Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 August 1885 — SHELLS OF SAND. [ARTICLE]

SHELLS OF SAND.

Mud-Slinging Batteries of a ’ Partisan Press Without Ammunition. Remarkable Record of Reforms Made by the Present Administration. [Washington special to Chicago Times.] The administration vacation may be deemed to have begun, although most of the Cabinet Ministers are here. It has been in power a little over five months, and it is not too early to begin to ask what kind of an administration it is. The extreme difficulty the New York Tribune and the Cincinnati Commercial-G aze.tte are having in keeping up an opposition to it is pretty good evidence that it is not an easy administration to attack. It has made some mistakes, but the most violent of the Republican organs have to content themselves with a ridiculous belittling of the good work of the admini-dration, and nn equally absurd exaggeration of those small errors which every finite government must make. It is evident from the Republican papers that they are getting very little campaign ammunition out of this administmtion.

Take the Treasury Department. It has been the practice for years to excite the cupidity of Congressmen by publishing a statement of our surplus revenues, which, while technically correct, was substantially a gross exaggeration. That has been changed, and the real available surplus only is now stated. A man who is not a banker or an expert accountant can now find out how much gold and silver the Government owns. Every effort is being made, and with full assurance of success, to prevent the substitutibn of the silver for the gold standard in commercial transactions until Congress shall meet, and have a chance to aihend legislation. The legal-tender issues have never been so secure as since the department has adopted the policy of setting aside from Its assets $100,000,000 of gold as a fund to protect and redeem them. The pernicious practice of pension agents of keeping on hand, that is in the banks of friends of theirs, vast sums of money for which they had no immediate use, has been stopped. Whatever may be said of Arthur Chenowith’s attitude on the civil-service question, he has done the good service of exposing a most disgraceful state of affairs in the coast survey office which his predecessor might hive exposed, but he never did. . Auditor Day has been the means of putting a stop to the practice of beating the Government out of large sums of money due it by getting accounts reopened and resettled on ex-parte evidence in the interest of some man who owed the Government. Custom houses that don’t pay expenses, and that were established merely to afford places to political workers, are beginning to disappear. The Bureau of Printing and Engraving has been* put in the charge of the man who above all others is best fitted to manage that great workshop. A long stride has been taken toward the destruction of the consignment system in New York, whereby American importers have been unable to compete with the agents of foreign houses. Take the Interior Department, in the general Land Office a substantial check has been given to the vast fraudulent entry business, and the rights of the settlers in the indemnity lands have been asserted. In the Indian Office the illegal career of the cattle barons in, occupying Indian lands and* fencing the public domain has been brought to an end. In the Pension Office there are fewer employes spending their time in politics and more of them working tor the disabled veterans than ever before There was never before a time in the history of the office when it worked so rapidly and efficiently .as it does now, and all that the Republican organs can say In reuly to this Is that a man whom the President appointed a Pension Agent took the responsibility of employing an ex-Confederate as his chief clerk.

in the War Department there is a feeling that merit instead of influence is to determine promotions of officers, and justice and the public good are to determine details, such as has not prevailed there for many years. Mr. Lincoln was an excellent Secretary and would have accomplished more in the direction of reform if President Arthur had not had so many friends. President Cleveland has no friends in’his mind when the public interest is in any way involved. In the Department of Justice it is already apparent that there is an Attorney General who devotgs his entire mind to protecting the interests of his client—the Government. We have had Attorney Generals who looked out for everybody except the Government. Take the Postoffice Department—the department that comes the closest to the people. Forty or fifty thousand dollars a year was saved on the contracts for official envelopes. About $30,0u0 was saved on contracts for printing postage-stamps. Leases of premises for long terms of years at exorbitant rentals, procured evidently for pecuniary or political considerations, have been declared invalid in accordance with an opinion by the Attorney General. What Postmaster General have we had lately who would have sacrificed the opportunity of distributing $400,000 among the owners of American steamship lines, not to promote the efficiency of the postal service, but simply to add to the gains of the owners? Mr. Vilas did that, and the result is that not only are the mails carried as well as ever, but to Cuba and Central and South America the malls are carried more expeditiously than ever before, because, instead of an all-water route, a part rail and part water route has been substituted. Out of nearly five hundred Presidential postmasters who have been appointed, it has been learned that one or two were bad appointments, and to the unspeakable disgust of the Republican organs these have been promptly revoked. Out of 2,500 fourth-class postmasters appointed since Mr. Stevenson succeeded Mr. Hay, it has been found necessary to revoke the appointments of five. So much for the departments: Is there any Republican so hide-bound in his political prejudices that as he looks over this record he will continue to feel alarm lest the Democratic party will ruin the country, bankrupt the Treasury, pay the rebel debt, disgrace itself abroad, rever e the political results of the war, or do any other of the things not only that campaign speakers predicted, but that many simpleminded Republicans really feared a year ago? But take the new class of officials personally. A man who has lived in Washington for the past few years has a good many friends among the outgoing Republican officials, and for that reason he hesitates about nuking comparisons. But one of the last Republican officials to leave the Treasury said recently to the writer: "My duties bring me in contact with the Secretary of the Treasury, the Law Assistant Secretary, the Solicitor, and the Commissioner of Internal Revenue. There is no question that Mr. Manning, Mr. Fairchild, Judge McCue, and Mr. Miller are abler men and much better fitted tor their positions than the Republicans they succeeded. Ex-First Comptroller Lawrence is probably as able a lawyer as his successor, Mr Durham, but he had no executive ability, and his office fell into disorder. Mr. Durham is not only a good lawyer, but he and Mr. Garrison, the new Deputy, are good executive officers.” Without being unpleasantly personal.it is unquestionable that some of the auditors are decided improvements on their predecessors. Col. Vilas and Mr. Stevenson can afford to allow themselves to be compared with any of their predecessors, and the Postmaster General looms up head and shoulders above some of the able Republicans who preceded Mr. Hatton. The affections of Mr. Atkins for the red men may be no warmer thati those of Mr. Price, but Mr. Atkins is certainly not second to Mr. Price in the matter of clearness or vigor. Nor will the public lands suffer at all from the substitution of Mr. Sparks for Mr. McFarland. Whatever Mr. Colman S roves to be. and so far as he has had a chance e has justified his appointment as Commissioner of Agriculture, he can not fail to be a more intelligent, efficient, and economical public servant than Dr. George B. Loring. The sum of the whole matter is this: Five months of Democratic administration have proved that instead of there being only one, there are two parties in this country, either one of which is perfectly capable of carrying on the Government Thin is gratifying news to people who are Americans first and party men afterward, but who have grown a little uneasy lest the preaching of the Republican politicians was right, and that there was only one political organization that contained enough brains and patriotism to run the Government without running it into the ground.