Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1921-09-07
BANKS ARE BLESSING
Without Them Very Slow
Progress Would Have
Been Made In Community
Development.

says the ohawano Journal, there
was no money. The man who
made the best moccasins. traded
them to the man who could bet
ter catch fish, and the fellow who
could make maple sugar. found
ready trades with the man who
knew how to trap a bear. No
one bought or sold anything, but
all exchange was done through
trades.
Then this business of trading
got too complicated, and some
wise head thought out the plan
OF having some medium of ex-
ehange-money. Shells were us
ed, and at last people had so de-
veloped that they knew how to
dig gold and that became the
universal money. One could keep
his gold free from one year to
another and always it was good
for a purchase price of any COM
modify wanted. Because gold
was as good one time as another.
people began to save up their
gold, and those who did so lad
money.
The time came, when a goodly
proportion of the people had
some gold. not much, but a little,
and each man wanted to save
his own. The Normans believed
there was strength in .union, and
strength was needed in those
days, for the man with the hard
est hitting fist. or the one who
could best swing a club, was the
boss. Out of this necessity of a
union of men TO protect their
gold the Normans planned the
first bank, and from that bank
has come up our present great
banking system.
Even today, people have their
choice in how they shall save
their money. If one wants to
hide his in the wall, he has a
right TO do so, but money in the
wall doesn't pay any interest, and
money in the bank does.
What in the world could we
do in this day and age if it were
not for the banks? We have to
do big things now. Time was,
when the few struggling settlers
cold ford the streams; today we
have to have great concrete
bridges. Once men could pack
their wares on the back of a
mule, and there were so few
people that every body could be
served in this way. But today
we have to have great railway
systems, and even they are crowd
ed to death. And every one of
these big construction enter
prises would have been impossi-
BILE had it not been for the banks.
Ii takes lots of money to do big
things. No one person can right
fully have enough money to
make even the smaller construc-
tions that are necessary in these
DAYS for us TO live. But the
banks bring the money of the
people together, and make pre-
sent day business possible. And
while they are doing this, the
men who have their money
in the banks are getting paid
for it.
How many farms in Wisconsin
could have been developed if it
had not been for the banks? How
many railroads could we have by
now if we had no banks? How
many pure bred cattle could have
been brought into this state or
any other state if there were no
such thing as banks? How many
markets could have been devel-
oped without banks? The banks
have given us a place to sell our
produce; they have given US a
constant supply of money; they
have made the number of poor
and destitute in the country the
backbone of every business, big
and small, that has been devel-
oped. Shawano county, without
her banks, would be fifty years
behind what she is now. Wis
consin without her banks, would
be but a vast expanse of terri
tory. and Northern Wisconsin