The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1921-05-12
WASHINGTON LETTER
BY J. E. JONES.
NEW BROOMs SWEEP CLEAN.


President Harding is meeting the
same dubious problem that has con-
fronted every new Administration be-
cause the mandate of the people for
Change" has brought with it a
new personnel of executives many of
whom are treating Government as a
theory rather than as condition
per the definition of Grover Cleve-
land. Glaring headlines announce
that $4,000 clerks are to be dropped
Immediately from the Government
payrolls. At the risk of being call
ed a croaker your correspondent pre-
diets that not one-half of that num-
be will ever be dismissed, and that
practically all of those who are
dropped from one department will be
absorbed b ysome other branch of
the government within week.
This is political condition that
cannot be altered by the good inten-
tons of officials whose new brooms
are looking for dust piles to conquer.
Another headline tells how the new
Director of the Bureau of War Risk
Insurance intends to inauguate "a
field service which will operate
throughout the country" This is
the most overworked theory of all,
and there is not community in the
land that has not had a great many
opportunities to supply local organ
izations to help the Government make
the ''field service" every thing of
which optimistic sponsors dreamed.
It is placing new Administration
at terrible disadvantage to expect
OF it that it will be able to preform
the impossible feat Of reconstruct
ing" the country in few weeks.
The Al executives, who are such
men as are found in the Cabinet,
know that such thing is impossible
but new Bureau chiefs, heads of Sec
tons, and few noisy Congress men,
trot out notions that they think are
new, but which in fact are as old
as the hills. At the present time
the dopesters are promising that
their narcotics, adtidotes, and re-
storatives will prove "sure-cures"
for all ills which they charge were
inflicted upon the country by the
Democratic party. As matter of
fact, most of the prolific ideas which
are now attracting attention are
similar to those which the Wilson
administration had to live down, just
the same as President Harding's adj
m;nistration will survive in spite of
the theoretical gentlemen who are
now enjoying the creation of their
plans by day and the reading about
them in the newspapers by night.
THE PRESIDENT AND
HIS CABINET
Observers fthe progress of the
Harding administration are COM
menting upon the apparently sue
cessful teamwork that is being ac-
hieved, and this comment is invari-
ably contrasted with results obtain
ed through the "one-man-power" of
the Wilson regime. This is not
partisan statement, neither is it a
reflection upon the last Administra-
ton; because even the most ardent
champions and admires of Mr.. Viii
son admitted that he carried too
many burdens alone, which was
doubtless responsible for the break
down of his health. 1t is clear that
President Harding is giving his
Cabinet full swing, and that through
his amiable leadership there exists a
spirit of cooperation which promises
fine results. 1t will be remembered
that Herbert Hoover before accept
ing the position as Secretary of Com
znerce exacted SO many conditions
from his Chief that many people ac-
cused him of being Impairment. Be-
fore Hoover had been in Office week
he was predicting his own political
funeral, but that has not deferred
him irom overworking to the point
where his friends are already con-
cerned lest he may break down in his
efforts to reconstruct his Depart
ment along better lines of business,
SO that it will be efficient not only as
q branch of the Government but in
its great help ~stabilizing and adj
vancing foreign and domestic COM
inerce.
Secretary Of War Weeks has Sc
cured about as tight a rein on the
affairs of his Department as could
be expected from any Cabinet official
who has been in Office so short a
time. Both he and Secretary Dem
by of the Navy have created an i'm
preston upon Congress that is SO
favorable that they will be greatly
aided in carrying out the construc-