The age-herald., 1897-12-01
HALF A MILLION
 OFFICE-SEEKERS

Washington Correspondlnce of the Pdtts-
 burg Dispatch
 Washington, Nov. 27-The perpetual siege to which President Mckinley is subjected by horde of persistent par- sonal office-seekeIs, with the resultant failure and bitter disappointment of ths great majority of such callers. is forci- bly illustrated by the accompa panying ta- ble. based on statistics obtained at the Executive Mansion.
 The disappearance of M. Golden, who left 1lis home in Guthrie, Okla, prlcr to the fnauguratioh oRsPresident Mckinley, and who has for more than nine months sought by diplomacy, persuasion, 6nfu- ence and the llbsral exp liture Of morey to obtain a. small federal office. calls at tenfon to the calam1tous and unreward- ed results of professional office-selskings PoYety, prfynltion, Glfe-long bitterness and suicide mark the pathway followed by many who strive for the KnolumelLitS of the governmental service.
 The fate of poor Marie Reynolds, wife of a former naval officer, who, during this atfhIifiisi.ra ticn, took lrsr own life because she failed to obtain the position of char woman at $20 month. is still fresh in the minds of residents here.
 The disappearance of Golden suggests th= possibility of suicide. His whole am- bitfon was centered on securing am In- dian agency, the annual compensation of which would mot have exceeded $2,5O0; and yet he publicly offered "a bonus of $2,5OO the equivalent of a years s'allary, to anyone who succeeded in securing for him the coveted position. In addition, he spent money among his friends with the utmost Gavishness, in the hope that it might act as a lever to bring him nearer tin. realization of his wishes.
 But Golden and his pAtiful stcdy is but a drop in ths dead seais of offfceseeking. There have come here since March 1l9,- 934 tlflerpersons who expected to receive recognition. They we're also full of hope and anticipation They parted with thefr money in the belief that it would bring them large profit on the investment Each knew dignity must fail where ona succeeded, but lthe old maxim thaIt-"Fools know no law but experience" peculiarly applies to the officesesl1ers. They never abandon faith until the last penny has been expended. They patronize tlhreeG cent lunch1'ooms and sleep in gar,ret lodg< ings, but do not lose heart.
 
 With the inauguration of MT Mckinley came the tide of officeseekers and there was no ebb untl the president went om 1rhs summer vacation. Hundreds, and even thousands, of these deluded people could not leave town foh, lack of funds, and have spent the waIrm months hene so as to be in readiness for renewal of their petitions The converting of corr- gress will only slightly augment the as- semblage.
 Tfe 600 appointments made during the congressional recess were chiefly post masters. The supply of these places will uemain about the same for the remainder of tha administration, as the rule has been rendered effective that each pbe1tA master shall be allowed to serve out the time for which he was appointed. There are more than 10000 prospe ective places in the postoffice department which will not be vacant for a. long time. More than 100000 letters have already been filed at the department since the present adminfsi ration came into office.
 During the first four months of Mn McKinley's term applications for posi- Hions came through tha mails at the rate of 500 a day. That number has been slightly reduced but at present more than 300 communications come daily, There are never less than six, and often as high as twenty applicants for each place within the gift of the president.
 Strictly speaking, the president has at his disposal 6,227 offices. They are disa trfbuted Tn part as follows: Postofice department, 26G0; treasury, 64S statS 367; war, HOO; interior, 34S; justice, 15a and agriculture 8. Of this number 1865 have already been allotted, leaving 4662 to be distributed There are now on file an average of thirteen applications for each of these offices, making @ total of 60,906 applications stored away in the archives of the executive mansion. The disbursements attached to each applfca- tion range from five ito we'll up in the hundreds. Before leaving Canton the presidant received m -xcess ot 60 t(0 let teirs recomrne ndlng people to official pre- ferment.
 Up to this time the president has given out a small percentage above ons-fourth of offices at his disposal It is shown by carefully prepared estimates and sItat9s- tlcs Llhat 1l9,938 applicants called in per- som to urge fheir claims for the first quar- ter of the federal patronage. Thsse estl- mates do not include senaItons and rep rssenaatives, who average fifty calls daily during IlfIe session.
 At the rate which has been maintained for nine months, it Is evident that 359, ,S95 persons will pay personal visits ito the president during the remainder of his term to seek advancement. In othep words the total of personal applicants for the four years of his incumbency will aggregate 479,740. This computation aIl- lews for a failing off of ona-fou1th in the number of those who shall call upon the chief executive during the las5a three years of his term. And of these 479,740 people applying i'm person. to the president for a more or less valuable office, but so T, home tn r11aaa,a1 and thiaIt 1,11 r1-