The Waterbury Democrat., 1933-03-02
Henry Ford Gives An Interview About
 Banking Situation
Still Insists There Should Be Two Kinds of Banking In One DepositOrs Would Ask No Interest and Money Would Not Be Loaned - Second One
 Would Require Interest and Loans Could Be Made

vised me. We are ready to proceed provided they can do as they agreed.
 '1 want to make my position clear. I was not keen about going into the banking business. 1 am an automobile manufacturer. My position and my ideas regarding banking are well known. But when 1 was repeatedly asked to create these new banks 1 decided to do so. If obstacles develop, if condi- tions change or attitudes are switched, 1 still retain my posi- tion. I stand for g. balanced bank ing situation in Detroit. My inter- est in seeing that such a position is maintained in Detroit will re- main unabated regardless of what may arise tomorrow or later in re- gard to my plan to establish two new banks in this city"
 Commercial Detroit frankly re- garded the situation as one 1T which the old line eastern bank ing interests, the so-called Wal street banks" are bitterly fighting to prevent Ford from becoming the dominant banking power o1 the Detroit area.
 America needs simplified bank ing" said Ford. During what call the croZy age in America when all sense of values was distorted in the scramble to get money by speculation and not by work, toe many banking directorates were apparently selected on a country club basis and ce-presidents on hni cfrn trt Banking needs men and has al sense of the social responsibilities of their position.
 Banking is not a business in which great financial returns can come to the bankers. Banking is a service. The minute a bank is primarily run to make money it becomes a poor bank just as the minute that a great surgeon be- comes obsessed with a desire to make large sums of money out of his precision he becomes distinct ly a poor surgeon.
 Money, by itself was not the cause of depression. Money is not enough. The depression came be- cause of our state of mind; out of the fact that thousands of people had come to believe that the way to make money was through plunging on stocks or commodities instead of producing the goods and creating wealth by work.
 "Im not opposed to the so- called Wall street banker or to Wall street. In many ways in my judgment their services are re- quired. They are in way the scav- engers of commerce. When a con- cern gets out of date or ineffi- cient in it's management they SC to these banks for relief and they clear them up and get rid of them Some times money is lost in the process but that is generally spec ulators' money. They were ready to take a speculative chance in the proposition. The definite bene- fit is that the field has been cleared up and the commercial debris re- moved. Sometimes suckers are caught and by that process gain an experience that's invaluable to them later on.
 We are going to have to change radically our attitude toward mon- ey and it's function in our com mercial life and toward banks.
 T believe that there should be a type of bank that is purely for savings in which money is deposit ed with the assurance of abso- lute safety at all times. On this money, no intere st should be paid the depositor by the banker. On the contrary the banker should re- ceive small fee for handling the fund.
 For men who are ready to take a degree of risk. who have conti- dence in the banking structure and it's management, another type of bank should be created in which money should be loaned on pro- ductive enterprise.
 "All unused bank balances, after a certain figure, should be taxed to bring them out of the vaults and into active business so that the money would become an asset in commerce and industry.
 Most of our conceptions of in- terest and debt are wrong or un- invest money in productive busi- natural. If a man determines to ness enterprise it seems to me wrong immediately to burden the business with an interest charge on the money he invests. The owner of the money has his alter native. He could decide to loan the money out for interest return Or he could put it into produc- tive business and get his return on this money from the profit he made out of the business plus the increasing value of the business
 as it continues successfully"