American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-10-26
More Ciyil.Service Whitewash.
In the report made December Is, 1871,
% Mr.. Grant by the Civil-service Reform
Board occurs on page this massage:

| In the report made December Is, 1871
to Mr.. Grant by the Civil-service Reform
Board occurs on page this passage:
1t is not easy to compute in figures the exact
| economical difference between a good and bad
system of the civil service. 1t is necessarily a
matter of Inference and of comparison befwecn
the probable operation of II careless and careful
method. But it is calculated by those who have
made careful study Of all the facts that one
fourth of the revenues of the United States
nually lost in the collection, and for large part
of that loss system of the service which is fatally
unsound may reasonably be held responsible.
Taking this for his authority, Senator
Trumbull has been quite right i'm saying,
as he has said in his speeches throughout
Illinois, that 500, Co., 600 were annually
lost to the Federal Treasury by the dis
honesty and incompetence of revenue Off
Gals; but so dreadful an exposure has
been too much for the Administration.
Grant has gotten bis civil-service reform
men together in hot haste, and under date
of the 4th instant they issue rOund-rOb-
in eating that portion of their report
above quoted, and vOwing most strenu-
ous,y that the civil service now is as hon
est and pure as if conducted by so many an
gels. The awkward manner in which this
embarrassing is done may be seen from an
extract or two from the round-rObin. In
the first place the Board say: ''The cal
culations to which we allude were made
under the Administration of Andrew
johnson, when the evils of the 'spOils
system eliminated. and we selected the
facts of its worst condition as the most
torcible illustration of the mischiets of the
system''-i. e., that zone fourth of the
revenue OF the United States is annually
lost in the collection thanks to thieves
and nincompoops in Office. Subsequently
and in their same letter the Board says:
. Official figures of the Treasury De-
partment relative to the actual total of de-
falcatiOns and deficiencies under the Inter-
ton indicate that they have amounted to
S., 100000, instead of S2O,OOO,OOO as is Of
ten stated, and that of this amount
$500, 900 was under LincOln's Administers
ton, S., 1OO, 900 under JOhnson's, and the
remainder, about $500, 600, under Grants"
The contradictions here are as gross and
palpable as Falstaff's lies. In the first
place the Board say that one-fourth of
the entire revenues of the United States
are lost in the collection; then they say
this means only under Andy JohnsOn's
Administration and, thirdly, aver that
the ''actual total of defalcations and def
ciencies of the Internal Revenue law I'M
der President johnson was 100000.
According to this the revenue of the Uni
ted States under President johnson could
only have been SIS, 4OO, 600; for the Board
say, first, that one-fourth of these reve-
nues was lost under A. j.. and, second,
that that loss was 81, 1O0,O 600. A more
palpable fraud than this round-robin is,
even on its own showing, it would be
hard to find. The truth is that the orig
inal report of the Civil-service Reform
Board did say, and saying meant it, that
one fourth of the annual revenues of the
United States never reached the Treasury.
The terrible use made of this most indu-
bitable but, SO far as Grant goes, impol-
tic assertion has compelled the White
House ring to attempt to explain it away,
and the pains taken to explain it away can
be seen by a further reference to the
whitewashing letter just put forth. 1t is
addressed to John Logan, who is Grants
man Friday in Illinois, and begins, ''Dear
Sir: You letter would have received an
earlier answer but for the fact that we
were all in different parts of the country
when it was received
Bearing in mind that the letter is dated
Washington, and is signed by all the
members of the Board, it can readily be
understood that Grant telegraphed to all
his henchmen to repair forthwith to
Washington and there concOct a letter
which should satisfactorily explain the
damaging statement on page 8 of their
report of December is, 1871. How mue h
of the S25, 900 appropriated last session to
carry out the reform of the civil service
was spent in this embarrassing effort it
would be interesting to KNOWN. =. Er-
change.