Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1872-04-10
PStigatiOu.

IL was stated OF the u Or OF Congress on
day last week that there are now fourtee
investigating committees organized and i
full blast by Congressional authority. Tn
fact - not complimentary to off ;ial mora |
and integrity, If it j. to official vigilance
and If We are not nation Of fraud it would
seem that the purposes for which the govern
ment was constituted had sadly miscarried
So much organized ia ent diverted from legt
innate channels Of legislation, so many states
men converted into jurynen, to investigate
and look over the official bIotters of those tn,
government is OBJ iged to Incorporate into itl
machinery, conveys an idea of friction and
lost motion in running the machine that is
truly alarming in an economic as we'll as in
a moral point of view lt is barely possible
that some Of these Investigations. inst-
gated by the wisest and most prudent Of our
statesmen, may fail to reveal all that was
expected, OF in other words that the results
may not come up 70 the manifesto, but il is
more probable that skill fully devised OBJ
stacles have more to do with this than d
want Of facts to substantiate the charges
could they be produced. The power - to
send for persons and papers - is broad, but
the reserved power not to send Is broader,
and when it is known beforehand Just how
much it is desirable TO prove, just what line
IS to be scored up to, the limit s not likely
to be passed. Ia some instances. no doubt
% the point is not well taken " at the outset
and an investigation is ordered because il has
been asked for, the aHhnus being Of per
sonal character. The work Is quite as like
ly to be thorough, if not just, in such cases
and the war carried to the exhaustive ex-
treme But whether failure or a success
in making out moral turpitude, an official
crime or a mistake worse than crime, pub
lie confidence receives an additional shock
all the same, and the g above suspicion -
element fades still deeper into the too fre-
quently whtewashed functionary ,-deport-
ment board.
It is not a cheerful list 10 contemplate,
this Iooking-over catalogue now parade be-
fore the country, and it leads to the inquiry.
Has the race Of honest men to fill ofi,ial
stations be ONE extinct, or did it never have
anything but Utopian ex stence There
were certainly less Investigations once than
there are now, and as things went along
quite as smoothly when there were less, we
cannot infer that the public were more lax,
or those wh) hal the ad illustrative part |
ments in special charge were less exacting
than they are now. The devastation alon.
the national th1roughfare at the present /,
time is d npIy alarming Nearly one half
the government d" rolling stock > is convert
sd intoy'' wreeking trains, - and still th,y do
not keep the track clear. Que smash-up
after another follows in such rapid success
ion that the bewlldered engineers are like
t1e4 man - to double business bound,
which we all have heard about.
From the Y lew York custom house " II
reLularitles ?" dow to the small defalc4tion
of only few hundred thousand, with an &C
oasiOu Il aside aimed at a Cabinet off :er, the
entertainment has gone on as rapidly as tn
scene shifters could m mage the rop's, u1li
as stat, at the outset, fourteen COM reesiJn-
al investigating committees have be,
" called, >" and the end is not yet If any
stronger argument than this can be pro iuced
showing the necessity for Civil Service Re-
FERN, we hope for the peace and comfort o.
the IN IRE sensitive, whj are not yet eiuclted
up to th It high stan lard OF political necessity
that requires a magnificent national detec-
tivs system d keep US IN order, it will not
be brought forward. The sermon already
preached would not be siren gtheued by " one
rising from the dead or the addition of an
other score Of 10 Investigating committees.