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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (March 26, 1909)
-i, ,LU .?- , '. -V-fc--A.. V tlH'WilWHl IMll?5MlSr!S?SS f i 6 n. is , f, ' P 4., ' K M 5 X. ' f in on lemons, cocoa and substitutes for coffee, coal tar dyes, gloves and coated papers and litho graphic prints. As was expected, the new tariff bill Is made on a maximum and minimum basis, with tho provision that the maximum rates are not to go Into effect until sixty days after tho passage of tho bill. Tho reciprocity provisions are con tained in tho paragraphs assessing duties on bituminous coal and coke and agricultural im plements, in which these articles arc given ontry froo of duty when imported from countries which permit tho free importation of these art icles from America. A provision in tho bill Is designed to meet tho conditions resulting from tho patent laws of Great Britain which requires that patentees must manufacture their articles within Great Britain. This provision applies the same rules to patents taken out in this country by aliens as applies to Americans in tho country of the aliens. Drawback privileges aro extended by the bill and tho method of valuation on articles up on which tho tariff Imposes an ad valorem duty is broadened for tho purpose of preventing the practico of under valuation. AN IMPORTANT PROVISION One important provision of tho bill relates to tho method of valuation. Mr. Payne, chair man of tho ways and means committee, explains that provision in this way: "Tho bill adds a now paragraph to section 11 of tho customs administrative act which pro vides for the appraisement of goods imported by consignment and not by Bale whore there is no market prico at tho place of origin of tho goods. After re-enacting the present provisions to ascertain tho valuo the bill adds this para graph : "Tho actual market value or wholesale price aro designed by law of any imported merchan dise which is consigned for sale in the United States, or which is not actually sold and freely offered for sale in usual wholesale quantities in tho open market of tho country of exporta tion to all purchasers shall not in any case bo appraised at less than tho wholesale price at which Buch or similar imported merchandise is actually sold and freely offered for sale in usual wholesale quantities in the United States in tho opon market to all purchasers, due allowance by deduction being made for estimated duties thoreon, cost of transportation, insurance and other necessary expenses from tho place of ship ment to the place of delivery and a reasonable commission not exceeding ten per contum, if any of the same has been paid." "It will bo seen that this provision is only appitod to consigned goods and not to those actually sold for importation." THERE IS A JOKER IN THE BILL There is a joker in the republican tariff bill. The Washington correspondent for the Phila delphia North-American, republican, says: The work presonts, however, so many doubtful fea tures, that tariff revision has become of second ary importanco to tho revising of the tariff bill hJw ia declared Positively that the committee Had no intention of imposing tho maximum rates upon products from a country that makes tariff concessions to its own colonies. Members of tho committeo said tho bill did not seek to affect tlio commercial relations between a country and its dependencies. It was not until the lancuaKe was brought to their attention that they would .admit that such a construction could be placed upon it. Then thoy agreed that possibly a change would bo necessary to make the bill clear. This is the exact provision of the measure in ?e?tm' SOm f Ul suPerfluo"s language "Whenevor, on or after sixty days after the passage of this act, any country, prince, de pendency cr colony discriminates against any fn"? lm?0Mt fr the United States or aSy territory belonging theroto, the growth or nrnil oftne ffi '? Part 0f thG S7or "dus??; ?L?! e? Statea' or any territory belonging thereto, by levying duties, imports, excise! o? taxes thoreon in excess of those levied upon sim ilar articles imported from any other count province, dependency or colony. or in any way fails to admit any article imported from 1 United States or any territory be?ong theroto, on terms as favorable as those acSSEwS to any article imported from any other country province, dependency or colony Sie sli U bo levied tho maximum rates." AS A RANKER SEES IT Senator Crowley of Colorado has given to tho The Commoner newspapers a letter written to a Colorado banker by an Oklahoma banker. Tho letter received by Walter A. Saunders, cashier of tho Bank of Commerce of Pueblo, Colorado, was written by Claudo R. Rorer, cashier of tho Bank of Com merce of Shawnee, Oklahoma. In transmitting tho letter to Spnator Crowley Mr. Saunders, tho Colorado banker, said that he was "sure that the bankers who aro now fighting tho measure will in time see its advantages were the bill made a law as was the case in Oklahoma." Mr. Rorer, tho Oklahoma banker, wrote: "We have now been working under tho Oklahoma guaranty law since February 15, 1908. On that date our deposits wero $220,000; they are now $340,000. At the time the law went Into effect conditions were very unsatisfactory to do business under. We were forced to keep a strong reserve; in fact, wo have had an aver age reserve of forty-five per cent for the last six years up to the time the law went into effect, but tho law has given a' stability to our de posits so that wo now feel safe with thirty-three per cent and this on our deposits gives us an additional loanable amount sufficient in itself to pay the guaranty assessment. "Also at tho time tho law went into effect we were all paying six per cent on time certifi cates of deposit; under the new law we only were allowed to pay four per cent. Last year wo paid in interest on deposits over $8,000; this year it will be less than $6,000, so there is an other saving to the bank of as much as the assessment of one per cent on total deposits. "Figure the increase in deposits and the amount of loanable funds that it will give and you have another saving to the bank that works out on the profit side of the ledger. There isn't any question as to the benefit it gives to the depositor, so I am giving you the other side. "They will argue you that the unknown lia bility is a feature that makes it 'terrible.' Well, we all know from statistics that there are so many fires, so many deaths and so many births each year, so do we know that there are about so many mercantile and bank failures each year. "Certainly fire and life insurance companies do business right along and figure on losses. Just so with banks. It takes a part of your profits, but let me impress upon you now that we are getting money from out of hiding places where it has been since the panic. We have deposits in several of the eastern states, one in Panama, one sailor that makes his remit tances every pay day people that we do not know and never heard tell of until the guaranty law went into effect. We aro able to assimilate the business from our national bankers in the very face of the fact that they are offering one per cent and two per cent more on deposits. We are getting new business every day and the other fellow isn't. We get the class that is most desirable. The people want some security. All the talk in the papers about encouraging poor banking is folly. When heretofore loose banking was the order of things, now they indict them and let them fix it afterward. Excess loans are not permitted. "If an officer borrows money from the bank it is larceny. And they are enforcing tho law to the letter. "I think the Oklahoma law can be improved nnOVfmV,e!pects aBd wil1 bG Possibly at the next legislature. I think that they will levy Jearlym?X until tne total amount shall reach, say a million dollars, and the state will become guarantor and hold the funds to protect the ?,! ' i present tt state is not 'back of the banks only as sponsor of the fund,' but I think that they should become absolutely responsible ?nh l r?n0fSlt01' an,d eliminte the unknown cenied B far as the banks aT0 con" "The national bankers of this state secretlv selves. r r "' " they COuld set lt 'o? Sen? "Where we only had ono bank examiner w now have five, and they are working s ? to a perfection. Every time a tanker polces his head up and violates the law they crack ft to mm. I can't see but the new banks oSnLri If there are any direct questions that vm,' may want to ask I would bo glad to renlv tS i!rTnfrankly PerhaPs I havenVwdtten directly as you might wish, but I would be Rlad to do so, provided you aBk me the question that you most want to know about.'' C1UQStions A BIT OF ELOQUENCE .VOLUME 9, NUMBER u niversary they may be interested In a bit of word painting taken from a speech made by General John C. Black at Lincoln City, ind when the monument to Nancy Hanks Lincoln was dedicated. General Black said: "We come, O woman and mother, here to build our memorial to thee. Thine earthly gar ments were damp with the dews of the wilder ness; thy feet were torn by the thorns of thy pathway; but in thine arms thou didst nourish the babe of thy sacrifices, him the master of his time, the beloved of the centuries to be the servant of justice and the liberator of tho oppressed. And so for thy own sake and thy child's sake we are here to do this fitting honor "Here she gave that child, in the simple log cabin, now gone to ruin, his first lesson; here, in his father's presence, she sowed tho seed of truth and justice, afterward to mature a mighty harvest. Here she stood and pointed upward, little comprehending, if at all, tho future that awaited. "And this is all her story. But the years passed on the nation was in the throes of a great war; at its head was the child of this woman. Armies moved at his com mand and navies obeyed his orders. "The great war drew to its triumphal close. Its mightiest actor, too, approached his end He sailed that sea where we all embark. And I sometimes fancy that, on the dark barge of the president's dream, there waited for him, standing amid the dense throng of his dead guards and statesmen who sailed before and who had returned to meet him, this woman, this wilderness queen, this tallest and stateliest of them all, this mother whom today we honor." && ,? MADE TO GET IN ON In North Dakota both parties pledged in their platform guaranteed deposits. Although Rep resentative Doyle of Foster county made a hard fight for a guaranteed bank deposit measure his bill was defeated by a vote of 51 to 39. A Bismarck, N. D., dispatch to the Fargo Daily News, referring to Mr. Doyle's effort, says: "In an extended argument he read the plat forms of both parties which endorsed the plan. He urged them to be true to their platform pledges. He also read an extended editcrial from the Bismarck Tribune, which commended the plan in the most emphatic terms. He urged it on behalf of the depositors of the state. He declared he was not ashamed of his party plat form and if the republican members were, that they should disown their party organization. He pointed out that both Hanpa and Gronna were for the measure and that the republicans mado many of the votes which elected them to tho legislature by advocating the plan." Why do republican leaders treat platform pledges so lightly? ALDERMAN TO PRESIDENT The records show that Abraham Lincoln was f mom?er of tne village board of Springfield in 1839, serving until 1840, when Springfield adopted a city government. Lincoln waB, there fore, an alderman just twenty years before ho was elected president. It shows that he did the work that fell to his hand whether in small matters or in great. A NAME IN THE SAND Alone I walked the ocean strand; A pearly shell was in my hand, I stooped and wrote upon the sand My name the year the day As onward from the spot J passed, One lingering look behind I cast, A wave came rolling high and fast And washed my little lines away. . And so, mothought, 'twill shortly be . With every mark on earth from me; a7, of dark oblivion's sea 1X71 H sweep across the place Where I have trod the sandy' shore Of time and been, to be no more, Of me my day the name I bore, . To leave no track nor trace. And & 'IIth HIm wh0 conts tho sands And holds he waters in his hands, ; ' I know a lasting record stands iww gainst my name, ut a this mortal part has wrought, aL f this unthinking soul has thought And from these fleeting moments caught For glory or for shame. i Hannah F. Gould. - -. .". i.. JiiiU.