The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-12-24

cular but that OF owner, and one per-
sonality Will draw the larger trade. and
beside. in rates. Recommendations,
courtesy and facilities. there would be
room enough for competition and in
dividuality. However banks are quasi
public concerns and not wholly private
enterprises. The individual must keep
that in mind
TT is claimed that good banks
would have to pay the losses or the
bad ones, and I could answer, good
banks now have to suffer for and with
the bad ones The average person can
not tell q good from a bad bank. He
does business where he is known or is
told that things are all right, or where
he chances to go first, and when his
bank falls. he blames all banks and
vows he will never trust another
Was there ever a failure that did not
cost good banks lots of business2 Are
there not millions of money in stock
ing banks. sand banks. cellar banks, tin
can banks or safety deposit banks now
that would. under a guarantee law, be
in commercial banks? Surely good
banks suner now much more loss than
they would under some safe, mutual
insurance plan Further, / repeat,
state and national banks are quasi
public Institutions and not wholly pri-
vate enterprises A guaranteed de-
posit law would prevent no one from
engaging iii some business where his
own tub could stand on its own bot
tom.
"Obiector No. 4 says, 1t is social
istic and wrong in principle, and
smacks of unionism- 1t could be an
EwereI, il may be socialisttc and la
boristic. So, in a degree, is all insur-
ance- Every time some careless COW
mixer. with a coal oil lantern, sets a
Chicago or fire. all other insurers pay
the loss The careful pay the losses of
the careless in all kinds of insurance,
and vet Insurance is a recognized
n n a "a
we say we don't propose to insure; let
every tub stand on its own bottom;
let the careless pay his own losses, or
that we don't propose to pay the loss
Of the hre-bug who sets fire to his
own goods, etc, etc. or, we don't pro-
pose to pay premiums to pay the
policies of the men who commit sui
eide and probably took the insurance
for the express purpose of robbing the
company? How many will dare to
take that stand? Not many. How
many of US would be willing to run
banks without the protection OF insur-
anceZ Then why not let the deposit
tors be likewise protected2 Almost
everything else under the sun is in
sured. We must be mutually helpful
and BY being so, need not be socialists.
"Ob1ector NO. 5 says, The govern
ment should keep out of the banking
business Well, to almost every one
that seems impossible Both state and
nation already profess. through the Of
missioner, to protect the public Whv
not so step or two further and
create an ample guarantee fund and
make them still more government and
state banks; make them such In fact
as we'll as in name. SO far as the safety
OF deposttOrs is concerned7
ObJecror No says, Unless such a
law were passed by state and nation
simultaneously. # would put one or the
other at a serious Disadvantage This
objection can not be answered SO easily.
and to my mind, is the strongest obiec-
fton to the law 1t would hurt one class
Of banks to have a law passed to pro-
&ect the other If congress passed such
a law, either state banks would be con-
verted into national or the state would
need to pass a similar law. However.
many good state banks could run along
and do lots of business but the Dlrbffs~
would have to know that they were very
very good am inclined to think it
should be adopted by congress first and
states afterward as the loss ratio FOR
the whole United States could be more
easily determined than for single state
This was a great objection in 1899 Ma
tional bankers said at once, If the
Breidenthal bill is passed we shall al
most be compelled to change to state
banks However. am not 50 sure that
$50 guaranteed, we'll protected, state
banks would be a calamity. After a lit
tie experience we might have attracted
some outside deposits from other states
and II might nave resulted all right, and
by this time. the fund would have been
so large as to have made further assess
ments unnecessary for a long time IT,
indeed, it would not have been self-con-
sinufng by interest earnings.
.'Objector No. z says. Bank credits
should not be guaranteed more than any
other Now. surely, bank credits are
vastly different from others and should
be carefully conserved, If not absolutely
guaranteed by state and nation Money
a to state and nation what blood is to
the body. II must circulate freely and
safely or panic results. ] can see no