The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1868-03-17
The Republican Whisky Thieves.

| lHS ora HAS COuUdlncu LOT l0OUUnS
past the fullest exposures of whisky
frauds. Facts, figures, methods, names,
have we published over and over again,
with fullness to which the report OF
the Congressional Retrcnchment Com
mittee on whisky frauds makes no sort
of pretension. The Rump for months has
been deaf to all this. For months it
has sat silent, watching the revenues OF
the nation flow steadily into the peck
cts of its partisans, the whisky thieves.
And now SChenck and his committee,
in order to get corruption fund of mil
lions from the whisky thieves to carry
| the next Presidential election, have
voted to keep the tax at S2 per gallon, q
sum by which experience has proved
the Government cannot collect $50 ,000,-
900 on production of 100,000,000 gal
Ions. Schenck and his committee have
vcted deliberately that the Govern
ment shall be plundered for another
year of Sl50,O00,O00, for the benefit of
the Republican whisky thieves and the
Republican party in the November
election.
OF course it is part of their game to
make or fnd victim. They them
selves are the abGttors of the Republi-
can whisky thieves, if they do not
share their plunder. But they have
determined that the whiskey frauds
which the World first exposed and has
walked up the public to knowledge of,
shall be saddlcd on some scape-gOat.
President Johnson, of course, is their
man. Having taken from him his con-
stitutioDal power of removal, with ap-
propIiate candOr they charge him with
neglect TO exercise his power. The
Senate having repeatedly refused to
sanction his removals, this House COM
mittyc, with unblushing eiirontery, de-
nounccs him for neglect To remove their
confedcrateS in crime, the Republican
office holding whisky thieves. And
their lips are hardly yet cool from de
nunciations Of him for the few remov-
ais he has made.
The Post, we regret to see, talks about
Van Wyck'S report as 'the mcst damag-
ing blow Mr. Johnson has yet receiv-
ed" and quotes its scandalOns nonsense
about the removals and non-remOvals.
We are sure the Post means to do justice
in this matter, and errs only from lack
of information, which is difficult to get,
and which needs to be cOmprehended as
a whole, before these outrageous and gi-
gautic whisky frauds can be pressed
home upon the really guilty parties.
Van Wyck's report is the mere "stop-
thief cry of the running whisky
themselves And these whisky thieves,
we can tell the Post, are going to enjoy
another year of plunder in order, if pos
sible, that the "mOral idea" party may
have four years more swing. s'.
Take this matter of removals and non
removals which Rollins and Van Wyck
arc laboring SO i"dustriously to beiog.
Here are facts from the official records
of the Treasury Department.:
|. The average falling Oft of the re-
ceipts of the internal revenue in the 2iU
collection districts In 1867, as compared
with 1866, was SIG, ,697 ,4il.92.
2. In the ll9 districts in which re.
movals of collectors and assessors were
made on the recommendation of the
| Commissioner of the Internal Revenue,
Rollins, the average falling of per dis
trict was S160,9l2. 81.
3. The average falling off in the lOl
districts in which no removals were
made was, per district, S95, ,2O6.23.
4. The average falling off per district
in the 20 remaining districts in which
President Johnson made removals with
out consulting the Commissioner of In
ternal Revenue, whose name is Soucst
Mr.. +. A. Rollins, was only SIG,47O.N.
The Post can figure from these four
items just about how much 1t would
have cost the country il the President
had followed the advice of the Commits
sisnsr whom the Senate, usurping a
share of the removal power, keeps IN
place. o..
The Republican whisky thieves, we
repeat, running, set up this fraudulent
cry of "stop thief" They are prepar'
ing, we repeat, to plunder the country
of aaother $780, 100000, in order to use
some millions Of that plunder rs cor,
rupt election fund next November.
The Post has not yet walked up to
these .tdcts.-Uorld.