The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-02-11
A PERSONAL GLIMPSE
 OF A POPULAR BANKER

A personal sketch of J H. Barr, chair man of the board of directors of the First National bank, appears in this months issue of the banks magazine, "Sixty-One-One." The facts set forth are Iof such general interest to the public that the sketch is here given in full:
 "The difficulty of obtaining personal data from MT. Barr for publication is proverbial. Data he will furnish, cer- tainly, if consistently importuned, the exact date of his birth. of his coming to Birmingham, and of the successive promotions by which he ascended step by step from clerkship in a Columbia
 Tenn, bank. to his present position as chairman of the board of the largest in- stitution in the district-mere tables of figures, as interesting to the average lay man as the statistics of an insurance company. Pressed for more than this, he will smile quizzically, and assure you that he has never done anything suffi- ciently spectacular to interest the public that he has been just an ordinary work ing man all his life.
 That he has done his work well, how ever, without becoming a mere machine, is attested by these same statistics, from which we learn that he came from the First National bank of Columbia, Tenn, to the First National bank of Brming- ham, Ala, bookkeeper in 1886; in the fall of 1889 he was made cashier of the Central Savings bank. later serving in the same capacity with the City National and Berney National banks During the summer of 1898 he returned to the First National bank of Birmingham as assist ant cashier being elected cashier in 1900. The following spring he became a direc- tor, and in 1902 was made vice president which position he filled most acceptably until June, 1914. when, upon the resigna- tion of Mir. Harding to accept a posi- tion on the federal reserve board, he sue ceeded to the presidency.
 "Upcn his election as President. one Of his Presbyterian friends rerna rlSed that MT. Barr was horn and predestined to be banker, and the manner in which he handled the arduous and difficult prob lems that almost hourly confronted him in those strenuous days lends color to this theory. Handicapped at the outset by insufficient assistance. with characteristic soundness of judement. and executive ability amounting to positive genius. he patiently worked his way through diff culties that again and again seemed over
 
 l largely explains why the scope of his work at that time was so little under stood and appreciated locally: reference to newspaper files. however. if, indeed anyone has forgotten the hideous night mare following the announcement that war had actually burst forth like con- f1agration in Europe, will vididly recall the abnormal conditions instantly reflect ed in our own countryside closing of stock exchanges. depreciation of securi- ties. utter demoralzation in financial and business circles demands that script he
 issued or a moratorium declared. or both while the south stifed under bumper crop of cotton for which there was no market with panic as the key note.
 "The government recognizinS the exi- gency of the situation. immediately set in motion the machinery authorized un- der the provisions of the Aldrich-V -Vreeland act for issuing emergency currency, the National Currency association became ac- tive, and MT. Barr was chosen as presi- dent of the Alabama branch. Eastern fnanciers had interested themselves in the cotton situation which had become acute, and had pooled fund for distri- button through banking channels. and in addition to the multitudinous duties al- ready pressing heavily upon him, MT. Barr was named as chairman of the Alabama Cotton Loan committee. Local conditions were. meanwhile becoming more complex, but the conviction that somehow each problem would be taken care of was occasionally voiced in a com placent, "Oh. well. we are all right as long as Barr sits tight on the lid" these complacent ones little dreaming that the silent man who smiled rather mirthlessly at the frequent advice to cut out business