The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-09-18
From the Washington Post.

cease to be a good maxim. It would be difficult to find In any other phrase so brief as that so much of the quintessence of human experience. But one's own business includes his obliga- tions to his family and friends and to society in general No man. however care fully he may attend to all the details of his avocation, however well he may look succeeds in minding his own business properly If he is regardless of the interests of his employer OF his duty to his fel- low men in general. The best of all max inns, the one that includes the Golden Rule and the four-word phrase that we are especially considering. is ITO thine own self be true" The best moral les sons of all preceding ages were put into fairer form than they had ever been be- fore. and probably better than they ever will be again, by the worlds greatest man, when he made old Polonius say to his son: This above all, to thine own self be true; thou canst not then be false to any man" Minding your own business means a vast deal more than merely looking out for yourself In any l narrow sense of the phrase. It means au that belongs to an honorable, upright life "No man liveth to himself" Each and every man Is bound by ties of duty to his fellow men.
 Aour h testable than that of meddling in the per sonal or private affairs of others. The busybody Is a social nuisance. It Is easily possible for such person to do more harm by needlessly and cruelty telling the truth, by blabbing out a truth the telling of which can do no good, than another person does by perpetrating hundred untruths that are void of malice and incapable of wounding any heart or marring any life. But in order to be true man one is bound sometimes to tell truths that are charged with ruin to those whose ruin Is their just desert.
 These thoughts are suggested by an aronymous letter addressed to the Post and bearing the Washington postmark. | The writer Is evidently a man of more | than average intelligence and mental cul- tivation. He submits this question: ''Is a man who occupies a subordinate posi- tion in an office where he earns the sal ary on which his family depends for its support under such obligations to his enl- ployer as to demand of him that he re- port criminal Irregularities on the part ot his immediate superior?" Our correspond- ent does not say whether the office to which he refers Is a branch of the gov- ernmental service or is under corpora ton. firm or individual, but that Is not material. The mail that brought this let ter of inquiry brought also a copy of the Louisville Courier-Journal of ~.e lith in stant, containing an editorial on the "Ethics of Minding Ones Own Business As to the question, '1f bank clerk dis covers that some one Is 'tinkering' with the banks funds, shall he tell?' the Courier-J ournai submits for answer a copy of a notice just sent by the presi- dent of one of the great financial insti- tutions of Chicago to the officers and employees under him:
 Tt has come to my knowledge that some of the clerks in the Milwaukee Ave nue State bank had knowledge of the frauds and irregularities perpetrated in that bank by some of its officers, and that they took no action to protect the bank. its shareholders. or depositors against such frauds of which they were fully cognizant. I desire 1t to be clear ly understood by every employe of this bank that knowledge or any reasonable suspicion of fraud of any kind by which the bank suffers or may suffer will be regarded as guilty knowledge unless im- mediately disclosed If the fraud Is per- petrated by any officer or clerk under