News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1899-01-25
An EnviabIe Record.

SClS OWuCu lO-uoy 50 IdI as Is kllOW0.
Sd. Never moment sdelavask
on any application for withdrawal.
4th. Never a loan refused in it's
legitimate field for loaning, if good
and within the law.
9TH. Never a dollar invested out
side of Vermont.
9th. Not a dollar of assets owned
outside of Lamoille and adjacent
counties.
7th. 1t has never paid to depos-
itors less than 4 per cent compound
ed semi-annually and is paying that
to-day.
8th. Never a dollar loaned at
more than six per cent.
9th. An accumulated surplus ex-
ceeding Is per cent of it's capital
stock.
10th. a continuous growth from
the start, each six months showing
an increase of deposits and assets
over the previous six months.
There is a bit Of personal history
connected with this bank which, in
view of the above results, forms an
entertaining chapter to those con-
nected with savings banks, or, in
deed, to any one interested in the
growth and prosperity of Vermont.
In 1884 Ex-Gov Page was APP
pointed Inspector of Finance, a posi-
ton which he held until Dec. list,
1888. During this period he had
official charge of the savings banks
of Vermont. At that time savings
bank managers were infatuated with
western mortgages, and there was
then no limit by law to the amount
of this class of investments which a
savings bank could carry.
Gov. Page, seeing, as he believed,
a collapse Of the western mortgage
boom, asked the Legislature to limit
the amount which could be invested
in western mortgages to 40 per cent
of the banks assets. His request
was stoutly opposed by the man
ayers of nearly all our Vermont saw
ings banks. The result was chat
a compromise was finally reached
whereby in 1886 a statute was en-
acted limiting the amount which
could be invested in western mort
cages to so per cent of the assets OF
the bank.
New Hampshire was in precisely
the same situation, but in that state
an attempt to establish limit as in
Vermont was unsuccessful. 1t is
hardly necessary to state results, be-
cause they are generally known.
With a single exception, we believe,
every savings bank in western New
Hampshire-they were all, save one,
heavily loaded with western mort
kgages-failed; while in Vermont there
was not a single savings bank fail
ure from 1884 to 1898 They all
passed through the crucial test OF
monetary panics unscathed.
The retaining of Vermont money
in Vermont to foster and develop
| Vermont industries was regarded as
a hobby of Gov Pages and was dc.
clared by many bank managers to
be absolutely impracticable, but the
governor told them that he would
show them by an actual, tangible
illustration that it could be done
and within sixty days from the time
he surrendered his position as In
spector of Finance he started al
Hyde Park the Lamoille County
Savings Bank and Trust Co. From
its organization until to-day, a pc
Rod of ten years, this bank has new
err loaned a single dollar outside o
the state, and if t he success OF the in.
stitution is correctly set forth in thu
, ten claims appearing at the head o
this article--and there is not a parti
, Gle of doubt that they are-we thinl
the Governor has substantiated hi
theory by incontrovertible facts.
This bank has advertised from tn,
beginning that every Lamoille Coun
ty industry might depend upon i
for financial assistance at any ant
all times, and even during those ter
. rible panics of '93 to 90, which Sc
severely tested the foundation of al
savings banks, it never hauled dow
!. its colors. 1t never for one mo
ment failed to respond to calls for Fl
q nancial aid from any borrower Twin,
within its legitimate sphere o
e loaning, a claim which we believ
cannot be truthfully made for an,
!, other bank in Vermont.
1t has demonstrated the fact tina
if home loans are sought for and en-
!, couraged by savings bank mana
gerse new industries will from tim
J. to time spring up and develop to ali
! sorb the loaning capacity of its loca
savings bank The fact that tn
0 Lamoille County Savings Bank an,
c Trust Co. does not own an asset out