Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1899-12-22
Whittier Are We DriftingP


ing notice had it come from anybody
but the chairman of the civil service
commission, which shows that the
project has been discussed and seri-
ously entertained by that body. The
chief argument" set forth in support
of the suggestion is that it will keep
the service from becoming disabled
by superanuated clerks and other
WORKOUT employees of the government.
1t is, therefore, deliberately proposed
that these preferred individuals, who
are lifted from the ordinary cares and
struggles of life by ample salaries dur
ing term of service that cannot be
terminated except through some gross
malfeasance, shall likewise be freed
from any of the worry that falls upon
the common herd of humanity for a
provision at life's close, when their ply
steal and mental powers obey the nat
ural law of decline. If there could be
a surer scheme devised for creating
and establishing class distinctions, I'M
der government that is, theoretically
at least, based npon individual equali-
ty, it has not yet been outlined. 1t is
a deliberate proposition to make gov
eminent office-holding a special and
privileged prerogative, vested in the
individual, to be recruited from the
office-seeking ranks by the convenient
medium of the retired pension.list.
There is at present no dearth of ap-
plicants for positions where an ample
salary is provided, which goes on, rain
or shine, day and night, continually
and forever, with short hours of labor,
holidays and seasons for recreation,
which the man OF toll, even though he
may have devoted years of study and
servitude to acquire therein the requi-
sity manual skill, can never hope to
have accorded to him. 1t seems
enough that the pampered ofice-hold-
er should thus be raised immeasur-
ably above his self.supporting brother,
without promise of benefit, he never
expected when he strained every nerve
and exhausted his political pull" to
get, and what was conceded to be fat
place at the public stall. The best
evidence that the salaries provided are
adequate, is the fact that these posi-.
tions are SO largely sought for. and are
so seldom Voluntarily resigned, as we'll
as the organization that has been ef-
fected to perpetuate their tenure with
enlarged "rights."
A former postmaster in this city
once informed the writer that he was
almost at the mercy of the classified"
employees ostensibly under his direc-
ton. They were exceedingly punctil-
ious and assertive in the discharge of
their duties and constantly on guard
that the scope of their services be not
enlarged nor privileges encroached
upon. He declared that he had to
his clerks with hat in hand,
if he asked an extra service. no matter
how trivial or how much the public
might be benefited by it. And when,
ultimately. forbearance ceased to be q
virtue, he found that he could only
suspend for whatever cause that might
arise, and report the facts to the
department, where the employe seemed
to have an equal standing for prefer
ring counter-charges against himself,
notwithstanding the presumtion that
they might be prompted by an ami
linus aroused by simply q discharge
of duty on part of the principal. He
declared that his employees were COM
bine who stood as strenuously on their
rights as the "Cook-Lady" of the
Cooks Union, in "Why Smith Left
Home; only they did not "strike,"
but simply reached for the executive
ear at Washington and attached =
"pull" which was as likely to bring
reprimand to their chief as the slight
est discontinue to themselves.
No wonder that an organization
which should have been 90 successful
in entrenching itself should now i'm
agine that it has enough influence to
engraft itself upon the government as
a scion for the propagation OF luscious
pension plums.