The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1916-08-15
las to the first three charges
| must answer in the affirmative.
COMMISSIONER ACTS PROMPTLY.

COMMISSIONER ACTS PROMPTLY.
AS to the fourth charge l discov-
cred the illegal acts; the misleading adj
vertisements; the use Of banks To evade
taxation; that four of the directors in
GLIDING senator Page, had incurred liza
bilties to the bank very largely in excess
of the legal limit. which is $4,000, and
l acted III each case promptly after com
plete information, and caused all such
practices to be abandoned after good
deal of effort. and l will state fully and
frankly the facts with relation to all
these matters, as they have existed dur
ing my term of Office, and as they exist
at the present time
I found that the Lamoille County Saw
ings Bank and Trust company had been
investing in real estate mortgages out
side Vermont for several years, the
amount at that time being something
over one-quarter of a million of dollars
and was advertising under the slogan
"AH in Vermont" l took up the matter
with senator Page. the president of the
bank, and II. NJ. Mcfarland, the vice
president and advised them that the ad-
vertisement, in my judgment was mis-
leading, in that it caused the people of
Vermont to believe that the bank did not
other banks were doing but that it in
vested all of its funds in Vermont. as
certained that two of the directors of the
bank had guaranteed the amount of these
out of State loans under an arrangement
with Senator Page by which he paid
them from his pocket a comm ssion
Tor their guarantee, and he insisted that
1t was perfectly proper thing to do;
that it made the loans Vermont loans,
and that the bank had a right under
those circumstances to advertise that all
its investments We're made in Vermont
either upon real estate loans or with two
good Vermont names. insisted that I'M
der the law the directors had no right to
guarantee suck loans in such amounts,
and that the practice must be stopped,
both as to guaranteeing the loans by the
directors ana as to the form Of the
banks advertisements; that the other lii
rectors whose Indebtedness was excessive
must reduce it to the legal limit. and was
assured that l should have no cause for
criticism in those matters in the future.
Mr.. sENTER's CRITICISM.
Some two years later | noticed adyer-
tisements Of similar character, answering
John Senter's criticisms and called the
attention of Senator Page and Mr.. Me-
Earland to the agreement made two years
before which l thought had not been hon
estly 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 corporation in
which Senator Page and other officers of
the bank were largely interested. | OBJ
iected to this and wrote a letter to Sena-
tor Page stating my objections lie called
for a conference upon the matter and |
met him and Mr.. Mcfarland and spent a
day with them going over the matter full
ly. Senator Page insisted that their prac-
tees We're right and ought to be allowed
and that the position which / took was
preventing the bank from getting addi-
uonal security. | took the position that
the only right and proper thing for the
bank to do was to observe the law which
governed in such matters and that it was
bad policy in any event for the bank to
make out of State investments which
they Were not fully satisfied were abso-
lutely sound and safe. and that when ne
induced his directors to guarantee out of
State loans paying them for the guaran-
tee, he was Offering an inducement to ac-
cept loans in which the bank might not
The ALLEN Nj