Show ii I 1 j STAB ROUTE FOOLISHNESS l The government law officers are t f again assuming a show of earnestness F ti 1 is ness in the starroute prosecutions ST just as if everybody virtually had not come to understand by this 1 t time that these cases were a huge I sham The late attorneygeneral l was too dignified to work and the late postmastergeneral was tooL too-L small to nil the hole One entrusted his duties to light weight subordinates i subordi-nates and the other shouldered a f ° good deal more than he could wad f 1 dIe under A loud outcry was made that the government had been and was being robbed and the impression im-pression was sought to be created that the starrouters were a band of thieves who had their agents and corrupt employees in the various departments of the nation administration I admin-istration The howl went up a year ago and the foulest nest ever unearthed un-earthed was promised to be immediately imme-diately uncovered We do not know how many arrests have been made how many indictments found nor how much money this brce e has cost the nation but this much is known that the only convicti n brought about is of a couple of sn significant fellows in Pennsylvania who as bondsmen swore they had more property than the tax collector collec-tor could find It is also believed that the suit has cost the people peo-ple more money than will ever be recovered from the star routers who if they have been thieves seem to have behind them the authorization au-thorization and endorsement Congress Con-gress for all their actions President Arthur it is pretty well understood understands the situation thoroughly thor-oughly and knows how foolish it is to proceed with the cases which in volve certain defeat of the government govern-ment but his political foes are crowding him and his administration administra-tion into the corner compelling a prosecution of the foolish business or accepting the censure for protecting protect-ing those who have been stealing the peoples money But it seems as if it were about time for the curtain cur-tain to drop on this farce Whether or not the star route contractors are guilty there is not the ghost of a show for their conviction and punishment pun-ishment They have headed government gov-ernment at every turn and will do so to the end when the people will have the grim satisfaction of knowing know-ing that all that has been accomplished accom-plished is the sending of some of their good money after the bad in feeing lawyers hiiing detectives paying witnesses and bearing the expenses of costly and unnecessary trials |