The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1876-03-14
MOTIVES AND OPPORTUNITIES OF
FRAUDS.

The amount of malfeasance in Office will in
any country depend upon the strength and
constancy Of the motive to plumber, the
abundance Of opportunities for plumber, and
the extent Of impunity with which the preda-
cious propensity may be INDUCED.
The motive in our country is very strong
and may be measured nearly by the strength
of the love of money or of the iDfueic', the
power, the Difference and the consideration
which the possession of money almost uni
formly commands. Avarice is q great vice,
but it is one which is fed by society and
fostered by the tribute Of respect almost uni
versally paid to the possessor of wealth.
sect money, my son-honestly if you can,
but get money! was the advice of an
experienced parent in the candor of his
counsel, but more with reference to the
tables of interest and discount than to those
stone tables which were brought down from
Sinai. Avarice is our national vice, and re-
proach and the official corruption which
grow ont Of it are chargeable more to the
moral malaria and infection which reigns in
the atmosphere than to the abnormal con-
dition, the casual breeding, or the accidental
surroundings of the individual culprits. In
the modern American estimate money is
everything. The possession Of it constitutes
the only aristocracy known to nine-tenths Of
our people. Money is the only thing
that wins respect and commands
obeisance from the multitude. Ancestry
is just source of pride to worthy descend.
ants, but in point of solid and tangible ad-
vantage it falls below money in the estimation
Of men who love the reality Of present power
more than the barren lustre of ancestral re-
nown. It is because we have no other gen.
orally recognized arristocracy that wealth
comes in to take the place Of it. To get
wealth has become the impelllng motive in
almost all the transactions of life.
Our institutions afford many opportunities
for getting money by evil means and especial
~ by perverting the functions of our numer.
GUS public offices. Without reckoning post
masters of tho third and lower classes,
or the officers Of the navy below
the rank Of first lieutenant or officers
Of the many below the rank Of passed mid
shipmen there are in the employment of the
government of the United States, those of the
several States and those of cities not less than
fifty thousand persons who have more or less
of the public treasury in their custody, more
or less of influence for the use of which
money consideration can always be obtained,
more or less chance to form combinations for
and hiding fraud.
The inducemeAt to steal as we'll as the op.
portunities are as great and as frequent in
other countries; the only difference is that
offenders abroad are more certainly and more
severely punished. The Russian Collector of
Customs has as strong q motive and
as numerous opportunities to put the
money Of the Gear into his own
priva excheqner, as if he were harvesting
the duties in Boston, New York, Philadel-
phia or Charleston; but he has wholesome
dread of the knout, the bullet of the execu-
TONER or lifelong visit to the icy and in
hospitable wilderness of Siberia. He koows
that when detected he will be pursued by
he representatives of imperial power until
be is run down, captured and punished
If he has lost the spirit of fidelity the in
'tinct Of fear still keeps his hand from the
public Golfers. This severe and relentless
pursuit of public offenders marks the public
services of all the greater States of Europe
md prevents loss to their treasures and prev.
lent corruption.