New-York tribune., 1875-05-13
THE WHISKY RING.
DEFECTS IN THE CIVIL SERVICE sYSTE1
ILLUSTRATED.

DEFECTS IN THE CIVIL SERVICE sYSTE1
ILLUSTRATED.
THE SYSTEM FOR COLLECTING REVENUE NOT q
FAULT, But THE OFFICERS cORRUPr-CoLSCr-
oRs AND ASSESSORS APPOINTED FOR POLITICAL
RKAsoNs-coMMIssroSER DOUGLASS NOT 40
sPoNsIBLE FOR THEIR CHARACTER.
tBr TELEGRAPH TO THE rRIBuss
WASHINGTON, May 12.-The successful raid nsds
on the Whisky Ring on Monday, and the discovery
that the Internal Revenue officers in each Of the cities
where whisky has been produced and placed upon
the market without the payment Of the tax have
been the partners or the paid employees, Of the men
who have been defrauding the Government has
turned public attention in Washington once moro to
the fatal defects of the present Civil Service system
It has been q common remark Of Commissioners
Douglass, which he has several times repeated In
official communications, that frauds could not be
committed without the connivance OF the Govern
ment gaugers and storekeepers, and that
they could not long c)ntinue without the knowledge
of the Internal Revenue Collectors and SUPERVISOR
The exposures Of the past few days prove that his
theory was correct one. but they also snow that
the men who have been employed by the Govern
watch the distillers, rectfers and deaiers,
collect the tax and TO prevent frauds have been
more easily and more generally corrupted than he
thought was possible The late discoveries which
have been made by Secretary Bristow and Solicitor
Wilson throw no discredit the system that has
been devised to prevent frauds in the manufacture
and sale of spirits. That seems to be nearly
perfect. The trouble that the exc
cution of the laws has been intrusted
to dishonest men. For the character
of these men the friends of Commissioner Douglass
assert that he is wholly, TO very great ex-
tent, responsible. They have been selected by Sena-
tors and Representatives, and have been given posi-
tions account Of their political services, and nos
because they were especially fitted, either by
education or character, to perform the duties TO
which they were assigned The position OF super
visor for instance, has always been looked upon AZ
political one, and while some OF those who have
been appointed have turned out TO be good men,
others have been notorious political jobbers who
have spent more time in promoting the political for
tunes of the men through whom they were appointed
than in attending to their legitimate duties Tho
power of these men was strikingly illustrated last
Winter. when Secretary Bristow and Commissioner
Douglass determined TO send every Supervisor in the
country, and every special agent, to q new post The
White House was at besieged by members of
Congress- and several OF the Supervisors came here
all urging that the order be revoked, and the po-
htica pressure strong that, against the judg
meut both of Secretary Bristow and Commissioner
Douglass the order was revoked by direction OF tho
President. Had the order been executed there II no
doubt that illicit disting, and the preparation OF
Other great frauds that have now been dir
covered would have been, temporarily at least.
suspended 1t is not probable, as many
now seem to think, that tho Ring would
then have been broken up because the distlers and
rectifers had sufficient notice to put their houses In
order and would have been making nothing but
straight whisky when the new officers arrived
But for time at least, the tax would have been
collected.
Officers Of the Internal Revenue Bnrean say that
q regulation made by Commissioners Douglass, after
the breaking up of the New-Orleans Ring, las made
one set of very valuable documents accessible "a
the Treasury officers in their recent iDyesti-
CATION. When the agent who had been IN
New Orleans was on his wGy North ho
was ordered to stop at Louisville, Cincinnati, and
St. Louis and make some examinations. At the last
named place certain important papers that ought 10
be on flo in the Collectors office could not be found
Whether they had been stolen whether they had
never been filed could not be ascertaned. AZ that
time an order was issued TO have duplicates of all
those papers sent to the Internal Revenue Bureau
here and the result il that they have been found 70
be of great value in making the late investigation.