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September 29, 1909. THE PRESBYTERIAN
THE CAUSE OF BANK DEFALCATIONS AND
FAILURES.
There's an official of the United States department
of justice, whose duty it is to seek and compile evidence
against the crooked bankers of the country.
His name is Edward P. Moxey. Upon his evidence
largely John R. Walsh, the hank president and bank
wrecker of Chicago, was put behind the bars. His
testimony will play an important part in the trials of
others who are under indictment in New York for
embezzlements and defalcations in a National Bank
1 lis work has made him a close student of the causes
underlying embezzlements and fraudulent transactions
in the banking world.
Mr. Moxey places fast and luxuriant living at the
head of the evils which are causing a wave of dishonesty
to pass over the nation. We quote from his
report that young men may take the warning:
"To say that even a bare maioritv of the tens of
thousands of men who nightly swell the crowd of
amusement-crazed spenders, who live in $5,000 apartments,
and whose touring-cars congest the streets,
are doing this with money which is honestly theirs,
is absurd. They are not earning this money; they
are either juggling other people's cash or they are
gambling with their own. When you can go into a
restaurant at two o'clock in the morning and behold
$60,000 worth of women's gowns at the tables and
$3,000 worth of food in process of consumption, something
is wrong. And when you observe half a million
dollars' worth of automobiles waitine to take this one
supper, crowd to their homes?or elsewhere, you may
he sure there is queer bookkeeping somewhere.
"It is not only this sort of life in New York, but in
a more sinister way. the sight and example of it, which
is bringing about a degradation of the sense of common
honesty throughout the country, that the American
asset, the 'New England conscience,' has become
an object of jest. And as I said New York is to blame.
And in all matters, theatrical, literary, artistic, the
other cities and towns take their cue from New
York. As New York lives, so they all wish to
live. To-dav in towns as small, as 2:nm nn'n.
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ulation there are springing up all-night grill rooms
with Hungarian orchestras, wherein the young business
men of these communities must foregather if they arc
to be in the social swim with their local smart set.
"The young banker or business man in the smaller
community comes to New York. He is taken in hand
bv the business acquaintances here and shown about
the town. His hosts spend money on a scale which
dazzles him. They take him to luxurious hotels and
where they and the head waiters know each other
by name and where he is introduced to a scale of living
fit only for men of millions. He wonders how his
inenas manage to snare in this prodigality, and bit by
bit he finds out. They tell him funny stories of'transactions
which, reduced to a proper financial analysis,
are defalcations pure and simple, or, at best, plain
gambling. 'Everybody does it,' they say; 'it's part of
the game.' And back to his home town goes the
young banker, filled with dreams of sudden wealth
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"And let me make my opinion emphatic that the
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OF THE SOUTH. 9
laxity with which the criminal laws of our land are
enforced by many of the judges of our courts has much
to do with encouraging bank officer's to misuse the
funds in their keeping . . . There are many direct
causes for bank defalcations, but the primal cause is
the desire for luxury fostered in the great cities.
t it late years the chief immediate cause is the using
of the bank's funds to promote enterprises in which the
bank officers have interested themselves."
THINK.
Passing along the street one hot day, I saw under
a shade tree in front of a church, a comfortable seat.
()n it was this invitation : "Sit here and rest and
think."
Stop, rest, think. That is a orescrintioii that ic
good for body, mind and spirit. We rush ourselves
to death. More thought, and we could work more
intelligently, and what we do would count for more.
"My people doth not consider," said grieved Jehovah.
They did not think from whom all their blessings
came. Just took them as a matter of course,
with no thought of him who gave them. Of course
they felt no gratitude toward him.
"I'm sorry, I did not think." is often said too late.
The dear mother has worn herself out many years
too soon. The one whose duty it was to help her,
did not think of it; did not see that she was actually
killing herself. The dear wife died of heart starvation.
There were rich foods on the table. But the
heart, made to love and be loved, never heard, "I love
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* in su iiuuiKiui ior you, trom the one
who had promised to love her. Yes, he probably did
love her in a way. But he should have thought to
tell her so.
I once heard a noted evangelist say, substantially.
"If a man will sit down and think a few hours about
his life, he will either go to Jesus, or he will go crazy."
If a man will think till he locates himself, till he comes
to see just whe're he stands, just the tendency of his
life, the imminent danger he is in, will he not go to
him who is his Helper, or hesidp himoio
The Psalmist said:
"I thought on my ways,
And turned my feet unto thy testimonies."
Thinking of one's ways leads to a change of way.
"'Do you not know that this course will be your ruin?"
"Oh, I don't know. I never thought much about it."
The way of the thoughtless is the way of falls, hurts,
tears, ruin.
Then, too; sit down and rest and think. You'll do
better; you'll be better for it.?Exchange.
.A GREAT SECRET.
There is in the heart of every man an earnest desire
to know how he may be victorious in the time of
temptation. Temptation is not sin, though yeilding
is sin, but there is one sure way of escaping from the
overmastering power of the tempter and that is to keep
busy. When David was idle he sinned, when Peter
was not toilincr he failed, and it wac ?
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drifting idly along in Christian experience that you
denied your Master. The secret of a victorious life
is to keep busy. The old saying is quite true, "The
idle brain is the devil's workshop."