The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1908-09-10

palgn. Down east here Jney cannon
understand; but that is not surprising,
because the east does not understand
the west in any way. Last March,
after trip through the northwest rs
far as Idaho, l expressed the opinion
that one Of the luckiest and strongest
acts of Mr.. Bryans political career was
in identifying his name with the idea
of bank deposit guarantee or insurance.
Subsequent developments have proved
the correctness Of that diagnosis. Mr..
Bryan does not claim the idea is orig
inal with him. No one knows who
started it; that must have been genera
tions ago. Mr.. Bryan told me at Lin
coin in July that the idea was suggest
ed to him when he was III congress.
But he had the quick wit to lay hold of
it as an asset in this campaign, and it
is proving one of the most promising
of all the issues he has in his campaign
battery. He is to make a speech on the
subject tomorrow out in Kansas, and in
it, no doubt, he will try with all his
cleverness to clinch his advantage.
The reports from the west are that
this idea has gained such hold upon the
masses of the people that the republi
|
many places, requiring that their eandi-
dates for congress and for the legisla-
ture commit themselves to the principle.
Only yesterday the republican state
committee of Kansas voted to make
bank guarantee one of it's party prin-
ciples. In view of such facts as these
the republican leaders and managers in
in the east are beginning to wake up
and realize that while they have the
advantage Of Mr.. Bryan in other issues
on this one he is likely to score heavily
against them. They do not as yet see
what they can do about it; but it is
obvious that if anything can be done
they would better do it, and as quickly
as possible. No one believes that
Bryan can overturn the big republican
majorities in the west on this one issue
alone, but it is perceived that it might
help along with other things. On the
record as it stands the republicans are
at a disadvantage. The Chicago plat
form declared for postal savings banks.
The Denver platform for bank deposit
guarantee, and for postal savings banks
if that could not be secured. Judge
Taft makes speech condemning de-
posit guarantee as socialistic; Bryan
will take the other side of the question
in his speech tomorrow. To make
matters worse, Attorney General
Bonaparte ruled that the national banks
in Oklahoma could not participate in
the state guarantee system. Thus the
issue is pretty clearly drawn between
the two parties.
The more we study the attitude of
mind of the American people at this
time the more must we be impressed by
the fact that the popular thought runs
to practical business questions, and that
the greatest event of recent years was
the money panic of last fall. President
Roosevelt recognized this in talk with
a visitor recently, when he pointed out
that the great questions before the
American people during the next few
years were to be economic, pertaining
to currency, banks, tariffs, trusts, rail
road rates and wages. Mr.. Roosevelt
thought that in the pressure of these
purely economic questions the moral
issue raised by him might be at least
temporarily submerged. He may be
right about that.
But in any event it is clear that the
nation is already confronted with at
least one of the problems growing out
of or accentuated by last years panic,
and that on this one the democratic
party has taken the more popular, even
if not the sounder, side.
In the west they tell me great ma.
jority Of farmers have money in the
bank. When the money panic started
in New York last October and caused a
wave of more or less needless alarm tc
run throughout the country, any farm
ers took their automobiles, their CARR
:, ages or their wagons, went to town
withdrew their money from banks and
hid il at home in stockings, or trunks
or between floors, or out in the barn
At any rate, farmers who did not dc
= this, as we'll as farmers who did
: were set thinking. And their thoughts
: am told by men who live among them
ran this way:
!. "When the federal government de
!, posits money in bank it demands securi
ty. States and cities do the same thing
Why shouldn't we have security, too?
a National banks are created and con
:, trolled by the government. So are thu
:. postoffices. If we go to the latter ant
= buy a money order the government
- - guarantees to pay the money to tn
. man in whose favor it is drawn or t.
: return it to us. Why shouldn'
= we have the same sort of guaran
:" tee from the national bank? A
= it is now, instead Of depositing with
- guarantee of return whenever wanted
~ our deposits are loans to the banl
II which may or may not be returned o
" demand.
N "If we ship money or jewelry or othe
- valuables by an express company it
= responsible to us. 1t guarantees tn
. value of goods intrusted to it. VIII
70 shouldn't bank do the same thing?"
10 Of course there are many other argl
ments which appeal to the farmer. q
can see that with guarantee of deposit
- there will be more money in ban
le which means in use in the channels {
p trade, and less in hiding in trunks an
~ stockings. He can sector our averae
~ farmer Of today is reading, thinkin
~ well-informed man-that with depos
d. guarantee, if a panic threatens, thel
IN will be far less fear, less alarm, LEI