St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1886-10-23
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From Our Regular Correspondent.
WASHINGTON, Oct. nth, 1886.

us is LHe UuSy ocdSou la tuo Acpdlt u
ments at Washington. The heads of
divisions, the chiefs of bureaux aud the
Cabinet officers are preparing their an
nual reports. The President is writing
his message. The Governmental his
tory of the year must be epitomized. the
balance sheet must be struck off and
the chief executive must suggest by
way of recommendation, the measures
he will sanction, provided they receive
the approval Of legislation. All the
members of the Cabinet, except the
Secretary of State, have returned. Mr..
Rayard was shrewd enough to postpone
resting away from the city during the
season which, in Washington, is most
trying to the corpus humans.
Extracts from the reports of various
Government officials prove by irrefuta-
BILE figures that the present administra-
ton has saved the Government millions
of dollars. That the public offices are
better kept and chat public work is bet
ter done is not SO susceptible of math-
ematical demonstration but it's fact
patent to every one acquainted with the
public service. During the past two
weeks over FIVE hundred useless en-
ployes have been discharged from the
Government Printing Office alone.
Notwithstanding this great decrease in
the force, the work Of the Office has not
been at all impeded. The public land
commissioner, General Sparks, says in
his annual report: "The development
of the past year under the agencies of
the new administration have justified
every word said in my report for last
year IN regard to widespread persistent
land robbery" The report states that
the total area over Which fences have
been or are to be removed either with
or without resort to the courts is 2,14,
1876 acres, mostly in Colorado. The rec
ommendation for an additional force of
not less than one hundred special agents
is renewed, as is also that in regard to
adequate means for protecting the tim
Der on the public lands. About 175, 900
acres of land have been restored for
public settlement; ]. 4S5 cases, involving
5000 acres, have been held for can
collation..
President Cleveland is more sparing
than any Of his predecessors were of the
appropriation made by Congress for the
contingent expenses Of the White House.
The contingent fund covers station
cry, kilograms, books for library, pur-
chase of new carpets and furniture, cost
of keeping carriage and horses, etc.
The appropriation for Grants last Pres
idential year was only $4,000, and Grant
spent every cent. Hayes, at the end of
his first year in the White House had an
unexpended balance of 10 cents out of
contingent fund of $1,000. For his
last year he had a contingent fund of
$4,000 out Of which he saved $50.
Arthur managed to save only 1856 out
of the $4,000 contingent fund of his
first year, and that was the largest bal
ance he had on hand at the end of any
year while he was the occupant of the
White House. Mr.. Cleveland saved
S3,348.s1 during his first year out of
contingent fund of $4,000.
Without an act of Congress the Secre-
tary Of the Navy cannot abolish a bu-
reau or organize one. But he can dis
tribute the work and transfer some Of it
from one bureau to another. One of
the main features of Secretary Whitney's
plan of reorganization, as submitted by
him to Congress, would be bureau of
supplies, that is, bureau which would
do all the purchasing for the entire Ma
Wy Department. Another would be to
amalgamate several bureaux so that ev-
cry care involved in the construction of
ships would be conided to a single bu-
reau instead Of being distributed over
four breaux, as at present. Instead of
eight bureaux acting separately and in
dependently he would have four bureaux
with a central council. At present each
bureau advertises separately for and
separately purchases whatever it wants.
Each, for instance, goes to the market
separately for the coal, the ice, the tim
Der, the stationery it wants. This plan
results in unnecessary advertising and
in the higher prices charged for smaller
purchases. During the past year Mr..
Whitney has had his own Office purchase
the coal, the ice, the stationery for all
the bureaux with the result, as an ex-
perienced official estimates, of a saving
of G2l ON IN these ARTICLES alone Tho