Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1861-06-12
Extravaganza i'm the Expenditure for
ygiIifnry EBnrnOSes.

There is general complaint throughout the
North IN regard to the extravaganza and swind-
ling in the expenditures in the organization of the
volunteer troops.
Gross favoritism is charged in the selec-
ton of the agents for these positions of profit
We have had some such experience in this State,
and further developments will probably show still
further corruption, although we believe that there
is less groand for complaint in Indiana than else
where. The troops from this State who have
gone abroad have the reputation of being better
equipped than any others. The Cincinnati Press
criticises severely the abuses in Ohio. 1t says:
There is a sort of people who, with no skill to
conduct legitimate business in the ordinary walks
of economical life, seem gifted with extraOrdi-
nary capacity to discover the places where, by I'M
scrupulous hands, large profits may be realized,
and with ability to put themselves in such
places as extraordinary. No sooner is an army
on foot, than these people swarm the place where
appointments are made and contracts allotted,
and the public is astonished to see in posts de-
handing unusual industry and integrity, men
whom it has been accustomed to look upon as
unsafe to trust in the most common affairs.
In Ohio. besides the ordinary abuses that at
tend war operations, there is another. Our State
Government seems to have reached the climax of
pretentious ineficiency. At Camp Dennison the
troops are in state Of almost entire demoralza-
ton, occasioned by the neglect they have expert
enced They have been six weeks in camp, and
vet are neither armed nor uniformed. They look
ike a horde of ragamuifins, and many who have
families in the city are ashamed to pay them
visit, through the want of clothes to enable them
to make decent appearance. The contracts for
clothing have, we hear, been given out for some
time; why they are not executed, is question
which it is becoming incumbent upon the authori-
ties TO answer. There are single houses in this
city, who, without extraordinary exertiOns, could
clothe 5000 soldiers per week All Camp Den
nson could be clothed and equipped in ten DAYS
from the date of the contracts, without cent of
additional cost on account of the shortness of
time. Indiana puts her stalwart sons at once in
TRIM and sends them on in season, looking and
feeling like soldiers. Equally good men in Ohio
linger in camp six weeks-and never soldiers
implement m their manufacturing like the ten
ants of a Pottersfeld surprised into premature
resurrection. Perhaps they can march better and
wheel and face with more precision now than
when they enlisted; but they are less soldiers now
than then Neglect has done its work; and the
fire and spirit that transforms common men into
heroes, has partially evaporated.
which shows that the system of swindling is uni
versal. That paper thus develops the abuses in
the Eastern States
SwNDLING CoSTRAcToRs.-Our brave volun-
teers have been slow to complain. They have
been so anxious to enter on active service, that
they have unmurmuringly accepted whatever was
given them i'll the way of outfit. Very many,
probably, did rot know when they were cheated
Al. IL. ~
service only the most substantial goods
bought, and that the soldiers and sailors of the
United States wear not poorer, but better cloth
than the greater number of private citizens. But
few days has taught too many of them that
the garments furnished them are fit for no use
but the ragman's. Day after day, complaints
are growing louder. Not vague, but definite,
from Pennsylvania and New York Regiments;
and quite sufficient to prove that in this crisis of
our history, when the nation is giving all it most
values for the support of the Union, there are
men who Systematically swindle the Government,
and, to their own selfish ends, do that which
must make our soldiers inefficient and uncom-
Portable, and destroy their health
We hear of knapsacks glued together and fall
ing to pieces after the first DAYS use; of uniform
coats which are torn to pieces with slight pull of
the fingers; OF blankets, too small if they were
good, and too poor stuff to be useful If they were
OF proper SIZE. OnOeS, caps, trOWSefS ana coats,
all are too often of such poor material that before
a soldier is ready for service he must be clothed
anew.
Contractors and outftters should have a care
They may impose upon the ignorance of the off
GERS who pass upon their goods; they may take
advantage of their criminal careessness and of
the patriotic haste which induces regiments to ac-
cept ungrudgingly whatever is given them, so that
they may only get off to the seat of war. But it
is always easy to get the names of these rascals
who speculate i'm the comfort, health and lives of
their fellow citizens: and it will not much longer
be easy for them to conceal their operations from
watchful public.
at is not only a civic suit for gross swindling
which hangs over the heads of these persons but
more summary fate may yet overtake some
of them. The Duke of Wellington fond of
shooting a cheating army contractor occasionally,
at sunrise, in the presence of the troops he had
wronged; and Napoleon found no such cure for
populations as this same measure. 1t is not i'm
possible that some of these gentry, who hang
about Washington to see where they can cheat to
the most advantage, may be caught by the com
manding general before they think it, and dealt
with i'm such manner that their fate will be warn
ing to their whole tribe; and il is quite certain
that the people will rejoice to see an example
made of men who thus fatten themselves upon
the best blood of the nation"