The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-05-04
The Cause of riany PecuIations.

In announcing the pardon Of young
Louis A. Hilliard, the embezzling
cashier of the Chicago Tribune Publish
ing company who, two years ago, alb
seconded with $4,000 of his employers
money, Governor Altgeld, of Illionis af-
ter citing the young mans contrition
and exemplary behavior during the first
half of his four-year term of imprison-
ment, makes the following interesting
comment:
There is another point suggested by this
case and that is: How far the integrity
and sense of right of young men employed
in some large moneymaking establishments
Is undermined and weakened by knowl-
edge of the fact that their employers are
gaining large sums of money which. while
not always obtained by criminal means,
nevertheless in equity and good conscience
do not belong to them. This young man
had charge of the financial department of
the Tribune company He knew that
the Tribune company rented ground be-
longing to the Chicago school fund. and in
stead of paying fair cash annual rental
on it had managed to get things so fixed
that it pocketed in the neighborhood of
S25, 600 a year of money which ought to
have gone to the school fund. He also
knew that, while the Tribune had a cash
market value of upward of $3,OOOOOO and
should have been assessed for purposes
of general taxation at not less than $780,
600, the company had managed things so
that it was actually assessed Mt only $lS,-
900, and he saw that it annually pocketed
in the neighborhood of 100000 which would
have gone into the public treasury as
taxes If the Tribune company had paid the
same proportion of taxes on its property
that other people paid on theirs In other
words, he saw that the Tribune company
annually pocketed upward of 100000 of
money which, in equity and good con-
science, should have belonged to the pub
lie treasury, and he saw that notwith-
standing this fact, the owners of the Trib-
llne We're eminent and highly respected
citizens. The natural effect of all this
was to weaken the moral force of the
young man, as well as his sense of integ-
rity There is no question but that similar
conditions exist in other large offices, and,
while this cannot be any excuse for the
commission of crime by employees, it is a
fact that is to be deplored and for which
some remedy should be found.
we Naturally nave IiO illeuliS VI hIDW-
ing whether these assertions of the gov
ernOr are true in the particular case In
hand; but in q general sense there is
much shrewd philosophy in
his belief that perhaps a. large share Of
the business peculations of the time
are the legitimate outgrowth of disbon-
est practices by employers. What per-
centage of the commercial transactions
of the United States for the year 1895,
reaching up in the aggregate to several
hundred billions of dollars, will, we
wonder, be strictly honest and honor
able? What percentage Of them will
not represent an effort on one part or
the other to obtain an unfair advan-
tage? In what percentage of them will
there be present that conscientious re-
gard for equity which should character
ize the transactions of civilized Chris
tians?
Governor Altgeld is no doubt an &c.
centric creature In some respects, but |
we should not be surprised if, in his
latest outbreak, he had stumbled upon
the discovery of q very fruitful cause of
among employees.