16	THE CHICAGO BANKER	[Volume XXVII
			
			Pioneer Pays Promptly
WE HAVE VALUABLE PAR POINTS also a large volume of items to be collected. Our collection facilities are excellent.			/׳-'VNE of the things that have made the Pioneer Life Insurance Vi Co. grow so rapidly has been the promptness with which it pays its death claims. The business policy of the company is to make a careful medical examination, thus securing preferred risks, and then to stand by our hazards accepted. No quibbling, no delay; but always prompt and courteous with CASH IN FULL the day proofs of death come in.
Correspondence Invited			Annual Rates per $1,000 for Either Men or Women
The National City Bank of Chicago			Age 20, per year . $10.00 Age 40, per year . $12.39 Age 25, per year . $10.22 Age 45, per year . $14.26 Age 30, per year . $10.64 Age 50, per year . $17.08 Age 35, per year . $11.27 Age 55, per year - $21.78
Capital, Surplus and Undivided Profits $2,000,000			Other Ages in Proportion
OFFICERS David R. Forgan, President L. H. Grimme, Cashier Alfred L. Baker, Vice-Pres. F. A. Crandall, Asst. Cashier H. E. Otte, Vice-President W. D. Dickey, Asst. Cashier R. U. Lansing, Manager Bond Department			The Pioneer Life Insurance Co. GEO. L. COLBURN, President, Pekin, 111.
			
party who is called upon to pay the cheque. Bankers are trained to identify signatures, and on all ordinary paper they make payments against signatures that have been written out of their presence. Any one desiring to forge a signature on a regular bank check, being able to do so in seclusion, can do his work as carefully as he desires, and may destroy innumerable checks until he is successful in writing the signature that he thinks will pass. In the case of travelers’ cheques the signature must be written while the banker who is to compare it is watching the operation. While it is a fact that the party signing his name has a copy of the signature in front of him when doing so, yet this risk is more than offset by the fact that he is obliged to copy the signature, and do it correctly at one trial, before a third party, who may be, for all he knows, an expert in handwriting, and who may turn him over to an officer of the law if the signature is a forgery. Another great protection that surrounds travelers carrying American Bankers Association travelers’ cheques, and bankers, hotels and others who cash them, and that does not apply to any other travelers’ cheques issued, is the fact that it is well known to criminals that the protective committee of the American Bankers Association is relentless in its pursuit of those who interfere with the business of its members. The words ‘‘American Bankers Association” upon the travelers’ cheques are consequently of great value. This has been proved circumstantially through the return of cheques which have been deliberately stolen, when no other apparent reason existed for the thief going to the trouble of sending them back, as it would have been much simpler for him to have destroyed them if he feared to use them.
‘‘In developing the system it was found feasible to make one cheque answer for both foreign and domestic use, and the value of each denomination in the foreign moneys of the principal European countries is stated upon the face of the cheques, in order to save tourists carrying them from overcharges or the necessity of making calculations in foreign money.”
P. C. Kauffman
Besides getting out his tri-state proceedings book, P. C. Kauffman has been serving on the Committee of Fifteen, to prepare a revised charter for his beloved city of Tacoma. He will be at the convention and will distribute miniatures of Mt. Tacoma.
paper in small amounts at a time, $20, $50 or $100, or some such amounts, and a banker would naturally be suspicious if any one attempted to cash a thousand dollars' worth of cheques in small denominations, and American Bankers Association cheques are only issued in denominations of $10, $20, $50 and $100. On this account it would take considerable time and the necessity of passing the cheques upon a great number of people before any appreciable amount could be obtained. In the meantime the first cheques cashed would be presented, and the trail of the counterfeiter would be clearly marked.
“The second requirement, viz., knowledge of the goodness of the cheques, no matter by whom issued, was covered by requiring all bankers who issued the cheques to obtain then! from a central source, making that source responsible. This has been accomplished through the appointment of the Bankers Trust Company as agent for the issuing banks. All American Bankers Association Travelers’ Cheques must be obtained from this company, and as the acceptance of the trust company appears upon the face of the cheques in making them payable in all parts of the world, as well as in the United States, they can only be obtained after proper arrangements have been made for the protection of the trust company. This matter is arranged by direct correspondence in every case, and no friction whatever has developed in handling the matter along these lines. With the acceptance of the trust company upon the face of the cheques, they become what is known as “two name” bankers’ paper, which is peculiarly acceptable to foreign bankers, and which, in the case of time paper, is the form required by law in some countries before it can be discounted by certain banks. No banker, therefore, need have any hesitancy about cashing association cheques as far as their goodness is concerned, for all American Bankers Association Travelers’ cheques will, if in proper order, be paid by the trust company.
“The trust company, recognizing the fact that in handling this matter for the American Bankers Association it was necessary that they be equipped to do so in a broad way, voted to increase their capital and surplus from a million and a half to a total of nine million dollars, and payments for the new stock will be made October 1, 1909.
“The identification of the holder of the cheque is accomplished by means of his signature placed upon the travelers’ cheque at the time it is purchased, and which must be written again by him when cashing the cheque in the presence of the
Fred I. Kent
At Bedford Springs
Fred I. Kent told the interesting story of the Travelers’ Check, as it was conceived and perfected by the American Bankers Association, and being offered for use by bankers, by the Bankers Trust Co. of New York. Among the new points raised by Mr. Kent were these:
“If a forger should print on any form selected by him the name of some large institution, whose standing was well known to bankers throughout the United States, and should print the signature of some officer of such institution, that had been photographed for the purpose, upon the cheques, bankers would have just as much reason in honoring such paper when presented by strangers, even though it might carry the identification of the stranger upon its face, as they would the genuine paper of the issuing bank, unless they were familiar with the genuine form used by such bank. In order for banks to be in position to safely honor paper presented by tourists who are strangers to them, it is necessary that they be able to satisfy themselves on three main points : First, that the paper presented is genuine. Second, that if genuine, it is good. Third, that the rightful owner makes presentation. If, therefore, a system could be devised that would meet all of these requirements, where such paper could be issued by any bank that was able to qualify, bankers throughout the United States when cashing each other’s paper for tourists could do so at practically no risk.
“The committee appointed by the American Bankers Association to study this matter successfully solved these problems, and in the following manner. First—A uniform cheque was decided upon. The cheque contains three distinctive features, all extremely difficult or practically impossible to counterfeit, and all of such character as to be readily recognized without the use of a microscope or expert knowledge of paper. These three features are:	First, a carefully engraved
face; second, lathe work in three colors on the back of the cheque, and third, planchettes or paper discs contained within the pulp of the paper itself, which latter has been made as thin as possible, and yet contain the planchettes. The skill and expense required to make even fair counterfeits would be too great to induce any one to attempt it, as the ordinary traveler cashes his