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Show GRAFT A NATIONAL VICE. Grafting is by no means confined to the pettv and wholesale robbing of the community by public officials. There is the grafter who is false to the interests inter-ests of his employer: the grafter who uses his position with corporation . or rompanv to a dishonest end. In .every branch and ramification of the business, busi-ness, financial and industrial Tworld is found the grafter, smug of face, discreet dis-creet of tongue a snake warmed in the bosom of the one he systematically plunders. This spoliation has become the besetting and shameful sin of the American people. There is hardly an occupation or profession pro-fession which does not afford opportunity opportu-nity for graft. The time has come when graft is a recognized and conventional factor in determining the incomes of those who profit thereby. If the Benedict Arnolds of a city the size of New York or Chicaeo were to march in solid rank past the respective city halls, it would take them long to pass, snd it is to be feared that they would be greeted and applauded by throngs of envious and admiring followers. "We may accept it as a self-evident proposition that the man who buys his way into office intends to steal his way cut of it. These are the professional grafters; they make no pretenses of. a fine-spun morality. But equally dangerous dan-gerous and far more despicable are the grafters who pose as respectable members mem-bers of society. The grafter of the slums has his counterpart in the genteel, gen-teel, educated character in broadcloth, who prates of patriotism and asks the I blessings of Providence upon his peculations. pecu-lations. This is the only nation in the world where the holding of a public office raises a suspicion as to the character of the incumbent. We have not enough civic pride to outweigh the energy and the influence of the grafter. Since this astounding and deplorable state of affairs af-fairs obtains in no other nation, the inference is clear that we have reached a low moral plane. The grafter is an effect, not a cause. He is the retainer of dishonest business busi-ness interests: the henchman of those so carried away by the lust of greed that they do not hesitate to 'plunder their fellow citizens through the bribed co-operation of those who are elected to protect their interests. Brooklyn E8le. |
