SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BANKING SITUATION IN 



COLORADO 



By John B. Phillips 



This paper concerns itself mainly with that part of the financial situa- 

 tion that is represented by the banking laws. Many causes have been 

 operative in making the banking situation what it is in this state, and 

 these causes are now operating to bring home to the minds of the people 

 the need of certain changes in our banking legislation. 



For many years Colorado was a frontier state. It was on the border 

 between the developed and undeveloped resources of the United States. 

 As a frontier state its population was engaged in exploiting undeveloped 

 resources. For this purpose a different class of people is necessary 

 from the kind of persons suited to carry on the industries in an older 

 and more thickly settled region. In the frontier state the settlers must 

 live distant from each other, hardships must be endured, self-reliance 

 must abound. 



These demands of the frontier had their effect on the immigrants 

 that came here. Those men and women who left their homes in the 

 East and came to develop the resources of our state were strong, healthy, 

 aggressive and ambitious. The timid young men and women remained 

 in the eastern states and engaged in the routine industries. The restless, 

 adventurous, and daring young men and women came to seek their 

 fortune in the new lands of the West. This is why so many of the 

 captains of industry and leaders in politics are men trained in the enter- 

 prising spirit of the West. 



In the history of the United States there is no more conspicuous fact 

 than that the leaders from the very beginning have been men trained in 

 the West. The frontier it seems has developed the dash and enterprise 

 necessary to the leader. The West has always had an influence on the 

 history of the country out of all proportion to its numbers. Washington, 

 Jefferson, Jackson, Harrison, Taylor, and Lincoln were all men of the 

 frontier. They represented the West. The War of 1812 was a war of 



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