The evening times., 1900-10-04

| TO about nVe and q half millions OF collars
So the total tax on bank capital and bank
| transactions aggregates some nine mil
lions. or nearly 8 per cent Of the war rev.
| enue.
The Treasury Department of our Gov
ernment is great cooperative business
| concern-in fact, trust, which those VINO
object to the concentration of business
| interests have forgotten TO denounce. Fur
tnermore, IL lsra grinding monopoly But II
does its work wed. The Spanish war debt
had to be paid. Payment is made by con-
tributions levied upon all the sources OF
wealth that can be reached, upon the the
ory that government helps Us make money
and protects it for US, and consequently is
partner in all cur enterprises. The the
oiy is perhaps little lame, but the prac-
tioe makes it valid enough. A further the
ory is that money spent for patriotic pur
poses comes back again in increased pros
perity, and SO Illustrates natures eternal
law OF compensation, which offsets de-
struction with construction, while restora-
| tion follows abstraction.
/ Political economists insist that taxation
| is not system of penalties for the crime
| of being prosperous. Nevertheless, under
| its forms. government does seize our sub
stance and comBels Us to take in exchange
shares in the enlarged business Of the In
| Gle Sam Expansion Company, Unlimited
Now, let US see what we have to show so
far for our investment in Spanish war fu-
| lures"
| Mr.. Hague said in part:
THAT banking is profession worthy
! to rank amongst what are called the
! learned professions and that its sue
| cessful pursuit demands considerable
| exercise of high Intellectual qualities,
! viii be admitted by any man who has an
| adequate acquaintance with the subject.
| It's successful prosecution demands not
1
multiplied technicalties OF a banker
/ business. but no inconsiderable knowl
! edge of human nature; some knowledge
/ also Of the laws relating to property and
| finance; a perfect acquaintance with
/ the conditions OF the trade and manu-
factures of his own district and of the
| country at large; in addition TO which
| banker must possess some acquaint-
| ance with the ways in which money is
made and lost, and especially Of the
shoals and quicksands which beSet the
/ mariner along the financial seas he has
| TO traverse. He must also have more
| tnan an average amount Of common
sense. a we'll balanced judgment. and the
power of looking beneath the surface
and cf weighing and balancing state
ments. reports, and appearances. so as
not TO give more or less heed TO them
than they call for.
''It was once said by a Scotch univer-
| sity professor to rather stupid stu
| dent: Mon Che spoke his native Doric).
| l can teach ye Latin and can teach ye
| Greek, but common sense is beyond my
power tae gle ye; if ye haze IA that ye
air to be pitied.' Well, that is per-
fectiy true, so far as college education
| is concerned, but much of what is nearly
| allied to common sense may be rubbed
| into man by the actual experiences OF
life unless, indeed, he is such q dense
fool that no amount OF experience will
| make him wise There are such. as We
all know; and of all fools, the copceIted
| fool IS the most foolish. The man that
| thinks he knows everything, and that
| what he does not know is not worth
| knowing. will find that he has to deal
with q very critical world, which will
| not buy him at his own valuation. And
| IL he has TO do business with the world
he will have to pay some measure OF
attention to what the world thinks. We
may, in fact, apply TO the judgment of
the world-that IS, TO that corner of il
with which We each have to do specially
what old Abraham Lincoln said about
fooling men! You can fool ali the world
| a part of the time, and you can fool a
part of the world all the time, but to
fool all the world. all the time is i'm
possible. So, if a banker proceeds on
the theory that the world is always
wrong. and about all things, his world
will be apt to let him severely alone,
and do no business with him.
= EuIogy on Bankers.
in word. then, man. to be a good
banker. must be willing to learn, apt tc
note his mistakes. watchful Of his fail
ings, and read: to set up for his own guild
ance a beacon here and buoy there; anG
not only from his own experience, but, tht
experience Of others In fact. he will b,
willing to learn as long as he lives; for
bankers education is really never finished
and as he proceeds along the journey of life
toward its close. he Will feel like old Mich
ael Angelo in his last days, who said sor-
rowfuily that he was about to abandon ar
as he was beginning to know VIVA. ar
| was.
Banking, then. we may properly call
profession. 1t is. indeed, and deserves tc
be called one of the learned professions;
for the administration of q large bank call!
! for as much intellectual power as is re-
| qufred by the men who write treatises or
| political economy, and wkasS names art
familiar in the world of literature. | ven
ture TO say that there are letters writer
| and documents produced at times in am
great banking centre by brokers or fnan-
! cierS which are equal in intellectual rani
with any chapter in Mills Political Econ
omy' or Smiths Wealth of Nations ant
| display as much acuteness as any eminen
lawyers argument or any speech of Web.
, ster or Clay And il is not unnatural tha
it should be So for a bankers faculties art
constantly sharpened by the consciousness!
|, that If he makes mistakes he viii have Il
pay the penalty for them in the shape O
losses. An author may PROFOUND unsount
theories, and set forth unworkable schemes
and all that he has to fear is that another
, man will write something to the contrary
but banker exercises his faculties unde
constant penalty OF monetary loss. So i
was said, not long ago, by banker to
journalist that if all the mistakes made
by the writer's of books and all the mis-
judgments OF critics. were followed by pen
alties as severe as were paid by bankers
and the amount paid to the State, a sun
would have been accumulated long agt
sufficient to pay off the national deb.
Serious consequences indeed follow thu
mistakes of men in the learned professions
as for example. l once knew an oculist at
! tending upon patient whose diseased ey<
required removing, TO take out the SOUND
eye and make the patient blind for life
| And If a lawyer makes a mistake, he mar
deprive his client of property and reduce
him from competence to poverty In ever,
civilized state. therefore-anf the degree
of civilization in any state may be meas
ured by its care for the lives and propert.
| of its etiZens-provision is made for The
education both of men who care for life
and of those who care for property ant