The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-06-30

bank should be income bearing. Whatever
fails to answer this description may properly
be written off. In no other way can bank
preserve its earning capacity and prove
permanent source of satisfaction to stock
holders. After all, earning capacity is the
chief strength of bank and its best recon-
mendation to the public. Assuming the fore
going opinions to be approximately correct,
it is clear that the banking business is not
one to be lightly entered upon. No man of
sense will connect himself with any Banking
enterprise that has not ample capital and
strong and substantial body of stockholders,
good for their double liability and controlling
business enough to insure success. Upon such
foundation it il safe to build 1t is a pub
lie calamity when the laws of state or nation
countenance anything else the officers adj
mln1sterinS the law permit it. A weak bank
is constant menace to the community. Well
organized banks may, and sometimes do, be
come weak through mismanagement and that
is bad enough, but to deliberately launch
weak institution is very nearly criminal. If
l were asked to name the one most important
and essential feature of a bank, should say,
strength; and why? There is business in
the world Sc interviewer and interdependent
as banking. Public confidence is as the
breath of life in its nostrils; and the public,
with strange perversity, makes few dis
tinctions and uses little discrimination. A
bank is bank The tiled floors. the we'll
equipped offices, the massive vaults all look
alike. When the sky is clear and everyone
is good, the average man drifts into the bank
most convenient to his place of business.
When the storm comes and the W. ak go down,
he loses faith in all alike. 1t seems almost
true that so far as public confidence is
cerned, the banks of any community are
no stronger in times of pressure ard panic
than the weakest bank among them. A chain
is no stronger tt an its We kes link. How M
portant then that there should be no weak
links; for the banks Of America, whether they
will or no, are bound together by ties of
common interest that cannot be broken. In
every community these ties should be devel-
oped, and no bank, so weak that it cannot
contribute to the common strength and sup
port, has any excuse for existence. | believe
these principles are beginning to be rec
ognized The liquidation and consolidation
going on throughout the country justify the
hope, that out of sore trials and great tribula-
tions the banking fraternity will soon emerge
strengthened and purified.
The evolution Of banking, from the money
of credit is wonderful process. but not
more wonderful, / fancy, than the growth
which another century may develop. The
possibilities Of perfected credit are beyond
all prophecy and it is along this line that
future progress will advance. the para
lying distrust of '93 is SO plainly a public
enemy that no effort should be spared to
overcome 1t. This problem may well engage
our serious thought Such a calamity as the
In the future. Is 1t too much to hope that
this result may be accomplished? There is
but one way to do 1t; and / am optim.st
enough to believe that the greatest banking
achievement of the twentieth century will be
the absolute protection OF the depositor from
loss through bank failures. This sounds like
visionary proposition; and yet 1t will
bear examination. Pardon me few sta
tistics. Reference to the report Of the