The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-01-13
THE RoCKAFELLOw SENTENCE

No crime is 30 difficult to estimate
fairly as that which involves in fact. il
not In deliberate design, betrayal Of
public confidence. covering period of
years during which the criminal has
been looked upon as amodsl of honesty
and punctuality. The sense of shock
which is experienced in the discovery
of such prolonged deception is even
more terrible than is the actual money
loss that grows out of it. 1t has
tendency to drive ono into mental
brutality, to make him cynic in his
estimates of men and morality, to
weaken his faith in those very pillars
of social stability and spiritual prog
gress which, once gone, leave nothing
but chaos and ruin.
Widespread as was the pecuniary
mbarassment which resulted from
the suspension of f. V. Rockafellow' s
bank, general as was the sacrifice of
hopes and plans and opportunities
among the hundreds of small
depositors in that institution, the
savings Of whose lifetime were thus
suddenly swept away, these were less
bitter than WAS the later revelation of
the long stretch Of tina during which
the honest old banker on thssquars
did an immoral business by trading on
capital of reputed solvsnoy that he
did not in real fact possess. The
average man recupsrates quickly from
business reverse. the loss of a few
dollars or few hundred dollars meant
to the majority of those depositors
simply little more energy. a little
more economy, and little harder and
stronger and more determined struggle
in life. But the loss OF faith in human
nature, the loss Of those ideals which
we take unto ourselves as parts Of ouI
innermost life and hope--this was nc
minor thing. All the genius and in
dustry Of the ages combined cannot re-
place shattered ideal. All the MONEY
this side Eldorado cannot make happl
the life Of the man who finds tn,
foundations of his faith in mankind
torn or shaken,
1t is this side OF the Rockafsllow W
crime which the courts cannot adjudi-
cate; because it is above and beyond
the most scrupulous Of legal tribunals
Upon the other hand, what court o.
earthly justice can assume to weigt
the mental torture and the self-re
proach which must have been expert
enced by the silent banker az, day BY
day and year by year, he saw the fab
ric of his business life slowly but un
erringly growing tangled and insecure
We are not given to know what sx
piation the criminal who YESTERDAY
was sentenced by lenient judge ha
already made. all unknown to his fell
low men. 1t seems to US that the lessor
of this entire incident is irresistible in it
iusistence upon candor and genuin
honesty as rules of business conduct
1t seems to us that had Mr.. Rockafel
low been frank with himself, fran,
with his family, frank with his friends
the slow ebbing of his finances woul
not have reached the startling cul
mination of virtual theft, robbery, EN-
bezzlement The facts that all his pas
standing cannot shield him from th
legal penalty Of his legal Crime--which
after all, is but trivial fraction Of hi
whole trangression-and that, old ma
as he is, with much sympathy goin
out to him in spite Of the enormity {
his apparent wrong, he must don th
garb Of common felon supply, as W
view them, vivid vendication of ou
institutions of justice.