Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-11-09

az that or any private business. In IdCt,
there is no business house in the country
that does not keep strict tab on Its men
And there is no reason to believe that the
employees of the government need more
than twice as much watching as those or
bank But they get it, and the cfrcumlo-
cution department of the government seems
to sit up nights to find new ways TO waste
government time and money and add to the
good white paper annually spoiled IN
Washington.
Take merely the case Of efficiency re-
ports There are 25,0OO government en-
ployes in Washington, and al these nave
to be reported on by their CHIEFS twice a
year 1t takes q fooiscap sheet or paper
to report on each. and there are oo,Vo
sheets Of waste paper filed away annually
and never looked at.
When Positions Are Changed.
II have been in this department good
many years, and every time I have been
promoted or denoted or transferred or
changed in any other way that touched the
pay roll l have had to take a new oath of
office. Now, will anybody tell me the use
of that? have had to state my genealogy
as far as / could remember It, and whether
| was white black. married, single or
widower. how tall and how fat l was, and
number of other catechetical questions, none
of which was Of the slightest interest to
any one. A man does not take special
sized chair even If he does get an inch
tdler AFTER ne enters the Cow SeiN-
ice and If he is ten pounds heavier it is bad
enough TO know 1t personally, without hay
ing to spread the fact on the records of the
government. Two of the questions that go
on the blank are: How old are your ana
When were you born?' Now. If one were
much interested he might deduce the one
answer from the other.
Have you ever seen the room where our
appointment clerk works? Well, you ought
to. There is not an inch of wall space that
Is not taken up with file cases that are
never opened except to crowd fresh papers
into them. The file cases are stopping over
now into the corridor, and 1t Is getting
worse all the time.
Il have to report twice a year on the rec
Crd of my chief clerk. Each time l have to
fill out the blank, Can you recommend him
for higher grade of work than he is now
doing? Most emphatically cannot. But
have to write In each time a statement to
the effect that the grade of work he is now
doing is intricate enough to tax the abilities
of the very highest grade of man. Other
wise my failure to recommend him for pro-
motion would be regarded as knock at
most efficient chief clerk
well, there may be some excuse for that
sort of clutterng the files, though doubt
It," remarked another chief of DIVISION.
But / struck worse the other day. l
found one of my female clerks wasting
good government time walking disconsoiate-
" I'D and down the corridor with one OF
those Internal genealogical blanks in her
hand.
what is the matterT I asked.
Waiting for Mr.. Docket to find out how
to fill in this blank, said she.
"'Oh, l guess ! can show YOU said /.
"'No you can't she replied. have to fill
In my age and I've got to go back to the
files and find out how old I told them l
was last time!
The Story of a Sick Horse.
But that was not quite the limit either.
The assistant secretary's horse got sick
some time ago and the stable man sent
for the veterinary. The veterinary pre-
scribed a mixture that had six ounces OF
turpentine in it. We had no turpentine IN
stock at the time and the stable man sent
for some. He was told by the property
clerk to make out a requisition for IT, he
made out the requisition and after going
through six baskets 1t landed in the Sec
retarys desk for him to sign But the sec
rotary was going out of town with the
President and he did not sign IT, All TINS
time the poor horse was writing with the
collie Next day the requisition got around
to the acting secretary to whom the horse
belonged. He wanted to know whose morse
was being prescribed for and was tod II
was his.
MY horse brought me to the Office this
morning all right But it was then explained
that this was the requisiton Tor the meol-
cine that the horse ought TO have mad Wneh
unofficially reported to the Secretary when
he came home.
"'Confound the horse exclaimed he
That just shows the difference between
men and animals. If that horse had had
the slightest sense of humor he would have
died before the requisition got back TO
him. "
you can't put 1T too strong to suit me-"
lamented the tired looking disbursing OF
ficer Take the latest order that has
gone out in our department There have
to be five copies of records made every
time clerk IS transferred, one for the ap-
pointment clerk one for the Treasury De-
partment one for each bureau chief con-
cerned and one for the man who is being
transferred.
Travelling Expenses.
Take the case of poor man who Is sent
off on trip for the department, He has
to spend his good money and come back
and make out a whole stack of vouchers
and subvouchers in duplicate. Then the
disbursing officer has crack at them and
finds fault with the bill IL he can Then
1t goes over to the treasury and lot of
high grade clerks waste their time picking
flaws in 1t. And finally 1t Is paid, having
cost more in government time, postage and
clerk-hire than the original bill amounted
to. 1 know one man who had whole ex-
pense account held up merely because he
had his collars washed twice in one week
instead OF once. And one bill amounted to
so cents and the other to 40.
Suppose the expense account was done
away with altogether and they allotted a
man fiat per diem amount according to
the size of the towns he was visiting. You
can tell pretty. well what expenses are
going to amount to, say s. day for the
smaller towns, "a day for the bigger
cities and possibly IS day for New York
finstead of a dollar sometimes, but the saw
ing in clerk hire, white paper storage room