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Show HANKING A PUBLIC SERVICE Hanking is becoming more and more a public service instead of a private snap, and bankers are becoming be-coming trusted leaders in public affairs. af-fairs. The days of mere money-lending and note-shaving are a thing of the past and the banker is becoming a factor in all commercial undertakings. undertak-ings. Because the principles of business and responsibility to stockholders are not employed in politics, bankers bank-ers as a rule are not lured that way. But when it comes to promoting community enterprises, founding new industries based upon the products of the soil, banks are progressive. "As a result of all this, banks have become every public in their business," busi-ness," says E, G. Crawford, vice-president vice-president of the United States National Na-tional bank of Portland. "It was formerly the case that bankers as a rule received deposits and paid checks and made loans largely with the idea merely of interest returns. "Now, if a banker realizes his responsibilities re-sponsibilities he must ,not only re- 'dve deposits and loan money and earn profits, but he must take an active ac-tive -and lively interest and become foremost in seeing that enterprises of different kinds in his district become be-come profitable. Sometimes when ho believes thoroughly in the business busi-ness and the man directing it he must lend and carry th.e loans with the idea of being constructive and making the city in general more prosperous through the success of some commercial enterprise." |
