The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-02-04
THE ROANOKE TIMES. SATURDAY. FEBRUARY 4, 1893

most deserted. Twenty-Five hundred moo.
pie have gone to their desks in the treas,,rv
department., nearly 1000 in the pension of.
Nee, 1000 in tho big war, state and navy
building, thousand in the interior tiepart.
ment, another thousand in the government
printing oince, ana thousands more in the
other departments and bureaus.
Tho visitor to Washington finds n con.
vincing object lesson in the immensity of
ms government, for after he has made n
tour OF the well known departments and
institutions, travcrsed their long corridors
ana seen literal acres of desks and square
rods of open ledgers and records. he st,,m
bles upon many other government bureaus
III unexpected places. All over the CITY he
mas big buildings rented by Uncle Sam
ana converted into hives for the transac-
zion OF his almost infinite business. Scat.
tereu ABOUT each OF the principal depart
ments are from three to u dozen rented
buildings into which the business of tho
bureau has overtlown after filling the spncc
originally set apart for it from cellar tn
garret.
10 tell the truth, the government is ran
idly outgrowing all of it's quarters md
many of its methods. Tho Capitol isn't big
enough, notwithstanding the recent build
ing OF million dollar addition in tho
shape OF terrace, and adjacent buildings
are bought orrentcd by congress The CEN
sus office, which has had Mt times 2. GOO ON
ployees in this city, has occupied bnlf n
dozen buildings, scattered all about. The
White House isn't big enough and will have
to be enlarged.
The treasury, which was big enough for
all the offices under it's control TWENTY-FIVE
Years ago, is now dreadfully crowded.
though bureau after bureau has moved out
and founH quarters elsewhere. The con-
gressional or national library, now housed
III the Capitol, is one of the strangest ium-
bies of literature and rubbish you ever saw,
with books piled all over the floors and fill
ing every nook and Granny. The finest
library building in the world will soon be
ready for its occupancy.
To describe for you even in the most gen
eral and rapid way the great variety of
functions filled by government would take
pages instead of columns of type Take, for
example, the department of the interior. 1t
has become one of the most prodigious of
all the government bureaus For quarter
of n century it has been the dump heap into
which everything that could not be else
where attached has been thrown The re-
suit is that it has grown to cumbersome
proportions. 1t is unwieldy, and IL move
mcnt is on foot to take many of it's bureaus
and organize them into new department.
to he called the department of commerce.
Inns would mean new cabinet officer, and
when the Office is created and filled it's in
cumbent will find plenty to do
The secretary of the interior has under
his direction so many huge government
concerns that he can give little or 10 atten-
ton to any of them. Each therefore be-
comes in fact n sort of independent bureau,
nominally controlled by the secretary, but
actually running wild" The tradition
and organization of the department. are
such that the nominal head becomes little
else than chief clerk. He must attend to
SO much routine business in order to fulfill