Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 October 1884 — REMORSELESS ROBBERS. [ARTICLE]

REMORSELESS ROBBERS.

Tricks Resorted to by Republican Officials to Plunder the Public Treasury. Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars Stolen Annually Without Fear of Punishment. Congressman Springer and His Colleagues Paralyzed by the Effrontery Displayed by the Thieves. [Washington Telegram.] The majority report of the Springer Committee on the United States marshals’accounts Is made public. It says: “A stream never rises above Its source, and as long as those who possess the power of appointing these officers have no appreciation of the true dignity of the public service and regard the offices only as rewards to be bestowed upon their most unscrupulous political allies, there is not mnch reason to hope for any great improvement in the character of our appointed officials. The testimony before the committee clearly shorts that utter inefficiency and criminal practices have prevailed in many parts of this branch of the'public service for many years past, and that the Government has been a heavy loser thereby. There is a sameness and also a variety in the testimony. The investigation reveals the wonderful unanimity with which these officers of almost every £ado and in the several portions of the country ve plundered the public treasury by false, fraudulent, and fictitious charges, and yet the variety in the ways and means by whloh they have worked their schemes is equally curioiis. and shows that they have taxed their ingenuity to the utmost to find modes of accomplishing the one unhallowed purpose of getting money they were not entitled to. They charged for arrests not made; for travel not performed; for expenses not incurred; for guards not employed. They knowingly rendered false accounts against the Government, misappropriated the public funds, became defaulters to the Government and tq4he courts, increased the accounts after they were made up, rendered accounts in the names of fictitious persons, arrested persons upon false charges worked up by themselves, extorted money from private citizens, and in ways without number have swindled the Government and oppressed the people,” Numerous acts are cited on the part of mar* shals of the Southern States in proof of the above charges, and the report calls special attention to the practice of exhibiting the ingenuity of officers in evading the law and the shameful prostitution of the powers of the office for unworthy ends. Frivolous and vexatious prosecutions had been so common that an effort was made to stop them, and an order was issued that no Unitea States Commissioner should issue a warrant of arrest in internal revenue cases without an affidavit from the Internal revenue officer that he had examined the case and that prosecution should be had. In order, to evade this, deputy marshals secured appointments as revenue officers, so as to be able to make the official affidavit required. They then worked up cases ad deputy marshals, signed the affidavits as deputy collectors, and then served the warrants as deputy marshals, in this way completely nullifying the order made for the protection of citizens. It would be difficult to devise a scheme by which the dearest rights of citizens could be more thoroughly trampled under foot. The report names several officials who were rewarded by promotion or otherwise, in spite of illegal acts, and says: “With such a system of selection and advancement of officials it is not to be wondered at that the country has been cursed with officials whose least heinous crime was that of public plundering. Probably the most remarkable case of this way of rewarding bad characters was that of Judge Conger, formerly Associate Justice of the Territory of Montana. Charges of such a serious nature, well known to the public, were made against him that he was suspended from office. There were two petitions forwarded to the President in connection with this matter. One, asking for the retirement of the Judge, was signed by 216 citizens, representing 75 per cent, of the taxable property of Gallatin County. The other, asking for his restoration to the bench, was signed by fifty-nine persons, of whom nine were then under indictment in court for fraud and one for withholding county records; one had been several times arrested for larceny; another was being then pursued for the theft of sixteen horses; and of the remaindetr wenty-nine were saloonkeepers and gamblers of Miles City. In the face of these facts the President of the United States, in the exercise of the functions of the high office held by him, deemed it his duty to the people of this great country to restore Judge Conger to the bench.” The report recommends the abolition of the corrupting fees system, and fixing definite salaries for United States District Attorneys and Marshals, and closes with the statement that the “investigations have disclosed a wanton waste of public revenues and criminal disregard of the rights and safeguards of the people. It is my deliberate opinion that Mr. Blaine acts as tbe attorney of Jay Gould. Whenever Mr. Thurman and I have settled upon legislation to bring the Pacific Railroads to terms of equity with tbe Government, up has jumped James G. Blaine, musket in hand, from behind the breastworks of Gould’s lobby, to fire in our back.— Senator George F. Ed' munde, of Vermont.