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Our Barking Politicians (Continued from page seven) ported as $10,000,000 delinquent in taxes. Official city deposits amounting to $1,122,000 are gone; a million dollars borrowed from the Federal Reserve for city tax notes is gone; over $900,000 borrowed from the Reconstruction Finance Corpor2 ation is gone; Atlantic City Sinking Fund money amounting to $710,000 is gone," New Jersey State loan to the resort of $500,000 is gone; citizens' private bank de-9 posits amounting to $25,492,986.90 are gone; bank deposits from December, 1932, to June, 1933, of $27,514,930.63 are gone. At the rate of ten million dollars a year, $63,000,000 of Atlantic City business has disappeared in less than five years. Bonds of Atlantic City and County now in default approximate $36,143,635, an amount impossible of payment. And equally impossible of payment is the $7,364,960 necessary for debt requirements in 1933. Since 1920 the average annual payment on Atlantic City bonds has been $878,000 but during the same period the city issued annually $2,184,769 worth of bonds. In 1929, $6,000,000 in bonds was issued. Remember the historical progress of the Sabine army; One step forward, two steps backward, March! Railroad revenue from traffic to Atlantic City has decreased a million dollars a year, from $8,430,000 in 1927 to $2,922,000 in 1932. Unless the citizens get relief from these staggering burdens they cannot hope to return to a period of normal, reasonable and stable prosperity. Closing and liquidating the banks would have proved emberrassing to say the least for certain businesses, politicians and certain individuals who obtained huge loans and made huge withdrawals from restricted banks. As neither the bondholders, nor city employees, nor city creditors, nor citizens had received any money, and as the money was at one time there, it is very evident that cash must have been divided among "smart money" -the sanctified few. Strain Credit On city credit $500,000 was borrowed from the New Jersey Sinking Fund and divided between three banks. This money belonged to the taxpayer, will have to be paid back by the taxpayer, and should have been held inviolate for the use of the city. Of this $500,000 the Atlantic City National Bank was given $250,000 two days before it closed; $125,000 was given to the Guarantee Trust Company before It was restricted; and $125,000 remained in Mayor Harry Bacharach's own bank, the Equitable Trust Company, before it was restricted. What legal or moral right has the Mayor of a city to use public money for the attempted salvation of any private bank? Why were banks propped with citizens', taxpayers', and city money, and what became of the money? Why was not the whole of the borrowed $500,000 held liquid and in safety? Why was $500,000 borrowed from State Sinking Fund when more than a million dollars of city money was reported as available on deposit? Why was nearly two million dollars worth of tax notes hypothecated with the Federal Reserve and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation at approximately the same time? Was city money actually available or had it also been used in private speculation of debilitated banks? Atlantic City is broke and hopelessly in debt because public money and private money; city deposits and citizens' deposits; city employees' salaries and debt requirement money; all were used for the maintenance of rickety banks, tottering reputations, and foundering directorates. Banks Looted Atlantic City banks were looted by the political-business machine, and they were looted from the inside not from the outside. All semblance of honesty and justice was long ago abandoned by the political-business-banketeering group which has raped and ruined Atlantic City. Slick financiers dressed like undertakers and with the regulation artificial smile, ushered depositors to the wicket for the burial of their hard earned wages. The same financial morticians are officiating at the funeral of Atlantic City. Banks have said continually, "Be thrifty. Save against a rainy day!" The people are asking for whom they were saving. To the contrary of banks the Bible has said, "Lay not up for thyself treasure on earth where moths corrupt and thieves break through." In the light of financial exploitation of the people, which turned out to be right, the banks or the Bible? It is repeatedly stated that people have not the intelligence or training to grasp full significance of financial or political matters and that no Information on these subjects should be given them. Well, the people can grasp the full significance of their lost and departed deposits. Politicians believe devotedly that the people have intelligence enough to vote for them, but not intelligence enough to understand the full significance of lost life savings, of bread and butter, of home and children. Banks in Atlantic City are not worried about the depositors for the latter are a very, very docile people. Preferred stock in banks was given them for their money on deposit and as Holy Writ has it, "The last stage will be worse than the first." In many states, especially Southern, the preferred stock for deposits racket would not work for the reason that preferred stock was made a double liability similar to national bank stock. But in New Jersey preferred stock seems not to be a double liability and SO the people will be enabled to use it for fuel or wall paper in the lean times to come. In a small community like Atlantic City the political leaders, business leaders, financial leaders and chamber of commerce are all of the same group. It is always the same bunch who are honorary pallbearers in any prominent funeral and they understand obsequies, civic or otherwise. Add to this the fact that there are no two political parties and but one single political monopoly and it can be understood why not a word escapes as to what has gone on in banks, and as to what has become of depositors', bondholders', city creditors', city employees', and school teachers' funds. Mouths must be kept shut, and depositors know nothing going on in financial directions except that they have have lost their money. Why was it that the Guarantee Trust Company with a million dollars surplus was forced to jeopardize its depositors money by taking in two insolvent banks? Why Weaken Banks Why did the Guarantee Trust have to dangerously weaken itself by mothering two dilapidated financial institutions? Was the reputation and purse of a few unworthy directors in wobbly banks of more importance than the thousands of dollars in depositors' lifetime savings? What political-business-banketeering compulsion forced a futile salvaging? What kind of protected hi-jacking was this? In absorbing the defunct Seaside Trust Company-bank of the so-called Democratic leader Lafferty, "friend of the people" (except his depositors)-the Guarantee Trust Company was forced to take over an institution more than $200,000 in the red. And in absorbing the Atlantic Safe Deposit and Trust Company, the Guarantee Trust Company acquired an institution which was $900,000 in the red. What a fine use to make of depositors' money in acquiring foundered banks! What caused these diabolical combinations? Nothing but political-businessbanketeering. So also with the Equitable Trust Company, which acted big-hearted with its depositors' money by salvaging the Pacific Avenue National Bank and the Chelsea Safe Deposit and Trust Company. It is said that it takes the kind of bankers they have in Atlantic City to run a bank. Well, it does-the kind of a bank they run. The kind of a bank which was good enough for "smart money," but which was tough on business and the people. The most important and the most controversial question brought about by bank failures, is the future necessity for guaranteeing deposits. The Glass-Steagall bill which encompasses this end becomes partially effective January 1, 1934. All deposits in solvent banks under government supervision will then be guaranteed up to $2500. After July 1, 1934, deposits will be guaranteed one hundred per cent up to $10,000; seventy-five per cent from $10,000 to $50,000; and fifty per cent in excess of $50,000. Under this Glass-Steagall Banking Act of 1933, assets of banks applying for insurance of deposits must be adequate to meet all liabilities to depositors and other creditors. Member banks of the Federal Reserve are automatically included in the pool from which the safety of depositors' funds will be guaranteed. The Guarantee Trust Company and the Equitable Trust Company are members of the Federal Reserve, but the Bankers Trust Company is not. But the government does not intend to insure any bank deposits where the bank itself is not solvent in its set-up. A bank will have to be potentially able to insure its own deposits before the government will insure them. If a member bank of the Federal Reserve cannot meet all of its liabilities to depositors and creditors, it will be closed. State banks can do pretty much as they please, but if they desire deposit insurance they must meet the solvency requirements of the government. Inasmuch as the Guarantee Trust and the Equitable Trust were restricted, it will be interesting to observe whether they are solvent enough to obtain deposit insurance. The Bankers Trust was formerly a member. Will it insure depositors' accounts? Will any or all of these banks be closed by the government on January 1, 1934? The United States intends to make a fact of the theory that depositors have a right to their money. The Boardwalk National Bank carries a forty per cent ratio of capital and surplus against deposits and this is twice the margin of safety necessary and required. Thus it is always more than solvent. It has the honorable distinction of being one of the 313 government depositories in the United States, and is a member of the Federal Reserve. It has always insured the safety of its depositors and kept utterly aloof from the political machine and the political-business-banketeers. Atlantic City has gone utterly a-smash and is scraping financial bottom. There is nothing left to loot. But this does not worry the political monopoly which gets its revenue from graft in rackets of all kinds, including beer, liquor, dope, banks, receiverships, scrip, contracts, protecting criminals and vice conditions generally. The tangible assets of the resort have been mortgaged for years to come and the debt left upon the backs of taxpayers for liquidation. The situation challenges belief. Waste and extravagance in municipal government-even now going onhas brought about financial catastrophe. The dead stop of bankruptcy was inevitable in a city spending each year more than its income. Blind Politicians The municipal administration-old fogies of a by-gone era in political servicewere blind to the economic foundering of the city. Year after year the political coterie indulged in an orgy of spending. Payrolls were glutted and padded with useless employees, salaries were raised beyond the limits of common sense, and departments were created overnight to pro- vide for patronage seekers. The golden stream was thought to be endless and a day of reckoning was never considered. No one asked if taxpayers could continue to pay the bills. Now that the end has arrived, accompanied with closed and restricted banks, an empty citizenry's purse is asking questions. If Atlantic City can be saved at alland this is not certain-nothing less will do than a drastic scaling down of municipal debt; a cancellation of all past interests thereon; a fifty per cent cut in all taxes past and present; a government acting within the limits of income; and an entirely new municipal regime. Ordinary processes of law are not equal to the chaotic situation in Atlantic City. A corrupt monopolistic political machine has long since occupied the people's citadel of defense, the judiciary. Even now, confiscation of property is sought by empowering political officials to act as receivers for property which is tax delinquent. The security of homes has been invaded and domestic tranquillity guaranteed by the Constitution, is but a myth. The "scarlet army of crime" as so designated by United States Senator Copeland, has long occupied the resort. Political organizations and leaders are in league with this "scarlet army" and protect the criminals operating within it. Citizens know the streets in Atlantic City which are not safe at night for men or women. It is an oft-repeated truism that the resort is the safest place in which to commit a murder. And these conditions are due as much to an indifferency of the citizens as to an indifferency and a corruption of the political machine and inefficiency of its municipal representatives.