New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-06-07
THE PERIOD or GREED.

root Of all evil. Ii grows to be truer, indeed
more easily demOnstrable, almost automatic
That it has beslimed all our politics within a
few years past has been only too plain Inc
greed of money getting beyond question pro-
longed the war it cocd around the great
phIlanthropic crusade of the age; it coined
the conscience the earnestness, the devotion
of the people; it trafiicked in cotton behind
the smoke of the batteries it took advantage
of the supreme hour when the nation WIN
upturned face invoked the God of battles, TO
cheat the soldier and filch from the treasury;
it intrigued for contracts by day and passed pat
riotic resolutions by night its zealin recruiting
the army was only surpassed by the facility
with which it clothed the recruits with filmsy
coat and shoddy cap. 1t brought statesman
ship to its low material standards, made the
Presidency a pecuniary reward and all oihclal
stations matter of traffic, corrupted the people
and slid into Congress for larger opportunities,
infected all the atmosphere of National and
State capitals, brought all legislation to its
own tests, established Hobbies, purchased SEN
ators and seats for Senators as investments
for larger returns, and sold at public vendue
the nations seats at the worlds industrial
Tom Murphy to the signature of the Salary
Grab bill; from the placing of Credit Mo-
bilier stock where it would do most good to
the selling of restaurant licenses at Vienna,
the slime of the serpent is over 1t all.
1t has not only got possession of our poll
ties and tangled in its folds our Christian
statesmen, but it has taken hold of the church
and the pulpit, of reformatOry and educa-
tOnal enterprises, of tho very things which
should be, of all others, free of its contami-
nation, pure from the reproach of its infiu-
ence Witness the disposition made in sew
eral cases of the proceeds of the salary grab.
In we know not how many instances, mem
bers of Congress, hndered perhaps by their
own cOnsciences, but more likely by appre-
tensions of indignant reputation by their
constituents, from approprating to their own
immediate use the proceeds of shame, have
with great ailectation of virtue turned
over the amount to public institutions of
one kind and another. This one to an edu-
cational enterprise, that to a church, al
other to a theological seminary, and 80 on.
In most cases it is the fear of consequences
that binders the retention to their own use
and enjoyment; in all it is an unwillingness
or positive inability to let go an opportu-
nifty to get some advantage from it, that in
duces them to hand it over to some local
philanthropy. Their moral sense lacks fiber;
they have not the stomach for the complete
and perfect sacrifice required to turn back to
the National Treasury the money they, by
their evasions and subterfuges, confess right
fully belongs there. 1t is cheering to know
that in some cases-and it is to be hoped there
will be some time a compilation of them for
instruction and warDing-the institutions
sought to be made receivers of ill-gOtten
plumber have declined the gratuity with thanks,
preserving their consistency and integrity at
the expense of present profit.
The extent to which greed for money has
debased the standards Of moral conduct, even
among those whose professions warrant the
expectation of much puTer and better things
among those whom we are accustomed to look
up to as superior to the grosser and more
groveling considerations that move the minds
of baser men-has been illustrated in some
degree by the management of what is called
the religious press Mercenary and venal
journalism ia not entirely secular by any means.
Temptations to sell editorial opinions and
Endorsements, and to trade upon religious
character and profession, are not absent from
the contingencies of religious journals, nor
are they always withstOOd Indeed there are
cases where the conductors of sO-called re-
ligious newspapers VIGOROUSLY and habitually
seek such opportunities and draw down to
the low level of their own speculations
men of character and repute, whose names and
contributions are paid for at a liberal rate for
no other purpose than to give the concern
currency and responsibility. One Of the most
successful and, in peCuniary sense, prosper
GUS of the religious journals in the country
has been built up by such means to a position
in which, though it has lost Of late much of
its Influence, it continues to be a source of
immense profit to the publisher. lie. his
habits Of business, modes Of thought, and
standards of integrity are well enough known
to the contributors to his paper and the lead
ers in his church. None of them are ignorant
of the fact that he trades upon the religious
character of his journal and the air of re-
spectability given it by their contributions.
They know that he habitually uses
their Endorsement to impose upon the
credulity of smple-minded religious people
in the interest of all sorts of spectators in
worthless bonds and beggarly investments.
Many of them know that he has not hestated
to levy blacll-mail and threaten companies
that refused to advertise with him, and not
one of them who has had personal dealings
with him but knows that he is the sort of man
who would as soon SANDER and viify the
clergyman who hands him the sacrament as
truckle and fawn at the feet of anybody whom
he could use and who would recognize him.
1t is only cOvetOusness that makes him pros
titute his paper and belle the clergyman whose
| contributions are bnilding I'D a riYal IL IL il