Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 98, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 August 1907 — BANK THEFT EPIDEMIC. [ARTICLE]

BANK THEFT EPIDEMIC.

It Ila* Lei to an Espionage Which' Distresse* Financial Employe,. The recent bank defalcations which culminated in the sensational robbery of the Wihdsdr Tsmsf Cbmpany m New Yofk by its model teller, Runyan', have resulted in bringing into public notice the fact, already known to men versed in the ways of Wall street, that thefts by employes of the great fiduciary institutions of the city have become so common as to be of serious concern to the controlling interests of these institutions. Despite the most elaborate precautions taken by bank officials to check the raids upon the funds Entrusted to their care, the record of embezzlements committed since last February shows that in that period there have been 100 per cent more defalcations in New York than in the preceding six months. Several of the large banking institutions which have heretofore exacted bonds only from those of their employes to whose care large amounts of cash were intrusted have within the last few months required from every clerk a guarantee of his honesty. In the case of a clerk who does not handle funds a bond of about $5,000 is now required, and the amount is increased in accordance with the responsibility. The surety companies, for their own particular reasons, are co-operating with the banks and other institutions which have called upon them to make good losses from theft. So strict a watch do they keep upon the men for whom they have given bond that scores of detectives are being employed to scrutinize their most Casual actions. Bank clerks in New York City are being watched as they have never been before. They »are being followed from their places of employment to their homes and from their homes to places of amusement. From information furnished by one of the detective bureaus, reporters have ascertained that stealing has become eo common in the financial district that practically every man handling funds is. now under surveillance. And the chieT" reason for this suwsion is said t* be the knowledge that men in such positions are tempted—here more than in any other American city—to speculate in stocks.