Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1909-09-14

i, Z
noon session, and was preceded by an
address by Controller of the Currency
Murray on problems of the Control
ler's Office"
Rnps Careless Directors.
Mr.. Murray discussed his efforts
TO more effectively supervise nation
al banks. He also sharply raped
directors for their shortcomings,
saying:
The director of bank who poses
| before the people as the trusted Gus
todian of their funds, and who is u.s.
| ing his trusteeship for the purpose
solely of personal gain, who is reck-
| lessly specializing with the peoples
money by borrowing unwarrant ed
sums upon insufficient security, is the
greatest menace to the safety of the
banking system today. The elimina-
tAon of this type of director from the
control of banking institutions and
the fostering of a keener sense of re-
sponsibility among certain class of
bank directors of the duties of their
high office is being attempted by me
I
manG.
Depends ON Management.
NO matter how effective law the
controller may have at his disposal
no matter how efficient the bank eX
aminations may be, in the last anal
ysis~the internal management OF the
bank makes for either success OF
: / fol g..
animation, strict enforcement of the
law, and directoral control are abso
lutely essential; but the most i'm
portant Of all is the directoral con
troll. AS every controller takes IN
oath OF Office 10 see that the nati0na
[ banking law is enforced, it seems no.
only my official duty, but that an
bound morally, to make an effort tC
bring home to the management OF
every bank, where it is either care
less or inefficient, a due sense of its
( legal and moral responsibility to its
depositorS. When the government
: gives to a body of men charter
i which authorizes them TO receive 9th.
: err peoples money, and at the same
) time the law fixes upon government
Official the duty of supervising thes ,
corporations, he is doing no more
than the law requires of him wher
: he inquiries of the directors how they
} are performing the duties which they
take an oath to perform.
Moved by Two Reasons.
. ''The reasons for my determination
| n lyn n off ~ Sti1 nj or
; toral control were two: First. Il ma
< tional commission is now making
5 study of the entire banking situation
in this country And as in the pres
: ent banking law the duties of drec
5 tors are not specifically set out. i
2 seemed well to ascertain definitel,
5 just how the seven thousand banking
= corporations chartered by the gov
= eminent are internally managed by
= the board OF directors; so that, if, il
? the new law. it seems wise for con
, gress to specify in detail what the du
= ties of directors shall be, il will have
the statistics as TO just how the banks
are managed at the present time. Ant
j.. secondly, | desired to find out jus
how the banks are managed, so that
! with no additional legislation at all
e bad conditions may be remedied b,
\ good, effective administration. AnC
\ | have found such remedy. | nov
: know exactly how every bank in TIL
\ country is managed, and the few bad
ly managed ones will be examine,
k hereafter four times a year. and il
t the presence of the directors. An,
Il in the banks where the management
y is either careless or not up TO fai
G standard, the directors will be aske,
> to adopt such rules for the interna
: management of the bank as will rem
/ edy for all time all ground for jus
o criticism. either from the controlle
or from anybody else.
Believes All VIII Comply.
And | can say to you now that
V firmly believe that before the end O
n this year every single bank will com
e ply with this reasonable request
: The result will be that within fey