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cerned, must rest with the people of the country, and our committee cannot reach all of them. We must leave the question in the hands of you bankers to do the work of education in your respective communities. When the question comes up in congress again, we will keep you advised, and the responsibility of further action will rest with you.
But defeating this legislation is not all that we have to do. We must study the banking needs of our different states and through our associations and through the legislatures cooperate in the passing of laws that will make banks satisfactory to the people.
The Savings Bank Section of the American Bankers Association has a committee, of which Mr. Johnson, of Detroit, is an active member that is preparing a model savings bank law which will be offered as a standard to the bankers associations of the several states, and it is along these lines of constructive endeavor that we must work in convincing the people of the country that the bankers can be trusted to manage and develop banking institutions to a point where they will be satisfactory alike to the owners and to the people.
Change from State to National
Princeton, Ind.—The Farmers National Bank of Princeton was opened for business in the Farmers Bank building, July ist succeeding the Farmers State Bank, the charter of which expired June 30th. The following officers and directors of the new bank are the same as the old.
Officers: Sam T. Heston, president; W. D. Downey, vice-president; Frank M. Harris, cashier; Walter P. Anthony, assistant cashier.
Directors: Joseph S. Heston, Henry C. Barr, Sam T. Heston, J. N. Davidson, E. B. Funk. J. Arthur Mauck, William Duncan, W. D. Downey, and M. E. Shoptaugh.
The Farmers Bank was organized as a state bank in 1889, the charter being for twenty years. The bank moved into its present handsome quarters in 1895.
The first officers of the Farmers Bank were: W. D. Downey, president; Samuel H. Hargrove, cashier, and Sam T. Heston, bookkeeper. Mr. Hargrove retired and Sam T. Heston was elected cashier, later becoming president on the retirement of W. D. Downey. The Farmers Bank has been a well known and successful financial institution and during its twenty years of existence has paid about 150 per cent in dividends.
which was asked me recently by a member of congress. He said: “Is it not true that after all of the banking facilities are adjusted as they should be,” and he was good enough to admit that we were doing very well, “will there not still remain people who will not make use of banks who would be benefited by having postal savings service?” In reply to this I said, “Perhaps, a few; but the number will grow very much less when these questions cease to be the subject of political agitation.” However, even if a few were to be benefited, is it not clear that a great many people who now use banks would rush to the postal savings banks, should the government, by the passage of a postal savings act, practically condemn the present banking system? This is a point upon which I cannot lay too much stress. I hold that it would have been very different had postal savings banks been organized when our government was founded. Then our financial system would have been developed with that as a part of it; but after a hundred years of the splendid development and growth of our present banks, for the United States government to pass a postal savings bank act will be equivalent to a condemnation of our present system, and there is no doubt in my mind that the people will regard it as such. In reply to this the congressman argued that the greater interest paid by the banks will attract and hold the people to the banks, and in that he stated the case very clearly. The proposition means that we are to have government competition with the banks and if some members of the fraternity find their business slipping away, their deposit lines being reduced so that they cannot make loans to the people in their neighborhoods, they are immediately confronted with the suggestion that they raise the rate higher so that they may attract people to their institutions.
Now, what are we to do in reference to the matter? First of all, we must see to it that any postal savings bank legislation that is proposed is defeated. This we can do by thoroughly posting ourselves in reference to the entire subject, and, carrying on a kindly and broad minded campaign of education in our respective communities concerning banking business and its relation to the people.
The committee, of which I have the honor to be chairman, has spent a great deal of time and effort in providing the bankers of the country with accurate information concerning this subject, but the final results in so far as legislation in reference to this subject is con-
ber of Commerce shows that in fifty years the population of the United States has increased 193 per cent. During the same period bank deposits have increased 3,460 per cent. These almost startling figures show us, first, how rapid has been the increase of wealth in our country, and, second, what an important part the banks have in the life of our people at the present time. Any one who will carefully study the entire situation will realize that there are probably more agencies at work among the bankers and their various organizations for bringing about proper development of banking than exist in any other line of business.
In addition to all that I have said, you will recall that the American Institute of Banking, which is conducted under the general direction of the American Bankers Association, is now aiding in the technical training of over 10,000 bank clerks. The benefits of this work during the coming years can hardly be overestimated.
We need make no apology for the past record of banking in America—one hundred years of progress shows what we have done—but I believe it is plain to everyone, who is willing to see, that the future holds much greater things for the banking fraternity and in the way of service which ־we will render to the American people.
I have tried to review this question and its relation to the banks and their relation to the public generally, so that we would have the entire situation in our own minds, and it is important that we should frankly discuss these questions with our directors and stockholders and important business men in our several communities. You know that the banker is, after all, the agent of the people in his community, taking the money from one part of the community, loaning it to another part, and at different times of the year those who become lenders of money through the bank are borrowers at another period of the year. The average politician does not represent bankers in this way. He is inclined to array the people against the bankers, and in so far as any of us are guilty of lack of consideration to the public, we deserve condemnation; but most of us do realize our responsibility and painstakingly serve the communities in which we live. So in the final analysis the question of postal savings banks is not a question of postal savings banks against the banks, but it is a question of postal savings banks against the people.
But there still remains another question