Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1888-09-21
ARE EMBEZZLEMENTS INCREASING1
Society Largely to Blame for the Down
fall of a Weak Man.


The New York Herald mas compiled a list
of the embellishments during the past year,
and from this list it reaches the conclusion
that defalcations are on the increase and
that the confidence Of the employer is being
abused more and more. Its ground for this
inference is that the entertainments and the
number of embezzlers of 1888 are so much
greater than those of 1878. This may be true,
and yet it does not follow that dishonesty
among employees is increasing. The ratio of
this class of crimes may be no larger in 1888
than in 1878, although the number of en-
bezzlements in the later year may exceed
those i'll the earlier. Because we have more
capital employed in business, more business
institutions, more positions of trust to be
filled. The monetary transactions have
largely increased and also the number of en-
ployes. With this growth in business comes
growth in crime, because the field of opera
tions for dishonest employees has been so
greatly extended.
A good deal of this augmented crime can
be traced, first, to the employers themselves,
and, second, to the false standards of life.
Society is largely to blame for the downfall
of weak man. 1t has erected meretricious
standards of quality, and those who seek and
obtain admission into that society must live
up to these meretricious standards or else
they will be ignored. A weak, dependent
man, one that seeks for any kind of social
distinction, no matter how puerile it may
be, is utterly crushed if society ignores
him. He must be recognized And this
feeling Of despaiy is the first step toward
his personal destruction If he should have
an extravagant wife and family who
also have the craze for social recogni-
tion, he is compelled to get it. If he cannot
earn enough money to maintain the show, he
begins to appropriate small sums from his
employer in the hope that by specializing or
gambling he can make good deal more He
may not mean to steal in the beginning. But
he generally loses, and then the descent in the
down grade commences. After the first pee
ulation tho remainder come easy, and before
he knows it he is an embezzler to the extent
of thousands of dollars. There are some
clerks who steal merely because they like to
steal, but these are in the minority. They
should not be considered in Analysing the
causes that underlie the desire to embezzle.
Employers are to blame in this class of
cases, not primarily, perhaps, for the embez-
zlers generally belong to the trusted class of
employees who get good salaries. But they
are to blame for failure to prosecute because
friends or relatives make up the deficit
When this is done the matter is dropped and
the embezzler, having felt no disgrace does
not appreciate the full extent of his crime
The employer who does this does himself no
benefit, but does positive harm to society,"
Every dishonest clerk or official should be
punished not only because he has done that
which merits some kind of penalty, but be-
cause he has violated statute. People who
violate laws with impunity, by and by begin
to lose their respect for the law
There is yet another consideration. Every
time that clerk is discovered in dishonest
action he should be punished as warming to
others who may contemplate wrong doing
Employers err again by putting young men
in places of responsibility and then paying
them meager salaries. It is human nature to
err. And the man who holds position of
some Importance will in time consider him
self also to be of some Importance. When
this mental condition is reached, he must live
better, dress better, and enjoy life in all its
phases more completely. This takes money
If his employer does not give it to him for
services rendered, the clerk finally appropri
ates in little sums the money Of his EN-.
ployer. There is one peculiar fact about this
peculating, and that is that none of the EN-.
bezzlers seem to realize that in the end their
deeds will be Observation-Disclosures Free
Press