The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1879-10-23
BANK DIRECTORS AND OFFICERS.

Our local reports this morning contain the
announcement that Mr.. Milton Benner late
cashier OF the Citizens Savings Bank, was
yesterday sent to prison In default OF ball,
upon charge OF malfeasance In Office. This
Is, we believe, the first instance of the kind
for several years. It Is not the first time that
banks have broken md deDositors have been
robbed, and subsequent events have shown
that the robbery was deliberate and system
atic but 1t Is the first time that the criml-
nal code has been invoked and the machinery
OF the penitentiary set fairly In motion. It
has happened 80 In this case, however, and
perhaps the circumstance marks new de-
parture.
If such be the case, we hasten to observe
that very salutary and much needed change
Ia about to be inaugurated. The history OF
savings banks, and for that matter OF other
banking institutions, has not been creditable
Of late years. OF course we have our solid.
standard institutions, which have endured
every test and deiied every crisis; and to
these no reference ls made. But 1t is unques-
tionable that there have been far too many
mismanaged concerns, far too much careless
ness and rascality, far too little interference
on behalf of law and for the protection OF the
credulous and unwary. The financial at
mosphere has become heavy with suspicion
and insecurity, with triumphant raseaity
and unpublished crime 1t has come to be a
scandal to the city. People have become
familiarized with the spectacle OF successful
robbers, arrayed In purple and fine linen.
while their victims are starving in wretched-
ness and want, until the moral sense OF the
community is being dulled and popular ideas
Of right and wrong confused. Directors are
discovered to have been In the habit OF swear
Ing to and publishing false statements Of the
affairs Of banks; presidents and cashiers are
exposed as willful and deliberate appropri
ators OF the peoples money, and yet the won
dering community look on without seeing
one vigorous effort made to punish the de-
spoilers and to avenge and vindicate the
despoiled. And all this has been going on SO
long and SO uninterruptedly that public senti-
ment has grown used to it and hopeless Of a
change.
The present year is especially rich In cpl
sodes OF this description. We have had with
In the past few months more failures OF rotten
and swindling banks than for many years
past. With the particulars of these or any of
these we have nothing to do at present What
we desire to say is that the work OF investi-
cation which has been inaugured in the case
Of Mr.. Milton Benner should be repeated in
every case where similar conditions prevail
and similar grounds for suspicion exist Pre-
sumably, he Is not more guilty than a score
or more situated as he Is. The circumstances
attending the collapse OF his bank are no
more heinous than In other instances with
which the public are familiar; and there
are men enjoying liberty to-day who have
abundantly earned passport into the same
refuge which he now inhabits. This wrong is
not going to be extirpated by prosecuting one
isolated case. The crusade should be general
and comprehensive, until people see that they
are living under laws that will protect them,
and reckless bank officials find out that they
cannot misapply the money Of others at their
sweet caprice.
It is said. and we shall not question the
truth OF the assertion, that many of the
seemingly guilty are in fact innocent and