"Which helps your bank as well as ours."
"Hardly so, Mr. Traver. You know as well as I how the Middletown development began. Middletown spread. Our bank" — the old man spoke proudly as he remembered days gone by — "became powerful throughout the county. By mergers and expansion, we established branches in every community. There are many smaller banks that still remain. All are dependent upon the County National. As it goes, they go.
"Then Middletown began to contract. It had reached out with the tentacles of an octopus. It drew its arms in again, and brought in all that it desired. Our branch banks — the smaller banks which rely upon us — are nothing but suboffices. They are not supporting themselves. We keep them merely for the convenience of our depositors."
Judge nodded in agreement. Delmar, taking this as a sign of understanding and sympathy, continued.
"The founding of your bank, the Middletown Trust Company," he stated, "was a healthy sign. Middletown could use two banks. Smaller than the County National, you have never established branches. But now, people have commenced to neglect the branches. They come directly into Middletown, to find business here.
"We, at the County National, are getting a share of the deposits. You, at the Trust Company, are experiencing a supernormal growth. Every new out-of-town depositor in the Trust Company was formerly a depositor in the County National, or one of its subsidiaries."
"You are exaggerating, Mr. Delmar," said Judge. "Nevertheless, there is truth in what you say. I can tell you the answer. The Middletown Trust Company has adjusted itself to meet existing conditions. It is living in the future, not the past. The County National Bank has not adjusted itself. It is still trying to support past conditions."
"I agree with you," declared Delmar solemnly. "But I still insist that the present is not normal. In competing with the County National, the Middletown Trust should establish branch offices of its own—"
"But you have said," interrupted Judge, with a smile, "that branch offices are not profitable."
"Let me finish," begged Delmar. "You should establish branch offices, or we must eliminate ours."