Evening star., 1901-11-23
President and Family Gone Down
the River.
A BRIEF RESPITE FROM BUSINESS
Classification Of Rural Free De-
livery Service.
SELECTION OF CARRIERS S

and Mrs. p. M. RiXey and several servants,
are somewhere down the Potomac river
cruising around in the Sylph. They will
return to Washington in time for the re-
sumption of business by the President on
Monday, but nobody knows at the White
House exactly when they will come back.
All depends on the desires Of the presiden
tial family.
The President and party left the navy
yard yesterday afternoon about 4 o'clock.
Very few people knew that the President
contemplated a day or so off and so his
destination not known to anyone out
side of his private secretaries until he had
gone aboard the Sylph. Even then the des-
tination was not known, the President
had simply said that ne wanted to get out
of Washington for brief vacation, and
was going down the river. He is not on a
hunting expedition, and there will be lit
tie opportunity for long newspaper stories
detailing the killing of hundreds of wild
ducks and the unerring aim of the chief
executive
The President is merely out with his fam
lily for an excursion. If any guns were
taken along it was for the purpose of taxi
ing an occasional shot at passing bird or
duck. but Assistant Secretary Loeb was
certain today that the President was not on
hunting expedition.
A Continuous Pressure.
For two months the President has been
overrun with officeseekers. He has had to
pass upon number of difficult appoint
ments and at the same time prepare mes
sage to Congress. He has finished the mes
sage, ordinarily a labor of a number of
weeks, has made important appointments
in New York, Pennsylvs Delaware
Kentucky, Virginia, South Carolina, Ala
bama and other states. He was sworn in
n ,1nr a
not until September 20 that he entered the
office of the President at the White House
and took up the duties of his position. He
began at once to see callers and his recep-
ton room has not been free of a caller dur
ing the regular hours for that business
since tnat date. The White House has pre-
sented the appearance of the beginning of
a new administration. The pressure has
been continuous. In addition to the many
important places that have been filed the
President has serious trouble on his hands
in settling factional differences in Mis-
souri, and several other states and terri
tories.
President Roosevelt started out with the
intention of seeing all those who called
upon him at the White House. either on
business or to shake hands, but the pres
sure has frequently been so heavy that he
could not receive all those who came 1t
was physically impossible from 10 o'clock
In the morning to /: 80 o'clock in the after
noon to see everybody and at the same
questions.
The message is completed, and this will
give the President a little more time for
other business after this. He will occa-
Slonally make few corrections as changes
come to his mind. but the message could
now go to Congress if that body were in
session. The work has been done by the
President early in the mornings. before the
reception Of visitors began, and at spare
hours in the afternoons and nights All Of
1t has been dictated to stenographers.
Secretary and Mrs. Cort rtelyou have gone
to Canton. and will be away from Wash
1ngton several days.
Plan for Rural Free Delivery,
Although 1t is still uncertain how soon the
President can give his attention to a rule
for the classification of the rural free deliv-
cry service, the plan for regulating the Sc
lection of employees under it seems to have
been pretty we'll settled. The office force at
washington. OF course, presents no difficult
ties, as some form of the usual tests can be
applied to them. What has been puzzltng
the experts is the invention of a means for
choosing carriers the rural routes IL
would not do to choose them from general
list, because it is a first essential that thew
snail be neighbors of the people they serve,
10 bring man from Georgia and set him
down among lot Of Ohio farmers, to ham
ole their money, make their purchases at
the nearest railroad town, etc, would be to
invite failure for the enterprise at it's very
outset.
Another point which must be observed is
that for earning the $500 or 5000 a year
which these carriers receive the first reuui-
sites seem to be a knowledge of horses and
their care, personal honesty, the confidence
OF the public fair intelligence, tact and
good sense.
Most of these traits it would be difficult
to ascertain through examination of the
usual sort. but the opinion of the people
VINO Know the candidates best ought to
In %hn
of selection is likely to be exceedingly DEM
ocratic. Men who wish such a Job will be
encouraged to apply for it: then the COM
munity to be served will be invited to name
three candidates whom they regard as es-
pecially competent and desirable. The votes
in hand, an inspector will be sent out with
instructions to investigate the antecedents
or the candidates and to put them through
such simple tests as requiring them to write
a short letter; to fill one of the blanks on
which their periodical reports must be sent
to the department; to write in proper form
a receipt for money taken from patron for
ots o4s purchase OF OF money order, and few
other feats. This examination will be de-
signed simply to see whether a candidate
can actually do the formal work which Will
be required of him in the course of his
business as carrier. The inspector finally
will forward his report to Washington with
recommendation that so-and-so receive
the appointment, and on it's approval here
the award will be made.
System to he Improved With Time.
Although this system Is very crude IN its
inception, hope is entertained that It may be
Improved as time goes on The people who
do the voting and the inspectors who make
the recommendations will be carefully in
structed in advance that the department
wishes to have partisan political considera-
tions entirely eliminated from the choice OF
carriers; and in view of the fact that q
carriers uprightness and his good nature
are going to be so important factors in the
satisfaction of his patrons, 1t is believed
that politics will actually be made to take
a secondary place or be wiped out alto
gether. and the idea is that in course OF
time the infection OF independence may
spread into the system of appointing fourth
class postmasters also. Indeed, the scheme
for selecting rural carriers Is not so very
unlike the fourth-class postmaster bill In
troduced by Senator Lodge during Post
master General Wanamal1ers administra-
ton. At any rate, II partizanship l. per-
mitted to intrude at all it is plain that.
under the system here outlined the oorpa
Of carriers will be mottled az to Affiliations:
for in q region where most Of the patrons Of
free delivery route are democrats they
will naturally vote for democrat, and In
one where most OF them are republicans
they will ba likely to prefer q republican.