New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-09-27
THE DRY ROT,

The disasters of the panic are not more
lamentable than the exposures which come
with them of the widespread decentralization
which has invaded business circles. The failure
of the Brooklyn Trust Company was less
misfortune than the revelation of Mr.. Mills's
shameful defalcations. 1t was only when
the pressure of circumstances forced the
Union Trust Co. to suspend that the treachery
and dishonesty of Carlton, its Secretary, were
discovered. People wondered, and could not
understand how the son of so good father
should lfave so lapsed from virtue And now
we are forced to record the miserable fact
that the father also has robbed the religious
organization with which he was connected
of a sum which seems the more mOnstrOus
when we reflect in what small contributions
and with what fervent prayers it was accumu-
lated. A bank in NewJersey and one in Con-
necticut have also suspended, swept clean by
defalcatiOns.
We have preached the same sermon so often
in these columns that there may be some
thing of mOnotony in it. Yet we must 20 on
preaching it, for there will be no sOundness
in business life until it is needed. These ever
recurring incidents of ruin and rascality have
denly rich, and their opportunity in tho loose
and reckless management of financial in
stitutions, which are the curse and the
fashion of "the Street" at this time.
The spectacle daily Haunted before the eyes
of young men in business, of vast fortunes
gained by bold and desperate gambling, is full
of poisonous influence. The history Of the
leading gamblers is as full of interest to the
clerks in great houses as the lives of pirates
and highwaymen to schOolbOys. But the
Young men of New-YOrk do not have the
benefit even of the slight moral lesson con-
veyed by the picture of the gallows which
usually closes the story of the rovers OF the sea
or the champions of HOunslow Heath. They
see the pirates of the Street. men of worship
and authority. They know by what tOrtuOus
and often dishonest means they gained their
great successes, and they see that Christian
bankers do not for that reason refuse them
their hands or decline business association
with them. They are led in this way in
sensibly to regard all means for making money
as legitimate in case it succeeds. They see
that great operators continually betray their
trusts and sell their friends, and while they
do not propose to follow so bad an example
to the utmost, they easily persuade themselves
that for ga sure thing" there is no harm in
making q temporary use of funds in their
hands belonging to other people.
1t is just at this point that the second great
evil to which we have referred makes its ap-
pearance. 1t should not be possible for q
clerk, or cashier or secretary to rob the strong
box of his employers day after day, and month
after month, and no one discover it. In every
case of defalcation which has recently been
revealed, the thefts have been long and con-
slant. Taintor bled the Atlantic Bank to
death before the Directors dreamed there was
ANYTHING wrong. There were so many thieves
about the Trust Company of Brooklyn that
they had no trouble in keeping their common
secret. But it would seem that in the case of
the Cartons, father and son, single culprit
had cleaned out the cash under the very
noses of his superiors, and not suspicion had
disturbed their confding sumbers. Now we
do not insist that all bank clerks shall have
conscience, and that all Bank Presidents and
Directors shall have sagacity. The first Will
continue 10 be divided into bad and good, and
the latter into wise and foolish just as they
are to-day. But what may reasonably be de-
manded is, that the system upon which these
financial institutions are organized should be
so far amended that no cashier or secretary
shall be able to steal the cash at his pleasure,
without check or restraint. The ease with
which this can be done now makes knaves of
honest men. Many men resist temptation
We are glad to believe the majority do. But
the wisest of teachers taught his disciples to
pray that they be not led into it.