The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-10-28
THEGUARANTEE IS DISCUSSED Abbot Tells Some Re- cent Financial History FOR DEPOSIT0RS INTEREST The Victory Is Predicted For
 Illinois.
 It Looks Like stevenson VIII Beat His Republisan opponent-- Deneen Is Being Opposed By
 Members of Ills Own
 Party.
FOR DEPosIToRS INTEREST
T@T

The Republican national committee has favored me with leafiet in which 1t is pointed out and I think truth fully, that the banks that failed in New York during the Roosevelt panic of last year have paid or will pay their depositors in full. It is assert- ed that these banks showed assets quite equal to their liabilities and that no loss has accrued to any depositor. All right; let US accept these state ments as facts. But what bearing have they upon the Democratic propo- sitiofi of guaranty of bank deposits?
 If that plan had been in effect the banks would have lost nothing. for as our Republican friends truthfully point out, their assets were ample to cover all their liabilities. The govern ment could have lost nothing because 1t would be merely acting as the GUS. todian of, the fund set aside by the banks to guarantee their depositors.
 But this is the important point: The depositoFs would not have had to walt a year or two to get their money out of the banks through the slow process of liquidation under, a receiver It mercial phrase goes. lon the nall" There would have been no lines of anxious men blocking the streets be- fore the banks, and policemen and their clubs would have been unneces- sary.
 To the man of great means the ap- prehension, even the agony, of the man or woman whose every dollar Is tied up in bank and who is suddenly com fronted with the knowledge that 1t cannot be drawn for months, seems to be incomprehensib1e. If they could understand it they would not oppose a proposition which. while imposing no burden on the banks themselves, would tinspire confidence, increase bank deposits, and swell the volume of money available for use in business.
 Moreover, 1t is a fact well known, not merely to bankers, but to the or dinary citizen that the failure of a big bank like the Knlckerbocker or the North American In New York Of the Walsh banks in Chicago affords A great opportunity for money sharks. If the receiver reports. as he always does. that depositors will be paid in. full some time. there are many finar- ciaI speeulators ready to buy the credits of the individual depositors, but-at heavy discount.
 The woman with $120 in the bank. which she may get in driblets in gladly %eJabE Inc apseulatorS prof, fer of s100 for her account. Every one knows how general this practice is There is no doubt that in the case of the New York banks. all of them managed by conservative figureheadeI this scheme was worked for the en- richment of score of financial parae sites. Under the Democratic plan they would be put out of business
 And speaking of financial parasites and conservative directors, 1t happen ed that the other day I looked over the list of directors of the bank man. aged and wrecked by that eminent anti-BYyan Democrat and stern de- fender of the national honor John R. Walsh. With the exception of one or two on the board of each bank evil dently appointed by Walsh and sub ject to his control, all were men of the highest respecta bilIty, but who were engaged in personal business of such proportions and so expressing they could not by any possibility give the slightest attention to the affairs of the banks. The outcome shows they did not.
 Of course they stood up like men after the collapse, and paid what the law compelled them to pay, as the price of their possession Of stock in bankrupt banking institutions. But it is not recorded that they did anything to avert the calamity or to correct it when 1t occurred. It was apparent that the purpose of this particular banker was to have men for directors who would not direct Tn reading the list 1t occurred to me that for a directorate of a bank today this might make a good list of names:
 Theodore Roosevelt. but only if he Is in the wilds of darkest Africa.
 Lieutenant Peary, provided he is frozen in somewhere near the north pole.
 Admiral sperry if he will only stay in Japan.
 Walter Weiiman, after his airship sails. -'
 Secretary Taft. if he will promise to come no nearer the bank office than he did to the office of the secretary of war.
 This may sound like a burlesque, but it too closely parallels the situation