The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1886-01-08
KEEPING CLERKS HONEST.
Companies Guarantee Them and
Then Watch Them.

Clason Graham drew the money on a
check for $4,000, signed by his employ
ers, Spencer. 1rask L. Co., oil brokers,
and took a train for Canada, but was
stopped on the way only four hours
later, both man and money being back
in town next day. The quickness of
suspicion and action in the case of a
man whose reputation had been good,
writes a New York correspondent to the
Philadelphia NeWs, was due to the fact
that he had given bonds to the firm for
honesty, and his bondsmen were one of
the several guarantee and fidelity COM
panies that have lately come into use
here in New York. These concerns in
sure employers against loss through the
thefts of employees, and relieve the latter
OF the often difficult task of finding
available friends to take the risks.
Not less than six thousand men are
already bonded in this way by the COM
panics, among whom brisk rivalry has
already arisen. Visits to their offices
show large premises and numerous
clerks, indicating far more labor than
would be requisite for merely making
out the papers and dealing with the GUS
toners up to the point of completing
the bonds. The explanation is that the
most elaborate systems of Watching the
insured men, and registering their hab-
its, is in operation, and already the ex-
tent and thOrOughness of the espionage
has become an acute nuisance to its
subjects. TO feel that his actions may
be under surveillance by a spy is an
moving in many cases wherein the man
is well-behaved, and much dislike of
the new order of things has developed,
but there is no escape, because the ex-
istence Of the companies provides so
reasonable an excuse for individuals to
decline to be bondsmen that there is no
escape.
Railroad employees, bank clerks, court
officers, and all sorts of financial Off
Gals are chiefly the men involved. Be-
fore making the bonds the persons
characters are investigated as fully as
possible, but that is no complete protec-
ton, for one company has already lost
$4,000 through Paying Teller Charles
A. Hinckley, of the West Side bank,
and Teller +. j. Dieterichs, of the Lac
lede bank, st. Louis, both of whom
were above reproach, and one seemingly
pious. The preference is for employees
of institutions subject % state investiga-
ton annually rather than the handlers
of the New York p~ostOffice and over
half of those in municipal Offices of
finance are 10Y included in the risks.
The charges range from a half to ! per
cent. on the amount of insurance.
The principal business is detective.
Every insured person is watched, and
very closely, too, if the slightest loose
ness of conduct is observed. In the in
stance of Clason Graham a detective re-
ported that he was becoming a lounger
about town at night, and apparently
was spending more money than his sal
AIRY could provide. AT the moment when
he cashed the big check Il spy had him
in sight and did not quit him until he
took the cars. Then the detective tele-
graphed to the company that he was GO
ing to go and would look for orders at
Springfield, where the train would make
its first stop. Hasty inquiry of Spencer,
Trask Il Co.. brought ont the fact that
Graham was absc' dding with 500. 900,
and word was wired to Springfield to
arrest him.
A feature of the new business is a reg
istry called the List of Unreliables,'
in which the particulars of every obtain
able case of probable or actual misdoing
by an insured man are noted. The
books of one establishment contain
about twenty thousand names. another
fourteen thousand. and there are not
less than. fifty thousand altogether thus
recorded, comprising railroadrrs. bank
ers, public officials. and other iiduciaries.
The amount of money stolen by trusted
employees is not dreamed of by the pub
lie, as proved by the aggregate OF nearly
$300,0W paid from one office. But the
bonded men are aware of their positions.
and a consciousness of being under
scrutiny has become one of the common
sensations of their lives.