Show r THE BAXKRUPTCY DILL The general bankruptcy bill which passed the house of representatives on Saturday last Is a measure of deep concern < to the business men of the United States and to those of the west in particular However desirous a general gen-eral bankruptcy law may be in this country it is very questionable if this house measure is the one we want While it provides for both voluntary I and involuntary bankruptcy it also I denies to debtors the right to prefer creditors and that as regards the west may be considered as the most vicious part of the bill and gives some color to the expressed belief of representative repre-sentative Dearmond of Missouri that the measure had been prepared by the agents of the creditor class i The mischief such a law is likely to I work in the west is that it will make it extremely difficult if not Impossible for our merchants In times of temporary I tempo-rary embarrassment to secure emergency emer-gency loans and to be deprived of that advantage means that merchants and I other business men will often go down to ruin and bankruptcy when if they which could se ure temporary relief would enable them to tide over some pressing but temporary difficulty they could continue in business What we mean is this A merchant I say cramped for money to meet his j obligations goes to his banker and lays before him his situation and if able to say to the banker that in the event of further misfortune overtaking him he would make of him a preferred creditor he might be able to secure such loans as would enable him to tide over his difficulties and so pull through as to save his business meet all his obligations and live to oe prosperous pros-perous and happy But in the event of this house bill becoming a law and the debtor unable to make these arrangements ar-rangements with banks or other firms the result very probably would be that emergency loins would be out of the question and the debtor would be forced to the wall bankrupt We had proceeded thus far in the discussion of the question when there was handed to The Herald the following follow-ing copy of dispatches and letter on the subject from a prominent banker I which we commend to the consideration I considera-tion of our readers and especially to I our merchants who of all men are I most interested in this subject Washington D C May L 1S96 Hon J P Jones Dear SirI have this date wired you as follows Defeat bankruptcy bill if possible Its passage would ruin credit here I have also wired Senators Brown I Cannon Shoup Stewart and Dubois similarly I do not know whether you have given this subject much thought or not Similar bills have been introduced intro-duced in the Utah legislature every I session for the past twenty years to my certain knowledge and always defeated de-feated It is purely in the interest of the eastern wholesale men Their grievance is that when assignments are made local people are preferred to the detriment of those in the east The answer is there is no compulsion and if they will insist on sending their drummers here to sell their goods they must take whatever chances there are Besides they have a big advantage over local merchants who are subject to taxes rent and interest on their stock of goods which they must necessarily neces-sarily carry When an eastern merchant mer-chant sends out a drummer with a handful of samplesrushes around from one country store to another subject sub-ject to no rent taxes or license and I contributes nothing toward the support I of the state county or city and then has the effrontery to ask that a law be passed to insure equal division among creditors in case of an assignment assign-ment and that the debtor be denied the privilege of making preferences as I state in my dispatch it would ruin credit hereI mean in the west as no one would or could afford to loan money without security and as most of our people have no security to offer other than their stock of goods they would simply have to retire from business I I I busi-ness and leave the field to those with I I sufficient capital to do business without with-out borrowing Hence most of the I people with whom I am acquainted have all of their capital Invested in goods which of course cannot be used as security when they are subject to daily change which must be the casein case-in selling goods Again no man would loan money where he would have to pro rate with other accounts in case of a failure as it would be inequitable for example a merchant starts in business busi-ness he opens an account with a banlt and another with a wholesale merchant mer-chant It is usual to purchase from three to four times a year and the profit on each sale averages at least 10 per cent Say that only three purchases pur-chases are made during the year The total profit would amount to 30 percent per-cent The banker at the end of the same period would have only 10 percent per-cent as that is an average rate of interest in-terest Now if the merchant were to fail at the end of the first the wholesale I whole-sale merchant would go in at an advantage ad-vantage of 20 per cent overthat of the banker or money loaner and at the end of two years 60 per cent instead I of the bankers 20 and so on hence money will not be loaned where preferences pre-ferences are prohibited by law The chamber of commerce of this city passed similar resolutions which have been forwarded to our Utah senators sena-tors With the hope that you may be able to defeat the bill that would if enacted I en-acted into law be ruinous to your constituents con-stituents I remain I Sincerely yours Signed W S MCORNICK The case is made out pretty clear by Mr McCornicks reasoning that this bankruptcy bill is not burdened with good for the west and our people should be earnest in protecting themselves them-selves against injurious legislation Let Utahs citizens remember that we are not so helpless down at Washington Wash-ington as we have been in the past We have there now two senators and a representative who can at least be active In warding off legislation inimical Inimi-cal to our interests But we must appeal ap-peal to our representatives and let them know our sentiments and wishes Will our business men and merchants do this |