The full text on this page is automatically extracted from the file linked above and may contain errors and inconsistencies.
X-4257 ^ L A ^ g ^ T C j 7 A S H I N G T 0 H SOCIETY OF ENGINEERS, DSCS&EER 5, 1924, In a few spots recovery was retarded "by unfortunate conditions, nch as the drouths in New Mexico and on the Pacific Coast, and there nave "been some brakes on the wheels of progress that may "be mentioned. lnce the ^ginning of the present year almost 700 banks have failed, n nearly all small institutions serving agricultural communities in the These are an aftermath of agricultural depression, hut that ^oesn't in my opinion tell the whole story. They are due in large asure to a had hanking system - to a multiplication beyond all reason small, weak, often badly managed institutions. Bankers will tell you ^ a t ^ t f American banking system is the best in the world. If efficiency ... .. --in -i S a f e t y a n d s e r v i c e t o a 1 1 classes of customers in small as well as "" ^ iarge communities at reasonable rates are requisites of a good banking not f ° U r A r n e r i c a n system instead of being the best in the world is s r froin ° the worst. In no other great commercial nation is there so a contrast r t between rates for loans in the financial centrcs and ^a e s f o r l o a n s i n t h e a g r i c u itural sections. Tie have 2 per cent money _ ,<a11 Street and 10 or 12 per cent money in the Bakotas. The little ^ountry bank - Senator Glass has called some of them toll gates - is vertheless regarded as a sacred American institution, little less iu-tGd ^ ^ t h e l i U l e r e d schoolhouse. It can fail in great numbers J st at the time when everything else is recovering yet no one thinks s V o ? U e S t i o n i n s t h e institution itself or of suggesting that a better ^y tern of serving small communities could be devised - that is no one a few economists and theorists who don't count. Bankers are all ncreaGin the * £ the number of banks unmindful of the repeated lessons of lar A e C ° d s y a t e u o f banking for small communities should provide banks e nou^Vienou^'!ri t o a f f o r d good management, and serving a territory wide i n c l u d e a vap of a b iety of crops and industries, so that the safety ^ - bank would not bo put in jeopardy by depression in any one industry and y Q U G r e l o c a l calamity. This means larger banks,and less banks to J 7 0 U l d ? r o b a b l y make necessary the extension of banking facilities of the smaller communities by means of branches. Branch banking C o m - S n<ie year ? f t h e condemnation of the American Bankers Association every in" ' i t is the system of every other great commercial country, and various in efforts to suppress it has made considerable progress come t a n k i n S systems of about a third of our states. The time will C o m • I oelievo, when business men, farmers and manufacturers will be to g i v e t h i s m to"?v t t c r some study instead of leaving it wholly ta o banlcers. JUL 7 1SC4 1 1 XERO COPY I
@FedFRASER