The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1916-09-28
SAYS BANKERS SHOULD WORK
WORK FOR SUCCESS OF RE-
SERVE BANKS.
IS FOR PAREONESS
AS A Nation we Have Grown Rich,
Fat and Soft. Most Tempting
Prize Under the Broad Canopy of
Heaven.

Kansas City, Mo. Sept. 2s.-The
American Bankers Association, whose
membership has during the past 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 a govern
ment," he said, rs to provide ade-
quate defense for the country govern
ed, and how shamefully this purpose
has been neglected under one admin
istration after another is a familiar
tale.
eve are given to boasting of our
size, but when we are no longer capa-
BILE of feeling pin pricks in our feet.
are we not too large. For years our
citizens in Mexico have been subjected
to murder and the most unreliable out
rage, and the national consciousness
is barely aroused. Not In Mexico alone
but within our own borders as well as
on the high seas, have our people on
their lawful vocations been done to
death while the nation has slumbered
or murmured feebly in its sleep.
"As a 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 If we as a nation are sick, IL
is as individuals that we must supply
the cure. Congress does not lead, but
follows public opinion. First of all,
we need cooperation, team work, the
things that win any kind of human
endeavor, and to secure this there is
nothing quite so good as universal
military training which arouses ma
| tional feeiag and national conscious
ness as nothing else can do.
an the task of vitalizing the ma
tion, the most important agency is the
press, which informs, instructs, ad-
vises, admonishes the people. 1t i'll be-
comes one ignorant OF the difficulties
encountered in collecting and distribut-
ing the news, to criticize the apparent
failures or deficiencies, but is It too
much to ask of our papers that they
take the larger view of our national
affairs and help in the difficult task
which is before us, and to ask Of our
people that they discriminate between
the varying grades Of ability and in
tegrity with which the work IS done?
'If our people can rise to the heights
of citizenship that the times demand,
the work that must be done can be
accomplished peacefully and in order
but IL they will not learn from the
bitter experience OF our kin across the
sea, the reformation will be worked
out amid the ruin of war"
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 diff
ferent sources: from the banks OF the
financial centers, which object TO the
absorption by the reserve banks OF the
supply OF bank acceptances; from the
small banks in the more remote dis
tricts, with complaint that the re-
quirements 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
he pointed out that conditions for two
years past have been abnormal and
furnished no evidence OF what the re-
serve 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