The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1907-06-07
WASHINGTON LETTER.

Secretary OF the Interior, Mr.. Garneld,
is busy cleaning house these days and if
he keeps up the work in the way he has
begun he will make thorough job of it.
He has introduced two innovations lately
that will enable the various bureaus
under him to do more effective work,
though it will throw out of employment
over hundred old clerks who have been
retained on the rolls through pity for
many years. In the Land Office the rec
ords have always been copied by hand in
pen and ink. Henceforth they will be
copied on the typewriter at saving of
| fifty per cent in cost and sixty per cent in
labor. Thirteen clerks have already been
dismissed and hundred more will follow
as result of this change and there is a
howl from the Government clerks and
the newspapers of the city, all of which
befriend the Government clerks. To do
so is popular here. This dismissing of
aged and decrepit clerks is an unpleasant
and sometimes even a heart breaking
business. Most of them have worked
nearly all of their lives in a Government
Office, or, as might more correctly be said,
have drawn their salaries from the Gov
eminent for that time. The majority Of
them could not have retained place on
merit anywhere else for a year and now
at the time of their dismissal they have
added infrmity to incompetence and
having saved nothing for old age and
being without the ability TO find or keep
place must become dependent on
charity.
Secretary Garfield is also introducing a
new system of book keeping in the var
ious bureaus, and the old one, which was
nearly as old as the constitution and
entirely inadequate to the great business
of the Department, will be displaced with
the old clerks. Modern methods and new
clerks educated in expert book keeping
will be introduced This causes howl
too but the Secretary has cotton wool in
his ears and is going ahead. He was
member of the Keep Commission appoint
ed to investigate the workings of the
various departments and it was not diff
ficult for him to see that the principal
impeachment to effective work was the
retention of old methods and old clerks
from sentiment, timidity or indifference
Now that he is in position to make
reforms he is using some of the informa-
ton gained through his experience on
the Keep Commission and setting good
example for other Departments that are
handicapped like the Interior Dept.
~
One of the means employed by Con-
gressmen to make themselves solid with
their constituents is in the distribution OF
free literature of pretty nearly all known
subjects but among the most valued con
tribution of this kind is the map of the
United States which in various sizes are
bestowed on the doubtful voter and the
faithful henchman alike. Twenty-one
thousand six hundred copies of this map
are distributed annually by Members of
Congress, and each year this map is
brought up to date SO as to show all
changes that have occurred during the
year, such as postofices, public surveys,
increase or diminution of territory and
all other alterations in our possessions.
The only exception in the annual distri-
button of this map was the year of the
Baltimore fire, when the map, nearly
completed and ready for distribution, was
entirely lost. This year it will be on
time though for bids are being received
for the work now and the Department is
ready to hand over the twenty thousand
or more dollars that it costs. Those per-
sons who are overlooked by their Con.
gresham may secure the map by sending
one dollar to Secretary Garfield of the
Interior Department.
*.x
Washington is in full summer dress
now, in spite of the belated Spring and
even were it not for the beauty of the