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The Commoner.
VOLUME 8, 'NUMBER 34
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There is another reason why the claim of the depositor is superior
I to the claim of the stockholder. The stockholder has a voice in the
(selection of tho bank officials; the depositor has not. If any one
must lose, therefore, as the result of bad management, it ought to
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IS be the stockholder rather than the depositor, -ana, 1 venture 10 as,
1 if the bankers will not trust each other why should they expect the
depositors to trust the banks?
And there is still another advantage: By drawing money from
hiding and by preventing runs on banks the guaranteed bank will
greatly lesson tho necessity for an emergency currency.
We are fortunate, however, in that we are not compelled to choose
between justice to the depositor and justice to the stockholder, for
as has been shown before, the plan which we propose not only does
justice to both, but brings advantage to both. s More than that, the
plan which we propose protects the banker and it is his only pro
tectionagainst the establishment of a government bank, with in
definite encroachments upon the banker's business. With the guar
anteed bank established, government savings banks would only be
needed in the towns and villages where there were no guaranteed
banks.
If we had to choose between the interests of the bank and the in
terests of the community, we would be compelled to protect the
interests of the community first; but here, too, we are fortunate, for
we are not driven to this alternative. That which protects the com
munity protects the bank also, for when there are several banks in
the community, the failure of one often causes a run upon the oth
ers, and the insolvency of one bank is such a menace to the solvency
of others that the solvent banks often join together and assume the
liabilities of the insolvent one for their own protection. As an illus
tration of this, I point to the action of the Chicago banks in assum
ing the liabilities of the Walsh banks, at a heavy loss to themselves.
There is another advantage which the guaranty of depositors
brings to the banks it protects the reserves deposited in other
banks. During the panic last fall the reserves caused the most of
the trouble. The small banks wanted to withdraw their reserves
from the city banks, and the big banks in the cities were not pre
pared to meet the strain. With deposits guaranteed there would be
no runs on local banks and no sudden withdrawal of reserves.
I have selected the capital of the state of Kansas as the most ap
propriate place for the delivery of a speech upon this subject, be
cause your neighbor upon the south has been a pioneer in this re
form. Her plan, as you know, has been such a signal success that
deposits have been drawn across the line from your state into
Oklahoma. The alarm caused by this invasion of your banking ter
ritory caused your governor to include in his call for a special ses
sion a recommendation of the passage of a law similar to that of
Oklahoma. When the legislature met, however, the influence of the
large banks was sufficient to prevent the needed legislation, and your
state still suffers. The people of Kansas have had an object lesson;
they know the necessity for a law guaranteeing deposits. They have
seen its beneficent results in a sister state ; -they have seen fifty-four
national banks taking advantage of the state system and reaping a
rich reward. I have made inquiry and find that many Kansas
bankers favor the adoption of a guaranty system three-fourths of
those who have replied have declared for the guaranteed
bank. They have heard the echo of the blow that has been
struck at the national banks of Oklahoma by the Attorney General's
ruling, which denies to such banks the right to share in the benefits
of the state guaranty system that echo being the surrender of char
ters by national banks which prefer to become state banks rather
than surrender the benefits of the guaranty system. Four national
banks have surrendered their charters and are now conducted as
state banks while sixteen more have applied for state charters.
Your people have also seen how the influence of a few big banks,
concentrated upon a legislature, can defeat the wishes of the smaller
banks and the desire of the depositors all over the state.
I submit that in this effort to make all banks secure, the demo
cratic party is the champion of the farmer, the laboring man, the
business man, the professional man, and the champion of the banker
as well. No class is outside of the benefits of this law, for it bestows
its blessings upon all.
Why has the republican party been so quick to respond to the de
mands of Wall street and so slow to yield to the demands of the
masses? There are two reasons: first, the republican party has al
lowed itself to become the servant of the favor-seeking corporations,
and, second, too many republican leaders look at questions from the
aristocratic standpoint, the standpoint of the few rather than from
the democratic standpoint, the standpoint of the many. They leg
islate upon the theory that society is suspended from the top, and
they fail, therefore, to understand either the evils that afflict the
body politic, or the remedies that are needed. The democratic party,
viewing questions from the standpoint of the whole people, easily
sees that which republican leaders do not discover, and its remedies
begin with the relief of the average man. This is the secret, if secret
there be, of the primacy of our party in matters of reform.
When Solomon was invited to choose what he would, he asked for
an understanding heart, that he might discern between the good and
the bad, and he was told that, because he had chosen wisdom, rather
than riches or long life, he should have, not only wisdom, but riches
and length of days as well. And so when a party determines to seek'
first that which benefits the common people, it finds that in acting in
the interest of the common people, it also promotes the welfare of the
smaller classes which rest upon the masses, for when the producers
of wealth prosper, their prosperity is shared by every element of
society.
ANSWERED FROM ITS OWN EDITORIAL PAGES
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SHOW THIS REPUBLICAN TESTIMONY TO YOUR
REPUBLICAN NEIGHBOR IT MAY HELP TO OPEN
HIS EYES
In his speech of acceptance, Mr, Bryan said:
"So long as the republican party remains in power it is
powerless to regenerate itself. It can not attack wrongdoing
in high places without disgracing many of its prominent mem
bers, and it therefore needs opiates more than the surgeon's
knife."
Reproducing this extract from Mr. Bryan's speech, the New
York Press (rep.) says:
"What a shallow thing for a presidential candidate to say!
What an unreasoning way for him to think!
"While Mr. Bryan's reckless charge falls flat from the
weight of its own stupidity, it is of importance as showing the
intellectual measure of the man who can fling it. Coming from
a cart-tail orator in the heat of political battle nobody would
waste contempt on it. Issuing, however, in the speech of a
candidate for the presidency of the United States it will make
people think twice before giving their ballots to a man who can
stoop to such methods of winning votes. Across their minds
will flash the question whether it may not be that there has
been no real change in William Jennings Bryan, but that he
' is at heart, beneath the veneer and restraint acquired by defeat,
still the catchpenny charlatan of the Boy Orator days, of whom
the American people twice said they would have none."
Let us see whether the proposition is so absurd as the New York
Press, in its present day attitude, would have its readers believe.
And for this showing we will confine ourselves to the utterances of
the New York Press, including a speech delivered by its talented
editor.
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BLAZONED IN THE SKIES
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During the month of December, 1906, the New York Press
printed an editorial from which the following extract is taken:
"The American people are done with this system of unrestrained
corporations depriving a whole nation of its rights and liberties
while the corporate powers declare that their privileges are sacred
as their protection in them by the constitution is indefeasible. And
if the corporations and their legal retainers can not see what every
one else sees blazoned in the skies, the American people are also
done arguing with them. They have only the answer of Napoleon
to the stupid Archduke of Austria who, slave of worn-out formali
ties, could not comprehend the fact of the French republic.
'France,' said Napoleon, just at the moment he was crushing the
shell of Austrian pretensions under his irresistible heel, 'is like the
sun; so much the worse for him who can not see it!' "
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THROW THEM OUT"
In an issue during the month of March, 1907, the New York
Press said: "Probably the special interests can jam through the
subsidy loot measure. They don't spend years, brains and millions
m acquiring a grip on legislative bodies without getting something
back. But WHEN THIS JOB IS DONE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
CAN DO TO THE MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE PERFORMING
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