Thievery in business as exemplified by embezzlements and other dishonesty in positions of trust is increasing in America, particularly among the younger men employed in such positions, according to W.W. Symington, vice-president of a fidelity and guaranty company, in an article in The Nation’s Business.
In attempting to discover the cause of this increasing number of instances of individual dishonesty in positions of trust, Mr. Symington’s company sent a questionnaire to numerous men in close touch with the business of bonding employees, and a summary of the replies are compiled as follows:
1. Dishonesty is apparently increasing throughout the country.
2. The great majority of those who prove unfaithful are men.
3. The service of dishonest employes averages six months to three years before they are detected.
4. Nowadays many things formerly considered as luxuries are wrongfully regarded as necessities.
5. “Keeping up with the Jones” and social unrest appear to cause the downfall of many men, especially the married ones.
6. The craving for an automobile and the “fine feathers” of dress and the granting of almost limitless easy credit play a part in many losses.
7. Family infidelity seems to be more general, and family training, school training and religious training have been put on the shelf in many households.
8. Evasion of the law, as evidenced by bootlegging and the purchase of bootleg liquor, has come to be looked on as a sport, not a crime.
9. Courts in many states are lenient, or at least are not dealing severely with dishonesty.
10. There is a growing disinclination to work.
These views furnish material for sober thought. We know the crime is here, for the courts are overrun with cases and every day brings new violations. It is our duty to get to the bottom of the matter and change our methods of living conditions will no longer be favorable for the breeding of criminals.
In this connection it is interesting to get the viewpoint of Elbert H. Gary, chairman of the United States Steel Corporation. Lawlessness, Mr. Gary says, results from the practice people have of trying to choose the laws they will obey. In other words people have reached point where they are unwilling to obey all the laws. They are perfectly willing to criticize the man who violates some law they do not violate, but at the same time they are against some other law which perhaps derives them of some practice they formerly enjoyed.
Such action is certain to breed contempt for the law and such contempt naturally leads to lawlessness.
From the editorial page of The Concord Daily Tribune, Monday, January 12, 1925, J.B. Sherrill, editor and publisher, and W.M. Sherrill, associate editor
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073201/1925-01-12/ed-1/seq-4/
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