Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-10-21
Mr.. sasEDIcT's REFORMS.


| MR.. eaSEDIcT's REFORMS.
| The Public FrAnter Cutting on Needles,
| Expenscs snd Struggling to Remedy Re
publican AbaseA.
| The new Pubic Printer, on tskine
charge of his Office, was confronted BY
eae unpleasant fact chat his predeces
sof. for the first twNo months of Che
present fiscal year, expended SEE
| which, if the same ratio should be
kept sp, would result in deficiency
of several hundred thousand dol
| lars. Mr Benedict says the office is so
| oyercrowded that the employees are in
| each otheFsway, and the result is that,
| after q fortnight'S examinasion of the
business. he has found he coQk1 get
along with q much smaller force. The
| meager remainder Of the appropria-
| ton left him by Mr.. Rounds compels
him TO be very circumspec< with ex-
| penditures, and wholesale dismissals of
employees are the consequences: He
understands what is required al every
/ head of bIre3u under the present
| Administration, 70 bring every thing
down TO hard pan and business. prins-
Eciples- The Government printing
office was very convenient for Com
greSsmen 10 pay OF some Of their POI
litical debts to their constituents, and
Mr.. Rouads was tooobliging to refuse.
thsirc applications. The nsw Public
Printer is of sterner stuff. thorough
business man, trainsd in an excel
lentssehooI, and only intent upon full
filling his duty to the letter, testing the
results of his work speak for Them
selves He apprenticeship golden rule
of the Democratic Administration, that
an officernof the Government who has
charge of a bureau holdsth money of
the people in his hands. 80 be used for
their purposes and to further their in
terests. and when any part of the
funds which the taxpayers have en-
trusted to- hiM are diverted to other
purposes. orwhen. by design or neg
lect, he allows sum to BIS applied to
the salaries of unnecessary employees.
merely to please some member of Con-
gress, or some personal or. political
friends, he violates his duty
In the printing Office, as in all other
departments of the Governments there
is no different rule of fidelity, under
the present regime, between the office
holder and the taxpayer than that
which should regulate the conduct of
the formerwhen, as an individual, he
holds the money of his neighbor.
Under the Republican Administration
such rule would be laughed at. and
it was only made respected under the
present regime by the employment of
stern measures 1t took some time to
convince Republican officeholders that
the reform, policy of President Cleve-
land was genuine one and had come
to stay. Those who refused to sub
scribe to it were compelled to walk the
plank, and the spoils party raise a
piteous howl at each manifestation
of this golden principle of honest
government. 1t was high time for a
change in the management of the
Government printing Office. Had
Mr.. Rounds been permitted to go on
his way sGuandering the appropria-
ton. by the time Congress met there
would have been no funds left and a
demand would have been made for
large deficiency appropriation. Mf.
Benedict, handicapped though he is,
by his predecessor extravaganza. has.
applied himself earnestly to devise
| means of outstanding the slender
resources at his command and to-
make them suffice until the end of the
| fiscal year. He will be obliged to make
| further reductions of the force before
he can see his way clear. The Wash
ington correspondent of the St Louis.
| Republican thus explains the situation:
| Mr. Rounds crammed the Office as
full of Republican partlsans as it was
possible for him to do, and he used as
much of the appropriation as the law
would allow. Indeed, it is charged
that he stretched the law as far as il
would stretch and got all the good out
of the Office for the grand old party
that he could get. Rounds is a sharp
one. and he has left the Office in a shape
to give Benedict great deal of trouble.
Albany argus.