Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1914-01-29
BANKERS MUST
NOT DESERT
PROPERTIES
Forbes Scores U. S. Commerce
Commission on Attitude To-
ward Frisco Benefactors.
BY 8. c. FORBES.


r. YOUR child becomes gravely Ill,
should you leave it to its fate and do
nothing 20 try to save it?
should an army general turn tail
and run whenever he fears a battle
NAV possibly go against him, or
should he fight until the last hope is
gone?
If you are in business and your po-
siuon becomes shaky, should you lie
down without struggle and let your
ereditors shift for themselves?
or course not Emphatically NO in
all three cases.
should bankers identified with
railroad desert it when it becomes
weak or stand by it and strain every
nerve to pull 1t through?
The Interstate Commerce Commits
son has made the amazing sugges-
ZION that they should! Incredible!
Almost but listen to this from the
commissions report on the st. Louis
and San Francisco Railroad receiver
"Speyer & Co. should haze been
onare of the poverty of the Frisco
and of ats difficulties IN obtaining
funds"
should have been aware" Great
Scott they WERE aware. So was
every American adult knowing the
rudiments of finance and business. So
was every French banker who put out
Frisco bonds-at handsome profit.
Is the Commission to lay down a
rule that no banker must supply
funds to any but strong, f1ourishing
railroads? Apparently THAT code
Of banking ethics would please it.
Suppose the Interstate Commerce
Commission had had the power it now
seeks of vising all proposed issues of
railroad securities and thereby hold
ing in the hollow of its hands the
solvency and bankruptcy of ell the
country's railroads, would it have for
bdden the late Edward H. Hartman
10 save" the Erie after J. P. Morgan.
q Co. had decided to let the road be-
come a CROKER? Hartman was
aware OF the poverty Of the Erie
He surely was.
Would the Commission have for
hidden this same firm of Speyer <
60. TO extend succor. more than once,
TO Edward p Huntington when he
was striving to keep the Southern
Pacific on its feet? Speyer & Co
knew full well that The road was
poverty stricken. But their action
saved the situation.
Should Kuhn, Loeb g. Co. have been
forbidden to supply sinews to Har-
r!man to build up the Union Pacific
because it was for long poor as a
church mouse? Certainly" says the
Commission.
We're every banker in the United
States and every interested banker in
Europe to Immediately act upon the
principle favored by the Commission
what a melee there would be.
We would have a worse deluge or
railroad. industrial, mining and mer-
camille failures than ever encountered
even at the height Of the worst panic
in generation.
or, take II from me, tHelo al
quite a few enterprises not exactly
as strong as Gibraltar!
No more asinine statement was
ever made in a governmental report
than the sentence quoted near the
beginning of this article. The COM |
mission was not asked by the Senate
for expression of opinion" on the
Frisco affair, but this did not deter
the commission, always anxious to
oesmirch wall street bankers and
everybody associated with railroads,
from offering gratuitously more than
one very emphatic opinion.
The serious question raised by the
commisison's extraordinary attitude
IS this:
Should bankers desert properties
mat become pedk?
Well, should they?
Or should they put their shoulders
to the wheel and seek by might and
main to avert disaster, not quitting
until the last chance of saving
property has gone?
am we'll aware that the Frisco
was honeycombed with inside jug
slery. l was the first to show up the
iottenness Of the Yoakum regime and
10 call upon the Interstate Commerce
Commission and the Government TO
act. The Hearst newspapers devoted
columns to the subject before other
newspapers woke up to the facts.
publicly declared that Speyer d Co !
could not afford not to have full
myestigation made and the whole |
ruth laid before the people, as the
circumstances of the last piece of
financing tended to cast odium upon
hem
The facts have since come out, ana
not one crumb of evidence has been
adduced rejecting upon the honesty
or the honor of Speyer & Co. Wheth-
rr they should have let the Frisco go
broke before they were forced to do
so Is a matter for individual opinion. |
Bankers having regard for their rep
utation don't usually let one OF their
properties collapse until actually
obliged to. As a matter of fact, had
me Chicago and Eastern Illinois sale
o the St. Paul been contaminated, as
Intended. the Frisco would not nave
gone under. Had monetary condl-
ions thrOu0houf the world improved |