nearly $1,000,000,000 of the people’s money and helping the farmer, the business man, and the railroad employee carry on their daily lives. In the United States as a whole, the deposits have increased from $2,201,900,000 in 1880 to $19,663,857,000 in 1912. The banker in his business meets many people and has a chance to direct attention to the right way of solving some of the difficulties that confront the country.
What about the carrier? What has been accomplished in creating that agency.? In our part of the country, the principal carrier for any distance is the railroad, and to a very large extent this is true in the United States as a whole. Without efficient railroads the country cannot develop any more than it can develop without efficient agriculture and safe and sound banks. Here are a few figures that will show what the owners of the railroad have done in producing a transportation machine to handle the people and products of the country:—
The American railroad system has been
