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THE C IT I C A G O BANKER
July 25, iqo8]
The Des Moines National Bank
DES MOINES, IOWA
Capital, Surplus and Profits $400,000.00
J. H. BLAIR, Vice-President C. A. BARR, Assistant Cash.
ARTHUR REYNOLDS, President A. J. ZWART, Cashier
OUR DIRECT FIELD—STATE OF IOWA
circumstances. Our banks are well managed, conservatively run, and, in the main, prosperous. Stockholders’ dividends have not been reduced; and you gentlemen have every reason to look back upon your efforts, feeling that you have been a real help to your community, and that you have been faithful to your trust.
?y*
How to Attain Long Life
It is a cheerful book, is “Long Life and How to Attain It” by Dr. Pearce Kintzing, a Baltimore medical professor. He gives safe, sane advice on diet, sleep, exercise, and other matters calculated to promote health and thus lengthen life. Though written primarily for the general reader, the scientific basis upon which the book is prepared will commend it to the attention of the physician as well. The author’s manner of presenting the matter, and his experience in adapting his advice to everyday life, at once command the reader’s confidence and enthusiasm. Published by Funk & Wagnalls Co., New York, at $1.00.
V
For Your Children
The story of the great Wagner operas has been told in book form for children by Elizabeth M. Wheelock, and has been fully illustrated in an attractive way. The title lines for the chapters are the title lines for the great Wagner operas, and the text is beautiful in the simple language adopted for the purpose of interesting the child reader or listener. Published by Bobbs-Merrill Co., Indianapolis.
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First National of San Francisco
The First National of San Francisco has declared the regular semiannual dividend of $5 per share, at the rate of 10 per cent per annum, payable this montin
a good bank gets no advantage from its sound business methods, its conservative loans, skill in avoiding losses, why should it keep a superior standard? Would it be fair or just to ask the honest and efficient banker to make good to a depositor in a failed bank, losses for which the honest and efficient banker had no responsibility whatever? Reason demands that punishment be inflicted on the doer of the wrong, and not on his innocent neighbor. If your management is careful and judicious, your depositors and their balances are sate. i\ guaranty on deposits would put a premium on doubtful, if not dishonest, banking methods.
In convention to-day, on this magnificent river, only a few miles from us, are the gentlemen of the Ohio Bankers Association, fine men from a splendid state. Our felicitations to them, and a cordial invitation to partake of our hospitality and entertainment.
Throughout the whole community, there is a feeling of confidence in the future. The fundamental conditions of the country are sound. Depression has reached a low level. Things are on a rock-bottom basis. We are now optimistic. The pessimist, who sees only the hole in the bun, and of two evils chooses both, has left us. Recovery in business will be slow, but steady. We have gone through a severe crisis, and we must not have a balloon-like recovery. In trade, there is a revival. Fewer men are out of employment. The crop prospects everywhere are good. Abundant harvests will do much to restore confidence. Industrial activity has been so reduced that we have reached the point where a readjustment of the wage scale is possible. The high level of wages for all classes of labor, no matter how inefficient, was appalling.
I cannot help but congratulate the bankers of this great state on their splendid record of the year, made under most trying and adverse
demand. Demand is stimulated by belief in earning power, in income return and in increase in the value of the property. Therefore, for the welfare, not only of the railways, but of the whole country, which certainly requires additional railway facilities, all should work to strengthen railway credit. The violent attempt to destroy the earning power of railways, with their millions of invested capital, could have had but one result—the destruction of railway credit; and destruction on so tremendous a scale intensified panic, and possibly was responsible for it. Capital invested in railroads is to-day performing the greatest service in the United States, and is receiving the least return for it. A rich harvest is of little value; the output of a factory is of small use, unless the market-place is accessible. The welfare of the producer, the consumer and the people, demands adequate facilities for transportation.
A word on the question of guaranteeing bank deposits, a topic very much in the public eye. J. Laurence Laughlin, in a recent article, says that the plan for insurance of deposits is urged by its advocates as one which will induce more careful banking, because contributors to the fund will be more vigilant in acting as policemen over other banks, and also that it will stop illegitimate methods m their inception. On the other hand, its opponents claim that it will reduce the best-managed to the level of the worst-managed bank, and remove all premium on skill, Honesty, ability, and long-established reputation. With the latter opinion I agree. It seems that the essential idea in the scheme for guaranteeing deposits in commercial banks, is to relieve a man from responsibility for using bad business judgment, and to encourage wildcat banking. Why should you tax sound banks, to cover lapses of unsound banks? If