Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1875-09-01

man & Go. Its liabilities are over $4,000
600, and its assets barely s7,00O,000. Its
confding depositors will be badly depleted
and its stockholders will lose everything
they had invested with the bank. The
cause Of the failure is speculative invest
ments in mining companies and other
equally fanciful securities The bank cs-
tablishcd fine reputation, and then drank
in the funds Of depositors and run them
through sieve into the river bottoms the
gold fields and the bonanzas Of California.
OF course all that came into the Golfers of
the bank was lost to its'real owners.
II is generally conceded that corporations
have no souls. They seem 70 be destitute
Of sense Of fidelity Of mercy and OF the
ordinary ideas Of honor If the managers
Of bank or brokers' office can persuade peo-
pie to deposit funds with them, or take
shares in the securities they offer, on which
they get large premium-and the worse
the stock the larger the premium to the
broker-they have no conscience about
swindling them out of all they can get 1t
is true all banks aud brokers do not manage
in that way. There are honest bankers WHO
would never sell their integrity and their
dupes for two per cent. But IL is terrible
temptation that very many are unable to re-
sist. And as it is usually the ease that the
poorest investments offer the largest rates Of
interest, it often happens that the investor
loses his principal and his interest together.
The speculative stocks which tempt bankers
and others to their undoiug, ought to be re-
lgiousy avoided. II they could get no
standing, by the endorsement of reputable
parties, they would not be able to pursue so
destructive a course.
The passion for usurious and excessive in
forest, the making haste to be rich in this
way, is the secret origin of nearly all these
speculative adventures. A mining company,
railroad corporation, or any adventurous
enterprise that offers excessive rates for the
use Of money, will find ready purchasers Of
its paper. Even shrewd bankers will be
thrown out of their wits by the promise Of
twenty per cent And reckless bankers will
six per cent and loan it for ten or fifteen
and put the difference in their pockets con-
fidcnt that il the capital is lost, it is not
their capital Weare inclined TO think that
il public sentiment in business circles
should, as a rule, refuse investments with
high interest, there would not be so many
pauics and failures. Nearly all the savings
banks and trust companies and banks Of de.
post in the country pay six per cent, and
must exact larger rate on their loans.
OF course their investments are often shaky,
and cannot be realized at once, so that such
run on savings banks and trust companies
as took place in San Francisco, would send
them all into bankruptcy, and in a forced
settlement of their affairs, the assets would
shrink below the liabilities. The most pru-
dent trust corporations are thus exposed to
serious dangers, which cannot be averted in
period Of general distress and panic. II
the business of the country should continue
dull for another year, aud large amounts of
money lie unemployed, it would force depos-
itors to make large drafts upon their reserved
funds, throw great amounts Of securities
into the market, depreciate prices, and be
likely to issue in general disaster. These
failures and suspensions, occurring so fire.
quently, may possibly be the harbingers Of
storm. 1t is to be hoped not, but prudent
men will trim their sails to meet one.
The extravaganza Of the great capitalists
is one of the causes of these financial di FL
culties. The president of the Bank of Cal
ifornia surpassed even Jay Cooke in the
sumptuous splendor of his establishment.
lie lived in regal magnifcence lie had a
palace twenty-five miles from the city, with
twenty-five suites of apartments and din
ing-room that would give entertainment to a
hundred guests, aud here he used to exer-
else a lordy hospitality. lie would post
from the city TO his mansion, keeping relays
of horses for that purpose, and in all re-
spects lived like an oriental prince. Such
splendors are not purchased by any ordinary
six per cent. investments. lie who lives in
that way must almost necessarily be q thief
and robber; some purses that are not his
own must bleed to keep up so costly style
1t is hardly to be wondered at that such ex
trayagance, born of robbery, should end in
suicide. On the day when the throngs, who
hadgone in months and years past to lay down
on his counters the savings of hard toll
came back hungering and ravening for Tia,
savings which he had squandered, and al
his associates who had trusted him de
nounced and deserted him, 1t is not strang,
that he sought relief in the grave. lie had
forgot the limitations of happiness and
hospitality and true magnifcence. ii,
had forgot that what is taken in ovei
the counter must be handed back again
And having broken the law of honesty and
fidelity to his trusts, and unable TO give
back the gold he had received, he sought
in death the relief thathis il-gotten riches
could no longer furnish.
The ruin is complete The bank loses it.
capital and two or three millions more. II,
president loses his life and the great repu
tation he had acquired. The effect Of tn,
failure will not probably extend to the East
us Will bt lcit III "a nblt
examination into the condition of Other
banking houses and institutions, and gradua
sitting of the securities upon which they ar,
doing their business. The banking capita
Of the country represents not gold but paper
promises. There will be little looking
into the nature and value Of these promises
The houses and corporations that are doing
an immense business on such securities as
offer great interest, but have no real value
will be likely, one after another, to disap
pear. Our system Of credit has been great,
oyerdone. If the moneyed institutions Of
the country were called on to redeem thei
promises to pay, they could not do it. Ii
other words, the country has no financial
basis. Only the farmers, the owners Of rea
estate, and the classes who never take dol
lar from any one without giving its equiva,
lent viii be likely TO stand when our huge
system Of credit is put to the tests which
are coming.
gully CoNscIENcE.--Catharin de Me
dici, after authorizing and giving personal
supervision to the barbarous and bloody
massacre of St Bartholomew, whereby thou