Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1885-08-15
PLOUGHING. NOT HUNTING
SNAKES.


SNAKES.
The Washington correspondent of the
New York Herald relates a story told by
Secretary Lamar the other day of Miss.
issippi country life, which illustrates
very we'll the aims of the President and
the degree Of Importance he attaches to
the business of dispensing offices. "a
man was ploughing land for me" said
the Secretary, "and he ~ploughed up a
couple of moccasin snakes. Il was
ploughing, you know, Colonel, he said,
4 vast hunting moccasins; but when ]
came across the creatures l stopped
ploughing long enough to cut off their
heads. But you know, Colonel, l wasn't
hunting moccasins; l was ~ploughing.''
The present Administration, like this
practical Mississippian, is "ploughing,'
and the cutting off the heads of any YER
min it discovers in the course of it's work
is an incident, duly attended to; but not
the main business, as some office seekers
would like to make it. The Administra.
tion is not hunting moccasins-it is
ploughing.
And it is true also that this ploughing
is hard work. The inquiry into long
standing abuses is not an easy task.
Some clerks in one of the Departments
were asked how they justified a certain
irregular proceeding which had nj au.
thority in law or right. They replied,
honestly enough, that they had always
done so; it was the long established Gus.
tom; and their superior saw and acknowl-
edged that these clerks were not person.
ally dishonest-they were, simply the
tools of a long continued lax administra.
tion of laws. In the Land Office it was
some time ago discovered that in a mat.
ter in which a corporation was concerned
certain clerks took it upon themselves,
as a matter of course, to take care Of
the corporation where its interests were
opposed to the Government. That also
had come to be a fixed custom-a matter
of course. In looking into a complaint of
small farmers who desired to locate upon
q Western reservation which had been
thrown open for settlement, but the best
parts of which had been grabbed by spec
ulators, it was discovered that these
spectators had secured early information
of the opening of the land in the Interior
Department., and with this advantage of
course left the farmers in the lurch.
Such things will not happen hereafter,
but they did happen, and subordinates in
the Department, honest clerks, knew of
them, and were silent-silent until they
saw the new Administration really meant
an honest and fair and exact enforcement
of the laws.
The President sincerely means to give
the country an honest, economical and
lawful Administration. Where he finds
among his s~ubordinates incapable or i'm
proper persons he changes them and tries
to put better men in their places. But
the main business OF his Administration
he conceives to be to remedy abuses, Of
which a great number are found, and to
Tighten up the business of the Gov
eminent, which had come to be very
laxly administered in almost every branch
of it. The reform in Custom Houses, in
sisting on the faithful execution of rev.
enue laws, is only an example of this.
This important reform has been based
largely upon reports made to the Treas
ury during some years by Consuls and
special agents, which reports were laid
away On shelves, unattended to. The
investigation of sub Treasures, the in
quiry into land frauds, the reform of
Indian abuses, OF pension abuses, of loose
management in other bureaus, such as
that lately brought to light in the Coast
Survey; the reform in Navy yards and in
the whole Navy management-these and
many others make up the real work Of
the Administration; and those observers
who have the means Of knowing what
work has been done and is doing of this
kind, not only see that this is the most
important and necessary of all for the
country. but that a great deal remains to
be done before the Administration of the
Federal Government is restored to that
exact and faithful execution of the laws
and that honest and economical manage,
mant which the people have . right te
demand.