Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-08-28
The Haskin Letter
By
]. X
BANKERS GO INTO TRADE

of business, and banks in every state
have found themselves in actual pos
session of goods because the notes
which the goods secured could not be
paid.
The great New York banks have
even found it necessary to establish
separate merchandising departments
and at least one New York banking
institution has what almost amounts
to a department store, so many kinds
of goods has it come into possession
Of through defaulted loans. 1t main
tains a staff of statesmen to sell
shoes, automobiles, hairpins, steam
shovels. chemicals and a wide variety
of other commodities.
A notably curious example of this
bank merchandising took place in New
York when the depression was at it's
worst. One of the larger manufac-
turers of sweet chocolate was forced
by the business situation into a posi-
ton where it could not meet promptly
a note for some $4,000, 900 which was
secured by the product of the plant.
When the loan was made, the bank
merely named the product as a mat
ter of form. The result was that
could not pay, this bank found itself
in the possession of what to any
American small boy would seem the
greatest treasure of which the hu-
man mind could dream-S2.O 600, 900
worth of savory and succulent sweet
chocolate. all done up in tin foil pack
ages of 5 and 10 cent sizes.
Unloading Candy
In the slang of trade, the bank was
stuck if ever a bank was. What a
bank could do with $4,000, 900 worth
of sweet chocolate was too much for
the staff of competent financiers at
the head of the institution. First
they turned to the usual channels of
trade, the jobbers and wholesalers.
There was no market; the stores were
not buying chocolate. They were
stocked up.
Finally, in despair. some brilliant
executive of the bank conceived an
idea. He thought of the army of the
unemployed concerning which there had
been much publicity. He realized that
while it would be hard to sell anyone
s., 100000 worth of chocolate. he might
sell ) or 10 cents worth at q time.
He arranged with employment agen-
cies and through want ads for work
ers. Within a short time, literally
thousands of people. out of work be-
cause Of the depression, and eager to
do anything, were standing IN the
street corners of New York offering
sweet chocolates for sale at cut
rates. The bank took on anybody
that would turn up. The metropolis
was thronged with statesmen waving
punches of the toothsome sweet at the
passing crowds. One could not walk
down the streets without being offered
sweet chocolate-as little or as much
as might be wanted.
1t took only a few weeks. The public
was accustomed to buying IN occasional
bar of chocolate at a newsstand or al
a candy store. In such normal times
the desire on the part of the customer
created the sale. Here things were re-
versed. The chocolate came TO The
customer. 1t met him in the subway,
on the elevated, in theater lobbies, on
every street cOrner, in short it was
next to impossible t walk a block
without being offered chocolate at a
bargain. 1t was inevitable that the
! psychology of the situation succeeded
in selling the sweetmeat. New York
surrendered. Its millions of people
/ bought the chocolate in ) and 10 cent
lots. The bank got out with little if
any loss and employment had been
given for a brief period to many
people.
Instances could be multiplied. A
great Chicago bank became an ex-
porter of food products. so much of
this sort of security came into its
possession. 1t sent great shiploads of
goods abroad. Other banks became
auctiOneers.
Those times are passed. The gov
crnment figures show that liquida-
| tion-the paying up of loans-is
practically complete and the banks are
in perhaps a stronger position than
ever before in their history. But
thousands of bankers have learned
that banking is not always n mahog-
any desk and marble counter job
Some bankers get into the fur bust
ness whether they want to or not.