Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1905-10-27
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From our Regular correspondent,

dsuluStOH, ~, VI. OcG. Zl.-The
United States Government differs from
the Governments of other great powers
i that its civil service far exceeds in
personnel its military or naval services.
This cannot be said of Germany, of
France, Russia or any other great DOW
err. With them their are far more sol
diers bearing arms than clerks weld.
ing pens and the United States Govern
ment is further peculiar in It's extern
sive employment OF women in clerical
work. Perhaps In no other country
except Russia is The civil service es
tablishment 80 much in need of reor-
ganizatiOn and reform. A great re-
form was doubtless effected when adj
mission to the service was made de
pendent on competitive examination
requiring certain educational attain
ments. The service under Roosevelt
is decidedly better than 1t was under
Grant. But the fact that a man or
woman has proved by an examination
that he can spell, write and knows
something of Arithmetic does not
prove that he is willing to work or will
not take advantage of the many op-
portunities to neglect and shirk his
work. The departments are encum-
bered with employees who have been
placed there on account of their politi
cal services Or on account of their rela-
tionship to Senators or Senators wives
or mothers. In law. They have held
fast through many administrations
successive Cabinet officers as heads of
Departments hesitating to displace
clerks so respectable, so venerable and
of such formidable antecedents. These
clerks so we'll entrenched have a most
demoralizing influence. They have
long drawn pay doing little or no work.
and are adopts in all the arts of shirk-
ing work and making the. most of their
sinecure. The President and Cabinet
officers have long been cogizant of this
state of affairs and at a Cabinet meet
ing just previous to. the President s de-
parture for the South it was decided
that the President and Cabinet officers
should he entitled to the right to dis
MISS peremptorily any civil service
obstructive to the government service.
In such a case the dismissal is final
adm the discharged employee without
recourse or right of appeal. The howl
that has arisen in the Departments in
Washington demonstrates better than
anything else could the number of
heads that should fall. The efficient
honest and industrious clerk has moth
ing to fear from the order and 1t is
conservative to estimate that thirty
per cent. of the Government clerks are
shaking in their shoes at the present
moment. 1t is not TO be supposed that
thirtysper cent. of the civil employee
will be dismissed nor that a third of
even that proportion will go, but every
man and woman with a guilty consci-
ence is conscious that he or she is in
range of the lightning that may strike
at any moment.
The Government clerk does not have
q hard time. He is asked to work sew
en- and half hours six DAYS in the week.
He has thirty days annual sick leave
and thirty days annual vacation. He
has as many holidays as a patriotic
people can devise reasons for or find
dead heroes to honor, including Labor
Day. During three months of the
summer he is dismissed every Satur
day at noon. And for all of this he
gets a salary higher than would be
paid by any private corporation and
paid with a regularity that nothing
can interrupt. And does be in exchange
always give efficient and honest ser
vices F? Not by any means. The ma
jority actually steal from the Govern
ment In time, service and supplies more
than they are worth to it, and the
manner and diversity of their evasiOnS
and speculatlons would take book to
describe. In the small incident of re-
ceiving visitors during office hours it
is impossible to compute how much of
their time the Government loses. Some
clerks are permitted to receive visitors
until two o'clock of each day and it Is
no uncommon sight to find the toilet
room for the women clerks filled with
their clerks and their guests until that
hour. Every bureau has a messenger
who is there TOR the better communi.
cation of the different bureaus. 1t is
no uncommon thing for him to act on
occasions as the janitor, butler or
coachman of the bureau chief whom
he is afraid to offend for fear of losing
his place. Hundreds of clerks are ell
gagged in literary work which they do
in office hours with the aid of Govern
ment paid amanuenses, employing data
collected by the Government, using de-
partment stationary and typewriters,
The number who take department sta
tionary, ink, penknives as private pro.
perty to their homes is so great as to
be the rule rather than the exception.
In the matter of vacations their sub
terfuges for obtaining more than they
are entitled to would give lessons to
diplomats. If clerk divides his thir.
ty days and takes one at time he may