Needed: a Spokesman

BANKING

What's wrong with bankers? The biggest fault, said Allan Sproul, president of New York's Federal Reserve Bank, is that bankers have failed to provide any leadership in solving the social problems of today. They have been too busy lobbying for or against things they thought were good or bad for banking. It is time, Sproul told an audience of bankers in St. Louis last week, for bankers to exchange "the role of pressure groups for the role of banking statesmen." No one in banking speaks with a voice heard by the public. "The banking community . . . has left it to others to propose broad legislation programs and to devise changes in our banking and credit system . . . It has allowed itself to be cast in the role of opposition or resistance to change.

"A positive, affirmative approach . . . is a plain duty of the banking community. [It would give] the public the idea that banking stands for something besides its own special interests. I would expect banking to take its place with progressive industry and organized labor in trying to influence and mold public opinion on the critical economic issues of our times."

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