Show SOLDIERS AND assessments wallace idaho miner cong congress ress has under consideration a law under which certain contracts and legal obligations pertaining to men serving in the army and navy and other branches of military service will be stayed or suspended until after the close of the war the bill was a few days ago reported favorably to the senate and it will undoubtedly doubt effly pass both houses and become a law at an early date it is a most just law and will bring a feeling of relief to many a man in the service who stands to lose heavily without this protection in anticipation of the enactment of such a law the miner last week called attention to another form of obligation which if within the power of congress to do so should be included in this law we refer to assessments on shares in stock corporations it is a conservative serva tive estimate that 75 per cent of the men who have been called to the colors from the coeur dalene district hold shares in mining companies many of these holdings having real tangible value and all of them great prospective value the operations of the companies issuing the stock are carried on through the levying of assessments sess ments and in lieu of the assessments being paid the stock is sold at public auction to pay tile the assessments and other costs the original cost of these shares together with subsequent assessments paid represent in many cases quite a heavy investment what protection has a man in the army who holds these shares in the event that an assessment is levied against them he has no protection whatever for in the first place it is practically impossible for him to receive notice that an assessment ses has been levied and in the second place if he did receive the notice the stipend he receives from the government is not sufficient to enable him to pay it it is inevitable therefore that lie he must lose his investment this is a great wrong one to which congress should not permit the men who are offering their lives for the country to be subjected provision should be made in the law now before congress cong ress to protect these shareholders from loss and thus relieve them of all anxiety regarding their investments j |