Hammond Times, Volume 10, Number 54, Hammond, Lake County, 28 January 1922 — Page 7

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ALTHOUGH the Clearing House had its origin in the desire to simplify and facilitate the exchange of items between associated banks, it was not long before it emerged from that narrow field into a larger sphere of activity. Being bound together in this common cause, the members of the Clearing House soon devoted concerted attention to improving means of co-operation among themselves and the maintainance of sound, conservative banking practices. The rapid development of all classes of industry, the expansion of financial operation and of banking service, and the frequent tendency to thrust much of community leadership upon bankers everywhere-have led to the easy and natural consequence that in every city it is the bankers who are among the first ones to be consulted on any project touching the more important problems of civic welfare. And because the Clearing House attracts to its membership the leading bankers of the community, the Clearing House, as an association, has gradually been conced- , ed the leadership in all financial matters, i That business and banking are mutually dependent upon each other for vitality is an academic statement which offers no chance for argument. And it is but a step from this truth to

the hardly less demonstrable assertion that, lacking harmony with the banks, business could never have mounted to its present high standing of efficiency and integrity. For it is the banker's function, both as an individual and as a member of the Clearing House Association, to have much to say concerning what shall and what shall not be done in the realm of business and industry. The co-ordination of business which means, after all, the rearing of an economic structure so skilfully that it must of necessity endure is a volun-. tary obligation that has been assumed by4 the Clearing House wherever one exists. No wilful arrogation is this, but a purely natural sequence. The banker has ever been the physician of business; what service he is qualified to give alone is magnified to many times its single value by the advantage he gains in association with the others of his profession. As a stabilizing force in the community the Clearing House is not surpassed by any other agency. It proceeds about its business with so little visible effqrt that it is hardly reckoned one of the guiding powers of the city until the storm comes. In a pleasant sea the helmsman is little noticed; in the rough waters all depends upon his skill. In times of financial stress the , identity of the banker is sunk in the ac

tion of the group; and the group, practiced in community thought, has never failed to act promptly and with wisdom. The close relationship existing between the Clearing House and civic life is evidenced by a comparison of the directorates of banking institutions and the successful business houses of the city. It is more than a coincidence that men who have made a conspicuous success in business are to be found as directors of one or more banks and trust companies. The same qualities which brought them to eminence in their commercial lives have made them valuable to the banks as advisers. And4 the bankers, combining the wide experience of these business men with their own professional knowledge of community affairs, are enabled thereby to take to the Clearing House deliberations a double measure of training for the vital matters o fcity welfare. What has been said here of the Clearing House applies to every city in which there is such a group. Both the banker and the business man, one with an admitted responsibility to his depositors, and the other a depositor, with a natural desire for knowledge of his bank, are entitled to a reasonable curiosity as to the roster of the association. Such curiosity is to be encouraged, for, by one road or another, it will lead to better things for Hammond.

embers of the Hammomd Clearing House Association

First National Bank Citizens National Bank First Trust & Savings Bank

Hammond Trust & Savings Bank American Trust & Savings Bank W. Hammond Trust & Savings Bank

Northern Trnst & Savings Bank Standard Trust & Savings Bank State Bank of Hammond

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