Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1919-06-06
SECOND TRUST co.
SEEMS UNLIKELY
CONTINUED from page onel

heard, MIR. LaFleur was vigorous IN
his interrogations of Mr. Weeks poll
cies and those of the new company
which he would represent. Mr. La
Fleur came so near to intimation of a
potential dishonesty in the case of the
President of the new trust company
acting also as director of the National
Bank of Middlebury that Mr. Weeks
finally called him to account for the
words he used and Mr. LaFleur agreed
to substitute the word "inconsistency"
for the stronger and uglier term, There
was no heated passage over this, except
that Judge Weeks submitted his record
and believed that his policies so far
as they inhuepced the conduct of the
new trust company would be in accord
with those he had always pursued in
affairs of trust.
REWRITING to the conclusion OF Mr.,
LaFleur's hearing, Commissioner Car
penter inquired of him what he be-
lieved would be a fair return for his
money if he invested as stakeholder
in the second trust company project
and Mr., LaFleur modestly set the
figure at five or six per cent. This
same question was put by the Com
missioner to each of the several petit
TONERS whom he examined, and he
found wide diversion of the estimated
return on investment In view Of the
double liability to which stakeholder
of trust company obligated himself,
practically all of the other men who
were heard estimated the proper re-
turn from their investment as eight
per cent or even as high as twelve
per cent, and the Bank Commissioner
himself declared that not less than
eight per cent was a proper estimate,
A. w. Foote of Cornwall, who is
one of those most enthusiastically in
terested in this latest project, covered,
some Of the same ground as Mr.. La
Fleur but argued particularly to the
effect that the agricultural interests
were not sufficiently represented among
the directors of the Addison County
Trust Company, Judge Button later
answered this with the reading of
long list of stockholders of the Addison
County Trust Company who were
prominent farmers and in fact six of
whom were men whose names had also
appeared among the petitioners of the
Foote and LaFleur project
Willis n. Cady, another OF the petit
tionerS who was Intercepted, spoke
less as a prepayment of this particular
project He said that he had always
been OF the opinion that there was a
good field in this county for a trust
and savings institution, and desired to
see at least one strong company of that
sort organized He was not sure wheth-
er the ield was big enough for two, and
ne admitted that in adding his sigma
ture to those of the other petitioners
he had done so without realizing that
the charter for the Addison County
Trust Company was still a live issue
and that it would be brought up i'll
competition with the other project.
Cyrus II. Smith of Bridport was ex-
amined He, too, spoke in a general
way OF favoring a trust company, and
while he felt that there might be room
for two OF them, he appeared doubt
full that. they would both find it easy
going I started at the same time
Edward Nichols of Bridport was also
inclined to give way largely in view of
the fact that the Addison County
Trust Company had already perfected
its organization and he seemed to
doubt the attraCtiveness of investing
in the new company if it were to have
the rivalry of another. George F.
Edmunds of Bristol had very similar
views as also did H. NJ. Balm of Mid
dlebury the last of the proponents who
were examined.
Judge Weeks was called upon to pre-
sent the other side of the case and he
began by reviewing the history of the
efforts which he and Others had
made many years ago to establish
trust and savings bank
The only reason that the effort made
about two years ago had been delayed
in its COnsummation, he said had been
the war conditions and even he had
been in favor OF going ahead notwith-
standing the war. Some of his ssoci
lteS, however, argued that it was I'M
patriotic to start a new bank in the
midst of the country's call for the var
Gus Liberty Loans, and he had fallen
nto accord with these opinions Now
hat the war was over the Addison
County Trust Company had duly or
,anized and was ready to open inn
nediately for business, all of the cap
tai stock having been paid in, and he
believed it was most for the public
rood that one strong banking institu
ion be established rather than two
which might in that case possibly both :,
,rove weak.
Judge Weeks led on to the suggestion
hat the capital stock of the Addison
-ounty Trust Company be enlarged
rom fifty thousand to seventy-five or
me hundred thousand, and cordially
invited the petitioners in the LaFleur-
7oote project to enter the field to-
ether with them instead of divided
Judge Button, who had been the ag-
ressive leader of several of the Liberty
,oans, was most optimistic as to the
uture of the new bank. He believed
hat half million dollars in deposits
ould easily be acquired for the new
ompany this summer, and he made
he quoted estimate that one Burling
on institution alone noy held over
wo million dollars in Addison County
avings accounts, and that in addition
o this there were other large amounts