Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1906-09-13

looting of the Real Estate and Trust
Company of Philadelphia. Its pres
ident, Frank Nipple, had stolen and
squandered seven millions of its
funds and securities and then com
mitted suicide rather than face the
exposure. This institution was Gtii-
cered by ''reformers-" This is what
one OF our exchanges writes about
the case:
We note with pain that one fea
ture of the eastern bank failure Of
last week is being studiously over
looked by all the "reform" and anti
Republican newspapers in the state.
That is the personnel of the board of
directors of the Real Estate Com
pany of Philadelphia. These gen.
tlemen are all eminently respectable,
or rather they We're until last Tues
day. Since then it has been discov-
cred that they were queer lot.
They were in charge of cone rn
with more than $4,000, 600 re-
sources, more than $20,000,0 900 of
trust funds and more than $60,000,
600 of securities of corporations
whose stock they handled, yet it
seems they knew nothing whatever
of the operations of their institution.
For several years they had held no
meetings. They had no audits, they
exercised no supervision. They We're
so criminally negligent that they
permitted Frank *. Nipple, their
to loot the concern of 81
900, 600. They violated every prin
ciple of careful business, and it is
possible that some of them also vio-
lated that statute of the state which
makes it crime to receive deposits
knowing bank to be insolvent.
They are today despised in the COM
that has known them SO
long and are facing prosecution
while undergoing ostracism at the
hands of their fellow citizens.
Who are these men? The answer
may not be important, but it is in
teresting. They are professional Gre
formers" If they were profession
Il politicians, if incidentally they
had happened to be close in the
of the Republican party,
every jaw-bone artist in the state
would be bowling for the defeat of
the Republican state ticket on this
account, and every Democratic and
reform" sheet from the Ohio to the
Delaware would be lambasting the
Republican party for the faults of
private individuals. Not so, now,
however. The shoe is on the other
foot 1t is not pleasant to dwell up
on the plight and misfortunes of
these smen, nor perhaps is it gra-
rious to draw the deadly parallel be-
tween their "rcform" past and the
humiliations of the present, but some
Of the Philadelphia papers are doing
it by way of reminding the organs
of Ereform" of their unfair use of
similar incident last year. Says the
Inquirer
Among these directors are men
whose names have been mentioned
frequently in connection with public
office. They have led in reform
Their names have been
used to conjure with. They have
been busy in reforming others, but
it seems that themselves they have
not been able to reform. What
pity it is that some of the time they
have been devoting to the public in
treading the path of righteous poll
ties could not have been given to
saving the money Of deluded depos-
itors who have listened to their
burning words of denunciation of
others or have read their names at
tached to political reform documents
and have judged them to be safe
men to he put i'm charge of a vast de-
pository of money Today who
would care to elect these directors to
Il public office? Yea, verify, in
whom can we put our trust? EX.
BUCKNELL UNIVERSITY.