The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1911-04-20
GRAFT IN PERSIA.
Officials Pay for the Privilege of
Fleeing the Public.

It would be difficult for 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 certain fixed
salary and taking nothing more. In
Persia they take it for granted that
every officeholder will "gouge" peo-
pie whenever he gets a chance.
There are no lawyers in Persia, so
there are no jokes about lawyers ap-
petite for gold and silver. If you have
ever had a costly lawsuit on your
hands you may think that makes
matters simpler, but getting into
trouble means being squeezed for
money, wrung for money, as If you
were a piece of wet cloth in wash
erwoman's strong grip.
This is how it is managed: First,
you see, the governor of a city or OF
a province never has a definite sal
ary from the State-not at all. On
the contrary, he pays the State treas
ury several thousand dollars more or
less for the privilege of being gov
ernor of making what he can out Of
the enterprise. He is not an elected
officer; he is more like "conces-
sionaire' at one of your big exposi-
tions, who offers large sum for a
chance to run a restaurant or to pro-
vide ice cream soda or candy.
The governor Cor mayor) of a
large Persian town may have per-
haps 100 to $50 employees under
him. OF these only a few house SER
wants (cook, coachman and the like)
have fixed wages. The income of the
others depend upon the amount of
money which they can help turn into
the great mans hands in the form Of
fines and taxes. You can guess
whether the neighbors are fond Of
them!
Suppose now you live in Persia.
You have leased a piece Of ground
or you have sold some goods and
the other man does not pay. You
dun him. Then you threaten him.
Then you go to the governor and
make a complaint. An officer ar
rests your debtor and takes him be-
fore the governors secretary for ex-
animation. Possibly he can convince
that important parsonage that It is
not a just debt. If he canot do that
he would better put all his wits to
work to convince the secretary that
poverty makes it quite impossible to
pay up.
This is where many of the $50 un-
der employees get their chance. A
large part of their occupation Is
hunting up facts about everybody's
property, everybody's business, ev-
erybody's income. They know an
amazing number of things which
your debtor supposed were safely
secret. They produce information
whenever information is wanted.
Your mans pretense that business
is bad and that he is all but bank
rupt is brushed aside, and he is
made to produce an amount of money
considerably 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 he knows it. So, like a
child aware that there is an ugly
stick waiting in the corner, he usu-
ally does not hesitate too long. He
saves his skin and hands over the
money. You get maybe 80 to 80
per cent. to satisfy your claim-that
is, the officer of justice practically
collects from you something for his
own services. The rest goes to the
governor and such of his employees
as may be considered in the case.
Perhaps you have a shop in the
town bazaar or market place and
some poor good-for-nothing steals a
chicken that was hanging on the
wall. If a woman was the thief
she is most likely f1ned-possibly
whipped If she has no money to pay
a fine. If the culprit is man they
punch hole through the cartilage
of the lower end Of his nose, put a
cord through the hole and lead him
in this painful disgrace all around
the bazaar. The officer collects as
he goes along few cents from this
shopkeeper and a few cents from
that one as an acknowledgment OF
the officers public service in pub
licly exposing a thief.
Naturally it often happens that
some outrageous robbery occurs or