Better Banking Facilities Needed

Discussing the poor credit and banking facilities of the west and south before the last meeting of the American Economie association, Mr. Thomas G. Shearman said: In the 11 southern states it is impossible that one-tenth of the farmers could have any bank accounts or could ever draw checks in payment for their retail transactions. In the recent campaign the successful candidate received the votes of 23 states, the defeated candidate the votes of 22. The 23 states hold. 92 per cent of all bank deposits and depositors. Deducting from the other 22 states the silver states and a few large cities, the remaining vast agricultural section of the country, having 40 per cent of the population and 75 per cent of the área, has less than 4 per cent of the bank deposits and depositors. This suggests what was the real grievance of this mass of voters, although they did not themselves understand it. Their banking facilities are proportionately only one-sixteenth of the rest of the country.