The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-11-23
ALLEN VI. FLETCHER HEARD.
His Brief Talk Well Reccived-The
Closing Business.


Closing Business.
President Coulter announced that. in the
absence or Mr.. Percival Kuhne, of New
York. he had requested Mr.. Allen NJ.
Fletcher, formerly OF this city. now Of
New York. TO favor the convention with
talk on a subject OF his own choosing.
Many OF the delegates had evidently heard
Mr.. Fletcher talk on other occasions or
else his reputation as a witty and enter
tanning speaker had reached their ears,
since he was greeted with spontaneous
applause when he arose to address the
convention. Mr. Fletcher spoke as fol-
lows:
going to say TO you do not know how TO
Put you in closer touch with my present
frame OF mind than to tell you little
story, which perhaps you have all heard,
although some Of you may not num-
Der of years ago a clergyman was visit
Ing another, and the friend he was visit
ING was all the time at work writing
sermon-so much SO that it rather embar-
rassed his friend Finally he said TO him,
You should not do that l never write
out my sermons. While you are writing
that with a view of lettering some of your
people in your church the devil is looking
right over your shoulder. preparing Argyll
ments TO refute all you are going to say.
When L go into the pulpit the devil don't
Know what 1 am going 10 say, because
L. a
zeal my present frame of mind. / am
always ready 10 help a gentleman from
Indiana; i owe that to the State. 1t has
occurred TO me that perhaps some of the
other members here might be interested
II hearing something relative to methods
that are fatal to conservative banking.
l do not know that / can say anything
on that subject that would interest the
older ones or that they do not already
Know or that experience has not taught
you already.
hat Lat hat fI,o
city of indianapolis only fifteen years
ago had sixteen banks. OF the sixteen
then existing only three now remain. Now
ii might occur TO you that that was owing
TO the fact that this was not a good place
10 bank That is not the case 1t is a
good place to bank, it is safe place, q
profitable place, limited only by the linn
itation of its natural environment. The
same Is true of any business mere. But
that result l have given you was brought
about by methods In almost every case.
yes, in every case, that were fatal to con-
servative banking.
FATE OF THE BANKS.
''Of the various banks In existence at the
time speak of, one, the Citizens National
Bank, went into voluntary liquidation with
credit to itself, and the Meridian National
Bank was absorbed by the Merchants. 1t
was solvent bank and went out of bus
mess. The other eleven failed-failed. Now
IL you analyze the cause and effect that led
10 that result in those various banks you
will find in the main that Ii was owing to
three particular, not exactly methods, but
facts, and put them under three heads
First, inability TO say No when IL should
be said. and emphatically. When there is
any question about transaction, the max
ing OF loan-any question at all in the
mind OF the banker-I think il should be
said. even II IL leads to the loss OF a good
Customer TIE banker; standing as he does
trustee or those whose money he has,
should not give the customer the benefit
OF a doubt IL DOUBT really exists in his
mind. Second, the want Of courage to face
loss when IL has been made, the courage
not to put good money with bad L believe
that in nine cases out OF ten where a Gus
toner mas pecorre seriously embarrassed.
especially where II Is the result of a slow
growth, continuing process of getting
into that condition, that Ii Is wiser not to
help him, not to try, because the difficulty
the root OF IL, Is below any assistance or
advice that you can give him. Or course
where the case is the result of a calam-
NY. something OF the KIND that is unex-
pected, that presents quite a different prop
ositfon, but a number of the failures here
that pr .sed before my eyes have been the
result of not sufficient courage to meet the
loss and meet IL then. not sufficient courage
10 refrain from putting good money with
that which was In effect already gone. The
third and greatest trouble of the institu-
tons that / have referred TO / think was
the desire to create volume, volume at the
expense Of conservative business manage
ment. and when / speak at the expense
are multitude of little things that come
under that head that l won't attempt to
go into. put it broadly on that specifica-
ton The habit of rushing out in the cloth
ing store fashion and grabbing of a Gus
toner and bringing him in. sometimes
pretty often-resulsS in m:sfit. L don't
think In the long run 1t pays. The taking
of a customer because, while he is not all
right. simply because you are afraid some
other bank is going to get him. L have
known that not to be very profitable.
NOT A GOOD STEADY DIET.
"As steady diet it don't pay. I think
you are justified in knowing all you can
about customer and knowing he is just
what you want. II it comes to this, that
you are prepared to take him because you
think he is all right and yet won't make
you fair statement-I have known that to
cause failure 1 don't think the bankers
of this State ever had a case of swollen
credit-mistaken credit, If you please
which was more difficult and which caused
them more trouble than one which occurred
IN the southern part Of the State here and
which you are all familiar with The adj
vertisement of ones Indebtedness for the
purpose of creation of volume is all right
where you have use for your money but
where call loans don't exist where COL
lateral security don't exist in smooth-sail-
ing times IL is all right, but clouds come to
the banker sometimes. depressed conditions
come to him sometimes. The banker who
=
one is not banker in the broad sense of
the word; he has yet something to learn.
A bank should be evenly balanced not ton
heavy in any respect. 1t should at all times
have sufficient money on hand TO stand any
reasonably strong run The mere fact that
a bank is solvent, that Ii stands high that
IL has good directors and good stockholders.
Is not necessarily proof against disaster
81 well remember the case of the Merid-
ian National Bank here. On the day after
the failure of Mr.. Haughey. its president.
Mr.. Gallup. man of large means per-
sonally, worth more than the capital stock
of his bank. decidedly more, with available
securities in the shape of bonds and stocks
he had not gagged the situation he had
before him and taken in his SAIL and he
found himself needing assistance, and III he
had not obtained Ii he would have closed
his doors And yet the bank was solvent.
he was good enough himself for all its
debts, and yet you have a case there where
all that Is not absolute guard against
danger 1 simply speak of this to some of