The Veto That Put Outside Capital Ahead of Debt Relief
Governor McGraw kills a deficiency-judgment bill, warning it would drive investors away and leave desperate borrowers to “greedy money-seekers.”
AN EXECUTIVE WITH NERVE.
Governor McGraw has proven beyond question since entering upon the duties of chief executive of the state of Washington that he is eminently qualified for the position which he occupies. His most recent demonstration of this fact was in vetoing the deficiency judgment law enacted by the legislature. The governor well says of the object of such a law: “It would tend to prevent the investment in this state of capital from abroad and drive away the enterprising investor whose money is needed to develop our resources. It would hamper, restrict and restrain commercial dealings and intercourse among our citizens. It would make an era of cutthroat, iron-clad contracts, which would enable the unscrupulous and greedy money-seekers to prey upon the unfortunate victims, who, under stress of necessitous circumstances, would be driven to them for temporary relief. It would tend to prostrate our industrial interests and retard our growth.”
“It would make an era of cutthroat, iron-clad contracts, which would enable the unscrupulous and greedy money-seekers to prey upon the unfortunate victims.”
The 1895 veto framed debt protection as a threat to investment—a familiar argument in modern fights over foreclosure, eviction and who bears the risk when a boom turns. Then, as now, the question was whether relief for distressed borrowers would scare off the capital needed to develop the state.
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