Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1912-08-25

been a powerful moral awakening iii the business world, iu that practices [ that were recognized and tolerated a few years ago are now 70 discouu- tcuCad by bankers associations aud clearing house committees that he ! who persists in such practices meets that personal and professional ustra- cism which eventually will render his position intolerable
 zIae examiner, of course, plays his part in the strict enforcement oi the national banking law. His duties are simple. 1t is his business to report the discovery of crime to the Treas ury Department and to the Federal District Attorney, That, however, | must follow closely lines Of abso- lutc and positive proof. The exam iner must bear the responsibility for his accusation because of the pro- found consequences to others. Em- ht2zlement, abstraction. the issuance Of false reports and the making of false entries are acts capable or tcCh- nical definition and the offender com mits either crime with his eyes open 10 the consequences, or with his eyes shut deliberately through mere indif- ference to the law. Under the pres ent banking law, according to some legal lights, there is no techincal meaning to the word "misapply,' it being left largely to the interpreta i ton of the trial court and jury.
 The crime which national bankers commit, aside from ordinary com- monplace theft, are grouped under { tNo heads by Examiner Morris. First, those which result from mere care lessness, ignorance of, and often in- difference to the provisions Of the Ma tional Banking Act. Second, those which grow out of a low conception of the obligations arising from the fiduciary relation which bankers bear to their banks and the public, The first do not necessarily involve moral turpitude.
 Ignorance of the law excuses no man," says the examiner, "and al though wrongful intent is an essen- tlal element of every crime, yet such intent is often presumed. Probably this class of crime is committed most frequently in the certification of checks and the making of false re- ports. In the making of false reports there is apt to be wrongful purpose lack of the apparently innocent act Every examiner has run across bank CTS who seem to regard omissions or distortions of facts in reports to the comptroller as matters of small moment. Such men do not seem to appreciate the object of the law in re- ! quiring such reports.
 One of the greatest things that bank examiners have to contend with is the sharing of proceeds by bank CTS. It is held not necessarily to be : criminal for banker to share in the profits of @ transaction which is f- . nanced by his bank. Judge Woolsen, however, had stated in passing upon the guilt of a bank president that "a : bank rarely fails by loans to parties ) not members of it's board of manage } ment.''
 Examiner Morris, however, takes
 issde with the judge, saying that the
 i!lrist might have gone further and ;tdded that in no bank which is super
 vsed conscientiously and intelligent
 full board are losses possible through
 the use of forged paper or dummy
 loans, which are the usual methods
 employed by officers to fraudulently
 obtain monies of the bank. "Yet," he
 states, Jaws of various states arbi- trarily prohibiting loans by banks to
 loans are desirable in themselves. The
 element of fraud and criminality gen
 erally enter with concealment"
 Mr. Morris in his letter says tha , the demands of commonplace, old fashioned honesty and personal honol
 must control the banker just as mucf
 as they must the eXecutor of an es Il tate in handling trust funds and tha
 no evasions, fraudulent schemes O
 Contlivances should be allowed to en
 ter into his banking business.
 One defect of the National Bank
 ing law, he holds, is the statute O
 limitations, which permits the offend
 CT to escape his just punishment i = he is able to conceal his unlawful ac S for period ef three years. In thi :. 1 tila,, Lo