Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 October 1908 — GUARANTEEING DEPOSITS. [ARTICLE]

GUARANTEEING DEPOSITS.

The Republican party went wrong on the bank guaranty proposition because the interests that control it would not let It be right Having gone wrong it stays wrong and is forcing some of its leaders to stultify themselves and deny.their own convictions. Take the case of Congressman Fowler, chairman of the house committee on banking and currency. He ia now quoted as saying that the proposition to guarantee bank deposits is a “preposterous and ridiculous scheme.”

And yet it was only the Sth of last January when Mr. Fowler introduced in congress a bill “To establish a simple and scientific monetary system * * and to guarantee all deposits,” etc. On January 27 Mr. Fowler made a speech in favor of his bill tn which, among other things, he declared that the guaranteeing of deposits was necessary to “prevent j>anic and the hoarding of money.” Answering the very objections that Republican writers and speakers are now raising; Mr. Fowler said:

“Mr. Chairman, the oldest bank president in some town, or possibly the president of.the largest bank in some town, may say that he will not have the advantage in the future to which he believes himself entitled if deposits are insured; therefore, there will be two classes who wiN oppose this principle. But banks, like other business institutions, will/galn not by mere age and respectability, or by mere bulk of capital, but rather by ability to meet the requirements of their customers. Square dealing and capacity will tell for just as much after deposits are guaranteed as before.

“Mr. Chairman, is it not too high a price to pay to lay upon the altar of some man’s ambition all the business Interests of this country and still continue the habit of panics, the destruction of credit, and waste of business? On the one side there is personal ambition, vanity, the supposed advantage to a few hundred men; on the other side, millions of depositors with sixteen billions of deposits to their credit in our banks and the families of 20.000,000 American tollers. Which side shall we choose? Where does the duty of congress He? “Mr. Chairman, so far without a single exception, I have proved to my own personal satisfaction, actually and morally, that these objections to the guaranteeing of deposits have ‘come from distinctly selfish motives. These I assert must yield to the greater good.” . ' The only explanation of Mr. Fowler’s present attitude is that during the campaign he is talking merely as a Republican who feels bound to support a bad platform, while last winter he was expressing his honest opinions.