The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1916-09-29
AMERICAN BANKERS
NOW in CONVENTION
President Lynch in Opening Ad-
dress Refers to Wilson's
Mexican Failure.

SNAtNSaa I'll !, MO, sept. 29.-IhC
American Bankers Association, whose
membership has during the last year
reached total of 1906 banks. opened
its general convention here today with
Its president James X. Lynch OF San
Francisco, delivering an address in
which he discussed the federal reserve
act and national defense.
The primary purpose Of govern.
ment", he said. is to provide adequate
defense for the country governed. and
how shamefully this purpose has been
neglected under one administration
after another is familiar tale.
1--WE are given to boosting OF our
size, but when we arc no LONGER
capable of feeling pin prcks in our
feet, are we not too large? For years
our citizens in Mexico have been sub.
jected to murder and the most untell.
I able outrage, and the rational con
seriousness is barely aroused. Not IN
Mexico alone, hut within our own Dor
ders as well as on the high seas, have
our people on their lawful occasions
been done to death while the nation
has slumbered or murmured feehly in
its sleep.
Rich and Fat.
"As nation. we have grown rich.
and have grown fat, and have grown
soft, and we are today the most tempt
ing prize under the blue canopy OF
heaven.
But II we as nation are sick II
is as individuals that we must supply
the cure. Congress does not lead but
follows public opinion. First OF all.
we need cooperation, teamwork. the
things that win any kind of human
endeavor, and to secure this there Fl
nothing quite so good as universal
military training which arouses ma
tional feeling and national conscious
ness as nothing else can do.
I'm the task Of vitalizing the ma
ton. the most important agency is
the press. which informs, instructs,
advises. admonishes the people. II iii
becomes one ignorant OF the difficult
ties encountered in collecting and dis
tributing the news, TO criticize the ap-
parent failures or deficiencies, but is
1t too much to ask OF our papers that
they take the larger view OF our ma
tional affairs and help in the difficult
/ task which IL before us, and to ask
OF our people that they discriminate
between the varying grades Of ability
and integrity with which the word is
done2
III our people can rise to the heights
of citizenship that the times demand.
the work that must 90 done can DO
accomplished peacefully and in order,
but Il they will not learn from tho
bitter experience Of our kin across
the sea, the reformation will ba
worked out amid the ruin Of war"
System Not Fully Tried.
So far as the bankers are concerned,
the most important subject of the day
is the operation OF the federal reserve
act, said President Lynch. Criticism
OF the reserve banks had come from
different sources: from the banks OF
the financial centers, which objected TO
the ABSORPTION by the reserve banks
OF the supply Of bank accoptanccs;
from the small banks in the more re-
mote districts, with complaint that the
requirements for the eligible paper are
too strict and from the member banks
generally protesting against an en-
forced investment which carried no
immediate prospects OF dividends and
on reserve deposits on which no in
terest is paid. To all these directors
no pointed out that conditions for two
years past have been abnormal and
furnished no evidence Of what the
reserve system could do. but that much
had already been accomplished. Bank
acceptances for the first time have
been made possible as credit instru-
ments in connection with the import
and export OF merchandise, the dollar
credit is making its way In South
America and in the Orient, and ma
tional banks are opening branches in
foreign countries.
1.-THE Federal Reserve Act" he said,
has made the financial organization
Of this country possible, and tho pre-
liminary steps to that end have al
ready been taken. This, to my mind,
is the great reason why the bankers
should work with the act and not
against 1t; should try to make It sue
coed, instead Of pointing out defects
which might cause 1t to fail, for in
doing SO, they will have not only
strengthened the banking system but