The citizen. [volume] (Berea, Ky.) 1899-1958, 1921-03-10
FORMER OFFICE HOLDERS AND
"oRIcINAL HARDING MEN" IN
SCRAMBLE FOR PLACE.
LIGHT WORK ATTRACTS THEM
Each One Knows What He Wants, but
Believes Himself Fitted for Any One
Of the Thousands Of Positions to Be
Filled
BY EDWARD q. CLARK.

| humorists since the days of the pro-
nouncement of the cynical doctrine
that ITO the victor belongs the
spoils."
Already the humorists are at It. One
of them, Mr.. Lardner, has applied for
best mind" position, in which he can
attend TO the presidential correspond
ence, answer the telephone and press
the presidential pants. This Office
seeking matter, however, is no joke for
| the Office seekers, or at least II Is no
joke for a majority Of them. II they
come here well heeled and well soled.
| the heeling pertaining to the shoe and
not the pocket, they can walk home,
but many of them. even in the face OF
daily mods of negatiOn, elect to stay on
here until some friend succeeds in get
ting them to yield to more or less gen
tie persuasion and to turn their faces
homeward
Today in Washington looking for
work are some scores of men. and
women. too, who held office under for
mer Republican administrations but
power. "Once an office holder, always
an office holder or an office seeker" Is
the way that the old Westinghouse
put it. Government salaries are not
big. but the work i'm most instances Is
not very taxing, either to brain or to
body. Perhaps II is the latter end of
this sentence of information which
acts at times as the bait of allurement.
II would be interesting TO tabulate
the original Harding men who now are
in the Capital city, or who soon will
be here. The original Harding man is
a multitude; in fact, TO put it the usual
way. he is a host in himself. lie knew
Harding when the PreSident-elect was
a struggling boy. and he always was
convinced that there was the making
of great man in him.
Each Fitted for Any Job.
There are, or soon will, be, in the city
applicants for every kind of job from
grave digger AT Arlington to that of
Keeper of the conscience of the Presi-
dent of the United States Every ap-
plicant is entirely fitted. however, for
any kind of job that the kindly au-
thorities are willing to give unto him.
lie can, If the necessity arises, be as
well adapted To untangling the inter
twined threads of our foreign relations
as he Is Ia humping a typewriter in
the office of the bureau of economic In
vestlgatlons in the biological survey Of
ha ri ~ A arf.fan e
United States of America.
Charles Reade. who always was
writing about ambideXtrous people and
Observation-Disclosures, never had personal
acquaintance with the average Wash
ington office seeker. If he had known
this particular specimen he could have
gone farther than he did in all his
writings, knowing that fact would
stand forth stanchly as being stranger
than any fiction.
Does anybody think that this is an
absolutely unworthy attack on the
patriots who are seeking to serve their
country under the incoming Republican
administration? Not at all, not at all.
An army of office seekers marches into
the capital and pitches its tents In the
more or less balmy days of late Febru-
AIRY every four or eight years. and 1t
matters not whit which political par
ty has succeeded in naming the com
mander-in-chief who Is to open head
quarters In the big White House
The Office seekers have had a good
many years now to get over the stun
ming disappointment which came when
the federal civil service laws and regu-
lations went into effect. There was
time when every job, from doorkeeper
of the district mOrgue 10 that of secre-
tary of state, was open TO the faithful
who had political strong-armed friends
to lift them into II. Not so today;
many, many thousands of the minor
places are in the grip of men and wom-
en- who will hold on until death compels
the parting. However, there are some
thousands Of jobs still open to the
faithful.
White Remains as Chairman,
The members of the executive com
mittee of the Democratic national com
mittee have met In Washington. com
pleted their work and gone home, and /
Chairman George White still holds his |
place with no immediate prospect that
he Is to vacate IL for another.
The full membership of the Repub. /
lican national committee will meet In |
Washington shortly. on March 3 TO be
exact. Is WIN II. Hays, the chairman |
Of the committee, 10 announce his re-
tirement at that timer
II Is within the range OF poSsiblll- |
ties, II not probabilities, that on the
day of this meeting Of the Republican
national committee the announcement |
will be made that Mr.. Hays has been
chosen by President-elect Harding for
the place of postmaster general In the
next cabinet WIN Mr.. Hays be will.
ing TO act as political chieftain Of his
party and post Office chleftain OF the
government at the same timer
There has been some little trouble