[Volume XXVII
THE CHICAGO BANKER
10
The Wisconsin National Bank
OF MILWAUKEE
CAPITAL - -	-	$2, OOO, 000
SURPLUS -	-	-	1,000,000
OFFICERS
L.J. PETIT, President	HERMAN F. WOLF, Cashier
FRED’K KASTEN, Vice-President	L. G. BOURNIQUE, Asst. Cashier
CHAS. E. ARNOLD, 2nd Vice-President	W. L. CHENEY, Asst. Cashier
WALTER KASTEN, Asst. Cashier
DIRECTORS
L.J. Petit	Frederick Kasten	R. W. Houghton	Oliver C. Fuller
Herman W. Falk	Geo. D. Van Dyke	Gustave Pabst	Charles Schriber
Isaac D. Adler	H. M.Thompson	Patrick Cudahy
Wisconsin Trust Company
MILWAUKEE
CAPITAL $500,000 ־ - ־ SURPLUS -	100,000
OFFICERS
OLIVER C. FU LLER, President	GARDN ER P. STICKN EY, Vice-President
FRED.C. BEST, Secretary	R. L. SMITH, Assistant Secretary
DIRECTORS
Oliver C. Fuller Gardner P. Stickney
R. W. Houghton Gustave Pabst Patrick Cudahy
Frederick Kasten Charles Schriber H. M. Thompson
L. J. Petit, Chairman Herman W. Falk Isaac D. Adler
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WISCONSIN
NEWS LETTER
By Mortimer I. Stevens
MILWAUKEE
Mr. Roberts said, was due to the forbearance of the American public.
The trouble with the currency system was there “was not enough to it.” Some central power was needed to issue currency. Money, he said, was simply “the small change of the world.” But there must be money enough at all times with which to carry on the business of the country, and this could come best by a central bank.
Mr. Roberts lightened up his discourse with many pat stories illustrating the points he made. The question of whether the farmers might get the automobile bug to such an extent as would impair their credit was raised. At the same time the statement was made that farm mortgages were among the safest investments, for interest and principal were always paid with but few exceptions.
As a whole it was an interesting and profitable session, such as has not been excelled even by the ׳ state association.
Not All in the Name
Speaking anent the central bank proposition the other day, Oliver C. Fuller, president of the Wisconsin Trust Company, hit the nail squarely on the head when he said:
“Any plan or system by which our volume of currency can be made to expand and contract according to the changing needs of commerce is the thing. ‘A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,’ and it matters not whether this be accomplished through a ‘central bank,’
there when the system was tested by the failure of the largest bank in the state. This test proved, Mr. Ilsley asserted, that the guaranty plan was not infallible, and the system ought not to be adopted elsewhere. He supported his position with excerpts from Oklahoma papers and letters received from bankers in that state.
Mr. Roberts presented a strong argument in favor of a central bank, some of which was necessarily a repetition of what has been said on the subject before. It would seem, Mr. Roberts said, that the country never could get the money question disposed of. The conflict of 1896 had established this country on a gold basis. Having this it was felt that the monetary system of the country could do no more. The panic of 1907, however, showed that something more was needed. That the panic of 1907 was not worse,

The meeting of Group Five, of the Wisconsin State Bankers Association, held in Waukesha, October 29th, proved to be one of the most successful meetings held by the state association for several years and one which will bear fruit in many ways for months to come.
No state bank guaranty in Wisconsin was perhaps the most important item disposed of and to make their position more clear the bankers have forwarded a resolution, adopted at the meeting, to Governor Davidson requesting him not to include a bank guaranty deposit law in the call for a special legislative session.
In addition to this the bankers of Group Five declared in favor of permitting national banks to make loans on real estate as embodied in the following resolution: “Resolved, That Group Five request the State Bankers Association to take some action looking to the amendment of the naional banking act so that national banks might be allowed to loan a certain portion of their deposits (at least 20 per cent) on real estate security.”
Chief among the features of the meeting after the declaration regarding the state guaranty of bank deposits, were two papers, one by James K. Ilsley, president of the Marshall & Ilsley Bank, of Milwaukee, on “Guaranty of Bank Deposits,” and the other by President George E. Roberts of the Commercial National Bank, Chicago, on the “Central Bank.”
Mr. Ilsley opposed the guaranty plan. He recently returned from a trip to Oklahoma, where he went to study the guaranty plan and was