The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1884-08-16
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.
From our Regular Correspor dent. ]

party may continue to exist without
the aid of DIR. Carl Schurz or DIR. Geo.
William Curtis, both of whom have
been the spoiled pets of the politicians
for twenty-five years. Schurz got mad
in 1872 because the party refused to
recognize him as its leader and the
embodiment of it's mission as party,
destined to sway the affairs of Gov
eminent. He thought then as Curtis
does now, that his abandonment of
the Republican organization was
equivalent to its destruction, but to
his dismay the party never thrived
better than after his leaving it. The
other disgrunted sore-heads, who also
counted upon general and complete |
collapse of the party after they had |
soured upon it, were Trumbull and
kSGolttle and Palmer and Gratz |
Brown with a few followers, and |
who has heard of either of them
since? To be sure they linked their
fortunes with the Democratic party,
but that reminiscence with its old
wheel-horses to take care of, has al
ways kept them in the background if
indeed it did not fear to trust them
at all, Schurz was the fimsiest men,
Der of the Cabinet of the flimsIest adj
ministration that the country has
had. His administration of the In
terror Department was an entire de-
votion to the business of covering up
and cloaking the rascalities of the
Indian Bureau and other departments
when exposure had been threatened,
and yet he is brought forward by the
latter day saints of the Democratic
party to draw up an indictment
against man whose shoe latchets
he is not worthy to unloose.
By the second volume of the BLUE
Book" which has just made its APP
pearance, we are made acquainted
with good many of the minor de.
tails of office-holding which fail to
reach us through the ordinary chan
nels. The "Blue Book" no longer
ago than the reign of Mr.. Buchanan,
was volumn containing not more
than one hundred and sixty pages.
The enormous multiplication of Of
fees necesstates now two volumns of
a thousand pagesl and more each,
which are published every two years
for the use of Congress. The second
volumn which pertains distinctively
to the Post Office Department, in.
forms us that there are upward of
$4,000 postmasters 10 the country,
who receive salaries ranging from
nine cents, received by the postmast-
er at Redalia, N. c., to $4,000, receiy-
ed by the postmaster at New York
City. There are 9, 400 of these post
masters who each receive a salary of
less than $40 per annum. and YET not
one of the 2.400 would resign except
under the weightiest kind of con-
sideration. When postmasters were
paid salaries in proportion to the
number of stamps sold, there was a
lively interest in being postmaster
even at the smallest crossroads office,
and the demand for stamps from
these small offices became so great
that Uncle Sam began an investiga-
ton, only to find that postage stamps
had become the staple currency of
the realm and entered into all sorts of
trade. commerce and barter. Then
Congress stepped in and said that
salaries should be paid in accordance
with the number of stamps cancelled
at the Office, and this has cancelled
much of the desire to be country
postmaster. Beside the innocent
postmaster in North Carolina, there
are thirty-four others in the country
whose salary does not reach 81 per
year, and dozen of these are in
North Carolina which State contrib.
utes just one-ninth as much postal
revenus as the cost of TRANSPORTING
her mails. Ordinarily the work of
making up a quarterly report in a
country post Office, requires a we'll
balanced mind, patience beyond
that of Job. and a full week of time.
In ninety-seven cases out of one hun.
dred, the work is not then done to
the satisfaction of the department,
and the whole business is returned
to the exasperated postmaster to be
done all over again, and that post.
master does not live in the United
States who sends his report to Wash
ington without serious misgivings,
and, might say, absolute certainty
that it will come back for readjust-
ment. A hundred years of postal
| service in which the methods of keep
ing postal accounts have not received
the slightest simplification, have
furnished our warehouses with most
of the inmates that politics and relig-
ion have to answer for.