The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-09-23
The Decentralization of the Revenue
SerViCe

though one rose from the dBad.'
The Decentralization of the Revenue
Service.
THERE is no branch of the public service which
should be more exclusively conducted with
reference to the public good than that of the
rerenue. There is no one in which it is more
important that high morale should be main
tanned among its officers. There is no one in
the management of which partisan cOnsidera-
tions should have less influence. There is no
one which is so easily demoralized, and in
which, when its high tone is once lost such
fearful corruption soon runs riot.
These are general considerations applicable
to our Government at all times, but more
especially to the present, when the people are
sustaining heavy burden of taxation, when
a vast debt is to be managed, when the
finances are in an unsettled and almost cha
otto condition, and when throughout the coun-
try there are not wanting dangerous dema-
gogues, who would lead the people into the
paths of dishonor and national disgrace. At
such time the management of the Revenue
Department should be above suspicion, should
command public confidence by its evident de-
ment, and by its vigilance and impartiality
in the administration of the law.
Is such the present condition of the Reve-
nue. Department. Does it command public
confidence Is it devoted solely and prima-
rily to the interests of the revenue service
To ask these questions is to answer them. In
not one of these particulars are the ends of
nd oHu nj or t;Or,
met. On the contrary, we witness universal
suspicion, a general lack of confidence, the
most open and alarming exhibition of fraud
and corruption, the most enormous losses of
the Just revenues of the Government, and, in
short, the most complete and appalling demo-
ralization of the revenue service ever known
in this country.
If we ask the cause of all this we have the
answer in the pregnant fact that the Revenue
Department is not managed primarily and
solely 'cih reference to the interests Of the revenue,
but is made to do service first as a political
machine, and afterwards as the conservator
of the interests of the Government. We be-
ieve Secretary McCulloch, on the whole, so
far as his ability goes, to be fair minded and
~ANAAO w
conduct the department over which he pre-
sides simply as an officer, would do well and
be successful. But such is not his position. A
double duty is exacted from him-frst to sup
port the Presidents policy, and secondly to
attend to the interests of the Government.
The result is that the Revenue Department is
at this moment being managed with reference
to partisan considerations, and 10 effect parti-
san ends, rather than in the interest of an
honest and successful collection of the reVe-
nues.
Revenue officers are appointed and removed,
not with reference to their ability, their in-
tegrity, their fitness for the duties they are
expected to perform, but for the influence they
are expected to WELD in the approaching elec-
tions. Honest, vigilant, and successful officers
have no guarantee, in the faithful discharge Of
their duties, that they will not be sacrificed
upon the altar of political necessities. Such
officers, in their warfare upon the cormorants
who are plundering the revenue, not sus-
tained 6y the Government. 1t is a startling fact
but one capable of demonstration, that at the
present moment appointments in the revenue
service in this city are being dictated by tn,
luhiSky hie0es and fraudulent diStlierS soho arr
daily rObbing the Government Of tens of thousand
Of dollars! They swarm around the Treasury
Department like buzzards around carcass, anG
reel into the presence of the chief officers o
the Government to make their unblushing de
mands The result is what might be expected
The whole revenue service is becoming hope
lessly, mortally demoralized. The whisky
} frauds are more gigantic and open than eve
! before. .Contraband spirits flood the market
and are daily sold at prices per gallon far below
the Government tax. The fatal corruptions o
J this branch of the service react upon othe
branches. The people are being familiarizec
, with fraud, and the work Of public demorali
zation and degradation goes on apace.
, This is not pleasant state of things to con
template, and we know of no remedy for
except such rebuke on the part of the peo
, pie as shall recall the Administration to som
sense of its duties to the public. AS at pre-
/ sent conducted the Revenue Department is be
coming a disgrace to the nation.