Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1904-10-13
Communication.
Washington, d. G., Oct. II, 1904.
F.DiTor NEWS ITEM.

! WAS old enough, to vote when
came to Washington and have lived
here thirty years. have observed
and studied the Government machine
at close range. There are many
things connected with government
administration that every citizen
can not know, and much that is hard
| to believe even when told by II per.
son Of knowu tr,,thfulne-s.
There has been, sin. q the days Of
Grant and until three years ago,
ScandalOus lo,scness and reckleS>,rs-
in the management Of the civil, mil
itary and naval establishments Lf the
government. The world knows
something Of this from heaIsay, but
there is a difference In seeing things
ut first hand and hearing about them.
The first eighteen months of my
stay in Washington, was spent as a
clerk in the Navy Department, and
then and there got impressions of
the idleness and inefficiency, the
favoritism and dishonesty prevailing
tho rank and file of Bureaucracy and
injecting everybody from clerk
to Cabinet Officers. The successive
Presidents that have come and gone
from Grant to Mckinley, inclusive,
have seemed to be powerless to
change these conditions-conditionI
that would have ruined the best pri-
vate or corporate business in the
world that can be sup.
ported only by taxation and exhaust
less natural resources. For thirty
years, party platforms and orators
have Illuminated reform, but the new
president when he came in had to
take the machine as he found it, and
let it and himself be run very much
according to custom. The term of a
president is only four years and it
takes that long for an ordinary pres
ident to become acquainted with the
rottenness of the different services
that make a government, and most
of them have been mere politicians
too mealy-mouthed to denounce it
or too nerveless to attack it.
But for three years we have had
In the White House, an extraordi-
nary president. One who is neither
mealy-mouthed nor nerveless and
one who came to the presidency fully,
keenly, Indignantly cognizant of the
gangrene permeating every depart
ment and determined with.merciless
strenuouness to cut it out. What he
has accomplished in three years is
marvellous and inspiring. The Civil
Service, the Postal Service, the Army
and the Navy have responded Won
derfullv to his intelligent, disInfect-
ing tonic treatment. Not only have
the organization and the equipment
of all services been improved, but
the morale and esprit du corps have
been elevated and energized until it
is not too much to say that from
clerk to Cabinet Officer, from st0ker
to Admiral, and from army mule to
Chief of Staff new life and health
prevail. Any person of discernment
on the ground, and cognizant of past
and present conditions can see it and
feel it.
But the work is not complete and
retrogression will set in if it permit
ed to stand still, and how much
worse if committed to alien and un-
friendly hands. The country has
waited long for a president with
head, heart and hand, to d6desperate.
ly needed things. What he has done
Is but earnest of what he can do and
| will do. 1t is known that if Theo
dOre Roosevelt is elected president
in November, he will come into
Office unhampered by pledge o1
promise. This too, will be uniqu.
in the experience of presidents ant
in its beneticent reaction on tn,
country.
1t is already known who two o
the Cabinet Officers will be. Mr.
Hay will continue the firm, bu
pacific management of our foreign
relations which has, during the las
seven years, given us much honor
able international distinction; Mr.
COrtelyOu will bring his youth, hi
energy and his faculty Of organiza
ton to bear upon the largest posta