[Volume XXVII
THE CHICAGO BANKER
6
100 YEARS OLD IN 1910
This is the oldest bank in the United States west of the Alleghany Mountains. In February, 1910, it will be 100 years old, having been in continuous existence since 1810. It has passed through four wars and the many severe financial panics of this country, and has never failed to protect its depositors. *I It conducts a general banking business ; makes loans and receives deposits, issues letters of credit and makes collections on all parts of the world, q It desires to extend its connections with banks in all parts of the United States, and invites propositions for the collection of its business, q It offers its services to banks and bankers as a collection Agent and Reserve Depositary.	________
Capital and Surplus $5,400,000.00
O F FI C E Ri S
W. F. BICKEL, Cashier	J. M RUSSELL, Assistant Cashier	J. D. AYRES, Assistant Cashier
GEO. F. WRIGHT, Auditor
TT\e
Rank of Pittsburgh
■ 7N at ion. al JL AvS >s o ci a lion w
WILSON A. SHAW, President HARRISON NESBIT, Vice-Pres.
“Trust companies organized under the laws of the state of New York may be admitted as members of this association in the same manner and to the same extent as banks may be admitted, and when so admitted shall be entitled to all the rights and benefits and subject to all the conditions and obligations to which bank members are or shall be entitled or subject under the provisions of the constitution.
“Trust companies, however, becoming members of the association shall be required to keep a cash reserve in their own vaults of not less than 25 per cent of their deposits. A failure to keep such reserve shall be sufficient ground for action under section 6, article III, of the constitution.
“All members of this association shall keep and maintain in their own vaults a cash reserve of 25 per cent of their net deposits.”
William S. Kuhn
Pittsburgh, November 8.—“The French banker is learning the lesson long ago learned by the Holland investor and is paying more attention to American securities,” said William S. Kuhn, president of the West Penn Railways, and vice-president of J. S. & W. S. Kuhn, Incorporated, and the First National Bank of Pittsburgh. Mr. Kuhn only a few days ago returned from a three months’ journey abroad, the time being spent in England and on the continent.
“I paid some attention to financial and indus-trial conditions while abroad,” continued Mr. Kuhn, “and after a long talk with some of the French bankers discovered their opinions were changing so far as American bonds are concerned, and for the better. They are interested. In fact, I found that almost everybody interested at all were paying much more attention to New York as a financial center.
“One thing of interest to Pittsburgh was the coal situation on the continent. The eight-hour law in England has served to work against the profitable exportation of English coal to given parts of the countries we visited. There is a disposition to demand Pennsylvania coal when it can be secured, and if this condition continues it will not surprise me to see our coal taking the place of English coal through an important territory.”
Mr. Kuhn was accompanied by his family, and while their object was recreation he came in contact with important financial interests whose conversation ever turns at some stage on the matters uppermost in their minds.
V
School to Have a Real Bank
New York, November 8.—That a proper regard for the׳ value of money may be taught the pupils of the high school at Montclair, N. J., the board of education has approved the starting of a bank within the school. The officers will be chosen from among the pupils. Instead of being a “paper” bank, like a business college, the pupils will be invited to open accounts with cash deposits and a regular banking business will be conducted.
mistice, with representatives of each side fearing to take a further step on the ground that it might be taken by the opposite side as a sign of weakness. However, the closer relations of banks and trust companies are likely to follow the interchangeable phase of their directorate—that is to say, the presence of bank directors on the trust companies’ boards and of trust company representatives on the banks’ boards.
The banking interests have been particularly insistent since the panic of 1907 of the necessity of all institutions belonging to the clearing house carrying 25 per cent of their deposits. Not many years ago many of the trust companies did not carry cash reserves to any important extent and the clearing house managers felt that the entire financial fabric of New York was dependent on the clearing house bank reserves. They therefore began an agitation which resulted in legal reserve requirements being imposed on the trust companies and the reserve strength in the New York situation has therefore been correspondingly improved. It is by some banking people considered probable that if a joint committee were to get together that the clearing house requirement of the 25 per cent reserve might be reduced to 15 per cent.
The important sections of the clearing house association’s constitution relating to trust companies follow:
“New members may be admitted into the association at any meeting •thereof, on the recommendation of the clearing house committee, by the affirmative vote of three-fourths of the members present at said meeting. Such vote to be taken by ballot.
“No new member shall be admitted whose unimpaired capital and surplus shall be less than $500,000.
MAUSOLEUM
The above mausoleum is one oi our simple, well constructed designs which can be erected at a comparatively low cost with six to eight crypts. How much less barbarous this method is than burying in the ground.
Write for free booklet on “Monuments” to
CHAS. G. BLAKE & CO.
The Old and Reliable Makers of Mausoleums and Monuments 782 Woman's Temple TeL 115 Main Chicago, 111.
New York Trust Companies May Again Clear
New York, November 9.—While no official action has yet been taken, there are significant indications in banking circles that more cordial relations will soon be resumed between the clearing house banks and the trust companies. At the present time there are no trust companies who are direct members of the clearing house, though the Manhattan Trust Company in Manhattan, two trust companies in Brooklyn and one in Bayonne enjoy through certain banks the clearing privileges of the association. In September, 1908, the rules of the organization were changed to provide that trust companies should be eligible for full membership in the association and occupy the same position as banks. By this amendment they were also required to maintain cash reserves equal to 25 per cent of their deposits in their own vaults. This last named feature the trust companies regarded unfair and unnecessary. The banks took the reverse view and since that time no formal efforts of the two classes of institutions have been made to get together.
The trust companies that do a loan and discount business are by no means unimportant competitors for the banking business at this center ; and the situation in regard to collecting then-thousands of checks daily has become a source of hardship to the banks, as well as a source of direct financial loss. Instead of the trust companies settling their checks through the clearing house it is now necessary for messengers of the banks to present the checks for payment over the counters of the trust companies. These payments usually take the form of checks, by the trust companies on clearing house banks which in due course are paid through the clearing house the next day. Thus the banks lose and the trust companies gain a full day’s interest, which as a result of the enormous volume to which the trust company banking business has grown amounts to a very considerable sum, a sum of sufficient moment, it is said, to enter into the dividend calculations of the directors of the banks when making their distribution to their stockholders.
The trust companies, to quote a clearing house bank officer, have been playing a waiting game; they have been talking of the establishment of a clearing house for their own use, but nothing of a substantial nature has so far developed in this direction. There can be no question that participation in the clearing machinery of the association would be a great advantage in the way of prompt dispatch of business, and bank officers and trust company officers who at luncheon and elsewhere have informally discussed the situation believe that in view of the mutual interests involved no harm could be done by a more formal discussion of the subject by a joint committee representing both interests. No official action in this direction has been taken, however, there seeming to prevail what may be termed an ar-