Otto H. Kahn

“ In many ways, in many instances, wrong impressions about finance have been given to the public, sometimes from ignorance, sometimes with malice aforethought, sometimes for political purposes.
The fact is that the men in charge of our financial affairs are, and to be successful, must be every whit as honorable, as patriotic, as right thinking, as anxious for the good opinions of their fellowmen as those in other walks of life. ”

“ I know of no other centre where the label counts for less, where the shine and potency of a great name is more quickly rubbed off if the bearer does not prove his worth, than in the great mart of finance. ”

“ Finance means promoting and facilitating the country's trade at home and abroad, creating new wealth, making new jobs for workmen.
It means continuous study of the conditions prevailing throughout the world. It means daring and imagination combined with care and foresight and integrity, and hard, wearing work—much of it not compensated, because of every ten propositions submitted to the scrutiny or evolved by the brain of the financier who is duly careful of his reputation and conscious of his responsibility to the public, it is safe to say that not more than three materialize. ”

“ Let business men do these things, not sporadically, under the spur of some imminent menace, but systematically and persistently.
Let them be mindful that just as the price of liberty is eternal vigilance, so eternal effort in resisting fallacies and in disseminating true and tested doctrine is the price of right lawmaking in a democracy. ”

“ And the instinct of democracy is right.
Men occupying conspicuous and leading places in finance as in every other calling touching the people's interests, are legitimate objects for public scrutiny in the exercise of their functions.
If opportunity for such scrutiny is denied, if the people's legitimate desire for information is met with silence, secrecy, impatience and resentment, the public mind very naturally becomes infected with suspicion and lends a willing ear to all sorts of gossip and rumors. ”

“ It may all be legitimate, according to political standards, but it is not justice, and what of benefit is accomplished could equally well be obtained, whatever of guilt is to be revealed could equally well and probably better be disclosed, without resorting to inflammatory appeal and without, by assault or innuendo, recklessly and often indiscriminately besmirching reputations and hurting before the whole world the good name of American business. ”

“ Without going into shades of encyclopedic meaning, I would define, for the purpose of this discussion, a financier as a man who has some recognized relation and responsibility toward the larger monetary affairs of the public, either by administering deposits and loaning funds or by being a wholesale or retail distributor of securities.
To all such the confidence of the financial community, which naturally knows them best, and of the investing public is absolutely vital. Without it, they simply cannot live. ”

“ As I have said before, the capacity of the financier is dependent upon the confidence of the financial community and the investing public, just as the capacity of the banks is dependent upon the confidence of the depositing public. Take away confidence and what remains is only that limited degree of power or influence which mere wealth may give. ”

“ Never was it of more importance than in the present emergency that the people should have a clear and correct understanding of the meaning and significance of finance, indeed of "high finance," and that they should approach the subject calmly and dispassionately and with untroubled vision, for when the European war is over and the period of reconstruction sets in, one of the most vital questions of the day will be that of finance and financing. ”

“ Yet it is a fact that there are very few financial houses of great wealth. All of the very greatest fortunes of the country, and in fact most of the great fortunes, have been made, not in finance, but in trade, industries and inventions. ”

“ I do not mean to claim that high finance has not in some instances strayed from the highest standard, that it has not made mistakes, that it has not at times yielded to temptation—and the temptations which beset its path are indeed many—that there have not been some occurrences which every right thinking man must deplore and condemn. ”

“ Finance means constructive work. It means mobilizing and organizing the wealth of the country so that the scattered monetary resources of the individuals may be united and guided into a mighty current of fruitful co-operation—a hundredfold, nay ten-thousandfold as potent as they would or could be in individual hands. ”

“ The people properly and justly insist that the same "fierce light that beats upon a throne" should also beat upon the high places of finance and commerce.
It is for those occupying such places to show cause why they should be considered fit persons to be entrusted with them, the test being not merely ability, but just as much, if not more, character, self-restraint, fair-mindedness and due sense of duty towards the public. ”

“ Finance cannot properly be held responsible for the exploits, good, bad or indifferent, of the man who, having made money at manufacturing, or mining, or in other commercial pursuits, blows into town, either physically or by telephone or telegraph, and goes on a financial spree, more or less prolonged. ”

“ He should never forget that the social edifice in which he occupies so desirable quarters, has been erected by human hands, the result of infinite effort, of sacrifice and compromise, the aim being the greatest good of society; and that if that aim is clearly shown to be no longer served by the present structure, if the successful man arrogates to himself too large or too choice a part, if, selfishly, he crowds out others, then, what human hands have built up by the patient work of many centuries, human hands can pull down in one hour of passion. ”

“ One of the reasons why finance so frequently has been the target for popular attack is that it deals with the tangible expression of wealth, and in the popular mind pre-eminently personifies wealth, and is widely looked upon as an easy way to acquire wealth without adequate service. ”

“ Just as Congress, by a series of laws, has imposed burdens and costs upon ships operating under the American flag which made it impossible for capital to invest in American ships for use in the world's trade and earn a fair return in normal times, so the Federal and State Legislatures, during the past ten years, have imposed upon the railroads all kinds of exactions, restrictions and increasing costs which have had the result of arresting progress, and which threaten, after the cessation of the present period of abnormal earnings, to seriously lame that vastly important industry. ”

“ Everywhere else through the civilized world in matters of national policies as they affect business, the representatives of business are consulted and listened to with the respect which is due to expert knowledge.
It is only in America that the views of business men in general (as distinct from the agitation of particular business men or organizations having a special object to serve, such as on the occasion of tariff making in former days) are ignored, their advice brushed aside or even resented, their representatives treated as interlopers. ”

“ It is the critics of finance and business who—to mention but a few instances—have given to the army aeroplanes that are grossly defective, to the navy submarines that are in constant trouble, who have passed laws which have driven our ships off the seas in the world's trade, and other laws which have mainly brought it about that in the year 1915 less railroad mileage has been constructed in the United States than within any one year since the Civil War. ”

“ Finance and financiers have had no mean share in creating organizations and institutions in this country which are models of efficiency and which men from all quarters of the globe come here to study and to admire. ”

“ The people are fair-minded and when fully informed, almost invariably wise and right in their judgment, which cannot always be said of their representatives.
When scolded, browbeaten, maligned and harassed, finance may well turn upon its professional fault-finders and challenge comparison. ”

“ As soon as the meaning of the laws under which business was to be conducted had come to be reasonably defined, as soon as it became apparent that the latitude tacitly permitted during the pioneer period must end, finance fell into line with the new spirit and has kept in line. ”

“ Let them pledge themselves to use their legitimate influence and their votes to realize such legislation and to oppose actively what they believe to be harmful lawmaking.
Let them strive, patiently and persistently, to gain the confidence of the people for their methods and their aims. ”

“ Let us take short cuts to arrive at the truth, but let us be sure that it is the truth that we shall meet at the end of our road, and not a mongrel thing wearing some of the garments of truth, but some others, too, belonging to that trinity of unlovely sisters, passion, prejudice and self-seeking. ”

“ It behooves him to remember that many other men are working, and have worked all their lives, with probably as much effort and assiduous application, as much self-abnegation as he, but have not succeeded in raising themselves above mediocre stations in life, because to them has not been granted the possession of those peculiar gifts which beget conspicuous success, and to which, because they are very rare and because they are needed for the world's work, is given the incentive of liberal reward.
He should beware of that insidious tendency of wealth to chill and isolate ”

“ Let business then become militant, not to secure special privileges—it does not want any and does not need any—but to secure due regard for its views and its rights and its conceptions as to what measures will serve the best interests of the country, and what measures will harm and jeopardize such interests. ”

“ If this country is to take full advantage of the unparalleled opportunities which the developments of the last two years have opened up to it, if, in the severe competition which sooner or later after the close of the war is bound to set in for the world's trade, it is to hold its own, it must not only not be hampered by unwise and antiquated laws, as it now is, in certain respects, but it must be intelligently aided and fostered by the legislative and administrative powers. ”

“ To provide for the thousands of millions of dollars annually needed by our railroads and other industries, would vastly overtax the resources of all the greatest financial houses and groups taken together, and therefore the financier or group of financiers undertaking such transactions must depend in the first instance upon the co-operation of the financial community at large. ”

“ And I claim that Finance has been as quick and willing as any other element in the community to discern the moral obligations of the new era brought about within the last ten years and to align itself on their side. ”

“ Let them take their case directly to the people—as the railroads have been doing of late with very encouraging results—and inaugurate a campaign of education in sound economics, sound finance and sound national business principles. ”

“ If for one reason or another they find themselves short of means in difficult times, it is his task and care to find ways and means to obtain what is needed, sometimes at great financial risk to himself. ”

“ It is in conformity with the nature of things that the average man of business, responsible not only for his own affairs, but often trustee for the welfare of others, should lean towards that which has withstood the acid test of experience and should be somewhat diffident towards experiment and novel theory. ”

“ There has been no gambling frenzy in the financial markets of America within the memory of this generation equalling the recklessness and magnitude of England's South African mining craze with its record of questionable episodes, some of them involving great names ”

“ The handling and adjustment of that question, although it primarily concerns Europe, cannot fail to affect America favorably or unfavorably, according to the wisdom or lack of wisdom of our own attitude and actions.
A great many things are being and have been charged in the popular view against finance, with which finance, properly understood, has nothing to do. ”

“ The reporting is very frequently, if not generally, done by young men not very familiar with matters of finance and in search of incident and of high light rather than of the neutral tints of a sober and even record ”

“ But, making full allowance for this natural and proper disposition, it must, I believe, be admitted that business, and especially the representatives of large business, including high finance, have too often failed to recognize in time the need and to heed the call for changes from methods and conceptions which had become unsuitable to the time and out of keeping with rationally, progressive development ”

“ Counsel is out to make a record. The principal witnesses are placed in the position of defendants at the bar without being protected by any of the safeguards which are thrown around defendants in a court of law. ”