31
Interest
THE CHICAGO BANKER
August 7, .Г909]
At Par and Accrued
confident over the future than for a couple of }׳ears. Large contracts for new freight cars have been given and orders issued to get all cars needing repairs in condition for service. The statement of the company, showing a gain of $3,755,-000 in net earnings by the Pennsylvania Railroad system for the first half of this year, is also of substantial encouragement.
is in Chicago his whereabouts is carefully concealed. The eastern creditors of the concern having learned from the receiver that Tracy’s assets are not sufficient to pay more than 7 cents on the dollar, are anxious to get Mr. Tracy to New York for the purpose of examining him to ascertain if more assets cannot be discovered.
links. It seems that Luther Drake undertook to show the Colonel over the bunkers for the first time, and being somewhat in awe of the broad, Farnsworth shoulders, gave him only very much lofted clubs and hard, gutty balls for a starter. The harder the Colonel would swing the louder the report, and the longer the ball would be in coming down. It was great sport for Drake— and for those in the secret. The balls are a choice lot of “Cedar Rapids Specials,” which Col. Drake was allowed to win in the days when Vanvechten, Forbes, and Fletcher still were Iowa bankers. They were good and dry for Col. Farnsworth’s use.
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vention specials are being gotten out to please and entertain the publicity men in the Chicago banks, some of the gallant band devised a scheme. Already there are “out” three papers with high sounding titles bearing the date lines of other cities, but all “edited” and printed in Chicago. The plan is bully but only for one thing—the publicity men didn’t bite.
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with which institution he started as messenger boy twenty-eight years ago, is 49. He is a native of Albany, N. Y., and came to Chicago in childhood.
The Bond Man.
First National, for if there is one thing a Scotch “I. B.” will not overlook it is being printed as “j. J.” Forgan.
AS a rule the paper “devoted exclusively to the investors” gets its revenue from the kind who prey upon the investor class. This as a rule is true. They “protect” investors from all concerns, good or bad, who will not advertise in the “near” financial paper.
МД MISCONCEPTION Set Right” is a *»■ standing headline in one of our New York contemporaries. It generously gives up about one-half of its space to correcting the misstatements made in the other half. Luckily business permits such use of the extra space.
THE belief is growing in the assertion made by Col. Watterson that “Aldrich never betrayed a Trust.”
NEW YORK bankers have 150 passengers signed up to go to the Yellowstone Park, via the Northwestern and Union Pacific at the close of the A. B. A. Chicago convention. Charles Elliott Warren, of the Lincoln National, New York, heads the committee and hopes that it can be arranged to have Chicago and other Western bankers join in the tour. Many Chicagoans would like to participate.
PENNSYLVANIA stocks are as much favored by the cautious investor as its trains are by those who wish for both safety and comfort. Of late the shares have been going up and the wise ones say there is a reason for it.
THE first of the week it got above 140 and kept rising. This is quite likely to have the effect of causing conversion of the remaining $19,976,000 convertible 3L2 per cent, bonds of the $50,000,000 issue which is convertible into stock at $140, particulary if the price is further advanced and then maintained, as seems not improbable. While these bonds, for some unaccountable reason, have been selling at a premium, a conversion of them into stock would put the owners in position to benefit by any allotment privilege which may be offered to shareholders this fall.
UNTIL last week there had been no time since the 1907 financial panic that Pennsylvania Railroad stock had sold as high as 140. Just now the management of the company is more
LEIGH SARGENT has taken up the work of F. W. Ellsworth at the First National, Chicago. Department of new business is its proper title which includes publicity of the higher types, just plain advertising and business getting. After all advertising is business getting, and not as some suppose a1 mere means of dissipating the bank’s earnings.
CHICAGO is the Mecca of the advertising hypnotizers who have fastened themselves upon financial journalism. How they all got here is not known and many fear they may not all be able to solve the departure riddle. Special issues, convention issues, guides, write-ups programs and other fakes galore. In some cases old birds have donned new plumage, but Chicago bankers are Joseph to the bunco game in that line from long experience. An old paper with a new publisher, or a new paper by an old publisher of ill repute, doesn’t go.
ONE of these birds who ran a bad paper (or several of them) for years has a brand new name with “a guaranteed circulation of twenty-five thousand” and he asked one of, Chicago’s best looking bank presidents for his picture to print in his first number. The banker demurred but was told that a certain other, discriminating but very popular bank president was going in and that his bank was “taking a write-up.”
44VUTAIT a moment” said the banker, “and I’ll W call him up.” After a few minute’s conversation, mainly at the other end of the wire, the banker said: “If you wish to know what he said I’ll repeat it,” but the old bird in the new plumage had flown. What the affable banker at the other end of the line said was: “No, we ordered him out.”
NEITHER are Chicago bankers always fooled when shown a phony paper with other Chicago bank ads in it. Sometimes they “call up” to find out and its a safe plan. There is an old crowd in Chicago which worked the plan for years. In one case a forged contract was used in a suit at a Logan Square justice shop, but the bank made such a fuss that the matter was dropped. Again we say that the visiting can-vassers-on-commission haven’t found the Chicago bankers easy marks by any means.
IF the Central Banker comes to Chicago he will do well to keep away for a few days from the
son, H. Watson and Helen O. Scully are directors.
The Citizens Bank of Montezuma has been organized. W. E. Dee is president; George Hughes, vice-president, and S. P. Hancock, cashier.
The following banks of Frankfort have declared the following semiannual dividends: First National, 5 per cent; Frankfort Loan and Trust Co., 5 per cent; Farmers Bank, 5 per cent; American National, 4 per cent.
Chas. H. Cordes resigned as president of the First National of Seymour, and C. D. Billings, formerly assistant cashier, succeeds him.
First Calumet Trust and Savings Bank, East Chicago, Capital, $50,000. John B. Peterson, president; Frank T. Maloney, secretary and treasurer.
George F. Quirk, it is reported, will become president of the new Continental National of Indianapolis.
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S. ■L. Blodget, cashier of the First National, of Huntington Beach, has tendered his resignation.
Dividend Declared
The Bank of Cotton Plant (Ark.) held its annual meeting of the stockholders, at which it was shown that the bank had earned 19 per cent and a dividend of 10 per cent was declared, and the balance, or 9 per cent, was passed to the surplus fund.
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The Mechanics Bank
The Mechanics Bank, New Haven, Conn., elected the following directors: Charles S. Leete, Joel A. Sperry, Oliver S. White, Dennis A. Blakeslee, William H. Douglas, Rollin S. Woodruff, Samuel H. Read, Andrew R. Bradley, N. W. Kendall, Joseph C. Johnson, A. B. Treat, and S. Z. Poli.
Indiana Banking Notes
The Exchange Bank, Evansville, is being organized here with a capital of $100,000. J. E. Bailey is president; F. A. Larkin, vice-president; W. J. Rogers, vice-president, and E. M. Roland, cashier.
The Northern State Bank of Gary is a new institution with a capital of $50,000. S. J. Wat-
Bank is Open Again
Washington, D. C., July 27.—The Dairymen’s National Bank of Sheboygan Falls, Wis., placed in charge of a receiver June 25th, has resumed business.
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New Director Merchants National
James N. Wallace, president of the Central Trust Co., has been elected a director of the Merchants National, New York city.
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Naugatuck Savings Bank
The Naugatuck (Conn.) Savings Bank elected the following officers: L. S. Beardsley, president; E. T. Hotchkiss and W. T. Rodenbach, vice-presidents; A. C. Tuttle, treasurer; A. II. Dayton, secretary.
Bank of Summerton
The Bank of Summerton (S. C.) has changed hands recently, and the following directors were chosen: C. M. Davis, W. D. McClary, J. A. Weinberg, D. O. Rhame, I. C. Strauss, David Levi and John W. Lesesne. The officers are: President, J. A. Weinberg; vice-president, C. M. Davis; cashier, John W. Lesesne.