Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1883-10-24
VOL. XL.
Is The World Growing; Honest!

Views dark ana despofdlng may oe
entertained. pessamists may grumble,
doubters may croak, and yet the answer
mnst always be in the affirmative. The
world grows better. There is more fai h
and trust and honesty among men at the
present time than at any previous period.
Yes, but was there ever a time when there
appeared to be so many defaulterso men
"short in their accoullts?" treasurers,
cashiers and directors that have appropri-
ated the funds entrusted to them?
All this is true: Probably there never
was time when greater number of
such cases were coming to light; but we
find that the acts were committed during
a series of years, although the discovery
of many cases may have been made
within short time.
Still when we take into account the fact
that our whole financial system is based
upon trust and confidence, and that one
way and another nearly all the untold
wealth of this great country is in the
hands of agents and trustees, we find that
the proportion lost by breaches of trust,
must be very small, and with the increas-
ing watchfulness, and improved systems
of deal, make them less and less every
year in proportion to rhe amounts held in
a fiduciary capacity.
The time was when every man distrust.
ed his neighbor, and so kept in his own
possession all that was "property and
portable" kept it in Il 'stro ng box" hid
den away sin an old stocking" tucked
into the chincks of the cellar walI;' or
..bured in the earth" How could there
be breaches of trust when nobody was
trusted? Banks were almost unknown.
Saving institutions were unheard of.
Now, the merchant deposits his money
every night. All moving property is in
trusted to common carriers. One ninth of
all the income in our land is put into the
hands of life insurance companies. Another
large portion goes to savings banks. And
the mind fairly staggers at the thought of
the untold millions held by railroad, and
other corporations. of course, all in trust
for the owners.
As to the large amount held by corpor.
ations the people pay in their money and
hold "shares" of stock.
Two ways are o. en-. One is to take sucll
dividends as are offered, asking no q les
lions" Taking no thought about the
management, and then sell out, when
tired of holding. instead of looking int
the d, ings Of officials, that may only bring
.bor and sorrow. Ignorance is bliss,
sometimes. Why 60 searching to see if II
president has been buying in obligations
lat share" and charging them to he
s,ov k holders "at the full face?' 1t has
in some other ways made a little ''pocke
money!" Such suspicious may only
impair y:ur digestion without enrching
your pocket. Therefore if you don't like
the proceedings sell out for what you can
get.
'Shavings" are usually gathered with.
out "great observation" SO quietly is ii
done az rot to make Il ripple in the affairs.
All fair sailing. All fair weather, until
some inquisitive ma"plot gets among the
stockholders and makes it stormy weather
makes it in-"clement"-so to speak
for the "shar er."
But we have no purpose to review the
internal history ofany particular case. We
would not turn leaf, we would not scan
IL "page.'
1t s sufficient for our position that me u
are always ready TO put money into rail
roads, which shows that in most cases. the
afflirs are honestly admins tered.