[Volume XXVII
THE CHICAGO BANKER
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STATE BANK OF CHICAGO			THE FARMERS’ AND MECHANICS’ NATIONAL BANK OF PHILADELPHIA, PA. 427 CHESTNUT STREET Capital - $2,000,000.00 Surplus and Profits 1,348,000.00 ORGANIZED JANUARY 17, 1807 Dividends Paid $12,847,000.00 ־ OFFICERS Howard W. Lewis, President Henry B. Bartow, Cashier John Mason, Transfer Officer Oscar E. Weiss, Assistant Cashier ACCOUNTS OF INDIVIDUALS, FIRMS, AND CORPORATIONS SOLICITED PRESENT NUMBER OF STOCKHOLDERS 930
ESTABLISHED 1879 S. E. Corner La Salle and Washington Streets Capital - $1,500,000 Surplus and profits (earned) 1,500,000 Deposits over - - 20,000,000 OFFICERS L. A. GODDARD, President FRANK I. PACKARD, Asst Cashier JOHN R. LINDGREN, Vice-President C. EDWARD CARLSON, Asst. Cashier HENRY A. HAUGAN, Vice-President SAMUEL E. KNECHT, Secretary HENRY S. HENSCHEN, Cashier WILLIAM C. MILLER, Asst. Secretary			
YOUR CHICAGO BUSINESS RESPECTFULLY INVITED			
			
At IN CINCINNATI _A_ With Resources of TWENTY-ONE MILLION DOLLARS And every facility for the satisfactory handling of Bank Accounts CORRESPONDENCE INVITED			

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Banking Conditions in Pennsylvania
Among the many is the matter of more satisfactory forms of bills of lading, out of which have resulted much litigation and not a few losses. The subject should continue to receive attention until the end is attained either through the American or through our state association.
A still more fruitful source of losses is due to fraudulent financial statements, made by hard-pressed borrowers and whom it has been well-nigh impossible to convict of crime. There surely is wisdom enough, as there is abundant motive, within the bounds of this body to formulate and press for enactment into law a bill making the utterance of a false or misleading financial statement a crime, and so framed as to cover the defects of present statutes under which the losses are many and the convictions few.
More and more of our Pennsylvania banks are organizing distinctive savings departments, the deposits in which are partly or wholly invested in bonds. This line of investment has its own perils to the banker; pre-eminently in municipal issues, and only to a less extent in corporation bonds. The matter of legality is of primary importance and difficult to cover, even if the banker be a lawyer. Cannot this association inaugurate an effort towards legislation providing for the permissive or compulsory registration of bonds by the issuing municipality, in a designated county office? Permission to have such issue registered would only be given after ascertaining that all legal requirements had been complied with, and a charge for such registration would, of course, be exacted from the school district, borough, city, or county issuing the bond. The effect of such registration should be to render such bonds in-contestible for illegality. Colorado and New Mexico now have such laws, thus removing in
President Eli S. Reinhold tells of the year’s progress at the Bedford Springs Convention


Banking has its perils; perils basic and fundamental, requiring for their removal the slow processes of years, processes educational, ethical, and legislative; perils in administrative details and what might be called bank economy. Many of the latter, however, under careful diagnoses, prove to have their causes in defects of education, technical training, or what is more serious, in defects of character.
In a very real sense the personnel of a bank is the bank. Proud and profligate Louis XIV was not far wrong when he uttered his memorable “'The State, I am the State!" In a sense he was the state; he was France, and history justly holds him responsible for the wars and taxes of his brilliant reign. It is well, however, to recognize some perils that menace a bank from without, against which neither integrity nor efficiency is a protection. It is against such that this association can render its best service. Time will permit of only the briefest allusions to the specific matters T have in mind along this line.
HORNBLOWER & WEEKS
*Bankers and 5Brokers
Members of New York and Boston Stock Exchanges
3rd FLOOR, 152 MONROE ST. - CHICAGO
My predecessors in office very fitly devoted this address to a review of the year’s events along lines congenial to the objects of this association. Will you pardon me if I depart from an honored custom which is certainly appropriate, has always been interesting, and generally profitable ?
The fact is that I have found little in the past year to review. “Happy the reign that makes no history,” is probably applicable to banking. The monetary commission has not yet reported; the tedious tariff session of congress is now happily ended, with results fully as good as could be expected, another state legislature has passed, leaving nothing on the statute books to menace our business and banking interests. Aside from these, the year has been simply one of monotonous advance towards normal prosperit}r. Our banks have not only maintained, but added to, their strength of a year ago.
Our association now assembled in its fifteenth annual convention has had a prosperous year; its work—unifying, educative, and protective—has made satisfactory progress, a statement which will receive emphatic verification in the reports of the secretary and treasurer which are to follow. I congratulate the members of the association on the progress made and on the splendid condition of the banks as gleaned from the official reports. What I have to say will not only serve as your president’s address, but his valediction as a banker, after thirty-eight years of service. It would be taking undue advantage of my position and trifling with time and the occasion if I undertook to dwell on the joys and sorrows of these years; but you will bear with me while I devote my short time to some reflections on the very trite subject of
Banking: Its Perils and Safeguards.