The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-04-02

upon them one extra temptation. and you
may lead them to become dishonest men
and women. For instance, the other day
was reading about one of tie great pre-
ventives of crime which arr decreasing
the proportion Of the number of our GRIM
inals This preventive is the registering
machine which is now placed at almost
every cashiers desk and in every street
car No sooner is The scent piece col
lected than the conductor has to ring up
the fare No sooner is the spool Of cot
ton or the pound of sugar or coffee bought
than the register records the sale. At the
end of the day the clerks or conductors
must have their registers tally with the
amount of money on hand. Temptation Is
now being placed at minimum. Lessen
the temptation to crime, and you lessen
the number OF future criminals.
This premise granted, do you not see
how you increase the temptations of your
friends, If you place money in their
hands for which they are unable to give
security? You practically say to that
young man: Here my friend, is my
capital. You are worth nothing. You
take this money and l will trust you"
What thought then. is apt to come to
that young man? He says to himself:
IF I risk that money I may be able
t. double it. If I loose it. why then 1
might as we'll be financially lost for =
sheep as for a kid. am worth nothing
now I shall be worse off even if l
fail And what is the result9 We see
thousands of men going into wildcat
speeulations with other peoples funds.
We see thousands upon thousands Of
dollars lost because men are risking mo-
ney which is not their own Ny friend,
as an indorser, you have no right to
lead your brother into temptation. If a
brother has no money and no security
do not teach him how to be criminally
reckless with capital not his won.
The Greatest Danger.
The indorser's trap may not only en-
danger the indorser, but also the in
dorser's loved ones and the indorsee as
we'll. Ralph Erskine once said, There
is no devil so BAG as no devil" That
means. interpreted in plain English,
"There is no temptation so dangerous
as where one doesg not expect to find
a temptation" But l do not see how
Ralph Erslines words can be applied
to my text, for l see dangers everywhere
lowering about .ne indorser's trap. | find
them here for the man who sets the trap.
I find them for the person whose fin
gers hold the pen which is caught in
ones on both sides of the indorser and the
indorsee Every argument shat can be
urged against the cause of willfully rum
ming into debt may be applied here to
the sin of indiscriminate Endorsement.
But man to become a security for
friend or acquaintance does not
necessarily have to sisn : note for money
He can give 70 an acquaintance a letter
of recommendation. That letter may be OF
more value than money. When Ulysses
S. Grant formed his famous Wall street
partnership with Ferdinand Ward he did
not put into that firm much money.
Though he had been lieutenant general
and twice President of the United States,
he never had much money He lived and
died a poor man. But he had more than
money He gave Ferdinand Ward a fina n
cial standing in the business community
and the confidence of the public. The null
titude of admirers of the hero of Apo
mattox poured their wealth into his Of
flee. As result Ward was able to cheat
the trustful public out of its hundreds
of thousands. For the crime of that misa p
preparation Ward was sent to prison.
What Ulysses s. Grant did for Ferdi-
nand Ward some of us on small scale
lave been doing for our friends and C.
quantances. If 70 man is out of a posi-
ton and wants help we say Silver and
gold have I none, but such as l have
give | unto thee This however, Is not
the gift Of grace, but of false letter of
recommendation. We frequently give such
letters of recommendation when We know
that the men to whom we give them are
incompetent or at least unknown 20 us.
and the result is that there are thousands
of frauds being perpetrated all over the
country not because bad men are insti-
eating them-they are bad men every
where-but because good men have al
lowed their names to be linked to those
frauds carelessly And there are thousa nds
of good men out of the positions in life
which they are qualified to fill merely be-
cause mediocre and incompetent men for
friendship sake have been pushed into
those positions by what Is commonly
termed a pull" NV brother, never be Sc
curity for a friend unless you are first
sure that what you recommend by let
ter is "the truth the whole truth and
nothing but the truth"
postmortem Laudation.
But my text has even a wider sweep
If men despise those for whom we UNI
wisely have become sureties they are apt
to despise us also, and If they learn to de-
spise us they are very apt to leran to de-
spise us they are very apt to learn to de-
what you will, every unfathful Christian
is. a representative, however sadly de-