New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-10-12
as lawyer than Mr.. Mcclellan would De
his trust as an official?
OUB MORAL SENSE.


Current events seem to persuade most oosels
ers that we are in the midst of moral awaken
ing With some new revelation every day' II 40
not unnatural for everybody TO tAlh At AL
about the deplorable degeneracy OF modern nAo
and to congratulate the country "n ma S
begun general overhauling OF llS hoio eo
spicuously respectable citizens. But let uS =" ''tu
the cant of condemnation as well as the cant "a
palliation; let lis keep in mind the lhlnss 'u"'
have fortified American society from lAie Oesii
Ming and are evidently going 10 serve the same
nurpose for several generations TO come. we
are a trusting nation. Does that make us tooiS
for our pains? No, 1t Is our salVatloh
Yesterdays newspapers contained the story OF
Pittsburg clerk who strOlled of INTO the lnInlte
with $101 900, sum which he managed 10 ar
rest in transit while It was IN the care OF the
express company by which he was employed.
Comments are doubtless in order upon the force
of temptation, upon the danger of leaving large
sums within the reach of poor men, or upon the
absurdity of making a clerk who may have to
handle millions give bond for only $780, the
amount which had been fixed in the case of our
Pittsburg buccaneer The point on which we
prefer to dwell is that our entire business sys-
tenn is more or less dependent upon the trust
placed In men who may or may not have nap
pened to give bonds for their good behavior.
Everybody knows that" says the reader. No
doubt: but great many people seem disposed
to forget It Just now. On the surface our busi-
ness life presents a rather disconcerting appear
ance, and we are credibIy informed that divers
well meaning censors are on the verge Of giving
the ration up as a hopeless organism, clearly
predestined to mngle its disgraceful dust with
the blasted cities of the plain. A ray Of hope
is still left
It is to be found in the very trustfulness
which, at the moment, seems to be the cause
of all our trouble. A youth swindles bank out
of a great handful of negotiable securities, and
when the secret OF his success is explained ths
creation of new safeguards against such perfdy
is Immediately demanded. Let them be created;
but the best safeguard against shrewd swim
ding as against plain theft, will continue to
be the moral sense which, in spite of all SEEM
ing evidence to the contrary, is distributed in
extraordinary abundance among those whom
we may call the supernumeraries on the stage
of our national business life. They are young
men, mostly, and they are not in every case any
too well equipped for the fight with temptation
into which so many Of them are so often be-
gued. Neither their education nor their home
training is necessarily perfect Yet in the course
of year immense sums Of money pass through
their fingers, and ninety-nine times out of n
hundred not cent sticks. They are not proud
Of this, for, as a matter Of fact, the thought of
dishonesty scarcely enters their heads. And
their employers know it. Hence we believe
that, when we have finished our moral house
cleaning, the Jeremlahs who have been talking
as though honesty were dying out in the United
States viii regret their hysteria