The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-12-12
The Rerner Bank Bill.

The HeFner BANK hill
The Senate passed by large majority
Mr.. Berner's bill to test the law imposing
a ten per cent tax on bank bills issued by
state banks. VIII the House also pass the
bilc We do not see why it should. The bill,
as far as we have been able to learn, hasn't
the approval Of bankers or men well up in
financial matters The law taxing state
bank issues has been tested pretty well al
ready, and we do not hear of any reputa-
ble state bank that is making an outcry
because it hasn't the privilege Of issuing
notes without having to pay the tax on
them.
Mr.. Berner made very pathetic speech
in support Of his bill, the purpose of which
is he said. to give the people relief from
that financial servitude which Is written
in mortgaged homes and in the judgments
of the courts"-financial servitude which is
heard in the appeals of debt-ridden men
for the preservation Of their homes" You
will see this servitude, said Mr.. Berner, in
''the fail Of the sheriff's hammer, in the
cry of the shylock calling for his pound of
flesh and in the damp cheeks of women and
the cherries faces of childhood
All this sounds very fine and may lead
some good people to believe that Mr.. BeT-
ners bill provides an easier way to pay
debts than exists at present If the kind
of bills or notes which Mr.. Berner wants
was in circulation, would the owners of
mortgaged homes, goods and chattels be
any better off than they are at present?
We do not think so. If such notes were
good and passed at their face value, the
borrower couldn't get them at a less rate
Of interest than he can get money now, and
if they were not as good as other money,
creditors wouldn't accept them. In what
way then would the owners of mortgaged
homes be benefited?
Instead of indulgng in pathetic or sky
scraping rhetoric in advocating his bill,
Mr.. Berner should have confined himself
to explanations that would have conveyed
information to inquiring minds.
If those who are struggling in financial
bondage have good security they can now
borrow money at a very low rate of inter-
est. The best railroad bonds yield less
than three and a quarter per cent, and
the three and half per cent. bonds of this
state command a premium. The trouble
with the class of debtors who, Mr.. Berner
says are struggling in financial servitude,
is that they haven't any security to offer
for money-that is, security that is re-
garded as valuable Therefore, If there were
twice as many banks as there are this
class of debtors wouldn't get money any
cheaper than they now get it, unless the
banks were wild cat concerns, and Mr..
Berner says he doesn't favor wild cat
banks.
1t is probable that the owners of first
class real estate in Georgia have to pay a
higher rate of interest for money secured
by mortgage than is paid under similar
circumstances In most of the other states,
but doesn't Mr.. Berner know the reason
for that? If he doesn't, he ought not to
talk about financial servitude." The man
who owns a farm or house and lot worth
5000, on which there is, say a mortgage
of $1,000, has to pay taxes on the full as
sessed valuation, which is generally all 1t
is worth. At the same time the mortgage
has to pay taxes on the full amount of the
mortgage. The property therefore has to
pay a double tax. But who pays the dou-
BILE tax? Why the owner of the farm or
house and lot, because if the mortgage
wasn't taxed the mortgagor could get
money at a much lower rate of interest,
or if he had to pay taxes on only the $1,000
he owned in the property he would be less
a victim of financial servitude. Probably
Mr.. Berner would serve the people of the
state better by trying to remove some of
the unjust burdens which the state places
upon debtors than by trying to get new
kind of bank bills into circulation.