29
THE CHICAGO BANKER
September 1908]
advances to this coast, principally to San Francisco, during the past year.
The Imperial Japanese Bank
The Imperial Japanese Bank, at 1543 Laguna Street, San Francisco, was closed Friday by the state bank commissioners. It is alleged that the officers have been making loans to themselves. The bank is capitalized at $27,000 paid up, with a reserve fund of $7,-000. Deposits $12,141, and other liabilities are fixed at $5,699. Only $500 in cash was found in the bank, with a number of unsecured personal notes.
To Get §5,000 in Gold
A requisition has been made to the Treasury department, at Washington, by the San Francisco mint, asking that a new carpet be placed in the adjusting room, as the one there now has been worn out after ten years’ service. The old carpet will be burned and it is expected that between $4,000 and $5,000 will be realized from the ashes. In the adjusting room at San Francisco files are used to trim the surplus gold from rough pieces and these small particles stick in the weave of the carpet.
The First National of Auburn
The Comptroller of the Currency has issued a certificate authorizing the First National of Auburn to begin business. The capital is $25,000, and its officers are: A. Shadbolt. president: S. G. Watts, vice-president; G. W. Brundage, cashier. The Merchants’ National will be the San Francisco reserve agent.
The Telegraph Avenue Savings Bank
Articles of incorporation of the Telegraph Avenue Savings Bank, of Central Oakland, were filed recently. The capital stock is fixed at $100,000, and of this amount $1,500 has been subscribed, $100 by each of the 15 directors. The directors, all of whom are residents of Oakland, are: W. B. Thomas, A. Van der Naillen, Jr., Dr. C. A. Dukes, Dr. A. S. Kelly, Nelson Saunders, Joseph Bosso, Waldo E. Smith, E. Cavanagh, W. A. Walker, John F. Dacha, E. H. Dettner, P. Casserly, P. McDonnell, Jerome Annia, and Harold Everhart. The San Francisco National Building
Plans for the new San Francisco National building, to be erected at the corner of California and Leidesdorff streets, have been completed by D. H. Burnham & Co., and construction will begin as soon as the Bank of California vacates the old building. The architects announce they expect to have the building finished and ready for occupancy by the middle of March, or April 1st next. The new structure will be of steel-frame construction throughout, all its steel being protected from fire and corrosion with concrete. It will be four stories in height, with a high basement. The banking offices will be on the ground floor, which, with the basement, will be handsomely finished in marble and bronze. The upper floors will be arranged for offices, with marble corridors and the finest finish of modern office buildings. The exterior of the new building will be designed as an ornament to the banking center.
Bank Reserve Agents
The Comptroller of the Currency has approved the Citizens’ National of Los Angeles, as reserve for the First National of Orosi; also the Central National of St. Louis, as reserve agent for the Seaboard National of San Francisco.
Banking Notes
The First National of Pomona, owing to increasing business, is enlarging and improving the banking rooms.
J. E. Baker is president ; I. L. Borden, vice-president; Charles E. Tabor, cashier, and W. M. McKean, assistant cashier of the Alameda National, capitalized at $100,000.
California Banking News
By WILLIAM J. HOLLISTER
$4,950,000 worth of fresh fruits.
$4,000,000 worth of barley.
These are of the northern and central portions of the state mainly, and do not include the immensely valuable fruit products of Southern California—the 29,000 or so carloads of oranges, lemons, etc., that will begin to move eastward toward the end of the year. Nor do they include the quantities of fruit consumed at home. The figures are not meant to be comprehensive, but illustrative merely, cited for the purpose of pointing out how futile it is to doubt the basic prosperity pf California.
Affairs in San Francisco, while lacking the volatility of the boom days of 1906, are in sound condition, and retail dealers report a gradual, though slight, increase in sales, as vacationists return from woods and mountains to take up once more the regular routine of duties. Postoffice receipts for the first seven months of 1908 are the largest in the history of the city, indicating a substantial increase in the population.
Although the cost of building has fallen fully one-third from the high figures of a year ago, and is in fact less than at any time within five years, the high rate of interest demanded for mortgage loans serves to hold building activity somewhat in check. While there is plenty of money to be had at 7 per cent, borrowers are reluctant to accept these terms, and the excess of offerings is not sufficiently large to break the market, which is, therefore, practically at a standstill. The remedy will come sooner or later, when the flood of cheap Eastern money finds an outlet here. However, the city is now fairly well housed. Office building has been slightly overdone, in fact, but there is a real need for more shop rooms in the down-town district, and for apartment houses of the better class.
The requirements of commercial borrowers are met without difficulty by the local banks, notwithstanding the outflow of considerable sums to the interior for harvesting needs. Interest rates are firmly maintained.
Movements of Exchange in August
The rates of exchange on Europe have declined steadily during the month, as usual at this time of the year. Bills against shipments of food products are coming freely into the market, and next month the export of cotton from the Southern states will begin, tending to increase still further our credit balance abroad.
There has been a marked improvement in South America, notably in Chile, where the value of the peso has risen in the last few weeks from !5J^c to about 20jjc. The Chilean government is trying to place the currency of the government on a stable basis of about 36c, and has sold to a !,Tench company the concession of the port of Valparaiso for a substantial sum. The first installment of this (about $4,000,000) is to be paid in the near future.
A further and almost steady drop has occurred in Oriental exchanges, and in silver, the metal having reached 5!J^c per ounce, the lowest record in years. With the large accumulations of silver in India and China, the future of this metal looks rather gloomy.
Eastern exchange in this city has shown remarkable strength, the shipment of California products to the East being more than offset by the gradual repayment of loans and
the remarkable drop of 15 per average price of all commodities
The American National of San Francisco each month sends out a very interesting circular, or financial letter. The circular in part says:
When a man has been unexpectedly confronted with the fear of going broke, and as a consequence has walked to save carfare, substituted corned-beef hash for the juicier porterhouse, abandoned the costly perfecto for the humble stogie, and patronized the nickelodeon in lieu of grand opera, there comes a time when he finds his bank account replenished and feels warranted in indulging in a few extras to compensate for his virtuous abstinence.
It is much the same with nations as with individuals. Some eighty, or ninety million people, who have acquired the habit of eating food and wearing clothes cannot, ■without grave discomfort discontinue the practice, and since the supplies of food and clothes and other commodities have fallen to a low point during months of rigid economy and restraint, it is reasonable to suppose that fresh purchases must be made on a rather large scale before very long.
Two years ago people were eager to buy things before they went higher; now the tendency is to refrain from buying, in the hope that still lower prices may be obtained. Judging by experience in similar periods, any further marked decline is unlikely. The statistical experts of Bradstreet’s agency figure
cent in the once March,
1907. That is, the salary of $85 to-day is equal in purchasing power to that of $100, a year and a half ago.
There is no lack of money. The Comptroller’s summary of the reports of national banks for July 1.5th shows that these institutions held some sixty-two millions more in individual deposits than they had two months previous. Nearly half of this gain was credited to the Middle West states, where the great cereal harvests are gathered, and a little less than ten millions were marked up to the Pacific Coast states. The banks in the large cities of America and Europe hold, collectively, fully $300,000,000 more specie than they did a year ago. Financially, the world seems to be in excellent shape, ready for any contingency.
While the Eastern papers are discussing the prospects of the crop movement, California goes ahead moving its products to market. There is a steach׳■ procession of ships around the Horn and up the Atlantic, bearing the fruits and grains of the Pacific Slope to European ports, while long trains of cars similarly burdened, wind daily across the Sierra and over the Western highland, to the populous centers of the East.
By way of showing where California’s winter spending money is coming from, here are a few items from the credit side, of 1908 products now being sold and shipped out of the state:
$6,000,000 worth of canned peaches.
$2,300,000 worth of canned apricots.
$2,000,000 worth of canned pears.
$1,700,000 worth of other canned fruits.
$3,000,000 worth of canned vegetables.
$2,500,000 worth of prunes.
$2,000,000 worth of dried peaches.
$2,500,000 worth of dried apricots.
$4,500,000 worth of raisins.
$2,500,000 worth of other dried fruits.