The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1885-03-20

IOugh-PuLting the Departments ON
business BASIS.
From our Regular Correspondent.
WASHINGTON, March 18th, 1885,
The situation in Washington is interesting ant
even surprising. 1t is plain that in the Presiden
tia chair, around il, or behind 1t there is MIND
and a will. Will not say that certain fiery re
formers are happy in the realization of their i'm
patient hope. And it must be said that thoss
most In need OF reformation have taken new
heart and hold, but let all wait with patience and
prayer, and they will, think, see the glory OF
the new dispensaton revealed, with the exalta'
ton or the right men and principes-with the
confusion OF thieves and money changers who
have SO long preyed upon the substance Of the
There is an old Latin MAXIM Festina lente, has
ten slowly. and this seems to be the rule of the
new administration. Reform was very properly
begun at the White House. Four clerks swept
from office with one swoop of the broom. Five
thousand dollars per year and much desk room
ury Department. where Secretary Manning has
discharged forty useless employees from one bu-
reau.
Secretary Lamar has arst applied his broom to
the stables adjoining the Interior Department.
For years of Republican ascendancy carriages
and horses have been kept at extravagant ex-
pense in all the Departments, and have been
used, not for the public service, but for the
yenience of the families Of public officials. The
fine equipag that has been used to convey la
dies 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 sembance of a right to draw their
unearned pay. OF course this is only beginning
10 all the departments, and In all the bureaus an
subordinate Offices superfuous clerks are stumb-
ling over one another. Turn the loafers out and
then 1t will be easier to find the rascals Twenty
thousand employees can be discharged with result
of positive Improvement and expedition in Gov
eminent work. Get your little pencil and multi
ply 10000 by 81 500 and you will have an idea but
not full one, of the amount that will be saved |;
for you have not taken into account the office
room and furniture of this vast army.
1t is not necessary to say that there is much
uneasiness and alarm In all the Departments.
The reduction of the clerical force is an unex-
pected flank movement. and 1t has set thousands
Of clerks quaking In their luxurious sinecures.
Turn the loaferS OUT is q new and terrifying
sound.
There are many straws indicative of a new era
the Patent Office that there shall be no more
reading or talking during office hours, and that
those classes and divisions which are behind with
their work must work after Office hours until 1t
Is brought to date. The Patent Office has been
conducted in q lax and slatternly way. In some
classes of invention. as textiles harvesters, print
ing, stoves and furnaces household furniture,
builders hardware, surgery, etc., the Patent Office
Examiners are from three to twelve months be-
have frequently to wait six months or year be-
fore their cases are taken up. The recent order
Indicates that the new administration will intro
duce new order of things, not only In the Pat
ent Office but in other branches Of the public
service.
The rush of office seekers has abated. and the
new administration has more time to address it.
self to work. 1t Is fact much commented on
here that very few Office seekers have come from
ne South and that many have come from stat the
Since the President has announced that he will
not hear applicants for Office personally, but will
GERS, he has been but little troubled. There will
doubtless be important changes made but policy
and good business management would require
that they should not be made until after the most
careful elaboration, and thorough study Of the
needs and abuses of the service. Any person &C
quainted with affairs will know that the work will
be all the better done for the caution that pre-
cedes its inception.