The Russellville Democrat., 1880-02-19
Public Plunderers.

Gan any one give agood reason fol that discrimination which holds II good repute and social promlnenct those officials who convert thousan d: of dollars worth of public property to their own use, while branding , felon and consigning to the peniten tiary the unofficial fellow who steals five dollars worth of the same goods or chattels?
 To us it seems a much greater crime for the paid and trusted agent of the government, placed in charge of it's business, to take public pro perty of any kind for his own use than for mere outsider to steal it We can guard against the depreda tions of the common thieves, but the official thief cannot thus be prevent ed from despoiling the public. He betravs the high confidence reposed in him and thereby augments his guilt. 3.7
 There is need of & very plain sim pie statute, making it felony and prescribing term Tn the peniten- tiary for any and every case of this sort. It would strike Tn many res. pectable quarters in almost every department or branch of the public service, and it would be likely to effect speedy cure of 2 great and growing evil.
 This species of thlevery is no, new. It has been going on for years It has been tolerated so long that it has come to be regarded as almost legitimate. We do not now refer to any particular department or any special case, but we allude to 8 custom in vogue here in Washington and in many other cities where the property of the United States is placed under care of the United States officials. It would not be diff, cult to give the names of hundreds who have been and are amenable to this charge, who have taken and still continue to take that which be longs to the Government and convert the same to their own use,
 There are hundreds of men in the penitentiaries of the United States with shaved heads and the felon's parti-colored garb, who owe their degraded position to the. crime ol taking food and clothing that did not belong to them. We do not say they ought not to be there. The rights of property must be protected and he who will not respect those rights must be placed where his dan gerous propensity can be regulated and controlled.
 But If these common larcenists de serve such treatment, if they have forfeited all civil rights and earned the infamy that attaches to a con- vict, what shall we say of the official thieves of whom we are speakingf We should not have to go back more than two or three years to find an officer who had grown rich on public plunder appearing as prosecuting witness and sending to the peniten- tiary boy who had stolen public property worth less than $25.
 We speak by the card, with accu- rate knowledge of the facts, when we say that this habit of official rob- bery, in thousand different shapes, is increasingly and alarminglypreva- lent. We know precisely whereof we assert when we say that hundreds of men in good soclal standing do not hesitate to commit this crime, and do not appear to think they are do ing wrong. Apparently they regard themselves as children of the govern ment, joint heirs of it's property, and help themselves to it and with as little sense of shame as boy feels Tn taking apples from his farther's or. chard. @-.-@ @r-
 Let the act be branded as felony and made punishable by a term in the society of convicted felons, and the eyes of these depredators will be suddenly opened. They twill 'cease to use the~stores, the. labor, tue eqnipages or any other property placed in their care for public uses. Washington Post.