Omaha daily bee., 1897-03-14
. NOT THE pEposfroRYLAw.

NOT THE DEPOSITORY Law.
Interested parties are assiduously en-
gagged In i%nstigating and spreading a
popular belief that the decentralization
of our state finances and the unfortunate
loss of state funds by embezzlement
and defaTcation is due largely, il not G n
tirely, to vicious legislation in the form
of tho state depository law. The real
object of this agitation is to Justify the
defalcation and to prepare the way for
the repeal of the depository law and an
early return to the old treasury system
when all the state funds were at the
absolute disposal Of the state treasurer,
to be farmed out by him at will without
even an accounting for the interest re-
ceived for their use.
The assertion on the floor of the senate
last week that had the depository law
been repealed four years ago the state
would have been millions of dollars
ahead, is not only not borne out by the
facts, but it is the very reverse of the
truth. Has a single Nebraska bank
been forced to suspend by reason of the
provisions Of the depository law?
Would the defunct Capital National
have continued in business a day
longer were there no depository law on
the statute books, or would 1t have
been one whit easier for the people to
have recovered the quarter of a million
of dollars which were distracted from
the state treasury by the bank wreck
ers? Would any of the other bubble
banks that went down in the financial
crash, carrying state deposits with them,
have w%eathered the storm If the de-
p%ository system had been abandoned?
What would have been the condition
of the state treasury today If the de-
pository law had beer repealed four
years ago? Outside of the 100000
which the defaulting ex-treasurer has
the only state money whose whereabouts
is at all known and which there Is a
reasonable assurance will be ultimately
placed at the disposal Of the new treas
urer, is the money that was placed in
the depository banks, while of the half
illlliO ia vi SSIVOl fuolcy WllCu
was not protected by the depository law,
three-fourths is altogether missing and
no one knows whHher 1t was ever de-
posted in responsible banks or moi. Had
Treasurer BARLEY not been held down
by the depository law he would without
question have used every dollar of avail
b funds in the same as he
used the school fund, for private specu-
lation, Or to accommodate political on
hangers, or to bolster up shaky political
banks. Had Treasurer BARLEY been
freed from the limitations imposed by
the depository law, instead Of coming
out with a shortage of 100000, he
would, in all probability, have been
found short three or four times that
amount.
1t is not the depository law that Is
responsible for the treasury defalcation,
kept that d~efalcation from being far
worse than it is. The principle upon
which the depository law is founded is
as sound as the rocks and as u%nchange-
able as space. 1t Is that public money
shall be held solely for public use and
that its increment shall be scrupulously
accounted for and credited to the bene-
fit of the taxpayers. The remedy for
the present deplorable condition of the
state finances lies not in the repeal of
the law, but in the extension Of the
principle to all public money, to school
funds as well as to current funds. What
is wanted, and what we have never
had, is an honest and conscientious en-
forcement of the depository law. No
bank should be approved as a deposit
tory unless it offers a bond that is be
yond the peradventure of default. The
treasurer should be held t. a strict ac-
co%untability for his placing of the pub
lie money within the different depository
banks and the widest publicity should
be given to all treasury transactions by
periodical statements showing precisely
how much money is in each state fund
and exactly where that money is.
All this can be done under the law as
it now stands if only the officers in
vested with the duty of obeying it and
enforcing it live up to its spirit, as we'll
as to its letter. The people of Ne
braska should thank their stars that
they had the depository law during the
past four years and see to it that they
keep it the next four years.
THE Arbitration TREATY.