The silver state news. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1907-1909, 1908-01-06

TO De supposed tndt tney would DC
able to see these things in the same
light as the common people look at
them, and besides the average citizen
has nc occasion of being afraid of ru-
ming someone, if he insists on protect
ing the interests of those whom he Dor
rows the money of.
The average nan who works for
wages puts his money in the banks for
safe keeping. He does not deposit it
with the agreement to let it remain for
a stated length of time, neither is he
paid interest on it. He may or may
not know that the bank loans that
money again-if he does he thinks
little of it-and he expects to be able
to get his money on demand. He does
not stop to think that the bank loans
that money to the mar from whom the
depositer buys his groceries. and that
he, the deposition, is paying interest OF
his own money every time he makes a
purchase.
The profits of the grocer are suffi-
cient to enable him to pay the bank
its 8 per cent per annum, which nice
little arrangement places the bank in
a position to make a very substantial
thing on the wages of the depositor
without having one dollar of its own
money invested.
Even at that the depositor would not
kick, so long as he could get his mon.
ey when due. But p something
went wrong, as was evidently the case
with the two banking concerns in ques-
tion, and the security of the grocer
VrnG no. paIn.ttxy ~ 80 ,aa1,v A.
he right time. Then the depositor
paying i~nterest - it, and couldn't get
it when he wanted it..
All around it is a nice little arrange
ment for the banker-who is afraid of
running someone-but hell for the de.
positor.
The press has been gradually made
to see that its best interests lie in cast
ing about the banker a sort of holy
sanetimony because the men who adj
v~ertise in the daily papers, also to a
great extent borrow from the banks,
and it is quite natural to suppose that
il is o case of "scrateh my back and
III scratch yours with the trio.
Another thing which has puzzled the
common people, who eouldn't get their
money, is why the State Bank and
Trust company has refused to sell its
charter and stock to the old Bullion
Bank Directorate, upon its guarantee
that depositors would get their money
without waiting a year for it. This
proposition is not all newspaper talk,
the offer was made, not long ago, and
after it had been made Mr.. Hickey
asked Judge Mack, through whom the
offer came, to write him a letter say
ing he never made it. The offer of
Judge Mack was made upon the as
sumption that the concern was solv-
emit. as stated, but at the same time.
the concern was asked to "show' the
offerer. Right there negotiations
were broken off, and the request for
the denial of the offer in writing was
made, and refused.
Now, after all is said and done, the
question arises, have these banking
concerns any legal right to withhold
the money of the people subject to
their own sweet will? is this state so
much different in the matter of its
banking laws that banks can simply
close their doors with the statement
that they are solvent, but will pay the
depositors when they get good and
ready, and let it go at that2
Bankers have been jailed for little
matters of this sort in other states, and
If the banks in question desire the
people to believe THEN concerns ore
solvent, they had better open their
doors and commence doing business
without forcing the depositors to loan
4hafr ~1apau Co.. another raar ,rln.
the fear of losing it altogether.
Now if W. had a set of banking
laws that were right, and an executive
who would use a little judgment in
the conduct of his own affairs, and
who he appointed to state Offices, such
things as the closing of the State Bank
snd Trust company and the Nye and
Ormsby County banks, under existing
circumstances, would not be permit
ted.
In other words, gentlemen, you can't
win all the time with a four flush.
The statements issued by Bank Elk
aminer Miller and later concurred in
10y Governor Sparks and his CO.
commissioners, Ryan and Douglass, and
also signed by Attorney General Stod-
lard, is one which is far from salts
flying to the minds of business men,
and is laughed at by fnanciers. There
ere a lot of things about those state
ments that should be fixed so that a
common depositor could understand
them without the aid of a captain of
finance. For instance, the State Bank
and Trust company statement contains
a little item of some $4,000 charged
as expense, but purporting to be an
asset. Maybe it's different in bank
ing than it is in plain English, but the
average man understands that when
money has been paid out of his bust
ness for expenses, it very suddenly
ceases to be en- asset
One question which will presently
be asked of all the gentlemen who so
obligingly signed those statements, is
this: If those banks are solvent, why
do Won whose sworn dutv II Ia mt 600