Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-12-26
FOSSILS IN THE DEPARTMENTS
A Picture of Life in the Government
Service-New Blood aud Methods
Needed

A writer in the New York Sun in a
Washington letter gives the following in
teresting points about government clerks
at the national capital: To New Yorker,
who perhaps may have spent the greater
part OF his days within the shadow of old
Trinity, first glimpse of official life at
Washington is somewhat strange and not
altogether inspiring. 1t is a changed at
mosphere somehow, a new world, and
one that the habitue of Wall street
scarcely fancies. 1t is easy to be seen
that the great and wholesome activities
OF community like New York have no
place in town such as this. In New
York 1t is money hunt, and a
most exciting and occasionally profitable
sport it is. In Washington it is a
quest for rank and place, and it must
really be said that the American citizen
looks better and feels better as money
hunter than a place hunter. New
York may have its faults, but it cannot
be charged against it that its influence
dwarfs the faculties or degrades the
manhood Of its citizens. Even the hum
blest clerk, in process of time, acquires a
sort OF modest audacity that makes him
long to become either an Aston, Stew
art, or Vanderbilt. But here in Wash
IngtOn how different things are! Every
thing is stiff, starched, and bureaucratic.
How not to do it and the amazing devices
of the circumlocution office have full
swing. Nothing can be done without a
precedent, and even to suggest straight
forward business method III any particu-
lar transaction would be rank treason, II
Alexander Hamilton sat sideways on his
chair In order to sign a warrant, every
Secretary OF the Treasury should do the
same or be officially damned by his sub
ordinates. Such is the force of prescrip-
ton. Perhaps no branch of the govern
ment is more penetrated with this bu-
reaucratic rot than the Navy Department.
Men educated for the express purpose of
sailing ships and fighting them when ne
cessary are put into positions, where moth
ing short of experienced business ability
is expected and demanded by the public
eXigencies.
The line officers of our navy are SPLEEN
did fellows, but in the matter OF buying
and selling, a matter that constitutes the
bulk of the work of the Navy Department,
they are veritable children. In the pres
ent force of the department only one bu-
reau chief has had any business expert
ence. Much of the administration OF
the Navy Department may be attributed
TO the fact that the government requires
line officers to perform duties for which
they are totally untitled. Advantage has
always been taken of this circumstance,
and the naval officer in charge of a bu-
reau has usually been either only a pup
pet in the hands of designing contractors
or the unconscious tool of an ambitious
and perhaps INSCRIPTIONS Secretary. If
the bureau system is TO continue, the
chiefs of the same should have moth
the range of their professional
knowledge. Secretary Whitney is
right in asking that all the work in the
department OF purely business charac-
ter be transferred to men who have been
educated to business. If the proposed
department of finance and accounts were
established, perhaps the acrimonious con-
test, now grown chronic, as to whether
the chairs in the captains cabin shall be
furnished by the bureau of construction
and repair, or by the bureau of equip
ment and recruiting, would cease. There
would be an end also of the eighty-Odd
processes which bureaucratic red tape i'm
poses on everything purchased for the
Navy Department, from lamp
shade to an S0-ton gun. Theoretically, in
the way in which supplies are purchased
all possible chance for fraud or collision
seems impossible. The accountability of
everybody connected with the transac-
tiOns seems unusually rigid and severe,
and with the large force Of clerks en-
ployed at the navy yards and on ship
board to make checks and counter checks,
it would seem incredible that any con-
niving contractor should succeed in the
game of cheating the government"
Yet, Notwithstanding the 80 or 80
pseudO-critical examinations, every pur-
chase has to undergo, and with all this
wonderful checking and counter-check-
ing, and scrawling all over with initials,
that make a requisition look as If cy-
clone had struck an ink factory, the gov
| erlmeDt does, as a matter Of fact, come
out at the little end of the horn in the
matter of quality and price, and now and
| then as to contents also. The fact is,
! that the official way OF doing business,
where buying and selling are concerned,
is farce and an absurdity. In the State
Department, one may expect red tape,
and plenty of it, but the Navy De-
| partment should be dealt with as a
| great business establishment. where
honesty, prOmptitude, and the highest
skill are all needed to make this branch
! of the government an honor to the nation.
| If the field OF execution in the department
needs radical change, the field OF clerical
work and detail needs 1t no less. The
material seems poorly adapted for the
work. There is a certain amount Of in
| telligence manifested, but it is not the
| kind of intelligence great mercantile
house or big corporation would gladly
employ.
The life Of department clerk, to do
him justice, does not seem very enviable.
He holds his place, not by merit, but
| through political influence. His techni-
cal knowledge hardly goes beyond the
three RS, and his acquaintance with
business is of the slightest. His pay is
consequently about equal TO his ability,
and if he has any ambition a couple OF
years service in the department wrings
it all clean out OF him. To one in the
habit of studying the ways OF the clerks.
male and female, in the various depart
ments in Washington, it is very clear
that they look and act as II they were
without hope. 1t is all treadmill exis-
tence. and II it at any time has any flavor
at all it is only when some choice little
scandal or some petty feud breaks out 20
give mOnOtopy a briei holiday. IL IS a sad
sort OF life, and this is why a man breath
ing continually the auriferous air OF Wall
street would be likely TO have none OF II.
Men in subordinate positions in Wash
ingt0n gradually lose that free sort
Of air that distinguishes the Ameri-
can citizen, and they fall into the
attitude Of sycophantc machines. The
fault In this matter Is with the whole sys-
TEN and its traditions. The rank OF place
Is insisted on, and every petty chief Of a
division becomes a sort OF tadpOle tyrant.
No wonder that the self-respect Of the