Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-03-12

many institutions, ana all they know is
whether or not they
GET THEIR DIVIDENDS
regularly, and their names are used es
decoy ducks TO bring others near enough
to be made game of. WHIST first of all is
needed is that 5000 bank directors and
insurance company directors resign or
attend to their business as directors. The
business world will be full Of fraud just
as long as frsud is so easy. When you
arrest the president and secretary Of a
bank for an ENLIGHTENMENT csrried on for
many years, have plenty Of sheriffs out
the same day to arrest all the directors.
They are gully either OF neglect or COM
pl1city.
"Ob," some one will ssy, "better
preach the Gospel snd let business mat
tiers elo1e." 1 reply: II your gospel
does not inspire common honesty In the
dealings OF men, the sooner you close up
your. Gospel and pitch 1t into the depths
of the Atlantic ocean the better. An ortho-
dox sWindler Is worse than Reterodox
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 will never save your soul
unless your business character CORE
spends with your religious profession.
Some of the worst scoundrels in America
hsye been members of churches, and they
got fat on sermons about heaven when
they most needed to h8ve the pulpits
preach that which would either bring
them to repentance or thunder them out
OF the holy communious where their
presence was sacrilegs and an iufamy.
We must especislly deplore the misior-
tune OF banks in various parts OF this
country in that they damage the banking
institution, which is the great colyen-
ience of the centuries, and indispensable
to commerce and the advance OF nations.
With one hand it bleeses the lender, and
with the other it bleeses the borrower.
The bank was born Of the worlds
necessities, and is venerable
with the marks Of thousands OF
vears. Two hundred years before
| Christ the bank of Ilium existed and paid
| its depositors 10 per cent. The bank OF
| Venice Wss established In III, and was
of such high credit tlat its bills were at
premium above coins, which were fire.
quently clipped. Bank OF Genoa, founded
In 1915; bank of Barcelona, l40l; bank
of Amsterdam, 1893; bank of Hamburg,
founded 1919, its circulation based on
great silver bars kept in its vaults; Bank
Of England, started by William Patter-
son in 1912, up to this day managing the
stupendous debt OF EAglsnd; bank OF
Scotlank, founded in 1895; bank Of Ire
land, 1873; bank of North America,
planned by Robert Morris, l77l, without
whose financial help all the bravery of
our gran dfathers would not have achieved
AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.
But now we have banks in all our cities
aud towns. thousands and thousands.
On their shoulders sre the inter-
ests Of private individuals and great
corporations. In them are the great ar
teries through which run the currents OF
the nations life. They have been the re-
sources OF the thousands OF fnsnciers in
dayg Of business exigency. They stand
for accommodation, for facility, for lndi-
vidusl, state and national relief. At their
head and il their management there Is as
much interest and moral worth as in any
class of men-perhaps more. How nefs-
rious, then, the behavior of those who
bring disrepute upon this venerable, be
Migrant and God-horored 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 unexsmpled national harvest. The
WhesG gamblers get hold Of the wheat and
the corn gamblers get hold of the corn.
TIE full tide OF Gods mercy towards this
land is put back by those great dykes of
dishonest resistance. When God pro-
viGes enough food and clothing to
feed and apparel this whole nation
| like princes the scrabble of dishonest
men to get more than there share and get
| II at all hazards keeps everything shaking
with uncertainty and everybody asking:
"What nextH" Every week makes new
revelations. How many more bank presi-
dents and bank cashiers have been specu-
lating with other peoples money, and
how many more bank directors are in i'm
beetle silence letting the perfdy go on,
the gr at and patient God only knoWsl
Ny opinion is that we have got near the
bottom. The wind has been pricked
| from the great bubble of American specu-
lation. The men who thought that the
| Judgment day wss at least 5000 years on,
found it In 1888, 1887, 1886; and this ma
ton has been taught that men must keep
their hands out of other peoples pockets.
Great businesses built on borrowed CAPT.
tai have been Oblitersted and men who
had nothing have lost all
they had. l believe we are started on
higher career of prosperity than this land
has ever seen, if, and II and If.
If the first men, and especially Chris
tian men, will learn
NEVER TO SPECULATE
upon borro wed cspital. If you have q
mind to take your own money and turn it
all into kites, to fig them over ever every
commons in the United States, you do
society no wrong except when you tum-
BILE your helpless children Into the poor
house for the public to take care Of. But
you have no right to take the money Of
others and turn it into kites. There is
one word that has deluded more people
into bankruptcy and state prison and per-
dition than any other word in commercial
| life and that is the word borrow; that
one word is responsible for all the defAl-
cations and ezZlements and financial
considerations Of the last twenty years.
When executors conclude to speculate
with the funds Of an estate committed
to their charge they do not pur-
loin, they say they only borrow;
when banker makes an overdraught
upon his institution, he does not commit a
theft, he only borrows. When the officer
Of company, by flaming advertisement
in some religious papers, and gilt certifl-