The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1873-07-31
The Ethics of Swindling.

Cotton or stock gambling, growing out of the
desire To become rapidly rich, is at the bottom
of most of the cases of swindling by public
officers, which from time to time, in the popu-
lar phrase, create "a sensation in financial cir
cles." The unfortunate defaulter is pitied and
sympathized with, in proportion to the SNUG
ness of his face and the sobriety of his mien,
by one class, and to his open handedness and
good fellowship by another. Between the two
stools the defaulting ssint slips out of the pen
itentiary. There was really, therefore, no eX-
cuse for the Brooklyn bank president, who
committed suicide last week, in order to save
himself from the consequences of his blunders
in arithmetic. 1t was great mistake: Inc
death by drowning, according to the ethics OF
American society, is far more disgraceful than
genteel swindlng. Are we not all swindlers,
say the apologists? There is the politician
who swindles his constituents, by promising
what he will not perform, and by selling them
like sheep as soon as his election is secured.
There is the white-chokered individual, in
whose mouth butter would hardly melt, who
hates Rebels and sits on the front bench at
meetin', and he swindlcs the public by closing
the shutters and drawing the curtains which
hide the rottenness of his private life. There
is the wholesale or retail dealer who swindles
by adultcration, or by doctoring, or by charg-
ing for his wares more than they are worth.
All men, say the apologists, are swindlers IN
thought, or word, or deed. Why then be severe
in your condemnation Of the banker who squan-
ders half million, and makes clean breast
of it when the secret can no longer be kept?
The one object of the banker, as of the politi-
clan and the merchant, is to make money, or
to make q reputation" which has its cash
value in the market. And be assured, friends
that for every defaulter who is detected half a
dozen go scot free. Some one must win some
times Every spcculator does not always lose.
II is only those who are steadily on the wrong
side who come to public grief. They took the
money to dabble in stocks with, and expected
to put it back. Of course they did. A few DO
win in the gamc more draw out before their
losses are too heavy to be borne. 1t Is the
heavy operators who go i'll deep, and are una
hle to rise to the surface, who are found out at
last and point the moral of the eventul history.
Is there no hope that embczzlcment and de-
faultinc by public officers, and swindllng by
men of business, will soon be arrested? None!
Life in America Speaking mainly of the luNu-
rious Northern cities) is unendurabIe without
an abundance of money. Happiness is IN di-
rect proportion to the size of the balance i'll
bank. To him who has much, much is forgiv-
en- and the same charity is extended, as
mantle. over those who do their best to pile up
greenbacks, and, instead, pile up SIN s,I upon SIN,
wrong-doing upon wrong-doing The fault IS
in the finding it out Make money; honestly
If Won can, but make money That is Society
doctrine. and il has its effect So long as it
lasts the milionairish swindler will escape Sc
rious % punishment; only the petty thief will be
whipped with words and locked up i'll the
prison cell. Money! Have we not examples
enough of its power in this poor State? Are
not men who are known to be arrant rogueS
escorted and lattcrcd for their dollars, for their
influence, for their control over this scheme or
that?
II is sickcning tale whose dcaosemcM no
man can know News dn9 Churifr.
= Thc best motto for insurance companies