Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-03-09
COMMERCIAL HONESTY.

port such viper.
COMMERCI4L HONESTY.
Moreover they reckoned not with the men in
to whose hands they delivered the money to be
bestowed on workmen: for they dealt faithful
ly.-lI. KINGS xII:l5.
In these days of commercial dishonesty
how few there are worthy of such conf
dence as was bestowed upon the overseers of
the workmen on the temple. 10 receive large
quantities of money uncounted was indeed
trust, or would be considered so to-day. Now
every possible check and guard is placed up
on those to whom money is entrusted. An
ingenious system of bookkeeping has been
designed by which the slightest irregularity
can be detected, bonds are required, and the
principals of all our large moneyed concerns
keep detectives in their employ to watch the
private habits of their employees and see that
they spend no more money than they are sup
posed to earn. This vigilance has become
necessity of modern times, especially in this
country. The flush times that began with
the war and closed with the panic of 1878
brought with them extravaganza modes of life.
Such practices grow on men like all bad
habits, and have in thousands of cases led to
entertainments and defalcations. and thus
feeling of distrust has been engendered and
strengthened from day to day as each new
breach of trust is exposed to the public.
Men in whom the greatest confidence has
been reposed seem to be the first to betray
that confidence, and it is not surprising, there
fore, that those lower in the scale of Gre
spectability" should follow their example.
Every man of discernment understands
how many men who would scorn to be guilty
of dishonorable or dishonest action become
defaulters. They may have contracted ex-
travagant modes of living, and perhaps in an
emergency, in order to ''do the handsome"
as the phrase is, by their fellows, exceed their
income. They take from their employers
temporary loan, but find that they cannot re-
place it as soon as they expected. Then they
resort to speculation or gambling-it makes
no difference which, for the terms have of
late become synonymous the hope of
being able to make good their deficiencies.
Ten chances to one they fail to
realize their expectations, and are compelled
to draw still further from the moneys en-
trusted to them. Little by little they become
involved; deeper and deeper they sink in
the mire and finally, in order to escape
punishment for what will be construed as
willful dishonesty, they make last desperate
grab for all they can reach and flee the
country. Canada and Europe are overrun
with defaulters from the United States.
Some are living in elegant ease; others have
found of truth that the way Of the trans
gressor is hard. They have spent their SUBJ
stance in riotous living, and have now only
husks to subsist upon. They dare not re-
turn to their fathers house through fear of
the penalty, and are compelled to remain
where they are, in poverty and distress, pray
ing for death to relieve them of their misery.
Is not the church in measure responsible
tor this lax moral principle? The fact that
more than three-fourths of the defaulters of
the past five years have been prominent
members of the church would seem to indi-
cate that it is. Perhaps these men assumed
the livery of heaven to serve the devil in
knowingly. We are convinced that few
did so. but not a majority. The church,
and more especially the clergy, has been
remjss in its duty in that it has failed to
inculcate genuine, practical honesty in its
members. Too much stress has been laid
upon theoretical religion-upon dogmas and
creeds, and as consequence it has appeared
less heinous to transgress the moral law as
relates to ones fellow man. The fact that
mans duty to man combines and includes
his duty to God has been wholly lost sight of
in the war of sects and the conflict of creeds.
"Do unto others as you would have them do
unto you'' is all the law and the gospel that
is needed in these days. 1t comprises mans
whole duty-all the religion he needs for
time or for eternity. It is practical re-
ligion, and if enforced and lived up to would
restore that confidence which, in biblical
days, induced men to commit, uncounted,
large sums of money for disbursement.
We submit to the clergy Of st. Paul if it
"o0AS Inv w - SoooN pAeSAA w Lay c1oAuC UuOlI
doctrinal disquisitions-c commit them to the
mould and the nice-and devote their en-
orgies to the incubation of a practical re-
ligion, that will make men better and more
honest in their dealings with their fellow
men. We do not think it will make any diff
ference in the hereafter whether man is q
Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist or
Catholic as long as he has, in this life, lived
up to the principles inculcated by the Messiah
love to all men and strict observance of
the golden rule. A man who has done his
duty to his fellow men in life need have no
fear to meet his maker at the last dav,
whether he belongs to one sect or another, or
to none. We esteem it to be the duty of the
church, therefore, to inculcate higher moral
sentiment, and when that is done breaches of
trust will be comparatively unknown.
TIE C0MING MINIS RELIGION.
MIR. James Parton, the biographer, deliv-
cred lecture before the New York Liberal
league, few days ago, on s'The Coming
Mans Religion" The lecture could not be
called orthodox. It was, in fact, full of het-
erodexy and common sense, two qualities