Bank Defalcations and Employee Identification
Defalcations of bank officials have become occurrences of great frequency of late years; and the boards of directors of these institutions are at their wits' end to know how to protect themselves against the stealings of their servants. There are perhaps no institutions that pay better salaries for the services rendered than do the banks. This in itself should be a protection against peculations, but it is not. The best systems of book-keeping that can be devised are in use; but an acute intellect and a covetous heart enable men to carry on a systematic course of theft for years without detection. Because of the enormous loss which the First National of Milwaukee sustained in the recent defalcation of its president and cashier, that institution has decided to subject all its employees to the Bertillon system of accurate measurements, the system which is used now upon criminals to aid in their future identification. By this system an accurate measurement of the different parts of the body is made and a record kept. The employee must also deposit a photograph of himself with the bank directors, and whenever he changes his personal appearance, he must submit a new photograph. This is all because of the weakening of the moral fiber in man, and his decreasing power to resist temptation. The love of money is a root of evil that is penetrating the mold of human hearts to-day as never before, and the fruit that is born therefrom scatters its seed in every corner of the earth. Disregard of the laws of God is producing a soil in which "covetousness, which is idolatry," grows rank and green. The soul outside of Christ can not hope to live through these perilous days without yielding to the fascinating allurements of Satan's gilded temptations.