White Cloud Kansas Chief

The Amount. A writer in one of the New York papers who seems to have studied his figures carefully, makes the amount which the Tammany thieves 'have stolen or wasted in bribes of some sort to protect their stealing in the last twenty months to be not less than fifty-nine millions dollars.' The total sum received by the city government during this period - from taxation, the sale of bonds and miscellaneous sources - he sets down at ninety-nine millions of dollars. He estimates the legitimate current expenses of the city to be $15,000,000 per year, which in two years would make $30,000,000. He then adds $5,000,000 per year for permanent public improvements, giving an aggregate of $40,000,000 in two years. He thus reaches $40,000,000 as the total expenditure for two years on the supposition that the government of the city had been honestly and economically conducted. Deducting this from the amount received in the last twenty months we have a balance of $59,000,000, of which the thieves have robbed the public, which when they have enriched themselves, and a portion of which they have used in carrying elections and bribing the legislature of this State. These figures, which we give upon the authority of the writer referred to, may not be exactly correct; yet no one doubts whether this Tammany rascality presents one of the most monstrous instances of speculation and swindling known in the history of the world. Its bold daring, its insatiable greediness, its artful cunning, its corruption of legislation and the ballot-box, its persistent and determined iniquity, and its fearful success leave no doubt as to the total depravity of these Tammany robbers. Now that they have been thoroughly defeated at the ballot-box let them be hunted by the most vigilant and uncompromising justice. The people should not be contented with simply driving them from political power. Their ill-gotten millions should be restored to the city-treasury: and then the villains themselves should be punished to the utmost extremity of the law. A system of laws that contains no adequate remedy for such crimes against the public would be little better than a mere sham. This great uprising among the people is their solemn and authoritative mandate directing the officers of the law to bring these robbers to justice. If they escape either by negligence or legal technicalities the fact will be a burning disgrace to New York. - N. Y. Independent.