Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1903-08-14
Washington letter

time. Nearly every man who Is high
enough up on the pay rolls of the
Government seems to be seized with
an insane desire to 20 out on q junket
trip this summer at the expense of
the people. The Secretary of::the Navy,
not long ago. took out big bunch of
Conar essmen and took wh,z around
the West Indies on government YES
sci and the people paid the bill. The
Presidents family then took out his
"private yacht" which ia a govern
ment vessel. and proceeded to their
summer home at Oyster Bay. The
vessel Is always ready for use for
pleasure parties for the Roosevelt
children, going to boat races or TAX
ing Miss Alic to the city when she
feels in needs of paper Of pins. Not
long ago the members of Congress
who were on the Naval Affairs Com
mittee in the last House, took q
Government vessel and started ont on
junket with the ostensible purpose
of inspecting the different fortifca-
tions along the coast Of the country,
and the naval needs of the country.
What rights these members have to
make the people pay for any such
expense is more than any man can
tell. There is no official naval com
mittee in existence, so far as the
House of Representatives is con-
cerned. How do these men know they
will be placed on the Committee on
Naval Affairs when the next house
is organized! They do not know it,
and yet they are squandering the
peoples money for the ostensible pur-
pose of posting themselves on the
needs Of the people in the way of
naval expenditures: The chan ces are
they will see more thigh balls than
they will cannon balls, and more
"kings'' and "queens'' than they
will naval necessities. Postmaster !
General Payne, who has been made
"sick' presumably by smelling the
stencil in mis- department, is the
la test to take government vessel, and
with his family get out on the deep
blue sea where he can smell the per-
fume of the brine instead of official
corruption. And the people pay the
bill. Well, why shouldn't they? They
are responsible for the millions &C
GQmulated in the Treasury. They
voted tariff tax on themselves that !
would pile up surplus of cash in the
Treasury, and this is the only way
to get it back in the channels Of
trade, unless they take notion to
quite taxing themselves for the bene-
it of trusts. tariff barons and janket-
tiers. Until they do they may expect
that q republican adm Illustration.
guiltless of sympathy with the people.
will continue to have q good time
with their money and elbow it in
like drunken sailor.
Aside from the boodling and rot
tenness that ia coming out of the de-
partment of the city, the govern
ment Of the District Of Columbia is
being shown up just now, and it is
about the most ramshackle and
flimsy affair, to be called the govern
ment of great city, that any man
ever heard of. A young clerk, whose
salary was 81, 400 q year was al
lowed to steal So, 600 in the past five
years for the reason that his books
were never checked. His employers
saw this young man plunging at the
races, buying an interest in all sorts
Of businesses. riding around in "red
devil' automobile. and playing the
thigh roller" generally, and yet they
never checked his books. There is
hardly day goes by that something
crooked, something rotten. or some
thing loose does not turn up in the
District of Columbia building. There
seems to be lust of loot, a riot of
rapacity and dducisry fandango in
the capital Of the nation. Long lease
of power hath made the republicans
money mad. and they are simply TAX
ing what they want and asking no
odds. When the people tire of it they
know how they can stop it. 1t is
no to them.
The President has suddenly TANNED
into the labor unions of the country,
and somebody is going to come out
second best in fight that will be on
In furious fashion pretty soon. It
seems that man named Miller, an as
sistant foreman in the bookbinding
department of the Government Print
Ing Office, was expelled from his
union for good aud sufficient cause
As the unions have been entrenched
in the Government Printing Office in
recent times, they have insisted that
only members of the union in good
standing shall be employed there,
and tho copeouuoroo mos %hok N6;l1o.