Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1908-09-16
Continued from first page.

NoDTAsKh also endorse IL. lie
must accept the attitude of the
nominee for President and the ut.
terances of the national platform
as authoritative on all matters
touched upon by either.
In an article published in a
prominent Republican paper Of
Chicago, the Record Herald,
Walter Wellman, a we'll known
political writer, declares that in
his judgment this issue of the
guarantee of bank deposits Is be-
coming the chief one of the cam
paign. Mr.. Wellman is a pollti-
cal writer who 80 far as the natu-
raj tendency of every man to
sympathize with one side or the
other will permit, has been nom
partisan in his work. And it is
for this reason that we find it
worth while to quote somewhat
from his letter to the Republican
Record-Herald:
SIN the West they tell me a
great majority of farmers have
money in bank. When the
money panic started in New York
last October and caused a wave of
more or Jess needless alarm to run
Throughout the country, many
farmers took their automc biles,
their carriages or wagons, went to
town, withdrew their money from
the banks and hid it at home in
stockings, or trunks, or between
floors, or out in the the barn. At
any rate, farmers who did not do
this, as we'll as farmers who did,
were set thinking, And their
thoughts, l am told by men who
live among them, ran this way:
"'When the federal govern.
ment deposits money in bank it
demands security. States and
cities do the same thing. Why
shouldn't we have security toe?
"'National banks are created
and controlled by the government
So are the postoffices. If we &c
to the latter and buy a money or
der the governnr-~-Suarantees t.
pay the money to the n1-il
whose favor it is drawn or to re.
turn to it to us. Why shouldn't
we have the same guarantee from
the national bank? As it is nov.
instead OF depositirg with the
bank with a guarantees of return
Whenever wanted, our deposits
are loans to the bank, which may
or may not be retuiued on de.
mand.
off We ship money or joweIry
or other v%aluables by an express
company it is responsible to US
1t guarantees the value. Even a
railway company guarantees t g
value of g"ods entrusted to it
Why shouldn't a bank do ths.
same thing?'
'Of course there are many other
arguments which appeal to the
farmer. He can SIC that wi h
guarantee of deposits there will
be more money IN bank, which
means iu use in the channels OF
trade, and less III hiding Ill trunks
and stockings He can sector
our average farmer Of friday is a
reading, thinking, well-lnfornled'
man-that with denps.t- guaran-
tee, if q panic threatens, there
will be far less tear, less alarm,
less hysteria, less withdraw val Of
funds, fewer bank runs and fail
ures. What might be called the
broader aspects Of the question:
are net lost upon him, But, like
every one else, his clearest, NO
vivid view is Of his personal rela-
tions to the bank-whv his de-
post in the bank at the county
seat should be guaranteed by
something better and stronger
than the promise of that indivld-
ual bank to re repay"
Finally it is worth noting that
in the enormous volume Of mail
which to comes into the Demo-
cratic National Headquarters
from farmers, editors of country
newspapers. small store keepers
and other residents of the smaller
towns and villages, threre is one
note sounding throughout. All
say that this issue of protecting
the peoples savings by a guaran-
tee of bank deposits is in their
Judgment a political task ranking
in Importance with the reform
of the tariff and exceeding in
immediate value almost any other
issue Of this campaign.-Willls J.
Abbot.