The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1879-07-26
GLOVER'S BOMBsHELL.


congress representative Glover, of Mo-. was
engaged as chairman of Il committee in an IN
vestigatiou of the national treasury. The IN
ves,igatlon took wide range and was imped-
ed in every possible way by the republican
officials. The committee went on quietly with
ITS work, however, unit IN February, when the
congress was about to expire and with 1t the
term OF representative Glover and several 9th
er members of the committee, upon which they
prepared report tor submission to congress.
The republicans had got in inkling of some
of the revelations of the report and ny tilibus-
tering prevented its being presented before the
4th OF March, expecting in that way entirely
to suppress It. Mr.. Clever, however, has pub.
lished the report in "a New York paper, and it
falls on the treasury rings like a bombsheil
| The report is about as long as two average
presidents messages, and brstes from one end
to the other with charges of corruption and
fraud in republican management of the treas
ury. 4 mere catalogue of all the enormities,
steals and deeds of mIsmanagement which the
committee has unearthed would fill volume.
The following will serve as few specimens:
The committee finds that the Bureau of En-
craving and Printing, instead of costing the
government $4,000 last year, AS has been
represented, cost over $4,000 About l2,OOO,-
600 have been wasted or stolen in this bureau
in the sixteen years of its existence. at is re-
maIkable and alarming" continues the report,
that this corrupt and law.dciying bureau has
printed notes and bonds for which the govern
ment is liable to the extent of S6,5j0000, and
that while it has been conducted with extreme
secrecy, it has done $5,715,0O0000 within nine
years past and also $4,000 600 900 of revenue
stamps. Thousands of dollars have been OBJ
tanned from the treasury as interest on register
ed bonds by forging powers of attorney for
their collection, the forging IN many cases
having confcderates in the treasury"
The report gives numerous instances of al
legged crooked work on the part of treasury
employees, and then goes on TO attack the man.
agemcnt of
THE CUSTOMS SERVICE, D..
the secret service and the cotton seizures in the
south. 1t states that the secret service appears
to have been used largely for Matchmaking pur-
pose and persecution Ofprlvate individuals, and
that men are employed in it without any test
of qualification, provided they have what
seems to hc information against Icr.ols The
ncctcd with the workings q the sccGcr service
and with the management OF the minis. 1t dc
votes column To the money making schemes
of the late Prof Lnderman, director of the
minis. 1t charges that the paper on which the
government currency ISSUED is printed, is so
carelessly stored that large amounts of II can
be easily stolen for counterteiting purposes
What has been said of the paper applies also
to the
CARELESS CUSTODY
of the dies, rolls, bed-pieces, and plates from
which securities are printed, at Is strange"
continues the report that each OF the last three
presidential elections has been followed by the
that large amounts of counter
telt' notes were atioat. One of the Oldest en-
gravers in the country testifies that when note
is SO like the original that il cannot easily be |
detected, as many "countertets' are said by
treasury officials to be, it cannot really be "a
but must be a genuine note
sURREPTITIOUsLY PRINTED
from genuine plates or from secret reproduc-
tons Of these plates. The government has re-
deemed $4,000, 73O notes which were after
wards held to be counterfets. The superinten-
dent of plate printing testified that the plates
of the 5-20's which the secret service had cap
turcd were from the genuine bed pieces which
must have been borrowed from the bureau to
make them. The $500 counterfeit" green
back of 1873 was inspected by expert engrav-
ers who swore beyond all doubt that the note
came from genuine plate or from surreph-
tious reproduction of one.
brief inspection Of the treasurers books
revealed the fact that Sl9,00000O ofnotes were at
one time secretly afloat for several months, the
TREASURY STATEMENTS BEING FALSE
during that time to that extent and the fact OF
that secret issue remained unknown TIL light |
ed on by the Glover committee. The books
were falsified and balance forced to conceal
this secret issue, by untruly stating that Sl9,-
100000 had been deposited as IA temporary |
loan, when no such deposit took place. The
report concludes by stating that matters need
much more investigation; that by no other
method can the people learn the truth about
the government, or congress get the lnforma-
non necessary to legislation; that the treasury
is full of opportunities for wrong that have
been largely used; that as well as other de-
partmcnts, it Is run hy "A ring; that the govern
ment has far too much to do to do 1t honestly
Or well, and that only by wholesale cutting
lown of government power and wide aboi-
non of government functions and offices can
lespotlsm and national ruin be escaped.