Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1885-04-03
Washington Letter.
From our Regular Correspondent.

WASHINGTON, March 20, 1885.
The situation in Washington is
full Of interest, but not at all start
ling. All the Government Offices
feel the thrill of u new life, and the
sensation to oflice-holders is novel
and alarming.
With a President at Tie head of
affairs who has breakfast at s clock,
and who has finished an ordinary
days work at an Lour when his pre-
dacessors were in bed; who listens
politely to the twaddle of oflice-seek-
ing delegations, and then sends tie
office to seek the unheralded mar;
who dismisses half tho clerical para
sites of his household, for start
err; who thinks before he acts and
acts before he speaks, there is much
to cause surprise to those who are
accustomed to old-time men and
methods. The example at the White
House would be infectious, no doubt,
and would have lis Influence on the
Departments in time, but it begins
to appear that the Administration
has not relied on the slow process of
infection. The Cabinet officers
whom he has chosen, some of them
at least, appear to be men Of deed,
who have taken hold with courage
tempered by judgment. Useless
clerks have been discharged; expen-
sive perquisites of horses and car
riages have been dispensed with;
and the broad and intricate Jungle
of the civil service is being surveyed
and mapped for improvement.
1t is curious to observe the alarm
and galvanic energy that is actuatiDg
the large body of political bummers
and drones who have drawn pay for
years and years without doing any
legitimate work; without, in fact,
having any legitimate work to do.
These men and women would be
willing to do anything now that
would have the semblance of work
and are put to absurd straits to ap-
pear to be doing something.
There are clerks of another class
who have plenty to do, but whom it
has been heretofore impossible to
make do their work. There are
many of this class in the U. S. Pa
tent Office where the work of exam
lining and passing upon applications
of inventors has fallen in many
classes from six to twelve months in
arrears, compelling the applicants
for patents to wait often more than a
year before their patents are granted.
There are nearly hundred and fifty
examiners in the Patent Office and
the force is ample to keep the work
up to date, but under the lax mis-
management of the last eight years,
many of these examiners have spent
their time outside of the Patent Of
fee, or in reading, talking and flirt-
ing with the female employees of the
office. During the last week a
change has come over the spirit of
their dreams. They have been Or
dered, in so many words. TO stop
their gossip, reading and dishonest
loafins, and to bring their work up
to date, even if they have to work at
night. The cure that this order has
accomplished appears miraculous to
those unacquainted with the real ma
ture of the disease. The examiners
are now doing moro in q week than
they have done before in month,
and at the present rate, their desks
will in three months be cleared of
long and shamefully neglected ac-
emulation.
The plaintive cry of previous Adj
ministrations to Congress has been
Give us more clerks! more cle1ksr'
Mr.. Cleveland's ringing command
to the clerks has been so Give us more
work." and the clerks. no longer
backed by their Republican influence,
are buckling to it in way that is
edifying.
There is some discomfort and
grumbling at the policy and the APP
pointments of Mr.. Cleveland, but it
is sporadic and comes mainly from
disappointed individuals. There is
one fact that the great body of the
Democratic party knows and rejoices
in, and the merely political and Of
fice-seeking class will be taught TO
know it sooner or later: Mr.. Cleye.
land was not an oflice-seeker him.
self, and has doubtless no love for
office-seekers as class. The office
sought him, not to reward him for
what he had done, but because he
was believed to be able to begin a
desperately needed regeneration.
Representing ideas and principles
that are as old as humanity and as
eternal as Democracy, he is happily
anew and unentangled man. With
new man and new men, let US have
new methods. The great heart of
Damocracv nav we'll ha ipd;ffarank n