The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1884-12-04

TO do is to keep themselves in Office
under the guise of civil service re-
form, that can apply only in limited
cases. 1t is hoped by big claims and
omlnous threats to educate the
incoming administration to the |
idea that civil service reform requires |
that the federal offices shall be filled |
by the appointees of the political party |
just defeated at the polls. We are not |
authorized to speak for Gov. Cleve- |
land, but it requires no authority to be |
able to say that he cannot be misled by |
mere noise and impudent assumption.
AS contemporary says, he knows that |
the democratic party is responsible for
the government of the United States
during the next four years, and that
to bear that responsibility legitimate
ly = must be formed of and admins
tered by democrats; that his admins
tration could not possibly be success
full with small army of office-holders
in it privately cheming to weaken
and misrepresent it. He is an honest,
fearless man; he will do what is right
and just; but it is absurd to expect
that, after the era of corruption
we have witnessed, he will
leave the patronage Of the gov
eminent in the hands of his
political enemies. The vast maj 0rity
of existing officials have di.q -ailiie
themselves for Office under the COM
monest principles of civil-service re-
form by partisan activity. This is true
not only with those connected with
Washington departments, but of the
local officers in large cities, and to re-
tain them would be to let memoir
able occasion for reform pass by IN
improved. The true, abiding principles
of reform of all kinds will be recog-
nized and illustrated under democratic
rule; to retain republicans would be
discreditable to the elements that de-
cided there must be change. Mr..
Cleveland will be civil service re-
former, and to be this in truth he can
do nothing else but purge the service
of an element that has made it
particularly odious. There are notable
examples all over the country of
federal officers being more devoted to
political work than to trusts confded
to them; they have neglected Office for
political wire working, and have dis
graced the public service. These are
the men who are now especially loud
In demands for civil service reform
that viii keep them in the places they
have disgraced. Federal commissions
it would seem, are more perman-
ent than the agencies from which they
are derived; that they are a sort of
perpetual right to office which can not
be violated Really the case, to listen
to them, is embarrassing. The re-
publican party is SO mixed up with
the offices they cannot be severed or
separated. Time will show; the po-
litical knife will do the job.
THE American druggist tells some
thing about the invention of sugar.
Its date Is unknown, but il is told that
the Chinese made sugar three thou
sand years years ago, while the Tsin
dynasty had sugar manufactured two
hundred years before Christ. The
Hindoos learned the art and thence
it travelled westward. Three hundred
and twenty years B. c., Alexander
sent Nearchus with large fleet down
the Indus to explore the adjacent
countries. When that officer returned
from his expedition he brought to
Greece an accounts of honey which
the Asiatics made from cane, without
any assistance from bees. This was
the earliest idea the western nations
had of sugar, the Jews, Egyp-
tians, BabyloniaGs and Greeks know
ing nothing of its use. AS
late as A. D. 100. sugar was prescribed
10y GaIen, the famous physician, as a
medicine. Before the discovery of
America, sugar was a luxury, used
only on rare occasions. During the
wars of the Roses, about 1855, Mar
garet Pastor, wife of a wealthy count
ry gentleman Of Norfolk, wrote to
her husband, begging that he would
'vouchsafe" to send her a pound of
sugar. AS late as the year 100 all
England consumed only twenty mil
lion pounds in the course of the year,
but since the consumption has greatly
increased, twenty million hundred.
weight now being used by English
people. The process of refining was
not known in England previous to
1859. That was probably an invent.
ion of the ARABS. A. Venetian mer-
chant learned the secret from the
Saracens of Sicily, and sold the art
for one hundred crowns.
THE expenditures by requisition
under the direction of the secretary of
war for the year ending July 81, were
as follows:
Salaries, contingent expenses and
postage. .............. :. -. $2,172,941 Sc
MIlitary establishment-aSny and
military academy ....-..... 25,64o672 AZ
| Public works, intending river and
| harbor improvements ........... 1O,O62, So
Miscellaneous objects. ......... 3,S5666s 81
Total. So, 1885,, s76 81
The above included-the sum of ST.
$50, OPS Y not drawn from the treasury
but credited, under the act of March
80, 1979 to the subsidized Pacific rail-
roads for services rendered the war
department during the fiscal year 1884
and prior..years. The amount carried
to the surplus fund, June 30, 1884, was
$1,O1O, 548.13. The appropriations for
the fiscal year ending June 30. 1885
are as follows:
Salaries, contingent expenses and
Military establishment army and
military &C ldemy ........... 24,64O,6 72 70
Iarbor Improvements. -. 3,o52,3os AZ
Total. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. s45,57o,551 So
The estimates for the fiscal year
ending June 80, 1886. IS revised, are as
fallows:
Salaries, contingent expenses and
Military establishment and
military academy -. -. 26,429,577 As
| Public w rks, Including river and
harbor improvements, and new
Seacoast Notifications .......... 1S 497, 460 48
Misce laneeus objects ............ 3,s05,147 So