The Alaska citizen., 1913-06-30


 about seventy-fve years ago. the rule was that the community used private bankers as their chief de positaries- Then came in. though not without great public opposition. the plan of creating banks as stock corporations with the very purpose Cf limiting the risks Of the owners oi thse banking corporations Strong as such institutions have proved to be. il may he said with some reason that the common law which requires that. if any private banking house fortune of every member of that firm shall be utterly swept away before a dePositor suffers the loss of penny. is unqQuestionably q factor tending towards prudent and conservative management. In face of the available records. showing q considerable number of suspensions among incorporated institutions in New York city. as the result of the 19g1 panic. We can recall no in stance whatever f the similar sus pension of any private banking house handling corporate deposits,
 In view of these facts. We submit that in this matter 1t would be wise 10 secure evidence from all large cities. bearing upon the benefits or the actual dangers shown by ex- perience. before proposing any law. the effect of which automatically might be to deprive interstate cor porations from exercising their best Judgment as to where they may prudently extend credit In es- sence. if corporation is to be prohibited from extending credit of sl00,000 to banking house which, il has reason to believe. can return that credit upon demand. why should the law not be invoked to prevent it extending merchandise credit Of similar amount to some solvent customer?
 THE FORGE OF PUBLIC OPINION.
 As the final point of this memo randum. We venture to submit the consideration that in a strong pub lie opinion. such as exists in this country. there lies the greatest safeguard f the Community-always assuming that congress will evolve a basic system of banking which is scientific and sound-'as at the pres ent time. ours admittedly is not. The public. that is the depositors. are the ones who entrust bankers with such influence and power as they today have in every civilized land. and the public is unlikely to entrust that power to weak or evil hands. Your counsel asked mere than one witness whether the pres ent power held by bankers in this country would not be q menace if 1t lay in evil hands. Such an in- qury answers itself All power, physical, intellectual, financial or political, is dangerous in evil hands. If congress were to fall into evil hands the results might be deplora- ble. But to us it seems as little likely that the citizens of this country will fill congress with ras- calls as it is that they will entrust the leadership of their business and financial affairs to a set of cleVe" rogues. The only genuine power which an individual or a group O. individuals. can gain is that arising from the confidence reposed in him or them by the community. Every town, large or small, seems to choose limited number of men (mer chants, manufacturers. lawyers and bankers) to represent it in the management of it's chief, local ln- dustries. Those men are entrusted with such heavy responsibilities 1e- cause of the confidence which their records have established, and only so long as their records are un- blemished do they retain such