The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-01-06
THURSDAY, JANUARY 8, 1870.
THE STATE FUNDS WHERE ARE
THEYy

THEY
IT has long been suspected that the State
Treasurers of Pennsylvania were in the habit
of loaning out the moneys of the Common
wealth either to banks, to private bankers, or
to their personal friends; and the justice of
this suspicion is confirmed by the statements
in Geary's late message. Although the salary
of the Treasurer is but $1700, sum which
scarcely pays the champagne and cigar bills
of the annual canvass to secure the votes of
the members, the Governor asserts that
s'there are but few men who have held this
Office, however poor they may have been
when they took charge of it, who have not
become rich" He also plainly intimates that
these fortunes are acquired by the 'unlawful
use Of the State funds, and subsidies from
sources that dare not be revealed 10 the public,
because they are positively prohibited By JatO
a1,der penalties Of no ordinary mag
nitude." If the Governor possesses
positive information which justi6es
this assertion, we trust he will act upon it
fearlessly. The public have right to know
all that can be truly told in regard to the
management of their funds. Even the
officials at Harrisburg should begin to have a
oognized elsewhere, that the enrichment of
Treasurers, their favorites, and their Legisla-
tive supporters, is not the chief end for which
taxes are collected. And if these officials
resort to practices which, in the language Of
the Governor, are positively prohibited by
law under penalties of no ordinary magni-
tude," or, in palmer English, which subject
them to incarceration in the Penitentiary, we
hope the day is not far distant when the peo-
pie will cease to be SO powerless at their own
Capitol as to have no champion honest bold,
and faithful enough to prosecute their cor
rupt betrayers and to place whip in every
honest hand to lash the rascals through the
land.
As an illustration Of the prevailing system,
our Harrisburg correspondent telegraphed us
yesterday that, although there is nominal
balance in the Treasury of nearly one million
and half of dollars, and although the people
pay roundly in the increased cost of interest
on the debt for the retention of this balance,
the State Treasurer or one of his officials,
recently begged for time for the payment Of
two-fifths of an appropriation of twenty-five
thousand dollars due to the State Lunatic
Asylum. If he had not under immediate
command, out of $1,500,000, funds to
pay $4,000, it is high time the
people should be informed what disposition
was made of the other 81, 100000. Cash or
bona fde bank balances being, according to
this rumor, not under his control, how was
this sum represented? Did it consist, in
part, merely of the due bills of influential
politicians or the notes of spectators? If
80, the people Of Pennsylvania may expect
such loose system to end, sooner or later,
where it has ended in other States, and to
find themselves subjected, not merely to a
continuous loss of interest through series
of years, but finally to the loss of a large
portion of the principal which is handled in
this dangerous and dishonest manner.
But the pecuniary losses and dangers in
volved in the present method of managing
the moneys of the State are not the worst
evils of the system The scenes connected
with the nomination and election of a Trea-
surer are Justly characterized by the Cover
nor as ga disgraceful scramble" involving
s'pOlitical and moral debauchery," the disgrace
of the Legislature, and the indignation and
shame" of the people. AS the control of the
State funds is put up for sale, with the under
standing that the purchase money is to be paid
for eventually out of what should be the
sacred hoard of the taxpayers, a precedent
of corruption is established at the very out
set of each session, and even members who
are honestly disposed are forced to the con-
clusion that the whole atmosphere at Harris
burg is too hopelessly polluted to make
honesty and reform possible.