The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1917-01-09
AN AID TO PROSPERITY.
Federal Reserve Act Praised BY Boston
Banker.

.
eral Trust Co., tells of the great aid Civ
, en- toward the prosperity of the country
by the federal reserve act. He writes:
"The federal reserve act has been II
operation now over year and even those
doleful comforters who predicted ruin
and trouble from its inception are will
ing to admit that there may 'be some
good in It, Its work has been so smooth
it has hardly caused ripple on the bust
ness of the country. Had it not been
enacted when it was, some drastic meas
ure of temporary expediency would prob.
ably have been formed, or some meas
ures sanctioned by expediency If not by
law made use of TO tide us over a tenn
porary disaster.
Business men almost to man admit
that with the horrible war now going on
in Europe, we were facing the greatest
financial danger this country ever saw.
Under the operation of this act all trou-
BILE has been avoided, and business has
gone increasing by leaps and bounds and
| its needs financed by the banks of the
country without resorting to rates for
money that caused the financiers of the
country TO be denounced as usurers and
| extorters.
"This system is only in its infancy,
and when all the banks, national and
| state, are gathered into it, its good eff
feet will be more fully appreciated. The
state banks should become members OF
this system. So smoothly has it operat-
ed that its merits are not appreciated.
When our national board of trade was
visiting Europe before the war, ban
quet was given them at Paris, and one of
the managers of the Bank of France de-
clared that we now had the basis of the
best financial system in the world. 1t
has made known to us, as the war dem
onstrated in Europe, that credits or
standard mediums of exchange are what
rs needed with only real money enough
to settle balances when settlements are
needed. A glance at the enormous deal
ings of the clearing houses demonstrated
this to all. The greater the membership
in the system the greater the benefits
accrue to the business of the country.
"There are still some who object to the
system, believing the banks should CON
troll the banking system. They never
have controlled it as they wished, and
they never will, and there will be rail
road to Mars before such control will be |
granted. 1t is power the country new !
er win put into the hands entirely of |
special interests. So why repine. Take |
things as they are and in true Yankee |
fashion make use of them for the great /
est good of all. Let not the banks act I
as break to its progress, nor the bust |
ness be deluded into the belief that ,
things are not as good as some grabbed /
old bank fossils think they could make .
them. They are as good as they are and
as the average business man needs only
to know what the conditions are likely
to be. to guide his course successfully,
let them Judge the future by the opera
tons of the past two years and he will L
have all the encouragement he needs to
proceed conseryatively along construc-
tive lines. The time has gone by when
a pedigree and right divine were neces-
sary to become either a stakeholder, a
1epositor or borrower in a bank. The
average citizen has discovered that the
average bank man exercises the same
methods as he would in business, and
while il was once considered bad form to
advertise a bank, to-day it is as matter
If fact as advertising any other line of
with the influx of different peoples
rom various countries the newer corners
rave gained admittance to the charmed
'ircle only to find it was an ordinary
ircle, peopled by ordinary mortals after
H.
"The bank that had to know your pedi-
LaF
hen took it as only favor to you has !
,assed into oblivion, and now all seek by |
very honorable method TO add to the G
ist OF their depositors and increase their J
eposits.
THE man with good security who Q
TODD with hat in hand waiting the favor !
f the autoerat of credits to give him
n interview, and when he got it usually
eceived il as favor from some superior 4
over, now finds a change of scene with 2
ew men and new methods and his right !
o borrow under equal conditions, the \
anne as any other man. He sees now I
hat a mutual obligation exists between I
imself and the bank and mutual favor II
8 well. This change has been going on
Or some years, but has received an i'm I
lense impetus under the federal reserve +
ct. In France the right of the small Q
orrower was as good as the right of the d
Irge one.
"Much has been done already by the v
,deral reserve system to establish con o
dence, and as that confidence increases, n
e-third of the money carried around n
the pockets of the people will find its A
ay into the banks and go to work, for ,
this country we should have no drones n
possible, either in men or things.
If then these things have been Guilt
lted by the reserve act, it would seem =
ghly desirable that the state banks and y
ust companies should be enrolled under Is
The state banks may have to give up r,
me minor privileges they now enjoy, ~
1T these would be Offset by the priv q
sge of membership and the privileges II
hich the great system would give them.
Besides, if history teaches anything, n
is that two systems will not long be OF
lerated. The national bank system X
as opposed by the state banks more co
renuously than the reserve system, but tie
st so surely as the whole is greater -
nm any mart ~ cureiv II would saem