Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1922-11-24
SCARCELY WORTH WHILE

SCARCELY WORTH WHILE
Ross r. Clark, for twelve years head of the col
Elections department of a Minneapolis bank, goes
to the state prison on all indeterminate sentence of
from one to ten years for ENLIGHTENMENT. Confront
ed with the facts disclosed by an examination of his
books, he confessed and was given the heaviest
sentence permitted under the statute.
The case is a most peculiar one. Clark con-
fessed frankly that his stealings had covered prac-
tlcally the entire period since he was made head of
his department., and he told of the manner in which
he had escaped detection until this time. Accord
ing to his story he had taken only small sums at
first, and had covered up his defalcations by an in
genious system of using new collections to make
good his shortages, withholding reports on these
later collections until new money was available}to
square them. 1t appears that this continued for
about seven years, when he plunged" bringing his
total shortage up to something like its present
figure. He describes his stealings during the past
FIVE years as negligible" In all he ~confesses to
have taken a little over $15O,00O. ~
Clark is a man of engaging personality. He had
many friends and nowhere does there appear to have
been a suspicion that he was not leading a straight
forward life. His habits, so far as they are known,
were entirely consistent with the position of trust
(which he occupied. He lived nodestly, is not known
Ito have ga1nbled or speclated, and gave. no evil
dence of the possession of money in any unusual
|amount. The authorities do not know what has
become of the $150,000 which he embezzled, and
Clark will not tell. He says merely that he spent
the money, but beyond that he is silent. One
theory, and about the only one that has been ad-
|vanced, is that the money has been boarded and
%secreted, and that Clark expects to recover it at the
close of his term, which he can reduce below the
maximum ten years by good behavior.
One of the impressive features of the case is the
immense amount of labor which the embezzler
performed in the accomplishment and concealment
OF his crime. Every day for practically twelve years
this man has carried about with him the conscious
ness of his offense, and has been aware of the risk
OF detection. Almost every day he has had to
|juggle his accounts in order to be free from prison
for another day. In his domestic life, and in the
performance of his routine work his behavior has
been regular and inconspicuous. He has taken his
annual vacations, as other employees have taken
theirs. Most of these vacations he has spent in
hunting, for which he has a passion. But always
there was the necessity for keeping those accounts
straight. He must prepare for every temporary alb
sence. His vacation must not be prolonged beyond
the end of the month, for he had to readjust his
figures at the close of each month, so that his ac-
counts would pass muster. And all the time. with a
mass of conplcated2igures in his head, and the
possibility of detection hanging over him, he must
maintain, an air of cheerfulness and be diligent in
the management of the business entrusted to him.
That a man could do all this indicates the pos
session Of unusual capacity. No man other than a
remarkably capable business man could have done
what he has done. Yet, at the end of a dozen years
lof this sort Of labor and nervous strain, he must
spend what should be the best and happiest years of
his life in prison. Suppose that his entire program
has been a deliberate one, and that at the end of
his term he re-possesses himself of the $15O;OOO
where-perhapsTr--he has hidden it. What then He
will be well along in years, discredited, dishonored.
He cannot enjoy the money except secretly. And
a life of seclusion under an assumed name in a dis
tant part of the country away from all who have
been his friends, seems a poor way to round out a
career which might have been an honorable one,
successful in every sense of the word.