Business & Finance: American Tragedies

Gary, Ind., is essentially a steel city, its murky horizon is sliced jagged by towering smokestacks. An efficient Chamber of Commerce boasts to visitors that Gary has 515 acres of golf links, parks and playgrounds, a $1,000,000 community Church, a model public school plan. The visitor will listen politely. But he will always remember Gary as a grey city of steel and flame and smoke. At No. 1112 Broadway, Gary, a few blocks from the business district, is Central Trust & Savings Bank. Its location is in that part of Gary known as “across the tracks,” the great flat area where thousands of steelworkers dwell. The bank was established 21 years ago, and there are only two larger ones in the city. Several years ago it was rebuilt, given a black marble front, four marble pillars two and a half stories high. Its interior was redecorated. The steelworkers’ accounts seemed safe in the hands of President C. Oliver Holmes, in his so’s, member of many clubs and societies, a State Senator, an aggressive reformer of banking laws. And one of its directors is Dr. William Feder, a pioneer citizen respected by all Indiana Jews.

Yet last week Central Trust & Savings Bank suspended. Deposits of $900,000 were tied up. Industrial Gary did not stop. Steelworkers took their places as usual in the morning, came home weary at night. But a major tragedy had occurred “across the tracks.”

In Colorado, Brighton is a neat little town with 2,715 population. Its air is crisp and cool, a lot of motors are seen on its streets. One of its busiest corners is at Main & Strong Streets. There in a two-story brick building is Farmers State Bank. In the back of the same building the Adams County Republican is published weekly. President of the bank is Herman Schloo, onetime cattle trader. L. D. Kranbeck, the butcher, and W. W. Gaunt, the lawyer, are directors. So is Elmer Jennerich who clerks in the hardware store.

Last week Brighton was shocked when the bank failed to open. Its deposits came to $429,000.

If you lived in Wheaton, Kan., you would be well aware of the 1Depression. For two years the crops have been failures. The farmers have no buying power. Things have been slow in the business district. Even the biggest businessman in town, H. S. Kusahl, has felt the Depression. His hardware, furniture and undertaking establishments have not done well. And neither has Farmers’ State Bank of which he is president.

Last week the bank, located in an $1,800 building on Front Street between Center and Railroad Streets, closed. In the bank was $123,225 of Wheaton money. Frozen loans caused the trouble. It was not that the bank had not been shrewd. Two of the directors, John Moran and Henry Keating, were good farmers and judges of value. It was just as Mr. Kusahl said: “Our reserve got low and we were unable to collect loans.”

About 350 people live in Greensboro, Pa., which is 30 miles more or less from Waynesburg, seat of Greene County. In the heart of Greensboro’s business district, where High Street crosses Main, is a one-story brick building built by Mrs. Edward Kramer. It houses Peoples Bank. S. I. Black, a farmer with a good reputation, serves as president of the bank, without pay. Frank B. Kramer, Mrs. Kramer’s brother-in-law, is the cashier and generally considered active head of the bank. Both he and Mr. Black are of Greene County’s best old stock. Mr. Black is a Baptist, Mr. Kramer a Methodist. Mr. Kramer used to be a general merchant. One of the directors is B. E. South, retired carpenter. Another is C. C. Davis who owns the motion picture house. Greensboro is a farming community but has been helped by coal developments. Last week when the bank did not open, Greensboro felt $368,000 poorer.

There has been a lot of trouble in Arkansas. First there was the collapse of the A. B. Banks group of banks (TIME, Dec. 1). Last week there was the food riot in England, Ark. (see p. 13), and a bank failed in Washington, Ark., 150 miles away. But there was good news in Clinton, 90 miles from England. The Van Buren County Bank opened after a short suspension. Its president and chairman is Garner Frazier, 55, an attorney-at-law, a native citizen of Clinton, and a leading citizen of Van Buren County. He is a devoted Methodist and a great civic worker. The bank is located in the heart of town (Clinton does not need street numbers), in a one-story concrete building. Brad Frazier, Garner’s brother, is cashier. The whole county was glad to hear the bank was transacting “business as usual.”

So, in steady sequence, has many a U. S. community suffered the pangs of Bank Failures, of cash tied up, of prominent citizens suddenly under suspicion. Fear has followed Faith; Tragedy stalked Prosperity. To tell of each failure would be impossible. To fail to search beyond the weekly figures of failures would be to miss the true social significance of the Depression.