The daily gazette., 1875-05-18
CAN WE AFFORD 1T ANY LONGERl

From The Ne,o York Tribune of yestsrdas
Will the reader have the goodness in
some leisure hour to sit down and think
over the Canal frauds, the Credit Mob
ilier, the Jayne and Sanborn business
the Pasifc Mail subsidy, the doings OF
the Indian Ring, and the leprosy recent.
ly brought TO light in the Customs ser.
vice and Internal Revenue Office, and
then answer the question at the head OF
this article? 1t is said that the Treas.
ury has lost million by the silk SNUG
glers. and two or three millions by the
Whiskey Ring. and that these losses
have occurred within twelve or.eighteen
months. But every one who has watch
ed the course Of things knows TINT the
origin Of this corruption dates far back
that the dark abyss has been explored
only little way, and that the loss OF
lions but by tens Of millions We
look at these events as matters
very different from simple losses Of
money or property. A disastrous fire
like that at Chicago or Boston does its
work am the nation soon RECEIVERS, but
the things we have mentioned are moral
conflagations. They blacken the good
name of our country. and threaten to
shiver the very foundation stones Of our
free institutions. They GAUGE foreign
ers to point the fngure Of scorn at our
republic, and make the gravest and
wiscst Of our own citizens tremble when
they look towards the future.
: Perhaps Mr.. Dorman b. Eaton is in
the right to treat the abandonment of
the civil service rules as an event to be
deplored, rather than the explosion of q
humbug which never had in it the breath
~ fo h.,t l,a fan mo
have just had our taxes increased for no
other reason in the world than that our
Internal Revenue and Custom House
officials had been in league with thieves.
1t has been said that the whisky tax is
now SO high that angels could not collect
it. but the absurdity of that assertion
is demonstrated by the fact that Great
Britain for twelve or thirteen years has
collected a similar tax on both foreign
and domestic liquors more than three
times as heavy as our own without any
such scandals as those which have been
perpetual in our country. The same
fas8 is also sufficient answer to the COR
responding excuse for failure to assess
the duties ON silk, which offer only slight
temptations to the smuggler when com
pared with the British duty Of ten shil-
lings sterling on spirits. The long and
short Of it ia that the men whom we APP
point to collect the revenues OF the Gov
ernment have for years disgraoefully
failed to do their work. We have been
attempting to carry water in peach bas-
kets, and the least of our losses is the
waste Of the money. The corruption of
our politics is now poison in the Life
blood Of the nation. We wonder that
the times are hard and that our Govern
ment bonds sell lower in the foreign mar
kets than those Of France and Russia.
The wonder would be of more fitting ap-
plication to the reverse state Of business
and credit.
The people must lcok to tho roots OF
their political tree; and to the soil from
which they spring. The remedy must
be applied there and not the dead bran
ches and withering leaves. Nothing
will be accomplished by denouncing
faithless congressman and unworthy oc-
cupants Of high places, it We end there.
So long as caucus OF twenty or thirty po-
Iitical puppets, not one i'll ten of whom
owns dlolar's worth of taxable proper
ty, are permitted to name tae delegates
to conventions and do all the political
work of o township of 800 voters, just so
long will the distillers, retailers, and
consumers of whiskey, with occasional
assistance frem canal contractors and
other phandersrs of the public money
mle the land. One honest man in high
piaos is great force in politics. Gov
ernor Tilden and others like him, who
have risen in spite of the cunning and
malice of the political spoilsmen, are
shining examples. A little leayen lea
veneth tho whole lump, but the quanti-
|, tn is plainly not sufficient. II the peo-
pie would only take the trouble to name
the best man for every place OF trust,
however minute OF temporary, we should
soop see change for the better.