29
THE CHICAGO BANKER
October 24, igo8־\
Half Dollar Brings $750
New York, October 20.—Rare United States coins, to the number of 480, representing an intrinsic value of about $1,000, were auctioned to-day at the Collectors’ Club, No. 24 West Twenty-sixth Street, for about five times their face value.
The coins were part of the collection of the late James B. Wilson, one of the noted numismatists of the world, and collectors from all over the country bid in eager rivalry to get the rarities.
The big sale of the day was the New Orleans half-dollar of 1838. This coin, worth 50 cents on its face, brought $750. The purchaser was Thomas L. Elder, under whose auspices the sale was conducted. Mr. Wilson bought the coin in 1840 at a high figure, and it is the finest specimen of its kind. Mr. Elder purchased it for a client.
V*
To Increase Its Capital
At a meeting of the directors of the Michigan Commercial Insurance Company of Lansing, Mich., held recently the necessary action was taken to increase the capital stock of the company from $300,000 to $400,000 and to increase its surplus $100,000 at the same time, thus adding $200,000 to its net cash assets. At this meeting the stock was practically all subscribed, and as soon as the necessary legal formalities can be completed the full amount of $200,000 will be paid into the treasury. This is the second action of its kind since the company was organized, and is in pursuance of the policy;' inaugurated at the organization of the company, viz., to build up a strong company and to do so as fast as the growth of the business requires it. It is intended to ultimately make the capital $500,000 and the surplus an equal amount.
V*
The Pennsylvania’s Gross Business
A report from Philadelphia says : The Pennsylvania’s ptoss business for August compares with the biggest month it ever had. as a vear ago, or in August, 1907, it exceeded $15,522.-000 on the Eastern lines directly operated. This fact should be borne in mind when noting the decrease of $5,890,900, which is heavier than shown in July or June, though somewhat less than in May. The actual gross earnings of the Eastern lines directly operated for August, amounting to $11,644,792. are better than for Tuly or Tune, those months having each produced less than $11,315,000 gross, and in fact the August gross earnings are the largest of any month in 1908 to date.
y*
The Valley Savings Bank
Vice-President J. B. Monnette of the closed Valley Savings Bank of Fresno, Cal., arrived recently from Ohio and pleaded time in which to issue statements regarding the future action of the directors of the bank or the condition of the institution, but he emphasized that the depositors would be paid in full. He also said that the loans that had been made by the bank were fully protected by mortgages, the characters of which are of the first class.
V
The Roswell Title and Trust Company
The Roswell (N. M.) Title and Trust Co. will take over the business of the Roswell Building and Loan Co. at once. Hugh Lewis, Jr. vice-president of the Roswell Title and Trust Co. has been elected secretarv of the building and loan department. The offices of the association will be in the same building with the Roswell Title and Trust Co.
V*
The Farmers State Bank, of Groton, S. D., is remodeling its building and installing ne\V fixtures.
L. M. Shaw
Former Secretary of the Treasury Leslie M. Shaw expects to be in Philadelphia permanently after November 1st to assume active charge of the First Mortgage Guarantee & Trust Company, of which he was recently elected president.
V
An Ideal Love Story
It has remained for Mrs. Humphrey Ward, beloved of all readers, to bring forth the ideal love story of the season in “The Testing of Diana Mallory.	Lady Rose’s Daughter—
Kitty Ashe—indeed, all of Mrs. Ward’s women pale before the white fire of the spirit of Diana Mallory.	Young, gracious, high-
minded, sweet-hearted, she is brought with brutal suddenness into the knowledge of her dead mother’s crime.
To her betrothed, therefore, comes the highest privilege possible to a man—to guard and shelter in trouble the woman he loves. He, hard pressed by ambition, listens to a worldly mothei—and so the girl is deserted by the man who should have covered her with his strength and crushed her grief into joy. When, after political failure and a love episode with another woman he is broken and ashamed and awake at last, the girl, unembittered, goes to him—makes him the man he was meant to be.
Brilliant with movement and alive with meaning, by every test this is the greatest work of Mrs. Ward’s—a novel that thrills and satisfies, because it is passionate, and beautiful, and true.
Published by Harpers, with eight illustrations, at $1.50.
D. J. Landers
Douglas J. Landers of Springfield, Mo., will be president of the new Bank of Commerce being formed at Springfield.
y»
Supreme Court of Ohio Decision
The supreme court of Ohio held, in the case of The Hough Avenue Savings & ]Banking Company vs. Anderson, that by-laws of a savings bank which require the presentation of the deposit book, or due notice to the bank in case of the loss of the book, as conditions precedent to payment to the depositor, or upon his written order, are reasonable conditions and become a part of the contract between the bank and the depositor when brought to the notice of the latter. The court added that where in such case the bank makes payment on presentation of the deposit book or pass book, not to the depositor in person, but upon what purports to be a written order by him, and which turns out to be a forgery, the bank is at least bound to act in good faith and to exercise reasonable care with the view to avoid payment to a person who is not lawfully entitled to receive payment; and that if in such case it does not so act in good faith and exercise reasonable care, it will be liable to pay again to the rightful owner of the deposit.
,y
The Detroit Trust Company
The following bids were received recently by the city controller's office on the issue of $125,000 30 years Detroit sewer bonds with interest at 3P2 per cent:
Detroit Trust Company $127,463.50; A. B. Leach & Co., $127,038; N. W. Halsey & Co., $125,950; N. W. Noble & Co., on $5,000 worth of bonds, $5,068.75; Detroit Trust Companv being the highest bidder, will get the bonds.
V*
A new bank is being organized at Crete, III., which will be capitalized at $25,000.
Savings Deposits at Standstill
“Savings deposits are just about at a standstill now, so far as the income and outgo are concerned,” Ignatius J. Dohan, president of the Beneficial Savings Fund Society of Philadelphia, said. “One encouraging feature is that there was a small gain in deposits over withdrawals during September, whereas that is generally a month in which there is a net loss. During the months of May, June, July and August, however, when ordinarily savings deposits increase, we suffered a net reduction of about 1.5 per cent, and I am informed that other savings funds had the same experience. Gross deposits now have by no means gotten back to the stage of one year ago, and I do not look for much of an upbuilding in that line this fall, for the general business situation does not improve fast enough to warrant such a hope.”
V»
The Bonner County National
Bonner County National Bank has been organized and will do business at Sandpoint, Idaho. The capital stock is $50,000, fully paid, the greater portion of which is owned by local people. Aaron Kuhn, president of the Traders’ National of Spokane, will also he president of the Bonner County National; George W. Ade, of San Francisco, will be cashier, and H. C. Culver, of Sand-point, one of the most active in promoting the enterprise and a heavy stockholder, will probably he vice-president. The new bank will open in a month in the premises now occupied by the First National, the latter institution having built quarters of its own. Among the prominent local stockholders are Andrew Christenson, C. W. Wilson, Thomas Thomason, L. D. Farmin.
У•
The National Park Bank
Since the National Park Bank of New York crossed the $100,000,000 mark in its deposits early in the spring, deposits have continued to increase in large volume. In July, at the time of the last statement, they were $118,578,642. As of September 23d they are $124,263,165, a further increase of $5,684,523. Resources are $139,801,368. a gain of $6,019,877; loans and discounts, $91,168,537, a gain of $3,560,480: cash and reserves, $31,1x1,976. The capital is $3,000,000; surplus. $7,000,000:	undivided
profits, $2,583,404. The showing is that of the remarkable success of a well-ordered and brain};׳ management.
У•
Favors Postal Savings Banks
Prof. Charles Zeublin, of the University of Chicago, in a university extension visit to Minneapolis last week said: “If the bankers of the United States were men and not bankers thev would not have passed a resolution at Denver opposing the postal savings bank. The postal savings bank is a great institution. The bank should be tinder the control of the government. If there were a postal savings bank law more people would save monev. People would not be afraid of the banks. All countries in the world have a postal savings bank except the United States.
У
Baltimore Banks
The banks and trust companies of Baltimore hold larger amounts of monev than at anv other time since 1804, and there is no fear of stringency this fall and winter. Mercantile borrowings are increasing, but these transactions have exerted no appreciable effect upon the market. Investment buying of high grade bonds is better than it has been for two years or more, the floating supplv of this class of securities having been almost exhausted.
У*
The stockholders of the St. George (Kan.) Bank recently voted to increase the capital stock from $12,000 to $25,000.