Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1908-11-06
GAY LIFE RANKS DEATH.
Great White Way" Declared Cause
OF Epidemic OF Failures.

OF EDluenllC OIL EalluKcS.
Gotham's Rialto-that portion of the
white light district of broadway which
begins somewhere along oath street and
ends somewhere the other side Of Long
Acre Square-cume in for a c~aStigat1on
Mt the hands of Edward T. Moxey, eX-
pert bank examiner for the United
states Department of Justice. Mr..
Moneys business is to fit about the
country and peer unexpectedly over
shoulders of cashiers of national banks
here and there in order to find out II
their cash balances are all right. Nj.
Mickey recently found Il number or
these gentlemen with cash balances all
wrong and put them in the peniten-
tiary.
You mean the 'Broadway,' New
York - he was asked when he sad said
New York was the couse of it all.
Il mean the broadway New York.
he answered, quietly. II mean the gor-
geous hotels and restaurants, the bars.
gambling houses. the myriad of thea
tcrs. palntial apartment houses, turning
night into day. | mean the food OF
! money in New York upon which this
life is borne along, the craving for vast
incomes by which alone such a life can
be lived.
ITO say that even a bare majority
OF the tens of thousands of men who
nightly swell the crowd of amusement
| craZed %spenders. who live in $4,000
npartmcntS and whose touring cars on
gcst the streets, are doing this with
money which is honestly theirs is alb
| surd. They are not earning his mon
! py they are either Juggling other peo-
pies cash or they are gambling with
their own.
"When you can 90 into Il restaurant
at > o'clock in the morning n behold
$50, 900 worth of women's gowns at the
tables and $4,000 worth of food In pro-
cess of consumption, something is
wrong. And when you observe $4,000
worth of automobiles waiting to take
this one supper crowd to their homes
or elsewhere-you may be sure there is
queer bookkeeping somewhere"
1T is not only this sort Of life In
New York but in a more sinister way
the sight and example of it which are
bringing about Il degradation Of sense
Of common honesty throughout the
country. That American asset, the New
England conscience has become an o b
iect of jest. And, as 1 said, New York
is to blame.
1.-The young banker inc business man
of the smaller community m to New
York. He is IKE in hand by his bust
ness acQuaintances here n shown
about town. His hosts spend money
on a scale which dazzles him.
"He wonders how his friends manage
to share in this prodigality, and bit by
hit he finds out. They tell him funny
stories of transactions, which, reduced
to a proper financial analysis, are defa.
cations pure Il simple, or at best
plain gambling. Everybody does it.
they say it's a part Of the game and
back to his home town goes the young
banker filed with dreams Of sudden
wealth and all the gay life that goet
with it. ..\
800 often this person starts to Lead
a gay life before he has got the suddcr
wealth. He sees the rich customer o.
his bank riding up to the door with 8
big deposit or to get a letter Of credit
for a trip abroad. Perhaps, he tell.
himself, 1t isn't the customers money n
all. Why, then, shouldn't he manipu
late it for his own gain? Why ISM
it anybody's to play with who can get
his hands on it? The life he has seer
and the methods he has learned are de
stroying his sense Of property.
"He is somehow getting it into his
head hat this money placed in his
keeping is a sort Of common property
and that as long as he can keep his
books looking technically right he may
juggle with it for the benefit OF hi:
own personal pocket. He really come:
to believe, seriously. that this Is So"
vry0NTANr 1NnD NT0r unrCn