Morning journal and courier., 1882-08-18

line of duty which directors of saving
 bank ought to confine themselves to. Stock of railway and manufacturing corporation
 must also be excluded. In fact, railwa,
 management, as to treatment of stockholder
 and value of stock, is now almost synony
 nous with deception and fraud. If ther.
 are exceptions they serve to establish tn, general rule.
 ''As to other corporations, the value O.
 their stock depends so much on the changing
 market, on the course of mechanical inven
 tion, on the individual qualities of the man
 agers that it is too unstable for our present
 purpose. Railway bonds, secured by first i mortgage on the entire road, might seem l safe class of investment with the exercise of I ordinary prudence, and at one time were 1 argely taken by savings banks So vast and 1 so constantly increasing are these great in ternal improvements, so enormous the flow 1 and rehow of business over them, so i'm
 mense the probable development of that business in the future, that such mortgages, if they could be had at proper rate per mile, would be among the safest of investments, assuming reasonable care in selecting those of apparently perma- nent value. There is difficulty in ascertain ing the history, legal position and amount of such mortgages, but not so great as to be in- surmountable The great objection is to the extravagant amount per mile of the bonds issued, in many cases compelling, after awhile, the bondholders to take the road. It is always an undesirable thing for trus- tee to be compelled to enter into a current business with the trust funds. On the whole. however, I of opinion that it may be advisable to author ize such investments to some ex- tent. Municipal indebtedness has attained 1erge proportions in this country, and has long furnished field for private and corpor- ate investment. Experience has fully shown that we must strike out from the list of sav- ings bank investments all municipal bonds issued in aid of any railway undertaking. The Legislatures Of several States have recognized this, and after once allowing such invest ments many savings banks have very judi ciously forbidden them. Subject to this excsp- tionI regard the public debt of local munici- palities within the State where the savings bank is located as sound class of invest ment, assuming of course the exercise of due care in the investigation of the origin and az gregate amount of such debt. You have the savings of many voters in your care. If in- vested in apparently sound municipal obliRa- tions there is, besides legal remedies a great force of public opinion to sustain your claim, and to bring about proper provision for pay ment of interest and principal think ex- perience shows that such debts, when not disproportionately large, or the result of some arbitrary and unpopular scheme, have been among the safest investments we have had"
 Inc eXecutlVe cOuncll presented reSOlu- tion which was adopted in relation to the amount of notes authorized to be issued on bonds deposited on recent amendments to the national banking law. It claims that g reasonable construction of section 10, author izing the comptroller to issue to banks hav- ing over $1OO,OOO cash capital, circulating notes equal in amount to the par value of United States bonds deposited, to secure the same when the par value does not exceed 90 per cent. of the current market value of su sh bonds; also, that such 8 construction of the law, (enlarging materially, as it would, the foundation on which rests our system of na tional bank currency,) would be highly bene- fcial to all business interests, as it would tend to retire a considerable portion of their circulating notes also that if the comptrol- Ter of the currency shall be unable to thus construe the existing law, this conven- tion here recommends such issue of circulating notes to national banks upon the aforesaid basis. On motion of w. E. Gould, of Portland, a resolution was adopted for committee of three to take into consideration the laws of various States ,eg- ulating savings banks and present to the as- sociation next year plan for organizing and maintaining such institutions whereby certain essential features may be incorporated into the several State laws so that they may be controlled by more uniform Legislation. The Coe, president; l.. J. Gage, vice president. The executive council and other officers were reelected. :,