[Volume XXVII
THE CHICAGO BANKER
18
EST. 1851
“ALWAYS COMMERCIAL״
ORN, BRED & RAISED in the heart of the wholesale mercantile section of New York City, this institution is admirably qualified to serve those seeking a “commercial” reserve depository.
IRVING NATIONAL EXCHANGE BANK
LEWIS E. PIERSON Prest. BENJ. F. WERNER Cash. JAMES E. NICHOLS V. Prest. DAVID H. G. PENNY A. Cash. ROLLIN P. GRANT V. Prest. HARRY E. WARD A. Cash.
RESOURCES 28 MILLIONS
The LIVE STOCK Exchange National BANK
of CHICAGO
Volume of Business for Year 1908 Exceeded
One Billion Two Hundred Million Dollars
progress, but that she shall go onward steadily, mightily, gloriously to the goal of her great destiny.	^
Thomas Patterson on the Law and the Banker
(Continued from page 29) particularly absurd, that men who are able to untie the knots of a contingent remainder, or determine a complicated question of commercial law, shall gravely sit and decide whether or not a free lunch may be served in a bar room, and, if such free lunch is served, whether it shall consist only of crackers •and cheese, or whether pickles and cold meat may be added? But it is not the mere waste of time which is the most distressing feature of this business; it is the constant innuendo and suggestion, thrown out here and there, that improper influences are at work to obtain licenses. You will understand at once that I would not for a moment dignify such reports by mentioning them, were it not for the fact that they are made and constantly made, and that hint grows to rumor and rumor grows to scandal. No one is so defenseless to answer a charge of this sort as the judge himself. He may not even notice it or refer to it. Here the charge will be made that a judge favors his son, or some other relatives, in securing licenses, or that a judge there has a secret interest in certain licensed houses, and these rumors pass from mouth to mouth and from county to county and grow as time passes.
The very foundation of the judiciary is its spotless integrity. It cannot afford to have this spotted. It cannot afford to have people charging, and coming in time to believe the charges, that judicial action is affected by favoritism. Aside from the political influence that the liquor interest can assert at the election, the absolute inability of a judge to so dispose of the list of liquor licenses that there shall not be some charge of_ favoritism made, is sufficient reason to take this traffic entirely out of the courts. Speaking for myself, I do not see why an excise commission, properly appointed and paid, could not dispose of the business as well, or even better, than the judges, whose attention to it is necessarily perfunctory and who have no heart in the work. But even if this were not so, if such a commission did not do the work as well as the judges, it would be better to have the very worst results—it would be better to have no licenses at all—that to have your judiciary subjected to the suspicion and covert charges that are constantly emanating from this source. The
thoughts, let us fight impossible battles; let us be of the company of those splendid fools who have discovered worlds!
And thus it is with this great state of ours. As a state, and as citizens of this state, we must think imperial thoughts for its future, for it is an imperial state. We must lay the foundations for a future commensurate with the magnificent resources and capabilities of our state. We must stand together in support of every interest of the commonwealth. No man may say what enterprise, small though it may be in the beginning, may not become one of the greatest. We are an undeveloped state, everything is possible if we but extend our views and energies, largely, broadly, generously, optimistically, and give every interest of the state our intelligent, loyal and aggressive support. We must act as one people. Sectionalism and factionalism retard, unity builds and advances.
Too long have the wonderful resources of this state been suppressed and neglected; too long has Wyoming watched, dull eyed and inert, her sister states forging to the front ; too long has she been held back in the onward march of progress. But the day has passed when her name was synonymous with space eternal and desolation dire; the day has passed when she can be ignored in her resources, her industries, her production, in her citizenship or in her statecraft.
The day has come when the eyes of men are upon her; the day has come when hopeful, strong and courageous she stands, her countenance illumed with splendid purpose, her eyes lit with the light of fast approaching supremacy. The Star of Empire stands above our soil to-day. The people of this nation have reached the time when they need Wyoming and all she has to offer. They need her mighty area, the oncoming millions require room. They need her mighty forests, they need her ever living waters, they need her virgin soil, her coal and iron and copper and oil.
And so the feet of many thousands are turning to her. She has a wonderful domain and she welcomes them. She has vivid sunshine and vitalizing atmosphere and she bestows vigorous health and virile strength. She has mountains and valleys and plains and she bestows fortunes and homes and acres. She has unlimited possibilities and she bestows limitless ambition. She has immeasurable potentialities and she bestows on all who seek her with faith and with works, power and hope, mastery and success.
It is for us to see to it that there shall be no halt, no hesitation, no limitation to her splendid
tion project, a great manufacturing enterprise, the peopling and building of an empire, the transformation of the wilderness to civilization; and immediately the cry goes up from the ranks of pessimistic conservatism: “It is too uncertain; it has never been done before; it is too gigantic; it is the colossal dream of a colossal fool.” And yet, “One fool sailed westward till he found a world; One found new worlds within the mind of man; The cynics called Columbus, charlatan.
*	*־***** * Who unfurled
The heavens like a scroll, that men might know; But foolish Galileo? * *	* *	*	* *
There is one toast the future ages drink Standing—To those who dare, rush in and die!— Those who defy all rights and break all rules, Who fight impossible battles and who think True thoughts—at whom with one accord we cry:
‘The fools, the fools, the fools!’—God bless the fools [”
Optimism, because of the very element of chance involved, which leads us out into the new and untried, the unproven and the unknown, develops powers; or rather it frees the latent powers within us and permits their natural development. I believe that in many a man there are inherent forces that never awake to life because of their suppression. Impulses and currents of victory there be in many a man which are set as in a vice, smothered in darkness, atrophied by compression, which, if but loosed from the bonds of shrinking conservatism, if given freedom of action, if vitalized with the spirit of liberty, will thrive and stretch and expand into superb effort and magnificent creation. And the key which will unlock the vice and give scope and opportunity to these powers and impulses, is optimism; for from that quality are born boldness, daring, courage, individuality, initiation, originality, tenacity, progress.
Shall we not then loose these forces within us that they may rise and spread their mighty pinions for a flight to the very skies? Shall we not strike down the barriers? Shall we not let the vision sweep ?
Shall we not let these tremendous thoughts and plans of which we are ever and anon dimly conscious, breathe the breath of life and leap boldly into the arena of action? Shall we not let these impulses which have been held in leash by fear, doubt, prejudice or pessimism spring forward into glorious activity? For who can say but that they shall yet thrill the nation with the splendor of their achievements!
Let us believe in ourselves, let us think great