[Volume XXV
THE CHICAGO BANKER
22
Statement
Cbe D)ercbant$' £oan and Crust Companp
At the Commencement of Business July 16, 1908 Resources	Liabilities
Capital Stock..........$ 3,000,000.00
Surplus Fund........ 3,000,000.00
Undivided Profits .. 1,694,396.84
Reserved for Accrued Interest and
Taxes................ 87,623.76
Deposits........... 53,541,311.01
$61,323,331.61
established 1857. Oldest Bank in Chicago
Commercial, Savings, Foreign, Trust, Bond and Farm Loan Departments, Safe Deposit Vaults
Officers
ORSON SMITH, President E. D. HULBERT, V. President J. G. ORCHARD, Cashier F. G. NELSON, Ass’t Cash. P. C. PETERSON, Ass’t Cash. C. E ESTES, Ass’t Cash. JOHN E. BLUNT, Jr., Manager Bond Dept.	LEON L. LOEHR, Manager Trust Dept.
F. W. THOMPSON, Mgr. Farm Loan Dept.	H. G. P. DEANS, Manager Foreign Dept.
135 Adams Street, Chicago
Loans and Discounts..............$26,155,822.47
Bonds and Mortgages.............. 9,364,891.47
Due from Banks. ..$17,909,605.10 Cash and Checks for Clearing House..	7,893,012.57
' 25,802,617.67 $61,323,331.61
Report of the condition of the
First National Bank
of DETROIT, MICHIGAN
At the close of business July 15th, 1908, as rendered to the Comptroller of the Currency
CASH RESOURCES
Due from U. S.
Treasurer......... $	85,500.00
Due from Banks—	1,843,111.50
Due from Reserve
Agents ........... 1,698,535.62
Cash on hand........ 3,281,133.78 $6,908,280.90
RESOURCES
Loans and Discounts............... $9,363,338.93
Overdrafts............................... 2,553.92
U. S. Bonds and Premiums...........	840,175.00
Bonds, Stocks, Securities, Etc.. 1,388,980.84 Furniture and Fixtures.........	159,309.85
$18,662,639.44
LIABILITIES
Capital Stock paid in.............. $2,000,000.00
Surplus Fund........................ 1,000,000.00
Undivided Profits...................... 64,313.82
Circulation........................... 440,000.00
Deposits........................... 15,141,035.55
Reserved for Taxes..................... 17,290.07
$18,662,639.44
OFFICERS
MORRIS L. WILLIAMS, President	JOHN T. SHAW, Vice-President and Cashier
EMORY W CLARK, Vice-President	F. A. SMITH, Assistant to the President
FRANK G. SMITH, Assistant Cashier	W. A. McWHINNEY, Assistant Cashier
P'. F. CHRISTIE, Assistant Cashier	JOSEPH GRINDLEY, Assistant Cashier
J. H. HART, Assistant Cashier	|OHN W. STALEY, Assistant Cashier
F. C. BLOMFIELD, Auditor
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one savings bank, one title and trust company (in name only). One state bank paid eighty-four and a quarter per cent; one receiver never has filed any report in the clerk’s office, (but I understand paid in full) ; one large state bank paid fifty-eight per cent, after the receiver lived for years and grew fat on the assets, and would have paid one hundred cents on the dollar if the assets had not been squandered and by the approval of the court. The savings bank paid 81 per cent; their bills receivable paid in more than their liabilities and would have paid in full, if the bank had been promptly and carefully liquidated, instead, the receiver is still holding on years after the bank failed.
We should have a law requiring the depositing of state funds in state banks only, until such time as the government will deposit in state banks on the same securities as they do in national banks, and allow the appointing of state banks as reserve agents for national banks.
The state should require a uniform rate of interest on all deposits, from all depositaries. The interest received should be set aside as a fund for the guarantee of deposits in all state banks. The interest received during the past ten years would have paid all losses in failed state banks if they had been properly closed up and liquidated, and not allowed the assets to have been eaten up in receivers’ and attorneys’ fees.
Savings banks should be required to accumulate surplus to an amount of at least 20 per cent of their deposits.
The bankers association of the state of Minnesota should have a committee or paid attorney to examine all bills or proposed legislation at the coming session of the legislature and endeavor to defeat all undesirable legislation through publicity, as it is well known that no undesirable measure can be passed by the legislature if the people of the state are posted as to its features; the great danger is in what is known as snap legislation.
J. C. Bassett
The South Dakota bankers selected J. C. Bassett, of Aberdeen, for membership upon the A. B. A. executive council. Mr. Bassett is president of the Aberdeen National, and will make a capable, clean addition to the big administrative body.
is well known and acknowledged by all that the banks are taxed in excess of their property.
There should be at once a rigid enforcement of the law of 1907 requiring the incorporation of all banks in the state of Minnesota; I understand that at the present time there are a few banks that have not incorporated as provided by the above law.
There are thousands of dollars of commercial paper being sold by brokers that is of very doubtful value ; some action should be taken to place the commercial paper of the Northwest on a more reliable and desirable footing. There should be some public record as to the assets and liabilities of every firm, person, or corporation having their notes sold by a broker. I would suggest that the clearinghouse in each city establish a registration bureau, where firms and corporations can file a statement by public accountants of their assets and liabilities, and have their notes registered, and have each note show amount outstanding prior to that date. This could be brought about by the banks refusing to buy notes that were not registered.
Legislation
Our penal code should be amended so as to provide for punishment by at least five years in the ¡penitentiary for carrying on their person or being in possession of burglarious tools, or high explosives, such as nitroglycerine, without permission from some proper state officer. This would help very materially to capture the yeg-gman.
We should endeavor to have passed in our state, what is known as the Negotiable Instrument law. It has been passed in many states and found very satisfactory.
I would recommend such legislation as will place the appointment of our superintendent of lianks free from political influence and politics, and provide him with sufficient funds to hire examiners so that a rigid examination of each state bank will be made at least twice a year; and where there is what is known as a line of banks they be examined as near simultaneously as possible.
The liquidation of all failed state banks should be entirely within the jurisdiction of the superintendent of banks, who should pay the receiver, (who should hire his own attorney I according to the per cent paid to creditors, and not allow a receiver to prolong his job for years as is usually done. During the past ten years there have been three state bank failures ;