The Savannah morning news., 1903-11-30

words blackmail these candidates.
There should be legislation which will
permit OF summary dealing with such
offenders.
Punishment Is Needed.
However, the prime need is not new
legislation, but the punishment of those
who offend against existing laws. The
Postot1ce Department is making GER
tain changes in the methods of admin
istration, notably in the method of
inspection, by which the service will
be improved and the chance of cor
ruption existing without discovery be
minimized; but the only way to meet
the real evil is to punish the offend
ers, by removal in any event, and
where possible by prosecution under
the criminal statutes. In any great
business, public or private, wrongdoing
is certain at times to occur. The
way to guard against it is vigorously
to scrutinize the character of those
appointed carefully to supervise their
actions after appointment and finally
to punish with relentless severity those
who go wrong. All this is being done.
The immediate reformation of the
service by the turning out of the Of
tenders is not in itself enough to meet
the demands of Justice. The cases
against both those within and those
without the PoStoffice Department,
who by their acts have brought them
selves within the grasp of the law, will
be pushed with the utmost vigor
Every effort must be made to see that
both the delinquent official and the
outsider who shares his guilt are pun
ished to the limit of the law. In pur-
suance of this policy the individuals
above enumerated have been indicted
In no case has the indictment been
sought save where the officials of the
government were convinced of the
mans guilt; and in every case the
government will exhaust every eXpedi-
ent in it's power in the effort to see
that justice is melted out to the Of
tenders. Those in the public service
whose duty it is must ever be vigilant
in the detection of wrondoing, fear
less in its exposure, relentless in its
prosecution but in the last resort,
when everything which the public Off
cial, whether legislator. judge or exec
utive officer. can do has been done, it
remains for the jury, drawn from the
people and representing the people, to
do even-handed justice. shielding the
innocent, but declining to be misled
by any plea into retaining from pun
ishment of the guilty.
His Final MOrnIizing.
No crime calls for sterner reprobation
than the crime of the corruptionist
in public life, and of the man who
seeks to corrupt him. The bride giver
and the bride taker are equally guilty.
Both alike sin against the primary
law of the states safety. All ques-
tions of difference in party policy sink
into insignifoance when the people of
this country are brought face to face
with a question like this, which lies
at the root of honest and decent gov
eminent. On this question, and on all
others like 1t, we can afford to have
no division among good citizens. In
the last resort good laws and good
administrati ton alike must rest upon
the broad basis of sound public opin-
ion. A dull public conscience, an
easy-going acquiescence in corruption,
infallihly means debasement in public
life, and such debasement in the end
means the ruin of free institutions.
Self-government becomes a farce if
the representatives of the people cor
rupt others or are themselves corrupt
ed. Freedom is not gift which will
tarry long in the hands of the dishon-
est or of those so. foolish or so incom-
petent as to tolerate dishonesty in their
public servants. Under our system all
power comes from the people, and all
punishment rests ultimately with the
people. The federation of the wrong,
not the exposure of the wrong, is the
real OffenSe Theodore Roosevelt