On Relying on Laws and Locks

It is wonderful to feel safe with someone– but after all considerations are taken into account

and given their proper appraisal, we had just as well face this fact: that the only things we can count on ultimately are honesty, integrity, and high qualities of character. There is no such thing as being permanently safe simply with laws or with locks. No lock was ever made that gives full and lasting projection against a determined dishonesty – because the same kind of brains that can make a lock can

also break a secret code. The same kind of mind that can devise a “fool-proof” system can, if determined

to do so, outsmart a “fool-proof” system. No man has reason to sleep very well if his whole trust is

placed in locks and alarms, for people have repeatedly, with boldness and craftiness and cunning that

they can invade the most safely guarded premises; that they can perpetrate multimillion dollar frauds

upon the public; that they can circumvent accounting systems, audits, and rules and regulations. And

with more laws and locks than we have ever had before, and with more men checking on other men,

there is more and ever more violations of laws and locks. Laws and locks slow down dishonest people,

but they don’t stop dishonesty. Only honesty can stop dishonesty–only integrity, only high qualities of character. And whenever we have to trust people in any occupation, in any profession, in any

relationship in life, we should look beyond skill, beyond talent, beyond personality, beyond

appearance– beyond all these, we should look for qualities of character. And if we can’t count on character, there is very little we can count on. Too often, in too many places, too many of us have too much put our trust in mere physical factors and have too much forgotten the inner make-up of the man. But when we have found someone we can trust, someone without evil intent, someone who knows the difference between what is his and what isn’t, what is honorable and what isn’t, we have found a possession beyond price. One of the greatest blessings of life is someone to trust, someone to be safe

with.