Omaha daily bee., 1907-02-19

OMAHA Feb 16-To the Editor OF Inc
Bee: Let me say a few things sugge sted
by an article headed Trust Companies,
signed by James w. Hall and published In
the Lincoln Journal Mr.. Hall assumes
that a trust company Is a. myterious ana
dangerous thing He say that some OF
the bills introduced for the purpose OF or
Eauizing and controlling trust companies
in Nebraska Took innocent, but none are
philanthropic and all have a purpose near
or ultimate banking privileges" This last
namely, that they have a purpose OF VI
innate banking privileges, dscloses MS
whole objection to the bills lie rails 10
advance a single argument or give son
tary reason why trust companies are pad
II they are bad, why did he not point cut
some reason why? He says the "legisia-
ture OF the state cannot afford to open the
door TO financial innovations now" and
assumes that the trust company idea is
something new, novel and untrled. They
are nearly or quite a half century old IN
this country They are, and have been Tor
many years In active and satisfactory OPP
Grafton in every one OF the New England
states New York. Pennsylvania ana, |
think, nearly all the states eat OF the
Mississippi river. ..-...
Again, he says, our institutions (mean-
ing banks in Nebraska) have grown up
under the strict supervision of state care
and are entitled to protection from modern
financial enterprises" How long since
Nebraska has refused to accept modern
things, especially those thoroughly tested
by the most conservative commemorative
in the nation? As to the strict supervis-
ion OF these banks, how did ii happen
that under this "strict supervision" more
Or ho vim {
in the state Of Nebraska failed before we
were through with the panic of 1898 and
calamity campaign Of 1896? ! protest that
these banks failed chiefly because there
no strict proper supervision. I still farther
insist that none Of the methods which
brought those banks to ruin are prohibited
by the laws governing banks in Nebraska
today is It not a significant fact that
the only one OF the savings, banks in Omaha
that has paid its depositors I'm full was
the one conducted as part Of trust COM
pany7
1 have above referred to the result of
her strict supervision" of savings banks
let US look at the national banks Ne
braska has had, since 1891. nineteen ma
tional bank failures, two have paid no divi-
dends at all, one paid per cent dividend
and only one of the whole nineteen paid
that was a small bank whose proven claims
amounted to only $ls5SO. My opinion is
that personal pride had more to do with
this payment than legal restrictions. OF
the whole nineteen banks the average
dividend paid the creditors was 1889 per
cent. l challenge any one to find any state
in the union having as many trust COM
,panies as Nebraska had national banks,
in which the proportion Of failures of such
trust companies was one quarter as large
as the failures of national banks in the
state OF Nebraska. challenge him to
fnd state in the union with as many
trust companies as there were savings
banks in Nebraska I'm 1892, in which the
proportion of trust company failures was
one quarter as large as the proportion Of
failures in Nebraska savings banks.
large portion of my time has been
spent in New York and the New England
states during the last twenty years. have
been in close touch with their financial
Institutions and have a large personal ac-
quaintance among the bankers there In
all this time l have never found a single
business man or banker that questioned
the safety and desirability OF properly