The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-07-28
TELLS OF TRUST COMPANIES
Started in Banking Business in
Kansas in 1902.
Now Has Backing of Three and
One-HaIf Million.

f. G. Kaths. vice president of the
Bank of Topeka and treasurer of the
PRUDENTIAL Trust company, was the
chief speaker at the noon meeting of
the Rotary club of Topeka today, and
ne was also the chief topic of discus
sion.
Kaths told the Rotarians all about
the organization of trust companies.
how the business is conducted and of
their Importance Gin the business
world. but not before A. J. Carruth,
Jr-, in Introducing him, told the Ro7
tarians everything about Kaths. de-
scIfbing him as a real banker, a real
kotariitu, a real Topekan. a golfer.
bridge fiend and a rafting good fell
low.
His First Name Is Ferdinand.
In the first place" said Carruth,
you should get his name. The first
name is Ferdinand. Ferdinand is
COMMUNICATIONS Funk knows
that. II you care to take it differ
ently-we1l say just before or after
meais-you may describe it as Gothic.
Not Gothic in architecture but Gothic
In origin. From the romantic stand
point there is a world of sentiment
surrounding Ferdinand. In Shake
speare's Loves Labor Lost Ferdinand
was the king of Navarro. You re-
member how he planned to devote his
life to study and literature and then
suddenly he tumbled in love with the
a princess OF france ana ne cast MS
books aside-even as you and I. Then
when Bill Shakespeare wrote the
Tempest he named a son of the king
of Naples Ferdinand. Again we find
the harp of thousand strings be-
cause this boy Ferdinand was the
prime lover of Miranda. From the
guitar playing lover. however. we
find in Webster's Duchess of Malfi'
that Ferdinand was a murderer. AS
the cynical brother of the duchess his
pride was wounded and there is a face
flattened on the barrOom floor. So
you see Ferdinand rolls on sensation
ally thru history"
AS for his second name, Carruth said
Kaths wouldn't give it to him and that
his wife. dutifully prudent. declared
confidentially that one of her wedding
vows was to keep secretly forever her
husbands middle name. Carruth said
however. that she suggested it might
be 'ChuclIle": that his business as
sociates said 1t was Cheerful" but
that by resorting to one of the secrets
of the newspaper profession he had
found that Kaths' middle initial "C'
stood for Christian, which Webster de-
I mes as meaning "a human being as
DISTINGUISHED from one of the lower
animals"
Carruth frankly admitted that he
did not know what Kaths meant, but
he did undertake to tell how it was
pronounced. He said the III" was
silent like the dollar mark in "hotel''
at Ninth and Kansas avenue, and that
it was pronounced "Kats' with the
"a sounding like it does in a society
tomato.
a Prominent Business Man.
The remainder of Carruth's remarks
were given over to Kaths' business
career. which began when he left
Pilot Knob, Mo. his birthplace when
he was only seventeen years old, and
which has carried him from one sue
cess to another each a little higher in
the business world until he is now con-
nected with one of the strongest bark
ing institutions in the middle west and
Is also president of the fourth large st
milling business in the United States
the Larabee Flour Milling corporation
a place he was elected to last June.
Kaths got his first banking expert
ence as clerk in St. Louis and Later
on after a venture in the telephone
business at Indianapolis. borrowed $5i
and came to Kansas in 1902, and will
a friend. started in the banking bust
ness at Claflin. In 1903 he helped II