Some people are afraid of all banks. Of course, there are strong and weak banks, but as a rule there is no other class of institution so easy to find out about as a bank. If a bank is not all right, people will talk about it. Don't put your money in until you have inquired about it of several business men of good standing. It is practically impossible for a bank to fail so badly that depositors suffer a heavy loss without the good name of the bank having been justly befouled for months beforehand throughout the community.

No sensible person puts money into a bank that he knows nothing about, or regarding whose officers he has never heard. Of all men, bankers should have a good clean reputation in their home community. The leading bank in a western New York town "went under" several years ago and depositors lost nearly everything. But there had been rumors regarding that institution for months beforehand. Every inhabitant of the town knew that the cashier who ran the bank, was a "sport," that he associated with low women and gambled. He was never worth a moment's confidence, and many sensible people never did trust him. But there were others so charmed with his winning personality that they lost every penny they had.

Clean living, freedom from gambling and good judgment are what a banker needs, and those are qualities whose presence or absence is generally pretty well known to the whole community.

It is true that banks sometimes fail, but the proportion of failures to total deposits is insignificant. Even when banks do go under and the stockholders lose everything the depositors are usually paid off in full, The stockholders of all national banks and nearly all state banks and trust companies are under a double liability to the depositors, which means that they can be and almost always are forced in case of failure to pay up an amount double their stock holdings for the benefit of those who have deposits.

Several times a year banks are thoroughly examined by representatives of the state or national banking authorities, as the case may be, and also by representatives of their boards of directors.

The examiners count all the cash on hand down to the last penny, then check off all the bonds and other investment securities owned by the bank, as well as the collateral on which it has loaned money. They examine all the notes discounted, verify all balances due to and from other banks, by obtaining from them a formal certifying as to balances.

In addition the officers and more important employees are bonded, so that defalcations do' not result in actual loss to the bank itself. Besides actual examinations by national or state examiners and by representatives of the board of directors, banks are required to make several sworn and public statements each year. Often in case of failure the other institutions in the same city come to its rescue and take over the assets, first paying off all depositors. In the larger cities there is usually a Clearing House Association of all the banks which often includes the trust companies, and representatives of this association exercise a rigid supervision of the affairs of all of its members.

In actual practise there are fewer losses and fewer mistakes, by far, in the banking than in any other business. Has it ever occurred to you that if your bank made as many errors in figuring your balance as the average merchant does in making out your bills, or if it lost as much money as the average business man loses, you would have no confidence in it at all?