Wallowa County chieftain. [volume] (Enterprise, Or.) 1909-1911, 1909-09-23
President Taft Declares Pa,h /.
Bound by Plank.
POINTS TO SUCCESS IN CANIDl
President Says Government u,.,
Reached Stage Where 1t Mus, ~
Be More. Than Police Fo.

Milwaukee, Wis, Sept. 10-p...
dent Taft devoted his princinsl a..
In Milwaukee at the State P,i,
grounds, yesterday, to the suh;,..
postal savings banks, which he stro,s'
ly endorsed before large and sD,I.''
astic gathering that overaowed \.
grandstand. The president said a.
the postal savings bank plank in u.
Republican platform bound eve,vh,a.
who called himself Republican.
If they do not like ulaDk !.
PLATFORM" said Mr.. Taft. "or Il th.,
don't like the platform itself A.
cease to be Republicans or tbsv -
Republicans with an exception =,
that indicates free and epliVb,s,a
and discriminating people. But A.
here to uphold the doctrine of nO.,,
savings banks because | believa a..
will fill long-felt want in this oo,.
try. In the first place it is said a. 1
postal savings bank is a very uaten,
institution; that it has leaning =,
ward Socialism-state Socialism-.,,
that it purposes to take the bauki,,
business out of the hands of priy,s
persons and put it into those of as
government. No, am not Socialist
and am net paternalist., and am
not in favor of having the government
do anything that private citizens can
do as we'll or better; but there are con.
ditions. We have passed beyond tbs
time of what they called the 'Laisse,
Faire' school, which believed that tina
government ought to do nothing but
run the police force, and we do not rec.
ognize the necessity for the interfe,
ence OF the government because It bss
great power and great resources be-
hind it, and because sometimes it can
stand the lack of an immediate return
on capital to help out. We did it in
our Pacific railroads. We have done
it in a great many different ways, and
in this particular postal savings bank
business the government is especially
fitted to do what any system of private
bankers can do.
"The great usefulness of the postal
savings banks lies in the great encour.
agement to thrift on the part of those
who are just wavering in the balance
whether they shall save the money or
use it because they don't know where
they can put it safely.
Canada has the postal savings bank,
and what is the result along the border
in the Northwest You find Americans
going up to the border and making de.
posits in those savings banks. Why!
Because they have theIguarantee Of the
Canadian government.
President Taft said the government
had issued upward of $7OO,OOO,OOO 2
per cent bonds of the United States
and fioated them at par, at 2 per cent
or little more.
1--WE did it by getting the banks into
a corner so they had to have, under The
law, some government security, and 50
they were obliged to buy those per
cent bonds," he said. In closing, Pres.
ident Taft said:
"We are looking forward, | hope
with confidence, to a REIMBURSEMENT Of
our whole financial system. Certainly
it needs it, and it has been suggested
that the savings bank might well await
that. / am bound to say that don't
see the necessity for involving them.
1t seems to me that one system can
stand by itself, and if we adopt tho
savings banks they will easily be worS'
ed into general system of banking
because the savings banks will furnish
us five or six hundred millions OF dol
lars, and that is a very tidy pile to have
around for the government to use 10
ultimately in order to carry on any