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The Commoner.
VOLUME 10, NUMBER ii
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; Letters From the People
1 I
S. II. Record, Ashland, N. II.
Why can not our savings banks
guarantee all their deposits with
tholr prooont surplus? Fourteen
hundred and flftoon savings banks
already have a surplus of over seven
por cont on all liabilities. Now If a
law requiring all thoso banks to bo
hold mutually responsible pro rata,
according to tholr surplus for tho
loss of any fallod-np bank, could not
thoso mako tho loss up with scarce
ly a porcoptlblo diminution of their
surplus? "What purpose does this
surplus (accumulated from deposit
ors' money) now servo? Tho prin
cipal and almost only uso to which
It is now put seems to bo to hido the
mlstakos, and potty graft of tho bank
officials who loan tho depositors'
money and collect tho interest. It
takes so small a' per cont to do this
that tho surplus is constantly in
creasing in nearly all our savings
banks. Now instead of holding this
largo amount simply as a guarantee
to conceal the blunders of tho bank
officials from their depositors, why
not have a law holding all this sur
plus of tho banks in any state as a
guarantee against loss, of depositors
In any falled-up bank of that state?
It seems to the writer that no change
need bo made in tho present laws
(in our eastern states, at least) re
garding tho per cent required to be
reserved than what Is already re
quired. A stricter examination of
the condition of our savings banks
might save most of the ombezzle-
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present waste of tho reserve. Mass
achusetts has a law requiring (?)
permitting is probably the correct
word the savings banks to hold an
uncalled-for dividend three months
beforo placing it on interest with the
principal. All savings banks in the
state, however, do not hold these
dividends three months, but plate
them on interest at once if not called
for. But the banks which avail them
selves of this little "joker" in the
law, save to themselves from $1,000
to $8,000 per year (according to the
amount on deposit) while nominally
they declare only the same per cent
as those banks which make no break
in the interest account. Probably
not one depositor in a thousand has
discovered that little "trick" in cast
ing interest on their deposits. And
yet tho $1,000 to $8,000 which each
of these banks saves to itself (which
avails itself of this "joker" in the
law) is sufficient to cover quite a
number of little mistakes or petty
grafts of bank officials without draw
ing on the main reserve. Such a
reserve, if used, would go a great
ways towards guaranteeing deposits
if, indeed, it would not be entirely
sufficient. As to the constitutional
ity of a law guaranteeing deposits
(if any such doubt arises) it may be
answered that If the law now re
quiring the present reserve to hide
from depositors the blunders and
petty graft of bank officials is con
stitutional why should it be uncon
stitutional to secure the depositor
against loss? If it is constitutional
to hold in reserve part of the earn
ings of my present deposits in order
to hide the mistakes of bank officials
fifty or one hundred years after I
am dead, why may it not be consti
tutional to use some of the present
reserve to make up present losses?
. ' -r
D. S. Cook, Garden City, Utah.
I am one of the few wool men who
are democrats and while I believe
that wool should be on the free list,
am forced to take issue with The
Commoner on the question of the
wool man being benefited by the
tariff on wool. While I know that
most of the wool growers honestly
believe that If the tariff was taken
off of wool they would have to go
out of business, the truth as I un
derstand it is about one-half of tho
WOOl that Is Used in thfi r.minfrv a
imported and a heavy duty paid on
the same, while the American man
ufacturer pays tho wool growers just
enough for his wool that it does not
pay to send it out of the country and
is perfectly willing to pay the added
cost of the imported article. In re
turn he demands a duty on manu
factured goods of about 100 per cent
which with the duty on wool he col
lects from the consumer. Now I
think if The Commoner would begin
u. uuiuyuign or education among the
wool men by publishing monthly
prices of different grades of wool in
Australia, New Zealand, Chile and
Liverpool instead of making the
wool man believa that he Is reaping
thousands of dollars annually, as
was done in a recent Issue of The
Commoner in the case of Texas wool
growers, it would bo doing more for
tariff reform than in any other way
R. T. Young, Council Bluffs, la.
nno, that you give tne Weas of
all kinds of democrats and as I am
pretty near in a class by myself, I
have concluded to offer my views.
I, In the first place, believe that the
only salvation for tho common peo-
p 1? in, BtrIcti construction of the
constitution not as Roosevelt would
construe it, but according to the dic
tionary meaning of tho words. I be
lieve that the wealth of the country
should be taxed to support the gov
ernment that a man should pay a
tax on his fncomo and not on
his expense account. I believe that
it all people were engaged, in produc
ing the things they could produce to
the best advantage and then had a
free exchange of commodities that
the great mass of the people would
be greatly benefited and that a tariff
should only be used to get free trade.
I believe that the protective tariff has
done more to demoralize the people
of, this country and corrupt elections
than all other causes combined, that
it furnishes a perpetual corruption
fund and that largely by the opera
tion of an unjust and unconstitu
tional tax tho money power has got
absolute control of our government
and constitutes a danger to our re
publican form of government that
is hardly realized, and I believe I
can maintain my position by compe
tent arguments.
G. W. Hpllenbaugh, Fostoria, O.
I see so much in the papers about the
blame being placed upon so many
different concerns for tho high price
of living. Who gives these concerns
the right to raise prices? Nobody
but the republican party by passing
the Payne-Aldrich tariff bill. The
prices were high enough under the
Dingley bill. Just think of lard sell
ing at retail for 18 cents and then
it is almost half , beef tallow, and beef
tallow sells for about 4 cents. Oh,
what an outrage! What this coun
try needs is a free list for every
thing we eat and wear. The labor
ing class had a good chance to have
lower prices at present if they had
voted for themselves instead of for
the few, last- presidential election.
But the most of them were afraid
of their jobs, some were too dumb
to be taught and some voted the re-
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