Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1893-02-10

he made q tour OF the well-known de
partments and institutions, traverseC
| their long corridors and seen litera
acres of desks and square rods of open
ledgers and records, he stumbled upon
many other government bureaus in
unexpected places. All over the city
he finds big buildings rented by Uncle
Sam and converted into hives for the
transaction of his almost infinite bust
ness. Scattered about each of the
principal departments are from three
to dozen rented buildings into which
the business Of the bureau has over
flown after filling the space originally
set apart for it from cellar to garret.
To tell the truth the government is
rapidly outgrowing all of its quarters
and many OF its methods. The capi.
tol isn't big enough, notwithstanding
the recent building of a million dollar
addition in the shape of terrace, and
adjacent buildings are bought or
rented by Congress. The census
office, which has had at times three
thousand employees in this city, has
occupied half 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 jail the offices under its control
twenty-five years ago, is now dread.
fully crowded, though bureau after
bureau has moved out and found quar-.
ters elsewhere. The congressional OF
national library, now housed in the
Capitol, is one OF the strangest jumbles
of literature and rubbish you ever saw
with books piled all over the floors
and filling every nook and granny
The finest library building in the
world will soon be ready for its occu.
pancy.
To describe 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, says the Sunday Welcome, &c
which we are indebted for these state.
ments. Take, for example, the de
partment of the Interior. 1t has be
come one OF the most prodigious OF all
the government bureaus. For a quar-
ter of century it has been the dump
heap into which everything that coulC
not be elsewhere attached had beer
thrown. The result is that it hal
grown to cumbersome proportions. II
is unwiedly, and a movement is OF
foot to take many Of its bureaus ant
organize them into a new department
to be called the department of com
merce. This would mean q new cabi
net officer, and when the office i:
created and filled its incumbent viii
find plenty to do.
The Secretary of the Interior ha
under his direction so many huge
government concerns that he can Civ,
little or no attention to any of them
Each, therefore, becomes in fact, ,
sort of Independent bureau, nominall.
controlled by the secretary, but actu
ally running wild" The tradition
and organization of the department
are such that the nominal head be
comes little else than q chief clerk
He must attend to SO much routin,
business in order to fulfill the law
must sign SO many letters and nomi
nally pass upon so many reports ant
documents, that his energies are spen
in labor almost entirely clerical.
Under such circumstances it is in
evitable that more important dutie.
will be more or less neglected. While
other employees finish their work at
O'Clock sharp and hurry homeward
the secretary remains till 6 or 7, ant
then takes home with him for exami
nation and study matters which he
should have attended to during the
day, but which it was physically i'm
possible to reach.
Imagine a cabinet officer sitting
down to his desk, as the Secretary o.
the Interior does every morning, with
pigeonholes opening before him such
marks as pensions" railroads,
public lands" Indians" census
patents," education" Each o
these titles signifies that a vast de-
partment of the government demands
his attention. The pension office
pays out money to million pension
ers in all $l4O,OOO,OOO a year, the land
aided railroads in particular, and ali
railroads in general are under the in
spection of the railroad office; the
million acres of public lands, agricul
tural and mineral, with their SURVEYS
settlements and litigation, form re
sponsibility delicate from the human
and vast from every other point o.
view; $7,OO0,0OO year is the sum
spent upon the Indians, and theoreti
cally all the survivors of the aboriginal
American race are under the fostering
care OF the Secretary of the interior
The patent office is great depart
ment in itself, and 80 is the census
office. But this not all. The Secre
tary of the Interior has charge of the
geological survey Of the great national
parks, of irrigation of arid lands, o.
distribution of funds to agricultural
and mechanical colleges in the State.
and territories, of public documents
and of certain hospitals and eleemosy
nary institutions. He also exercise.
certain powers and duties in relation
to the Territories of the United States
And the Secretary of the Interior j.
a mere human!
AS the government expands it i: