Capital and Conscience form a most desirable and essential combination; each needs the other, and united they move irresistibly to accomplishment. Capital without conscience, like "man's inhumanity to man," "makes countless thousands mourn." It is criminal. The felon may not be behind the bars, but the statement needs no argument. Conscience, however, can be woefully slandered. It has no relation to that fear or timidity which makes a business coward of a man. It is the most potent factor in the affairs of men.

To an understanding soul, conscience is greater than the law. Such a soul is not directed and controlled by the written law

on our statute books. It has no disposition to do those things prohibited by law. In fact, it creates law; and back of the law must be the man of conscience to give it force.

Conscience is contagious. No sane man is totally depraved. However low there is a limit-a something that he won't do. And the high is stronger than the low. If it were not, men would be not only bravos, they would be beasts. The standard of measure would be physical power. Women would be slaves of men-simply their property. You may take issue with this, but you are capable of judging? You have come up out of and through generations of education and culture; have absorbed that atmosphere and been surrounded by that envi

Banking is honorable to the degree that the banker makes it so, and no different in that respect from any other calling or occupation. He who assumes, on account of his wealth or position, an attitude of loftiness or superiority is departing from the principles of democracy and common brotherhood so loved and fostered by our people. Such an attitude, in Dooley phraseology, is neither diplomatic nor democratic.

Distinctions among men should be measured only by the purity of individual character. Men of worth are those who live and work for the highest in business and social life that surround

ings and conditions afford. The idea of being superior or inferior is often on a false basis, showing a lack of broadminded, developed understanding. The relation of master and servant, when maintained by either word or attitude, is out of place in free America. Every one should endeavor to be a master, but it should be in the direction of mastery of his work and the ruling of his own spirit. Every one should be a servant, but his should be a service contributed to God, to country, to home and to conscience-not a feeling of dependence or slavish inferiority.

With those who have interests in common, wouldn't it be better and safer for the relationship to assume that of a partnership? The nearer we grow to that feeling of common interest, the nearer we are to universal content, and universal content means individual happiness.

ronment in every event incident to your existence. You and I don't know the reverse state-the wild, undeveloped state.

Conscience is stronger than cash. Success is not always measured by the amount of money one makes. Whatever the work, whether banking or something else, and however much of the capital is represented in cash, regardless of your age or the amount of money you are makingthat real, permanent success depends upon the quality of character employed in the undertaking as a reserve fund, rather than in the size of of the bank account. The public may not see this, but it will sometime be revealed to the individual himself.

Capital does not mean brusqueness or incivility in any relation whatever. Yet it is undeniable that the capitalist (using the word in its money sense alone) is frequently a liar. He lacks consideration for others in his daily dealings, and his sense of justice is sometimes woefully attenuated. His capital is the reverse of wealth. Such a man, as a rule, is really inferior in intellect. Instead of obeying wisdom's injunction, "Above all get understanding," his conceit tells him that he is shrewder than Solomon; that "Above all, get money." And such a man is more or less cowardly. Did you ever think this over? The

man who is a bear, a tyrant--simply because he has money, is usually a coward. Nine cases in ten, when it comes to a test of courage he shows the yellow streak.

On the other hand, each employe performs an important part and is charged with a responsible trust. Even the strength of the bank's cash capital calls for such co-operative support and gets it more than we officers may realize. As character represents an employe's best capital (if not all, in fact), he cannot afford to do less than his best under all conditions. Even if he isn't paid enough; yes, even if he is mistreatedhe should not impair his capital by rendering less than his best service. If the business fails, he has preserved his capital, and others are looking for a man of merit. This fact, however, should not be his real incentive. The love of right, the voice of conscience, should be the dictator. If one does the work simply because he is compelled to, the chances are he will always be working for the other fellow, and not much of a success at that. If he works to make money, and money only, he is simply creating what may prove his own enslavement.

Now, we have had ten years of unprecedented prosperity, such as no other country ever experienced and this country never witnessed before. Do you realize the value-the meaning of this condition? Ten years of prosperity in all avenues of manufacture and of labor beyond what the world has ever known before? Nature has given us a full measure of everything to meet the needs of man, every year a bumper, in a general way surpassing the preceding one.

I don't know but many of us are ignoring the injunction of the Song Writer of Israel, that "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof." Some (by their actions, at least) seem to dispute this claim and believe that they have a right to the earth, and are proceeding at a pretty good pace to appropriate a large portion of it.

It is not my purpose in this talk to make a tirade against wealth. Of course it is understood that we all have to take some kind of a fall out of it, offering our criticism of the monopolist, the bloated bondholder, the trust magnate and the all-hog greed for great riches. We preach the economic theory of finance because it is popular, and we practice it-most of us-because we can't help ourselves. For the sake of the people, I hope the time will never come when it will be popular to talk otherwise. Whether we mean it or not, this kind of talk has its influence and in the right direction; but it would have more weight if the mental reason we appropriate carried heart with it; if the heart were speaking as well as the mouth.

Not one of us but would be glad of the Rockefeller capacity to make money; money-making is legitimate. But how we make it and how we

use it determines the right or wrong; and the useful and happy character of the individual back of the money-maker is the most important of all.

What I want to get at is this: We are in somewhat of an epidemic of money-mad contagion and excitement. We bankers are occupying a position of great responsibility. It devolves upon us to guard our customers and ourselves against drifting into this feverish haste for wealth at a perilous risk.

These prosperous times have brought to the front all kinds of propositions and schemes for investment; some legitimate, some a mere chance, and some fakes. No banker has a right to invest a dollar in any scheme that he is not reasonably sure is legitimate and will pay reasonable returns. The appetite for daring risks, for immense individual fortunes, leads into temptation of trickery under the name of smart business. It is a possible wrecker of genuine friendship, of true self-respect and of right business integrity. The poorest man is the one who has disregarded conscience until it has become a dead letter in his life, though he may have gained vast moneyed wealth at the cost of self-robbery.

I say that no banker has a right to lend his name to or invest one dollar in any scheme that smacks of a lottery-returns proposition. I don't refer to money of depositors only. I make the assertion, and with emphasis, that a banker has no moral license so to invest even his own individual funds. This proposition may be unusual; but I wish words would come to me to make it more emphatic, and I doubt if any banker here really disagrees with it.

And, again, the bank customer is not immune from this levy of moral and financial obligation. No man has the right to speculate or hazard money, if he owes his bank, unless he has put up good and sufficient collateral which he is able to pledge and is willing to chance losing. This is a good rule and should work both ways.

A good banker realizes that his position places him before the public as a safe custodian of their funds. Among other safeguards, he is supposed himself to own or represent owners of wealth to make good. He occupies a position of public trust and is presumed to be an advocate of proper business methods. His obligation to stockholders and to the public demands that his private investments should be such as to inspire confidence in him. If he proposes to speculate or invest in get-rich-quick propositions (I say again), even with his own funds, then he should feel morally bound to get out of the banking business. Any man who knows enough to be a banker can tell where to draw the line. That's an easy matter. If you are afraid for your neighbor or for your customer to know what you are doing, listen to the voice of conscience. Even though you are not using one dollar of the bank's deposits and

don't intend to and know you won't, that does not justify. The banker who does this would distrust any other banker for doing the same.

With careful, conservative and capable management, under compliance with the law, with reasonably sufficient capital, it hardly seems possible for failure to come to a bank. Commercial conditions may become so depressed, or from some sudden, unexpected cause a bank may find it impossible to collect loans as fast as deposits are withdrawn and be forced to suspend temporarily; but how such an institution, following legitimate lines, can absolutely fail and not in the end pay depositors, it is hard to conceive.

No bank ever failed that was not already busted. I think in your observation you will find this to be invariably true. As well as I can remember, the banks that have "stopped short (forcibly), never to run again," were, from gross error or serious bad management, in a failed condition before the knockout blow was administered. So lay this in your breast: that if the contents of your vault show honesty, business sense and proper regard for law, your bank will not fail. It may suspend; but fail, never, unless

it is busted.

Somehow I have a vision of a future in banking methods-an evolution, in fact, that means a higher plane; a more sure and fixed foundation; loftier methods that give and receive greater respect. I believe we are just now on the physical plane of banking. We are governed too much by the ambition that sees success largely in big figures—a producer of nervous prosperity; an inflated idea which just now prevails and conspicuously so. This is not meant to question the soundness of the banks. I suspect with the banks of Missouri, the pages of the ledgers and the contents of the vaults make a cleaner showing of assets and financial strength today than ever before.

But this greed for a big showing is always likely to cause worry, mental agony and sensation, as well as unpleasant rivalry, even to the temptation of unfair methods. What I wish to explain is this: that moral strength and clean assets are more to be desired and are more creditable than an eye single to amount and are certainly a better nerve tonic and a preventative of impairment of conscience.

Anything big somehow strongly appeals to us, no matter whether it is a mountain or a tree, a whale or a hog. That's all right. Big things, when they are the product of nature, are apt to be admired, because nature generally deals in perfection. The small bank, though, is every bit as essential to its community as the great bank is to its clients. The small bank has to display the same degree of conservatism, if it intends to succeed, as does the large bank. Growth is to be hoped for and expected, but hothouse

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methods must not be employed at the expense of soundness and safety, simply that we may show large deposits or even larger profits.

Back in my boyhood days, questions of serious dispute or superiority were mostly settled by a fist fight. The first intuition of man is that physical ability and achievement are the true governing power. As education is acquired, knowledge and intellect become the influential factors, thus leading us on and on into a higher development of wisdom and truth, which must ultimately prevail as the survival of the fittest.

As we grow to see and understand, we discover that the first and greatest law of life is the law of truth-that truth which is "the essential heart of life," and as we are persuaded of what it demands of us, it will manifest itself in financial as well as social life and lead us on to a higher plane of business integrity and civic responsibility.

The high is stronger than the low.

My Creed

"Do not keep the alabaster boxes of your love and tenderness sealed up until your friends are dead. Fill their lives with sweetness. Speak approving, cheering words while their ears can hear them, and while their hearts can be thrilled and made happier by them; the kind things you mean to say when they are gone, say before they go. The flowers you mean to send for their coffins, send to brighten and sweeten their homes before they leave them.

"If my friends have alabaster boxes laid away, full of fragrant perfumes of sympathy and affection, which they intended to break over my dead body, I would rather they would bring them out in my weary and troubled hours, and open them, that I may be refreshed and cheered by them while I need them. I would rather have a plain coffin without a flower, a funeral without an eulogy, than a life without the sweetness of love. and sympathy.

"Let us learn to anoint our friends beforehand for their burial. Post-mortem kindness does not cheer the troubled spirit. Flowers on the coffin cast no fragrance backward over life's weary way."

Keep At It

Life isn't a spurt, but a long steady climb. You can't run far uphill without stopping to sit down. Some men do a day's work and then spend six lolling around admiring it. lolling around admiring it. They rush at a thing with a whoop and use up all their wind in that. And when they've rested and have got it back, they whoop again and start off in a new direction.-George Horace Lorimer.

A naturalized citizen is not eligible to the office of President of the United States. A male child born in a foreign land to American parents has an equal chance to become the President with one born on American soil.

The United States shall guarantee to every State a Republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion, and on application of the Legislature or the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic trouble.

Obtaining judgment on a note brings to an end its negotiable character. After that it can not be transferred so as to enable a later holder to maintain an action in his own name. Nevertheless, if judgment is taken on a note, the fact that such judgment has been so taken should be expressed by appropriate words written upon the note itself. The court will generally do this.

According to the laws of the state of New York the property of the wife is her own, free from all claims of the husband, and can be disposed of without consulting the husband in any

way.

Where the deed to property is in the father's name, no will being left, the heirs wishing to dispose of the property but hesitating on account of a brother who had left home several years ago, suit can be instigated by the mother for admeasurement of dower which means the widow has use of a third of the property, and she may apply to the court to have the property sold and her interest paid out of the proceeds, the balance to go to the children, share and share alike. One of the children may start a partition suit,which is very expensive. But before the court will allow a partition suit or suit for admeasurement of dower the heirs must show to the court that they have tried every way to locate the missing heir. If they can prove satisfactorily to the court that such has been done, then the court will allow the suit to be brought and the property sold to the highest bidder. Whatever proceeds belonged to the brother would be deposited with the County Treasurer for his benefit should he ever return. If it was proved afterwards that he was dead, his interest would go to his heirs at law.

Congress must meet at least once a year.

Congress may admit as many new States as desired.

One State cannot undo the act of another. By the Constitution every citizen is guaranteed a speedy trial by jury.

A power which is vested in Congress alone, cannot be exercised by a State.

One State must respect the legal decisions and laws of another.

Congress cannot pass a law to punish for a crime already committeed.

A person who commits a felony in one State cannot find refuge in another.

Bills for revenue can originate only in the House of Representatives, but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments.

Treaties with foreign powers are made by the President and ratified by the Senate.

The Territories each have a delegate to Congress who is allowed the privilege of debate, but not the right to vote.

The vice-president, who ex-officio presides over the Senate, has no vote in that body except in case of a tie ballot.

If the President holds a bill longer than ten days while Congress is in session it becomes a law without his signature.

An act of Congress cannot become a law over the President's veto except on a two-thirds vote of both houses.

The House of Representatives may impeach the President for any crime, but the Senate has the sole power to try all impeachments.

An officer of the United States government is not permitted to accept any title of nobility, order of honor, except with the permission of Con

gress.

Amendments to the Constitution of the United States require a two-thirds vote of each House of Congress, and must be ratified by at least three-fourths of the States.

The President of the United States must be 35 years of age; a Senator, 30; a Congressman, 25; the President must have been a resident of the United States fourteen years.

Mutual confidence is the Gibraltar upon which we build our great liberal credit system.

Ladies' writing desks, in solid oak and mahogany-some inlaid with holly and pearl. Take the prettiest one you can find on credit.

Our "Long Credit" makes it easy to choose valuable Christmas presents, as you need not pay until the holiday rush and worry is over.

Our customers will tell you that we will not begin arguing you into paying down any more than you wish to let us have. What is satisfactory to you will be satisfactory to us.

Friends will possibly tell you that it is impossible to get good furniture on credit; that is a mistaken idea, and proves definitely that they have never dealt at this store. We are prepared to supply you on credit without an employer's reference or security. Your promise to pay is sufficient for us. If you pay cash we allow a discount of 50c on every $5.00, just the difference it costs for booking and collecting where credit is given.

We operate the finest credit store of its kind in America, where salaried people and those in moderate circumstances may find everything they require from a yard of muslin to a sealskin jacket and at the same time enjoy all the advantages of credit accorded elsewhere to the wealthy only. The fact that many of our customers have bought goods at our store on our special credit plan continuously for twelve years is our best guaranty of honorable dealing. You'll be surprised when you see the fine line of goods We carry in every department and you can't buy the same goods a cent cheaper for cash anywhere on earth. We are satisfied with a legitimate profit. No advertisements appear on any

of our delivery wagons. Payments may be made. at our office if so desired.

rorms of Guaranty

I may get fooled on the quality of a shoe, but I won't let you suffer. I stand right behind every pair of 'em.

The ear of the firm is yours at any time, to adjust a difference, remedy a grievance, or right a wrong. You have to be satisfied if you deal at Hale's; that's all there is about it.

Your purchase must be a fair exchange, in perfect security, free from misrepresentation, with an implied contract that your money is only deposited and can be had back for the asking if satisfaction be not full and complete.

No doubt you have had enough experience in glove buying, so you will agree with us that it is more or less a game of chance, therefore our method of making good any pair that should happen to go wrong will undoubtedly be received with open arms.

Suits and Wraps

Nowhere are the latest styles more necessary than in a cloak department.

Rich, warm-looking garments for the cold days to come-brim full of style.

Sample suits-probably made a little better because they are samples, but for the same reason priced fully one-quarter less than the regular price.

The variety is so great, the styles are so novel, concerning elegant jackets is impossible until and the tailoring is so splendid, that intelligence after acquaintance with this stock.

Miscellaneous Dry Goods Wool hose. A broken range at a broken price.

Straws show which way the wind blows; our notions show which way the crowd goes.

About your dress.-Have it right-its rightness depends upon many little things, and the principal thing is the linings.

For lining baby's coat we've just brought in pretty figured silks, quilted in half-inch diamonds with thick back of lamb's wool. Warm as toast.

As a body brace, as a moulder of the form, as a foundation for gracefully draping a gown, this corset is equalled by none.

He who said ""Twill be a black goods season" was a wise prog-nos-tic-a-tor. She who acts upon the prophecy by securing black dress stuffs is equally wise.