THE CHICAGO SA/YÍCE'R
Founded in 1898
Volume xxvii	CHICAGO, AUGUST 14, 1909	Number 7
George F. Orde at the Missoula Convention
speculative enterprise leads the unwary to' invest ; and while the banker may only have a small interest, his name alone very often is the sole factor in selling the stock to people who have every reason to believe he has investigated the proposition and believes in its merits. There is no objection to a banker becoming rich if he acquires his wealth along legitimate channels becoming to his profession as a banker.
A banker’s responsibility, his home life, his desire and willingness to give advice, his interest in the Christian upbuilding of his community, his support of civic affairs, his co-operation in providing healthy recreation for the young people of his town—all these bring him in close touch with the people and tend to build up for him a moral reputation which is the most powerful asset his bank can have.
As Emerson said, “There can be no high civility without a deep morality.”
The moral influence of a banker should not be confined to his own community. He can be of tremendous benefit to the people of the whole state by taking an active interest in and supporting his state bankers’ association. There is no estimating what the state association is capable of accomplishing in the way of state development. The bankers, being well distributed over the state, are in close touch with the members of the legislature, and they are in a position to support and influence sound banking legislation.
We in Minnesota are proud of what our association has accomplished. We have a membership of eight hundred out of nine hundred and twenty-four financial institutions eligible for membership. Our dues and income from other sources aggregate in the neighborhood of $7,-
000	a year. Of this sum $1,600 is derived from commissions from our insurance department, many banks placing their burglary and fidelity insurance through the secretary of our association, who devotes his entire time to the affairs of the association.
We also have an interstate protective association, comprising the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and North and South Dakota, the principal officers being the secretaries of the state associations. This protective association employs the services of a most capable detective, who devotes his entire time to investigating the haunts of the yeggmen. The result of this is that we have driven out of the five states mentioned most of these dangerous characters, and are ever on their heels. Only two successful burglaries were committed during the season of 1908-9, the loss to banks being about $2,300. There were four unsuccessful attempts.
Through the influence of our association, and the untiring efforts of our president and secretary, the Minnesota state legislature at its last session passed several very important bills, which will be of great benefit to the banks of our state.
One of the bills provides for the establishment of a separate banking department, and the supervision by such department of the financial corporations in the state. This department will have a superintendent, and assistants from each congressional district, making in our state eight assistants. They will keep in close touch with each other, and in this way careful oversight will be had of all the institutions of the state.
1	believe this law will head off any agitation for state guaranty of deposits; for all the people ask is to have their banks well managed, in accordance with the law.
The Minneapolis banker tells the Montana bankers the value of character in banking, and advises all to keep their standards high
A banker must have the respect of his townspeople in every walk of life. He must be temperate in his habits; a practical worker, and an influential factor in municipal progress. The banker who lends his name to, or identifies himself with a questionable enterprise is jeopardizing his entire future. There is no class of men who have the influence in the community that the banker has. His advice is sought on subjects of local, state, and national importance. A grave
GEORGE F. ORDE
M inneapolis
responsibility rests on his shoulders. Many people are in his keeping; many people trust to his judgment. Every banker who abuses his trust reflects on the entire fraternity and its relationship to the country as a whole. The moral obligation involved in a banker’s life demands from him his best. His home life and family relationship should be an open book, and when he is away from home this same rule should apply.
When a resident of the community desires advice on the building or buying of a home, the purchase of a farm, the renting of a house, the opening of a business career, or the investing of funds in private or public enterprises, or even on the matter of marriage and divorce, he or she usually consults the local banker.
The ideal banker must identify himself with all local affairs, avoiding selfishness. This is often the principal factor in leading a banker from the paths of his legitimate calling; his desire for wealth and social position is often a dangerous ambition. I have no objection to a banker becoming interested in commercial enterprises so long as it has no influence upon his judgment in the handling of his bank’s funds. Bankers have so many opportunities of getting into promotion schemes that they should be sure a proposition has merit, for the reason that a banker’s name identified with a promotion, or
The opportunity of again visiting your state and meeting the bankers affords me a great deal of pleasure. A few years ago I attended your convention at Butte, shortly after my removal from Chicago to Minneapolis, meeting for the first time the bankers of Montana, and I was greatly impressed by the extensive mining operations under development in your state. It was during the harvest time, and as we came along on the train, the magnificent fields of golden grain proclaimed the fact that Montana was also an agricultural state.
No one can form an opinion of your wonderful resources without visiting your state. The East is not well informed as to the resources of Montana beyond the fact that you are great producers of copper, sheep, and cattle.
Your representative to the American Bankers Association was listened to with a great deal of interest, when called upon to respond for your state, and his statement that you can get into a sleeping car at night, ride all night and the next day, and still be in the same state when you wake up in the morning, might have gone, had not some delegate in the audience asked if the train had had a break down. He is proud of Montana, and well he may be, as we are proud of the state of Minnesota.
The states of North and South Dakota, Minnesota, and !Montana, comprise a great empire, capable of feeding the world. The wealth these states is producing is beyond comprehension, and the result means the building up of great financial centers in the West which will rival the financial cities of the East. It is only a few years ago when it was necessary to bring in foreign capital to move the grain crop. Now the banks of the Northwest are capable of furnishing the entire funds themselves.
To illustrate what little is known of the agricultural resources of Montana, I recall some years ago, when engaged in the banking business in Chicago, a gentleman from Montana called upon me, endeavoring to sell some Montana farm mortgages. I stated to him that our bank did not handle loans outside of the grain states. He was somewhat surprised that I was not better informed, and tried to convince me that a farm loan in Montana was a safer investment than in Iowa, Minnesota, or Nebraska, for the reason that you have ample water supply at your command from irrigation, whereas the states mentioned are entirely dependent upon the natural rainfall. While this statement was undoubtedly true, the question of loaning on farms in Montana at that time had never been investigated. If I remember right, he failed to dispose of his securities. A little later on in my address I will take the privilege of touching on the question of how your association can remedy and better these conditions.
When your honorable secretary kindly invited me to address your meeting, he assigned to me the subject of “A Banker’s Moral Reputation as an Asset of His Bank.”
The officers of a bank occupy a position of sacred trust. A good name in a community will do more to build up a bank than its capital and surplus. Henry Ward Beecher once said: “Every young man would do well to remember that all successful business stands on a foundation of morality.” The best guaranty for the safety of a bank’s deposits is the good moral reputation of its officers and their ability to gain the confidence of its depositors.