White Pine news weekly mining review. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1910-1920, 1913-03-16

preservation, they could not-as is
possible in other eountries-rely
upon a strong and elastic banking
system, but must gain such protec-
ton by concurrent action; and
second. that such co = operation
is simply a further result of the
necessity for handling great transac-
lions. There are not a few railroad
bond issues each exceeding $780,
0O0, 900; the American Telephone and
Telegraph Co., recently has an
nouneed one of 100000 The
two traction companies operating
the subways in Greater New York are
planning to bring out aggregate is
sues of $220,000,O 900. The attorney
generals recent approval of the
Union Pacific settlement, calls for a
single commitment on the part of
bankers of $126, 900 900. So that
If transactions of such magnitude
are to be carried on, the country
obviously requires not only the
larger individual banks, but demands
also that those banks shall cooperate
to perform efficiently the country's
business. A step backward along this
line would mean a halt in industrial
progress that would affect every
wage-earner from the Atlantic to the
Pacific.
Cooperation Necessary For The
COuntry's Growth.
We lay perhaps especial stress
upon this point because of what
seemed to us a readiness upon the
part of your committee to adopt the
idea that in such cooperation by
bankers there lies the germ of some
thing sinister and dangerous, and
that, to quote once more from House
Resolution No. 504, such co-opera-
ton has been developed to the extent
that, these groups of individuals"
can prevent competition with the
enterprise in which they are interest
ed, to the detriment of interstate
commerce and of the general public"
Functions of a Banking House.
1t is easy to overlook the fact that
practically all the railroad and in
dustrial development of this country
has taken place, initially through the
medium of the great banking houses.
Were it not for the opportunities
provided by these houses, it is diff
ficult to imagine how the great
transportation systems and industrial
plants of the country could have been
created. Many persons fail to realize
the variety of functions performed
by these banking houses. If a trans
continental railway system, building
up the wheat farms of the west and
affording employment to thousands
of workmen, desires to obtain $780,
900 600, for purposes of still further
development, it goes to some great
banking house or institution for a
market for its securities. The bank
ers make expert investigation of the
property, agree to buy the bonds and
thus to make possible a great and i'm
portant development two or three
thousand miles away. Next the bank
ing house serves the investing COM
munity. Thousands of investors are
seeking sound securities for their
savings. They have neither the
knowledge nor the opportunity for
investigating a great railroad enter
prise. They look to a banking house
to perform those functions and to
give its stamp of approval to that
railroads securities. In this
the banking house fulflls a double
duty to the community.
Still another consideration Undue
ing large corporations to appoint
fiscal agents is that frequently such
corporations are obliged to under
take operations of such magnitude
and eomplexity over a series of years,
that they must invoke uninterrupted
ly the best financial advice obtain
able. An operation like that of the
Pennsylvania and the Long Island
Railroads in %tunnelling respectively
the Hudson and the East Rivers, and
building an enormous terminal in the
heart of New York, involved the x
penditure of say $500. 900 900, and,
from inception to completion, occupi-
ed the best part of a decade. The
unwisdom of embarking upon such