The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1875-07-14
WEDNESDAY. JULY Il, 1875
Thc nerennr-Frnrd..


The New York Nation makes the
following comments on the recently
discovered whisky frauds:
Consider for one moment what
ha5 happened, The Secretary Of the
Treasury discovers, by means Of out
sideinfJrmers, hat a very large nam
her of manufacturers, IN various parts
Of the country, are engaged in the
commission of systematic frauds en-
the Government, on an enormous
scale. Far from giving Instructions,
however, to the officers of the Gov
eminent, specially charged with the
collection ofthe revenue, to put the
law in force against the delin1uents,
he carefully cOnceals from them all
knowledge of his disc very; and, in.
deed, treats them throughout rs &C.
complies in the fraud, and employs
new and unofficial agents to bring his
plans 10 maturity. The officers Of the
Government, too, con getting an ink
ling of What Is going on, far from
Fastening to the support Of their
chief, al once place themselves at the
disposal of the criminals, and render
them every assistance in their power,
by information and otherwise; so that
to outwit its own servants the Gov
eminent Is actually Obliged to invent
a new cir her" =
There is a class OF persons whose
blame is praise, and, on the other
hand, whose praise is blame. In like
manner, there Is n class of journals,
and we have them in this locality,
which adopt this tone Of criticism,
and which not only be-little them
selves, but the cause they advocate.
The New York Nation is notable
for its many independent c~rotchets;
it oughtto TO- that venue lngis-
lation aims at the collection of taxes
aud that the shrewdest intellects wiz
he employed to defeat the law. Con-
gress has, therefore, lodged the power
of detection In the hands ofthe Treas
ury Department, which Is responsible
for the collection Of the taxes, and has
adopted such means to accomplish
the desired end, as its head deems
best and most efficient. In the ordi-
nary course of business at the Treas
ury, frauds are discovered every day,
and its action is instant and vigorous.
En- the case of the whisky frauds. a.
they developed in magnitude and eX-
tent, there vas no coup do main.
There was no outcry to alarm (; there
was no doubt of reaching around
them and probing their depth and
breadth. Shrewder heads, with mini
hlnr Hrofnz an,El,y-gI than :
ever vnpored in the columns of the
New York Nation /; and these shrewd-
er heads and nimbler brains were
employed in the interest of the nation
at large. Yet this was done in the
simple performance OF duty. When
the facts became known to the Presi-
dent and Secretary Bristow, they did
not hesitate a moment. What instru-
mentality, to bring the defrauders of
the government TO justice, should be
used under the law, was dictated by
the experience of these two officials,
and their knowledge of men is GER
tainIy not small. They had to reach
the guilty parties. The frauds had
been perpetrated almost under the
very noses of the c officers.
If, therefore, measures were to he
taken to punish the guilty, as well as
TO recover the Revenue unpaid, it was
unreasonable to expect that the rev
enue officers would be asked to assist.
That they had failed to make the dis
covery of fraud themselves, disquaI-
flied them from the task. If they
were honest, it was their misfortune
to be incapable; but if they had con-
nived at the fraudulent transactions
of the whisky ring, their exclusion in
the premises was an act of wisdom.
The means the government did en-
ploy, were, however, no extraordI-
nary or unlawful ones; it used the
machinery for detecting frauds al
ready in existence, and only widened
the area of its operations. 1t was no
spasmodic exercise of power. There
was nothing but a stern determina-
ton to find out the guilty p~arties,
and to PIT the law in force to punish
them, while the government recover
ed the revenue of which it had been
defrauded. s-t