The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1885-03-20
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From our regular Correspondent.
WASHINGTON March II


WASHINGTON, March 16, 1885.
The situation in Washington is interest
ing, and even surprising. 1t is plain that
in the presidential chair, around it, aud be
bind it, there is a mind and a will. l will
not say that certain fiery refoTmeIs are not
hs ppy in the realization of their impatient
hopes. And it must be said that those most
In need of reformation have taken new heart
and hold but let all wait with patience and
with prayer, aud they will, L think, see the
glory of the new dispeDsation revealed, with
the exaltation Of the right men and princ-
ples-with the confusion of thieves and mon
ey changers who have so long preyed upon
the substance OF the country.
There is an old Latin maxim, festiua Eente
hasten slowly, and this seem 10 be the rule
of the new administration. Reform was
very properly begun at the White House,
-Four Clerks swept from Office at one sweep
of the new broom. Five thousand dollars
per year and much desk room saved The
example was taken up IN the Treasury De-
partment where Secretary Manning has dis
charged forty useless employees from one bu-
reau.
Secretary Lamar has first applied his
broom TO the stables adjoining the Interior
Department For years of Republican as
tendency carriages and horses have been
kept at extravaRant expense in all the de %
partments, and have not been used for the
public service, but for the convenience of
the families of public officials. The fine eq-
uipage that has been used to convey ladies
to receptions late at night has been ordered
to be sold, and the seven persons who have
been carried on the pay roll as drivers will
no longer have even the semblauce of a
right to draw their unearned pay. OF course,
this is only beginning. In all the depart
ments and in all the bureaus and 5ubOrdi
nate offices, superfluOus clerks are stumbling
over one another. Turn the loafers out and
then it will be easier to find the rascals.
Twenty thousand employees can be dis
charged with the result of positive improve
ment and expedition in government work.
/ Get your little pencil and multiply 20 600 by
$500 to 81, 500, and you will have an idea but
not an adequate one, of the amount that
will be saved, for you have not taken into
. consideration the Office room, or the furnI-
/ ture of this vast army.
It is not necessary 10 say that there is
much uneasiness and alarm in all the de-
paItments, The reduction OF the clerical
.
. it has set thousands Of clerks to quakIug in
in their luxurious siuecures. Turn the
/ loaCers out" is a new aud terrifying sound.
/ There are many straws Indicative of q
new era. An order has been issued to all
the employees Of the Patent Office that there
snail be no more reading or talking during
Office hours, aud those classes that are
behind with their work must work after Of
fee hours until it is brought up to date. The
Patent Office has been conducted in a lax
and satternlY way. In some classes Of in
vention, as textiles, harveSters printing
stoves, furnaces, etc. the Patent Office Ex-
aminers are from three to twelve months
behind with their work, and applicants for
patents have frequently to wait six months
or year before their cases are taken up.
! The recent order indicates that the new ad-
ministration will introduce new order OF
things, not only in the Patent Office, but in
other branches of the public service.
The rush of office seekers has abated, and
. the new administration has had more time
/ to address itself TO work. 1t is fact much
commented on here that very few Office
seekers have come from the South and that
many have come from the North, and North
western Republican States. Since the Pres
. ident has announced that he will not hear
applicants for Office personally, but will re-
fer all applications to the proper Cabinet
officers, he has been but little troubled.
/ There will doubtless be important chan
ges mace, but policy and good business man
agement would require that they should moi
be made until after the most careful delib-
Grafton, and thorough study of the needs
and abuses of the service. Any person ae
quainted with affairs will know that the
work will be all the better done for the eau
tion thai precedes its inception. K.