The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-01-30

Kansas legislature it will not end the
controversy. 1t will simply project lit
into the campaign to the serious detri-
ment of the banks and all the business
interests of this state. The attempt
to belittle this proposition by charac-
terizing it as a paternal proposition
hardly appeals to intelligent, thought
full people who remember that many
of the men who do this have for ninety
days practiced the most extreme pa
ternalism in limiting, wisely under
the circumstances, the amounts which
their depoSitOrS could withdraw on
check out of funds which they had de-
posted with the understanding that it
could all be Withdrawn at any time.
Such an argument from such a source
is hardly conclusive on this important
subject. Nor will it do to try to be-
little this proposition and ridicule 1t
out of legislative councils. When an
eminent soldier, patriot and financier
like General A. B. Nettleton, ex-secre-
tary of the treasury, writes me such a
letter as l received a few days ago, and
which was reprinted in the daily news
papers of this city, favOring this pro-
ject; when eX-Comptroller Charles G..
Dawes, one of the ablest financiers in
this country, writes book on the sub
ject, copy of which he has sent me;
when the present chairman of the
committee on banks and banking of
the house, Hon. Charles N. Fowler, has
introduced a guaranty bill into this
session of congress; when similar bills
have been introduced by two congress
men from this state, Messrs. Reeder
and Campbell, the former prominent
national banker; when a great mer-
chant like Mr.. Alexander H. Revell of
Chicago advocates this policy; when
eminent statesmen and publiciSts all
over the country are advocating it. II
would hardly do to dismiss the subject
with the assertion that it is a chimer-
ical scheme advocated only by dema-
gogues and impractical people and op-
posed by all conservative bankers.
The proposition is simple and funda-
mental. 1t is based on the sound prin-
ciple, that banks are not only CONNER
cial but are also police necessities
that they are necessary not only for
business interests but for protection Of
life and money as we'll; that the banker
want Of the people; that his institution
is not chartered by the state and
hedged about by it's laws primarily in
his interests, but primarily in the in
terests of the people; that the banker
borrows from his patrons as certainly
and directly as his patrons borrow from
him; that they are as much entitled to
security as he is; that inasmuch as
government is for the weakest as we'll
as the strongest it is inconsistent for
the state to require guaranty for its
own deposits and deny this guaranty to
individuals; that the best interests of
the bankers themselves are subserved
by strengthening the confidence of
their depositors: that this wise pro-
vision will do this: and that this law
is in the interest of all the banks, ma
tional and state, and of all the people
of Kansas. Profoundly impressed with
this conviction and believing that an
overwhe Ginning majority of the people
of the state will be disappointed If this
legislature adjourns without the enact
ment of a wise, carefully guarded de-
positors guaranty law, I make this
final appeal.
E. W. HOCH. Governor.