St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1886-09-25
WASHINGTON LETTER. .
From Our Regular Correspondent.
WASHINGTON, Sept. IA, 1886

place for your correspondent to write
about the Departments with their tenn
ing clerical life,-the great offices in
which the accounts of Uncle Sam are
kept. and where the business Of the
weathiest and most progressive people
on the globe is managed. The bust
ness of the administration has grown
with the growth and prosperity of the
nation, and requires constant expan-
sion and adjustment as the nation
grows in thews and bulk. 1t cannot be
otherwise than that there must be some
waste in our National housekeeping
Economy is not an American virtue.
The lavishness of nature begets prodi-
gality in the individual and in the
home. Our government is very like
the units which compose it. | am
afraid we will have to be much older
and sadder people before we, indivi-
dually or nationally, practice the
"waste not want not' frugality and
economy of Germany and France.
Our country is young and wastes its
substance in riotous living, often mis-
taking the prodigalty of our natural
resources for thrift and prosperity.
One need not incur the reproach of
pessimism in predicting that we may
have to eat husks and humble our
selves in sackcloth and ashes before
we are able to solve some of the great
politico- economic questions which now
confront us.
Our civil service list is the largest
and most expensive in the world, 1t
cannot now contain less than $4,000
persons, and it is continually growing.
The employees of our Government are
paid much more than the employees of
any other Government do not hest
tate to say that as rule they are paid
more than their services are worth.
Added to this is the fact that in spite !
of their premium wages it has never |
yet been found possible to make them |
work. Nearly all the Government Off
ces are behind with their work, and
this is especially so with the U. S.
Patent Office, the best paid of them
all, and the one which not only does
not cost the tax payer a cent, but which
actually pays large yearly surplus
into the National Treasury.
The present Administration has made
determined effort to reform the idle
ness, the absenteeism, and the general
good for nothingness of the civil SER
vice, but it has a Herculean task be-
fore it, and it must be admitted that it
had no other equipment in the cam
paign of reform than good intentions.
Mr.. Cleveland and his Cabinet were
totally unacquainted with the Depart
ments, bureaus, and divisions Of almost
Gordian completely over which they
were called to preside. Their Demo-
cratic chiefs Of Divisions and Bureaus
were necessarily as ignorant as them
selves. They found the offices filled
with men and women placed there by
political influence as reward for the
political work they had done or were
expected to do. In these offices idle
ness, gossip, absenteeism, had long
been the rule. The clerks were amen ]
able only to the influential politicians
who appointed them, and it was COM
mon with them to defy their official
chiefs and to actually have them dis
charged. Many Of the chiefs lived in
fear of pretty female clerks in their
divisions who were backed by inhuen-
tial senators. These clerks, conscious
Of their strength, did as they pleased,
to the humiliation Of the obsequious
chiefs, and the decentralization of the
entire service. All this, [ have said
has been greatly changed. The clerks
now arrive at the departments at 9
o'clock instead of half past uine or ten.
They remain at their desks until the
regular time for departure. Formerly
It had been the habit of many to shirk
work for the slightest illness, or to
affect illness and play truant. Now
every days illness is charged up and is
substracted from the thirty DAYS vaca-
ton which is the annual allowance
with pay of Government employees.
These and other reforms have made \
! noticeable improvement on both the
quantity and quality of the work per-
'ormed, but much remains to be done
before the work in the Government
,ffices can be carried on with the econo-
ny and dispatch of we'll conducted
business establishments. Many of the
,hiefs of bureau and division appointed
w the nresant administration ara 90