THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



regulars. They are theoretical officers 

 and when they come to put their theories 

 into practice they failed abominably." 



Farther on he makes the statement to 

 which every loyal American will respond 

 "Amen": "It is simply criminal for an 

 officer to allow his men to go hungry when 

 he is within reach of rations. Red tape or 

 no red tape, the American soldier should 

 not go without food. If I were a com- 

 manding officer I would break open cars 

 if necessary to obtain the provisions with 

 which to feed my men.'' 



Secretary Alger has been severely cen- 

 sured by the press, whether altogether de- 

 servedly or not we leave for the investiga- 

 ting committee to determine, but his 

 friends in Ohio are loyal and will not hear 

 him blamed. An amusing incident oc- 

 curred during the G. A. R. convention at 

 Cincinnati, which recalls the old story of 

 Patrick Henry, who in speaking of tyrants 

 mentioned the name of George III, when 

 a voice interrupted with the cry of ''Trea- 

 son;" "And Geo. Ill may profit by their 

 example. If that be treason make the most 

 of it!" concluded the witty Irishman. 

 Gov., Pingree, of Michigan, in a speech at 

 the G. A. R. camp fire. Sept 7, was quite 

 vehement in his criticism of the manage- 

 ment of the Spanish- American war. and 

 after citing several instances of bad man- 

 agement said: "If Secretary Alger " 



he could go no further. The friends of 

 Alger. thinking some disparaging allusion 

 was about v to be made concerning him. 

 hissed and hooted Gov. Pingree until he 

 was compelled to withdraw. After quiet 

 had been restored the chairman finished 

 the sentence, which the audience would 

 not suffer the Governor to finish, reading 

 as follows: "If Secretary Alger had been 

 given full power, such things would never 

 have happened." And with the audience 

 who hissed it was a case of being "sorry 

 that they spoke." 



., In the November issue the 



Departure. IRRIGATION AGE will give the 

 first instalment of a series of 

 articles on the banking methods of our 

 own and foreign countries. , This does not 

 come strictly within the sphere of this 

 journal, but it is a matter of such vital 

 importance to every person no matter in 

 what section of the countrv he resides or 



what his occupation may be that we feel 

 justified in devoting space to the subject) 

 upon which too many are grossly ignor- 

 ant. Besides being instructive, these arti- 

 cles will be very interesting, tracing 

 the banking system from its inception, 

 years before the Christian era, to the pres- 

 ent time, with the attendant evils. 



The author, Mr. Geo. J. E. Mayer, has 

 given a great deal of time and study to 

 this subject and as a result of his labor is 

 prepared to give the names of the 400 na- 

 tional banks that have failed within the 

 past few years, together with the reasons of 

 their failures and the amount of money 

 depositors lost thereby. The figures may 

 all be relied upon as Mr. Mayer has taken 

 them from reliable statistics. 



The author's aim in writing on this sub- 

 ject, is to bring before the public the nec- 

 essity of legislation to remedy the evils of 

 the banking system. This has already 

 been considerably agitated, but not as re- 

 gards the security to depositors, and on 

 Feb. 16th, 1898, the House passed a bill 

 regulating the manner in which loans 

 should be made, or in other words, a bill 

 "to better control and to promote the 

 safety of national banks," but mentions 

 naught about securing depositors against 

 loss in case a bank does fail. The re- 

 port of the comptroller showed that 90 per 

 cent of the national bank failures were 

 due to the appropriation of the bank's 

 funds by its officers. With such a large 

 percentage to the credit of depositors 

 compared to the stock capital in a bank, 

 there is no wonder that legislators began 

 to realize that something must be done to 

 secure them against loss when banks fail. 

 The bill above mentioned proTides that 

 "no national bank shall make a loan to the 

 president or any other officer or employe 

 of the bank until such officer or employe 

 has submitted the proposition for the 

 loan in writing to the directors and it has 

 been approved by a majority of them, and 

 in no case shall the loan exceed the 

 amount permitted by law." A bill, simi- 

 lar to this, has twice passed the House 

 and once passed the Senate with an 

 amendment, but was there "pigeon-holed 

 to die." 



Judge Walter Q. Gresham. Gen'l. Jno. 

 C. Black and ex-Congressman Coffeen, of 



