15
THE CHICAGO BANKER
October io, 1908]
Assets are set down at $6,000, and liabilities at $20,000.
The Mercantile Trust Company
The Mercantile Trust Company of New York has received funds to pay the interest due July 1st last on equipment mortgage 5 per cent bonds of the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railroad. Twenty-third Ward Bank
The Twenty-third Ward Bank of Manhattan has certified to the secretary of state that its capital has been increased from $100,000 to $200,000.
The New York Produce Exchange Bank
The New York Produce Exchange Bank has declared the regular semiannual dividend of 3 per cent and an extra dividend of 1 per cent, payable October 15th.
Redmond & Company
Redmond & Co., of New York City, have just issued a pamphlet giving an abstract of the laws of Connecticut governing savings bank investments, together with a list of railroad bonds, which are at present, in their opinion, legal investments for savings banks and trust funds under the requirements of these laws. The bankers oft'er to send copies of the booklet upon request.
Distinctly Beneficial Effect
The recent plain talk by Comptroller Murray to bank examiners, criticising the superficial manner in which he claims they discharge their duties, is, according to bank officers of New York City, apt to have a distinctly beneficial effect. Banks all over the country are, it is asserted, loaning large amounts to industrial concerns who offer no detailed, or independent statements of their affairs; and the attention of the examiners will most probably be drawn to the necessity for discovering whether bank officers are requiring such statements when making loans. In other words, when a bank examiner finds a large amount of the paper of a particular concern in a given bank he will ask the officials for a statement of the concern’s condition on which the officials based their judgment of the soundness of the loan. If no statement is available, the inference wall be that favoritism is being shown, and that influences aside from purely banking considerations are being used. The absence of such a statement will be direct encouragement for the examiner to require a statement, or to take other means of discovering to his own satisfaction whether a bank is carrying more of a specific class of paper than cautious banking would suggest.
The Central National
The Central National of Buffalo, which opened September 5, 1905, now has deposits of $1,536,-994. It is a United States depositary, and has a capital of $200,000.
Chicago Savings
In announcing the beginning of dividend payments by the Chicago Savings Bank and Trust Company, a typographical error gave the bank’s deposits too low by a million dollars. The September statement show's $3,894,853.96 in deposits with total resources of $4,517,195.86.
hogs and sheep worth over $186,000,000, part of which will be marketed this fall. Her coal mines will produce over seven million tons of coal ־worth about $12,000,000 and our 5,000 manufacturing establishments will market products worth $200,000,000.
Iowa banks are loaded to the guards with idle money, and when her crops are marketed this fall, she will, as in the past, have money to loan to the rest of her neighbors, who are not so fortunate. One Iowa farmer, meeting a neighbor friend one day said: “John, I had a strange dream about you last night. I dreamed of dying and going to heaven and walking down one of the beautiful paved streets in company with an angel guide, saw a heavy post evidently sunken deep in the pavement and a man fastened to it with a large chain. Calling my guide’s attention to it, I asked: “Isn’t that my old neighbor, John Jones?” On receiving an affirmative reply, I asked, “Why do you keep him chained in such a manner?” The guide replied: “Well, sir, your friend Jones agrees that this is a pretty nice place, yet it appears that he is not wholly satisfied, and we fear if we let him loose, he will return to Iowa.”
Colorado is much nearer Heaven from point of elevation only, than Iowa, but we Iowa fellows don’t care to change our abode just yet.
New York Banking and News Letter
By J. R. Morgan.
The New York Clearing House on Saturday completed its consolidation of the returns of national banks as of September 23d, in response to the call of the Comptroller of the Currency. The feature of the statement is the increase in the deposit and loan items. Comparing with the preceding call—July 15th—the amounts due individual depositors indicated an increase of $73,609,600 and the amounts due on deposits by banks and trust companies increased $30,952,500,. or a total increase in both items of no less than $104,562,100. Loans in the meantime increased $40,801,300.
New York Chamber of Commerce
At the regular monthly meeting of the New York Chamber of Commerce the following were elected to membership: Adrian Gips, David J. McComb, Thomas M. Murly, George F. Upham.
This was the first meeting of the chamber since the vacation season. J. Edward Simmons, president of the chamber, who has been ill during the past summer, was on hand and presided. Secretary Wilson of the chamber was absent owing to illness. Mr. Wilson has been connected with the institution for fifty-one years, and he has only been absent from four meetings in all that time. Business transacted was of a routine nature. Private Bank Closed
The private bank of Walter H. Stewart, at Chittenango, near Utica, has been closed, and the proprietor has filed a petition in bankruptcy.
L. E. Stevens
Leo Stevens, cashier of the Ottumwa National at Ottumwa, la., in responding for Iowa in the roll call of vice-presidents of the American Bankers Association at Denver said :
One of Iowa’s leading life insurance companies, headed by a former governor of the state, has adopted as its slogan “In all that is good, Iowa affords the best.” Each of us in responding for our state will attempt to out-boast our predecessor in the virtues of our respective commonwealth. But how many of you know or realize that Iowa, the Hawkeye state, is one of the really great states of the union? Did you know that she leads all other states in number of banks, now having i,574 with an aggregate capital and surplus of over $68,000,000 and deposits of over $300,000,000? This means more banks than post offices, and the convenience of banking facilities at nearl}' every cross road, with a per capita deposit of about $150, leading, I believe, every other western state in this respect.
She also has the largest State Bankers Association, with a membership of over 1,200 and is represented at this meeting by the largest delegation of any of the state associations. But Iowa is justly noted for her farming lands. An old Iowa farmer was on his death bed and though he had never taken time to be much of a religious man, the family called in a minister of the gospel to console him in his last hours. Seating himself at the head of the bed he asked the dying man, “are you prepared for the better land, brother?” The old man rallied, lifted his head from the pillow and replied: “Look here, Mr. Preacher, there ain’t any better land than Iowa.”
Iowa’s Agricultural Greatness
The products of Iowa farms in 1907 reached a value of over $389,000,000 and the farms themselves, including improvements, machinery and live stock thereon aggregated a value in the remarkable sum of over $2,627,000.
Iowa ranks first among the states of the union in number of acres of improved farm lands; first in value of farm products; first in number and value of hogs; first in acreage of cereals, first in acreage and production of oats; first in animals sold and slaughtered, first in farm animals owned and first in production of butter, eggs and poultry. She ranks second in value of farm properties, second in number and value of horses owned, second in value of cereals grown; second in acreage production and value of corn; second in value of oats grown and second in acreage and production of hay, being exceeded in each of these products by Illinois only. The closer proximity of Illinois to the markets gives her an advantage over Iowa in obtaining better prices and consequently higher values. In all farm products, Iowa is well toward the head of the list, but she don’t stop at this, she also produces men who do thinks. As for example:	Secretary
James Wilson of Agriculture, ex-Secretarv Leslie M. Shaw of the treasury department, the lamented Senator Wm. B. Allison, Senator J. P. Dolliver, and numerous others prominent in the public and business life of our country.
No Fear of Panic in Iowa
Iowa did not suffer materially from the panic last fall; she does not fear one this fall. Our crop experts estimate we will this year produce over three hundred million bushels of corn, worth over $200,000,000; oats worth $70,000,-000; wheat worth $5,000,000; barley worth.$6,-000,000; hay worth $60,000,000; butter worth $40,000,000; poultry and eggs worth $35,000,-000; potatoes and small fruit worth $10,000,-000; wool worth $2,000,000. A total in marketable products from the farms of Iowa of over $428,000,000. In addition her farmers own horses and mules worth $145,000,000 and cattle,
State Convention Dates
Date	Association	Place	Secretary	Address
October 13, 14......Illinois............Chicago...............F. P. Judson.......Chicago......
November n, 12......Indiana.............Indianapolis..........Andrew Smith........Indianapolis..
November 20, 21.....Arizona ............Bisbee................Morris Goldwater	.... Prescott..
The offices of the American Bankers Association, Eleven Pine Street, have been fitted up especially for the accommodation and comfort of its members, who are urged to call and use same when in New York.