DANGEROUS TEMPTATION

Waipa Post, Volume 31, Issue 1776, 29 June 1926, Page 7

DANGEROUS TEMPTATION

“KEEPING U'P WITH THE JONESES”

The temptation to keep, .up with the Joneses is one of the most difficult to resist, sociologists agree. It is, says B. J. McGinn, manager of the claim department of the American iSurety Company, one of the chief reasons for the greater number of defalcations by trusted employees. Mr McGinn has made a special study of the company’s claims, and it has been evident to him for some time, he says, “that defalcations by employees handling money and, securities are on the increase.” The average man is honest, but a study of the company’s present claims show that there are many moral lapses. Mr McGinn’ is quoted in the Weekly Underwriter, an insurance periodical published in New York, as saying:— “It is clearly shown by our reports that there are several ruling factors which cause men to become dishonest. Fashions change in crime as they do in medicine and in other fields, and so do inciting reasons. To-day the desire to own an automobile or a larger car, it is revealed, lies at the bottom of the peculations of many employees, whereas a few years ago race-track gambling stood among the leading causes of ‘inside’ theft.

“It is not always the ‘joy-rider’ who steals, either—it is often the young married man whose wife insists upon having a car in addition to a fur coat, platinum jewellery, and all the other luxuries of modern life.

There was recently an instance not far from New Yo*bk where the defaulter’s rent and instalment payments on his automobile alone almost equalled his salary. In addition, he was purchasing fur coats and jewellery for his wife, and had enough extra, to make a social hit in the neighbourhood. “As a matter of fact changed standards of living are often responsible for precaution. Defaults are not always due to economic pressure, but to a desire to live in a luxurious way entirely unjustified by one’s income. Luxuries are born faster to-day than ever before, and every one of them can be bought ‘on time.’ “Another factor tending to larceny has been the movement to the suburbs where competition among neighbours in to cars, radio sets, and so on—all part and parcel of the attempt to ‘keep up with the Joneses’ —has been too much for many an ‘un&ssisted’ salary. “There was a young husband in Philadelphia, for instance, who staged birthday parties which were the high light of the social season of his set. He was familiar with all the high-class shows, and at least twice a week was, with his wife, host to other couples for the theatre parties and suppers afterward. His generosity and affluence made the impression he desired, until the truth was known, and, he changed his social status quite suddenly. It is, of course, a fact that seldom, if ever, are the wives familiar with the dishonest propensities of the husband who is an embezzler. Usually they are living in a fool’s paradise, although almost, always a brief investigation of the husband’s work would show that it did not justify such high income as he claimed to have received.”

And what is the remedy? The company’s experience “indicates a decided need for educating children, and’adults as well, to appreciate the virtue of fundamental honesty. By example as well as precept, parents should impress upon their families the fact that there is a difference between ‘mine and thine’ that must be recognised and respected.” Important, too, -i s that—- “ Criminals who have successfully absconded with large sums should never be referred to admiringly within the hearing of children, for it may make a dangerous and lasting impression upon their mental outlook.

“It is a truism to say that there should be more general church attendance, but there is no gainsaying the powerful influence of religious teaching.

“Last, but not least, the courts should be more severe in sentencing criminals of all classes, for the knowledge of prompt punishment is one of the greatest deterrents to crime.”

To live in a time of general prosperity, comments the New York Sun, is always a temptation to those who are not prosperous or, at least, less prosperous than they would like to be. And the desire to keep up with the Joneses is as old as human nature. The Sun agrees with Mr McGinn on the remedy. It thinks, however, that there is another side to the picture. Noting that Mr MCGinn says that the average man is honest, the Sun observes:

“That is, after all, the important thing. The person who is tempted into living beyond his means begins as a moral weakling, and sometimes ends up as a knave. And when his misdeeds are found out and he is subjected to the scorn of the very persons whom he sought to impress he is usually the first individual to fill the air with whining appeals for sympathy.

“A wife who encourages or even permits her husband to indulge her in luxuries which are obviously beyond,

what he can afford is a millstone about his neck. 'Fortunately, a few wives are so heartless and shortsighted, and for every one of these millstone women there are a thousand brave, honest, courageous women, pluckily helping their husbands up the thorny pathway of thrift toward comfort and competence in fortune. The trouble with most overburdened men is that they haven’t enough moral courage to tell their wives that they are over-bur-dened.”