Year: 1878

Although the legislators that control the
country at this time in their speeches and
platforms affect to study tho working
classes, yet when real projects are under
discussion the laboring man gets very little
relief Take, for instance, the condition of
the United States Patent Office building.
1t was seriously damaged by fire over seven
months since. If such an accident had hap
pened to a soap-boiling establishment in
one of our Western towns, to manufac-
tory in New York, or n merchants store in
Boston, and the proprietors designed to con-
tinue their business, the first thing that
would have been done an architect and
builder would have been consulted the very
next day in order to determine some plan
to place the damaged premises in
suitable condition. But here is u
building, containing archives of incalculable
value, exposed in utter confusion, without
an effort being made during seven long
months to repair its damage. Setting aside
the necessity of the several branches of the
public ser ice properly located in the build
ing known as the Patent-O Office, the crimi-
nal neglect in allowing it to remain in its
present dilapidated condition is wasteful
expenditure of public money. Many of
the records Of the Interior Department had
TO be hurriedly removed into other buildings
for which the Government has to pay heavy
rents. II q board of architects had been
called together from any of the States they
would have submitted plan within four
days upon which hundreds of workmen
could have been properly put to worl,
during the dreary days of the
past hard winter, men who were
willing and able to work at prices
that would have kept the wolf from their
door. We hesitate not TO say that the ne
glect Of our legislators in not authorizing
some board to place the Interior Department
in a proper condition is a crime against
economy and direct proof that their
yaunted sympathy for the toiling millions
is mere delusOn and sham. But this is
only one instance Of such false policy. For
years the heads of the various departments
have reported that their several Offices are
being crowded by the accumulation of rec
ords to which they have very seldom to re-
fer. They have asked that tre-prooi
building be erected on one of tho Govern
ment reservations where useless records car
be stored and fled-under suitable pro- visions
of law. Let some of our sapient law-maker:
take walk through the crowded aisles o.
the Register of the Treasury and examin,
the piles of books and audited files thai
lumber up the psssageways Of the Treasury
Department.


The same may be said of every other de
partment. Shelves and cupboards are nov
placed in the dark passage-ways of nearly
all the public buildings, crowded with
papers of more or less value. Some day
defective fiue or the embers Of q cigar will
ignite these files, and we shall have repe
titiOn of the Patent Office fire. Then tn,
press of the country will be loud in pro
claiming the necessity for tire-proof build
ings. There have been some temporary re-
pairs made on the roof of the Interior De
partment building, that was burnt off, som,
kind of a wooden contriyance, covered witt
tar-paper or substance equally inilammablc
is now spread over the structure, and il
ready for ignition should any neighborinl
building catch fire. More than this, tn,
copies OF patents that were stored in tn,
loft have been removed to rooms in the base
ment story; they are as well taken care o
as is possible within the limited space allot
ted to them they are arranged in a perfect


abyrinth of wooden shelving so close u


Al..A a = l..
for single person between them. Tons upor
tons of the records constantly remain out
side in the halls and passage-ways, to b'
kicked about by each passer-by oI
to be stolen and sold as waste
paper. In providing proper places
of receptacle for the public ar
chives, in placing the Interior Department
in perfect repair, in removing all and every
public Office from Gnssfe buildings and pro-