The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-06-02
Government Employees Being
Discharged by Hundreds.
Work is Cut Down and Depart
ments Consolidated.
MANY CHANGES MADE.
The Gayeties of Life Go On Just
the Same.

WASHINGTON, June a. Especial. J.
The wall of woe rises on all sides, for the
end OF the fiscal year approaches, work is
being cut down and departments consoli-
dated, and government employees are dis
charged by scores and hundreds. First
went 700 at one sweep out of the govern
ment printing office, and there was pause
for a few days, but it is now understood
that at least 300 more must go, and those
among the least skilled. Ten days ago
Secretary Lamont announced that many
changes must be made in the war depart
ment at least as early the 1st of July,
but few days later he decided that the
change might as well begin now and give
the men time to secure other employment.
Their pay, however, will not cease until
the end of this fiscal yaer. All the reduc-
ton is quite legitimate and only what has
been foreseen for some time, for the work
of the record and pension office is about
completed, while that of compiling the
record of the rebellion is well under way,
and tho appropriations for it arc cut down
SO to necessitate a large reduction in
tho clerical force.
Tho Civil Service Commission.
In anticipation of this change many
clerks with first class standing have
cured transfers to other departments,
which relieved those departments of any
necessity of drawing on the civil service
commission, and that in it's turn has
added to the buzz in the house over this
much be1abored body. In the quarter
master generals office the following
branches are to be consolidated: The
finance with the contract supply branch,
the clothing account with the clothing
supply branch, the barracks and quarters
with the draftsman's branch, the trans
portation with the account branch and
the inspection with the record and files
branch. The IL branches in the adjutant
- Hea ed int
four, and throughout the departments
generally the work will, as alleged, be
greatly sinplified and the force reduced.
In the department of agriculture there
were when Secretary Morton took Office
2, 479 employees and one year later but
1, $40, a reduction of GAS. In that part of
the work confined to this city $50 persons
were employed on March 4, 1898, where at
present are only 558, the reduction in the
pay roll amounting to nearly &c. 900
monthly. Colonel Carroll D. Wright has
also given out that the work of the census
will be completed by July 1, except taDula-
ton of the vital statistics with population
and the figures on farms and mortgages
These will be completed during July, and
only a few persons will be required after
that for proofreading and revision, so at
least 800 employees of that bureau will go
out at the end of the fiscal year and several
more in July.
Cheeseparing All Around.
In the Office of the supervising architect
of the treasury there will also be a general
Overhauling with some consolidation of
branches, the abolition of two divisions, a
reduction of annual salaries by some $780,
600 and a discharge of many employees.
The experts who examined and reported
on this Office are the same who made the
report in the offices Of the commissioner of
customs, second comptroller and sixth au-
ditor for the Dockery commission, and the
reductions made in those offices aggregated
157 employees and 5000, 600 in salary.
Adding these in the architects Office, the
fiscal year shows a reduction of III in the
force of the treasury department and $780,,
600 in salaries.
In the pension office the reduction is ex-
pected to be slow and continuous for some
time, and there will, of course, be the
usual spatting in and out of congress over
this, for there is no other department in
which the political changes are watched
with such sleepless jealousy. 1t may there
fore interest the public to know that this
week closes with 266 Democrats, 1, $50 Re
publicans and 421 ladies in the classified
service of this office, and that since Judge
Lochren took charge there have been 80
dismissals for cause" Adding the chief
officials who come and go with the party
in power and q few scrubbers-bOyS and
others without politics-there<a are 2,OO9
names borne on the rolls OF the principal
examiners throughout the country as
whole % are Democrats and 48 Republic
ans. All this shows that in this one Office
at least civil service reform has come to
stay, and the tenure of the employee Is
little better, if any odds, than that of
employee in the average business establish
1nent. Incidentally it may be added that
on the 18th the civil service commission
will hold an examination for a list of eli
gibIes for the positions of superintendents
of stations, fish culturists, messengers and
statistical file agents in the fish commits
sion. In addition to the ordinary branches
Of knowledge, the candidate will have to
stand an examination in bookkeeping and
fish culture, so no great rush is anticipated.
Yet the Gayeties Still Go On.
Although there are walls of woe, as
aforesaid, and every Washington boarding
house has some sad occupants, the gayeties
Of life go so far as is consistent with
the season. Mrs. Cleveland and the chill
dren returned few days ago, and it is
now given out by authority that they will
remain at their suburban home till con-
gress adjourns before going to Gray Gables,
which is understood to imply that the
president looks for early adjournment.
What is given out as the last distinctively
diplomatic ENTHUSIASTICALLY also
patriotic function-was that held at the
Argentine legation by Minister and Sen
ora Zeballos in celebration of the eighty
fourth anniversary of the revolution which
led to the Independence of the Argentine
Republic. The floral display is thought to
have been by far the finest of the season,
and in addition to all the ladies and gem
tlemen Of the diplomatic corps now in the
city, most Of the ladies of the cabinet and
many of the senator's wives and daughters
were present, besides others Of eminence-
If anybody is interested in the people at
the other extreme of society, suffice it to
add that the latest information represents