The Cairo bulletin., 1910-10-28


side and g~ravelled walks outside,
and never a mortgage within nor
without You might call him skil'ed
in low finance.
knew a good woman who, many
years ago, lived on a Nebraska farm,
surrounded by liabilit es. chief among
them a drunken husband. One day,
&c; tie f7rm was ~~!ortgaged SC
many times that the mortgages had
to stand in line waiting their turn
Hike scared ~depositors at a teller's
window, and when the horses were
u ortgaged. and the harness with
he COWS, and the mU:es. and all In
Icreasc thereof wee mortgaged. he
\ arl blew hts brains out, or, to be
~eyacr. blew his head off. Just TO spite
1.-THE old woman. Did she pine away
" die Oh no-she simply went on,
w ping out the other incum brances.
She changed six children from liabil
Titles to assets. She grasped the fstn-
damental truth that you can't raise
lcrops without work, o pay 100 cent
debts with SO CEN incomes. She
favored a 100 cent income W tn a SO
tcent outgo. and on this rock she build
ed. She has helped her neighbo~s
when they were Ill, paid her taxes
without cussing the assessor. worked
for the church and the school, and to-
Iday, she owns several hundred acres
Iof land with neither a mortgage nor
a cockleburr upon it. She $ a finan.
ciere.
And sometimes, you find bankers
who are financiers, though OF course,
lin the present company am not
making any accusations. Some OF
you might be. but OF course you are
not to blame for it, and | do not aoia
I against You.
But all bankers, are factors in fl
rance. Willingly or unwittingIy, thew
are everting a big Influence, One
nan, turning a jack screw under a
big br'ck building nay no know he
Is doing much. but many men. collec-
%tively, lift a great weight. We have
$4,000 banks n this country, present
ing a condition unlike that of any
other country or section of the earth.
Each of these is q sovereign, indie
pendent, potential Institution. while
all the banks OF all the world beside
So per cent OF them being merely ex-
change offices or branches. do not
number one-tnird as many.
Let us look into this a bit. To-
morrow, you take a note Of John
Smith for 800, placing the proceeds
to his credit, and this credit, transfer
red in many divisions to many peo-
pie, probable affects the exchanges
of more commodities, and the lquida-
ton of II ore debts, by twenty fold,
than a like amount OF coined silver
or gold. You are more than a mere
clerk-you create. you call into being.
you summon with something the au-
thority OF that first Let there be"
when darkness was upon the face of
the deep-let your care be therefore
that this power be used wisely and
well.
But you do more than this. You az
feet prices most wonderfully. You
change the course of the moner |
market. You foster, or you hinder
speculation, you spread JOY or gloon
In a community by the results. of your |
policies pers' sted in. jim Smith
comes TO YOU and he says Can /
borrow $500 next week If necessary |
and you answer, Sure Jim-you car |
have all the money you want, when
ever you want 1t, and as long as vor |
want IT." If jim wanted more he
would be a hog. Your g~randfatbe- |
and mine borrowed money If at al
-atoer furtively and never urite as |
sured OF the responsibility of the
transaction, His visits to the baot !
room OF the bank came after much % |
.d~eliberation, possibly prayer, and to
Ne outsider he had something TT
ooF on his free Of a Kansas mar
bunting a drug store, bnt our Jm
Smiths. encouraged by us, have got
ten bravely over these little ~delicacies
OF sentiment and they take their me-
ic'ne without fear OF the conse-
7nences Our reason for this gener-
ors ~disnosition D es from several
considerations, but mostly with a.
weather y toward our competitor
across the street, who Is a son of a
gun!
Now let rs see what happens when |
we rave a whole community of JuFi
Smiths. educated along these lines |
and there Is no question but that the
condition | describe exists generally
over the country.
], These Jims who AN get all the
money they want by signing a note
for 1t, will run on a smaller balanoe |
than otherwise, and give notes rather
more readily, so that In. time you get
into a condition OF more notes and
'ess reserves.
2. Along with these lesser re-
9ervNs Won find tnat you have a big
~~ont'ngent of borrowers liability,
Wnpn v0u hnva rntnn hmm 1padu -