Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-03-28
GRAFT IN PERSIA.
Officials Pay For the Privilege o
Fleecinq the Public.


Fleeing the Public.
1t would be difficult for q Persian
who has not travelled to understand
| American excitement over what the
newspapers here call graft" My
| motherland, Persia, Is not yet quite
| awake to the possibility Of a mans
serving the public for a certain fixet
salary and taking nothing more. II
Persia they take it for granted that
every officeholder will "gouge" people
| whenever he gets a chance.
There are no lawyers In Persia, SC
there are no jokes about lawyers ap.
petite for gold and silver. If you have
| ever had a costly lawsuit on youl
hands you may think that makes mat
ters simpler, but getting into trouble
means being squeezed for money
| wrung for money, as if you were 6
piece Of wet cloth in a washerwoman'!
strong grip.
This Is how it Is managed: First
you see, the governor of city or of 6
province never has a definite salary
from the state-not at all. On thu
contrary, he pays the state treasury
for the privilege Of being governor ant
| Of making what he can out of the en-.
| terprise. He Is not an elected officer
he Is more like a "concessionaire" a
one Of your big expositions, who Of
| fers a large sum for a chance to rur
a restaurant or to provide Ice cream
soda or candy.
The governor Cor mayor) of a larg,
Persian town may have perhaps 100 t.
| $50 employees under him. or thes,
| only a few house servants (cook
coachman and the like) have fixed
| wages. The incomes Of the others de-
pend upon the amount Of money which
they can help turn into the grea
mans hands in the form Of fines ant
taxes. You can guess whether tn,
neighbors are fond Of them!
Suppose now you live in Persia. Yol
have leased a piece of ground or yol
have sold some goods and the othe
man does not pay. You dun him
Then you threaten him. Then you q
to the governor and make a complaint
An officer arrests your debtor anC
takes him before the governors sec
rotary for examination. Possibly h,
can convince that important personag,
| that it is not a just debt. If he can
not do that he would better put all hi!
| wits to work to convince the secretar!
that poverty makes it quite Impossible
to pay up.
This Is where many Of the $50 un'
der employees get their chance.
large part of their occupation is hunt
| ing up facts about everybody's prop
erty, everybody's business, everybody:
income. They know an amazing mum
ber of things which your debtor sup
posed were safely secret. They pro
duce information whenever informa
ton is wanted.
Your mans .pretense that business |!
bad and that he is all but bankrupt !!
| brushed aside, and he is made to pro
| duce an amount Of money consider
ably larger than the original debt
| Made" to produce it? Yes. There
are shocking things that can be done
| to him if he hesitates too long. and N
| knows it. So, like a child aware tina
there Is an ugly stick waiting in thu
corner, he usually does not hesitate
too long He saves his skin and hand!
over the money. You get maybe 80 t.
| 90 per cent to satisfy your claim
that is, the officer of justice practical
ly collects from you something for hi:
own services. The rest goes to the
governor and such Of the employee!
as may be considered in the case.
Perhaps you have a shop in the towr
bazaar or market place and some pool
good for nothing steals a chicken tha
| was hanging on the wall. If a woman
| was the thief she is most likely finec
possibly whipped If she has no mon
ey to pay a fine. If the culprit is
man they punch a hole through the
cartilage of the lower end Of his nose
put a cord through the hole and leat
him in this painful disgrace all around
the bazaar. The officer collects as III
goes along a few cents from this shop
keeper and a few cents from that one
as an acknowledgment of the officer:
service in publicly exposing a thief.
Naturally it often happens that some
outrageous robbery occurs or some
body Is brutally murdered, and the
guilty one is unknown. Then the gov
ernor's detective agents set to work
Anybody may he arrested on suspicion
and examined either as the probable
offender or as witness. If the sus'
pect has plenty of money he can al
ways prove his innocence or his ignor-
ance by paying cash to the examining
officers, though, since there is no regu'
lated tariff i'm such matters, the pro-
ceeding may he quite expensive.
If the suspect is too poor to make
things right with the examiners or toe
stubborn to tell what he knows-anC
sometimes, l am afraid, if he really
does not know anything to tell-they
have some third degree" methods
warranted to make a man say some
thing. One such method is what they
call the "bastinado." 1t Is whipping
the soles of the bare feet with slen-
der rods Often live Goals from pipe
are put on the shavcn head of prls-
oner to make him confess. Sometimes
- But no. Probably YOU would not
care to hear any more along this par
ticular line Persian inventions in this
department of criminolOgy are clever
i'm their way, but not things to de-
scribe i'm full detail. Leon Medem in
New York World.