ABA Banking Journal - January 2008 - (Page 14) briefing Then & Now 100 years of ABA Banking Journal 2 008 marks the 100th anniversary of ABA Banking Journal. On our masthead you will see the rarely seen “Vol. C”—the Roman designation for 100, in case you’ve forgotten your Roman numerals. The very first issue was actually in July 1908, but for our centennial year we will be running this “Then & Now” page each month in Briefing, leading up to a special commemorative issue in November, coinciding with ABA’s Annual Convention in San Francisco. The association, by the way, predates the publication by 33 years. This section will highlight items of interest from the magazine’s archives, particularly those that have a direct connection with a current practice or issue. You may find it hard to believe, but quite a few topics remain relevant, and, occasionally, are still being debated 100 years later. As a matter of fact, if it weren’t for differences in writing style and references to technology, some passages could be run now and prove useful. This first column is a little shy on illustration. In its first few years the publication accepted no ads and used photos sparingly. In future columns we’ll highlight ads as well as articles, for they are an important part of our—and the industry’s—history. Did you know that ABA once offered its own travelers check? Sure enough, an article in March 1909 indicated great interest in the product. ABA also offered a money order administered by the Committee on Express Companies and Money Orders. “Unmorality” of a deposit guaranty One notable contrast between 1908 and now are the views about deposit insurance. The first issue of the Journal of the American Bankers’ Association, as we were then known, contained an essay entitled: “Guaranteeing Bank Deposits. In Other Words, ‘Robbing Peter To Pay Paul’,” which gives you a pretty good clue as to the author’s sentiments. The author was a Prof. J. Laurence Laughlin of the University of Chicago. A few excerpts give the flavor of the times: “There is no more justice in laying the depositor’s losses, for which he is not responsible, upon others who are, also, not responsible for the losses, than it would be for A, who has been robbed by B, to ask that his honest neighbor C should be robbed to make up for his loss…. Similarly, the honest and efficient banks cannot in justice be asked to make up to a depositor in a failed bank losses for which the honest and efficient banks had no responsibility whatsoever…. It is unmoral.” The essay continues with these observations about the effects of a deposit guaranty on human nature in the form of bank lending: “Every conceivable reward should exist to bring pressure on a banker to have courage in declining questionable loans. The moment such pressure is removed, the opportunity is enlarged for taking on assets, which, at first emergency, will crumple in value, and leave the depositors unsecured…. Sleight of mind To our puzzle readers: After four and a half years, the “Puzzle Lady,” Lillian Nielsen, and her good friend Sam Percy, who provided us with our monthly Sleight of Mind “brain teasers,” have decided to call it a day. The puzzles’ “day” stretches back far longer than their time in our pages. Sam for years was publisher of Today’s Refinery magazine and the puzzles were a regular, and very popular feature in that publication. Lillian often traveled to refinery industry trade shows where readers came to the magazine’s booth to meet the Puzzle Lady in person. From all indications, the puzzles had a devoted following in our pages, as well. Sam and Lillian often pointed out that many more people try to solve the puzzles than sent in a response. Some puzzles were especially tough—even for Vane Lucas, senior vice-president, Bank of Oklahoma, our most frequent winner—but November’s puzzle, “The Nine Markets,” proved to be a 14 JANUARY 2008/ABA BANKING JOURNAL snap for many of our readers. That may be because the idea of “think outside the box,” which is the key to figuring out the puzzle, has been a popular management concept and training exercise in recent years. Or maybe it’s that a lot of you are just real smart. Anyway, we received 37 correct responses to the November puzzle—mostly hand drawn and faxed. The first three correct responses were from: Mike Stewart, PMP, CBCP, vice-president, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Atlanta; Anna Passalaque, Bank of the San Juans, Durango, Co.; and John Corcoran, Jr., vice-president and trust officer, Glens Falls National Bank and Trust Co., Glens Falls, N.Y. We regret that the answer to “The Ten Barrels” puzzle, which appeared last month, will not be available. It was a privilege to run these mind sharpeners in our pages, and we wish Sam and Lillian all the best in their retirement. from Bill Streeter, editor-in-chief, bstreeter@sbpub.com www.ababj.com/subscribe.html http://www.ababj.com/subscribe.html
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