The Farmington times and herald. (Farmington, St. Francois Co., Mo.) 1902-1905, 1905-07-21
Ethics in High Finance,

of the last few years have enabled
the public to take Il measure Of the
ethics of high finance In lS9G it
was assumed by the sound money
advocates that Il great iinamcier was
the very embodiment of patriotism.
honor and business integrity. but
this idol has been widely shattered
FIRST came the shlpbuildlug trust
investigation. That showed that
Il number of money maguutc>
formed Il conspiracy to deceive the
public and that a few Of the con
SpiratOrS formed an inner circle
conspiracy to take advantage OF the
rest Of the consplrators. Then
came the Munruc 4 Munroe luycs
tigation. That showed that the
second vice president Of the largest
bank in the United States was in
syndicate formed to fleece the pub
lie through wash sales - Then
Lawson came forward with his
story duplicating the president OF
the largest bank and leading spirit
of the Standard Oil trust in 81.
gantic fraud. Following this the
Equitable squabhlc brings to light
a riot of criminal misuse of trust
funds which has startled the cOun-
try. And during this period Of IN
vestigation Miss Tarbell has given
us a history of the luwleSsnesS of
the oil trust, Mr.. Russell has shown
up the methods of the beef trust,
and the interstate commerce com
mission has revealed the rebate
practices of the railroads. Here
we have bankers, railroad mag
mates, promoters, manufacturers
and spectators all ylcing with ench
other in the use of methods which
offend against both statute and
moral law. What shall we say Of
the business ethics of these men
who are actually engaged in eXplol-
tation or who lend their names TO
exploiters aud draw salaries for do
ing nothing! When one is con.
demned his defense is that Others
do the same defense offered by
the president for not Furnishing one
of his cabinet. Larceny is com
prchensive term and it applies us
much to the respectable thief who
steals large amount by indirection
as it does to a professional pick
pocket who pliers on small scale.
OF all the rascallty recently eN
posed nothing surpasses the con
scienceless transactions OF those
who were in charge of the EQmt-
able. Scarcely Il day passes bat
some new form of embe2zlemcnt Is
announced. One day we learn that
a coterie of directors made thous.
ands of dollars by selling bonds to
the company sold to themselves .
This was in violation of the law
and they are now returning tht
money. The next day we learn OF
pensions and salaries that repre-
sented no service. Then we find
that the officials raised their Owl
salaries TO enormous figures auI
taxed their personal expenses tt
the company What Is this bu
larceny! And now Mr.. Morton
announces reform, and what is II
That directors will no longer b,
paid $2j per day when they do no
attend. 1t seems that the dummy
directors who did nothing whel
present but approve OF report
which they did not examine, wer
drawing go u day whether presen
or not. What shall we say of
lot of eminent business men VIII
thus enriched themselves out O
trust funds supposed to be held sa
cred for widows and children.
The thimbleriggers at Il stree
fair are engaged in more honorabl
business for they cheat those VIII
are foolish enough to risk thel
money on Il game known to be dis
honest, but these thimbleriggers o
high finance rob the helpless an
the dependents under the gulSe 0
, doing an honest business. Th
; directors who knew what was goiH
on shared in the crimes commltte'
against policy holders-the direct
ors who did not know what wa
: going on were scarcely less crimlt
, al because they were sleeping setl
9 tinels whose watchful eyes woul
, have saved the policy holders.
: 1t is time to establish a hight
ethical standard among our tinar
ciers. The Commoner.