13
THE CHICAGO BANKER
September 12, iço8]
William A. Tilden President
Nelson N. Lampert Vice Prest.
Henry R. Kent Cashier
Charles Fernald Asst. Cashier
Colin S. Campbell Asst. Cashier
PORT DEARBgRN
MONROE AND CLARK STREETS
C H I С А О О
Capital, $1,000,000 Surplus and Profits, $400,000
Your Business Solicited
THE
LIBERTY NATIONAL BANK
OF NEW YORK
FREDERICK B. SCHENCK, President
HENRY P. DAVISON, Chairman Executive Committee
capital, surplus and undivided profits
S 3,400,000.00
which will mean the reduction, and in some instances the entire elimination, of the rate of interest now paid on certain classes of deposits.”
Discussing the events that led up to these
conditions, they say: “There was a time when Pittsburgh bank and trust company shares were regarded as the highest grade investment in the country, and when market values were relatively higher than the best municipal and corporation bonds. In fact some of these bank and trust company shares were quoted on a parity with government bonds, and they proved to be a good investment even then. It was the popularity of these stocks and their intrinsic worth tested in all kinds of financial weather that induced the organization of so many new banks and trust companies following the panic of 1893 which finally culminated in the rampant speculation in this class of stocks in 1900-03. During the latter period prices rose to a level representing an investment basis in some instances of less than 1 per cent. During the six or seven years that have elapsed since the culmination of that speculation the process of liquidation has taken place. We believe this liquidation, so far as bank and trust company values are concerned, has completed its course, and that the market has swung to the other extreme, as it always does on such movements.”
L. K. Stubbs
L. K. Stubbs, vice-president and treasurer Chester County Trust Company of West Chester, spent Thursday in Chicago en route home from a trip up the lakes.
V*
Open Offices in Pittsburgh
Redmond & Co. of Philadelphia and New York, have opened offices in the Commonwealth Building, Pittsburgh, in charge of Sidney L. Liggett, who now represents this house in the Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania district.
Mr. Liggett is a son of Sidney B. Liggett, secretary of the Pennsylvania Company, operating the Pennsylvania lines west and controlling vast railroad properties, and one of the ablest railroad executives of the country.
Pittsburgh Bank Clearings
Pittsburgh clearings for August were $163,-]:55,533, the smallest for the same month since 1901, and showing an increase over only one month, February last. In August, 1907, clearings were $220,149,169 and in July, 1908, they reached $175,924,619. For the year to date clearings are $1,369,886,963, compared with $1,887,046,415 in the same months of
New York State Bank Call
New York Superintendent of Banks Williams has issued a call for the condition of trust companies and state banks as of August 3!st.
W. H . P Е С К Scranton, Pa.
J. R. PAULL
Pittsburgh
Bank Mergers in Pittsburgh
Banking has been overdone in Pittsburgh and an era of amalgamations is at hand, according to the old established house of Robinson Bros, of that city. “Conservative opinion,” they state, “is practically agreed that there are too many banks and trust companies in Pittsburgh and it is easily within the probabilities that during the ensuing four or five years the number will be reduced by voluntary liquidation or merger. This will be induced by relatively high operating costs and also by the natural tendency all over the country to insist upon the maintenance of stronger reserves. It will be further induced by the movement which has already made some progress of placing individual and corporation accounts in bank on a business basis,