The Wadsworth dispatch. [volume] (Wadsworth, Nev.) 1892-1899, 1893-04-05
WASHINGTON T T


is only just begun. and there is SO
much rubbish that needs sweeping in
to the refuse pile, that it would be
risky t predict the final outcome o.
the sweeping. However, that should
not prevent credit being given for
what has been done; the promises of
what will be done can wait. Few, If
any practical men OF affairs ever trans
acted any business of magnitude with
the Government without becoming
convinced that there was need of
reform both in the method and mah-
ner of doing business in the Depart
ments; that there was too much red
tape and too many employees. It was
this sentiment that caused the adopt
ion of an amendment to an appropri-
alton bill ut the last session of Con-
gress, appointing n joint C~ongression-
al commettee to investigate the depart
ments and report as TO how the
methods may be improved and the
number of employees reduced without
detriment to the public service. This
sentiment has also been adopted by
the administration, and a number OF
useless employees have already been
dismissed from the Treasury and Ag-
~ricultnral Departments, and the prom
lse made that the sinecures and bar
nacles are TO be weeded out in all the
rest of them just as fast as the heads
of the departments can locate them.
What has been done is u step in the
right direction, and iflthe administra-
ton will only keep its promise to put
the departments on a purely business
basis 1t will deserve the thanks OF
every taxpayer in the land. But it is
no easy task, as those familiar with
the situation know, for the sinecures
and the barnacles are the very mes
who have the strongest "pull," both
political and social, and more than one
administration has failed in sincere
attempts to Dust them.
The daily scenes at the White
House are very amusing to the few
who have nothing at stake and who
don't care u brass button who gets the
plums; the fun isn't so apparent to
the walters and hopers. To fully en-
Joy the thing one must have been here
from the beginning Of administration,
when the Senators and Representa-
tives stalked into the White House
with a sort Of Tve-got-to- have,'em air,
while their admiring constituents fol-
lowed with an oh-I-am-all. right smile.
Several attempts have been made to
have the state delegations act in con.
cert in recommending men for APP
pointment, but all of them have been
abandoned and it is now u question Of
every Senator and Member getting
whatever he can whatever be can
whether the other fellow gets anything
or not. The applicants and their
Congressional hackers have all drop
ped their oyercouident air and they
now approach President Cleveland in
a please-may-I-have-it style. The last
three weeks III Washington ought to
have convinced any outsider who has
been here of the folly Of becoming an
office seeker, but candor compels me
to say that they havn't, and that some
who were at first merely onlookers
have allowed themselves to become
ofio seekers.
The new order closing the offices of
the Members of the Cabinet TO the
public on Tuesdays and Fridays, the
days on which the Cabinet meets, is
not popular, either with Congress.
men, Office seekers or business men
who wish to see these gentlemen. On