Evening star., 1901-08-26
OLD STATE BANK NOTES.
Law Under Which Those Who Cfrcu
lated Them Will Re Tried

Law Under Which Those Who Cfrcu-
lated Them Will BE Tried.
The secret service is not paying much
attention to the threats in connection with
the recent seizure of worthless New Bruins
wick IN. j. state bank notes, foated in the
cities of the Pacific coast aud along the
Canadian border, and the arrest of several
men charged with circuiatingEth notes.
The owners and makers Of the notes. which
were printed from old plates OF the old
state bank, protest that they have vio-
lated any law of the United States as
the notes are not counterfeit and do not
pretend on their face to be issues of any
federal obligation. This position, it is said,
ignores the Interpretation given by the
courts to the portion of section J4:'0 of the
Revised Statutes directing the fine and i'm
prisonment Of every person, who has in
his possession or cust8dy, except und>r
authority from, the Secretary of the Treas
ury or other proper officer, any obligation
or other security engraved and printed az
ter the similitude of NATURALIZATION or other
security issued under the authority of the
United States, with intent to sell or other
wise use the same" Under this law the
treasury has been proceeding for years.
The defence Of the persons who have
been sellingsand circulating the New Bruins
wick bank notes, is that these notes were
not engraved and printed after the simii-
tude' of a government note or national
how the Similitude Is to be judged. The
offending state bank note contains a de-
nomination figure in the upper right hand
corner, very much like the corresponding
figure on the Washington head one dol
lar greenback. Turn the note over and
the back is almost covered with green
lathe work, after the style of most gov
ernment notes, until the present admins
tration changed the designs, SO as to show
more white paper. The main fact, how
ever, is that thousands of these notes have
undoubtedly been accepted by innocent per-
sons in the course of retail trade, under
the impression that they were receiving
greenbacks. That thing which is so like
another as to deceive thousands of persons
OF ordinary intelligence may fairly be re-
garded, secret service officials say as .af-
ter the similitude'' of the other. An illus
trative case in point was that of the war;
rants OF the state Of Mississippi issued in
1894, and seized by the federal government
as railing under the .'similitude" provision
Inc governor, state auditor and treasurer
were arrested, and grand jury composed
or nelghbors and friends of the accused
came TO the very verge Of indicting them
but paused there, and was discharged by
the United States judge for failure to do it's
duty. Here was no question of technical
counterfelt1ng or of criminal intent, and the
state was recognized by the federal gov
ernment as sovereign in it's own territory
Where most of the warrants would have
circulated. case involving some of the
same principles was that of three persons
VINO pleaded guilty In Kansas City and
were punished for passing old confederate
notes. This offense differed from the other
IN the fact that the so-called government
Whlch purported to have issued them was
never recognized by the government of the
Onlted states as having a lawful existence.