15
THE CHICAGO BANKER
September 25, !pop]
Located at MINNEAPOLIS, the portal to a rapidly developing empire, the
Northwestern National Bank,
in situation and strength, is the ideal reserve agent for banks and bankers beyond the Mississippi.
CAPITAL and SURPLUS FOUR MILLIONS TOTAL RESOURCES THIRTY MILLIONS
state associations, increasing interest at the state conventions, and in materially increasing the membership of this association. This added impetus, taken with the untiring and effective work of the secretary and his assistants, and the assistance of the executive council and the state vice-presidents, has resulted in an increase of this association to 10,700 members.
On Postal Banks
Milwaukee, September 17.—President Taft today committed himself flatly and convincingly in favor of the immediate establishment of a system of postal savings banks. He selected the State Fair Grounds, where he addressed ten thousand farmers, as the time and place for making clear his position with regard to this urgent reform ; and running counter to the views of Speaker Cannon and Senator Aldrich, he declared that the time has come for grafting upon our financial system these saving institutions of the poor, nor is there any effective argument or reason for waiting, as has been suggested, until the monetary commission works out its plan of currency reform. Reciting the pledge of the Republican platform to provide postal savings banks, and dealing an ironical shaft at the men who are inclined to side-step the promise thus made, the President said amidst a burst of cheers from his audience :
“I am here to uphold the doctrine of postal savings banks, because I believe that they will fill in this country a longfelt want.”
V
The Cook-Peary Controversy
Keep cool over the Cook-Peary controversy. One set of daily papers purchased the Cook story; another set the Peary reports. The papers are trying to make good on a tremendous outlay for a polar scoop which the other fellows spoiled. That’s all !
To say something of the association and its work not already brought to your attention through the Journal is a difficult task. The executive council, as at present constituted, is the largest and most representative in the history of the association. At your convention in Denver last year you made radical changes in the method of selecting members of the council, state vice-presidents and members of the nominating committee—putting such responsibility on the members of this association when assembled at the conventions of the various states. This departure has worked so well that even those opposing it in the early stages of the movement would not, I dare say, return to the old method.
It may be recalled that at and prior to the convention at Atlantic City there were marked dissensions, and what might be called the rank and file of the membership became so restive under what they considered unequal representation, that a spirit of resentment was surely abroad. It is most pleasing to report that under the new plan of having every state select its own representatives, the feeling formerly existing has entirely subsided, and the year just ended has been marked as one in which harmony prevailed in every department of the association. In addition to the satisfaction as to a proper representation— the new order of things resulted in bringing this association into closer touch with the various
sending money regularly to the English affinity with whom before her marriage she was greatly in love.
But Mr. Mellon has spiked the guns of his wife and her English admirer. Notwithstanding her appeal for a divorce he has given her merely a separation, settling $350,000 upon her in trust, which was protected with business ingenuity so that she can touch only the income and upon this $14,000 yearly she is managing to exist.
F. O. Watts Reports
Chairman F. O. Watts, president of the First National, Nashville, reported as chairman of the executive committee, briefly. He said in part:
Through the “Journal of the American Bankers Association” the members have been so well informed from month to month of the work of the executive council and the special committee and officers under its control, that but for the long established custom of having a written report for each convention, and my constant purpose to fall in with all good customs and precedents, I would have no further report.
	State Convention Dates			
Date	Association	Place	Secretary	Add re
October 6, 7					
October 12, 13					R. L. Rinaman ...	
October 2i, 22, 23..,