THE ELKIN TRIBUNE
Aim RENFRO RECORD
Pn Wished Every Thursday by
ELK PRINTING COMPANf, Inc.
Bib*. N. C.
THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 1933
Entered at the post office at Elkin, N. C., aa
second-class matter.
« ...
C. ». FOSTER President
H. I»AKKOON Secretary-'Treasurer
SUBSCRIPTION RATES, PER YEAR
In the State, fIJIO Out of the State, 92.00
Speaking from observation we'd say that a
girl's marriageable age is anywhere from the
seminary to the cemetery.
With a thousand wives, and having the wis
dom he is credited with, we'll bet a pewter nickel
that King Solomon didn't have very much to say.
Mothers in other days used to put their slip
pers to extensive use on their children; now most
of them wear their footwear out on the dance
floor.
History does not record whether Abraham j
Lincoln ever returned the books he walked ten
miles to borrow, nor does it state whether it was
a Japanese cherry bush that George Washing
ton's trusty hatchet felled.
Carrying A Light
Highway rules in this state require pedes
trians to walk facing the traffic, particularly at
night. Other states have the same requirements
but now comes Delaware with a law that has just
been enacted reading: "It shall be unlawful for
pedestrians to walk on any improved hard-sur
face highway used for motor traffic, outside of
corporate limits, without carrying a lighted lan
tern, flashlight or other similar reflector."
The law specifies the hours that lights must
be carried as from one-half hour after sunset to
one-half hour before sunrise."
This will revive the memory of the good old
days to lots of old codgers in this section; dear
old days when there was no danger from the sud
den whiz of a passing car, mayhap driven by one
whose spare arm is not available for steering.
When Silas was going down the road apiece to see
his neighbor, he carried a lantern; when the fam
ily group was trekking to and from church on
Sunday evenings, one of them carried a lantern
or a pine torch that must be carefully held to
avoid the drippings.
But if Delaware pedestrians observe the law,
however inconvenient it may prove, there will be
'more of them alive to bless the day that they
bothered to carry a light. Two deaths and three
painful injuries have been recorded in the papers
within the past three weeks, as a result of some
body's carelessness on the highways when pedes
trians were struck by passing cars.
It is not always the fault of the autoist.
Children in particular, are inclined to take a risk;
some of them actually covet the thrill of a nar
row escape and project themselves beyond their
portion of the road. This is doubly dangerous at
night, especially on curves, when the driver can
not sense the danger until after the damage 4s
done.
All of us are inclined to insist on our right
to the highways, but it is a doggone sight better
to forego these rights than to be right dead.
Two Questions
Two outstanding questions have developed j
from the Senate investigation of the House of |
Morgan, with no less personage than J. Pierpont
himself, giving testimony. "Why a private bank"
is one of these questions. Mr. Morgan, whose
great banking house has been built up in the last
half century or more as a private institution,
gives it as his opinion that there is no need for
legislation dealing with private banks.
On the technical theory that his institution
does not advertise for deposits and does not do a
general banking business, it therefore should not
be pestered with prying supervisors. Heretofore
government has left him and his alone, with the
result that now it is disclosed that in an insidious
way the House of Morgan has reached its tenta
cles into the arteries of the economic affairs of
the nation in a way that breeds ill health.
Men prominent politically have been extended
special favors with the accompanying announce
ment that no strings are tied to the courtesies,
yet a moron should see that they are thus hog
tied to this huge financial structure.
It develops that the Morgans have invested
heavily in public utilities, to the extent that their
affiliates control close to 25 per cent of these ser
vice organizations.
But the thing that will interest and agitate
the mind of the smaller fry who have been dig
ging into their pockets for the income tax that
Uncle Sam demands, is that other question "Why
the present income tax?" For the investigation
develops the fact that Mr. Morgan and his as
sociates, who measure their income in millions,
have paid no income tax for the past two years,
and very little for the third.
Mr. Morgan stated on the witness stand that
the firm had lost money during the past two
years; lost in enormous sums. This he backs up
with figures, a careful analysis of which shows
expert juggling designed to make the actual loss
loom big enousrh to avoid tax payment.
By admitting that his institution has lost
money, Mr. Morgan will find that the lost respect
of his fellows for his banking house, which hith
erto they have regarded as impregnable, «vill cost
him in dollars and cents.
But those who have been made to pay income
taxes, while the big fellows escaped will continue
to accentuate the question, "Why the income
tax?"
Three Significant Words
Do you know of three words of more signifi
cant meaning to the citizens of Elkin than those
employed in the Extra "We issued Friday ? "Bank
to Open" are words that were used in chronic
ling an important bit of news, but they mean in
finitely more than that: they tell the story of
a progressive people with an abiding faith in each
other and in the future of Elkin and community.
There are several towns in North Carolina,
larger by far than Elkin, that would like mightily
to see those three words in their local paper—•
towns that have no banking facilities, just as for
a period Elkin had none.
For it is known to all of us that since March
4th there has been a new deal for our financial
institutions. Henceforth there will be less un
certainty about the soundness of banks; bank
directors will take more seriously the responsi
bility that is theirs; bank executives will be held
more definitely to a chartered course, and bank
supervision will mean something more than the
occasional visit of an inspector to count the cash.
Had the local bank been forced into liquida
tion the community would have suffered tremen
dously in dollars and cents, but we would have
suffered even more in demoralization and lost
prestige. It couldn't be otherwise! The people
of Elkin and community sensed the importance
of doing something about it, and in a spirit that
is characteristic of the town, sacrifices were
made, concessions granted, prejudices smothered
—and the stock subscribed.
It is inconceivable that the remaining de
positors would fail to sign over the necessary 15
per cent of deposits, to make certain a new char
ter, open the doors of the bank and make im
mediately available the other 85 per cent of the
money'on deposit. Depositors would be standing
in .their own light, should they fail to do this.
But when the bank is open, what then? Will
we use its services grudgingly and stingily? Will
we cripple its efficiency by continuing to keep
our money in a sock or hidden in the chimney
corner? Or will we take cognizance of the fact
that a new day has dawned for banking methods,
that assures safety and merits confidence?
There is every indication that before many
moons legislation will be in force insuring deposi
tors against loss. The national icongress seems
favorable to this measure, and it is nearer an ac
tuality than many of us suppose. If state banks
would prosper this same security must follow.
Capable and efficient men are at the head of
the commission charged with bank supervision.
This has been demonstrated very convincingly
within the past few months. Commissioner Gur
yev, P. Hood has stood like a Rock of Gibraltar
between the depositor and unsafe banking meth
ods. Sometimes his stubbornness may have been
resented, but back of it has been the purpose to
put banking in North Carolina on a solid founda
tion, from which it cannot be shaken when the
winds come again. And this objective is about
to be realized.
Bankers have seen the fallacy of making
loans to a select few, whose collateral, when ad
versity conies, diminishes in value faster than the
cashier can count. Because they did not see this
heretofore is one of the reasons why banking
rules have been tightened. No bank ever broke
because of small loans to small men, because they
offered something more than material values as
collateral—they added character. They do not
gamble with chance and borrow more than they
can reasonably pay. And banking in the future
will make closer scrutiny of the security that
backs the non-borrowing depositor's dollar.
The new rules that govern banking, and the
new determination to make supervision some
thing more than an empty phrase, leaves no ex
cuse for any man to hoard his gold and silver.
Under the new order the banks will provide the
maximum safety, but they cannot bring the max
imum service to the community unless money is
brought out from its hiding and, through the
banks, put into the arteries of trade.
Elkin has done a big thing in making the re
organization of the local bank possible, but it will
do an immensely bigger thing when our people—
all of them, big and little—set their feet on fear
and bulk their hoardings into the bank vaults
where there is safety now, and where the money
can be used in legitimate trade intercourse that
directly or indirectly benefits every one of us.
We beg that every stockholder, big and lit
tle, take part in the selection of directors to rep
resent them in the management of the bank, and
we deem it unnecessary to suggest to such direc
tors that they place a new signifieance on their
iob—and actually direct. To them the office will
be something more than responsibility, it will be
an opportunity for service. With the slate wiped
clean, they can build an institution worthy of the
town, and worthy of their connection with it.
This little town of the hills is fundamentally
sound, and will be represented by a financial in
stitution equally so. It shall not be otherwise.
In character, in industry, in morality we are
above the average, and now we are about to get
on our feet again financially. This latter fact
should be a cause for joy to those who know how
inseparably finances are intertwined with the
other three, in bringing that peace of mind to a
community that cannot progress efficiently with
out it.
Finally! It is now our bank. Your bank,
and mine. Let's give it the support it deserves.
It is not a red-headed sten-child. It has been
'made possible again by the sweat of the brow.
Let's interest ourselves in its health, its growth
to full stature of manhood.
THE ELKIN TRIBUNE, ELKIN, NORTH CAROLINA
The Merchant
With the
BEST VALUES
Is the
ADVERTISING
MERCHANT!
The merchant who advertises is the merchant who offers
genuine values and wants you to know it. He knows
that more customers will be drawn to a store where they
KNOW they can get a certain item of merchandise at a
certain price than to a store which does not advertise
and trusts to luck that maybe customers will come seek
ing something it may have.
Every newspaper published in the entire country is liv
ing proof that advertising pays. For without adversiting
there would be no newspapers—and if those who adver
tise didn't find it profitable, there would be no adver
tising.
You Will Get
RESULTS
By Consistent
ADVERTISING
—7 —ln
The
Elkizi
Tribune
Thursday, Jane 1, 1933