New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-12-10
THE TROUBLES or INVESTIGATORS.


sion TO investigate the entire Treasury
DEPARTMENT. Last Winter he bad, ac--
cording to Democratic authority, the
hearty co6peration of the Secretary in
his hunt for fraud. because Of the i'm
preston that the inquiry would harm the
Democrats more than the Repu bicans. ii
the Secretary did have such an impression
the facts seem to have justified it; for Ger
tanly there never was so unlucky an inycs-
tigator az GLOW T. Through the entire ses-
sion of Congress, beginning with his pro-
position TO invest his own committee
with inquisitorial powers never before
dreamed Of he kept the whole cOun-
try in a roar of laughter ut his singular
performances. How much truth there is i'll
the statement of the Democratic newspapers
that Secretary Sherman withholds his consent
to q loose and general rad through the De-
partment for evidence in the Linderman
case, because he fears that this time Glover
will actually discover something, we cannot
saw, but the Secretary has not heretofore
exhibited much fear of Glover, and certainly
Glover has not made himself very formidable
to anybody but his friends, so that it is quite
possible that there may be some other motive
for the Secretary's action. May IL not be that
Glover has ceased to be amusingi Ii was all
we'll enough when he began investigating
with such flourish of trumpets TO let him
have all the power he wished and 90
ahead to his hearts content. But there must
come an end some time to these fooleries The
investigations Of last Winter have proved
conclusively that there is no basis whatever
for the partisan charges upon which they
lad h..
tables turned on them in spite of themselves
in nearly every case they have attempted TO
inquire into.
The Potter Committee likewise have had n
hard time of it. The things they set out TO
find they haven't discovered, and the things
they didn't want To find kept turning
Nh in front of them in the most ex2S-
perating manner. When they began their
injuries they had great hopes OF being
able to show that many eminent Repub-
leans were scoundrels, guilty of fraud, bribery,
and all manner of corrupt and dishonest
practices. But out OF the abundance Of rcd
headed and other liars that passed IN process
zion before this committee there came moth
ing but q tangle Of such uncOnsclonable
falsehoods that tho liars themselves could not
uDrsyel them, and all tho committee could do was
to let them run hopelessly on. 1t remained for
TIP TRIBUNE TO take up the work OF the Potter
Committee and perform 1t for them. This
was done In the famous cipher translations.
Here was a committee armed with the author
ity and power of Congress tn summon wit
ncsses and command the production of pa
pers and documentary evidence, trying to
probe the history of the Presidential cleo
in the transaction. After months of
futile effort, which only involved the commit
tee in the most labyrinthian contradictions,
they gave the matter up as hopeless. Then
THE TRIBUNE took hold of it, and following
its own clews, exposed from documentary tes-
timony, which no one has undertaken to inn
peach, the real inside history of the electoral
contest. The cipher exposures supplemented the
proceedings of the Potter Committee with the
only investigation that had practical re-
suits. The investigators find that in some
way which they cannot explain something has
been found out. When they adjourned last
Summer it was without having discovered
anything in the nature Of Trustworthy evidence
concerning the object of their search. When
they meet again at the opening of the short
session they find a history all unfOlded to
them.
They must have some such a feeling of
wonderment and surprise as came over the
sergeant at Fort MOhave when somebody
turned his mule loose and hitched
in his place one of the Government
camcls, which the sergeant had never
before seen. Coming out Of the suffers
quarters, where he had, perhaps, been indulg-
ing a little freely, he espied the camel in the
place where few moments before he had
bitched his mule. "Great Heavens !" said he,
as he took INTO his vision the towering proper
lions and double humps of the strange animal,
"what in thunder's the matter with that
"muIe ~ The revelations which the Potter
Committee find all ready to their hands In
Mace of the insignificant results they
had obtained themselves when they adj
iourned, present contrast no less sur
.prising than that between the camel
and the mule. But there they are, and very
much at their service. The truth seems TO
be with both these committees that they are
not disposed to investigate thoroughly they
don't investigate to find out. There are
too many things that they are anxious
not to hit upon. As for Glover, the
idea that Secretary Sherman, or any other
Republican. is afraid Of his investigations, is
too absurd. Glover is dangerous TO nobody
but his friends. His opponents are more than