Theft preventives;

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VOL. VIII NEW YORK, APRIL, 1925 No. 4
Theft Preventives
JAMES RANDOLPH SMITH, as he
may be called instead of by his own
name, fell by the wayside through yield­ing
to the temptation of using money
which did not belong to him. His story
is the typical one of youth, a quest for
thrills, the lure of bright lights, and lack
of means of his own with which to gratify
his immoderate desires. Secure in the
confidence of his employers, entrusted
with considerable sums of money, not
under bond, and surrounded by all the
opportunity which could have been pro­vided,
the fall from grace almost might
have been predicted.
From the standpoint of the employer,
there are two phases of that class of em­ployment
which involves fiduciary integ­rity.
One phase concerns the moral side
and falls in the field of social economics
into which, in his latter years, that great
economist, John Stuart Mill, was irresist­ibly
drawn. The other phase has to
do with reducing business risk in a cold­blooded
manner, which ignores sentiment
as if there were no such thing.
The principle is well settled, that risk
of loss from pecuniary lapses of those who
handle funds is minimized when such em­ployes
are surrounded with all the safe­guards
known to modern organization and
management. The question of whether
or not an employer has a duty to reduce
the opportunity for dishonesty, of course,
is open to argument.
The ethical question of duty as a moral
issue need not be debated and settled in
order to give practical effect to the merit
which is found in the idea. Means which
circumscribe opportunity for artifice and
wrongdoing automatically remove temp­tation
to the degree that the means are
sound in theory and effective in applica­tion.
The device of bonding employes has the
dual advantage of compensating the em­ployer
in case of loss and restraining the
employe from hazarding his right to
liberty and the pursuit of happiness by
going wrong. Thoughtful planning of
accounting control as it approaches the
ideal diminishes the opportunity for moral
defection. The person who sees no chance
of stealing without the likelihood of
being immediately detected is not apt
to steal.
Precautions of organization and system,
and protective measures, irrespective of the
motive which prompts their installation,
accomplish a two-fold purpose. They
tend to prevent loss from theft. They
lessen, if not remove, temptation.
Whether temptation is made a matter of
primary or of secondary consideration is
immaterial. If the removal of tempta­tion
is an incident to the desired result,
qualms of conscience which anyone
might have on the subject would be satis­fied.
The important desideratum is to
prevent loss from theft.