St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-04-29
AN ARMY OF OFFICERS.
Fifty Thousand Democrats Said to be
Now Looking After Uncle
Sans Interests.
Report of the Agricultural Committee
on the Bill for the Taxation
of Bogus Butter.
A Blunder by New York Paper
Causes Senator Spooner Some
Inconvenience.
Conkltng's Opinion OF Sherman
Yesterdays Proceedings in the
Senate.
Democrats Getting the offices.

Democrats Getting the Offices.
Special to the Globe.
WASHINGTON. April 2S.-An examin a.
tion of the records of the senate show that
the president has sent to the senate nearly
twenty-five hundred nominations since his
term as president began. Out of this num-
Der the senate has rejected only six. There
are pending perhaps a couple of hundred
not yet acted upon, but the indications are
that they will go through very rapidly.
From present appearances it does not seem
probable that there will be any considerable
number of reflections by the senate. The
number of nominations by the president is
very small compared with the number of
appointments made under this admins
tration.
''rhe fact is" said Democratic congress
man 10 your correspondent, ''there,have been
great many more Democrats put in Office
under this administration than the people
generally suppose. There is Il great deal of
complaint among the Democrats that the ad-
ministration has been too slow, but the fact
is they don't realize what is being done"
"How many Democrats are there holding
othce in this country now, do you supposeY'
~ am almost
AFRAID TO TELL YOU,
for the people wont believe it. 1t is a fact,
however, that there are nearly $4,000 Demo-
cratic officeholders in the United States
to-day"
''Then pretty nearly one-half OF the Offices
are filled with Democrats, are they?'
"Hes; nearly one half. There are, outside
of tue army, only little over 100000 offices,
and nearly $4,000 of these are filed with
Democrats"
"How do you make that out2''
at is very simple. There have been nearly
10000 fourth-class postmasters appointed by
this administration. Stevenson has been at
the crank for nearly a year, and has been
grinding out these fourth-class officers at q
wonderful rate. IL is no uncommon thing for
him TO appoint a hundred fourth-class post
masters in a day. Put it at the rate Of 500 a
week for year and you will have $4,000
changes, but don't go by guess, or by this
arithmetical program. ! happen to know
that the figures of the postoffice department
show that there have been about q, 900 fourth
class postmaSterS appointed since Cleveland
came into Office. OF course, all these are
Democrats. That goes without saying"
THAT is only one-half of your original esti-
mate of 50,0O0."
"Wait a minute. ] have not finished.
this country holding ofie. You probably OBJ
served, as did a
GOOD MANY PEOPLE,
that lots of oficeholders, who were in position
when Cleveland was elected, suddenly dis
covered that they were and had been all along
Democrats There are probably five thousand
or ten thousand of these fellows who will
stand up now and make oath that they have
been Democrats from the first and are such
now. Beside that, there are great many
small postmasters throughout the South who
never pretended to be anything else than
Democrats. They were appointed under the
Republican administrations, with the under
standing that they were Democrats. In
many of those states where there was
nothing to be gained in political
way by the Republicans they appointed TO the
small offices whoever was recommended by
| the citizens, where these offices was located
without asking any questions as TO their
| politics. There were few white Republicans
and or course colored postmasters were very
offensive to the people of the South, aud
where there was no point TO he gained by
| having a Republican in these offices which
had no patronage, and very little salary or
! influence, the offices were filled with Demo
| Gratis. Add these to the number of Demo
! Gratis appointed by this administration and /
! have no doubt the number of Democratic
| postmasters in the fourth class list will not
| exceed $4,000. Then there are to be added to
that the first, second, and
| THIRD CLASS PoSTMAsTERs
| that the president, has aappinted and you will
have the list Of postmaster alone exceeding 30, :
| 900 in the number of Democrats; then take the
| treasury department. for instance, aud you
| viii find that every internal revenue collector
| five men under him, whose Office does not
come under the civil service rules. has been
| quietly making changes since he got warm in
| his seat with fifty or sixty internal officers,
| quietly chopping of heads all over the coun-
| try, and as many more officers In the customs
service, it does not take long to count up tha
| number of changes in the minor offices into a
good many thousands. Take any district that
| you may select and you will find that there
have been large Numbers of changes among
the little fellows Of which the general public
has heard practically nothing. Add together
the changes in the postoffice department, the
| appointments TO the postofices, and the
offices in which there have been deaths and
designations the appointments by the presi-
| dent, the changes in the subordinate Offices,
in the treasury department all over the coun-
/ try, and the large number of persons
now holding Office who were appointed under
former administration and who actually were
and who now claim to have been Democrats,
and even will find that the total does not fall
short of fifty thousand"
u"Then it looks as though pretty much all
the Offices in the government will be filed
with Democrats by the end of another year -
'Yes; think by the time Cleveland reaches
the middle of his term, there will be very few
Republicans left in Office"