The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1919-08-21
Chicago Banker Says That
Character and Not Proper
ty Is Best Collateral
For Borrower.
LAYMAN TALKS TO LAYME n
Henry Henschen Gives New Meaning
To the Business Of Banking In q
Speech At the Summer
vesper Forum.

A banker preached a sermon at the
Park Avenue Methodist Church on Sum
day evening. Being a layman, he re-
fused to be ministerial by emitting the
usual introduction Ny text for this
evening will be found and so forth
and so forth; but being Methodist,
he insisted on witnessing for the
faith +" to the extent Of quoting some
little scripture and of reading a spirit
ual significance into the routine duties
! of secular life.
The banker was Henry S. Henschen,
yice-p president of the State Bank of
Chicago. His theme was Character
and Credit, His auditors were attend
ants at the fifth session of the Summer
/ Vesper Forum now being conducted by
the Park Avenue Methodist Church.
/ In introducing his theme, Mr.. Hen
sehen said:
I am going to talk tonight about
business, a pursuit in life the primary
purpose of which is to make money.
In that it differs from the professions.
A doctor, a painter, minister, or
singer like Caruso, works for his art s
sake or for the advancement of mis-
sion General Pershing conducts cam
paigns to protect life and democracy
and not to make money. President
Wilson administers weighty affairs Of
state and negotiates world-treaties to
safeguard the liberties of Americans
and mankind and not to make money.
The historian does not ask whether
Abraham Lincoln was rich Or poor in
determining his place in the history of
the world; Abraham Lincoln was not
working to make money. But money
/ is the chief product of business and
business men work to make money.
| "A banker is a business man., he
continued. You might think that his
life is hopelessly sordid and unspiritual.
But-after all-there is in all the
world no finer example Of faith among
men than the relation existing between
banker and his depositors Dollars
revile them az you may-represent re-
spectability, happiness, education in
youth, comforts in age, and most of the
other pleasures generally considered
worth ones while. These are the
things that depositor entrusts to his
banker
/ In explaining further this relation
ship between the banker and his depo-
sitors Mr.. Henschen declared that It
was based upon neither property nor
ability but character.
" A good banker, he said, does
not need brilliancy, but he must have
integrity. He must be sexupulously on
the square if men are to entrust to him
the dearest things in life. A bank
makes good man better. It forces a
bad man to hide his evil ways or change
them. Many a man has been turned
from dishonesty by the frown of q
banker, who would have scoffed at the
admonition of bishop. And whys
Because sooner or later he learns that
character is collateral and that his bor-
rowing power is based not On his prop
erty or his ability but upon his per
sonal integrity not only in church on
Sunday night but in business and in
dustry on every day of the week.
BY way OF emphasizing the latter
point the banker told several stories
taken from the history of his bank in
Chicago in which men Of property had
been refused loans because they lacked
integrity, while men of 10 property aud
little ability, apparently, had been
granted large leans on no other col
lateral than an irreproachable character,
All Of which. - he concluded, ssis
not at all new under the sun. It was
said some several years ago by a sage
who gave me my first inspiration in this
direction, a man who declared--listen
carefully; for this is my text Godli-
ness is profitable unto all things. hav-
ing promise Of that which now is and
of that which is to come. The sage
was solomon. The quotation will be
found somewhere in the book Of Prov
cribs. | thank you for your kindness in
listening so attentively to a sermon by
la layman.
The Summer Forum speaker for next
Sunday evening will be Gilbert Love
land of Chicago. He will present an
Illustrated lecture on the topic ssThe
Vision of the World. =