Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-04-28

consequences in the case Of the young
financier and how limited those In
the case OF the collector! BY going
to prison the millionaire's son would
have disgraced not only himself, his
father and mother, but his fathers
business associates and those of his
own; and think Of the matter Of pres
tige involved on the side Of the finan-
cial misdoer! The collector had nc
prestige to lose"
| Such is actually one Wall street
/ point Of view! 1t naturally follows &
long course Of training in the deviou:
methods Of the market. 1t is the frui
Of that tree Of abnormally luXurian
growth of which to eat is to make one
lose ones sense of ethical proportion
and of wholesome old-fashioned copy.
book morality. Once the man Of high
finance has admitted that the disgrace
is all in going to prison he admits what
has been vicariously stated for him q
thousand times over; but when he
holds that the disgrace is keener be-
cause the disgraced man is rich and in
wolves other rich men in his downfall
(bear in mind that by "downfall' /!
not meant the crime, but the punish
ment of it), he has entered upon
hopeless phase of the philosophy of fl
nance, and we see that our moral trair
has carried us past our station ant
dumped us out in the dark. This |:
rather a long and perhaps, brutal SEN
tence, but it states the case; and what
is the good of mincing matters?
What my financial friend said in elu
cidation of his position-which Is thai
of so many Of his fellows-was charac'
teristic.
you speak of human susceptible
ity," he said. You want a cOmpar'
ison. Let me tell you something:
happen to know that the subway tick
et-sellers of New York are all under
bonds of three to five thousand dollars
each They are. for the most part
honest, high-moraled men, but there
are also many dishonest men among
them. Why? Because the subway
Is great whispering gallery, and uI
and down the length Of the big tube
runs a constant undertone among the
men who handle the money-ovel
two thousand dollars a day at some
of the big stations-as to how this OIL
that fingerer of multitudinous nickels
has beaten the company In the
course of time, these whisperings and
this discussion come to have their ef'
feet upon many employees. The
company becomes a colossal cash
register to some of these men anC
they are imbued with a single idea
How can we beat it" When this
idea Of beating the company gets into
the head of a man, you can readily
understand where it will lead him
And it is the same on the elevated
roads and the surface lines, and moi
only in New York but in every other
great city in the country. 1t Is a sor
of game, this beating the company,
and the men who engage in it become
reckless, defiant, insolent."
ION the other hand" 1 suggested
you have in Wall street bigger mer
engaged in a bigger game, no les:
dishonest, but who regard being jail
ed as deep and lasting disgrace
and who claim, in nearly every case
the privilege of being let Off"
"Oh, you don't see the point!" he
declared petulantly. Let's tall
about something else"
But I am convinced that 1 did SEE
the point and still see it, and the
point is that the same reasoning is ne
longer applied by too many to the
dishonest man who handles Other
peoples dollars that is applied to the
man who handles other peoples nick
els; that the dollar man is protected
and upheld by an ingeniously wide
spread and constantly growing sym
pathy among his fellows and public
that fears panics and accepts many
things rather than to undergo them
while the nickel man receives no such
sympathy.
OF course, this is only a new way
of restating an old condition, but it i:
condition which has Of late years
become more and more far-reachine
and deep-seated in this country.
In England and Germany the man
who is let off Is a rare being and he
is let off only for a very good reason
But wealth, position in society and in
business, and particularly the position
in which the defaulter is able to i'm
plicate others not yet found out, poor
reasons as they are, are often reason:
enough on this side Of the water. The
culprit goes free and continues tc
| hold up his head, as much as to say
| I'm a part Of the financial system Of
this country and you can't down me.
Is not some part Of that insolence al
legged by my Wall street friend as be-
ing the property of ticket-chopper:
and nickel-rakers reflected here, ol
have the men of those humber walk!
of life a monopoly Of it? Did yor
mark what the surety officer saic
about the rich mans son?
I'VE always regard him with dis
trust" Is it strange, therefore, with
this feeling in the minds Of the mos
conservative Of business men, that
when the son Of the millionaire
makes a man of himself, the world
regards him as a novel and curiou:
spectacle?
In rare cases the man of finance
who violates a great trust and is lei
off does not make a man of himself
/ know of an example where reck-
less scion of plutocracy who made
away with nearly two hundred thous'
and dollars and sunk it in the
Street" managed, by strained effort
to rally his friends about him, to Sc
cure loans to the amount of his en-
beZZement and to beg off his threat
ened prosecutors. Straightway, that
particular gilded youth awoke, went
west, and engaged in a Legitimate
lumber business, where he prospered
paid up and has been as honest as