Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-05-15

keeping with the activity of the Ameri-
can business man and the resources or
the country. Expansion was further
occasioned by the increased demand
for our goods abroad and at home. 1t
provided work for the journeyman and
the common laborer, their families were
well provided, their children were hap
DIV and going to school and the freedom
and blessings of the American govern
ment went out to them.
What is it that we were doing in our
industrial life, in October last, that we
should not now be doing?
why should our enterprise be pros
trated, our furnaces closed, our cars
idle and money timid, and who in its
final ANALYSIS is punished? Not the
well-to-do class, not the man of CAPT
tai: these interests are only affected
to the extent that they make less
money.
What is the reply?
Look at the decreased pay rolls and
reduced wages; look at the soup kitch-
ems and bread lines in most all large
cities; look into the tenement home of
the laboring class and see the misery
written on the faces of the wife and
child-hungry. sick and poorly clad.
There is where the panic finally reaches
and its Furnishing effects severest.
1.-The bill introduced at the request
of the American Bankers association
is. | think, the best financial measure
introduced before congress. My per-
sonal views, however. for an emer-
gency currency would be the incorpor-
alton of the clearing house. We know
just how this scheme would operate;
we have recently passed through a
practical experience and we have seen
the results. The clearing house GER
tificates served the purpose and served
1t WELL it was an actual demonstra-
ton, therefore an education to all of u.s.
This is no place for the plunger.
Banking is not the vocation of the
speculator; it is no get-rich- quick
scheme and it affords no field to the
opportunist. the adventurer or senti-
mental dreamer
How we'll these words apply to the
manager of the California Safe De-
post and Trust company. That dis
graceful failure adds discredit to the
banking fraternity. In this failure are
found these causes:
Excessive loans to directors
Fraudulent management.
'1njudicious banking methods.
Here we have an example of the
real plunger-well educated, polished
manners. forceful, cunning and am
bilious to accumulate great riches and
ready to accept any chance to accom-
plish it,
Let it be recorded today and go out
to the world that the members of the
California Bankers association are
emphatically opposed to the plunger
and his methods: that we are willing
and ready to assist to punish to the
limit men of his stripe who wilfully
destroy the confidence upon which our
business is established. who cripple
the capital of the business house. steal
the earnings of the laborer and the
pittance of the Wido and who under
mine the foundations OF legitimate en-
terprise.
while we bitterly condemn the
wrecker and we are ashamed to say
that such men are occasionally found
in our ranks, vet we can stand on the
record of bankers and we can con-
scientiously feel proud in pointing out
that in 1907 out of 1872 national banks
operating in California not one of them
closed and but one temporarily sus-
pended. Out of 511 state, commercial,
savings and private banks ten small
concerns closed
Lyman Gage Speaks
Following President Peltier's open
ing address and unimpOrtant routine
business the morning session closed
with the reading of an able address
by Lyman ]. Gage. Mr.. Gage said:
while the elements of nature, as
clones. are now and may forever re-
main beyond human control. the re-
VulSionS in business the disasters in
finance. with their shocking entail of
misery and ruin, are the natural re-
suits of mans own action and are not
beyond human power of prevention or
control Ignorance and perversity be-
get them Knowledge. obedience to
economic lawn short that wisdom
born from study and experience-may
foresta'l their Lore violent expression.
1t is the proper business of the geolo-
gist and the physicist to investigate
in the realm of the physical forces. 1t
is the proper business of the banker,
the financier. the political economist.
and the business man to find the law
of safe relationships in the industrial
and business world. 1t is the proper
business of the legislator to formulate
rules or laws. which shall be in har-
mony with the truth and facts as they
exist. For truth exists; it is not in
vented: it springs up as soon as re-
lationships are established. 1t may
be discovered and made the guide to
right action. If it be so the results
will be harmony, peace and well-being.
Ignorance of it or disobedience to 1t
brings in its own inevitable penalties.
TT is my purpose, as will soon APP
pear to call to mind some of the ca
tastrophies which have appeared in
our commercial and industrial life dur
ing the last fifty years, to compare our
history in this regard with that of 9TH
er nations, and to inquire for the
causes which have afflicted us with the
evil consequences, from which other
peoples have been comparatively i'm
mune The periods of disaster have
come not with the regularity of the
decades, but with such general uni
formity of intervals as to lead many to
adopt the simple theory that a bust
ness panic is due every twenty years
and that's all there is to it, When I
name the years 1897, 1857, 1873 and
1898 your memories will recall either
from reading or your own observation
the same general phenomena, namely,
previous period of great industrial
development, increased production,
commercial activity, a large move
loans and deposits-brought to an end
by a crisis out of which developed
panic. bank failures. commercial
bankruptcies. paralysis to trade
these succeeded. by a long period of
prostration, from which recovery has
been slow.
The details concerning these are
unnecessary. and l want to pay par
ticular attention to this last revulsion
not vet removed more than six
months from our observation Its
manifestation and history will epitom-
ize and illustrate in several features
all those which have preceded it.
want to take your time to expose, as
best | may be able, the conditions
which led up to what l shall call the