Favored Criminals

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 28, 1908

Favored Criminals

A CASHIER of a Pittsburg (Pa.) bank embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars, but confidently expressed his belief that he would not be sent to prison for his crime because of his intimate association with influential politicians and the knowledge of their shady moves. Commenting editorially upon such a situation, the Washington Post says:—

It is a shameful thing that this should be true, but it probably is true. Though the rascally cashier has squandered the money of poor stockholders upon an indecent life, confessing brazenly thereto, he will go free from punishment because some of the honored names in the list of the State’s lawgivers would be dragged down along with his. He will go free because he has “influence” behind him. A beggar might get ten years in prison for stealing a pair of boots; but he would not have “influence.” This is one of the indictments brought by the world against our institutions; that our powerful criminals are saved from the penalties imposed by the law by their money and their “politics.” One of the blackest marks against us is the fact that this indictment is a true one.

Such a recognition of the prevailing miscarriage of justice is not often found, but the facts warrant the admission made. The time has come when “justice has fallen in the street;” but He who will judge in righteousness “standeth at the door.”