Business Life 135 



perform certain duties, involving a periodical ex- 

 amination of the business done by the banks, a 

 report upon their financial condition, and, if this 

 be deemed unsatisfactory, certain powers plenipo- 

 tentiary in regard to a change of management, or, 

 in extreme cases, the suspension of payments. The 

 laws upon this subject could hardly be bettered ; 

 the administration of them has become a farce. 

 The Commissioners are often ill-chosen ; their work 

 is too hastily done ; they consider the feelings of 

 the Board of Directors, whom they know personally, 

 rather than the depositors ; and consciously or sub- 

 consciously they conceal rather than reveal fraud. 

 I used the word subconsciously advisedly. There is 

 a sentiment in the West, underlying all conduct, 

 which the Native Son fondly calls tolerance : a 

 sentiment which wilfully blinds itself to things as 

 they are, and prattles sweetly of things as they 

 ought to be. In a country where the unforeseen 

 nearly always happens, the Bank Commissioners 

 doubtless justify themselves by predicting good 

 whenever they are confronted by evil. Spero 

 infestis should be taken as their motto. It is 

 obvious that these gentlemen should be compelled 

 to do their duty, or their office abolished. At pres- 

 ent, they are a menace to the community, who, for 

 the most part, have faith in them — a faith sorely 

 tried of late. I know of cases when unhappy per- 

 sons allowed all they possessed in the world to 

 remain in the keeping of those whom the Bank 

 Commissioners publicly proclaimed to be solvent 

 and trustworthy, and who were proved shortly 

 afterwards to be neither the one nor the other. 



