The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-06-07
AFRAID OF THEM.
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Continued from Page One.)
the end of the year we found our earn
ing would pay a very fair salary to
each member of the firln. During the
year 1872 business steadily increased
thougn the deposits fuctuated. The
| crops Tor that year were bountfful, but
the prices were too low to fairly COM
pensate the farmer for his labor. The
winter of 1872 and 1873 corn sold for
| Il cents bushel at the railroad sta
Lon and many hauled their crops
distance OF 20 miles. Stern necessity
compelled them to sell every bushel
InaL they could spare. The year OF
~ was a most disastrous year for
business men and especially for bank
efS- Ihe effects of the panic that year
were felt for many years. and thou
SANDS never recovered from It,
Few Dishonest Men.
"One of the pIeasantest features of
the early times was the hearty ana
klndly feeling that existed among the
people. There was but one class and
that was the poor. There was no
ar1stocracy, but all felt that they were
on a common level. and each stood
ready to help the other. A more
honest class of men never lived than
those with whom we did business. 1t
was a rare thing to ind a tricky or
dishonest man. OF course, in extend
ing credit it was necessary to carefully
weigh each customers ability, for few
strong willing hands and willing
hearts. They unhesitatingIy gave
such security as they had, and rarely
hesitated to give all their exempt
property if asked to do SO. Nearly all
the loans were made at usurl0uS rates
OF interest," and yet in my long years
OF banking / can recall but one case
where man attempted TO take al
vantage of that fact. and he was SO
thoroughly ostracised that he never
attempted it again It is quite re-
marka bic that for the first rs years OF
the settlement of our county, crime
was unknown. No one took the pains
to lock their doors at night and we
had no Jail and had no use for any.
1.-THE unpleasant feature Of banking
was the fact that we could not depend
upon paper being prompiLIy met Az
our people, unfamiliar with the rules
of good banking, could not understand
why a note should be settled the DAY
it was due. The remark was OFTEN
made to US that they didn't see why
we wanted the note paid or renewed,
as they said Y gu will loan the money
again and it is only the interest you
want One worthy old kentuckian,
upon being urged to take care OF
note long past due said, with great
deal of dignity, I am perfectly re-
sponsiblel' It required a good deal of
tact and patience to deal with Gus
toners under those conditions. TO at
tempt to force collections would have
be borrowed from any other source,
and all we could do was to wait till
we could make it. I recall one in
stance where we waited Il years be-
fore the loan was paid Our bank
was literally an accommo dation bank.
An Editor to Bankers.
At the afternoon session of the con-
vention today, Charles Moreau Harger,
editor of the Abilene Daily Reflector,
read a paper on Advertising Our Pros
perity." He said in part:
For the past eight years Kansas has
been advertising in the east its prosper
ity and the advance agents of that adj
vertising have been the bankers. 1t IS
characteristic of the east to appreciate
concrete things-hgures and facts
About things at home the easterner is
liberal. He enjoys yacht races, and au-
tOmobile accidents and insurance scam
dals. But about the west he does not
understand. A man from Maine was on
the Rock Island train the other day a.
it pulled westward from Topeka. I
don't see,' he remarked as he gazed
across the beautiful prairies, how they
got all this land cleared so SOON
The eastern reader may not grasp thz
glowing description of a prairie towns
improved appearance or the immensely
of a western wheat field, but when you
hammerit into his consciousness that
the bank deposits in Kansas were $33,-
GOO 900 and that they are now $ll1, 600 600,
that is something he can comprehend.
He knows what you are talking about.
1t is his language. That is why the
Kansas bankers have furnished the best
evidence of the states prosperity ana
they have not been bashful about tell
ing what has been accomplished.
But he has done something more
than tell of the advancement. He has
been careful to keep quiet about the
adversely. It was Populist bank com
missioner who in the days of financial
depression in the middle eos called the
newspaper correspondents of the cap
ital city into his office. Now, see here,
boys he began, There are a lot of
banks having a pretty hard time. If
you print the reports you hear about.
every one of them you may start some
thing pretty serious I want you to
promise that you win not send out
anything unless I give you permission.
[ will see that you are all treated
fairly. They promised and many
banks good name and perhaps exist
ence was saved.
No yellow Advertising.
kansas does not need any more adj
yertisings of the yellow sort. 1t has had
too much now. I imagine that eastern
ers smile a little when they read those
stories about every farmer riding to
town in an automobile and every man
starting with. nothing and in five years
being worth fifty thousand dollars. We
understand said New Yorker the
other day. that the farmers wives IN
Kansas do not care whether they have
an allowance or not. Whenever they
want money all they have to do is to so
to town and get a market basketful of
ten dollar bills.
we have had enough of that. What
Kansas needs is to have the, truth thora
oughly understood That is not that
everybody is rolling in wealth, but that
there is a high level of prosperity shared
alike by laborer and business man; that
l. ~ X Naca no
have taken our place along with the
other western states whose business life
is assured.
THE Kansan has emerged from the
experimental period of his history. That
there will come again lean years and
daYs of announcement none can doubt: