The morning times., 1895-12-22
HtDGED WITH RED TlPE
Public Offices Not Readi Iy Ac
cessib|e to the People.
BUSINESS KEPT SECRET
Tons of Useless Papers in the Civil
Service Comm issiOn's Archives.
District Building Also Full of Mys-
teries-Hard to Find Out Even Com
monplace Matters.

The theory of the keeping OF public records
10 that they may be of public use; the fire.
quent practice is to make them useful only
to favored few. The ordinary caller
has SO much trouble in reaching them that
he goes away discouraged and fails to get
the information he has paid his full share
to have gathered and kept.
Again, there are many officials who
think that they hold office, first, to draw
their salaries, and next, to wait on the
comparatively small number of persons
who have a pull of some kind. The
common citizen has no more chance to
get what he wants from them than a baby
has to be made President. They delight
in a chance to have secret and keep up
a mystery over nothing with the apparent
purpose to impress the caller with an idea
OF their power and greatness.
They plead q devotion TO public busl-
ness at every turn, whereas they really
employ q large part OF the time they are
ostensibly engaged in public work in idle
gossip or speculation and in doing work
that will moIder and gather dust on forgot
ten shelves till some remote day when 1t
will be consigned to the waste heap and
bonfire.
USELESS RUBBISH.
There are probably a hundred tons OF
old, carefully preserved papers in Washing
ton today that have never been referred to
since they were labortously filed away,
and they have taken theq places on the
shelves of other tons that clerks were paid
thousands OF dollars to prepare and keep
with as little purpose.
Instead OF being glad to see the writer
for newspaper or magazine who repre-
sents thous ands and tens OF thousands
of the people that are paying the expenses
Of this labor, they meet him with frigid
expressions OF good will that grow more
icy as the fact develops that the purpose
is to publish something about their work.
The thought that prospect is presented
to make their work really or use TO some
body seems to paralyze the gray matter
of their brains, and they make all sorts
Of puerile excuses for the refus al to keep
their records at all times within easy
reach.
Some of these gentlemen set thems elves
up as guardians of the public and under
take to tell the reporter or correspondent
what he should print and what is kept
for private use only. Others go to the
extreme OF Judging what food and medicine
the people ought to have and how they
ought to think and feel and for what spend
their money. They do not even attempt
goes for something harmful, but merely
that it is used f0olshly.
RED TAPE GALORE. $
One of the bureaus where red tape,
secrecy and arbitrary rulings play an i'm
portant part is the Civil Service Commission.
For ten years and more examination papers
have been stored away there, three-fourths
of which have never been handled a sec
To-.
than a third of the applicants fail to pass
In few cases all fail, in many two-thirds
fall short, and in very few does the per-
centage of success exceed 10. Never
theless all the papers of all applicants, even
down to the scratch papers upon which
some dullard failed to get correct re-
suit in simple addition, is painstakingly
given place among the archives OF govern
ment. and kept, il is promised, for ali time
to come.
To a question when the records now on
file would be destroyed, Major Webster
chief examiner of the bureau, replied:
Never"
But major, all things terrestrial some
time have an end"
well, at any rate, we haven't consid-
cred that yet"
Nevertheless these papers are not ac-
cess1ble to the public. The applicant him
sel1 Is uHOWeu " see tueiu OniS III COilpdIly
with clerk of the bureau, in theory at
east; and then the time of his examination
Is limited to half an hour. /
Many reasons are given for this care.
One is the protection of the applicant from
public notice of his deficiencies; another,
to prevent rival applicant from using the |
Information gained from the papers for |
'ome improper purpose in the competitions,
1 third to protect the commission from the |
Of hox -fp.v Co.
the purpose of sustaining an appeal from the |
of the examiners.
GIVING RISE TO INJUSTICE.
All these apply with some force to papers |
within the year in which the applicants |
certificate of fitness holds good, If he has
'assed. Only one has any validity with
eference to papers more than a year old.
AS matter of fact, the rules of the |
are no more iron-clad than |
re the rules Of other Institutions. The |
ersons entrusted with their enforcement |
re human, have their friends and enemies,
nd the result is more or less Injustice. |
Another place where secrets are made
( public matters and the benefit of them
'iveD to a few is the District building.
The Commissioners, themselves, go into
ecret ses sion over the problem of locating
street lamp or of opening wide the gates
conlpetltlon I'D lgntinR tne CITY, pup
ic and private, with electricity. In
ither case. the people who pay the Com
nissioners for their services and are
like inter ested, little or big, in the
rogress of the discussion and properly
Tant to know all the facts in the matter,
re excluded.
Not only are they forbidden to come in per-
On which would oftenest be entirely i'm
racticable because of their necessity to
arm living; not only do the Commission
rs fail to furnish a record of their pro-
sedings for the public eye; they refuse
} allow the newspapers an opportunity
) hear what 10 said and see what is done
nd make a report to the people who pay
lem to do this very thing. By this Sc
'et action suspicious are aroused, un-
oubtedly often unjust, of which the Com
lissioners are themselves the victims.
EVERYTHING is SECRET.
Nobody knows exactly what is said and
one. The Commissioners say they have
OF the time to report their movements in
lie papers. They make their plans Sc
reilly to do something. 1t is for the benefit
the people, of course. But they are SO