Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1885-03-21
Washington Letter,
WAsnINaroN. March II. ,86.

WASHINGTON, March II, '05.
There is an old Latin maxim, feSti-
ma tente, hasten slowly, and this seems
to be the rule with the new admins
tration. Reform was very properly
begun at the White House. Four
clerks swept from Office with one
swoop of the broom. Five thousand
dollars per year and much desk room
saved. The example was taken up
in the Treasury Department, where
Secretary Manning has discharged
forty useless employs from one bu-
reau.
Secretary Lamar has first applied
his broom to the stable adjoining the
Interior Department. For years of
Republican ascendency carriages and
horses have been kept at extravagant
expense in all the Departments, and
have been used, not for the public
service, but for the convenience of
the families of public officials. The
fine equipage that has been used to
convey ladies to receptions late at
night, has been ordered to be sold,
and the seven persons who have been
carried on the pay roll as drivers will
no longer have even the semblance of
a right to draw their unearned pay.
Of course this is only beginning in
all the departments, and in all the
bureaus and subordinate offices su-
pert1uous clerks are stumbling over
one another. Turn the loafers out
and then it will be easier to find the
rascals. Twenty thousand employees
can be discharged with results of posi-
tive improvement and expedition in
Government work. Get your little
pencil and multiply 10000 by 81, 800,
and you will have an idea, but not a
full one, of the amount that will be
saved for you have not taken into
account the Office room and furniture
of this vast army.
1t is not necessary to say that there
Is much uneasiness and alarm in all
the Departments. The reduction of
the clerical force is an unexpected
flank movement, and it has set thou
sands of clerks quaking in their luxu-
rious sinecures. "Turn the loafers
out" is new and terrifying sound.
: There are many straws indicative
of a new era. An order has been is
sued to all the employees in the Pat
ent Office that there shall be no more
reading or talking during Office hours,
and that those classes and divisions
which are behind with their work
: must work after Office hours until il
8 is brought to date. The Patent Of
4 fee has been conducted in lax and
slatternly way. In some classes OF
invention, as textiles, harvesters,
printing, stoves and furnaces, house
hold furniture, builders hardware,
surgery, ETC., the Patent Office exam
e liners are from three to twelve months
t behind with their work, and appli-
! cants for patents have frequently tC
wait six months or a year before theil
cases are taken up. The recent order
n indicates that the new administra
ton will introduce a new order o.
things, not only in the Patent Office
but in other branches of the public
service.
The rush of Office seekers has abat
. ed, and the new administration has
c more time to address itself to work
j. 1t is fact much commented on here
: that very few Office seekers have
Y come from the South, and that many
, have come from the Northern anC
\. Northwestern Republican States
Since the President has announced
that he will not hear applicant for of
flee personally, but will refer all APP
plicants to the proper Cabinet officers
he has been but little troubled. There
u will doubtless be important changes
n made, but policy and good business
/ management would require that the!
: should not be made until after tn,
s. most careful deliberation, and thor
i ough study of the needs and abuse
q of the service. Any person acquaint
g ed with affairs will know that tn,
Is work will be all the better done TO
IS the caution that precedes its incep
), ton.