The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1885-03-26
Washington Letter.

The situation in Washington is full
of interest, but not at all startling.
All the government offices feel the
thrill of new life, and the sensa
ton to Office holders is novel and
alarming.
With a president at the head of
affairs who has breakfast at o'clock
aud who has finished an ordinary
days work at an hour when his pre-
decessors were in bed; who listens
politely to the twaddle of office
seeking delegations, and then sends
the Office to seek the Hnheralded
man; who dismisses half the cleri-
cal parasites of his household, for
starter; 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 a
the white house would be infectious,
no doubt, and would have its influ-
ence on the departments In time,
but it begins to appear that the ad-
ministration has not relied on the
slow process of infection. The cab
met officers whom he has chosen,
some of them at least, appear to be
men of deed who have taken hold
with courage tempered by Judge
ment. Useless clerks have been
discharged; expensive perquisites
of horses and carriages have been
dispensed with; and the broad and
intricate jungle of the civil service
is being surveyed and mapped out
for improvement.
1t is curious'to observe the alarm
and galvanic energy that is actual
ing the large body of political bum
mers and drones who have drawn
pay for years and years without do
ing 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 APP
pear to be doing something.
There are clerks of another class
who have plenty to dc but whom it
has been heretofore impossible to
make do their work. There are
many of this class in the u. S. Pat
ent office where the work of exam
lining and passing upon applications
of inventors has fallen in many
classes from six to twenty months
in arrears, compelling the appli-
cants for patent to wait often more
than year before their patents are
granted. There are nearly a hun
bred and fifty examiners in the
Patent Office and. the force is am
pie 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 Office, or
in reading, talking and flirting with
the female employees of the office
During the last week a change has
come over the spirit of their dream
They have been ordered, in so many
words, to stop their gossip, reading
and dishonest loafng 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 unac-
quainted with the real nature of the
disease. The examiners are now
doing more in a week than they
have done before in a month, and at
the present rate, their desks will
in three months be cleared of a long
and shamefully neglected accumula-
ton.
The plaIntive cry Of previous adj
illustrations to congress Les: . c1es
"glve US more clerks! more clerks p'
Mr.. Cleyeland's ringing command to
the clerks has been "give US more
work." and the clerks, no longer
backed by their repu blican infu-
ence, are buckling to it in way
that is edifying.
There is some discomfort and
grumbling at the policy and the ap-
pointments of Mr.. Cleveland, but it
is sporadic and comes mainly from
disappointed individuals. There is
one TACT that the great body of the
democratic party knows and rejoic-
es in, and the merely political and
office seeking class will be taught to
know it sooner or later. Mr.. Cleve-
land was not an office seeker him
self, and has doubtless no love for
office seekers as a class. The office
sought him, not to reward him for
what he has done, but because he
was believed to be able to begin
desperately needed regeneration.
Representing ideas and principles
that are as old as humanity and as
eternal as democracy, he is happily
a new and unentangled man. With
new man and new men, let US have
new methods. The great heart of
democracy may well be Indifferent
to private pangs and chagrins in the
boundless joy of a rescued and re-
united nation.