Omaha daily bee., 1885-03-03
Official Corrupt,on in China,

Chicago Tribune.
If one.tenth Of what is told ia true,
China is the Paradise of the civil.service
reformer.
Official life there is said-and all tax.
paying Cinnamon believe the assertion
from the Pekin authorities down to Sthe
petty mandarian who has q ship or a few
soldiers in charge 10 be one continual
"squeeze." If the emperor or those rep
resenting him, want silks, mirrors OF
other luxuries for the palace, they send
word to the vlceory of some province,
who sees that the articles are supplied
without delay.
His place depends on his obeylng the
command. If he does not happen tc
have the money, he squeezes it out yf the
taxpayers. Whether he has 1t on hand
or not, the squeeze is inevitable. A
mandarin who has grown to be suspici.
ously rich is told that the i'm,
perlal government is poor and needs q
certain sum of money. He Ia
quite aware that it Is not paid, he will be
arrested for POPULATION. Vicsroys are
expected to pay q stated amount Into the
national treasury. If business has been
bad aud taxes slow in coming In, he ap-
plies the screws q little moro vigorously
and the amount Is Forthcoming, or he
pays 1t from his previous il!-gotten gains.
A general is supposed to have an army of
30 many thousand men. 1t exists on
paper and he gets paid for that number.
When a review is called for by some
higher official he hastily fills up his ranks
from the paddy fields or the coolies of the
neighboring city.
The experimenting mandarins at the
arsenals are constantly paid for men who
are dead, or who were never employed.
They are paid for material that was
never used. The are paid for work or
material of n quality and furnish work
or material of another quality.
For Instance, as In the casa Of
the shells found at Foo Chow. Thsy
were filed with charcoal, inst ead of the
powder for which they had received the
hard cash of the government. Even the
facred name Of LII Hung Chang Is not
spared in accusations of this character,
though just now, while the iucome from
the customs Is light, his private purse
Is said to be drained to supply his
country's needs. 1t is doubtless not
alone the necessity of having some min
ster familiar with foreign politics and
personally agreeable to foreigners but the
need of some competent financial ad-
wiser, or slmoner, that has led TO his re.
inststsment. The Chinese have been
en- gagged in BUILDING lines of telegraph
since their Last trouble with Russia In
Kuldjs, which gave them an idea of it's
usefulness. The work has been done
under the direction of Danish oficsrs by
soldiers and coolies. Opportunities for
peculatlon have been ample and have
not been neglected. When the
line was commenced from TEN
tsin, 10000 poles..' were ordered.
The mandarin In charge was poor when
he took the contract, but soon became
rich. His otfense was fragrant and gem
orally known, and it was expected he
would loss his blue button if not his
head. Instead of this he shortly after
ward appeared with a red button, show
log that instead of being dlsgraced hehad
made been promoted. 1t was whispered
that he had made the usual present to
persons In authority of a golden horse.
shoe, or a snuff box, containing in sue
cinct form a portion of the spoils. There
carry on the war with the French, and
the squeeze Is becoming more general.
The government Is turning its attention
to the oompsradors, the intermediate
agehts between the foreign firms and the
natives, some of whom are petty man
darlns and rich.