The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1908-11-01


tended over this country for a period
of several years past has brought to
the public notice the fact that the
banking institutions of the country,
being products and results of human
endeavor, are subject to some of the
faults and imperfections incident to
other business enterprises.
Having discovered that the banking
system is not perfect, we have set
about with our customary diligence in
reform work to regulate the banks.
Our politicians have taken up the mat
ter, some of them with more and
some with less sincerity, with the re-
suit that some have brought forth one
remedy and some another remedy for
the real and imaginary banking trou-
bles-and some of the remedies, 1T
might be mentioned in passing, have
been rather worse than the ills they
were designed to cure. Some have
been the products of the deep studies
OF earnest and honest men, while 9TH
ers have come from self-seeking poll
ticians who sought to stir up class
feeling that they hoped might be
worked to their own advantage.
But, after all, by and through this
agitation and argument, mixed as 1T
has been with good and evil, through.
it has come to the people better un-
derstanding of their banks and bank
ers. People have been not only lis
tening to the good and bad that has
been said for and against the banks,
but they have been thinking for them
selves, with the result that today the
banker is better understood and appre-
ciated than ever before.
1t has been demonstrated that no
otner corporation can perform the
banks function in the business world.
In safeguarding money; in issuing
credits, and in various other directions
the bank is also doing something that
no other institution can successfully
do No other institution could have
handled the business of the country
through the recent financial dlstur-
Dances as the banks handled it. With
out money, they adopted various credit
devices that brought the country
through the panic with the minimum OF
evil consequences. In the words OF one
well-known banker, "It was an object
lesson in the power and worth of the
bank not soon to be forgotten And
so there may be, in truth, an excuse
for the interest of the people in the
banking system. Approaching the
worth of it, they do not wish to do
away with any of it's features but
merely to make themselves safe that
they may use it the more. Be this
as it may, there is an attempt to con-
troll the banks. There is an attempt to
apply government control to their be-
ing that has not existed before. 1t
may be, on the other hand, that this,
to some extent, grows out OF the latent
feeling of antagonism to the institu-
tions as opponents of the 'mOney-pOw
err Men may unconsciously want to
control the action of the banks of the
country for this reason. At any rate,
politics has come to be too much ap-
piled to the banks. This bankers,
everywhere, know"
Just what effect government guar
antee would have in time OF panic is
problematical. The government could
not secure the money to pay the de-
positors if any considerable portion
of the banks should close. 1t would
apear that the best thing to be done
would be to let the bankers work this
out themselves. They did it in the re-
cent panic, and every debtor in the
land is better off for it.
AS it has already been pointed out,
Government interference, again,
must be to the detriment of any bust
ness which it cannot effectually con-
troll and help. Can government guar
antee deposits in time of panic? No.
There is no earthly way in which 1t
can get the money to mmediately pay
the depositors if half or three-fourths
of the banks should close during a
panic. Therefore. it is better to let