Chariton courier. (Keytesville, Chariton County, Mo.) 1878-current, 1885-08-28
WASHINGTON LETTER,
From our regular correspondent
WASHINGTON, August,25, 1887

| WASHINGTON, August, ,25, 1885,
| Life is comparatively easy IL
Washington just now. The heat Of
the past week has subsidized from Il
to 20 degrees. Men have resumed
their collars, neckties and coats.
Women have resumed-but cannot
go into particulars. The president
has taken to the woods. The cabinet
is divided geographically The post
master general IS in Madison, Wis,
the secretary Of state. oscillates be-
tween his home in Delaware and the
department in Washington; the oth-
er secretaries, believe, are at their
posts, but 1 have just returned to
Washington afler two weeks abb
sence and ! must confess, unparalel-
led in journalism, that there are one
or two things that / do not know.
The work in all the departments
has not been for years so well sys-
tem1zed and pushed as at present.
This is the comment Of all who have
long had business with pension, pat
ent, land, Indian and other bureaus
of the government service. Meth
ods have been improved, abuses
eradicated, barnacles have been
scraped OFF; competent men have
been appointed instead of drones
and shirks; new life, new energy
and old-fashioned honesty have been
infused into the complicated and
labyrlnthine system through which
the affairs of 50 ,000,0 900 of people
are administered. That so much has
been accomplished in five months is |
remarkable but by traitors and |
rebels, it must be remembered !
this has been done, whose sole OBJ |
ject-as predicted by the only truly |
good Republican party-was to tdis-
rupt. paralize and ruin
The wonderful changes which can
be effected in a government office |.
by the thoroughly business methods
being introduced In place of the
methods formerly in vogue, is strik-
ngly apparent IN the pension office
1t this time. The working force Of the
bureau is 10 short of the full num-
Der employed under the old admin
Besides this, PA Of the
clerks are absent on their annual
caves, and there are 30 absent, sick.
Notwithstanding their decrease,
altogether to- 354, the L
mount OF work being done at the
present time, without any leDgthen-
ID hours or over working of the
orce, is as large as was done by the I
ull staff of clerks under Commits
ioner Dudley, and is rapidly aug /
nenting. Recently there have been
me or two clerks both Democrats and
dismissed because they
elied too much on their influence,
md not enough upon their record ]; II
,ut beyond this there have been but
ew changes recently. f
The loud and braggart giorifica-
ion of the Republican party, when
he count of money in the treasury +,
department. showed no loss, has not 4.
ret ceased to reyerberate IN the II
and, but that is not the way the tru-
y good officials of the truly good f
iartY replenished their exchequers. Fl
now pending and 9TH
RS which the country will hear of Il
oon, will convince the most skepti-
al that an examination of the books Il
nd an elimination of the crooks Fl
AVE come none too. soon. The Re- +,
,ublicans are trying to take political
comfort from the fact, as they put it, II
hat the implicated officials who were
ately dismissed from the coast SUR
,eY Office were all Democrats This
> not true; but even if it were so, /
is not easy to see how the cause of
he Republicans is helped by the dis
overy. The fact remains that .
whatever Irregularities existed were i.
ontinued under Repahlcan rule, and i
bat it pemained for a Democratic i
administration to expose them and
pply the necessary corrective. The i
ountry is not as much concerned i
ust now about the politics of indi- ,
';dual rascals, as it is hsyilg ras-
alities stopped. 1t Is upon the lat |
er point that the record will be .
made up. |,