Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-06-14
Virginia Bankers
Urged to Unite in
Research Program
Convention Speaker Rec
ommends Move as Aid
to Better Business
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
OLD POINT COMFORT, Va, June
13.-ThomaS c. Boushall, president Of
the Morris Plan Bank of Virginia, to-
day urged the Virginia Bankers Asso-
citation, in session here, to authorize
means for undertaking an organized
five-year program of banking research,
which, he asserted, would result in
mutual protection for both bank and
customer.
Should the association advance the
plan which has been under considera-
ton for some time as a project, in con-
junction with the University of Vir-
GINA, bankers of Virginia would be
pioneers in the field of banking re-
search Mr.. BouShan was confident
that such an investigation would re-
ward Virginia banking institutions not
alone with pioneering honors, but also
in dollars and dividends.
Mentions Four Fields.
Expressing the opinion Of the Asso-
ciaticn Research Committee, of which
he is chairman, Mr.. Boushall said
that in four specific fields there lies
the potentiality of great good to men,
bers of the association. He said such
research program would determine
the cause of bank failures in. Virginia
in the past and the means of their re-
duction and eventual elimination In
the future; the causes of commercial
or business failures in Virginia in the
past and the means of reducing these
failures generally and OF eliminating
bank participation In such failures
specifically; the causes that create
profitable and improbable bank man.
agement in Virginia and to the end
~. H.v1f-
versally applied; new sources Of bank
profit from new services Of banks In
Virginia.
The speaker pointed out that bank
er's experience tells him that a bank
failure in Virginia, no matter where OF
of what size, sends seismic tremor
across the street or across the State
to his own front door. OF necessity, he
said, each banker must readJust his
position in cash on hand, reserves and
immediate credit extensions until he
sees what effect the reverberation in
a distant or adjacent community has
upon his own clientele.
Processes Slowed Down.
LET this occur 10 times, as it did
last year in Virginia, or threaten us
from across the border as happened to
log North Carolina banks, and every
banker in this association must look
to his whole program, slow down his
whole processes and stand by in COM
paratively improbable idlenesS until
the skies have cleared and the public 1
again complacent," Mr.. Boushan said
He added that the committee did moi
know how to eliminate failures. II
believes. however" he continued. thai
research into the causes that lie be-
hind the statistics of the 19 failures
in 1880 and Of other failures In Other
years can bring to light actual fact:
that when properly interpreted and pre-.
sented promptly to you in clear and
concise written form for your guidance
individually, for this associations con-
sheraton collectively, for Legislative
action specifically and for the saliva.
ton of banks in Virginia generally vii
bring about results that will in large
measure lift from you in the future
the burden that bank failures have In
voluntarily imposed upon you and upor
the people of this State in the past.
| All Virginia bankers, he said, are i'm
mensely interested in the commercial
business and agricultural failures tina
occur in the State. In the opinion o
the Research Committee, the proposed
| Virginia research would quickly show
each banker how to save himself iron
| participating in O great many OF thu
business failures and actually, in SOM
| cases, perhaps, prevent the failure.