The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1908-10-29
EASILY UNDERSTOOD.
Mr.. Bryan Shows Why the In
dividuaI Favors Protection
of Bank Deposits.
A MATTER OF INTELLIGENCE
Banks Should Attend to the Bankinn
Business and Not the
Government.

more strongly to the individual than
the protection of bank deposits. Thou
sands and thousands of republicans
will vote for Mr.. Bryan on account of
this one issue, which he has presented
SO clearly to the people of the nation.
In recent speech Mr.. Bryan pre-
sented this issue in simple and most
convincing way. He said
"Of the many policies proposed in
our platform, the protection of bank
depositors is the simplest and most
easily understood. Why, my friends,
this question is so easily understood
that 1 suppose there is not person
IN this audience who is not able to
understand it. l do not mean that
every one, everywhere, can understand
1t. l draw the line here: When every
person reaches the period of intel
lectual development, where he is able
TO see that when man puts his money
In the bank he ought to be able to get
1t again, he ought to have intelligence
enough to understand this subject; but
until he gets to this point l do not
know how to reach him. l take it for
granted, however, that you are all
sufficiently advanced to be able to
understand that when you put your
money in bank you ought to be able
to get it cut again. Now, my friends,
there are st two questions to be con.
sidered in this matter. One of these
! have given you. The other question
is, who must make it secure? Our
position is that as the banks make
their profits out of the peoples money,
the bankers ought to give the insur-
ance the people require. Now, 1 had
supposed that that was self evident
truth and that it would not be denied.
Il have made no speech without dis
cussing the guaranty of bank deposits
in all parts of the country. After I
had made my speech in Baltimore, ex-
planning our system and presenting our
arguments in support of it, my atten-
ton was called to an advertisement in
one OF the papers. In my speech had
said that you could insure your house,
you could insure your life, you could
insure your buggy or your barn, but
that you could not insure your money.
And in this advertisement my lam
guage was quoted and the advertise
ment went on to say that I was mis-
taken, for certain fidelity company
was prepared to insure deposits. And
then l found out how they do it down
there. You put your money in a bank,
and then go and get somebody to in
sure 1t so that you can get it out of the
bank again. I believe the time has
come to compel all the banks to stand
back of the banks and make good the
presumption upon which you deposit
your money in the bank
Now, my friends, you may ask If
the banks are not now sufficiently Sc
cured. That is what the bankers say.
They will even tell you that only occa-
sionally bank fails, but the trouble
is that we cannot tell in advance which
bank is going to fail. Look at the DO.
t1ce they hang up. Does it say, this
bank will fail?' No, the notice says
this bank is closed and if bankers
follow out this plan I will agree not to
urge this insuring of deposits. Let
the bank give notice three months in
advance OF failure SO the people can
get their money out before the failure.
DO you think the banks are suffi-
GENTLY secure now? The postmaster
general says, in his report in favor
OF the postal savings bank, that we are
sending millions of dollars to Europe
to be deposited in government saw
1ngs banks there, and the people who
send their money there would rather
send 1t across an ocean three thousand
miles wide than to risk the banks of
this country. I say to you that we
ought to make our banks here so Sc
cure that money will not be driven out
of the United States to find a safe
place OF deposit. That money which is
driven to Europe ought to be kept here
and used in the business of this coun-
try. Not only does money go to Eu-
rope, but money goes into hiding, and
this Is about the time of year when we
discover some of it. You will see in
the paper every once in a while that
Mrs. So and So for the first time this
fall made fire and was mortified to
find that her husband, without her
knowledge, had been using it as
bank. A man in New York said last
fall, when the panic was on, that a
billion dollars was in hiding under car
pets. | dc not know whether that
estimate is too high or too low, but I
know this, that if l were banker I
would be ashamed to have an old rag
carpet running rivalry with me as a
safety deposit vault, in time of danger.
If any man says that the banks are
sufficiently secure l will remind him
that there is not national bank in
the United States that can get dollar
of Uncle Sans money without putting
up security. The state demands Sc
curity; the county demands security;
the city demands security; and each
village demands security; and the fra
ternal orders are now demanding Sc
curity, and believe the time has come
when the farmer, the merchant and
the laboring man should have security
when they put their money in a bank.
in Oklahoma they have had this
plan in operation for now some six
months Ilearned of one failure there
and in forty-two minutes after the
bank suspended, the man in charge
had an order from the government to
pay every depositor in full, and the
business went on without interruption.
And when he telephoned out to the