The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1909-12-17
What President Of Clearing House
Says To Those Who Go
To City.

Young man, go to the country il
you want a thorough groundwork for
a financial career. Shun the big city
bank, where you are liable to get into
departmental groove and go no
higher"
Joseph T. Talbert, president OF the
Chicago Clearing House Association,
was in earnest when he gave this ad-
vice to the young man ambitious to
be banker, says the Chicago News.
He thought the rule would hold good
in business careers generally. Mr.
Talbert, who is first vice president of
the Commercial National bank, was
talking of the reasons, as he saw
them, for his being called to New
York and elected a vice president of
the National City bank of the Eastern
metropolis.
when young man comes to me
for a job in bank l invariably tell
uinl W 81, " oOiiiO NOdhtly
tion," he continued. "'Go to a coun-
try bank and learn the business from
the ground up. Touch elbows with
the farmer and the men who are max
ing the West more and more impor-
tant each day in the financial world"
Mr.. Talbert attributes his success
in the banking world to the fact that
he was trained in country institu-
ton and says that he rubbed elbows
with the farmer" in getting his
groundwork. He says he believes
Treasurer Samuel McRoberts, of Ar
mour & Co., who has also been taken
from Chicago by the National City
bank, of New York, as we'll as him.
self, was called by the Eastern finan.
cial men because the two Chicagoans
are familiar with growing Western
financial interests.
why, when the Commercial Nation
al was looking for a man it did not
go to one of its departments when it
selected me. The men in charge
looked around and found that I had
gained experience in detail through
hard work in country bank in which
| knocked around in all the details of
the business. They wanted some one
who had that sort of experience to
handle the country business. That is
why l say to the young fellow stay
away from the big city bank.
IN New York they want men who
are familiar with the Western coun-
try, and it is natural that they should
look to Chicago. Negotiations have
been on in my case for the last ty.sl, e
months. The situation was such that
1 was not in position to close the
negotiations until now.
THE New York bankers usually
know what they want, and just now
they appear to be after men who have
gained a varied and wide experience
in the West and who have grown I'D
with the development of financial in
terests in the Western country.
I'm the banking business, as we'll as
in any line of trade. the man WHO
knows his customers, their habits and
peculiarities. is going to get the best
results. l have never regretted that
my start was in the country bank. 1t
was good school, and no young man
who is in earnest will have cause for
regret if he takes a course in it,
Mr.. Talbert learned the rudiments
of the banking business in his native
state, Mississippi He is 43 years
old and looks younger. His skin is
bronzed and his eye clear, and he
talks with an earnestness that carries
conviction. He appeared in physical
condition fit enough to tackle a trip
to the pole, as he sat at his desk in
the Commercial National and found
time between the stress of business
interviews to accept congratulations
from scores of friends.
Mr.. Talbert came to Chicago in
1896 as national bank examiner. For
a time he was connected with the
liquidation of the National Bank of
Illinois, which failed In December Of
1897 he went to the Commercial Ma
tional as cashier. Five years later
he was elected its vice president, and
for the last two years he has been at
the head of the clearing house. Bank
ers say that in his new post he will
raoaiya a ca1a,,, 80 eAn nnn - ,-.