Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-04-04


| that 1t will be ruinons 10 the department and to
! the Government, though 1t would satisfy some
! political workers. ] feel, too, thBt among the
old employees there Is not enough party feeling
| 10 hut. They have been so many years-some
| indeed all their liyes-diSfranchised by resi-
| dence IN the District OF Columbia that they are
| find what G large proportion OF the men are men
Of family, sober quiet, reliable citizens, doing
| their duty steadily. faithfully and efficiently,
rearing families and holoing their places in the
| world as good citizers, husbands and fathers
| and large proportion of the clerks are Of this
| character and have not been able 10 trace
| score of men, so far, placed in the departments
| for purely political reasons, and without regard
10 capability and fitness, and who are now indo-
| lent incapable and unfit for their place, These
! people shall get nd Of.as rapidly as possible.
| In only four or five instances have discovered
| shat clerks are open to the charge of incapaci
tating themselves through drink or disspa-
| ton.
| "As for the women il beats all how this world
| is given 10 lying about women, and what n
! slim show poor woman has who IS obliged TO
| work for her living One thing should be
| borne in mind, and that is, as 4 general thing.
| bad woman does not wish for an Cfhce with
| its close and coniining labor and early rising
and long hours OF toll: 1t is the good and
| honest woman who does this. Some bad char
acters get into the departments, but this sort of
| thing is grossly exaggerated. The vast majority
| of the female employees are elderly women,
! widows and relatives of soldiers and the cour
| age and high standing in reputation of these
! thousands of women Of all conditions. filling
/ che vast Government offices and workshops,
with no o.her protection than their own sense OF
! honor and honesty, is enough to make the
! American proud of his countrywomen. The
! departments are full of women gently and
| tenderly reared ladies by birth and breeding,
| but whom the cruelties of fate and reyerses
| have obliged to seek their living by the labor of
! their hands, and to such the Government is
| godsend. In the departments are daughters
| and widows of men who have been high in
| place and honor and wealth. Many OF the
women bear names famous in the history Of the
country. In one office sits the daughter of Y.
| 5. Senator. There are many ladies i'll the de
| parCmentS daughters OF Cabinet officers, Con
| gresSmen, Governors etc.
There are many girls in MY department sup
porting widowed mothers, and one net only
| supports her mother, but she has a brother at
| college who is almost entirely dependent upon
| her. Another has reared q sister and brother,
| and succeeded, after tremendous efforts in
| getting her brother appointed to the Naval
| Academy Another is a widow with four chill
! dren, and every afternoon they are waiting AT
| the door for her she comes from the Office.
and they greet her with noisy welcome, and
she goes away with the little brood clinging 10
| and dancing about her and chatteriDg like
magpes. Another lady is the daughter of a
| Lieutenant-Governoro of u great State. She has
| been i'll the department many years, and her
first five or six years salary was, with the eX-
| ception of just enough to pay for her cheap
living, all used In paying OFF debts Of her father
The correspondent asks "what sort of
sense of decency or wisdom or humanity
would there be in going among such people
| as these, and dismissing them on no other
plea than that they were appointed to
office during Republican ruler" And we
ask what sort OF economy or decency in
| business is it that demands that the whole
machinery Of all the departments shall be
deranged and delayed in order to reward
partisans with places already efficiently
filed? 1t is very true that the present
employees have been put in place and made
competent under Republican administra-
tons. But what has that to do, or what
should it have to do with the question of
displacing them? Suppose they are
elected and a new lot is put in, and the
Democracy fails four years hence to retain
control of the administration how will
the case then stand ? Civil service reform
would reply, Retain the competent SER
wants" 1t says great deal more; en-
ploy only competent servants in the first
place, according to fair business tests of
ability, and as wholly irrespective Of po-
litical as of religious faiths" The fact
that the discharge Of employees who have
served the Government continuously these
twenty years or more, to give place to
hungry applicants, will work great per
sonal hardships is not to be considered
when there is present incompetency or
some other good cause for removal but it
is factor of humanity in cases where
there are no other than party reasons adj
vanced. As the same correspondent from
whom we have so freely quoted says;
It is evident that the exodus of the present
employees and officials will be constant though
gradual, and there is sure to ensue great dis
treSs among the people who have been born
and reared. as one might say, to department
work, and have no other way of getting their
bread. There is one instance in q hundred of
Government employe saving anything from his
or her salary. People who accept Office leave |
their homes to come here-leave their business
and their professions When they are put out |
they find themselves with no money TO speak |
Of growing old, their places at home filed, |
themselves passed by i'll their old fields of labor
.iol Il is no wonder they view the future with |
despSI Tbs can not go back and begin over |
again. They HAYS 10 capital with which to en- |
bark in new business pu..suits, and neither have |
they the youth and enc gy an, ambition, IT IS
sorry outlook for such as those apd many |
such cases as this are inevitable. The easv-r,,-
ing life OF the official, the routine labor with no
thouSht or care, the utter absence OF respOnAI
ollity and wc..nuient, and the cA.ta,,uty of the
INV moderate though u De utterly ruin and
unfit man ior tie eager pushing, jostling pur-
suits OF life he knew and rejoiced Ill before he
flOdted along in the seductive and fatal stream.
People living in independence, no matter how
small the salary, or meager the income, can |
have little idea ofthe abject terror in which the
Government clerk now exists and with which |
he views the future. An Ohio lady in one OF
the departments told me there are eight lady |
clerks i'll the house where she boards and that
the anxiety and distress are so telling upon
them that two or three are on the sick list, and |
at night they gather in each others rooms, I'M
able to sleep, and talk over the gloomy pros
pect.
When civil service reform shall have |
taken deep root and full hold upon the
American system, these things viii not be.
We shall then have employees in the serv-
ice who will be terrorized by no political
changes, and who will need TO fear only |
the results Of their own misdeeds, neglect or
incapacity. That such an attainment. in |
our system Will conduce to the purity of |
the service and advance its efficiency to |
the highest possible plane, cannot be
refuted.
THE WOMAN THIS TIME.
Public sympathy for one accused of
crime has again been reflected in a verdict |
in the case of Mrs. Kennedy, who som>
time ago shot and killed her husband in |
O