Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1888-03-21


first of all is needed is that 5000 bank
rectors and insurance company directors n
sign or attend to their business So director
The world will be full of fraud just as Ion
as fraud is so easy. When you arrest tn
president and secretary of bank for en-
bezzlement carried ON for many years, hav
plenty of sheriffs out the same day to arres
all the directors. They are guilty either G
neglect or completely.
"Oh," some one will say, "better preac
the Gospel and let business matters alone.
1 reply: If your Gospel does not inspir
common honesty in the dealings of men, th
sooner you close up your Gospel and pitcl
it into the depths of the Atlantic ocean tn
better. An orthodox swindler is wors
than heterodox swindler. The recitation
of all the catechisms and creeds ever writ
ten, and drinks from all the communion
chalices that ever glittered in the churches
OF Christendom will never save your soul
unless your business character correspond
with your religious profession. Some Of tn,
worst scoundrels in America have beer
members of churches, and they got fat OF
sermons about Heaven when they mos
needed to have the pulpits preach tha
which would either bring them to repentanc.
or thunder them out of the holy communionl
where their presence was sacrIlege and al
infamy.
We must especially deplore the misfor-
tune of banks in various parts of this coun.
try in that they damage the banking ipsti
tuition, which is the great convenience of the
centuries, and indispensable to commerce
and the advance Of nations. With one
hand it blesses the lender, and with the
other it blesses the borrower. The bank
was born of the worlds necessities, and is
venerable with the marks of thousands oil
years. Two hundred years before Christ
the bank of Iii um existed and paid it's de
positors 10 per cent. The bank of Venice
was established in I'LL, and was of such
high credit that its bills were at a premium
above coins, which were frequently clipped.
Bank of Genoa, founded in 1345; bank of
Barcelona, 1401; bank of Amsterdam, 1899;
bank of Hamburg, founded 1919, it's circu-
alton based on great silver bars kept in the
vaults. Bank of England, started by Will
liam Patterson in 1642, up to this day man.
aging the stupendous debt of England;
bank of Scotland, founded in 1895; bank of
Ireland, 1888; bank of North America,
planned by Robert Morris, 1771, without
whose financial help all the bravery of our
grandfathers would not have achieved
American independence. But now we have
banks in all our cities and towns, thousands
| and thousands. On their shoulders are the
interests of private individuals and great
corporations. In them are the great arteries
| through which run the currents of the na-
tion's life. They have been the resources
of the thousands of hnanciers in days of
mediation, for facility, for individual, State
of f1oir nd IN
their management there is as much interest
and moral worth as in any class of men
perhaps more. How nefarious, then, the
behavior of those who bring disrepute upon
| this venerable. benignant and God -honored
institution. We also deplore abuse of trust
funds, because they fly in the face of that
divine goodness which seems determined to
bless this land. We are having the eighth
year of unexampled national harvest. The
wheat gamblers get hold of tho wheat, and
the corn gamblers get hold of the corn.
The full tide of Gods mercy towards this
land is put back by those great dykes Of
dishonest resistance. When God provides
enough food and clothing to feed and ap-
parel this whole nation like princes tho
scrabble of dishonest men to get more than
their share, and get it at all hazards, keeps
everything shaking with uncertainty and
everybody asking: "What next?" Every
week makes new revelations. How many
more bank presidents and bank cashiers
have been speculating with other peoples
money, and how many more bank directors
are in imbecile silence letting the psrfidy
go on, the great and patient God only
knows! My opinion is that we have got
near the bottom. The wind has been prick
ed from the great bubble of American
speculation. The men who thought that
the Judgment day was at least 5000 years
off, found it in 1885, 1887, 1886; and this
nation has been taught that men must keep
their hands out of other peoples pockets
| Great businesses built on borrowed capital
have been obliterated and men who had no.
thing have lost all they had. believe we
are started on higher career OF prosperity
than this land has ever seen, if, and if, and
| if,
If the first men, and especially Christian
men, will learn never to speculate upon
borrowed capital If you have mind to
| take your own money and turn it all into
kites. to fly them over every commons in
the United States, you do society no wrong.
except when you tumble your helpless chill
dren into the poor-house for the public to
take care of. But you have no right to
|
kites. There is one word that has deluded
more people into bankruptcy and State
prison and perdition than any other word in
commercial life, and that is the word bor-
| row; that one word is responsible for all
the defalcations, and embezzlemonts, and
| financial consternations of the last twenty
years. When executors conclude to specu-
late with the funds of an estate committed
| to their charge, they do not purloin, they
say they only borrow; when a banker
makes an overdraught upon his institution
he does not commit theft, he only bor
rows. When the officers of company, by
flaming advertisement in some religious
papers, and gilt certificates of stock, gets a
multitude of country people to put their
small earnings into an enterprise for carry
ing on some undeveloped nothing, he does
not fraudulently take their money, he only
borrows. When young man with easy
access to his employers money drawer, or
the confidential clerk by close propinquity
to the account books, takes few dollars
for Wall-street excursion, he expect to
put it back; he will put it all back; be will
put it all back very soon. He only bor-
rows. What is needed is some man OF
gigantic limb to take his place at the curb
stone in front of Trinity church, and when
that word borrow comes bounding along,
kick it clean through to Wall-street ferry
boat, and if, striking on that, it bounds
clear over till it strikes Brooklyn Heights or
Brooklyn Hill, it will be well for the City
of Churches.
Why, when you are going to do wrong,
pronounce so long word as borrow, word
of six letters, when you can get shorter
word more descriptive of the reality, word
of only five letters, the word steal?
There are times when we all borrow and
borrow legitimately, and borrow with the
divine blessing, for Christ. in His Sermon
on the Mount, enioins ''from him that
would borrow of thee turn not thou away"
A young man rightly borrows money to get
his education. Purchasing house and not
able to pay all down in cash, the purchaser
rightly borrows it on mortgage. Crises
come in business when it would be wrong
for man not to borrow. But roll this
warning through all these aisles, over the
backs of all these pews, never borrow to
speculate, not dollar, not cent, not a
farthing. Young men, young men, warn
you by your worldly prospects and the value
of your immortal souls, do not do it. There
are breakers distinguished for their ship
wrecks = the Banways, the Needles, the
Caskets, the Douvers, the Auderlos, the
Skerries-and many craft has gone to
pieces on those rocks; but have to tell you
that all the Hanways, aud the Needles, and