New Britain herald., 1923-12-14
NATIONAL BANKS
 NEED PROTECTION
Appeal Is Made by Dawes in His
 Annual Report

Washington, Dec 14.-Henry NJ
 made ali open appeal to the countr
 in his annual report today for tn
 preservation and protection of tn
 national banks.
 The national banking system, h. said, deserves more consideration thal 1t recently has received. He insisted that it is now question for congress to decide whether the several un. favorable factors bearing on the sys tenn shall continue or whether ''wt shall sit idly by and apatheticalls watch it's retrogration."
 One of the principal influences cited by Mir. Dawes was the persistent sug- gestion" that the office of comptrolleI of the currency be abolished. Another factor characterized as equally inn portant is the agitation over branch banking.
 The comptroller MT. Dawes assert ed, possesses many powers susceptible of arbitrary and rigid enforcement, hut lie declared it is not now policy and never has been to employ them in any way that would not further the banking interests of the country. He declared the comptroller always should act as a coordinator and use his broad powers only for the specific purpose of seeing that the affairs of the national banks are administered in accordance with the laws and to protect the national institutions from l., -l-s. ests against whom they have been powerless because of federal limita- tions.
 The office of the comptroller Of the currency has to be organized for quick and summary decisions" said MT, Dawes. A mob of depositors is never complaCent enough to await the deliberations of a town meeting II the federal reserve board is com posed Of the men of ability and force of characted that has typified this board in the past, each member, in self respect, will insist on expressing himself and impressing his personality on any proposed methods for relief, and the fire wagon. If it arrives at all, will approach in orderly and dig niled fashion long after the last wisps of smoke have tioated away and the ashes cooled. This statement would still be made if absolute assurance could be given that the ablest men in the world would always sit on this board. Boards is boards
 T cannot resist feeling little short of resentment that so many sug- gestions and so many tendencies seem directed along lines prejudicial to the national banking system. If we are to have a national banking system over which the government exercises su- psrvisory control, that control must be in the hands of an independent executive and not the representative of a preferential creditor. The only fair and only logical thing to do is either to continue the present system with an independent comptroller or abolish the system entirely. A man cannot serve two masters, and a trustee who will act for two conflict ing interests is ipso facto incompetent either mentally or morally"
 The branch banking problem. the comptroller said. presents a clean cut issue as 10 whether the country pre- fers system of privately owned branch banks or a reserve system under federal control. The question. he added, was interwoyen both with the life Of the federal reserve system and the life of the national banks which are compelled by the federal reserve act to retain membership in the reserve system.
 Branch banking, the comptroller asserted, was essentially monopolistic and he added that to assume that half a dozen or a dozen state bankers would not have some mutuality Of | action in states where they controlled l a large portion Of the banking iterests 1