The National tribune., 1900-05-31
NO HEAsoN FOR DIscouRAGEMENT.

Bad as the Cuban postal frauds are, be
yond the power OF language to properl.
condemn, yet they furnish no reason 10
encouragement as to the future Of OIL
colonial administration. We have haI
much more stupendous frauds in almos
every department of our Government, anC
yet We survived them, and in the course of {
few years so vigorously purified that brancl
Of the service as to make future occurrences
of the kind impossible.
Today we have. beyond doubt, the
purest and most efficient civil service in The
world. The average character of oul
officials is higher than that of any other
country, they accomplish more work foi
the pay they receive, it costs less per cent
to collect our revenues, fewer things escape
their proper share of taxation, there is a
smaller amount of peculation and favorit-
ism, and a smaller proportion of our dis
buTsements are stolen or misapplied than
anywhere else in the world.
Yet recall for a moment how intensely
discouraging were epochs in every branch
of the public service, when it seemed i'm
possible TO get honest administrators of the
laws, to frame legislation which would pre-
vent corruption, or to compel those whom
the laws were intended to reach to pay the
Treasury what was due it.
Every one of our older readers will recall
the fearful time we had before we got the
Internal Revenue system into efficient
operation. For five or six years it bred a
perfect saturnalia of corruption, which
seemed TO include every officer in the Inter
nal Revenue service, and every man who
made, sold, or was in any way connected
with tobacco, whisky, beer, matches,
proprietary articles, and other leading
subjects Of excise. Millions upon millions
Of dollars were stolen every year, some of
the most honored names in the country
were smirched with corruption, and some
Of the most gallant officers of the war were
swept into maelstrom of wrong doing.
The great body Of business men were ac~
completes in the frauds. At the time the
tax on whisky was 50 a gallon and 81
gallon on alcohol no one pretended to pay
more than s1.25 a gallon in purchasing
whisky and 81. so for alcohol. He could not
do it and compete in business with his fellow
merchants, druggists, manufacturers, etc.
This meant that not more than one gallon
in ten paid the duty to the Government.
The nine illicit gallons Of whisky and alco-
hol formed 4 rich loot for distiIIers and
venders, and corruption fund for the
officials. The newspapers were filled with
exposures" the court dockets were crowded
with trials, and the corruption extended to
the juries and legal prosecutors. 1t was
with beer, tobacco, and other articles. For
years we carried on a sort Of guerrilla
warfare with the moonshiners, in which
more lives were lost than in the Spanish
war. AS late as 1876, Is years after the
Of the Internal Revenue sys-
TEN, we had gigantic development Of a |
whisky fraud which smirched some officials |
quite near the White House. Yet to-day |
there is not a more efficiently administered |
branch of the public service in any nation |
than our Internal Revenue system. Wei
believe it demonstrate that we collect |
more duties at less cost than in any other
excise system in the world; that there is |
less evasion Of duties, and more general |
honesty among officials than anywhere
else.
Much the same history can be told of |
our tariff, land, and postoffice systems,
and the same praise can be accorded their |
present administration.
1t was perhaps TO be expected that the
anomalous conditions following the trans
fer of the Cuban Government to US would be
taken advantage of by INSCRIPTIONS men
to endeavor to enrich themselves, but we
can rely upon natural American honesty
and capability to qaickly straighten out
the tangles, and bring the service to the
highest point Of honesty and efficiency, as
has been done in the inconceivably worse
tangles Of our Internal Revenue, tariff, land
postoffice, and other systems.