The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1871-09-28
From the New York World.
INVESTIGATE THE FEDERAL TREAS
URY!

jected to full and thorough investi
CATION in behalf of the taxpayers
: and with the full concurrence of the
Democratic municipal authorities, we
call upon the Radical press of this
city and of the country to join with
us in demanding like full and thor
ough investigation of the affairs ol
the Federal Treasury at Washington
1t is not possible that these affairs can
be investigated by any court. The
truth in regard to them can only be
got at by a Congressional committee
of inquiry, composed, as the commit
tee invited by the Democratic Mayor
of New York to examine our city ac-
counts has been composed, without
regard to party. If the Federal Treas
nry will bear the scrutiny of such a
committee, it is clearly the interest OF
the Radical party in power to have
the scrutiny made at the earliest pos
sible moment. If it will not bear the
+ scrutiny of such committee, it is vi
tally important to the whole people
of this country to know the truth at
the earliest possible moment. 1t is
not day too soon now to begin a
general agitation to compel such ac-
tion as this from Congress when it
meets in December. The question of
administrative fidelity has been rous-
ed into life all over the country by
the excitement which has attended the
publication of the charges against the
New York authorities. For several
years, past the public had sunk into a
kind of apathy ON this subject. One
| might have been almost justified in
| saying of the average American eiti-
zen what distinguished Radical
statesman said of the late President
/ Lincoln-that /" he was honest him.
/" self, but had no appreciation of the
"Value, of honesty in Others" All
this is changed now, at least for a
time and it behooves us to seize up
on the favorable moment. 1t cannot
be pretended that there is not abun-
/ dant, instant, and most important
| ground for impugning, certainly for
gravely questioning, the integrity or
the capacity, or both, of the admins
tration of the Federal Treasury. That
administration has jnst been openly
charged by a coordinate branch of
/ the executive service, the War Depart
ment, with making possible by its
carelessness frauds upon the public
| funds to the amount of many hum
dreds of thousands of dollars in one
| case alone. The Treasury meets this
charge by confessing the carelessness
but denying the responsibility. The
Treasurer OF the United States, Gen.
| Spinner, like all the other heads of
| departments and bureaus at Washing
! ton, has followed the example of
President Grant. He is wandering
about, nobody knows. where, at the
public expense, in Europe, whittier he
loo fofr
pretence of helping Assistant Secre-
tary Richardson place the bonds which
it now appears Secretary Boutwell,
had arranged to give to his syndi-
cate" at the very time when he sent
these officials off on summer jaunt
co spend the public money. In the
Treasurer's s absence some of his SUBJ
ordinates reply to the War Depart 4
ment that there was indeed an ar
rangement made for checking pay
masters drafts between Gen. Spinner
and the War Department in May,
1866, an arrangement prompted by a
heavy defalcation which at that time
came to light. But this arrangement,
they coolly state, has not been carried
out, because it was troublesome to the
Treasury. The Treasury" say these
subordinates, "soon ceased to place
"reliance on these reports [of pay
masters as means for the detec-
+" ton of fraud, and qUas not alacdys |
g prompt in requiring them to be made |
I" aDhee officers failed to send them Gn."
But this is not all. These subordi-
mates further admit that checks drawn |
by Major Hodge, the defaulter of to-
day, "to cash or bearer" were paid
by the Treasury in the face of an ex-
plicit regulation forbidding checks so
drawn to be paid. We quote here
their very words, italicizing certain |
phases ourselves:
g It is alleged by the War Depart
ment officials that altogether the cir |
cular of November %, 1869, has not
been literally complied with in the
payment of Hodges checks. Yet had
&c been observed 1T qcould haze fur
nished no preventive Of has 9oecNI0-
tions. The circular does not, 1T is
true, permit checks to be draac7a, as
Colonel Hodges acre, to cash or
bearer" 1t does, however, require
that, except in certain specified cases,
checks drawn by disbursing officers
must be in favor of the person by
name to whom payment is to be made,
or in favor of such person by name or
bearer. Had payment been refused
on checks drawn payable to cash or
bearer, it would have been perfectly
feasible for Hodge, under these regn-
lations< to have drawn out funds for
Ais dishonest transactions upon checks
payable to any fictitious person and
bearer"
Put into plain English, what is the
sense of these astounding confessions
Simply this: that the Treasurer of the
United States establishes regulations
for the control of the enormous dis
bursements made through his office,
which regulations he knows to be
quite inefficacious-so ineficacious, 4,
indeed, that he leaves his subordinates {
perfectly at liberty during his pro-
longed absence from his post to heed
or not to heed them as to them may
seem good. ]
And this system has been going on, {
as the dates here show, for more than {
five years certainly. If ever there
was case of official misconduct-to i
use the mildest term compatible with '
the facts already known-which de-
the prompt interference of 8
the representatives of the people, this {
ls the case. Had there been no pre-
vious provocation to such an interfer-
ence the state of things here shown /
to exist in the Treasurer's Office would
be its sufficient warrant. But the air t
has been full for months past of warn
ings and intimations of evil. The de-
falcations of Norton in the New York
Post-office, of Hodge in the War De-
partment, of Semmes at the Atlanta l
Post-office, happen to have been an c
nounced simultaneously during the 8
past week, and they indicate the ex- !
istence throughout the Federal admin /
of loose habits and systems G
Of accountability, leading men direct c
" into temptation. But it is from the e
Treasury Department that the whole G
fiscal life of the government flows
and it is the Treasury Department
which has given forth the most sig-