St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1916-08-16
Dishonest ADV
MR.. WILLIAMS.

. = NH. w I1%A@A<A~A9.
Il found that the Lamoille County
Savings Bank and Trust Company had
been investing in real estate mort
cages outside Vermont for several
years, the amount at that time being
something over one-quarter of a mill
lion Of dollars, and was advertising
under the slogan "All in Vermont" /
took up the matter with Senator Page.
the president of the bank, and H. NJ.
Mcfarland, the vice president, and
advised them that the advertisement,
in my judgment, was misleading, in
that it caused the people Of Vermont
to believe that the bank did not in
vest in out of state mortgages as many
other banks were doing, but that it
invested all of it's funds in Vermont.
1 ascertained that two of the directors
of the bank had guaranteed the
amount of these out OF state loans un-
der an arrangement with Senator
Page by which he paid them from his
own pocket a commission for their
guarantee, and he insisted that it was
a perfectly proper thing to do; that 1t
made the loans Vermont loans. and
that the bank had right under those
circumstances to advertise that all its
either upon real estate loans or with
two good Vermont names. 1 insisted
that under the law the directors had
no right to guarantee such loans in
such amounts, and that the practice
must be stopped, both as to guaran-
teeing the loans by the directors, and
as to the form of the banks adver-
tisements; that the other directors
whose Indebtedness was excessive
must reduce it to the legal limit, and
was assured that 1 should have no
cause for criticism in those matters
in the future.
Some two years later noticed adj
vertisements of a similar character,
answering John Senter's criticisms.
and called the attention of Senator
Page and Mr.. Mcfarland to the agree
ment made two years before, which I
| thought had not been honestly kept.
also discovered that the bank, at
/ the request of Senator Page, was
| about to invest further in out of state
mortgages and he had asked the
! treasurer to accept the Endorsement
| upon such mortgages of a local cor
! poration in which Senator Page and
! other officers of the bank were largely
| interested, 1 objected to this and wrote
a letter to Senator Page stating my
! objections. He called for a confer
| ence upon the matter and L met him
and Mr.. Mcfarland and spent a day
with them going over the matter full
ly. Senator Page insisted that their
practices were right and ought to be
allowed, and that the position which
I took was preventing the bank from
getting additional security. l took
| the position that the only right and
proper thing for the bank to do was
20 observe the law which governed IL
such matters, and that it was bao
policy in any event for the bank tC
make out of state investments which
they were not fully satisfied were alb
solutely sound and safe, and thai
when he induced his directors t.
guarantee out of state loans, paying
them for the guarantee, he was offer
ing an inducement to accept loans il
which the bank might not otherwise
invest, and that 1 should insist tina
the banks investments be made &C
cording to law"
After several hours discussion
Senator Page finally said that h'
would comply with my request and
that 1 should have no further cause
for criticism, although he believed
was wrong in my position. From the
first CRITICISM which 1 made of tbs
policies of the bank up to the presen
time, Mr.. Mcfarland has always
agreed that 1 was right in my posi-
ton; that the policy of the bank haC
been wrong, and that he was very GLAD
was insisting in a change and would
cooperate with me in every way pos
sible to improve conditions and elm
mate all bad practices, which he ha'
faithfully done to the present time