Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1885-03-20
REFORMS ~ THE DErARrMEyrs

Instances of Drunkenness in the DepaI aItnnents.
Certain Removals Necessary.
New York Herald's Washington Corr
The new administration begins to move
All the heads of departments have been
studying the situation with such help as they
could get and while they will continue to
ago Slow it is already evident that exten-
sive changes in the working force are newt
able and must be made before lax discipline
can be frightened up and the department
work put on a thorough working basis. Lit
tie things show what remains behind. In one
department systematic drunkenness of GER
tain employees has been discovered, which
opened the door to abuses and perhaps
wrongs. In another there Is the testimony
OF Republican employees that reduction of
force equal to nearly twenty per cent. is pos
sible with advantage to the work DONE In
another the secretary was told that by pres
sure a months work had been accomplished
in few days, as though this did not prove
conclusively that there had been dling and
inefficiency before
The more closely affairs in the depart
mcnts are scrutinized, the more the new
heads are convinced that they must as quick
ly as possible gather about them new men
for their prominent assistants. This is not to
say that the present heads of bureaus are dis
the most part welded to a system which has
become slack and ineffective through long
usage and tenure. When the administration
gets done with this kind of work the cOun,.
try will have plain proof that it is not well
that one party shall remain too long in
power, and a change of parties is necessary
if for no other reason - to discover and
remedy mere administrative abuses.
The treasury department has probably
suffered more severely from the relaxation of
haI no
talent for administration. He did or tried TO
do everything himself He was not on good
terms with several of his chief aids, and yet
had not the resolution to dismiss them. lie
was the victim of overwork, and did 80 much
himself that he could not look after the
details of his department. Secretary Nc
Culloch, who succeeded him, took the place
with the distinct understanding that he
would confine his attention to the larger and
important work of his own desk, without
assuming responsibility for the detail work
ing of the department., which was proper
enough, as he came only to fill out the brief
remainder of a term. 1t necessarily results
that in these numerous minor details discip-
line has become lax, and no doubt abuses
have crept in.
In the interior department Secretary
Lamar is surprising even his friends by the
thorough way i'm which he is taking hold of
business. He seems new man, and while
no is still hampered by the illness of his as
sistant secretary, his scrutiny into various
and complex details is felt all through the
department
The postmaster general will have a very
competent first assistant, and meantime Mr.
Villas is also at work, and with good effect
In the navy department Mr.. John Roach
appears To have run up against snag, so to
speak. A demand was made upon Secretary
Whitney for the final payment upon one Of
the new ships. He refused TO sign the order
until he should have first caused thorough
examination to be made of all the accounts of
the ship by an expert not connected with
the navy department. Mr. Roach, il is said,
IN great haste sent some friends TO the secre-
tary 10 assure him that it was all right, but
MIR. Whitney is determined TO have the ac-
counts carefully examined before he author
izes the payment
Secretary Whitney has issued AN order to
the have steamer Tallapoosa, at the New York
navy yard, prepared for service as cruising
vessel and 10 select "a battery for her and To
give the necessary instructions TO prepare
her for sea.