The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1886-09-12

in DOW6r-dS lOnR aS the custom Sndll
prevail of removing men from Office
every time new party takes hold of the
reins of goVernment-as long as subOr-
dinate officers or employees OF the gov
! eminent are removed because of the 7
! political bias there will always be Dit
terness of feeling among and a CORES
ponding amount of hardness wrought
upon a great many deserving people.
When tn Liberals in Englan say
! under the leadership OF Mr.. Gladstone,
are defeated by the Conservatives,
under the leadership of Ohurehhill or
anybody else, the Conservatives, in as
Stunning Office, do not pro eed to turn
out every subordinate clerk in the
! Home, Foreign, War, Treasury AID de-
partmentS, the only changes that are
made being among the persons who
! hold positions al the head of bureaus.
| Positions in these departments, are 90
! tanned by a proof of efficiency, every
candidate being required to pass very
severe civil service examination before
he receives his appointment The poll
teal bias of the indiY dual forms no
| factor in The business. Administration
after administration may change. the
subordinate is not disturbed indeed
many are allowed to retain their posi-
tions, so long as their conduct is good,
| until they are entitled to retire with q
pension.
This question of retiring clerks that
have served, say twenty years, in the
government employ, is one that have
often heard discussed among groups OF
men in Washington. l presume the
subject has come up more prominently
since the Democratic administration
int in
which so many old time clerks have
oeen removed, not because they were
incompetent but simply To make room
for men of a different shade of politics,
in other words, men who are IN svmpa
thy with the administration. Many
favor The idea Of pension being paid to
clerks after certain number OF years
faithful service; many do not. The
latter class maintain that the country
is too heavily burdened by the payment
of pensions already; that clerks who
have been twenty or twenty-five years in
tie ser vice Of the government, receiving
an excellent salary all the time, ought
to have been able to have put something
by for rainy day." and that ii they
have been unable 10 do this, because of
extravaganza and aside from misfor
tune. the country ought not be made TO
suffer III consequence.
That pension would be q god send
to many old-time clerks who nave re
Gently been removed from office in
Washington, the average reader had
better believe. | have met scores of
this class who, While they have been III
receipt of splendid SALARIES for twenty
years, have not dime 70 their name
A change OF administration seemed 10
DE the farthest thing from their min DIS.
such thing as being removed from
Office, so long as they did their duty
and conducted themselves with pro-
priety, seemed to them the remOteSt
thing on earth. But the evil day flor
th5m) arrived and cauSht them UMPIRE
pared. In debt here, there aud every
where, they were, in measure, cast
upon the street, as useless a class OF
men as can be met in days march.
While at their desks in one or the other
OF the Departments, following, day
after day, a simple, routine kind of
work, they were all right, bat the me-
ment they became deprived of such
employment they appeared TO be per
fectly helpless.
Washington, of course, is not one OF
the cheapest cities in which man can
reside. As a rule in al the central,
SpGCb6UIC PAL 10 VI IuC lOW II uOlSG ItDIS
are high. Only those OF ample means
can rent them and in most instances
they are rented by class that expect
TO be helped out by the aid OF boarders.
OF course there are thousands of elegant
houses in Washington that are owned
by the parties who occupy them; but
the class to which [ particularly refer
/, the ordinary government clerk, the
store clerk, and men of limited salary.
This latter class, whether msrried or
single, chiefly rent rooms, and board IN
cheap boarding houses, of VIII ch latter
there are no end in Washington. AS a
rule these clearinghouse are in close
proximity to the various Departments
tue employees of which are their main
support. Several of these places break
fast, luncheon and dine from 400 to 500
persons daily, and the monthly terms
vary from $40 to $50 per month. a very
fair meal is provided for that money.
at all events there is quantity # there
is not always quality. l have ascer
tanned that the prOprietors of most OF
t. csc cheap boarding houses have con-
tracts with the proprietors OF the Varl-
Gus hotels to purchase all the leftover
roast beef. mutton, boiled beef, chickens,
turkeys, ETC., etc., with pies, custards,
lGllCo dllO bLO lAhC LuIOnu III, oil vi
which, when trimmed down and re-
cooked in all shapes, go to make
what would appear to be a
very saVory meal. Many people, how
ever, soon tire of such places, especially
when they get to know how so many
dishes can be served up for twenty-five
or thirty cents a meal. They prefer to
go TO a respectable restaurant and order
a square" meal at fifty, sixty or
seventy-ive cents. They then have
the assurance that what they receive
has neither been f0rked nor fingered by
any body else but hemselves--except, of
course, by the cook who prepared the
meal.
Taking 1t as a whole. however, Wash
ington, D. c., is an expensive city to
live in. consequently it is difficulS for
the ordinary man to save much money.
His expenditure is invariably equal to
his income, and ID a great many cases
the former exceeds the latter by con-
siderable amount. 1t seems TO be a
department clerks normal condition TO
be in debt. If he is paid on the first of
the month he may be expected to be
borrowing about the third, and IN this
way money lenders do an immense
huSiOeSS at very PTOrbifsDt IN faraSt III