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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 18, 1900)
" * f art TIbe Conservative. When Mr. liar- NATHAN S. wood came to Lincoln . IIAKWOOI ) coln ho was a poor , young lawyer with a good education , and habits of industry and self denial. He and Mr. Tnttlo rented an office together and other lodging being out of the ques tion , the office was their dwelling place by night as well as day. Iu twenty-five years of pleading and practice Mr. Har- wood accumulated a competency. But his horizon was over a broad one. He had wide sympathies and as wide a vision. While practicing law he saw opportunities for making money here and there which he did not neglect. When the presidency of a bank was offered him it was still in the time when there were illusions about bankers living easy , luxurious , highly enviable lives. Mr. Harwood yielded to the tempta tion and it cost him his life and his fortune. The failure of the Capital National bank was a greater loss to Lincoln than the sum of the losses of depositors , directors and officers. Another genera tion will scarcely see confidence restored to its normal tone. Bankers in Lincoln deal with a suspicious community , con taining members who have been swindled and are revengeful. The years of the panic were at hand when Mr. Harwood took charge of the First National bank of this city. It was an old bank with a good reputation , but the first view from the inside must have made oven Mr. Harwood's stout heart quail. One bad debt after another soon proved the magnitude of the task assigned him. But like the true knight and brave gentleman he was , it never occurred to him to give up the trifling proportion of stock he held and save himself. Long before even the good guessers suspected that the bank was in difficulties and while there was still an opportunity to get his name off the bonds and escape with only a nominal loss Mr. Harwood took counsel with himself and decided to do his best for the bank , the city and the whole South Platte district whose arteries it filled. Mr. Harwood's defection at this moment would have destroyed the city and ho knew it and only in the long watches of the sibilant summer nights when he paced the floors of the house forever hallowed by the midnight tread of those heroic feet , did he pity himself and groan. In the day time he was at his post , encouraging the other officers of the bank and the busi ness men of the city. He had not even the poor comfort of being numbered among the wounded unto death. It was absolutely necessary that he should endure in silence and look prosperous and happy , and he did it. In his youth he was a soldier who was repeatedly promoted "for gallant conduct on the field of battle. " When more than half a century old he fought another long battle for hearth and home , for the women and little children , without the stimulus of comrades fighting with him for an acknowledged cause , and pre tending that he was not fighting at all. And he has been promoted again "for gallant conduct on the field of battle. " There is no resident of the city of Lincoln whose property is not worth more now and whose business is not more remunerative now because of this brave and constant man who refused to save himself at their cost. To sell stock he know at that time to bo of doubtful value , to an ignorant purchaser never occurred to Mr. Harwood , in the days before the panic , when he might easily have done it. He dealt justly and lived uprightly. Ho was kind to the poor , even to the intemperate poor. He gave constantly and secretly to them. He never made spectacular gifts nor any of those false movements which fill those near enough to see the real reason , for them with disgust. On the day before he was buried , a procession of humble , sorrowing men applied at his door for permission to take a last look at the friend who never before was unrespon sive to their entreaty. He was a helpful member of the charity organization society. He was a member of the state historical society. He was a member of several orders. He was always brotherly and kind , and the solemn , brotherly ceremony performed by the masons at his grave was an especially fitting fare well to Mr. Harwood as well as a cele bration of the principle upon which he worked out his life. -Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel ? " It is fitting that we should know what wo owe to this man and others who have preserved this body politic from dissolution. Lincoln Courier. B NATIONAL BANKS. BANKS.assumed now that congress will declare the United States fully and irretrievably committed to the gold standard. But what congress may or may not do relative to a currency for the United States is entirely un determined. However , the fact that the gold standard is established is a great gain. Conscientious trustees for estates , minor heirs and the holders of other fiduciary funds can now buy and hold on to government bonds without any possibility of being charged with notice from the debtor , through the Stanley Matthews resolution , that the word "coin" in them means either sil ver or gold at the option of the debtor. There are only about $200,000,000 of national bank notes based upon govern- . , , , meut bonds. The TWT * . National Bank NotoH. comptroller of the currency does not hope to expand this amount to more than $800,000,000. The difference of isssuiug notes up to 90 per cent or up to the par of the bonds would amount to only $80,000,000. Legislation by cougresn upon this question is there fore inconsequential. During this month many traders among the American people experienced adversity because , . . . December , 18)0. ! . of the utter failure of the so-called national banking system to satisfactorily work. These banks fail frequently to protect commercial de positors by either making or renewing loans when most needed , even though the best of security be offered for them. These banks are insufficient when com pared to the commercial activity and increase of the population and wealth of today. They did better 25 years ngo when there were less people and fewer business transactions. That provision of the law which , while requiring the country national _ banks to keep 15 Causes. , per cent reserve , allows and encourages them to keep the most of that reserve with other banks in reserve centers , is a first cause of their inability to servo their regular customers in times of stringency. A second cause is the provision of the law which forbids any national bank from making loans when it has less than the lawful reserve. Last spring deposits in the New York clearing house banks exceeded 900 , . , , . millions of dollars. New York City . During the last week of Decem ber , 1899 , they were reduced to $740- 895,700. The reduction is fully $175- 000,000. Did or did not that reduction consist mostly of withdrawals by the country banks of their deposits ? These figures , beside which a possible increase of 20 millions or 30 millions of dollars in national bank notes become absolutely insignificant , are colossal and sug gestive. At all times the United States with its gold , silver and paper promiFes-to-pay . _ , , , dollars of one kind A Keilumlaut Currency. or another , has a redundant cur rency. We do not lack in currency. We do need a system of banking which shall recognize that business , as an honorable pursuit , profitable to the com munity at large , and therefore to be recognized by legislation and en couraged. At present , however , capital is repelled from the banking business. All sorts of legislative obstacles to bank ing are imposed in the various states. In fact , .every embryonic statesman in the country denounces capital generally , and especially anathematizes incor porated capital , particularly banks. The country must at last come to recognize that credit , and the use of credit , enter largely into banking and all other com mercial operations. Present laws , nevertheless , make the national banks a
