The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1903-06-30
AGE OF CRAFTS" AND RAKE
OFFS"

Public office i a public trust i
true only when honest and worthy men
are elevated to positions Of trust. Most
men in public office are honest and capa-
bic, seeking no gratis or "rakeons."
But there j. an inlisposition upon the
part OF many men who ought 10 be in
public life to enter into contests that
are not agreeable to them The conse-
quence i. that more and more men are
chosen who push themselves and get into
office by ''manipulations' and the bribery
OF corrupt and weak men. In nearly
every case that a man gets office by
such methods he proceeds to get enough
'rake-offs' to reimburse himself. The
scandals OF 'graft"-(a new word IN
vented TO describe a new species OF cor
~ruption)-are seen too often. st. Louis
but Philadelphia has promoted and hon
ored It's grafters. 1t remains to be seen
what the Roosevelt administration Will
do with the army of ~grafters who have
LIoC IN poSlOAh1t hCpol " 9NNL01
in the ~nostrils OF the people.
A timely, a wise, and sensible edi-
torial in the Baltimore Sun on his sub
ject is 50 good that we give it in full
below:
THE postal scandals that are now
stirring up the government IN Washing
ton and elsewhere are a striking NANTES
tation of the spirit of the age. And the
spirit of the age Is graft or "rake-off,"
as it is variously called. 1t pervades every
rank Of society. The man who has d trust
wants to get something out of it. Men
are not satisfied with the legitimate mol
uments of their places. II the butler is
sent to market to buy provisions for the
family the chances are hat he Will dc
mand a rake off, from the butcher and
the green grocer. Not long ago it was
shown to be a practice IN New York for
the grocer to give Christmas presents to
the servants IN rich families, for the Iar-
ness maker and the coachmaker to give
Christmas presents to the cOachmac.
Agents who have orders to give often I'M
prove the opportunity to exact a percent
age. But in dealing with the government
the graft" comes more consplcuously into
use. Ii "a man invents some appliance
the use Of which will save the government
perhaps millions of dollars he may be com
PEELED to pay some official a sum of money
to get him Interested. The recent dis
closures about a mail pouch contract are
an Illustration of one method of graft"
A contractor gets so cents for "a pouch, but
the government pays a dollar. The diff
ference represents the graft" which is
said to go to the man who gives the
order, A clerk is Illegally promoted to a
place which has a larger salary than that
which he has been getting. He pays q
part of the increased salary to the man
who procures the promotion.
There IS another kind of graft" not
considered dishonorable, but which rs. per
haps, on that account even more baneful
III its far reaching effect. 1t Is the sys-
tenn which has for years. almost from the
beginning of the government, affected
every grade of officialdom. 1t is in the
use of public office for private benefit:
The man who has an office to bestow
does not ordinarily make his selection
with an eye single to the public good. He
wants something out of it for himself.
He wants the political influence of the
man he appoints and he is to appoint the
man who can give him most of that when
he comes up for denomination or re-elec-
1890 tittt INV
appointment is to strengthen the party,
but the man who uses that plea generally
considers himself the party. 1t was to
meet this recognized evil that the social
ed civil service reform movement was
started a number of years ago.. The OBJ
ject of the refOrmers was to secure the
employment of officials best fitted for the
work they had to do regardless of party
affiliations. That movement resulted in
the enactment of a law which has done
lncalculable good. But ever since its en-
actment politicians have been busy making
breaches IN the ramparts 1t spread around
the public service, and these efforts have
been attended with some success, as the
recent disclosures of the practices in the
Postofflce Department seem to show.
"A half century ago the practice of
using the patronage of the government
for private benefit had become so pro-
bounced that in the constitution of the
Confederate States the president, who was
to have a term of six years. was not re
eligible. The intent of this wise provi-
sion was to prevent that high official from
using the vast patronage Of his office to
promote his own renominatlOn.'