The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-03-13
Government Offices Serve
AS Good Training Schools
Business World. Acquired Their
knowledge in Washington Departments

controller of the currency in a recent adj
ministration. Similar examples might be
found in Philadelphia and others of the
leading cities of the country.
Mr.. Cannon. the former president of the
Chase Bank. served as the controller of the
currency in 1SS4-5 and in 1892 was member
of the international Monetary Conference
at Brussels. In addition to his general
knowledge of banking he has paid especial
attention to railway interests and is a
director in a number of large companies.
A NOTABLE EXAMPLE.
Mr.. Hepburns government training was
an extensive one Over twenty years ago
he was the superintendent of the banking
department of the State of New York and
later entered the national service as a
bank examiner, becoming controller of the
currency in 1892 and serving two years in
that capacity. When he returned to private
life in 1898 position was awaiting him and
he Immediately became the president of the
Third National Bank of New York and has
since been known as a man of wide inf1u-
ence in political and financial circles, rep
resenting conservative forces in banking.
His name is known from the Atlantic TO
the Pacific and is a synonym for firm,
sound. conservative and properly progress
sive methods of banking.
Mr.. Wiggin. the vice president of the
Chase National Bank as the first active
vice president of the National Park Bank,
was a responsible officer to an institution
with sSO,OO0,O0O of deposits and strong VAN
derbilt affiliations, Cornelius Vanderbilt be-
ing on the board of directors and other
family interests being represented by Stuy-
vesant Fish and August Belmont.
The service of Mr.. Eckels as controller is
so recent that it is still fresh in the minds
of the reading public. During his service
for the government in 1S93-97 he made ma
ticnal reputation Mr. EckeIs when he en-
tered the government employ was man
less than forty years of age. He had been
trained for the bar, being a graduate of
the Albany, n. Y, Law School in the class
of $780, but he found that his incIinations
led TO the world of finance rather than TO
courts of law. Nevertheless. his early ex-
perience as a lawyer has doubtless been of
assistance to him and has contributed to
his subsequent success. He is now the
head of one Of the three largest banks of
Chicago, with wide spheres of influence ex-
tending throughout the whole Northwest
lie is a director of many cher banking
institutions and has served as receiver of
the Chicago traction roads, being therefore
a potent influence in all the local trans
portation interests of the metropolis of the
middle West.
These men at different times in the Treas
ury Department have since their graduation
from the training school of the government
been brought into active relations with one
another. Three of the four are among the
directors of the financial institution which
may be said to have attracted more arten-
ton during the past year than any other
of the younger banking concerns i'm New
York. 1t is significant In these days when
so many trust companies are subjecting
themselves to criticism because of their
attempts to do a banking business in a
manner not contemplated by the original
companies that three ex-controllers of the
currency should be on the board of directors
will scrupulously refrain from bidding &C
counts away from commercial banks and
viii not invade the proper provinces of saw
ings institutions. This is the Bankers Trust
Company. formed. as the name implies.
by, banking interests which have found
that the trust companies to which they
were forced to turn business were becoming
active competitors in the straight banking
field. "A company composed, entirely of
bankers may be said to be composed of ex-
perts. These men believe that many trust
companies of to-day have wandered from
the original intention of their promoters.
and the guiding spirits of the new enter
prise are of the opinion that the solution
OF the present difficulties lies in return
to what were originally considered the es-
sential purposes of such an organization.
The experiment has been watched with in
terest, and the rapid growth OF the COM
pany has given evidence that the policy
which IL has adopted is the wise one.