The Hawaiian gazette., 1909-08-13
PUBLIC JOBS
REDISTR|BUTED
by Ernest q. walker.


WASHINGTON, d. c., July 90
When the popular excitement over tariff
revision has abated and the country
has time 20 think Of other events that
proceed from Washington, 1t will occur
more prominently that there has been
an important change In the personnel
of place holders. Hardly n day gone
by but what one or more appointments
are made. Many are appointments
which need not go to the Senate for
confirmation. Consequently they at.
tract less attention.
Thus far the typewriter slips from
the White House, which are distributed
about the Capital every afternoon when
the President sends in nominations for
confirmation, have been chiefly the pro.
motions of officers in the Army and
the Navy. These have been numerous.
The commissioned list of the military
services Of the government now com.
prises many thousands of men. Retire.
ments for age come so rapidly that
there are vacancies for promotions by
the score every few days. AS seniority
prevails in most of those nominations,
the Presidents part in making them is
chiefly of a routine character. He has
been making a few other nominations
to the Senate, occasionally II customs
collector, or a receiver or register for
a land office. But there has been little
change indeed in the big places and
with half n hundred exceptions, per.
haps, the same Republicans are serving
under the Taft administration who
served under the Roosevelt administra-
tiOn.
1t is different among the smaller
places, those that pay salaries ranging
from $1,000 mp to $4,000. There has been
a considerable moving of men out of
such places and the substitution of men
of the President IS own selection. Post.
master General Hitchcock and Secretary
Nagel of Commerce and Labor, who
are the President IS leading political ad
Visers, have been eOgnizant of most of
those changes, which have by no means
been confined TO their two departments
Those two cabinet officers keep the
roster of those who aided in the Taft
campaign, both before and after the
Chicago convention. They keep the
President acquainted with the facts
about such workers and no week goes
by without some of those workers be-
ing taken care Of
The rewards TO such workers have
by no means been as rich as in previous
administrations, but they constitute
recognition. There has been no descent
of office seekers upon Washington this
year, such as that of the faithful legion
who toiled under the late Chairman
Hanna, or even of those who came to
ask for Office under Roosevelt, when he
became President in his own right dur
ing March, 1905. Most of the office
seekers Of the Taft administration have
remained at home and pleaded their
cause from afar. Many Southern Re-
publicans have come on to Washington
but they have ascertained that it Is
not very easy to obtain access to Post.
master General Hitchcock, who, as for
mer chairman of the National Commit
tee, has had their matters in charge.
They also find that Mr.. Hitchcock gives
them careful and methodical consider
alton, whether they come to washing
ton or not, and therefore have decided
that it is wiser to wait.
But in quiet and unobtrusive ways,
the Taft men of 1908 are being taken
care of to the extent of the admins.
tration's ability. There has been no
unseemly haste about it and will be
none. The President wants the changes
political, such as all his predecessors
have deemed wise, made in that fashion
He has demonstrated again and again