The Washington times., 1894-05-11
IN AND OUT OF OFFICE.

/
clerk in the navy yard, Republican, was
| discharged few months ago. He was relative
of one of the New York Tribune's Washington
staff This newspaper gentleman interviewed
| Secretary Herbert. A month ago clerk Of the
same grade in the Navy Pay Office was removed
| against the protest of Pay Inspector Caswell
/ The Navy Pay Once clerk was a Republican,
too. The clerk who had been fired from the
| navy yard was put in his place. And the Trib-
| une now rightly thinks that 1t has a valuable
| pull with the administration
|
Mr Anthony, the erstwhile assistant chief
clerk of the Pension Office, has gone to Cali
| fornia as n special examiner. Mark Anthonyi
| he is going TO do some remarkable work in fer
| reting out frauds.
| This question of frauds and the record that the
| Pension ofice is making for unearthing and
| Furnishing the offenders is not talked about suf-
fciently Leave Mr anthony out The ex-
aminers themselves simply obey instructions,
| OF COURSE and they do usually quite fire.
| quentiy discover cases of fraud. But when
these cases are discovered how often is II posi-
sible to convict the offenders, The other day
| the papers published statement OF the PEN
| sion Ofiice with resqrd TO this matter Ii was
| mentioned a acertaifnumber of persons had been
convicted during the last year. Yesterday there
| was n story of another perjurer brought to
| justice. To-morrow there viii be another, per-
| haps u all means simply that tremendous
/
| eating Of this kind, that costly trials
held, that he office gets the reputation for being
a fearless ana intrepid and sxillful detective, a
menace TO wrongdoers, and that usually the
| perjrrers and bogus soldiers and soldiers
widows and sisters and mothers get away finally.
| ! knew o. certain Z much-talked-oi great
swindle, in which il asserted that two or
| three hundred people were criminally concerned
| aud in which thousands OF dollars had been
stolen from the government. Thirty OF these
| criminals were tried. The trial lasted weeks and
| weeks and the district attorneys fees mounted
| up tremendously, as district attorneys fees
| sometimes do. The district attorney was a new
| man of the party then running the Pension Of
| fee He didn't have much to do usually. The
trial was a godsend to him, but no one else ever
reaped any benefit The were all lost
| nnaily.
Mr.. Coxeys men visiting the departments
while they are here. have not heard yet that
anyone of them wishes an Office.
| There is a reporter at the downtown depart
ments who has kept tab Oh the scales in the In
| terror Department lobby. He tells me that he
knows the weight of every fair clerk in the de-
partment.
The letter carriers of San Francisco have sent
| 10 Postmaster General Bissen beautiful pres
| ent in the form of an invitation to attend the
| California mid winter fair on letter carriers
| day. The souvenir is of solid silver, handsomely
| mounted and artistlcally engraved, and is Of
| great intrinsic value.
This seems TO be a very right and proper thing
| TO do. have doubt that 1t did the letter.
carriers good 20 send it, and Of course. Mr. Bis
sell was pleased II shows how really foolish
and pernicious is the Law against giving pres
ents to superior officers in the government SER
vice when such an Offering cannot be made
without violating it But Mr.. Bisseu Is Cabi-
net officer and hundreds of letter-carriers have
unquestionably violated the law OF course no
notice will be taken Of such violation, as it
should not as the countless other lesser VIOLA
There is, for instance, smiiing-faced blonde |
moustached, blue-eyed young chief of division
in the Pension orice, whom you will recognize |
from this accurate portrait IL again you are a |
Pension Oflce clerk. lie receives innumerable |
sweet peas and buttercups and wild roses |
these days from certain young women clerks |
with him. Who can possibly cavil at this-who |
that knows the delight of receiving sweet peas |
from rOsy-chcesed. tender-eyed woman's |
pretty hand2 And yet this chief and these girls |
breaking United States statute which has |
some dire penalty attached And they are only |
a few of the offenders.
In Mr. Bissells case, he has earned, by his |
strict adherence TO his civil service reform |
promises. the friendship of every man in the |
Post ONCE Department service. The clerks feel |
safe about their positions. and they show 1t by |
giving him beautiful present i consider it a |
very nice thing.
IN lne tune tnRt biSSsu mas Deen IN the |
department not one man, in the office classified |
force at least, has been discharged, appointed,
or promoted, or reduced because of partisan |
reasons. Mr. Bissell is the only Cabinet officer /
who say anything like this with truth, al |
though nearly all of them say 1t, of course, as Of
ticials always have since the civil service law |
passed The recent changes in the Post Of 1
fee Department force noticed in THE TINES |
were cases in point, but they were very striking
ones
Mr.. Carlisle and Mr. Smith are, of course, the
gentlemen whom Mr.. Bissen reminds me of in
this rega-d-they are different have spoken
of Mr.. Smiths interesting regulations regarding
promotions in his department once twice, the
regulations that every department head makes
regularly and do not keep Mr.. Carlisle is
certainly the peer OF Mr.. Smith, as his manifold
removals Of kcpu5licans show The difference
is that Ar. Carlisle has never made any particu- |
lar claim to be n refOrmer in this regard. l am
toll now, however. that he is really going 10 re-
form. In July If the DockPry Treasury Depart
nent purge bill passes, l5S clerks will be dis
charged Despite the strongest kind OF protes- |
tations of purity of motives with regard 10 this
liS. know clerks, Republicans, who are making |
plans 10 start real estate offices in July. All |
government clerks with one exception in ten
when they leave Uncle Sam start real estate
OlIces become laVyers don't thew