The street car companies have experienced a "change of times" also. There was a
time not so very long ago when street car conductors took pride in giving argument
to passengers. Many of the street car tracks have been removed and passengers ride
on a bus, whose driver is "the last word in politeness."
All over the country street car tracks are rusting from abandonment, or have
been taken up. Where-ever street cars are still in operation, passengers may now ride
without argument, and one may even hail the car in the middle of the block, and the
motorman will OBLIGINGLY pick him up.
HOW TIMES HAVE CHANGED! That is just the point I am trying to emphasize.
TIMES HAVE CHANGED! Moreover, the change is reflected not merely in railroad offices
and on street cars, but in other walks of life as well. The "public-be-damned" policy is
now passé. It has been supplanted by the "we-are-obligingly-at-yourservice, sir,"
policy.
The bankers have learned a thing or two during this rapid change which
has taken place during the past few years. Impoliteness on the part of a bank
official, or bank employee today is as rare as it was conspicuous a dozen years ago.
In the years past, some bankers (not all of them, of course), carried an
atmosphere of austerity which gave every would-be borrower a chill when he even
thought of approaching his banker for a loan.