Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1907-02-21


in the midst of "dry" surround
ings, what "object lessons they
would furnish my prohibition
friends!
A BILL to take the appointment
of bank examiners out of the
hands of the Secretary of State
and lodge it with the Governor,
has been introduced into the legis-
lature. 1t ought not become law.
The Secretary of State is properly
the official to be held responsible
for the conduct of this branch of
the public service, as the duty
naturally attaches to his position.
The Governor, if he duly admin
listers his Office, has all that he
should be burdened with; beside,
it is as we'll not to provide him
with special canvassers to travel
at public expense owe the State
expl citing the desire of his chief
for advancement to Senatorial
honors. | do not-in fact, the bill
if passed, would not become a law
until t909-mean to insinuate that
such would be the uses they would
be put to under the present ad-
ministration; but there might be
a self-seeking Governor of the
future not so fully permeated with
lofty and righteous political ideal
ity, who would not let slip the OPP
portunity presented by this pro-
posed enactment. In this con-
nection, why would it not be better
to have bank examiners elected,
one for each county-one convers-
ant with local financial conditions?
The State examiner comes around,
goes through the books of the bank
as an ''expert," and then thumbs
over the paper upon which the
funds of the institution are loaned.
Ninety-nine times out of a hun
dred, he knows about as much of
the solvency and financial ''good-
ness" of the men whose names are
attached to the promises to pay as
a hog does about the 4th Problem
OF Euclid. And yet the paper"
of a bank, if good, is its sheet
anchor, so to speak, and if it is
bad, not all the bank experiences
out of Kingdom Come can save
depositors from being looted of
their hard-earned dollars. There
is infinitely more security to them
in the scrutiny of an official who
knows a good note from a worth
less. Apart from that, however,
the more elective public servants
we have, and the fewer appointed,
the nearer we get to that Home
Rule made the in hoe signo of the
earlier days of the 1904 campaign.
| SEE that a bill is before the
Legislature whose purpose is to
still further extend the encroach-
ing power of the State into the do
main of the home. OF course, the
proposed enactment is drawn in
the name Of Education" That
sacred humbug, whose high priests
it were rank treason to criticise, is
responsible for some of the gravest
evils that afflict the public to-day.
Extravagances, inyasions of the
home, usurpations of parental
functions, may be traced to our
boosted public schools. They
teach the child from a little tot to
the years Of discretion the heresies
the Fathers sought to destroy
through the building Of a Republic
wherein the hearts and brains, the
Drawn and sinew, of its creators
were to dominate. Under the
plea of s'education'' all that has
been set aside and men are made
the creatures of the State-puppets
without sense or motion, except as
the strings are pulled by the
monster created to serve them.
From the State University down
through the Normals and High
Schools to the district schools,
graft, in a greater or less degree,
attaches. Favoritism abounds,
and proficiency is a minor con-
sideration. But the worst feature
of the system is its Socialistic
We look with fear and
upon the growth Of So
cialism, but what can we expect
when, in its least commendable