"Pap"
CROSSING THE RAILROADS
March 17, 1943
Dear Chilluns: Back from the Legislative Wars, pretty well battered but gradually recovering. We took one bad licking. Under present law, generally speaking, municipalities and county commissioners may . . . "order in" grade crossing warning devices or watchmen . . . whether the railroads think them necessary or not . . . all at the cost of the railroads. . . We tried to change the law so the unit so ordering them in would have to pay 50% of installation, repair and maintenance. . . But the Senate voted us down 26 to about 18. The mayors got in their work.
There was absolutely nothing unfair about the bill in my opinion. It just would have stopped a lot of grafting mayors and city councils. For instance, a councilman in Anderson last summer introduced an ordinance requiring 44 crossing lights in Anderson. The ordinance was so worded . . . that only one manufacturer could fill the specifications. A brother-in-law of the introducing councilman was the agent for that factory. It was so raw the ordinance failed to pass, but it took a lot of lawyers and time and expense to run all that down. Just such things as that happen all the time. Some "worthy party workers" start a manufacturing plant up in Lake County on a shoe string. Maybe they can't get a site on the right-of-way. But they start. Then come to the railroads and want a switch put in to the factory. . . The railroad investigates—the set-up doesn't look permanent— and declines to extend a switch. Then, the "workers" go to the mayor and council with the tale the railroad is stifling business in that town, and so on. A big howl goes up. . . The railroad makes another check and refuses. Then the mayor sends word they will be wanting some more crossing devices in that town, to "protect the children," and there you are again. Those crossing devices cost an average of $2,500 per set. Maintenance averages $50 per year. These are only two of a hundred rackets worked on railroads. . .
NOT IN THE FDIC AND PROUD OF IT
On the 50th anniversary of the Russellville Bank, in 1943, Pap, as Chairman of the Board, took out a sizable advertisement in the July 30 edition of The Daily Banner (motto: "It Waves For All") of Greencastle. The ad proclaimed in large bold type that the venerable Russellville institution was "A Private Bank, not a member of F.D.I.C." The "Old Bank", as it was referred to, had been started in 1893 by some 30 citizens of Russellville, including Pap's father, James, and older brother, J. Ernest Durham, and had grown to have capital stock of $15,000 and a surplus of $50,000, according to the ad. Excerpts follow.
TYPE OF BANK
Russellville Bank is a Private Bank. It is UN-incorporated. Therefore the individual liability of its stockholders for its debts (and your deposits are its principal liability) is not limited merely to the extent of the value of the stock owned in the bank—whatever that value may be—as is the case in Banks incorporated under Indiana law. Incorporation, among other things, means limitation of liability for debts. . .