New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1890-02-02
INTEGRITY NEEDED.

Whenever an important defalcation or fraud
occurs the question is Immediately asked II the
standard OF business integrity is not detenorat-
ing-if such wrongs would not have been pre-
vented in earlier and better days. There is
something to be said on both sides of the ques-
ton. 1t is a mistake to suppose that there were
no frauds in the days which we fondly call
earlier and better. If they were less numerous
then, the number of institutions through which
opportunity for fraud is offered has immeasur-
ably increased, and it may with much reason
be doubted whether the proportion of loss by
misconduct of fiduciary officers is greater than
il was at any former period. Men of long bust
ness experience, if they consult their mem
cries, will presently be convinced that the ratio
of losses has not increased as much as many
suppose.
But the question really goes little deeper
II is commonly supposed that the world and
the country have made some progress within
the last generation or two. II moral and re-
ligious endeavors, continued for twenty, thirty
or fifty years, have not Enthusiastically dimin-
ished the proportion Of losses by fraud or breach
of trust if the change, be it for better or
worse. has been so moderate that there is room
for doubt about it. then assuredly the question
may fairly be asked whether the regeneratlve
endeavor has not been melancholy failure. FOR
after all, the standard of virtue and morality
seems to be tested by the comparative fire.
quency of misconduct on the part of persons
in places of responsibility or trust.
1t is just at this point, however, that the
logic fails. The selection of fiduciary officers
l. Al ottin md
prudence. The number of unworthy men who
get into such positions through the neglect or
complaisance of business men associated with
them is no longer in the oldtime proportion to
the number of such persons in the entire COM
munity. For proof Of this one has only to
consult recollections or records OF former times
To be president OF a bank or other important
corporation in New York once meant great
deal more than it means now. There was q
time when neither the possession of wealth nor
the inheritance of wealth and an honored name
would have enabled any man to attain posi-
ton of such trust without the proved fidelity
of many years in business. But now as every
body is perfectly aware, no such test OF integ-
rity is even desired. If man has inherited
NAME that is enough. If he has been sharp
and successful, that is enough. If he has money
enough to become the largest individual stock
holder, it is almost taken for granted that in
case he desires he should be chosen president.
Plainly this change in the mode of selecting
fiduciary officers would account for a con-
siderable change in the average fidelity of such
officers, if that were clearly proven. In the
absence of clear proof that losses or frauds have
become relatively more frequent the obvious
deterioration in modes of selecting persons for
placs of trust is at least presumptve evidence
that the standard of integrity in the community
as whole has not fallen. 1t would not be
more difficult now than it was twenty or fifty
years ago to find men whose long lives of
proved fidelity entitle them to confidence. But
community which does not seek such men
will not find them. community which does
not prefer such men, but habitually prefers
men who are "sharp" and rapidly successful,
men who have accomplished surprising results
by questionable methods, men who have in
herited the means to own controlling interests
without the disposition to deserve confidence
by years OF training and proved fidelity, men
who have enterprisng associates and rapid
ways of making money, will certainly not fail
to get some fiduciary officers who prove I'M
worthy.
! The wonder is that so few financial nstitu-
tons in these days get into difficulties. The
preference for sharpness and success rather than
for well-tried integrity has been sngularly H.
Illustrated of late in not few instances. There
are great railroad corporations, important Or
CARNATIONS of trust, and other institutions not
a few besides banks, which are to-day paying
the penalty of selections which implied on the
part of stockholders greater anxiety to sue
coed than to succeed by honest and honorable
methods