Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1883-01-12
Gurska DaiIn sentinel.
FRIDAY .. JANUARY ~ los
THE BOND LAW.

EAONtANNo - t
to abolish, or rather repeal, all existing
laws requiring official State, county Il
township bonds. In proposing this
measure Mr.. Schooling has merely put
into the form of legal expression a slngu-
lar sentiment. that has grown up in Ne
vada within the last few years. The orr
gin of this feeling is 20 to be sought Tor
in reason. The history of the most I'M
portant defalcations of officials in this
State most probably reveals the ground
of the opposition manifested against
bond laws. The bondsmen OF Eoen
Rhodes. defaulting State Treasurer, and
OF Benjamin f. Carriek, Treasurer OF
Storey County, We're released, the
former by legislative enactment and the
latter by Judicial decision. Perhaps the
result OF these cases has tended to create
the impression in the public mind that
all bonds are Of straw and that no law
can be devised that will bind the sure
ties. In other words, these cases and
others similar to them have disguised
the community, and led them to believe
that bond laws are useless and a dead
letter. This is rather a fancy. 1t is an
idea of the emotions and not of the judg-
ment. Those who argue for the aboli-
ton of bonds urge that the people should
choose servants whom they can trust inn
plicitly, that the requirement Of bonds
from elected officers is an imputation upon
their honesty. As against this it need
only be said that history keeps telling
us every day or so in the United States
that the people make mistakes in their
estimation of the fitness and honor OF
those whom they choose to entrust their
moneys to: also, that any safeguards set
about them in the interests OF their con-
stituents are not offensive, butgratifying,
to pure minded public servants. But,
further, those who claim that official
bonds are a useless, empty form do SO
chiefly on the ground that bondsmen are
d~ishonorable and resort to any questions
BILE means to defeat the ends of justice
in case of defalcation which they are
required to make good. Hence it is
clear their " argument deprives them
of their premises. Is it any more rea-
sonable to presume that bondsmen, ordi-
narily the bone and sinew Of the eommu-
nifty, are less likely TO be honest than the
successful candidate for office whose
preferment is oftener due to political
~manipulations than to his own political
virtues? Hardly. The presumption of
the abolitionists or repealers Of the Bond
law takes even a wider range than that
discussed. The premises on which they
base their argument involves the pre-
sumption that the Courts and the State
Legislature are disposed to favor the
plethoric bondsmen and bear them out of
trouble clear Of FORGETTING any Of their
ducats on technicalities Of law contorted
in the Interpretation for their relief; or,
to put it otherwise, that the bondsmen
always decline to pay and that they are
never made to do so by f~avoring Court
or friendly Legislature. They pre-
sumo dishonesty everywhere but
in the breast OF the elected politician,
This will not go down. In the face Of
every imposition that the people have
had to put up with in the execution Of
the Bond law, we still believe that there
may yet occur an instance in which
bondsmen will be required to come for
ward with the defalcation which they
bound themselves to make good; just one
instance if never another. The Bond
law is a good one if it is carried once
into execution, though it should fail of
its legitimate purpose in hundred other
instances. Who doubts. either, that a
law may be framed which will hold good?
The law of ~sureties has been in opera
ton for hundreds Of years in all civilized
countries, and has proved a wholesome
protection against the d~epredations of
dishonest public servants, whose friends,
having vouched for their good character,
have been made to pay the people, or the
Government, the price of the guarantee.
Were the Bond law to be recognized only
as a seare-crow even, it would be better
than none. It is a pleasant and gener-
GUS thing to believe that the voice of the
people, as expressed in public elections,
is the voice OF God, and that hence the
elect are of divine official creations; bat
there is no harm done by taking a cold
blooded, business-like, or even suspicious,
view of this proposition. The people
whose moneys are in trust feel easier
and safer therefor, while those public
servants who prove themselves honest
and pure suffer nothing from the onus of
a bond. Mr.. Schooling himself served
the State of Nevada for eight years
under bonds. He is not any the
worse for it, now, in his reputation.
His bond evidently never handicapped
him in any way, for his name has become
synonymous with honesty. The proper
thing to DO is not TO repeal the present
law in regard to bondsmen, but to amend
it so that it will accomplish its avowed
purpose.
AMATEUR ATHLETICS.