The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1888-03-15
they had no business to accept the

they had no business to accept the
position. 1t seems to me the pride
of some monied men to be directors in a
great many institutions, and all they
know is whether or not they get their
dividends regularly, and their names are
used as decoy ducks to bring others near
enough to be made game of. What first
of all is needed is that 5000 bank
directors and insurance company direct
ors resign or attend to their business as
directors. The business world will be
full Of fraud just as long as fraud is SO
easy. When you arrest the president
and secretary of bank for an embezzle-
ment carried on for many years, have
arrest all the directors. They are guilty
either of neglect or completely.
"Oh,'' some one will say, 3'better
preach the gospel and let business mat
ters alone" I reply: If your gospel
does not inspire common honesty in the
dealings of men, the sooner you close up
your gospel and pitch it into the depths
of the Atlantic ocean the better An
orthodox swindler is worse than hetero-
dox swindler. The recitation of all the
catechisms and creeds ever written, and
drinking from all the communion
chalices that ever glittered in the
churches of Christendom win never save
your soul unless your business character
corresponds with your religious profes.
sion. Some of the worst scoundrels in
]. ..Apaesica have been members of churches,
and they got fat On gernznus shout
heaven when they most needed to have
the pulpits preach that which would
either bring them to repentance or thun-
der them out of the holy communions
where their presence was a sacrilege and
an infamv
We must especially deplore the mis-
fortune of banks in various parts of this
country in that they damage the banking
institution, which is the great conven-
ience 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 neces-
sites and is venerable with the marks of
thousands Of years. Two hundred years
before Christ the bank Of Ilium existed
and paid its depositors 10 per cent. The
Bank of Venice was established in 1171,
and was of Auch high credit that its bills
were at premium above coins, which
were frequently clipped. Bank of Genoa,
founded in 1345; Bank of Barcelona,
14O1; Bank of Amsterdam, 1899: Bank of
Hamburg, founded 1919, its circulation
based on great silver bars kept in the
vaults; Bank of England, started by
William Patterson in 1642, up to this
day managing the stupendous debt of
England; Bank of Scotland, founded in
1895; Bank Of Ireland, 1888; Bank of
North America, planned by Robert Nor
ris, 1771, without whose financial help
| all the bravery of our grandfathers would
not have achieved American independ-
ence But now we have banks in all
our cities and towns, thousands and
thousands On their shoulders are the in
terests of private individuals and great
corporations, In them are the great
| arteries through which run the currents
of the nations life, They have been the
resources of the thousands Of financiers
in days of business exigency. They
stand for accommodation, for facility, for
individual, state and national relief. Al
their head and in their management
there is as much interest and moral
worth as in any class of men-perhaps
more. How nefarious, then, the be-
havior 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 har-
vest. The wheat gamblers get hold of
the wheat, and the corn gamblers get
hold of the corn, The full tide of God s
mercy toward this land is put back by
those great dykes of dishonest resistance.
When God provides enough food and
clothing to feed and apparel this whole
nation like princes, the scrabble of dis
honest men to get more than their share,
and get it at all hazards, keeps every
thing 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
cther peoples money, and how many
more bank directors are in imbecile
silence, letting the perfdy go on, the
great and patient God only knowsl My
opinion is that we have got near the
bottom. The wind has been pricket
from the great bubble of American
speculation, The men who thought tha
the Judgment day was at least 5000
years off, found it in 1888, 1887, 1886
and this nation has been taught that mel
must keep their hands out of other peo
ple's pockets. Great businesses built OF
borrowed capital have been oblteratet
and men who had nothing have lost al
they had. ] believe we are started on
higher career of prosperity than this LAM
has ever seen, if, and if, and if,
If the first men, and especially Chris
! tian men, will learn never to speculat
) upon borrowed capital. If you have
, mind to take your own money and turl
commons in the United States, you d
society no wrong, except when you tum
: BILE your helpless children into the poo
house for the public to take care of. Blu
: you have no right to take the money Q
} others and turn it into kites. There
: one word that has deluded more peopl
into bankruptcy and state prison an
perdition than any other word in com
mercial life, and that is the word borrow
: That one word is responsible for all tn
: defalcations and embezzlements an
. financial considerations Of the las
3 twenty years, When executors conclud
| to speculate with the funds OF an estat
t committed TO their charge, they do nc
5 purloin; they say they only borrow
: When banker makes an oyerdrai
a upon his institution, he does not comm
Q theft; he only borrows. When fh
0 officer of company, by flaming &C
{ vertisement in some religious paper
o and gilt certificate of stock, gets multi
i tude of country people to put their sma
: earnings into an enterprise for carryin
r ON some undeveloped nothing, he doc
n not fraudulently take their money, h
a only borrows. When a young man wit
/ easy access to his employers none
It drawer, or the confidential clerk by clos
l. propinquity to the account books, talk
e a few dollars for a Wall street excu
n sion, he expects to put it all back; |
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