The San Antonio Light

On the subject of "Business Integrity," the Chicago News says: "It is not improbable that there has been a radical change in the opinions and feelings of men regarding what is termed commercial honor and integrity. It had passed into a byword in this country that no man of means and position could be convicted and punished for misdeeds, which, had they been committed by a tramp, would have been robbery plain and simple. So general had this feeling become that banking institutions were regarded as snares and delusions by the timid, who sought other means of security for their funds than the hazardous ones of depositing them in such institutions. Safe deposits, where a man could hire his own vault and carry the key himself, sprang up in all large cities, and secured the patronage which formerly went to the savings institutions. Of late, however, judges and juries have been found who have brushed the glamor from a man's life and called his peculations by their right names, and subjected him to such punishment as his rascalities deserved. Within the last year or two several bank presidents and cashiers in New York and New Jersey have donned the convict's dress and entered upon longer or shorter terms of service to the state, as other thieves have done. Smartness is no longer regarded as an equivalent for honesty, nor boldness for integrity. Wild speculation instead of being considered brilliant has come to be regarded with suspicion. The conviction of Ward will make more than one young man who envied him in his palmy days think twice before he attempts to emulate his ventures. Fish, a convict in the State prison, and Ward convicted of similar crimes will be a wholesome tonic to many a man who is anxious for riches without much regard for the means employed for obtaining them."