The Washington times., 1919-10-20
Boersianer's
Comment
on Business
ny BOERsIANER.

by the unwonted posters and board
sign of shop situated between
shoe store and booth where miscel-
laneous articles are sold.
Not that the specific posters and
sign are contrastingly modest and
refined, among the, vociferous boards
along the strand. They are quite as
shrill as the others. Their appeal.
however, is different. While all other
emblems OF trade loudly call to you
to spend your money, these demand
hat you save your money by invest
ing it.
One poster. musical comedyhsil-
nouette, depicts a very attractive
girl-of the show girl type-sprin-
king plants labeled Bonds" Be-
neath, the words: Make your invest
ments grow. through the regular pur-
chase of high-grade securities" The
other poster-more serious--has the
forain touch, colorful and striking.
10 the left the skeleton of high
structure, upon which are placards,
Men Wanted" To the right, the
,aymaster's window. from thence q
queue of laborers, banked by wives
and children. Below, the inscription:
Your dollar has not deprecated in
purchasing power as applied to bonds
.'oday's yields are in keeping with
he high cost of labor and commodi-
ties."
NSubscription Solicited.
Between these vivid pictures, a
5olicitation I'm enameled letters a la
afe bill of fare) running the length
OF the long window. Your subscrip-
tion to an oil stock is collected, to a
1 per cent cumulative preferred issue;
earnings are seven and one-half times
he dividend requirement. What sort
Of concern is this?
Whose shares are these offered.
there, the liveliest resort in the world.
| on an endless promenade whose key
note is pleasure that borders on
profiigacy? The Fleecem Investment
company? The Sandhole Oil Com
pany, Nevada?
1t is none other than the National
| City Company, and the stock offered
IS that of the Standard Oil Company
)f New Jersey. To make sure Ito
win your confidence in this boardwalk
| shop) there are two large iIIuminabIe
| steel embossed pictures of the Ma
ional City Bank building in the walls
1T either side of the entrance.
The moral and Significance? They
are in the highest degree important:
marking as they do the wide differ
"
'ervative way of banking Il. the old
lays. and the helpful, progressive
Methods Of today.
Would Have Thought Hin Md.
Had some one suggested to any of
Mr.. Stillman's early, predecessors to
advertise the National City Bank. the
remote president had probably
| thought the man mad. IL the presi-
lent were sure of the proposer's san
ty, he had felt outraged. The banker
II the old school was an aristocrat in
hat the depositor and investor must
solicit the banker, never the banker,
he depositor. and investor.
The banker conferred favor upoh
! the depositor by opening an account
with him. The average investor was
highly privileged when the high finan-
,ier designed to advise on an invest
nent. Finance banking, promotion,
1T investmentSwas an esoteric science
IN which only the comparatively few
we're proficient and these few clung
% tradition and prerogative with
feudal pride and tenacity. When any
one openly solicited, by speech or
handbifI, the general public for any
thing financial he was put down. by
the banking profession a charlatan
and swindler-which, unfortunately.
We proved to be, ninety-nine cases out
of hundred.
Genesis OF Change.
The genesis of the change from the
old order to the new is obscure and
uncertain. Perhaps their dcrivations
are ethical. 1t was held that nobody
became insolvent who ought not to be
| insolvent, and that IL he did not make
finance everything. it would make
| finance was narrow, inexorable and all
absorbing: so slavishly circumscrfbed
| that the present telescopic apprecia.
| ton Of distant gain was unknown.
| The thing in hand was the only thing
| to strive for.
Perhaps the change was forced bv
creeping competition. Whatever the
-ause. it was gradual to impercepti-
bility.
The initial manifestation was the
activity Of Junior officers, who be-
came the hand-shaking section OF the
banks staff. They were affable. In
time affability graduated to direc'
| solicitation. Accounts were solicited
Advice was volunteered. Securities
| were recommended. Bond houses
caught the cue. These had their minor
partners call on investors in the city.
| Later, out-of-town investors were
called on. From this to the bond
| salesman making" distant towns and
cities was a quick and natural transit
| tion.
Results Satisfactory.
The results were quite satisfactory,
though ii shocked the propriety Of
| the rock-ribbed Bourbons. Yet they
did not wholly satisfy the energetic
and ambitious Junior members. AS
| the display advertisement idea orig
| mated with a rather small retail dry
goods merchant in Chicago, so the
| financial advertisement, as we now
| have IL, was conceived and put into
practice by a relatively unimportant
| bond house in New York which os-
fered an inconsiderable allotment of
| a municipal issue.
Although the innovation made the
| judicious grieve, II was eagerly emu
lated and improved upon by the
younger element.