Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-03-17
RATHER "CHIRKY" LOT

Ile way they ufstorf the facts and uK-
ures about us old fellows in the depart
ments.+ observed one OF them, reminds
me Of the way the literary bureaus Of the
big PARTIES write their campaign documents
You know what hopeless mess OF utter
unfairrless the average campaign document
is. no matter by which party it may be
issued.
The case of one broken old man who
doesn't visit hiss department at ALL but
Who stays al home and draws his pay. is
commonly taken as correct line On hum
dreds of old men in the Washington de-
partments. This is about as fair as 1t
would be TO accept it for fact that be-
cause few young men in the departments
drink to excess all of the young men work.
ing for the government here In Washing
ton are sots
Il speak with knowledge when | assert
end maintain that the large number of
elderly government clerks in Washington
are, physically. about the ehirkiest chip
rerest and most competent lot OF men of
their age and conditions to be found any
where. The actually decrepit ones among
them are extremely rare. l know liter
ally dozens of sixty -ffye-year-old govern
ment clerks In Washington who are as rug
ged. robust. hearty and able-bodied as they
ever were at forty-ffye--men who show no
signs whatever Of mental or physical de-
tericration. who are doing Just as big a
days work. and unauestionabiy better
days work. now than they were doing
twenty years ago, and who. man for man.
could go into competition tomorrow with
the young fellows In their respective div!s-
ions and hold their own with the utmost
ease under the eye of trained and impair
tial judges.
1T is the occasional decrepit old man
who Is used as biudgeon by these legisla-
tive and other people who are determined
that the elderly men shall be ruthlessiy
thrown into the street by congressional en-
actment. You take walk through any
department of the government today. and
you will find that the quite elderly men
are the brains, the steady and actual
ma naging power of the machinery of the
government They have lived long enough
to acquire that conscientiousness which
actuates them to give the government the
best that is in them for the governments
wages. They have sloughed off whatever
detrimental habits may have held them
down In their middle governmental career.
They are giving forth their fun force and
energy II only for the sake Of fighting, by
their own example. this modern Oslerish
idea that men are no account when their
top hair and mustaches begin to wiliten.
They are fighting for families, paying for
homes, picking UP the white mans burden
to its fullest meanings and extent, and
they are keeping themselves IN the keenest
training for these purposes. They live the
most regular lives. Their length of service
has tended to give them. rule an
acute zest In their work. They have put
away whatever ambitions they may have
had at an earlier day for advancement out
OF the government service, and therefore
they are giving the government everything
they possess In the way of ability.
THE mere suggestion that this large body
OF men should be tossed into the street
is, to my mind, one of the most malignant
ever heard put 10 or by a civilized govern
ment. The portrayal of these men, who
are doing so much for this government
every day Of their lives. as wretched old
nylf~ md rxHn hnv, cri r cy
onto the pap trough without any excuse or
reason, Is one of the basest wholesale
libels that l ever heard of.
And / am speaking from the viewpoint
of one Of them who doesn't really care
very much which way this cat jumps or Is
going to jump. I have been in my depart
| ment ever since the close of the war. /
am not only a pretty comfortable. but a
pretty well-to-dO elderly person. / could
buy and sell tomorrow more than three
quarters OF those cheap. fy-by-night skates
vengeance against the civil service law.
which prevents them from putting their
heelers in, are perpetually advocating the
firing Of the old clerks. / could walk out
of my department this afternoon with my
congo In my hand and have not the slight
est CULVER of apprehension as to how I
was going to take care OF myself and my
family. for as / say. and as my heighbors
all know. I'm a pretty warm old man in
the matter of investments. And. II didn't
have a nickel put by, I've got five pretty
sassy and well-to-do sons. all living in
this town OF Washington. who'd come
pretty nigh furnishing the old man with
roof and smoking tobacco in case he was
showed out Of his work
But that isn't the question. I'm doing
my work well. I'm learning something
about my work every day I I've and the
kind of work / do Is the kind that 1t takes
the men who &c ne r. sn good ann as
tails. I'm earning my pay. I'm In rugged
| health. am at my desk and ready for bust
ness on the dot Of nine every morning
wade through about twice as much stuff
as men half my age in my own room every
day and see not the slightest reason why
7 shouldn't go on doing the same, thank
you, for a good many years to come. When
the day comes when I think I'm reneging
on the government and doing less than
my stunt, I'm going to take a little stroll
into the oflos OF the Secretary, tell him
that I'm about all In so far as continuing
to work for the government Is concerned.
and then go home and sit around the fire
and smoke my old bunch of pipes and make
UP my soul to die.
six months or SO ago Gen Jake Smith,
retired. OF the United States army, gave ut
terance to some mighty sound talk with
regard to the difficulty an army officer has
to get away with his time when he is re-
tired. Gen. Smith said that he'd never
had any service in active duty half SO
hard as the Job OF loafing he found on his
list Gen Smith had it about right Men
are retired from active service in the army
far too soon. Men don't grow old SO soon
az they used to. They follow a better sys-
tenn Of hygiene. They don't drink and
otherwise abuse themselves as men used
to. I know plenty Of army officers who
don't look day older than fifty when
they are retired. and who, because OF the
fact that active duty Is taken away from
them by operation of law just at the time
they are becoming best fitted for duty
soon feel the weight of their actual years
and through enforced idleness, take on
burden of age that they were never des-
tired for long as they remained in work
ing harness.
HE,ut the army officer Is at least retired
with enough to live on He can take to
some adding around to keep himself busy
IL he chooses, and il he isn't built Tor
loafsng there are a good many things he
can do to make himself believe he Is busy
and still a factor on earth. Why, morally
speaking, should an army officer who has
performed a certain number OF years in the
government employ be entitled to retire
ment at the prescribed age, when civilian
who has put IN an equal number OF years
of faithful service for the same govern
ment he at the continual mercy of these
lightweights and Reuben" legislators who
are menacing him all the time with threats
to chuck him into the street when his Skull
has become depleted OF hair and he no
longer swaggers perkily around the de-
ma rfmental corridors with pencil behind