The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1914-03-13


not given UP his government position
because he now is graduate in law.
He keeps on and on, sinking deeper
the while into the quagmire of cleri-
cal routine, losing at the same time
confidence in himself, faith in the
honors and rewards of his newly &C
quired profession, until he becomes,
like Prometheus, chained to the rock.
The departments of Washington
TEEN with professional men who are
afraid to cut loose from sure thing
with the government, be it ever SO
humble, to try earning livelihood
at the thing for which they are better
adapted or for which they have quail
fed after years of preparation; but
they have shrunk into moral and in
tellectual cowardice. Conscious of
strength for higher attitudes, they
strain and fret in the denser atmos-
phere of the monotonous plain of
government life in Washington. 1t is
pathetic to behold them--a struggl-
ing, heartless hopeless mass.
OF those government clerks in
Washington who have not gone to
seed" in the service and whose spirit
of ambition has not been wooed in
to somnolence through habitual in
dolence, forty per cent feel that they
might have done better. that their
years of "easy money getting might
have been employed in the production
of fruits much more palatable ana
wholesome. The average clerk of
this class-not the chair dragger-
is dissatisfied, disappointed indi-
vidual. TIE either feels that his work
is not appreciated by his immediate
superiors in the division or that his
senator or congressman has been re-
miss in his political obligations. He
feels that he is overworked and un-
derpaid, the victim of conspiracy
of circumstances, and if he had a
chance to Jump the game" he would
do it tomorrow.
Then there is the reconciled class
of government clerks, made up or
those who are content to drift with
the current of clerical routine. They
are pursuing the lines Of least resist
ance. The government gait is easy
going-no hurrying, no rushing, very
humane hours, thirty days sick leave,
two pay days in each month ooh,
what's the use of kicking? Pretty
soft, this, after all. Guess I will
stick it out" So, in course of time,
the reconciled clerk is lost in the
great aggregate.
Certainly there are hundreds in the
government service in Washington
that make good, just as there are
hundreds who could not earn as much
compensation for their labor in any
other field. But there is lamentable
disproportion between those who
raise themselves above the level of
mediocrity and those who never de-
tach themselves from the undistin-
guished mass. When one clerk
climbs to the Hottest peaks in the
mountainous range of successful en-
deavor, fifty never see over the heads
of those that make up the army on
the plains below.
So it is that for these and other
reasons so many senator and congress
men are disposed to discourage young
men and women who appeal to them
for official influence to connect them
with the government service in Wash
ington. Many senator and congress
man has been criticized for not exert
ing his influence to get comfortable
berth in Washington for some solicit
GUS constituent, when, as matter OF
fact, the failure of the senator or
congressman to do so was blessing
in the proverbial disguise. Hundreds
of gifted and capable young men have
whitfield away their time in the pur-
suit of profitless government jobs in
Washington who might have Impress
ed themselves upon world affairs IN
a field of high endeavor,. where the
environment is conducive to the de-
velopment of initiative, independence
and individuality.
The PERCENTAGE of young men who
have used a position in the depart
ments of Washington as a stepping
stone to higher things is pitiably
small. OF course, some have grad
uated' from the departments to
places out in the world, where their
departmental experience was con-
verified into a positive help, but the
number who have so succeeded forms
sad contrast with the overwhelm-
ingly large number that have entered
the departments in Washington only
10 ,ox,,o Ia In, NhcNrTffv