The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1919-02-27
The Banker and Mining

ercised bankers lien, taken the de,
posit that happened 10 be there L
cancel the loan and say, I'VE are
sorry. Go ahead and work yourseli
out." l have known of several in.
stances where the banks have refrain
ed from doing that, and have put their
shoulders to the wheel, and have car
fried the undertaking to a sound reor-
ganization. Most people think that
the banks lend against collateral en-
tirely. That is false idea, The CON-
mercial banks, very few of them, lend
against collateral, The banks loan
against the statement of men in whom
they have gained confidence and whom
they trust
1 So far as the duty of the client
goes, lido not know that l can blame
lall bankers, Mr.. Chairman, for meas
uring every line of effort with the
same yardstick. There are few bust
ness men who realize the value of
one asset that they have got. There
are very few of them that will take
the trouble to educate their banker in
their particular line of business, and
by educating him unconsciously make
him become interested in their prob
lens. A number of people resent even
the questions that their bankers ask,
don't know exactly why; but there
is no more valuable asset that any
business man has, Il will say over
again, than that of forcing his bank
or to know his business and to I'M
consciously become interested in his
problems. SO much for the duty of
the client
The banks of the country have re-
Gently given evidence of their attitude
toward mining in the large flotation
of the bonds by the Anaconda The
banks of this community have given
evidence of their attitude toward min
ing investments in connection with
such companies as the Nationals COM
pany and the General Petroleum cor
poration. The type of mine that my
friend over here represents, if it ever
needed money, would have no difficult
ty In getting it; and the type of mine
that all of you gentlemen represent
II you run along the same lines. You
never had any difficulty in getting
money from your bankers, and you
never will; but the banker can not
loan it's funds to exploit or develop
mining enterprise, whether it be gold
or oil or what it may be; but the in
dividual who wants to exploit that
particular prospect, if those individu-
ais are known to have the expert
knowledge, If they have formed a
habit of telling the truth and keeping
their word, they can he helped, and
they have been helped in the past;
and there are men in this room who
can testify to the fact.
The problem that confronts us in
the future is a difficult one. / have no
solution for it. 1t is extremely inter-
esting to me to sit down and listen to
the guesses of the men who have
solutions for them. They are no bet
ter than guesses. Some of them are
guesses.> The situation in
which we stand today is one where
we have got to pick up each day as it
comes and solve the problems of that
day, and to keep our heads, keep our
courage, and exercise our usual COM
mon sense We have successfully
solved the problems of the past; we
may have made a good deal of noise
about 1t and made lot of waste, but
we have solved them, and l think we
will solve the problems of the future
in the same way. I hope and pray
that men who have the influence
that you gentlemen have will make it
known in no uncertain terms that this
country was made through personal
and we want to get back to
personal Initiative as quickly as we
can. The demands on the government
for all sorts Of expenditures and COM
missions for reconstruction problems
are lnSlStent, SOife VI tliSHl souilu,
logical; some Of them should be un-
dertaken; but the government has got
to be made to understand that it has
got to live inside Of it's income, and
live inside of an income that the bus
mess man can contribute without par
alyzing his business. You gentlemen
are interested in the thing that inter-
ests the whole people, and that is to
see the dollar get back to it's purchas-
ing power The expenditures of the
government during the war have ex-
ceeded the amount that can be raised
by taxation or by loans from the ac-
tual savings of the people. The ex-
penditures have been upon scale
that has never yet been attempted;
so; and because the OBJ
ject that we were trying to attain
was so high up--hung up so high that
everybody could see 1T and understand
1.-THE population got back of it, and
had no patience with the theorist or
the politician or anyone who objected
or tried to work against 1t. The peo-
pie could see the object and they went
for it. But we were forced into a po-
sition where we had to spend money
a. s1l.