[Volume XXV
THE CHICAGO BANKER
22
The new State Bank of Florence, Minn., h־s elected the following officers:	S. A.
Christianson as president and A. E. Green, cashier. The institution is capitalized at SI o.-ooo.
FACTORY FOR SALE
Stove factory with complete modern equipment, manufacturing oil heating, oil cooking, gasoline, alcohol and lamp stoves, ovens and steel ranges. Well assorted manufactured stock, also material raw and in process, cash accounts, unfilled orders, patterns and patents. Business has been operated continuously and has well established trade. Buildings new, cement and steel construction. Full sprinkled. Property comprises iron foundry, brass foundry, japan and nickel plating department, press department, machine shop, model power and heating plant, fine office, ample storage, machinery and all equipment, new and first-class. Sale by public auction to highest bidder September 18th, 1908, at Ann Arbor, Mich. Inventory can be inspected after September 1st, at the office of Register of Circuit Court, Ann Arbor, Mich., or office of Detroit Trust Co., Receiver Glazier Stove Co., Chelsea, Mich.
M head of big financial concern. Have had financial reverses. Can positively get on my feet with assistance of person in similar position. Answers considered sacredly confidential. Reply VV. W. K.. 1300 TRUDE BLDG., CHICAGO
J. C. Van Blarcom
St. Louis, August 26.—J. C. Van Blarcom, president of the National Bank of Commerce, and a banker of national reputation, died Monday night at his summer home on Little Moose Lake, in the Adirondacks, near Old Forge, N. Y. Mr. Van Blarcom succumbed to an attack of Bright’s disease. Lie was 59 years old.
The news of Mr. Van Blarcom’s death did not reach his associates in the Bank of Commerce until a telegram came yesterday morning to Vice-President B. F. Edwards from S. M. Dodd of St. Louis, who has a cottage at Old Forge. Although it was not unexpected, it was a great shock to the officers of the bank. All of Mr. Van Blarcom’s associates here had
known for months that he was in precarious health, and recent letters from Old Forge had advised them that his condition was growing worse. The strain of business cares during the financial panic last fall contributed to his collapse. He spent most of the winter in Texas, returned to St. Louis in the spring and went to his summer home in May. He was given a year’s •leave of absence, with pay, by the bank. He came back to St. Louis for a few days in July. Mrs. Van Blarcom and their son, Frederic, were with him at the time of his death.
It is expected that B. F. Edwards will succeed Mr. Л ап Blarcom as the president of the Bank of Commerce. Mr. Edwards has been acting president during Mr. Van Blarcom’s absence, and is regarded in banking circles as the logical choice of the directors for president. It is probable that the election will not take place for a month, as a majority of the directors are out of the city.
Jacob Craig Van Blarcom was born in Bergen County, N. J., June 1, 1849. He was of Dutch stock, and some of his ancestors were soldiers in the revolutionary army. He went to school at Paterson. N. J., and at Rutgers College. New Brunswick, N. J., and came to St. Louis in !866,
V•
The Yellowstone Highwayman
The gentleman who relieved the Yellowstone tourists of their cash formerly ran a 4 per cent bank and solicited deposits by mail, lie says the new line beats the old one by an “unknown” per cent.
Bank Guaranty in Kansas
Winfield, Kan., August 25.— Editor Chicago Banker:	I notice by your issue of
August 22cl an article on the so-called state guaranty proposition, and in that article a statement that John W. Breidenthal, president of the Bankers National of Kansas City, Kan., has sent out letters to the various bankers in Kansas asking for their opinion of the wisdom of enacting such a law in this state; that he had received replies from about 137 banks, about two-thirds of which were in favor of the law.
The article would naturally carry the impression to the people that about that proportion of the bankers in the state favored such a law. I think I am safe in stating that there are about 960 banks in the state of Kansas, and if an expression could be obtained from the officers of each bank I am satisfied that a large proportion of them, possibly two-thirds, would signify their opposition to such a law. I presume a majority of the conservative bankers wdio received such letters did not think it necessary to answer them. Our bank for one, paid no attention to the letter, but I wish to state that its officers are unqualifiedly opposed to the passage of such a law as has been passed by Oklahoma.
We are opposed to it on principle, and believe such a law would be unconstitutional. We believe that it is not morally right to force one banker to pay for the losses, mismanagement, or defalcation of another. We believe that the pledging of the assets of one bank for the liabilities of another will tend to weaken the security which that bank furnishes to its own depositors, and, therefore, is fundamentally and economically incorrect and dangerous.	W. E. Otis,
President of Winfield National Bank.
Minnesota
It only has required the new paid secretary of the Minnesota Bankers Association thirty days to get out a complete and handsome edition of the nineteenth annual convention. In fact, a beat was scored on at least one New York financial paper which only got it out as a news matter this week. It is printed on rough, deckle-edged paper, with the portraits on inserts, which is about the last word as to quality and style.
V*
Substitutes for Cash in 1907
The autumn of 1907 witnessed what was probably the most extensive and prolonged breakdown of the country’s credit mechanism which has occurred since the establishment of the national banking system. Upon no previous occasion have the banks of so many cities resorted to clearing house loan certificates for the settlement of their mutual obligations ; never before have they isued them in such large amounts, nor for such long periods of time; and never have these certificates been so extensively issued in small denominations to meet ordinary bank obligations in lieu of cash. Even during the critical periods of 1873 and 1893, it is unlikely that as many banks limited the payment of their obligations in cash, although the proportion of existing banks which so restricted payments may have been as large.—A. Piatt Andrew.
W. F. Curtiss
W. F. Curtiss, banker at Waterloo, Iowa, in a letter to a Chicago bank, says that the new Waterloo Trust Company is not the only local sign of prosperity. He writes: “If no frost for four weeks, old Blackhawk County’s corn prospects are fine. Never before have we had a better showing for a good yield in a high price market. The farmers are feeling fine.”