Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1910-02-18


ings in government postofice dis
tributed through the locality where it
has been deposited, in the state and
national banks and so deposited as to
make it impossible for the trustees of
the fund appropriated under the law to
withdraw money for investment in any
other form.
May Defeat the Law.
! 81 regard such an amendment as
likely to defeat the law. First, be-
cause it takes away a feature which
ought to be present in the law to as
sure its constitutionality. If the law
provided that the trustees to be APP
thus deposited could meet the financial
exigencies of the government by pur-
chase or redemption Of the govern
ment 2 per cent and other bonds, the
measure would certainly be within the
federal power, because the postal
banks would then clearly be an fnstru-
ment of national government in Dor
rowing money. We have now about
$700,000,O00 of per cent bonds with
respect to which we owe duty to the
owners to see that those bonds may be
taken care of without reduction below
the par value thereof because they
were forced upon national banks at
this low rate in order that the banks
might have basis of circulation. This
implied obligation of the government
the postal savings bank funds would
easily enable it to meet
Secondly, if the funds are to be ar
bitrarily deposited in all hanks, state
and national, without national super
vision over the state banks and a panic
were to come, it is difficult to see how
j the government could meet its obli-
cations to its postal savings bank de-
positors, because with every bank sus-
pending payment the funds of the pos
tai savings bank wound be beyond
the control of the government and we
should have financial disaster greater
than any panic we have heretofore met.
"A provision that when the money
is not needed to invest in government
bonds or to redeem the same it may
be deposited in national banks in the
neighborhood of the place of deposit
will avoid the great danger of "a panic
and will strengthen banking system
which is an arm of the federal govern
ment.
81 sincerely hope that before the
measure is hammered into it's final
shape may take on these character
istics, which shall give it a consti-
tutional validity and sound financial
strength and usefulness. Those who
insist upon the elimination of these
two necessary characteristic features
of the bill will put the party in the
position where it can not hope to es-
cape the charge that it is not in good
faith in seeking the passage of pos
tai savings bank act, and is not seek
ing therefore to comply with the prom
Use of the republican platform in that
regard.
Regulation of Railroad Rates.
son the subject of railroads the re-
publican platform said: I'VE approve
the enactment of the railroad rate law
and the vigorous enforcement by the
present administration of the statute
against rebates and determinations as
a result of which advantages possessed
by the large shipper over the smaller
shipper have subsequently disappeared,
and in this connection we commend
the appropriation by the present con-
gress to enable the interstate com
merce commission thoroughly to inves
tigate and give publicity to the ac-
counts of Interstate railroads. We be-
lieve, however, that the interstate
commerce law should be further
amended so as to give railroads the
right to make and publish traffic
agreements subject to the approval of
the commission but maintaining al
ways the principle cof competition be-
tween naturally competing lines and
avoiding the common control of such
lines by any means whatsoever. We
favor such national legislation and ,su-
pervision as will prevent the future
overissue of stocks and bonds by in
terstate carriers.
IA bill to carry out these declara-
UIOuS HAS Do6u introduced III DOCD
branches and is now being considered
before the appropriations committee of
the two houses, and there is every
hope that the bin thus introduced, in
substantially the same shape as intro
duced, will be enacted into law. This
railroad measure goes further than the
promise of the platform, for while it
subjects the issue of stock and bonds
to the restrictive supervision of the
commission and prevents further water
ing of securities and forbids the
acquisition by a railroad company of
stock in competing line, it also puts
very much more power into the hands
of the commission for the regulation
of rates and it facilitates in every way
the ease of supervision by the commits
sion of railroads to secure compli-
ance by the railroads with the rights
of the public and shipper.
''The bill was prepared by the at
torney general after full conference
with the interstate commerce commits
sion, with shippers and with repre-
sentatives of the railroads, and while
it was not the result of an agreement
1 ,,or4sae zoe