[Volume XXV
THE CHICAGO BANKER
12
SWEDISH AMERICAN NATIONAL BANK
MINNEAPOLIS
CAPITAL $500,000 SURPLUS AND PROFITS $400,000 DEPOSITS $3,300,000
N. O. WERNER, President	C. S. HULBERT, Vice-Prest.	J. A. LATTA, Vice-Prest.
E. L. MATTSON, Cashier A. V. OSTROM, Asst. Cashier KNUTE EKMAN. Asst. Cashier
ACCOUNTS OF BANKS GIVEN SPECIAL ATTENTION
CHICAGO SAVINGS BANK AND TRUST COMPANY
Chicago Savings Bank Bldg., State and Madison Sts., CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
Facilities meeting every requirement of the most discriminating bankers. Dormant accounts solicited on which interest is paid at a liberal rate. Interest is paid by check the last day of the month.
LUCIUS TETER, Prest. E. P. BAILEY, Vice-Prest. CHARLES H. RE QUA, Vice-Prest. JOHN A. McCORMICK. Vice-Prest. HOUSTON JONES, Cashier W. M. RICHARDS, Asst. Cashier	LEVERETT THOMPSON, Secy.
OFFICERS	OLD	NATIONAL BANK	Capital, $800,000.00 Surplus and Undivided Profits $546,299.00 Assets Over Seven Million
WILLARD BARNHART. President HARVEY J. HOLLISTER. Vice-Prest. GEORGE C. PEIRCE. Vice-Prest. CLAY H. HOLLISTER, Cashier H. A. WOODRUFF, Asst. Cashier		Grand Rapids, Mich.	
	Solicits Bankers’ Accounts and Collections Largest Bank in Western Michigan		Dollars
The Minneapolis bank clerks listened to the third lecture on “Bankruptcy” at their Tuesday night meeting. Prof. H. F. Fletcher, of the University of Minnesota law school, will deliver the two remaining lectures in December, when another course on another economic or banking subject will be taken up.
Twin City tellers are “agin” the new $5 and $10 gold pieces. They do not think the coins stack any better than the old coins, and they charge that they have the disadvantage, in the recessed figures, of affording dirt centers and cultures for colonies of bacilli.
The Minneapolis Retail Credit Association will carry on the technical part of its work in the future by the Credit Rating Association, incorporated at $25,000. The stockholders do an annual credit business of more than $10,000 a year.
Bonds to the amount of $693,000 are to be sold by the city of Minneapolis. The first lot will be $67,000 permanent improvement bonds. The remaining bonds are divided as follows:	Sewers,
$250,000; voting machines, $116,200; schools, $100,000 ; fire engine houses, $100,000.
Stock brokers have been planning the establishment of a stock exchange in Minneapolis for some time. The scheme has not passed the promotion stage, but promises something for the
New Bank for Kansas City
Kansas City, November 22.—F. P. Neal, vice-president of the Union National, which was absorbed yesterday by the National Bank of Commerce, and who it had been expected would be elected president of the latter to succeed W. B. Ridgeley, announced to-night that he had almost completed the organization of a new national hank with $1,000,000 capital, all subscribed in Kansas City, and of which he is to be president.
Nevada Bankers to Meet
Nevada bankers have been called to meet at Reno, December 5 th next, through the action of the Reno bankers’ committee, to perfect a state organization, formulate plans for remedial banking legislation and secure uniformity in practice. The movement is the result of a luncheon given November 8th last by Senator Francis G. Newlands, at which Governor Dickerson and Reno bankers were guests.
V*
The Merchants and Farmers National
A. F. Rush, Jr., is cashier of the Merchants & Farmers National of Starksville, Miss. The American National of Nashville and the Union & Planters Bank & Trust Company of Memphis are among the correspondents.
Northwestern situation dead. “Why, we can’t force money on people to-day,” said one. “Nobody wants to borrow money. One reason is the expedition with which one-half of the crop was marketed. This enabled money to be used over and over again, and then the farmers paid their bills and collections for the jobbing houses became better than they have been in years. Another reason is that the difference between cash and May wheat is so slight that it does not pay to handle it. The insurance and carrying charges about eat up the marginal difference oí 1 y2 cents, or whatever the margin is. Country banks are not very keen about buying commercial paper just now.”
Annual Dinner
Preparations are about ripe for the annual dinner of the Twin City Bankers Association, to be the first large formal event in the magnificent oak dining room of the newly finished Minneapolis club house. Representative bankers of the Northwest will be guests and business men of the two cities who are closely connected with the banking interests. George F. Orde is negotiating with a foremost speaker of the country on financial subjects to be the piece de resistance of the occasion.
Minneapolis Bankers’ Views
Comptroller L. O. Murray’s twenty-nine questions have been commented upon by Minneapolis bankers as follows :
J. S. Pomeroy, cashier of the Security National—“Some of the questions are all right and some are foolish. It would be impossible for the directors to know of the personal character and habits of all the employees, unless they were officers and in daily touch with the daily details of the bank. As a general proposition, it is well to call the attention of the directors to their responsibilities and the submission of these questions will have this effect.”
Joseph Chapman, Jr., vice-president of the Northwestern National—“A director would have to be manager of the bank to answer all those questions intelligently.”
Banking Notes
C. T. Jaffrey, vice-president of the First National of Minneapolis, has returned from a trip East, where he visited his son, who is in school.
George F. Orde, cashier, has been out on a ten-day trip which combines business and pleasure.
One of the worriments of the state law makers at the coming session of the Minnesota legislature at St. Paul is to be the ghost of the recent presidential campaign in the form of two bills guaranteeing bank deposits. State Senator Ole Sangeng, who did not defeat Halvor Steenerson for congress, is reported to be preparing a bill modeled after the Oklahoma law which he will introduce. Another legislator is preparing a bill which he will introduce in the house. Governor John A. Johnson’s attitude toward the bills will be interesting, if they ever come to him for signature, as he is reported to have played both strings on his recent campaign, snuggling up to the Bryan idea of bank deposits in the country and giving it out cold in the Twin Cities that he did not favor the plank.
G. H. Prince’s View
One of the brightest financial news scoops pulled off by the Twin City newspapers was the announcement this week by two of the papers that “St. Paul and Minneapolis banks have been experimenting quietly several months with a system for independent bank examination which, it is claimed, will result in the establishment of Twin City financial institutions on a firm and impregnable basis.” Every financial center has known that Minneapolis and one of the St. Paul banks have successfully operated the plan for two years, and the banks of both cities have been included in the system since last spring. Nevertheless the interview by George PI. Prince, vice-president of the Merchants National, on the subject is interesting. Mr. Prince says:
“It has many advantages and I feel that if the plan is continued we need never have another bank failure in the Twin Cities brought about by mismanagement. If any bank should be found in such condition that it could not comply with the rules of the clearing house association, it would be at once denied the privileges of the clearing house.
“All banks, under our plan, must submit to special examination at least twice a year, and as often, in addition, as the examiner, P. M. Kerst, may deem advisable. The thorough prosecution of our plan means that the banks and other financial institutions of St. Paul coming within the jurisdiction of the special examiner, are practicably impregnable.”
Commercial Paper Brokers
Commercial paper brokers pronounce the