[Volume XXVII
THE CHICAGO BANKER
38
Gov. Deneen Welcomes Bankers to Illinois
and maintain the necessary condition of business upon a credit basis—implicit confidence.
To secure this, it is necessary that you not only join to prevent, as far as possible, the recurrence of those disastrous failures which it is impossible always to avoid in the administration of any single institution, by forming associations for the mutual protecton of their members; but it is also necessary that the best means should be adopted to weed out from so honorable a calling as that of banking, all who have entered it for nefarious purposes.
The later object can only be attained through the perfecting of the laws in relation to banking, and it is gratifying to note that the effort of the state and national governments to throw around banking an unusual share of legal proection, both for their own and the public safety, the bankers themselves have taken the initiative and lent their aid.
Doubtless among the purposes for which your convention has assembled will be the consideration of methods and means for still further adding to security in the administration of the banking business; and whatever you accomplish in this direction will be of the highest benefit to the business community.
As representatives of the great moneyed inter-(Continued on page 60)
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THE MARKET CHART COMPANY (
{	INVESTMENT SPECIALISTS	\
\	259 LA SALLE STREET, CHICAGO	/
| We have no securities for sale, but cooperate with ) jj Bankers and Brokers in examinations and reports. j
and safeguarded its administration in ways which are designed at once to protect the public and the well conducted banks of the country against the unscrupulous practices of those who seek to take advantage of the general confidence in banking institutions to carry on unsound or nefarious practices at the public expense.
No business requires more skill or experience in its conduct than that of banking ; and there is none in which the successful exercise of skill and sound judgment over a period of years creates such a valuable asset in the confidence of the business community. This is, in fact, the great asset of the banker. Hence the almost mercurial change which the slightest breath of suspicion as to the stability of a banking institution creates in the community.
This increased sensitiveness is characteristic of modern business conditions. Its most obvious feature, as contrasted with old fashioned methods of business is the greater independence of industries in the modern system. Everywhere the tendency is to establish closer relations between different branches of business, so that prosperity or adversity of one branch becomes the concern of all.
As I have said this is especially true of your business, which is more sensitive perhaps than any other to the failing or prosperous conditions which obtain in other industries. The old transition from barter to purchase by money, is now being replaced by the still more refined transition from cash to credit transactions ; and in the transition, the gain in economy is accompanied by this increased sensitiveness which makes more than ever important the widest knowledge of business conditions and the most scrupulous honesty of administration. These alone can beget
I am pleased to welcome to Illinois this gathering of representatives of the banking interests of the country. The custom which has been rapidly growing among business men of late years, of gathering to discuss subjects which are of special interest to them in the conduct of their business, is of the greatest benefit both to the businesses concerned and to the community at large. In these discussions of business affairs in their larger aspects, the truth is sure to come to the surface that the greatest requisite of business prosperity in any special line is the general welfare of the community.
Especially is this the case in a business of such magnitude, and one which bears such intimate relation to all other lines of business, as that of banking. It has become a maxim that the best register of business conditions in a community is the volume of business transacted by its banks. It is an equally well recognized business truth that there is no class of men upon whose unflagging attention to their business, and to the maintenance of its credit and stability, the general industrial welfare so much depends.
The important relation which banking bears to other lines of industry has also been recognized in the law which has, to a large extent, clothed that business with a public interest and regulated