Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-07-09
THE GLOVER REPORT.

After much delay the Glover reporter
the essential parts of it-has been given to
the public through the New York Star. Else
where will be found excerpts of the report
that, while not full in detail, will serve to
show how the business of the treasury de-
partment has been and is being managed.
The Glover committee was appointed at
the beginning of the Forty fifth Congress,
and was charged with the duty of examining
into the conduct of the various bureaus
under the control of the treasury depart
ment. Grave charges of acknowledgement,
dishonesty and carelessness had been made
against them, supported by evidence that
was incontrovertible. The conviction gen.
orally obtained that there was much in
the department that needed investigation,
and that a judicious shaking up might result
in reformation of some of the abuses that,
through long negligence, had been allowed
to obtain foothold. The committee under
took the task, disagreeable though it was,
and pursued it through the entire depart
ment. The result of the inquiry, impeded
though it was by the officials who ought to
have afforded it every facility, has fully just
lied the undertaking.
The first subject that claimed the attention
of the committee was the obtaining, by false
and forged powers of attorney, of interest
on registered bonds. It was the habit of
some holders of bonds to neglect to draw
the interest upon them for several consecu-
tive years. Other bonds issued by the gov
eminent were destroyed and never replaced,
and these two classes kept continually in
creasing, and in the course of few years
the amount of interest unclaimed became
to the facts, entered into conspiracy with
outside parties to claim the interest due, and
drew it from the treasury to an amount not
yet ascertained. The same thing prevailed
in the pension Office, and several millions of
dollars were drawn from unclaimed pen.
sions. - a
The greatest laxity seems to have prevailed
in the selection of persons to fill responsible
positions. From some cause or another it
appears from the report that large number
of persons whose past records would have
disqualified them from filling Offices of trust,
obtained lucrative situations in the treasury
department. where they had control of large
sums of money, and, as was to be expected,
they abused their trust, and defrauded the
government out of large sums of money.
None of them were called to account, APP
parently through fear of creating alarm.
Another feature of the treasury manage
ment ia the use to which the secret SER
vice has been put. It has been used as po-
litical machine, to blaoken the characters of
political opponents or to coeroe men into the
support of this or that candidate favorable
to the administration. This is illustrated by
the paragraph quoted relative to the missing
page of the appropriation bill of the last
Congress providing for the Hot Springs
commission. ~
The cotton seizures during the war were
fruitful source of profit to the treasury of
ficlals and their friends. Itappears that over
nine and half millions of dollars of the
fund derived from the sales of cotton were
eaten up in expenses, and that there is now q
deficiency of six and half millions as re-
ported by the secretary. Besides this. evil.
dence has been procured showing the seizure
from loyal claimants of several million dol.
lars worth of cotton, of which no account
was ever rendered.
The management of the marine hospital
service proves to be rotten. Though the tax