The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-04-12
Neglect of

investigation Of the affairs Of tho
chestnut Street National bank. of Phil
aoelphla, has shocked and grieved the
ADMIRERS of one of the ex-officials of tho
united States treasury. 1t has also ms
rned the censorious of The
Fost made when that official was abroad
IN the land, leaving his duties as comm
troileT OF the currency to other hands
ana deVOtlng his time, his energies ana
his oratorical powers to vehemant az
paragement of the laws regulating the
currency; Inc country has heard a good
ueal. ana may hear much more. of direc-
TORS VINO do mo- direct and of examiners
VINO do not examine. but this h. nix Fail
ure, although it reveals great negligence
on the part of directors. reflects most
seriously on a COMPTROLLER who did not
control. The Post blamed Mr. FckaIS
for neglecting his official duties. as well
as Tor his panicky attacks on the laws
through which the money of the country
IS supplied and its equal value maintain
ed. The Post. while conceding the neces-
s1ty for some changes in those laws
when it might be possible to make them
1elt constrained to condemn the policy
Ihat sent the comptroller out of his of
nee to make sensational assaults on the
laws when there was mot a ghost of a
chance to reform.
The Philadelphia Ledger asserts that
the cashier of the Chestnut street con-
Germ. who has been indicted. is not the
chief offender, and specifies the respon-
srbility not alone of the directors. but of
the department Of the comptroller of the
currency, which was aware of the viola
tons of the law, but did not take the
steps required by the law for the exqui-
site reason, subsequently assigned by the
comptroller, that he was afraid the bank
would fail and cause a panic. The Pitts
burg Dispatch. commenting on the Ledg-
er'S article. says:
This last phase of moral responsibility
at least is worth public attention for two
reasons. E1rSf the PnO1n t rn1lar IF tho
currency is most directly responsible to
the people for the integrity of his admin
istration and the enforcement on the
banks of the measures to secure their
stability. Second, the responsibility is es-
pecially pertinent in this case because
this particular comptroller of the cur
rency. who did not do his sworn and
statutory duty to protect the depositors
of the bank, was particularly prominent
at that time in informing the people that
the credit of the government was so in
secure that they should not rely on it for
the basis of their circulation, but must
take instead the basis of bank assets,
which he declared to be the only scien-
tifc, solid, and indestructible foundation
some sympathy for the bank president
whose large business enterprises led him
into borrowing and who, when they be-
came un~prosperous. was drawn insensi-
bly into borrowing to sustain them u--l
he reached disaster. We can understand
how his directors, in confidence in his
character. would accept his assurance
that he would make the matter all right
But the comptroller of the currency.
whose sole duty was to enforce the law
and who left it unenforced, while he was
busy in preaching alleged ~inancia prin-
ciples that he would have known to be
unreliable if he had paid attention to his
duty. is left with about the character OF
a bubble which owes its large size and
beauties solely to the amount of wind it
contains"
One of the lessons of this sad and bad
affair is that comptrollers should control:
that they should faithfully attend TO the
work for which they are paid and let the
head of the treasury do the suggesting
OF reforms in his official capacity.