The Alaska citizen., 1913-06-30
NECESSARY FOR
 COUNTRY'S GROWTH.

the Pacific
 COOPERATION NECESSARY FOR
 cOUNTRY's GROWTH.
 We lay perhaps especial stress up- on this point. because of what seem cd 10 us a readiness upon the par. of your committee to adopt tho idea that in such cooperation hy bankers there lies the germs ol som thing sinister and dangerous, ant that. to quote once more from housa resolution No. 5of such cooperation has been developed 10 thc extent h8t. these groups of individuals" can
 prevent competition with the enter prises in which they are interested rs the detriment of interstate com merec and of the general public
 Nothing else certainly could be more germane to an iuvesti2atioa like that of your committee fhan ae inquiry as 10 whether. rhroueh any means eXerted hy banks or bankers. interstate commerce k being F. strained. But as establishing cr even suggestine such a contention. We have been able 10 find uo tcsti- mony whatever upon the records Of your committee. II any such evidence is available. we believe il important that il should be produced So far as our observation and ex= perience go. we can make the posi- tive statement that. except under un- favorable money market conditions. We have never heard of any res ponsible and deserving individual. firm or corporation being unable to secure ample credit The house resolution No. 5ol, including it's preamble, contains no less than five separate references to the possible prevention" suppression "clim.- naticn or absorption of "comuetition." through the activities of certain individuals. Wide publicity has been given to this resolution under whose authority your committee has acted and. in the absence of any proof whatsoever 10 support the belief that there has been a suppression of cor POrate competition We venture 10 hope that this idea. most insidieus and harmful in it's effect upon the mind of the country at large. will in your report be definitely dispellcd In a matter of such great moment 70 the prejudices of our citizens, that q suggest, with great respect. that | positive statement from your com mittee that no evidence has been adduced on this vital question should be given publicity as wide as that received by the resolution RESPONSIBILITY OF BANKERS. l
 Testimony, on the other hand, i going to show not a suppression, but development of trade through 1 out the country might have been of value. as exhibiting a natural eX- planation of many of the financial practices which your committee has questioned. Many questions were | asked as to the wisdom in having | representative of private banking i. houses sit upon the boards of CT porations, whose securities the same ! bankers frequently offer for sale | This practice which has been in | vogue abroad, ever since the creation I of limited companies, has arisen not i from a desire on the part of the | banker to manage the daily affairs of the corporation or to purchase [ it's securities more cheaply than he could but rather because of his moral responsibility as spon- sor for the corporations securities, to keep an eye upon it's policies and 10 protect the interest of investors in the securities of that corporation. For private banker 10 sit upon such a directorate is in most in stances a duty, not a privilege. In- luiry will readily develop the fact hat the members of the leading houses in this country-and | t was the leading houses only against which animadversions were