The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1886-09-17
WASHINGTON LETTER



When there is no Congress, no Ad-
ministration, no society, IN short no.
body in Washington, 1t may not be
Departments with their tecming cleri-
cal life,-the great offices in which
the accounts OF Uncle Sam are kept,
and where the business of the wealth.
lest and most progressive people on
the globe is managed The business
Of the administ" ,.tion has grown with
the growth and prosperity of the nation
and requires constant expansion and
adjustment as the nation grows in
thews and bulk. 1t cannot be other
wise than that there must be some
waste in our National housekeeping.
Economy is not an American virtue.
The lavishness of nature beg Is 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 oil Ter
and sadder people before we, individu-
ally 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 mistaking the
prodig ality 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 ourselves in sack
cloth and ashes before we are able TO
solve some of the great politico. econ
mic questions which now confront us.
Our civil service list is the largest
and most expensive in the world. 1t
cannot now contain less than l25,000
persons, and it is continually growing.
The employees OF our Government are
paid much more thar the employees of
any other Government. do not hesi-
tate to say that as a 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
offices 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 tho tax payer cent, but which
actually pays a large yearly surplus in
to 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 1t, 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 al
most Gordian complexity over which
they were called to preside. Their
Democratic chiefs of Divisions and
Bureaus were necessarily as ignorant
as themselves. 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 idleness, gossip, absenteeism,
had long been the rule. The clerks
were amenable only to the influential
politicians who appointed them, and it
was common with them to defy their
official chiefs who lived in fear of pretty
female clerks in their divisions who
were backed by influential senator's.
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, l have said has been
greatly changed. The clerks now ar
rive at the departments at 0 o'clock
instead of half past nine 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 ILL.,
ness and play truant. Now every days
illness is charged up and subtracted from
the thirty days vacation which is the an
nual allowance with pay of Government
employees. These and other reforms
have made noticeable improvement
on both the quantity and quality OF
the work performed, but much remains
to be done before the work in the Gov
ernment offices can be carried on with
the economy and dispatch of well con.
Quoted business establishments. Many
of the chiefs of bureau and division
appointed by the present administra
ton are capable, energetic, and thor
oughly determined to reform the deeI
rooted abuses that appear everywhere
in the immense civil establishment Of
the United States. These abuses can.
not be swept away by magician.
wand. They must be removed by
patient devoted work.