The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-04-07
UNCLE SANS CLERKS,
Government Employees at Washington
and Who They Are.

dlu WIZ Intl Alp.
Romancss in the High
Salaried Places and the Men Who
Fill Them-Women Clerks Ehici-
enoy.
F. G. Carpenter in Washington Star.
Do you want government job
The hours are easy.
The work is light.
The pay is good.
Uncle Sam never scales his wages, and
you get your money for the asking every
fifteen days. These big government fac
tories never shut down, and the hard
times do not effect them, and the man
who works for the government can laugh
at fate and finances.
AS to wages, there is no question about
the salary; that is fixed by the govern
ment, and as long as you are in Uncle
Sans employ it cannot be raised or
lowered by the officials just above you.
Every two weeks you go to the pay Office
of the department in which you are work
ing and your money is handed over TO you
in crisp new greenbaCks, or sometimes in
gold. If you are a good man your Job is
pretty sure to continue. and great num-
Der of these clerks have been in the
service for years; some, indeed, have
spent a lifetime there, and there is one
old clerk here who has been drawing a
salary for sixty years from Uncle Sam.
| There are others who have worked
from forty to fifty years, and the
number who have been in from one TO
| four years runs well up into the thou
sands The number who have been Just
ten years in the service is more than 700,
and there are hundreds more who have
been in from twelve TO fifteen years A
great many clerks have been twenty years
or more in the service and the tenure of
government Office is by no means as I'M
certain as is generally supposed. The
surety of holding a position increases
every year, and the civil service rules are
being so extended that only the chiefs
will finally be dismissed at the close of an
administration.
SALARIES.
AS to salaries. In proportion to the
amount OF work done and its character
they are rs high as those of any laborers
of the word. Uncle Sans factories are
run on a big salary basis, and the ciassi-
fed service get, as a rule, from $500 to
81 500 year. The chiefs get $4,000 and
upward, and there are fat places in nearly
every department which command 50, 600
tice, for instance has three Offices which
bring between 81, 600 and 5000, and the
assistant attorney generals each receive
as much as a congressman. In the depart
ment of agriculture there is a mum Der
of good $1,000 places The postotfice de-
partment has any high salaried places
and there is a mum ber5 of soft spots con-
nected with the white house. The best
positions, in point Of certainty Of
tenure, are those connected
with the war and navy depart
ments. The clerks of the state depart
ment are rather aristocrats than other
" Use They generally know one or two
languages, ana when it is necessary to
shelye them they are sometimes sent to
consulships on the other side of the world.
The treasury has numerous changes 1t
contains over 1000 employees, and of these
! 600 are women.
WOMEN CLERKS.
And just here / want to say word
about these women clerks of Washing
ton. They are the brightest and ablest
persons in the service. They do their
work continuously, and some of the most
efficient of Uncle Sans employees are
females. There are two men to every
woman in the departments. and
the number of woEen all told
amounts TO less than 1000. These
women are of all ages, from IS to so, and
treasury department who has now
reached 80 years There are many
women over GO and hundreds Of sweet
Young maidens of IS. These women do all
sorts OF work. Starting in as counters in
the treasury about generation ago, they
have extended their work TO all sorts of
clerkships, and they now pass upon ques-
tons OF law, examine patents, translate
foreign languages and do every thing I'M
der the sun. Some Of the most expert
counters of the government are women.
and several of the very best tOokkeepers of
the treasury wear petticoats. Women are
fast making their way as typewriters and
stenographers, and the chief trouble to
the outside employer of labor here at
Washington is that as soon as he trains a
woman thoroughly into his work as type
writer or steuographer she makes an APP
plicatiou TO Uncle sam and gets place at
a higher salary in one of the departments.
| have had this experience happen to me
a half dozen times, and l have come TO
look upon my office here as a kind of train
ing school for the government service. In
the dead letter Office the most expert
translators of bad writing are women,
and it would surprise you to
know that the treasury department has
a woman lawyer who prepares the
briefs for internal revenue matters and
who could PROBABLY make more outside of
the department BY practicing law than
she gets by acting as a law clerk within
il. There is a number of women editors
in the service here at Washington. The
official records of the war of the rebellion
are to a certain extent gotten up by
women. and in the navy department you
find women who are making maps and
tracing charts for our ships in different
parts Of the world, and in the government