Juniata sentinel. [volume] (Mifflintown, Pa.) 1846-1873, 1873-05-21
Corruption, 4 Milder Type than of Yore.

sit Va ulitllCltl
that have within the past few years re-
,ealrd themselves have caused many to
predict the downfall af the government
Of this country before :he lapse Of many
years Corruption has revealed ilself in
80 many places whore not looked for,
among men whose mental requirements,
and assumed moral excellance should
have made them proof against its inAu-
ence that many declare this the age of
corruption above all others.
This country is not only startled
with local corruption, out corruption in
the State and Nation is equally prom
inent The country has just got over
the shock Of the Credit Mobilier disgrace,
when it is again startled with the state
ment of corrupt bargain and sale in the
appointments in The Vienna Com
mission. Whittier are we drifting.
the nation exclaims. Europe ,aisos
shout, what corrupt people, and
points the finger of scorp, however,
just as our Old World cousins had work
cd themselves up to an indignation like
that which David felt when the Prophet
Nathan informed of the outrageous con-
duct of a subject upon a neighbor subject
they discover that they are the men
around whom corruption coiled its Shiny
folds. The clamor against America was
hushed as completely in European circles
as if it never had been born, by the an
nouncement las: week in Vienna, that a
dreadful state of financial rotteness had
just been revealed. In that one place
alone one hundred prominent bust.
ness firms were swept into financial an
Inhalation and the government credit
affected to a greater degree than. was
that Of our government during the rebel
lion. That is scandal enough for Euro
pc, and we come home. to our own con-
tinent again, to find our cousins in Cana
da, who also gave us the full weight of
their Indignation and sarcasm on divers
occasions in the full flow of magnificent
Pacific Railroad scandal, something like /.
our Credit hobilier. These people are
now engaged in sweeping their own door,
and by the time they are through, per-
haps they will have learned that they
are further removed from sanctifed
state than they imagined themselves to
be. We are not trying to excuse any of
oar people by thus contrasting their
shortcomings with those of other nations,
and declaring that there is no difference
they are all corrupt, and fastening on to
ruin. In looking at this ugly state of
affairs, we must not be too limited in our
view 1t should be broad enough to
comprehend that the corruption of today, /
bad as it Is. is a greatly modified type of
corruption compared with that which pre- !
vailed among the people of the past. We
must not despair, and come to the con-
clusion that the whole is a mass of cor
ruption, and that we may as well join
them too. When such a conclusion is
reached the believer is On the verge of .
the whirlpool.
We want to realize, without sinking
ourselves into the egotist, that with all
our bad we are better off than any peo-
pie of this world who lived before U.S.
The corruption that is among us is not of
the same kind. quite. as that Of several
hundred years ago, and thence on down
to time out of date 1t is of milder type .
1t consists chiefly of system of hum
bugging, while the corruption of the past
Wac violence. robbery, bloodshed, with
out redress, unless by physical force.
There was no justice in the past; no
tribunal to appeal to. except what was
found in the caprice of conqueror, an
emperor, prelate, a baron, feudal lord,
or the chief OF a clan. The rule of
these men was not so much justice as
a maintenance of themselves and families.
They took and they gave when it suited
their interest or caprice to their adhe-
rents, without courts, juries, arbitrations,
conventions, or public opinion. They
were full of the most violent corruption.
The ruins of their bastile and prison
habitations in which they confined and
tortured to death their victims, without
any public accusation, are yet distinctly
traceable all through the countries of the
old world. There has not been in all of
tie past intercourse of the people of the
world with each other, such disposition
to trust each other and respect each
others individual rights as at the present
time. We trust each other, and if one
man sinks his manhood and corruptly
takes from his neIghbor what does not
Belong to him, public opinion condemns
him. and the law inhicts its penalties on
him. Let the people not be discouraged.
they have everything to encourage
them. they are masters of the situation
if they stand firmly to what is just, and
-et their faces against corruption. MOI