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THE CHICAGO BANKER
October p, !pop]
GOERZ LENSES
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When there is no chance to get it again, get it light the first time with a
GOERZ DAGOR
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Office and Factory: 79 East 130th Street, New York
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ing funds from the assets or guaranty fund with which to pay off all depositors forthwith.
"It is doubtful if this can be done. If they fail, the guaranty law is shown to be the failure and the farce predicted by all who understand the first principles of banking.”
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Notice to Candidates for Illinois Secretaryship
With the consent of the council it is my expectation to allow each candidate for secretary five minutes in which to address the council in presenting his qualifications in any way that he sees fit. The five minute rule, however, will be strictly enforced. Some of the candidates are not known to all of the members of the council. Two meetings of the council are to be held, one on Monday evening, October nth at 8:00 p. m. at the Decatur Country Club, the other on Wednesday afternoon after the adjournment of the convention. The secretary will be elected at the latter meeting. The candidate can take his choice of meetings
E. E. Crabtree, Chairman of the Executive Jacksonville. 111., October 6, 1909.
venience. Within a day or two it developed that while small depositors and those who presented their claims over the counter were receiving payment, larger sums, evidenced by certificates of deposits and drafts of country correspondents, were not paid. In other words, it was claimed that the state bank board was showing discrimination.
“The state bank officials find themselves in a serious dilemma. In event of the old bank officers being able to raise new funds, which they insist they can do, and resume control of the bank, the banking board would have to indorse the actions of a set of men who have just violated every provision of banking laws. If this is not done and the federal court does not throw the institution into the hands of a receiver, they are under the necessity of obtain-
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THE MARKET CHART COMPANY
INVESTMENT SPECIALISTS 259 LA SALLE STREET, CHICAGO
We have no securities for sale, but cooperate with Byhkers and Brokers in examinations and reports.
J. K. Ilsley on the Guaranty Law
"My visit to Oklahoma with the legislative committee has more than ever confirmed my own opinion that a deposit guaranty law is wrong in principle and could not but work out badly in practice. The situation which I found in Oklahoma and Oklahoma City only emphasizes the injustice of endeavoring to make one bank responsible for the dealings of its neighbors."—James Iv. Ilsley, president of the Marshall & Ilsley Bank, Milwaukee.
Mr. Ilsley does not speak from prejudice nor has he jumped at his conclusions—rather does he speak from long years of success in the banking business and out of a knowledge of banking-customs and laws which long ago gained him the respect of his banker friends. Mr. Ilsley accompanied the Wisconsin legislative committee on bank guaranty laws to Oklahoma as the chairman of the legislative committee of the Wisconsin Bankers Association, and the time was well chosen for the day after their arrival in the South the failure of the Columbia Bank & Trust Co. at Oklahoma City was announced.
“It is manifest that the chief weakness of the law,” continued Mr. Ilsley, “is the fact that it enables incompetent and unscrupulous men to enter the banking business and to obtain deposits which they would be entirely unable to secure if they depended upon their own business standing in the community. In other words it lower the standing of the banking business.
"This, however, is my own view solely and I am in no way authorized to speak for the legislative committee. The members of this committee have maintained an impartial attitude and obtained all of the information possible to secure on both sides of the question. I do not believe that the committee has had a meeting to consider the testimony so it will be some time before anything official may be expected.
“My own contention that the guaranty law lowers the banking standards was exemplified in a startling manner by the closing of the doors of the Columbia Bank and Trust Company. The management obtained control by purchase, some eight or nine months ago, at which time the bank had deposits in the neighborhood of $360,000. In six months’ time by offering high rates of interest and making all sorts of reckless promises, it had built up the deposits to $2,800,-000. It also had the apparent backing and help of the state administration and was regarded as a pet in the guaranty system.
“These deposits were put out with a free hand, large sums being loaned on oil enterprises of W. L. Norton, president of the institution; other large sums being advanced to real estate speculators. Conservative bankers in the community soon became aware of the unsafe methods being pursued by their neighbor, and feared that trouble would sooner or later result. But no one dreamed that within a short time, and when there was no sign of any general financial disturbance, a crisis could possibly come into the bank’s affairs.
“However, on Monday, September 27th, the Oklahoma City clearing house association learned that the Columbia Bank needed $250,000 cash to continue business. The associated banks decided to make this loan, provided the bank could put up satisfactory collateral. This condition could not or would not be complied with and the result was that the state banking department took possession of the bank on the morning of Wednesday, September 29th, announcing that it would at once proceed to pay off depositors in full.
“This was done with a great flourish of trumpets, claiming that the success of the guaranty law now would be fully demonstrated and that no one would suffer the slightest incon-