Chariton courier. (Keytesville, Chariton County, Mo.) 1878-current, 1885-03-27
WASHINGTON LETTER.
(From our regular correspondent

around 1t or behind 1t there is
mind and a will. / will not say tha
certain fiery reformers are happy il
in the realization of their impatien
hope. And it must be said tina
those most in need of reformation
have taken new heart and hold, bu
let all wait with patience and prayer
and they will see the glory of tht
/ new dispensation revealed with the
exhaltation of the right men anG
principles-with the confusion OF
thieves and money changers who
have so long prayed upon the sub
stance of the country.
There is an old latin maxim, festi-
ma lente, hasten slowly, and this
seems to be the rule of the new ad-
mlnistration. Reform was very
properly begun at the White House.
Four clerks swept from Office with
one swoop of the broom. FIVE thou
sand dollars per year saved and
much desk room. The example was
taken up in the treasury department
where Secretary Manning has dis
charged forty useless employees from
one bureau.
Secretary Lamar has first applied
his broom to the stables adjoining
the interior department. For years
of public ascendency, carriages and
horses have been kept at an extrava-
CANT expense IN all the departments,
and have been used not for public
service but for the convenience of the
families of public officials. The fine
equipage that has been used to con-
vey ladies to receptions late at night
has been ordered to be sold, and the
seven persons that lave been carried
on the pay roll as drivers will no
longer have even the semblance of a
right to draw their nnearned pay.
OF course this is only beginning
in all the departments, and in all
the bureaus and subordinate offices,
superfuous clerks are stumbling over
one another. Turn the loafers out
and then it WILDE easier to find the
rascals. Twenty thousand employees
can be discharged with result of pos
tive Improvement, and expedition
in government work. Getyour pen
Gil and multiply 10000 by $4,000
and you will have an idea but not a
full one, of the amount that will be
saved, foryou 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 reduc-
ton of the clerical force was an un-
expected flank movement, and 1t has
set thousands of clerks quaking in
their luxurious sihecures. "Turn
the loafers out" is a new and terri
flying sound.
There are many straws indicative
of new era. An order has been is
sued to all employees in the patent
Office that there shall be no more
reading or talking during Office hours
and that those classes or divisions
which are behind with their work,
must work after office honrs until it
is brought to date. The patent
office has been conducted in a 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
iners are from three to twelve
months behind on their work, and
applicants for patents freq uently
have to wait six months or year be-
fore their cases are taken up. The re-
cent order indicates that the new ad-
ministration will introduce a new or
der of things not only in the patent
Office but in other branches of the
public service.
The rush of Office seekers has
abated. and the new administration
has more time to address itself to
work. 1t is a fact much commented
on here, that very few Office seekers
here have come from the south, and
that many have come from the
northern and northwestern republi-
can states. Since the president has
announced that he will not hear ap-
plicants for Office personally, but
will refer all applications to the
proper cabinet officers, he has been
but little troubled. There will
doubtless be important changes made
but policy and good business man
agement would require that they
should not be made until after the
most careful deliberation and thor
ough study of the needs and abuses
of the service. Any person acquain-
ted with the affairs will know that
the work will be all the better done
for the caution that precedes its in
ception.