COMMERCIAL MORALITY IN AMERICA.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 310, 27 December 1873, Page 1

COMMERCIAL MORALITY IN AMERICA.

The ' New York Herald' of September 6th contains a severe article on this subject, from which we extract the following: — Good and hopeful people thought that after the exposure of Tammany rascality od a gigantic scale and the virtuous indignation that was aroused such like evils would be checked for some time at least. The theory entertained, no doubt, was that tho same law of action and reaction and of adjustment which prevails in the physical world would operate in the moral world, and that after the storm of official

crime, if we may use such a simile, there would be a calm. But instead of a cessation of robbery, defalcations and fraud among those in authority, there has been a revival, and as a supplement to these crimes there have been alarming forgeries, counterfeiting and heavy robberies. It seems that the moral disease is contagious, and tbat the whole atmosphere of financial life, both in private aad public circles, is infected. Look in? at the astounding frauds in public life, vr* Re e that they are not confined to one pany. All parties aro guilty, the republicans and so-called reformers as well as the democrats. Bul while the crimes of Tammany were echoed and re-echoed across the Eaßt River, Rodman was at work in Brooklyn, much in the same way that Conolly had been working in New York, with the public money. Both the position and the opportunity of the two were somwhat alike. Rodman, as Deputy City Treasurer, held a situation analogous to that of Comptroller Connolly, that is, he had control of some of the city funds, aud he seems to have taken Connolly as his model. The plunder was not so large in his case, though the extent of his frauds is not yet known. Again let us glance at the plundering ring of republican officials in and connected with the District Government of Washington the capital of the nation. The frauds there lately stank in the nostrils even of republican members of Congress. Right under the eye of the Executive of the Republic, and, to some extent, under its control and under the scrutiny of the overvfrhelmning republican majority of Congress, the frauds upon the unfortunate citizens, and the federal Treasury have been unparalleled. Shall we advert to South Carolina and other States of the South, particularly to South Carolina, where this party had undisputed sway? The frightful official robberies committed . with unblushing effrontery there were known to the whole country. Then there is Philadelphia, in which recently the most damaging exposures were made of official misconduct under ring power. It will be remembered too, that in Jersey only lately plundering crimes were exposed in official life Which led to the conviction and imprisonment of the offenders. And what else can we expect, when the very fountain of moral life at Washington and in the State Legislatures is corrupt, when members of the Congress will vote themselves bock pay and sell themselves to the Credit Mobilier, railroad corporations and otber land grabbers and Treasury robbers ? Public virtue is undermined where the people should look for it most. Need we wonder, then, that rascally inclined private individuals, taking their impressions from the dishonesty of public men, should plunder their friends and employers, or that forgery and counterfeiting should prevail to an alarming extent? Then there is always a 'sort of tolerance, if not carelessness, regarding crimes that approach those of the cheating and cornering operators of the street. They have bank forgeries, counterfeiting on a great scale and gigantic frauds in England and other civilised nations, but they are not so systematically and circumstantially exposed as here. The luxury and fast living and looseness of morals of the age, in this country as well aB in other countries, are sapping the foundations of society. The pretence and sham of an artificial life constitute our greatest danger. mmwmmssßßSßgaßmm