Show I I HARD TIMES RENEW BANKERS BANKER'S OPTIMISM Former Bankers' Bankers Chief Finds Find Much in the Past Year to Inspire Confidence in Financial Reliability R ROME C. C STEPHENSON retiring president of ot the American Bankers Association declare in an address L on the tho expiration of at his hla term 01 Ot omco mac tuat in travelling I about among the banks from one I end of ot tho the country to the other during the past year he had como come I out of ot it with a renewed faith Inthe in inthe inthe the strength of ot our banking strut structure ture tune and our banking situation and anda a renewed faith particularly In the spirit and courage of ot the men in the tho banks that have enabled them to lo lorise torise rise rieB unconquered over difficulties such as men never had to face before before be be- before fore or to accept with fortitude misfortunes that were beyond human human hUeman hu hUe man power to prevent When he reflected he said that the entire human economic structure structure ture has been brought to tho verge of ruin under the difficulties that have swept over not only the nation but the entire world and that the results re reo I suits of events of this kind react with particular directness upon the stability of ot our banks and yot how few tew have succumbed we may well renew our confidence con tHence in the banks of America when we think also of ot how many atcur of at cur our bankers have stood up under tho the stress and storms of ot those thesa times Umes and how relatively few tew of ot them have been proved wanting in the series of ot crises that have assailed them we may well feel a sincere sincero pride in our fellow bankers He added So I come out of this year of ot somber experiences not as a pessimist pessimist pessi pessi- mist but as an optimist optimist optimist-as as one wit with a renewed Vec faith fajth confidence oB de e |