But if the statement is the foundation of the credit structure, the credit department may be considered to be the superstructure. This division of the bank's operating mechanism may be said to be the clearing-house for credit information, the headquarters for credit analysis, the storehouse of facts relating to those who are commercial borrowers of the bank's money. Our credit men are the watchdogs of the bank's risks and the guardians of the investments made for its correspondents. The department must be manned by our most faithful, reliable, intelligent, tactful men, who must be capable of infinite pains, of inexhaustible patience, and of absolute loyalty. Their eyes and ears must be open to every contingency that no sign may go unheeded. They are compelled to walk in the ruts of routine and yet be pathfinders constantly. No man who works mechanically will develop into a successful credit man.

The credit department should have an equipment commensurate with its importance. It should be the inner chamber in all respects. Recorded confidences should never be violated, and there should be no latchstring to this department. Its mechanism of blanks, files, vaults, and office fixtures should be perfectly adapted to its service, and every means which ingenuity can devise should be utilized to assist its work.