The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1893-07-29
BUSINESS Is SAFE.
Such is the Opinion Expressed by Comp.
trOller Eckles.

cuCh IL inc OpiHioh Efpfesstu b3 toHip.
troller Eckles.
At a large gathering of the linan.
ciers of the country at dinner given
at the Union League Club, in New
York, on Tuesday, Comptroller of
the Currency James II. Eckles deliv-
cred the following address:
when accepted the invitation
to be present this evening it was that
| might indulge myself in the per-
sonal pleasure of meeting some of the
representatives of the great financial
institutions in your city. | did not
then nor do | now intend to make
formal address, but there are one or
two things that may not be inappro-
pirate to the time or occasion.
"The condition which eenfronts
the American people is one that de.
serves the thoughtful attention of
every citizen who has at heart the
interests of the country. 1t is not a
time of panic, because we have pass
ed the period in our history when q
panic is possibility, but it is one of
a slow liquidation, the result of un-
due speculation and unwise financial
legislation. Nothing is to be gained
by taking on fright that is unwar-
ranted by either the immediate past
or the immediate future.
What the American people ought
to do, in the midst of the failures
that have occurred, is not to give
way to uncalled-for alarm, but to
study the character of the institu-
tions which have failed, the causes
which have produced them and the
localities in which they have occur
red. After such study let them
view the solvent institutions every
where about them, and the conclu
sion that must irresistably follow is
that the legitimate business life of
the country is not threatened, but
instead will come out of the present
turmoil the stronger for having pass
ed through it, In conservative bust
ness centres the failures have been
few. either in banking or other lines.
BAD BANKING.
bad banking at any and all times
is dangerous and must inevitably
bring disaster upon those who engage
in it. The present stringency has
simply FASTENED the closing of some
banks because they were inherently
weak; others have closed as result
and the effect of having kept alive
the operations of spectators in the
extreme west and in portions of the
south. The art has not as yet been
discovered of making something out
of nothing, and the financier who
stakes his all upon an unbuilt city
reaching ont into the waste places OF
the earth must bring about the ruin
of his own and kindred institutions
which have trusted in him and pin
ned their faith to assets yet unborn.
Disasters have fallen upon the
speculative institutions in boom ci-
ties of the States of Washington,
California, Colorado, Kansas and
Missouri, which have in turn injured
solvent ones, but the banks of New
England and east and the Middle
States and those of the south, have
thus far escaped, and will, because
the foundations upon which they are
builded are of rock and not of sand.
CONFIDENCE ALL THAT is NEEDED.
"Such a review as that we have
indicated cannot hut have the effect
of quieting the fears of the timid
and encouraging those who have
thus far maintained an answering
faith in the speedy coming of better
times.
1T ought to check those who in
vite disaster by withdrawing from
solvent institutions the money which
the depositor cannot possibly use.
The people are hoping and asking
much from the banks of the country.
In turn the banks have the right of
considerable treatment from the peo-
pie. Let those who have so long
transacted business with the bank
ing institutions have sufficient conf.
deuce in them to know and feel that
if in years past they have proved
safe they are likely so to do in the
present emergency. Runs upon hanks
but destroy the interest which other
wise would be protected, and those
who indulge in them cause to come
about the thing which they say they
wish to avert"