Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-03-16

many years, have plenty OF sherit5 GU
the same day to arrest all the directors
Thew are guilty either Of neglect or COM
plicity.
"On," some one will say, "bettel
preach the Gospel and let business mat.
tiers aloue." I reply: II your gospe
! does not inspire common honesty In the
dealings of men, the sooner you close up
yourlGospel and pitch 1t into the depths
of the Atlantic ocean the better. An ortho-
dox swindler Is worse than 8 Aeterodox
! sWindler. The recitation OF all the
cGtechisms and creeds ever written, and
! drinking from sll 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 scouudrels in America
have been members of churches, and they
got fat on sermons about heaven when
they most needed to have the pulpits
preach that which would either bring
| them to repentance or thunder them out
of the holy commuuions where their
presence was a sscrilege and an infsmy.
We must especially deplore the misfor-
tune of banks in various parts OF this
country in that they damage the banking
institution, which is the great conven-
fence of the centuries, and indispensable
to commerce and the advance OF nations.
With one hand 1t olesses 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 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 I'LL, and was
of such high credit that its bills we're at
premium above coins, which were fire.
quently clipped. Bank OF Genos, 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 Patterr
son in 1912, up to this day managing the
stupendous debt of England; bank Of
ScotlaDk, founded in 1925; bank Of Ire
land, 1888; bank of North America,
planned by Robert Morris, III, without
whose financial help all the bravery Of
our gran6fathers 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 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 flnanciers in
days of business exigency. They stand
for accommodation, for facility, for lndi-
vidusl, state and national relief. At their
head and in their management there Is as
much interest and moral worth as in any
class of men-perhsps more. How nefs-
rious, then, the behavior of those who
bring disrerute upon this venerable, be-
nignant and G0d-horored institution.
We also deplore sbuse 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 nstioral harvest. The
wheat gamblers get hold Of the 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 pro-
vides 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
1t at all hazards keeps everything shaking
with uncertainty and everybody asking:
"Whst next?" Every week makes new
revelations. How many more bank presi-
dents and bank cashiers have been specu-
lsting with other peoples money, and
how many more bank directors are in i'm
beetle silence letting the perfdy go on,
the great and patient God only knoWsi
NY opinion is that we have got near the
bottom. The wind has been pricked
from the great bubble of American specu-
lstion. The men who thought that the
Judgment day wss st least 5000 years of,
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 obliterated and men who
had nothing have lost all
they had. l believe we are started on a
higher career of prosperity than this land
has ever seen, if, and If and If.
II the first men, and especially Chris
tian men, will learn
NEVER TO SPECULATE
upon borrowed capital. II you have g
mind 70 take your own money and turn 1t
all into kites, to fly 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 embellishments 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 G banker makes an overdrsught
upon his institution, he does not commit
theft, he only borrows. When the officer
of company, by flaming advertisement
| in some religious papers, and gilt certit-
cate of stock, gets q multitude of country
people to put their small earnings into sn
enterprise for carrying on some undevel-
oped nothing, he does not fraudulently
| take their money, he only borroWs. When
q Young man with easy access to his en-
ployer's money drawer, or the Conhden-
tisl clerk by close propiDquity to the &C.
| count books, takes q few dollars for 8
wall street excursion, he expects to put
it back; he will put it jail back; he will
put 1t all back very soon. He only Dor
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 il, striking on that, 1t bounds
clear over Till 1t strikes Brooklyn heighte