The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1899-03-02
TIME NO OSJECT.
therefore European state officials Are ID
No E.n-..1

No Furry.
] There Is no hurrying in the de-
partmental buildings in Europe, y
observed a recently returned Ameri-
can, department official, to a re-
porter, land such thing as 'spe.
cial' is not known. No matter or
business can be made special or
rushed through. To get an answer
to the simplest question requires
from one TO five days, oftener the
latter than the smaller number. I
suppose If any one in high official
position should personally interest
himself in case he could have il
disposed of out of order, but even
then there would be some delay
about it, simply for the reason that
the system operates slowly. In our
departmental business "a case can be
and is frequently received and dis
posed of in less than an hour, though
in some instances it has to go
through couple and even more di-
visions for action and note before it
can be acted upon by the head of
the department. Such cases are
known as red card or blue card cases
and are special They have the
right OF way, and routine matters
are temporarily laid aside while
they are being considered and acted
upon. These specials are made so
on request, and it does not require a
very heavy request either to ac-
complish it. There is no depart
ment that does not have a great
many of them in each day. On the
other side of the ocean things are
run less in railroad fashion and
there is absolutely no interference
or interruption with the way the
wheels go around. In the public
buildings, as far as I could observe,
business is transacted as 1t is in the
departments here.
"A certain number of papers out
of the newly arrived mail is handed
around to the divisions to which
they belong and by the chiefs of the
divisions, in turn, assigned to the
various clerks for action and record.
When the work is finished, it is
turned in, examined, signed and
mailed, but everything has to go
through this order In Berlin had
a postal matter to look after. On
inquiring atthe proper Office for in
formation l was told that no per-
sonal requests for information could
be considered, and l would have to
reduce my request to writing. This
I did. / was then told that the an
swer would be sent me in about
three days. ! argued that as the
information l desired was a mat
ter of brief record it could be fur
nished me in five minutes, and l
could save that much time, but the
argument didn't go, and / had to
wait.
The answer came in exactly three
days. l could have obtained similar
information at any of the depart
ments here in an hour at the fur
thest, for it was matter that any
clerk could answer, as it did not re-
quire the action of the head of the
department. When the answer did
come, it was very apparent that
there was misunderstanding some
where, for the answer did not fit my
question. Knowing that wrote my
request somewhat in a hurry,
thought that possibly the error was
on my side, and l again called on
the official and explained, and asked
to see my letter, to ascertain if
had properly stated my request. /
was again told to put my request in
writing and that l would have an
answer in three days. By this time
/ was downright mad, but kicking
did no good, and had to wait the
full time. When the answer did
come, / found that the request and
the answer were correct as far as
they went, but that had not asked
as much information as I required.
Then l filed another request, and
got the information in. exactly two
days. Washington Star.