The daily gazette., 1876-02-12
The Crime Of the A0e.
BY BISHOP CLARK OF RHODE IsLANI

BY BISHOP CLARK OF RHODE ISLAND,
What is it? Fraud under cover of
law; cheating in trade; obtaining prop.
erty by false pretences; building up
gigantic enterprises on afictiti0us basis
living grandly and luxuriously at the
expense of others. There is terrible
falling away from the old fashioned
standard of honest dealing. Practices
are tolerated which would once haye
been denounced by every decent citi>
zen; men are retained in posts of intiu-
ence who ought to be shut up in Jail;
and if one only swindles adr0itly, and
on sufficiently large scale, and can
manage to keep good share of the
profit of his fraud, he may defy the
law, public opinion and everything
else. All this does not grow out of
anything peculiar to the nature of man
in the nineteenth century, but is the
lsimple'result Of the facilities and temp
tations to fraud incident to our social
condition. When people 60 into bus
iness, they do it, of course, to make
money, and may be expected to take
| advantage of every favorable opportu.
nifty to extend themselves and increase
their profits. What may be consider
ed as a fair code of business morals?
1. take it for granted that few per-
sons feel themselves called upon, in
conducting q business affair, to say
all that they know. Perhaps they
would not for their right hand tell an
absolute untruth, but they withhold
certain facts that would put an end to
the transaction, if the other party
were informed of them. 1t is argued,
not without show of reason, that any
different mode of doing business
would put the wise man and the old
fool on the same level,-if, by my su-
perlor sagacity or greater enterprise,
| have acquired information as to the
state of the markets, the probable de-
mand for certain kind of goods or
the probable supply, or anything else
bearing upon the matter in hand, may
| use it for my own advantage? Am
l bound to tell my neighbor, who slept
while was awake and at work, what l
have learned by my superior activity?
Or must | wait till all the world knows
what Is now my secret, before act?"
1t seems to nae that there is line of
W bC ODDClNCu uCIG. IL u
merchant has private information that
a certain crop has failed, or is likely to
fail, there is nothing wrong in his
buying or selling with reference to
the probable effect of that failure upon
the markets for, after all, he acts only
on probability, and may be disap
pointed. On the other hand, it is GER
tainly wrong, when he has private ad-
vices that his property is destroyed, or
in imminent danger of destruction, for
him to seek for insurance which
would not be granted if the facts were
known, or to ask for advances on the
basis of what he has reason to believe
may exist. The shrewd operator, of
whom we have all read, who obtained
insurance on ship which had been
long at sea, by simply saying that he
had heard from hen at last, when in
fact he had only heard that she had
foundered, may have oeen very smart
but he was liar. To tell half the
truth is sometimes worse than not to
tell anything.
1t is generally considered proper
enough to ask and to offer price high
er or lower than the actual value of an
article, with the intention of yielding
IN the end rather than lose the bar
gain. 1t is so we'll understood that
men will sharpen their wits upon each
other when they como together for a
trade, that no ones reputation suffers
by following the custom. And yet,as
it Is to be presumed that the seller
knows what ne eau afford to take and
the buyer what he can afford to give,
it would be great deal better if the
lone price" system were universally
adopted. In doing my marketing,
once observed that certain customer
invariably secured an abatement in the
price of what he purchased by dint of
persistent chaffering and l told the
nroYisiOn dealer tnat | thnnpht this