them the Jones party and the
Smith party--who quarrel about some question of business policy, as, for
instance, whether the bank is to issue currency or not. The Jones
party is in control, but the Smith men persuade over to their side a
sufficient number of Jones men to give them--the Smith men--a majority
at the next stockholders' meeting. Thus they succeed in getting the
upper hand. They oust the old board of directors, and elect a new board
consisting of Smith men. The new Smith board at once remove all the
officers, president, cashier, tellers, book-keepers, and clerks, down to
the messenger boys--the good and the bad alike--simply because they are
Jones men, and fill their places forth-with with new persons who are
selected, not on the ground that they have in any way proved their
fitness for the positions so filled, but simply because they are Smith
men; and those of the Smith men who have shown the greatest zeal and
skill in getting a majority of votes for the Smith party are held to
have the strongest claims for salaried places in the bank. The new men
struggle painfully with the duties novel to them until they acquire some
experience, but even then, it needs in many instances two men or more to
do the work of one.

In the course of events dissatisfaction spreads among the stockholders
with the Smith management, partly shared by ambitious Smith men who
thought themselves entitled to reward in the shape of places and
salaries, but were "left out in the cold." Now the time for a new
stockholders' meeting arrives. After a hot fight the Jones party carries
the day. Its ticket of directors being elected, off go the heads of
the Smith president, the Smith cashier, the Smith tellers, the Smith
bookkeepers, and clerks, to be replaced by true-blue Jones men, who have
done the work of the campaign and are expected to do more of it when
the next election comes. And so the career of the bank goes on with its
periodical changes of party in power at longer or shorter intervals, and
its corresponding clean sweeps of the bank service, with mismanagement
and occasional fraud and peculation as inevitable incidents.

You might watch the proceedings of such a banking concern with intense
curiosity and amusement. But I ask you, what prudent man among you would
deposit his money in it, or invest in its stock? And why would you not?
Because you would think that this is not sensible men's business, but
foolish boys' play; that such ma