The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1873-07-19
WHERE Is THE DIFFERENCE 4,

If deficit appears in the accounts of a
government officer, no matter how small
the sum may be, the fact is taken up and
made the basis of serious charges against
the particular administration from whom
he derives his appointment. The defaulter
or embezzler is sought, even, to the utmost
ends of the earth, arrested, if possible, and
then tried, convicted and punished. There
is nothing too harsh that can be said about
government defaulters, and the changes
upon their defalcations are continually rung,
with varying tunes, from day to day. even
after the subject becomes stale and thread
bare This is all right and proper, if the
object he to secure more rigid accounta-
bility on the part of public officers, and to
obtain the same integrity in the conduct of
official trusts as we expect in private bust
ness affairs If an administration winks at
the peculation and misdeeds of its en-
ployes, and retains them in office after the
discovery of their wrong doing, they be-
come party thereto, and are justly answer
able at the bar of public opinion for their
failure to administer the government upon
principles of honor, integrity and justice.
Among the vast number of subordinate of
ficers, necessary to carry on the extended
and complicated affairs of the nation, it
would be strange indeed if black sheep
did not, once in a while, creep in and dis
honor himself and the government by his
crimes If, however, an administration
exercises the closest scrutiny in its appoint
ment to office, and is prompt to remove an
appointee on the first discovery of wrong,
their skirts are cleared from all completely
Herewith, and instead of censurc should
receive commentator. The principle that
principal is responsible for the doings of
his agents does not extend to wrongful acts
unless the principal becomes party there
to by completely with or an endorsement
of his acts. We believe in holding the
government to strict account for the acts
of its servants, and demand of them the
prompt removal and punishment of all who
shall prove faithless to their duty. We
desire that all public officers, who may do
fraud the government or levy contributions
upon the people, shall be made a by-word
of scorn and reproach, and receive such
penalties as the law awards for such mis-
deeds. 1t is only by such a course, on the
part of the government, the press and the
people, that thorough reform can be OBJ
tanned in the civil service.
There is another trouble with the enforce
ment of the laws that, to our mind, con-
tains the seeds of still greater danger to the
integrity of public officers, the honor of
the country and a permanent injury of the
moral sense of the community. The idea
that there is nothing very bad IN filching
from the government is not confined to gov
eminent officers alone, but seems to be
growing more and more common among
the people at large. Even the press, which
is so eager to blazon to the world the de-
falcation of a public officer or the petty
stealing of petty clerk, is chary of reporting
and commenting upon frauds committed
upon the revenue by private citizens. The
case of Phelps, Dodge & Co. is in point,
with the withdrawing they received
from the press and people and, even, from
80 respectable a body as the New York
chamber Of commerce. The denunciation
was all reserved for the government because
they used the necessary appliances, in that
and other cases, to enforce the laws and
prevent frauds upon the revenue. We have
case in our own state, which has been
brought to light within the past two weeks,
The GLOBE was the first of newspapers In
the state to announce it, while the press of
the town where the parties were arrested
were mysteriously silent upon the subject
and one daily of the state, at least, seems
to be, as yet, in profound ignorance that
any such crime has been committed or any
such arrests made Citizens calling them.
selves respectable and law abiding-and
who, perhaps, are so in other respects
consider II a mark of prudence and economy
to withhold property from the list for the