Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1897-05-01
The PENSION OFFICE
CLERKS MUST REFORM
Commissioner H. Clay Evans De.
Cides That G. A. R. Mem
bers Must Work.
SOBRIETY WILL BE REQUIRED
Clerks Who Spend Nights Out Con-.
stantly will he Asked to Re-
MISREPRESENTATION Is
the Natural Result.

Washington, April 24.-There is every
probability that H.. Clay Evans of Ten
nessee, the new commissioner of pen
sions, will be denounced by the Wash
ington q. A. X. post as a rebel and
traitor In disguise ere many weeks
elapse. Evans is starting in to make
the comrades who hold forth in the
pension bureau work like the other gov
ernment clerks. This is not very hard
work, but such as II is, the comrades
will be sure to consider ii q reflection on
their services to their country.
According to Mr.. Evans, the 1000
clerks in the pension office will have to
turn over a new leaf; that is. those who
have been in the habit of taking an
hour or two off now and then for the
purpose Of attending to private business
during office hours, and those members
of the male sex in the building who
have been accustomed to seek relief
flom their duties by resorting in the
evening TO places where they could
drink beer and other liquors and con
tinue such indulgence into the small
hours with the result that they wake
up in the morning with a headache.
This latter restriction on the clerks Is
not accompanied by any claim that
there are such, bat is merely made as
the result Of rumors that among the
l,600 are some who spend their evenings
In a manner calculated to unfit them
for efficient work during the day lime
II there are any hard drinkers in the
pension Office they Will be obliged to
turn over a new leaf or make way for
men of temperate habits.
A few days after the commissions
took charge of the office he observed
that during the day clerks We're leav-
ing the building. He was informed that
II was customary TO permit any clerk
to take an hour or more off during the
day In order that he might attend to
private business down town. The time
was deducted from the vacation annual
leave, n the government was said not
to be n loser by these absences. But
Commissioner Evans thinks otherwise.
There is no bank or other business
house I'm this city" said Mr.. Evans,
that would permit its employees to leave
the house during office hours in order
to look after private matters except in
very urgent cases. The practice must
be stopped In the pension bureau, and
i shall see 20 IL in the future that en-
ployes are at their desks during office
hours. Ii has also been the rule here to
some extent for certain officials to reach
the office after 8 o'clock now and then.
Sometimes men come in and go to work
at 10 or IL o'clock without any special
reason for their hardness. The hours
of work for the government employees
are not long and l see no reason why
the clerks Of this bureau should not be
ready to go to work promptly in the
morning and continue work without in
terruption throughout the day. A
clerk who drops his work at 2 o'clock,
goes out for an hour and comes back
as 3 o'clock, is untitled to do the govern
ment justice by performing his work
promptly, because the case he was ex-
aiming at 2 o'clock when laid down for
an hour is taken up on his return with
out that continuity of thought which
the examination of most of our cases
requires. ] shall certainly make 1t my
business while l am in his bureau to
see that this custom is stopped"