Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1919-09-05

tLlds WIleu lnelr DOCKS are audited
everything is found to be correct.
Now, as to banks. If a man is en-
trusted with your money-your none,
and my money, and the money O.
widows and orphans, and all other PEG
pie who are patrons of banks-I saw
when man has been specially hon.
ored and entrusted and social conf.
dence and trust has been reposed II
HIM, and your money and my money
and the hard-earned money of pool
people, widows and orphans, has beer
placed in his keeping, and he steals
it, he not only violates the moral law
and the law Of the land, but he betrays
the confidence of the public. II is
worse than stealingl Common steal
| ing, | mean. 1t is worse than steal
ing your horse at night, because YOU
haven't trusted your horse to him nor
to his keeping and didn't expect him
to be responsible for it. Stealing of
this kind they sometimes call embez-
element! But it is stealing, lust the
same; it is taking other people's
money-it is taking money that don't
belong to you.
These bonding companies that make
bonds for bank presidents, cashiers,
sheriffs and treasurers for a small fee
when there is loss, when the man
for whom they made the bond be-
comes a defaulter, they are not going
to lose anything | will tell you why.
If the rate on that bond is one dollar
per thousand, when Tom, Dick and
Harry began to steal and get away
with their swag and the bondsmen
have to pay up, why the rate to other
people IS simply raised from one to
two dollars thousand or ten dollars
or any other amount that is necessary
to make up for and cover the loss,
and it simply means that your other
officers who have to make bond and
all others who are compelled to make
bond have go ito pay the losses, indi-
rectly.
We ought to see that embezzlers
and thieves are made to observe the
rights Of other people. When a man
is in position of trust, as a bank
cashier, and violates that trust and |
steals the peoples money, he is a
double violator of the law; he has
a double offense, a moral
otfense and legal otfense, and he
ought to be punished accordingly. |
ell you, gentlemen, these are serious
matters and should be looked into
'arefully, and if you find such crimes
nave been committed in your county, J.
you ought to find bills, and that
promptly; the responsibility is then
If of your shoulders and the matter
S up to the court. 1t is not for YOU
o say whether the man is to be con-
ricted or acquitted, but only to saw,
rom the evidence brought before you,
whether he ought to be accused of I
rlme. His trial and punishment are
within the province of the court and
S matter with which you have
othing to do.
have been speaking largely in gen {
ralities; hope you have had no
tealing in your county from any -,
ank, but if you have, look into it ]
arefully and bring in bills if you find !
evidence on which to pred ,
ate them. | hope, however, you have ,
ad no stealing at all in the county, 4
whether by a bank cashier or burg 5
ar with a mask on his face. But if ,
GU find stealing to have been done t
rom a bank or from anybody else,
lther by the masked robber and burg c
n or by the trusted, confidential in |
ide employee, who didn't have to use '
ynamite to get in the safe. | want t
GU to indict if you find the evidence Q
} do it on. Q
When man steals twelve thousand h
ollars and he or his people pay part t
It or even all of it back, that does v
ot settle the matter; the fact that he v
as paid a part or all of it back does v
ot settle the matter at all; he is sat
he'd, doubtless the bank who has sus- q
lined the loss is probably satisfied; il
1t there is third party in interest i,
third party vitality involved, and that Il
ird party is the State. The State b
Mississippi should and must be sat Il
ned; there can be no satisfactory or S;
finite settlement Of a matter of that Il
nd until the State is satisfied in c,
II. u
When 1t comes to criminal matter. is
EN- the stealing from the bank-tak- al
g the banks property-the bank it. Iii
II has nothing whatever to do with I'll
Gentlemen Of the grand jury, | III
y to you 1t is matter for the great til
ate of Mississippi If the law has is
en- violated by the stealing of one 70
liar or twelve thousand dollars, it al
axes no difference how much repara- lin
N has been made, how much money sh
s been paid back by the thief or any ms
his klnfolksl No matter what the su
may be; if a man has or
en- guilty of stealing money, the ga
operty of another, he should be in 10,
ted and given fair and impartial in,
81; when he once gets in, when the to-
lulrements of the law have been int
t and the State is satisfied, then if IN,
! want nm out, you can take it up
n the proper branch of the govern to
Mt. @ N,
" hether man violates the law bv do
ting into the confidence of other OIL
'pie, becoming their trusted agent abb
employee, and then taking their to
ney in his charge, or whether he Oh;
ceals his face with a mask and goes | |
It with sledge hammer and dyna- cor
e, 1t makes absolutely no differ vii
e; 1t is crime either way, and the isl;
de man, the confidential man. the sor
sted man who does it, is the guiltier err;
the two; his moral guilt, at least. Of
greater than the others. This is spi
eclaiily true of these fellows who ha,
to church on Sunday and sit in the Law
II and sing and then on Monday ms