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VOL. 9. No. 14.
LINCOLN, NEB., SATURDAY, MARCH 17. IS94.
PRICE FIVE CENTS
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Mayor Weir's crusade has been
going on now for over two weeks,
and those persons who always
oppose movements of this sort,
on the ground that it is better
for business to have everything
run "wide open," can hardlv
contend that Lincoln has suffered in any way by the campaign
against crime and vice that has recently been waged. Whether
the cause of purity has been appreciably advanced, we are unable
to say. But certain it is that no harm has been done.
Perhaps the principal objection that has been made to the mayor's
course is that a closing up of the dives means a scattering of infec
tion into the residence portions of the city. There is some truth in
this; but the police are well acquainted with the offenders, and
they can, ifthe proper effort is put forth, reduce this danger to a
minimum.
The Omaha aveIsior is informed that The Coukiki: has no in
tention of making Bank Examiner Griffith the "scapegoat for all
the trouble brought on those poor people by the Capital National
bank." We merely take the position that Mr. Griffith is a tremend
ous scoundrel or a hopeless ninny, and that inasmuch as he was and
is paid to protect the interests of the public, and yet allowed Mosher
to gut the bank, he ought to be summarily removed from office in
the interest of the public.
The Excelsior says: "The bank examiner was surely not allowed
to see the true condition of the bank. The figures were falsified out
and out." Such statements as this furnish no palliation for Mr
Griffith's dereliction. The law contemplates that a national bank
examiner shall be something more than a wooden man or dummy.
Our contemporary remarks that Governor Crounse, before accepting
the bond signed by Mosher and Outcalt for state money on deposit
in the Capital National bank, made inquiry of three of the leading
bank presidents in this city, Mr. E. E. Brown and Mr. S. H. Burn
ham being among the number, and that these gentlemen assured
the governor that the bond was good. "If three bank presidents in
Lincoln, who would have good reason to suggest caution in such a
case had they known of anything wrong, did not only not know, but
actually recommended their brother bankers, what miht v
pected of the national bank examiner who visited that institution
but twice a year?" says the Excelsior.
We do not know whether Governor Crcunse sought and obtained
this counsel; but admitting that he did, there is nothing in this cir
cumstance to lighten the enormity of Mr. Griffith's offense. The
three "bank presidents" did not have access to the books of Mosher's
bank, and it was impossible for them to know anything about the
condition of that institution. All they had to go by was the reputa
tion of the bank, which at that timo was good. But, by his own ad
mission, the Capital National had for a long timo been one of Mr.
Griffith's "hospital cases," and ho made very frequent examinations
or the concern. For years he had been oi. the inside of the Capital
Nationals operations, and with perhaps two exceptions, he know
more about the bank's condition and its rottenness than anybody.
Ho could not help knowing. He did know. That is what makeshim
so inexcusably culpable.
:. There can bo no satisfactory excuse for Griffith's remissness. He
is a glittering example of official incompetency or a rascally accessor'
in a tremendous steal, and he ought to be turned out.
In referring to some of Mr. Griffith's other experiences with "hos
pita cases," we said a few weeks ago that E. M. Morsman. of Omaha,
upon the advice or Griffith, purchased Judgo Gaslin's stock in tho
defunct City National bank of Hastings, and that he advanced
money to put the bank on its feet again, all of which he lost. The
Excelsior says this is true, and that Mr. Morsman also lost 8H.00O
more in assessments. Our Omaha contemporary adds: "But Mr.
Morsman informs us that he does not blame Mr. Griffith at all in the
matter, nor does he attach any blame to him in the Tact that he also
lost heavily in the failure of the Grand Island bank," another "hos
pital case" where Mr. Morsman took Griffith's advice. Mr. Griffith
is certainly to be congratulated on having such steadfast friends, who
will lose money by him and yet grin and bear it, and continue to
defend him.
Some discussion that must be more or less annoying to innocent
persons having been caused by our series or "Character Sketches,"
the author, "Teyn," desires us to say that the sketches are not writ
ten for local application. The characters briefly outlined are merely
superficial sketches of types that exist in nearly every community
It must be a source or unalloyed gratification to the readers of the
stolid Sunday Journal to note the attempt of the management to
leaven the heavy mass with a rrappe of excruciatingly funny cuts or
cartoons. Anything of this kind in our contemporary is a relief.
Then humor appears to such excellent advantage in the Journal.
It has a most effective bas relief in the practically unvarying dullness
that exploits itseff in a measured and deliberate manner in that
paper's columns.
The unhappy editor of the Lincoln Herald, whose naturally
sunny disposition has been appreciably clouded by certain un
toward political circumstances that we need not mention, ob
jects to our position on the income tax, and is pleased to make some
very unkind remarks concerning the editor of this paper who, Major
Calhoun says, would never be reached by the provisions of the in
come tax bill, which it will be remembered, effects only incomes of
84,000 or over. For years the editor of this paper has made a studied
endeavor to convey the impression that he is a man of wealth, with
large estates and country houses and ships on the high seas, and it
is cruel in the major, whom we have always regarded as our friend,
to dispel the illusion which had become so effective. Humiliating
