Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 July 1881 — BOGUS REFORM. [ARTICLE]

BOGUS REFORM.

Big Cry and Little Wool, [Washington Telegram to the Chicago Times.] It has been stated with great emphasis from time to time that this is a reform administration. Great shouts of approval have gone up throughout the country over the vigorous exposures of the wrongs and evil doings of the wicked star-route contractors. There were cynical people who desired to check the mad flow of this fervid enthusiasm by suggesting that it might be well to wait for the punishment of the rogues before the joy of honest men should reach the point of perfect ecstasy. It was suggested that the course of District justice never did run smooth; that robbers of the Government had been discovered before, time out of mind, and that the precedents were all against the punishment of influential thieves who had stolen enough to protect themselves. The presence of two vigorous and honest men in the Cabinet, however, encouraged the witnesses of this latest reform revolution to believe that something really might come of it, and that the penitentiaries of the United States would inclose some of the most corrupt of the conspirators; but the very first move in the courts to-day verified the e ally predictions of those who refused to believe that rich and influential rogues can ever be brought to justice iu the courts of the District. Judge Cox’s announcement to-day that the court has no time during this session of the Grand Jury to hear the star-route cases is regarded as the beginning of the end of the whole affair. Said a prominent lawyer this evening, who has had large experience in the trial of cases involving the interests of the Government, and who has no interest iu the star-route prosecutions : “Do you suppose for a moment that Judge Cox would not have sat on his bench all summer if the administration really intimated to liim that it desired to have these prosecutions pushed ? There is the whole case in a nutshell. The investigators have several cases all ready to present. They ask for no time. Who, then, gains by time? Why, I tell you the whole affair is a farce. You may think the cases will be tried in September ; perhaps, but I will bet all I have on earth that there will be other continuances until Congress gets here, and then in the hurly-burly of the season the cases will go to the devil the usual way. A few poor men of no account may be indicted and rammed into the penitentiary—l dare say that may be done for effect—but not a single man of any importance will bo hurt.” This opinion is shared by other lawyers in town. Said one : “ The Attorney General himself could have prevented the postponement of these cases by going into court and having them tried now.” No doubt tremendous influences 1 ave been brought to bear within the lasi two or three weeks to secure the postponement. The star-route people are very happy. They have weathered the preliminary hurricane and now feel con ident to ride out the storm. Secretary Windom’s treatment of the treasury investigation does not have a tendency to increase the general reputation of the growth of a reform element at Washington. He deliberately sup presses the report of his special investigating committee and makes a scape goat of the subordinate, Pitney, who only thrived in his plundering of the treasury fund through the connivance and support of his superiors. The investigation was made by trembling treasury employes, who only skimmed over the surface of their real work and did not dare to charge the responsibility anywhere for fear of losing their own heads through a misfire. The result is that Mr. Windom, acting upon his own judgment, without acquainting the public with the facts, tables the whole matter. Reports indicate that the party ring is more strongly intrenched than ever. Mr. Upton is sent to London for his summer vacation. He is ordered to be back by the Ist of next August, and then Secretary Windom takes his vacation. If Upton is changed then he will probably be given something else. Last summer Upton got himself detailed to inspect some Western mints, so that the Government could be made to pay his expenses while he spent the most of his time visiting a brother iu lowa. All these surface indications are at present very much against the triumph of the reform element at Washington.