Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-02
ON TO GLOVERsvLLE!

..There was plenty Of meat in that recent
editorial In The Star which commented
upon the distorted views held by most ma
tional legislators with respect to govern
ment Clerks observed q member of the
Civil Service Retirement Association. But
what is the use? You can only dislodge an
idea from the mind of the average law
maker by employing dynamite. 1t is worse
than useless to deny the fact that Congress
Is, and always has been, against the de-
partmental employees.
There are, OF course, plenty of fair. en-
lightened, reasonable men In the law-mak-
Ing bodies who have taken the pains to get
at the facts with respect to the COM
potency. industry and general habits Of the
tremendous body Of government employees
In Washington. But they are In such q
vast minority that 1t Is simply out OF the
ming OF presenting their ascertained facts
or impressing their views upon the over
whelming majority OF their fellow legis.a-
tors.
ut Is as hard to kill government tradi-
ton as 1t would be to slaughter a charg-
ing rainoceras with q fountain pen. The
congressional tradition has it that gov
soldiers incompetents, idlers. strikers,
warts and wens on the fair face Of Uncle
Sans payroll
This tradlt1On TOOK It's rise IN the Spoiis-
mems days when the heelers and hangers
on Of legislators swarmed around Washing
ton to nail the clerking billets. 1t has
stuck ever since. 1t Is handed down from
the years by a sort Of grisly accretion. 1t
is as tenacious of perpetuity as those dream
narratives of raw and youthful Washington
correspondents about the beautiful adven-
turesses who engage in lobbying at the
Capitol.
Another dismal feature in connection
with this strangely tenacious tradition Is
that4t has spread throughout the country.
1t Is believed in by the mass of the people.
Go anywhere in the United States and name
Washington as your town, and you will
infallibly be told, sooner or later, by some
owlish native or other, or a whole lot Of
of bilks that've got their names On the
gov'ment payroll in Washington 1t
would be mere lodging to deny that this
is the case. Washington government clerks
are viewed by the country in general with
about the same degree of suspicion as the
Praetoria nGuard was viewed by the whole
Roman world in the declining days Of the
empire. And this impression has leaked.
trickled, spread and percolated throughout
the entire land from the big white building
on the hill, where the tradition about in
in the minds of legislators at the time that
Pennsylvania avenue was a morass.
when the great majority of the gentle
men up on the hill give entertainment to
der can't be very great that the prospect
for 20 per cent increase in government
clerks wages looks pretty poor at this
it am gS Of ns
worth talking about. The steel-bound NAL
let was out for it, ready to be welded by
hundred sinewy hands, even If it had
emerged into the world with enough vi
tally to set up a squawking.
I'm the meantime, one of the legislators
recently set up the humorous contention
that if there were to be any 20 per cent in
crease in the pay Of the clerks only such
clerks as were in the receipt of 81 ,86o a
year and over should be the benehciaries
of the new arrangement.
I'm this suggestion there is serene, If
Opaque. beauty that could only be appre-
ciated by the Iamented David Harum. who
delivered himself Of that immortal truth:
Them that has gits.'
Another legislator. this one from west
ern New York state. recently gave utter
ance to this pronunciamento: 1t doesn't
cost any more to live in Washington than
it does in Gloversville.'
"Gloversville? Gloversville? Where is
Gloversville? Is that where the Shark
lives? Or is it the abode Of the Woggle-
bug, which is said to feed, sans cost. on
the exhalations OF orchids? Or is Glovers-
Vile the place where the walrus talks
cabbages and kings?
'Oh. Is Gloyersville that town up York
state where they make the gloves? Well,
IL OOeSn cost any more 10 i've IN CflOV-
ersville than it does to live in Washington,
that's a mighty important and engaging
bit Of Information. It's a piece of news
that ought to help the government clerks
here whole lot. We can all move from
Washington to Gloversville. can't we?
Gloversville will be the solution of the
whole thing. We can get jobs in the glove
mills up there. This would give us work
for our hands $50 long idle) and enable us
to rest what we please to call our minds.
"Gloversville. now I remember, is an
Already with Main street, on op'rey house,
town hall and curfew ordinance which
requires all hands to toe the mark. This
curfew ordinance would force all Of the
government clerks, turned glove makers, to
seek their hunks at a reasonable hour in
stead of spending their nights and their SUI
perfiuous unearned increment in wild, wan
ton wassail-as. Of course, we all do in
Washington every night What's the use
of living in Washington when you can live
in Gloversville for the same money?
IF the people Of Paris were to be in
formed-as they should be-that it wouldn't
cost them any more to live In Paris, KY,
than 1t costs them to live within suicide-by-
drowning distance Of the Seine, wouldn't
they all move to Paris, KY? They
wouldn't!
"I guess it'll be on to Gloversville for all
hands Of U.s. The prospect is too inviting