One more point before I close. There will be, of course, some banks
unable to reopen without being reorganized. The new law allows the
government to assist in making these reorganizations quickly and
effectively and even allows the government to subscribe to at least
a part of new capital which may be required.

I hope you can see from this elemental recital of what your
government is doing that there is nothing complex, or radical, in
the process.

We had a bad banking situation. Some of our bankers had shown
themselves either incompetent or dishonest in their handling of the
people's funds. They had used the money entrusted to them in
speculations and unwise loans. This was, of course, not true in the
vast majority of our banks, but it was true in enough of them to
shock the people for a time into a sense of insecurity and to put
them into a frame of mind where they did not differentiate, but
seemed to assume that the acts of a comparative few had tainted
them all. It was the government's job to straighten out this
situation and do it as quickly as possible--and the job is being
performed.

I do not promise you that every bank will be reopened or that
individual losses will not be suffered, but there will be no losses
that possibly could be avoided; and there would have been more and
greater losses had we continued to drift. I can even promise you
salvation for some at least of the sorely pressed banks. We shall
be engaged not merely in reopening sound banks but in the creation
of sound banks through reorganization.