Bisbee daily review., 1904-05-26
A RECKLESS
 ADMINISTRATION.

ADMINISTRATION.
 Among other things for which the administration of Theodore the First will pass down into history as censur able, is the extrayagant waste of the money of the people. IL would appear as though no cabinet officer or even clerks in the departments, who ape their masters, walk in Washington.
 There are coaches for officials which are paid for out of the public funds. Even cabinet officers are not above riding in carriages bought with Un- cle Sans money, drawn by horses paid for out of the funds of the Unit. ed States Treasury, and equipped with coachmen who are maintained at Gov ernment expense on falsifed pay roll as "laborers' and messengers. Those who were caught at this petty business were the Secretary of the Treasury, the Postmaster-General, the Secretary of War, the Secretary of the Navy. the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, and the Department Of Justice.
 One of the first acts of Grover Cleve- lands Administration in 1885, when the Democratic party came into pow CT, was to reform the official carriage abuse. One Cabinet officer after an- other ordered his horses and carriages sold, and the men who were acting as drivers and coachmen were put back ,rr1o r-lr q, turn of the Republicans there has been a steady increase in the number of of ficial carriages, the majority of which are used for private and social pur- poses.
 A partial list of private horses and carriages maintained at the cost of the public. shows total cost of s39.- 636, and a spirit of smallness that is of the United States. The average salary paid to the coachman is more than $50 per month. Good coachmen may be hired in Washington for s35 a month. But the most shameful part of the whole proceedings was the at tempt to conceal the real nature of the coachmen's and drivers duties under false entries on the pay rolls. In not one instance in the reports received could it be shown that the men who were employed as coachmen and driv- CTS for these private carriages were entered fairly and honestly on the pub lie pay rollsr in that capacity.
 Postmaster General H. C. Payne, in his report, said:
 The driver is carried on the rolls of the Department as a watchman, at a salary of s720 per annum, and his assistant is carried on the rolls as a laborer, at a salary of s66O per an num-"
 Secretary of the Navy William H. Moody, said:
 One employe, carried on the rolls as an assistant messenger, at a con- pensation of s720 per annum, acts as driver for the Secretary. One em- ploye, carried on the rolls as a labor CT, at S660 per annum, is used as driv- CT for the Assistant Secretary"
 Secretary George B. Cortelyou, of the Department of Commerce and Ia bor, said:
 ''Laborer, detailed to drive surrey and coupe, s660; assistant messenger, who acts as driver, s72O; messenger, who acts as driver, $500; foreman of stables and driver to Secretary, ss40."
 A rather peculiar feature has been brought to light in connection with the horse and carriage service in Sec. retary Cortelyou's Department. Rep resentative Hitchcock's resolution was adopted January IS. On January 20 Secretary Cortelyou's Department was using twelve horses and fifteen car riages. Then came the word of the resolution, and on February l, when the report was returned to Congress, four horses and five carriages had been disposed of. In the figures giv- en the cost of the harnesses had not been taken into account. In some .n- stances they gre quite expensive, run ming as high as s300 or more, and swelling the sum total by several thousand dollars.
 But it isn't just coachmen as drivers alone that serve the high officials pr1- vately and receive their pay at sne public crib. According to an old en- ploye in one of the departments. it is a common thing for Cabinet officers to take men who are maintained on the government pay rolls to serve :n their homes as buffers during public receptions. One man in particular, who is employed as a messenger, it was said. has served repeatedly in