Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-10-07
REGRETS AT THE CAPITOL
Discarded Representatives Who Have
to Begin All Over Again.
LUCRATIVE BUSINESS GIVEN UP
influence Of Social Life in Inducing
Men to Take Government Posi-
tions-Wise Newspaper Men.


which has always struck me as being pc
culiar," said a veteran member of the cor
respondents corps of the capital. in dis
cussing Washington and its. political and
social sidelights with some other members
of The craft in a well-known northwest re-
sort few evenings since, land 1t is why
some men will give up lucrative law prac-
tees. established businesses and other prof
liable callings to accept positions In the
government service in the various depart
rhents bureaus at salaries which about
pay for a furnished house in a good quar-
ter of the northwest.
Il refer more particularly to positions
along the lines OF the assistant secretary
ships. chiefs of bureaus. In fact, will
go still further and will in some instances
include the cabinet positions. OF course
the regular correspondents and newspaper
men in the capital see official life both In
the departments and at the Capitol as IL
really is. and not what it is thought to be,
and understand what a grind of routine
duties 1t actually is, and how the same old
propositions come up year after year and
administration after administration for dis
posal
Understanding 1t therefore as we do and
having unusual facilities and opportunities
for penetrating the glamor which envel-
opes officialdom. it is not surprising that
we would consider this effort as squandered
energies and wasted years IL we indlvfd-
ually or collectively possessed the bank
rolls which would insure nonentertng
L
work. and work and grind. usually at unin-
teresting desk and office duties which teach
the participant little IL anything which he
may afterward apply in his outside business
or profession. 'nE
How Some Officials Lose. r'
"a single illustration will suffice. Several
years ago there was a New Jersey banker
who accepted and held for two three
years a position in the nature of an as
sistant secretaryship which paid him $4,000
a year salary. cost him $4,000 year for
furnished house rent alone with correspond.
ingly high additional incidental expenses.
and the resignation of the presidency of his
bank. involving a further loss of about
5000 a year salary. What this man got
out of his office l can't say. but II would
not take a newspaper man long to figure
what he didn't get out of it. II
Now let us step into the cabinet circle
figuratively. 1 was well acquainted with a
member of the cabinet of past administra-
ton, who was a lawyer. He surrendered
practice of $4,000 a year. gave up COM
modous family mansion in his home city to
occupy a rented house here which cost him
100000 a year to maintain. to draw $50 q
year salary. with the privilege of using the
department team and carriage. ..g,r
This, with the honor which attaches to
a cabinet position, might be considered an
equivalent. but from a correspondents
standpoint of earning equivalents and
Their money value III This f nc,a to bo see
ever, had a wife who was socially. ambi-
tious. and 1t was probably for this reason
mainly he accepted the position. In fact, it
is the buzzng OF the social bee which ac-
counts for many of these moves the
checkerboard of official life which would
seem to the everyday citizen who is chas-l
ing the dollar so eagerly to be very much
in the nature of sacrifices. This ca binet
officer stuck it out signing official docu-
ments and riding to and from his office and
enough to admit to his friends that he was
glad to get back home and earn some
money again..
How other Officials Gain. atF-
Now, where men rise from the clerical
ranks to these intermediate and higher
official posts of honor it is quite another
matter Ali of the Older correspondents
have a number of these latter instances in
mind In a great many of these the men
who have been thus fortunate In getting
out of the columns of civilian private In
office life have stepped into better and
higher salaried positions on the outside
upon the expiration of their terms or by
prior resignation. On the other hand. many
have remained in the service and accepted
other or lower-salaried places when the
administration changed. s-.a.-
1.-THE former instances, therefore. are the
gamers. but my remarks are especially.
directed to the last enumerated. Office life
in Washington is a deadly routine of the,
same thing. In the same channels. and in
these higher positions men find themselves
occupied from morning until night, and
often at night struggling with problems In
which they cannot by the very nature
thereof become personally interested: Gov
and devoid of the attraction and interest
which go with professional and business
pursuits.
Regrets of Congressman. ls,s
There Is not a man in this group who
cannot recall a score of such cases as these.
and when members OF Congress con-
sidered every one of us can remember
In
life by the dozens who have told us that
they would have to go back home and be-
gin life all over again SO far as their pro-
LESSONS and money-making operations Were
concerned. We have heard them say. over.
and over again. that they deeply regretted
the day they first gave their consent 70
allow their names to be used in their dis
tricts, and had they not done so they would
have been worth this or that, CT would
have otherwise bettered themselves in the
various ways they would tell in detail; IN
fact this Is of the stock stories WASH
ington correspondents biennially listen to
from retiring representatives, and even IN
some instances from senator's though to- a
less degree with members of our upper
house than with those of the lower. DH
1.-The logical conclusion from this stande
point would seem to point to the fact that
if a man makes a personal sacrifice or fore
goes professional or business opportunities
to take public office. he usually makes D.
mistake, which in later years he will con-
fide to newspaper men and his professional
friends being one of the regretta BILE mis-
takes i'm his life. For these men have
found, like others in other profitless call
ings. that once the years of opportunity
and energy in a mans life are gone it il
very hard, almost impossible In some In
stances to recover lost ground and that
political honors don't pay subsequent bills
and expenses.
Positions Which Were Refused.
Some of us who are here now well re-
call in the old days when rotation of ad-
ministrations were more frequent than
now, or more imminent than in recent
years, and Mr.. Cleveland was force In
his party in thus turning things around
politically to give the other side a chance,
that newspaper men well established in
their respective fields in the capital would
decline to surrender these to accept posi-
tons in office: not In all cases, understand,
but In a great many.
LAS the years have rolled along. and these
men can now see where they would have
been changed, reduced or removed by tho
various different official circumstances
which have since arisen. had they accepted
these positions they congratuatine
themselves that they were then wise
enough not to be tempted by the official
bug. They have their papers still, or have