21
THE CHICAGO BANKER
October !6, !pop]
EEOfJRCES OVER FT VE K׳I f f-

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f The individual attention which the officers of this bank extend to the requirements of correspondents, and the fact that its Bond Department is placed at their disposal make a banking connection with this institution most advantageous and desirable.
WILUAM M. RICHARDS, A«st. Ca«hier LEVERETT THOMPSON, Secretary
OFFICERS
JOHN A. McCORMICK, Vice-President HOUSTON JONES, Cashier
LUCIUS TETER, President EDWARD P. BAILEY, Vice-Pres.
central agent for issuing banks, from whom the cheques must be obtained by bankers desiring to issue them. Cheques ready for printing are engraved by the American Bank Note Company in the denominations of $10, $20, $50 and $100. A banker desiring to sell cheques, having made arrangements with the trust company to issue them, places an order for such numbers of each denomination as his demand would seem to require. The trust company orders the name of the bank printed upon the cheques held by the American Bank Note Company, and ships such of these printed cheques as the issuing bank requires in its vaults, holding the balance in the vaults of the trust company. As bankers remit for cheques sold, further cheques from the supply held by the trust company are forwarded, whenever advisable.
The trust company furnishes lists of correspondents, pocket-books for putting the cheques up in convenient form for the purchaser, appli-tion blanks, and such other matter as is required. Bankers selling the cheques may keep complete records by copying the application blanks, or if they use the carbon system, by taking two application blanks for each sale. The detail of making a sale is very simple, a few points only being-necessary to remember. The most important requirement on the part of selling bankers is to see that the purchaser signs his name upon the face of the cheques in the proper place at the time of the sale. This is essential, as such signature forms the only means of identification that a tourist ordinarily has when desiring to cash the cheque.
One important part of the whole system that bankers should particularly familiarize themselves with is the method of cashing travelers’ cheques. When a party presents a travelers’ cheque to a teller or other bank officer, the latter should have the holder of the cheque countersign it in his presence. Many a person who might be able to copy a signature successfully, if he had plenty of time in which to do it and were by himself, could not do so in the presence of a third party, who might cause his immediate arrest if he was committing a forgery. If bankers follow this rule, therefore, or where a holder of a cheque has countersigned in ignorance before presenting it, have the party write his name a few times on a blank piece of paper, also in the banker’s presence, the chances of accepting a forged signature are too remote for consideration. Before this could occur, travelers’ cheques must be lost by a tourist, they must be found by a thief, the thief must have the ability to successfully forge a signature, and he must have the nerve to attempt it in the presence of a third party, with whose expertness he is entirely unfamiliar, and he must be able to make a successful counterfeit at the first trial, giving the swing of the handwriting, as well as the form of the letters.
The comparatively small number of forgeries of ordinary cheques, where the forger is able to write hundreds of them in seclusion until he suc-
Some large foreign banks having many branches, realizing the importance and scope of the system of the association, and wishing to aid American bankers and at the same time take a part in the system, have of their own accord stated their willingness to have their branches placed upon the list of correspondents for the encashment of association cheques. In this manner the paying agents for travelers’ cheques of the American Bankers Association are multiplying rapidly, and it will not be surprising if ultimately practically every bank of note in the world should come into line and agree to accept travelers’ cheques of the American Bankers Association at all of their branches. This will, of course, eliminate the necessity of travelers carrying a list of correspondents.
While there are some men in the world who might naturally be expected to cash travelers’ cheques, but who will not accept such paper, yet such cases are fortunately few and far between. The association has successfully arranged with a number of firms, which have taken this stand in the past, to make an exception in the case of association cheques.
The principal railroads in the United States have been sending out circulars to their ticket agents, authorizing them to accept American Bankers Association travelers’ cheques in exchange for tickets. One railroad company in agreeing to do so stated that they considered the association cheque covered the banking field in paper of this kind thoroughly, and on this account they authorized their agents to accept the association form, although they would not do so with other similar paper, as they thought it would only complicate matters.
Arrangements have also been made with various steamship companies in the world for the acceptance of the cheques in payment of bills incurred upon steamers.
Many companies of different kinds held off at first before agreeing to accept the cheques, in order to see how generally they were going to be used, but upon finding that cheques were being sold in all parts of the United States and Canada, they immediately came into line. Many of these companies are now very enthusiastic, and hope that the association cheque will supersede all others, thus giving complete uniformity, which would be a great protection to all concerned.
Hotel companies have written us that general use of association cheques will save them many losses, such as were incurred in the past when accepting miscellaneous cheques.
Briefly, the detail of the system is as follows: The Bankers Trust Company of New York is the
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i	259 LA SALLE STREET, CHICAGO
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must of necessity scrutinize it carefully, in order to familiarize himself with its detail and place of payment. The association cheques are of such distinctive form and colors, and the workmanship upon them is of such high class that they impress themselves upon the memory of those called upon to cash them after seeing them once. The fact that thousands upon thousands of cheques were sold in all portions of the United States right at the start of the system to people who were intending to travel in all parts of the world, presentation of the first cheques to hotel-keepers and shop-keepers, ticket agents and bankers was generally made so soon after specimens of the cheques had been spread broadcast, that knowledge of the form of the cheque encircled the globe in a marvelously short space of time.
Every banker selling the cheques is directly benefited by the sale of cheques by every other bank in the country. A banker, therefore, selling American Bankers Association travelers’ cheques and knowing that other bankers in the principal cities of every state in the United States, as well as many of the great Canadian banks and some of the bankers in the countries south of us are issuing association cheques, realizes that such extended circulation is daily advertising his own cheques, because he is using the identical form that is being sold at thousands of other points.
The careful scrutiny that was at first essential on the part of those called upon to cash the cheques is now a thing of the past, and letters have recently been received from tourists stating that while early in the season those to whom they presented cheques looked them over carefully, in order to familiarize themselves with the form, everyone is now accepting the cheques without a moment’s, hesitation.
When purchasing travelers’ cheques a tourist pays a commission for them, with the expectation that he will receive the face value, or its equivalent in foreign countries, as printed upon the cheques, with the exception of the stamp tax in countries where the law requires it. To accomplish this an arrangement is necessary on the part of the paying agent with bankers throughout the world for the encashment of the cheques at all points where tourists are apt to need funds. A list of correspondents is furnished the traveler with the cheque when he takes a foreign trip. The banks mentioned in this list have all agreed to pay the cheques without any charge, other than the stamp tax where necessary, to those presenting them. Some tourists occasionally go to bankers not mentioned in the list of correspondents, and often in such cases meet with a charge, when it might have been exactly as convenient to have gone to a regular correspondent. While the association had originally arranged with correspondents at some 10,000 places in the world, yet wherever it has been found convenient for travelers to go to a banker not upon the list, arrangements have been perfected with such bankers, as well as with the regular correspondents.