The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-04-28
WATCH FOR HIM.
Seventeen Hundred Pension Of
fee Clerks on Anxious Seat.
Wonder What Sort of a Man is
Mr.. Ware.
INSURGENTS ACTIVE.
Look to New Commissioner For
Official Recognition.
Employees Expect Change to Be
Made July 1.
INSURGENTS ACTIVE.


wonder what sort of a man he is, and
whether he will adopt any revolutionary
methods in conducting the bureau. The
word has gone round that although he
writes poetry, he is a practical sort of a
mana shrewd, exacting, conscientious
business man, who viii prove to be a
strict disciplinarian and administer his
Office with the old fashioned notion in
his mind that the government is entitled
to the worth of its money, the same as
commercial concern. This does not suit
some of the dead timber in the bureau
of pensions. That there is considera-
BILE dead timber in the bureau nobody
who has any knowledge of existing con-
ditions will deny. Commissioner Evans
probably is not to blame for this. He
has perhaps done the best he could with
a great bulky bureau, and if he has not
built fires under some of the dead ones
it need excite no special wonder. They
have become fixtures, and look like the
furniture. The pension office is big
place. The commissioner has a lot to
do.
Already the whispering committees
are at work There are mysterious con-
| ferences. Self constituted reorganiza-
ton committees are choosing men Tor
the good places under the new COM
missioner. All of these places are to be
filed, of course, by the insurgents"
/ as an OI1clal termed InGm To-Day IN con-
yerSat1on with the correspondent OF the
/ State Journal. The insurgents are those
employees of the pension bureau who have
lost OUT under the Evans regime
They have not been promoted rapidly
enough, or not at all, or for other rea-
sons they are out Of touch with the adj
ministratiOn of the pension office.
/ Uusualy 1t IS because they have not
/ been promoted, for nothing looks quite
so big to the average government clerk
as a promotion, and to have been, even
IN an indirect way, the cause of his re-
/ duction, whether deserved or not, is an
/ objectionable offense which he can be
depended upon never to forget. So the
reorganiza ton committees of the in
! surgents are getting busy. They are
making states for the new commissioner,
and the way officials are being reduced
and their official heads dropped, would
4 be a matter of very grave concern to
! the persons in interest if they only knew
1t.
Just at this time the medical referee,
/ Jacob F. Raub, of Pennsylvania, is
/ slated for retirement. He has been par
! ticularly close to Commissioner Evans.
! His salary is IS, 600 a year. The insur-
gents would like to have his place.
Another official who IS in the storm
| center, and who occupies a. prominent
! place on the insurgent retirement slate
/ is Stephen A. Cuddy. of Wisconsin.
chief of the law division. His salary is
| only $1,000 a year, but there are many
among the disgruntled who would be
willing to relieve him of his responsible
/ ties He has also been close to the pres
! ent commissioner of pensions
Aside from these positions there are
many others at the disposal of the new
! conan issiOner-chief clerk, whose salary
! is g 900; assistant medical referee, 81
] $50 chief board of review 1000, ap-
/ pOintment clerk 81, 900; and the chiefs of
/ the several divisions. 1t is in the power
/ of the new commissioner of course to
reduce all of these officials, and promote
I oral1 nj fn hpf
! places; but the fact is, there will prOba-
/ bly, be few changes. At any rate new
commissioners in the past have been
/ slow to act in this connection. All Of
! the promotions will. have to be made
from within the bureau, so that there
will be no new places for outsiders, ex-
cept in the case of the private secretary
| to the commissioner. This appointment
is a personal one with the commission
| er, and he may appoint whom he will.
If precedent is followed a Kansas man
will doubtless get the place.
Despite the fact that new commits
sioners, on assuming the responsible
| ties of the Office, are slow to make
| changes among the higher officials of
| the bureau, there is considerable specu-
lation among these gentlemen as to
| what their fate is to be.
I'VE are never on easy street until the
/ new commissioner is installed and
| things get to running smoothly" said
one OF them to the State Journal CORES
! the suspense is over"
The induction of a new commissioner
/ into office means an immense amount
of work for the employees. An inventory
| of all the cases and property is always
taken, and every enplOye of the bureau
/ is pressed into service for the perform
| ance of this work. Two weeks are con-
/ sumed in taking the inventory. An in
| ventory is also taken at the end of ev-
| cry fiscal year, which terminates July
/ I, so that if Mr.. Ware were to assume
! the duties of the office tomorrow, an in
| ventory would not only have to be Ia
I ken Immediately, but also on July /, the
end of the fiscal year. The employees Of
the bureau hope that Mr.. Ware viii be-
come commissioner of pensions just
prior to July I, which will necessitate
but one inventory.
! AS has been stated, intense interest is
manifested in the coming of Mr.. Ware,
and the employees are on the qui vive.
Members of the Kansas congressional
delegation and their clerks are piled
with inquiries concerning him. One day
| last week a rumor became current in
the Office that one of the local news
papers had posted a bulletin which an
accept the position Within an hour
every one OF the seventeen hundred
clerks had heard of this rumor. and
business was temporarily suspended.
The evening papers failed to confirm
the runOF, however, and no one seemed
to know It's source
The pension Office is one of the very
greatest departments of the government.
The salaries Of employees in the bureau
last year aggregated s2,166. 210; S40O 600
was paid for special examinations
alone; $133, 531, 483 was paid to pension
ers. It Is small wonder, therefore,
that the president considers the Office u
quasi cabinet position. There are few
places in the public service that carry
higher responsibilities.
Eugene Ware will be the sixteenth
commissioner since the beginning OF
the civil war The roster is given be
low:
Name-yyhence appointed-Date Of com
Barrett. Joseph H.-Ohio. April Is, 1861.