New-York tribune., 1873-12-24
pICKTNGS And STEALINGS.

PICKTNGS AND STEALINGS
Very likely if the people of this country
knew precisely how much money IL expended
by Government officials ut Government charge
upon their own personal and family expenses,
the amount would surprise them. The inquiry
into the expenditures of the Attorney -Gener-
ais office has already brought to light some
very ugly items of this sort, and it il under
stood that the same system runs through all
the Departments. Among PLAIN spoken OIL
cials who have become callous TO its un-
wholesome influence it Is known as a system
of pickings and stealings;' among men OF
softer temper and lighter tread 1T goes by the
milder designation of perquisltes." III Is not
peculiar to men in public life or confined to
the national capital. 1t infects all classes, Is
infinite i'll form and variety 80 ramihed ana
so general that it may well be called national
wee. II is, moreover. the parent of number
less other vices that follow in its train. the
source and cause OF an endless amount OF dts
honesty aud official corruption.
Whoever has examined with any care the
bills for the contingent expenses of Congress
does not need to be told that Senator'S and
REPRESENTATIVES, and alt the officers and clerks
connected with Congress are furnished with
great numbers of articles of use and ornament
at the public expense, to which they have no
right whatever under any strictly honest system
of conducting business. Besides what appears
in these published reports-which by the way
have only limited circulation and are not
by any means included among the abuses
of the franking privilege-there are
other large amounts of pickings and
stealings concealed in one form and another
which go to swell the illegitimate proceeds OF
office. In all the Departments and from the
highest TO the lowest in each, the same bad
practice ia in vogue, and the same methods
are resOrted to to get out of the Government,
by hook or by crook, something more than
the wages which the law allows The manly
letter of Mr. Willard of Vermont, published
few weeks ago, disclosed some of the work
ings of the system in the Presidents
household, though it cost the writer
the confidence of his party and his
position in the committees Of the House.
What is true of tho Presidents household ex-
pendtures is equally true in differing degrees
of all the Departments. Careful auditing OF
the bills and estimates by the committees
which are appointed to the duty but habitu-
aIy shirk it would show that it is not alone
in the items of horses and carriages for pri-
yate use that the people are taxed to pay the
family expenses of high officials, but that
many other of tho usual and ordinary private
and personal bills of these officers are paid 10
the same crooked and dishonest manner.
In and about State Legislatures the same
oh and ia in,
the assertion that there is not q State in the
Union whose treasury has not been depleted,
and what ia worse, its officials corrupted and
ts moral standards debased by them. Munic-
ipal treasuries have suffered in the same way,
and municipal rings by the same means
been intrenched in power and gorged with
plunder. Let the system but get fOOthold
anywhere, in city, State, or nation. its progress
ia rapid and sure. Nothing but change in
the organic act seems possible to hinder its
growth or rescue the treasury upon which
it has once fixed its pickers and steal
ers. 1t may begin in fees it grows soon 10
perquisites. and then, as its promoters sro en-
boldened by impunity and power, it takes its
own name, of pickings aud stealings. Famili-
arity with the name begets familiarity with
the fact and deadens the conscience to tho
0frense itself The distinction between mexm
and tuum having once been dimmod by the
addition of a questionable perquisite to tho
legal wages Of his Office, there is beyond this
no line of demarkatiOn for the peculatOr be-
tween honesty and theft except that shadowy
one the fear of detection and of consequences.
So grow up defaulters in Government Offices.
stamp thieves and Treasury robbers in the
State, and plvnderng rings in the large cities.
who stick at nothing from sweating appropri-
ations to forging signatures.
The whole system Of picking and stealing
call it. by what name you will. fees, per-
quisites, or taking the chances'-being, as
VIC think must be admitted, bad in itself, and
the parent of great brood of vices. is there
any cure for it, or any escape from iti In
deed, to come down from the representatives
and servants Of tho people. and to bring the
question home to tho people themselves-who
shall cast tho first stone at Executive Depart
ments, Congress, Legislature. or Municipal
Councili Can the great corporations whose
directors find. in ono way and another. per
quisitss " tho shap0 Of profits which The