In 1906 Congress authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to settle a claim for ice sold to the government for the use of the Union Army in 1863. I am the only official who, in more than forty years, could have been impeached for action taken in connection with that knotty problem. Subordinates in corporations and private business are criticised and lose their positions for failure to act. With the government, men are discharged and disgraced only when they do act. Unless a clerk or bureau chief or head of a department is caught red-handed, so there can be no question of guilt, there is no way to rid the department of an incubus without great difficulty. What I am trying to emphasize is a fact that everyone knows, few recognize, fewer still admit and many deny, to-wit: That government, state and municipal affairs are necessarily conducted upon entirely different principles from ordinary business. TWO ARMY INCIDENTS I am indebted to an army officer for the following, which I have not verified and therefore cannot vouch for, but I give it simply because it is absolutely true to life. During the Indian insurrections in Texas, a certain officer got word to his quartermaster that he must have supplies and ammunition at a given point on the Rio Grande River without delay or his detachment would be annihilated. The quartermaster must have been a civilian for, regardless of red tape and formality, he proceeded to act. He found a boat and sought to engage it. But the river was low and the owner dared not attempt the trip. “But,” said the quartermaster, “if you do not go, those men will be annihilated.” “If I do go,” said the owner, “my boat will be annihilated, and it’s the only boat I have. You have more men.”