The Washington times., 1922-09-30
Dy7s1s IONS St4#H##Ps 4H#Ps BUSINESS AND Fl NANCE. &E
FINANCE
IN
BY b. c. FORBES.

The real Money Power Oh
America is gathering in New YORK
this weekend.
At the beginning of the week
there will be assembled under one
roof the greatest collection of money
kings ever seen in this or any
other land. Some seven thousand
bankers from every corner OF the
continent are assembling for the an
nual convention OF the American
Bankers Association. These are
the men who really control Amer
ica's purse-strings.
Two speeches will be listened to
with special interest.
The most notable figure at the
gathering will be the head of the
largest bank in the world. Reginald
McKenna, formerly chancellor Of
the British exchequer, and now
chairman OF the Joint City & Mid
land Bank OF London. This insti-
tuition has about three times as
much deposits as even the largest
bank in the United States: II has
l. 500 branches; II has more than
SO. 900 shareholders. y
Mr.. McKenna is the ablest chan
cellor OF exchequer Britain has had
since the DAYS of Joseph Chamber
lain. He was picked for his present
Job by his predecessor, Sir Edward
Holden. the genial veteran who &C
companied Lord Reading to the
United States to raise the first
Anglo French war loan S500,000, ,0OOl
in this country. Britain owes her
sound financial position today in
large measure to the course insisted
upon by McKenna during 1915-l916
when he was at the head of the
British treasury. Unlike Germany's
to follow the easy but disaster
taxation.
What McKenna has to say should
interest the whole country.
The most active Morgan partner.
Thomas w. Lamont will also attract
lot of notice when he gets up to
discourse on THE American Bankers 9
Responsibility" AS chairman of the
local receptio ncommittee, MIR. La
mont will lead off the proceedings by
welcoming the visiting bankers 10
New York.
understand that Mr.. Lamont has
taken unusual pains to prepare a
worthwhile address. He Is espe-
cially fitted to size up the world
conditions Of today, for he has trav.
| eled abroad perhaps more than any
| other American banker, and has
been in the inside Of things in
various countries, both in Europe
and the Orient.
The most interesting figure of the
| thousands attending the bankers
| convention will be George +. Baker.
Mr. Baker. l am told, IL the only
surviving charter member, having
been one of the seventeen bankers
who founded the organization which
developed into the American Bank.
ers' Association OF today, with its
22.17S members. Appropriately
enough, Mr.. Bakers bank IL the
First National Bank of New York.
| Although the most powerful finan-
Cial magnate OF them all. Mr.. Baker
has kept inordinately In the back.
| ground. While | don't know, | do
not believe he has ever made an
address at an A. b. A. convention.
Incidentally. he will probably be the
| oldest banker in attendance lie is
Do YOU remember the little story
7 wrote about Jerry and his team
Of Alaskan dogs away up near the
Top OF the Sierra Nevada mountains,
about how the dogs whined and
cried, and how Jerry broke down,
when he went to say Rood.by to them
as he was about to leave for a trip
| down to civilization for the first time
in nearly two years? That simple
little tale appears to have been more
widely read and more widely repro.
duCed than anything else / wrote
during my travels I'm the West.
And now there's sequel.
/ have received a letter from a
leading investment banker in Los
| Angeles in which he says:
Il have just returned from a va
cation in the Huntington Lake
country and was introduced to
Jerry and his dogs. You will be
| interested to know that the Fresno
County Chamber OF Commerce is
| holding a fair next week. They
have asked the Edison Company TO
send the dogs down, and the Edi,
| son Company have, Of course, con
sented to do so. 1t develops. how.
| ever, that the weather Is so hot
i'm the valley that 1t is necessary
to send the dogs in a refrigcra tor
car and to keep them in tent
literally supplied with ice and cleo
trio fans"
Yesterday mornings sharp break
in sterling was interpreted as re-
! flecting genuine alarm on both
sides. of the Atlantic over the
Turks defiance of the other pow.
! ers, including Great Britain.
It would be well to remember,
however, that ii is normal for
| sterling rates to move downward
at this season, when Europe starts
buying so much grain and cotton
from us.
Gambling on the bear side Of
sterling is rather more dangerous
than gambling on the bear side ri
! German marks.
Mustapha Kemals bloodthirstN
horde, now fanatically flushed with
victory over the Greeks, are likely
| TO receive a rude awakening should
they force Britain TO unleash her
I air fleet armed with bombs and
| other fiendish contraptions for
!