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Show A Country Editor j Looks at Banking THE editor of the Norwalk. Ohio, Herald takes a somewhat different view of the banking situation from a good many people. His idea is as follows: "With rents falling and unpaid, real estate does not present a bappy picture. pic-ture. Nor does the owner of carefully care-fully selected bonds feel any happier, with a bunch of them going wrong. A lot of folks very carefully invested In preferred and common stocks in the finest companies in the world anrt have seen them fall to perhaps & tenth of what they paid for them, and no dividends div-idends at all. Som folks kept their money in savings accounts in banks, and some banks have closed and left them high and dry. But the situation is worth looking at very carefully. "On government authority, most banks that closed were really solvent but for frozen assets and popular timidity. Gradually the closed banks are coming out from under and depositors de-positors In even bad cases will get at least 50 per cent of their savings That's tough of course: nobody likes to lose half of what they had scrimped and sacrificed and saved. But when you hoard and stick the roll of bills In a coffee pot or under a mattress, some plug-ugly comes along and burns your feet till you tell him to take it and welcome. "And what about the great majority of banks that weathered the storm, met all comers and are doing business a3 usual, carefully and conservatively but safely? What about the savings In those banks? They are a full 100 per cent today and they are the only thing we know of at 100 per cent any where. After all is said and done, a good, well managed bank Is still the best place iu all the world for money or savings. Right now In Ohio the banks pay the taxes on all savings and pay their depositors net Interest on their savings. We can't think, just now, of many other investments that are a tenth as safe as a savings ac count In a solid bank. Why, even a savings account In a closed bank IB actually worth more today than most stocks." |