The Washington times., 1922-04-19

tnto Wu"hh6soh M(ukR5Xz&<HxSzxfss<lll =
on the wave OF sxss
sre ar s,ssstUa washed out out WILLIAM HARD
|of Washington by the next wave.
met naval officer on the
strest and he was in civilian
clothes. I said to him: where's
your uniform7" He said: well.
I'm thinking OF getting out of the
navy" Then he laughed and in
the midst OF his laughter he said
the Following things with the most
intense bitterness:
"I'm tired. offered TO spend
my life In uniform. God knows
there's no money In II. But now
I find I'm q feech and a parasite.
I'm q staggering burden of tax.
alton. I'm what keeps the world
from getting back TO prosperity.
I'm an incubus on my country.
And every year have 10 go up
TO Capitol HIN and fight with Con.
sress and my country TO get an
Appropriation to let me go on being
an incubus on my country. That's
not what they told us at Annapolis.
At Annapolis we got told that, OF
course. the navy was poverty, but
anyway II wns honor. Where's the
honor? Actually. Hard, III con-
fess TO you. 1 feel happier on
these streets I'm civilian clothes than
7 do in the uniform OF the coun.
try"
talked with a mechanic. He
said:
''Yes. I'm working. But I'm look.
t~m awa,v,A Aox.t knnxV xUho'Il
be fired next. work for the Gov.
ernment. Those fellows in the navy
yard got fired. DENLY just up and
fired them. No notice. They'd been
working for years. Sayl DENLY
could have taken slice off his own
salary and kept a couple of 'efn
working. And no notice. Just like
that They pass this treaty and
they fire these men. Just like thatl
I'm looking for a Job with fellow
I know. Civil service? Say! Civil
servicei What about the Bureau OF
Did civil service do
those fellows any good? Give me a
job with a fellow I know. don't
know the President"
talked with a scholar. He has
a learned Job in a learned bureau.
He said:
EVERY time anybody runs for
any Federal office at any election
he seems 10 give II out that he will
save his constituents from imme-
diate impending bankruptcy by fir
ing me and everybody like me Just
ss soon as he sets foot in the Union
Station In washington.
He calls me a tax-eater. He
says that I've got my feet in the
public crib. IL happens that every
body who knows anything at all
about washington knows that
and everybody like me could any
time earn twice a. much by work
Ing for q private corporation. The
proof OF that fact is that most of
US are already working for private
corporations.
Most OF us have already left the
services OF the United States and
are making money for ourselves and
for private corporations by working
where we don't get called tax-eaters
and where we don't get kicked
around by people who want to get
into office 70 run the United States
no matter what It does TO the United
States.
"The citizen OF the United states
--as IL happens-spends always a
great deal more on his city taxes and
his county taxes and his State taxes
than he ever does on his Federal
taxes. Moreover, Il happens also
that a great deal more than half OF
all OF his Federal taxes must, I'm
truth, be said to be always getting
spent on paying the public Federal
debt and the interest ON the puslIo
Federal debt and all the other Fed
eral charges that come directly from
past wars and that cannot possibly
be changed or lessened by anything
that anybody can possibly do who
gets elected to office now.
"But every politician who wants
70 get 10 Washington goes never
theiess and tells the electorate that
II he gets elected to office he win
lust about abolish taxes.
well since he can't abolish city
taxea and since he can't abolish
county taxes and since he can't abol-
IAN State taxes and since he can't
abolish the public Federal debt taxes,
he starts in to try to abolish me.
1 might say that I don't mind.
can work for private corporation
against the Government just as well
as for the Government against prf.
vsts corporations"
That's what he said. But the
marvellous thing--the thing that
makes human nature look quite
more than animal nature In this
nnatter--is that In spite OF what he
said and in spite OF the truth OF
what he said there are hundreds and
Thousands OF Federal employees who
cut OF some notion OF something
somehow sometime finer In the
public service keep ON preferrine II
at their own expense TO the service
OF private business. Yet for the
mass or then-for the mass OF the
simply ordinary or simply sensible
and hsrd-headed ones among them
| the public service In now steadily