exercise, as you call it, is cleverly set up to be friendly and helpful to this bank. Okay, we know it's neither. But you'll never prove that and I suggest we stop wasting time with talk about trying to.'
He picked up one of the newspapers and spread the front page open. 'One reason I earn my princely salary is because I'm an expert about news and media Right now my expertise tells me that this same story which is written and presented fairly, like it or not is spewing out through every news wire service in the country and will be used. Why? Because it's a David and Goliath piece which reeks of human interest.'
Tom Straughan, seated beside Vandervoort, said quietly, 'I can confirm part of that. It has been on the Dow Jones news service and right afterward our stock dropped one more point.'
'Another thing,' Dick French went on as though he had not been interrupted, 'we may as well brace ourselves now for the TV news tonight. There'll be plenty on local stations for sure, and my educated guess is we'll be on network, all three majors. Also, if any paper can resist that 'bank in trouble' phrase I'll swallow my picture tube.' Heyward asked coldly, 'Have you finished?'
'Not quite. I'd just like to say that if I'd blown this entire year's PR budget on one thing, just one thing, to try to make this bank look bad, I couldn't have improved on the damage you guys have done unaided.'
Dick French had a personal theory. It was that a good public relations man should go to work each day prepared to put his job on the line. If knowledge and experience required him to tell his superiors unpleasant facts they would prefer not to hear, and to be brutally frank while doing so, so be it. The frankness was part of PR too a ploy to gain attention. To do less, or to court favor through silence or pussyfooting, would be to fail in his responsibilities.
Some days required more bluntness than usual. This was one.
Scowling, Roscoe Heyward asked, 'Do we know yet who the organizers are?' 'Not specifically,' French said. 'I spoke with Nolan who says he's working on that. Not that it makes much difference.'
'And if you're interested in the latest from the downtown branch,' Tom Straughan contributed, 'I went in through the tunnel just before coming here. The place is still packed with demonstrators. Almost no one can get in to do regular banking business.'
'They're not demonstrators,' Dick Prench corrected him. 'Let's get that clear, too, while we're about it. There's not a placard or a slogan among the lot, except maybe 'Act of Hope.' They're customers, and that's our problem.'
'All right,' Jerome Patterton said, 'since you know so much about it, what do you suggest?'
The PR vice-president shrugged. 'You guys pulled the rug from under Forum East. You're the ones who could put it back.' Roscoe Heyward's features tightened. Patterton turned to Vandervoort. 'Alex?'
'You know my feelings,' Alex said; it was the first time he had spoken. 'I was against the cut in funds to begin with. I still am.'
Heyward said sarcastically, 'Then you're probably delighted about what's going on. And I suppose you'd give in gladly to those louts and their intimidation.'
'No, I'm not in the least delighted.' Alex's eyes Sashed angrily. 'What I am is embarrassed and offended to see the bank in the position it's been placed. I believe what's happening could have been foreseen that is, some response, some opposition. What matters most at the moment, though, is to set the situation right.'
Heyward sneered, 'So you would give in to intimidation. Just as I said.'
'Giving in or not giving in is immaterial,' Alex answered coldly. 'The real question is: Were we right or wrong in cutting off funds from Forum East? If we were wrong, we should have second thoughts, along with courage to admit our error.'
Jerome Patterton observed, 'Second thoughts or not, if we back down now we'll all look pretty foolish'
'Jerome,' Alex said, 'in the first place, I don't believe so. In the second, does it matter?'
Dick French interposed, 'The financial end of this is none of my business. I know that. But I'll tell you one thing: If we decided now to change bank policy about Forum East, we'd look good, not bad.'
Roscoe Heyward said acidly to Alex, 'If courage is a factor here, I'd say that you are devoid of any. What you're doing is refusing to stand up to a mob.'
Alex shook his head impatiently. 'Stop sounding like a small-town sheriff, Roscoe. Sometimes, unwillingness to change a wrong decision is plain pigheadedness, nothing more. Besides, those people at the downtown branch are not a mob. Every report we've had has made that dear.'
Heyward said suspiciously, 'You seem to have a special affinity for them. Do you know something the rest of us don't?' 'No.'
'Just the same, Alex,' Jerome Patterton ruminated, 'I don't like the idea of meekly giving in.'
Tom Straughan had been following both argument'. Now he said, 'I was opposed to cutting off Forum East funds, as everybody knows. But I don't like being pushed around by outsiders either.'
Alex sighed. 'If you all feel like that, we'd better accept that the downtown branch won't be much use to us for a while.'
'That rabble can't possibly keep up what they're doing,' Heyward declared. 'I predict that if we maintain our stand, refusing to be bluffed or stampeded, the entire exercise win fizzle out tomorrow.'
'And I,' Alec said, 'predict it will continue through next week.' In the end, both predictions proved erroneous.
In the absence of any softening of attitude by the bank, inundation of the downtown branch by Forum East supporters continued through all of Thursday and Friday, until the close of business late Friday afternoon. The big branch was almost helpless. And, as Dick French predicted, nationwide attention was focused on its plight.
Much of the attention was humorous. However, investors were less amused, and on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday, First Mercantile American Bank shares closed a further two and a half points lower.
Meanwhile, Margot Bracken, Seth Orinda, Deacon Euphrates, and others went on planning and recruiting. On Monday morning the bank capitulated.
At a hastily called press conference at 10 A.M., Dick French announced that full Forum East financing would be restored at once. On behalf of the bank, French expressed the good-natured hope that the many from Forum East and their friends, who had opened accounts at FMA over the past several days, would remain bank customers.
Behind the capitulation were several cogent reasons. One was: Prior to the downtown branch opening on Monday morning, the lineup outside the bank and on Rosselli Plaza was even larger than on previous days, so it became plain that the preceding week's performance would be repeated.
More disconcerting, a second long lineup appeared at another FMA branch bank, this in suburban Indian Hill. The development was not wholly unexpected. Extension of the Forum East activity to additional First Mercantile American branches had been forecast in Sunday's newspapers. When the line at Indian Hill began to form, an alarmed branch manager telephoned FMA Headquarters, asking for help. But it was a final factor which clinched the outcome.
Over the weekend, the union which had loaned money to the Forum East Tenants committee and provided free lunches for those in line the American Federation of Clerks, Cashiers & Office Workers publicly announced its involvement. They pledged additional support. A union spokesman castigated FMA as a 'selfish and gargantuan profit machine, geared to further enrich the wealthy at the expense of the have-nots.' A campaign to unionize the bank's employees, he added, would soon begin.
The union thus tilted the scale, not with a straw, but a bale of bricks.
Banks all banks feared, even hated, unions. Banking's leaders and executives eyed unions the way a snake might view a mongoose. What bankers foresaw if unions became entrenched was a lessening of banks' financial freedom. At times their fear was irrational, but it existed.
Though unions had tried often, few had made the slightest headway where bank employees were concerned. Time after time, bankers adroitly outwitted union organizers and intended to keep on doing so. If the Forum East situation afforded leverage to a union, ipso facto, the leverage must be removed. Jerome Patterton, in his office early and moving with unusual speed, made the final decision authorizing the restitution of funds to Forum East. At the same time he approved the bank's announcement which Dick French rushed to release.
Afterward, to steady his nerves, Patterton cut off all communication and practiced chip shots on the inner office rug.
Later the same morning, at a mainly informal session of the money policy committee, the reinstatement was recorded, though Roscoe Heyward grumbled, 'It's created a precedent and is a surrender we'll regret.' Alex
