The age-herald., 1902-05-06
Republicans Prepare to Make Cu> ban Reciprocity Party Question.

are the cotton-choppers now busy in the Alabama fields. But, however, that may be, almost all newspaper men find their chief pleasure of work in writing kindly of others, and doing so without desire or hope for themselves.
 Similarly members of the Congress busy themselves every day trying to. do something for the benefit of individuals who cannot possibly promote the real welfare of these officers of the general government The Congressman feels a personal interest in every one of his constituents, besides interesting himself in many persons who dwell outside of his district. His own home folk having given him the highest honor they had to give. he Is never weary of trying to show his appreciation and to prove himself deserv- ing of a continuance of their confidence and their support In election times.
 Thus when Congress enacted the law providing for the last census, 1t was ex- pressly provided that the clerks, more than four thousand in number, who should be employed should not be pro- vided for under the civil service law. Openly and plainly the intent of the mem bers was to provide places for their own friends in their respective districts, each representative being allowed to name two CT three clerks At least that was the understanding as to the Southern Dem- ocratic Representatives; though it would appear by the number of clerks that Re- publican Representatives were each all lowed a greater number of appointments, the Republican party being in control Of the government
 When the necessity came, several weeks ago, to decrease the number of census clerks, Congress passed an act to trans fer most of them to the classified civil service in Washington. But the act as 1t became law was not what it was in- tended to be, and the President having very strictly construed it. there was left about eight hundred places for four thons- and clerks, or only one clerk in five was provided for. Then was there grle1 Clerks were discharged by hundreds un- til the hundreds aggregated more than three thousand.
 No unhappier situation could be im-
  the main young men who secured ap- pointment for the purpose of obtaining educational advantages. They could spend the day in their official work in the census bureau and spend their even- ings in study in law or other schools open at night. Without the money derived from their work for the government they bn hpDffitS these schools, since they were without inde- pendent means necessary to live in Wash ington or in any other city of available schools.
 Herein came the hardship, the grief one may say. Hundreds of bright and ambitious young men were thrown out of employment and deprived of the means for pursuing their studies. They simply had to give up the struggle for knowledge and return to their homes, and the neces- sity for this broke many noble young heart
 So in this manner the efforts of Con- gross to do sonnet hing of great material benefit for thousands of young men, while at the same time conserving the general welfare by providing that public work be well done, have in the end brought sorrow. For there is no keener sorrow than that of gifted and am- bilious young man deprived of the means of obtaining education.
 And as If to make the general situa- tion of the discharged census clerks more painful. one of the clerks retained in of- flee is found to be several thousand dol- lars short in his accounts. He misapplied to his own purposes of sport, it seems. money of the government temporarily placed in his custody for the payment of his fellow-workers.
 This adds force to the old argument that no very young man should ever seek or accept government employment in Washington, for Washington is the na- tional graveyard of dead ambitions and dead morals.
 LUCIEN JULIEN WALKER. 
 DIR. PAL MFR INIIIREn