Financial Demoralization.
The condition of public morals, in relation to financial matters, is becoming such as to excite alarm in many thoughtful minds. Dr. J. G. Holland, in Scribner's for February, speaking of “What Has Been Done about It,” in the case of Wm. M. Tweed, says: “The special significance of Tweed’s conviction and condemnation, as a lesson in public morals, lies in its definition of theft. He entertained the same idea that thousands all over the country entertain, viz.: that everything that can be got out of a corporation or the public is legitimate plunder. The amount constantly stolen from railroad corporations in this country, by men who certainly would regard it as immoral to rob a neighbor’s hen-roost, is enormous. Somehow, poor men touch railroads in an official capacity, and get rich, while the railroads get poor, and stockholders are not only cheated out of dividends, but out of the railroads altogether. Picking and stealing are going on everywhere, in railroad managements, in municipal governments, and in all sorts of corporations, going on among, and by the hands of, men who regard themselves as doing an entirely legitimate business. The theft is disguised by the medium of some scheme like that of the Credit Mobilier; and it is unconfessed to the consciences of the thieves themselves. Men will consent to hold an office and do no duty, while the pay they receive is practically a theft. There are ten thousand thefts, only less gross and high-handed than that which enriched Tweed and his gang, that are practiced all through the community, unrecognized by the thieves themselves as thefts. There are whole States that seem to be demoralized on this subject. To a great multitude, to take anything from a private person is stealing, to take anything that can be got by any indirection from the government or a corporation is a matter of perfectly legitimate business.” In an article on “Financial Integrity,” the Chicago Journal of Jan. 16, 1874, utters the following stirring thoughts:— “The financial atmosphere of this country is poisoned with distrust—a financial distrust which is eating at the vitals of public morality. Defalcation has followed defalcation, embezzlement embezzlement, fraud fraud, bribery bribery, official ‘irregularity’ official irregularity, until the swelling has developed into a cancer of a malignant form. We presume it would be quite within the facts to say that the official frauds and defalcations of this country have averaged one a fortnight for the year 1873. It will not be denied that this is a retrospect of a discouraging nature, and suggests a prospect of anything but an encouraging description. “For we must concede that this lamentable degeneracy in financial conscience is no longer confined to those who occupy positions of official responsibility and have the handling of the public money. It has touched and tainted commercial life. It has descended from some of the highest posts of the public service to some of the most secluded positions of the mercantile world. And why should it not? Much—indeed, we may say everything—depends upon example in public virtue. The weaker imitate the stronger; the lower the higher; the least responsible the most responsible. Not only is society ruled by an aristocracy, but in democratic communities, the common run of people act upon the axioms which govern those who, by reason of their political or social position, are regarded as constituting what is ordinarily known as ‘society.’ It is impossible to maintain integrity among the masses of the people, while their public servants and wealthy corporations disregard and repudiate it. They are not so nice in their discriminations as to see a difference between a fraudulent appropriation by their opulent neighbors, and a larceny of their own. Nor can they see even-handed justice in the imprisonment of the thief while the defaulter is allowed to go scotfree, or treated with consideration instead of reprobation. This is why and this is how this financial distrust is beginning to tell with alarming effect. The cancer is approaching the heart, for say what we will about the power of the wealthy and the glory of the great, it is, after all, the mass of the well-to-do and even hand-to-mouth people of this country to whom we are to look for its stability and order. They, and not their leaders or officials, constitute the heart of the commonwealth. Consequently, when they become venal and reckless of their financial honor, we may conclude that public immorality is waning, and society is in jeopardy. “We really would be glad to be disabused of the fear we have that the public mind has become torpid with reference to this peril, and that one of these days the financial conscience of the country may be stricken with paralysis—cancer at the heart, and paralysis of the extremities. Certainly, if 1874 is to be a repetition of 1873, as respects the public estimate of public penalty, we may look forward to the future with grave apprehensions. For whether we go by short, quick steps, or long, slow strides, go we must, and go down, if we go at all in this direction. Whether the catastrophe be near or remote, it is inevitable as soon as we, as a community, believe that we may get money by any means, however infamous, and may use or keep in our possession other people’s money, whatever may be our obligation to return it, and however much its owners may suffer for the want of it.” “To suppose that we can escape the disastrous results of this universal distrust, by any display of energy and enterprise in material civilization, is to shut our ears as well to the voice of reason as to the teachings of history. Miles of warehouses and acres of manufactories cannot compensate for the loss of confidence of man in man, of tradesman in tradesman, of merchant in merchant, of manufacturer in manufacturer, of people in officials. “There is no substitute for it; nothing can take its place. It is not a question of opinion, or of theology, or of philosophy; it is a question of hard facts, and of cause and effect. If we will get rich, accumulate luxuries, and amass great possessions, openly and utterly regardless of common honesty and common integrity and common conscience, we may be absolutely sure that we shall be overtaken, sooner or later, by embarrassments far more disastrous than any mere panic in stocks, or losses in trade. Nothing is plainer than that we must awaken from our moral stupor respecting financial fidelity if we would preserve our prosperity from gradual decay, if not sudden collapse.”