The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1905-10-26

o clock in the morning aid receives
pay for the full day. She then has
half OF Saturday, all Of Sunday and
Monday and she returns to the
Office late Tuesday in time to sign
for having worked that day. In
the course of the year she gets
something more than sixty days
exclusive of the sick leave which
she arranges at her convenience
with the assistance of a physician
who supplies her certificate when
ever she wishes one in order to be
retained as her family physician.
When she is actually sick but not
confined to her oed she goes to the
department, signs as present and
spends the day in the department
toilet room where she is attended
by che department nurse. She
draws a salary of twelve hundred
dollars a year and the fact that she
has held her place for thirty years
warrants the assumption that she is
at least of average ability and eff
cheney. The case is by no means
ex ceptional. Indeed this record in
some or all of its incidents is rather
the rule. Nor is it by any means
confined to the women. There are
Government chiefs known to be
habitual drunkards who have un-
der them clerks who fill papers
signed long in advance by the
chiefs and who in the fear of losing
their own positions keep him in
formed of any demands for his pres
ence or criticisms of his absence.
In nearly every department bureau
there is a ring" that discourages
the energy of the new broom in
Office that there may be no glaring
contrasts by which the others may
suffer. The variety of evasions,
and subterfuges by which the Gov
ernment bureaus are robbed by the
Civil Service clerks would fill a
book and make as interesting read
jig as the story of "Frenzied Fin
ance." 1t is not to be expected
that the new order will cover it all
or prevent even halt, but any move
ment looking toward that end is a
salutary one and should be appre-
ciated by the public. 1t will never
be possible to conduct the Govern
ment business as a private corpora
ton conducts its business, with the
wise judgment and economy which
produces good work with consist
ent economy but it is step in that
direction when the head of the de-
partment is given the right to which
the smallest private employer is
entitled, the right to discharge his
employees when they are known to
retard and obstruct the work for
which they are employed.
XXX
Reform is the slogan in all quar-
ters. Following on the one above
recited comes appropriation from
the Government Printing Office,
one of the most expensive, extrava-
CANT and wasteful of all the Gov
ernment Offices, to curtail expenses
to the extent of 81, 900, 900 to ST.
500, 900 a year on Government
printing bills. The Easements of
the Capitol and. other storage
houses are filled with thousands of
volumes printed, bound and stored
by the Government Printing Office
and which cannot under any cir
cumstances be used or distributed
for anything other than waste pa,
per at a few cents a hundred
weight. The document rooms OF
the Capitol are filled with such
rubbish for which there never was
a reason. The present plan to re,
trench OH this printing to print OF
each document only sufficient TOR
actual and immediate distribution
and to limit also the useless print
ing demanded by both Houses OF
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