Identifier: picturesquewas00moor (find matches)
Title: Picturesque Washington: pen and pencil sketches of its scenery, history, traditions, public and social life, with graphic descriptions of the Capitol and Congress, the White House, and the government departments ..
Year: 1884 (1880s)
Authors: Moore, Joseph West
Subjects: Washington (D.C.)
Publisher: Providence : J.A. & R.A. Reid
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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The northern front is ornamented with astone fountain. The building is very substantial, and its great sizeand the superb architectural design of its extensions, give it a ma-jestic appearance. Seemingly, it should be large enough for anypossible business that the Treasury Department might have to do,but this is not the case. It is far too small, and at present some ofthe Treasury bureaus have to be accommodated elsewhere for lackof room in this vast structure. If the business of the department continues to increase during thenext ten years as rapidly as it has the past ten, greater extensions tothe Treasury Building will be necessary to accommodate the forceof employes which will be required for the financial service of thegovernment. The country is growing so fast that, year by year, thebusiness of the Treasury increases enormously. Fifty years ago afew men were able to attend to everything connected with the financesin quite an easy manner; now an army of officials, clerks, and em-
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13 178 PICTURESQUE WASHINGTON. ployes drive the work to the utmost of their strength, but are unableto dispose of it promptly, and there are many embarrassing accumu-lations. The settlement of some public accounts is often delayed formonths from sheer inability to cope with the work. Army paymas-ters accounts will average two years in settlement, so that a pay-master cannot know how he stands on the Treasury books until twoyears after he renders his accounts, and neither does the TreasuryDepartment know until after the same period whether the paymasterhas properly accounted for the thousands of dollars advanced to himfor disbursement. The Treasury Building contains nearly two hundred rooms, ex-clusive of the basement. Most of the rooms are spacious and wellarranged, and those occupied by the principal officials are hand-somely furnished. The halls and corridors are wide and well lighted,and all of the interior furnishing is substantial and often elegant.There is such a constant pressu

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