Litchfield enquirer., 1878-06-06
''The Dishonesty of the Times" !"

are happy to say, is more hopeful. Unques tiOnably there is much truth as well as powe in this most unfattering portrait of the Amer ican of the last quarter of the Nineteentf Century but, to our thinking, the faults art much exaggerated, and the favorable features overlooked.
 Many and disheartening as have been the defalcations of recent years among business men, what is the true proportion of honest to dishonest officials which the pressure of these unprecedented times has disclosed Occasional presidents, cashiers, treasurers, ol ether managers of corporate interests have proved false to their trusts. For one that has failed have not an hundred stood firm? Let ''Diogenes" take Connecticut Register and scrutinize the list of banks savings banks and railroad companies, and see how many have failed He would be astonished to see how little taint of absolute dishonesty rests on the prominent corporations of the State Some president, and the average savings bank treas- urer is not a criminal, but an honest man. Could careful comparative lists be made, we imagine that the hard times of '37 and of '57, and of othercrises before ourrecollection would disclose more dishonesty in proportion to the business interests involved, than has the fnan- cial depression that followed the crisis of '73. People are far better protected against official dishonesty than formerly. Take the case of the bank as an illustration. In '37 the general public were losers to monstrous extent by bank failures The country was full of broken banks and, in those days, when bank broke large proportion of the loss fell on the bill holder. Now very few banks fail and, in no case does the bill-holder lose anything. We'll devised laws have protected the public from this species of loss; it has also done much for the public in other respects. The checks on corporate mismanagement with which our statutes abound, are mostly of recent date. Too often, indeed, these and the State con- missions whose duty it is to enforce them, do not effect all that might reasonably be expect ed, but would it be just to say that they effect nothing?
 We dc not understand ''Diogenes' to attri- bute the bulk of the losses of the past five years to dishonesty. A very small proportion of that terrible ''shrinkage of yalues' which is causing such general suffering and desponden- cy is fairly attributable to that cause. Lock at the crippled railroad corporations of the state and note the chief sufferers Have not those whO promoted them most suffered most Who has made any money out of the Shepaug rail road the Connecticut Western? the Connec- ticut Central the Air Line? When the man. agers of the Connecticut Western sold bonds at a ruinous discount to pay the interest on those already sold, who were the gathers? Surely . not those who bought. Fragrant mismanage- ment this, but not of the kind to put money in managers pockets! Let any man who has made poor investments look candidly at his case and he will usually find the cause of it to be this: he trusted in the judgment of those he considered financially wiser than himself, and found them not the wise men he had sup posed.
 Taking into account the further most impor- tant fact that the frauds recently disclosed are not the product of the present time alone, but the accumulations of twenty years, waiting for just such times as these to bring about their disclosure, we have no reason to consider ours the most dishonest of all epochs. Grave as our crimes have been, we cannot acknowledge that the American ofto-dayi is the greatest crim- inal known to history. We are nation of money getters we worship the Almighty Dol lar; but we are not race, nor is this genera tion, of scoundrels.
 Turning from finance to politics, we must confess Il at 'Diogenes' can make out better case. American politics have certainly dete- riorated. Parties and politicians are more sell fish and more corrupt than ever before. We firmly believe, however, that this deterioration will prove temporary and not permanent. The influx of foreigners and the enfranchisement of the negro have loaded down the suffrage with ignorance, poverty and Responsibility to the very waters edge. We lack, as yet, the con servative influence of the woman's vote, to counterbalance in part the demoralizaton of universal male suffrage. Add also the relaAa- ton of morals always following a great war, the depression of financial disaster, and the de- bauchery of politics without principles and wehave a combination of circumstances most ad- verse to the successful working of free gov ernment. As 8 natural consequence, corrup- ton has greater influence in American politics than ever before Rich men buy seats in the United States Senate political rings rob great cities, and even great states
 Nevertheless we see many indications of i'm provement The worst of the rings are brok- en. New York is no longer robbed as Tweed robbed it. South Carolina is nc longer robbed as Moses robbed it. The Pacific railroads which corrupted Congress were decisively beaten during the past winter. The public is growing sensitive about the sale of seats in the United States Senate. Politicians are watched and criticised as they were never watched and criticised before. Lobby control of legislatures ispronOunced by careful observers to be on the wane. In spite of the cries of '.Fraud, and the counter cries of Revolution. with which the country is just now ringing, there is less real danger than there has been before these twenty years. No doubt the education of our more ignorant classes and the elevation of our poorer classes will be a work of many wears perhaps Of many generations, but it is sure to come in time, or we have entirely mistaken the power of free institutions
 The prime cause ot the demoralization which "Diogenes' laments we take to be man-wor- ship. The man that is regarded as a saint is on the high road to becoming sinner Priests are usually good men, but when peo- pie forget that they are as subject as others to human infirmity, they are in imminent peril. So, too, the popular rules, 'once honest, always honest once knave, always knave," are by no means infallble. There is the making of a rogue in many an honest bank officer let him be sufficiently tempted and sufficiently un- watched Let us hope, too, that there is the making of an honest man in many apoliticiap. lot him be sufficiently relieved of temptation and sufficiently watched. In short we must Al.