The Savannah morning news., 1904-06-15


the seaside resort of Jacksonville To-
day.
A number of interesting and instruc-
tive papers We're read and the annual
election OF officers took place. The SEES.
sion concluded with typical bankers,
banquet at the Continental. There were
numerous toasts responded to by the
leading bankers of the state.
The newly elected officers of the as
ISOLATION are: President, Henry R
Robinson, president of the Commercial
Bank of Jacksonville; George d. Mum
roe, cashier of the Quincy State Rank
first vice president; E. c. Rumph
cashier of the First National Bank of
Miami, second vice president; A. c.
Clewes of Tampa, third vice president.
g. r., DeSaussure of the First Nation
al Bank of Jacksonville, secretary.
Executive Committee, f. w Lane of
the Atlantic National Bank of Jack
sonVille, B. F. Barnett of the First Ma
tional Bank of Jacksonville, and E. S.
Grill of the East Florida Trust and
Savings Company of Palatka. Dele
gates to the American Bankers Asso-
citation, to convene in New York, ]. T.
Dismukes, president of the First Ma
tional Bank of ST. Augustine; alter
nate, T. w. Lane.
$. G. McLendOn Speaks.
Among the speakers heard by the
convention was Col. S. G McLendon of
Townsville, Ga.
Col. McLendon said: The banker
of to-day is the result of centuries of
evolution. While this is true, his
primary functions, as receiver of de-
posits. and maker of loans, is one which
has been carried on for more than 1000
years. In the Harmurabic code, pro-
mulgated $3.50 years before the Chris
tian era, and some 700 years before
Moses, it was provided, If a man shall
give silver, gold or anything whatso-
ever to a man. on deposit, all whatever
he shall give, he shall show to wit
nesses and fix bonds and shall give on
deposit. If without witness and bonds,
he has given on deposit and where he
has deposited they keep disputing him,
this case has no remedy Though a
trile cumbersome, this law has under
gone little if any change and is good
law to-day. The English speaking race
did not take to banking until the seven
tenth century. We are told as late
as 1876 of the appearance in London of
a pamphlet entitled, The Mystery of
the New Fashioned Goldsmiths or
Bankers Discovered This would in
dictate that just century before the
birth of this republic banking was
practically unknown to those who spoke
our tongue. The history of the evou-
ton of the banker would be interest
ing from an academic point of view,
but the great fact is, that he is here,
not merely as a receiver of deposits
and a maker of loans, but the instru-
ment for the distribution of credits
Potent Force in Commerce.
However slow and nuctuating may
have been the process of his segrega
ton and development, he stands out
to-day the most potent force in the
commerce of the world. He holds in
his vaults the earnings of the poor, con-
secrated with the prayers of honest
toll, the savings of the industrious,
who venture trade abroad and the
self-accumuEating incomes of those,
who like bees, ...
Armed in their stings.
Make boot upon the summers velvet i
buds.
There are times, as was said of
Napoleon, when the GIBBS and flows
of his single soul are as tides TO. the
balance of mankind He is by turns
absolute master of adject slaves. This
is so because the worlds business is
done on credit, and not on cash, and
the banker in town, state and nation
is high priest in the temple of traffic
Inc 1lSdLlllB I1OuSC VI ANCN AOl last
year did, in round numbers, a bust
ness of $40, 800, 0000 900 and used in cash
only $4,000, 900, 900. To have done this
business in cash. would have required
the counting and handling twenty-slx
times of every dollar in America. There
fore, for every dollar in cash there
were $25 of credit employed in this
almost incomprehensible volume of
business.
Congress presides over the one dol
lar and eXhausts its powers and eXer-
Cises it's wisdom when it makes that
basic dollar good for 100 cents of value.
The banker presides over the other
twenty-five, for in modern business,
banking is the science of credits. Given
a fixed basis, a sound dollar, clear
definition of the word dollar, pound
mark, or franc, all of which are mere
expressions of quantity, grains being
the world unit of value, business is
free to move in the field, whose outside
boundary is confidence. In this field
the banker finds his sphere of useful
ness. His integrity, ability and judg-
.ment determine in large measure the
business area of his town, his state and
his country.
In JeRersOns Day.
"Two events in our history throw a
calcium light upon the growth of the
velous growth of our country. In
1898, Mr.. jefferson on behalf of the
State Department had occasion to re-
init $4,000 to Europe. Upon this
transaction. he made on April 1S, 1893,
a formal report to President Washing
ton, in which he said:
The Secretary of State, thinking II
his duty to communicate to the Pres
ident his proceedings of the present
year for transferring to Europe the
annual fund of $4,000 appropriated to
the Department of State, a report
whereof was unnecessary the two form
er years as monies already in the
hands of our bankers in Europe were
put under his orders. Reports, That
in consequence of the Presidents or
der of March 90, he received from the
Secretary of the Treasury March 81,
a warrant on the treasury for $S9,oOO,
that 1t being necessary to purchase
private bills of exchange to transfer
the money TO Europe he CONSUMED
with persons acquainted with that BUS
mess, who advised him not 10 let II
be known that he was to purchase
bills at all, as IT would raise the eX-
change, and to defer the purchase
few days until the British paChSt
should be gone, on which event Dills
generally sunk some few per cent
With what tremendous, strides our
government and our banking raclhtles,
have moved forward since then. Ihe
other day the United states mad oc-
casion to remit to Europe $4OOOUVoV'
a sum one thousand times larger IMAM
Mr.. Jefferson's remittance, ana yet one
OF our great banking houses largely
through the modern science of trans