BANKING: Oregon's J. P. Morgan Sells Out

Salemites strolling past the corner of State & Commercial Streets one day last week stared sorrowfully at cardboard placards in the arched windows of the old Salem, Ore. firm of Ladd & Bush, Bankers.

They read: "Ladd & Bush Salem-Branch of the United States National Bank of Portland." For 71 years (almost the age of Salem) it had kept the money of Salem and the inhabitants of Oregon's lush Willamette Valley. Together the three had prospered.

For a reputed price of $1,200,000, straitlaced, teetotaling, 83-year-old Asahel Nesmith Bush ("Asahel II") sold his bank...

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