Page:Haiti- Her History and Her Detractors.djvu/378



The principal impression produced by many books on Haiti is that honest men are in the minority in the country and that the great majority of the Haitians, from the highest to the lowest classes, are corrupt, their chief occupation consisting in plundering the treasury. There have been Presidents, Ministers, and other minor officials who have betrayed the trust placed in them by the people. In the management of public funds some of them have been oblivious of the primal rules of right and honesty; they have not always had present in their minds the fact that every cent unlawfully drawn from the treasury was like stealing a portion of the scanty earnings of the producer who, by the taxes which he has to pay upon his coffee, cocoa, etc., is made the principal victim of their corrupt dealings. These dishonest actions are to be regretted and deserve the severest condemnation. But it is unjust beyond measure to hold a whole nation responsible for the action of a few of her citizens. In every country wrong goes side by side with right; and in order to establish an average one must find out which prevails over the other. Those dishonest men who accumulate wealth at the expense of the people seem at first glance to be more numerous, the display of their ill-gotten wealth making them conspicuous. They attract by these means more attention than the great majority of honest citizens who perform their