WJ'WW "HUIPIWjj!
BBPTEMBER 11, 11 OS
The Commoner.
3
federal government shall act up to, and yet within, their powers;
for nothing else will restore the confidence and good will that ought
to exist between the railroads and the people. In dealing with man
, nfactnring and trading corporations the Democratic party draws a
'distinction between those corporations and they constitute the
great majority of all the manufacturing and trading corporations
which are engaged in a legitimate effort to supply what the consum
ers need, and the very few corporations which are seeking by con
scienceless methods to take advantage of the public on the one hand,
while on the other hand they bankrupt competitors, oppress the pro
ducers of raw materials and deal arbitrarily with their employes. It
endeavors to protect the innocent corporations by visiting punish
ment upon those corporations which are guilty of infractions of th
moral and the statute law. Here, too, our platform is specific and
no one can use its language to frighten any business man who
transactions are fair and whose income is honestly earned.
No one can contrast the plain, straightforward declarations of our
party with the vague and ambiguous utterances of the republican
leaders and the republican candidate without recognising that our
appeal is to the judgment and good sense of the voters who desire
justice for themselves and insist upon justice being done by others.
Our party, if entrusted with the power, will remedy the abuses which
have grown up under republican rule, and yet remedy those abuses
with due regard to constitutional limitations and without injury to
any legitimate business interest.
MR. BRYAN AT THE MINNESOTA STATE FAIR
Mr. Bryan spoko at tho Minnesota stato
fair, Monday, August 31. His address was en
titled "Republican Extravagance." Extracts
from his address follows:
The democratic platform makes republican
extravagance one of the issues of the present
campaign. The republican platform is silent
on the subject, and naturally so; to have prom
ised economy would have been a mockery, and
to have defended the appropriations made by
the last congress would have been Impossible.
The Fifty-first congress was commonly called
the billion dollar congress. The appropriations
made by that congress covered two years, and
amounted for the first time to a billion dollars,
or live hundred million dollars a year. The
extravagance of that congress contributed to the
overwhelming victory won by the democrats in
the campaign of 1890. The last congress, how
ever, has made a new record In extravagance.
In spite of a deficit of more than sixty millions
in the last fiscal year, the appropriations made
during the last session amount to more than a
billion dollars, or twice as much as the appro
priations ofa single session of the Fifty-first
congress. The increase over the year before
was ninety million dollars, showing a growth
in expenditures far in excess of the growth of
the population.
While this tendency to extravagance mani
fests itself in' nearly all departments, it 13 espe
cially 'noticeable in the army department and
the navy department. The army is more than
twice as large as in 1896 and the appropriations
for 'the army more than three times as great
as they were' eleven years ago. The expenses
of the navy are also about three times what they
were a decade ago. The increase in the appro
priations for the army and navy alone are $120,
000,000 a year in excess of what they were In
1897. The imperialistic policy, for which the
republican party is responsible, is the only ex
cuse for this enormous and increasing drain
upon the taxpayers.
Our platform also cnlls attention to the
fact that 99,000 new offices have been created,
at an expense of $70,000,000 a year, as against
an increase of 10,000 new offices, with salaries
amounting to $0,000,000 in the Cleveland and
McKInley administrations.
While every element of our population
suffers to a greater or less extent because of the
unnecessary expenditures of the government,
the farmers have special reason for complaint,
because they pay more than their share of the
taxes collected and rcceivo less than their share
of the benefits which flow from the expenditure
of the corporation. Nearly all of our federal
revenues excepting postal receipts are collected
from Internal revenue taxes and Import dutipsj,
and these are taxes upon consumption. Taxes
upon consumption always over-burden those of
moderate means, and undor-burden the rich.
If the federal taxes- could be separated from the
price of the article in which they ar.o concealed,
and each person's per capita tax be shown, it
would be found that the federal tax now col
lected would be, in effect, a graduated income
-tax, the largest per cent being -collected upon
the small incomes and the least per cent upon
tho large incomes. And to aggravate the case
still more, tho appropriations which unfairly
oppress tho farmers are spent in cities, so that
tho farmer enjoys few direct benefits from the
appropriations and scarcely any Indirect
benefits.
Why is It that tho republican party is so
much more oxtravagannt than tho democratic
party In tho expenditure of public money? There
are two reasons: First, because republican
loaders are more intimately associated with the
tax eaters than with tho taxpayers. They hear
the hungry clamor of tho men who spend mon
ey more than they do the protests of tho masse
who contribute revenues.
But there is a second reason. Tho repub
lican leaders have taught Tic doctrine that tax
ation is an unalloyed good. They have tried to
cultivate a public opinion to support the idea
that tariff taxes, even when not needed for rev
enue, are a 'direct advantage to tho protected
interests and an indirect advantage to the whole
country. It Is not strange that pcoplo who
consider taxation a blessing would bo Inclined
to 7v n Iff the blessing as large as possible.
The democratic party is in a position to
bring reform in tho matter of expenditures. It
believes that a tax is defensible only when
necessary, and that it should bo reduced to the
lowest limits consistent with good government.
Our pnrtv Is pledged to reduction In appropria
tions and to economy In every department of
government, nnd our position ought to appeal
with special force to those of our population
who are engaged in agriculture.
THE GUARANTY OF DEPOSITS
Mr. O. J. Fleming, a national banker of
Enid, Okla., makes the following reply to a
Nebraska banker, who asks for information in
regard to the operation of the Oklahoma plan:
Enid, Okla., June 26, 1908. I have your
letter of June 22, inquiring in regard to the
new guaranty deposit law of Oklahoma, which
took effect in our state in February last, and
in answer to same will say that it is my under
standing that the banks that have availed them
selves of tho benefits of the guaranty deposit
law have increased their deposits something
over two millions of dollars since the law went
into effect. I do not know how much the un
secured banks have lost during the same timg,
'but understand that their deposits have de
creased from half a million to a million dollars
in the same length of time.
In reference to the bank at Coalgate, Okla.,
that was recently closed by the banking board
of our state, I am reliably informed V at the
officers had loaned the funds of the bank con
trary to law and had done many things not au
thorized under the state banking law, and that
the board had good, grounds for closing them.
It is true that the depositors were imme
diately paid by the state banking board and that
the officers of the institution are now under ar
rest for violating the state banking, law.
I also understand that the depositors' guar
anty fund will be reimbursed out of the assets
of the failed bank, for all the money used in
paying off the deposits and that, as a matter
of fact, the depositors' guaranty fund will not
be depleted on account of the failure of this
' bank.
You asked me to give you my opinion of the
new banking law and how it affected our busi
ness. In answer to same will say that the de
posits of the Enid National bank have increased
from $400,000 at the time the law took eff t
to over $700,000 at the present time and it Is
my opinion that a large majority of the Increased
deposits have come to us through the good
effects of the new guaranty deposit law of our
stato.
I could give you many-Instances of Individ
uals who have made deposits that I know came
directly from the effect of tills law. "
One man came into our bank wltb an ordi
nary shoe box. He brought the some into the-
private office of our bank and asked us to open
the same and count the contents. We found
the sum of $1,450 done up in little rolls of $100
each, tied with an ordinary string. This money
bore all the evidence of having been buried.
Upon another occasion, a farmer sold his
farm for $4,800 cash, and at the tiiro of sale
he came into our bank and was Intending to take
the proceeds of the sale all in cash. After I ex
plained to him the new banking law of Okla
homa which gave to depositors a protection not
afforded by any other state, of which he had
never heard, ho Immediately concluded to leave
his money on deposit with us. The amount is
still on deposit'in our bank at this time.
On another occasion, a widow sold
her farm in our county and removed to Colorado.
She said she desired to have her money left
with us as she knew the banks of Oklahoma
were under the new guaranty deposit law of the
state.' She felt perfectly satisfied with the pro
tection offered by the new banking law and
would only draw upon her account when actu
ally needed.
We could multiply Instances of the same
character almost without number, but hardly
think it necessary to give additional ones.
I am one of the national bankers who have
availed myself of the benefit of the depositors'
guaranty law of our state . nd feel that it Is the
best move that we have ever made since we
have been In the banking business.
There was no particular reason why our
deposits should increase so rapidly as our city
has only had a steady growth, no boom of any
kind, and no unusual' deposits of any sLse. -
I believe the banking business to bo an hon-,
orable business, and it conducted according to
law, there will never be a failure of either a
'national or a state bank, and as long as banks
are conducted along these lines, tho bankers
should be willing to stand for each other and
there would be no liability in do' , so if the
business Is conducted as it should be.
If the bankers of our state are not willing
to stand for mutual protection of ach other,
1 can not for the life of mo see how they could
expect the deposits of the public to be left witk
them without any guaranty whatever, If the
bankers themselves can not trust each other,
I feel certain that no banker will ever be
called upon to pay any guaranty for our busi
ness, and I have faith in the banks of our state
being conducted along similar lines that I will
not be called upon to pay for any of their short
comings. With the supervision that tho state
banking board Is giving the secired banks,
together with the class of bankers that we have
in the business, I feel quite sure that there
will be no loss to the banks on account of tho
depositors' guaranty law.
There is a sense of security In running a
bank under the depositors' guaranty law that
there never was before, In this, that we know
that no false rumors can be started affecting
the banks that are under this new law. The
public knows full well that the failure of any
bank would not affect their deposits, hence, for
that reason, along with many others, I think
that the law is having a good effect both upon
the banks and the people that do business wlth
them. We can loan a larger per cent of the banks
funds and feel perfectly safe in so doing, know
ing full well that the tongue of the slanderer
is hushed, and a false report of the envious la
stopped. before it even gets a start.
Yours truly,
O. J. FLEMING, President.
Mw iilrHr rmn hthi i rtrin-prnr-