The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1885-07-23
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From our Regular Correspondent.

' ~
| Evidences accumulate daily that g
new and better governmental era has
daWned upon the country, and that
the hope for purer and more busi
ness-like administration which ex
pressed itself in the election Of Cleve
land will not be disappointed.
tits safe to say that it has been
a long time since the laws were so
thoroughly studied and so honestly
enforced as they now are, while the
present generation sees for the first
timesa sincere endeaver to check
extravaganza and the wiIlful waste
of the peoples money.
The Government receipts and ex-
penditures for the month Of June
1884, and 1885, are significant as
showing how far administrative re-
form affects the balances. For the
month of June 1885, the receipts
were S27,157,O15.55: June 1884,
$26932,oSS.30: expenses for June
1885, Sl5,255,658.11, June 1884,
S16,1l6.113.90. The increase Of
receipts can largely be placed
to the increased vigilance of the
custom service, under the spur
Of the neS administration, in preven-
ting frauds in differentiation. The
reduction in expenditures of over
eight hundred thousand dollars is
the Immediate result Of the initial
passage fthe Jacksonian broom of
retrenchment and reform through the
Federal service.
The claim made by the Demo
Gratis in recent canvasses that 1t was
high time to have look at the books
has been abundantly sustained. In
every department, and in almost
every bureau of the Government ir-
regularities are coming to light.
Secretary Manning is overhauling
the Internal Revenue Bureau, reor-
ganizing the Bureau of Engraving
and Printing and reducing this chari-
ty hospital to business principles,
and he is breaking up the ring which
has flched the fifty millions or so
from the Treasury department by
undertaking their importations. The
department has been
overnaaled with results disastrous to
the regulations Of mealy mouthed
Loring, and his subordinates. The
land grabbers have been checked,
and on every hand evidences Of
recklessness, and extravaganza are
coming to light. The last bureau to
be heard from is Coast Survey, the
accounts of which are under suspi-
cion and investigation by the Audi
tor The wholesome feeling now is
that all these Investigations will be
honest ones; that the innocent will
be yindicated, while the guilty will
not he whitewashed. For such is
Democratic reform.
Since the reorganization Of the
Bureau of Engraving and Printing
over two hundred persons have been
discharged without their loss being
felt either in the quality or quantity
Of The work done, and at saving Of
over 100000, per annum. How can
this be? The explanation is easy.
Congress places in the hands of the
chief of the bureau nearly g million
of dollars annually, with absolutely
no restrictions. The bureau was
filed with clerks many of whom
were assisting the others to do
nothing. Fifty or more were dis,
charged, and $4,000, was saved at
one swoop. One matron and nine
assistants were employed to protect
from theft the clothes in the dress
ing room of the female assistants
to the printers. These ten people
read and gossiped all day, and drew
their salaries on the first of the
month. Now two women pass
occasionally through the dressing
room and the same result is attained.
Eight lazy colored men sat on a
bench in the corridor. Now only
one is left to tell the tale. The
Treasury Department corridors also
were thronged with idle messengers,
so much so, in fact, that it became
subject of complaint to the Secretary
Now the efficiency of a few is in.
crossed by the discharge Of many.
The new administration is little
raw as yet, has not got its hand in.
but in the initial work Of four months
there is promise for the forty and
four to follow.
- .Rnnklan,s Arn1na Salua