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THE CHICAGO BANKER
October 17, 1908]
Ed NATIONAL BANK
of ST. LOUIS
CAPITAL, $2,000,000	SURPLUS, $2,000,000
DEPOSITS, $31,000,000
G. W. GALBREATH, Cashier R. S. HAWES, Ass’t Cashier
OFFICERS
W. B. WELLS, Vice-President D’A. P. COOKE, Ass’t Cashier H. HAILL, Auditor
C. H. HUTTIG, President J. R. COOKE, Ass’t Cashier J. F. FARRELL, Ass’t Cashier
DIRECTORS
H. F. KNIGHT, Vice-Pres. A. G. Edwards & Sons Brokerage Co.
P. A. VALENTINE, Capitalist
THOS. WRIGHT
W. B. WELLS, Capitalist
F. WEYERHAEUSER, Pres. Weyerhaeuser Timber Co., St. Paul, Minnesota
B. F. YOAKUM, Chairman Board of Directors, St. Louis & San Francisco R. R. Co.
ADOLPHUS£BUSCH,fPrest. Anheuser-Busch Brew. Ass’n JOHN I. BEGGS, Prest. United Railways Co.
G. W. BROWN, Prest. Brown Shoe Co.
GEO. T. CRAM, Pres. American Central Ins. Co.
JNO. N. DRUMMOND, Capitalist
S. H. FULLERTON, Prest. Chicago Lumber and Coal Co. NORRIS B. GREGG, Prest. Mound City Paint and Color Co. G. W. GALBREATH, Cashier С. H. HUTTIG, President
grass greener, the trees nobler, the flowers sweeter, and the women (God bless them!) more womanly and attractive than in any other part of the world. God bless this dear, this sweet land of my adoption!
William Hanhart.
New York, October 6, 1908.
David Williams
David Williams, the new vice-president and director of the First National of Duluth, began his duties recently
Mr. Williams is a “graduate” of a “country bank”—the Farmers’ and Merchants’ National of Webster, S. D. Twenty years ago Mr. Williams, then a very young man, “went West,” from Chicago, and established that bank in the little prairie town, then hardly more than a raiload station. He had received his first business training in the grain trade, at the Board of Trade, with the well-known commission house of Logan & Bryan. But wanting to get into business for himself, he went to South Dakota and established the Farmers’ and Merchants’ National at Webster.
Marvelous changes have taken place in the Northeastern part of South Dakota in the last twenty years. Even until some ten years ago the farmers were all borrowers, and a dozen years ago, Mr. Williams says, the deposits of his bank amounted to but $60,000 to $75,000. The deposits as shown in a statement last week amount to $650,000. As Webster is entirely an agricultural town, and it is not an exception, this increase may be taken as an indication of the development of Eastern and Northeastern South Dakota in the last dozen years. Instead of the farmers being borrowers, they have money in the banks, and many of them are riding in their own automobiles.
dustry, and self-reliance, enabling it to adopt and maintain an invigorating system of self-rule. Our early Western settlers chose rulers among themselves, made (practically) their own government, paid for it and supported their own clergy; they defended themselves and educated themselves, and submitted their actions to the guidance of common sense and reason, having the judicial faculty of seeing both sides of a question.
Colorado also compelled my admiration, but in a different way. For hours together we passed through enormous and limitless plains, nearly all cultivated, but only from time to time could a forlorn looking ranch be seen. Irrigation is what they need, and they are straining every nerve to obtain it.
Denver is a charming city of 200,000 inhabitants, very wide awake, the men enterprising, genial and hospitable, the women decidedly attractive—indeed, we saw considerable fashion and met many ladies who would have graced our own Fifth Avenue, bedecked in the latest fashion, including “Merry Widow” hats and Directoire gowns.
The reception given to the convention delegates was very cordial, and the dinner given at the Denver Club was up to the best tradition of such affairs.
Every time I go West my love for this great country of ours increases. There is nothing in this wide world to compare with it. Europe with its art treasures and old world civilization (I revisited my fatherland a few months ago) is dull and common place compared with our vigorous life, our high ideals, our free activities in all branches of human endeavor. More and more do I feel thankful for the privilege of living in this great and glorious country, the foremost in the world, where, as some one has truly said, the skies are brighter, the
William Hanhart
The accomplished secretary of the Savings Bank Section of the A. B. A. wrote an appreciation of the West upon his return from the Denver convention which the New York Sun thought enough of to print in the place of honor at the head of its editorial column. It was entitled “This Land of Ours” and reads:
To the Editor of the Sun—Sir: I have just returned from a short trip to Denver, where I attended the American Bankers Association's annual convention. We passed through a good many States—New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado. Of all these Iowa was the most pleasing to me; it is a purely agricultural state, with practically no large cities within its borders. The tilling of the land was apparently very thorough, and the farms, with buildings and fences in fine order, and the sleek cattle, were a pleasure to behold. Some automobiles were to be seen. Many of the farm houses have modern improvements of all sorts, and the farmers have been so successful during the last ten years that mortgages have practically all been paid off, farmers’ sons and daughters go to college, and indeed I heard of many taking European trips.
What a wonderful country is this land of ours! Only two generations ago Iowa was but a pioneer state with a small population and heavily in debt.
The people in the state have a strong admixture of German blood. After all, as said so well by Francis Parkman, the great Germanic race, of which the Anglo-Saxon is a branch, is the leading one in the world. It is a masculine race, he says, peculiarly fitted for self-government. From historical training, it has inherited habits of reflection, forecast, in-