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# OSCAR J. SMITH INTERVIEWED (Continued from page 4.) of them to the extent of fraction of a cent. We have a lease at Pioneer, oil lands in southern California and other properties, any one of which should pull out, not only the banks, but ourselves, and that within a very few months. The affairs of the banks will be closed up without any expense other than that which is absolutely. The failure was due to our investments, particularly in southern Nevada, many of which proved disastrous. We worked in the face of innumerable obstacles, the first being the San Francisco fire, which caused a shrinkage in our securities amounting to a half million dollars. The fall in the price of our Goldfield holdings, due to the labor troubles there, caught us for a couple of hundred thousand dollars more and, the great panic completed the disaster. Since that we have struggled to get our heads above water and I think we should have succeeded in time. But the crash has come now and all we will do the rest of our days, if it requires our remaining years, will be to make everybody square, and this will, we hope, require only a few months. Then, and only then, we will endeavor to repair our individual fortunes. I want to say this, that I am in close touch with the banking institutions throughout the state and all of them are in most prosperous condition, especially those of Reno, which are as strong as the rock of Gibraltar. The First National Bank of Elko, with which my brother and myself were once prominently connected, is as solvent as any other banking institution in Nevada. The Bank of Manhattan, which we controlled has been liquidated without a loss to a single individual. Nearly all accounts have been paid and there is more than enough gold coin in the vaults to pay everything that remains and then some."
