The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-04-21
OFFICE SEEKERS.
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new administra ton began. Had things
moved in the good old Jacksonian way
| and the policy of ito the victor oeiongs
| the spoils' been lived up to, there
would by this time have been mighty
few jobs at the disposal of"Uncle sam
! left untitled.
AS it is, President Wilson has
evinced hurry to fill the places ana
so many Republicans are going calmly
along filling Democratic offices as to
make the Democratic candidates grind
their teeth The president refuses to
be hurried. The same is true OF the
department heads. Intimations keep
going out that not until the tariff is
safely out of the house will the presi-
dent do much in way of miscellaneous
office giving. The offices are held over
the heads of senators and members OF
the house as a club, and the Democrat
in congress who really knows what ne
is going to draw for his hungry, thirsty
constituents, is a rare bird, a rara avis
This seems amusing enough to per-
sons who are not hunting off1ce, put
it is a sad story to a lot of the boys"
who fought and bled in the trenches
The troubles of many of them have
become by this time well known to
Washington. In many cases, seekers
for office came here a week or two
before the Inauguration. They con-
cluded that would be the best way to
get in. on the ground floor and close up
to the reviewing stand on March 4. Not
a few have been here ever since and
are no nearer getting appointments
than they were two months ago.
More than one hapless job-hunter in
Washington today is ION his uppers.
Others have borrowed money from
some friend to get home on. Many a
member of congress, If he were dis
posed, could tell of loans made to needy
constituents who came to the capital
about inauguration time, buoyant with
a NJ ha
depressed and in despair and in a frame
of mind well-calculated to drive them
over to the Bull Moosers.
If the Democratic senators and
members of the house knew that their
recommendations would be favorably
received by President Wilson it would
not be SO bad. But they do not. AS
a matter of fact, the president has not
in the dark in this. He has been
frank enough. He has given it to |
be understood that he will accept the
recommendations of senators and |
house members as prima facie evil |
dence that men ought to be appointed, |
but if for any reason he concludes
otherwise he will name someone else. |
He is not going to be bound by these |
recommendations in any sense.
The country is in no frame of mind |
to observe with amiability the spec |
tacle of the senate plunging into a |
lock started at the last session. Pat |
ronage doesn't mean so much to the |
country as it used to. It means very |
much less than it ever did before.
True, this town is full of officeseek-
ers, most of them suffering disap-
pointment. They are beginning to go |
home in disgust. But they are not
communicating their disaffection to
the notable difference between the
public's present attitude toward pat
ronage, and it's attitude in former
times of sweeping political change
In 1885 when Grover Cleveland |
came to the executive power, the dis
position toward patronage was utter
ly different from that of today. His
party was pretty firmly united in the
notion that it wanted those jobs; all
of them; and just as soon as possible.
1t regarded them as legitimate spoils,
and moreover believed that it's policies
would be endangered if the enemy
salaries. and exercise the influence
that was presumed to go with the Of
fees.
Today there is a widely different at
titude. Whereas in 1885 a rejected
Democratic candidate for a postoffice
could go home and start a really Sc
rious local insurrection within his
party, the same man, today, will go
4 butt of jeers and jibes. There is
no real sympathy for his aspirations,
no Indignation over the party trea-
son. that denies him immediate at
-achment to the payroll.
1t will be worth the while of Re-
publican senators if, before they COM
nit themselves to a general patronage
tight, they survey this situation. The
TACT that Democratic senators made
of a spectacle of them
selves last session, by blocking presi-
1ential nominations. is no reason why
Repu blican senators should now re-
aliate in kind. There was more ar
yument in favor of the Democratic
course of last session than there is in !
'avor of such a Republican proceed
ng now because President Taft I'M
Iuestionab bly, did attempt to use the .
to pay overdue political
lebtS; debts that were incurred large
y in the struggle between the factions
IF the Republican party, but whose
election, lest the grand prize distri-
oution, coming before election, should
njure the president rather than help
him.
patronage fight would please so few
people, or disgust so many, as right I
now. The country expects very much
bigger and more important things to
get attention. 1t hopes that men of
all parties will be big and broad
enough to put iittleness and meanness
aside, and give their best and least
partisan thought to the great affairs
in which it is interested. 1t knows
that a patronage struggle at this time
would rouse the party spirit, tend to
give it's color to all discussions and ,
decisions, and in general increase the :
of getting the kind of legis-
lation that is wanted and needed.
When the effort was made one day
this week to pass the bill to create an
additional judge for the fourth jul
dicial circuit which includes the
states of Maryland, West Virginia,
Virginia and the Carolinas, Senator
Joe Bristow of Kansas entered an eff
fective objection. He suggested that