PANICS, FINANCIAL, <>F TIIK NINETEENTH CENTURY, 



5:.:. 



ned policy law." This law was protested against 



liy insurance olliccrs, on the grounds shown in 



the following extract from an opinion giroi by 



one of them: " The public good requires tliut no 

 man should IK- permitted to profit by burning 

 his property and endangering that of his neigh- 

 bors at the same time. The Oregon law is simi- 

 lar to others, and its results are not likely to 

 differ from those in Wisconsin and Ohio, where 

 Stale oilieers are urging repeal. Fire losses 

 have constantly increased in those States. ... To 

 inspect every risk is impracticable, for it would 

 lake an army of inspectors to do the work. This 

 gives a person an opportunity to misrepresent 

 and overinsure his property, and in 99 cases out 

 of 100 where overinsurance occurs it is due to 

 mis.statements made to the companies." 



The Pacific Insurance Union gave notice in 

 June that an additional charge of 10 per cent, of 

 the premium should be collected and remitted 

 by agents for Oregon on policies taking effect on 

 and after July 1, 1893, " to cover additional haz- 

 ard created by the Oregon valued-policy law." 



A joint memorial to Congress was adopted, 

 asking for the issue of fractional currency to 

 the amount of $50,000,000, and one in favor of 

 free coinage of silver. 



Eight sections of the Penitentiary laws were re- 

 pealed by a bill appropriating $190,000 for estab- 

 lishing a jute-mill plant at the prison, $40,000 

 of the appropriation to be expended for jute, to- 

 gether with whatever else remains of the $190,- 

 000 after payment is made for the machinery, 

 freight, buildings, raw materials, and the neces- 

 sary skilled labor. 



The fee system for county officers was abol- 

 ished, and salaries were fixed for those officers in 

 the various counties instead. 



A portion of Clackamas County was detached 

 and joined to Multnomah County, including the 

 city of Sellwood. 



A bill to insure purity in foods repeals exist- 



ing legislation on the subject and makes it un- 

 lawful to sell or expose for sale any unwhole- 

 -..iii'-, unclean, tainted, diseased foods or tiicdi- 



eines. 



It was enacted that women over the age of 

 twenty-one years who are citizens of the I 

 Slates and of the State shall be eligible to all 

 educational offices within the State. Many main- 

 tain that it is in conflict with that section of the 

 Constitution which provides that " no person shall 

 be elected or appointed to a county office who is 

 not an elector of the county." 



An act regulating executions on dormant judg- 

 ments supersedes the former statute. 



The State Board of Charities and Corrections 

 was abolished. 



A bill appropriating $60,000 for a World's Fair 

 exhibit was passed, vetoed by the Governor, and 

 again passed. No buildings were to be erected 

 with it. An appropriation of $40,000 for the 

 equipment of the Stale militia took the same 

 course. 



The appropriations made a total of $1,400,000, 

 in round numbers, for the biennial period. 



Other acts make the following provisions : 



A dower bill amends the existing statutes by giving 

 a widow one half instead of one third of the estate, or 

 inheritance; one half instead of one third of the resi- 

 due from the satisfaction of a mortgage after her hus- 

 band's death ; one half of the rents on the estate she 

 lives on after his death ; one half of the mesne earn- 

 ings of the estate when she has to sue other heirs 

 for it. 



It was made unlawful for any person over the age 

 of sixteen years, with or without malice, purposely to 

 point or aim any firearm, either loaded or empty, at 

 or toward another person, except in self-defense, on 

 pain of $10 to $f>00 fine or ten days' to six mouths' 

 imprisonment, or both. 



The road laws were amended so that county courts 

 may in their discretion levy a tax upon all the taxa- 

 ble property in the county not to exceed 5 mills, and 

 in addition a poll tax of $2. 



PANICS, FINANCIAL, OF THE NINE- 

 TEENTH CENTURY. During this century 

 there have been 13 important crises in this coun- 

 try, including the panic of 1893. The direct in- 

 fluences exerted were, in the majority of cases, 

 apparent at the time of the occurrences or were 

 disclosed immediately subsequent thereto. But 

 sometimes there were contributory causes which 

 were not recognized as important until shown 

 to be controlling factors after investigation 

 into the reasons for the abnormally slow growth 

 of confidence succeeding the crises, and then ef- 

 forts were made to remedy the evil. But even 

 these remedies were not always effective in pre- 

 venting panics from similar causes. The theory 

 of the periodicity of panics obtains with many 

 writers, and the recurrence of these crises after 

 regular intervals would seem to prove its cor- 

 rectness. As it has been shown uy experience 

 that panics are not preventable, measures have 

 been devised to lessen their force. The most 

 effective of these was adopted in the crises of 

 1873, 1884, 1890, and 1893, by the New York 



Clearing House Association. Promptly upon 

 the appearance of the panic, one of the standing 

 committees arranged for the issue of clearing- 

 house loan certificates, based upon 75 per cent, 

 of the assets of all the banks in the association, 

 which certificates were made available in settle- 

 ment of balances, and were issued to such banks 

 as applied for them, after examination into the 

 condition of the institution. By this plan all 

 the bank? were united for mutual protection, 

 and runs upon any one or more of them were 

 unlikely to prove disastrous. The certificates 

 served another and still more useful purpose in 

 the panic of 1893. Foreign bankers desiring to 

 import gold deposited securities with their banks, 

 against which the institutions obtained loan 

 certificates. The banks then loaned to the 

 bankers for fixed periods, at an agreed-upon 

 rate, money with which to procure the gold. 

 The plan of issuing clearing-house loan certifi- 

 cates was successfully adopted in the last panic 

 in Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburg. and other 

 cities, and doubtless it will become more general. 



