E.S. Keesler Says Failure of Raleigh B.&L. Was Expected, Feb. 21, 1926

The Raleigh B. & L. Crash Was Expected. . . Charlotte Building and Loan Men Said It Tried to Operate on a Statewide Basis

Charlotte Observer

The failure of the North Carolina Mutual Building and Loan Association in Raleigh does not come as a great surprise to veteran Charlotte building and loan men, who say the Raleigh concern was not really a building and loan association in the accepted sense of the term and represented a business policy foreign to that followed by other associations in the state.

E.L. Keesler, president of the Charlotte district of the North Carolina Building and Loan League, a district embracing several counties, also secretary of the Mutual Building and Loan Association, says that the State League has declined to accept the North Carolina Building and Loan Association in membership, returning its check and application for such membership.

The Raleigh concern, he said, sought to do business on a statewide scale, a policy, he says, which has never been successful, whereas the other associations confine themselves strictly to loans in their own communities.

Whatever the reasons may be, he says, the result is that a statewide association has never lived in North Carolina, while the community associations have prospered and multiplied without a single failure during the 10-year period in which records have been kept.

There are now 240 associations in the state, he said, with assets at approximately $85 million.

Two associations in Charlotte, the Mutual of which Mrs. [Mr.?] Keesler is secretary and the Mechanics’ Perpetual have the enviable record of more than 40 years of service without ever having lost a dollar on loans.

From page 2 of The Concord Daily Tribune, Saturday, Feb. 20, 1926

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