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Show had powerful olitieal connections and were wealthy enough to put up a long fiizht in the courts if arrested, and very few of them were convicted. The whole business of robbing the government became more or less of a joke, and nien who obtained certain kinds of contracts or were appointed to certain federal positions, expected to get rich by the quickest and most direct methods, with no questions asked. M'c onee heard a story regarding the manner in which the government was swindled in supplying reservation Indians In-dians with beef. It was customary to supply the wards of the government with live cattle and allow them to do the butchering. So the' contractor would drive the herd to the reservation for delivery. The agent of the government govern-ment was supposed to count the steers in order to prevent Uncle Sam from being be-ing robbed. In some cases it used to be said that the agent would stand upon a knoll while the cowboys circled around it driving the cattle ahead of thetn, the agent counting the same steers as often as necessary to make up the number called for in the contract. The Indians finally exposed the thefts, but we never heard of anyone going to the penitentiary peniten-tiary on account of the exposure. History seems to be repeating itself, .now that the United States is again engaged in war. One day we hear that a score or more of manufacturers have been arrested for conspiring to defraud the government on contracts for supplying supply-ing an army in Europe with raincoats, and a day or two later we read of the indictment of another score of men for stealing beef bought for the use of the American soldiers. And so it goes. The agents of the department of justice seem to be alert and efficient enough to detect the frauds. But mere exposure expos-ure is not enough. All the rascals, great and small, who are caught stealing from the army during this war should be cast into prison without delay, even if it is necessary to suspend other matters before be-fore the courts in order to insure prompt trial. While the bravest and best of our young men are either over the seas or awaiting the call to fight for their country, we should see to it that the scum and offscourings of the earth are not allowed to pilfer from the government govern-ment at will. It is going to be a very difficult matter to raise the immense amount of money needed to finance the war, by taxation and by the sale of Liberty Lib-erty bonds, -and millions of honest people peo-ple are stinting themselves in order to help in every way possible. As a reward re-ward for the self-sacrificing spirit exhibited, ex-hibited, they are entitled to know that the money they contributed has been used to the best possible advantage, both at home and abroad, and in case of theft that the offenders have been properly punished. The war may last for a long time, and the practice of robbing the government should be stamped out before we get much further fur-ther along. MORE REVELATIONS. Federal officials on the lookout for predatory animals in the guise of human hu-man beings, have secured the indictment indict-ment of twenty-one in di vitals in New YoiWn on a charge of being implicated in the theft of beef consigned to the United. States army. According to tho story made public by the assistant United States attorney, the plan of operation was for checkers to tell foremen fore-men at the delivery depots to give receipts re-ceipts to drivers for a smaller amount than had been loaded upon their trucks, the excess being sold to butchers who disposed of it at a big profit. Had the thieves kept within bounds and been satisfied with comparatively small gains, they would probably have escaped es-caped notice, but they went, too far and their detection was inevitable and tho prison yawns for them. Many fortunes havo been built up and handed down to posterity at the expense ex-pense of the taxpayers of the country. This was particularly true of the army contractors of the civil war period and those who flourished in the days of reconstruction re-construction which followed the close of the struggle between the states. The government was gouged by day and by night, and the felons, some of them public gfficials, held up their heads and unhlubhiugly walked the streets even when they were certain their peculations pecula-tions were well known. This was due to the fact that those fellows |