The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1876-03-31
Breach or Trust as n Crime.

Breach OF Trust as N Crime.
Every year or so, just as we are about to
have an election. the court reports abound
in charges to the Grand Jury about crime
and its prevalence. Some poor ham stcaler,
whose family is probably starving, is hauled
up and sent to prison for twenty years, and the
reporters shout "Glory to the just judge the
terror of the evil doer" But when we have
a crime compared with which the stealing of
ham is trivial offence nothing is said.
When a trustee who has in his keeping the
estates of widows and children-estates left
by some confiding friend-goes down into
Wall street and puts the money into some
wildcat stocks or invests it in Southern bonds
or in mining shares, and the estate goes to
the bad, nothing is said or done. The trus-
tee was ''good fellow" He prayed dill
gently. He was one of Brother Moody's
shining lights. He had something wrong"
with his mind he was ''overworked.
He made a mistake. He thought the stocks
would rise, which they didn't, or that the
democratic Legislatures of North Carolina
and Georgia would pay their bonds, which
the miners would find gold in the mine,
which they didn't, because there was no gold
there and never had been. SO the matter is
smoothed over as misfortune" and to be
regretted )" but not to be mentioned, espe-
cially in the papers, because it might
wound the "susceptibilities" of the false
trustee and his friends.
81
in the dock and hearing stern Justice visit
upon him all the maledictions of the law.
No, no, indeed 1t would not be pleasant
and would annoy society. Therefore,
although there are instances without num-
Der of trustees who have proved false to
their trust, who ever hears of them? When
lawyer in this city, member of the Bar
Association, and reformer at the time when
reform" was paying trade in local poll
tics, became detaulter and false trustee
he was not even indicted. The Supreme
Court would not strike his name from the
roll of attorneys. His crimes have been for
gotten and condoned by the profession which
he dishonored If this man had stolen
ham to feed his starving children he would
have been sent to State Prison for twenty
years. If William G. Barrett had walked off
with loaf of bread he would have gone to
Sing Sing with the admonitions of indig-
nant Justice ringing in his ears. But the
one is not even deprived of his seat among
honorable attorneys, and the other is the
subject of special prayer
All this time, while society," the clubs and
the great legal profession are diligently en-
ployed in screening the ''good fellows" from
the consequences of their crimes, what of
the poor people whose property has ''gone
where the woodbine twineth?" We do not
hear that the members of the Bar Association
propose to raise subscription to reimburse
the unfortunate clients of their founder, and
if the pious brethren of Mr.. Barrett have been
raising any collections for the relief of his
wards it has not come to our knowledge.
No, nothing of this kind is DONE nor does
any one think of doing anything. The false
trustee is protected by every agency of social
and professional friendship. The widow
and orphan whose estate he has squandered
may go beg Now we protest that the law
and has no terror for the false trustee the
swindling director of savings banks, and
that large class of professional scamps gen.
orally, who look to society and friendship
to protect them, is entirely unsuited
to civilized, law-abiding commu-
nifty. We must make breach of trust
a crime. We must punish it severely. We
must accept no apology like what we hear
every hour almost in discussing the cases of
these recent defauters. There is no Office
more easily executed than that of trustee.
We have securities of the best character in
which to invest trust funds. The law
should make it n crime for trustee to use
any other. Let the securities be government
bonds, trust companies approved by the
State laws, and mortgages on real estate so
graded as to allow for depression in business
and the fall that is sometimes seen in that
generally prime security. We must go into
this whole business of trusts with two pur-
poses first, to so arrange our laws that any
breach of trust, where it affects the manage
ment of the estates of widows and children.
shall be a felony, to be punished as we pun
ish forgery and second. to deal with the
offender against this law, in personal and
social life, as a criminal of the most despca-
BILE grade, robber of the helpless, the
orphan and tho poor
BE1kSAP's ANAcoSDA.-Our special cor
respondent who writes from Bismarck,
Dakota, justly compares the systems by
which Indians and soldiers were regularly
plundered to two monstrous anacondas
with their heads in Washington and their
tnilc rnnnlair,c La..aral AZ. e