The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1919-08-29
BANK HEAD FIRED
For Telling Plain Unvar-
nished Truth.

HlS0eu 1TuLn.
AS a champion of free speech, the
Leader hastens to record the latest
case of free speech victim. This is
the case of man who lost his job
as the result of a speech which he
made. He is not working class
agitator, and he did not deliver his
remarks from the traditional soap
box He is Frank A. Vanderlip, for
ten years president of the National
City Bank of New York, the richest
bank in America. The speech for
which he was "fred" was delivered
BEFORE the members of the Economic
Club of New York City.
In his dignified speech before this
digniied club. Mr. Vanderlip very
frankly gave his views of world con-
ditions. He described the world torn
by chaos, strife and famine, a world
tottering on the brink of still worse
disasters It's terribly sick world,
he said, world Frustrated economic
ally and delirious socially. It was a
very pessimistic speech, yet in the
main it was truce speech
The effect of Mr.. Vanderlip's re-
marks was calculated to shake that
confidence which is so important to
the schemes of those who control the
vgn,,ldtc f,ua,,n;aI o..oJ;4 NJ. Xy.-1a-.
lip had been making some plain talks
before, setting forth some gravely crit
ical nature of world-conditions follow
ing the war; but this speech was the
final and insupportable straw. The
National City Bank asked for Mr..
Vanderlip's resignation As the Wall
Street Journal, leading financial or
gan, put it: How could the National
City Company, one of the great bond
distributing organizations Of the coun-
try, accept to sell securities if the
world was as sick as Mr.. Vanderlip
said it was %
High finance has forcibly rebuked
Mr. Vanderlip for telling the truth,
for no one can dispute the accuracy
of his diagnosis of sick world Pre-
sumably the National City Bank of
New York does not dispute it; what
this banking institution objects to is
Mr.. Vanderlip's departure from the
customary finesse of finance iii blurt-
| ing out the naked and horrid truth.
What Mr. Vanderlip should have said
is that everything is all right with
the world, and thus the sale of secu-
rites would have been smoothly facil-
itated.
Mr. Yanderlip once called America
nation of economic illiterates. If
by that is meant that the majority of
the people do not comprehend, save
in the vaguest sort of way, the work,
ings of the system under which they
struggle from day to day, the phrase
is an apt one. Many capitalists are
economic illiterates," whose percep-
tion does not go beyond their own
immediate field of exploitation Abil-
ity to sell bonds, for instance, does not
imply a profound knowledge of eco
nomic use and effect
The men who control the financial
activities of the National City Bank
are perhaps not so soundly informed
or so shrewdly observant as Mr. VAN
derlip They may refuse to believe
that the world is really sick-or con-
sole themselves, at the worst, with
the thought that it is but mild and
passing illness. Hence Mr. Wander
lips unfiinching analysis is an affront
to them Maybe he has shaken their
own confidence little as well as that
Of the public He has talked the pos
sibility of revolution quite calmly He
has declared that great changes are
| setting in and that the masters OF
| the world must prepare to meet their
creator, Labor, face to face and bear
meekly the judgment that comes from
his stern lips That was quite enough
| And his Economic Club speech was
more than enough Now, with Mr..
Bank, the world is well enough and
Vanderlip out of the National City
the security-selling gentlemen, free
from uneasy counsels, may return to
their sandpiles and there curl them
/ oalvas in aarana content