State Bankers Association
II unsn'l until 1897 lhal I lit* North Carolina
Hankers Association was formed. Since
I lien it has been an organization of real
service
THERE is an ancient adage that
"the hand that rocks the cradle
rules the world,” but a phrase
equally true would lie, “the hand
that rules the purse strings rocks
the world.” For from the time of
the middle ages, monarch» and
minister* have relied upon the hankers
to furnish the sinews of war without
which no nation can hope to bo suc¬
cessful in either offensive or defensive
warfare. For centuries the most
powerful figure in all Europe was not
a King or Emperor, hut was the
head of the great hanking house
of Rothschild, which bestrode the
financial world as a veritable Colossus
of Rhodes.
The haughty Kaiser Wilhelm —
“Me und Gott” — would have brought
on the First World War long before
НИ
4 hut for the insistence of German
bankers that they were not in position
to furnish the enormous sums which
would l*e required for a conflict of
such proportions. And when, at the
instance of Germany. Austria de¬
clared war on tiny Serbia in 1914,
ami England was drawn into the
vortex of the greatest war in her
history, it was the Rank of England,
the “Old Lady of Tli read needle
Street," with the powerful aid and
a-sistance of the great American bank¬
ing house of Morgan which provided
the British Empire with the first
oscntial of warfare — money, money.
The Work of Robert Morris
In our own country, American In¬
dependence might have been long de¬
layed hut for the financial support
furnished the patriot cause by the
pioneer American hunker, Robert
Morris. Carolina’s President Andrew
Jackson — "Old Hickory" — justified
hi- sobriquet when he waged hie great¬
est conflict over the renewal of the
charter of the Rank of the United
States, and he was finally successful
in his efforts to take tlm Federal
Government out of the field of hank¬
ing.
In the First World War, it was the
nation-wide hanking interests which
rallied to the support of the Govern¬
ment, purchasing hundreds of millions
Ilie .stale as a whole.
By R. C. LAWRENCE
in government securities, ami causing
every Liberty Loan to he largely over-
sutacrilicd. An examination of the
figures of the recent thirteen-hillion-
dnllar loan in the present global con¬
flict will disclose that a large per¬
centage of the loan was subscribed
hv hanks and bankers. Look at the
statements published by any State
or National hank, and you will see
that the greater part of its assets is
invested in government securities.
The business of hanking has under¬
gone radical changes in recent years.
This writer is not an aged man. yet
he can recall the time when our North
Carolina statutes permitted a hank
to lie established in towns of less than
one thousand population with a
capital stock of but ten thousand dol¬
lars, ami it could open its doors when
only half of that amount had been
paid in ! The result was that mush¬
room hanks sprang up by the hundreds
all over the State: each tiny town had
two political factions, each faction
had its own hank, and hanks in sonic
cases were located in the open country
where there was no town at all !
Г
recall one purely agricultural county
in which there were eighteen hanks
seventeen of which were forced into
liquidation, and in many cases the
depositors received less than ten per
cent in dividends. This situation called
for drastic legislation, and it came
promptly on both the State and Na¬
tional field.
Some Beneficial Changes
Here at home, a far reaching statute
created the office of Commissioner
of banks and invested him with far-
reaching powers. Today the iiiiniinum
capital stock is $.'.0.000.00, and what
is even more protective is the in¬
vestment of the Commisisoner with
power to refuse the issuance of
а
charter to any new hanking institu¬
tion unless ho finds that the finnncinl
necessities of the community it will
serve is such as to really require
additional banking facilities.
The two greatest statutes in the
banking history of our nation arc
the acts which created the Federal
Reserve Ranks and that which estab¬
lished the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation. Today hank failure»
arc of rare occurrence, and if per¬
chance one does go ashore upon the
financial reef», its depositors are
usually paid in full. The Carolina de¬
positor therefore need have no anxiety
concerning the safety of his deposits.
Practically every trade, occupation
or profession lias its own organization
in our State from Imot blacks to bank¬
ers. from chiropodists to chemist» ;
the doctors having been the first to
organize way back in 1799. Rankers
came late into the field, as their as¬
sociation was not formed until
1Я97.
when a call for a meeting to consider
the matter was sent out signed by
T. \V. Dewey of the Farmers and
Merchant» Rank at New Bern und
W. T. Old of the First National of
Elizabeth City, Little interest was
evinced at first, ns only twenty-five
hanks sent representatives to the or¬
ganization meeting at Morehead Gitv
on July 24. 1S97. At this meeting
the Roxhoro banker, industrialist and
legislator, J. A. Lone, presided, and
the gathering wa» addressed by State
Treasurer William II. Worth and
former Governor and United State-
Senator Thomas .1. Jarvis. Thom a -
TL Battle, <»f the distinguished Edge¬
combe County family of that name,
was chosen ns the first President, with
A. G. Brenizer of Charlotte as fir-t
vice president anil W. T. Old of
Elizabeth City as Secret arv-1 Treas¬
urer. From this modest beginning
the association has grown until today
practically every Carolina hank hold*
membership therein.
Other Presidents
Limits of apace preclude the men¬
tion of all the men who have occupied
the presidential chair, a list of which
embraces gome of the most eminent
names in the financial annals of our
State, hut those mentioned Inflow will
bring many vivid recollections of
former years to my older readers.
The second President was William
A. Blair, of the People’s National
(Continued on page nineteen)
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