Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-06-09
AT THE WHITE HOUSE.
Hints to Visitors who Want to Interview
the President or His Cabinet.

the President or His Cabinet.
WASHINGTON, June ct is hard for
politicians of standing and influence to
agree to the necessity Of calling on Cabi-
net officers before noon. They come from
distance with a just sense of their i'm
portance to the party. They know their
suggestions will be of the greatest value
to the autonomy of their local Organiza-
ton. Not that they are the puffed-up
puerlle pretenders whose req uirements
are always in an inverse ratio to their
rank, but these gentlemen have proper
and reasonable consciousness that they
ought to be well received here, and that
they should be relegated to an equal
portion of the JoVian feast. They go
TO the White House on the morn
ing OF their arrival. They
notice stock of visiting cards on the
nnte-roOm table, and behold well-dress-
ed, watchful crowd in Col. LamOnts Of
ice. But they send in their pastebOards
with smiling confidence. They expect to
be asked in at once. They forget that
most of their predecessors have equal
claims with themselves, and, above all,
that the President himself must be utterly
ignorant of the local consequence Of any
OF them. Our village CrOm well is morti-
ned to find be must walt his turn, forget
ting that those ahead OF him have been
equally mortified. When finally he gets
the ear Of the President the impOssibility
OF telling his whole story, carefully elab-
GRATED through weeks Of anxious thought,
IN i've minutes, dscOurages and cOniuses
him. When he leaves the presence he is
vaguely unhappy. 1t is after noon,
but he resolves to go down and have
a little confidential chat with the Post
master General or Secretary Manning or
the head of the Interior Department,
without loss OF time. He will expand
those general hints which he realizes it
was impossible the President should hear
in detail. 70 his disgust he finds he is
after office hours. He gets a messenger
to take up his card, but the chances are
the Secretary doesn't know him from
Adam. If the next day happens to be
Saturday he can see neither President
nor any of the Cabinet. Usually he waits
till Monday-very few men 90 off without
saving their say-but he's bound to 90
home with an uneasy impression that
JetfersOnian administration isn't what it's
cracked up to be. This is inevitable of
course, but none the less vexatious to
both the administration and the sufferers.
REPUBLICAN SCHEMES.
Careful observers of the trend of events
must have noticed the constant efforts to
set the administration and the Civil Ser
vice Commission by the ears. Take the
case of Fowler, who was dismissed from
his position as chief of the pension
division of the Third Auditors office, and
afterwards appointed to a third-class
clerkship without a civil service eXamina-
ton. At once the cry was raised that Mr..
Manning had set dangerous precedent,
and the Civil Service Commissioners were
appealed to to protest against the infringe
ment upon their prerOgatives. OF course
they declared that Fow!er's past service
in high place was conclusive evidence
of his ability to ill low one. Besides
Fowler was appointed before the civil SER
vice law was enacted, which relieved the
commission of all responsibility for him.
But this sensible decision OF the commits
sioners now draws upon them the charge
that they are in league with the admins
tratiOn through fear Of losing their places.
Appointed Tor no stated time, every one
of them can be removed at the
will of the Presidents; and that
they will be removed is the darling hope
OF the Republican politicians here. just
now the Republicans are hesltating on the
plan of next winters campaign. IL the
President can be induced to fall out with
the Civil Service Commission they will
make ''spOils and craftsmanship their red
flag. But If the President persists in car
rying out the spirit of the law they will at
once circulate the threat that no Republi-
can can consistently remain in office I'M
der a Democratic administration, and
will persist in regarding as Democrats all
who do keep their places. Thus they
will have the offices as the prize of sue
cess in the next campaign. 1t cannot be
disguised that the new methods here
greatly worry them. Without the cohe-
siye influence of patronage they are rud-
derless and mOtiveless. Bearing all this
in nina il is easy to understand why far
more than the Democrats the Republicans
are anxious that the otficenolders should