The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-03-23
Frederic Haslkin's Letter
Rally Round the Plum, Tree.

Warrington. d. c., March Ill
have decided to knock on = little
plum" said the young man who had
tued the Newspaper businesA the
real estate business and two or
three other businesses, and found
them all somehow unsuited to his
peculiar talents.
His most obvious talent was for
cultivating stand-ins with the grekt
and the about to-be-great. He knew
the time had come to cash In ON all
the small favors he had done for
rising politicians, all the smiles he
had smiled and the hands he had
shaken.
And he is by no means lonely in
that intention. A crowd IL gathered
about the plum tree Of political
preferment, waiting eagerly for the
ripe fruit which IL about to fall.
The old-timers say that never has
the crowd Of office seekers, both
those who come to Washington or
are already there, and those who
stay in their home towns and work
by mail and by proxy. been SO great
as it is this year. s.
You have to go back to 1912 in
order to find a comparable cordis
ton, for in 1916 the war in Europe
made conditions somewhat abnorm-
al. In 1912 it is said that ~ soon
as Wilson was elected the Demo-
cratic national committee had no
less than 10000 letters from ap-
plicants for jobs. At that time
there were in the gift Of the presi-
dent only 10,O64 positions, the other
262,60S government jobs being in
the classified service.
There are NO similar figures!avail
able for this year, bot it may safely
be said that the general condition
is about the same. There are Is or
20 times as many applicants for
jobs as there are jobs. Each of these
is valiantly determined to sacrifice
his private life and career for the
good of the country. No wonder
there is a scramble. No wonder no
administration ever gets down to
business until the pie is all distri-
buted and the bowls Of the disap-
pointed have subsided.
Varieties of Job Seekers.
The varieties Of these job hunters
would be hard to catalogue. They
vary all the way from rich men
seeking to crown their careers with
! diplomatic appointments, to staunch
Republicans of long standing who
want to be rewarded for their loyal
ty by places as watchmen or ele-
vator operators 1.-THE capital build
ings. Every sort OF claim and obli-
cation is brought forward. Innum-
cradle letters of endorsement and
intr oduction are passed around.
Years of time are wasted. And aft
er it is all over, only few per cent
of the applicants can be accomo-
dated. and then an enormous crop
of bad feelings, with . baleful in
fluence upon many a political Ca
reer, is the most obvious result of
this process Of selecting the deseyv-
ing.
The proper method of getting a
political job has become almost
standardized. YOd should make it
clear early in the game that you
rank high among the faithful and
the deserving. You must be highly
and conspicuously active in a, polit-
ical way. Then you must be promi-
nently mentioned. Get any good
friend, or several OF them to do this
work. Here you can afford to aim
high. For example, it will do no
harm to let little report be circu-
lated that you have been mentioned
for cabinet place or a high diplo-
matte post. This fact may be men
toned in speech at the local citi-
zens' association meeting. 1t may
even get into the local paper. In
this and other like ways you will
gradually get yourself recognized
as one Of those who is to be taken