"THE HONEST CITIZEN"

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3072, 7 May 1917, Page 3

"THE HONEST CITIZEN"

AN INTERESTING TEST OF MEN AND WOMEN WITH A DOLLAR BILL

If you happened along a deserted street,' and picked up a purse containing ten crisp- new hundred-dollar bills, would you advertise them and make an attempt to return them to their owner? Doubtless. However, )f in jour morning's mall you received a single doliar hill, with 5 letter showing that it was intended for a certain, company—evidence that the sender had apparently mixed the envelopes in which he bad mailed two letters—would- you return tho, bill or keep it? Sir. Cleveland Moffatt, who details his experiments in "M'Chire's Magazine," decides that- if you were a millionaire, the chances are that you would not; but if you were a laundress or a- poor school-teacher you would. In short, there seems, after all, to be some base for the conclusion of all the old-fashioned writers of the Rollo books, et :il., that tho rich are usually wicked and tho poor are virtuous. • '" In a recent issue of the New York '-World," we find a resume of Mr. Moffett's investigations to discern just how honest people really are when there is practically no chance of their beingfound out if they fall. Mr. Moffett's views were given to a young woman interviewer, who tells us: Mr. Moffett, •who is an editor and author known throughout the United States, told me yesterday that, having grown tired of hearing the honesty of his native land reviled, he made up his mind to put it to the acid test. So he sent to each of fifty men and women a dollar bill. Prom the test of a letter which accompanied the money, it was evident that tho bill had been intended for "The Novelty Supply Company, No. 153 East Fifty-sixth Street" (an imaginary concern which Mr. Moffott had located- at his own address), and had been enclosed in the wrong envelope. Nothing remained, therefore, for the honest man

or woman to do save to put tho dollar bill in another envelope, and mail it back to The Novelty Supply Company—, in other words, to Mr. Moffott. Of tho fifty women to whom tiie money was sent, thirty-three were honest and returned tho money. Of the fifty men, thirty-one were honest and returned the money. So tho proportion of dishonest men, according to Mr. Moffett's test, is nineteen in fifty, while tho ratio of dishonest women is but sevouteen. The dollar bills were mailed to fifty men, classified in groups of five, according to their occupations. And the women were similarly selected. I will let Mr. Moffott take up his own story of the test.

"taking the fifty women by groups,,''

.r. Moffetfc said, "of five wives of prosperous citizens,- three sent back the dollar. Of five actresses, threo sent it back. Of five stenographers, threo sent it back. Of five trained nurses, three sent it back. Of five teachers, four sent it back. Of the five successful business women, five sent it back. Of five miscellaneous women, three sent it back. Of five working girls, threo sent it back. Of five doctors, three sent it back. Of five lawyers, three sent it back. Taking the fifty men by groups,. 1 found, that of the live successful business men, three returned tho dollar. Of five rich men, four returned it. Of five lawyers, four returned it. 'Of five saloon-keepers, one returned it. Of five plumbers, three returned it. Of five New York aldermen, three returned it. Of five newspaper men, four returned it. Of five actors, four returned it. Of five doctors, two returned it. Of five Now York policemen, three returned it."

Now, strangely enough, we are told, not only did more women return the money, but they returned it more promptly. Of course, the injured males may retort that probably the men detailed the returning of tho bills to a secretary or a young woman stenographer, which would throw the blame on fair woman, but the faot remains that the money came back more quickly fir-m the women. Furthermore, they took pains that it got back safely, for, says the experimenter:

One'woman put a special-delivery stamp on the envelope in which she sent the dollar back. Another brought it to me personally at great inconvenience. On the other hand, a man worth 1,000.000 dollars who lives at one of the big hotels, never sent it back at alh I allowed six weeks in each case before I reached a verdict. So I think the honesty of the public at lar<;e, and of women particularly, is fairly well established. Which was what I set out to prove.