Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-06-13

| AT the recent bankers convention
the taxation of credits occupied front
| seat because it is closely connected
With all forms of banking. One can
not read the report of the proceedings
of that convention without a feeling
| of disappointment. If there is one bus
mess on earth that men do not engage
| in for their health it is banking, es-
pecially private banking.
| The proposition to guarantee depo-
sitors by some scheme, national in
| character. is not new one. 1t is per-
| fectly feasible and practical and en-
tirely simple, and yet the bankers
convention turns 1t down by a large
majority. The reasons given are as
specious as they are silly. One says
he does not care to have Iowa bank
ers father an experiment
Judge Helsell says sit would place
a premium on reckless banking by
making it possible for a loose banker
to go into all sorts of wild schemes"
etc. Now the scheme is not an eXper-
iment except in the sense that it has
never been put into operation. 1t is sim
ply a plain business proposition and no
more an experiment than any other
form of insurance. In reply to Judge
Helsell it is only necessary to ask
what has caused the RECKLESS bank
ing" that in the last two years has
brought SO much disgrace to this state
and has advertised Iowa in eastern
magazines as a community of scoun.
drels. What made sit possible for a
loose banker" like Day Dunnng of Mt.
Ayr, Geo. Wood, of Colfax, and Ed.
Snyder, Of DIN, Ito go into all sorts of
wild schemes?"
feel very confident that two things
will happen before long. Congress
will provide a plan to protect deposit
tors in national banks and either COM
pei other banks to follow suit or go
out Of business and private banking
will be prohibited.
The T.-R. insists that most private
bankers are honest. l grant it, and go
further Nearly all of them are. This
doesn't help the matter. When you
lend money to man do you simply
inquire whether he is honest and stop
there, or do you inquire concerning his
assets, his competency to use the
money borrowed, his habits and his
ability to pay? / imagine that the
money lender who simply required the
borrower to be honest would soon
come to grief. 1 know many honest
men who can't pay l know dishonest
men whose paper is A, 1. Now. when
you deposit money in private bank
in Iowa, what security do you get?
Not any. A man with $500, all bor
rowed, can open private bank and in
short time secure deposits from
$4,000 to 100000. A man without
means or ability to invest money, who
cannot borrow $500 without security
can borrow 100000 without security
by putting the word bank above his
door. Day Dunning borrowed $4,000
and gave no security. He had when he
failed, about $4,000 in land and per-
sonal property, all purchased with
the money he borrowed, and yet his
neighbors lent him this $4,000 without
security and then lent him S360,000
more. If there could be a business
transaction more imbecile, what is it?
Ed Snyder went to DIN with $4,000.
He put the word Bank" over his door
and the people in that vicinity lent him
100000 without security. And yet
they knew that Ed Snyder was
rounder, bully fellow, lodge man;
and always ready to lend money to
another bully fellow George Wood
never had any money He had an un-
Gle worth 100000. He put the word
Bank" over his door, and the money
rolled in to the tune of $450,000 and
Wood used it to run fancy FARMS to