St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1884-02-07
A Threatening Danger.
MONEY IN ITs INFLUENCE ON LEGISLA-
TION AND ELECTIONS.
Washington Correspondent N. Y. Times.

Washington Correspondent N. Y Times.
The most apparent and alarming
danger threatening republican institu-
tions is the use of money i'll politics
and to promote or defeat legislation
affecting private and corporate inter
| ests. The evil is not of recent origin.
Neither is it the habitat of certain sec
tiOns. There is not state in the
Union whose legislation has not been
affected by the potential agency of
money. There is not Il legislative body
in the United States to-day that cannot
be influenced by money considerations.
The employment of money in every
election, whether township, county,
municipal, state, or national, is uni
versally admitted and generally justi-
fed. All parties, regular and irregular,
no matter whether their watchword is
''To the victors belong the spoils," or
"Reform is necessary" alike levy their
! contributions, collect their campaign
fund, and make their disbursements.
All collections and disbursements are
not for corrupt purposes. A certain
amount of money for necessary and
legitimate use is perhaps required in
all electoral contests. individuals and
parties desire to inform the people
upon certain issues they deem of i'm
portance in the pending contest, and
for this purpose the printing press and
distributing agencies are employed.
| There are many other items of legiti
mate expense which have to be de-
| trayed. But even in securing the
means required for these unobjection-
able, and even laudable objects, indi-
viduals and parties very often assume
direct or indirect obligations evil in
their tendencies and cOrrupting i'll
their influences.
The growth of individual and corpo-
rate wealth i'll the United States is
something marvellous. Vast interests
are under the control of comparatively
few people. All corporations confer
benefits on society, but at the same
time they live off the people. The
natural tendency Of their management
is to exact from the community the last
farthing that can be safely taken for
services performed. The same is true
of combinations of producers and
manutactu.e ers. Combination, and not
competition, has become the life of
trade in this country. The greed of
capitalists, their anxiety to realize the
| largest possible profits i'll the shortest
space of time. has induced Il vicious
and short-sighted policy in the man
| agement of corporate and associated
interests. Our laws have been, and
are, entirely too lax in the regulation of
corporate powers, and they have been
still more laXly administered. The
public is now paying the penalty
therefor, and will continue to do so for
years to come. A day of reckoning
will come, and the danger is that when
it arrives the remedy will be as bad as
the disease. The pendulum which
marks the sweep of public remedy for
public wrong does not stop half way.
1t describes the same arc in measuring
the pulling down which it did in re-
cording the building up. History re-
peats itself. Human passions are the
same in all ages. They will remain
unchanged and Interchangeable until the
millennium comes.
The legislative bodies of this country
are not representative in the broad
and catholic sense they were meant to
be. Why? Because public morality
is at n low ebb; the public mind is de-
bauched the stream cannot rise
higher than its source; the sense of
public justice has become dulled: the
people have lost that keen apprecia-
tion of right and wrong in the con duet
of public affairs which is absolutely
necessary to insure prompt and salu-
tary remedies for public wrongs. Take
the star route frauds as an example
The vast majority of the people of the
United States are convinced that many
millions of dollars were stolen by a
combination of mail contractors and
public officials. They witnessed al
attempt to bring the guilty parties tt
, Justice. The exposition of the frauds
made it clear beyond the possibility oi
doubt that there were groups of con
tractors numbering in all more than {
bakers dozen of individuals. After 4
years preparation, with all the re-
: sources of the government supposed t.
! he ut the command of the officers OF
l. Justice, only one of the smallest o
these different groups was brought t.
the criminal bar. More than a veal
was consumed in the trial of this group
during which the government dis
bursed for lawyers fees alone more
than two-thirds as much as the con
spirators were alleged to have stolen
Z Long before the trials were concluded
! it was apparent to every intelligent
man, woman and child i'll the country
that the sO-called prosecution wai
farcical, and the acquittal of the ac
cused was not unexpected. In pub
lie address the Attorney-General de
clared that during two years more
Il, - Al
the public treasury by these gangs o
=, plunderers, and two years have since
ELAPSED without dollar of this money
being recovered or Il single thief bein.
punished. Has there been any publ,
0utcry at this miscarriage of justice
Have there been any evidences fpOpu
lar discomfort at the manifest incOm
potency, to use no harsher term, of tn,
, public prosecutors How is this su
pineness of the people to he accounted
for? Only upon one theOry-the all
pervading conviction that the govern
ment is the legitimate prey of all VIII,
can successfully rob it of millions
The Government is an abstraction t,
the people i'll times of peace and gen
eral prosperity. They vaguely recog
nize the fact that they are the govern
ment and that they have been robbet
but in the abstract of an infintesima
y sum. A series of wholesale robberies
by highwaymen or burglars, in com
munity, would cause intense local ex
citement and rouse every man t
desperation, and if the public author
tiles failed to do their duty vigilanc
:. committee would speedily set Judg
Lynch at work.
n The memory of the people is won
H. derfully retentive if ever-recurrin
> episodes of public robbery and mis-
y carriage of justice continually jog i