Daily Los Angeles herald., 1881-08-28
The Lesssu Of aowgsss's Eusbezsie-
ment.

lifted for few moments and
Q transient fash of light illumines
the officia al nastiness therein. Oc-
casional accidental discoveries can
not be prevented, or the infamies
which have lately become public
concerning Captain Howgate's ad-
ministration of the Signal service
Bureau would never have been the
subjects of newspaper articles.
Here we have an official who has
been guilty of peculation and mall
versation for period of years.
Year in and year out he has been
raising warrants and making false
balances, adding forgery to embez-
xlement. He seems to have been
allowed to have his own sweet will
In everything. There appear to
have been absolutely no checks or
restraints Of any kind on this man.
As result, his stealings are said
to amount to fully four hundred
thousand dollars during the last
four years. Congress, accepting
departmental estimates as made in
good faith, has appropriated, dur
Ing Capt. Howgate's control Of the
Signal Service Bureau, from $780,
600 to $500, 600 q year. How loosely
those estimates were made is con-
clusively shown by Hcwgate's
quite princely populations. We
have no doubt whatever but that
tho same unprincipled extrava-
gsnce permeates every department
: of the administration at Washing
ton. The Treasury Department
under John Sherman, In the sane
titled Hayes regime, is known to
have been resking with corrup-
tion, which has been sedulously
lowered up by Secretary Window.
At the opening of President Gar
feld's administration great pa
rade was made about furnishing
the Star route frauds, and yet dur
ing the whole of the fraudulent
Hayes's term there was never the
least admission of the existence of
anything which even merited the
name Of irregularity, much less of
gross corruption. 1t Is quite no.
ticeable that there was soon a de-
oidsd abatement in the zeal of
Postmaster General James and AT.
torney-General MacVeagh in pros.
scuting the offenders and accumu-
lating evidence. If the admins
tration of affairs at Washington
had passed into the hands of Sam
uel J. Tilden in March, 1877, who
doubts but that the four years.
saturnalia Of plunder of Assistant
Postmaster General Brady and his
Star Route associates would have
been impossible Further, what
reasonable man can doubt but that
. rigid inquisition would have
been made into every detail of the
public business, which would have
been Of incalculable benefit to the
Taxpayers If ever a fair inquiry
10 made into the secrets of the de-
pArtments at Washington, not by |
= bungling and helpless Congress
sional Committee, which Is neces-
sarily obliged to grope in the dark,
but by non. Republican heads of
bureaus, an amount Of peculatiOn
and malversation will be dis
closed which would make the
head Of the honest and con-
Ading Republican taxpayer
fairly swirl. The people of the
United States are precisely in the
attitude of the private banker who
should turn over his affairs to a
agent for twenty years
ut stretch, without ever subject
Ing the books to a critical inspec-
tion or the cash to verification.
In most matters the American peo-
pie are practical to a fault, but
whom IL comes to details of govern
msnt they show that the manage
ment Of their affairs should be
placed in the hands of a guardian,
we're such thing possible; or, to
put the case differently. they de-
Derve to be robbed and swindl led,
md to see the swindlers them
'elves put up the money to carry !
doubtful States, success in which ,
. the guarantee of their continued q
possession of power by unworthy :
men. This 10 just what was done /
q the last campaign in Ohio and q
neiana. Brady and his corrupt II
covered whole Sec n
Ions of Indiana with dol. /.
lrs, and their liberal en-
lOyment Of "rascal counters"
nrned the political tide at the crit. 7
nj moment. Any people who de- T.
|Fed to have good and honest !.
iministration Of the government r.
'ould see to 1t that at decent inter- al
nls-say about eight years-the o.
lrty IL power should yield up the 81
Dvernmsnt to its opponents. Only ~
that way can = wholesome en- ii
alton In parties be secured. Only
that way can be assured sys-
= of ohsck, and balances which II