Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1889-10-03

WASHINGTON, October l,

The ebb tide has set in. From the sea coast
and mountain resorts Washingtonians are COM
ing home again, and it is but repeating what
those already returned have said to remark
that they are very glad to be back. They have
comfort instead of more or less discomfort, do
mestic life in place of vagrsnt hotel living, and
the National Capital instead of the small life of
some summer-living hostelry. 1t is matter
of social duty that many residents of Washing
ton must spend certain months of the year
away from home, and it is without much
doubt, matter of regret to a large number of
them. 1t is so, because Washington is so COM
Portable place in which to live; because here
is moderate climate, here are perfect streets,
here are shaded sidewalks, here are teeming
markets, here are abundant connections with
all the outing-places of day, here are the
requisites of pleasant living in modern way.
To desert what Washington affords and suffer
to an extent beside the sea or under the eye of
some mountain hotel keeper is one of the pen
alties of being in the swim. Brave people and
much enduring are those who are Sin the
SWIM" month from now most of the suffer-
ing wanderers will have returned to Washing
ton. month later they will have recuperated
and be ready for the season of festivity which
comes here with the opening of Congress and
the full swing of official life added to the local
term of social effort occurring naturally in
city of two hundred thousand or so people.
The Capital is beginning to be itself again and
everybody is gratified over the fact. 1t should
really be itself all the year round. 1t is almost
old enough and big enough.
GETTING READY FOR THE CENSUS.
Again, at the close of the round ten years,
the Census Bureau is pinching itself and trying
to wake up. Like the F-year locust, between
| itc lodi of ~
sound sleep of several years but it never actu-
ally dies About 1884 it became comatose and
since that time there has been only one single
clerk on deck to attest actual vitality. But
last spring the President appointed Robert P.
| Porter its superintendent and signs of obun-
dant life were at once apparent. Already two
or three hundred clerks have been appointed
| to prepare for the national census of next
June, and within six months Mr.. Porter will
have appointed 1000 clerks and 10000 enumera-
| tors to complete the immense work. Most of
the clerks, whose tenure will be short, are alrea
dy selected, and the local enumerators, whose
Office life will last only one month are now
being designated in the thousands of districts
all over the country. Up to the present time
Porter and his assistants have been sheltered
in private offices, but the hot hive is already
crowded, and in a month the workers will
swarm and find new hives in different parts of
the city, which they will occupy exclusively
If any reader thinks that 1t is mixing meta
phors to allude to these people both as cicadas
and as honey bees, he ought to stumble upon
the Census Bureau when it is hbernatng and
when it isn't. 1t is the intention of the Super
intendent to make the eleventh census more
complete than any that has preceded it. Some
subjects not hitherto covered will be exhaus-
t.l
sented much more compactly than in 1880. But
the preliminary plans are as yet somewhat
nebulous, and it would be impossible now to
tell of more than tentative purposes
MAIL PRIVILEGES OF THE GOVERNMENT
If the Government of the United States had
to pay for the use of the mails just as an ordin-
ary citizen does when he posts a letter or a
package, the receipts of the Post-ofiice Depart
ment would be increased many thousands of
dollars in the of year. The Washing
ton post-ofiice alone sends out as much as a
million pounds of matter from the Executive
Departments and Congress in the course of a
month, and this matter is all minus postage
The Government departments in the city are
also exempted from the payment of the Gus
tomary registration fee of ten cents and 2l9S3
letters and parcels were sent out gratuitously
by the money order office of the Washington
pOSt-Oflce IN twelve months Besides, whole
| libraries of public documents are carried free
for Congressman by their Uncle Samuel under
their franking privilege. But while Con-
gresham can send out public document to
his constituent free of charge, if he wants to
write him letter he is compelled to pay the
regular charge just us any other citizen. Years
ago he could send out letters free. Now he is
allowed S125 per annum for stamps and station
cry instead.
TANNERIsM IN FULL BLOOM.
The people view with keen dissatisfaction
shocking condition of administration that still
continues at the Pension Office. In charge of
that vast department. which is now making
monthly payments to nearly 100000 persons, is
man named Hiram Smith. He is Assistant
Commissioner of Pensions. He did not fall
with Tanner. Yet Hiram Smith, and not James
Tanner, put his arm into the public chest the
other day and took out S803572 for himself
Not only did he pocket this grab but he aided
forty other watch-dogs to get into the
same smoke-house. Forty-nine of the paying
tellcrs of the Pension Office cashed the same
kind of check.
IT'S HINGLIsH YOU KNOW.
The British cabinet now numbers seventeen
members. 1t will be the ambition of some of
our Republican statesmen to catch up with the
mother country in this matter. The next move
in this direction will probably be to make the
Pension Bureau a separate department, with a
secretary, force, fund and policy, all its
own. r.