
. ditional labor is required by the
departments, by subjecting the
defenseless clerks to exactions
as ruinous to the government
interests and true public ec0no
my as wrongful and needless
The present force of clerks cal
do all the work required by tb'
departments by toiling till fou
o'clock each day, even if th'
worthless dead beats, and the,
are numerous, who have beel
thrust into clerkships as para
sites and washers of dirty linel
for Republican Congressman
be discharged. They are bung
| lars, and often dishonest, and
3 relying for retention in offic
upon their great patrons, ar
the loafing, whisky-swilling ID
= lers who produce the impres
: sion that the government cler
'' is an idle, Embarrassed, stupid
s unthinking government mule
s only fit to be cuffed and vict
o mized by Republican dems
Z gogues.
y Let any Congressman ask an
honest, industrious clerk whetl
er the government will be tn
gamer by adding to presen
u hours Of toll, and the answe
l. will be uniformly in the nes
e ative, and it will be, as well, til
unmixed truth. No weary brai
can discharge tasks most pain'
,f taking and always exactin
. minutest accuracy, and ever
3 clerk will concur with us in sa,
H. ing that even now two-tbirds
erroneous and defective wOr
is done between three and fOu
SIS o'clock, when patient labor b.
ir, gins to merge into realms
ofl that brain weariness next aki
to sleep. We happen to kno
precisely what we are talkin
q obo,,t aO1 bona nQVpr To knO