The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-12-31
POLITICAL GOSSIP
+. j. AltWager Has Some Ideas
on Bank Deposits.
Thinks That No New Law Is
Necessary.
AMRINE is HERE.
FavOrs Carrying Out Party
Pledges Strictly.
Senator Long Arrives in Topeka
From Washington.

| county, spent part of the week in the
city and in an interview gave his idea
| OF settlement of the all important
| problem of the guarantee of bank de-
poslts which threatens to consume
many days OF debate and deHberation
| in the next legislature. Mr.. Altswager's s
plan, he says, will guarantee the safety
| of banks without the enactment of any
new laws, being merely the enforcement
of laws now on the statute books.
The law, as is well known, provides
| for the double liability of all holders
| of bank stock in case of failure but it
| is often evaded and for various reasons
rarely enforced effectively. Mr.. Alt
sWager would place restrictions about
this clause of the law which would
make Stockholder in a bank nothing
more nor less than bondsman for that
bank to the extent of double the amount
of the stock he holds. This stockholder
would have to certify to the proper off,
cial that he was worth in real estate
or other holdings acceptable as a bond,
double the amount of the stock he ac-
qulres, and these would be tied up as
long as he held that bank stock and
would therefore be at hand and acceSsa-
BILE at once for the receiver settling up
the affairs of that mank.
Take for instance" said Mr.. Ats
wager, today. in discussing the matter,
"a bank that is capitalized at 100000
and has deposits totaling half million
dollars That bank fails. Well, there
is 100000 at hand in assets for the re-
ceiver in capital stock besides the 20
per cent reserve fund demanded by law,
100000 in all. Now there never was
bank failure that did not pay 80 to 40
cents on the dollar in any case after
the crash, so there is your $500,000 in
deposits accounted for and all of the
many objections of the guarantee de-
posit law done away with There is no
combination of banks such as might
come to pass in a guarantee association.
Each bank stands alone on it's own bot
tom and yet the rigid enforcement of
this old double liability law makes it
sure that the bank will pay out dollar
for dollar in a very short time.
Another important feature in con-
nection with this plan is the fact that
stockholders and directors, would, if
they knew they would absolutely have
holdings in cash. .%pay much closer at
tention to the workings and business
methods of their bank and the actions
of it's officers and thus reduce the pos
sibility of failure to a minimum"
M F. Amrine of Council Grove. rep
resentative-elect from Morris county,
spent the day in the city. Mr. Amrine
is publisher of the Council Grove Guard
and we'll known in this section of the
state. He favors carrying out the
pledges of the party and in this regard
wants guarantee deposit bill that will
and spirit of that pledge. He is in
clined to believe that there will be
more trouble in reaching an agreement
on this measure in the next legislature
than the average reader would be led
to believe from reading the almost
unanimous endorsement of the measure
by the members-elect. "All of them
might favor the measure" said Mr.
Amrine, "but there is sure to be a diff
ference of opinion between the extreme
radicals who would go to the point of
Gripping the banks and the conserVa-
tives who are too friendly with the
banks and bankers and place the lat
ter's interests above that of the peo-
ple."
Mr. Amrine has some very practical
ideas in regard to good roads leg1sla-
ton He does not favor an additional
tax for good roads, but rather faVors
making permanent road improvements
with the present sum of money now
spent by the state for this purpose. t ne
$4,000 in ten years for road work,
which is an average example, and you
cannot, at the end of that time hnd
anything to show for the expenditure;
but $4,000 spent on good roads in one
township under the direction of some
one who knows how to build good
road along permanent lines, and at the
end of ten years work that township
will have good roads to show for the
same sum it has always spent without
results. That is the kind of good roads
legislation that I shall favor"
Mr. Amrine will likely Introduce
bill that will in the end prove great
advertisement for old grasshopper-rid-
den. drouth-strick Kansas. being a
measure providing for the paying off
of the state debt of some half million
dollars by a tax levy of one-sixth of
mill for this purpose. This levy would
wipe the slate clean at the end of two
wears and then Kansas could truly
boast that it was the only state in the
union free of debt. That would hold
the easterners for a minute while it
jarred them at the same time.
H w. Shideler of Girard, representa-
tive-elect from the Twenty-third dis
trict of Crawford county, was in the
city today looking for room during
pet measure at this time that he want
ed to talk about, but he will vote for
the carrying out of the G.. o. P. pledges
made during the last campaign.
AS is well known, the state is its
own insurance company so far as the
guarantee against fire loss to the ten
million dollars worth of state prop
erty is concerned. In other words not
one of the states buildings are in
sured against loss by fire. If a build
ing is burned the state figures that
it can assume the risk and make good
the loss cheaper than by turning the
responsibility over to some insurance
company. In speaking of the matter
today State Auditor Nation could call
to mind no material loss by fire that
the state has suffered during the last
ten years to any of its numerous
buildings in all sections of the state.
Now the premiums that the state
would had to have paid during that
.