A Man & His Conscience

Franklin Stevens, having just resigned as town treasurer of Andover, Vt. (pop. 213), sat down last week to write a difficult letter to the nearby Rutland Daily Herald. "This letter is not to be construed as an effort to disperse blame," he began, "nor am I trying to be dramatic. The mood is that of self-condemnation, coupled with a profound disappointment in myself as a person and citizen."

Thereupon Stevens proceeded to release the violent pressure on his stern New England conscience. State auditors who had just examined Andover's books reported a shortage of $3,295.28. Nor were the Andover books the only ones in trouble: a recent state report showed that 21 towns had acquired deficits of more than $62,000, in one way or another.

Stevens, a 42-year-old farmer who once taught school, admitted that he had been dipping into the town till ever since he took office in 1935, but he had put back $3,100.

Nonchalance. "Being a person of reticent nature, it is entirely foreign to me to expose for public scrutiny a segment of my life," he wrote the Herald. "Having been through all the torments of the damned in the past few weeks, I can now view with some degree of objectivity my own sorry failure ... I accepted the post with no thought of misappropriation. The first audit was sketchy . . . Subsequent audits found me in varying degrees of embarrassment, but since I was never pinned down, I became . . . amazingly nonchalant about the whole matter, believing, alas, the money would be easily replaced without public scandal or personal discredit.

"When about $500 in arrears, I took stock of my position, confiding in one of the selectmen and proffering him my note in lieu of immediate cash. His attitude was, unfortunately, one of sympathy and tolerance. People are sometimes kind when strict reality is more in order."

Punishment. "I herewith state publicly that I intend to live down, if possible, the opprobrium of corruption. It is heartening that people deal with me in a spirit of understanding and kindness; it must be with some conscious effort.

"I see no sound reason why I should not be prosecuted. As far as punishment goes, it would be an anticlimax; real punishment comes from within. No extenuation I can conjure up satisfies me, so I shall offer none."

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