Show i I PUBLIC OPINION 1 AND THE BANKS t I IBy By F N SHEPHERD I Executive A mc a Bankers leers Ao I W 1 HIL banking today appears in n a wholly hony dIstorted light In the G eyes es of some the more reasonIng elements II I In our population undoubtedly have bave havea baveI I a less jaundiced view than could I i from cerI certain I t h hr r tofu tain irresponsible lor orators a tor B often orten I I posing as spokes spoke I Imen y men tor that In fa Indefinite I tHyI 4 definite qua quantity n tHy the mass massof u of our people Anti social acts on the p part n r t ot of ofF F N some bankers for formen or I merl men have been the subject ot of spectacular e exposures I but I can say without reservation that they were ere in no noway dY typical ot of the acts and attitudes ot of toe tae vast maJority of theIr fellow bankers The public mind was shocked into the belief that these I untypical Instances were far more rep representative I than they really were and andI I this belief bellef has bas been encouraged by po po- and demagogic elements The Bankers Today I Tho bankers who are in charge of our banks today represent men who withstood the temptations and avoided the economIC pitfalls of the great boom If they had not they would not be there or their banks would not have been able to survive the rack and ruin of the economic hurricane by which even many banks and bankers whose conduct was above reproach have been destroyed The other types of bankers those that fell below th the high standards ot of professional ethics and business prudence that character characterIzed characterized those that remain have passed out ot of the picture But they have left for those that remain a difficult bent age o of suspicion and ill will wUl How Irrational this is when we re re- reflect Sect that not more than three or four per cent of our entire population ant suf suffered personal loss because of what any banker dId or neglected to do whereas literally millions of bank de de- depositors depositors dId not nol lose a dingle eingle cent as asa asa a result of banking difficulties and really owe a vote of confidence and thanks to their own bankers who were true to the highest conceptions of their stewardship and brought their institutions and their customers s a f e l 1 y through the greatest greate t busIness disaster I the world has ever seen It has been beena a peculiar feature of the psychological distortion of the times that many who owe 0 e nothIng but gratItude to theIr bankers joined joine In blaming the banker far out of proportion with any rational consideration of the facts |