dent of the Hudson County Building and Loan League; second vice-president, Judge Frederick Gnichtel, Trenton; treasurer, S. B. Beidelman, Newark; secretary, Byron D. Ehlers, Newark; counsel, Spaulding Frazer; chairman of the executive committee, with power to name one member from each county, E. Allen Smith.

Building Association League of Illinois.

PRESIDENT'S OFFICE:

1503 IRVING PARK BLVD., CHICAGO,

To the Building Associations of Illinois:

NOVEMBER 28, 1914.

Since the publication of the October issue of the AMERICAN BUILDING ASSOCIATION NEWS, the official organ of the United States League, and also our November letter referring to the exemption of building and loan associations from the present Internal Revenue Act of October 22, 1914, the commissioner has made an adverse ruling holding that building associations are not exempted from the tax as they were under the interpretation of the law in 1898, except as "to bonds and stocks issued by them." The present act goes into effect December 1, 1914.

A complete explanation of the matter in detail will be found in the November issue of the NEWS, setting forth the present situation, and also what has and is being done by the United States League to obtain a rehearing and a favorable ruling. Refer to pages 487-488 of the same, where you will find the exact readings of Section 15 (with reference to building and loan associations) as passed by the House and Senate, and the action taken on same by the Conference Committee. Also note letter of Mr. Chas. F. Benjamin, quoted on page 520.

We cannot help but be impressed with the enormous amount of work the United States League has done, and is now doing on our behalf in endeavoring to secure this exemption for the building associations of the country. You will more fully appreciate that this work can be accomplished only by concerted movement, and if such privileges and exemptions are to be obtained for our associations, the co-operation of every association within their State League is an absolute necessity.

In order that all associations in the state of Illinois may be fully informed on this question, the Illinois League has made arrangements through the courtesy of the editor of the AMERICAN BUILDING ASSOCIATION NEWS, to have a copy of the November issue mailed to all non-subscribers as well as all non-members. Associations of the League, read it carefully; it vitally concerns. your associations interests now and in the future.

Respectfully yours,

M. D. RIDER, President, Building Association League of Illinois.

Virginia League to Be Organized.

The following letter has been sent to all building and loan associations in Virginia:

As a matter of self-protection it is high time that the building associations of Virginia organize a state league, and it is to that end this letter is sent you.

The writer has had this subject in mind for a couple of years, but he has delayed any action on his part, to see if some one else would not take it up, but so far, nothing has been done, so with your hearty co-operation the league will soon be a live number.

There are many reasons why we should have a state league. Through concerted action we secure favorable legislation at the hands of the state and national law makers; through our annual meetings we get knowledge of association work, which will prove quite valuable to the individual association; we hear gifted speakers; we get new life; we get the benefit of the co-operation afforded by the league.

Purely as a suggestion I submit the following schedule of membership fees and annual dues.

You will readily see that this schedule will permit the smallest association to become a member.

Remember, it is to your interest to be a member of the league. Please indicate on the enclosed card if it is your desire to become a member of the Virginia League.

Please mail the card at once.

All associations in the state should join.

Yours very truly,

Michigan Results.

W. T. GRAVELY.

Hon. Frederick C. Martindale, Secretary of State of Michigan, writes: From reports submitted I find that one thousand one hundred and ten new homes were built by members, representing an outlay of $2,560,350, and that $3,269,800 was advanced to aid members to purchase homes. The amount of unsold real estate is reported as $708,406.66, an increase of $116,573. The reserve fund required by law amounts to $390,084.18, or 55 per cent of the unsold real estate. The total receipts for the year were $15,161,642.79.

Correspondence.

REQUEST FOR A RECONSIDERATION OF THE TAX RULING. NOVEMBER 24, 1914.

Hon. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Washington, D. C.:

HONORABLE SIR-On behalf of the some sixty-five hundred local building and loan associations, co-operative banks and homestead societies, represented by the United States League of Local Building and Loan Associations, of which I have the honor to be President, I desire to respectfully recommend for your earnest consideration the briefs which have been recently submitted to your department by the Hons. Chas. F. Benjamin, of Washington, D. C., and Herman F. Cellarius, of Cincinnati, Ohio, touching a ruling of one of the solicitors of your department, which puts a tax and makes operative in divers ways against our associations, House Bill No. 18,891, entitled "An Act to Increase the Internal Revenue and for Other Purposes," which was recently passed by the Sixty-third Congress.

Our associations hold and maintain that it was the plain intent of Congress to exempt them from all the provisions of said act, which would in any wise impose a tax upon them. This law and this position is in keeping with all the Acts that have gone heretofore touching our associations, and for that reason we respectfully ask that your department review this decision, which is surely one of first impressions, in order that a more favorable result may be reached; one which is in keeping with the language and intent of the law and the interest of our societies.

In our judgment, by every rule of reasonable construction, we are entitled to the exemption claimed; and the present position of the department is surely out of comport with the law and at variance with all former rulings, as well as that of the Attorney General of the United States and adjudicated cases which were brought to the attention of the court and threshed out therein.

Our societies, which pervade every city, town and hamlet throughout the length and breadth of the land, with more than two and one-half million active members, representing from twelve to fifteen million of our population, have contributed much to the uplift of the land and its people, by encouraging thrift and economy, inculcating the saving habit and contributing to the purchase, erection and improvement of countless homes. They serve the very yeomanry of the land, who are its bone and sinew, the very people whom it is the greatest interest of society to encourage and make for their betterment and uplift.

And so, sir, I take it, that Congress, in its wisdom, did not intend to cripple or burden these associations in their great work; but, on the contrary, desired to afford them the greatest stimulus by exempting them from the provisions of the present Act complained of. Neither did Congress intend that we should be compelled by reason of any loose provisions in the law, which by any stretch or flight of the imagination could be considered to enmesh us in the uncertainties of the Act and thus put us to the cost and delay of appealing our cause to the courts and there fight for that exemption, which, in our judgment, it was the intent of Congress to fully grant us.

It is a rule of law that that is certain, which may be rendered certain, and as it was the plain intent of Congress to grant us the exemption which we claim, it is no breach of the law to give it to us, under the provisions of the Act.

In the desire of the government to secure increased revenue, we should not be levied upon for the purpose of supplying it, when it was the intent of Congress that we should be exempt from the provisions of this Act, under which we are attempted to be held.

For this position we have the law itself, the plain intent of Congress, the rulings of the Attorney General, the legal representative of the gov

ernment and the several adjudications of the courts under former acts, which were practically on all fours with the case at bar.

And so, sir, in the name of the hungry and unnourished, the thirsty and unsatiated, the willing, the hopeful, the saving, the toiling and the ambitious, and of all those who would better their conditions and escape from the penury, chill and want of a narrow, a stinted and a circumscribed life, through the door of hope, which our associations hold open to them, we beg of you, as one of the representatives of the government, as one clothed with authority, that you give this matter that just consideration and arrive at that determination consistent with the law and facts, have vacated the ruling of your department, which is now hostile to our interests and which we maintain is contrary to our right and of the spirit and plain intent and letter of the law, as well as that of all former adjudications.

Most respectfully and sincerely yours,

CHARLES EUGENE CLARK,

President of the U. S. League of Local
Building and Loan Associations.

RURAL CREDITS.

COVINGTON, KY., November 24, 1914.

Hon. D. U. Fletcher, Member Senate, Washington, D. C.:

MY DEAR SENATOR-I am advised that you are holding a conference, December 2, for the purpose of straightening out the differences on the question of farm credits. That subject is of vital interest and moment to the local building and loan associations, homestead societies and co-operative banks represented by the United States League of Local Building and Loan Associations throughout these United States.

There are about sixty-five hundred of these associations in the United States, same being located all over the Union, and they represent more than 2,500,000 members, with assets of over one billion, two hundred millions of dollars; and their membership is made up of the toilers and savers of our population, the very bone and sinew of the land.

As president of the United States League of Local Building and Loan Associations, I would commend to you and your committee, and to the Congress of the United States, these associations as most fit to be considered in the question of extending farm credits to the people of this republic.

By reason of the number and strength of these institutions, and the fact they are to be found in every quarter and section of the country, and of their long and large experience in conserving the savings of the people, and in educating them to be thrifty and self-reliant, and the fact that they have furnished uncounted millions of dollars for the purchase, the erection and improvement of homes throughout the land, that these associations can easily be made to serve the needs of the rural population as well as that of the urban, of this our common country.

You have had before you representatives of our League, among whom were the Hon. Herman F. Cellarius, of Cincinnati, Ohio; K. V. Haymaker, of Defiance, Ohio; E. F. Howell, of New York City; E. L. Keesler, of Charlotte, N. C., who gave your committee much valuable information.

Now our institutions should be recognized as organized, just as the state banks have been admitted into the federal reserve organization, although remaining state banks, or we should be granted permission to reincorporate as federal institutions without destroying our present general characteristics, and be availed of to supply the farm credits, so much desired.

I am sure that we can get together, and through the additional powers which may be granted to us, either as federal institutions, or as state organizations, working under federal powers, that we can fulfill the mission of institutions, purveying the needed farm credits.

If under our present organization, as local societies, we have raised and possessed at this time, assets exceeding twelve hundred millions of dollars, why is it not possible for our societies, under federal protection, an encouragement to rise to the greater occasion and extend a larger and desired aid?

What the people and the country need are institutions that are capable of judging local conditions and value, and extending such a credit as is not only necessary and ample, but one which is within the bounds of reason and value. Any other institution that attempts to fulfill this want, that is not local in character (and in fact is not an institution of the vicinage), will only come to grief and ultimately fail, because its officers will lack that grasp of local conditions and value which can only be possessed by an institution of the community.

We should indeed be pleased to have your committee give our societies further consideration in the attempt to solve this great question which is of so great importance to the people of the land.

Sincerely yours,

CHARLES E. Clark,

President of the U. S. League of Local
Building and Loan Associations.

UNITED STATES SENATE,

WASHINGTON, D. C., November 27, 1914.

Charles E. Clark, Esq., President, Covington, Ky.:

DEAR MR. CLARK-Your esteemed favor of the 24th has been received. The meeting for December 3 is simply the meeting of the United States Commission. There are to be no hearings or arguments submitted at that time. I will, however, call your communication to the attention of the Commission.

With kind regards,

Yours very truly,

DUNCAN U. FLETCHER.

AN APPEAL FOR PROPER CONSTRUCTION OF EMERGENCY TAX LAW.

COVINGTON, KY., November 24, 1914. Hon. Oscar Underwood, Chairman of Committee of Ways and Means, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.:

DEAR MR. UNDERWOOD-You are undoubtedly aware that by recent ruling of the Department, it is held by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue that House Bill No. 18891, entitled "An Act to Increase the Internal Revenue and for Other Purposes," does not give that exemption to the local building and loan associations, co-operative banks and housing societies which it was the plain intent of Congress to grant to them.

The United States League of Local Building and Loan Associations, through its officers, are maintaining that the position of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue is untenable, contrary to the letter and spirit of the law and the plain intent of Congress.

And to that end, as President of the United States League of Local Building and Loan Associations, representing some sixty-five hundred societies, with their two million five hundred thousand savers and home builders, representing from twelve to fifteen million of our population, we respectfully urge you, as one of their friends and patrons, to use every honorable influence to secure from the Treasury Department as liberal a construction of this law as possible, to the end that full justice and immunity be accorded to us under it, as was the plain intent when it was enacted.

Our numerous members come from the humble walks of life and are the very bone and sinew of the land and entitled to the greatest encouragement at the hand of the State and Nation.

Our record for money saving and home building and for encouraging thrift and economy, is too well known to need further presentation and