The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-12-31
1 FORMIDABLE INDICT1fENT.


was the one which sho we'd the basest heart. Is
was absolutely selfish, II never excused itself by
.monentary passion, and it required nine times
out OF ten the coolest calculation and foresight
There Is no provocation to forgery, as there may
fDe TO murder; no Sudden, Overmastering temp
lhti0n 10 swindle, as there may be to many other
Equally evil acts. II that is true and 1t IS at all
events only an exaggerated truth, England Is a
bad one; for there cannot be O doubt that the
master vice of the middle classes we had almost
written their master passion, is thieving. We
doubt n race ever existed among whom pecu.
mary dishonesty was SO general or so deeply
affected the structure OF society. We con.
slider ourselves q virtuOus people, the salt
OF the earth, and 1t Is not too much to
say that at this moment the basis of half
our laws, the cause of half or more than
half our administrative weakness, the root of
three-tourths OF our commercial difficulties, Is
the well-founded belief that mddle-class
EnglishmaD, If he gets anything Ike chance,
a will thieye, Will expend his brain, his time, and
his energies in able efforts to steal money which
81 Is not hts, What is the dry rot which is Destroy
ing English administration, its directness its
simplicity, and ito force, bot the certainty of the
nation that every Official If lett to himself and
unmatched, will steal? Our Departments are
n hampered and sbackied with checks till they
can hardly work, till individual power, and
therefore, individual genius, are suppressed
q and the object of all the checks is not to pre-
vent inefficiency-that in England is not a crime
though elsewhere it is among the greatest-or
TO obyiate the chance of oppression, but to pre-
n vent direct fraud, assaults of the vulgarest
kind upon the national till. We cannot get a
navy, because it is Understood that in great esta-
bishments like dockyards everybody not spe-
"A cially selected tor honesty will thieye Our
army arrangements break down incessantly
because contractors, sub-contractors, and
RUrveysodTss ysds,oa generally are supposed to
There Is not contract given in Government
office in which some one has not secured
a "perquisite," or an advantage" or a
'proht,n of which he would not, for the world
y have his employers formally conscious; which
has not, in fact, given some one usually gen.
tleman, the opportunity OF thieving. Our whole
z system OF providing Tor State needs by 'open
tender,n the stupldest of all conceivable sys-
Il tems-for its theory is that Jones is Robinson's
equal as manufacturer, which Jones is not-Is
openly based on the assumption, an assumption
peTtecuyNrue, that without open tender the de-
partment win sell the contract, Will, in fact
n steal large sum out of the National Treasury
= Our municipal difficulty is jobbery, that is,
Rtheft-the practice every municipality is certain
Runless watched to indulge in, of robbng the
scitzens to enrich is own members or other
Favored individuals Even Parliament, even the
#Cabnet, the flower, or supposed flower, of Par
iamentary life, is not beyoud the same suspi-
ion. We dare not let the Chiefs of Departments
for themselves in most important junction,
that of making the great contracts, choosing
ablest, because we are certain that they will
thieve, not Indeed Tor themselves, but for their
party. TheyB will give Jones 9l, 900, 900 to do
what Robinson would DO for 475G,OO because
Jones votes tor them-that is, they will misap-
propriate $780, 900 OF the money for which they
are trustees. Look at our railway system. 1t
is the greatest and most important business
organization ever devised by nation, and it is
breaking down under habitualtbeft. Directors,
animated by the hope OF "high quotations for
shares'--tbat is, OF robbing buyers, by selling
plated goous for silver-are declaring in all di-
rections fictitious dividends; shareholders, ami
mated by the same thirst for plunder, are wink
ing at directors acts; contractors sending in
fictitious tenders at absurd prices; lawyers sell
ing the companies, their own clients to the
Vermin who eat their capital up; traffic MANAGERS
making pretereL tial, that is, fraudulent, bar
gains for carriage; every petty official taking
bribes 10 grant privileges his employers have
not sold. Look at our CONN cree, shattered at
This moment by every variety OF elaborate and
carefully devised plunder; by companies
whose prOspectuses are drawn mp with the
intention OF robbng the ignorant; by banks
(which maze over shareholders money to
y directors by manufacturers VINO will sell
: shoddy for cloth; by tradesmen who cannot be
trusted TO avoid actual stealing OF pennies from
women and children, actual theft OF cOppers
out OF a blind mans tray, by aIse weights aud
measures. Is there a trade lett in which half
the tradesmeG do not live by petty imposition
that is. by THEFT by selling goods as bargains,
which are really dear, by enormous a iultera-
tiops-by, in fact direct robberies Of one kind
or another? =? Agriculture is the most honest;
and a k a really God-iearng dealer OF Mark
lane what he thinks OF the morals OF his trade
whether be could remit his wa'chfulness for an
instant-a watchtulness directed wholly against
theft-without being ruined. What is "bear'
combination to unduy depress the price oil
goods but an elaborate theft? We cannot, in
London, send goods 10 auction without GER
1alnty oil rODDeTy ana we are DlCeT, Ill OF us
against "knock outs; :" but who whips the worst
form of ''knock.outs," the circulation Fo
rumors intended to make worthless shares
seem valuable, so that their holders may plum
der the unwary? When "beaTs" run doWn
shares there is indeed an outcry; but when
they run them up, who cares for the plundereo
pubhc?i
The very dislike OF theft, unless committed by
violence, seems to have dled out OF the nationa
mind. City editors denounce search into rob
berries Us 'vindlctive proceeding" and advise
rpr,nIga ou nAa hu Wh hiph ono
thing can be saved. Transactions Which are
thefts of the most unblushlng kind bring to thei
perpetrators no rebuke, 10 the sufferers no sym
pathy. If man stands on London Bridge sell
ipe brass rings for gold, the police ultimately
and as an extreme measure, make him walk on
but if he Tobs q thousand widows successfully
by prospectus deliberately framed 10 deceive
he gets az once into Parliament. That, we shall
be told has always been so; but the new evi
is, that we ere becoming conscious of sucl
things ard stIll permit them and waste half on
national energy IN endeayors not 10 put thea
down, but to preyeB, their occurring on to-
broad a scale. Every organization we contriV
is cumbrOus TO decrepitude, and the reason i
that We dare trust no one; that we know
the WoIkhouse-master is left absolute he wit
thieVe; il he is only inspec ed the inspecto
will be made pleasant il the Department i
lett TO look after the pector, 1t will sell hln
immunity, not, indeed, for cash, but for pohti
cal support. There Is not a de Dartment in Eng
land IN which one-third of the expense nigh
not be saved if men could be assumed to b
II, the nation would not lose twice as much q
it does There is not great shop in Londo
whose proprietor IS not paying third of hi
gross aggregate OF salaries TO persons who's