The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1916-08-11
PAGES BANKING METHODS
Letters From the Bank Commissioner
to the Senator.

Letters From the Bank Commissioner
to the Senator.
In addition to the statement Of Bank
Commissioner Frank G. Williams al
ready printed in The Banner the com
missioner also makes public copies OF
letters he wrote Senator Page and
other officials of the Hyde Park bank
in his efforts to get them to obey the
laws of the state. Mr.. Williams says:
In order that the people OF the
state may understand what my posi-
tion was long before any political con-
troyersy arose, | make quotations
from letters which | wrote to the bank
and to Senator Page,
In letter dated July 10, 1912, to
the vice-president of the bank, | sta
ted. I might say in this connection,
as | have said before, that the policy
OF your bank of requiring some OF its
directors to guarantee or ind0rse pa
per discounted is not proper one
and have expected that you have
discontinued that practice. SO far as
Endorsements and guarantees which
have been given for paper now held
by the bank have taken the position,
which you know, that such guaran-
tees and indorsers should not be re-
leased upon any of the paper held by
the bank, but that the practice should
be discontinued
In letter to the vice-president,
dated November 80, 1912, | said, 1
have just read the latest advertise
ment of the above bank in the Express
and Standard and ain somewhat sur
prised at some OF the statements
therein made, Tor although perhaps
technically, these statements are cor
rect, yet they are, think, very mis-
leading. | understand this line of ad-
vertising was abandoned after my talk
with yourself and Senator Page year
ago last summer. You will remember
that you very frankly told me that you
had overstepped the law in the mat
ter Of Endorsements and guarantees of
out OF state loans and while you did
not, think, fully admit 1t, the result
| of your statement induced me to think
that officers OF the bank had been re-
ceving what in law would amount TO
a commission for placing loans, al
| though your method was such as pos
sibly to avoid that charge. My un-
| derstanding OF the result of our con-
versation was that the Endorsements
and guarantees of loans by officers OF
the bank should stand as they were
until they were either paid, or so ad.
justed that the commissioner and the
bank were satisfied to have the in.
dorsers and guarantors released that
no more business Of that character
should be done by the bank; that the
officers of the bank should reduce
their obligations to the legal limit rs
soon as 1t could he done without dis.
turbance to the affairs OF the bank
and that the bank should abandon adj
veltising that they made no loans out
side the state
Page Asks Conference.
"As a result of this letter Senator
Page asked for conference, made
the argument as have state above
and when | refused to change my rul
ings. faithfully agreed to comply Will
them.
IN a letter TO Hon. c. S. Page
president OF Lamoille County Savings
Bank and Trust company, dated Feb
ruary Il, 1914, said:-
81 examined the above bank Feb
ruary ~, and find that your liabilit,
and the liability OF Mr.. Mcfarland I,
, the bank, has not been decrease,
since my last examination. You viii
remember that in the talk we ha
something over year ago notiie
: you that the liability of the officer
!. of the bank must be reduced to tn
legal limit, namely, ten thousand do
o lars. as quickly as II could be don,
and | find no progress has been mad
in that direction In tall
ing with Mr. Mcfarland about YOU
I. plans for Investment, he advised IN
O that YOU had decided to buy wester
3 mortgages. but that they were to /
v guaranteed by the lumber compan
l. and that you and MIR. Mcfarland wei
q to guarantee the lumber company
It advised Mr.. Mcfarland, and now n
n wise you that this cannot be allowe
d It Ia only another method OF accol
ID plishing the same thing and oontin
,r ing the same practices which | ha'
Is objected to for the past four yea
N and which are contrary TO law, and
ehall expect YOU to reduce the lab
&c ity of yourself and see that the Il
Is. bilities of the other directors are
u duced to the legal limit. Just as so
ny as 1t is possible to do SO without 10
to the bank
Pays New York Expenses.