IS HONESTY WORTH WHILE?

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 9, Issue 582, 9 November 1920, Page 2

IS HONESTY WORTH WHILE?

(By Dorothy Marsh Garrard, in the I "lioyal" Magazine.) \ "Honesty is the best policy" is an <ici proverb, but is it-a true one? On loOKmg round on. things'as they art m the world just now it seems vei> u.otiul. Aevt-r, perhaps, since th<_ ..iyn wnen the gentleman with tht ingest club proved top dog in everj gument, has there been less rea. .siice about. On every hand f;a ,iu flourishing scamps—we know ..ey are scamps even if we are tot jiite to say so—make merry in thi. iiit, wnile, if you try to consoi jiown, who went to the war "ani ame back to find that Jones, b, leuiods distinctly crooked, h;> jinched his job, with that othe." nne-honoured, maxim, "virtue is its ;wn reward," he'll call you a liai. or worse. The Prevalence of Dishonesly. A good many of the comfortabL ■ oik who, except as regards a fe. iinnor creature comforts, didn't mut .ealise there ever was a war, are no\. -nuch disturbed by the present eno aious outburst of crime. They sa. >t is shocking, and ask what are ti . police, the Government doing when . ijanker can't go to his bank or a Cit.. man to his otfice without danger o. oeing threatened with a pistol at his nead'.' They don't even begin to gras) that, while the war opened the eye:, of thousands of men to the stan realities of life, it made clear t them also the absurdity of many o. our present ideas of justice and fai. treatment. Half the crimes of tr... present day are committed from l burning sense of injustice. It ma> 1 not excuse them, but it renders then* more intelligible. Nothing makes men so reckless Oi consequences as to feel they hav> been unfairly treated. A' man, not i very good man, perhaps, but still om who has sacrificed more than a little, comes back to the land for which ht has made the sacrifice. It is onl> reasonable to expect some recogni tion, if not actual reward, of his ser vices. And the first thing he sees is all the prosperity in the country going to the profiteer, the men whc ; by meansy more or less shady, stayec at home, and the overpaid Government employee. He, and the others like him—as a young officer was actu ally told by a warrich alien the othe, day—can go and rot where they like. Men are Being Made Dishonest. There is, of course, from the truh moral point of view, no excuse foi any criminal. But, from the human one, there are at the present time a good many. Men aren't saints, not yet, and while it is open to everyone to see how the* unscrupulous grabbers mostly flourish like the proverbial bay tree, it is not to be wondered at that some people weary of a career of strict integrity. What, when all's said and clone, beyond the glory of its own virtue, has honesty to offer ? In nine cases out of ten, not much. The average man can just plod ahead taking his meagre saiary year after year until he is played out. He won't be counted or made much of jufct because he's honest. Often it i-. rather the reverse. While in soiiv; cases the means used to render his honesty assured arc such as, to any man with a spark of spirit in.him. seem to cry out for retaliation. There have' recently been sever.!! iittlc sidelights thrown on the .netn ods employed by highly reputably concerns towards their employees For instance, during a recent slriki at a great-store, it came out thai the assistants, who are only chose" after a very strict examination as 1 theft: personal character, must ut ai their homes, to ,daintly- mbm ppf times allow then.sel»es, and eve>i their homes, to be searched at will. That is the sort of thing that must make a man feel what a fine, fret fellow he is. Of course the obvious reason fori it was that the employers knew perfectly weH that od account of the wretched salaries they pai.i thre was every inducement towards theft. Putting Temptation in Her Way.

Then there was that further cast of a young and attractive cashier Oi a North Country firm, who was cor victed of stealing some twent; thousand pounds of her employer:; money. It attracted a good deal oi" attention, because it was probab'j almost the first case of its kind ir which ri woman was concerned. Then were also two other outstanding points of interest about it: Firstly the apparent ease with which th. frauds were committed; secondly, tlv. culpable foolishessn (one might c;.'i it by & woise name) of paying •■ cashier four pounds a week an< then,,- with thousands at her coni-> mand, expecting her to.remain hon est.

It mr>y be argued thst many met and women receiving even a small v. wage still retain their integiit. That may be so, but it does not taks away from the culpability of thost who pay them. . Vnd even now 1! < cynical person might, perhaps, won d'er if the cashier 'lid not, after a: I. feel the game was worth the' candle She had a run for he-* money, rjid as for the future, it probably -.von' be much worse, to -i woman of he: temperament, than an entire exist ence of drab monotony would linvi been.

There is anotiier point. Co man; men, to whom from inherited train ing or fastidious sensa of honour, th. way of dishonesty will never appeal the narrow path of strict rectitude proves little rmue attractive. The;, grow bitte/. disillusioned, ;>ll hopei'u' spirit of endeavour «,ces out of them And no one who is embittered am; without hope can do work. Ii is like expecting a parson with ai income of one hundred and twent;. pounds a year, and a wife, fou 1 children nncl expensive rectory ti support out of it, to keep out o ; debt.

[ As an unusually human judge re ' marked the other day. the Only vvor ! ilcr was that the unfortunate mai hail managed to keep his head abov water so lung, And, with rare g*. o< sense, he refused to make any ordc against him. Profits versus Poverty. All around i 1 >• the same. Neve: tsua money been so easily made, ncvej haj it been bu lavishly and uselessly ■pent, never has it been so bactl; reeded by those who- have not : ci it, On the one hand, stupendous [•<<.< fits, are made by the directors ;■m' shareholders of great industrial en ecrns: on the other, wc find slier e. rinding poverty amongst those v.lvi have lea«t deserved to want.

H was. 1 know, apparonlij proved at the shareholders' meeting of oik linn, that by charging scvcnper.eehalfpcnny for a r'eel of cotton in-: stead of a penny they were, in real ity. performing a very patriotic action: but, although logical enough. I must own the reasoning left mc cold. And the person who is con stantly obliged to buy reels of cotton at sevenpence-halfpenny instead of a penny must feel more sceptica' about it still, also indignant. And it is this feeling of indignation, or more often bitter resentment, towards one or somebody which is makir; half i. h " "rouble in the police courts to-day.

Honesty Must be Made Worth While. The present wave of crime will never diminish so long as the present state of affairs goes on. So long as men see that in nine cases out

of ten it doesn't pay to be scrupulous, so long as they only remain honest because they are afraid to steal, it means that we shall go backwards instead of forward. Even now we seem drifting toward! an age of absolute crass materialism, while the end will inevitably be once again the supremacy of the gentleman with the biggest club. Tt is not only a question of money/, ♦ It is a question of fair comradeship and loyalty. It never be possible to reward each individual according to his deserts any' more than it will ever possible (it's :i horrible outlook, anyway) for all men and women to be equal. But ' there can be a decent standard of *■ wages; there can bo a decent stanu-" ' nrd of treatment; above all, there ran be a standard where character and brains are respected more than mere dollars ground out of other men. The Need for Safeguards. Travellers returning from some of those countries which suffered most .. severely in the war, tell terrible tales of the state of affairs in them. Everyone, so they say, just robs everybody else. M«n who were once s"!id, reputable citizens, are now. nothing more or le.-s than common bandits. Of course, the reason is obviw They've nothing to lose, not ' much to hope for. so they think they may as well possess themselves of anything likely for the time being t" make 'iff more tolerable. We don't w:ujt that sort of spirit tp get about among n large section of society over beiT. Tf, a nation, we are goin;: on at all we -must have safe-

;;ii ids—the pafetruard of public opinion and a strong, well-supported law. n-:l the preatest point is thafcjjialf tl'«; nation to-day. a-,d Cie best half, are being driver' into an attitude of r.bsolute cynir ; . ni towards things in gc era!, it is p.T'tly, of course, the result of their f>\vn apathy and'W&r.-we-vire's. They have heard so\much t'nnt is pheer mockery of "the 1 land •. fit for heroes" that they've givfen up trying to make it so. But, sffer all, it is only by weight of numberss-the numbers who have made upv;'their minds honesty shall be made worth while, and all the profiteers be.given the boot— that things are ever going to get better. The word of a Briton, which means also his deeds and code of honour in general, has always bqeen held in • rather high repute. It seems a pity _»^ : now that here in England itself a good many naturally honest should feel that honesty, does not v