The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1885-05-22
OUR WARRINGTON LETTER.
From our Regular Correspondent.
AInr


WASHINGTON, May 49, 1885.
1t is pretty well known by the Editor and by
the readers of this paper that their Washington
correspondent is no friend of the Republican Of
tic holder, but Notwithstanding L am anxious to
see Republican Office holders go, cannot join in
the pretty common denunciaton of the new ad-
ministration because II has not completed its
pears remarkable that so much has been ac-
complished in so little time, and can accoun
for the denuncation of the so-called hardness of
the administration only on the supposition that
those who denounce know nothing of what a
them. Ten weeks ago the President found him
self at the head of a pondcrous and complicated
chaos of governmental machinery intimately
pie and handling S30000O0 00 per year in the trans
action of public business. He was without exper-
ence in national affairs, had not been in Wash
markable that he spoke in his inaugural address
of the painful sense of responsibility with which
he undertook the stupendous work. 1t would be
very easy for him to dawdle through his term and
pose as President like his proper and respecta-
BILE predecessor. But the time demanded differ
ent work from him-the work of reforming and
simplifying a vast and demoralized bureaucracy,
and reducing it to an honest business basis. Ten
weeks have passed and much has been accom-
plished. A large number of the civil service
bureaus have been filled with good Democrats and
with good men. TO the unretecting million this
may have seemed an easy task, but when it is re-
membercd that the time of the administration
has been occupied by battalions of delegations
pressing rival candidates, by office seekers SINGLE
and office seekers in mobs all good Democrats so
called and beautifully endorsed, it is remarkable
that time has been found to make the best selec
ton. Most people, presume, are aware that the
mere fact of having voted the Democratic
ticket does not fit man tor office where he must
perform promptly and creditably class of work
about which he knows nothing more than he
does of the Russian language. When Mr.. Cleve-
lang came into office, the first consideration was
using old figure, to keep the ship of State sail
ing smoothly and effectively, making the best
time and preserving the precious freight of men
and merchandise. Revenues had to be collected
The army, the navy, pensions, the courts, and a
vast civil list had to be paid {; the books must be
kept and ten thousand incidental processes re-
quirng skill and experience had to be infinitely
carried out. The President and his Cabinet and
his party were uuskilled aud inexperienced in
executive affairs. They have as yet only gen.
eral idea of what they have to do, and what can
be done. 1t is not anything to the disparagement
of many of the bureau officers that have been
appointed to say that they are helplessly depend
ent upon their Republican subordinates in office
FOR information in the commonest details of their
official duty. They at the head of the bureaus.
vast offices employing from one hundred to six
hundred clerks, and yet they know less than any
of these clerks about the routine of the bureau.
1t would then seem to be not just the time to
discharge these clerks who, however, bad politi-
cally and personally have skill upon which the
new Administration will be dependent for a time,
and nothing would be more rash and ruinous than
to fill these offices at once with unskilled men,
The postoifces throughout the country are diff
ferent class of offices and they being filled at
the rate of about 100 per day. or just as rapidly as
the Postmaster General can work.