The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1879-01-23
clothing which is none too heavy for COM
Portable use in the summer season.


now in his possession adds force to the pre-
viously existing reasons for an inquiry by
the Potter Committee into the larceny by
which they passed into the hands OF the
party or parties which furnished them for
publication General Butler states that
they were sent to him in an under
hand manner early last spring; that
they aiterward disappeared; that he could
no. explain their surreptitious removal;
that they were subsequently restored to
his private office without any notice to
him, and that he stumbled upon them by
accident. He then had them numbered,
stamped and put away in q safe place He
offers to deliver them to the committee, and
contends that they should be printed In
order that every member of the committee
may have an opportunity to examine them.
The covert manner in which they were
thrust into his possession, their subsequent
mysterious disappearance and their equally
mysterious temperance make singular
piece Of history. These surreptitious pro-
ceedings should be probed to the bottom.
They are euveloped in a secrecy like that
which shrouds the stealing OF Mr.. Stewards
corpse and other great criminal movements,
secrecy which attests the mean and skulk-
ing character of the transaction. The
things which were thus done in darkness
should be dragged forth into the light, and
the conscious and self-condemned thieves
be exposed and punished.
General Butler in his speech on Tuesday
avon al tho Svasfaro TIuion Com many
from all blame in connection with the de-
spatches. When General Butler made that
speech he could not have seen the inter-
view with President Green published in
the HERALD Of the same day. DR.. Green
stated that after vain attempts by Presi-
dent Orion and the directors ofsthe Western
Union to resist the subpoena nearly
thirty thousand dispatches were put into
huge Saratoga trunk and sent to WASH
ington that the same trunk was afterward
returned and supposed to contain oil the
dispatches which the company put into it !;
that its contents, however, were never ex-
amined after the trunk was sent back. 1t
is impossible to exculpate the Western
Union from loose and careless manner Of
transacting important business. Instead
Of budding the dispatches pell nell into
| trunk the company should have taken
q careful inventory and kept record,
marking and numbering all the dispatches,
and comparing the returned contents Of the
trunk with the inventory. It appears
| from DIR. Green's statement that nothing Of
| the kind was done, and that the Western
Union neither knew nor adopted any
| means to ascertain whether all the de-
| spatches sent to Washington came back in
the Saratoga trunk. That they did not all
come back is evident. and the company
must be held responsible to public opinion
for gross and culpable negligence. Had a
proper inventory been taken when the de-
spatches were sent to Washington, and q
strict comparison been made with the
inventory on their return, the theft
would have been promptly detected
and there would have been better chance
of discovering the perpetrators. There
may be difference of opinion as to whether
the Western Union should have obeyed the
"drag-net" subpoena; but there is no room
for any difference of opinion as to the loose,
negligent and unbusiness-like manner in
which the dispatches were sent to Wash
ington and received back. A huddled mess
and a trunk was sent back whose contents
were never examined! It is too evident
that the Western Union had no proper sense
otits confidential obligations to senders of
messages.
| We are amazed that so little was said in
the debate on Tuesday respecting the most
important feature of this strange business
The speakers seemed to be occupied only
with the partisan view of the subject, and
to have been quite Obvious to the interest
of the community in the inviolability of
it's correspondence by telegraph. But this
is the paramount question. The vindication
or condemnation of Mr. Tilden is really a
very small matter in comparison with the
safety and sacredness of telegraphic de-
spatches Had the mails been rifed and n
large batch Of private letters been pub
lshed there would have been no bounds
to the indignant denunciation and the
demands for justice against the perpetra-
| tors sBut there is no valid reason why
letters and kilograms should not be equally
| protected.
|
The Great Dressing Room Question.
At last there seems to be for o moment
q little lull in the worlds great activities
Attempts at regicide are stoppedin Europe
nobody roars over the Berlin treaty, Canda-
har is taken and the French Ministry has
come down, while here at home Roscoe
Conkling is elected to the United States
Senate, specie payment is more or less re-
stored. Mr.. Stewards body is found want
ing. Mrs. Anderson has stopped walking
and Mrs. Cobb has gone to Jail, and we sin
cerely hope that the public, having put be-