Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1896-12-03
SAVINGS BANK pEPoslToRs.
HOw they WIN safFer fron the Contfnu-
ance OF the Gaala STANDARD

/ SAVINGS HANk DEPCSlTORS.
/ How They WIN suffer frozn the Contfnu-
ance OF the Geld standard.
The depositors in the savings banks
Of the country have about 81. SIC. 0o0, ZOO
IN the custody OF those institutions
They are being told by the goldbug
press that under free coinage they
would receive only 50-cent dollars.
Should the existing gold standard be
maintained for another ten years the
owners of this immense sum win never
get back any considerable part of it.
/ No human being can tell where the de-
| probation of property will stop. Dur
| ing the past 20 years there has been a
| depreciation of so per cent. as meas
ured in gold, in the price of property
| During the past five or six years there
has been fall of 20 to rs per cent. Dur
/ ing the next decade, under the gold
| standard there win be a further inevita-
| BILE decline because of the constant APP
| probation of gold. Such decline would
| involve 90 per cent. of the savings banks
in irretrievable ruin and cause the loss
| OF the greater part of the deposits
which they hold. AT the present nss1
ment the condition of eastern savings
banks is one of the chief causes r. I'M
easiness to conservative bankesk Even
| If all the gold in the United States were
In their hands they could xot pay more
than a fraction of their deposits in
that metal. Nearly al of the gold hur-
ried1y imported as considerable cost
during the panic of 1893 went to sus-
tanning the savings banks of the east.
If there we're to be another panic to-
morrow the institutions of this class
east of the Mississippi river would
| toPple over like SO many houses of cards.
They are the source of constant anxiety
to those leaders of finance who gave
serious thought to other problems than
the exploiting of the treasury through
bond issues.
We may say that under forced reali-
cation IS per cent. of the savings banks
from Chicago to New York not only
could not at this time pay 10O-cent dol
lars, but it would try the resources of
most of them to pay out 50-cent dollars
if they could find such thing. Under
the laws of some states the money of
savings banks is required to be invested
in real estate securities. In other states
1t is placed in bonds. In whichever
form it may be the security on which
it is rested is depreciating. Real es-
tate has been uniformly going down in
price and the properties on which bonds
are based have been each year meas
ured as equivalent to less and less gold
The money of deposirors is invested
In things which are depreciating and
will not realize the amount put into
them. Property is hard to sell. Nobody
wants it because it is deoreciating. The
securities which represent the money of
1epositors are depreciating. If the de-
probation is such as to wreck the bank
the depositors are the sufferers. The
avs which limit the field of invest
nent for savings bank funds were
passed with a view of making the in
Vestment of those funds as secure as
possible. 1t was reasoned that real
estate or bonds would form the most
reliable security, but it is precisely
apon property that the gold standard
sXerts its most malign influence.
We assert without fear of contradic-
lion from any well-informed source
that if the gold standard remains the
next great financial scare will precipi-
tate a panic upon the savings banks of
the Atlantic coast that will wipe out
three-fourths of them. The statutory
provisions by which they are allowed
to take 80 or 60 days grace will not
serve to bridge them over.
Depositors in savings banks who are
foolish enough to heed the 50-cent dol
lar talk with which the money power is
seeking to beguile them will deserve
no sympathy if they lose their all III
the disaster which will overtake them
as surely as fate if the gold standard
remains the measure of values. 1t is
only through free coinage that the saw
ings banks will be able to pay good
sound 100-cent dollars. Under the gold
standard they will not be able to pay
50-cent dollars or any other kind.
The shouting about a 5O-cent dollar
is not coming from the savings banks.
The heads of those institutions know
perfectly well the straits they are get
ting into because of the fall in the price
o. the properties in which they have in
vested the money of depositors. They
are keeping still and drifting. The
vicious organs of the money power like
the New York Herald and the Chicago
Tribune are doing the soaring of depos-
itors, and should the gold standard be
maintained, upon their heads and heads
of those like them will rest the major
part of the responsibility for the fnan
cial crash eclipsing anything ever
known in this country and which will
swallow savings banks and depositors
+ogether.-Denver News.