The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1894-06-06
EMPLOYEES OF UNCLE SAM.
SOMETHING ABOUT GOVERNMENT
CLERKS AT WASHINGTON.

One AnOther-Hours Of Labor
and Salaries Paid.
HHERE are more than 1900
clerks in Washington, but
nearly one-third of this num-
ber are related to one another.
Think of it There are fifty-six hun
dred people in the departments whose
blood flows, more or less, in the same
channel, and there are more than one
thousand who have two relatives in
Uncle Sans employ. Most of these
Government clerks get at least $1,000
year, and at this average $5, 200, 600
are paid out annually to persons re-
lated to one another. There are 279
cases in which clerks have three rela-
tives employed in the departments,
ninety-six in which the number of rel
atives are four, ten in which they
number six and two in which there
are nine clerks related to one another
in the Government service. There are
lots of husbands and wives employed
in the departments, and there are
more than 900 brothers who work for
Uncle Sam. The number of sisters is
not quite 80 large, but it runs between
six and seven hundred, and there are
sons and daughters, fathers and
mothers, uncles and nephews and
cousins and aunts galore. In the In
terror Department alone nearly fifteen
hundred of the clerks have relatives in
the Government service at Washing
! ton, and there are almost thirteen
hundred Treasury clerks who have
blood relations in that or other Gov
ernment departments.
The office hours are from until 4.
| No one comes to the department be-
fore 8, and from that time until IL
you are supposed to put in three
hours of clerical labor. At II you
have half hour for lunch, and you
are a very good clerk if you get to do
ing hard work before I. At you go
out with the rest of the army on to
the streets and do not bother yourself
again about work until 8 O'Clock the
next morning. One month out of the
year you have to yourself and can go
where you please and do what you
please, and your pay goes on just the
same. If you are sick your wages are
not docked, and 1 know of clerks who
get from thirty to sixty days now and
then as sick leave. As to wages, there
is no question about the salary; that
is fixed by the Government and as
long as you arc in Uncle Sans en-
ploy 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
working and your money is handed
over to you in crisp new greenbacks,
or sometimes in gold. If you are q
good man your job is pretty sure to
continue, and great number of these
clerks have been in the service for
years; some, indeed, have spent q
lifetime there, and there is one old
clerk 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 we'll up into the
thousands. The number who have
been Just ten years in the service is
more than seven hundred, 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 uncertain as is generally supposed.
The surety of holding a position in
creases every year, and the civil SER
vice rules are being 80 extended that
only the chiefs will finally be dis
ID kha alAoa ~ fhn a1. fofr
tion.
As to salaries, in proportion to the
amount of work done and its charac-
ter, they are as high as those of any
laborers Of the world. Uncle Sans
factories are run on big salary basis,
and the classified service get, as a
rule, from 5000 to $500 year. The
chiefs get $4,000 and upward, and there
are fat places in nearly every depart
ment which command $4,000, $4,000
and $4,000. The Department of JUS
tice, for instance, has three offices
which bring between $4,000 and $4,000,
and the Assistant Attorney Generals
each receive as much as Congress-
man. In the Department of Agricul-
ture there are a number of good $1,000
places, and the government of the
district has about twenty offices which
run from $4,000 to $4,000 in salary.
The officials who govern Washington
City are all appointed by the Presi-
dent, and the salaries are good. The
Postoffice Department has many high
salaried places, and there are num-
Der Of soft spots connected with the
White House. The best positions in
point of certainty of tenure are those
connected with the State, War and
Navy Departments The clerks of the
State Departments are rather aristo-
crat than otherwise. They generally
speak one or two foreign languages,
and when it is necessary to shelve
them they are sometimes sent to con-
sulships on the other side of the
world. The Treasury has numerous
changes. 1t contains over 1000 en-
ployes, and of these 1900 are women.
Detroit Free Press.