[Volume XXV
6
THE CHICAGO BANKER
Pittsburgh has 31 National Banks, 25 State Banks and 38 Trust Companies, with total deposits of over $360,000,000. The oldest of all these
financial institutions, having been in continuous existence for 98 years, is
J. M. RUSSELL
1st Assistant Cashier
J. D. AYRES Assistant Cashier
TTte
Rank of Pittsburgh
-L/Natioixal JLAssociation w
Surplus $2,800,000
“THE BANK THAT HAS GROWN UP WITH PITTSBURGH' ESTABLISHED 1810
WILSON A. SHAW President
JOSEPH R. PAULL Vice-President
W. F. BICKEL Cashier
Capital $2,400,000
.	.	President
. Vice-President .	.	. Cashier
Assistant Cashier Assistant Cashier Assistant Cashier Assistant Cashier Assistant Cashier
$30,000,000
C. H. HUTTIG .
W. B. WELLS
G.	W. GALBREATH J. R. COOKE
D’A. P. COOKE R. S. HAWES
H.	HAILL .
J. F. FARRELL .
3rd NATIONAL
OF ST. LOUIS BANK
Capital, $2,000,000	Surplus, $2,000,000	Deposits,
ACCOUNTS SOLICITED
Since our last meeting death has claimed from among our number several gentlemen, eminent in our counsels, efficient in then-labors. and the memories of whose lives are an inspiration for higher ideals and nobler lives, —particularly in the death of Chas. F. Bentley, of Grand Island, the bankers of Nebraska have lost a noble man, and the association a most earnest and efficient worker.
In view of his many labors in behalf of this association I deemed it fitting that his death should receive much more than a passing mention in our proceedings and to that end I have appointed a committee consisting of C. B. Bell, of Grand Island, Henry W. Yates of Omaha, and G. Hildreth, of Franklin, to present to this association suitable memorial resolutions to the memory of our departed friend.
And now in closing I want again to thank the bankers of Nebraska for the honor conferred on me in permitting me to preside at this meeting—an honor which I have prized more than I can express in words; to thank the executive council and your former presidents for the aid given me in the work of the year, and particularly our efficient secretary, who has reallv done all the work, and to whose untiring efforts credit should be most heartily given.
Prof. J. Laurence Laughlin, of the University of Chicago, has consented to favor us with an address, as has also Alexander Gilbert, president of the Market and Fulton National Bank of New York City.
The past year has demonstrated to Nebraska bankers more thoroughly than ever before the value of good commercial paper as a quick asset, and yet it has demonstrated some weaknesses in the system of floating such paper which requires arbitrary regulation.
I am informed that a committee having the matter in charge will submit a report on ‘‘Credit Information” at the convention of the National Association at Denver—it being understood that the plan provides for the registration of commercial paper by the brokers offering it for sale through the clearinghouses of New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and St. Louis—a prerequisite of such registration being an examination by independent auditors of the accounts of the company, or firm, -whose notes are offered,—weekly reports to be exchanged between the various clearinghouses of the association.
Such a regulation would certainly decrease the tendency towards the overfloating of notes and as certainly make more valuable the character of the paper so registered.
mere makeshift until future deliberations should devise a proper currency system.
While it may possess many good features, yet to my mind its possible benefits to Western banks and bankers are limited to the one proposition that in case of financial stress the large banks in the financial centers may be better enabled to furnish us assistance, and to us farmer bankers it is very similar to giving an extra ration to the corn-fed steer on the theory' that in time of storm he will make a better wind break for the yearling that is roughing it through the winter.
The commission appointed under its provisions is laboring to devise a better method. In its search for financial wisdom it needs the assistance of every banker.
We are indeed happy to have with us to-day Chas. N. Fowler, who has devoted the best years of his life to the study of our financial interests and his address this afternoon will be of particular interest to us all.
James J. Hill, the great builder of colossal institutions and assembler of gigantic enterprises, whose judgment, as to the needs of the West is second to none, although unable to be present has furnished us with a valuable paper which will be full of intellectual meat, and for which he has the thanks of this convention.
Clearing House Expert on Guaranty of Deposits
sidération, but of the extension of the principles upon which it is based to other fields.
If the roseate pictures, so vividly drawn, and so ardently presented, of the immediate, the lasting, and the magnificently beneficial effects upon our business world which would flow from the adoption of this policy of compulsory co-insurance of bank deposits are faithful and true, then indeed have we found the key to unlock the golden door of the business and economic millennium. Over 90 per cent of the country’s business is done on credit, (the average percentage of cash balances to exchanges for fifty-four y'ears, as shown in the transactions of the New York Clearing House, having been but 4.6$), and if bank failures and losses can be so readily and surely prevented by the compulsory co-insurance of deposits, then, to make all failures and losses impossible, it
Wm. Sherer, manager, of New York, tells the Kentucky bankers the orthodox money center view of this interesting subject at the Lexington meeting.	::	::	::
fancy, is discussed from the political platform, the advocates thereof are too prone to grow hysterical and to draw largely upon their imaginations in setting forth the benefits to accrue therefrom; too apt to view the subject superficially' without study, or in the light of experience; too apt to lose sight of and ignore the principles, or lack of principle, of law. equity, and business economics underlying the proposition; and too apt to fail to study and consider the possible or probable effects which would result not only' from the application of the policy' involved to the business under con-
The proposed plan to guarantee deposits of national banks by- means of taxation upon, or compulsory' co-insurance between the banks themselves, has undoubtedly become of considerable interest, due, to some extent, to the effect on the popular mind of the recent cur-rency stringency', but much more largely to the prominence given it by' advocacy' from the political platform, but I do not believe that when the subject has been studied in another than a superficial manner,, and its resultant effects, and the principles involved have become thoroughly understood, that it will long be given serious consideration.
There has already' been much discussion of the merits and demerits of the proposition, but as is always sure to be the case, when the question of the adoption of a new and radical policy such as this, which catches the popular