Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 January 1910 — EDITORIALS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

EDITORIALS

Opinions of Great Papers on Important Subjects

BLIND BANKING AND DUMMY DIRECTORS.

HEN the, banks of the whole country in 1907 gave us clearing house certificates instead of cash, private investigations ■MMMi showed an alarming laxity of bank directors in the management of their lnstltuEBjggjgjl tions —a carelessness in the matter of collateral securities and a fictitious and in-

effectual manner of maintaining thair reserves: These discoveries were at that time generally withheld from the public for fear of increasing,!the financial alarm. The implied negligence of bank directors has up to this time met no public exposure or rebuke. But now comes Mr. Lawrence O. Murray, National Comptroller of the Currency' with his statistical exhibit of the Ignorance and Incompetence of the directors of national banks throughout the country. It is sensational news. It should raise up an irresistible popular demand that the Incompetents shall be weeded out. The national bank directorates are, In an Important sense, public offices, and the public has a right to demand that they shall be filled by men who will attend to business. „ Mr. Murray shows that half the directors now In office have never so much as’read the National Bank Act — which apprises them of their legal duties! He shows (that In nearly half the national banks it is the habit of the directors to have nothing to say About the paklng of loans. And in fully half no particular attention is paid by the directorate 1 to the condition of the reserve. Now that the strong pulse of business has given us ’ strength and confidence to peer-into the dark closets of finance, the time is ripe for a wholesome housecleaning. —Chicago Examiner.

MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE.

HURCH and state are alike Interested in the Increasing ratio of divorce to marriage. R, M The church owes to monopoly of perfotmJ mg marriage ceremonies much of its inI r -fluence over home and family. The state bases upon the married relation many fundamental tenets of civil law, especially

as regards property. Marriage being both a religious sacrament and a civil bond, divorce is regarded with alarm by church and stqte. Hence the general movement for unification of divorce laws to briAg the different States of the Union into conformity, and establish the status of divorced persons, especially those who have remarried, on a common-tasis in all parts of the country. That a man should be held by the laws of one State unmarried. In another married, and perhaps In still another a bigamist, is an unfortunate condition which should be.remedied. If religious and social needs did not render uniformity desirable, the necessity of clear title to property would warrant It. That a national divorce law will militate against dl_vorce is not so clear. Lax laws and lax administration are a serious evil. Lax marriage laws are perhaps

even more serious. If getting married were not so easy divorces would not be so froquent. The did saying, “Marry in haste, repent at leisure,’* is the clew to the large majority of divorces. By all means let us have a national uniformity of law that win' remove the stigma of divorce colonies and star-chamber sleight-of-hand divorce decisions. Bat, at the same time, let the nation make hasty marriage less easy. Marriage and divorce are inseparably To deal with one-without equally regulating the other la to supply but half a remedy.—Chicago Journal. i ~— ! —; *= UNCERTAINTIES OF HISTORY.

HEN we consider that Hudson did not dis- • cover New York bay, but that Verrazzano did; when we consider that Fulton did —— . not Invent the steamboat, but that Fitch did; when we consider that Bell did not 222sEJ vent the telephone; that Morse did not

vent the telegraph; Gutenberg did not in l vent the printing press; that Morton did not discover anaesthesia; that Darwin did not discover evolution; that Shakespeare did not write “Hamlet;” that Homer did not write the “Iliad;” that Galileo did not say, “And still It'moves;” that Wellington did not say, “Up, guards, and at them:’’ that Washington did not win the battles of the Revolution; that Robespierre did not create the Reign of Terror; that Nero was not a monster; that Cleopatra was not beautiful—when we reflect that history is emblazoned with the titles of usurpers and that true merit lies unchronicled in the grave, let us address a word or two of apology to that much borated enemy of truth, the newspaper. If history, with a thousand years’ leisure at her disposal, cannot find out Just who set up a new throne or pulled down an old one, let us forgive the reporter. If he misspells the Christian name of the prominent citizen who was thrown from his automobile at 2:30 a. m.—New York Evening Post * COBLESS CORN.

ND now It’s an Illinois farmer presents the . country with an almost cobless corn. Perhaps the time is coming when the diner munching corn will not have to wrestls £ with the cob, and rising generations will bless the man who eliminated it. The new com is described as having each kernel

growing on the parent stem instead of adhering to a cob. The Illinois grower says that he eliminated the cob by taking the tip of each ear and setting only the very top kernels, and 'shortly expects to evolve a perfectly cobless corn. The Agricultural College of that State is looking after the experiment. Of course, like all Improvements, there are some disapprovers, who remark: “Where would be the delight of munching corn if there were no cob on which tb sharpen the teeth?”—Washington Post.