The morning times., 1895-08-11
HIS COMPLEX DU TIES.

There is another impres sion abroad In
the country to the effect that the only man
at the Capitol who does less thanthe average
at the Capitol who does less than
the average Senator is the average
private secretary. A few people doubt
this. The truth is that it is secretary's
duty to be and not to do.
As there are several grades Of statesmen,
the high, the low, the up and the down
grades, so there are three distinct classes
of secretaries, these being graded pluto
cratically.
The last sizing of these tall-collared fell
lows was done by Congress two years ago.
Once upon time there We're two classes OF
secretaries Tho sc who were clerks OF the
best committees, like the Judiciary, the
District, Agriculture, Finance, Foreign Re-
lations, and such, were on the annual roll.
The other clerks got Sc a day while Con-
gress was in session. The short ses-
sion was bad bu siness for the per diem
clerks. As at present graded there are
three classes.
In the first class there are the clerk of
the Finance Committee, $500; claims,
81 ,220, with an assistant at 81, 40 and
a messenger at 81 ,440; pensions, same
number of clerks and messengers at same
pay; military affairs, $2,22o, messenger
81 ,440, and post-offices and postroads,
foreign relations, engrossed bills, and
several others have clerks at 81 ,220 and
messengers at 81 ,440. twenty-five COM
mittees have clerks at So ,220, and twenty
six clerks to committees which seldom
meet get 81 ,44O.
Some of these committees have not met
In years. Then, there are clerks who get
81 200 a year, because their Senators
have no committees. These make three
distinct classes Of clerks.
ONE JOB THAT is GONE.
Some of the clerks used TO have some
thing 10 do when it was the custom of the
Secretary of Agriculture to send each Sem
ator twenty or more sacks of garden and
field seed for distribution among his con-
stituents They will not have this to do
next year, as the seed humbug has been
abolished.
But even when the seed distribution was
In vogue the ingenious private secretary
found way to relieve himself of this back
breaking exercise of writing peoples names
and postoffice addresses on papers of squash
was scheme open at both ends to send the
stuff off by the sack full to various post
masters and have the distribution done in
| that way. Or they sent them to some in
| fluential farmer, and they do say that these
| packages of seeds were worth one cent
apiece in Washington and that was the
easiest way in the world to get rid of about
$4,000 packages.
Such dicker as that was worth $3.50 in
| cold cash to somebody, and there are plenty
| of Senators who live in cities who cared for
nothing but flower seeds and hyacinth and
crocus bulbs OF course, these never got
into the country.
It is very doubtful if more than few
secretaries ever did any of the actual
| work Of shipping seeds. The .'messen-
gersH referred 10 above are generally very
| Intelligent men, who have a pull in the
| State, or have relatives who do the pull
ing. They are the most useful people in
| the world to secretaries. In fact, a great
many of them do all the work at
| 81 ,440, while the clerk gets 81, ,220.
OF course, there are clerks who actually
take letters stenographically from dicta-
uon, but it is an easy matter to redictate