Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1905-12-02
GRAFT: IN HIGH PLACES AND In
LOW.

an these days everybody grafts-in-
Guiding father, mother, and the
children, when they are old enough.
The impression is erroneous. Every
body does not graft. Many persons
are so constituted that grating is
IncOnvenient or painful for them.
They find honesty to be the best
policy, not merely because it keeps
them out of trouble but also be-
cause it responds more Immediately
to the demand of their nature.
Their instincts, education, habits,
and temperament restrain them
from grating. For them it is
easier to be honest than not.
On the other hand, there is a
large number of persons with whom
the faint of dishonesty is hereditary
or acquired and for whom it is
difficult to travel the straight path,
even when it lies Immediately be-
fore them and is easier than the
crooked one. Officers of the law
deplore the tendency to pardon
criminals or treat them leniently,
because they say the man who goes
wrong once in financial matters is
likely to do it again. Embezzlers
who are pardoned and put in the
way Of making an honest living
frequently embezzle again. In one
celebrated case the states attorney
In this country objected to relieving
a defaulter from the consequences
of his act because he said that if he
were relieved he would probably
come before the criminal court in
the same capacity a second time.
Grating in high places is not
new thing. 1t is as old as tyranny,
oppression, and misrule, and they
go back to prehistoric times. They
arose from the tendency of human
beings to abuse unlimited power
when intrusted to them. AS the
Egyptians oppressed the Israelites,
so every government or ruler not
surrounded by proper restrictions
has sooner or later oppressed the
people. Wherever there has been
a privile Led class other classes have
suffered. The rObber barons of the
middle ages, the nobility of France
and other European countries
ground their serfs or peasants into
the bust until the French revolu-
ton freed the oppressed. So in
modern times all who have had ex-
cessive or unlimited power have
sooner or later abused it. Today in
this country the greatest power is
the money power, and the people
who possess it, wien not restrained
by officers of the law, have not
been unlike civil or military rulers
OF ancient times in their tendency
to take what did not belong to them
and hold on to it as long as they
could.
The revelations of grating in
high places in New York are not
new in one respect. When undue
confidence is reposed in any class of
men, some of its representatives in
variably betray it. That is why it
so frequently happens that men
who so wrong in financial matters
are pillars in the community, or
hold high places in the churches,
and are the last men who were
suspected of disposition to 60
wrong. Misconduct in their cases
followed upon the undue confidence
which had been reposed in them.
No man ill the community stands
so high that he should not be subject
to proper checks and safeguards.
In fact, the men who hold the most
responsible positions and who, if
they chose, might the most easily
betray the trusts placed in them are
frequently the ones who are dis
posed to have their accounts care
fully audited. They are the ones
who welcome the advent of the
certified public accountant" and
wish to have the affairs of the in
situations over which they preside
closely examined by independent
authorities once year or oftener.
There is therefore nothing unreal
sonable in the suggestion that
banks, national or otherwise, should
be investigated by accountants who